How Does The Future "NB" Propagate Itself In The Prosperous Chinese Market?

Just as the European Cup was in full swing.

I am very busy with it.

and

Is the most prominent representative.

Of course, not all brands have been fortunate enough to join this event, such as New Balance and Under Armour, which have been developing rapidly in recent years.

For these two brands, they failed to relate to the football match which was next to the world cup.

But at the present stage, they may not have thought about these problems, because in the Chinese market, the two have encountered some big trouble.

Perhaps New Balance, not all Chinese consumers, have a deep understanding of the name.

However, we find that more and more sports shoes with "N" or "NB" logo appear on the streets of China. This shows that New Balance has begun to occupy a place in the competitive sports market of China.

In China, we are more accustomed to call it new centenary, but from now on, when we call out the name of "new centenary", it is not the "presidential jogging shoe" brand that has a history of 100 years.

Because it was not long ago, the high people's Court of Guangdong province made a decision, New Balance infringed the Chinese citizen Zhou Lelun's "new 100 Lun" trademark, and was fined 5 million yuan.

That is to say, referring to the "new hundred Lun" again, that is the authentic Chinese product.

New Balance can only use its own name to continue to develop the Chinese market.

Now the New Balance China official website has completely disappeared from the word "new hundred Lun", leaving only "New Balance" and "NB".

The bumpy road of New Balance in China's market

Speaking of course, New Balance is still a thorn in China.

As early as the 90s of last century, New Balance began to enter the Chinese market.

At that time, the Chinese name of the brand's exclusive agent in China was "New York".

However, later events proved that New Balance encountered "black intermediary" this time.

The agent privately expanded the output, gained high profits, and snatch the trademark of "New York".

In the face of such a matter, New Balance headquarters in the United States naturally can not bear, not only terminating the cooperative relationship with this agent, but also reluctantly withdrew from the Chinese market.

This time, New Balance's trip to China was entirely a bridal dress for others.

Well, it was only too young.

By 2003, New Balance had made a comeback.

However, it was not until November 1, 2007 that New Balance authorized a company called new brun to use its own brand in China.

In other words, in the eyes of New Balance, the "new hundred Lun" on the Chinese market can be equated with "New Balance".

But things are not so simple.

This time I want to talk about Zhou Ling.

In 2004, Zhou Lelun applied for the registration of "new hundred Lun" trademark.

Shortly after New Balance handed over the agency to the new company, the company had asked the Trademark Office to dismiss Zhou Lelun's application for the brand, but failed.

By January 2008, Zhou Lelun's "new hundred Lun" trademark application was officially approved.

Although Zhou Lun Lun's "new Bai Lun" trademark has become orthodox, New Balance has not given up its continued use of the three words of "new hundred Lun" to propagate itself in China. Of course, they can only make consumers understand their brand by impression flow, because in the view of New Balance, it is only the case that they bring up new products in front of Chinese consumers.

However, this situation is obviously unacceptable to Zhou Lelun. So in July 2013, Zhou Lelun filed a lawsuit against the Guangzhou intermediate people's Court on the ground that the new hundred Lun company infringed its trademark "new hundred Lun".

It was not until April 29, 2015 that the court made a verdict to order the new company to stop the infringement and pay a compensation of up to 98 million yuan.

In the face of such a penalty, the new Bai Lun company naturally did not hesitate to appeal. This only got a few days ago in the second instance, but the outcome was not reversed, but the penalty amount fell from 98 million to 5 million.

This time, I'm afraid New Balance really wants to say goodbye to his new era, though it is so popular among the people.

How does the future "NB" propagate itself in the prosperous Chinese market?

This event is definitely a blow to the New Balance, which is committed to developing the Chinese market vigorously. The brand effect that has been worked hard for more than ten years has been faced with great challenges, and the loss is incalculable.

Especially in recent years, New Balance has made remarkable achievements in the Chinese market. From 2012 to 2014, the brand's annual sales in China achieved three digit growth, and the number of stores increased from 301 in 2011 to more than 1600 in 2014, and that period was also the low tide of China's sporting goods industry.

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In recent two years, China's road running industry is developing at a high speed. Whether it is policy support or people's pursuit of healthy living concept, it indicates that there is still great potential for road running industry.

