What On Earth Is Lining?

In marketing, a typical saying is: making products in China must be in the middle end, and focus on the middle class, because this group has the most consumption power and represents the future of the market.

But what we see is just the opposite.

China's "middle class consumption" is a trap. Let's look at Lining, who is deeply in the middle and started the "third venture", perhaps he should understand.

In mid June, the Li Ning Co issued an early warning announcement aimed at making people prepare for their 2012 performance.

At the same time, Lining also said that it is sponsoring CBA in the form of "third pioneering" and reducing its investment in Lotto (Le Tu) brand, focusing on its main business.

The start of "the third venture" can be seen as another statement that a business is facing huge pformation difficulties.

But we find that there are not few enterprises that enter the "re start" competition with Lining. In China's sports industry, Lining is no longer isolated. There is a widespread problem of overproduction in the industry.

And last year's inventory reached about 60000000000 yuan.

Even the market has already seen such a judgement: compared with other domestic sporting goods brands, Lining's problems are only exposed earlier and more thoroughly. Other brands also have problems, even bigger than Lining's. But they may be concealed by a more subtle way.

Muddy land of "middle class"

In such a severe situation, the overproduction of the industry is an important reason, but for the specific enterprises, it is necessary to review whether their business strategy is suitable for the big environment.

In marketing, a typical saying is: making products in China must be in the middle end, and focus on the middle class, because this group has the most consumption power and represents the future of the market.

But what we see is just the opposite.

I have visited several major shopping malls in the core area of Beijing during the vacation. One of the impressions is that almost every shopping area has been dominated by sporting goods.

I wonder what's going on with these sporting goods brands. If you pay attention, you will find that those who sell the products are basically mid end products, those products that are intended to capture the middle class market.

Taking domestic sporting goods Lining as an example, Lining's main predicament is deeply trapped in the trap of "middle class": no matter how Lining changed the brand to high-end, no matter how he changed the label, in fact, the positioning of his products tended to be in the middle end, so that he was once nicknamed "60 Lining".

Even after the "replacement" reform since 2010, its product tonality is still in the middle of the market.

The most consumptive middle class does not surprise people. Why?

Distorted "middle class consumption"

Analyzing the market characteristics of the domestic middle class, we will find that the so-called "middle class market" is basically a virtual number: people in the middle class economic status, consumption is not high-end, or tends to low end. On the one hand, a large part of this group is biased towards buying "enough face" products.

(for example, LV came to China and found that the mainstream buying population in reality is not the "target group" they aimed at before, to some extent.

Some embarrassment.

On the other hand, a large number of middle class people have just grown up, regardless of consumption concepts or consumption habits, they continue to exist in the past - a very large coincidence with the consumption of low and middle income people.

That is to say, as the middle class of assets is gradually forming, but in the consumption stratification of Chinese market, the real consumption concept of the middle class is not formed, and the middle class must be accompanied by quotation marks.

In such a market situation, a large number of products that consume middle class consumption are understood as products of middle end consumption, which are not poor at the top of the market. Who knows that such products are deeply trapped in the muddy middle area? The core of Lining's current market predicament lies in the high-end market climbing from the "middle end collapse" market.

This is the most difficult way to go, and its brand and product strategy are still hovering in the middle end. This result has left Lining in deep mire and bumpy.

Darwin once had a famous saying: "nature favors extremes".

In the Chinese market, too, the middle class pits a lot.

Enterprises, and boldly go to the two ends of the market to advance, is the way to break through.