Can Anta create the next FILA?
Whenever Anta makes an acquisition, this question will be asked. During the time when FILA "stalled", the discussion was particularly intense. As far as Anta is concerned, if FILA does not focus on the high-end market, and only rely on Anta's main brand that takes the path of the public, its narrative of "super Adi catches up with Nike" will have to be postponed. But for FILA, to continue to be valued by the Group, it has to continue to prove its worth.
From 2019 to 2022, the year-on-year growth rate of FILA has slowed down significantly due to the base and other reasons. At that time, some people in the industry said frankly that FILA, as a positioning of "high-end sports fashion", has been opening stores in the sinking market, but because of price constraints, it has basically touched the ceiling of channel expansion. In August 2023, Anta disclosed its semi-annual report, and FILA finally handed over a report card of growth recovery: revenue increased by 13% year-on-year5% to 122$2.9 billion.
What happened to FILA in the past two years and how did it return to growth?Recently, Shijie chatted with Shi Rui, vice president of marketing of FILA Greater China, about the above issues. On the same day, FILA was holding a high-level sports down release show at Jilin Songhua Lake Ski Resort, and the new spokesperson Yang Mi made his first public appearance. "The official announcement of Yang Mi is the first step for FILA to achieve the goal of 50 billion. A number of FILA employees told City Boundary.
City Boundary: What did the management do during the time when FILA stalled?
Shi Rui:After almost two years of discussion within the group, the core issue was how to restore FILA's growth without damaging the brand's tonality. In the end, the conclusion of the decision was three keywords, high-end, sports, fashion, no matter what happens, this positioning will not change again.
City boundary: These three words were determined at the beginning of Anta's acquisition of FILA. Why revisit it now?
Shi Rui:Compared to then, the volume of FILA is completely different from that time. We're thinking more about how to grow without compromising the future of the brand. After the general direction was determined, three principles were set for FILA:
First, the things that sink blindly, FILA will not do.
Second, the future growth of FILA depends on incremental stock. In addition to the new users, we also have 13 million registered users, and we need to serve these users well.
For example, FILA's membership system is divided into four levels, the most basic is blue card members, and then red cards, platinum cards, and black cards, and the corresponding consumption amounts and membership rights are different, for example, the black card is a half-year consumption of more than 20,000 yuan. Now they are talking about mining stocks, and what FILA wants to do is to let more ordinary registered users upgrade to platinum cards and black cards.
Third, the so-called "cost-effective goods", we will not do. What FILA wants to do is to "heart-to-price" products, so that consumers can feel the value by matching services and user experience, and pay more attention to the user's consumption experience.
City boundary: Is there a specific portrait of the stock to be excavated by FILA?
Shi Rui:At present, the ratio of men to women in FILA's consumer group is 4:6, and female users pay more attention to fashion leadership. This is also a big background for us to sign Yang Mi. The sports shoes and apparel market is not enough to meet the demands of women's sports aesthetics, and this part of the market means opportunities.
City boundary: In addition to looking backwards, did the group's management look forward and review why FILA stalled?
Shi Rui:It's more about the environment. Some of the international sports brands that FILA benchmarked were not only stalled, but even had negative growth.
Cityboundary: What did FILA do from stalling to resuming growth?
Shi Rui:We've done a lot of things, from online to offline. Among them, the "Lighthouse Plan" led by the marketing department has also been more strictly implemented and promoted. The core is the first elite movement, and the fashion leads the first. According to the plan, we will spend the most resources on building the "high-end" mentality of the brand, focusing on tennis, golf and ski tracks at the level of product design and marketing, and then opening big stores in high-end business districts to improve performance.
City boundary: What exactly does the "Lighthouse Project" mean?Why did you come up with this plan?
Shi Rui:I made an analogy with the group at the time. In the vast majority of cases, the melting of snow-capped mountains begins at the top of the mountain. In other words, the bottom is not the problem, the top is.
Therefore, the main purpose of the "Lighthouse Project" is to use the greatest resources, including products, marketing, etc., to establish the brand mind of FILA from "above".
The "Lighthouse Project" has two aspects, three "elite sports" - tennis, golf, and elite running, and four leading - leading the combination of art and sports, leading the top channels, leading the spokesperson, and leading the footwear innovation. It was proposed at the end of 2022.
