Lining Tore Himself Away From The "Flag Of His Father".

For the 00 year old Zhuzhou youth Jingjing, "Lining" is a traditional sports brand, is the love of our fathers, while "China Lining" is another brand, is her love.

"China Lining" is a sports fashion series launched by Lining in 2018. However, the two "Lining" have been torn apart in different age groups.

The result of the tear is very gratifying.

In March 2019, Li Ning Co released its 2018 financial year performance report, operating income of 10 billion 511 million yuan, an increase of 18.4% over the same period last year. From the beginning of 1990, the forthcoming 30 billion Li Ning Co has achieved a profit of tens of billions of dollars for the first time.

More importantly, Li Ning Co has reached a turning point through the brand "tear".

Lining is old: he lost billions of dollars for eight years.

Before 2018, "Lining" has been giving people a sense of "old man" in more than 8 years.

A frequently cited data is enough to see the predicament of "Lining": after 2011, "Lining" lost 3 consecutive years, the loss was more than 3 billion yuan, the market value evaporated about 76%, and the position of the local industry boss was replaced by Anta.

This is almost the same as Lining himself.

In 2012, when Lining, the gymnast Prince of the former sports ground, appeared before the media, many of his fans said with emotion, "the top of the head, wrinkles, bags under the eyes, and the image of the handsome young man in our mind are subverted at once."

In the reversal of Lining's image, Li Ning Co is also undergoing a major reversal.

Before and after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the leading position of local sports brands was not "Lining".

In 2009, the data of Deutsche Bank, "Lining" surpassed "Adidas", became the second brand of mainland sports market (11%), but still slightly inferior to Nike (Nike) 13.2%.

In second years, the distance was once again close: "Lining" company's turnover reached an astonishing 9 billion 778 million yuan, and sprinted to ten billion club.

The remarkable achievements made Li Ning Co shout the slogan of becoming China's No.1 in 8 years, but there was a prophecy: No.1 failed to achieve it, but the advanced billion club did take 8 years.

After that, the performance turned sharply and turned from arrogant to anxious.

The consumer community has changed.

With the growth of the "1975-1985 generation" of Lining, middle-aged people began to move away from the sports brand, and loyal fans ceased.

The image of "Lining" in the 1985-1995 generation is too old. It is more like a banner of a father. This makes Lining brand gradually encounter ice in the sports market.

Lining did not fail to notice this situation. As early as 2005, Li Ning Co hired a professional institution to investigate the brand status quo. The survey showed that 50% of consumers were 35-45 years old at that time.

To this end, in order to win the favor of young consumers and expand the consumption crowd, the three quarter of 2010, "Lining" positioned the brand consumer group as the 90s.

At the same time, "Lining" changed the logo that has been used for nearly 20 years, and changed the slogan from "everything is possible" to "let change happen".

At that time, some experts believed that the price positioning of Li Ning Co after changing the standard was not suitable for the post-90s.

Not only is the price unsuitable, but more importantly, the 90's cognition of Lining's brand has become inert.

From the beginning of September 2012, Li Ning Co has tried to use its offline channels to promote online shopping centers.

The store's small ticket is attached to the information and website of Lining's official mall. The website consums 980 yuan and restores 45% off of the information. It is constantly promoting the brand image of "Lining".

As a result, the post-90s were not touched by the discount. Compared with Anta sports, 331 degrees, XTEP international, PEAK sports, and so on, the price of young domestic sports brands is not the first. The key is still the "Lining" style is too old.

At the same time, "Lining" business strategy has also made 90 injured.

The main line is mainly for the sale of non seasonal products and online special edition. As a result, the post-90s are even more reluctant to buy. They feel that the so-called online version is just a gimmick, rather than a season's commodity, which makes them feel like they are cleaning up old products.

As for the price, in the view of the rich people, the price of Nike and Adi is no longer very high. Why do we still have "Lining"?

As a result, dealers were defeated.

"Lining" uses two kinds of price systems on line and offline, so that his former allies and distributors are very passive.

In the year, Lining stores had a lot of shop closes, most of which were franchisers of distributors.

