Nike VS Li Ning: The Contest of Chinese Kung Fu

The 2008 Olympic Games was held in China.

Whether Chinese martial arts can enter the Olympic Games for the first time has become one of the focuses of the Chinese people.

How to formulate standardized evaluation indicators for Chinese martial arts has become a key factor that can be accepted by players in various countries.

Nike and Li Ning staged such an international and local contention and integration in the Chinese market...

In 1964, Li Ning, who was 1 year old, spent his childhood in Guangxi, China. No one would have thought that he would win 6 medals in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games 20 years later and become a well-known sports star in the Chinese. Also unsurprisingly, he retired at the age of 27 and was able to use 15 years to build Li Ning, China's largest sporting goods brand.

Also in 1964, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, a 26-year-old young accountant and friend named Phil Knight founded a blue ribbon sports company and in 1972 changed its name to Nike. No one ever thought that in 30 years he surpassed all leading competitors and became the world's largest sporting goods company.

When Li Ning blew up the "China Tornado" at the Los Angeles Olympics, Nike signed the 21-year-old basketball superstar Michael Jordan almost the same year, and Nike became famous around the world in the coming years. Performance Changhong.

This is how two seemingly unrelated people are such seemingly sparse years. However, it seems that in the midst of the Ming, it arranged a contest and competition.

When the mature Nike landed on the Chinese market in full, the plan was the same as when it was “invaded by thousands of troops” at the door of its own home. However, Li Ning, the company that grew up with Li Ning, and Li Ning, who once did not think it was able to become an opponent, still seems to maintain its strong vitality from the beginning of its establishment. .

At this time, for Nike, dominating China can realize its own mastery of the world. Li Ning has become an opponent that one cannot carelessly guards against; and for Li Ning, one of the keys to becoming a global brand is how to succeed in the local market. To block the “foreign brands”, otherwise a brand that cannot even keep up in the domestic market, it is undoubtedly a fantasy to talk about what internationalization is.

The contest between Li Ning and Nike actually started with the birth of the brand Li Ning, and in 15 years, that is, nearly 5 years, the two sides began to really feel the strong pressure brought by their opponents. The confrontation of this scene is like a gymnastic competition. No matter where you come from, this industry has a lot of conventions and rules. Therefore, Li Ning and Nike need to do the best in standard action, and then the free action is played. When your specialty. According to the rules of the gymnastics industry, if the players can perform creatively, they may use the names of people to name some of the movements. There are 12 gymnastics movements named after the Chinese athletes in the world, of which 3 belong to Li Ning.

In the non-smoking competition for sports brands, Li Ning can create several "free movements"? How to go from national champion to world champion? Perhaps this is the key to this national brand being able to truly move toward the world.

Competition: Inescapable Internationalization

In the international sports field in 2005, at least three important signing events or rumors related to Li Ning:

On January 18, 2005, Li Ning and the NBA jointly announced in Beijing that "Li Ning" officially became a "NBA strategic partner";

- On January 24, 2005, BOCOG officially announced Adidas (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. and Adidas-Solomon Group to become partners of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Since Li Ning, who has served as a Chinese athlete’s award-winning uniform for four consecutive sessions since the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, it is no longer possible to continue the Olympic trajectory of national brands;

- In September 2005, a large number of media reported that Li Ning planned to acquire Umbro, a famous British football supply company with a market value of 186 million pounds (2.65 billion yuan).

When the internationalization of sport becomes more and more intense, Li Ning, China's largest sports brand, is inevitably involved. It should be said that in the face of Nike's successful international brand, the firmness and helplessness shown by Li Ning are all so obvious. Because of the smooth sailing compared to the beginning of the business, Li Ning is currently under great pressure. In the context of internationalization, the only result that does not go forward is to be knocked out ruthlessly.

We may wish to look at the gap between Li Ning and Nike from the following perspectives. This is the gap between the strong and the stronger.

Standard Action: Defense Counterattack

Similar to many Chinese brands in other industries, in the international sporting goods market, Li Ning has faced an international sports brand group with a very high degree of brand concentration. The only strategy that seems to be able to adopt is a defensive counterattack. Because if "can not keep" is a lose, if "attack can not go out" is also a loss, so in the face of Nike's China Raiders, Li Ning can only take "three anti-three anti" strategy.

