A 20-year cycle. Recalling 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, Li Ning unexpectedly lost in the last game and fell from the rings. Although he walked off the court with a smile as usual, his heart was full of depression and sadness.
1988 12 16. Shenzhen Gymnasium. "Prince of gymnastics" Li Ning officially announced his retirement and bid farewell to his gymnastics career of 18 years. Tears blurred his eyes when he turned around. He knew that the shining gold medal of 106, the brilliant record of 14 winning the World Cup gymnastics championship and the feat of winning six gold medals in the second World Cup gymnastics competition were all in the past. He will step into a new and unfamiliar field and get up the courage to meet new challenges.
In the face of losing the Olympic Games again, Li Ning, as a businessman, has lost the dejected feeling of that year, and he has a more rational and calm response.
After several years, Li Ning began to seem to find that relaxed feeling again.
Before the arrival of the Asian financial crisis, Li Ninggang launched the "Blizzard" autumn and winter casual wear. At that time, this series of clothes became the fashion pursued by teenagers all over the country, which sold very well in China and even led to the continuous appreciation of other products of "Li Ning brand".
On February 25th, 1996, 1996, Li Ning suddenly launched a large-scale and substantial profit-making promotion in 350 specialty stores and thousands of sales outlets across the country? The original price is 200 yuan, and now it is sold in 50 yuan; The original price of 300 yuan is less than 100 yuan. Li Ning's sudden move made all his opponents unable to understand, and insiders of the group were also puzzled by this move.
Li Ning said: "This is called a strong man's broken wrist. We would rather sacrifice tens of millions of yuan in profits and win precious time and space for future development.
Sure enough, the financial storm came, which was worse than Li Ning's "snowstorm". Faced with this global business disaster, many merchants see that there are more and more goods in the warehouse, and they are at a loss, so they take thirty-six measures to "reduce prices and promote sales" as their "amulet".
Li Ning, on the other hand, is still in high spirits in times of crisis, as if he had returned to the field in those days? When watching others score much higher than their own, they are still calm and calm. In the voice of Beijing merchants shouting and fleeing together, the new sportswear of "Li Ning" brand "Chaoju" is not allowed to pay a penny, and there is no discount or gift. You don't have to buy it if you want!
Unexpectedly, when everyone shouted "No one wants to discount", "Li Ning" became popular, and several masterpieces were even out of stock.
"Li Ning" has not only withstood the huge pressure of weak market, but also continuously opened up the situation. In a few short years, all major businesses are shouting "high input and low output" sponsorship, it has invested nearly 80 million yuan for various sports undertakings in China.
What is the reward? Li Ning just laughed. 1998, when the sponsors were on the sidelines of the domestic volleyball league, Li Ning became "crazy" again, dressed up as a "date" volleyball: he invested more than 3 million yuan, tailored 16 high-quality professional equipment, and swallowed up the sponsorship task of the top teams in one breath. All the equipment, even the paixie people have to admire: "Li Ning armed us to the teeth!" "This is called a new philosophy of sponsorship," said Li Ning.
1992 Barcelona Olympic Games 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games 1996 Paralympic Games, 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, 2004 Athens Olympic Games ... Li Ning is the supplier of award-winning equipment for the China delegation. In these venues, China athletes wearing "Li Ning" clothes can be seen everywhere, and Li Ning has therefore embarked on the road of shaping a strong sports brand.
Going abroad, Li Ning's "appetite" is growing, and being the first brand of domestic sporting goods can't satisfy him. Li Ning is a clever man. To compete with international tycoons, strong financial resources are not the decisive factor. Only strong scientific and technological support can ensure long-term success.
In order to improve product quality, Li Ning is actively looking for partners. At that time, DuPont Company of the United States developed a new type of fabric, which was made of four kinds of sweat tube fibers patented by DuPont Company. It can quickly drain sweat generated during human movement to the surface of clothes for evaporation, so that human skin can be kept fresh and comfortable under high-speed movement or high-temperature conditions. If you can win the exclusive right to use this material, you will have a sharp weapon to beat your opponent. However, DuPont, as an established company, will certainly not easily promise its "beloved daughter".
1June, 1998, the marketing director of DuPont Asia Pacific decided to cooperate with Li Ning Company to supply its newly developed COOLMAX fabric to Li Ning Company to produce "Li Ning" T-shirts.
