Frontiers in Business, Economics and Management ISSN: 2766-824X | Vol. 12, No. 1, 2023 191 Research on Tiktok Marketing Strategy of Chinese Sports Brands -- Taking China Li Ning as an Example Liqi Zhang1, a 1Faculty of Economics and Management, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, Hubei, 434023, China aE-mail: zlq00772299@163.com Abstract: With the continuous progress of technology and the popularization of social media, the way of brand marketing has gradually changed. Traditional advertising channels can no longer meet the needs of today's young consumers, so brands have turned to social media platforms to cater to the tastes of young users, and sports brands have begun to focus on digital marketing channels to attract more consumers. As one of the most popular short-form video platforms in China, Jieyin, with its large user base and high degree of interactivity, has become one of the most popular platforms that brands are competing to enter. Taking Li Ning, a famous Chinese sports brand, as an example, this paper uses the data method and logical analysis to study the effectiveness and impact of the ShakeEn marketing strategy, and discusses how Li Ning utilizes the ShakeEn platform to expand brand awareness, increase sales and interact with consumers. Keywords: Chinese sports brands, Shakeology, Marketing strategy. 1. Introduction 1.1. Background and significance of the study 1.1.1. Research background Sporting goods industry is derived from the sports industry, it is a real sense of the sunrise industry, it is an industry with a huge market, sports can improve people's spiritual world, but also improve their physical quality, thus promoting their development in the sports industry, with the development of science and technology, people's awareness of the market, for the development of China's sporting goods industry has laid a solid foundation. Against the backdrop of the normalization of the new crown epidemic, with the popularization of national fitness, people's demand for sporting goods has risen sharply, and sports brands have also seen rapid development in this boom. In addition to this, with the improvement of the country's overall strength, the people's cultural self- confidence has been strengthened, and the people's sense of identification with domestic brands has also been improved. Since 2015, the development momentum of domestic sports brands has been rapid, but foreign brands such as Nike and Adidas still hold a large market share, and the market competition faced by domestic sports brands will further intensify. The impact of the new crown epidemic on offline stores and the digitization of the market have prompted sports brands to look for more brand marketing avenues in the new market environment, and new media platforms are gradually becoming a new marketing position for sports brands. The digital and transparent media environment allows consumers to be more cognizant of brand information and gives them more autonomy to freely choose the products and services they need. Li Ning is a typical representative of domestic sports brands, but in the past period of time, due to the extrusion of foreign brands, its own market share is low, and its sales performance has declined year after year. However, since 2015, Li Ning has been constantly adjusting its brand development strategy and marketing, thus realizing an all- round upgrade of its brand image and product style. This is a message. In particular, "China Li Ning", a new fashion sports brand, has completely changed its inherent image in the minds of young people, and through social media, short videos and other channels, it has become a "national trend" sought after by young people. With its unique positioning and unique brand marketing concept, China Li Ning has provided a new development model for domestic sports brands. 1.1.2. Significance of the study As an important and intangible asset for the development of a company, brand occupies an unshakeable position in the minds of consumers, therefore, the key to brand development lies in the link with consumers. With the change of media environment, users' consumption preference, consumption habit and consumption link will change accordingly, which also puts forward higher requirements for enterprises to utilize emerging media channels to communicate with consumers actively, so as to let their brands occupy a place in consumers' mind. Kotler's "5A Link Theory" transforms brand marketing and communication from the traditional linear structure to a "decentralized" network, i.e., Aware (Understanding), Appeal (Attracting), Ask (Inquiring), Act (Acting), Advocate. In the face of the ever-changing market environment and the fierce internal and external competition faced by domestic sports brands, Li Ning, one of the most famous sports brands in China, is upgrading its products and reshaping its brand image with the help of short videos, an emerging digital media platform, which has led to a great improvement in the company's real profitability and brand awareness. In this paper, we will take China's Li Ning, a local sports brand, as a case study to explore how it can leverage the platform of "Jittery Voice" to expand its brand awareness, increase sales, and enhance its interaction with consumers in a competitive red sea environment. 