Anta Ding Shizhong: "Never Stop" Small Target

Before doing business, Ding Shizhong set himself a "small target".

With Wang Jianlin's one hundred million ratio, this goal is "cock silk" full of gas, he imagined others to buy a big motorcycle.

Ding Shizhong, who grew up in a shoemaking workshop for nearly thirty years, has made a small handicraft workshop the world's third. China is the first. It is Anta Sports Products Limited, or Anta.

In this process, Ding Shizhong constantly changes his "small target", but in the "snake swallow elephant" situation again, it is impossible to become impossible.

One

Big dream of small workshop

In the early 80s of last century, Chen Dai town in Jinjiang, relying on overseas Jinjiang's overseas Chinese orders, made a number of shoemaking workshops, and Ding Shizhong's father also listed them.

In 1987, Ding Shizhong took his father's 10 thousand yuan, carrying 600 pairs of shoes collected from various workshops on the train to Beijing.

Ding Shizhong, 17, became one of the hundreds of Jinjiang people who sold shoes in Beijing in the 80s and 90s of last century.

He has set up a shoe counter in Beijing's most important shopping malls, such as Wangfujing shopping center, which is very popular in Jinjiang.

In 1991, Ding Shizhong spent fifty thousand or sixty thousand yuan with his relatives and set up a shoemaking workshop, which is the predecessor of Anta.

At that time, there were thousands of small factories such as Anta in Jinjiang. Compared with other companies, Anta did not have any advantages.

At that time, limited funds, Anta in the design, production and sales have been overstretched, there is no spare effort to do marketing, can only be spread by customer's word of mouth.

But unlike other workshops, Anta has its own brand dream.

Since 1999, Anta has invested 800 thousand in signing Kong Linghui as spokesperson to create the brand, which aroused strong shock at that time.

Also produced 5 million yuan in the CCTV sports channel prime time launched a large-scale "advertising bombing", Anta "I choose, I like" slogan is well known.

Ding Shizhong's first major decision in life was to invest almost all the funds in 2000, and to make Anta's brand advertisement with CCTV Olympic Games in Sydney. After that, Anta developed rapidly.

In 2007, Anta decided to go to Hong Kong to be listed, and the company was pformed from family business to public enterprise.

At the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Ding Shizhong's heart was full of regrets.

Adidas became the sponsor of the 2008 Olympic Games Chinese delegation with 60 million -8000 million dollars.

Ding Shizhong quietly set a small goal in mind. 12 years before the Olympic Games, the winner of the Olympic Games is Anta's logo.

But this cake is so good to grab. In order to win the cooperation opportunity of the 12 years Olympic Games, Adidas paid 5 million dollars in sincerity.

Moreover, in order to avoid unpopular sponsorship, the Chinese Olympic Committee will pack 2009-2012 of the Olympic cycle into takeaway. If you want to sponsor the Olympic Games for 12 years, you will have to accept it all. It is no easy task to eat this big Mac.

But Ding Shizhong refused to accept that "every major decision of the company is to turn the seemingly impossible thing into reality."

One bite and one stomp, Anta denounced heavy capital PK to drop ADI, and won the sponsorship of 09-12 Olympic cycle package.

Some people estimate that the sponsorship cost about 600 million yuan. Even the Olympic Committee members are worried about "Anta?" after many years, Ding Shizhong said with a smile, Anta is very good, but now it seems that the decision was correct.

Since then, Anta's sponsorship of sporting events has been out of hand. The annual sponsorship of CBA, the National Volleyball League and the National Collegiate Basketball League (CUBA) has been known as the "China League engine". The Chinese Olympic Committee's partners have signed 24 national teams in the five centers, namely, the winter sports management center, the National Aquatic Center, the Gymnastics Center and so on.

The signing of NBA in 2014 allowed its brand to continuously improve.

Anta's early development of the Anta model, in addition to celebrity endorsement +CCTV publicity, another killer is the channel construction.

Through the implementation of the regional agency system and the retail franchise system, Anta has built a huge and smooth marketing network, from the manufacturer to the brand product wholesaler, focusing on the two or three line city.

