Anta women’s shoes poster was accused of being edgy and responded by saying it has been removed from the shelves

A poster of Anta women's shoes was accused of being edged, and the response was that it has been removed from the shelves

A poster of Anta women's shoes was accused of being edged, and the response was that it has been removed from the shelves. Netizens said that in the poster, the model Aim the sole of the shoe at the camera, with the camera angle slightly raised, so that the gap in the sole is facing the top of the woman's thigh. Anta's women's shoes poster was accused of being edgy, and the company responded by saying it had been removed from the shelves. Anta's poster of women's shoes was accused of being edgy, and the company responded by saying it has been removed from the shelves 1

Recently, a new poster of Anta's women's shoes was criticized as being edgy and aroused widespread concern.

Frankly speaking, when most people see this poster, their first impression is actually indifferent. If no one points out the specific areas where the glitches were made, it is estimated that nine and a half out of ten people will not notice the problem.

But if someone stands up to pierce the window paper and tells everyone that there is something wrong, and everyone goes to check it out with the idea of ????verification, it will indeed produce a feeling that it is really like that. Thoughts about things.

In other words, whether Anta did it intentionally or unintentionally, this women's shoe poster was actually a sidestep.

What exactly is the borderline criticism of Anta women’s shoes poster?

It turns out that in the Anta poster, the model pointed the soles of her shoes at the camera, and the gap in the soles was right at the top of the female model’s thigh.

Any questions?

It seems there is.

At first glance, I didn’t think it was anything, but after careful observation, I found that it was really the case. As one netizen questioned, this angle is indeed puzzling. Why does it just leak out in the middle?

Yes, why is it just right?

Needless to say, the benefits of playing side-by-side are undoubtedly eye-catching, so as to maximize the publicity. But the disadvantages are also quite obvious. It can easily arouse public outrage and be classified as vulgar. So, was Anta's women's shoes poster accidentally shot, or was it accidentally shot?

To be honest, if no one points it out, it would be difficult for most people to find that this poster has a borderline problem. From this perspective, it is not very likely that Anta will play a sideways game subjectively.

The reason why businesses play around with things is just to attract attention. And how to attract attention? Nature is all kinds of obvious but naked temptations. If people can't see the temptation at first glance, how can they achieve the original intention of the merchants who do not hesitate to take edge shots in order to attract attention?

It is an undisputed fact that Anta’s women’s shoes poster is not easily discovered because of its marginal content. If you insist on relying on this to attract people’s attention, it is indeed a bit too much.

It can only be said that Anta’s poster is indeed not rigorous enough. Although subjectively there is no possibility of a borderline, the fact is that it is a borderline.

The incident of women’s shoe posters undoubtedly put Anta on the fire. If not handled properly, wearing a vulgar and inferior hat will definitely have a negative impact.

In order to avoid a bigger storm, Anta’s official website has disposed of this controversial women’s shoe poster.

Although the visible posters have been disposed of, it is hard to say whether the vulgar impression left by the accident can be removed as easily as the posters. Anta women's shoes poster was accused of being edgy, and responded saying it has been removed from the shelves 2

Netizens said that in the poster, the model pointed the sole of the shoe at the camera, the camera angle was slightly raised, and the gap in the sole was facing the root of the woman's thigh.

“Anyone who has studied design knows what the visual center point of typography is. The meaning of this picture is self-evident.”

“As a student of photography, I think it is a bit like a tic-tac-toe composition. , but it shouldn’t be from this perspective, it’s suspected of being sidelined.”

Some netizens in related professional fields commented.

The poster is for Anta’s new women’s shoe product of the season, “Meow Meow Shoes 2.0”.

Currently, the poster has been removed from the shelves.

Customer service of Anta’s official online store said, “We had removed the model photos from the shelves on the day they were released. It was our mistake not to manage the promotional materials well, and we will avoid such problems in the future.”

Anta’s advertising and marketing expenditures are increasing year by year

During the Tmall 618 pre-sale period, Anta’s marketing “overturn” will undoubtedly cause damage to the brand image, thereby affecting consumers’ shopping enthusiasm.

In fact, Anta’s advertising and marketing expenditures have increased year by year in recent years. In 2021, Anta Sports' advertising and promotion expenditure ratio (as a percentage of revenue) was 12.40%, an increase of 1.8% from the previous year, and the expenditure amount was as high as 6.117 billion yuan, a new high in the past five years.

The “domestic craze” in 2021 has driven a significant increase in the revenue of domestic sports brands such as Anta.

According to the 2021 financial report released by Anta, Anta’s revenue last year was 49.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 38.9%. The overall gross profit margin increased by 3.4 percentage points year-on-year to 61.6%, surpassing it for the first time. Adidas has secured its second place in China’s sports shoes and apparel market share in 2021.

In fact, not only Anta, but also Li Ning, another domestic sportswear giant, is also increasing its advertising and marketing.

In 2021, Li Ning’s advertising and marketing expenses soared by nearly 40% to 1.78 billion yuan. In March last year, Li Ning officially announced that Xiao Zhan would become the global spokesperson for trendy sports products, and also cooperated with legendary skateboarder Erik Ellington in an attempt to break through the circle with a "traffic" strategy.

However, compared with high-profile marketing, the proportion of research and development of domestic sports brands is not very "adequate". Anta's R&D costs in 2021 will be 1.135 billion yuan, accounting for only 2.3% of revenue, the lowest value in the past five years. Li Ning's 2021 financial report shows that its research and product development expenses accounted for 1.8% of revenue from 2.2% in the previous year.

