What Happened 16 Months After Lining Burst Red?

When it comes to the tide of the country, it is hard for people not to think of "Lining", or rather, "China Lining" ("China Lining") is the sports fashion series launched by Lining in 2018. But in fact, when people talk about Lining's brand, the key words mentioned in the past are "gymnastic Prince", "signing Wade" and "sponsoring CBA". In the eyes of most people, Lining is a traditional Chinese sports brand with ups and downs for thirty years.

When it comes to "China Lining", it is another scene that comes to mind. Last February in New York fashion week, a tomato scrambled egg with "Chinese Lining" four words appeared. Everything began to become different. At one time, the four words of "China Lining" were spontaneously transmitted on social media such as micro-blog, WeChat and Instagram. Lining's "successful transformation" and Lining's "changing tide" and "enough burning" were constantly flashing in the dialogue among fashion consumers, especially young people.

The "national tide", which has been promoted by the niche designer brand, has evolved into a tornado at a high speed under the impetus of "China Lining". Of course, Li Ning Co is the biggest beneficiary. Since February 2018, the share price of Li Ning Co listed in Hongkong has risen by about 208% so far. What is particularly noteworthy is that after the year of "China Lining" detonating social media, the growth of Lining's performance has not slowed down, but has continued to accelerate.

According to the Earnings Preview announcement issued by Li Ning Co in June 25th, the company's net profit increased by less than 440 million yuan over the first six months of June 30, 2019 compared with 269 million yuan in the same period last year, an increase of over 160% over the same period last year. Lining's share price rose nearly 20% on the day before that day. In July 2nd, the company's share price reached HK $19.08 after opening, hitting a new high since 2011. This may prove that the success of "China Lining" is not a flash in the pan, and the road ahead will be wider and wider.

So how did the concept of "China Lining" come up? How did it become a new representative of the "national tide" from a concept, and evolved a new and sustainable business that firmly grasped the young people?

　 "China Lining" did not come out overnight.

Many people know that "China Lining" is from the February 2018 New York fashion week, when Tmall and the American Fashion Designers Association (CFDA) Co sponsored the "Tmall China day" event. As the only Chinese sports brand, Lining went out with the Taiping bird, Edison Chan's own brand CLOT and the independent designer Chen Peng.

The sensational effect and chain reaction of Lining's New York fashion week's debut are probably not expected by the brand. For a while, tomato and scrambled egg clothing, Tiger Crane double shaped sweater, 2-Ace, butterfly shoes and other show became the same as the explosion. Tmall sold one minute online. In addition to hot sales, social media is also being brushed by "China Lining". During the four days after the end of the product exposure, micro-blog and micro-blog talked about 78 million of the topic, and 19 articles read more than 100 thousand on WeChat.

In fact, the concept of "China Lining" has already appeared before the fashion week in New York. At the end of October 2017, Lining put forward "China Lining" for the first time in the official WeChat public. Subsequently, the brand created two topics: micro-blog, China, Lining and Lining. The topic of China Lining original is mainly in line with Tmall's double eleven global carnival. Through dialogue with Li Ningchan designers and staff, the products are introduced. In the dialogue, designers repeatedly stressed "the original endorsement for Lining" and "do China's". At the same time, Lining launched the "China Lining" cultural shirt, the impressive "China Lining" red four character logo appeared for the first time.

Speaking of why we would think of "China Lining" printed on the chest, Lining himself said, "I used to represent China in competition. When I introduced me, I said" China-LiNing ", and there was no other language, so we wanted to integrate Chinese culture, sports and fashion. As a Chinese seal, it was enough to write" China Lining ". At that time, "China Lining" has not yet become a new series or sub brand, but also has cultural and spiritual significance. That is to say, it is Lining of China.

Lining's trend and younger trend should be traced back to the earlier 2015. At that time, Lining himself just returned. In the past few years, the depressed Li Ning Co need to be transformed urgently. Lining brand is considered to be farther and farther away from the young people. In order to meet the needs and needs of young people, Li Ning Co began to do a lot of research on young consumers, and the brand strategy changed from then on, and began to develop in a more fashion direction.

