The self-proclaimed "iron fan" frequently commits crimes, and the star copycat brand is on the edge of the law.
Text: Lin Yuan
Recently, "Guizhou Kobe Wine" registered a Douyin account and began to hype "Kobe Sauce Wine" on the whole network, not only directly using the Chinese name of Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant, but also "touching porcelain" Kobe Bryant's jersey numbers 8 and 24 before his death, and the golden bottle body was also engraved with Kobe Bryant's famous words, causing the anger of the majority of fans.
01
Kobe Bryant became a liquor name, and the boss claimed to be a 20-year-old fan
Founded in 2023 and located in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, the full name of "Guizhou Kobe Liquor" is an enterprise mainly engaged in the manufacturing of wine, beverages and refined tea, with a registered capital of 10 million yuan, more than 88% of its counterparts in Guizhou Province.
Shareholder information shows that the company holds 99% and 1% of the shares respectively in Yongyang and Yu Haiyang.
It is understood that the original intention of the establishment was to promote the spirit of Mamba, and the boss Yu Yongyang is a 20-year "old fan" of Kobe.
On April 24, Yu Yongyang responded for the first time that Kobe Bryant Wine did not invite any champion as a spokesperson, but only asked a few champion friends to help record a few short videos. They are all out of respect for the legendary superstar, recognition of the spirit of the mamba, and do not charge any fees.
In the video, Yu Yongyang did not give any explanation to the company's "porcelain" Kobe.
What is unbelievable is that "Guizhou Kobi Liquor" has applied for the registration of 5 "KEBI", "Komanbiba", "Mankobabi" and 2 figurative trademarks of character silhouettes, all of which are classified as liquor. Among them, the status of "KEBI" and figurative trademarks is the preliminary examination announcement, and the trademark registration has been successful, which is compliant and legal from the legal perspective.
However, the relevant departments have noticed the irregularities of "Guizhou Kobe Liquor".
The staff of the Guizhou Provincial Administration for Market Regulation (Intellectual Property Office) recently said that an investigation into the matter has been launched and believes that the company may be suspected of infringing on Bryant's right to reputation.
In recent years, incidents of abusing the names of sports stars or using them for improper benefits have been common, and many sports stars have been shot. And it is none other than these entrepreneurs who call themselves "iron fans" of their own stars.
In 2020, in order to "pay tribute" to Kobe, German designer Philipp Plein actually put a golden helicopter with the brand logo on Milan Fashion Week, accused of consuming the deceased.
In 2023, a so-called "Arsenal fan" in Sichuan will register a number of new companies with the names of 16 players, including Martinelli Trading Co., Ltd., Les Nierson Technology Co., Ltd., Jesus Trading Co., Ltd., Fuan Jianyang Trading Co., Ltd., etc.
And today, in the face of Guo Allen's million-dollar salary, Jia Yueting, the founder of Faraday Future, has an intriguing reply:
"I'm a huge fan of Kobe Bryant, and I like you very much, and I look forward to meeting you in LA as soon as possible, and I look forward to growing up with you. ”
From Yu Yongyang to Jia Yueting, in the face of huge commercial interests, entrepreneurs are happy to disclose their identity as "old fans of football stars" and play with traffic in the name of this. Familiar scenes are played out again and again in the market.
02
The sky-high dinner contributed to the "Da Luo Concept Stocks", and the alien "Ma Fan" leveraged a market value of 7 billion
Among the businessmen who made a fortune from the "celebrities", the most well-known is the "mother fan" of the alien Ronaldo - Jiang Peizhen, the head of Guangxi Golden Voice.
In the summer of 2003, Real Madrid, known as the "Galaxy Battleship", made its first trip to China, and the 56-year-old realized that this could be an opportunity. She did the ideological work of Rivaldo's agent and expressed her willingness to give $300,000 just to "have a meal" with Ronaldo.
In the face of the admiring "mother fans", Ronaldo did not refuse, he met Jiang Peizhen's requirements one by one at the dinner, not only wearing a jersey printed with the words "Golden Throat Throat Piece" to take a photo with Jiang Peizhen, but also showing off his football skills.
The next day, Jiang Peizhen packaged the video at the dinner as an advertisement, which was broadcast continuously during the prime time of CCTV. It was this brainwashing advertisement that helped Golden Throat completely open up sales in China.
Due to the lack of development of the Internet at that time, Da Luo did not learn about this until 2005. He angrily went to court with his "mother fan", but Jiang Peizhen had already achieved fame at this time, and chose to pay compensation and settle with the "idol" out of court.
Later, in order to further enhance the brand image, Jiang Peizhen spent $14 million to sign Da Luo's teammate Kaka after the company went public.
In the first year of listing, Golden Throat's net profit reached 155 million, and its market value was as high as 7 billion Hong Kong dollars. After six years in the stock market, Golden Throat was privatized and delisted in 2021.
The 77-year-old is still enthusiastic about sports, and she attended the starting ceremony of the Liuzhou Marathon in March, where she fired a gun.
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From a monthly salary of 200 to a daily income of 250,000, the "big brother-in-law" imitated Kobe Bryant's net worth of tens of millions
Within the theoretical framework of shanzhai economics, shanzhai often uses the niche market as a breakthrough to dig deep into the "long tail" of the consumption space, so as to accumulate high profits.
