Zhu Minjie, A Senior Vice President Of 31St Degree, Makes A Hundred Years Sports Brand By "Sports Power".

Zhu Minjie said, "the sports industry's new gold has come for ten years, which has brought more opportunities and imagination to the brand." In the past few days, the five mile Industrial Park, located at the Xinyuan Road, Xinjiang, was particularly busy. Since September 18th, the local sports brand enterprises from all over the country have gathered here. A busy order will be launched here.

The Huli hi tech park, which is 1.5 hours away from the industrial park, is located at the five mile Industrial Park. Every day, nearly 2000 employees enter and leave here, and the tentacles of a local sports brand extend all over the place.

As one of the representatives of China's sports brand, it is not too late to build a fortune 31st. As early as 1983, its predecessor, Huafeng shoe factory, was established. According to this calculation, by now, 31st degree has already entered the thirty-sixth year of enterprise development. In recent years, 360 degrees have gone through important links such as the creation of own brand, landing capital market and even the international force. During this period, the history of the local sports industry went down to a low tide and then rose again. The history of the development of the enterprise that has been improving is also a reflection of the changes in China's local sports brand industry over the past decades.

At present, promoting national fitness and sports consumption has become an inevitable requirement for building a sports power. Based on this, China's sports industry welcomes many policy support. In recent days, the general office of the State Council also issued two documents: "the outline for the construction of a sports power", "the opinions on promoting the national fitness and sports consumption to promote the high quality development of sports industry".

"Sports industry new gold for ten years, this also brings more opportunities and imagination to the brand." Recently, in an exclusive interview, Zhu Minjie, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of the 31st degree group, said that under the guidance of being a centenary business goal, the company is rebuilding its brand and will closely communicate with the mainstream consumer groups in the future to help promote the development of China's sports industry.

As an important starting point of overseas maritime trade giant port and "maritime Silk Road", it is a famous historical and cultural city in China. Among the several county-level cities under its jurisdiction, there is a strong layout in the field of sports shoes and clothing.

Since its development in 1980s, the city, which is full of "fighting hard" spirit, has run out of sports brands after another, including the ten years of listing in Hong Kong stock market.

In 1983, businessman Ding Jiantong invested 2000 yuan to set up Huafeng shoe factory. 3 years later, the handicraft factory was renamed "everything joy", and the shoe machine was introduced to produce shoes and sports shoes. In 1994, it changed its name to "Yue" again, and began to produce its own brand sneakers. In 2003, it was officially renamed as "360".

"Until 2003, I think that 31st degree is a manufacturing oriented enterprise. It is really necessary to start the brand management in 2003, which is closely related to the development stage and stage of our country. When asked about the history of the company's development, Zhu Minjie told reporters.

Zhu Minjie said that in early 2000, China's consumer market gradually had brand awareness.

Obviously, the 31st degree from the OEM to enter the era of independent brand has seized the opportunity, and this initiative has made it gradually become a national brand since then.

In 2004, Ding Jian gradually faded from the decision-making level. A few years later, Ding Wu began to serve as president of the 31st degree.

For the 31st degree, 2009 is definitely a year to remember. This year, the financial crisis and the lack of experience in the capital market were overcome.

"After renaming, after several years of development, in 2008, 360 degrees had more than 5000 stores nationwide, with annual turnover exceeding 3 billion yuan, and the company wanted to seek greater development. Just as the Olympic Games will be held soon, sports become the most popular keywords. The whole world is watching China. Therefore, the company's own development needs and favorable external environment, let us make a decision to be listed. When asked about the motivation for listing, Zhu Minjie said so.

He said frankly that the most direct impact brought by the listing is that the company itself has been able to invest more in the brand marketing, distribution and sales channels. "Through listing, the transformation of a listed company from a private enterprise to a modern and standardized management has been completed. Maybe the boss said anything before, but after the listing, the rules of the game changed. What's more, the team is better. If you have a good team, you will be stronger and bigger. "

Obviously, the listing has brought more funds and resources to the 31st degree. To date, the company has continuously sponsored the three Asian Games in China, and became the first Chinese sports brand to sponsor the Olympic Games in 2016. It also sponsored the World University Games and the Youth Olympic Committee in 2011 and 2014 respectively.

