Olympic Marketing of Chinese Garment Enterprises

In 2008， Li Ning， a former great Chinese sportsman and now an equally great businessman， flew to light the Olympic flame in the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. During the following a year and a half， the share price of his company increased by 80%. Li Ning’s action in the ceremony made the people around the world remember the former athlete as well as the Chinese brand Li-Ning that was named after him. This was a huge invisible asset that could not be obtained by money.

For the Olympic Games held in London this year， Li-Ning has successfully got the sponsorship of the five dream teams of China’s Olympic team， i.e.， the gymnastic team， the diving team， the table tennis team， the shooting team， and the badminton team. Li-Ning provided them with its sports uniform， the Red Scale series. These five sports teams are also the overwhelming champion favorites in the Chinese delegation in previous Olympics.

For the expedition of the London Olympics， LiNing has brought up the slogan of “The Glory of Dragon in London”. Li Ning， the chairman of the company， hopes to reshape the brand image and restore the declining market through the London Olympics. In order to achieve this effect， Li Ning himself once again personally participates in the torch relay in Athens， Greece.

In addition to supporting China’s athletes and teams， Li-Ning also sponsors the Olympic equipment of Flying Jamaican Asafa Powell， Russian queen of pole vault Yelena Isinbayeva， the US diving team， as well as men’s basketball teams of Argentina and Spain.

As for the Chinese podium wear， the Dragon Wear for London Champions， the sponsorship goes to Anta. In addition， Anta also provides all the clothing of the Chinese delegation except the formal ceremonial clothes and the competition clothing， including sports jacket， sports short T-shirts， sports pants， sports shoes and so on.

In recent years， China’s leading sports brand Anta has been making large stride on its development. Since its establishment， Anta has expanded its chain stores to more than 2000 nationwide with a high level of density in a few years. The 2011 Annual Report of Anta shows that the annual net profit of the company was RMB 1.73 billion， an increase of 11.5% on year-on-year basis， and its turnover rose by 20.2% to RMB 8.904 billion.

As early as the end of the 2008 Beijing Olympics， Anta started to aim at the 2012 Olympic Games. In 2009， after long negotiations， Anta beat its competitor Li-Ning and adidas， and ultimately reached a strategic cooperation agreement with the Chinese Olympic Committee(COC) to become the partner of its sportswear in 2009-2012. According to the agreement， Anta is authorized to sponsor the champion’s equipment of 11 major international sports events for COC during the 2009-2012 Olympic cycle， including the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games， the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games and 2012 London Olympics.

In its semiannual report of 2011， Anta announced that its ratio of mid-Olympic advertising and promotional expense would rise 0.6 percentage points to 12.6%， and further to 14% next year. Calculating from its 2011 turnover of RMB 8.9 billion， the marketing cost of Anta will be more than RMB 1.2 billion.

In the 30th China International Sporting Goods Expo held in May this year， 361°’s Olympic equipments made their debuts with the theme “l(fā)ove 1° more in London”. In addition to sponsoring Chinese Olympic teams such as the hockey team， the modern pentathlon team， and the cycling teams， 361° also sponsors the Olympic Committee of North Korea， Belarus and other countries， as well as Chinese swimmer Sun Yang， NBA player Kevin Love， and Olympic pole vault champion Steve Hooker.

361° is very lucky. As Sun Yang’s sponsor in the London Olympics， 361° has successfully sto- len the spotlight when Sun won the gold medal in the men’s 400 meters freestyle swimming final in the early morning of July 29 Beijing time. Some reports indicate that on August 2， 361°’s stock price kept increasing after its opening price and rose by 5.26 percent in the Hong Kong stock market. Later， Sun Yang also successfully won the gold medal of the men’s 1500 meters freestyle final.

Not only does 361° provide equipments for the athletes， the company also sponsors the equipments of the reporter group in CCTV sports channel.

In addition to the above mentioned brands， other domestic brands also refuse to show any sign of weakness. They grasp every opportunity to be related to the Olympic Games. For example， Peak successfully signs contracts with the Olympic Committees of seven countries， such as Iraq， New Zealand， Algeria， Slovenia， Lebanon， etc.; Jordan designed the podium wears for Kazakhstan， Turkmenistan， and Mongolia in the 2012 London Olympics.

In the opening ceremony of London Olympics， the suits of the host country， the British men’s sports delegation are provided by Nanshan Bowen Garments Co.， Ltd. in Yantai， Shandong Province， China; Dalian Trands produced the suits for the US delegation. Also on the same day of the opening ceremony， the domestic men’s clothing brand Eve held a fashion show themed on “Harmony” in London for the people of the world.