　　 How does "China Lining" become a sustainable good business?

The success of the fashion week in New York has enabled the long-awaited "China Lining" to accelerate the evolution from concept to sustainable business. In June 2018 and February 2019, Lining went on to the fashion week of Paris and New York fashion week, respectively, with the theme of "Chinese Lining" and "Xing".

In the Li Ning Co annual performance meeting 2018 and the mid term performance conference in 2018, the iconic "China Lining" four characters are placed in a striking position. It is conceivable that the "China Lining" series is of importance to the reshaping of Lining's entire brand image. In 2018, the total sales volume of the "China Lining" clothing series exceeded 5 million 500 thousand, and the shoe series sold more than 50 thousand, and the new products sold out more than 70%. Under the "Chinese Lining" series, the retail sales of Li Ning Co sports fashion category also increased by 42% over the same period last year, leading all kinds of products under Li Ningqi (29% of the basketball category growth rate, 20% of the training class growth rate).

The official said that the brand displayed the product power through the international fashion week activity, won the uncommon feedback and the word of mouth, Lining's product has become more fashionable and trend.

The "China Lining" series has become a sustainable business that can really bring huge profits. "Chinese Lining" has the brand premium capability of four words, which is obvious, and even has a pull on the premium capability of the whole "Lining" main brand.

By comparing the products of "China Lining" and "Lining", we can find that the price of "China Lining" T-shirt is around 300 yuan, and hat clothing, sweater, jacket and so on are more than 1000 yuan in 500~900 yuan, autumn and winter products, while the "Lining" T-shirt is below 100 yuan, and most of the shirts, sweaters, jackets and so on are not more than 200 yuan, and "China Lining" is more expensive than Lining. Ceng Huafeng, chief financial officer of Li Ning Co, has revealed that "China Lining" has a very high profit margin and obviously promotes the improvement of the brand premium. However, he has no intention of setting a profit target for "China Lining".

Of course, a moneymaking business does not necessarily guarantee sustainability. In March this year, Lining held the 2019 autumn and winter product conference of the fashion line in Shanghai, and first put forward the concept of "Lining fashion line", and made clear the positioning of the product line targeting the high-end market in sports fashion style. It indicated that it would set up Lining fashion independent store in several core business circles and open Tmall Lining fashion flagship store. Lining's previous fashion week series was completed by a team of designers with different product lines. After that, the "Lining fashion line" will be operated by independent teams from design, products, merchandise to sales. The concept of "China Lining" has officially become an important business line for the sustainable growth of the Lining group.

　 Different ways of "Chinese Lining" and "Lining"

With the popularity of "China Lining", many people began to wonder whether the positioning of "Lining" is the tide brand or the sports brand. In fact, the positioning of "Lining" is still a sports brand. "China Lining" series positioning is an important supplement to Li Ningzhong's high-end series. The product price is higher, the users are also different from the original brand, and the crowd is 18~25 years old, compared with the main brand, the "China Lining" consumer group is more young. Different positioning and different consumers, "Chinese Lining" and "Lining" play differently.

　　 product

From the point of view of design and production, "Lining" attaches importance to science and technology, and "China Lining" is redesigned. On the production cycle, "China Lining" is shorter. At present, the "Lining" product's new cycle is one month, and the "China Lining" product line update frequency is updated every two weeks. Li Gang, general manager of Lining fashion line, said that the new Lining fashion line will be closer to designer brand in the way of brand operation, highlighting personalization. Designer brands have their own unique design concepts. From the four overseas shows and the series of products of "China Lining", the current design concept of "China Lining" is based on the Lining movement gene, integrating Chinese culture and trend elements through practical design language in color, profile and tailoring techniques.

The "tomato scrambled egg" costume is the main trend of the retro fashion. It engraved the Chinese delegation's award dress for the 1992 Barcelona Olympic games designed by Lining, and the stunning "Songshan" sweater, presenting magnificent Chinese landscapes with ink and wash painting. In June this year, the 2020 spring and summer series introduced by Paris after the show took the national table tennis as the theme. There were table tennis patterns, racket patterns and table tennis clubs in many of the costumes. While Lining herself was the symbol of the brand, the "China Lining" series also paid tribute to many times. Lining's rings and Lining's competition numbers were repeatedly appeared on the products.

