Analysis Of Solutions For Explorer Filling Outdoor Sports

According to the world clothing shoes and hats net, in the past one or two years,

Has been building a new business structure, but also by the media button up the "merger madman" hat.

But so far, these actions have not brought much profit to the Pathfinder.

But it is accompanied by the embarrassment of the main business.

After diversification, the Pathfinder seems to have lost his way.

Just in time

This outdoor outdoors from a tent

It has created the reputation of "the first stock of outdoor products in China".

Since the listing, the Pathfinder's operating income has been growing. Since the listing of Shenzhen in 2009, the Pathfinder has increased from less than 300 million yuan to more than 3 billion 800 million yuan.

Since then, chairman Sheng Faqiang has been leading the team to seek change.

In July 2015, Pathfinder formally set up three major business groups, outdoor products, travel service and sports industry, and invested in "green field network" and "easy to travel the world".

However, a large number of losses of "green field network" and "easy travel world" have also become one of the key reasons for the continuous decline of the net profit of Pathfinder after 2015.

In addition, the Pathfinder also has two phases of acquisition fund and the "dream factory" which is the main investment in VC. It has many other directions, such as sports events, fitness APP, sports outdoor, and so on, and has invested in high-quality companies such as sports window, light pig pen, FitTime, and know how to explore.

Back to two months ago, when he was strong, he resigned from the position of CEO, and was promoted by Jiang Wei, who had ten years of experience in sports marketing in Ogilvy.

The pformation of personnel has been interpreted by the media as the first step in the pformation and upgrading of Pathfinder.

In the 2016 annual report, the Pathfinder said that the focus of 2017 was to focus on the snow and ice sports industry. We should seize the bonus resources of the Winter Olympic Games and base on the existing ski resorts, outdoor ice and snow sports product lines, green skiing communities and ice sports investment projects, through mergers and acquisitions, equity participation or strategic cooperation, to expand the business of ice and snow sports, forming a synergy with the company's main business, and initially forming the integration and management capabilities.

With the popularity of sports, more and more enterprises aim at outdoor.

With the continuous influx of foreign brands, the competition pressure of Pathfinder is increasing.

And just recently, the Pathfinder group strategy and product launch conference, Sheng Fa Qiang said: "to return to the beginning of the heart".

Sheng Faqiang was born in 1969, Dunhuang, Gansu, surveying and mapping professional origin, because the "iron rice bowl" wages low and down the sea.

"At that time, Beihai was relatively angry, saying that to rebuild a Shenzhen, many young people went.

In 90s, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship are very different. At that time, the survival rate of entrepreneurship is very low.

At that time, I went to a new technology fair in Beihai. I saw the tent suddenly and I was very interested. It was a combination of accident and necessity.

In fact, there was no concept of outdoors at that time. At that time, we felt that the market for tourism was relatively large.

Entrepreneurs often survive first, rather than from the beginning, there is a very grand design.

In 1995, Sheng Fa strong began to build his own tent. The predecessor of the pathfinder was "Tian Hui Travel Products Co., Ltd.", which is registered in Beihai, Guangxi.

After having a big perception of the national market, Sheng Qiang came to Beijing and formally registered "Pathfinder" in 1999.

From 2002 to 2004, the Pathfinder is from scratch.

At that time, the Pathfinder began to enrich the product line, extending from the original tent and sleeping bag to outdoor clothing and shoes.

"In the process of selling, we find that the market space is expanding constantly, and we are constantly expanding our content and constantly innovating."

In 2007, Pathfinder introduced 31 million strategic investment. Li Yuhui, a founding partner of Pan Lin capital, invested about 6000000 yuan in the name of the Pathfinder, becoming the ninth largest shareholder of the Pathfinder.

Two years later, the Pathfinder listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, which brought a considerable investment return to the capital side.

In Li Yuhui's view, 10 years ago, outdoor sports were the outbreak period of the industry. We can say that we have strong sense of smell, prompt introduction of capital, and seize the opportunity of launching the gem to launch in time, which has promoted the rapid development of enterprises.

And the Pathfinder is indeed "the right time".

In fact, there are many outdoor brands in China at the stage of pre IPO, and OZARK and kingCamp have a certain market share. But until now, the scale and volume have not been able to compete with the Pathfinder.

The success of the first ten years of Sheng Fa's road explorer was attributed to brand awareness.

"Brand is the key to establish trust relationship with users and establish relationships.

In fact, there were many outdoor brands at that time, but there was not enough emphasis on quality and no brand understanding.

In fact, after the SARS in 2002, people's cognition of outdoor sports was generally a step higher.

One thing I was impressed with was that we were helping Coca-Cola make an order for outdoor promotional products. Their marketing staff kept emphasizing to us, "LOGO must print clearly, there is no mistake, we are all living for this LOGO."

It shocked me very much and really realized the value of the brand.

Of course, the Pathfinder is not yet perfect, and we are still trying to make the brand better and better.

"Sports mergers and acquisitions madman"

Indeed, brand is an intangible asset and a condensation of value.

But everything is changing.

