Is the turning point of "domestic products" surpassing "imports" reached? Industry: How to build a brand is a must-answer question
China-Singapore Jingwei, October 6 (Zhao Jiaran, Lin Jian) Those young people who were obsessed with a pair of international big-name sneakers in the past are now "domestic" from head to toe.
Unconsciously, the trend of the trend has changed, and the choices of consumers have also changed.
After experiencing events such as Xinjiang cotton, the Tokyo Olympics, and heavy rains in Henan, consumers’ recognition of "domestic products" has risen rapidly; in the first half of 2021, Anta surpassed Adidas China with 22.8 billion yuan in revenue.
Is the turning point of "domestic products" surpassing "imports"?
Photographed by Zhao Jiaran, New Jingwei in the Data Map of Lining, China
Why are domestic products more and more "fragrant"
"In the past, I was always excited to grab a pair of Adidas and Nike limited edition sneakers. Now when I go shopping, I always pay attention to domestic sports brands for the first time." Mr. Yu from the "post-90s" told Zhongxin Jingwei, "In my In my impression, the design language of domestic brands now has a brand new feeling, and the styles are updated very quickly. Not only me, but also my colleagues and friends, but also often wear a'national tide style', this has become a new It's popular."
Renewal, rise, and popularity have become a new pronoun for Chinese-made sports brands in the minds of many consumers.
According to industry analysts, if people were looking up to international brands in the last era of consumer growth, then in the new consumption period of "post-90s" and "post-00s" growth, Chinese brands have gradually risen, and are even able to compete with them. International brands go hand in hand.
Consumers’ recognition of “domestic products” is rising rapidly, and they no longer turn a blind eye to the goodness of “domestic products”, which has become one of the reasons for the rise of the national trend.
Sino-Singapore Jingwei noticed that many domestic brands benefited from the out-of-circle of "domestic products" and achieved considerable growth in performance.
In the first half of 2021, Anta, Li Ning, and Xtep International had revenues of 22.812 billion yuan, 10.197 billion yuan and 4.135 billion yuan respectively. Among them, Li Ning's revenue grew the fastest, with a year-on-year growth of 65%.
Many companies also mentioned the intuitive effect of market recognition on product sales.
Li Ning stated in the semi-annual report that the gratifying results achieved by all channels in the first half of the year were “thanks to the improvement of domestic consumers’ requirements for a healthy life, and the full recognition and strong support of domestic sports brands”; Xtep said, “Mainland China Consumer preference shifts from foreign brands to domestic"; 361 Degrees stated that the increase in sales of footwear and apparel products during the reporting period was due to strong market demand for domestic products, especially after the incident of supporting the use of Xinjiang cotton, distributors were more active Place supplementary orders and pick up the goods on time.
At the same time, the news that Anta Sports' total revenue surpassed Adidas China also attracted attention on social platforms.
In the topic #安塔在线首超 Nike阿迪#, many netizens expressed their support for domestic products.
Weibo screenshot
According to media reports, Adidas CEO Casper Rosted said, "
The demand in the Chinese market is now biased towards local Chinese brands rather than global brands.
"
What is worth buying? Zhang Yuang, the head of China and Taiwan in the operation center industry, said in an interview with Sino-Singapore Jingwei that in recent years, multiple incidents have become a catalyst for consumers to pay attention to domestic brands.
"For example, in the previous Xinjiang cotton incident, many netizens summarized alternatives to foreign brands; during the recent heavy rain in Henan, domestic brands such as Hongxing Erke actively donated money, which also caused phenomenon-level topics, which obviously drove sales."
What is worth buying? According to the statistics on the site, from July 23 to September 23, 2021, two months after the Hongxing Erke donation event, compared with May 23 to July 23, the brand’s turnover in the whole site The month-on-month increase was 1460.1%, and the discussion on related topics increased by 5769.77% month-on-month.
Taking running shoes as an example, in the first three quarters of 2021, the search popularity of Li Ning running shoes increased by 40.93% year-on-year, and the total turnover of Anta running shoes increased by 52.63% year-on-year.
Zhang Yuang said that the
current major trend of domestic brands is to shift from price advantage to technological advantage
.
"In the past, people chose domestic products because the price was relatively low and they were more affordable. In the past two years, Li Ning, Anta, 316, Xtep and other sports brands have begun to promote technical and visual design, including sports backpacks and other peripheral products. Got attention."
Aiming at the Z era
"The general direction of the rise of domestic products is irreversible. Any emergencies may become the marketing hot spots for domestic brands. The era of Chinese brands is coming." Zheshang Securities once said in a research report.
As market enthusiasm heats up, domestic sports brands also need to consider how to make the feeling of "the rise of domestic products" come true.
Lin Haiyun, vice president of Xtep brand, told Sino-Singapore Jingwei that the significant increase in the company's brand recognition under the "national boom" is deeply related to the rise of my country's national strength, consumer awareness, and cultural self-confidence.
Since 2020, Xtep has made a series of attempts to focus on the "new national style", such as co-branding with Shaolin and others, and establishing a new label, XDNA.
Linkage and integration with well-known domestic IP or "cultural symbols" with Chinese characteristics is becoming the main strategic "play" adopted by domestic brands in the current "domestic product boom".
