China's Anta takes on Nike and Adidas - Ben Cavender

Ben Cavender

China's Anta bought in 2009 the Italian sports shoe brand Fila for China and plans to take on Nike and Adidas during the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. Branding expert Ben Cavender sees Li-Ning and other domestic brands as the first hurdle to take before Anta can really compete globally, he says in the Fair Observer. 

The Fair Observer:

“To some extent, it [FILA] is still seen as a cheaper alternative to Adidas and Nike, but Anta has been working hard to create more of an image of a first-choice brand and has been fairly aggressive with its marketing,” says Ben Cavender, principal at China Market Research Group. “It has also used brands like FILA to try and move up-market and into streetwear.” Financially, the latter strategy seems to be successful...
But the first obstacle to Anta’s global ambitions may not be Adidas and Nike but other Chinese brands, particularly Li-Ning, named after the athlete who became a gymnast star at the 1984 summer Olympics in Los Angeles...
“Li-Ning is an interesting case because going back five years, Li-Ning overexpanded its retail footprint in China and tried too hard to copy Nike,” says Cavender. “The Li-Ning of 2019 is in a much stronger place. It has embraced being a Chinese brand with unique Chinese design characteristics and has been setting the internet on fire with its streetwear.”
He notes how Li-Ning had to scale back and reevaluate before achieving a resurgence. Thanks to those efforts, the company is now booming, with profits in the first half of 2019 nearly tripling. Its rise has been reflected in Li-Ning’s share price, which has risen around 170% since June 2018, compared to just over 50% for Anta...
 Although Anta seems to have positioned itself well, there are still many hurdles ahead to achieve global success. The company is likely to benefit in the run-up to the next Winter Olympics, but it needs to be careful not to repeat the mistakes of Li-Ning and make sure it masters the mainland China market first. “Companies like Nike are effectively marketing organizations that happen to sell shoes, so it is very difficult for an outsider to break into that top position in the market,” says Cavender, noting that it may take some time for Anta to be in a position to compete globally.

More in the Fair Observer.

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2016: when China´s consumers went crazy for sports - Jeffrey Towson

Jeffrey Towson

Peking University business professor Jeffrey Towson notes at his LinkedIn page that many consumers at the Beijing subway have started to wear sports wear. Adidas is one of the winners in a convincing trend towards a healthier lifestyle, he argues. Although he expects this catches on among women more than smoking men.

Jeffrey Towson:

First: This is a sportswear fashion fad and it is great for companies like Adidas. 

The best symbol of this fad is Adidas AG, which is opening China stores at a frantic pace. The German sportswear company has about 9,000 China stores now. And they booked China revenue of $2.5 billion last year, up 18% from the previous year. 

In March 2016, Adidas announced plans to open 3,000 more China stores in the next five years. And they will double the number of China cities in which they operate. This makes them one of the most aggressive retailers in China right now. Nike and Under Amour are also popular foreign brands and are benefiting from this fad. 

However, it is worth remembering that just 2-3 years ago sportswear companies, particularly Li Ning and Anta, were struggling. Many were booking losses and accumulating inventory. Li Ning has now reported revenue up 13% year-on-year and their previous losses have turned to a profit (albeit a small one). 

Overall, this fad is good news. But one should be careful not to mistake it for a longer-term trend. Chinese consumers can be pretty fickle. Uniqlo (my favorite store in China) is currently selling some type of "sweat pants-meets-jeans" hybrid, which you're supposed to wear as regular clothes. It's weird. 

Second: The movement towards healthier living by Chinese consumers is a real long-term trend. But right now this could just be Chinese moms. 

The McKinsey 2016 China Consumer report had some nice numbers on the increasing focus on "healthy living" across China. Having interviewed +10,000 consumers in 44 cities, they found the middle class is focusing more on eating healthier and safer food, practicing preventive medicine and participating in sports. 

In the near-term, this trend is showing up as a decreased preference for Western fast food (bad for KFC), less drinking of soda (bad for Coke) and more foreign vitamins and milk powder (good for Nestle). Longer-term this should also lead to more exercise, more healthcare and premiums for quality goods. 

However, I suspect this trend today is still mostly about Chinese wives and moms. This is the group that cares most about health and safety - and they also control most of the household spending. It is worth keeping in mind that while only 2-3% of Chinese women smoke, +66% of Chinese men will still start smoking. Healthy living is probably more a female phenomenon overall.

