Lining Will Not Be Able To Complete The "Sea Going" Battle In The Short Term.

A 27 year old ambitious young man, from scratch, leads the enterprise named after his name, from scratch, from weak to strong, to become China's sporting goods industry. First brand Lining.

He was once a world famous gymnast prince, and now he is an entrepreneur in charge of business. From the sports world to the business world, his goal is determined, that is, "to be the Lining of the world". However, the times have changed. Lining also needs to make changes. From the "everything is possible" to "let the change happen", the biggest sporting goods manufacturer in China who has gone through 20 years has begun his own way of remodeling.

The same as Lenovo's replacement, the two are paving the way for internationalization strategy; the difference is that Lenovo is more based on business internationalization, while Lining is from the internationalization of brand awareness. However, as Yang Yuanqing said, "changing the label is only a necessary condition, not a sufficient condition". For Lining, this is a "face change" that touches the soul.

At 8 o'clock in the evening July 29th, the water cube at night shines like a dreamy blue light. Suddenly, a huge red Logo appeared on the outer wall, which is the new Logo that Lining just released at the end of last month.

It has been used for 20 years, symbolizing the red and squirrel tail of "balance and dexterity", which has become a classic. Instead, it is a new Logo with more sense of the times. Its design inspiration is inspired by the original gymnastic movement of the founder of Li Ning Co, "Lining cross", and it also contains the "human" shape to explain the sports values. "Lining" In addition to identification and replacement, Lining brand also used the new slogan "MaketheChange (change)" instead of the original "Anythingispossible (all possible)".

Obviously, Li Ning Co hopes to get rid of the suspicion that it has always been similar to Nike logo and similar to Adidas slogan, and more importantly, it hopes to reshape its brand image in the new generation of consumers.

"This is the beginning of Lining's brand remolding strategy." Lining hopes that "new Lining" will make further adjustments to its own international dream through a series of adjustments to brand genes, target groups, product positioning, brand connotation and development system.

Lining, like Jianlibao, used to advocate patriotic brand in propaganda. However, Li Ning Co gradually returned to the essence of sports. At the news conference of the new Logo in June 30th, Lining at the temples also emphasized the connotation of Lining's "sportsmanship" many times. "Sport is by no means a losing and winning relationship, it is a process of pursuing dreams and a process of self actualization". In his view, what Lining is going to do now is, "where is the position of a Chinese brand, who you are and what you want to do".

The same as Lenovo's bid, the two are paving the way for internationalization strategy. The difference is that Lenovo is more based on the internationalization of business, and Lining is more focused on the internationalization of brand awareness. However, as Lenovo Group CEO Yang Yuanqing said, "replacing bid is only a necessary condition, not a sufficient condition".

Lenovo's replacement is behind the transformation of Lenovo's giant. For Lining, is this a show or touches on the soul?

Lining's sorrow

As a well-known brand, it is not sensible to suddenly change the brand appeal at the peak. However, Li Ning Co obviously can't wait.

In 2009, Li Ning Co sales reached 8 billion 387 million yuan, an increase of 25.4% over the previous year, exceeding Adidas's second place in the Chinese market, and the gap with the first Nike was very small. This change is very exciting for Lining people, and is a step closer to their return to the market leader. In 1999, when Lining achieved annual sales of 700 million yuan in China, Nike's sales in China amounted to only 300 million yuan. Adidas It's only 100 million yuan. By 2003, Lining had been in the lead for 9 years in the country and was robbed by Nike. In second years, Adidas also surpassed Lining.

However, the performance growth in 2009 has been questioned by the industry. Most people think this success is based on the amazing appearance of Lining, founder of Beijing, in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. At the moment when the Beijing Olympic torch was ignited in 2008, at least 4 billion television viewers knew about Lining. The Wall Street journal called it "the most successful free advertisement in Olympic history".

In addition, Li Ning Co has been stuck in the market for a long time: in the first tier cities of China, Nike and Adidas are firmly in the high end; in the two or three and below urban markets, many local enterprises such as Anta, PEAK and 31st degree have begun to nibble up Lining's share at a more competitive price. So since 2005, Li Ning Co has made a bold strategic choice: to enter the high-end market. However, at the end of 2009, at the end of 2009, Nike and Adidas began to march into the mid - end market and the two or three tier city of Lining brand. According to insiders, in the past, a large part of Lining's growth was Nike and Adidas gave up less than 500 yuan of shoes space, and now Nike and Adidas have planned to launch about 300 yuan of shoes.

