Lining Returns To Sports And Returns To Professional Basketball Field

In July 5th, the Li Ning Co announced that Zhang Zhiyong had resigned as chief executive and appointed TPG partner of private equity fund Jin Zhenjun as executive director and executive vice chairman. In the 2012 China Daily, Li Ning Co said it began a series of reforms in 2011. In the first half of this year, Li Ning Co has reduced more than 900 stores and its dealers have been cut to 52.

And a few days ago, Lining At last, there was a news of "stock price". After winning the exclusive sponsorship of CBA for five seasons, Lining signed NBA superstar Wade. According to media reports, the total contract price of Wade's contract is as high as 100 million US dollars. Wade will receive $10 million a year for 10 years, and will also be divided into large shares and Li Ning Co shares.

This astronomical contract undoubtedly makes Li Ning Co gain eyeballs. At the same time, Lining also said that Wade is eager to have his own products, which is the basis for Wade's choice of cooperation with Lining. "Wade is still a top athlete. In the future products, he will participate in the design and put his understanding of basketball in the design."

"Lining brand has come back to sports, because the sports market in China is undergoing tremendous changes. With the development of urbanization and society in China, people will have more demand and pursuit for sports. We need to return to sports and provide more professional and excellent products for sports fans. This is Lining's position." As chairman of Li Ning Co, Lining expressed in public.

　　 Return to professional basketball

In fact, as early as 2005, Lining became an official partner of NBA, but it did not continue to exert power in the following years. According to the insiders, Lining hasn't worked hard these years. NBA Sports resources are derived from the diversification strategy of brand competition resources. In other words, professional basketball tournament resources are only one of Lining's "pluralism", and tennis tournaments and athletics resources are also mentioned in the same breath.

And this year, Lining grabbed the resources of the CBA league from Anta. This time he signed the NBA top player Wade, which means Lining will return to the way of broadcasting with the help of competitions and superstars. "By the middle of this year, Lining has changed his brand by focusing on the core business and resources." In a telephone interview with reporters, CEO Zhang Qing, a key sports consulting company in Beijing, said that after Lining decided to return to professional sports objectives, CBA and NBA were excellent combination of professional basketball marketing. "The core of professional sports sponsors depends on the appeal of the stars. From the point of view of resource layout, signing such a heavy star like Wade, Lining's basketball sponsorship strategy in Pyramid will be more complete, which is a very good choice."

Zhang Qing Kou's Basketball "Pyramid" frame is very clear: CBA is the "tower base", and is the cornerstone of constructing professional basketball matches. Wade is "spire" and is committed to enhancing the influence of Lining professional basketball. "Lining has signed CBA and Wade, and the two will form a perfect combination. CBA is a scarce resource, which is helpful to the promotion of the brand and the confidence of the dealers, but the resource of CBA is a slow work and must be cultivated slowly. And now Lining needs more cash than the promotion of influence. In combination, CBA promotes brand influence and has a significant impact on brands in the long run. In the short term, from the speed of producing effect, sign a heavy star to solve the problem that CBA can not solve immediately.

　 Sports brand "close combat"

Before Lining signed Wade, NBA stars and event resources had long been the "meat and potatoes" for Chinese sporting goods brands: Anta signed NBA star Garnett, PEAK launched the "NBA stars China line" for several years, and recently sponsored NBA team Toronto raptors, Lu you signed NBA star Nash. On the battlefield of basketball marketing, China's sporting goods brand launched a "close fight" battle. And when the public eye was attracted by "Lining signing Wade", Quanzhou's sports brand was also unwilling to be lonely: in October 12th, Iverson, who had been elected to the NBA All-Star lineup and the team leader of the US men's basketball team, came to Jinjiang, announced that he would join the brand of Iverson's same name, and would cooperate with Iverson brand of Fujian. In the field of professional basketball, Lining is bound to join hands with Quanzhou's sports brand. Page_break

Borrowing NBA stars to enhance brand influence is only one aspect. In fact, PEAK sports seems to be more specific in the deep excavation of NBA star resources: the NBA team of Chinese stars has been growing more and more for many years, and PEAK has become a caravan full of NBA stars. "One-off business activities, like Carnival activities, are very lively, but there will be no lasting effects. Sports marketing should take the combination of sports and technology products and sports development as an effective consideration, and then the commercial effect will come naturally, but it is not born at a time point." Marketing expert Zhang Canrong believes that PEAK's "China business" has developed into a mature case in terms of how to excavate NBA star resources.

In the face of such an opponent, Lining has another "killer trick": using Wade to "lift" his brand influence, in signing NBA star "quality", become Nike, ADI and other international sports giant brand. On this basis, Lining will focus on developing CBA resources with exclusive sponsorship rights for five seasons.

Lining's comments in public also confirmed the above view: "our cooperation with Wade is valued for his pursuit of sports and support for basketball. We invest more in basketball than in China. We invest in CBA and promote basketball in China's mass market. Our focus is in China, not in NBA. As you can see, CBA is the biggest input. We value basketball in China. "

　　 Improve internal quality and improve product experience

People in the industry generally believe that after Lining won the exclusive sponsorship of CBA's five seasons, he signed NBA star Wade, and Lining launched a combination of basketball marketing "CBA and NBA". In the face of Lining's aggressive, Quanzhou sports brand also scrambled for NBA stars and sports resources. But sports brands must first face a serious problem: how can we integrate the culture and spirit of stars, tournaments and brands after signing up for money?

Zhang Canrong said, Quanzhou enterprises in the brand accumulation is not deep enough, this will lead to sports resources are likely to develop ineffective. "It is a shortcut to ask sports stars to endorse. The problem is that many fans will not buy products after watching the stars." In other words, after the promotion of brand awareness, the experience of sports brand products is missing, and there is no mention of the enhancement of reputation. Promotional activities can not feed back the brand. This has become the direct reason why some sports brands and NBA stars are "too late to see each other."

On the other hand, Quanzhou Sports brand A brand concept that brings and attracts many followers is "Life Movement". This has risen rapidly in the past few years, but soon encountered bottlenecks. "The threshold is low, so long as the shoe and clothing enterprises can enter, resulting in vicious competition is very fierce." Insiders told reporters that it was the "Life Movement" competition that was very intense that led to the return of many sports brands to the "industry".

To this end, the industry believes that sports brands compete for NBA star resources, it is more necessary to "internal skills" training. "Having scarce sports assets will help establish the emotional connection between the brand and the target consumer group, and it is an important asset of the brand. But on this basis, enterprises should make product experience in place, and the promotion of the adhesion between products and sports stars becomes the first consideration for enterprises. Zhang Qing told reporters.

For this point, Lining also saw very clearly, in public, Lining said: "our more plan is to research and develop products, is doing research and development of Wade's generation products, is doing CBA products, is doing youth products, and has more exchanges with China's basketball market."

Core tip: on the afternoon of October 10th, Lining brand announced that NBA champion and top league star Dewayne Wade signed the contract with Lining. Wade will become the first NBA player to sign a brand with China in the history. For Lining who has just signed a contract with CBA and is rebuilding the brand, Wade will undoubtedly make his basketball sponsorship strategy more complete in Pyramid.

Signing Wade is only the first step for Lining to return to the professional basketball market. Lining should not only think about how to borrow Wade to enhance the brand influence, but also face the challenge of the Quanzhou Legion that has signed the NBA star, and fight with Quanzhou sports brands in the professional basketball field.

At the same time, Lining is also faced with another problem: after the signing of the contract, how to operate the stars, match resources and brand spirit and culture, and this is also a bottleneck for Quanzhou sports brands to break through.