Sports Brand Hot Robbing Sports Stars At The Expense Of The Original Interpretation

Since Li Na won the French Open in June last year, there has been no black eye and black eye sports star for a long time to arouse the collective Carnival of Chinese people. However, the Chinese NBA player Jeremy Lin was born in February to rekindle the enthusiasm of the Chinese people for a long time.

Of course, Jeremy Lin attracted not only the public's attention, but also the sharp business people immediately sniffed tremendous business opportunities, especially a lot of Chinese manufacturers who are in great financial difficulties are ready to take up the rising star.

In March 20th, Volvo, which has already belonged to Geely, announced its successful signing of Jeremy Lin. In the next two years, Lin will be the spokesman for Volvo in the Greater China market.

This has also become Jeremy Lin's first formal commercial endorsement contract, which has been rumored that the contract should be between 200 and 4 million dollars.

When Jeremy Lin became popular overnight, he was the first to respond most closely to each other.

As early as two years ago, Volvo signed Nike company, but it did not endorse Volvo.

Jeremy Lin is only a signer of Nike, and needs to wear Nike in competitions and public occasions.

In the past 10 years, three of China's most influential international sports stars, besides Yao Ming, are currently spokesmen for Nike and Nike.

In fact, Yao Ming's CBA career and the initial stage of entering NBA were Nike's signing players until Reebok was finally dug up.

Why is Nike always able to grab these excellent sports resources? This is due to its complete star mining system.

Nike Sports

In 2003, Nike signed Liu Xiang, who was just 18 years old. Liu Xiang, who had just made a debut at the World University Games in 13 seconds 34, although he was engaged in a cold sport, Nike still decided to invest in this young man.

This cooperation led by Li Tong, then Nike's marketing manager, has been the Asian record holder of the project until Liu Xiang broke the Asian record in 13 seconds and 12 in 2002.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that Li Tong is also the first athlete to sign Nike in China, and the cooperation between the two sides began in 1981.

The cooperation between Nike and Li Na started earlier in 1998, when Nike sponsored Li Na, who was only 15 years old, to study at John Newcombe Tennis Academy in Dezhou.

It took 14 years for Li Na to win the French Open Championship in 2011.

For Yao Ming, Nike also had a layout, 1997 and 1998 years, with the help of Nike, Yao Ming went to France and the United States to participate in basketball training camp, which attracted the attention of NBA scouts.

In 1999, Nike and Yao Ming formally signed a 4 year sponsorship contract at a cost of only $200 thousand.

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It is this kind of patient long line investment that helps Nike harvest many excellent athletes.

Jeremy Lin did the same. In 2010, Jeremy Lin took part in the NBA draft of the year, but unfortunately he failed. Even so, Nike still signed a sponsorship contract with him for 3 years.

At the expense of the original

Unlike sports stars, sports stars tend to have higher commercial value, which is directly reflected in their endorsement contracts.

Although Nike's potential investment in new talent is not big, Nike will never be stingy once its athletes become famous. In 2006, Nike extended the price of golf player "tiger" Woods at a price of 5 years and 200 million dollars. In 2008, it signed the "Swiss heavenly king" Federer, the world's top ranked tennis player in the eight years, and it was all a big deal.

Recently, however, a big price contract for sports circles came from Nike's old rival Adidas.

In February, Adidas signed a contract with a NBA player of the Chicago bulls, Ross, for a total of more than 200 million dollars over a period of 13 years.

Why are Nike and Adidas so bold in signing sports stars?

First of all, it is because sports stars can bring huge.

In 1996, Nike signed the new tiger, Woods, for $40 million. Previously, golf has been the marginal business of Nike.

Soon, Woods began to emerge in golf and became the most popular golf star in the United States.

According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported in 2001, Woods won the 15 point advantage in the 2000 US Open. In the same year, Nike only played golf balls in the US.

In rough statistics, Nike spends nearly $200 million a year on celebrity endorsements only, and these investments bring Nike revenues up to $20 billion (2011 fiscal year data).

