In July last year, there was a sudden rainstorm in Henan. Red Star Hongxing Erke made a low-key donation of 50 million yuan in the predicament of the company's net loss, which also brought this old domestic sports brand, which was fading in the eyes of the public, back to the consumer's field of vision, triggering a wave of "wild consumption". The online live broadcast room and offline physical stores were out of stock one after another;
Recently, a fire pushed the red star Hongxing Erke to the peak of public opinion. At the end of April, Xintai Yongsheng, the cooperative factory of Red Star Hongxing Erke, was affected by local fire, and its equipment was damaged, so the products could not be delivered as scheduled. After the brand was informed, it did not pursue the responsibility for breach of contract, but coordinated the manpower and material resources for disaster relief and reconstruction at the first time to help the affected factories tide over the difficulties. Once the news was reported, it quickly triggered widespread discussion and won praise from netizens. Positive comments such as "the light of domestic products" and "the enterprise with conscience" have once again enhanced the brand discourse right.
Then, for Red Star Hongxing Erke, a 20-year-old brand, how to make use of the existing brand size, create product potential energy, realize brand rejuvenation and accumulate more loyal users has become a thorny problem it is currently facing.
The tortuous road to revival
In fact, when it comes to brand rejuvenation, Red Star Hongxing Erke is not without action.
Around 2008, influenced by the sports craze of Beijing Olympic Games, Red Star Hongxing Erke miscalculated the sales volume and blindly expanded production under the situation of rapid market expansion, resulting in the late inventory backlog and declining performance. Since then, under the influence of the global financial crisis and the company's internal economic situation, Hongxing Hongxing Erke has been tired of inventory and has been caught in a low price trap for a long time.
In fact, judging from the products launched by Red Star Hongxing Erke at present, the prices of its basic products range from 50 yuan to 60 yuan to 200 yuan, and only a few newly released technology products are in 400 yuan to 500 yuan. It can be seen that it has not got rid of the influence of long-term low-price strategy.
Hongxing keer Taobao fangguan flagship shop
This effect is more obvious when comparing the revenue of other domestic sports brands. From 2009 to 2020, the revenue ranking of Red Star Hongxing Erke has been at the bottom of similar brands, which is 300% different from the growth rate of Anta with the highest revenue, which is enough to show that the brand rejuvenation of Red Star Hongxing Erke is imminent.
Revenue comparison of some domestic sports brands in 2009-2020/Netease Wenchuang
Until 20 19, hongxing erke, which focused on product and channel development, finally turned its attention to brand building and decided to operate the brand.
At the beginning of 2020, Red Star Hongxing Erke launched a brand-new strategy of "National Wind New Technology" under the momentum of the rise of the national tide, and launched a unified image standard in stores across the country. In August, it released a brand-new black technology "bomb technology", aiming at serving the healthy life of the public with the concept of shock absorption.
However, this new technology was quickly questioned by running shoe lovers, because the technology used in Li Ning's "Ghost Running Shoes" collapsed one day before it was released. Although one is a material buffer and the other is a structural buffer, the coincidence of such an uncommon word crash has forced Red Star Hongxing Erke to fail miserably on the road of implementing the new strategy.
Li Ning and Hongxing Hongxing Erke officially announced Weibo.
Since then, Red Star Hongxing Erke has also launched the domestic IP joint brand plan, and successively cooperated with excellent domestic IPs such as Yiren, the glory of the king and Henan Pavilion to add traditional national wind elements to sports products, in order to win the favor of national wind lovers.
However, judging from the notice released by the official flagship store of Red Star Hongxing Erke Taobao, the product design is mixed. The emergence of some products is not so much a joint product sold to consumers as a derivative creation of simple superposition of clothing and IP, which is really difficult to attract the attention of personalized consumers.
Hongxing keer Taobao fangguan flagship shop
In addition to product research and development, Hongxing Hongxing Erke also has a layout in brand marketing, but it seems that it is still in a state where it can't find a power point.
It is understood that the marketing team of Red Star Hongxing Erke consists of about 40 young people born after 1995. Although its active thinking and keen insight into current events can build a more convenient bridge for the brand to communicate with consumers on social media, the lack of cooperation and protection from a mature external public relations team will inevitably bring unnecessary disputes to the brand.
For example, this year, Red Star Hongxing Erke and the glory of the king jointly planned a joint publicity campaign. Due to the unprofessional operators in Weibo, the news was announced in advance, which led to the fermentation and diffusion of negative public opinion and brought bad influence to both brands.
Red Star Hongxing Erke Official Weibo
Hongxing keer Taobao fangguan flagship shop
Strictly speaking, Red Star Hongxing Erke has only had formal cooperation with five celebrity artists since its establishment, namely, Cindy, the daughter of Jordan chan, Anglenala, Tiger Hu, Vin and Tian Liang. Recently, Red Star also signed a contract with marathon runner Li, which seems to have planned the layout of the horse racing field. However, in terms of the number and flow of spokespersons, Hongxing Hongxing Erke is far less than Li Ning and Anta, two sports brands. If it is said that it is intended to avoid the flow of artists and hope to bind the brand with the professional image of entrepreneurs and athletes, it seems that it has not achieved the effect of differentiated image building.
It can be said that the road to revival of Red Star Hongxing Erke is not easy.
The old horse crouched and was reborn.
To sum up, Red Star Hongxing Erke is currently focusing on the parallel route of "new domestic products+technology". "New domestic products" is to practice the differentiation strategy that the brand has been focusing on with new ideas and avoid homogenization with the same type of brands; "Technology" is to meet the equipment needs of professional athletes.
In this case, we might as well start from the product end and marketing end, and around these two points, see what other aspects of Red Star Hongxing Erke can be improved.
