Rebirth of the Industrial Tycoon

In Wangfujing, Beijing, the opening ceremony of Feiyue's first domestic flagship store is being held.

At this time, most of Wangfujing Street was besieged, and most of the people who came here were young people in their twenties, who looked like students from major colleges and universities in the capital.

The reason why so many college students come is mainly because Kobe will attend today's opening ceremony.

Before Chairman Yao entered the NBA, the attention of the NBA in China was not high. At that time, there were far fewer people who paid attention to the NBA games than those who paid attention to football and the A-League.

Especially after the Chinese men's football team entered the World Cup, it brought a large number of new fans to football. There was a wave of football fever in China, and the degree of attention to basketball has also decreased a lot.

Moreover, the NBA game time is in the morning in China. For office workers, such a game time is obviously relatively unfriendly. In contrast, the football fake A-League is on the afternoon of the weekend, and naturally more people will watch it. .

In China at that time, the group who paid attention to the NBA was mainly college students.

Although high school students like basketball, because of their studies, they seldom watch games. They can only enjoy themselves by reading sports newspapers.

And college students have more time, even if they don't have many opportunities to watch the live broadcast of the game, they have more energy to pay attention to the nba news.

This group of young people are probably the generation who grew up watching Slam Dunk when they were young, and they are more passionate about basketball.

There are already many universities in Beijing, and the extracurricular sports activities of Beijing University are relatively rich. The campus basketball in colleges and universities is in full swing. Young stars like Kobe are very popular among regular college students.

Therefore, when Kobe came to participate in the opening ceremony of the Feiyue flagship store, it attracted many college students.

This scene also shocked Kobe.

In the United States, Kobe is also the most famous star in the NBA, and he can meet fans asking for autographs wherever he goes. However, such densely populated scenes in China are full of people, which is very difficult to encounter in the United States.

Do I have so many fans in China? Michael Jackson's concert is nothing more than that? I'm pretty good at singing. Should I also improvise a piece called Xiao Fan in California? Kobe wondered.

Li Weidong next to him was very satisfied with this scene.

After Chairman Yao enters the NBA next year, domestic attention to the NBA will skyrocket. The publicity effect brought by superstars like Kobe will be even more significant! By then, maybe we can catch up with Nike in the domestic market. And Adidas! Li Weidong thought to himself.

Li Weidong still has great ambitions. In the international market, it may be difficult to surpass the two giants Nike and Adidas. But in the Chinese market, it is not a dream for Feiyue to surpass Nike and Adidas.

In the Chinese market, Feiyue has the absolute advantage of being a national brand. As long as the quality of the products is not inferior to Nike and Adidas, and if it can follow up in terms of sales, it will be just around the corner to beat Nike and Adidas.

What's more, Nike and Adidas themselves will do their own deaths, and do some things that make people eat their own food and offend Chinese consumers.

Feiyue Sports has always been developed in the United States, and now Li Weidong plans to export to domestic sales.

And at this time, it is also the time when Chinese sports brands start to rise, and the timing of exporting to domestic sales is just right.

In the mid-1990s, many foundries in Jinjiang began to create their own brands. By the end of the 1990s, Chinese local brands began to expand their businesses. Especially after the successful bid for the Olympic Games in 2001, the expansion of local sports brands entered the In the fast lane.

The first sports brand to expand is Li Ning. When Li Ning was first established, it sponsored the Asian Games. With the title of Prince of Gymnastics, this brand became a household name.

By the end of the 1990s, Li Ning was no longer satisfied with the domestic market. They began to expand to the international market, intending to take the high-end route, so they gradually gave up the market of sports shoes under 100 yuan.

The direct beneficiaries of Li Ning's move are the local brands of the Jinjiang Department, and they quickly filled the market for sports shoes below 100 yuan.

Among them, the fastest rising is Anta. At that time, Li Ning never imagined that it was the market that he voluntarily gave up that created the biggest competitor in the future.

At that time, domestic sports brands also began to pay attention to marketing, spending money to hire spokespersons to increase brand awareness, and gradually prospered.

Li Ning was still the first to do this. They invited Qu Ying, a very popular female star at the time, as their brand spokesperson.

Qu Ying, who was born as a model, quickly became popular after playing the role of An Hong. The line An Hong, I miss you that Director Zhang yelled at the top of his voice has been made into an emoji package to this day. .

