Rebirth of the Industrial Tycoon

Feiyue’s first flagship store in China is holding an opening ceremony in Wangfujing, Beijing.

At this time, most of Wangfujing Street was surrounded by water. Most of the people who came here were young people in their twenties, who looked like students from major universities in the capital.

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

Before Chairman Yao entered the NBA, NBA attention in China was not high. At that time, there were far fewer people who paid attention to NBA games than those who paid attention to the fake football 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 craze in the country, and the degree of attention paid to basketball has also decreased a lot.

Moreover, NBA game time is in the morning in China. For office workers, such game time is obviously unfriendly. In contrast, the fake football league is held on weekend afternoons, so naturally more people will watch. .

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

Although high school students like basketball, due to their studies, they rarely get to watch games. They can only enjoy themselves by reading sports newspapers and periodicals.

College students have much more time. Even if they don't have many opportunities to watch live games, they have more energy to pay attention to NBA news.

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

There are many universities in Beijing, and the extracurricular cultural and sports activities at Beijing University are relatively rich. Campus basketball in colleges and universities is in full swing. Young stars like Kobe are very popular among college students.

Therefore, when Kobe Bryant came to attend 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. Wherever he goes, he can meet fans asking for autographs. However, it is difficult to encounter such densely populated scenes in China, which are full of people, in the United States.

"Do I actually have so many fans in China? Michael Jackson's concerts are just like this, right? I'm quite good at singing. Do you want me to improvise a California song?" Kobe thought in his mind.

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

"When Chairman Yao enters the NBA next year, the domestic attention to the NBA will skyrocket. The publicity effect brought by a superstar like Kobe Bryant 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's ambitions are still very high. 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 its products is not inferior to that of Nike and Adidas, and it can follow up on its marketing strategy, it will be easy to defeat Nike and Adidas.

Moreover, Nike and Adidas themselves will also commit suicide by doing things that make them lose money and offend Chinese consumers.

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

At this time, it was also when Chinese sports brands began to rise, and it was just the right time to switch from exports to domestic sales.

In the mid-1990s, many OEMs in Jinjiang began to build their own brands. By the late 1990s, China's local brands began to expand commercially. Especially after the successful bid for the Olympic Games in 2001, the expansion of local sports brands entered the market. On the fast track.

The first sports brand to expand was Li-Ning. When Li-Ning was first established, it sponsored the Asian Games. With its reputation as the "Prince of Gymnastics", the 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 and planned to take the high-end route, so they gradually gave up the market for sports shoes under 100 yuan.

The direct beneficiary of Li Ning's move is Jinjiang's local brands, which quickly filled the market for sports shoes priced under 100 yuan.

Among them, Anta was the fastest rising. At that time, Li Ning would never have imagined that it would be the market that he had given up on his own initiative that would create his biggest competitor in the future.

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

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

Qu Ying, a former model, quickly became famous after she played 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 emoticon and circulated to this day. .

After Qu Ying became popular, she began to act in TV shows, movies, release albums, and had scandals with popular niche students. News reports about her can often be seen in the entertainment section of the media, and her appearance rate is very high.

In addition, Qu Ying is a model after all, and her body shape is very good. She can have a better display by endorsing a sports brand, and Qu Ying's aura is also very strong. She looks very high-end, which is very suitable for Li Ning to take the high-end route.

However, Li Ning has ignored one of the most serious issues, which is brand fit.

After all, Li Ning is a sports brand. Although Qu Ying is famous and has a good image, he has no compatibility with the sports brand. Qu Ying's endorsement seems to be high-end, but the consumers Li Ning brand targets 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 had not yet developed a core technology that could be used, so it rashly entered the high-end market. The result was that Li Ning's high-priced products were not as comfortable as Nike and Adidas, but had prices close to those of Nike and Adidas.

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

In contrast, Anta has chosen a spokesperson with a high degree of brand fit, and that is Guoping’s Kong Linghui.

When Coach Kong was young, he was also the top player in the national table tennis volleyball team. He was handsome, played well, and won various championships with ease. Especially after Liu Guoliang retired, he took up the fruit banner. Waldner was immediately hailed as the end of the "small ball era" in the Olympics.

He's handsome and strong but not bald. Where can I find such a good spokesperson?

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

This kind of signing, which is almost like a gamble, has indeed brought huge returns to Anta, making Anta develop all the way and become a well-known sports brand in China.

