Nike'S Road To Public Relations In China: Cultural Reconstruction To Create Market Space

"Cultural reconstruction is not a cultural pplant without borders".

Marketing in China seems to be in the bottleneck of development.

Faces from ADI, Andrea, NB, etc.

Fierce competition, Nike's "star + sports" marketing model is no longer the killer of market expansion.

How to integrate brand culture and do localized marketing is a problem that Nike needs to think about.

25 years ago, China's attractiveness mainly came from the cost-effectiveness of 1 to 1 billion of the data imaginative space and the cheap labor force. Now, with the rapid growth of China's economy and the release of consumption potential, the recognition of western culture label products and the purchasing power of reality make China become a market that any world sporting goods brand must attach great importance to.

In the eyes of China's emerging middle class, the natural Western cultural labels behind their international brands are their inherent advantages. Cultural exchanges and reshaping of ideas in the economic interaction provide great room for the international brand's Chinese public relations road.

However, the development of public relations marketing itself must follow its inherent rules and patterns. Cultural reconstruction is not a cultural pplant without borders, and successful marketing is not an exclusive secret recipe that can not be duplicated.

In the case of Nike in China, the popular culture and personalization concept, the promotion of sports and leisure concepts and the public relations marketing mode of "star + sports" have created Nike's "honeymoon period" in the Chinese market from scratch to small to large in the past ten years.

Today, such models are facing three challenges: first, such as

The homogeneity of marketing patterns caused by the imitation of competitors such as Reebok, Puma and NB; the two is the rebound of Chinese traditional cultural psychology and national identity in cultural promotion; the third is the difference between Nike's high-end price and market growth speed, which limits its further in-depth and wide two or three line market.

Today, Nike has encountered bottlenecks in China's public relations and cultural context and market competition is not a simple "star + movement" mode, but a dual test of brand culture integration and localization of public relations marketing.

Nike's road to public relations in China: cultural reconstruction to create market space

Since 80s of last century, Nike has been walking in China on the two legs of "Star Marketing" and "cultural remolding". Nike has been moving to the "star + movement" marketing mode in China on the other hand in China. Chinese people have known Nike and Nike's brand culture when they are fascinated by NBA and Jordan. Another way for Nike in China is "cultural remolding" -- changing Chinese people's understanding of sports and leisure, combining Nike brand with fashion and Western culture. Only the popularization of sports can bring more sales of products, and strive for market space by exploiting sporting goods market.

Nike not only sells shoes and sports products in the Chinese market, but also a cultural concept and consumption experience.

In 1980, the vast majority of people in China did not know that there was another brand named Nike in the world. They also thought it would be ridiculous to buy a pair of shoes at half the price of TV sets.

All the adults are working hard for their own food and clothing. Sports and leisure are not on the agenda. All the young people are worried about the exam results. They will not know anything about the far away sports shoes from the other side of the world, let alone their preferences.

Since the mid 90s, Chinese people have become familiar with western popular culture and sports. The recognition of Western cultural concepts has made all Western cultures become symbols of fashion and civilization.

More and more Chinese people are beginning to yearn for personalized display and free lifestyle. Nike's brand marketing and public relations promotion based on sports stars and sports culture are catering to this demand.

Nike has been working hard to publicize the popular culture in China, and combine with the highly personalized and free Western culture elements to intervene in the development of China's sports industry and pass on Nike's popular culture elements and consumption concept.

Catering to the Chinese new generation's thirst for individuality and freedom, and promoting the American culture with full strength and constantly extending and strengthening its brand image and brand cultural identity through the brand connotation in the Chinese context, all of these have made its product sales in China continue to grow rapidly. Nike's sales in China have surpassed 300 million US dollars, and on average two days, three Nike stores have appeared in various cities in China.

In this sense, Nike's model is basically successful. However, it is not without worries.

With the expansion of consumer groups and market size, Nike's popular culture marketing route will inevitably touch the basic framework of Chinese cultural concepts, and Nike's "fear chamber" has been "scared".

Its high taste and high price positioning for the middle class will also become one of the bottlenecks of its sales growth.

At the same time, the "star + sports" mode is not the absolute advantage that can not be duplicated by competitors. In 1998, Adidas launched the street basketball promotion project in China, and then launched the "Asian basketball tomorrow star" youth basketball promotion activities. Recently, the 2006 World Cup took the opportunity to launch a new marketing offensive.

Coincidentally, Reebok also used the "sports star" strategy to promote brand in China, which further resulted in the homogenization and patterning of sports brand marketing mode.

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Imitation of the double-edged sword of marketing and cultural reconstruction: rules behind the game

"Follow the example of those who succeed, no matter where you are now."

This is the motto of sports marketers and the cornerstone of successful sports marketing.

However, for marketing and public relations, imitation is a double-edged sword: the successor's footsteps are a model for the latecomers and a starting point. Successful imitation and innovation are the guarantee of success. On the other hand, imitation may mean that there is no permanent strength in the marketing competition, and there is no permanent advantage. Only the combination of imitation art, innovative ability and keen observation power is the only way to remain invincible.

The worldwide marketing competition between Nike and Adidas from the last century to 70s reflects the double-edged sword effect of imitation and marketing mode.

Nike in the 70s of last century is only a small role for Adidas.

Nike's success lies in its imitation of Adidas brand management and cross domain product chain marketing mode. At the same time, Nike is also concerned about the development and application of new technologies.

On the basis of this, it further compresses the production cost by means of subcontracting and ordering, and takes the brand marketing and public relations promotion as the core to open up the market. With the technology concept and continuous new products as an important marketing tool to guide the market, the product styles are not available every year. However, Nike never produces a pair of sports shoes or a sportswear, forming a production mode of "concept + factory" and a marketing mode of "star + sports".

Thanks to its excellent market observation and resilience, Nike surpassed Adidas in the 80s of last century and became the largest supplier of sporting goods in the world.

However, after imitation and innovation become models, they become the object of imitation. This is also the embodiment of time in marketing.

After adjusting from 80s to 90s, Adidas also began to imitate Nike's successful experience in brand marketing and management, and set up foundry factories in Eastern Europe, China and other countries with low labor cost, concentrating on marketing warfare combining technology with concepts.

Although Nike's dominant position in the sporting goods industry is still relatively stable, from Adidas's performance in major markets in recent years, they are using this mode to get out of the doldrums.

In addition, sports brands such as Puma, Reebok and NB are also moving in a similar way to Nike and Adidas.