Domestic Sports Brands Enter The High-End Basketball Shoes Market, And How To Fight The "Brand War".

With the development of sports industry in China, the market size of basketball shoes has been expanding. The domestic sports brands have laid the market for basketball shoes, and the market competition is becoming increasingly fierce. For the domestic sports brand, how to do a good job in brand marketing is the key to winning.

Basketball shoes market competition intensified

According to the China Commercial Daily reporter, at present, China's basketball shoes market has great development space. Last November, the 2018 China basketball industry white paper released by Chi Chi research center of penguin think tank showed that the total scale of China's sports industry has been increasing year by year since 2012. By 2020, the scale of sports industry is expected to exceed 3 trillion yuan.

Among them, the white paper has mentioned that basketball has become China's "first movement". Under the age of 20 and 25-35, the proportion of basketball fans in the two age groups is 52% and 40% respectively. It is worth mentioning that in basketball fans, the number of women has increased significantly.

The popularization of venues and facilities is of great help to the development of basketball. According to the data released by the State General Administration of sports, in 2014, the number of basketball courts in China was close to 600 thousand, and the number of basketball venues increased significantly ahead of the number of new venues in other ball games.

An anonymous Chinese expert told the China Commercial Daily reporter that the popularity of basketball in China is relatively high. However, the per capita sports shoes (including basketball shoes) are relatively low in China, and there is still much room for development in the sports shoes market. According to the data collected by EU information consulting company, the average number of sports shoes per person in China is only 0.4 pairs, while the average per capita sports shoes in the United States are 4.3 pairs, 3.7 in Europe and 4.4 in Japan.

Obviously, with the continuous popularity of basketball, China's basketball shoes market will have more room for development. In fact, Anta, Lining, XTEP, 361 degrees and other domestic sports brands are in the layout of basketball shoes market. Liu Liang, a clothing industry expert, told the China Commercial Daily reporter that the domestic sports brand was "the main battlefield" in the middle and low end market when entering the basketball shoes market. With the increasingly fierce competition in the basketball shoe market, Anta, Lining and other brands began to force the high-end basketball shoes Market.

Sports brand enters high-end basketball shoes Market

In the background of increasingly fierce competition in the basketball shoe market, many sports brands have begun to enter the high-end basketball shoes market.

It is understood that Lining entered the high-end basketball shoes market through his basketball shoes brand Wade. In November 22nd this year, Wade's spokesperson Dwayne Wade officially announced in social media that warriors all star Dangelo Russell became the spokesman for Wade's way. "I am very lucky to have the opportunity to build my own brand of Wade in Lining. This is a global platform, and also a platform for future athletes to create and express." Wade said.

It is understood that although Wade's way is Lining's brand, but it has absolute autonomy, the design of its products and the decision of players signing are all completed by Wade's exclusive team. At present, Wade's basketball shoes, "devil fish" series of basketball shoes in the two class market price is 7888 yuan, "last dance" series basketball shoes in the two class market price is 1799 yuan.

Anta is also laying the market for high-end basketball shoes. In July 13th this year, Anta officially launched the "KT4" series of "reward" shoes at the Yu Garden store in Shanghai. It is reported that the biggest feature of this shoe is that the whole vamp is designed with newspaper style, inspired by basketball star Clay Thompson's habit of reading newspapers in the locker room. These basketball shoes print the newspaper on the upper of the shoe, and have a great sense of design.

The Chinese Commercial Daily reporter learned that in China's basketball shoes market, the basketball shoes were robbed by the fans once they were put on sale. In foreign basketball shoes market, this basketball shoe is also in short supply. According to US media reports, in July 7th this year, when the basketball shoes were put on sale at the US stores, the shoe buying team had a long queue. At present, the price of this basketball shoe in the two class market is 1499 yuan.

Why are consumers willing to queue up for high priced basketball shoes? AI media consulting CEO Zhang Yi said that a pair of shoes or a T-shirt, long gone beyond the scope of use and function, was more endowed with psychological connotation such as personality, culture and social interaction.

Brand marketing is the key to success

Liu Liang introduced that at present, the international sports brand Nike has the largest market share in China's high-end basketball shoes market. Nike and a number of fashion brands jointly launched basketball shoes in the two class market price can be as high as twenty thousand yuan.

So, how can domestic sports brands break through in the market of high-end basketball shoes with higher profits? In Liu Liang's view, domestic sports brands should learn to brand marketing. He believes that there are many ways to brand marketing, such as telling the story behind basketball shoes.

It is reported that last year, Nike launched a super combination of 18 pairs of shoes, known as "the art of Champions", in fact, most of the shoes included are new matching colors of classic basketball shoes. However, Nike carefully prepared a story for each pair of shoes, so that we can review the beautiful memories brought by these shoes.

For example, the modeling of basketball shoes Paul George's generation is originated from basketball star Paul George's "fishing" hobby. The shape of the shoelace button of this basketball shoe is buoy shape. This story and colouring attracted the memory of the fans, and laid the foundation for the hot selling of Paul George series basketball shoes.

At the same time, many sports brands will offer limited amount of basketball shoes. For example, Nike will often sell some limited amount of basketball shoes. Although the profit of limited basketball shoes is not high, Nike can take this opportunity to fry the brand and basketball shoes' heat, and then replace the color matching and increase the volume of sales, so as to achieve the profit effect.

Some sports brands also introduced "regional limited" basketball shoes, that is, a certain basketball shoes are only sold in a designated area. These District Limited basketball shoes are for the sake of creating topic. For example, Nike has limited sale of a basketball shoe in Tianjin, which is a rare Nike shoe sold in China. The volume of goods sold at that time is very small, so the market price of the shoe is more than 30 thousand yuan.

In addition, many sports brands will enhance their exposure through celebrity endorsements.

In Liu Liang's view, the price of high-end basketball shoes has exceeded their own value, and consumers need to pay for the high premium of high-end basketball shoes. Whether it is storytelling, limited edition or star endorsement, it is to enable consumers to accept high premium of high-end basketball shoes. This tests brand's brand marketing ability very much. Liu Liang expressed the hope that the domestic sports brand can continue to enter the high-end basketball shoes market, so that more consumers can feel the strength of the brand.