With the increase of operating costs, the traditional sales mode to expand distribution outlets and expand sales channels is facing bottlenecks. For example, Jordan's biggest mistake in China was to indulge in channels. In the beginning, he didn't put the brand connotation and design idea in the first place. Instead, he placed himself in the "stalls" team, opened shop continuously, and tried to occupy the market by channel. But unfortunately, it failed.

The same trouble happened. Lining The company. Lining's past sales growth also depended on intensive distribution and channel growth. Lining has nearly 8000 shops, and Nike and Adidas's terminal stores are around 4500, although last year Lining's revenue was 8 billion 387 million yuan, but the specific sales profit ratio was far behind other enterprises.

Li Ning Co CEO Zhang Zhiyong is also aware of this. The growth of Li Ning Co itself slowed down as the size of the company increased: sales revenue increased by more than 60% in 2008, compared with an increase of only 25.4% in 2009. He stressed that the driving force of market growth has changed. In the past, the driving force of the growth of sporting goods was distribution. It was the only way to open more stores. Now the store is almost open, and the next competition will return to the critical stage of testing core competence, that is, product innovation and brand innovation.

What makes the Li Ning Co sad is that Lining's brand has been shrouded in the aura of star founder Lining for many years, lacking its independent character. Lining, chairman of Li Ning Co, once said, "I am glad that one day, many children bought Lining cards, but they did not know me at all. This is what I need most."

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9 years ago, a consumer survey conducted by Li Ning Co showed that loyal consumers were mainly those who worshipped Lining. In the eyes of consumers, Lining's personality is linked to Lining's image. It is "affinity, national, sports and honor" rather than a "fashionable young and personalized city brand" that Li Ning Co wants to create. From 2006 to 2007, another Li Ning Co market survey report showed that the actual consumption of Lining brand still had a big deviation from the target consumer group, and that of the 35-40 year old group was more than 50%. But Zhang Zhiyong is regarded as the new generation creator, and the main body of the new generation sports products consumption between 13 and 26 years old is not aware of the concept of "Lining card". In contrast, Nike and Adidas, with their distinctive personality, are getting more and more popular among Chinese young people.

In the recent CCTV dialogue: "breaking through" Lining, a 30 year old spectator said in front of Lining that he would wear Lining's basketball shoes when he was playing. He would wear foreign brand shoes when he went out to meet friends in the street. Because when he was wearing Lining, he was very likely to be called uncle. He could wear Nike and ADI.

In the gap between Nike and Adidas, KAPPA had earlier found Lining's brand positioning. Nike and Adidas are famous for their professional sports. Their styles are generally loose and their colors are relatively mature and gloomy. KAPPA stands on their opposites and designs their products as "tight", "sexy" and "colorful". The style is effectively differentiated from Nike and Adidas, creating a new category of "fashion movement".

2009 National Day 60th anniversary parade ceremony. Lining stood in the flower car representing China's sports achievements. He placed flowers in front of his chest and did not swing like the athletes beside him. Lining wore the Chinese delegation's award dress, with Anta's Logo on its chest. This is after the sponsorship of the 2004 Olympic Games to Adidas, the Chinese delegation was robbed by Anta again from 2008 to 2012.

Sad Lining could no longer escape. He must look for a breakthrough in his future sales profits.

"Li Ning Co in the next few years is to create a more distinctive personality, only accurate positioning, in order to grow." Zhang Zhiyong told business weekly that the future sporting goods will gradually change to the store store mode. Lining must stand out in the direct competition between the same store and competing products. This needs to enhance the value of self brand, the recognition of consumers and the resonance of consumers' spiritual ideals.

More professional or more fashionable?

In fact, as early as May 2007, Zhang Zhiyong realized the necessity and urgency of this change. 1 months later, Fang Shiwei joined Lining as Li Ning Co CMO.

After 3 months of probation, Fang Shiwei became a member of Li Ning Co's brand remodeling "five person group". The remaining 4 are Lining, Zhang Zhiyong, CPO (chief product officer) Xu Maochun, Lining (US) general manager Li Jiaming.

