Chapter 349 Brand Marketing
On May 8, in the early morning, after Chen Qiang turned on the radio, he heard an extremely important news on the radio.
Germany has announced its unconditional surrender, and the European theater has been won!
On the streets of New York, European refugees have begun to celebrate, especially Jews who had lived in Germany or Poland, and had begun to pack their bags and return to their homeland.
On the Nike factory side, the happiest is Jared, who was originally a Jew who fled from Poland to the United States, and now that Germany has surrendered, it means that he can return to Poland.
"The war in Europe is over, the Allies have liberated Poland, are you going to go back?" Chen Qiang couldn't help but ask Jared.
"Back to Poland?" Jared thought for a moment, then sighed: "Forget it!" It has been ten years since our family came to the United States, settled down in the United States, married and had children in the United States, we have become accustomed to life here, not to mention that I am a Jew, my relatives and friends have died and fled, and now there are no relatives in Poland. My home country of Poland is a strange place, but the United States is more familiar to me. ”
"It is also said that the war has brought great harm to Europe, except for a few countries, most places have been beaten into ruins, and I think the situation in Poland is not optimistic, it must be far worse than the United States, and it will be better to live in the United States." Jared spoke.
"Actually, I don't want to go back, there is another reason, although Poland has been liberated, but it is the Soviets who liberated Poland, I heard that the whole of Eastern Europe is now the territory of the Soviets, and even Germany is half between the Soviets and the Americans." Jared spoke.
"You're right, each side occupies half of Europe, and Berlin is the dividing line. In the future, the USSR and the United States will definitely divide their spheres of influence in Europe. Chen Qiang nodded.
"That's why I don't want to go back." Jared let out a long sigh and continued: "Mr. Chen, you are Chinese, you may not know much about the history of Poland, in the past few hundred years, we have been invaded by Tsarist Russia, in the history of Poland, Poland has also been divided by Tsarist Russia many times, so we Poles have always had a feeling of resistance to the Soviet Union. ”
"In addition to resistance, maybe there is some fear!" Chen Qiang said with a smile.
Jared hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded unwillingly: "You're right, there is some fear. ”
Chen Qiang is not surprised by this, and the "Russophobia" in Europe is not a day or two old, even if it will still exist in the future. It took Russia five centuries to expand its territory from a small Muscovy to a thousandfold to 23 million square kilometers, and the process of this territorial expansion was filled with too many massacres, integrations, and migrations, which were the source of fear for Europeans.
Speaking of which, Chen Qiang doesn't want Jared to return to China, if Jared returns to Poland, he will also have one less right-hand man, the current Nike company, can not miss Jared, Chen Qiang also expects Jared to help him sell shoes!
Thinking of selling shoes, Chen Qiang asked: "Our sneakers, the recent sales are not bad, right?" ”
"In the past few months, we have sold 300,000 pairs of Nike One." Jared replied.
"300,000 pairs, that's a very good result." Chen Qiang nodded with satisfaction, and then asked, "Can the production capacity keep up?" ”
"Since the last expansion, our plant has not continued to expand its production capacity, mainly because our raw material reserves are not enough for us to expand our production capacity." Jared spoke.
"Let's build two more factories! Prepare for later. Chen Qiang said.
"Are you still planning to continue to expand your production capacity?" Jared asked.
"Believe me, it won't be long before a steady stream of rubber from Southeast Asia arrives in the United States. At that point, we don't have to worry about raw materials anymore. Chen Qiang said.
……
300,000 pairs of sneakers is not a small number, and these sneakers have been put into the market, which has finally set off a big wave in the sneaker market in the United States.
THE MAIN COMPETITOR OF NIKE NO. 1 IS, OF COURSE, CONVERSE'S JACK PURCELL, BUT THE JACK PURCELL OPEN-ENDED SMILE OF THIS ERA IS JUST A MEDIOCRE FLAT SHOE, MAINLY USED IN BADMINTON AND TENNIS, AND OF COURSE IT IS NOT AS EXTENSIVE AS NIKE NO. 1, SO NIKE NO. 1 QUICKLY GRABBED SOME MARKET SHARE FROM JACK PURCELL.
