Posts tagged: Li Ning

Li Ning: Make the Change

Chinese sports brand Li Ning has unveiled a new logo and slogan as it continues to pursue its global expansion aspirations.

The new slogan Make the Change replaces the previous Anything Is Possible, though the latter phrase is being kept in storage by the company for potential tactical use in the future.

According to the company, the new logo ”displays a modern interpretation of the iconic attributes of the original logo in a modern design language that spells out a global perspective.”

New Li Ning logo

New Li Ning logo

The company has long been criticized for having a logo with too much resemblance to the Nike Swoosh and for a slogan too similar to the Adidas tagline “Impossible Is Nothing.”

Well known in its home market of China for its strong distribution system and competitively priced products, Li Ning has started expanding into numerous overseas markets in Southeast Asia and the USA. It has also begun sponsorship of a handful of western athletes, including a couple of NBA basketball players and European track and field and tennis stars.

The company was founded 20 years ago by Olympian athlete Li Ning, who became an immediate Chinese sporting hero when he captured three Gold Medals in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

As we wrote in this blog back in November (see Li Ning: First Chinese Global Brand? under the categories Branding and Marketing), Li Ning wants to build the first truly global brand to emanate from China.

With this new logo and slogan, he may very well be on track to accomplishing this dream.

World’s 30 Hottest Brands

Advertising Age has selected the World’s Hottest Brands, a list of 30 brands succeeding on a global, regional, and local level.

 

According to the advertising industry’s bible, their goal was “not to create a list of the largest global marketers or rank the brands that contribute the most to their company’s market value.”

 

Instead, the publication set out to “chronicle the brands percolating at the local and regional level.”

 

Broken into global, regional, and local categories, the 30 Hottest Brands as identified in this Ad Age Insights report are:

 

Global

BMW

Coca-Cola

Facebook

H&M

Ikea

McDonald’s

Nike

Nintendo Wii

Pampers

Tesco

 

Regional

ASOC – As Seen on Screen (Europe)

The Economist (UK, Western Europe, India)

Havaianas (Brazil, South America)

Lenovo (China, USA, Europe)

MercadoLibre (South America)

Nando’s (South Africa)

Natura (Brazil, South America)

Tim Hortons (Canada, USA, Western Europe)

Uniqlo (Japan, Asia)

 

Local

Azul (Brazil)

Banco Hipotecario (Argentina)

Fullerton Bank (India)

Li Ning (China)

Mama Lucchetti (Argentina)

Manchester United (UK)

Tata Nano (India)

Tencent Holdings (China)

Tsubaki (Japan)

Zipcar (USA)

 

 

More details on this report are available from the Advertising Age website.

 

Also, the report can be viewed online or purchased.

 

What other local or regional brands do you think Ad Age has missed? Share your thoughts and comments.

 

 

Li Ning: First Global Chinese Brand?

According to Fast Company, Chinese Olympian Li Ning wants to build the first truly global brand to emanate from China.

In an in-depth article, the magazine touts how Li Ning (the company) is China’s largest domestic manufacturer of athletic footwear and sports apparel, with revenues over $1 billion from 6300 outlets.

While Fast Company focuses on the design of the Li Ning product line, the article fails to convince how this company is likely to take on Nike, adidas, Puma and others in the international arena.

I can think of only one athlete who has ever successfully launched a brand with their own name (Michael Jordan’s Air Jordans footwear line in partnership with Nike).

Can Li Ning build an entire global brand spectrum around his own name? Time will tell, but I have my doubts.

What do you think?