Understand The Development Story Of Chinese Sports Brand Li Ning

"Li Ning", a common name, is the name of an Olympic champion, a sports brand and a fashion brand“ "Li Ning" with 30 years of time, three iterations of identity, staged the legend of "everything is possible."“ Li Ning has become a recorder of the development of China's sports industry and a practitioner of China's sports brand construction“ "Li Ning" is the Olympic spirit interpreted to the world by China yesterday“ "China Li Ning" is a trend gift to the world from China in the future.

I. Li Ning's "past events in China"

In 2010, Li Ning ushered in his 20th year of establishment, which was a day to celebrate. Unfortunately, it was only the first half of the whole play, ending in comedy. At that time, Li Ning's market share reached a peak of 9.7%, second only to Nike, with a record revenue of 9.455 billion. At that time, there was a kind of mentality floating over the company, which was not inferior to Nike and Adidas.

Under this kind of mood, Li Ning company decided to launch a brand rebuilding campaign in the coming 20 years, Change the brand slogan "everything is possible" to "let change happen" ； In order to embrace the post-90s, Li Ning, the post-90s generation, was put forward; Enter the first tier cities, enter the high-end market, and raise prices in an all-round way.

As a result, change really happened, but it wasn't the change they wanted. In the following four years, the revenue of "post-90s Li Ning" continued to decline, with a total loss of nearly 3 billion yuan from 2012 to 2014, burning all the glory of the company after the 2008 Olympic Games. The root cause of Li Ning's failure is misjudging the consumption power of the post-90s and losing the support of the Post-70s and 80s.

With the return of Li Ning, Li Ning company has experienced a long bottom rebound. It made a profit in 2016 and developed "China Li Ning" by the end of 2017. Due to the New York Fashion Week in 2018, the designers of Adidas and Nike did not have time to design new sports products for the fashion week. Li Ning picked up a big bargain and designed the theme of "Enlightenment" to appear in New York Fashion week.

On the closing day of the big show in New York, the wechat index of "Li Ning" soared by 700%; In the three days after the launch, more than 15 million tweets about Li Ning's New York Fashion week were exposed. In the same year, more than 5.5 million pieces of clothing and more than 50000 pieces of shoes were sold out of the series, both of which sold out more than 70%. Li Ning's "national tide era" is not easy to open the prelude.

In the past three years, Li Ning company has led "China's Li Ning" to major global fashion platforms, such as Paris fashion week and New York Fashion Week, to grasp the general trend of national fashion consumption and the consumer psychology of young people, "China Li Ning" is transforming from sports brand to light luxury brand.

In the first half of 2021, Li Ning's revenue increased by 65%, reaching 10.2 billion yuan, Net profit soared by 187% to 1.962 billion, and the market value increased 10 times in three years and 100 billion in five months With his achievements and performance in the capital market, he staged a good play of the return of the king.

Li Ning's revenue and net profit in 2017-2021   Source: annual report of the company

2. Li Ning's "brand common sense"

Over the past month, with the release of Li Ning's performance semi annual report and the dividends brought by the Tokyo Olympic Games, "China's Li Ning" is mixed with complex national emotions, the mistakes of international famous brands in China and many other factors, which have made Li Ning's brilliant moment, and even a little bit "won over". In fact, when we calm down and think about it, Li Ning is once again on the top, actually sticking to the common sense of the brand.

　　 1. It is possible to reshape the brand constantly

From the founding of Li Ning brand in 1990 to the Olympic torch lighting in 2008, Li Ning has realized the branding from individual to enterprise for 18 years. In the past 18 years, Li Ning has made a series of brilliant achievements, ranking first in the domestic market share for nine consecutive years. It was listed in 2004, and its net profit increased nearly 10 times in five years. The most important thing for Li Ning to make such a remarkable achievement is that he didn't make mistakes in brand positioning.

Jack Trout thinks that The strategy is to build brand clearly 。 Before 2008, "Li Ning" completed two iterations in the hearts of consumers, from national athletes to sports brands, from well-known brands to super IP. Li Ning company with 18 years of time to firmly implement a strategy, let Li Ning brand has become the No.1 of China's sports industry, establishing the greatest differentiation in the hearts of consumers, and establishing brand awareness and brand loyalty in the hearts of the Post-70s and 80s.