1one day in August, 999, at the Munich Expo, which is known as the "Olympic Games" in the world sporting goods industry, the representative of the world sports giant Adidas suddenly discovered that there was a brand he had never heard of next to his booth? China "Li Ning" brand sporting goods. Compared with such a "pet and big thing", let the fledgling "Li Ning" people just start hanging in the air.
Fortunately, this ominous premonition did not come true. Dealers who have been traveling around the world for many years not only respect the reputation of world-famous brands, but also believe in their own vision. They carefully watched the clothes and sports shoes produced by Li Ning Company, looked at the styles, touched the fabrics, checked the workmanship and inspected the scientific and technological content. Some careful businessmen also looked into their eyes ... finally, Li Ning's products finally persuaded them. Merchants from Europe and West Asia signed orders of hundreds of thousands of German marks on the spot, and many businessmen scrambled to talk about sales agency rights.
Some people don't know the ins and outs, and they take pains to ask the people in "Li Ning" company: Are you Japanese? Korean? Are you from Taiwan Province Province? After a series of "no", Li Ningren proudly told them: "We are from China, from the mainland!" These well-informed businessmen exposed their ignorance at this time: they couldn't believe that such excellent products and brand images they saw would come from China enterprises.
Li Ning has a clear timetable for the globalization strategy. The first phase ended in 2008, and the second phase was 2009-20 13. In these two stages, Li Ning Company will regard China market as the most important strategic market, and it is expected that the turnover will keep increasing by 35%- 40% every year. 20 13-20 18 is the third stage, when Li Ning will become the top five sports brand companies in the world.
But Li Ning seems to have achieved this goal ahead of schedule. By the beginning of 2008, according to the market value ranking table launched by American market research organization Sporting Goods Intelligence (SGI) for global sporting goods industry companies, Li Ning surpassed Asics and became the fourth in the world, while Nike, Adidas and Puma ranked in the top three.
In the Hurun Rich List in 2007, Li Ning also ranked 65th with a personal worth of 1 1 billion RMB.
Olympic Complex +200710.3, is the day when Li Ning lost, because he lost again in the Olympic Games. However, this time his competitor is not other gymnasts, but the international sporting goods giant Adidas.
The 2008 Olympic Games will be held in China soon, but Li Ning Company lost in the competition of Olympic sponsors. The well-funded Adidas finally defeated Li Ning Company and became the seventh partner selected by BOCOG.
However, Li Ning is not discouraged at all. Zhang Zhiyong, CEO of Li Ning Company, said: "Compared with Adidas and Nike, does it need money? That's impossible. But it doesn't matter. We have a lot of ideas, okay? In addition, the guarantee is a good idea ... Li Ning Company has been trying to find an unprecedented way to promote its brand for a long time: spend a small amount of money to do big things within a limited range of funds. "
But Li Ning will never give up the Olympic Games. He adopted the strategy of "saving the country by curve"? Non-Olympic marketing.
Li Ning has obviously thought of a way out. Only on the third day after losing the election, Li Ning signed an agreement with CCTV Sports Channel, which stipulated that in 2007? In 2008, presenters and journalists of TV programs and events must wear Li Ning clothing when they appear in front of the camera. This means that during the Beijing Olympic Games, as long as you turn on the CCTV sports channel, Li Ning's Logo will jump into your eyes.
This is a clever "stealing the column", cleverly avoiding the strict barriers of Olympic intellectual property rights and finding a new way to approach the Beijing Olympic Games.
A week later, Li Ning followed suit and signed an agreement with the Argentine Basketball Association, stipulating that the Argentine men's basketball team, the champion of the last Athens Olympic Games, appeared in the Beijing Olympic Games in Li Ning brand jerseys.
By the beginning of May 2007, Li Ning had built his own star-studded "Li Ning Delegation for the Beijing Olympic Games" with limited funds, including China shooting team, diving team, table tennis team and gymnastics team. According to the results of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, these four teams won more than half of the gold medals in China. In addition, there are Swedish Olympic delegation, Argentina basketball team, Spain basketball team, Sudan track and field team and so on. They will all appear in the 2008 Olympic Games with Li Ning brand sportswear.
On June 5, 2007,165438+1October 65438, Li Ning Co., Ltd., which was listed in Hong Kong, issued an announcement on June 5, and spent 305 million yuan to acquire 57.5% of the shares of Shanghai Double Happiness Group Co., Ltd. Double Happiness Company is a well-known table tennis equipment manufacturer, with the largest market share in China and a high international reputation. It is a partner of ITTF and will provide most table tennis equipment for the 2008 Olympic Games.
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