From athletes to entrepreneurs, from rise to fall, still standing, from small factories to the world's fourth sporting goods company, how did Li Ning do?
Born in 1963, Li Ning won 106 gold medals in his 9-year sports career, but unfortunately in the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, due to injury, vaulting mistakes, fell off the altar, a momentary wind evaluation fell sharply, but Li Ning did not give up, two years later he created a brand named after himself "Li Ning".
2004
Li Ning successfully went public.
2012
Li Ning has continuously become an official strategic partner of the CBA
2018
Li Ning appeared at New York Fashion Week as the first Chinese sports brand to appear at the fashion week.
2020
As of October 2020, the market value of Li Ning Company exceeded HK$100 billion.
In the past 31 years, Li Ning has become one of the top sports brands in China and continues to bring us surprises. Since 2018, the brand has created the "China Li Ning" series that walks the sports fashion style. Riding on the "national tide" trend, Li Ning quickly opened up the situation among young consumers and became one of the few domestic sports brands that can appear in the secondary trading market of sneakers.
Brand analysis
Brand positioning: Li Ning, anything is possible.
Target group: Li Ning's main consumer group is mainly middle-aged people in 30-50, and Li Ning is also trying to try to catch the young group of 15-30 years old.
Target groups: people in first- and second-tier cities with stable incomes; people who like sports, advocate trendy fashion and international fashion trends; and students whose consumption is not particularly high.
prophase
Star effect: From the perspective of brand building, the success of Li Ning brand is first due to the identity of Li Ning, the owner of Li Ning's gymnastics prince, and the star effect can rapidly expand the influence of Li Ning brand. At the same time, Li Ning himself has a fairly high reputation in the mainland sports circles, and the key to the company's development lies in two words: sports.
Positioning: "Promoting China's sports industry and making sports change our lives" is the original intention of Li Ningpai.
Signed a contract with the Asian Games: "Li Ning Brand" sportswear was selected as the designated costume for the 11th Asian Games Flame Relay, the Chinese national team participated in the Asian Games to receive the medal and the designated clothing of Chinese and foreign journalists, the "Li Ning Brand" accompanied the Asian Games flame spread throughout the country, and the sports of the Asian Games made "Li Ning" famous in one battle.
Marketing Innovation: Li Ning began to innovate marketing methods unprecedented in the market at that time. Li Ning was the first enterprise in Chinese mainland to implement a franchise system: franchise began in 1993. Li Ning established his own franchise marketing system and self-operated distribution network in 1993 and 1997 respectively and took the lead in implementing ERP technology to achieve better management of the sales network, and initially built a sales network system of self-operated + franchised monopoly, which greatly improved the sales ability of the brand.
medium term
Self-built design center: Foshan, Guangdong Province, built China's first sportswear and shoe design and development center.
Crazy expansion: After the original CEO left office, the new CEO took office, in addition to promoting the Li Ning store strategy on a large scale, building a terminal retail system by himself, and shrinking the product line to the field of sports and leisure and professional sports.
Introduction of high-quality fabrics: Li Ning cooperated with DuPont in the United States (now INVISTA) to introduce CoolmaxR fabrics and Lycra fabrics.
Cooperation with SAP: Li Ning cooperated with SAP to introduce AFS apparel and footwear solutions, becoming the first sporting goods company in China to implement ERP.
Clothing for athletes: The Chinese diving team wore "Li Ning" diving suits to the World Diving Championships, and provided one-piece competition uniforms for the Spanish women's basketball team to participate in the 14th World Women's Basketball Championships.
Overseas expansion: Li Ning has expanded his own franchised dealers in 9 European countries such as Spain, Greece and France. After that, Li Ning's first overseas brand image store opened in Santander, Spain, which was also the first time that a Chinese brand appeared in the European and American markets with an active posture.
Brand international layout: Li Ning brand continues to carry out drastic reforms on the road of internationalization, sponsors a number of sports organizations at home and abroad, provides professional sports equipment, signs a contract to become the official market partner of the NBA, and joins hands with NBA star O'Neal to cooperate in launching an exclusive product line for stars, opening up the Chinese basketball market, and deeper layout brand internationalization.
