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The 2012 London Olympic Games is going to start on July 28. At that time the world will be temporarily released from the economic maze and financial crisis and shift their focus onto the sports event to share its spiritual experiences and economic performance. The British Prime Minister David Cameron said that the Olympics might bring the UK the income of 1 billion pounds.
We all know that the Olympic Games is always a grand event for the marketing of enterprises, which consider the sports feast as an unprecedented opportunity to improve their brand awareness. It is known that some Chinese banks, financial institutions, insurance companies and private enterprises have set up representative offices in London. Some fireworks producers are also positively seeking for opportunities to have a bite of the London market. Some manufacturers are busying producing various kinds of souvenirs for the Olympics. The fervency of Chinese enterprises to invest in the London Olympic Games is completely beyond the expectation of the London Investment Bureau.
For this, He Mu, board chairman of Wisdom Aid Marketing Consultancy Co., Ltd told the journalists from China Business Focus (CBF) that the Olympic Games is not a straw to clutch at. Whether the Olympics-based marketing is feasible depends on what the Olympics can bring to the enterprises. Generally, there are not more than five enterprises in China that can benefit from this Olympic Games. There are a few marketing opportunities and it’s better for Chinese enterprises to improve their production, promotion, channel construction and so on.
Remember marketing area: don’t be blinded by internationalization
Though Beijing hosted a successful Olympic Games in 2008, quite a few enterprises greatly improved their brand awareness with the Games. Lenovo was one of receiving great benefits from the Olympic Games. The reference rate of Lenovo was 19.5% among all IT sponsors for the Olympics while the other brands were only referred at a 2% rate. In addition, Tsingtao Beer was another successful marketer with the Olympic Games, but its global sales was too small compared with domestic sales, meaning that its brand influence is far away from being great.
Do Chinese enterprises need to be internationalized with Olympics? He Mu, who has been involved in marketing research for 24 years, said that there was no uniformed answer. Firstly, enterprises must make clear where their marketing activities happen. If the marketing area of enterprises is limited to China, the use of Olympic Games should be made in China by, for example, delivering in-game ads (ads broadcast in the interludes of sports games) on TV or adding links on the Olympic-related webpage of famous portal website. It is not necessary for them to set up advertising boards in the arenas in London to improve the brand awareness and then make it transport to the domestic market. The cost is high and from the brand interactive viewpoint, consumers are not likely to remember brands that only go through event-based marketing with Olympics. Even though they re- member the brands, they are not necessarily going to buy their products. “For Mengniu Milk, the Super Girl (a singing contest show similar to American Idol) has much more value than the Olympic Games in London, because most of its consumers are in China,” He Mu said. None of Chinese companies are seen in the list of 7 first-tier partners and 7 second-tier partners of London Olympic Games. They only sponsor the event in the form of subcontracting among the 28 third-tier sponsors. For example, Beijing Huajiang Culture Corp. obtained the exclusive franchise of producing the medals for the London Olympic Games. Beijing Urban Construction Group signed a subcontracting agreement with the investor of the world’s largest temporary facility supplier through which it can supply some temporary facilities for London. Double Happiness becomes the supplier of table tennis table for the Games. Tinsu is designated as the supplier of gym floor for the arena of table tennis. However, for other Chinese companies, the London Olympic Games is a strange“battlefield” they are hard to get to.
For this, certain effect could be seen if Chinese companies are marketing with the goal of finding some international partners or resources through the promotion or spread of local governments, banks or investors. For the vast small- and middle-sized enterprises whose business activities are within China, marketing with Olympics cannot bring about direct driving and promotion effect. “If your market is in China, the marketing with Olympics means nothing for your consumers. A good topic is not secured with following good marketing effect.”
Then, some enterprises indeed benefit from marketing with Olympics. For example, the Beijing Olympic Games gave Aigo a lot of benefits. Its board chairman and president Feng Jun holds optimistic opinions towards the internationalization of Chinese companies. As he said, the Olympic Games contains four games based on fair competition, which are respectively for athletes, media, hosts and sponsors. Any participants can fully enjoy the great benefits from the other three games. In Feng Jun’s opinion, Chinese companies are likely to meet the turning point of their internationalization in 2012, especially the period after the opening ceremony of London Olympic Games on July 2. Feng Jun also advised enterprises having the plan to get into the London Olympic Games to take the four-step strategy: the first step starts with setting up representative offices in London; the second step is to find good local partners; the third step is featured with founding joint ventures in London after happy partnership; the fourth step requires the Chinese companies to fix the future quitting system when founding joint ventures with which they can buy the shares of their local partners. Define product attribute: don’t compare locals with foreigners
Without the chance to get into the“main battlefield”, some Chinese enterprises can only take marketing activities“around” the Olympics. According to Telegraph, 10% of the 424 kinds of souvenirs listed on the official website of London Olympic Games are made by British local enterprises while the rest 90% are made by overseas companies. Among them, two thirds come from China, which contribute 65% of the total number of souvenirs. The products include towels, bed sheets, quilt covers, key rings, clothes and so on.