This round of Lining's change to the post-90's is just like a new sign. And its brand remodeling is also known as the "textbook failure case" by the industry.

Lining returns: dare to tear the brand into two parts.

Lining's advance and retreat became a symbol of Li Ning Co.

The industry often relishes the 2 "kindling" with Li Ning Co.

In August 1990, Lining, standing on the roof of the world, took part in the torch of the Asian Games from the central Tibetan girl in the middle of the world.

At the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, he lit the Olympic flame and let the influence of Lining's two words reach its peak. "Lining" became the first sports brand in China at that time.

After the decline, no one counted on Lining himself. He had been hiding for many years at that time.

Lining recalled afterwards that he did not personally participate in the "post-90s Lining" plan, but I remember it was more like a slogan at that time and was imposed on the company level.

But the turning point is once again on Lining.

"The company needs me, I will come back. After all, I am the founder and the big shareholder." In 2015, after three years of continuous loss of Li Ning Co, Lining, founder of the sports and public welfare undertakings for many years, had to "go out of the way" for CEO.

The first thing that came back, Lining announced the slogan, "anything is possible."

The landmark turning point occurred in 2018. The chance was very casual. At that time, Tmall China Day was held on the official schedule of New York fashion week, and plans to invite 4 Chinese fashion brands to go on show.

At the beginning, the head of Tmall China Day did not take sport brand into consideration. But earlier, "Lining" on Tmall launched the two Chinese style basketball shoes, which use ink and blue and white porcelain elements respectively, all have good sales volume, so that Tmall and "Lining" finally reached a consensus.

Another fact is that after the return of Lining in 2015, the whole company is heading for a deep effort: one hour, 34 sets of costumes, leaving the "Lining" design team for only a month's preparation time. The designer eventually selected a part from the existing products, but he did not violate the theme of "understanding". He used "China Lining" and "Chinese style" as the main elements to ascend the show. "Lining" became the first Chinese sports brand to debut in New York fashion week.

Thus, on the day of February 7, 2018, "Lining" and "China Lining" became 2 independent brands in the eyes of consumers. In 2018, it became the "Chinese Lining" series.

Three times a year, we set foot on the stage of the top fashion week. Prominent Chinese characters, Huang Hong color matching and Chinese style elements, which were nicknamed "tomato scrambled eggs", began to subvert the old image of "Lining".

In positioning, "Lining" and "China Lining" also took the initiative to cut. By comparison, it is easy to find that the price of "China Lining" T-shirt is around 300 yuan, and the hat, sweater, jacket and so on are in the range of 500 to 900 yuan. The products of autumn and winter are over 1000 yuan, while the "Lining" T-shirts are below 100 yuan, and most of the hoodies, sweaters, jackets and so on are not more than 200 yuan.

Chao brand "China Lining" must be more expensive than the sports brand "Lining", otherwise it will be difficult.

As for the joke, "there was no money to wear Lining before, and now there is no money to wear" Lining ". Lining himself looked very pale: "if no one wants to buy, then where will these sales come?"

The torn "Lining" is itself the best irony for this industry.

And performance is a better proof.

In the Li Ning Co annual performance announcement 2018 and the mid term performance conference in 2018, the four big words of "China Lining" were placed prominently.

In 2018, the total sales volume of "China Lining" clothing series exceeded 5 million 500 thousand, and the shoe series sold more than 50 thousand, and the new products sold out more than 70%. Under the impetus of the "China Lining" series, the retail sales of Li Ning Co sports fashion category in 2018 also increased by 42% over the same period last year, leading to running all categories of "Lining" (basketball category growth 29%, training category 20%).

Lining tide: seize the Z generation at draught

Locking the target customers after 90 is regarded as the key to the failure of Lining. But the positioning of "China Lining" is still the locking mode -- the Z generation, that is, after 95 and after 00.

Why is there such a big gap?

The environment has changed. Data show that from 2010 to 2016, the growth rate of retail sales of clothing, shoes, hats, needles and textiles slowed down overall, while in 2017, the growth rate reached 7.8%.

At the same time, the tidal wave of trillions of markets in the world has grown vigorously in China, and has also formed a small climate in the big environment.