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

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

It is worth mentioning that Nicholas Tse endorsed Xtep and forcefully endorsed himself as a shareholder of Xtep. Others get paid for endorsements, but Nicholas Tse pays for endorsements himself. This is definitely the most conscientious spokesperson in history.

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

Compared with other major domestic sports brands, 361 Degrees was established relatively 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 It also quickly increased brand awareness in a short period of time.

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

The first person to enjoy the dividends of NBA stars was Peak.

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

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

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

Battier's excellent defense, simple style of play, and a few three-pointers from time to time made Chinese fans very fond of him.

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

Spending such a small amount of money to sign an NBA player who is very familiar to Chinese fans, and to gain the popularity of Chairman Yao, is definitely worth it.

As a result, Peak has been promoted to a first-tier sports brand in China, with stores rapidly spreading across the country.

Having tasted the sweetness, Peak continued its popularity and signed Landry and Hill from the Rockets. After Chairman Yao retired, he signed Howard, Parker and many other NBA stars.

Other brands have followed suit and started signing NBA stars, such as Li Ning signing Wade, Anta signing Thompson, Garnett, Rondo, Scola, 361 Degrees signing Love and so on.

If you put it all together, Howard, Love, Thompson, Wade, and Rondo will form a solid All-Star lineup.

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

In the years when the NBA was rapidly expanding in China, signing a few familiar NBA players could have a qualitatively changing effect in increasing the brand's visibility.

Sean Battier, who is not even an All-Star, has made the Peak brand a success. As a top NBA star, Kobe Bryant's brand promotion effect is dozens of times stronger than Battier's.

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

It is easy for a well-known national brand to become a popular product sweeping the country as long as it is coupled with a good enough marketing and publicity strategy.

For example, the famous Wong Lo Kat was at least somewhat famous in South China in the 1990s. However, after a series of publicity, the advertisement "Drink Wanglaoji if you are afraid of getting angry" was placed across the country, and it soon became a household name.

Feiyue shoes are probably more famous than Wong Lo Kat!

Kobe's influence is better than fear of getting angry!

If Kobe could survive, I would rather be angry every day!

What's more, Kobe is just the appetizer, followed by Tracy McGrady, Carter, Ci Shiping, and Arenas.

In the future, Tracy McGrady will transfer to the Rockets and form the Yao-McRae duo with Chairman Yao. Just one endorsement from Tracy McGrady will make Feiyue Sports the number one sports brand in the country!

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

The person sent by the Basketball Association this time is named Chen Maikang. He is a big man over 1.9 meters tall. 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 casual meal, and then give some small gifts. Firstly, it is to thank them for attending, and secondly, it also hopes that the reporters will take advantage of their shortcomings and report. It’s time to brag a little more.

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

While drinking and drinking, everyone started chatting.

"Kobe is a hot star in the United States. Chairman Li, you must have spent a lot of money to sign Kobe as your spokesperson, right?" Chen Maikang asked with a smile, thinking about not prying into other people's trade secrets.

Li Weidong did not hide it, he answered: "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 country's precious foreign exchange resources and criticized me in various ways, almost calling me a traitor. Now it seems that this investment is still worth it. "

“Not only is it a relatively good value, it’s a super bargain!”

"I think Chairman Li still recognizes heroes with his keen eye. He knew back then that Kobe could achieve what he does today."

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

Someone immediately pandered to him, which could be regarded as flattering Li Weidong.

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

The "A League" Chen Maikang talks about 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 promotions and relegations. The bottom two teams were relegated to the A-B League, and the top two teams in the A-B League were promoted to the A-A League.

In the initial Basketball League A, half were teams from various military regions. Later, the league allowed the introduction of foreign aid. However, since teams in the military region could not introduce foreign aid, except for the Bayi team, military region teams Basically downgraded.

Until 2004, the A-A abolished the promotion and relegation system, switched to an admission system, and changed its name to the Chinese Men's Basketball Professional League, referred to as "Chinese Basketball League", also known as CBA.

Li Weidong didn't know much about the A-League, but when asked by Chen Maikang, Li Weidong still answered: "Our A-League has only been established for a few years, and there is still a lot of potential that can be tapped. One day, A-League The A-League can 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. Mature basketball leagues abroad have also given us great inspiration."

Chen Maikang paused and then said, "We found that the reason why foreign basketball leagues can successfully become professional is mainly based on commercial operations, and successful commercial operations will inevitably require the investment of many sponsors."

Chen Maikang talked about sponsors, but his eyes were pointedly aimed at Li Weidong.

Li Weidong instantly understood that Chen Maikang was here to sponsor the CBA League!

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