Viewing China's Sports Market Environment From Adidas

Gao Jiali, wearing a white shirt, looked much more gaunt than he first came to China 5 years ago. In 2014, the Malaysia people were asked to make their first make-up while taking pictures. During this year, the annual sales of Adidas Greater China, which he managed, reached 1 billion 811 million euros (about 12 billion 247 million yuan (6.1972, 0.0012, 0.02%)), an increase of 10% over the same period.

Moreover, according to Adidas's latest earnings report, this is also the fifth year sales growth of the Greater China region since the 2010 fiscal year, with a total growth rate of about 80%.

In the past 5 years, the bad news of sporting goods business in China seems to have never been interrupted. Lining, Anta, PEAK and other local brands have been deeply involved in the stock crisis and frequently shut down. Even Nike has a short wave of sales decline of 5% in the 2013 fiscal year in China. This lets Adidas This is the only major sports brand that the Chinese market has achieved sustained growth in this period.

In fact, the German enterprise has faced a crisis earlier than its competitors. After the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, Adidas was not only surpassed by Lining in the Chinese market, but also recruited as an inventory sales specialist in China's big fan enclosure, and was responsible for solving the increasingly serious inventory problem.

Therefore, Adidas actually started to seek adjustment and change in the Chinese market earlier.

Since 2010, it has regained its expansion strategy at the retail end of China. The core is to expand the offline retail outlets from 550 cities to 1400, add 2500 stores, change the previous "sell out" strategy, and Distributor Together, the product inventory is kept to a minimum.

Among them, the expansion of channels for secondary cities and small and medium-sized cities is an important step in adjustment. Adidas did not use the "Lower City" to define those 4 to 7 line cities, instead of "Future City" instead. In these markets, such as Lining, PEAK and other local brands, people's participation in sports, purchasing power and brand effect of Adidas are all increasing. Gao Jiali predicts that the future growth of 2/3 will come from these "future cities", and in 2014, 50% of Adidas's new stores are in these places.

The store owners of the "future cities" will enter the door price and medium price products. In the Chinese market with distinct consumption levels, Adidas will make different combinations of Adidas Performance, Adidas Originals and Adidas NEO Label. For example, a limited edition of Original shoes, and fashion designers Stella McCartney design trend women's products will often appear in the high-end stores in a second tier city, while in the "future market" which is not too high demand for sports professionals, consumers will be able to get more from the middle price and the style. fashion NEO, a more casual lifestyle, began contacting Adidas.

In the second tier cities with relative market saturation, Adidas also began investing in subdivision stores. "The ultimate demand for sporting goods will all be fragmented. If you mess it up there, consumers will not know what to buy when they arrive there. The training of shop assistants is also difficult to do. Basketball shoes do not necessarily understand outdoor and running. Cui Yingshan, general manager of orange light Market Consultant Co., Ltd. said to "first financial weekly".

At present, Adidas has expanded its stores in Wuhan for testing water and basketball shoes and clothing in 2012 to Shenyang, Beijing and Chengdu, and has set up first shoe stores and 3 women's stores. The number of outdoor franchised stores has increased to more than 50. Although the number of more than 80 subdivisions now accounts for only 1% of Adidas's total number of stores in China, Gao Jiali believes that they will attract consumers who already know about sports and start picking on them. "With these stores, we can retain consumers." He said to the first financial weekly.

At the same time, Adidas is also optimizing its sales system. In the traditional mode, the dealer orders to the brand and decides the style and quantity of the goods, then opens the shop to sell the consumer to himself, and the brand is responsible for selling the goods to the distributor to complete the sales task. However, in the sporting goods industry, the time interval between ordering and product listing is sometimes as long as eight or nine months. Once the dealer estimates the wrong prospect, it will generate inventory.

Adidas, which has been exhausted by inventory, is changing this pattern. It exports massive sales data from stores every day, analyzes what customers most want to buy, and provides reference for dealers ordering. Today, 10% to 15% of dealers are ordered by Adidas. These sales figures will also identify which commodities will soon be unsalable, so that stores can boost sales through marketing before they have to make price promotions.

The continued implementation of channel sinking, brand portfolio and sales management has kept Adidas growing continuously in China, but in the global market, not every region's executives can produce transcripts like Gao Jiali's.

In the 2014 fiscal year report, Adidas's operating profit dropped from 961 million euros in the 2013 fiscal year to 961 million euros, and its net income also narrowed from 825 million euros to 642 million euros. In the Western European market dominated by Adidas, Nike's shoes and clothes began to appear frequently in the best location of Foot Locker chain sporting goods shop in the street window. In fiscal year 2014, Adidas's sales growth in Western Europe was 8%, while Nike (2014 fiscal year ended May 31, 2014) was 14%.

And at Nike's home market, the North American market also encountered another rival, the former. After sales of shoes and clothing dropped by 23%, Adidas was first ranked by the rising star Under Armour, ranking third in the market.

In the key road sports consulting company CEO Zhang Qing, Adidas will focus on the presentation and sale of products, while Nike, Under Amour and other American companies pay more attention to establishing comprehensive contacts with consumers.

This idea can see one or two in Nike+. In this digital community that connects tens of millions of users, Nike first teaches people to exercise everyday and recommends them to them. product And then tell them how to use these products for better movement and data tracking.

Under Armour bought the fitness service provider MapMyFit in 2013, and acquired health data tracking applications MyFitnessPal and Endomondo this year. It is also building its own "digital ecosystem".

It's like a contest between a strict German engineer and a good marketing expert in the United States. Adidas is still doing the product in a proper way and making the management and sales of the company the best. Its American counterparts attach more importance to the communication with consumers, which makes them different in the more mature market of sports consumption. "Now people who participate in sports are more and more free to express themselves and are out of touch with social thoughts. You will soon be eliminated. But the type and cultural characteristics of ADI will cause it to slow down in this respect. Cui Yingshan said.

It is worth noting that Adidas's high score transcripts in China are not only due to Gao Jiali's diligent reform, but also to the developing and immature sports market environment. German engineers may now be ready for the real China's "future market".