The division of labour between the 5 is very clear. Lining is responsible for explaining his understanding of the connotation of sports, Zhang Zhiyong's chief management strategy, Xu Maochun's suggestions from the perspective of product design, Li Jiaming gives advice from the international trend, and Fang Shiwei is directly responsible for reshaping the project.

Zhang Zhiyong believes that in the process of product and brand innovation, we must first have the correct brand positioning, without which we can not do the following things. So Li Ning Co first found the brand's DNA - sensitivity, balance, flexibility and precision.

"Compared with the strength, speed and explosive power of the west, the leading role of the Oriental Culture in the athletes' agility, balance, perseverance and accuracy is obvious to all." Fang Shiwei said that at the level of product and business, these four qualities can be transformed into various design languages such as soft, comfortable, durable and asymmetrical, so as to enhance Lining's product function, and then build Lining's brand image corresponding to four brand characteristics, namely, inheriting, stimulating all potentials, going to the future and the East.

In October 2008, after completing the Lining brand's clear positioning, Fang Shiwei realized that Lining's Logo and Slogan must also be changed accordingly.

According to his past experience, the failure rate of new logo replacement is as high as 50%. Some are hesitant about the boss, some even though the boss has made decisions, the new logo can not be registered. Considering repeatedly, Fang Shiwei finally gave the right of giving the board to Lining and Zhang Zhiyong, instead of two party collective decision-making.

On the first proposal of the new logo, Zhang Zhiyong voted in favour of the plan, but Lining gave the answer to "can I not choose" because of the recurrence of lumbago.

According to Fang Shiwei, this is because the original design is "quite subversive", which is totally different from the original Logo. After being rejected, Lining expressed his view: no animal image; no closed pattern; the most important thing is to embody the concept of "human" and embody the sportsmanship.

After many communication, Lining finally made a final decision on the new Logo.

Logo has changed, and Slogan is unlikely to change. Fang Shiwei said that on the one hand, the new slogan should be more original and more agitating. In the light of the changing era, changing markets, changing Lining and internal cognition, the MakeTheChange was finally finalized.

But for Lining, a more important change is the redefinition of the brand. Since 2003, there has been an argument within the Li Ning Co: is it more professional or more fashionable?

"I hope Li Ning Co is rooted in the essence of sports. I am not against sports fashion, but there are too many companies that simply pursue fashion. Li Ning Co should not be such a company." In Lining's opinion, no consumer likes this sport because he likes this brand, because the brand is connected with the sport and likes this brand.

This also means that there is a fundamental difference between Lining and KAPPA. The latter is more inspired by the elements of sports as fashion design, which is also the reason why Lining gave up KAPPA at the beginning. China's trend was once founded by Lining when he split up the company. He was mainly responsible for the KAPPA brand. In 2005, Li Ning Co sold the remaining shares in China and gave up KAPPA completely.

"China sports products, 40% of which take the leisure product line, but we have seen that the share of leisure products in sports products is decreasing. ZARA and other leisure brands will take away what you take from him, so you still have to return to the essence of sports and become more professional. Zhang Zhiyong said to BusinessWeek.

De Lining?

In CCTV's "dialogue" program, there is such a scene. The host Chen Weihong slowly wiped away a lot of "Lining" words, and Lining was gradually erased. The name of CEO Zhang Zhiyong gradually became clear on the question board. When the lens of the screen sweeps to Lining, his expression looks heavy.

As we all know, 10 years ago, Lining withdrew from the daily management of the company. In people's imagination, Lining seems to have lived a semi retired life in Hongkong and no longer worries about the company. Contrary to Lining's low key and bad language, Zhang Zhiyong, who is now managing the Li Ning Co, is very eloquent.

Therefore, analysts believe that Li Ning Co is "going to Lining" and branding the ever deeper Zhang Zhiyong imprint. But in fact, Lining is still the soul of Li Ning Co. His determination and influence still influence the fate of the company.

In the Li Ning Co, we call Lining "leader". The term "leadership" is different from other companies. In Li Ning Co, this is a specific term, only for Lining.