　　 Marketing

From the marketing point of view, Lining's publicity activities mainly focus on professional sports activities, including signing professional athletes (Wade, McCollum and other NBA stars, Yang Ming, He Tianju and other CBA stars, Malone, Ding Ning and other table tennis players), signing the national team (China national diving team, China shooting team, Chinese table tennis team, China badminton team, etc.) and sponsorship events (CBA, CUBA, Sudiman cup, etc.).

And Lining's fashion line publicity activities are still dominated by overseas shows, and many traffic stars are invited to participate in the Fashion Week activities, including Cai Chengyu, ah Yun, Cai Chengyu, ah Yun GA, the actress of the talent show, young actor Mao Zijun, Xu Kai Cheng, Henry Lau, Miss, Rita and so on. They all have many fans after 90 and 00. In social media promotion, Lining's fashion line also has separate official micro-blog and official WeChat -- "Lining sports fashion". Through the cooperation with traffic stars, the social concern of "Lining sports fashion" is also gradually improving. Recently, a micro-blog store's micro-blog forwarding, commenting, and commenting on more than 10 thousand have been released. A lot of fans have also expressed their love for Lining products.

　　 retail

In August 2018, the ten day "China Lining" flash shop Ning Space trend space landed in Shenzhen Vientiane world. This is the first time that the "China Lining" series has been completely presented in China after the fashion week. After that, "China Lining" began to shop under the layout line, the first store was stationed in Zhuhai HUAFA merchants, and gradually settled in a second tier city such as Harbin, Shenyang, Nanjing, Shanghai and Beijing. At present, Lining has opened more than 60 independent stores of "China Lining". Unlike Lining's main brand, Lining fashion store is mainly located in a high-end City, such as Sanlitun, Beijing and SKP, etc., and in the location selection, Lining fashion shop is located in the leisure trend floor instead of the sports floor. It is adjacent to Adidas clover, high-end sports fashion brand FILA, leisure brand Calvin Klein and so on. In the overall design and experience of the store, Lining fashion shop is the main fan of the country. Color, material, lighting and props form are different from Lining's traditional stores.

At the same time, the activities of "China Lining" flash shop are also continuing. In April of this year, "China Lining" opened a flash shop with the theme of "ink mountain shape" in Qingdao and Chengdu, and launched a series of "no less than Sichuan" series, which was sought after by local consumers.

　　 Internationalization

In the international market layout and brand internationalization, "China Lining" may be able to go farther than "Lining". As early as 1999, Li Ning Co put the "brand internationalization" on the strategic agenda. But in 2012, the flagship store ended in Hongkong, and the stores in Spain, such as Lining's Hongkong stores and authorized dealers, were also dim. The internationalization of the company was frustrated. After that, the company's business focused more on the domestic market. Lining herself said in November 2017 that Lining had not yet developed the international market plan.

With "China Lining" taking the new stance on the international stage, "China Lining" may become a stepping stone to Li Ning Co's re exploration of overseas markets. Since March 2019, the Lining fashion line has opened Showroom in New York and Paris, showing Lining to the buyer shops and shoe shops in the international market. Now it has reached more than 30 high-end buyer shops and electronic business platforms with the US trend store KITH, Italy fashion boutique LN-CC, Canadian fashion electronics SSENSE and so on.

From "top-down" to "bottom-up"

In 2010, Lining also made a young attempt, launched the advertising campaign of "post-90s Lining" and launched a more fashionable product line nationwide, but this top-down effort did not get the positive response of the "post-90s" consumers.

In contrast, the "Lining of China" in 2018 was more like a bottom-up force, and was at the forefront of the "national tide".

This bottom-up power can be understood as: in the market environment of sports and fashion consumption, the new generation of consumers value the real story and spiritual connotation behind the brand. Lining is unique in this respect. At the same time, with the increasing self-confidence of young and fashionable people, the brand of "national tide" that can convey this self-confidence is what many people expect silently. The birth and rise of "China Lining" is both a surprise and an inevitability.