At the level of product research and development, the current problem of Red Star Hongxing Erke is that the product structure is not clear enough, ranging from dozens to hundreds, from trendy to nostalgic products. On the surface, this covers all the population and meets the general needs of the public. In a deeper sense, pleasing all consumers is obviously beyond the power of brands. It is precisely because the brand lacks a clear target group positioning that this result is caused.
To solve this problem, as an old brand that is difficult to reshape as a whole, Hongxing Hongxing Erke can cut in from the market segment, choose a market that is conducive to development to segment people, create one or several young sub-brands or series, and concentrate marketing resources such as manpower, material resources and financial resources on this market segment. When the market is mature, it will expand from part to whole and feed back the original brand.
In the past cases of the revival of old brands, Baique Ling is an example of retaking the domestic skin care market with its products such as Sanshenghua, Yun Qi and Haimi, which mainly focus on young people and high-end markets.
For Red Star Kerr, in the field of national tide, brands can launch low-end lines suitable for daily leisure and high-end lines suitable for formal occasions on the basis of existing IP joint names; In the field of sports science and technology, focus on developing higher-end materials and structures, and build product moats with more professional technology.
In addition, the design and innovation of products are also slightly insufficient, which is reflected in the lack of explosions and head products in many products of Red Star Hongxing Erke. Just as "Wade Road" is to Li Ning and "Air Force" is to Nike, these are important sources of brand attraction and growth, and also important IP for its sustainable development.
For Red Star Hongxing Erke, the best-selling product at present is still the classic cheap mesh breathable shoes, which obviously cannot provide further growth momentum for the brand. Therefore, the development and promotion of one or more explosive products is also an urgent problem for Red Star Hongxing Erke.
On the basis of building product strength and facing fierce competition among brands, how can Hongxing Hongxing Erke further consolidate consumers' minds and enhance brand value? The following points may provide some reference for Red Star Hongxing Erke from the marketing level:
1, expand the scene touch around the core positioning of the product.
With products and popularity, how to attract consumers? For an old brand like Red Star Hongxing Erke, it is particularly important to arrive at the scene.
Take domestic products as an example. Why do consumers use domestic products? That must have produced a scene related to domestic products. Last year's epidemic, donations for disaster relief and this year's fire disaster relief actually mobilized consumers' patriotic enthusiasm. But such a scene is accidental after all, and brands can't take this opportunity to deliberately rub hot spots, otherwise it will inevitably arouse consumers' resentment.
At present, the consumption background of domestic products is more reflected in Chinese people's confidence in traditional culture and the trend of combining the old with the new. Therefore, when promoting the brand, they can seize the available nodes to tell the story of the brand and culture, or hold special events around a specific cultural IP. In the daily sales scene, we can start with the style creation of live broadcast rooms and offline stores, get through consumers' awareness of product usage scenes online and offline, and continuously deepen the brand connotation.
For example, the co-branded shoes and clothing launched by Hong Xingerke and the glory of the king, in addition to absorbing the fans of the original game, Hong Xingerke can also launch online friendly matches, online creative competitions or "looking for China cultural elements in the glory of the king's role" around the glory of the king to further spread the co-branded effect.
2. In-depth shaping of entrepreneur image
An influential spokesperson will not only affect the brand image, but also empower the brand growth from a deep level. Elon Musk showed his bold and innovative side through social media, and Lei Jun enhanced the personal design of the strugglers through speeches and interviews. Their personal tagging further attracted users' empathy for the brand, thus enhancing users' stickiness.
Since Red Star has avoided the choice of traffic artists and focused on creating the personal influence of entrepreneurs, the brand may wish to further deepen the image of its boss Wu with reference to the marketing methods of the above-mentioned brand founders.
Previously, Wu appeared in the official live broadcast room of Red Star, showing a simple and cordial side, and his patriotic image attracted the attention and love of many consumers. Based on this, the brand can establish a stronger personal image for entrepreneurs through social media operation, interviews, event marketing and other ways, so that their individuals can be deeply bound with the brand and create the value of their personal brands.
Red Star Keer Tik Tok Live Studio
3. Build an influential community.
For traditional brands, the era of mass communication is over, and community communication is becoming the mainstream of communication between brands and users. From the NRC community founded by Nike with the theme of running, to the Xiaomi home built by Xiaomi for users, and then to the exchange center where Weilai grows together with users, these are important channels for brands to maintain close communication with users and enhance trust.
User * * * Zhuang is really what Red Star is doing. It is understood that users have participated in the brand, products and services of Red Star Hongxing Erke. At the beginning of March, Red Star Hongxing Erke launched the "Youth Creative Design Competition", aiming at absorbing the creative power of young people and embracing young consumer groups.
Red Star Hongxing Erke "Youth Creative Design Competition"
On this basis, Ding Jun believes that Red Star Hongxing Erke can carry out some happy running or new product experience activities for brand users based on its own sports attributes, which can not only optimize products, but also make brands better integrate into users and realize consumer-oriented private domain operation.
On public social media such as Weibo, Red Star Hongxing Erke can also find a niche KOL that is consistent with the brand positioning, and get through a specific circle through simple publicity or in-depth cooperation, thus forming a wide spread in a specific field.
The road to the revival of time-honored brands cannot be achieved overnight, and it needs long-term and all-round persistence. For Hongxing Erke, the outstanding patriotic image is the first step for him to re-enter the consumer's field of vision. Next, how to contact mainstream consumers from products, brands and channels is a difficult problem that Red Star Hongxing Erke has to overcome. Faced with this, what kind of answer sheet will Hong Xingerke, who is about to be 22 years old, hand over? We will wait and see.