From 2010 to 2018, for nearly eight years, Li Ning, in a wandering period, has been exploring the problem of brand re positioning. Outside the "Jinjiang Gang", ADI, Nike's step-by-step pressure; Li Ning felt powerless in brand building due to the shock of management and difficulties in channel reform. With the return of Li Ning, there is the slogan of "everything is possible"; In the same period, the post-90s / Z era began to release their consumption power, driving the tide of the country to stir up the market, and the curtain of the new national goods movement was quietly pulled.

It is the pre history of Li Ning's brand remolding to build national tide system, which paves the way for the launch of "China Li Ning". The brand significance of "China Li Ning" is to let Li Ning complete the brand reconstruction, capture the market demand, capture the hearts of consumers, win back the Post-70s and 80s, and occupy the post-90s and post-00s markets. "Li Ning" brand represents the past of Li Ning, and the future of Li Ning, the leader of China Li Ning.

Li Ning established the kingdom of sports in 18 years; In four years, it has hatched a new power, Li Ning of China. Bezos believes that "Invariance" is more important than "change". All resources are put in the same things. What remains unchanged from "Li Ning" to "China Li Ning", that is, the establishment of enterprise brand common sense, is exactly the greatest contribution of "China Li Ning" to the current Chinese enterprises.

　　 2. Abide by brand common sense and keep unchanged things

　　 Lizi: professional brand, pioneer of sports marketing

Li Ning's professional background is doomed to the fate of Li Ning brand and sports for generations, which has become the unique brand advantage of Li Ning. During this year's East Olympic Games, this advantage was once again magnified, providing sponsorship for the two gold medal winners of China's diving team and Chinese table tennis team, and acting as the clothing sponsor of Mexico team.

　　 From the perspective of the rise of Li Ning company, it is closely related to the sponsorship of sports events. In 1990, it was founded only three months ago, and with the support of Jianlibao, he won the sponsorship of the torch of the Asian Games, and let Li Ning go from Guangdong to the whole country. At the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, Li Ning became a special prize collection uniform for the Chinese sports delegation, ending the history of Chinese athletes wearing foreign sportswear at the Olympic Games. After the three Olympic Games, Li Ning has always been a sponsor. Li Ning entered the crisis period and missed the sponsor of the Olympic Games, which became a big failure. He lost to Adidas in 2005 and missed the Beijing Olympic Games.

Compared with the sponsorship of sports events in other industries, we play a big role in sports marketing, As a sports brand, Li Ning carries more brand strategic considerations in sports marketing, and can more highlight the technical content of the product, create professional influence in the hearts of fans, and bring immeasurable premium to the brand. Li Ning signed with Cavaliers guard Damon Jones to become the first Chinese brand to sign with NBA players on the way to explore internationalization. He also made a big deposit on the NBA's top two shows, Talbot and Evan Turner.

We often remember that Li Ning is the founder of China's sports brand, often ignoring its contribution to China's sports marketing. It has to be said that today we too much link Li Ning with the national trend, and forget the style and color of Li Ning in the field of sports marketing, resulting in Li Ning's professionalism not better recognized by the market. From the "Li Ning" brand point of view, how to revive the glory in the field of sports marketing, will be the next major challenge facing Li Ning company.

　　 Face: the difference of brand and the coordinate of trend

The word "Li Ning" is loaded in too many plots of "state" brand. The plot is magnified infinitely by "China Li Ning". This reason for the success of "China Li Ning" is deeply rooted, and there is no unique global copy. In recent years There are three emotions contributing to the fashion trend of Guochao: the consumption mood of new people, the rising national sentiment and the fashion mood of Guochao design, It happened that guochaofeng and "China Li Ning" looked at each other correctly.

Internal statement of Li Ning Company: "China Li Ning" has a preference for retro elements, which evokes consumers' memories of Li Ning's most brilliant moments. Moreover, it is a kind of national symbol, reshapes the brand image, and makes people feel proud of themselves and accurately suppress the "national trend" which fluctuates faintly.

"China Li Ning" carries the brand of yesterday and today, and integrates the precipitation of Li Ning brand with the national tide of Li Ning; Link the two types of consumers, wake up the traditional consumers of the Post-70s / 80s, and impress the new consumers of the post-90s / 00s; It integrates national and personal emotions, displays the identity with pride, and calls out the target crowd.

"China Li Ning" interprets brand personality with the lowest cost. In David Aker's mind, Brand personality helps to establish the relationship between consumers and brands, and improve consumers' interest and participation. Such a sentence explains why "China's Li Ning" has moved a new generation of young consumers. Li Ning has established a new relationship with consumers in a "trendy" way. "Tide" has become a new brand image of Li Ning. As a company established for 30 years, it is very exciting.