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In June 18th of this year, Hong Kong University Science & Technology awarded Lining the title of "honorary academician". Zhang Xiaoyan, director of public relations and external affairs of the Li Ning Co, went to Lining's house to pick him up. Lining just went downstairs to breakfast. He ate breakfast and said to himself, "after changing the signs and slogans, what else should we do to support it?"

In June 23rd, the week before the official change, the company's brand leader reported to Lining the final presentation of the new brand in June 30th. When he heard that the brand's connotation was "an inspiring sportsman spirit", Lining immediately put forward the amendment to transform the sportsman into an athlete.

Zhang Xiaoyan introduced to BusinessWeek. In the process of the whole brand remolding, Lining's personal rigour of reshaping is highly valued, and every word has been carefully scrutiny.

"Lining's greatest contribution to us is visionary leadership. When he is with me, he will never talk about the past and the present, and he will always be the future." Zhang Zhiyong said.

Lining likes to use marriage as a metaphor to illustrate his role as chairman of the board: "to marry or not is not my decision, but my decision to participate in the making of the clown, and then who marries specifically and how to get married, that is what matters to them."

In Lining's view, he is just playing the role of a good chairman. He doesn't want a company to be on the ups and downs of a strong founder, but at the same time, he hopes Li Ning Co can realize their business dream: create a brand full of sportsmanship, a global brand from China. It can be said that the ideal enterprise is getting closer and closer to Lining, and Lining himself seems to be getting farther and farther away from the enterprise.

Zhang Zhiyong and Lining do not see each other very much now. They will meet once every two months.

"I don't like to sit in an office." Lining said this is his personal style, but he will take part in the major decisions and Strategies of the company. For example, the management team has a major direction, will do a special preliminary research, external and internal how, finally rose to the approval of the board of directors, this process Lining and Zhang Zhiyong will communicate with many problems, but not sitting in the office, may be on the Internet, or in a small restaurant, "we will only go according to the time, according to the goal."

"At first, Lining's dream can come from my own dream, but today this dream has been transformed into a dream of a company and a brand dream." Lining stressed that if there is something that we hope to get away from, it is the decoupling of Lining's brand personality from his personality. "In this sense, it should be said," go to Lining, "I have been doing.

In addition, Lining hopes to deeply inject sports spirit into this company. At the beginning of the design of Li Ning Co headquarters office building, many sports functions were integrated into it. According to Lining's requirements, many professional sports venues, basketball courts, badminton courts, swimming pools and beach volleyball courts have been established in the company. Behind these sports facilities, Li Ning Co has built more than 10 sports clubs. Up to CEO, the number of employees coming to new posts is more than 500 active in all clubs. It is the largest Sporting Club Hotel in the domestic company. The organizations of each club are very standardized. They set up chairman, honorary chairman, honorary vice chairman, executive vice president, and division of work such as competition, training, organization and publicity. The operation cost of the club is borne by the company. It is understood that Li Ning Co has invested nearly one million yuan in the club every year.

"Our focus and devotion to sports is because of him. Because of these concerns, we can understand sports and form an insight into sports. Zhang Zhiyong said.

evolution

Although the Li Ning Co said that the original logo and the slogan "anything is possible" will remain, and will continue to be used as a production line, Lining's new Logo has been criticized fiercely. "It's a failure for Lining to replace the label", "changing the label just for a coat", "like a logo of a second class brand", "not surpassing the front Logo, is a retrogression"?

In fact, "new Lining" does not just stay in the opening of new Logo, update advertising slogans, upgrade new stores, Li Ning Co has been quietly changing in the organizational structure, corporate culture and many other aspects.

"I don't care much about changing the bid, because the real value and risk lie in the whole system." Lining said.

In terms of organizational structure, before the Li Ning Co, it was a functional and planar organizational structure. In the process of redevelopment, from vertical management, it divided management businesses according to sports category, such as badminton, running, basketball, etc. the horizontal departments had product development, market, sales, supply and so on. As a result, the reshaped Li Ning Co became a matrix organizational structure. The work was basically completed by the end of 2009.

However, the matrix structure means that a person needs to report to many people. It is very easy to lead a person to be responsible or no one can be responsible. "We will supplement this defect with culture. Lining added a concept in the new corporate culture, that is, "our culture", that is, system interests first, department interests second, personal interests third, what judgments should be made according to this standard. Zhang Zhiyong emphasized that Lining's corporate culture is also changing with the brand's remodeling.

