If sports brands need to grow again, they must first change sales routines

Editor's note: Sports brand “replication” type has grown vertically or has come to an end. In the bottleneck period of industrial development, for domestic homogenized sports brands, which one can introduce new ones, it is more refined and scientific in operation management. , can be one step ahead in the industry consolidation.

The vertical growth of the sports brand “replication” has come to an end. In the bottleneck period of industrial development, for domestically-made sports brands with serious homogeneity, which one can promote innovation and become more refined and scientific in operation management, it can One step ahead in industry consolidation.

Jordan Sports was formally established in June 2000 in Jinjiang, Fujian, which is the best place to appear in the best time. In addition to Jordan Sports, Jinjiang, which has the name of China's shoes, has gathered a number of sportswear brands such as Anta, 361 Degrees, and Delphi. This group of brands all have similar genes. Most of them are family businesses and rely on imitation to seize opportunities. But now they have encountered an industry bottleneck.

Shao Ligang, general manager of the nine-party service agency in Beijing, said, “Many domestic sports brands were originally foundries of Nike, Adidas and other international sports brands. When they saw huge profits, they began to try to create their own brands.”

In addition to mimicking international brands and domestic competitors in product styles, domestic sports brands also have striking similarities in marketing and channels. After Anta signed Kong Linghui, other sports brands also began competing to invite athletes as spokespersons to carry out mass publicity. Shao Ligang said. In addition, in terms of channel expansion, most domestic sports brands rarely have their own direct stores, but rely heavily on agents and dealers.

Take Jordan Sports as an example. According to its prospectus, as of the end of June last year, Jordan Sports had a total of 5,715 stores in China, including 5561 dealership stores and 154 directly operated stores (including shopping mall counters).

Although relying on the dealer's sales network, the brand can be rapidly expanded, but at the same time it also makes the brand can not effectively control the risk of sales, once the agents do not do it, the brand's market share will quickly shrink.

"After experiencing the golden cycle of the past decade, China's sports industry has reached a certain degree of saturation in terms of volume." Zhang Qing, CEO of Beijing Key Road Sports Consulting Co., Ltd., said in an interview with the Post reporter. In the ten years between 2000 and 2010, there were more than 10 listed companies, and each company had 5,000-10,000 stores, but the domestic brands did not improve in terms of personalization and specialization. With the sinking of international brands such as Nike and Adidas, it not only further exacerbated the saturation of the market, but also made domestic brands previously entrenched in second and third-tier cities have to face more powerful opponents.

Both Shao Ligang and Zhang Qingjun stated that Li Ning’s inventory backlog in 2011 was not a lone case but an industry phenomenon. “Some brands are more sad than they are. Some shops are in a loss-making state. But these pressures are still on agents and dealers, and they have not yet returned to the brand companies.”

Zhang Qing believes that the time for sports brands to rely on vertical growth has passed, and in order to grow further, brands must be upgraded to pay more attention to personalization and specialization. Shao Ligang thinks that in the bottleneck period of industrial development, for domestically-made sports brands with serious homogeneity, which one can promote new ideas and become more sophisticated and scientific in operation and management, it can be one step ahead in the industry consolidation.