Poor overseas expansion: Due to the lack of experience in foreign markets, the lack of strong traders, and the reasons for the low brand recognition, Li Ning's overseas sales have always hovered at a low level, and the directly operated image stores are also in a state of "losing money and making money". By 2006, sales in the international market accounted for only 1.1% of total turnover. At this point, Li Ning basically gave up his efforts to expand sales business overseas.
Overextending, inventory backlog: Li Ning's crazy expansion has led to the forgetting of localization development, most overseas projects have failed, and a series of changes have also damaged the interests of dealers, and the inventory backlog is serious.
Unity of brand appeal: The encounter between Li Ning and Li Obena has brought Li Ning into a new stage. After entering the millennium, the industry's criticism of Li Ning's advertising has gradually emerged, and many marketers believe that Li Ning's advertising demands are too scattered and have not formed a consistent brand image. Therefore, when Leo Bernard proposed the slogan of "anything is possible" in 2002, Li Ning's new CEO Zhang Zhiyong was very happy, because Li Ning's brand appeal was finally unified.
Brand upgrade: After Li Ning's business was first surpassed by Nike in 2003, Zhang Zhiyong suddenly realized that the basis of internationalization is the advantage of the local market. As a result, Li Ning, who has been in the low-end mass leisure sports market for a long time, resolutely shifted the axis of his brand promotion to the domestic professional high-end sporting goods market.
Rebranding: When Leo Bena Beijing took over the "Goodbye" campaign in early 2003, the purpose was to reshape Li Ning's aging brand image, which not only continued the advertising personality of Zhang Ning's era, but also maintained differentiation with Nike and Adi, but the positioning of leisure sports was still obvious. At the same time, Li Ning began to enter the professional footwear market in different sports categories and reshaped the professional sports brand image.
Offline activities: "Li Ning Cup National University Futsal League" was officially launched in 13 provinces and cities such as Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, and the carnival activities were launched nationwide.
Betting on the Spanish market and developing the badminton category: the man who gave Li Ning confidence at that time was Raul de Barbero, whose family ran a sports clothing processing factory in Spain. Li Ning's sports sponsorship in Spain and the highlight of the 2008 Olympic Games have allowed the Spaniard to see business opportunities. He signed an agreement with Li Ning that seemed "bizarre" in hindsight: he could mark all the sports products he designed, produced and sold as "Li Ning", on the condition that he would be responsible for the "Li Ning" sports sponsorship in Spain and pay the licensing fee to Li Ning.
For Li Ning, this is the fulcrum of the European market. At the same time, it also opened a flagship image store in the United States and expanded the market through e-commerce, and expanded the market of badminton categories through its own store in Singapore.
Distribution channel stores: In terms of brand management, the expansion of distribution channels led to the growth of Li Ning's revenue, the number of which increased from 2272 to 7333, and the growth rate of distribution channel same-store revenue and direct-operated same-store revenue reached a peak of 53.1% and 48.4% respectively in 2008. The expansion strategy of the Li Ning brand in marketing has enabled Li Ning to maintain the high position of the first domestic sports brand. By 2010, Li Ning's offline stores had more than 8,000 in the country.
Building a B2C model: In 2008, Li Ning began to build a B2C model e-commerce platform, which brought the company's business development to the peak.
Open up the female market and launch female marketing: In 2009, Chen Weiwei led Li Ning's representative work of "Listening to the Inner Voice", and in 2010, she continued to highlight the inner charm of women and launched the women's Inner Shine series of advertisements. This is the first time that Li Ning has promoted the inner beauty of Chinese women, which is eye-catching.
Rebranding: Li Ning's focus on young and fashionable groups is reflected in the overwhelming advertising campaign, and consumers are not disgusted. In June 2010, under the leadership of then-CEO Zhang Zhiyong, Li Ning launched another rebranding campaign aimed at creating a cool, stylish, and international new image.
Remodeling failed: After the rebranding, the price of Li Ning's clothing products rose by 17.9%, and the cost-effective advantage disappeared. Coupled with the advent of new products, the old target goods have become inventory goods, and a large amount of inventory has been accumulated. The strategic positioning of a brand is the ultimate competitive strategy of an enterprise, and once the brand positioning of an enterprise is determined, it is not easy to make changes. But Li Ning's brand positioning is up and down and wavering.
