ADI Exceeds Nike To Become China'S Market Leader? For What?

The five floor of Huaihai middle road in downtown Shanghai.

Brand center and old rivals

The flagship store is confronting a lane.

Beyond 100 meters, it was the flagship store of Under Armour, which was newly opened in September last year.

This area includes a counter offer.

and

Several sports brands are among the most important stores in Shanghai.

With the rise of sports fitness in China in the past two years and the government's policy support for the sports industry, these sports brands are gradually coming out of the trough since 2008. At that time, due to the international economic crisis and the blind expansion in the Chinese market, both local and international sports brands encountered a lot of overstock crisis in China.

Now, Adidas from Germany has also handed in a good pcript.

According to the annual report released by Adidas earlier this month, excluding the exchange rate factor, in 2015, sales in Greater China reached 2 billion 470 million euros (about 17 billion 733 million yuan), reaching 15% of global total revenue, second only to Western Europe (29%) and North America (21%), and revenue grew 17.7% over the same period last year, exceeding the average level of 10% in the world; and the gross profit of the Greater China region was 1 billion 411 million euros (10 billion 130 million yuan), an increase of 38% over the previous year.

At the same time, Adidas's market share has also risen.

According to data provided by HSBC (HSBC) and Euromonitor, at the end of 2009, Adidas ranked fourth in the Chinese market, behind Nike, Lining and Anta.

By the end of 2014, Adidas's market share increased by 4 percentage points to 12%, which not only surpassed the domestic brands, Lining and Anta, but also matched Nike's previous market leader.

Ambitious Adidas will set the goal of "China first" in the next five years.

Across sports and fashion

The first thing that comes to mind in Adidas is three parallel slashes or blue and white clover.

Although Adidas is more inclined to insist on claiming "sports brand" than "fashion trend card", it is unquestionable that whether Messi or Jeremy Lin fans or Wu Yifan and Angelababy fans, Adidas wants to earn enough money.

At the Adidas brand center in Huaihailu Road, the four and five floors belong to the Adidas Original series and NEO brand, commonly known as "Shamrock".

The two brands, which were positioned by Adidas as athleisure, contributed about 25% of Adidas's revenue in 2015, faster than the traditional "sports performance" products.

"Before thinking of the equipment of Adidas, the first thing to think of is shoes.

About ten years ago, Adidas launched the Garnett, Mcgrady and Deng Kensan giants star boots, which are the dreams of many boys.

He is a sports enthusiast at the age of 28. He learned about the latest news of sports equipment through magazines and online forums.

"Now, the highest exposure rate is probably Yeezy."

Yeezy is the limited edition shoe that Adidas launched last year with American rap star Kanye West (Kanye West).

In addition to Yeezy, in 2015, Adidas's other "exploding money" was the Stan Smith shoes of the second edition.

The Adidas's first tennis shoes launched in 1970s, with a series of fashion stars coming out of fashion week and social network, made the 2015 version of the limited edition Stan Smith spanning half a century and won the favor of the trend seekers again.

In addition, a Adidas employee told reporters that although some classic sports styles are outdated in science and technology, they are not as functional as sports equipment, but some enthusiasts will collect many generations of the same sports shoes.

These retro products have special significance for them.

This is a good business opportunity for clover. "

NEO, known for its bold and bold style, is facing younger consumers.

Fast fashion and designer brand in the "sports leisure" fashion initiative, but also forced Adidas and other traditional sports brands, for those who want to wear sportswear on more occasions consumers, the corresponding products.

"In sports, when you go to the library or go to class, you will wear Adidas."

Chen Jialin, 25, exercises two times a week. Besides gym, he also runs and does yoga.

She works in a cultural enterprise in Shanghai. When she doesn't need to see clients, she and her colleagues will wear informal sportswear to work.

The success of sports and leisure brands has brought new inspiration to Adidas, including female consumers including Chen Jialin, who have created more than half of the sales of classic series and NEO.

Adidas is one of the first sports brands to focus on women's market segments.