City Boundary: Yang Mi is the first step in this planWhy choose her?
Shi Rui:Yes. Yang Mi's influence in fashion is undoubted, and we hope that through Yang Mi's creativity in dressing, we can feed back FILA's Italian aesthetics, and then the two sides will co-create.
FILA spokesperson Yang Mi).
In addition, FILA is also building a spokesperson matrix in accordance with the first-line luxury brands. Not long ago, FILA officially announced Hailey Bieber as a global brand ambassador, and in China, Yang Mi can be the counterpart. FILA hopes to lead the way through their diverse outfits and free spirit.
City boundary: The time node of FILA's official announcement of Yang Mi was chosen on November 10. On this year's Double 11 Tmall sports brand sales list, FILA surpassed Anta to take second place, is it related to this?
Shi Rui:Throughout Double 11, FILA has been talking about brand power, commodity power, and retail power, and the success of Double 11 is mainly due to the success of these three joint forces. In addition, FILA also did a lot of big marketing events during the Double 11 period, such as the official announcement of Yang Mi.
City: Is FILA trying to make itself a luxury item in the sports world?
Shi Rui:To be precise, FILA wants to follow the lifestyle of high-net-worth individuals. Like tennis, golf, skiing, it's all the same.
City boundary: In addition to the three "elite sports", FILA is also making efforts to ski, why these four directions?Is it to avoid direct competition with Nike and Adi?
Shi Rui:Tennis, golf and skiing, FILA has DNA in all three. For example, Fila signed tennis players in 1975, entered professional golf in 1979, and launched the Snow Time line of ski wear in 1981. We chose to run because FILA saw the market space from it, and we found that there are very few brands on the market that are both functional and beautiful, and there is a lot of room for more than 1,000 yuan.
City Boundary: There are already many professional veteran players in these tracks, what are the advantages of FILA entering at this time?
Shi Rui:FILA's strength lies in its combination of sporty functionality and stylish style. When the sports and fashion track was still very young, Fila saw the right time to enter and then made the track bigger and bigger. The same is true now.
City: The fashion outlet is often changing, FILA does sports fashion, how to grasp the wind direction?
Shi Rui:We have a cross-play. Currently, we are in close contact with Global FILA, but FILA operates independently throughout the Greater China region. We have seven studios around the world, including Korea, Japan, Amsterdam, Italy, and more.
The role of overseas studios is to borrow local design capabilities to create individual collections of FILA, such as Milanese collections, sports collections, and high-end women's collections. Because it is not in China, it will not be bound by the Chinese market. At the same time, FILA's planning department is all in China, so we can better understand and grasp Chinese trends and export them to foreign designers.
In addition, after the epidemic is released, FILA China also pays more attention to the integration with Global FILA, and if Global FILA has products, series, and marketing promotion suitable for the Chinese market, we will also promote the implementation.
City boundary: Compared with ordinary shoes and clothing, niche fields such as tennis, golf, and skiing have higher functional requirements for shoes and clothing. Will FILA's sports + fashion style still work?
Shi Rui:Whether it is the three "elite sports" or running, FILA is not going to rub this track, nor to rub this scene, but really focus on doing it.
Take golf, for example. The core population of the existing traditional golf brands is in their 40s, mainly male. For so long, these brands haven't thought about changing anything in the past because golf is relatively niche. But today is different.
Now, more and more young people have entered this field, and the whole track is showing a trend of fashion + professionalism, and many old brands may not be able to grasp the trend. At this time, FILA, as a brand with a strong sense of design, entered this track, and designed clothes that are completely different from traditional clothing, with different wearing experience and external aesthetics, can become a game-breaker.
Of course, we don't compete with old brands for professional equipment, such as golf clubs, but focus more on clothing. We will put a sense of design, aesthetics and professionalism equally important.
City boundary: How does FILA enter these fields, how to balance the relationship between niche areas and the mass market?
Shi Rui:The logic of FILA is to enter a new field as a game-breaker, and by adding fashion elements, the new field will become relatively mainstream from a niche to a relatively mainstream, and then because FILA is the first to do it, it can become a leader.
When the sports fashion track was very small, FILA also paid attention to it very early, and then went in to make the track bigger.
Author |Dan Li, edChen Fang).