Behind The Unveiling Of Anta'S "Ninth Generation" Flagship Store, The Sports Brand Line Reignited.

The start of the Beijing consumption season, Anta flagship store also landed in Beijing. In June 6th, the domestic sports brand Anta announced that the "ninth generation" flagship store was officially opened in Wangfujing to boost the real economy of Beijing.

In fact, Anta's landing at the flagship store in Beijing is only a microcosm of the market after the outbreak of the real economy. Along with the reduction of Beijing's epidemic prevention and control level, the policy has begun to gradually liberate the sports market, and the sports consumption market has been rekindled, and the sports brands have also accelerated their respective strength. After all, the recovery and growth of their performance is not only about products, but also testing the hard power of channels, marketing and innovation.

The nine generation shop opens

In June 6th, Anta sports formally announced that the "ninth generation" flagship store opened in Wangfujing pedestrian street. Zhu Chenye, vice president of Anta group, said that although the sudden outbreak has brought great impact on the production and operation of enterprises, sporting goods still belong to the leading industry in the consumer goods market from the perspective of market demand. Anta's new store not only shows Anta's strong corporate strength, but also marks Anta's brand that has been "affordable" from the former consumer, and is turning into a sports brand that sports enthusiasts want to buy.

It is understood that the "nine generation shop" from the brand image, display and decoration to the consumer experience area to create, have carried out a comprehensive transformation and upgrading. Unlike other Anta retail stores, digitalization, youalization and specialization become the core concept of Anta's new generation terminal image store.

Zhu Chenye told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that the "nine generation shop" located in Wangfujing, not only combined with Beijing flavor elements, but also joined the Winter Olympic material, resonated with local consumers, and had exclusive experience areas, allowing customers to create their own, becoming a new sports trend of collecting, visiting, playing and buying together.

Guo Bin, an associate professor of the high quality development research group of the national sports industry research base of Peking University, said that in Beijing, one of the landmark features of Wangfujing business is not only a product store, but also a brand promotion position. It is also a display window for new products and technologies in the future.

Beijing Business Daily reporter saw in the "ninth generation" flagship store, Anta "nine generation shop" installed a face recognition video system, through the passenger flow statistics, hot area analysis and other big data to judge consumer shopping habits. In the younger age, it is specialized to create an interactive area with young consumers. In terms of specialization, space design is inspired by the LOGO of ANTA, highlighting the sense of movement and visual impact. At the same time, combined with local culture, it has designed "Beijing" special products.

In addition, as a professional sports brand, Anta continues to sponsor the Chinese Olympic Committee and Beijing Winter Olympic Games in 2022 to further revitalize sports IP assets. "Anta's cooperation with the Chinese Olympic Committee for ten years, deeply binds the Olympic Games, utilizes Anta's technology and equipment to sponsor the Olympic Games, and helps Chinese athletes perform better in the Olympic Games. This is a consistent strategy of Anta's sports marketing. With the help of the spread of the Olympic platform, it will stimulate the enthusiasm of young consumers and shape Anta's professional sports brand positioning, which is Anta's long-term brand strategy. Zhu Chenye said.

Offline economy restart

In fact, the opening of Anta flagship store also means a full restart of the economy under the domestic sports brand line. According to the first quarter earnings report, in 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, domestic retail consumption fell sharply, and sales of sporting goods business were greatly affected. The sales volume of XTEP and 31st degree in the first quarter of 2020 decreased by more than 20%. The sales volume of Lining (excluding Lining YOUNG) decreased by 10%-20% compared with the same period last year, while the retail sales of Anta's main brand and retail sales decreased by 20%-25% compared with the same period last year.

Along with the gradual resumption of stores under the line, the performance of all of them has gradually improved. Prior to this, Anta sports has revealed the resumption of offline stores. In April, Anta brand stores resumed to 80%-90% before the epidemic. Zhu Chenye told the Beijing Commercial Daily reporter that from now on, the number of Anta stores has basically returned to business, and sales have recovered to the same level in the same period last year.

In contrast, multinational brands are also beginning to recover sales in the Chinese market. Adidas's performance in May showed that sales of Adidas in China in May have resumed growth since the resumption of self operated stores and distributors' stores in mid April. Adidas expects its second quarter sales in Greater China to reach the same level in the same period last year as recovery grew earlier than expected.