Gao Jiali, director general of Adidas group Greater China (Colin Currie), told reporters that in 2012, Adidas divided women's products from training categories and held marketing campaigns for women's brands for three years. Recently, Christine Day, the chief executive officer who led Lululemon in the development of yoga pants before returning to the door, has been employed as a strategic consultant for women's business.

At present, there are 4 women's specialized shops in China in Adidas.

Gao Jiali said that the proportion of women's consumer goods in the entire sales increased from 22% to 27%.

From branding to retailer

In addition to the women's special store, Gao Jia Li also listed various kinds of stores for Adidas: 2 brand centers located in Sanlitun and Shanghai Huaihai middle road in Beijing, 20 Mega core stores in major cities, 3 Sportswear Collective brand experience shops, 41 Homecourt stores, 1 Classic Sports flagship stores, 15 sports classic series Neighborhood stores, 5001 sports performance stores, 2014 NEO brand stores, 1782 children's franchise stores, 27 outdoor franchised stores, 13 basketball franchised stores, and 2014 shoe specialized stores.

"Different kinds of stores have different functions. For the width and depth of goods, there are different requirements for popular types and inventory quantities."

An insider, who declined to be named, revealed to reporters that "it was originally a retailer's job.

But nowadays, it is a trend for brands to test themselves and retail.

Not just sports brands, but also in the wider garment industry.

This is a new challenge for Adidas's operational capability. "

By the end of 2015, Adidas had 2722 self operated stores in the world, including 1698 brand concept shops and 872 factory outlets.

These brand self-stores are located in the prime locations of the most important cities in the world. They are not only the window for consumers to understand the brand image and the latest products, but also the test field for Adidas's new store form and the data acquisition terminal that can understand consumers' needs and preferences.

"Before, we were only a simple brand seller in China, purchasing, advertising, selling goods to dealers, and the task was completed."

Gao Jiali said, "now, we need to learn to sell things by ourselves."

Including the two brand centers of Beijing Sanlitun and Huaihai Road in Shanghai, China's self owned stores contributed 12% of Adidas's revenue in 2015.

"Shopping experience is very important for consumers."

Gao Jiali explained, "the life of general stores is about three or four years. In order to attract consumers, regular shop renewal is very important."

After the upgrading of the store, the sales performance of the unit area has also improved, so dealers also have a high enthusiasm for the store upgrade.

On the other hand, Adidas will provide support for dealers in location, decoration and product location.

In the industry view, brand players are involved in retail channels, in essence, are trying to strengthen the control of distributors.

"Dealers used to just take the list of products, like ordering dishes," I want this to get that.

At that time, the market potential was relatively large, and dealers could digest the purchased commodities through their own channels.

After the market downturn, brand dealers can provide valuable information and advice to dealers through the sale of self owned stores.

In consultation, the power of the brand is bigger, not only can tell the dealer what to sell, but also can guide them how to sell, when to cooperate with the market activities when new, when to promote sales, in order to achieve unity in the store performance.

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Go to small and medium-sized cities

At present, Adidas has entered more than 1000 cities in China, double the number in 2010, and the number of stores has increased to nearly 9000 from 5000 around five years ago.

Adidas announced in March that it will expand its stores to 12000 by 2020, and continue to promote business growth in emerging cities.

Born in Ma'anshan, Anhui.

Ten years ago, it was not an easy task to buy a pair of sneakers in the East Anhui town.

"Around 2005, Ma'anshan began to appear in stores like international sports brands such as Adidas and Nike.

But most of the sales are in season style, not all in colour or size.

And I'm worried about buying fake. "

At that time, Bai Zhong, a middle school student, preferred to go to Nanjing 40 kilometers away from his parents.

Nanjing is one of the 23 core cities of Adidas in China.

The 23 core cities include Shanghai, Beijing, Hongkong, Taipei, Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Kunming, Kunming, Kunming, Xi'an, China, Hongkong, Taipei, China, Taipei, China, China, and Hongkong.