In addition to having a great market appeal, sports stars are also popular in the fact that "things are scarce."

The prerequisite for becoming a sports star is to become a leader in the project. Even if you don't win the championship, you should have the power to get on the podium at the very least. This means that only a few people can become sports stars, and not all outstanding athletes have market influence.

China has never been short of outstanding athletes. In the 2008 Olympic Games, the Chinese delegation has won 51 gold medals, 21 silver medals and 28 bronze medals. This means that nearly 100 sports stars have been produced, but in the end, they are rarely seen in advertisements.

Outstanding sports stars do not necessarily have commercial value.

"At present, there is a real presence in China.

Sports stars can bring huge rewards to businessmen because sports fans often have a certain ability to consume.

Many sports are also matched by specific income groups.

"People who take part in and watch tennis and golf are often people with higher incomes."

He Zhenhui, director of sports marketing at CIGNA communications, said that high-end car manufacturers such as Mercedes Benz and BMW have been sponsoring tennis and other projects for a long time, precisely because the participants in this sport are highly consistent with their target consumers.

The Geely Group, which just took off Jeremy Lin, said in an official statement: "Jeremy Lin's joining will push Volvo brand towards a more high-end, luxurious and globalized direction."

In fact, after last year's French Open, Volvo once intended to sign Li Na, but failed.

Li Na was signed by Mercedes Benz for 3 years and 4 million 500 thousand dollars.

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However, the high return of sports stars also means high risk. Athletes may face injuries and decline in status.

Liu Xiang's sudden retirement from the Olympic Games in 2008 was almost devastating for his commercial value.

Although the image of Liu Xiang has been restored to a great extent after Nike's efforts, it is totally different from that before 2008. When Li Na won the French Open, he went through a long period of more than six months, and was in the second round of the Wimbledon race, but was released in the first round of the US Open Competition. At the age of 31, Yao Ming was chosen to retire early last year because of her ankle injury.

All these have caused losses to the partners.

Jeremy Lin is facing the same problem today.

After Jeremy Lin led the New York Nicks team to win seven consecutive victories, the team's performance is just like a roller coaster, a wave of six defeats Jeremy Lin pulled down the altar, for a time, Lin's singing and dying four, the retail market reaction is more immediate, Nicks home sales hot Jeremy Lin souvenirs with the team's losing streak was quickly discounted.

The sudden absence of DAntoni, coach of Lin's team, has also brought some uncertain factors to Jeremy Lin's future career prospects.

For Jeremy Lin's future business prospects, Beijing century sports management partner Li Guang commented: "it depends on his training situation this summer."

Many of the former opponents did not know him, so he could perform well. "

A company like Nike can spread risks because of its numerous star athletes. But for the non sports industry, when faced with such a situation, it can only afford to eat it.

When Liu Xiang returned from the competition, the negative public opinion that had been overwhelming all the time was very embarrassing for the sponsors. Many brands had to temporarily withdraw the elaborate Liu Xiang advertisement and readjust their marketing strategy.

Therefore, for sports star marketing companies, we must have long-term plans and make full preparations to share the joys and sorrows with athletes.

Opportunities for local brands

In the face of sports stars with huge commercial energy, how can businessmen take these rare resources?

Money is, of course, the most important factor, but it is by no means the only factor.

In 2003, in order to retain Yao Ming, Nike even opened 2 times the price of Reebok, but it still failed to stop Yao Ming from throwing her opponent's arms.

Therefore, many factors outside the money determine whether the manufacturer can succeed in holding hands.

In order to find out the key to winning the star resources, we must first know how a sports star with a market appeal is trained.

From a sports star to a sports star with a market influence, it is largely dependent on the operation of a broker.

In the mature sports industry, athletes are like products in the hands of brokers.

"We are not talking about how much money we need to earn for athletes in the short term. This is a long-term cooperation."

