On The Sustainable Development Of Li Ning And Anta

The Tokyo Olympic Games ended. Every day, we see several waves of Chinese athletes on the podium wearing Anta's "champion dragon suit". On the playground, Anta's logo has been constantly exposed, while Li Ning's logo can only occasionally show a small face.

Since 1992, the Chinese team put on their own clothing, except for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the other Olympic medals received by the two Chinese brands. Before Beijing, it was Li Ning. After Beijing, Anta.

Back in their early days, Li Ning and Anta, one is Bai Fumei, the other is poor. But now, Anta's market value is nearly four times that of Li Ning, and its sales volume is more than twice that of Li Ning. Especially in the Olympic Games, Anta is basically rubbing against Li Ning on the ground.

Li Ning, Prince of gymnastics, won three gold, two silver and one copper in 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, and became a national idol. It can be said that Li Ning himself is the first individual IP in the history of Chinese sports.

In 1990, Li Ning company was established. This is a standard overbearing president's script: superstar start a business, and a rich "father" - Jianlibao, gave Li Ning an investment of 16 million yuan. In 1990, Li Ning, who was just founded, spent 2.5 million to sponsor the clothing sponsorship right of the torch relay of the Beijing Asian Games. The torchbearer, dressed in Li Ning white sportswear, appeared in the camera, lighting the torch and lighting Li Ning.

When Li Ning was in the sports world, a teenager was growing up in Jinjiang, Southeast Fujian Province. Minnan people believe that "love to fight will win" and advocate business. Ding Shizhong left school early to help in his father's small shoemaking workshop.

Jinjiang is a magic land, where there are a group of people surnamed Ding and a pile of shoe workshops. In 1991, Ding Shizhong returned to Jinjiang to set up a factory with the 200000 he earned in four years of wandering in Beijing, and Anta was born. At that time Anta, should also dare not think, one day they can and Li Ning positive PK.

At the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, Li Ning appeared as a special prize jacket for the Chinese delegation, ending the history of Chinese athletes using foreign sporting goods in the Olympic Games. From the beginning of this session, to Atlanta in 1996, Sydney in 2000, and Athens in 2004, the Chinese delegation all wore Li Ning to the podium.

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games is a delicate turning point.

In that year's Olympic sponsorship was won by Adidas, but because Li Ning ignited in the sky in the bird's nest, and the brand sponsored four gold medal winning "dream teams" of China's table tennis team, gymnastics team, diving team and shooting team, the sense of existence was overwhelming. In the second year, Li Ning's sales volume in mainland China surpassed that of ADI, becoming the second and the first brand in China.

Then Li Ning began to make mistakes.

First, in 2009, the Chinese Olympic Committee began to look for partners for the next London Olympic Games. After the climax of the Beijing Olympic Games, domestic attention to the Olympic Games began to decline. Li Ning didn't care about it. As a result, Anta won the sponsorship rights of the Chinese delegation with 600 million yuan, which was less than half of the price of the 2008 Olympic Games.

Then, in 2010, the case of brand reconstruction failure of "post-90s Li Ning". The post-90s didn't embrace them. They also lost the post-80s, 70s and 60s.

Since 2011, Li Ning has been losing money for three consecutive years and its stores have been closed on a large scale.

In 2012, Anta's revenue exceeded that of Li Ning, and in the following eight years, Anta firmly took the first place. Even Li Ning's former employer, the Chinese gymnastics team, was also pryed away by Anta for 50 million yuan in 2014. It is said that Li Ning even discussed with Anta privately through the Gymnastic Center that he was willing to give up the trampoline and rhythmic gymnastics, but hoped to keep the gymnastic team, which was rejected by Anta. Alas, this is really, low in the dust, also can't open a flower.

Since 2009, Anta has started the road of international brand acquisition. First, Anta acquired the operation right of FILA Chinese brand with a small trial, and then continued to merge and acquire. In 2019, Anta won Finland's yamafen company at one fell swoop, acquiring more than ten brands such as Archaeopteryx and Wilson, forming a multi domain sports brand matrix. These brands are distributed in sports fashion, golf, outdoor, bicycle, tennis and other professional fields, with multi brand strategy to achieve more comprehensive market coverage. After the large-scale acquisition of international * *, Anta brand has not been dispelled. Instead, it has stabilized the mass consumption market and enhanced the international high-tech content of the brand.

Li Ning, who suffered a loss in the sports field, made a brilliant show in the fashion industry. In the New York Fashion Week in 2018, "China Li Ning" exploded in the audience, setting the benchmark status of "national trend". Since then, Li Ning's fashion soul has gradually surpassed the sports gene.

"Never stop" Anta, is how to step by step grassroots counter attack into a big tree?

The first step is to bind star athletes. Although Li Ning's status in the world is high, the new generation of consumers always has a new generation of idols. Kong Linghui is the "little fresh meat" in the sports world in the 1990s.

At that time, Kong Linghui was thin and handsome. His popularity at that time was even more than that of Zhang Jike, who was separated by ten malons.

In 1999, Anta spent a huge sum of money on Kong Linghui to be the spokesperson. However, at that time, Anta's annual total was only 4 million yuan, which was opposed by other people. Finally, Ding Shizhong strongly opposed the public opinion. He asked his soul: "are there many people who know Anta or Kong Linghui?"

It turns out that the 800000 is worth a lot. In the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, Kong Linghui won the men's singles final and completed his grand slam.

Anta, which was unknown to the public, became a household name overnight.

The second step is to bind the Olympic Games. Anta, once a "poor boy", has always been tied to the Olympic Games. After all, the brand of this fishing village is not like Li Ning's own sports gene. Only by constantly sponsoring the Chinese delegation can they call themselves the national brand.

Of course, money alone is not enough. The most important core is the sport itself. You have to really improve the performance of athletes and make them willingly wear this equipment. In this respect, Anta has made great efforts. According to official data, Anta has invested about 3 billion in sports technology in the past 10 years, ranking first among Chinese brands.

Over the years, Anta has built Olympic equipment for 28 Chinese national teams. In this Tokyo Olympic Games, ten national teams put on the equipment made by Anta. Among them, the National Weightlifting Team has won seven.

Third, bind shoes. I don't know if you have noticed that Nike, Adidas, Puma and Reebok, the most mainstream brands of sportswear for the Olympic Games, almost all started from making shoes. The importance of shoes for sports is self-evident, shoes are the soul of a sports brand.

At that time, Nike dominated the world with air jordan shoes designed for Jordan, and Adidas held the brand's head high with professional football shoes.

In this matter of shoes, of course, it's hard to beat Anta, a shoemaker. After all, what kind of shoes have not been made from Jinjiang? Not long after its debut, Anta 1200 sports shoes won the nickname of "cement killer" because of its wear-resistant grip, which satisfied the consumers of the third and fourth tier cities and villages who played basketball on the cement floor.

"Military God" Lv Xiaojun won the championship in that match, that pair of glittering golden boots, is Anta's weightlifting shoes. Wear resistant, traction, arch shock absorption technology. Weightlifting shoes need super stability and anti tension, while boxing shoes focus on lightweight. The former champion Zou Shiming's boots were made by Anta.

Perhaps, the original starting point, has decided the later end. Anta starts from shoes and moves towards sports brand; Will Li Ning start from the award-winning clothes and finally move towards a fashion brand?

Different from the ups and downs of Li Ning's development, Anta, a grass-roots product, has never been dominated by market positioning and development strategy theory. It has firmly rooted in the field of sportswear and equipment, and has achieved the most brilliant goal with the most simple moves.