And running category is a field that New Balance relies heavily on. This kind of thing happens at this important juncture, no matter whether it is a brand image or a publicity challenge to the Chinese market in the future.

How can we get through this New Balance? We'll wait and see.

However, New Balance is supposed to reflect on itself after falling two times on the same issue.

Obviously, before entering the Chinese market, New Balance lacked a comprehensive and in-depth investigation of China's sporting goods market.

After failing to launch a trademark protection war against Zhou Lelun in 2007, he continued to promote himself in China with "new hundred Lun", which has laid the foreshadowing for today's situation.

Of course, even if New Balance failed in the lawsuit, I believe that in the eyes of Chinese consumers, the new hundred Lun is still unchanged.

But when consumers shouted that new Bellon broke into the store of New Balance, they could only see the eyeful English letters.

Under Armour finally launched into "Uncle Mars".

Coincidentally, another famous American sporting goods brand, Under Armour, has also encountered troubles in China.

Unlike New Balance, the problem of Under Armour does not appear in Chinese trademarks, but it is a brand infringement incident with "edge ball".

In April this year, Ting Fei Long sporting goods company in Jinjiang launched the Uncle Martian brand.

We find that the pattern of brand Logo or the way of brand name is very similar to the famous Under Armour, which has attracted the attention of many famous American commercial media.

Just a few days ago, Under Armour finally started the Uncle Martian.

In an official statement, the company said that the Under Armour brand filed a lawsuit against the Under Armour brand, the name of enterprise, UA graphics and other intellectual property rights of the Under Armour brand.

It needs to be pointed out that Andemar (China) Limited is not directly related to the Under Armour brand.

Under Armour is a registered company in Greater China. It is Ande AI Trading (Shanghai) Limited. It has the right to use the Chinese trademark of "Andrea".

Under Armour will ask the court to issue an injunction and impose a compensation of at least one hundred million RMB. At the same time, it also adopted the corresponding legal means for two infringement subjects of Ting Fei Long sporting goods Co., Ltd. and Andrea (China) Limited respectively through the China National Trademark Office and the Hongkong company registry.

Of course, we can foresee that legal disputes like this usually take a long time to arrive at a preliminary conclusion. No one can predict the result before.

However, it also shows that Under Armour is trying to kill the crisis in the cradle in the face of bloody lessons from many predecessors.

UA vigorously develop the Chinese market, and protect brand equity as a required course.

Although Under Armour has thrived in the North American market in the past two years, there is still much room for improvement in the international market, especially in China.

Kevin Plank CEO of the company said last year that Under Amour will strive to develop China into the second largest self market in the next 5 to 10 years.

Compared to its own home market, competition in the Chinese market will not be easy. There are not only Adidas and Nike that have been operating for decades, but also many domestic brands with good reputation, which is undoubtedly a huge challenge for Under Amour, which started late in China.

However, Under Armour also has secret weapons in its hands.

With the powerful influence of NBA in China, Under Armour has been on the rise in China.

Although the Jinzhou warriors failed to complete the defending season in the past season, the record of 73 wins and 9 losses in the regular season is still worthy of recognition.

In June 18th, the special meaning of the Under Armour Curry 2.5 "73-9" boots was officially launched in the United States. It is worth noting that in China, it was also seen on the same day that the boots were placed on the shelves.

Now, Under Armour's overseas sales growth is obvious, and the Chinese market is indispensable. The management of the company should have noticed this point long ago.

It is reported that Under Armour plans to open 120 stores in China by the end of this year.

There is no doubt that this will be the biggest year in the Chinese market, and they certainly do not want to be infringed on the brand equity in China, especially since it has almost become a gateway for overseas brands to develop the Chinese market. Fortunately, this problem has been exposed early.

Before Adidas and Jordan, the existing New Balance and Under Armour, the specific problems they may face may be different, but without exception, they experience the embarrassment of "do as the Romans do" in the Chinese market.

In the process of exploring the Chinese market, there are too many helplessness, but for the brand itself, to truly grasp the pulse of Chinese consumers, to create a representative product is perhaps the most advantageous weapon to establish brand image.