Yao Ming: How Will The Trump Card Of Reebok Play In The Olympic Games?

Can Reebok take the lead in China's best sports star Yao Ming to open up the situation and get out of the competition in China's sports shoes market? As the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games approached, Reebok Co (ReebokInternational) finally decided to launch its biggest basketball resource in China, basketball superstar Yao Ming. This week, the sports shoe giant opened the curtain on China's biggest marketing campaign. The theme of this event is "supporting the unlimited power of Yao", including a series of TV and digital media advertisements. The content is to encourage Chinese consumers to cheer for Yao Ming to prepare for the Beijing Olympic Games. However, after a great deal of marketing activities, perhaps a more interesting topic is why Reebok, which had been excavated by Yao Ming from Nike (NikeInc.) in 2003, has not yet started to use Yao Ming. In those days, Reebok signed a 10 year contract with Yao Ming. The annual contract amount is estimated to be as high as 7 million -1000 US dollars. This figure is one of the best in sports circles. However, analysts pointed out that so far, Reebok's big investment has not yet been rewarded. After 4 years of signing with Yao Ming, according to Reebok's own estimate, it ranks only sixth in the Chinese sports shoes market, far behind other big brands such as Nike, Puma (Puma) and MIZUNO (Mizuno). In those days, after signing a contract with Yao Ming, a senior Reebok official had predicted privately that the company would occupy the top spot in the Chinese market in two to three years. Worse still, in the impression of many Chinese consumers, they still think Yao Ming is the spokesman for Nike. In addition to endorsing sports brands, Yao Ming also appeared in advertisements such as McDonald s, China Unicom (ChinaUnicom) and Visa. Lu Hairui, President of sports marketing firm ZouMarketingInc. (TerryRhoads), said that in China, people have no idea about Reebok's representative of Reebok. The performance of Reebok in the form of Yao Ming, China's best sports star, will largely determine whether it can win the battle for China's sports shoes market. Reebok, headquartered in Massachusetts, was returned to Adidas by AdidasAG in 2005 for $3 billion 800 million. At the moment, the competitive market of Chinese sports shoes is very competitive. At least one brand store of Reebok, Adidas or Nike is open every day. HerbertHainer, Adidas's chief executive, believes that the Chinese market is crucial for the company to achieve its goal of becoming the world's top sports product brand. (Herbert) For this reason, Adidas has applied to become a sponsor of the Beijing Olympic Games. If the sales of Adidas and Reebok add up, they will be second only to Nike in the global and Chinese market. Moreover, with the completion of Reebok's integration, the gap between Nike and Nike is rapidly narrowing. Last year, Adidas's sales increased by 69% to $14 billion and Nike to $16 billion 320 million. Reebok hopes that its advertising campaign will shake the strong patriotic complex of Chinese people. In the process of preparing for the Olympic Games, the Chinese government has constantly instilled the public's sense of responsibility for the success of the Olympic Games. For this reason, the government has also launched mass campaigns to regulate spitting and queuing in order to allow everyone to take part in the action of winning glory for Beijing. However, the signal conveyed by Reebok's propaganda is simple and clear: buy our shoes. Yao Ming, a newly married Beijing, presented to his supporters this week in Beijing, "I need more and more support from my teammates to enter the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. PaulHarrington, Reebok's chief executive, admits that so far, the company has not made full use of Houston, now playing for the US Houston rockets. He pointed out that the reason for this situation was that Reebok signed too many stars, and the two reason was that Reebok did not attach enough importance to Chinese distributors. He said that since 2003, we have been very successful in selling a large number of products in China. But has it reached our desired level? No, According to people familiar with the matter, another reason for Reebok's delay in commissioning Yao Ming is that there is a dispute between Adidas and Reebok. After acquiring Reebok, Adidas hopes to transfer Yao Ming to its own brand. According to people familiar with the matter, Adidas's reason is that it has greater resource advantages than Reebok in promoting Yao Ming's brand. A Adidas official said Reebok management objected to the proposal. At that time, Adidas had taken over Reebok and became the official clothing supplier of the NBA. Adidas and