Adidas VS Nike: The Most Special Olympics Marketing PK War

Nike, which was born half a century later than Adidas, has entered China earlier, and is currently at the top of the Chinese sports shoes market by about 30% of its market share.

Adidas's brand reputation in China is slightly inferior to Nike. Even the glorious history of sponsoring the Olympic Games since 30s of last century is hardly known.

As early as 2007, Herbert Heiner, chairman and chief executive of Adidas, claimed that in 2010, Adidas was expected to achieve sales target of 1 billion euros in China. In 2010, Adidas's sales in the world were expected to reach 10 billion euro yuan through the Olympic Games.

At present, Adidas's sales in China are only about 5 billion yuan.

In order to seize the opportunity for China to be regarded as the "second largest market" by them, in order not to make a "big mistake", Adidas worked hard.

However, it is not so easy to deal with Nike's "old slippery head".

In November 30, 2007, with the shouting of Bai Wenkang, the managing director of Adidas Greater China, Erica, the golden eyed Olympic project director and Bi Baoyuan, vice president of Greater China market, walked out of the conference room with enthusiasm and gathered his men to go straight to the gate of Yongding gate, Beijing.

At this point, Erica and Bi Baoyuan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

In the past two years, their Olympic marketing team has planned more than 10 thematic planning, and the best plan has emerged in discussions, PK and continuous improvement.

In Bi Baoyuan's eyes, the 08 Olympic plan is almost the biggest card in deciding whether Adidas will succeed in China's Olympic marketing.

Bi Baoyuan told reporters that in order to make Feng Kun, Zhao Ruirui, Hu Jia, Sui Feifei and Zheng Zhi complete the wonderful action under the Chinese solidarity strength, Adidas gathered the advantageous resources of the branches of the United States, Europe and Brussels, and adopted the technology of Hollywood blockbuster and made it in the US.

Creativity comes from Adidas Greater China and the TBWA advertising company that has worked with them for a long time.

"In order to collide with inspiration, we challenge each other."

In December 8, 2007, in Century Square, Nanjing East Road, Shanghai, Adidas also brought all kinds of interesting sports interactive games and high-tech experience to ordinary people's lives.

During most of January 2008, the Wangfujing pedestrian street in Beijing was covered by Adidas outdoor advertising and experience center.

Every day, men, women and children in down coats wear long queues in the cold wind waiting for an outdoor Adidas outdoor experience of only 3 hours to 4 pm.

Many foreign tourists, in order to get a diving photo like Hu Jia, or a bunch of Adidas's key chains, are willing to leave their precious time to Adidas, which represents the Olympic experience.

Similar outdoor activities are also being launched in Xi'an, Qingdao and Guangzhou.

According to Bi Baoyuan, nearly 500 thousand participants.

Without the title of the Olympic partner, it is difficult to carry out large-scale outdoor activities to promote the connection between Nike and the Olympic Games.

But Adidas is lucky. In June 2008, the theme of "2008 together is nothing impossible". It also won the award of Cannes International Advertising Festival.

Bi Baoyuan believes that this award allows more people in the world to understand the Olympic spirit of China's solidarity and the influence of Adidas in China.

Pan Jianhua, director of Nike Greater China market, said: "our long-term goal is to let Liu Xiang convey a voice on behalf of Nike in 2008".

The latest Nike ads are focused on Liu Xiang, and then "who am I", triggering teenagers to label themselves more personalized.

In the past year, Nike has been holding Liu Xiang and Yao Ming in one hand, busy with Taobao everywhere, and making guerrilla warfare lively and lively.

Especially in the Beijing Olympic Games, Nike's advantage is almost as obvious as Adidas's. The latter has the rights and interests of partners, while the former has more athletes resources.

While almost all of Adidas's energy is devoted to the qualification of partners, Nike has signed an agreement with 22 Chinese sports teams to provide their sportswear and sports shoes.

Although Adidas immediately followed suit and won all the staff's clothing and sportsmen's award dress, I am afraid the replay of the award is far less than that of the competition itself.

But according to the feedback from observers, the five "2" in Adidas's hands seems to be no match for the two "kings" of Nike.

And with the loss of Hu Jia and Sui Feifei and the collapse of Chinese football, Adidas's star strategy has been enlarged.

Although Nike has encountered a similar situation - Yao Ming is injured, but at least it can still use Liu Xiang vigorously.

In the 70s and 80s of last century, Nike took the American culture represented by Jordan and Lewis in one fell swoop, and attacked Adidas's home market in Europe at one fell swoop.

Frank, vice president of pre sharp (Shanghai) business consulting company, once worked in Nike, said.

In June 2008, news about Nike or the acquisition of Lining appeared in the media.

People's eyes are changing. The first sports brand of local enterprises will soon be acquired. Everyone's concern about Olympic marketing has turned to takeover rumors. For a time, speculation, feedback and rumor have been raging.

In the end, Nike said nothing, though it said everything.

In June 13, 2008, Cuban athlete Robles broke the world record of the men's 110 meter hurdles held by Chinese player Liu Xiang in 12 seconds 87.

In addition to China, Adidas has done Robles's record breaking celebration in many countries, especially in Cuba. Adidas's activities have brought the excitement of Cubans to a climax.

As Adidas said, the Olympic Games are a great event for people all over the world, but the marketing of Olympic Games in different countries must be differentiated.

The third round fought again, and this time it was compared to "who will use Chinese elements more."

The Adidas sportswear marked "China", "Beijing 2008" and China India are placed prominently, and the auspicious clouds, dragon and bright traditional colors are used.

A Adidas shopping guide said that these clothes are not many, but they sell well.

Adidas's designer's award dress is also decorated with Olympic and Chinese auspicious clouds.

At the beginning of this year, Nike launched the "golden generation" series. Inspired by the story of three old athletes of Xu Haifeng, Lang Ping and Jianhua Zhu in the 1984 Losangeles Olympic Games, we designed a series of products of 1984 retro cultural movements.

What many people are familiar with is that the style design of clothing basically copied the costumes of the Chinese track and field team in 1984, with the bright flag red, imperial gold and sports blue as the main colors. The two words of "bright China" in the chest seem to be the brand of history.

In this regard, Frank believes that "Nike is mostly making gimmicks, reflecting Nike's concern about the spirit of China's Olympic Games from this angle, rather than really pursuing the sale of 1984 series products.

Because the target group of Nike is mainly 18-25 year old teenagers, these "post-80s" have no impression of "1984", much less deep feelings, I am afraid they will not buy.