American Centenary Brand, Lining, Expanding The Chinese Market

Acornis has recently appeared in the public view, possibly in the news of UMBRO and the US acquisition of the United States.

Yes, UMBRO is also its brand.

The US brand management company, founded in 1992, is currently holding more than 30 clothing and home brands.

Finding partners around the world and licensing their brands are a common way of running their brands.

In 2008, Ennis entered China, and Xu was the first employee of the company in China at that time.

Prior to that, he worked as a well-known accounting firm, PWC M & A and Bank of Holland investment banking department.

Now, as

The managing director of China has been in the field of brand and licensing in China for more than eight years.

Xu Peifeng knows very well what kind of brand is suitable for companies.

"Each brand has its own unique attributes, to find a matching company to do it," Xu Peifeng said to lazy bear sports.

In his consideration, two factors are most important: the brand should be consistent with the strategic needs of the Licensing companies; the cooperative company must have some strength, and understand the brand at the same time, and make a development plan that is in line with the company's current situation and China's current situation.

"Lining group is a company that we think is very suitable."

After contacting many companies with acquisition intention, Xu Peifeng identified Lining.

In early 2016, Lining group's earnings report showed that the group made a profit in 2015, the first time since 2011 to achieve profits, with 7 billion 800 million yuan in local revenue.

Second.

In 2016, Li Ning Co had the ability and desire to innovate and break through.

Perhaps Lining, a gymnast, was attracted by Danskin's style of dance, yoga and fitness. Perhaps the number of global revenues of nearly $1 billion in Danskin2015 was very bright. When Xu Peifeng showed the brand of iacnis to the Li Ning Co chairman Lining, he picked Danskin at once.

Xu Peifeng and

The two people met in September 2015 to open the process of negotiation between the two sides.

During this period, Xu Peifeng, together with Lining himself and vice president Yang Haiwei of Li Ning Co, came to the Danskin overseas market for extensive inspection.

"I was surprised when Mr. Lining and I visited the shops in the overseas market. Such a big business, the chairman of the board is still a celebrity. When looking at a product, he looked so carefully." Xu Peifeng recalled the scene of his inspection. "From design to fabric, to technology content, a product he looked over and over."

In the first half of 2016, the two sides basically established cooperation and signed the contract in October 18th.

A sportswear shop like Afanda's.

The signing of October this year is not the end, but the beginning for both sides.

In the two sides' cooperation, Ai Connie J is mainly responsible for brand value building and marketing, such as looking for spokesperson, brand image creation, social media and so on.

Lining is mainly responsible for the management level, setting up an operation team for Danskin, and then carrying out brand positioning, product design, supply chain, product production, sales and other links by the team.

In order to receive the Danskin brand from far away, the company has specially recruited a "past person", Yan Zhigang, the general manager of the Danskin brand business department.

He has worked in Nike for a long time, and has been in charge of Anta's Fila business in Italy.

Yan Zhigang is very familiar with grafting foreign brands to the Chinese market.

Yan Zhigang said to lazy bear sports, "Danskin will not deliberately imitate anyone in China. Danskin has its own unique DNA, and of course it will be combined with the actual needs of Chinese consumers".

The core of his orientation to China's Danskin is "fashion fitness" - Ballet as DNA, and yoga and comprehensive training clothes. It not only meets the functional needs of fitness people, but also has beautiful appearance, allowing women to go shopping or social networking.

In Yan Zhigang's vision, the future Danskin shop is like this: Danskin's direct store is located in high-end shopping malls in Shanghai or Beijing, and its neighbors are Lululemon and Adidas clover.

Danskin's window and entrance, ballet skirts and dance shoes show the origin of brand and dance.

Entering the shop with an area of about 120 square meters, the decoration style and decorating props will also give people a bright look.

"Entering the store seems to enter Afanda."

This is Yan Zhigang's expectation.

Look at the merchandise. Besides ballet, there are more yoga and fitness on the shelves.

There will be men's wear, children's wear and accessories in the future.

Each garment has both functional and stylish appearance, and has its own name.

But the price of clothes is not low. A T-shirt can cost up to 500 yuan.

After the consumer buys the product, the clerk will pack the product with cardboard boxes and lace straps.

In the future shops of Danskin, consumers still have a small space to experience. For example, yoga masters will experience lessons and some ballet culture activities.

This Danskin store, which combines shopping and experience, is the main business form of the brand in the future.

In Yan Zhigang's schedule, Danskin will open its first store in mid and late 2017, opening 5 or 6 stores in Shanghai and Beijing throughout the year.

"We do not want to rush into business, because we need to meet the international standards of the international brand and ensure a first-rate brand experience for Chinese female consumers", Yan Zhigang explains the brand's relatively stable growth rate. "The first impression determines your direction."

Women's sportswear, the next battleground

Recently, foreign sports brands have frequently "married" into China.

The media has reported that the United States and the United States created 400 million yuan to acquire British brand UMBRO (Umbro), and

The acquisition of AND1.

Earlier, Anta bought Italy brand Fila, and Lining bought Lotto and Aigle.

However, Danskin's cooperation is not the same as those mentioned above.

Unlike UMBRO and AND1, which exist in many people's youthful memories, although they are highly known in the international market, especially in the US and Japanese markets, Danskin is still a relatively unknown brand in China, which has not had any official sales records in China.

Consumer's recognition, reputation and loyalty to brand still need some time to develop.

For this, Xu Peifeng introduced.

Mainly in the global and domestic market linkage promotion efforts, through social media, offline activities, looking for spokesmen and other means, for product momentum.

In addition, Danskin's products are mainly in the female market, which is more vertical and subdivided than other brands.

To a certain extent, it is an important jigsaw puzzle for Lining in the exploration of product diversification and fashion.

In 2014,

After launching Lining's "self surrender" (Seoul studio) products, Lining joined hands with Korean star Jung Soo Yeon Jessica to design Lining's "Sika" sportswear. In 2015, Lining launched the Lining spring label series and LNG series products.

Lining, whose performance is up and back to classic slogan, wants to go further in the field of women's sportswear.

This train of thought is also in line with the current trend of the sportswear market.

In 2016, Nike predicted that by 2020, Nike's sales of female products will double on 2015.

Like Lululemon, this is the main female yoga and fitness program.

The brand is attracting large numbers of female consumers through gyms, yoga studios and social networks.

At present, the proportion of female sports products in the major brands is not high, there is a larger space for strengthening.

A large part of Lining's revenue comes from running shoes and basketball.

Yan Zhigang said that the proportion of female products in the big cargo of Lining is around 1/3.

In 2015, Nike's sales of women's products accounted for 22% of the total sales of $25 billion 800 million.

At this point, a brand that acts as the main female market seems to be a good choice.

In the signing of the press release, Lining himself has the same statement: "women.

The market has great potential for development. Acting Danskin brand is of great significance in Li Ning Co's brand strategy. "

Yan Zhigang also said that the development of Danskin can not be separated from Lining's resources: first of all,

The marketing resources include the penetration ability in sports circles, fashion and entertainment circles; two, Lining's strong supply chain, with the help of cooperative supply chain to ensure the quality of Danskin products.

However, in the fast developing Chinese market, Danskin does not seem to be too slow.

At similar prices, it has to compete with Adidas Stella McCartney, the same sport, leisure and design style, and the Canadian brand Lululemon, which is about to enter China.

In addition, some originality in China.

Such as Particle Fever, Maia Active and balance school, which were reported before lazy bear sports, are also cutting the market with high quality and personalization as the selling point.

Facing the beautiful women

Markets, Danskin and Lining need to be fully prepared for challenges.