Chen Qiang's Nike No. 1 was originally a plagiarized Kodis ROYAL, the historical Kodis ROYAL was launched in 1949, and it was very popular after it was launched, and it can be regarded as a classic sneaker that has been popular for more than ten years, and now Chen Qiang launched the same product four years in advance, of course, it can be a big seller.
Selling 300,000 pairs of Nike No. 1 in a few months is already a very good result, not to mention that Nike is still a new company with almost no brand recognition. However, Chen Qiang is not satisfied with this, the United States has a population of 130 million, and the per capita income is also high, and it is not a problem to sell 20 or 30 million pairs of sneakers a year, and Chen Qiang's 300,000 pairs of Nike No. 1 only account for a small part of it.
Chen Qiang intends to continue to expand the scale of production, from the perspective of cost, the more the number of production, the lower the cost of the product, expanding the scale of production is conducive to reducing the cost of sports shoes production. It's just that now the rubber restriction ban has not ended, and Chen Qiang does not dare to blindly expand the scale of production, so he can only expand a few factories first, and when the rubber restrictions are lifted, he can expand production at any time.
Although the production scale of sports shoes has not expanded, Chen Qiangke has never stopped advertising Nike No. 1.
……
In Times Square in New York, a huge six-story advertisement was erected, depicting several basketball players from different teams and wearing different jerseys, but they all had one thing in common, that is, they were all wearing Nike No. 1 sneakers.
There is a slogan above the ad that reads "Nike All-Star Lineup" and the same line below the ad that reads "Nike No. 1, the best choice for sports", and a Nike No. 1 sneaker is drawn on the back.
Pedestrians involuntarily stopped to look at the huge advertisement.
"That's Max Zaslowski, I know him, he's our New Yorker, I've seen him play!"
"Next to him is Joe Folks, a basketball star for the Philadelphia Warriors."
"Is that guy Eddie Sadofus?"
"Standing on the very edge seems to be the mosaic of the Boston Celtics."
People stood in front of the advertisement and discussed, and through word of mouth, even people who didn't know about professional basketball knew that the huge advertisement featured the basketball stars of each team.
"What is the Nike All-Star lineup?" The good deed finally asked about the top line of text.
"Nike seems to be a sneaker seller, you see, the kind that these players wear on their feet."
"Do the players wear Nike sneakers? That being said, this Nike sneaker should be very good, otherwise there wouldn't be so many basketball stars choosing it. ”
"My son just bought a pair of sneakers the other day, and it seems to be this brand."
People's discussion gradually shifted from the players on the poster to the Nike brand.
This is exactly the brand effect that Chen Qiang wants.
Signing a bunch of well-known stars to stand in line and posing for a photo is also an old routine for sports brands to sell sneakers, and this advertising method can also best improve the brand's popularity. In terms of brand marketing, this wolf pack tactic of a large group of stars standing in line may be more effective than signing a top superstar.
Nike used this trick in the early eighties when it released the Air Force 1, and they invited Michael Cooper, Moses Malone, Calvin Knight, Jamal Wilkes, Bobby Jones, and Mitchell Thompson as endorsements, which was the original Nike Air Force 1 six-man group. On the 25th anniversary of Air Force 1's release in 2005, Nike rebranded a super-lavish lineup of stars to promote, including LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, Paul Pearce, Steve Nash, Tony Parker, Amare Stoudemire, Sean Marion, Rashid Wallace, and Jermaine O'Neal. Many old fans should still remember the posters of these superstars wearing pure white sportswear.
Nike's Air Force 1's original six-member group was very successful, not only helping Nike sell a large number of sneakers, but also greatly increasing Nike's brand value, so Converse learned from Nike, and when it launched the Converse Weapon basketball shoes in 1986, it also engaged in a six-person group, these six people are Isaiah Thomas, Magic Johnson, Kevin McHale, Larry Bird, Bernard King and Mark Aguirre. After all, Converse was once the No. 1 sports brand in the United States, and the skinny camel is bigger than the horse, so the gold content of the Converse six-member group is obviously more than that of Nike.