Although R&D expenses are still on the rise, compared with the substantial increase in the proportion of advertising and marketing expenditures, domestic sports brands have slightly insufficient investment and emphasis on product R&D. They want to compete with the international market. Brands such as Nike and Adidas are competing and still need to find ways to continue growing.

The quietly rising "Anta Empire"

Picture/Picture Bug

Public information shows that Anta Group was founded in 1991. It is a comprehensive, multi-brand sporting goods group specializing in the design, production and sales of sports shoes, clothing, accessories and other sports equipment.

In 2018, Anta Group’s sales revenue exceeded 40 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 44.4%. In the first half of 2019, Anta achieved revenue of 14.8 billion, a year-on-year increase of 40%. The market value of Anta Group exceeded HK$170 billion in August 2019, ranking third in the global sporting goods industry. In 2021, it ranked 289th on the Fortune China 500 list.

As early as 12 years ago, Anta began its multi-brand strategy of overseas mergers and acquisitions and expansion.

From the perspective of business structure, Anta Sports implements a diversified brand portfolio strategy. At present, in addition to the main brand Anta, it also includes well-known brands such as FILA, DESCENTE and KOLON SPORT.

In 2009, Anta acquired the Chinese business of the Italian brand FILA from Belle and redefined it as a high-end sports fashion apparel brand. In 2019, FILA segment performance was displayed in the annual report for the first time. This year, FILA recorded revenue and operating profit of 14.77 billion yuan and 4.023 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 73.9% and 87.1%, both of which were higher than the main brand Anta.

In 2015, Anta continued to complete the acquisition of Sprandi, a British outdoor leisure and mountaineering sports brand. In 2016, Anta invested 150 million yuan to establish a joint venture and began operating the high-end ski brand Descente business in China. In 2017, Anta acquired 100% equity and related trademark ownership in Kingkow (a famous children's clothing brand Xiaoxiao Niu). In the same year, Anta established a joint venture to operate the outdoor brand KolonSport business in China.

In 2019, Anta collaborated with relevant consortiums to acquire Amer Sports, a leading high-end sports group. As of the end of 2020, Anta Sports held 52.7% of the equity of the joint venture company AS Holding (Amer Sports is its wholly-owned subsidiary). Amer's well-known brands include Arcteryx, Wilson and Salomon, which have high influence in outdoor sports and ball sports.

In mid-2019, Anta proposed three major brand groups in its financial report for the first time - a professional sports brand group dominated by Anta, Anta Kids, Sprandi and AntapluS, and The fashion sports brand group mainly includes FILA, FILA FUSION, FILA KIDS and Kingkow, and the outdoor sports brand group represented by Amer Sports, DESCENTE and KOLON SPORT. These three major brand groups also constitute the three growth curves of Anta Group.

Under the development strategy of “single focus, multi-brand, and omni-channel”, Anta has become a multi-brand sporting goods group.

Core technology competition cannot be ignored

Brand value must ultimately return to product innovation itself. Judy, a researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that "Whether the concept of a brand can be sustained depends on whether the design and quality are acceptable and recognized by consumers."

For Anta and Li Ning , competition in core technologies is also an issue facing us.

In terms of R&D investment, Li Ning reached 320 million yuan in 2020, with a R&D investment ratio of 2.23%, and Anta's R&D investment ratio was 871 million yuan, with a R&D investment ratio of 2.45%. While the R&D investment ratio of internationally renowned brands such as Adidas and Nike generally remains above 7%, domestic brands still have a lot of room to catch up in R&D innovation.

Anta's women's shoes poster was accused of being borderline, and the company responded by saying it has been removed from the shelves 3

Recently, some netizens posted that a poster of Anta's product was suspected of being pornographic. In this regard, Anta’s official online store customer service said: The model photos have been removed from the shelves, and such problems will be avoided in the future.

During the Tmall 618 pre-sale period, Anta’s marketing “overturn” will undoubtedly cause damage to the brand image, thereby affecting consumers’ shopping enthusiasm.

In fact, Anta’s advertising and marketing expenditures have increased year by year in recent years. In 2021, Anta Sports' advertising and promotion expenditure ratio (as a percentage of revenue) was 12.40%, an increase of 1.8% from the previous year, and the expenditure amount was as high as 6.117 billion yuan, a new high in the past five years.

The “domestic craze” in 2021 will drive the revenue of domestic sports brands such as Anta. According to the 2021 financial report released by Anta, Anta's revenue last year was 49.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 38.9%. The overall gross profit margin increased by 3.4 percentage points year-on-year to 61.6%. It surpassed Adidas for the first time and secured China's sports shoes and apparel market share in 2021. Second place.

Regarding such behavior, many netizens also said that as the number one domestic sports brand, it is impossible that such marketing has not been reviewed by the leadership before. Is this really a number?

In addition, many netizens said that Anta’s behavior is not a special case. Many brand manufacturers have done this. Some netizens bluntly said that Anta’s behavior is Foot control common color picture composition. If you don’t believe me, if you bought Welfare Ji’s foot control themed picture pack, you must be familiar with this composition.

Some experts in the industry said that many brands take the initiative to carry out marginal promotions in marketing, which is very bad for the brand’s positioning and coverage of the population. It is hoped that the relevant departments can strengthen the review in this area in the future. and the intensity of penalties, which can also fundamentally solve the bad marketing behavior of manufacturers.