Cheng Weixiong, founder of clothing brand management and Shanghai Liang Qi Brand Management Co., Ltd. believes that as the sports and health industry is a big trend, the sports industry and sports apparel related industries will still have much room for growth after online consumption recovery. This also allows sports brand enterprises to reopen the store next to the overweight line, and invest more in the image and the number of channels.

It is noteworthy that in June 6th, the consumption season of Beijing was officially launched on the theme of "savoring consumption and FUN". It launched the largest consumer coupon in the history of 12 billion 200 million yuan, covering ten major areas: catering, shopping, culture, tourism, leisure, entertainment, education, sports, fitness, travel and so on.

In an interview with the Beijing Commercial Daily reporter, Zhu Chenye said that from Anta's plan to open a shop in Wangfujing, he applied for the promotion policy of Beijing's consumption season for the first time. Wangfujing's "nine generation shop" will also enjoy this part of the consumer coupons.

In this regard, Guo Bin believes that the Beijing municipal government set up a platform, successfully attracted a number of high-quality domestic products to participate. With the reduction of the level of epidemic prevention and control in Beijing, many formats have ushered in new opportunities for development. Under the promotion of relevant policies of the consumption season in Beijing, new consumption growth will inevitably take place in the coming period, and consumption of sports goods will also become an important part. Domestic sporting goods enterprises will also start the "accelerated run" in the second half of the year to welcome the consumption enthusiasm after the outbreak. Competition in the next half year will be more intense.

Dispute over brand value

In Cheng Weixiong's view, the opening of Anta's "nine generation shop" also means the promotion of the brand of domestic sports enterprises, indicating that their own value orientation has entered a new competitive field. From functional flower to professional serialization, and then to the trend, all sports brands in the country are demonstrating their comprehensive strength and trying to seize the opportunity in the new wave of sports consumption.

It is learnt that Anta's "nine generation shop" in addition to the upgrading of retail establishments, product design and innovation also accelerate iteration. Statistics show that Anta's annual R & D investment accounts for more than 5% of the cost of sales, and the contribution rate of innovative products exceeds 40%.

Zhu Chenye told the Beijing Commercial Daily reporter that Anta's development is an iterative upgrading process. Through a series of cross-border cooperation and cultural IP implantation, Anta integrates many Chinese cultural elements and Chinese connotations into product design, and gradually finds a new product language in such innovation and exploration.

Anta is only a microcosm of China's sports brand. In the trend of the hot tide of the country and the rising of the Chinese wind, Chinese sports brand has established a new way of communication with young consumers, narrowing the gap with the international sports major and gradually having the opportunity to break hands.

In June 5th, Ding Shuibo, President of XTEP group, formally launched the XTEP eco core technology platform on line, issued an environmental protection strategy, and demonstrated to the society the determination to carry out environmental protection in the end. Ding Shuibo believes that in recent years, XTEP has been focusing on innovation, constantly seeking progress in product design and new materials, and creating products with high functionality and environmental impact.

In addition, Lining, 31st degree and PEAK also established their own positions in their respective professional fields through product innovation and upgrading, and constantly promoted their brand value through diversification.

However, it is not easy to catch up with the value of international brands such as Nike and Adidas. Judging from the current situation, the sports brands with annual sales exceeding 10 billion yuan are only Anta and Lining.

Affected by the epidemic, the global market loss of international sports brands has not yet fully recovered, which also provides the opportunity to catch up with the domestic sports brands that take the lead in revival. However, at present, the major sports brands are competing for consumers. In the carnival of "618", in the three or four line cities where consumption is recovering more rapidly, international brand penetration and product penetration will inevitably further reduce the market space of domestic brands.

In this regard, Guo Bin said that in the context of the development of China's sports industry towards high quality, the domestic sports brand enterprises are also facing the upgrading from sports manufacturing to sports intelligence. Predictably, under the favorable conditions of policy promotion and consumption upgrading, Chinese sports brand will also enhance the comprehensive strength of channels, marketing and innovation, and quickly realize the rise of brand.