Zhang Xiaoyan and Lining have 6 professional managers in the background of foreign companies. Now there are only 2 people left. The 4 person who left at that time was very difficult to integrate with the culture of Li Ning Co. But now, Lining's management is almost 1/3 expatriate. "Because culture has become integrated." Zhang Xiaoyan was very glad that he insisted on staying.

In the crucial sales link, Li Ning Co has further optimized the supply chain system and sales mode of different sales areas. After the Spring Festival this year, Li Ning Co announced the change of sales organization: the sales organization was changed from headquarters control to the three big areas, the north, the East and the south are responsible for the marketing and distribution of their territory. Zhang Xiaoyan explained: "this gives the region more decision-making power. They can develop different products according to local consumers' habits, climate and preferences."

In this change, Lining also set up the "strategic marketing department", which was selected by the CEO himself to report directly to the Department. Their duty is to plan the medium and long term business development of each category according to sports items, and product development, market dissemination, sales plan and so on. "These people are high-quality talents, because they need both the concept of brand and the experience of business." According to Zhang Zhiyong, the establishment of the Department lasted 18 months, so far the personnel have been put in place.

In addition, Lining also integrated the product line, and set up a separate top equipment product line, which changed the situation that the professional line was exclusively for athletes and could not be bought in retail channels.

In 2003, Lining's eldest position was driven out of time, inventory turnover was as high as more than 160 days, while Nike and Adidas's inventory turnover remained at about 80 days. For this reason, in December 2008, Lining led 7 core suppliers gathered in Jingmen, Hubei, and established a super industrial park covering an area of 3200 mu, with both production and logistics functions, thus completely changing Lining's supply chain. In the past, Lining's supply chain model was "from distribution center to customer transfer warehouse to retail store". Now, the distribution capability of the base can be radiated to 900 km within two days. Lining's supply chain model has changed from "distribution center to retail store", and inventory turnover has been reduced to more than 70 days.

In the reshaping of the brand, Li Ning Co also put forward the concept of "post-90s Lining". The surface meaning means that the company was founded in 1990, and the other deeper meaning is pointing to its core target consumer group, "post-90s".

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Cool, fashionable, international and other characteristics are most popular among the new generation of young consumers, but in this respect, Lining is far behind Nike and Adidas. In order to represent the younger generation's diverse cultural outlook and rich trend smells, Lining launched a new X artist crossover design series to work with young artists and designers. "We will connect the elements of global youth with our products every year." Zhang Zhiyong introduced that in order to distinguish the "cool" of other brands, Li Ning Co also integrated Chinese elements into the design. For example, the dragon scale basketball shoes, basketball shoes and Tai Chi football shoes awarded by Li Ning Co last year are derived from Chinese culture.

In order to understand the preferences of young consumers, Lining also made various attempts, such as spending 24 hours with consumers, or giving consumers 500 yuan to buy clothes. In addition, Li Ning Co also collaborate with third parties to conduct consumer research. In 2008, Li Ning Co introduced Ziba, a famous American design company, to conduct long-term comprehensive consumer research.

According to statistics provided by Deutsche Bank, the largest share of China's sports consumer goods market in 2004 came from products under 200 yuan, accounting for 40%; 300 to 500 yuan accounted for 30%, and 500 yuan or more accounted for 30%. But by 2009, the price of products from 300 to 500 yuan accounted for more than 40%, and the proportion of products priced at 500 yuan or above was equally matched. The products below 200 yuan had dropped to 12%.

Zhang Zhiyong's judgement of the future sports consumer goods market is that the price range of more than 400 yuan will be the largest increment part of the market, so Lining must be "selling more and more expensive". This means that Lining will become more and more high-end. From 2000 to 2003, Lining had an average price of about 250 yuan for each pair of shoes. In 2004, Lining began to promote the material design of shoes. From 2004 to 2009, the average retail price of a pair of Lining shoes reached 350 yuan. In this year's order meeting, the average unit price of Lining's footwear increased by 7.8% compared with the same period last year, and clothing rose by more than 10%.