After becoming popular, Qu Ying began to act in TV, movies, release albums, and gossip with popular niches. The entertainment section of the media often saw news reports about her, and her appearance rate was very high.

In addition, Qu Ying was born as a model after all, her body line is very good, endorsement sports brands can have a better display, and Qu Ying's aura is also very sufficient, she looks very high-end, which is very suitable for Li Ning to take the high-end route.

However, Li Ning has overlooked one of the most serious problems, that is, brand fit.

After all, Li Ning is a sports brand. Although Qu Ying is well-known and has a good image, he does not fit well with sports brands. Qu Ying's endorsement seems high-end, but the consumers that the Li-Ning brand is targeting do not buy it.

Abandoning the low-price strategy and adopting unsuitable brand spokespersons caused Li Ning's sales to plummet in those years.

Moreover, at that time, Li Ning hadn't developed a core technology that could be sold, so he rushed into the high-end market. The result was that Li Ning's high-priced products were not as comfortable as Nike and Adidas, but they were close to Nike and Adidas.

Therefore, Li Ning in those years was often criticized by consumers as expensive and uncomfortable.

In contrast, Anta chose a spokesperson with a high degree of brand fit, that is, the guidance of Kong Linghui of Guoping.

When Director Kong was young, he was also the top freshman in the national table tennis rankings. He was handsome, played well, and won various championships softly. Especially after Liu Guoliang retired and took up the banner of fruit products, Waldner was hailed as the terminator of the small ball era in the Olympics.

He is handsome and not bald, where can he find such a good spokesperson!

At that time, Anta was also courageous. They spent 3 million yuan and signed Director Kong as the brand spokesperson. At that time, Anta's annual profit was only 4 million yuan.

This almost gambling-style signing really brought rich returns to Anta, which made Anta develop all the way and quickly become a well-known sports brand in China.

Xtep, another Jinjiang-based brand, chose Nicholas Tse, who was so popular at the time, as the brand spokesperson. The sentence extraordinary feeling came out of the cool and handsome Nicholas Tse, and it was absolutely effective.

Xtep's brand positioning is also the clearest and firmest among Chinese sports brands. They have always followed the sports fashion route, and the spokesmen they will hire in the future will always focus on this theme.

It is worth mentioning that Nicholas Tse endorsed Xtep and abruptly made himself a shareholder of Xtep. Others' endorsement is paid, but Nicholas Tse's endorsement is paid by himself. This is definitely the most conscientious spokesperson in history.

It was very popular to invite Hong Kong stars to endorse at the time. Hong Kong stars were well-known and not expensive. The key is that they are more popular with young people. For example, Hongxing Erke also found Chen Xiaochun as the brand spokesperson.

Compared with other major domestic sports brands, 361 Degrees was established late, but it is the most willing to spend money on publicity. 361 Degrees' publicity strategy is to sponsor sports events. 361 Degrees can be seen in many competitions at home and abroad. 361 Degrees In a short period of time, the brand awareness has been rapidly improved.

At that time, domestic sports brands did not know the brand effect that NBA stars could bring.

Peak was the first to enjoy the NBA star bonus.

As early as 2002, Peak was optimistic about the excessive development of basketball and signed the well-known domestic basketball player God of War Liu Yudong.

In 2006, Peak signed Sean Battier, which was a stroke of genius.

In the NBA, Battier is not a well-known player, but he is a player of the Rockets and a good helper for Chairman Yao.

Battier's excellent defense, down-to-earth playing style, and a few three-pointers from time to time make Chinese fans love him very much.

The most important thing is that it is relatively cheap to sign Shane Battier as an endorsement. In 2006, Peak gave Battier an endorsement contract of 4 million US dollars for 3 years, which only cost more than 1.3 million a year.

Spending such a small amount of money to sign an NBA player that Chinese fans are very familiar with, and still be able to catch the enthusiasm of Chairman Yao, is definitely worth it.

As a result, Peak was promoted to a first-line sports brand in China, and its stores quickly spread all over the country.

Pick, who had tasted the sweetness, continued his enthusiasm and signed Landry and Hill of the Rockets. After Chairman Yao retired, he signed Howard, Parker and many other NBA stars.

Other brands followed suit and began to sign NBA stars, such as Li Ning signed Wade, Anta signed Thompson, Garnett, Rondo, Scola, 361 degrees signed Love and so on.

If you put it together, Howard, Love, Thompson, Wade, and Rondo, a safe all-star lineup.

