The Olympic Games venue is not only a venue for athletes, but also a battleground for brand sponsors to earn money. There is traffic that attracts worldwide attention and an excellent opportunity for brand display.
There is a domestic sports brand that has sponsored the Chinese Olympic Games for 16 consecutive years. It has transformed from a small family-owned workshop in Jinjiang, Fujian Province into a global sports brand giant. It has now surpassed Li Ning and become a strong rival of Nike and Adidas.
It is the domestic sports brand that has risen along with the Olympic Games - Anta, the top official partner of this Beijing Winter Olympics.
Among the 15 events of the Winter Olympics, Anta has created competition equipment for 12 Chinese participating teams, and is the sports brand that supports the most competition equipment for the Chinese national team.
How did Anta achieve its current status step by step? This is worth talking about.
In 1980, Nike founder Phil Knight, with his imagination of the Chinese market of "one billion people and two billion feet", brought his employees to Shanghai to discuss cooperation with the Chinese track and field team. During this trip to China, they determined two things: signing a contract with the Chinese track and field team and finding five foundries.
Nike’s early manufacturers were mainly in Japan, but as production costs rose, Nike turned its attention to coastal areas of China where production costs are lower.
During this period, Jinjiang, Fujian Province, relying on the unique local advantages of overseas Chinese, began to give birth to the first batch of "family joint production" and "handmade workshop" shoe-making enterprises. They OEM produced overseas sportswear branded products.
Anta founder Ding Hemu is a member of this entrepreneurial wave. He served as a soldier and returned home to start a small business after he was discharged from the army. He has extensive experience in traveling around the world.
In 1981, Ding Hemu sold grain, livestock and other items that could be exchanged for money, and together with loans from relatives and friends, he collected 60,000 yuan, and together with a dozen villagers Founded a shoe factory in partnership.
In 1987, 17-year-old Ding Shizhong graduated from junior high school. He decided to try his luck outside and went to Beijing alone with 10,000 yuan sponsored by his father and 600 pairs of shoes from his hometown.
In Beijing, his shoes were of good quality and had a high repurchase rate, and he quickly established a foothold in Beijing. But Ding Shizhong found that the price of branded shoes was several times his own, which inspired Ding Shizhong to build his own brand.
After four years in Beijing, he returned to his hometown in 1991 with the 200,000 he earned and persuaded his father to build his own brand. Taking advantage of this opportunity, my father and his early partners separated and went it alone, and together with his son ***, they founded the "ANTA" brand, which means "starting a business with peace of mind and being down-to-earth."
When Anta built its own brand, later Jinjiang shoe companies, such as Xtep, 361, Jordan, Peak, Delhui, Hongxing Erke, etc., mainly OEMed for "foreign brands", while Anta began to produce its own brands. Mainly, working for others as a supplement.
At that time, the development direction of domestic sports brands was basically in line with Li-Ning, because at that time Li-Ning was already a well-known sports brand in the country. It had become a sponsor of the Asian Games as early as 1990 and won the Asian Games Torch Relay with 2 million yuan. square.
The subsequent development paths of these Jinjiang shoe factories were largely inspired by Li Ning, and they once regarded Li Ning as their goal to surpass.
In 1994, Anta (Fujian) Shoe Company was officially established. Ding Hemu handed over the management of the company to his children, and he gradually withdrew from management and concentrated on charity.
In 1997, the Southeast Asian financial crisis broke out, and many shoe factories in Jinjiang that were OEMs for "foreign brands" closed down. However, by this time Anta had opened 2,000 specialty stores across the country. Anta stands out among Jinjiang shoe companies.
In 1999, when Anta's annual profit was 4 million, it spent 800,000 to sign Kong Linghui.
In 2000, when Kong Linghui won the championship in the Sydney Olympics, Anta took advantage of the marketing opportunity and spent 3 million to advertise on the CCTV Sports Channel. Kong Linghui wore Anta's self-designed sneakers and read the slogan "I choose, I like".