Adidas is not willing to be lonely, signing a number of stars, the most famous of which is of course Adidas's classic five, Gilbert Arenas, Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady, Chauncey Billups and Kevin Garnett.
In the future, the NBA pays attention to the star group to win the championship, and selling sneakers also pays attention to the star group to have good sales, Chen Qiang is of course very familiar with this marketing method, so he used it early. Anyway, the star endorsement in the forties was completely the price of cabbage, and if you give a little money, the star will sign the endorsement contract, so the cost of this kind of star group advertising is also very low.
But this kind of advertising is really effective, and when you see an athlete wearing a certain brand of shoes, you may not care; When you see two athletes wearing the same brand of shoes, you may have an impression of the brand; When you see five athletes wearing the same brand of shoes, you feel the need to know about the brand; And when you see more than a dozen athletes all wearing the same brand of shoes, then you instinctively think that this brand should be very good, which is why so many athletes choose this brand.
Inviting a large group of celebrities to make advertising endorsements has definitely not been a simple one-plus-one equals two, and there have been many classic advertising cases in history. Pepsi invited a large group of popular fried chicken, including Jay Chou, who had just been promoted to the little king, Mr. Chen, who loves the art of photography, the bland Louis Koo, Aaron Kwok, the ugliest in the class, etc., all of whom dyed their hair a pure blue funeral family color, this wave of publicity has greatly increased the brand value of Pepsi in China, and the effect brought by celebrities has also made Pepsi the first choice of many young people.
Coca-Cola is not far behind, invited several top domestic athletes, and made an "Olympic star lineup" to deal with Pepsi's propaganda offensive, the "Olympic star lineup" includes Chairman Yao, who was still a player at the time, Liu Xiang, Guo Jingjing and other world champions, Wang Liqin, the "first brother" of Chinese table tennis, can only stand at the edge of the propaganda poster.
……
Chen Qiang's advertising campaign was very successful, even those who did not plan to buy sneakers knew about the Nike brand, and those who planned to buy sneakers also put Nike No. 1 into consideration.
Compared with a behemoth like Converse, Nike is still a small brand, and Converse, which has been developed for more than 30 years, has long been the hegemon in the field of sneakers in the United States, and it is not something that Nike, which has just been established for a year, can challenge.
Fortunately, Converse in this era does not know how to advertise and market, and the boss of Converse is a typical industrialist, who honestly carries out production and sales, and improves his sneakers little by little in the process of production and sales, so that sneakers become better.
In fact, in that era, most entrepreneurs were like this, we should call them "industrialists" rather than "businessmen", they were a group of people who really wanted to make good products, such as the old man Ford of Ford Motor, whose dream was to make good civilian cars, rather than sell many cars; For example, Westinghouse of Westinghouse Electric, his lifelong wish is to promote AC power to thousands of households. This is a bit like the Apple of the Steve Jobs era, although the product is sold expensively, but the user can feel full of sincerity, unlike the current Apple, the product is tasteless, and it all depends on changing the color of the shell to make money.
However, the facts have proved that it is not enough to study the product, if the enterprise wants to develop and grow, it must have excellent marketing, especially after entering the Internet era, the information is disseminated more rapidly, a good marketing, the effect of the last hundred years of accumulated brand.
Chen Qiang knows the importance of marketing to the brand, so he is willing to spend a lot of money to advertise, if you calculate carefully, the 300,000 pairs of Nike No. 1 sold by Chen Qiang will not make money, not to mention, and even lose money, because Chen Qiang's advertising and publicity expenses are too high.
However, Chen Qiang did not plan to use Nike No. 1 to make money, this simple canvas shoes, the production cost is low, the price is cheap, so the profit is also low, making money depends on the volume, relying on small profits and quick turnover.
The product that Chen Qiang really intends to make money is the next product, which is to copy the basketball shoes of Adidas Superstar, which is a truly high-profit and high-value-added product.
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