I don't know from what time it was called the "sports maniac" by some media.

"In fact, from 2009 to 2013, our train of thought is to open shop and expand."

According to the data, there are about 300~400 stores on the front door shops of the Pathfinder in 2009, and up to now, there are nearly 1400 outlets.

"In 2012 and 2013, the mobile Internet has begun to exert itself."

Sheng Faqiang said, "we can clearly feel this change, and the original business model is facing great challenges.

And the speed of opening shops by the Pathfinder also slowed down in 2015 and 2016, and many shops began to decline in performance.

The way users behave is also changing. This is the essence. Everything is getting faster.

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In the view of Sheng Qiang, Pathfinder is always the one who seeks to "evolve and upgrade" actively. Everything must revolve around users, and users' habits and habits have changed.

"In fact, after 2011, we launched the electricity supplier. We have settled in Jingdong, Tmall and vip.com, and our business growth is also very fast.

At present, the electricity business revenue accounted for 30% of the total revenue of the Pathfinder, we did not miss the opportunity of the electricity supplier, of course, we will not miss this consumption upgrade.

Sheng Faqiang's idea is to go from outdoor products to outdoor activities and establish a more direct relationship with users.

Outdoor activities include two branches: outdoor sports and outdoor travel.

In 2013, Pathfinder invested in Singapore online travel platform Asiatravel, China's old outdoor activities website green field and polar travel agency "extremely beautiful".

Then, in March 2014, the Pathfinder managed to win a 74.56% stake in the travel agency through a high price of 230 million yuan.

In July 2015, under the leadership of Sheng Fa, Pathfinder set up three major business groups: outdoor products, travel service and big sports industry.

However, it was in 2015 that the net profit of Pathfinder declined for the first time.

In the first half of 2016 and the first half of 2017, year-on-year decline.

It is almost certain that the green field network and the easy to travel world are all loss items, and other investments in the capital market will not be able to benefit quickly.

In the view of Sheng Qiang, the first reason for the decline of net profit in 2015 was three: "the main reason is that we did M & A, and failed to achieve our established goals. Some of the goodwill impairment was a relatively large aspect; second, our main business was not doing well; third, it was indeed related to the slowdown in the real economy."

According to the report of COA (China Outdoor Brand Alliance), the growth of the outdoor industry has declined significantly since 2015. The latest data show that the growth of outdoor sports brands in China has dropped from 30% and 40% to 4.91% last year.

The competitive advantages of Pathfinder are also being challenged.

In the view of Sheng Qiang, the Pathfinder is still not so strong in products. The homogenization problem on the market is very serious, and even the disorderly competition that deliberately reduces prices. Sometimes leisure products are also named outdoor products.

"It can be said that in the past, our products did not lead the demand for consumption upgrading."

The era of "channel is king" has passed.

Sheng Faqiang said, "at that time, even if we were a channel company, we could always maintain the first advantage and form some barriers.

But the consumption scene has changed, and the Pathfinder at this time is eager to find new growth points. This is my initial intention. No matter from which perspective, there is no mistake in our past direction.

According to statistics, in 2015, the proportion of exclusive stores in China's outdoor products dropped to 50.61%, and showed a downward trend.

However, the single mode of "offline channel is king" is really a bottleneck for the Pathfinder, and the stickiness of consumers needs to be improved.

Change is better than invariance.

In fact, in the past two years, Pathfinder has been building new business structures, but it is clear that these actions have so far not contributed too much profit to the Pathfinder.

"There is plenty of room for customized tourism and relatively high-end tourism in the world. Easy to travel in 2017 will be profitable."

Sheng Faqiang told reporters, "the purpose of our investment was to build communities, and all of the content was introduced to palm search Pathfinder. This system is still under construction.

According to statistics, there are about 5 million to 6 million consumers who buy products of Pathfinder every year. We can link these people directly with events and tourism activities to make our members feel that there are more, fresh and changing contents.

Re layout and change

"I have always been a reformer, I have been helping the company change, I have seen some new developments, or I feel that a certain model is feasible."

In the interview, Sheng Fa strongly described himself as a radical "change faction". In the view of other people like Qiang Wei, the strong and strong character was introverted and modest, and did not have the sensationalism of the general "innovator". Instead, he had an inherent "rigidity".

In February 5, 2017, the Pathfinder issued a notice: the suspension of the major assets reorganization of 2 months planning ended in failure.

In February 6th, the Pathfinder resumed his trading and was affected by the news.

"At that time, I wanted to buy a fitness asset, in fact, it was also hoped to get through indoor and outdoor.

But after investigation, we find that the industry has its own problems. For many reasons, the follow-up work can not be promoted and can only be done.

The failure of the acquisition made Sheng Fa strong reconsider the focus and layout of the Pathfinder.

In June 2017, Sheng Fa Qiang announced that he had resigned from the CEO position of the Pathfinder, and was the chairman of the group of full-time Pathfinder. The original music was officially joined by sports CMO Qiang Wei.

