Why Does Anta Sports Buy COC Sponsorship Rights At High Price?

December 17th hearing " Sports marketing "Some people talk about the concept. Ding Shizhong talks about it as a business.

For the Asian Games Chinese sports delegation to provide the award equipment, Anta (2020.HK) launched another round. Marketing Publicity is the core provision of the strategic cooperation agreement between Anta and the Chinese Olympic Committee in June 2009. According to the agreement, from 2009 to 2012, Anta The exclusive sports facilities for Chinese sports delegations participating in major international events include the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games and the 2012 London Olympic Games.

According to the public statement of an official of the Chinese Olympic Committee, the sponsorship amount is "no less than the sponsorship threshold for the 2008 TOP Olympic Games in Beijing". A case can interpret the concept of the so-called "TOP level". Lenovo Group (4.99, -0.22, -4.22%, real time quotes) is a TOP sponsor of the Beijing Olympic Games. Its payment cost is US $65 million, which is equivalent to 550 million yuan in exchange rate at that time.

Ding Shizhong does not deny that Anta has the high cost of sponsoring the Chinese Olympic Committee. "A competition company told me that from a real business point of view, it can only pay 70% of Anta's price, which is 70% higher than that of the Chinese Olympic Committee. However, they do not consider our strategic demand from the point of view of measuring value. For Anta, what is most lacking is the resources that represent the highest point of China's sports. He asked reporters, "which of China's sports resources is more competitive than the Chinese Olympic Committee?"

"Bundling" sports resources

As a professional sports brand, how can we establish credibility in the eyes of the public? Sports brand is a very interesting rule of the game, which is to occupy high-end sports resources, no matter Nike or Adidas. With what level of sports resources binding, determines the position of sports brand in the industry. Zheng Jie, executive director and executive vice president of Anta, said he served Reebok as a general manager of China. Including a number of financial indicators, including profit and inventory turnover, Anta now leads the Chinese local sports apparel brand, its market value has exceeded 40 billion Hong Kong dollars, and the global sports apparel brand is only inferior to Nike and Adidas. The strategic target refers to the No.1 of local sports brand sales and reputation. However, to embarrass Ding Shizhong, he is short of "high potential" sports resources.

Looking back at the annual reports of Anta and Lining (21.2, -0.45, -2.08%, economic and real time quotes) (02331.HK) in 2008, Anta had a clear grasp of the advantages of sports resources: in the Olympic year, four Chinese national gymnastic, diving, table tennis and shooting teams were sponsored by Lining brand, and 27 of the 51 gold medals of the Chinese delegation were obtained. Anta's brand sponsorship argument did not even have the word "Olympic", only CBA and the Chinese Table Tennis Super League. Zheng Jie was out of the desolation of Anta at that time: "we are the latecomers of this industry. Many of the superior sports resources are divided up by the three giants of Adidas, Nike and Lining. They should take everything away. What else can we have left?"

When the Chinese Olympic Committee decided to package and sell the sponsorship rights from 2009 to 2012, Ding Shizhong decided to make a decisive decision. "There will be no second choices". The price is not even the most important consideration. Zhang Tao, vice president of Anta, recalled that there was a big difference in the price of sponsorship rights between Anta management and Ding Shizhong. "Who can tell me which one is better?" if we didn't get better, we would have no choice.

Ding Shizhong said he likes watching the Premier League, but the value of the Premier League is not big for Anta at present. "I just went to the UK to see the Premier League. The resources of the tournament are really good, but Anta's 99% products are sold in the mainland of China. I have invested a lot in marketing in the Premier League and have nothing to do with my target consumers." Since the emphasis should be on the matching of brand positioning and target market. Then, apart from strategic considerations, what is the value of the Chinese Olympic Committee's sponsorship rights that Anta has won?

In Zheng Jie's view, the connotation of a sports brand can be considered from three dimensions: whether it truly embodies the spirit of sport and the spirit of sports, helps to improve the level of consumer movement; whether it can represent the image of a country's movement, so as to enhance the credibility and popularity of the sports brand, whether it has an international image, and capture young consumers by fashion design and comfortable experience.

Therefore, on the effect of Anta's sponsorship of sports events, Zheng Jie summed up two points: first, representing Chinese sports and the other representing the spirit of sports. "These two points stand at the highest commanding heights in China. The Sponsorship Resources of the Chinese Olympic Committee are of great value to the first two aspects. After all, any brand can be combined with the national flag and the five rings, which represents the national image. Therefore, such a sponsorship is of great significance to us. {page_break}

Seeking common ground and reserving differences

As a matter of fact, a question to be asked is, what is the substantive connection and interaction between the spiritual connotation of Chinese sports which sounds a bit too grand and whether it can be associated with Anta's consumers?

Zheng Jie's explanation is that this link is the mass market of Chinese sporting goods. This is the core market of Anta brand, and also the distinction between the three giants. Zheng Jie has such an interpretation of competing products: "Nike, Adidas, their main consumers are high-end white-collar workers, second tier cities. Lining's brand reengineering, its consumer group is also a second tier city after 90 young consumers. This group wants to be independent and pursue a brand personality that is relatively individualized and self assertive. What he wants to wear is something different from his classmates and friends, making them feel that they are very fashionable.

However, Anta's so-called "mass market" is more clearly targeted at the young consumers in the wider two or three tier cities (or even four tier cities) in the hinterland of China. The gradient structure of China's social development gives this consumer group another mental trait. Zheng Jie said that the three market research companies hired by Anta all caught this point by coincidence: "young people in two or three cities, they hope that they have a little bit of their own characteristics in clothing, but he is unwilling to leave the group. He often fears that he is not part of the team. This is the status quo of more young people in China. They are looking for a kind of differentiation, but looking for differentiation is conditional, and can not let others feel that I am another ethnic group, and do not have any boundaries with other people."

That is to say, the target customers of Anta want to have a little personality, but they want to be inseparable from the group. This is obviously different from Lining's new slogan, "MaketheChange".

Thus, Anta turned the psychological inclination of the two or three line market target population into product design, that is, the product should be differentiated, but the degree of differentiation or individuation should not be too obvious. If transformed into the brand's spiritual characteristics, the brand needs to provide a common sense of value for the broader population and produce a sense of collective belonging.

"Even if we start from the target market, we must get some common sports resources. This commonality is quite a part of the sense of belonging of the country. Right? The Asian Games will see Liu Xiang's competition, and the 80 thousand people's venues are all full. Most young people in China are watching. They are very excited. They are all playing the flag. The honor of this country is actually deep-rooted. It will not change because of your relative avant-garde and a little bit of independence. This is the common ground of our brand appeal. We are based on a popular brand, with the platform of the Olympic Committee, and athletes wearing our clothes and watching the national flag rising, we have a better position to expand our foundation. Zheng Jie said.

Of course, the concession of the Olympic Committee is not the whole of sports marketing. The market segment of Anta sports brand is focused on basketball, tennis and running. In order to highlight the brand professional association, it also provides sponsorship in many subdivision areas, taking basketball as an example, including local competitions such as NBA stars, CBA and CUBA.

Ding Shizhong said that in the next 3-5 years, Anta's brand positioning is still based on China's mass market. The goal of its sports marketing still lies in representing the highest sports spirit of the country, and enhancing brand reputation by design and product innovation. "Take a basketball game, 5 years ago, 95% Chinese basketball players were wearing international brands, and now 95% are wearing Chinese brands, and this figure can be investigated by all of you. You take Nike's 1500 yuan shoes, and Anta's 500 yuan shoes, we really have no way to compare, but any international brand is 30% more expensive than ours, we will strive to do everything well, and pursue the "innovation value."