Then, do those “made in China” needs marketing with Olympics? In He Mu’s opinion, this should be based on whether the attribute of these products matches the spirit of Olympic Games or sports spirit and whether they are related with the Games. Those sports fans have some emotional attachment to relevant brands. For example, the apparels with the portraits of Rafael Nadal might be very popular and is suitable for marketing with Olympics.
Recently, a clothing company in Jiaxing, Zhejiang has some association with the London Olympic Games. Previously, the company produced many clothes for football fans during the World Cup in 2010. By now it has received the order of providing 120 thousand football clothes for the football of 17 countries within the Olympic Games. The listed countries include the United States, Great Britain, Brazil and Argentina. Its board chairman Dong Jiamei told CBF journalists that the order came from Canada-based Mondepta, which is an established clothes retailer similar to Wal-Mart. It has strict requirements for clothes processing enterprises and the examination happens annually. Those failing to pass the examination will no longer get the order again. Therefore, “it is very hard for our company to get the order from Mondepta. In addition, we also provide uniforms for the employees of some F1 teams, showing that our materials and quality have reached the international level.”
Another example is the seat produced by a Shanghai-based company. This company was the supplier of the seats in the arenas of Beijing Olympic Games. The good quality of its prod- ucts earned it the order of producing audience seats for several important arenas in London. This should be attributed to the international financial crisis which forced the Olympic Organization Committee of London to reduce its budget. Thus the advantages of Chinese companies’ products given by their low prices are shown. The Olympic Games is not the only event for which Chinese companies produced most related products. In 2010, the vuvezula was favored by a lot of football fans who came to South Africa to watch the World Cup despite the terrifying noise they could make. It is known that all these trumpet-like things were made in Zhejiang, an eastern province of China.
“But the enterprises should remember the attribute of their products and do not hurry to connect themselves with the Olympic Games. In 2008, many Chinese mobile phone makers sponsored the Beijing Olympic Games, but did any of them get into the world. Strategies vary to products. Do not always compare local things with foreign products,” He Mu said.
Understand the situation: advertising no longer the most useful
Even though the Olympic Games is not started, the war of advertisers have already begun. This March, the Chinese Central Television held the second advertising bidding for the 2012 London Olympic Games. More than 700 people from domestic and foreign advertising companies were present in the site of the bidding. Coca Cola, Adidas, General Motors, Volkswagen, Sony, Omega, Yum!, Pacific Insurance, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Energy, Lining and other companies also sent their representatives there, showing their attention to the value of Olympics for spreading their brand.
In He Mu’s opinion, the effect of marketing with Olympics should not be exaggerated. Sponsoring the Olympics does not mean internationalization, which could be realized only through endless promotion as well as continuous commitment to the best services or products. The strategies of delivering ads should match companies’ own development strategies. During the battle of Olympic-related marketing, many enterprises encountered fiascos after gaining fruits which were greatly outbalanced by their investment.
He Mu admitted that Chinese companies were much more mature and rational than before. With the development of market economy in China, the Chinese companies grew from “na?ve children” to “experienced adults”. Previously, many companies would like to show themselves by taking the champion of advertising bidding (i.e. they spent the largest amount of money in advertising bidding which“shamed” its competitors). But now they prefer to think of what systems or value sense should be built for the best of themselves. In addition, the fast development of media deprived the traditional media like TV, newspaper and magazine of their privileges. Portal websites, microblog, and social websites also become efficient tools for the marketing during the Olympics. How to work with the Internet has become very important for the marketing activities. It is known that Protocol & Gamble fired 1,600 employees this January and put the saved cost into the ads delivery in the new media. For big companies like P&G, the budget for ads delivery accounts for 2% of its sales amount. Its marketing power greatly outmatches those small- and middle-sized enterprises. “The small Chinese enterprises should have a clear understanding of their own power and do not do anything beyond their ability. They should not be easily involved into the marketing battle with the gigantic rivals like P&G.”
In addition, maybe Chinese audience only cares about the games having Chinese athletes. Therefore, He Mu suggested that the Chinese companies should pay more attention to these games. “We should not spread the net as widely as possible. Focusing our power on one point is the best choice. A successful marketing campaign in the table tennis final of the London Olympic Games is much more useful than casual appearance of the brand during the whole process of Olympic Games. But of course the successful marketing campaign is based on innovative design and concept, which need great efforts of the advertising designers.”
