“Until 2002, I had no idea how sports shoes were even made,” jokes Jason Guo Jianxin, COO of Li Ning. “I had to learn the sports business from zero.”
This obviously hasn’t held Guo, or Li Ning, back. The Guangdong-born man’s fast-track promotion from IT manager to COO mirrors the sportswear brand’s slogan ‘Anything is possible’.
This obviously hasn’t held Guo, or Li Ning, back. The Guangdong-born man’s fast-track promotion from IT manager to COO mirrors the sportswear brand’s slogan ‘Anything is possible’.
Launched in 1989 by Chinese Olympic gold medallist Li Ning, today the brand ranks number 15 in Asia and number two in China, up to now virtually its only market. Guo says there is still huge potential in China, the fastest-growing market in the world for sports apparel. The Olympics, and the rise of lower-tier cities, mean there is still plenty to play for at home.
More recently, however, Li Ning’s overseas ambitions have been making the headlines. The brand recently opened its first Singapore outlet and plans to open dozens of shops in Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia by the end of 2009.
Disappointingly, Guo is not dressed in Li Ning sports gear. In fact, he has a look more reminiscent of his former career in computer programming. No-nonsense and businesslike, Guo joined Li Ning as an IT manager in 1997. He was promoted to production director, then operations VP. Now, as COO, his role includes heading up marketing, sales and e-commerce.
Guo points to the badminton market as an example of the brand’s success in China. Li Ning agreed a sponsorship deal with the Chinese national badminton team in April. The deal saw Li Ning oust the team’s previous sponsor, Japanese brand Yonex, the dominant player in the badminton market. “There are over 300 million badminton lovers in China. If we can expand our business in badminton, it can be a huge, profitable market in itself,” says Guo.
Li Ning is repeating the strategy in Singapore, signing a deal to sponsor the city-state’s badminton team. Guo calls Singapore a “badminton paradise”, and sports analysts expect Li Ning to focus on such ‘Asia-friendly’ sports to build a niche in the region. Marcus Luer, CEO of Total Sports Asia, says that the deal with the Chinese team, which is the world number one, will be a “powerful tool to build up brand credibility” overseas.
Guo says the main challenge Li Ning now faces is competition from established international brands, dismissing the pretensions of local rivals such as Anta and Peak. “We are still learning from Nike and adidas - especially from Nike in term of its sales and marketing. Although there are a number of local sports brands in China, in terms of growth and their operational and organisational ability, we don’t see them as competitors.”
To boost its presence, this year Li Ning has invested in campaigns for basketball, track-and-field and women’s training, and has signed up two-time Olympic pole vault gold medallist Yelena Isinbayeva as its brand ambassador.
The brand has been helped by the downturn, which has hit the global players but been more muted in China. According to Carat China, Li Ning’s adspend in the first half jumped 16.5 per cent to Rmb 286 million (US$42 million); Nike’s dropped by 74 per cent to Rmb 208 million. “The financial crisis hit the export-oriented enterprises in the costal cities, but it didn’t affect Central, Western and Northern China so much, and Li Ning has the most market presence and opportunities in these parts of China,” explains Guo.
One potential stumbling block in Li Ning’s desire to expand overseas is the perception of it as a copycat brand. After all, ‘Anything is possible’ is surprisingly similar to adidas’ ‘Impossible is nothing’, and the Li Ning logo bears more than a passing resemblance to the Nike ‘swoosh’. When asked about the similarities, Guo has his answers well prepared. The logo he attributes to a Guangzhou design company (it is a combination of a letter ‘L’, a floating national flag and a squirrel’s tail, symbolising balance).
He adds: “We came up with ‘Anything is possible’ in 2002 through a brainstorming exercise with a research company, which produced several versions of the slogan. We then did some research and consumers picked ‘Anything is possible’. Adidas came up with ‘Impossible is nothing’ in 2004. If anything, we should be the ones feeling bitter,” he jokes.
Is that enough to convince the world’s consumers? Given Li Ning’s ambitions, the next few years should provide an answer.
Jason Guo Jianxin’s CV
2006 Vice-president and chief operating officer, Li-Ning
2005 Vice-president of operations, Li Ning
2002 Production director, Li Ning, Beijing
1997 IT department manager, Li Ning, Hubei Province, China
This article was originally published in 13 August 2009 issue of Media.