More at Jeffrew Towson´s LinkedIn page.

Jeffrey Towson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

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How Adidas beats Nike in China - James Roy

James Roy

After the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 Adidas lost traction in China. But it has come back, and is even beating Nike in the second-largest sports wear market. Retail analyst James Roy tells Quartz how Adidas did that.

Quartz:

Adidas can take heart in one important metric: the speed of its market share growth in the Greater China region (which includes Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan). There, at least, Adidas has outperformed Nike—and significantly closed the gap. From the beginning of 2011 to the start of 2015, Adidas improved from 8.5% to 13.8% of market share, compared to 11.2% to 14.3% for Nike, according to Euromonitor. 

That’s important because, after the United States, China has the world’s largest sportswear market, well ahead of Japan, Brazil, and Germany. In the first nine months of last year, Adidas’s sales in Greater China grew 18.4% compared to 2014. 

Adidas lost ground in China when it experienced oversupply problems following the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which didn’t spur market growth as much as anticipated. But the company “caught up pretty impressively over the last five years” James Roy, a retail analyst with China Market Research Group, told Quartz. It accomplished this partly, he said, by tightening links with sellers to ensure it was “resupplying the products that were really selling the best.”

More in Quartz.

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What is cool in China (not Apple) - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

Shanghai-based Retail analyst Shaun Rein takes Reuters on a cool brand tour in his city, as Apple keeps on losing its position. A few of the winners in this entertaining video: Starbucks and Adidas. 

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.   

China Weekly Hangout 

China’s new visa system is on the agenda of the +China Weekly Hangout coming Thursday 12 September. The system kicked in on September 1, and many questions have already been raised. In the hangout we try to answer questions, as far as possible in such an early phase. Read here our initial announcement or register here at our event page. 

Are foreign firms having a hard time in China, the China Weekly Hangout asked on August 22. Western journalists focus on Western firms in China, that might be fair, but they ignore China's real challenges argue Janet Carmosky and +Richard Brubaker, moderated by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.

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Why Adidas is overtaking Nike - Ben Cavender

Ben Cavender

Adidas is gaining ground on the China market leader for sport articles. While Nike focuses on the big stars, Adidas is winning because of a marketing strategy that focuses much more on the lifestyle of ordinary users, tells retail analyst Ben Cavender in AdAge. 

AdAge:

Online, Adidas has featured female sports groups from across China. It invested heavily in TV, with an ad showing Chinese women running, dancing and doing parkour. 

It's a smart strategy, said Ben Cavender, associate principal at China Market Research Group. Featuring nontraditional activities like dance and badminton, which can be done in small groups, helps connect with less sporty consumers who may feel intimidated at a gym. 

Nike's marketing in China, meanwhile, remains driven by sports stars like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. Messaging highlights the technical performance of Nike products, which consumers find to be cool, but "there's no emotional connection for them," Mr. Cavender said. "They're failing to grab people's interest on a more visceral level."

More in AdAge.

Ben Cavender is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

China Weekly Hangout

Figuring out what China's consumers want is not always easy. On June 20, the +China Weekly Hangout asked "What do Chinese tourists want?" +Roy Graff  of +ChinaContact joined us to discuss the increasingly diversifying market of Chinese tourists. And yes, there is no longer one answer for basic questions. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.

The China Weekly Hangout is going to resume today with an open office session where you can participate to help to set the agenda. You can join by registering here, or read our initial announcement here.

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Nike shifts focus to China for sales - Shaun Rein

Image via CrunchBase

Nike, the world's largest manufacturer of athletic shoes, is shifting its attention for sales to Asia and especially China. With success, tells Shaun Rein BusinessWeek:

Chief Executive Officer Mark Parker is counting on China and emerging markets to provide the most growth over the next five years as Nike gets 65 percent of sales outside North America. The company has widened its lead in China over Adidas AG by expanding in cities beyond Beijing and Shanghai, said analyst Shaun Rein.

“As consumers are getting whttp://www.china-speakers-bureau.com/profiles/940592.htmlealthier here they are buying special items for the gym, for the weekend, for going out,” Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai, said in a phone interview today. “Nike are doing the best because they have the best brand loyalty.”

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