We all know that the Olympic Games is always a grand event for the marketing of enterprises, which consider the sports feast as an unprecedented opportunity to improve their brand awareness. It is known that some Chinese banks, financial institutions, insurance companies and private enterprises have set up representative offices in London. Some fireworks producers are also positively seeking for opportunities to have a bite of the London market. Some manufacturers are busying producing various kinds of souvenirs for the Olympics. The fervency of Chinese enterprises to invest in the London Olympic Games is completely beyond the expectation of the London Investment Bureau.
For this, He Mu, board chairman of Wisdom Aid Marketing Consultancy Co., Ltd told the journalists from China Business Focus (CBF) that the Olympic Games is not a straw to clutch at. Whether the Olympics-based marketing is feasible depends on what the Olympics can bring to the enterprises. Generally, there are not more than five enterprises in China that can benefit from this Olympic Games. There are a few marketing opportunities and it’s better for Chinese enterprises to improve their production, promotion, channel construction and so on.
Remember marketing area: don’t be blinded by internationalization
Though Beijing hosted a successful Olympic Games in 2008, quite a few enterprises greatly improved their brand awareness with the Games. Lenovo was one of receiving great benefits from the Olympic Games. The reference rate of Lenovo was 19.5% among all IT sponsors for the Olympics while the other brands were only referred at a 2% rate. In addition, Tsingtao Beer was another successful marketer with the Olympic Games, but its global sales was too small compared with domestic sales, meaning that its brand influence is far away from being great.
Do Chinese enterprises need to be internationalized with Olympics? He Mu, who has been involved in marketing research for 24 years, said that there was no uniformed answer. Firstly, enterprises must make clear where their marketing activities happen. If the marketing area of enterprises is limited to China, the use of Olympic Games should be made in China by, for example, delivering in-game ads (ads broadcast in the interludes of sports games) on TV or adding links on the Olympic-related webpage of famous portal website. It is not necessary for them to set up advertising boards in the arenas in London to improve the brand awareness and then make it transport to the domestic market. The cost is high and from the brand interactive viewpoint, consumers are not likely to remember brands that only go through event-based marketing with Olympics. Even though they re- member the brands, they are not necessarily going to buy their products. “For Mengniu Milk, the Super Girl (a singing contest show similar to American Idol) has much more value than the Olympic Games in London, because most of its consumers are in China,” He Mu said. None of Chinese companies are seen in the list of 7 first-tier partners and 7 second-tier partners of London Olympic Games. They only sponsor the event in the form of subcontracting among the 28 third-tier sponsors. For example, Beijing Huajiang Culture Corp. obtained the exclusive franchise of producing the medals for the London Olympic Games. Beijing Urban Construction Group signed a subcontracting agreement with the investor of the world’s largest temporary facility supplier through which it can supply some temporary facilities for London. Double Happiness becomes the supplier of table tennis table for the Games. Tinsu is designated as the supplier of gym floor for the arena of table tennis. However, for other Chinese companies, the London Olympic Games is a strange“battlefield” they are hard to get to.
For this, certain effect could be seen if Chinese companies are marketing with the goal of finding some international partners or resources through the promotion or spread of local governments, banks or investors. For the vast small- and middle-sized enterprises whose business activities are within China, marketing with Olympics cannot bring about direct driving and promotion effect. “If your market is in China, the marketing with Olympics means nothing for your consumers. A good topic is not secured with following good marketing effect.”
Then, some enterprises indeed benefit from marketing with Olympics. For example, the Beijing Olympic Games gave Aigo a lot of benefits. Its board chairman and president Feng Jun holds optimistic opinions towards the internationalization of Chinese companies. As he said, the Olympic Games contains four games based on fair competition, which are respectively for athletes, media, hosts and sponsors. Any participants can fully enjoy the great benefits from the other three games. In Feng Jun’s opinion, Chinese companies are likely to meet the turning point of their internationalization in 2012, especially the period after the opening ceremony of London Olympic Games on July 2. Feng Jun also advised enterprises having the plan to get into the London Olympic Games to take the four-step strategy: the first step starts with setting up representative offices in London; the second step is to find good local partners; the third step is featured with founding joint ventures in London after happy partnership; the fourth step requires the Chinese companies to fix the future quitting system when founding joint ventures with which they can buy the shares of their local partners. Define product attribute: don’t compare locals with foreigners
Without the chance to get into the“main battlefield”, some Chinese enterprises can only take marketing activities“around” the Olympics. According to Telegraph, 10% of the 424 kinds of souvenirs listed on the official website of London Olympic Games are made by British local enterprises while the rest 90% are made by overseas companies. Among them, two thirds come from China, which contribute 65% of the total number of souvenirs. The products include towels, bed sheets, quilt covers, key rings, clothes and so on.
