Exploring Sponsorship Strategies for Sporting Goods Brands in China

Exploring Sponsorship Strategies for Sporting Goods Brands in China

Introduction

As is well known, nowadays sponsorship takes an increasingly important role in sport revenue. The situation is that, sporting goods brands, including Nike, Adidas and Puma, enjoy high returns by high-investigate sponsorship. “The attitude toward both sponsors is significantly influenced by sponsorship awareness, while the attitude toward the sponsor was the strongest predictor of purchase intentions” (Rui Biscaia, Abel Correia, and Antonio Fernando Rosado, 2013). However, in China, the situation is quite different. In the past, most competitions depended on government allocations; now, however, increasing numbers of commercial competitions are privately held to satisfy the public’s growing demand, but privately held companies have always lacked the experience needed to search, collaborate and profit from sponsorship. (QUE Jian, TAN Ling, 2005) It is a good opportunity for Chinese privately held companies, especially sporting goods brands which are relevant closely to sports games to expand influence and popularity. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to present feasible strategies for Sporting Goods Brands in China to obtain satisfying sponsorships in China.

Studies of sports sponsorship in the US are needed for this research, since the American sports market is the most prosperous in the world. Some classic and more recent works include those of Rui Biscaia, Abel Correia, and Antonio Fernando Rosado, (2013). They highlighted the importance of examining actual sponsors. In addition, a survey is a proper way to collect initial information about the situation in the Chinese sponsorship market. In this process, it is helpful ...

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...be not that persuasive and suitable. Third, the data collected may be not representative of all global sport fans, because the majority of the participants come from one same country. Granted these, the gap between US and China could also add disadvantage to the strategy.

In the future, it is a good opportunity for Chinese sporting goods brands to continue to make the change in their areas. Sporting goods companies need to deal with the inventory by online sale as soon as possible, then build a new unique upscale brand and make a corresponding increase in design and quality, and then entry an undeveloped market, pan-outdoors, to completely become a high-end brand to generate revenue in the future. Brands must also know their audience and innovate constantly to match consumers’ changing tastes. A brand that raises prices must make a corresponding increase in quality.