Brand-building has been a magic bullet for the fortunes of Anta Group, one of China's most famous sports labels in China.

"It's all down to Anta's success with its branding strategy," said Ding Zhizhong, the company's chairman of the board and chief executive officer on Monday.

He was well aware of how important it was two decades ago, when his shoemaking business in Jinjiang, Fujian province, was just about to take off.

In 1986, the then-17-year-old Ding brought 600 no-name sneakers to Beijing. Smart tongued and diligent, he succeeded in selling them. At the same time, he found their sales badly dampened by their being non-branded.

He returned in 1994 to his father-in-law's shoe company, which had been engaged in sneaker making for overseas orders for the past three years without a trade name. But everything changed after he registeredAntaas its brand.

Literally,Antameans "ease and earnest".

Ding also wanted Anta to be an industry trailblazer.

Success first came with what many regarded as his extravagant expenditure on product promotion. In 1999, Anta reached an 800,000-yuan endorsement deal with former Olympic table tennis champion Kong Linghui at the insistence of Ding, who also invested another 4 million yuan on advertising on national TV. The move stirred up debate but Ding thought it was worth every penny.

"Any enterprise should have a well-known brand name. Otherwise you will fall behind and eventually die," he said.

It was in that year that Anta's sneakers soared to the top three position in domestic markets and claimed the No 1 title in the next decade. There are said to be more than 1,000 shoe companies in Jinjiang, which shows how remarkable Ding's achivement is.

Having been Anta's chairman since 2000, Ding believes efficiency in management played a crucial role in its development.

"Every year we are the first sports brand to release a financial report," he said. "It just indicates the whole business efficiency as well as the improvement in a sense of discipline."

On Feb 20, Anta reported a turnover of 8.9 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) for 2011, up 20.2 percent year-on-year, and a net profit of 1.7 billion yuan, an increase of 11.5 percent. According to a leading brand consultancy Interbrand, Anta ranks the 17th best brand in China in 2011, with a brand value of 9.1 billion yuan.

Now a successful businessman with a fortune of 14.5 billion yuan, Ding remains a spokesman for the country's small and micro enterprises on the national stage.

The deputy to the 11th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, called for more financial and policy support for such businesses.

"They play important roles in the entire industry as they link the upriver and downriver manufacturers," said Ding. "But they are faced with difficulties in financing and technology innovation. What's more, the cost of recruiting workers has become higher, too."

"I suggested the government make preferential tax or even tax-free policies for small and micro enterprises and remove complicated charge items to relieve their financial burden and to provide them with technology innovation and management innovation support. "