As early as 2000, the tide card entered China and gradually incubated a tidal brand culture atmosphere. In particular, it is said that in the eyes of the current generation of Z consumers, the first rule of consumption is "face value is justice".

According to the so-called disdain chain of the tidal wave consumer group, the top of the scorn chain is Supreme, off-white and other senior international tide cards, but the late start and shallow credentials are at the bottom of the scorn chain. "Lining" is at the bottom of the chain.

"Lining" is no longer the top sport brand in China. Once it becomes a member of the national tide, it becomes the leader of the national tide immediately.

It even has a historical origin. The emergence of the concept of "national tide" can be traced back to 2006 to 2011 years in the eyes of many wave fans, and the popularity of the leaps and back shoes in folk has become popular among the folk. The above two brands are exactly the old generation of "Lining", a local sports brand.

As a result, the "national tide" which originated from sports has the opportunity to catch up with the "Lining" who wants to be fashionable. "Lining" has also stood on the draught.

However, the Chinese "Lining" on the fashion show is not so popular. In the eyes of Z generation, only elements are not enough. Tide cards should not be just a dress, but should be a kind of culture and its social attributes.

In view of this, "Lining" obviously has been premeditated for "chao chao" for a long time.

After restarting the river, Lining, who was over 50 years old, went to the brand platform in person.

Under the leadership of Lining, the company fully opened the "Internet +" strategy, and Lining himself opened micro-blog. People suddenly discovered that this year old "melon eating old Li" became a tide uncle who loved to brush micro-blog in a flash. Selling Meng, writing chicken soup and playing Cosplay can do everything. In a year, the absorption of powder is nearly two million.

"I also called Chao people more than 20 years ago." On the New York fashion week, Lining relaxed and confident in social media. This sentence, in essence, also shows that "Lining" and "chao chao" are not accidental, but have been premeditated for a long time.

After the show, Su Mang, President of the former fashion group, forwarded Lining's show in micro-blog, and said Lining completed the transformation from sports brand to international tide card.

The impressions of the industry show that this round of transformation has been successful.

As a result, when China Lining opened flagship store in Tmall, it accumulated more than 40 thousand fans in 2 months, and the mainstream consumers were 18 to 25 years old, young people who preferred traditional Chinese culture and fashion trends.

The independent online channel enables "China Lining" to cover the areas where the shops are hard to spread. More importantly, when "China Lining" appears in the "Lining" store, no matter online or offline, it is not easy to arouse the preference of the old customers, it is also difficult to really be concerned by the Z generation.

Independence has become inevitable. And Lining, who tasted the sweetness, soon launched a series of "Counterflow- tracing" products for the product line of Lining.

At the same time, as of December 31, 2018, the number of Lining outlets in the Chinese market (excluding Lining YOUNG) totaled 6344, with a net increase of 82 over the year, with a net decrease of 35 in retail sales and a net increase of 117 in wholesale sales in the net sales of 82 outlets.

Increasing the transformation of physical stores under the line, especially in the face of the Z era, has no longer been fond of shopping. It has become an effective way to break the retail business of offline stores.

It is the key to the rise of Lining to dare to break and establish. The tide in the channel is also a derivative of "national tide" in a sense.

After all, with Lining and Lining, in the course of 30 years, they themselves are subconsciously speaking of "national tide".

Lining seeks the root: let the tide of state become a generation's feeling.

Lining's "tide man" confession changed Lining's temperament.

But the real breaking point is not the tide but the country.

Otherwise, it's just a show.

Can quickly get Z generation identity, and not be abandoned by old customers, precisely because "Lining" in the past and present are playing the "Chao card" of the national brand.

The "national tide" played by "Lining" is based on the country and flourished in the tide. If the "national tide" rises in sports brand, the brand temperament of "Lining" is just the word "country".

When it comes to why we would think of "China Lining" on the chest, Lining himself said, "I used to represent China in competition. When I introduced me, I said" China-LiNing ", and there was no other language, so we wanted to combine Chinese culture and sports with the same time. As a Chinese seal, it is enough to write" China Lining ". At that time, "China Lining" has not yet become a new series or sub brand, but also has cultural and spiritual significance. That is to say, it is China's "Lining".