But the drawbacks of this model soon emerged, and the industry crisis began in 2011.

Nike and Adi began to make a downward market, resulting in high inventory of domestic brands.

In addition, the life cycle and predetermination ability of domestic brands are weaker, and the management ability of products and supply chain is poor. The operation of local sales spouses shops has led to the problem of barrier lake type outburst.

The turnover time of each brand has basically doubled, while Anta is relatively good, but it has also increased from 38 days to 51 days.

In 2012, enterprises began to break their arms to survive, to launch a closed shop tide, and to close more than 3000 stores nationwide, of which Lining closed more than 1800, and Anta also listed them.

Anta has decided to make deep changes in the retail terminal, and has realized the new ordering mode and digitalized management of all its stores through the recovery of store self-management and information technology, and has successfully pformed into a brand retailing company.

It was in this era that Anta became the largest sporting goods brand in China.

Anta finally returned to growth in 2014, with sales exceeding 10 billion.

Ding Shizhong is not satisfied yet, and has set a small goal. He wants Anta to become the "Anta of the world".

In 2015, Anta saw a diversified consumption trend, decided to re pform, and established the group's "multi brand" strategy.

In 2018, Anta, which stood at 100 billion market capitalization, hoped to stand on the stage of the world. He wanted to become a respected world-class multi brand sporting goods group.

In this way, Anta responds to its brand spirit of "never stopping" and continues to climb, but there is also a hidden worry behind its brilliant achievements.

In 2018, Anta handed over its best report card in 11 years, achieving a gain of more than 44%. On the day of its performance, Anta's stock price fell more than 10%, and its market value evaporated more than HK $10 billion.

Although there was a slight correction in the two days thereafter, it still failed to recover the lost territory.

Two

Defects in brand genes

The market of sports shoes and clothing products occupies most of the market share in the world.

But most of the local brands are large manufacturing enterprises, committed to manufacturing low-end brand products, but no sports shoes and clothing brands are among the most valuable brands in the world.

In terms of sales volume, ADI and Nike are the second runner up.

But that does not mean that the two must sell the most items.

China is not a handful of people who can't afford ADI and Nike, so cheaper and quality guaranteed Anta has gained the upper hand.

"Copy, ADI, copy Nike, NB can also be copied," anyway, the main attack those who can not afford to buy these brands of Anta, stepping into the film design virgin land.

Foreign brands have not designed products for this level of people, and Anta, a foundry, needs to learn from it or has inherent convenience.

There are many kinds of fashion brands, and brands change quickly. In contrast, the concentration of sports brands is very high. Light Nike and Adidas occupy more than 30% market share in the world. This concentration is not possible in fashion brands.

And international brands such as Nike and Adidas firmly control the high-end products market in China.

Nike is good at basketball and Adidas is good at football.

Nike is surpassing and enjoying happiness in competition. Adidas is mature and professional.

Nike is often regarded as an outstanding young basketball player image, Adidas is a mature soccer player image; in comparison, most people think that Lining is the image of a gymnast.

But what Anta is is vague.

When the brand has personality charm and spiritual temperament, it can conquer the world. When the brand is linked to quality, technology and scale, it can dominate the party.

The sports brand can start from the core cultural value of the enterprise and penetrate into the consumers' hearts.

Therefore, before entering the Chinese market, Nike began to publicize the liberalism culture and values of the United States, and successfully opened and controlled the market of Chinese sports shoes and clothing products.

European and American brands have gone through a hundred years of history. They have been honed and perfected in the course of historical development, showing the appearance of today. But Chinese enterprises are only twenty or thirty years old. It is not easy to have such a result.

But if Anta wants to truly become a world brand, it must face up to the ills that are deeply rooted in the soil of its genes and culture.

In fact, the culture of sports in China has not been fully popularized. For many people, the performance of sportswear has not yet been fully realized.

It's just a category of everyday clothes.

With the popularity of sports culture, the sports industry has great potential for development.

But the immature domestic market has also become a handicap for China's brand to become an international top brand.

