Competitive Advantage of Li-Ning Company in the Sporting Goods Industry

Li-Ning has gained a competitive edge in the sporting goods industry through innovative products, marketing strategies, and sponsorship of sports teams and events. The suggested new product, Li-Ning Sporting Center, will give the company a competitive advantage against its rivals.

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MARKETING
Competitive Advantage of Li-Ning Company
Li-Ning which is one of the sporting Hong Kong listed company and a china-based
company has gained a competitive edge in footwear and sportswear industry, since in the recent
years it has experienced sustainable and, rapid growth and development especially with the great
opportunity it got during the Beijing Olympic Games, both locally and internationally. In the past
several years its number of stores for the sporting goods has increased hence increasing the sales
and income in general, which leads to narrow gap with other industry leaders like Nike and
Adidas. (Chen & Ding, 2010)
The company has the potential and opportunity to major on the targeted market segments
both mass-market leisurewear and professional-standard athletic wear through sufficient
innovative and offering unique and personalized products hence gaining market leadership both
in the domestic market and globally.
In the Chinese sporting goods market, Li-Ning is one of the companies with
comprehensive brands of sporting goods which include footwear, sportswear and sports
equipment leading to having large and wide market share. (Jin, 2009)
In terms of pricing strategy, Li-Ning broadly occupies almost all the three levels of
consumer market which are high-end market, mid-market and low-end market.
From marketing perspective, the marketing channels mainly in specialty stores and
franchise, Li-Ning sports brand has considered self-built terminal channels, retail franchise
system, regional agency and, building and establishing huge and comprehensive marketing
network which covers first, second and third-tier cities hence striving constantly in improving its
market share and getting an upper hand against its rivals in the sporting goods industry. (Hu,
2015)
For the purpose of supporting its marketing objectives like brand image and recognition
enhancement, and also increase consumer preference of their products and services, Li-Ning has
sponsored many and major domestic and international sports team and sporting events which has
enhanced brands visibility and competitiveness.
Additionally in terms of publicity strategies, Li-Ning enterprise has used brand
ambassador aimed at nurturing its targeted consumer group and creating loyal customers. For
instance, the Li-Ning company have O’neal, Lin Dan, Powell and many other sports stars who
are globally successful. (Schutte, Bhattacharyya, & Probert, 2013)
The New product for Li-Ning Company, its features and functions
The suggested new product to Li-Ning to be launched is Sports training centers in China
to be added to the company’s existing range of product lines. The product will be focused on the
sportspeople in which they can complement their footwear and sportswear for the purpose of

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training activities, in line with Li-Ning company’s mission statement as per the following core
values: ‘Burning passion with sports’, ‘a world’s leading brand in sports’, ‘win the dream,
consumer oriented, inspire and create breakthroughs‘. This product will not only be for
sportspeople but for any person especially those who need a facility in general. Since this
product will tap a wider potential clientele base, it will give Li-Ning a competitive advantage
against its competitors selling similar products like Nike and Adidas since may be they don’t
have sports centers facilities. (Yan, 2012)
The new product will be branded as Li-Ning Sporting Center, and the vision will be to
better the life of sportspeople. This business idea will support the vision by developing well-
designed and modern sporting centers in which individuals and groups of sportspeople will be
able to train and hold different sporting activities at affordable prices. The product will target all
groups of people especially the young talents involved in sporting activities, which is a
preference to them and also within their needs and expectations. Moreover, this product will be
diversified since it will target and be based on different types of sporting activities like football,
volleyball, tennis, gymnastics, etc. The Sports training centers in China will be designed in such
a way that different sporting activities can be held at a different times and seasons. The products
will also be universal in which both men and women can utilize. The products will be
innovatively and uniquely designed in order to outstand similar products from Li-Ning
competitors hence gaining a competitive edge in the product market. The Sports training centers
in China will be designed from different materials of high quality in which they will attract many
customers due to their comfortability and flexibility like shades thus enhancing customer
satisfaction. The Sports training centers in China will be designed in different ranges and variety,
for example designed by the use of modern materials and technology like having carpets hence
being fashionable, trendy and attractive to the potential consumers and also creating customer
loyalty. The sports training center will have enough spaces to accommodate as many people as
possible with comfortable seats and walking spaces. Different consumer preferences and tastes
will be put in consideration while designing and developing the sports training centers and
facilities. This will lead the Li-Ning products to dominate the product market industry. The Li-
Ning company can leverage on the available resources like their employees, therefore
minimizing their production costs especially the labor costs. The pricing of the products will be
reasonable and affordable in a manner that they can have a competitive advantage over those of
their rivals, which in turn will lead to increased demand and supply in both domestic and global
markets. Therefore, due to the high sales and profits made will make Li-Ning financially stable,
sustainable, well established world-wide and remaining relevant in the market especially on the
sporting goods and facilities industry. (Kaplan & Su, 2012)

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References
Chen, X. M., & Ding, J. W. (2010). On sport Marketing of Chinese Enterprises. Journal of
Anhui Normal University(Natural Science), 2-23.
Hu, C. (2015). Improving Competitive Advantage of Chinese Sports Brand through Brand
Management. Modern Economy, 472-475.
Jin, S. (2009). The Regional Brand of Sports Goods in Manufacture Industry Clustering in
China. Journal of Tianjin University of Sport, 63-66.
Kaplan, S., & Su, L. D. (2012). Chinese Fandom and Potential Marketing Strategies for
Expanding the Market for American Sports into China. International Journal of Sports
Marketing & Sponsorship, 7-14.
Schutte, H., Bhattacharyya, S., & Probert, J. (2013). Li-Ning lost out to foreign rivals in China.
Financial Times, 2-5.
Yan, Q. (2012). Study on the Marketing Strategy of Chinese Sports Brand. China Business &
Trade, 16-54.