However, it goes back further. In the era when new China sports just started competing against the world, Lining's two words were the pride of Chinese people:

In 1982, Lining won 6 of the 7 men's gold medals in the sixth World Cup Gymnastics Competition.

In the twenty-third Losangeles Olympic Games in 1984, Lining also won three titles of floor exercise, pommel horse and rings. He took three gold, two silver and one bronze for himself, and was the athlete who won the most medals in the Olympic Games.

Despite Lining's personal achievements, the heavy "national symbol" is the cornerstone of the rise of the brand of "Lining".

In 1990, the Eleventh Asian Games were held in Beijing. "Lining" became the first Chinese sports brand to sponsor international sports competitions. From the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games to the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, the Chinese delegation came to the stage to receive the award without passing through other brands of clothes, and "Lining" became the standard.

In the era when 80's are keen on sports and fashion, "Lining" itself represents the "national tide" - the fashion trend of a country in the field of sports.

This successful mode came back again after Lining came back.

The outside world often thinks New York fashion week debut is the starting point of "China Lining". However, at the end of October 2017, the Li Ning Co official WeChat public number put forward "China Lining". Subsequently, the brand created two topics: micro-blog, China, Lining and Lining.

The long-standing "China Lining" will break out even without fashion week. Because of this tide card, the real first show venue is "feelings".

Thus, during the fashion week of New York, this feeling touched Z generation.

Chinese square characters belong to the Chinese style. The classical red and yellow matching Chinese sports uniforms, plus the printing on the clothes, the historical pictures of Lining's participation in the rings and pommel horse races in Losangeles Olympic Games, and the number of Lining's matches, tell everyone that this is the only two Lining.

The passion of the tide brand is unique. As a result, Lining himself once again became the unique super IP and differentiated moat of "China Lining".

The national tide is just thriving under the support of Sinology, Hanfu and national pride. "Lining, China" has just caught the pain points, and the result is a generation of feelings.

The so-called generation is inheritance. The benefits of generation to generation do not make the brand grow older with the first generation of consumers.

Compared with Lining, who was born in the late 5 years and remembered by the post-80s generation, as a fast fashion brand, he has not yet found this fortune.

Lining iteration: making a crossover wave

"Lining" is very clear, just rely on feelings, still not long. Since tide, we must have an imagination.

After all, the prefix of "China" and the design of the Chinese style are more about capturing the mentality of consumers, rather than really enough.

Ceng Huafeng, chief financial officer of Li Ning Co, pointed out acutely that tide cards needed to have the ability to deal with the trend quickly. "China Lining is fashion oriented and fashionable things often change. This is popular in the first 6 months, and what is popular in the next 6 months? So many new products will be launched. The good products sold last year may not be good this year."

Rapid iteration and surprise become the standard of "Lining" redefining "national tide".

Self positioning is critical. The "tomato scrambled egg" costume is the main trend of the retro fashion. It re engraved the Chinese delegation's award dress designed by Lining for the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, the stunning "Songshan" sweater, presenting magnificent Chinese landscape with ink and wash painting, and the 2020 spring and summer series with the national table tennis as the main theme.

It is not enough to pay homage to light, but also to "flash". This is also an iteration, online scene, the most effective marketing for tide people.

In August 2018, the ten day "China Lining" flash shop Ning Space trend space landed in Shenzhen Vientiane world. This is the first time that the "China Lining" series has been fully presented in China after the fashion week. In 2019, different styles of flash shop activities spread across the country, such as the flash shop with the theme of "ink mountain shape" in Qingdao and Chengdu, and the sale of "no less than Sichuan" series was sought after by local consumers.

Flash to preheat the floor. Unlike the "Lining" main brand, the Lining fashion store is mainly located in the second tier city high-end business district, such as Beijing Sanlitun and SKP, etc., and in the location selection of the business circle, Lining fashion shop is generally located in the leisure trend floor instead of the sports floor, adjacent to Adidas clover, high-end sports fashion brand FILA, leisure brand Calvin Klein and so on.