China's sports business may be described as more appropriate, the highest level of the athletes is to enter the national team.

There are some people joking that Chinese football is not good enough. If you can get the football into the college entrance examination, Chinese football will soon be angry.

On the one hand, the joke shows the limitations of sports development, and on the other hand, it shows the broad potential of sports market.

Compared with Europe and America, our sports are too marketless and life oriented.

The development of China is lagging behind, and the protection of intellectual property rights is insufficient. The enthusiasm and innovation of Chinese local enterprises are not high enough, or even rely on plagiarism.

Sports can be different from fashion. When running, the performance index becomes particularly important. The domestic brands with low technology content once faced the awkward situation of embroidered shoes.

What exactly is sports equipment? Phelps's shark skin should be the best explanation.

He is the thing that helps human beings to get close to and even break through the limits of their bodies.

He is an intermediary that extends the possibilities of human beings in various scenarios and individuals.

Therefore, this is an industry that needs variety and innovation.

The purpose of Nike's brand is to create high-tech and high quality products for athletes, and motivate every athlete to strive to improve the level of competition, and always maintain a high quality, high-tech and perfect brand image.

Adidas's "function first", "the best for athletes" is the company's adhered to the idea.

It can be compared to the domestic, many of us only in Europe and the United States to complete the model based on the subtle appearance of changes, and unfortunately missed the essence of sports products.

Compared with the foreign R & D investment, the domestic brand shaping methods are single, the brand value appeal is single, the form is boring, it is difficult for the consumers to impress, and spend a lot of money on the prime time intensive advertising, the advertising quality is not high, and it still takes a long way to complete the price value output.

Anta's R & D investment has increased by nearly 200 times from 2 million in 1991 to 4 hundred million at 5% per year. In 2005, the first sports science laboratory was set up in China. Up to now, the laboratory has applied for more than 130 patents.

It sounds like a good result, but Nike gained about 500 patents a year in 2016 alone. The company received more than 5000 patents, excluding the expired patent items, which outnumber the US aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

Of course, for domestic brands can not be too harsh, after all, the domestic market has not yet, the investment can not afford to spend, it is hopeless.

But we need more companies to spend 80% of the power to search for even less than 20% of the breakthrough output.

That's the real spirit of sports. It's the proof that people break through themselves and keep pursuing.

In this part, what we are doing is obviously not enough.

At the same time, as for China's reality, when many people even haven't bought a pair of light, sturdy, cheap shoes, it is a bit inappropriate to talk about the continuous overweight of sports in breaking the limit.

Moreover, enterprises must first survive the gateway.

But the more cold it is, the more we will stick to the value of drilling.

Three

Do not be China's Nike, be Anta of the world.

The spirit of "never stop" brand advocated by Anta is encouraging the whole company to move forward.

In the face of addi and Nike's strong rivals, Anta did not choose to face the impact like Lining, but the embarrassment of the sandwich biscuits could not go down.

Anta, which took roundabout operations and rural encircling the city strategy, apparently fought a beautiful war.

Anta aims to target people aged 19 to 29, who earn less than 10000 yuan a month.

Anta, which escaped from the first tier market, gained high profits from the advantages of its supply chain and product end. While Lining's net profit 5% and ADI Nike's 10%, he created 20% profits.

Anta, whose plates are bigger and bigger, will not stop the first tier cities.

But domestic brands are not only sports brands, but also face great prejudice when they enter the market.

Better locations and cheaper prices often give the international first-line brands, and even shopping malls, in order to attract large brands to settle, subsidize millions of decoration fees, so as to enhance the "B grid" of shopping malls and improve the ability of rent-seeking bargaining.

In addition to all kinds of real gold and silver subsidies, a shopping mall to attract LV or even to make a big pformation of shopping malls, the six layers of fast food area all moved away.

This situation has brought a higher threshold for domestic brands, and we want to pay for all these brands with PK. This is one of the important reasons why Lining's profit margin has not been watched by Nike.

It is not the most difficult to overcome these problems to enter the first-line market, but the recognition of brand has been formed. The low end Anta is too low to go to the front line, which is more difficult to overcome.

