Sports Shoes: Beijing Olympic Games Are Real Gold And Silver

With the trend of international sports equipment companies in the Chinese market, the domestic sports equipment companies are facing endless and difficult competition.

Even the Li Ning Co, the biggest sportswear company in the country, has lost its bid for the sponsorship of the Beijing Olympic Games to Adidas, the world's largest brand. The latter estimated the price to be 600 million to 750 million yuan (80 million to 100 million dollars).

However, Chinese companies have not hesitated. They regard the 2008 Olympic Games as a great opportunity to define the market, attract new customers and set up brand names.

At present, they are implementing various laws and choosing spokesmen, whether they are controversial or not, and only want to be fresh.

Wu Rongguang, President of China Hongxing Erke group, said: "the Olympic Games can promote sales of sports equipment as a whole and bring market opportunities to every company."

Lai Shixian, chief operating officer of Anta sports equipment company, also pointed out that the right market strategy and brand marketing are becoming more and more important in order to get business from the competitive environment.

In this regard, Benjamin Took, senior customer manager of the former Shanghai Jun CE public relations company, who left in September, agreed that although some local companies lost some internationally famous brands in Olympic sponsorship bidding, this does not mean that they are at a disadvantage.

Tucker pointed out that many successful domestic companies actually rely on two or three tier cities such as Chongqing and Wuhan to expand and develop consumer groups and increase brand awareness.

Tucker said: "Wahaha, for example, their marketing strategy is to go outside the big cities.

For international brands, it is a nightmare to have access to China's rural market with a population of 700 million.

Tucker believes this is also true in the sports equipment industry.

Wu Rongguang pointed out that China's sports equipment market is like a Pyramid.

International brands such as Nike and Adidas are at the top and are concentrated in the first tier cities, selling every pair of sports shoes with a price of more than 700 yuan.

ERK did not dare to compete with them, so he turned to two or three tier cities and middle-level consumers to sell them 200 to 500 yuan pairs of sports shoes.

Tucker said: "although local companies have no brand advantage and may not be able to help stars like Kevin Garnett, they can still sign up with well-known local sports stars in order to enter towns and seek wider recognition."

All along, the traditional spokesmen of Chinese companies are table tennis players and table tennis players. With the rise of Yao Ming in the international arena, many Chinese basketball players, like American basketball stars, can find their own endorser contracts in Chinese manufacturers.

At present, American basketball stars who cheer for Chinese companies include O'neal, who speaks for the Li Ning Co, while Yao Ming's teammate, Shane Battier, poses a tiger jumping posture on the PEAK shoe website, behind which is a flash slogan "the same team, the same dream."

Anta still mainly adopts local strategies in choosing spokesmen, including table tennis player Wang Hao, basketball player Tang Zhengdong and Wang Zhongguang.

Although ERK can not afford the top athletes in China, the company says it has adopted the best strategy, namely local information, and accordingly schedules its available resources as far as possible.

For example, the first project they sponsor is the choice made according to the schedule of the 2008 Olympic Games.

Wu Rongguang explained: "weightlifting is the first event of the 2008 Olympic Games. China has a high chance of winning medals, and maybe it can win gold medals.

If they can win, the brand power they bring will be very strong. "

Wu Rongguang hopes that 48 kilograms of Chinese weightlifters, such as Wang Mingjuan, 22, can push the brand of Erke vigorously.

The company is also excited about sponsoring the entire North Korean Olympic team.

Wu Rongguang said they were the first companies to sponsor the entire Olympic team.

Gymnastics, boxing and table tennis are all traditional strengths of the North Korean team.

"They have a high chance of winning medals," he said.

In fact, the Olympic team is not the only one that has been sponsored by Chinese brands.

In addition to the relatively strong insurance teams of Argentina and Spain, the Li Ning Co also sponsored the Sultan Olympic team.

Recently, the cooperation between China and Sultan has attracted many international protests.

Anyway, Lai Shixian hopes that the patriotism inspired by the Olympic Games, as well as those memorable advertisements, competitive product prices and clever strategy of endorsement, will bring some cost to Chinese companies to compete with international brands.

As for partners, is there any good partner who will not talk about it?