When Will Chinese Brands Surpass Foreign Brands In The Local Market?

The Chinese sports delegation, starting from the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, surpassed Germany in the gold medal list and medal list. In 2004, the Athens Olympic Games also surpassed Russia to second.

But in the fierce competition of sports goods, Chinese brands have not yet surpassed foreign brands in the local market.

Three years ago, the German Adidas (Adidas), with the sponsorship fee of 1 billion 300 million yuan (RMB, the same time, 260 million yuan), overwhelmed the Lining (Li-ning) company, which has sponsored the Chinese sports delegation to participate in the four Olympic Games, and became a sponsor of the Beijing Olympic games.

This means that the Chinese athletes who won the medals of the Beijing Olympic Games will stand on the podium under the gaze of the world, wearing the German brand award dress.

At present, China has about 20 thousand to 25 thousand enterprises engaged in the production of sports goods and equipment, and the developed Chinese manufacturing industry also produces international famous brands.

The World Sporting Goods Federation released data last year that "made in China" accounts for more than 65% of the global market.

A Harvard Business School study in 2006 estimated that Nike, Adidas and Lining three brands accounted for 16% of mainland China's sporting goods market share, while about 20 other international brand contracts accounted for 10%, while Anta and other domestic brands accounted for only 10% of the total.

Among them, Nike's stores in mainland China expand by nearly 500 new stores every year, and plan to increase from 2500 to 3400 in 2008.

Adidas will also increase from 2800 to 4000, and will further expand to 5000 by 2010.

Its acquisition of Reebok (Reebok) is also expanding at the rate of 200 to 250 new stores a year.

Due to the saturation of the domestic sales market, the Japanese sporting goods manufacturers are opening up and expanding their stores in the mainland with huge market potential to enhance their popularity and strive for Chinese consumers.

At the end of 2006, MIZUNO (Mizuno) Company (once sponsored the Chinese volleyball team) signed a sponsorship contract with the Chinese table tennis team.

In June last year, the company invited four Chinese famous men, including men and women singles, ranked first in the world, including Wang Liqin and Zhang Yining, to visit the company headquarters in Osaka, and tailored their respective sports shoes according to their technical characteristics.

According to projections by Mizuno Corporation, the sporting goods market in mainland China will reach 300 billion yen (3 billion 800 million new yuan) in 2008, close to five times that of 2003.

More importantly, the Chinese sporting goods market will continue to grow at a rate of 20% to 25% every year after the Beijing Olympic Games.

Other Japanese brands, such as Desanto (Descente), also signed all sponsorship contracts with the Chinese swimming team to the 13 Swimming Championships of the Beijing Olympic Games in 2006 to publicize the Arena of its swimsuit brand.

The sponsorship contract between Zett and the Chinese baseball team was extended from 2006 to 2012.

Lining is China's first domestic sports brand, founded and named by gymnastic Prince Lining, who won 106 gold medals in Chinese and foreign competitions in 1980s.

Through Lining's position and personal charm in China's sports circles, he has sponsored Chinese sports delegations to participate in large international games and competitions many times, thus establishing the authority that other domestic brands can't afford.

Although Lining failed to win the sponsorship of the Chinese Olympic delegation, he quickly signed a contract with CCTV, China, to sponsor all the anchor and journalist clothing of the Beijing Olympic Games, as well as the four most promising national teams to sponsor China's ping pong, shooting, diving and gymnastics to consolidate the high visibility in front of the domestic TV audience.

Sponsoring foreign teams and stars Lining tried to open up overseas markets. In recent years, Lining has been sponsoring foreign teams and sports stars, trying to go abroad to open up overseas markets.

Sponsored by the last Olympic Games, the French national gymnastics team has sponsored the Vietnam national football team, the Argentina national basketball team, the Sultan national track and field team, and the Swedish and Spanish sports delegations participating in the Beijing Olympic Games.

The company also signed a contract with the US NBA star center shark O'neal as an Advertising Spokesperson for Lining basketball shoes.

However, Li Ning Co has also gone through some detours.

For example, in the early days, the company entered the Chinese market with medium priced sportswear and shoes and socks, and was quickly supported by domestic consumers. Later, it extended to tie and suit trousers, which made the brand image once vague.

At the same time, in order to meet the needs of the mass market, Lining also hired actress Qu Ying to represent fashion casual clothes, which changed the brand image of bodybuilding, strength, pcendence and success, becoming feminine and fashionable.

The Anta Oriental sporting goods company, founded in 2001, has taken the middle and low grade route from the beginning, targeting the more than 400000000 primary and secondary school students in China as the target consumer group, and rapidly expanding into the second largest domestic brands after Lining's market share.

Chinese experts pointed out that although the middle and low grade market can occupy a certain market space, the way of joining the chain can not build an advantage in terms of innovation and competition.

At the same time, middle and low grade brands generally lack obvious product characteristics and market segmentation, so it is easy to catch up with many new brands.

Nike and Adidas are both technological leaders of world sports products.

For example, Nike's "Air Jordan" basketball shoes mainly display the air technology (Airness) in full, while Adidas has more than 700 international patents for the products. "Jordan"

On the contrary, the technological innovation strength of China's domestic brands is weak, and the R & D of most enterprises is in an imitative stage.

In addition, domestic brands rely mainly on endorsements of movie stars, but advertising content is often too exaggerated, and stereotyped, and lack of connection with sports, can not highlight the brand image.