Zhang Meng, director of sports marketing, said: "we have a special team service to help athletes make a long-term career plan, such as how old you are now, what your grades are like, and what kind of degree you want to develop.

How many years have you been able to conduct professional competitions? What are we going to do for you during this period? "

On this basis, the company will further consider business development.

For a long-term brokerage firm, any commercial endorsement must match the image of the athlete.

When choosing endorsement products, in order to maintain the healthy image of athletes, tobacco and alcohol advertisements are generally avoided.

If we can see clearly, the manufacturers will be able to take the lead and increase the odds.

However, an objective reality that must be recognized is that local enterprises still lack competitiveness when competing for top sports stars resources.

Insiders revealed that in 2010,

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Although local brands are at a disadvantage in the current star wars, this does not mean that there is no opportunity for local enterprises.

According to Li Guang, a company like Nike is also very realistic. Although the number of sponsors is numerous, after all, the company's resources are limited and can only be touted by a few popular stars. For the young athletes who are at the end of their career and the young players who can not get the situation, Nike will not invest too much, and this is precisely the opportunity for local brands.

Because athletes at the end of their career may also be able to shine in the second spring, and Jeremy Lin's "ugly duckling" will probably become "White Swans", which can also be excavated from the athletes resources neglected by international brands. The best in doing so is PEAK company in the country.

In recent two years, NBA has appeared "PEAK's law", that is, the one who has PEAK signing players in the finals must win the championship.

In 2010, Ron Artest's Lakers and Jason Kidd's Mavericks successfully won the Obrien cup.

This year, James and Wade led the Miami heat is widely regarded as the most powerful contender of the championship. The main players of the team also have PEAK's signing star Sean Battier. PEAK's law is likely to be fulfilled again.

There is no lack of luck in the production of "PEAK's law", but PEAK's vision is indeed commendable.

Insiders told reporters that veteran Kidd had been a Nike player before signing PEAK. However, due to his age problem, Nike did not want to invest more resources on him.

For Jeremy Lin, PEAK actually had contact with him when he was in high school, but Jeremy Lin, the ugly duckling, did not show enough potential at that time, so he could not touch PEAK.

At present, Jeremy Lin's future is still full of uncertainty, but miss Yao Ming's Nike will avoid repeating the same mistake. Local brands want to grab Jeremy Lin from Nike.

However, even if it is not possible to sign a sports star himself, signing a sports team with a star is also a way of "saving the country through curves".

Li Ning Co is undoubtedly a model of this marketing routine. As early as 2004, Lining signed an agreement with the Spanish Basketball Association to become a sponsor of the 2004-2008 year Spain national basketball team.

In 2006, the Spanish men's basketball team, wearing Lining's shirt, won the world championship in one fell swoop, and created a record of the Spanish national team. In the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the Spanish men's basketball team broke into the Finals again, though it finally lost the powerful American team.

But their outstanding performance has made basketball fans all over the world remember their Lining Logo on their jerseys. PEAK also reached a cooperation agreement with NBA's hot Miami hotline in February this year, and won the gold advertising position of the heat home. In the future, PEAK's brand logo will appear on the TV broadcast of the heat home game with the superstars like James and Wade.

Although excellent sports stars are still scarce, there is no need to worry about local brands, because this is changing.

A member of the National Sports Commission (predecessor of the State Sports General Administration), who has been engaged in sports brokerage for many years, told reporters that the foundation of the "national system" is being disintegrated.

After the great success of Ding Junhui and Li Na outside the system, more and more parents no longer send their children to traditional sports schools. Instead, they choose to carry out market-oriented training. Many grassroots traditional sports schools have failed to recruit excellent sports seedlings.

It is foreseeable to follow.

However, local enterprises want to win in the future sports star resources competition, in addition to continuing to work hard to improve their products and brands, more importantly, from now on, we must promote the cultivation of young sports talents with the strength of marketization.

Fortunately, local professional sports brands such as Lining, Anta and PEAK have taken this step.