Zhao Feng'S Visit To Explore The Crux And Outlet Of Sports Brand Downturn

When the European Cup of Nike and Adidas are in the limelight, the domestic sports shoes and clothing market is in a "stalemate" period. A few days ago, Lining, a domestic sporting goods brand, issued a performance warning. It is expected that profits will fall sharply in the first half of this year and the whole year as a result of a larger decrease in orders. Dragged down by earnings warning messages, Lining's stock price fell two days, triggering a collective diving of sporting goods stocks.

Is Lining's situation to a certain extent a microcosm of the downturn in the mainland sporting goods industry? What is the crux of the domestic sports industry downturn? Where is the way out? This period invited senior industry representatives and business representatives to discuss together, hoping to give you some reference.

Guests of this session:

Industry personage Lu Yao

Zhang Wenlong, general manager of Jing Dao strategy

Zhao Feng, director of sports market center, 361 degree (China) Co., Ltd.

Affected by the downturn in the environment

Reporter:
Lining's share price continued to decline for two days after being dragged down by earnings warning messages. It also led to the collective diving of sporting goods stocks including PEAK and Anta. Do you think Lining's position means the downturn of the sporting goods industry in the mainland?

Lu Yao: I believe that Lining's situation is not a microcosm of the downturn in the mainland sporting goods industry to some extent. It is the result of Lining's improper adjustment of brand strategy over the past two years.

According to the data I know, in 2011, some enterprises closed more than 1000 stores. Another reason is that the number of terminal inventory is too large, and enterprises are competing for discount in the process of destocking, leading to the overall depression of the market.

Although it includes Anta, 361 degrees PEAK, XTEP The sales volume of several major sporting goods brands, including others, increased year by year, but the rate of increase has dropped to 20% from 20% or even 30% in previous years, but this is inextricably linked to the sustained downturn in the domestic economic environment. In the face of the backdrop of the great depression, the sporting goods industry will usher in a new stage of ebb and flow.

　　 Zhang Wen long From small workshops to nuclear fission development, and then to Anta, XTEP, 361 degrees, PEAK and other ways to break through, the current sports industry structure has been basically finalized. After the "7 day shoe" is still in short supply, the bottleneck of the current industry development, although most brands have been developing rapidly through policy marketing, but also because of the marketing mechanism and the relative misunderstandings of the policy mechanism at that time, the sporting goods industry has been brought into the current predicament and constantly pushed up the cost of policy marketing. Under the condition of the same gross margin, the cost value of products has been greatly reduced, deviating from the original intention of improving the value of products for consumers, excessive product hoarding in the market has caused serious depreciation of the industry.

In the early stage of local industry marketing, the channel development is the main way. I call it the "water pipe concept" mode. Its essence is channel extension. As long as the channels are long enough, the higher the volume, the higher the market share. But ignoring the point, can companies survive in the laying of "water pipes", that is, to expand channels and build terminals? Is the store efficiency and flat effect benign? Each terminal is like a faucet. Once a problem occurs, sales will mean that faucets can not go out of the water normally, and there will be a "water pipe blockage". As the industry stock is very large, the pattern of overall sales growth driven by channel development is no longer feasible. Combing the pipeline and constantly promoting a healthy retail terminal system is a problem that every healthy growth brand must solve.

There are different ways to carve out spanformation.

Reporter: what are your suggestions for the whole sports industry to be affected by the overall environmental downturn? How can we accumulate in the great depression?

Lu Yao: Although the overall industry downturn, the number of local sporting goods brand reports is not as bright as the previous two years, but we can not deny that they are really trying to connect with the international economic spanformation, especially in the road of brand internationalization. Let's take a look at Anta first. I dare say that Anta is an example of the channel and terminal construction in domestic brands. In the past two years, Anta has gradually sinks down, improving the quality of terminal and removing some bubbles generated by high-speed expansion. Meanwhile, when the domestic market brand is gradually maturing, Anta has begun to expand its brand internationalization with the COC Olympic Committee's rights and interests, which is a good direction.

At the same time, some domestic brands do well in the regional market. This is also a way to break through in the doldrums. For example, Kang Tai, according to the market, ranked the top in the market share of several provinces in China. Apart from a good channel foundation, a secret to success is to seize the sports and leisure market for the elderly. The market is large, and it does not necessarily have to aim at young people. As long as there is always a gap between survival and development, it is suggested that Jinjiang brand should take heart and mind: what is the problem in the domestic market? Where is the future market? To continue to make the brand, do not rely on shouting, do not rely on make-up packaging, and should not rush to grab money.

Zhao Feng: at present, the sports goods industry relies on sports event resources to carry out integrated marketing. This is a general direction. Like this time, we have helped London Olympic Games to build a London action program with CCTV5 to promote brand promotion. We have made a detailed consideration for the sports resources, for example, we have an integrated marketing plan for the Olympic Games. At the same time, the television media is an important high-altitude blasting point in the sporting goods industry. We can get more information about us through CCTV5 such a platform. These are the current trend of the sports industry.

In addition, China's sports brand is taking the road of internationalization. For example, after we supported the Asian Games, many Asian dealers came to contact us 361 degrees. They made it very clear that they would become dealers outside the 361 degree Asia region. We can say that through the Asian Games, we made a landmark jump.

Building unique product advantages

Reporter: since now is the spanformation period of resources integration in sports goods industry, how can we better promote brand building?

Zhao Feng: in this period of sports resources integration, we have taken many measures to deal with it. For example, this year, our products contain many Olympic elements. This year's London Olympic Games logo is rich in color. Therefore, the colors of our season are more varied to cater for the theme of this Olympic Games. During the spanition period, 361 degrees decided to support all kinds of comprehensive sports meetings based on brand strategy, insisting on the direction of sports marketing and considering the responsibilities and missions.

Zhang Wenlong: in addition to the development of operational mode trapped abroad, Jinjiang local brands should also sort out the upstream and downstream supply chain as early as possible. For a long time, there are subtle symbiosis between the three brands, suppliers and agents. The overdraft of the brand occupies the funds of the upstream suppliers to distribute goods to their downstream agents, and rapidly expands the brand disk. But now, under the vicious competition, a large number of stocks are stacked in the terminal. The brand players who are sandwiched in the middle are likely to face the crash at the moment with the original "capital game". Therefore, the future brand players should take a steady step, do not seek the disk, and solve the two way pressure of supply chain and capital chain practically, and return to the essence of healthy marketing (improving consumption interests), which is very important for the sustainable and healthy development of the brand. Brand operators should concentrate their efforts on building product strength, and take the satisfaction and improvement of consumers' interests as the top priority. They are committed to increasing value-added products from product experience, terminal interaction, and public relations activities, and establishing the unique advantages of products, enhancing the brand premium and getting rid of the single price competition situation.