The effect is obvious. As a series of independent stores of "China Lining", Shenzhen Nanshan Vientiane store opened in November 2018 and Shanghai Raffles shop opened in December, and the average monthly store effect in 2018 was more than 1 million yuan.

Not directly compatible with the "Lining" store, take the small step and fast walk way, and form the differentiated offline layout, which not only evaded the competition with the "Lining" noumenon, but also aggregated the detonating point below the line to a smaller extent, forming "fewer and more refined", and also let other areas of the storefront without the store coverage have a sense of "pilgrimage" and "online collection" under the line.

The difference between the "Lining" stores and the "Lining" stores has become the inevitable choice of "China Lining": decoration, lighting and props. Everywhere is flaunting it is not "Lining".

More of the tide of subversion is also hatching, and is no longer confined to the framework of "China Lining".

Lining's special product line "Counterflow- retrospective" series on the electricity supplier has been combined with the trend of the streets and the national wind; Lining brand has also launched a joint venture with Red Flag cars, Losangeles tide brand X-Large, graffiti brand OG Slick, fitness brand CHISELED, Debang express and Disney. As a result, each joint name gives people a sense of "joining the same name".

But this is not the end of Lining. He longs for greater waves in the field of sports.

As a result, Chao man Lining set the entry point in a more subversive field, exclusive youth movement - E-sports.

In October 2018, Lining officially worked with EDG E-sports club to become the official S8 partner of EDG's heroic alliance.

In early 2019, Lining, the parent company of China, completed the acquisition of E-sports club Snake, and then became an official sponsor of Newbee, the official partner of QGhappy.

"The spirit of competition in 90% is overlapped with sports spirit. Why do I spend time arguing about the remaining 10% or even 5%?" Lining group executive director, special China sports CEO Li Qilin said.

The effect is also quite impressive: in December 2018, Lining and EDG launched a joint venture and sold out 7 minutes later, and the sales of offline stores increased 6 times.

The attack is still spreading. In July 2019, "Lining" again announced the cooperation with EDG, and designed a distinctive banner and representative clothing, sports shoes for the competition users.

Therefore, in 2019, Lining put forward the strategy of "single brand, multi category and multi channel" for the first time, forming a strong contrast with "Anta's" single focus, multi brand and all channels.

Obviously, after leading the "national tide" and being seen by legend, the Imperial Palace, Lao Gan Ma and so on, "Lining" has begun to plan the return of the king. The first goal is to take away the Anta of its throne.

But difficulty is not a simple successful marketing, but a leap.

Lining short board: Light Company can not afford to light

"Lining" is not without a short board. "National tide" may boost Lining's return to the peak, but it can not protect him from peace.

Lining himself admitted in an interview with the media: "the value chain of sporting goods is very long. Before, I tend to make light assets as the brand end. Looking back for many years, we still need to extend the capability to both ends, one is retail channel, the other is the production of garments and shoes, and find a more efficient and sustainable mode."

At the same time, Lining's new development strategy is also changing its organizational structure.

Some analysts believe that they are currently building a comprehensive sporting goods platform, and all professional categories are run under the "Lining" core brand, forming separate businesses.

This platform structure, personnel investment and other high initial costs, coupled with CBA and other large sponsorship rights, lead to higher Li Ning Co fixed operating expenses.

However, once the breakeven point is exceeded, the proportion of fees in revenue decreases rapidly, and the scale effect of platforms rapidly appears.

Now, the balance point has already appeared, and Li Ning Co really has the possibility of "reclaiming and regenerating" in real sense.

Lining himself once said that the 6.8% net profit margin in 2018 is "only a moderate level, not an ideal goal". In the next three years, as long as the income growth rate remains at the current level, Li Ning Co's net profit will grow rapidly.

But this is not the only short board of "Lining", and much more criticized by the outside world is the lack of investment in R & D.

According to its 2018 annual report, Lining's R & D expenditure accounts for only 2.2% of the total revenue. From 2015 to 2018, the company's index is at the bottom of the four major sports brands in the country.

In contrast, the R & D expenditure of Anta has been over 5% for many years.

The media further explained that in 2018, with the promotion of tide brand clothing, Li Ning Co reached a billion billion breakthrough, but the footwear product with relatively high technical content increased by only 10.63%. The lack of breakthrough points in consumer feedback Lining technology is not without foundation.