192 1.2. Literature Review Zhang Li, Cheng Peng and other scholars in the survey that the current domestic sporting goods market shows a diversified trend, the current sporting goods four products market has not only sporting goods franchise stores, large shopping centers, and a large number of sporting goods franchise stores, as well as a variety of forms of online sales. With the rapid growth of the gross domestic product, people's awareness of sporting goods is deepening, and their purchasing power is gradually increasing. The sporting goods market, too, is constantly being subdivided. Basketball shoes, for example, are designed for young people, so these basketball shoes, which have air cushions added to the soles, look a little younger as well. Tennis market is dominated by middle-aged people, the requirements of tennis clothing, is to have a casual, breathable, can meet the needs of sports. At the same time, the author also found that consumers between the ages of 15-35 years old mainly consume online, and consume a larger single amount; while customers in the age group of 35 years old and above are mainly shopping, shopping more and shopping less, therefore, the purchasing pattern of sports products was studied. Scholars Wang Cheng, Zhou Ruidu believe that there is still a big gap between the current domestic sporting goods market and the international market, such as serious product homogenization, frequent price wars, and low barriers to the import and export of sporting goods. Therefore, this study proposes that the innovation, applicability and relevance of sports products should be strengthened, and the ability of after-sale protection should be enhanced to win the recognition of consumers with high-quality services and excellent products. Zhang Chun scholars pointed out that the current domestic sports products market is gradually moving towards networking, and its marketing methods are increasingly characterized by networking, as well as increasing brand awareness. However, the current sporting goods market still exists many problems, such as in the market operation, often some short-sighted behavior, the lack of competitive products, the lack of brand effect, the lack of market relevance, the lack of network marketing effect, product homogenization is serious, the lack of awareness of the quality of the production, the lack of production security system, the lack of recognition in the market. It also puts forward corresponding countermeasures on how to innovate the marketing mode, how to plan the development of products, how to improve the number of times users use the products, and how to shape the brand image of the enterprise. In the process, we should learn and learn from foreign sporting goods market, we should constantly improve ourselves, we should carry out self- examination and self-inspection, we should increase the technical investment in foreign countries, we should also constantly improve the relevant laws and regulations, we should be a good supervisor, and we should strengthen communication and collaboration with foreign countries in order to ensure the orderly operation of the market. To summarize, the current domestic sporting goods market is in a stage of continuous development, the sporting goods market shows a diversified trend, and the marketing chain of sporting goods is becoming more and more perfect. In the field of sporting goods, along with the diversification of people's lifestyles, the sporting goods products are also being subdivided, which can satisfy the different needs of different age groups; at the same time, there are also some problems, such as, the sporting goods market development region is not balanced, the product homogenization is serious, and, the overall competition in the sporting goods market is relatively unstandardized, there is the phenomenon of competition in an improper way, these problems need to be constantly improved and corrected. 2. Marketing strategy of Li Ning brand on Shakeology 2.1. Tiktok challenge activities Li Ning has successfully attracted a large number of users' participation and attention by organizing challenges on Jittery Voice. These challenges are usually related to the characteristics of Li Ning's products and brand image, such as "Li Ning Running Shoes Challenge" or "Li Ning Basketball Skills Challenge". Through these challenges, Li Ning has successfully increased brand awareness and recognition among young users. Yang Ye pointed out that the 21st century is a new marketing era, in the new market environment, domestic brands need to change the previous single marketing communication mode, with the help of the new media platform to innovate the content and form of communication, and two-way interaction with the user, to attract consumers' attention, to conquer the consumers, and to increase consumer stickiness.