This newspaper reporter Xu Liqing and Sun Jizheng reported in Beijing
On the other side of the sports event, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics has become a runway for clothing brands.
On February 10, Japanese figure skater Yusei Yushin, who was obsessed with challenging the 4A, ended with a blue "battle robe" to show an elegant and indifferent king's demeanor; the Chinese short track speed skating team took Anta's anti-cutting speed skating suit to the podium several times.
With the promotion of various competitions in this Winter Olympic Games, the competition between clothing brands is also becoming increasingly fierce. Relevant statistics show that as of February 8, athletes wearing the three brands of Philharmonic, Desante and ANTA have ranked in the top three times to show the brand's exposure in the Winter Olympic Games.
Behind this eye-catching "show" is the all-round layout and competition of various sports brands.
From sponsoring the Winter Olympics, delegations, athletes, to the layout of product lines and omni-channel marketing, various sports brands are competing for traffic to the Winter Olympics. From the current point of view, sports brands such as Li Ning have ushered in a sharp rise in the capital market and sales terminals, and foreign brands such as lululemon have received great attention. However, with the continuation of the Winter Olympic Games, dozens of sports brands compete in the same field, how to stand out, improve the investment conversion rate is still the focus of brand marketing.
Winter Olympics "Runway"
As one of the most popular athletes in this Olympic Games, Yu yusuke's excellent artistic temperament and expressiveness are inseparable from his colorful Kausten costumes.
Short track speed skating is a competition between speed and strength, the fierce body collision makes the game add more uncertainty, the Chinese short track speed skating team won the first gold, but also let Anta's anti-cutting "battle suit" shine. Popular players Gu Ailing and Su Yiming wore the competition uniforms provided by ANTA, which made the audience pay attention to the difficult actions while noticing the rise of domestic brands.
At the previous opening ceremony, a group of brands opened the PK mode.
The Lululemon worn by the Canadian team went out of the circle overnight with a stylish design. The reporter saw on the official website of Lululemon that the Canadian delegation's same down jacket cost 448 US dollars, and the women's model was a total of 11 sizes, of which the red down jacket was only one size in stock, the white model was only 4 sizes in stock, and the rest were sold out. In addition, since Lululemon's Olympic series is only available in the Canadian domestic market, various "planting grass" and purchasing notes appear on the Little Red Book.
Thanks to the popularity of the Winter Olympics, domestic sports brands also ushered in a sales boom in early 2022.
According to Taobao data, in January 2022, ANTA's sales were about 270 million yuan, and Li Ning's sales were about 390 million yuan.
The popularity of online and offline is inseparable from the promotion behind the brand. As the official sports clothing partner of the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, ANTA has created competition equipment for 12 Chinese national teams. Chinese sports brand Peak sponsored delegations from seven countries, becoming the second most used brand by delegations at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
"Large-scale events, especially those like the Olympic Games and the World Cup, have a great international impact, and the biggest benefit to participating brands is the increase in visibility." Ma Gang, an analyst in the clothing industry, said that companies use large-scale events to focus on exposure and marketing brands in a short period of time, and the popularity has risen rapidly. However, it should be noted that the event has a certain dividend cycle, and its impact on the sales terminal is limited, and enterprises should follow up rationally to avoid subsequent backlogs of inventory.
Liu Dahe, a marketing planning expert, said that as a professional global event, the Winter Olympics provides related enterprises with a wealth of basic conditions for marketing communication, including professional endorsement, product real-life "model" display, accumulation of a large number of promotional materials, and global popularity. However, the final effect depends on whether enterprises can take advantage of these conditions to further ferment and spread.
Decisive moments
Athletes are being tested on the Olympic track, and in another dimension, clothing brand sponsors are also competing for the number of times they appear on the podium.
Athletes impact olympic medals at the same time to bring new exposure to clothing brands, and clothing brands accompany athletes to the podium, not only means that they have more eyeballs than competitors, but also to a certain extent confirm the success of their own sponsorship.
Sports vertical media "Sports Big Business" released the "2022 Beijing Winter Olympics Sports Brand Value List", according to the list, as of February 8, Fei Le ranked first with 8 gold, 7 silver and 3 bronze medals totaling 18 medals, followed by Desante and ANTA, the number of medals was 11 and 10 respectively.
"So far, more than 40 brands have appeared on the podium, and the more they appear, the more they can impress consumers. This is inseparable from the unique sponsorship strategies of the brand side. For example, when choosing a sponsored object, it is necessary to do a certain marketing analysis to ensure that the sponsored object has sufficient exposure opportunities. At the same time, by grasping the core sports stars, the communication effect may have exploded. Liu Dahe said.