　　 New field: Children's wear market is increasing.

"We finally realized a long dream." In 2009, the 31st degree president, Ding Wu, said excitedly.

At that time, shortly after the Olympic Games, China's local sports brand industry is still in the expansion stage. Landing in the capital market means that the development of enterprises will plug in a pair of new wings.

Seize the opportunity to take the independent brand road and step on the quasi node to visit the capital market. The entrepreneurial spirit and the spirit of courage and striving are also reflected in this business.

Thirty one degree is not satisfied with being a brand selling sports shoes for adults. After listing, some funds were invested in the research and development of children's wear brands. In 2010, it further set up a separate children's clothing business.

Ding Wu has said that there are thousands of enterprises in casual life and children's wear, but sports children's clothing accounts for less. In this context, 360 degrees keenly grasped this opportunity, which was mainly located in sporty children's clothing, while selling life class children's clothing.

On the other side, after the listing of 31st degree, some hidden problems in the sports brand industry slowly emerged. At that time, after experiencing the rapid expansion of the sports industry before and after the Olympic Games, the sports industry turned to the downlink period. For a while, the topic of high inventory and market saturation became the focus of social media attention. Before and after 2012, the local sports brands welcomed the development of "cold winter". Especially in 2013, the situation of the whole industry was rather tricky.

But the business of children's clothing has become a highlight of that period. In 2012, under the backdrop of overall revenue and net profit, the turnover of children's clothing series increased by 97.7% to 370 million yuan. At the same time, the average selling price and sales volume of children's wear parts have increased by two digits.

Zhu Minjie told reporters that 31st degree is one of the earliest sports brands in the field of children. "Entering the children's clothing market, on the one hand, we hope to enhance the competitive advantage of the whole parent brand through children's clothing. On the other hand, we will broaden the sales dimension with the help of the marketing experience and market influence of the parent brand, and tap new user groups, strengthen brand awareness and cultivate potential consumers."

However, there are many enterprises in the field of children's wear, and the competition among sports brands is also fierce. By the end of June this year, a total of 1837 children's clothing products were sold.

In this regard, Zhu Minjie admitted that weight is only a measure of business development on the one hand, "360 degrees hope that through the children's clothing products, the concept of empowering consumers to better convey to the children, help children better participate in sports, love sports."

　　 New thinking: international feed back to China

The "uneasy part" is used to describe the 31st degree, which is more appropriate, but it contains the ambition of "Ding Wu to expand territory".

In addition to the effort to make children's clothing, in 2013, 360 degrees announced that it should enter into strategic cooperation agreements with OneWay, a Nordic outdoor sporting goods company, and set up a joint venture to design, produce, distribute and promote OneWay products in Greater China. At that time, the move was considered to be a step in the international market.

By 2014, the layout of the business, including the main brand, children's clothing and e-commerce, was officially announced to launch the internationalization strategy and set up an overseas career center responsible for international business. Thirty one degree points out that to enter the overseas market is to find new sources of revenue.

This year, 360 degrees in the US market trial industry, launched a series of new development for the international market, and then expanded through Germany to the European market. In February 2015, 31st degree also participated in the ISPO sporting goods exhibition in Germany for the first time.

Zhu Minjie told reporters that in the overseas business line, 31st degree chose the functional high-end running product as the entry point.

Insiders pointed out that there are two considerations behind this layout: on the one hand, running products are the first category and core growth point of brand strategy; on the other hand, the global hot runner is continuing and the market demand is huge.

According to the performance report, as of the end of June 2019, there were 1505, 476 and 739 brand sales outlets for 360 degrees in the US, Europe and Japan respectively.