The acquisition of high-end brands and the improvement of product structure have become Anta's best choice.

The multi brand business represented by FILA has become the new growth pole of Anta.

After the acquisition of FILA Greater China business in 2009, Anta launched a full channel direct reform and repositioned its brand to sport fashion.

With the younger spokesperson team and diversified sponsorship + Milan fashion week, the FILA performance has been more than expected in recent years.

Since its acquisition, FILA has been growing at a compound annual growth rate of over 50%. In 2017, it had exceeded 4 billion yuan (accounting for nearly 27%), and the retail sales in the first three quarters of 2018 increased by more than 80%, an alarming growth.

At the end of the product, apart from the existing brands and series, FILA continues to create a new sense of brand name.

Anna Sui, Jason Wu and other frequent brand and designer joint events have injected more diversified and more popular elements into the overall design of FILA, and constantly strengthened FILA's brand image as the pioneer of sports fashion.

A variety show that accords with brand tunes, such as "where to Go Daddy", "let go of my nose", promotes FILA brand exposure.

2018 Milan fashion week to wake up memories of the past, highlight the 107 years of brand history accumulation, consolidate the leading position of FILA sports fashion.

With the rapid development of KIDS/FUSION and other sub brands, FILA will continue to be the most important growth pole of Anta.

Besides FILA, Anta has successively acquired Japan's high-end ski brand DESCENTE, South Korea's high-end outdoor brand KOLON, Britain's middle end walking shoes brand Sprandi and children's wear KINGKOW.

4 billion 600 million euro! About 36 billion yuan, 4 of a market value of its own become a similar price! Parity sports brand Anta is to use such a price to acquire Finland's high-end sports brand giant Amafen, which is regarded as "the largest cross-border acquisition in the history of Chinese sporting goods".

To make this acquisition even more dazzling, Tencent also participated in it.

Some people say that this is a milestone in the overall rise of Chinese sports brands at the international level, which is more shocking than that of Lenovo's acquisition of the US computer giant IBM.

Ding Shizhong even said to Anta employees' internal mail, "this is the most important decision I have made from starting a business to today."

You know, Ding Shizhong has been awake all night for this decision.

It was like carrying 600 pairs of shoes to the capital at that time. It was like investing all the money to sponsor the Olympic Games in 2000. As the heavy capital won the Olympic Games and let the organizing committee pinch the sweat for him, Ding Shizhong, who had a comfortable life at the end, once again bet on the "Anta of the world" tomorrow.

Just past "double eleven", Anta group created a record of 1 billion 130 million yuan a day, sales ranked first in sports outdoor category.

Ding Shizhong, who can take a breath and enjoy the fruits of victory, set a new small goal for himself.

In the process of continuous adjustment of "small target", just like "never stop" brand idea, in the smooth road and thorns before, resolutely chose the latter, toward a higher mountain top.

Although the "Shanzhai" Anta's "low" image is still criticized by many people, Anta knows its own market and its consumers best.

Know how to communicate with them so as to achieve steady growth.

Anta, who designs basketball shoes for children playing concrete, apparently has warmed the hearts of the most numerous consumers in China.

Although the effort in product R & D is not yet significant, we are still willing to give some patience to domestic brands, so that they can use China's speed to run overseas enterprises for decades or even a hundred years.

The success of the first World War FILA gave us hope to draw a bright blueprint for its future acquisition of amamfin.

Anta brand segmentation is good, or it is expected to keep every brand's own tonality, so as to get the favor of the corresponding market.

Anta currently accounts for 95% of its receivables from the domestic market. On the one hand, we have reason to imagine a bright future for Anta, but on the other hand, Anta, who is still not enough in brand value and brand competitiveness, needs to improve its internal strength to truly go global.

Anta should make the brand and quality, technology, scale and so on closely linked to dominate the party, so that the brand has personality charm and spiritual temperament to conquer the world.

Anyway, our living standard is improving and our national strength is increasing. Let us work together to make our due contribution to China's economic development.

Author: Jin Mei