A year ago, the Argentine team won the 2022 Qatar World Cup, which attracted countless Argentine fans to revel. For a time, the Argentine national team led by Messi set off a championship fever around the world, and also brought hot sales of jerseys and other peripheral goods, and the "Messi economy" was staged around the world.
Interestingly, after a year, the "Messi" label on the e-commerce platform is still the first choice of fans, and on the sports hot list, Argentina and Messi-related peripheral goods are still popular. For this phenomenon, the morning newspaper reporter interviewed Liu Bing, Ph.D. in sports industry and economic management and dean of the School of Physical Education of Shanghai University, who said that Messi itself has become a totem, attached to the product, and has become a symbol of spiritual attributes, which is the most dynamic ontological attribute of the sports industry.
Q News Morning News: In 2022, after the Argentine team won the championship, the love of Chinese fans for Argentina and Messi reached its peak. While celebrating their victory, they have been showing their support for their stars over the past year by buying merchandise from Argentina and Messi. What is your assessment of this year-long buying phenomenon, and is this consumption boom affected by the global pandemic?
A Liu Bing: The impact of the epidemic is there, mainly in the decline in purchasing power, as well as the reduction in player exposure due to the reduction in sports events, because the epidemic has led to a decrease in the flow of the entire market. However, from the perspective of marketing, the product and its service attributes are related to the connotation of the product, and how can this connotation be interpreted by consumers.
Messi itself has become a totem, representing a kind of faith, attached to the product, is a symbol of a spiritual attribute of consumers, I believe that Messi's brand effect will not be fundamentally different before and after the epidemic.
The fan economy of sports often follows the players, and the players' skills and conduct are the most important for high-quality sponsors, and the length of the player's career and the performance of the whole career are important symbols of the extension of the product brand effect. For important brand players, especially athletes who can maintain a competitive level for a long time and have good sportsmanship, the product reflects more of a pursuit and belief of fans, and of course, the product quality must also be in line with the player's brand, which has a very high standard for product producers.
Q Morning News: At present, e-commerce platforms have rich and diverse channels (online shopping, live broadcast rooms, etc.), which directly promotes the development of the fan economy. Compared with the pre-pandemic view of sports consumption, what do you think are the changes in the current concept of fan consumption, and what are the trends of fan consumption?
A Liu Bing: Indeed, the abundance of e-commerce platform channels not only allows consumers to have a variety of choices for product purchases, which facilitates consumers' actual purchases, but also enriches the channels for sports star promotion, and in a deeper sense, it also deepens consumers' understanding of sports.
At present, the consumption concept of fans has changed greatly. First of all, the purpose of consumption is more to interpret one's own personality, which is different from the previous kind of consumption, the consumption appeal of sports products is more individualized, and the choice of sports is more extensive; secondly, with the globalization of sports, a large number of sports (popular, niche) are understood by Chinese fans in various ways, and consumers are allied because of sports hobbies, which also profoundly affects the consumption of sports products; finally, high-end sports (golf), The consumption of collective sports and emerging sports (ice and snow) must be the trend of young people's consumption in the future, especially collective sports, such as football, basketball, etc., these sports are easy to produce stars in the group, with the advent of the era of sports health promotion, the product chain condensed in the sports star will be valued and innovated, and the future consumption trend will also move with the "star".
Q Morning News: We all know that the consumption of cultural products is very time-sensitive. However, in the past year, we found that on the e-commerce platform, in addition to Messi's No. 10 jersey, Argentina team uniforms, sneakers and other football-related supplies, there are also many hot-selling "creative products", and the design of star-related products shows unprecedented creativity, such as Messi's dolls, calendars, key chains, etc., showing a trend of diversification. What do you think of this phenomenon, and does this make up for the previous shortcomings of the sports and culture industry and stimulate the birth of more creative products?
A Liu Bing: Obviously, supply is determined by demand, and star products can never be single, they must be an industrial chain. At present, the sports consumption chain is relatively short, which has a lot to do, and future product innovation may not only stay at the level of cultural creativity, but will also extend to artificial intelligence and other fields in the future, so that consumers have a stronger sense of experience and higher added value of products.
Q Morning News: Due to the particularity of Chinese football, Chinese fans seem to prefer to pin their emotions on Messi and the Argentine team, which also reflects the importance of "high-quality idols". Do you think that the "consumption boom" caused by the Argentine team and Messi among the Chinese fan base is a unique phenomenon in the history of football?
Liu Bing: In the previous words, Messi represents a kind of faith, which is attached to the product and becomes a symbol of spiritual attributes, which is the most dynamic ontological attribute of the sports industry.
Of course, there will be a large number of groups in each sport, even if it is the same sport, the traffic of a certain star will be temporary, but the charm of sports lies in the fact that it is ultimately to create "stars", which is the pursuit of competitive sports, and it is also an important reason why sports and business are inseparable.
Q Morning News: What kind of reference significance does "Messi's economy" bring to Chinese sports? In this era of obvious traffic attributes, are sports consumer groups calling for more high-quality idols?
A Liu Bing: "Messi economy" tells us that professional sports is the main driving force of "star-making", which can bring economic development to a country, how to do a good job in professional sports, and give professional sports a good ecological development space, not only in the need for competitive sports science as a guarantee, but also to encourage young people to regard sports as a future career, especially football, and work hard for it, shaping our country's own "stars" The fan economy can drive the iteration and update of products, and the pull and circulation of this economy must be green, which is more in line with the needs of economic development in the process of Chinese-style modernization.