[1] 2.2. KOL cooperation Key Opinion Leader (KOL) cooperation on Jieyin is another important part of Li Ning's brand marketing strategy. Li Ning cooperates with some celebrities, netizens or sports personalities who have a large number of fans on Jittery Voice, and through their influence and fan base, Li Ning's products and brand image are spread to more users. Dang Hui believes that the operation mode of sports brand marketing in the context of the netroots economy is mainly divided into three kinds, including the e-commerce promotion mode, the knowledge payment mode and the advertisement cash mode, in which the advertisement cash mode pays great attention to the content and fan volume of the individual netroots, i.e., the KOLs, and realizes ten million levels of bandwagon sales in a few hours' time by utilizing their content output, traffic support and netroots trust.[2]Therefore, this cooperation model not only improves the exposure of Li Ning's brand, but also increases users' trust and goodwill towards the brand. 2.3. Precise advertisement placement The Jieyin platform provides the function of precise ad placement, which Li Ning has fully utilized. By placing ads on Jittery Voice, Li Ning is able to accurately display ads to target users based on their interests, geographic location, age and other information. This precise ad placement not only improves the click rate and conversion rate of the ads, but also helps Li Ning better understand user needs and further optimize its products and services. 3. The effectiveness and Success of Li Ning's Marketing Strategy on Shakeology 3.1. Improvement of brand awareness By carrying out challenge activities and cooperating with KOLs on Jittery Voice, Li Ning has successfully increased brand awareness among young users. The huge user base and 193 user activity of the ShakeYin platform provides a broad space for the development of Li Ning's brand promotion, enabling Li-Ning to better reach its target user groups. Li Fengyuan mentioned that it is very necessary for enterprises to utilize good channels in order to do well in online marketing.[3] He believes that Li Ning can cooperate with Internet portals, especially well-known sports portals, with the influence of these large number of sports enthusiasts and sports commentators gathered, through their further writing or word- of-mouth viral diffusion, so that Li Ning's online marketing more influential. 3.2. Increase in user participation In today's continuous development of the Internet, Bao Jinlong, Yue Wen, Xu Cuiping found that it is easy to convert web users, while conversion and retention are difficult. [4] User viscosity has become an important factor affecting the repeat purchase intention of website users, and some scholars have also explored user viscosity from the aspects of user attachment and trust. Li Ning's Jitterbug Challenge campaign attracted a large number of users' participation and interaction. Users can participate in the activity by uploading their own challenge videos to interact and compete with other users. This interactivity not only increases users' participation, but also enhances their favorability and loyalty to the Li Ning brand. 3.3. Accuracy of advertisement placement Dou Shuo believes that unclear account positioning will weaken the ability of short video content infusion, and the situation of confusing official account settings should be avoided, as well as the use of the platform's search infusion tool should be emphasized. [5] From this point of view, the precise ad placement function provided by the Jitterbit platform enables Li Ning to accurately display advertisements to target users. This precise ad placement not only improves the click rate and conversion rate of the ads, but also helps Li Ning better understand user needs so as to better optimize its products and services. 4. Conclusion By adopting marketing strategies such as challenge activities, KOL cooperation, and precise advertisement placement on ShakeYin, Chinese sports brand Li Ning has successfully increased brand awareness and recognition. The huge user base and user activity of the ShakeYin platform provide a broad opportunity for the promotion of the Li Ning brand. However, brand marketing still needs to be continuously innovated and improved to adapt to the changing market environment and user needs. It is hoped that the research in this paper can provide some reference and inspiration for the marketing strategies of other sports brands on Jieyin. References [1] Yang Ye. (2022) Research on Communication and marketing strategy of domestic sports brands under the perspective of marketing 3.0. Shanghai Business, 44-46 [2] Dang Hui. (2020) Research on live streaming marketing mode of sports brand market under the background of netflix economy. Journalist Observation, 21:64-66. [3] Li Fengyuan. (2022) Research on network marketing strategy and innovation of sporting goods in China. Thesis of Tianjin Sports Institute, 11:57 [4] Bao Jinlong, Yue Wen, Xu Cuiping. (2023) Study on the impact of interactivity on user viscosity under brand self-play e-commerce model. Journal of Wuxi College of Commerce and Vocational Technology, 23(02):1-7. [5] Dou Shuo. (2022) Research on short video marketing strategy of local sports brands. Thesis of Shanghai Normal University, 10:57.