1.0 Introduction
This essay will discuss the history of Lining Company Ltd. In the past 20th century, Lining was a noticeable athlete throughout the world, who was the winner of six gold medals of men’s artistic gymnastics during the 6th World Cup Competition of 1982. In 1984 Olympic Games, as the “Prince of Gymnastics”, Lining was the only athlete who got the most medals by winning one bronze medal, two silvers, and three gold, as all would expect. Then, in the year 1988, Li chose to retire from his sporting life, turning into his business career by establishing his own company as the starting point. As successful as his artistic gymnastics, Lining also outstands his business, owning his dominant sports brand enterprise which is specialized in brand marketing, design, R&D, production, retail, and distribution and so on. During the passing 22 years, Lining has made his name and fame both at home and abroad, especially the slogan of “Make the Change!”
What made Lining Company Ltd worldwide known and home recognized was the 1990’s Asian Games when Lining decided to finance the PRC national group in that sport meeting. It was the first time when a Chinese company started applying brand market. Since then, Lining brand was inaugurated as the official sportswear of the national team. However, before that, such field was taken up by other countries. Based on such successful marketing strategy, Lining’s company underwent a drastic increase of 38% in its annual sales income in that year, with its overall net profit reached to 42% and the averaged at 47%. Until now, Lining still keeps such momentum by conducting its global marketing strategies.
2. Body of Content
2.1 Company Background
Established in 1990, Lining Company Ltd gradually develops into a large Chinese athletic company in the marketing of athletic related goods, such as shoes, clothes, and sports equipments. It has a clear target consumer who specializes in or likes playing sports like basketball, badminton, football, tennis, running, and fitness etc. Besides, the company also endorses a great amount of excellent athletes and teams all over the world to promote its products.
With the worldwide recognition of Lining brand, the famous Chinese sport brand formed a joint venture with a French sports apparel enterprise AIGLE in 2005, granting Li Ning the only rights to distribute AIGLE’s products within China for about 50 years. In 2007, AIGLE further granted Lining as the president of this corporation’s board of directors.
Since its establishment, Lining Company has been projecting its expansion. In 2009, this company posted an income of US$418million with a total profit of US$39 million. 4,297 Li Ning retail stores directly owned by this company had been set up in March 2007 when other companies were still franchised. Then, in January 2010, he expanded his business to the United State by setting up a U.S. headquarters and a flagship shop in Portland, Oregon. Furthermore, in order to enlarger its U.S. circulation and brand awareness, he decided to collaborate with a Chicago-quartered Acquity Group in January 2011.
2.2 Vision & Mission Analysis
The mission of Lining Company is to become the most successful brand in the immediate sporting goods industry. The realization of this goal can not achieve without its customer. Therefore, Lining group must orient to stimulate people’s desire and power which contributes to making further breakthroughs. Under such circumstance, the value of “Live for dream, commitment, and integrity, and become consumer oriented to make breakthroughs” turns to be the core value observed by the company.
During its development, the main competition faced by Li Ning comes from some large also worldwide recognized sport brands, such as Nike, Adidas, and Pepsi. Since 1980, Nike entered China, becoming one of the dominant brands for Chinese consumer with $1 billion sales and 44.8% consumer values depended