In 2020, Li Ning joined hands with the Dunhuang museum to launch the "Dunhuang extension series". In the Yadan ghost city of Dunhuang, the theme party of Li Ning's thirties silk road exploration was held in a grand ceremony. A moving story ran through the show. On the day of tmall super brand day, the day after the end of the show, the trading volume of the day exceeded 100 million, breaking the single day sales record of the domestic clothing industry other than "double 11".

In the autumn and winter fashion show of 2021, inspired by the "wind forest and volcano" in the art of war of Sun Tzu, Li Ning deduces the four images into the design vision, integrates the design elements of ethnic minorities, and covers the expression of traditional Chinese philosophy concepts. For the big show, Li Ning said: "the exploration of art, the love of brand culture and creative accumulation are the driving force to create this season's products. This time, Li Ning brand reexamines the classic works and combines with the current trend, bringing familiar and refreshing design, hoping to define the future sports trend and direction. "

　　 Approach: brand accessibility, channel is king

Li Ning has made brilliant achievements in the last round, which is inseparable from an important hard power and channel expansion. During the period from 2004 to 2010, the number of distributors increased from 2272 to 7333, with an annual compound growth rate of 21.6%. Entering the new retail era, Li Ning attaches importance to the multi-channel strategy and realizes the online and offline linkage. By the end of 2020, the number of Li Ning's sales outlets (excluding Li Ning young) will total 5912, and Li Ning young will have 1021.

From the perspective of channel types, it mainly includes offline distributors, e-commerce and direct marketing channels. In 2020, the proportion of revenue contribution of the three is 45%, 29.1% and 24.7% respectively. During the period of Li Ning's adjustment and recovery, the contribution of direct marketing channels increased significantly, which played an important role, In 2017, the contribution was more than 30%. From the data of 2020, e-commerce and direct marketing channels accounted for more than half. Li Ning To improve performance and efficiency by facing consumers directly, the most important thing is to have a clearer understanding of consumers' needs and maintain sensitivity to the market, which also foreshadowed the birth of "China Li Ning".

The competition of channel is unavoidable for the major sports brands, which is a bloody war. Besides the number of channels, the innovation of channel formats has become a new battlefield. Li Ning tried to give consumers a different feeling by upgrading stores. Qian Wei, CEO of Li Ning, said: Let every consumer enter any store of Li Ning, can feel this is a great store, is a thing we need to do now. "

On May 29, 2021, China Li Ning Kuan Zhai alley concept store was officially launched in Kuan Zhai alley, a famous city landmark in Chengdu. It is also the largest Chinese Li Ning shop in China. On the basis of retaining the original architectural style, the concept store adopts Chinese mortise and tenon structure, combines Sichuan folk customs, broad and narrow ancient customs, and organically combines Chinese culture, urban culture and Chinese Li Ning Sports trend culture. Li Ning hopes Create immersive shopping experience through concept store to attract young people through experience scene.

This new store format has got rid of the single shopping function, and integrates product launch, product display, product experience, leisure and entertainment into one, representing a new lifestyle, and integrating Li Ning brand into consumer trend life, Let the store become the trend coordinate, the network red clock in place, strengthen the position of the channel in the brand construction.

Multi channel is Li Ning's long-standing strategy. Aiming at online channels, Li Ning has created an independent product line "counter flow trace" series, focusing on sports life at medium and high prices and shoes with Chinese cultural characteristics. The accessibility of the channel, more extensive coverage of the market, highlighting the scale, close access to consumers, let consumers see, experience, and improve the frequency of purchase. Channel construction is a hard target to transform brand value into revenue and profit, from the generation of purchase desire to the completion of purchase. Li Ning has been constantly optimizing, upgrading and innovating channels, and has become a hero behind the success of "China Li Ning".

Conclusion: there are no successful enterprises, only enterprises of the times

Li Ning, 30 years old, ushered in the "second spring" of his career with "China Li Ning". According to Baidu data, Guochao's attention has increased by 528% in the past 10 years. By 2021, the attention of domestic brands is three times that of foreign products. Under the environment of "domestic products should be self-improvement", Li Ning shows the trend of China to the world with favorable timing, location and location. Zhang Ruimin said: there is no successful enterprise, only the enterprise of the times. Li Ning's turning over fully verifies this saying. In the era of new domestic products, how far can Li Ning evolve? Let's wait and see.