However, with the acceleration of urbanization, consumers of small and medium-sized cities will have more and more disposable wealth. Adidas will not let go of this development opportunity.

According to HSBC's China sports commodity report released in September 2015, in 2014, Chinese consumers spent $17 on sports goods (about 110.51 yuan), while urban consumers reached $31 per capita (about 201.52 yuan).

Although domestic brands have a good performance price ratio, Chinese consumers who have gradually increased their spending power seem to prefer to spend more money on international brands with higher brand image.

Bai an recalls that wearing a Adidas out of the street ten years ago is a very special thing in the locality: "only when parents are in a good mood, can they open their purchases.

In a group of middle school students wearing Anta and XTEP, it is a luxury.

On the one hand, the price is not cheap. On the other hand, some new items are scarce, and it is hard to buy them locally.

Nowadays, with the continuous penetration of brands, Adidas has become the daily wear of more and more local consumers.

According to Google map, Adidas has opened nine stores there.

Although the aura of luxury goods is fading away in small and medium-sized cities, Adidas does not seem to mind.

Gao Jiali said that 60% growth in the next five years will come from these new cities.

Although the high priced high-end products will still be dominated by big cities, the best sellers will be listed at all levels.

The expansion of sales channels also tests Adidas's logistics operation capability.

Although workers' labor costs continue to rise, China is still the largest clothing buyer in Adidas, accounting for 29% of total purchases.

Gao Jiali said that the amount of Adidas's purchases in China will remain stable in the future to maintain its business in the Chinese market.

Became China's first in 2020?

The rapid growth in Greater China over the past five years has also stimulated Adidas's ambition.

Gao Jiali believes that the future of Adidas Greater China will maintain at least a single digit growth rate, faster than the industry average.

The company recently announced its goal in 2020 to become the first sports brand in the Chinese market.

Although the growth rate in the Chinese market in the past five years is not as fast as that of Adidas, Nike has always been Adidas's most important opponent.

In the early twenty-first Century, Nike brought three Chinese sports stars, Liu Xiang, Yao Ming and Li Na, to become the gold suction weapon of the sports giant from the United States to kill the Quartet in the Chinese market.

Today, Adidas still lacks a Chinese spokesperson who is equal to three retired stars. This may explain why Adidas is willing to dig up Jeremy Lin's Asian face.

On the other hand, Nike has robbed the US basketball team from the Adidas, China's national football club and China Super League's sponsorship contract, and will continue to block Adidas.

But it's not just Nike that has been struggling to catch up with Adidas.

The medium and small cities that Adidas is trying to enter have been the stronghold of the domestic sports brand - even though it was once a big injury, but a strong domestic brand has finally recovered in the two years.

In 2015, Anta achieved a profit of 11 billion 126 million yuan, an increase of 24.7% over the same period last year, and footwear revenue exceeded Nike as the top of the industry.

In sports and leisure and women's markets, including fast fashion and even underwear brands, they try to get a slice of it.

Chen Jialin told reporters that in addition to traditional sports brands, she will also buy sports equipment such as Zara, OYSHO and other brands.

"In sports technology, it is certainly not as good as Adidas or Nike.

But for those products with low functional requirements, I think these brands are more attractive in terms of price.

At the same time, more and more emerging sports brands began to appear in Chen Jialin's fitness.

The young American brand andma has taken the position of Adidas's second place in the US market. Although it has just knocked on the door of the Chinese market, andmar, who started with fitness equipment, has established cognition and reputation in many Chinese consumers.

All in or Nothing, a social networking copy of Adidas at the world cup two years ago, may be a footnote to the ambitious Adidas today.

I am afraid fans will never forget that the German team, wearing Adidas, scored the goal of Brazil seven times in the semi-finals of the 2014 World Cup.

Brazil players' bitter tears fall on the yellow green jersey printed with Nike logo.

There are differences between shopping malls and sports venues.

It is worth looking forward to how Adidas can deliver its rhetoric in the next five years.