Text / Uncle Bird
China is the biggest donor of this World Cup in Qatar.
But to sponsor international competitions, money is not enough, vision and luck are also important, and Yili has recently become a negative example.
In the past few days, the Argentina and Germany national teams signed by Yili have lost in the first game, and the star Benzema signed by Yili directly missed the game. Another superstar Cristiano Ronaldo not only parted with former club Manchester United during the World Cup, but was also punished by the FA.
A few days after the start of the World Cup, Yili off the field was already about to lose.
[1] Heavy gold fell down, and the results were ugly
Yili, who had no sense of existence in the last World Cup in Russia, is determined to make some splashes in this World Cup.
Since old rival Mengniu has become an official sponsor of the World Cup, Yili can only retreat to the second place and scatter the chips.
Since the first half of this year, Yili has officially signed with Argentina, Portugal, Spain and Germany. At the same time, he signed a number of big stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, Benzema and Neymar.
How much money Yili smashed inside, the outside world has no way of knowing. But judging from the value of these teams and stars, the price must not be low. And the next trend of the game may be completely unexpected by Yili.
In terms of stars, Benzema specially registered on Weibo before the game, announced that he would become the spokesperson of Yili, and said that he would see him in November. However, before the start of the game, Benzema withdrew directly from this World Cup with a thigh injury.
Ronaldo is even more troublesome. On the 22nd, Manchester United announced the early termination of his contract, and Cristiano Ronaldo, who had not yet played a game, was "unemployed". On the 23rd, the FA announced the punishment of Ronaldo's previous assault on the mobile phone of young fans, fined 50,000 pounds and banned for 2 games.
In terms of the team, Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia in the first game on the 22nd; On the 23rd, Germany lost to Japan again.
Such achievements make Yili reveal a trace of embarrassment no matter how he publicizes.
Next, Argentina will also play Mexico and Poland. Neither team is good, and fans are already worried about qualifying from the Argentine group.
[2] In the marketing arena, Yili lost to Mengniu
Major sporting events have always been the focus of marketing for dairy giants. Especially for international competitions, the two giants are paying more and more attention.
In 2018, Mengniu got the official sponsorship of the World Cup in Russia. In this World Cup, Mengniu not only became an official sponsor, but also signed two stars, Messi and Mbappe.
It also cost a lot of money, but Mengniu's luck was much better than Yili.
Although Argentina lost the first game, Messi scored Argentina's only goal. Mbappe's French team, not only swept Australia 4-1, he also scored his fifth World Cup goal, and he has quite a superstar potential.
Because of his official status, Mengniu is also more logical in publicity. For example, in the early morning of November 24, the Spanish team signed by Erie defeated Costa Rica 7-0, but it seems to have nothing to do with Yili.
In fact, this is not the first time Yili has lost to Mengniu in international competition marketing.
At the last World Cup, Messi's Argentina team was eliminated by France in the quarterfinals. But Mengniu's sentence "I'm not born strong, I'm just born strong", forced the defeat on the field to come back.
At the Beijing Winter Olympics in February and the Paralympic Winter Games in March this year, Yili was the only official dairy partner.
Although Mengniu does not have an official status, it has become a real big winner in the Winter Olympics because of the spokesperson Gu Ailing who signed three years ago.
[3] Going overseas to scatter money just to sell milk at home?
Mengniu Yili competed to show its face in international competitions with only one purpose: to enhance the brand's international awareness and sell more milk.
For internationalization, Yili has made great efforts. In addition to M&A of many overseas projects, Yili has built factories in many overseas countries.
In the 2021 annual report, Yili introduced that the company is striving to develop the global market and promote the process of internationalization. Its main products have covered five continents, more than 60 countries and regions, and the revenue of overseas business increased by 8% over the same period of the previous year.
It sounds good, but judging from the specific sales figures, Yili's internationalization is equivalent to just getting started.
In 2021, Yili's 110 billion revenue accounted for the vast majority in China. Because the revenue from overseas markets is too low, Yili is not even listed separately in its financial report. Mengniu's overseas sales also account for only a fraction of its revenue.
Compared with the recent huge investment in the World Cup, it can only be said that Yilimon cattle have no winners.
Of course, there is also an explanation that the advertisements placed by Yili and Mengniu overseas are actually for domestic consumers.
There is nothing wrong with this in itself. It's just that for Yili, which is known as the first dairy industry in China, the first dairy industry in Asia, and the top five dairy industry in the world, the product "can't go out" is too ugly.
[4] Q3 performance is ugly, the "milk spear" label can't be attached?
Yili's investment in this World Cup obviously has some elements of "rushing to the doctor". The reason, of course, is that Erie needs to prove himself too much.
As a big white horse, Yili's share price has continued to decline since the beginning of 2021, and its share price has fallen by nearly 30% this year. However, if it is said that Yili currently has market value anxiety, after all, its market value is still one position higher than Mengniu.
But Yili's anxiety about performance is real.
In the third quarter of this year, Yili achieved revenue of 30.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.72%; Non-net profit showed a rare sharp decline, down 33%. On the second day of the results release, Yili's stock price fell to the limit.
(Yili Third Quarterly Report)
Yili said in its financial report that the profit in the third quarter fell sharply, mainly due to the sharp increase in sales expenses. Yili's sales expenses increased by about 30% in the third quarter.
In the first three quarters of this year, Yili's sales expenses increased by 21.6% to 17.34 billion yuan, while the company's revenue increased by only 10.4% during the same period. For Yili, which has long relied on advertising-driven sales, this is a more direct and serious problem than the decline in performance in the third quarter.
Of course, even if Yili delivers such a surprising performance, the major institutions still put it mildly.
China Post Securities said that Yili's short-term operation is under pressure, but long-term demand is still good. Zheshang Securities said that under the pressure of the short-term epidemic, the operation is under pressure, but Yili adheres to the long-term strategy unchanged, and Q4 is expected to grow by double digits.
Only SPDB International put it bluntly:
Yili's Q3 revenue and profit are significantly lower than market expectations, which cannot be attributed to the intensification of competition in the industry, but the result of the company's own operation and short-term strategy adjustment. From a short-term risk-reward perspective, Mengniu is better than Yili.
Who is telling the truth, investors have their own judgment. But at the very least, Yili's "milk spear" label is almost impossible to stick, after all, Moutai's profit in the third quarter still increased by nearly 20%.
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