First, anti-(guard) low-end anti-attack (high-end). In the past 15 years, Li Ning’s source of income has mainly come from the low-end market. In the process of determining its transition to a professional and high-end sporting goods manufacturer, it may not be acceptable to the high end, and the low end will not accept the embarrassing situation. In order to respond to the Jinjiang enterprises in Fujian Province led by Anta and Sanxing in recent years, Li Ning launched "comfortable equipment" products for low-end market and price of more than 100 bucks. At the same time, it opened a "starting line" shoe store of 20 square meters or less. Brand-new threats to their own brand. Although Li Ning has an enviable distribution network of more than 2,800 franchised stores in China, compared to Nike’s revenue only from five or six major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, Li Ning’s performance comes from the national market. The status quo, the search for food in the high-end market has also become the inevitable result of Li Ning's successful defense.

Second, anti-defense (local) anti-attack overseas. Although in the domestic market, Li Ning Company achieved rapid growth for 15 years, especially after Li Ning Company adjusted its corporate strategy after 2002, Li Ning’s annual operating income also increased from 720 million yuan, 800 million yuan, and 1.2 billion yuan to 18 in 2004. 100 million yuan. However, if we look at the speed of foreign competitors, we know that Li Ning's advancement in this game, which is faster than the speed, is not fast enough. In 1999, when Li Ning reached RMB 700 million in annual sales in China, Nike had annual sales of only RMB 300 million in the Chinese market, and Adidas had RMB 100 million in annual sales. However, since 1999, Nike and Adidas have grown much faster in China than Li Ning (1997-2001, Li Ning's average annual growth rate was less than 10%), and Nike’s growth rate in the domestic market in recent years Up to 30% or more. The reason is that Nike and other international brands can give up the short-term profits of seeking the Chinese domestic market, and will focus on the cultivation of consumers, the establishment of channels, and branding, while Li Ning must protect profits, protect the market, and protect the brand. Line operations. And in the face of the increasingly concentrated international market of brands, it is not possible to seize the opportunity to develop and develop measures.

Third, anti-(defending) unpopular (fight) mainstream. In the development of the domestic market, Li Ning first took a strategy of “full movement” positioning and took a development mode of “leisure+sports”. However, as Nike, Adidas and the international mainstream sports project - basketball, football and other marriage model promotion, entered the domestic market. The trend of the marginalization of the Li-Ning brand has become increasingly apparent. Even the brand appeal has continued to decline in some large cities. In order to change this passive situation, at present Li Ning Company has listed professional sports objects such as men's basketball, football, women's tennis, and fitness projects that have the most extensive public foundation and have a huge impact on society. Li Ning has successively made some positive attempts and efforts in signing contracts with Spanish men's and women's basketball teams, signing contracts in the NBA, and promoting basketball competitions on campus.

It can be said that it is precisely because sporting goods are relatively mature industries in the world. Therefore, Li Ning is inevitably directly entering the multi-point battle field because it is impossible for him to evade the reality.

Employing principle:

The essence of competition between enterprises and enterprises is, from a certain point of view, human-to-human competition. Nike and Li Ning may have many similarities and differences in their employment. We choose some of them to analyze the concepts behind their employment and the possible effects.

First, the Nike principle: enthusiastic about sports

Li Wei, who is 190cm tall, is the manager of Nike's marketing department and is responsible for the company's contacts with the National Athletic Association. Nike's successful signing of Liu Xiang and its use as an advertising spokesperson is thanks to Li Zhihui’s eyes and his strong recommendation. When Liu Xiang only attended the National Games and the World University Games at the age of 18, he caught the attention of Li Zhi. At that time, Liu Xiang's score was 13 seconds. 34. He firmly believes that this boy has great potential to reach a higher level. At the recommendation of Li Xin, Nike sent a special person to the Liu Xiang's field office to make a number of field visits and concluded that Liu Xiang is definitely the star of tomorrow! Nike China then signed a contract with Liu Xiang.