Sino-Singapore Jingwei learned from Hongxing Erke that the brand has co-branded with Guoman and Henan Museum this year. It also proposed a youth co-creation plan and signed a group of outstanding designers to launch products such as Qingming Shangheyuan joint shoes.
The relevant person in charge of Hongxing Erke said that the joint product "will take more actions next year."
Product quality has been steadily improved, and the target consumer group has become more critical.
Lin Haiyun told Sino-Singapore Jingwei that they believe that
under the "national boom", Generation Z will be the most important consumer.
"The consumption preferences of this group of Gen Z have a natural preference for domestic brands. According to back-end statistics, before and after the release of XDNA, the assets of Gen Z have increased by 105%." According to the mid-year consumption report released by Tsingshan Capital,
Z Times are people born between 1998 and 2014, and there are about 280 million people in China in Generation Z, accounting for about 18.1% of the country’s population
.
The "Tencent Post-00s Research Report" pointed out that
the young consumer groups represented by the post-00s grew up in an age when the country was strong, and their cultural self-confidence and ethnic identity were much higher than other groups.
More and more young consumers are more willing to buy domestic products.
Has the "turning point" of domestic products overtaken?
The answers of domestic sports brands have further strengthened the recognition of domestic products by major brokerages.
Dongxing Securities pointed out in its annual report that from the Xinjiang cotton incident to the recent Olympic Games, domestic brands have continued to gain consumer favor; young consumers have gradually become the mainstream of consumption, and the impact of the incident has accelerated the growth of domestic brands.
At the same time, in order to cater to consumers' functional demands for clothing, domestic brands have accelerated product upgrades and channel upgrades.
In its research report, Guojin Securities stated that in the first half of 2021, driven by the Xinjiang Cotton Incident, the National Fitness Program, and other positive external factors, the domestic sportswear leader’s own product strength and brand power have increased in recent years, and the sportswear sector has shown overall performance and estimates. The value doubles upward trend.
Since the third quarter, considering factors such as the gradual dissipation of the Xinjiang cotton incident and the rebound in consumption of international brands, the overall sportswear sector has recovered; but in the long run, local sportswear is still optimistic.
Talking about whether it can be the "turning point" for domestic brands to surpass foreign brands in 2021, Zhang Yuang believes that there is still some distance from the turning point.
"At present, everyone is still in the process of transition from recognition to acceptance. The previous Xinjiang cotton incident, Olympics and other nodes have given domestic brands the opportunity to be discovered and explored by the public, while the process of gradually changing habits of consumer groups has not been so fast. "
What needs to be admitted is that domestic and foreign sports brands still need to go further in quality assurance.
Not long ago, the Hebei Provincial Market Supervision Administration issued a notice on the results of the random inspection of product quality supervision in August. The results of the random inspection of two jackets of Li Ning and a thickened men’s windbreaker of Guirenniao were all unqualified; in June, Nike’s one This type of children’s T-shirt was listed as an unqualified "black list" by the General Administration of Customs.
In the past period of time, some local sports brands were caught in scandals such as plagiarism of foreign brands, high premiums, and poor quality. Consumers did not pay for this. This sounded the "wake-up call" for the follow-up development of domestic brands. Product quality To become an important breakthrough, innovation and research and development are needed to fully realize product quality assurance.
Sino-Singapore Jingwei noted that the investment of domestic brands in research and development is increasing.
In the first half of 2021, the cost of Anta's R&D activities accounted for 2.2% of revenue. The relevant person in charge of Anta told Sino-Singapore Jingwei that Anta plans to invest more than 4 billion yuan in R&D costs in the next five years.
Xtep’s R&D expense ratio has also increased from 2.3% in 2015 to 2.7% in 2020.
Regarding how domestic brands can cultivate high-end brands, Gao Yanmin, the former director of the Consumer Goods Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, once stated at the seminar on "High-end breakthroughs in Chinese brands: Intelligent manufacturing transformation and brand upgrading" that companies should create a timetable and specific steps for cultivating high-end brands. , Implementation plan; you can consider setting up a brand director position with considerable right to speak within the company.
"
The height of the brand depends on the quality of the product. Only when the product is upgraded can the brand be truly upgraded
."
Senior retail expert Li Yunyang told the media that consumer enthusiasm can make a brand "popular", but brands cannot expect consumer enthusiasm to support long-term revenue. After the emotions cool down, they will return to the core of products and services. Above the problem.
In recent years, domestic products have made great progress, but there is still a long way to go from "booming" to "changing", and efforts are still needed in terms of quality and innovation.
Hong Bingwen, executive vice president of Qipai Group, told Sino-Singapore Jingwei that
companies must have the ability and ideas to
innovate
and cope with the rise of the national tide
.
"From China-made to China-innovated, how to accumulate domestic brands is a must-answer question. In the future,
how to apply elements and themes with Chinese characteristics to products should be the direction for many domestic brands to think and act. There are many Chinese elements and excellent cultures that can be discovered and passed on
." (Zhongxin Jingwei APP)
(The opinions in the article are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. Investment is risky and you need to be cautious when entering the market.)
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