The copycat star industry has a long history in China, even in the era when the Internet was not yet popular, many "county Andy Lau" who looked like well-known stars emerged in China. The huge market demand has given birth to a mature copycat star industry chain and brought considerable income to celebrity imitators.
For example, Chen Guokun was discovered by Stephen Chow because he resembled Bruce Lee, and participated in big-screen works such as "Shaolin Football" and "Kung Fu", becoming a high-profile actor.
In view of the fact that many copycat stars are very similar to the stars themselves in appearance, and their professional skills are relatively strong, which can have a certain promotion effect on the stars themselves, over the years, many genuine stars have chosen to acquiesce to this.
On short video platforms, there are also amateurs who have gained a large number of fans by imitating sports stars, and they have become the beneficiaries of the spillover effect of sports stars' traffic. The traffic of these copycat sports stars even surpasses that of many professional sports accounts.
Take Kobe's impersonator "Big Brother-in-law" as an example, he has 3.731 million followers on Douyin and more than 43 million likes.
The "eldest brother-in-law", whose real name is Li Zhangfeng, was born in a village in Liupanshui Panzhou City, Guizhou Province, which was once deeply impoverished. In order to make a living, Li Zhangfeng stepped into the society early, and went out to work in his hometown after half a semester of junior high school, and his first job was as a waiter in a billiard hall in Kunming, with a monthly salary of only 200 yuan, and he worked for nearly three years.
With the wave of the self-media era sweeping, Li Zhangfeng, who works odd jobs everywhere, has ushered in a turning point in his life. In 2020, some fans ridiculed Li Zhangfeng in the comment area for his resemblance to Kobe Bryant and suggested that he try to imitate it. However, considering that Bryant had just passed away at the time, he did not take immediate action.
Until April 2022, Li Zhangfeng shaved his hair and filmed a short video wearing a Lakers jersey and imitating Kobe Bryant's looking back, which instantly became popular on the Internet and received tens of millions of views. Since then, he has successfully transformed into "Guizhou Kobe" and opened a new road to basketball Internet celebrity.
In the early days of the transformation, Li Zhangfeng, who didn't play much basketball, made a lot of jokes, but this did not stop him from attracting a large number of fans. On the Internet, many people criticized him for insulting basketball and consuming the deceased. In the whirlpool of controversy, the number of Li Zhangfeng's fans has increased instead of decreasing. Later, as his basketball skills became more and more sophisticated, Li Zhangfeng's daily income even reached an astonishing 250,000, bank deposits of 50 million, business endorsement fees rose, and the Internet was happy to ridicule the Lakers with his videos.
Li Zhangfeng also turned his relatives and friends into Guizhou's version of O'Neal, Brother Alphabet, and Harden to capture new traffic together. Previously, according to media reports, Li Zhangfeng cooperated with investors to set up an Internet celebrity incubation company, preparing to enter the field of live streaming.
At present, it is not known that "Guizhou Kobe Liquor" is related to this Internet celebrity. But what is certain is that if Kobe Bryant Sauce Wine opens the live broadcast room, the "eldest brother-in-law" will definitely be one of the guests on the invitation list.
In addition to the first generation of Kobe Bryant in Guizhou, a young man in Yunnan imitated Kobe Bryant and posted 19 selfie videos, which has increased by 600,000 fans and is known as "Kobe Bryant's congenital holy body". According to media reports, the young man earned 80,000 yuan from the live broadcast for one night.
In the eyes of industry insiders, sports stars, like ordinary people, have the right to have an inviolable portrait right. Any unauthorized use of a sports star's likeness as a commercial promotion gimmick is an infringement. At the same time, some amateur imitators not only imitate the portrait of a sports star, but also imitate their iconic actions and the brand of the team they belong to, and if these behaviors seek profit through channels such as short videos without permission, such as bringing goods, etc., it also constitutes an infringement of the brand of the star and the team he plays for.
At the same time, it should be noted that the cost of accountability of copycat football stars is high, and it is difficult to obtain evidence, and many copycat sports stars make the public feel that he is "like a certain football star" in the form of imitation, which is difficult to legally define infringement. When a sports star dies, the property attributes of his or her name rights are not additionally protected.
Conclusion: In the past 20 years, many businesses have hoped to use the reputation of sports stars to endorse their brands, so as to quickly attract public attention and save huge marketing and promotion costs. This seemingly shortcut strategy may indeed bring some exposure and attention in the short term, but its long-term effect is debatable.
Even some businesses do not hesitate to go sideways in order to pursue short-term interests, forcibly tying the company's business with football stars. Although this method may attract attention for a while, it often lacks depth and connotation, and it is difficult to truly win the hearts and minds of consumers. In the long run, this superficial marketing approach can not only have a negative impact on a business's reputation, but also make consumers feel disgusted with the brand.
Therefore, businesses should be more cautious when gaining popularity, and carefully ponder how to not only attract the attention of sports fans, but also contribute to the spread of their own brands. This requires businesses to have a deep understanding of the preferences and needs of their target audience, find a fit with sports stars, and subtly integrate that fit into their brand communications. Only in this way can we stand out in the fierce market competition and achieve the long-term development of the brand.
Note: The pictures used in this article are from Guizhou Kobe Wine and the Internet