With strong marketing and the endorsement of Olympic champions, Anta became a well-known national brand, with sales soaring from 20 million to 200 million that year.
Nike has sponsored the Chinese track and field team in 1984. During the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games cycles, international sports brands such as Nike, Adidas and Mizuno have successively become sponsors of multiple sports under the guidance of the State Sports General Administration. Professional equipment sponsor of the national team.
In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the professional equipment for almost all events of Chinese athletes was sponsored by these international sports brands.
Although Chinese sports manufacturers have gradually accumulated experience and capital in the process of OEM for foreign brands, they have also begun to focus on shaping their own brand value and delving into the field of professional sports equipment.
However, the acceptance of Chinese brand products in the national team is very low. Everyone is accustomed to those international brands and is afraid that switching to domestic brands will affect their performance.
In 2000, Nike set up a sneaker laboratory specifically for NBA stars to customize a pair of sports shoes for the players. It has been tested thousands of times in the laboratory. Such accumulation of test data is not available to Chinese sports manufacturers. .
Helpless, Chinese brands can only sponsor the award-winning uniforms and dresses of the Chinese sports delegation.
In 2005, ANTA put forward the slogan "Never Stop" and spent a lot of money to form a scientific research team and established the "ANTA Sports Science Laboratory". It established corresponding research teams for different sports projects and became a domestic sports brand. The first national-level enterprise technology center in the field.
Since then, Anta has long-term cooperation with top domestic scientific research institutes and experts to accumulate its own patent barriers. For example, it has established five major design centers in the world in China, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Italy and other countries; it has cooperated with universities or research institutions such as Tsinghua University and China Institute of Standardization.
In 2007, Anta went public in Hong Kong, and the company also turned from a family business to a public enterprise. At that time, it raised more than 3.5 billion, creating a record for sports goods at the time. With the improvement of product strength, Anta began to more actively try sponsorship.
Ding Shizhong proudly sponsors CBA and hosts CBA’s star games, rookie games and other subdivided games to gain more opportunities for brand exposure.
During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Ding Shizhong originally wanted to take the opportunity to sponsor the Olympics, but Adidas, which was wealthy at the time and had continued sponsorship, was even more entrenched. He bid for US$60-80 million to become the Chinese delegation for the 2008 Olympics. as a prize-winning server sponsor, and paid US$5 million in advance to book a 12-year cooperation opportunity.
Ding Shizhong couldn’t swallow this breath, gritted his teeth and stamped his feet, and decided to compete with Adidas for sponsorship rights. It was rumored that he invested 600 million yuan to win the package sponsor for the 2009-2012 Olympic cycle, becoming The highest level "strategic partner" of the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC).
At that time, Anta’s one-time investment was so high that even the Olympic Committee was a little doubtful of Anta’s strength.
In 2012, Anta renewed its sponsorship and became the "sports apparel partner" of the Rio Olympics cycle. Ding Shizhong said: "After sponsoring the Chinese Olympic Committee, we stand at the commanding heights of China's sporting goods industry."
From 2009 to 2016, after Anta cooperated with the Chinese Olympic Committee, Anta's revenue increased The growth exceeded 120, with net profit rising from 1.251 billion yuan to 2.386 billion yuan.
In 2017, Anta signed as the official partner of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, tightly binding its sports attributes with Olympic IP.
Today, ANTA has become a world-class brand through the exposure and product promotion of the Olympic Games. The different theme award uniforms designed by ANTA have accompanied 112 Olympic champions on the championship podium. , Ding Shizhong’s strategy and determination to sponsor the Olympic Games have been proven by time to be undoubtedly correct.
It is in line with what netizens said: I am not afraid of Nike and Adidas, but I am afraid of Anta carrying the national flag.
For Chinese sports brands, the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 inventory crisis were two important turning points.
