Can Sports Apparel Brand Create Brilliance With The Help Of Olympic Games?

Recently, according to foreign news media, Puma is prepared to use the Olympic Games to further expand its sales performance.

Puma is the world's third largest sporting goods manufacturer after Nike, Adidas and Adidas. Its global sales in 2011 surged 11% over the same period last year, the first time it exceeded 3 billion euros, and its profit increased 14% to 230 million euros compared with the same period last year.

In the face of the upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games, Puma is even more complacent. It is prepared to make full use of the Olympic Games to further expand sales performance, sales growth rate to reach the high single digit, and the company's profit margin will strive to reach the median number.

Indeed, London.

But how can we ride on this "ride"? Maybe it is the answer that many Chinese sports brands are eager to solve now.

Olympic business war

Seeing the opening of the 2012 London Olympic Games, to prepare for the big business opportunities in the past four years, the Olympic commercial war between domestic sports brands has already become white hot.

The 2012 Olympic Games plan thrown out from several companies is enough to witness the intensity of the "war".

Li Ning Co said in a public report that the company will adjust its product structure to control procurement costs, increase gross margins, continue to promote channel pformation, enhance the retail benefit of the two to four line market, further clean up retail inventories and speed up cash turnover, so as to "seize the market opportunity of London Olympic Games and enhance the brand image."

Li Ning Co executives said in public that this year's core task is Lining's Olympic strategy.

Lining, head of the public relations department, said earlier, "we will make use of the opportunity of London Olympic Games to sponsor the national team and connect the image and concept of Lining, the first sports brand of China, to better connect with Chinese consumers and enhance the brand image."

It is reported that Lining has successfully grabbed the sponsorship of the five Olympic teams in gymnastics, diving, table tennis, shooting, badminton and so on.

Anta is not backward at all. It even plans earlier and bigger.

In July 26, 2011, the countdown to the London Olympic Games was 1st anniversary. The Anta Sports Products Limited presented a grand tribute to the Chinese athletes at the Anta flagship store in Beijing -- Anta's reprinted plum blossom award dress.

It is understood that the signing of the Chinese Olympic delegation, and hit the price of 4 yuan 600 million yuan.

According to Anta's publicly disclosed earnings report, the advertising and publicity rates in the mid-term Olympics increased 0.6 percentage points to 12.6%, and further increased to 14% in 2012.

As a result, Anta's determination to fully display the brand value and image of London Olympic Games is clear.

361 degrees combined CCTV sports channel, around London 2012 Olympic Games to create 361 degrees "London action" series promotion program, the program covers information, special programs, block placement, Olympic special programs, etc., is CCTV's 2012 Olympic Games broadcast the earliest, the most abundant form, the most content, the longest cycle of reporting projects.

At the same time, other sports brands in China are also looking for opportunities of relative differentiation.

After all, high quality resources are scarce, such as the Chinese national team and the "dream team" with gold winning strength.

Therefore, other brands can only look for some distinctive Foreign Legions to sponsor, or they have some origin with China, or compete with some Chinese projects, or traditional sports powers such as Germany and Korea.

All these have become the object of sports brand competition.

For example, PEAK will provide multi-directional professional equipment for New Zealand delegation; Hongxing Erke has reached an agreement with the Iran Olympic Committee and is also in talks with the Olympic Committees of South Africa and Uzbekistan; Jordan will design the 2012 London Olympic Games for the three delegations of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Mongolia.

Apart from the traditional marketing mode, some brands have focused their attention on the Internet.

"We used to work hard on TV commercials, but the actual consumer groups have been slowly moving towards the Internet and e-commerce."

Ye Shuangquan, marketing director of XTEP (China) Limited and Disney Sports Department, said that it is very important to use network communication to make deep experience and communication to consumers.

The Olympic sports goods war is considered to be the node of all brands fighting for online marketing. "Olympic Games is a major marketing event, and it is the key to success of many enterprises."

Ye Shuangquan said that this year's Olympic Games is the competition between different companies in online marketing.

Cultural value output

Industry analysts divide the way of cooperation between enterprises and the Olympic Games into three categories: one is official sponsorship, the other is parasitic marketing, and the other is through cooperation with television media or network media.

"The three types of marketing have their own advantages, and they provide opportunities for brand exposure.

However, in order to achieve the real communication effect and marketing effect, sports marketing needs to invest some integrated marketing genes to activate the whole marketing chain from internal to external, from employees to customers.

Zhang Qing, President of the key sports marketing agency, said that even if the top sponsors of the Olympic Games are too few ads, or the lack of informed sex, the effect will not be ideal.

Yuan Fang, general manager of Beijing Olympic sports marketing company, also believes that the Olympic Games is a good opportunity to enhance brand influence. To maximize this opportunity, we need to closely link our brand with the Olympic spirit, so that consumers can have a positive positive impression on the brand.

Face to face contact with consumers is needed to enable them to truly experience the charm of the brand.

However, the problem now is that the most common slogan of Chinese enterprises is the Olympic sponsorship of certain Olympic Games, which lacks a deep understanding of Olympic marketing, and the advocacy and creativity of the proposed communication can not excavate the spiritual essence of sports.

Some enterprises with mature marketing ideas are good at putting forward their own ideas.

For example, Samsung has put forward the idea of "sharing the moment", which has established a link between mobile communication and Olympic exciting moments, and is worth learning from local enterprises.

Zheng Zhiping, deputy general manager and creative group director of think3group Chi Chi brand rapid business group, put forward the concept of cultural value output. He said: "the favorable momentum left by the Beijing Olympic Games is that enterprises should seize the opportunity to leave the footprints of Chinese sports brands on the land of European sports power.

