The Consequence Of "Horse Racing Enclosure" Highlights Quanzhou Sports Brand Seeking To Break Through Against The Trend

Recently, PEAK Sports announced that its retail outlets had dropped 1067 compared with the end of last year. And PEAK Sports is not the only one that has closed its stores, Li Ning and other well-known domestic brands Sporting goods enterprises It's hard to be alone. In the first half of this year, Li Ning closed 952 stores. As early as last year, the number of stores in the special walk and 361 degree has been reduced. In today's depressed market and increased store costs, the consequences of blind "horse racing and enclosure" a few years ago began to emerge.

In this tide of closing stores, Jinjiang has suffered much less influence, which is inseparable from its previous series of actions: Anta entered the women's field, launched the sub brand "Shang" in March, June, and special steps further developed the fashion movement. Different positioning and different response make the Jinjiang system less "injured".

In the view of the industry, although the "continuous closing" of sports brands is a helpless move, it also provides a channel adjustment opportunity for many brands. Experts suggest that Quanzhou's sports brands should take advantage of this opportunity to integrate inefficient stores and actively seek changes and improvements in products, brands, management, etc.

　 Survival of the fittest

Domestic sports brands continue to close stores

A few days ago, PEAK Sports released a report that as of September 30 this year, its authorized retail outlets in China had reached 6739, 1067 fewer than the end of last year, and its total orders for the second quarter order meeting also fell 20% to 30% year on year. PEAK Sports issued a profit warning. It is expected that the annual net profit for the first half of June and December will decrease significantly compared with the same period last year.

In fact, PEAK Sports is not the only one that has closed its stores. Li Ning and other well-known domestic sporting goods enterprises are also hard to be independent. In the first half of this year, Li Ning Group conducted a profit evaluation on the basis of 248 new stores, and closed 1200 inefficient stores, accounting for 15% of the total. It is understood that in the first half of this year, there were 7303 regular stores, flagship stores, factory stores and discount stores in Li Ning, 952 fewer than at the end of last year. As early as last year, the number of stores in the special walk and 361 degree has been reduced.

"Close inefficient stores" has become the core vocabulary for internal adjustment of sporting goods brands. Peak and Li Ning are the two brands with the largest number of stores closed recently. In the view of insiders, although the "continuous closing" of sports brands is a helpless move, it also provides a channel adjustment opportunity for many brands.

"The closure of stores is very sensitive to the media, but from the perspective of the industry, the closure of stores is essentially a process of survival of the fittest." Xu Zhihua, CEO of PEAK, said that PEAK, which has always adhered to brand internationalization, has made remarkable achievements in the international market in recent years, and the proportion of overseas market revenue in total revenue is also increasing year by year. The current store, Neither the business area nor the store image can meet the requirements of PEAK's internationalization. Therefore, some stores will be eliminated in the process of upgrading.

At the same time, the senior management of Li Ning also said publicly: "This year, the retail environment of the sporting goods industry has obviously encountered greater pressure. On the one hand, the past model of relying excessively on distributors to open stores to promote growth has been unsustainable; on the other hand, the cost of retail operation is also rising rapidly. The operating conditions of the independent dealers of the company are hard to avoid being affected, which makes them more conservative in their growth expectations for next year. "

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　　 The sequela of "horse racing enclosure"

Although the "continuous store closing" behavior dominated by Quanzhou sports brands has brought a channel adjustment opportunity for each brand to a certain extent, in the eyes of industry insiders, "continuous store closing" is the sequela of domestic sports brands' "horse racing enclosure" in previous years.

"In the past few years, domestic sports brands have experienced an 'explosive' growth process. The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games brought an unprecedented opportunity for the development of Chinese sports brands. With the enthusiasm of consumers for sports and commercial sponsorship, advertising and marketing, as well as the subsequent listing of Hong Kong shares, many sports brands have won sufficient capital, and the momentum of enterprise development is booming. " Ding Yi, a sports marketing expert who has done a lot of research on sports brands in Quanzhou, analyzed that in the process of "horse racing enclosure", many sports brands opened a large number of stores in the second and third tier cities, providing "performance" for the listing of Hong Kong stocks on the one hand, and also occupying the market in the second and third tier cities in this way.

"However, due to the lack of attention to the development of brand characteristics during the rapid expansion process, the homogenization competition is serious. Now too many sports brand stores are clustered, making the competition between them increasingly fierce. There are also many inefficient stores in these stores, with poor operation and management benefits." Ding Yi told reporters that the lack of consumer motivation Under the general environment of overcapacity, the drawbacks of extensive store expansion in the previous few years began to appear: although stores are increasing at a high speed, they have made little contribution to the performance of sports brands. "For this reason, integrating stores with low efficiency is the way for enterprises to find their own way of blood transfusion."

On the other hand, sports brands not only face the pressure of homogeneous competition in the same industry, but also suffer from leisure shoes The market for clothing is squeezed. In fact, before the emergence of a large number of leisure brands in China, domestic sports brands assumed some functions of leisure shoes and clothing to a certain extent. With the emergence of more and more fashion shoes and clothing brands, consumers have more choices, and leisure shoes and clothing are gradually taking over the sports brand shoes and clothing market. "The people who used to consume in sports brand stores were" robbed "by leisure brands, and many sports brand stores naturally couldn't open," brand marketing expert Liu Xiangkun told reporters.

　 In the "cold winter" period, it is urgent to find the right brand positioning

In this tide of closing stores, the Jinjiang system represented by Anta was much less affected than Li Ning. This has a lot to do with the positive response made by Anta before. In 2011, Anta launched the women's sports series, officially entering the women's market segment. This year, 361 launched a more fashionable and targeted sub brand "Shang".

"The past era of relying on store opening to achieve sales growth has passed, and the future competition will be the competition of individual store benefits. Only by improving the brand value, store benefits and product quality can meet the requirements of future competition." Ma Gang, an independent commentator in the footwear and clothing industry, believes that in the past few years, The domestic sports brands represented by Quanzhou enterprises experienced a golden period of rapid expansion, but the rapid expansion also covered up the problem of weak internal skills in the management system. "For this reason, Quanzhou brands should take advantage of the opportunity of integrating inefficient stores, actively look for changes and improvements in products, technology, brands, management and other aspects, and jump out of the homogenization competition. Of course, this is a systematic and strategic topic," Ma Gang told reporters.

Industry insiders believe that in the general environment of slowing growth in the sporting goods industry, enterprises should clarify their own positioning, focus on adjusting their product structure and enhancing product characteristics. Liu Xiangkun said that at present, domestic sports brands are facing dual pressures from both domestic and international markets: on the one hand, many domestic sports brands compete with each other in terms of products, channels, etc., with fierce competition; On the other hand, international sports brands such as Nike and Adidas are sinking into the channels and entering the second and third tier markets, which has caused great pressure on domestic sports brands.

"Therefore, while closing inefficient stores, Quanzhou sports brands urgently need to find the right ones brand positioning , clarify the development ideas, adjust the product structure, and build up the brand by providing personalized products. " Liu Xiangkun told reporters like this. In addition, experts in the industry suggested that, with the rapid development of e-commerce, Quanzhou sports brands should combine the current characteristics of e-commerce and improve their marketing methods. "With the rapid development of the Internet and new media, enterprises should pay attention to the effective use of e-commerce and multi-channel integrated operation." Ding Yi suggested that Quanzhou sports brands can combine online and offline to make each store a "distribution point" on the brand e-commerce chain, reduce the investment in marketing, reduce the final delivery cost of products, and thus form a price advantage, Increase the benefit of each store.