The reporter noted that at present, in addition to the above two brands, ANTA also has a number of sports brands such as Salomon, Spandi, and Kolon Outdoor. After sponsoring 7 national team delegations, Peak won 6 exposures on the winter Olympic podium through Slovenia and New Zealand, and the above two countries won a total of 3 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze.
In contrast, the traditional strong foreign sports brands such as Nike and Adidas are temporarily behind. As of February 8, Adidas-sponsored teams or athletes have won 3 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze; while Nike has been on the podium three times. Most of the rest of the brands have only appeared 1 to 2 times.
Liu Dahe said that the focus on the podium on the field is very important, but in order to achieve a stronger influence than others in the Winter Olympics, it is necessary to continue to exert efforts inside and outside the field to amplify the publicity effect. For example, the use of promotional methods, the purchase of products, publicity and participation, you can smoke ice piers and other gifts; product endorsement, theme marketing around the Winter Olympics; with the help of various hot events, through the major media platforms to spread, and interact with consumers.
In fact, the competition of various brands has long spread beyond the arena, and many brands have set their sights on ice and snow sports equipment, especially ski equipment.
FILA and Italian professional ski brand VIST launched the FILA x VIST co-branded series of professional ski suits; Desante and austrian professional skiing brand ATOMIC created the latest joint ice and snow products, opened the 2021 ski show in 7 cities across the country, opened the DKL Global Experience Center in Beijing, etc.
Li Ning still concentrates resources on building the main brand, and in 2022, he first ventured into the ski sports scene and launched the LI-NING SNOWBOARDING snowboarding series.
After the successful bid for the Winter Olympics, Heilongjiang's veteran ice knife manufacturer "Black Dragon Ice Knife", which has been exported to more than 20 countries and regions overseas, completed its reorganization and reorganized into Qiqihar Black Dragon International Ice and Snow Equipment Co., Ltd., whose current products span skates, helmets, gloves, knee pads, elbow pads, etc.
In addition, there are veteran outdoor brand pathfinders, as the main drafting unit of the two standards of "Professional SportsWear Ski Wear" and "Professional SportsWear Track and Field Clothing", and have a certain right to speak in ice and snow equipment. It is also taking ski wear as a breakthrough to improve the layout of the entire ski industry.
Zhang Qing, founder of Beijing Key Way Sports Marketing Company, believes that with the landing of documents related to the development of ice and snow sports projects, the development conditions of ice and snow sports projects will gradually improve. Many sports brands have increased their outdoor business and jointly cultivated the entire ice and snow equipment market. Outdoor equipment is different from general sportswear, a full set of equipment and high professional attributes, making it a highly consumer sticky industry, which is both an opportunity and a challenge for enterprises.
Foreign investment in China again?
As an international IP, the Winter Olympics not only provides a window for domestic brands to display externally, but also allows Chinese consumers to deepen their impression of foreign brands. Judging from the off-site actions, some foreign brands want to use the window period of the Winter Olympics to enter the Chinese market.
Taking the lululemon of the fire as an example, there are currently 552 stores in the world and 77 stores in China, of which more than 30 stores will be opened in 2021.
At the same time, Lululemon is constantly expanding the Chinese market. On the channel, lululemon has opened online flagship stores such as Taobao, opening up online and offline channels with the help of e-commerce. Officials said that the Chinese market is one of the important engines of lululemon's international market growth.
"We are very satisfied with the compound growth of 70% in the Chinese market." Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald has said that the company will continue to invest in new stores in China and its China headquarters in Shanghai.
Other foreign brands are also eyeing the Chinese market. In 2021, Swedish outdoor sports brand PEAK PERFORMANCE, Swiss outdoor sports brand KJUS and Norwegian brand Helly Hansen, adidas professional outdoor sports brand adidas TERREX and other brands have entered the Chinese market.
Outdoor sports brand BOGNER has opened limited-time boutiques in Shanghai and Beijing, two first-tier cities. According to the incomplete statistics of CBNData consumption stations, in the second half of 2021 alone, there are about 10 professional outdoor sports and ski brands that have opened their first stores in China.
Attracted by the Winter Olympics and China's huge market, the pace of foreign brands' layout in the Chinese market is accelerating. "The Chinese market occupies an important position in the commercial landscape of many foreign brands, but local brands have improved in terms of technological content and brand power, especially in the context of the rise of domestic products, local brands have certain competitiveness." Zhang Qing said.
Liu Dahe believes that the Chinese market performs well, and domestic brands will naturally face competition and market impact from international brands. In the future, more and more Chinese brands will also go global. Internally, domestic enterprises are more aware of local consumer demand and pain points, and they should increase the in-depth analysis of Chinese target customers in research and development. Externally, we must have a global vision in brand marketing.