For China's sports brand, we should focus on the brand culture story and the core spirit of the brand, "to excavate something that really has value and interests for consumers" as a

"Hard power and soft power are equally important. Although enterprises are relatively abundant in capital and many shops, their soft power is not enough.

The cultural value of sports brand output should be to advocate positive attitude towards life and healthy outlook on life, and the spirit of struggle and struggle.

Clothes should not be just a dress. There should be a spirit in it. "

Zheng Zhiping added.

He took Nike as an example. During the Beijing Olympic Games, Liu Xiang, the spokesperson of the Olympic Games, had a major event of "retirement due to injury". However, Nike successfully used the negative event and adopted a "never give up" attitude towards Liu Xiang.

After this incident, Nike gained a good reputation. Although it is not the top sponsor of the Beijing Olympic Games, it has greatly enhanced its brand image and reputation.

Perhaps, in real sense, sports marketing is like this. Through the support of a sport, a competitor or a tournament, the brand can manifest its value proposition in a more flexible way, so as to achieve stronger marketing influence.

Can London repeat the glory of Beijing?

According to reports, after the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, Lining, Anta, XTEP and China's business income increased significantly, when XTEP's earnings surged by 174.3% over the same period last year. In the first half of 2009, the highest turnover in the 4 companies was 33.5% in the first half of the year, and the highest turnover in the 4 companies was 22.6% in the first half of 2010.

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As the most dazzling star of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Lining, as a representative of Chinese athletes, lit the Olympic torch on the "bird's nest" over Beijing, and pushed the development of Lining's sports brand to the peak. In the next two years, Lining's sales performance rose sharply, and the sales volume in the Chinese market once exceeded the world famous sports brands such as ADI Nike.

The Olympic year is a year for sports goods brands to exert their strength, and also a year for sports brand "bumper harvest".

"The Olympic effect has become a stimulant for stimulating the development of the industry."

Many people in the industry say that the fact that sports brands can develop rapidly with the help of the Olympic Games has been well proven in 2008.

Will the London Olympic Games bring new opportunities for the development of China's sporting goods industry? Li Ning Co said: "the Olympic Games will still play a stimulating role. The sports industry will face fierce competition this year.

In this environment, timely adjustment, faster inventory clearance and adjustment of store structure is extremely important. "

However, there are also insiders pointed out that the 2012 Olympic Games can hardly become the life-saving straw of domestic sports brands, because its overseas sales share is very limited. Taking Lining as an example, its semi annual report in 2011 shows that the sales income of Lining brand international market is only 1.7%.

In view of such discussions, faced with two different points of view, Zheng Zhiping believes that after all, the 2008 Olympic Games is our home and London is away, but he said that this means that Chinese sports brands have more chances to set up their image in Europe. This is an excellent opportunity for China to display its face in the international sports brand, and it will also drive the domestic market.

Not only that, it can also change the image of Chinese sports brand, so that people can no longer stop the impression of Chinese brands only on Shanzhai and low quality. Instead, they can display the excellent quality and price advantage of Chinese brands in the European market.

"The earliest sports brand is made in Europe. We have to return to their home to show their own brand.

Opportunities outweigh challenges.

First create an atmosphere, and also a learning process. "

Zheng Zhiping said firmly.

Maybe become the watershed of the industry pattern.

"From the experience of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Anta has seized the opportunity to improve its position in the industry through a series of initiatives during the 2008 Olympic Games, such as" Chinese backbone "and sponsorship of the Chinese team's award dress.

It can be said that through the Beijing Olympic Games, the sports brand industry was reshuffled, and Anta shook the position of Lining's elder brother.

Zheng Zhiping commented on the impact of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on Chinese sports brands.

It can be said that the position of the top two in the domestic sports brand ranking has been basically set, and the next third to sixth places are very likely to be re arranged.

That is to say, with the opportunity of London Olympic Games, whether the brand choice is going up or forced to go down, undoubtedly, the competition and pressure between brands are very large, especially the road behind which the brand is being squeezed will be narrower and narrower.

After all, London Olympic Games are different from the Beijing Olympic Games. Without the advantage of home battle, there will be two influences.

Speaking from the good side, the London Olympic Games will stimulate the development of domestic sports brand and the domestic sports brand market. On the one hand, because of the "good" in 2008, the Chinese sports brand has been in a state of rapid development.

"So now it's an opportunity for the two or three line brand to change its own ranking. Maybe it will jump out of another Anta."

Zheng Zhiping said.

As he said, if the London Olympic Games are used well in 2012, it will be a great opportunity for the brand to turn over.

Conversely, if it is not used well, it is likely to be eliminated.

There will be a readjustment of the overall pattern.

Especially for a large number of two or three line brands, this is a chance that should be grasped. If we can ride this good ride, we will achieve new life, cross over and even go to the international market. If we fail to succeed, we may have to go through an unknown darkness.

Although the Olympic Games are held in four years, four years can actually change an enterprise, especially as a two or three line brand. We should seize such a great opportunity. We must take advantage of the Olympic Games.

At the same time, enterprises themselves should also actively do something, such as the use of new media such as the Internet, and actively interact with consumers, etc., can also appear on the television screen, for effective two dissemination.

Each Olympic Games will produce a lot of classic marketing cases, the birth of a lot of legendary black horse.

Just like the success of Anta, Jin Ba and Wang Laoji, there is a shadow of the competition. I do not know which brand will be born in this London Olympic Games.