Nike VS ADI: Decisive Battle 2008

After entering May, the most conspicuous place in Beijing's Xidan square erected a huge billboard of 10 meters high in Nike, which clearly indicated that Nike would launch activities on CCTV's Olympic Channel in mid May; and just from the left and right sides of Nike's billboard less than 100 meters, the 6 Adidas's billboards with 80 square meters stood side by side, and the Olympic logo on the screen could be seen clearly.

Just entered the Beijing Olympic Games sprint for a hundred days, Nike and Adidas's marketing war has been grinding knife.

To seize the Olympic opportunity, it is obvious that for Adidas, to fully catch up with Nike with the help of 2008 Beijing Olympic partners is one of the most important strategic objectives of this year's domestic market.

In fact, in the face of 2008, Nike and Adidas both valued the Chinese market and set a low market target.

Herbert Heiner, President of Adidas group, said that in 2010, Adidas's sales revenue in China will increase to 1 billion euros (US $1 billion 280 million), which excludes Reebok's sales in China, and hopes that China will become the second largest Adidas market in the world.

Nike also accelerated the pace of opening stores in 2008. Mark Parker, Nike's global president and CEO, said Nike had retail outlets in more than 300 cities in China. Now, China is not only the largest raw material procurement market in Nike, but also the largest market outside the United States, and Nike's goal is to achieve sales of 1 billion US dollars in China.

Both companies have set their sales target at the $1 billion mark, but there is no clear indication of market share expectations.

According to the reporter, in fact, as an old rival, it is also the world's two largest sporting goods supplier, and the two contention for market share is more eye-catching.

According to a report from a professional research firm in the United States, Nike's share in the domestic market rose to 33% in 2007, while Adidas was 28%.

Earlier, Adidas executives said on many occasions that ADI needs to catch up with Nike in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

In order to please Chinese consumers and fit the psychology of Chinese consumers in the Olympic year, Nike and Adidas try their best to show Chinese elements in product design and promotion activities.

Adidas, as an Olympic sponsor, has used cloud, dragon and bright traditional colors in its sportswear and sports shoes.

In January this year's Olympic Games staff and volunteers' clothing conference, Adidas changed the T platform to the traditional Peking opera stage.

By contrast, Nike can only avoid Xiangyun and other Olympic symbols, and has implemented a set of curves to save the nation.

Nike first launched a "84 Olympic commemorative sweater" to commemorate China's first participation in the modern Olympic Games in 1984.

Then in May 2008, Nike released the 22 Chinese Sports Association Olympic Games costumes on the back are printed with traditional Chinese totem.

In order to counter Adidas's Olympic offensive, Nike chose to make a fuss about its spokesperson Liu Xiang, and specially launched a series of costumes and sports shoes with Liu Xiang as the theme.

If the Olympic marketing wrestling is evenly matched in the localization of product design, the competition for Olympic sponsorship seems to be showing its advantages and disadvantages.

The contest of sponsoring the Olympic Games has always been the core battle of ADI and Nike, the most intense.

In order to squeeze out competitors, Adidas has always regarded the sponsorship of the Olympic Games as its own sphere of influence, not giving Nike any chance to meddle.

In the face of the Beijing Olympic Games, Adidas invested the price of 1 billion 300 million yuan RMB, and the biggest reward in return is that when all the athletes of the Olympic Games get on the podium, they will show Adidas's logo.

And Nike was thinking about the sponsorship of the team.

In the 28 major events of the Beijing Olympic Games, Nike has sponsored 22 projects sponsored by the Chinese delegation, that is to say, the players of these sports teams will compete in Nike sportswear.

In response, Jiang Weihua, an Olympic marketing expert, said that Nike's sponsorship was obviously more convenient than that of ADI's "positive attack" and a lot of burning money.

According to the reporter, compared to Adidas's choice of football, volleyball and Taekwondo, Nike signed diving, gymnastics and other teams have greater gold medal.

In particular, Adidas's sponsorship is not optimistic about the Chinese football team. For Adidas, who is known for its football marketing, "sponsoring the Chinese football team will probably become a failure."

Jiang Weihua said.

The star's endorsement is obvious. Adidas's miscalculation is not only simple enough to sponsor the Olympic team.

In the field of celebrity endorsements, Adidas also appears to varying degrees.

At the end of last year, Adidas launched a new advertisement with the theme of "2008 together, no impossible".

In the wake of the Adidas Olympic advertising campaign, its advertising spokesmen have come to a different state: Women's basketball players Sui Feifei's foot injuries and Hu Jia's eye injuries have been lingering outside the Olympic threshold; while Zheng Zhi's popularity is rising, it is also worrying whether the Chinese men's soccer team can perform poorly in the Olympic Games.

Obviously, the future of these signing stars is uncertain, which will greatly reduce the overall Olympic marketing strategy of ADI.

In terms of celebrity endorsement, Nike has been very good at catching Liu Xiang.

Pan Jianhua, director of Nike Greater China market, is very proud of this. "Our long-term goal is to let Liu Xiang convey a voice on behalf of Nike in 2008".

Sure enough, Nike made new articles in Liu Xiang's 4 years after the Athens Olympic Games.

In July 2006, Liu Xiang broke the world record for the 110 meter hurdles on the second day, and the salesmen of Nike stores in China put on promotional shirts. In August 2007, when Liu Xiang made a grand slam in Osaka World Championships, Nike developed a "T-shirt" on the same day.

Nike said that Nike is to let Liu Xiang appear at the right time, and there are different stories every time. Of course, it also includes the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.