Bottom Of The Market: New Hundred Lun, Continued Growth After Marketing Explosion.

New Balance, formerly a low-key marketing player, launched several micro films in the Chinese market in September last year.

If you have seen them, you will find that they have not gone.

The traditional advertising routines -- there are neither professional athletes nor competition fields.

In the advertisements named "girls Sherlock", "sad cuisine", "ingenuity" and "New Street doctrine", they appear to have nothing to do with sports except for the occasional close-up of New Balance sneakers.

Taking "sad food" as an example, in a 18 minute short video, it tells how a restaurant owner used food to help those who were hurt by love to untie their hearts.

The scene of "sad cuisine"

This touching short video has received 4 million hits from various video platforms since its release, and it has been pmitted by the viewers actively through WeChat.

Although each advertisement does not have a clear brand orientation, they have moved the customers who want to move.

"Several of the commercials we've taken are followed by several series."

Jiang Hao, marketing director of New Balance, told reporters.

In the Jianghan office's whiteboard, it clearly lists the models of the shoes corresponding to each advertisement and the target customers they aim at.

"Girl Sherlock" and "sad cuisine" are the 574 primary colors that young people like best. 574, the potential customers of this type are college students or ethnic groups who have just entered the society, so advertising is also a small and refreshing style of literature and art.

The 580 is the bold color matching, many buyers are Chaozhou. Therefore, the "New Street doctrine" advertising film featuring 580 is also an avant-garde consciousness.

The sudden popularity of 2012 made the sales of New Balance in mainland China in 2014 increased by 3 digits compared with that in 2012.

New Balance didn't want to be a flash in the Chinese market after the explosion.

Jiang admitted that the Hallyu star wearing a narrow leg New Balance is probably a hit point in the Chinese market.

Many fans came to the shop looking for a New Balance shoe at the foot of a Korean star.

In all kinds of street pads and fashion magazines, New Balance has become a national sports shoe.

But he thinks this popularity is more "turbulence", "you have no way to grasp its context, it is related to culture, and the ideological trend of young people."

It is undeniable that this turbulence has made the American running shoes brand have gained unprecedented popularity in China.

However, the trend is coming and going. What New Balance wants to do is to catch some things that can be combined with his brand characteristics in the "turbulence", and then guide it.

New Balance is trying to provide it with a series of new advertisements.

More recognition of brands, and more in-depth development of the Chinese market.

According to the data provided by New Balance, Chinese people will be exposed to 500 advertisements every day. How to spread them can make viewers willing to be the media of brand communication, which is the concern of New Balance.

In the end, New Balance chooses micro movie ads that can easily integrate brand information into the plot and trigger emotional resonance.

One of the traits that makes New Balance distinctive is its origin.

In the new advertisement, there is also a micro film with the theme of "ingenuity". Jonathan Lee, the Taiwan musician, plays the advertisement.

In the video clip, the working footage of New Balance shoemaker and the close view of Jonathan Lee's carefully polished guitar crossover with montage.

Over the past more than 10 years, Jonathan Lee, who has been working on hand made instruments and founded the "Li guitars" brand, has told us the feeling of being a musician and a pianist.

New Balance takes this to show the unique "craftsman spirit" of British and American production.

Ingenuity

Nowadays, most of the sports brands are global foundry, and large machine assembly line production is normal.

But New Balance maintains several handmade factories in the two labor force countries, the United Kingdom and the United States, and the factory produces very little output every year.

In order to make this advertisement, New Balance had a lot of trouble at that time.

Advertising is a small non 4A advertising company in Shanghai. After submitting the five or six edition of advertising words to New Balance, it was returned because it could not satisfy New Balance.

In the end, New Balance sent the ad copy to Jonathan Lee, and Jonathan Lee volunteered to "write it instead of me."

After that, he completely overturned the original advertisement and wrote it from his own language.

"Life is very urgent. You have to wait for it to grow up.

Focus on doing something, at least for the time. "

Jonathan Lee said in an advertisement.

"The words he wrote himself gave us great surprises, which are simple and simple, not pretentious, and do not show off their attitudes."

Jiang Chang recalls.

However, it is not the consistent style of New Balance that advertising is so dense.

Compared with Nike and Adidas, it has always been low-key in marketing.

However, its publicity has been increasing in recent years.

In October this year, the brand assembled hundreds of mysterious runners in the Bund to challenge the task of 10 minutes and 200 kilometers, and also wrapped up the Citigroup big screen in Lujiazui, Pudong, for the activity.

"It's not surprising, New Balance's team has changed since then."

Jiang Chang said.

In 2011, Zhang Hongwen, a Taiwanese who worked for Nike, joined New Balance as president of China.

In the second year, Jiang Chang also came to this brand.

In addition to video advertising, New Balance has also done a lot of offline promotion, such as bringing "Color Run" colorful overseas activities into China.

Compared with the temporary trend, New Balance believes that jogging in China is the opportunity. If you search for jogging in the Baidu index, the maximum number of searches per day in 2011 is 496 times, and in 2014 it has jumped to 1330 times, nearly 3 times that of the former.

Jiang said that in these countries near 30 degrees north latitude, when the per capita GDP exceeded 15 thousand dollars, there was no exception to become a jogging country. "China has just started, many people are talking about it, but has not yet formed the habit of regular jogging."

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Jogging

Jiang Chang showed the jogging area and density distribution of several international metropolises around the world. In Beijing and Shanghai, these jogging cities are still a jogging virgin land from the map. "We feel that we need to seize this trend to do something. Let us feel that jogging is not a boring thing. Color Run is a good entry platform."

In addition to the low threshold jogging activities, New Balance is conducting activities in the education market synchronously, providing jogging training courses to Chinese runners.

For example, New Balance cooperates with China's top 500 companies to teach physical training and human physiological knowledge to trainees by hiring professional jogging coaches, telling them how to gradually improve their cardiopulmonary function while avoiding sports injuries.

In order to tap the larger consumer market, besides the more active marketing policy, we need the cooperation of channels.

At present, the number of New Balance stores in China has 1600, but compared with Nike and Adidas, New Balance is not well developed in the second tier and three tier cities.

Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu and other most mature consumer market is still the most New Balance shops, but next, New Balance will find more business opportunities in Nanjing, Changzhou, Wuxi and other places, and just before the interview, Jiang has just returned from South of Jiangsu to visit the Shanghai headquarters.

New Balance also noted that female consumers are playing an increasingly important role.

The women's sports shop was settled in Beijing and Chengdu. Rival Nike opened the first women's product experience store in Shanghai in late November.

The market of women's sports products has become a "new battlefield" of sports brands.

According to New Balance, 45% of the thousands of gyms in China now are women.

"More and more girls in China rely on sports to enhance their overall image. All brands in this area feel that they are big market opportunities.

New Balance is no exception. "

Jiang said that from next year, N