Reebok said they had discussed the possibility of transferring Yao Ming to Adidas brand in the past, but there was no dispute between the two sides. "Who doesn't want Yao Ming to advertise in China?" Adidas spokesman JanRunau said. Now, however, Reebok seems to be beginning to solve this problem. It streamlined the star of the contract, relieved cooperation with entertainers and pop singers, and began to provide a relaxed budget for the marketing department. Management said that it used 14% of the sales revenue of the Chinese market for marketing (in fact, to promote Yao Ming), while the average level of the sports shoes industry was 10%. In addition, Reebok has acquired its distributor in China this year, so that it can have sufficient control over the expansion of the Chinese market. Prior to that, SymphonyHoldings and SwirePacific were responsible for Reebok's distribution business in China. Xin Feng is a subsidiary of YueYuenIndustrial, the world's largest sports shoe manufacturer. It is a large enterprise group in Hongkong, holding shares in major companies such as CathayPacific and Coca-Cola (Coca-Cola). Harrington says Reebok's distributors have been controlling the marketing budget and have been more concerned about capital investment. A new round of publicity campaign will begin in early November. Reebok will open an interactive website for Yao Ming fans, so that they can have a platform to express their support for Yao Ming. Reebok also designed a special logo for Yao Ming's endorsement product. The company personage described it as Yao Ming's "monkey". It is hard to predict whether Reebok, to a certain extent, is Adidas, can achieve Nike's great success in building Yao Ming's image. The latter has always been good at packing stars. It has used Michael Jordan (MichaelJordan) to launch AirJordan, which is still a classic example of the industry. But on the other hand, Adidas always emphasizes teamwork, for example, its slogan in NBA is "5 cannot" (Ittakes5ive), though it also has superstars like Beckham (DavidBeckham). Nike is the leader in the Chinese market, with its annual sales estimated at around us $100 million. However, Adidas said that by the 2008 Olympic Games, it will become No.1. It estimates that sales in China will reach US $1 billion 280 million by 2010. Adidas does not provide sub regional sales. Reebok's sales in China are catching up with the US market. In the US, retail stores in large shopping centers are getting worse and worse. According to Zheng Jie, general manager of Reebok China, Reebok's sales increased by 45% this year, and it is expected to grow by 55% next year, according to JamesZheng. (Reebok currently has no breakdown of sales data, but its sales in China before the acquisition by Adidas were around us $30 million). Reebok's orders in Asia in the first half of this year increased by 50% over the same period last year, and analysts said this indicates that retailers are optimistic about Reebok's products. Clemence, an analyst at BHF-Bank in Frankfurt, said that unlike the US market, Reebok did not have a large number of outdated stocks in Asia that needed to be cleared. Reebok's brand in Asia is better than ClemensMuller. Reebok came to fame in the 80s of last century. At that time, aerobic exercise became popular. Reebok seized the opportunity and launched a series of ladies' sports shoes. Much of its success owes to its charismatic former chairman, Paul Feldman (PaulFireman). About thirty years ago, he spent $65000 on the distribution of the unknown British brand in the United States. However, by the end of the 90s, with the sudden emergence of Nike, Reebok began to go downhill. Felman immediately turned his attention to the real estate industry. In 2003, Fairman began to show his best to Yao Ming. At the time, Yao Ming, a NBA rookie, signed a contract with Nike. According to people familiar with the matter, Nike paid about $100000 a year to Yao Ming. Yao Ming, author of OperationYaoMing, said that Nike was expected to raise the reward for Yao Ming, but Nike was slow to act on Nike. When Yao Ming first entered NBA, people could not see that he would become a big star in the future. Lamer said they were a bit safe when they launched. Analysts say Nike's hesitation may be that Yao Ming's charm is not enough to bring enough sales growth. From past experience, super athletes like Yao Ming endorsed athletic shoes less than those with relatively small heads, because the latter appeared more handsome on the basketball court, such as Lebron James (LeBronJames) or Tracey Mcgrady (TracyMcGrady). Yao Ming, who is known as a little giant, has reached 2.3 meters tall. Yao Ming said he knew that the sports community thought the tall man was not good at playing sports shoes, but he wanted to try it. Speaking of this, he grinned.