The influence of the NBA is still quite large in China, and the stars of the NBA feel that they are taller and more compelling than domestic stars.

During the years when the NBA expanded rapidly in China, signing a few familiar NBA players would have a qualitative change in improving the brand's popularity.

Sean Battier, who is not even an All-Star, has made the brand of Peak, and Kobe, who is the top superstar in the NBA, has dozens of times more effective promotion of the brand than Battier.

What's more, Feiyue itself is a national brand with a long history, and now it just returns to the Chinese market.

A well-known national brand itself, as long as it cooperates with a good enough marketing and publicity strategy, it is also a breeze to become a popular product that sweeps the country.

For example, Wang Laoji, who is very famous, was at most famous in South China in the 1990s. However, after a series of publicity, the advertisement of drinking Wanglaoji for fear of getting angry was launched all over the country, and soon became a household name.

The fame of Feiyue Shoes must be greater than that of Wanglaoji!

Kobe's influence is stronger than being afraid of getting angry!

If Kobe can survive, I would rather get angry every day!

What's more, Kobe is just an appetizer, followed by McGrady, Carter, Metta World Peace, and Arenas.

In the future, McGrady will transfer to the Rockets and form the Yao-Mike combination with Chairman Yao. Just one McGrady's endorsement will make Feiyue Sports the number one sports brand in China!

Although the opening ceremony of the Feiyue flagship store was a commercial event, the Basketball Association still sent people to participate. After all, the well-known NBA star Kobe Bryant visited China, and the Basketball Association sent someone to support the scene.

The name of the person sent by the Basketball Association this time is Chen Maikang. He is a big man with a height of more than 1.9 meters. He should have been a basketball player when he was young.

After the event, Feiyue Sports, as the organizer, will of course invite the guests and reporters present to have a light meal, and then give some small gifts. Firstly, it is to thank them for attending, and secondly, it also hopes that the reporters will be short-staffed. Time to brag a little more.

In terms of administrative level, Chen Maikang is probably the highest, so he was placed next to Li Weidong as the guest of honor.

During the exchange of toasts and cups, everyone also opened up the chatterbox.

Kobe is a hot star in the United States. Chairman Li, you must have spent a lot of money to sign Kobe as a spokesperson, right? Chen Maikang asked with a smile, thinking that he didn't realize that he was inquiring about other people's business secrets.

Li Weidong didn't hide it either, he opened his mouth and replied: I invested in Kobe relatively early, when he was still a high school student, I spent 10 million US dollars to sign him as a brand spokesperson.

At that time, some domestic media said that I wasted the precious foreign exchange resources of the country, and criticized me in various ways, which almost made me a traitor. Now it seems that the investment is still worthwhile.

It's not just a comparison, it's a super bargain!

I think it's Chairman Li who knows heroes with his eyesight. He saw that Kobe could achieve what he is today.

The key is that Chairman Li has courage. If it were someone else, he would definitely not have such courage!

Someone next to him immediately catered to him, and he was flattering Li Weidong.

After everyone praised him, Chen Maikang said: Chairman Li, what do you think of our A-League? Is there any potential to be tapped in the future?

The League A mentioned by Chen Maikang is not the fake A-League of football, but the A-League of basketball, which is the future CBA League.

The CBA was founded in 1995. At that time, it was still called the A-League, and there were relegations.

Half of the original Basketball League A came from teams from various military regions. Later, the league allowed the introduction of foreign aid, and because the teams in the military region could not introduce foreign aid, so the military region teams except the Bayi team, the military region teams Basically downgraded.

Until 2004, A abolished the relegation system and adopted an access system instead, and changed its name to the Chinese Men's Basketball Professional League, referred to as Vocational Basketball, or cba.

Li Weidong doesn't know much about League A, but when asked by Chen Maikang, Li Weidong still answered: Our League A has only been established for a few years, and there is still great potential to be tapped. One day, League One The A-League will definitely become a high-level professional league like the NBA.

Yes, our basketball association has been exploring new directions for the professional development of the league over the years. The mature basketball leagues abroad have also given us a lot of inspiration.

Chen Maikang paused, and then continued; We found that the successful professionalization of foreign basketball leagues mainly depends on commercial operations, and successful commercial operations will inevitably require the investment of many sponsors.

Chen Maikang talked about sponsors, but his eyes pointed at Li Weidong meaningfully.

Li Weidong instantly understood that Chen Maikang was here to sponsor the cba league!

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