"Lost" Li Ning: I don't want marketing positioning to be "too wide"

Compared to Yingli’s high-profile attack, Li Ning’s “lost voice” during the World Cup seems even more puzzling.

The media can easily list all the reasons why Li Ning should not be so: Li Ning is the largest sporting goods company in China with a turnover of more than 8.3 billion yuan in 2009; the World Cup is one of the three major events in sports; Li Ning’s goal is not only to do Become "China's Nike", but to be "the world's Li Ning" and so on.

The sharp contrast also comes from Li Ning's competitors.

Adidas sponsors 15 football teams including Spain and Argentina, and is FIFA’s top-level strategic partner. Nike will, as always, put a lot of advertisements in the early stages of the World Cup and in the middle of the game. Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Franck Ribery, and other superstars will make their appearance. PUMA also sponsored the Italian team. Even the "little brother" such as Xtep launched a marketing campaign on the CCTV sports channel during the World Cup.

In the end, although the performances of Ronaldo, Rooney and Franck Ribery were all overshadowed by the loss of superstars, the top 4 of the top 32 of the World Cup included Nike-sponsored Dutch team in addition to three teams sponsored by Adidas. The finals and 116 minutes with Spain, only 4 minutes will be able to Spain into the final stage of the penalty shoot-out. Li Ning? Li Ning can sponsor Spain and Argentina and other top teams in the basketball field. Why isn't he going to expand in football?

In response to this question, Zhang Zhiyong, CEO of Li Ning, emphasized the limited resources. In the current important field of business of Li Ning he gives, basketball, running and badminton are at the forefront, and football is not mentioned.

From this perspective, Li Ning's "lost voice" during the World Cup is almost certain.

Li Ning's 2009 financial report showed that the company’s footwear revenue accounted for 42.4% of the total. Although it is impossible to know what specific category this 42.4% consists of, there are certainly no more than 10 kinds of professional soccer shoes in the flagship store of Li Ning Wangfujing, and nearly 100 kinds of basketball shoes.

In the same way, Li Ning has signed only Li Tie as the spokesperson for football for several years, and has designed the “Iron is Burning” series; but the basketball field has sponsored NBA China and still sponsors the Spanish and Argentinean men's basketball team. The spokesperson also has O'Neal and David. Si and other NBA superstars.

Constrained by the shrinking market of China Football League Super League and China Football League for several years, and the lack of basketball superstars such as Yao Ming, the domestic football market demand has been further reduced. This is why Li Ning, Anta, Peak and others have aimed at basketball and have ignored football. Realistic choices.

In addition, in the global sporting goods market, the traditional advantage areas of the two giants Nike and Adidas are basketball and football. When the two sides began to infiltrate each other and hit each other, the quality of sports marketing resources that Li Ning can use to borrow is even less. Previously, the industry had rumored that Li Ning might merge with U.S. sporting goods company Umbro. Umbro also accumulated in the field of football. After adidas infiltrated Nike's traditional basketball field and acquired Reebok, Nike quickly acquired Umbro. . Under such circumstances, lack of existing marketing resources and product sales support, high-profile burn-in or pragmatically thrifty, Li Ning chose the latter one after another.

This can certainly be understood. However, after Nike's low price to win the sponsorship right of the Super League event in the downstairs, how Li Ning will break out from the football field in the future has become more and more difficult strategically.