Then, do those “made in China” needs marketing with Olympics? In He Mu’s opinion, this should be based on whether the attribute of these products matches the spirit of Olympic Games or sports spirit and whether they are related with the Games. Those sports fans have some emotional attachment to relevant brands. For example, the apparels with the portraits of Rafael Nadal might be very popular and is suitable for marketing with Olympics.
Recently, a clothing company in Jiaxing, Zhejiang has some association with the London Olympic Games. Previously, the company produced many clothes for football fans during the World Cup in 2010. By now it has received the order of providing 120 thousand football clothes for the football of 17 countries within the Olympic Games. The listed countries include the United States, Great Britain, Brazil and Argentina. Its board chairman Dong Jiamei told CBF journalists that the order came from Canada-based Mondepta, which is an established clothes retailer similar to Wal-Mart. It has strict requirements for clothes processing enterprises and the examination happens annually. Those failing to pass the examination will no longer get the order again. Therefore, “it is very hard for our company to get the order from Mondepta. In addition, we also provide uniforms for the employees of some F1 teams, showing that our materials and quality have reached the international level.”
Another example is the seat produced by a Shanghai-based company. This company was the supplier of the seats in the arenas of Beijing Olympic Games. The good quality of its prod- ucts earned it the order of producing audience seats for several important arenas in London. This should be attributed to the international financial crisis which forced the Olympic Organization Committee of London to reduce its budget. Thus the advantages of Chinese companies’ products given by their low prices are shown. The Olympic Games is not the only event for which Chinese companies produced most related products. In 2010, the vuvezula was favored by a lot of football fans who came to South Africa to watch the World Cup despite the terrifying noise they could make. It is known that all these trumpet-like things were made in Zhejiang, an eastern province of China.
“But the enterprises should remember the attribute of their products and do not hurry to connect themselves with the Olympic Games. In 2008, many Chinese mobile phone makers sponsored the Beijing Olympic Games, but did any of them get into the world. Strategies vary to products. Do not always compare local things with foreign products,” He Mu said.
Understand the situation: advertising no longer the most useful
Even though the Olympic Games is not started, the war of advertisers have already begun. This March, the Chinese Central Television held the second advertising bidding for the 2012 London Olympic Games. More than 700 people from domestic and foreign advertising companies were present in the site of the bidding. Coca Cola, Adidas, General Motors, Volkswagen, Sony, Omega, Yum!, Pacific Insurance, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Energy, Lining and other companies also sent their representatives there, showing their attention to the value of Olympics for spreading their brand.
In He Mu’s opinion, the effect of marketing with Olympics should not be exaggerated. Sponsoring the Olympics does not mean internationalization, which could be realized only through endless promotion as well as continuous commitment to the best services or products. The strategies of delivering ads should match companies’ own development strategies. During the battle of Olympic-related marketing, many enterprises encountered fiascos after gaining fruits which were greatly outbalanced by their investment.
He Mu admitted that Chinese companies were much more mature and rational than before. With the development of market economy in China, the Chinese companies grew from “na?ve children” to “experienced adults”. Previously, many companies would like to show themselves by taking the champion of advertising bidding (i.e. they spent the largest amount of money in advertising bidding which“shamed” its competitors). But now they prefer to think of what systems or value sense should be built for the best of themselves. In addition, the fast development of media deprived the traditional media like TV, newspaper and magazine of their privileges. Portal websites, microblog, and social websites also become efficient tools for the marketing during the Olympics. How to work with the Internet has become very important for the marketing activities. It is known that Protocol & Gamble fired 1,600 employees this January and put the saved cost into the ads delivery in the new media. For big companies like P&G, the budget for ads delivery accounts for 2% of its sales amount. Its marketing power greatly outmatches those small- and middle-sized enterprises. “The small Chinese enterprises should have a clear understanding of their own power and do not do anything beyond their ability. They should not be easily involved into the marketing battle with the gigantic rivals like P&G.”
In addition, maybe Chinese audience only cares about the games having Chinese athletes. Therefore, He Mu suggested that the Chinese companies should pay more attention to these games. “We should not spread the net as widely as possible. Focusing our power on one point is the best choice. A successful marketing campaign in the table tennis final of the London Olympic Games is much more useful than casual appearance of the brand during the whole process of Olympic Games. But of course the successful marketing campaign is based on innovative design and concept, which need great efforts of the advertising designers.”