Zhu Minjie admitted that the volume of overseas market revenues is still small, which is related to the consumption habits of overseas markets. "It takes a long time to accept a brand in the international market, because the consumer needs to experience, and the experience orientation of the running shoes is more obvious, so we are not in a hurry."

According to the concept of 31st degree, its offshore running shoes have already set up a medium and long term development goal: becoming one of the world's leading competitors in the field of professional running.

According to Zhu Minjie, at the beginning of this year, the achievements of overseas R & D base will be completely converted to domestic absorption, and then higher technology products will be produced at lower cost in the domestic market. "Relatively speaking, some overseas markets are easier to tap into talent, and then have relatively mature technology and experimental foundations. Now the technology transfer is to transplant the R & D system to the domestic market, so that the whole commodity brand will benefit. I think this is the real meaning of internationalization.

　　 New direction: integrated experience platform

"31st degree is gradually achieving the strategic goal. It may be slower, but it has not encountered a particularly big danger. It is the team's decision making, the reference of professional research data and the final decision." In 2017, Ding Wu said in an interview with industry media.

Up to now, the market has been listed for 10 years. In the past 10 years, the strong layout of key nodes has been basically "trampling" right now, but as Ding Wu said, the strategic goals of the 31st degree were somewhat slow.

"I think the enterprise itself needs solid training, especially when you are listed, and will be run by the capital market. 31st degree will also have this effect, but it is still at its own pace. Zhu Minjie said.

In fact, in order to cater to the target consumer groups and seek further development, 360 degree has begun to change.

Zhu Minjie said frankly that since he entered the management level, he has been promoting one thing: clearly defining the concept and values of the enterprise. "Ding said that if we want to make a hundred years of enterprise, we must first establish the long-term concept and values of the enterprise to consumers and society".

Zhu Minjie said, "if we want to, we can go further. This is an important reason for the strategic contraction in the past three years. Brand remolding is the starting point for us to move towards the future.

31st degree is trying to become a brand that can adapt to and even lead the mainstream consumer groups. "In fact, the opportunity of domestic brands has come and has been successful in many fields, but the Chinese sports brand has gone through some difficulties. How to form breakthroughs and link them with the mainstream consumers today is, in my view, the most important challenge for the whole industry in the future. Zhu Minjie said.

In this context, 31st degree is brewing and trying to land to deal with the initiatives, and the first item has been put on the agenda, namely, the introduction of the basketball Home into the community project called "the Home Game". In the first tier and second tier urban communities, the community basketball establishments are built, and professional coaches are set up for young basketball fans. According to the previously announced plan, the goal scale of 1000 basketball courts should be achieved in the next three years.

Zhu Minjie said: "we think it is a project, but in my view, it is not a reflection of strategic intent. There are 450 million basketball lovers in China, and 29.5% of young consumers buy basketball related products. However, only 1.2% of the basketball courts in the whole country have a basketball field. Every 750 basketball lovers have a venue. The average commuting time for playing a ball takes 48 minutes. 321 degrees hope to find basketball for basketball players, to find basketball players, to build sports communities, to participate in sports and love sports for different ages, personalities and physical fitness, and to serve as a platform for displaying brand merchandise.

Zhu Minjie also said that its strategic intention is to let 360 degrees become a clothing brand that enables every Chinese to participate in sports. At the same time, under the vigorous advocacy of the state, more people are encouraged to participate in the national movement, so that they can love sports more. "In fact, the strategy of 360 degree is highly matched with our national strategy. This is also a powerful driving force to inspire and help us to dare to think and dare to do." He also pointed out that with the help of the "community basketball" project, 360 degrees will really integrate into the sports activities of young people and form a close combination with consumers.

It is said that 360 degrees will provide consumers with an "integrated experience platform", and basketball is only the first step. Next, it will try similar layout in running, training, football and other fields. "First, I firmly believe that the Chinese market needs a cost-effective local sports brand that is popular among mainstream consumers. Second, the future sports consumption is a very comprehensive sports consumption. China has great potential in this area. We should not only focus on shoes and clothes, but also be a platform to provide consumers with the overall experience.