The reality is often more dramatic. Li Yu is the former Asian record holder of 110-meter hurdles for many years before Liu Xiang. Li Jie was also the first player Nike signed in China in 1981. Xia Song, who once served at Nike China, was the NBA tour that led to Wang Zhizhi and Yao Ming. Are these accidental? actually not! Nike's founder once talked about his secret of success: First, love sports, and then break the rules and regulations in business practices. It is precisely the use of a lot of employees who are really passionate about sports, so Nike can more accurately understand and understand the laws and opportunities for the development of the sports industry, thus making a lot of products and publicity positioning that can affect consumers.

Second, Li Ning principle: take the doctrine

As a fast-growing local company, Li Ning has not only enjoyed the joy of rapid development in the past 15 years, but also experienced the pain of downplaying the family color. With companies more confused, it is about how to realize the harmonious integration of many variable factors for the ever-growing business, constantly expanding personnel, constantly developing markets, and continuously researching and developing products. Therefore, the questioning and even the introduction of talents to successful multinational companies has become the choice of many domestic companies including Li Ning. Li Ning Company is also in this background and puzzled to introduce many talents of multinational companies. There are professional managers of Coca-Cola who are very strong in access construction and terminal construction. They have store management, professional managers on Baleno, who are very mature in retail business, and so on. At present, Li Ning has invited 4 director-level cadres who have an annual salary of more than 1 million in finance, human resources and other fields. They come from different industries.

Alibaba’s Ma Yun also did this. Later, he described himself as if the engine of the Boeing 747 was fitted to a tractor. As a result, the tractor almost fell apart. Although Li Ning seems not to have such a result, it is not difficult to see the concept of the relationship between the hiring of a multinational company’s professional managers and the local professional managers by looking at the changing brand positioning and consultants hired by different styles. The conflict in practice is obvious. It is also constrained by the slowness of the development of China's sports economy, and the emergence of talents who are not only familiar with the industry but also familiar with the profession. Therefore, we have reason to decide that Li Ning has also paid a lot of “tuition fees” for talent introduction.

The concept of different employment will have a certain influence on the formation of corporate culture. It is not difficult for us to see that Nike hired a group of employees who love sports, and Li Ning hired a bunch of sellers. This may be the difference between Nike and Li Ning in employing people.

Secret of success: strong alliance

I think: Li Ning is one of the few companies in China that has a good international character.

It can be said that sports is the first area that China has opened up. When we are still planning an economy and when we are still very conservative in terms of entertainment, news, etc., competitive sports have been given unprecedented liberation as an important part of patriotism. So from this point of view, sports is the earliest area where we are in line with international standards. Leading athletes such as Li Ning are also the first and most full-week travelers of the era, so it can be said that the seeds of globalization were planted in the hearts of Li Ning very early, so we will find that Li Ning is one of the few companies in the country. Since its inception, it has been a relatively active local company that thinks about issues at the global level.

In addition to the need for business expansion, Li Ning Company needs to cooperate with the Olympic Committee, NBA, and foreign competitive teams. Li Ning Company also cooperates with the strongest companies in all fields in the world in order to absorb more nutrients from cooperation. , from the following table we can glimpse:

Comments:

When Mr. Long Yongtu represented the Chinese government at the conclusion of negotiations on accession to the WTO, Chinese companies and the Chinese economy have irreversibly integrated into the process of global economic integration.

Therefore, in this competition, all so-called "localization" can be "internationalized" as long as it is successful. Just as some American-style “indigenization” has become synonymous with “internationalization” for a long time, maintaining a strong, competitive local advantage will be an important strategy for Li Ning’s internationalization; and many Chinese who fight in the international market. Like enterprises, Li Ning needs to fight more on the road to survival and development. Preventing one from falling behind will be the bottom line of Li Ning’s internationalization. One shortcut to success is to grow together with successful companies and successful brands. Therefore, cooperation will be a win-win situation for Li Ning International. The principle of adherence to the end in chemistry.

Faced with competition in only one direction, what Li Ning needs to do is just like what Huawei Ren Zhengfei said. Since it is necessary to dance with wolves, it is better to turn yourself into a bloodthirsty wolf.