In 2001, Beijing successfully bid for the Olympic Games. Domestic sports brands took advantage of the Olympic dividends to expand production and open stores to occupy the market. At the end of the 2008 Olympic Games, the six major domestic sports brands including Li Ning and Anta each had more than 5,000 stores, and a nationwide sports craze was set off.
Because these companies were still positioned as "sports product wholesalers" at the time, they considered their sales tasks to be over when they completed wholesale. They did not understand the situation at the retail terminal, usually 3-5 times The inventory-to-sales ratio was once as high as 10 times under the impact of the boom.
In 2009, the revenue of Li Ning, the number one domestic brand, exceeded Adidas’ revenue in the Chinese market, reaching 8.4 billion yuan. However, it began to decline after 2011, and it was not until 2015 that it turned a profit. It was during this period that Anta surpassed Li Ning.
In 2012, Anta's revenue and net profit also declined for the first time since its listing. Ding Shizhong took the opportunity to transform the company's positioning from brand wholesale to brand retail, and also consulted Belle, Daphne and other companies on their experience in retail reform.
Prior to this, Ding Shizhong actually had a desire to transform. While working as an agent for Adidas from 2007 to 2009, he had a thorough understanding of the scientific management of brands and channels by international brands.
Ding Shizhong realized the unification and synchronization of information in most specialty stores across the country through informatization, unified retail standards to stores across the country, and led senior executives to travel to prefecture-level cities in China to implement retail implementation Promote and understand various problems of users.
In 2012 and 2013, Anta transformed into retail and achieved a net profit of 1.7 billion yuan in 2014. In the same year, Xtep and 361 Degrees had a net profit of only about 400 million yuan, and Li Ning suffered a loss of 781 million yuan. In 2008, Anta's revenue was 69 times that of Li Ning, and in 2016 it was 1.6 times that of Li Ning.
Successful transformation allows Anta to pursue development without worrying about survival. The multi-brand strategy is a key choice for Anta to enter the international arena.
In 2009, Italian veteran FILA was struggling in the Chinese market. Anta took the opportunity to take over FILA’s China business from Belle and spent HK$600 million to acquire FILA’s trademark use rights and franchise rights in China. Rights, positioning fashion movement.
Ding Shizhong did not publicize the acquisition of FILA's Chinese business in a high-profile manner. For a long time, a large number of consumers did not know the relationship between FILA and Anta. FILA operates independently and adopts a fully direct retail model. It took three years to take back all stores from dealers.
From the acquisition of FILA in 2009 to mid-2019, FILA's revenue was 6.54 billion yuan, accounting for 44% of the group's contribution, and Anta's main brand contribution accounted for 51%. This shows the importance of the single FILA brand to Anta.
Perhaps Ding Shizhong himself did not expect that this brand would be revitalized in his own hands, and it would also open up the road to high-end sports brands for Anta.
FILA’s acquisition attempt made Ding Shizhong go crazy on the road of buying and selling. He successively acquired Japanese high-end brand DESCENTE, Korean outdoor sports brand KOLON, and even spent 36 billion yuan to acquire Finland’s Amer Sports. . Its Arc'teryx is known as Hermès, an outdoor brand, and its price range is also at the same level as Hermès.
Ding Shizhong said: "With the brand operation capabilities of Chinese companies, the possibility of creating an Arc'teryx or Wilson within 30 years is almost zero. However, through acquisitions and the potential space of the Chinese market, it is possible to complete A complete rebirth. ”
It is the addition of these high-end brands that has allowed Anta to surpass Li Ning and approach the sales of Nike Group and Adidas Group in China, and Anta has also become an international group.
Written at the end:
Acquisition is a shortcut to become stronger, but how far this road can go depends on the leader of the enterprise. Among domestic sports brands, Li Ning chose to strengthen its main brand, while Anta chose to develop a multi-brand strategy through acquisitions.
One goes to the left, the other goes to the right. I hope they can both open a path to make domestic brands bigger and stronger, so that they have the confidence and strength,