Lining Frustration: Because Of Failure To Maintain Brand Image Continuity

In the latest list of China's richest people, China is most famous.

Lining's decline in wealth ranks also reflects the decline in the ranking of the gymnastics Olympic champion's namesake brand.

Last year, Lining took the place of Adidas (Adidas) in the Chinese sports brand market and jumped to second.

At that time, Lining, chief executive, predicted that in less than ten years, Lining would become one of the five major sports brands in the world.

But since then, Li Ning Co's profits and share prices have fallen sharply, and the company has begun to rethink its ambitious brand strategy.

Is this a temporary setback or an insurmountable "Bamboo Ceiling"? (referring to the difficulty for the Asians in American big enterprises to enter the top management level?) even if it is in the hometown of bamboo, Chinese brands can not really be male. The key to the problem lies in whether Chinese companies can do well in brand, marketing, innovation, design and quality, and get rid of the "Shanzhai".

In the global market, successful Chinese brands are hard to find.

We may consider the attempts and experiences of Lining's brand as a microcosm of the fate of Chinese brands.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the founder of the Lining brand lit the torch of the opening ceremony.

He is not only China's top athlete, but also one of China's most famous entrepreneurs.

The scene of Lining's lighting the torch at the bird's Nest stadium - let us immediately connect the strong patriotism spirit aroused by that event to the Lining brand - absolutely the greatest marketing activity in ten years.

But those days seem to be far away: in the first half of this year,

Last year, Li Ning Co released a new logo (like the old logo, the new logo is also similar to the crooked label of Nike) (Nike).

Lining also launched a brand remolding program to build itself as a direct competitor to global brands such as Nike and Adidas.

But for this high-end local brand, many consumers do not buy it, so Lining seems to have returned to the cheap and cheap way.

In the Chinese market, Lining still slightly ahead of Adidas, second only to Nike, but market analysts expect that it will soon fall back to third place.

If they can afford foreign brands, Chinese consumers will not be willing to spend almost the same price on domestic brands.

"In the competition with ADI, Lining really did a good job, but it was based on imitation," said Andy, AndyEdwards, director of BBH, an advertising agency in Shanghai.

"Now Lining needs to create more value, stop copying and find his own unique voice...

And let this voice permeate everything related to brand, especially products.

Lei Xiaoshan, author of the forthcoming publication of the end of China's cheap consumption, says that Chinese companies are trying to build brands, but they will take a step back every two steps forward.

Lei Xiaoshan said that 3 years ago, when Lining was growing rapidly, its brand positioning was not enough.

"It first proposed to be the best brand in China, and later said it would challenge Nike globally and finally return to cheap routes, all of which took place in 3 years.

It does not maintain the continuity of its brand image.

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In a recent interview with BeijingNews, Lining chief executive Zhang Zhiyong admits that the price hike made Lining lose some loyal customers.

Zhang Zhiyong said: "I think we must learn how to strike a balance between price driven and quality driven."

Dai Quangang, a salesperson at the Lining discount store in the outskirts of Hongkou, Shanghai, said no more high-end goods were in store.

"This area is a residential area, and people prefer cheaper products."

Now this shop

At the same time, Adidas is stepping into Lining's site, small and medium-sized cities, with the goal of covering 550 to 1000 cities by 2015.

Gao Jiali, head of Adidas Greater China (ColinCurrie), said that even in less prosperous cities, as incomes grow, consumers are eager to increase their consumption levels and buy foreign brands.

HSBC predicts that the market share of some local brands will decline next year as wage growth accelerates.

"Chinese consumers' brand loyalty is often not high, especially in some two or three tier cities."

In a recent report, HSBC pointed out: "as Nike and Adidas have launched various low prices, the loyalty of local brands has also become an unknown."

As Lining began to "better adapt to, or even lead the long-term development trend of China's sports goods industry", it is expected to face two to three years of "short pain".

Those who are concerned about the development of Chinese brands will wait and see whether Lining can break through the Bamboo Ceiling once and for all.