The failure of rebranding, coupled with the large-scale outbreak of accumulated shortcomings caused by years of extensive expansion, Li Ning suffered a double whammy and the biggest crisis since its establishment: high inventory, the withdrawal of investor Goldman Sachs, executive earthquakes, and sharp layoffs.
Reduced number of stores: The number of Li Ning stores decreased from 7303 in 2012 to 5671 in 2014, a net decrease of 1632, and the market share further declined.
anaphase
Strategic adjustment, the formulation of a three-step strategy: the company fell into a crisis, Li Ning returned to personally adjust the company's transformation strategy, re-established the "core brand, core business and core market" of the three major focus. And led a series of strategic initiatives: the introduction of strategic investors, the launch of a comprehensive change plan for channels, brands and products, and the formulation of a "channel rejuvenation plan".
Based on localization: Li Ning will be some elements rich in Chinese cultural characteristics into the product, get everyone's love, boldly use Chinese elements in the marketing strategy for publicity, after using Chinese elements to attract consumers' attention, further excavate the deep connotation of Chinese elements, combine Chinese cultural connotations with brand values, pay more attention to the transmission of cultural connotations, actively advocate and guide consumer behavior with brand values, establish consumer brand identity, and continuously strengthen the influence of Chinese culture on the world with the help of Chinese culture. Promote the personality of Chinese brands in the international market.
Develop children's clothing categories: The company began to re-plan the future development strategy of the original Li Ning children's clothing brand Li Ning KIDS, and decided to form an independent children's clothing division and launch a new Li Ning YOUNG. With the help of the professional advantages and market influence of the Li Ning brand, it meets the needs of a wider range of age groups, and provides more professional sports equipment choices for the youth population that meets the needs of the youth group in a targeted manner, and further enhances the competitive advantage of the Li Ning brand.
Sky-high signing star: Despite the huge financial pressure, Li Ning signed NBA basketball superstar Dwyane Wade to buy out the sponsorship rights of the CBA League for five years at a sky-high price of 2 billion yuan.
Force e-commerce: Integrate e-commerce into the company's core business, lay out online platforms such as Tmall, Taobao, and JD.com, and vigorously develop online business. The strategic direction will change from traditional sports equipment providers to "Internet + sports life experience" providers.
Offline experience store: Li Ning Company and Shanghai Bailian Group jointly developed the commercial project Li Ning brand experience store debuted in the "Expo Source". This 1,000-square-meter store is the largest experience store in Shanghai and even East China, covering all of Li Ning's products and series, and adopts the "shop-in-shop" model, and another 200 square meters of Wade specialty store is set up in the store to sell Wade shoes and clothing, bags, hats and other accessories to meet the needs of Wade fans. At the same time, it also provides a one-on-one iron cage basketball area, professional running posture testing equipment, body composition tester, iRun running club, and equipped with professional consultants to advise consumers.
Cooperation with Alibaba: The cooperation between Li Ning and Alibaba Cloud has continued since 2017, and in the past five years, the two sides have had in-depth cooperation in data middle office, digital analysis, digital stores and other aspects. Alibaba Cloud will implement the best practices of the intelligent office platform in Li Ning to help it achieve unified management and smart office of multiple parks; realize the full ecological mode of business online, equipment online and space online through the construction of the middle office of the smart park and the multi-application front desk, so that Li Ning's park intelligence and office intelligence will be fully upgraded; at the same time, with the help of Alibaba Cloud's digital technology, the company's comprehensive digital operation and transformation will be realized, and such comprehensive digital capabilities will also promote the sustainable growth and continuous innovation of Li Ning.
Channel rejuvenation plan: Li Ning launched the "Channel Rejuvenation Plan" to optimize offline channels, expand the direct sales network, re-evaluate the stores, improve the sales and profitability of the direct stores, and create new products, new channels, new operation methods and new experiences for Li Ning.
Fashion Week: Li Ning has participated in New York Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week many times in recent years, and is the first Chinese sports brand to debut in New York Fashion Week, which has greatly expanded the popularity of its brand.
Taking advantage of the "national tide" East Wind: Since 2018 in the New York Fashion Week, Li Ning has relied on the new appearance of the national tide of "keeping the classics and being an Internet celebrity", getting rid of the old image of traditional sportswear brands, and transforming into a "national tide" brand that is popular with young consumers, ranking among the same status as many international big names.
