--FILE--un cliente cinese negozi a Li-Ning sportswear store in Cina a Shanghai, il 9 gennaio 2015. La salita e la discesa della società di abbigliamento sportivo Li Ning,
--FILE--A Chinese customer shops at a Li-Ning sportswear store in Shanghai, China, 9 January 2015. The rise and fall of sportswear company Li Ning, one of China¯s best-known brands, is a cautionary tale for others seeking to make the final leap from cheap to cool, copycat to creator. Once ranked among China¯s most likely to succeed beyond mainland borders, Li Ning too seemed bound for branding greatness, with shops in even the smallest cities and a founder whose name resonated across the country ª gymnast Li Ning was China¯s first Olympic sports star. When Mr Li levitated through Beijing¯s Bird¯s Nest stadium to light the cauldron opening the 2008 Olympics, his company scored a priceless global marketing coup. Filled with pride and overconfidence, Li Ning put titans Nike and Adidas squarely in its sights, briefly drawing neck and neck with the German brand in the Chinese market. But it has been largely downhill since, say retail analysts and branding experts. This month, Li Ning warned of its third straight year of losses. It is struggling to find a new chief executive, after the one installed in 2012 by private equity backer TPG left in November. The company¯s Hong Kong-listed shares are now plumbing 10-year lows, having lost more than 90 per cent of their value since peaking at HK$31.95 in 2010. They were trading around HK$3.00 on Friday (23 January 2015). What went wrong? °Li Ning has flipped and flopped from strategy to strategy over the past several years, ± says Tom Doctoroff, Asia head of advertising agency JWT. He criticises the company for relying on the °strategic opiate± of Mr Li¯s personal prestige.