In Zhang Zhiyong's view, "share of mind" is more important than the actual market share. For example, consumers who usually buy only Volkswagen will still like the brand of Porsche. When he is rich, the share of his mind will affect the market share. He said: "the price increase will have adverse effects at this stage, but the brand increase can increase the brain share of consumers."

Internationalization March

The main significance of this bid is undoubtedly pave the way for Lining's internationalization. As early as 1999, Li Ning Co put "brand internationalization" on the strategic agenda. The Asian financial turmoil in 1997 led to a sharp decline in Lining's performance. While Adidas and Nike continued to grow in the mainland, Lining realized that multinational companies had strong ability to resist regional economic crisis and began to test the international market. In 1999, Lining established the Department of international trade and began to attend the sporting goods fair overseas. He hired first-class designers from Italy, France and South Korea, and sponsored foreign sports teams.

However, the international competition has become increasingly serious, and Nike and Adi have surpassed them. In 2005, Zhang Zhiyong, who had just been a CEO, made strategic adjustments and decided to "build an international brand first and then expand the international market". 4 years later, this local strategy began to show its effect. In 2009, Lining overtook ADI. That is to say, from the beginning of this year, Lining has set her eyes on the world again: in the strategic plan of Li Ning Co, from 2009 to 2013, it is the preparatory stage of internationalization; from 2014 to 2018, it is the comprehensive internationalization stage, becoming the top 5 of the world sports brand and the first place of Chinese sports brand.

With the development of brand remolding, the internationalization of Li Ning Co has been moving towards the tactical level from the strategic level. Li Ning Co first put the strategic direction on badminton. In April 2009, Lining replaced Yonex as the main sponsor of China badminton team. In July, Kaisheng bought one of the three brands of China Badminton equipment market. Over the past year, data from Li Ning Co show that Lining has taken 20% of the market for badminton professional channels.

Zhang Zhiyong said that the main reason for choosing badminton sporting goods is the standardization of badminton equipment is very strong, and it is easier to be internationalized.

It is said that Lining has begun an international attempt in Southeast Asia and the United States. However, Zhang Zhiyong stressed that the promotion of the two overseas markets in Southeast Asia and the United States is only a tentative extension of Lining's actions. At this stage, Li Ning Co will still adhere to the strategy of "brand internationalization and market localization", and then realize the internationalization of the market after the internationalization of the brand.

At the same time, Lining is still making the talent pool for the next step of internationalization. Zhang Zhiyong set up a top management team with multinational company background: chief product officer Xu Maochun from Nike, CFO Zhong Yi Qi from DELL, brand chief operating officer Wu Xianyong from Procter & Gamble, vice president of sales, Ye Xuefeng from AVON, vice president of footwear, Wu Wei from Nike, government and public relations director Zhang Xiaoyan from DuPont Li Ning Co, top management of 1/3 is overseas, which is very rare in local enterprises.

"A company becomes a larger company with different people." Zhang Zhiyong said that what Lining has been trying to do is to attract world-class talents through giving full play to inclusive multiculturalism, giving them space and stage, stimulating their creativity and creating a big scene together.

He summed up the basic steps of internationalization of Chinese enterprises into three steps: first, to wear suits for themselves, mainly to identify the internationalization of signs and slogans; second, to speak internationalized languages, mainly to use internationalized talents and international management norms; third, to marry a foreign daughter-in-law, mainly referring to overseas mergers and acquisitions. At present, Lining's internationalization path has already gone through the first two steps. The only thing not done is overseas mergers and acquisitions. Zhang Zhiyong said that in the short term, Lining will not do international mergers and acquisitions.

In July 20th, Li Ning Co announced that it would set up a southern headquarters in Shenzhen to provide support for the Southeast Asian market. On the 27 day, Li Ning Co also reached a cooperation agreement with eBay China. Lining eBay's overseas online shop was formally launched. It will first visit the eBay Australian site and the UK site.

To truly gain international recognition is far from sponsoring a champion team or changing a Logo. According to the usual "internationalization" standard, the overseas market contributes more than 20% to the company's business. Publicly available data show that sales of Lining products in the international market accounted for only 0.8% of the total revenue in 2008, but in 2009 it was only 1%. If Lining wants to complete the "sea going" war in 2018, there is still a long way to go.