Double "V" marketing: Weibo, WeChat is the marketing focus of many brands at present "Li Ning" opened a Sina Weibo account named Li Ning's official Weibo, and the Weibo marketing strategy it uses mainly includes content marketing, interactive marketing and emotional marketing, and more Weibo with pictures is released, making full use of festivals or festivals, current affairs hotspots, industry news, etc. to release Weibo. In addition, it also includes official Weibo "opinion leader" accounts such as management, spokespersons, and contracted athletes who are related to the brand, as well as Li Ning's Weibo account matrix, that is, in addition to the official Weibo, there are also a number of Weibo accounts with different functional positioning to maximize the effect of brand communication.
On the WeChat platform, Li Ning opened an official public account named "Li Ning" and a WeChat Mini Program named "Li Ning Official Flagship Store", the bottom of the WeChat public account for content classification and functional connection, the product website links are divided into two categories, product series and sports categories, and also set up a "find accessory store" function based on the LBS positioning system, which can realize the user's accurate geographical location positioning and provide real-time precision services, in addition, "Li Ning" It also laid out a WeChat public account matrix and a number of mini programs to serve users with different needs.
Layout of the e-sports industry: The attempt in the field of e-sports reflects Li Ning's new layout. As early as the 2018 League of Legends S8 Global Finals, "Li Ning" officially announced the cooperation with EDG, the shoes of the players of the team were replaced by the Li Ning Wudao series, and then Li Ning turned his attention to the young people gathered in the cold field of e-sports, the joint League of Legends SNAKE team held a SNAKE e-sports club official name change and brand upgrade conference to help it complete the professional operation, "Li Ning" into the e-sports industry This move is very consistent with its target consumers targeting young people.
Cross-border cooperation: Li Ning has successively co-branded with Disney, Hongqi, BMW, Debon and other brands, launched a variety of single products, from a sports brand to a "tide brand".
KOL marketing: many stars, Internet celebrity bloggers will spontaneously wear Li Ning's shoes, and make recommendations, we can often see celebrity Internet celebrity recommendation on platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Weibo, Douyin, etc., which are natural "tap water", while Li Ning's new products continue to become explosive manufacturing machines, frequently refreshing topics and attracting user attention.
Celebrity endorsement: Li Ning announced last year that Brilliance Chenyu became the spokesperson of Li Ning's sports fashion products and the global spokesperson of sports fashion products, and this year he officially declared Xiao Zhan as the global spokesperson of sports trend products. Both spokespeople are young people and very good at wearing, representing the consumption power of the new era.
Layout short video: Every year new product release, including catwalk, etc., many novel and relatively strong IP designs, will be filmed and edited into small videos, posted on the video account; find the corresponding talent or IP, to li ning brand stores to visit the store, or interview stadium players, from the first perspective, let everyone know the novelty of li ning stores, let real people say their impressions and product insights on Li Ning; borrow some small plots, integrate products and even concepts in these plots, and use the above three forms to shoot editing videos published on Douyin, Weibo and other official accounts to attract users.
Live streaming with goods: At the beginning of 2020, many institutions' brand self-broadcasting has not yet been established, and the live broadcasting services provided by Li Ning are also mainly based on live broadcasting, and by June, Li Ning has achieved a 300-hour start plan for a month. Through the full dedication of the whole team, 3 live broadcasts with GMV exceeding one million and one game exceeding two million were achieved.
At the same time, Celebrity Internet celebrities such as Li Jiaqi, Chen He, and Jia Nailiang have also carried out promotion with goods in the live broadcast room for many times.
brief summary
Thirty and immediately reshape the new life, deeply cultivate the in-depth development of the brand. Li Ning combined his own natural brand advantages and previous experience to go out of the unique brand deep ploughing path, 2018 New York Fashion Monday hit and led the development of the national tide, various indicators continued to improve, successfully achieved brand rebranding and upgrading.
The addition of the new manager Takeshi Takasaka may inject new retail blood into Li Ning, and it is expected that in the future, the product brand potential will be further released mainly through the refinement of channels to maintain benign growth, and create a "muscle-type" enterprise with high efficiency and high profitability.