Sheng Faqiang said: "I hope that the company can join more competent people. We need professional managers who are energetic and have a better understanding of the brand. I am not necessarily the most suitable person. The founders may not necessarily be CEO for a long time.

In my mind, I prefer to find people who are stronger than me. I think Qiang Wei is.

Qiang Wei and Sheng Qiang met many years ago in an outdoor exhibition. Later, two people often discussed the strategic cooperation between Pathfinder and music as brand.

"In fact, as early as the second half of 2016, Sheng Sheng communicated with me about this matter. But at that time, music and sports were in a period of deep adjustment. I was watching CMO as a sport, managing the company's offline industry and the whole industrialization process.

At that time, music and sports were equal to waste, and I declined the proposal of Sheng general.

Later Sheng Sheng also communicated with me many times, because his love for the outdoors infected me.

In the view of Sheng Fa Qiang, Qiang Wei has a clear view of the whole sports industry and has a comprehensive understanding of the whole brand.

And the operation of the whole company has been released to strong Wei, including Yi you world.

"Our business framework is changing slowly, and the focus of our business is shifting to products. Other sectors are also sorting out their characteristics accordingly.

Our investment business will slow down, the outdoor industry will gradually restore growth, tourism and sports business will further consolidate, and then we will start merging again, this is a priority process.

Product revolution

In many investors' view, enterprises' involvement in heavy assets is like drinking poison to quench thirst.

According to media data, the ice cream holding development company of the Pathfinder limited earned 1 million 370 thousand yuan in the first half of 2017 and a loss of 9 million 820 thousand yuan.

And it is accompanied by the embarrassing main business.

According to semi annual reports, the income of outbound clothing, footwear and equipment in the first half of the year decreased by 16.93%, 26.75% and 24.76% respectively.

According to the research data of China Textile Association outdoor products branch (COCA), the total retail sales of domestic outdoor market in 2016 increased by 23 billion 280 million yuan, up 4.91% from the same period last year, an increase of 5.6 percentage points from the same period last year, and 975 of the total number of domestic outdoor markets, representing an increase of 2.09% over the same period last year, an increase of 1.03 percentage points over the same period last year.

The scale of the industry is approaching the critical point.

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According to Qiang Wei, at present, the Pathfinder brand has fission out of three plates, and the overall layout of the Pathfinder will be filled with outdoor sports solutions.

First of all, the Explorer brand will realize the three major segments, which are:

First: a professional, high level solution to HIMEX, HIMEX will be the professional line of the whole explorer.

It mainly provides solutions for outdoor professional groups such as mountaineering and skiing. In the future, more professional products of HIMEX will be seen in Pathfinder shops.

Second: a solution for mass outdoor sports enthusiasts, mainly targeting the Pathfinder, who has cultivated a group of loyal users in recent years, such as outdoor light sports groups represented by hiking, ice and snow and camping.

Third: the "Pathfinder child", mainly for children over the age of 3 to provide outdoor solutions.

In addition, the Pathfinder will also have a business segment that emphasizes on travel. Travelax, the functional needs of travel and sports are different, so there will be independent travel brands in the future.

Another important industry area is to provide outdoor equipment solutions for special environment and industry customers, such as space suits for astronauts in China's aerospace industry, field work clothes for geological explorers, and scientific costumes for Antarctic expeditions.

So for DiscoveryExpedition, Qiang Wei said that cutting more market segments would likely emphasize more international attributes and high-end fashion, and hope that DiscoveryExpedition will be younger.

Qiang Wei said that in terms of brand strategy, future Pathfinder may have three core tasks:

First, add vitality to the interests of the existing beneficiary groups.

At present, the user portrait of Pathfinder is probably about 45 years old middle-aged and old people.

Second, increase the professional level of consumer recognition, and use advanced technology and perfect functions to impress these professional level consumer groups. This is also the brand's task.

Third, enhance product quality and brand image, and cooperate with the new retail service system to achieve brand operation and management upgrading.

It's hard to say whether the Pathfinder has been successful in the past years.

For "travel service" and "big sports industry" two big business groups, Qiang Wei does not think investment direction and strategy is wrong.

In his view: "problems may arise after the integration of investment, and how to integrate tourism and outdoor better is the key."

In 2012, we went deep into the Amazon cluster to participate in the ecological examination of "watching the earth". In 2012, we went deep into the Amazon cluster to participate in the ecological examination of "watching the earth".

In Pan Lin capital Li Yuhui's view, for any company, there will be some pains in pition, but not because of a downturn in performance, it is said that a pformation is not successful, or that the pformation can not go on.

In many brands, if you want to highlight them, you need to have more "secret devices" than others.

The "hidden weapon" may be the ecosystem. Managers need to dig the demand side, and need to think about the specific form of the ecological organization, and need some methods of the Internet.

Sheng Faqiang believes that Pathfinder will return to normal growth after 2018 and 2019.

Pathfinder has gone through the period of exploration, and the understanding of the relationship between the whole team and users has risen to a higher level.

What is needed now is the process of consolidating the original and the original, so that the Pathfinder brand itself will rush to the rising channel quickly.

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