As we all know, the high-end sports brand has obvious technical threshold and needs support from R & D investment. "Lining" has limited space to rise. At present, it relies more on the value of "chao chao". It has temporarily ignored the technical problems of Z generation.

Lining's repetition: feelings are not necessarily a kind of marketing.

But such a state will not last long, and Lining has already begun to solve the problem.

A symbolic movement is repeated.

In the fashion week of Paris in July 2018, "Lining" re enacted the first product 001 after the brand was founded.

In 1991, the error of shoemaking technology caused the quality problem of this sneaker. For the sake of the company's reputation and brand image, Lining did not choose to sell at a low price, but destroyed all the products.

This has become a signal, and it has been repeated at 001 time nodes of Lining brand before.

This time, Lining hopes to revive people's attention to the quality of the brand. It is like Zhang Ruimin's Haier reputation in 1985 that he has been angry with the fridge for quality problems for decades.

More substantive actions are needed here.

Since the establishment of the company in 1990, the supply chain system of Lining has been outsourcing for a long time. In 2019, the curing mode for many years was finally broken.

In May 22nd, the Guangxi supply base invested by Lining group was officially launched. The project was targeted at research and development, including raw materials, sports shoes and sportswear. This is the first time that Lining has built factories for sporting goods manufacturing.

In the future, "Lining" also plans to build an annual production of 10 million sportswear production projects, the target is Guangxi factory production capacity to reach the total 1/3.

On the macro level, efforts are being made and microcosmic efforts are being made.

According to relevant information, in 2018, the "Lining" inventory level was effectively controlled, the cost before the provision increased by only 11%, and the sales of inventories continued to decrease. Accounts receivable decreased by 21.2% compared with the same period last year, resulting in a 16 day decline in accounts receivable turnover.

In the field of electricity exploration, "Lining" is also trying to make herself more stories, so as to truly evolve into multi-attribute IP: new Tmall running flagship store, Tmall basketball flagship store, etc.

Meanwhile, Lining has invested more resources in the content marketing and event marketing.

At the front-end operation level, it includes coverage of live broadcast, exclusive video, product story and traditional culture, such as event marketing in New York fashion week, event marketing in Paris fashion week, Tmall gathering day on the theme of "new year of China", and some core topics, such as story and cultural spirit, such as "Enlightenment".

This is still a repetition, that is, the success of the past "Lining" is based on Lining and all kinds of medal stories. Today, "Lining" wants to repeat this kind of success, using the story story to let consumers have more sense of substitution, and ultimately choose the personal experience.

Only in research and development, "Lining" may not be able to break through the power of capital in a short time. After all, this is an iterative process that needs to be accumulated over time.

Lining once replied in his 2017 annual performance report: "we will devote our main resources to sports knowledge learning, technology research and development, and create experience of Lining brand, and actively seek and expand business development space."

Whether it is true or not, it may be necessary to wait for the fever of the "national tide" to come back and let the user experience report break out.

Lining's words:

I am an entrepreneur with more than 10 years of business history. Please stop treating me as a star idol.

Brother is only a legend.

(previous losses) was caused by the company's active adjustment strategy, not a loss arising from its operation.

We have not abandoned the pursuit of internationalization, but we must lay the foundation of the local market.

It sells for 8 billion yuan a year, but there are still people who think Lining will go bankrupt in second days.

China needs to move forward from generation to generation, and the new generation needs the value and performance of the new generation. I believe them.

Light is an upward mindset. In every year of Li Shu's setbacks, he has to put down his burden, lighten his burden, and go back to light.

Is there any age limit for players in Lining electric club? I think I should be able to start practicing now.

The first Lining sports shoe factory settled in Nanning, Guangxi, and the Lining brand opened the road of manufacturing upgrading.

The cost of self built factory will increase with respect to outsourcing, but there will be room for profit in the production process. At the same time, it is hoped that the core technology will be precipitated into the self built factory. However, "Lining" will not blindly expand the upstream production link, otherwise it will have an impact on the market reaction ability of the retail end.