Nike stumbles in Olympics marketing race

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/inde ... _mark.html

Nike stumbles in Olympics marketing race
by Brent Hunsberger, The Oregonian
Tuesday August 19, 2008, 12:09 PM


ASSOCIATED PRESS
Spectators in Beijing photograph Chinas Liu Xiang after he pulled out of the first-round heat of the men's 110-meter hurdles Monday at the Olympics. His injury was a blow to sponsor Nike, which took out a Wieden+Kennedy-produced ad today in key Chinese publications to show its support for the popular athlete.
Are Nike's laces coming undone in the Beijing marketing race?
First, the founder of competing Chinese sportswear firm Li Ning Co. lit the Olympic cauldron in front of an estimated 4 billion viewers.

On Sunday, Puma-sponsored Usain Bolt won the 100-meter dash in memorable style, cradling his gold Puma spikes afterward for cameras.

Then, early Monday, Nike's top Chinese marketing vehicle, defending 110-meter Olympic hurdling champ Liu Xiang, pulled out of the Games with an Achilles' injury.

"Maybe the end of the games will provide some better story-making for their brand than they have so far," said Paul Swangard, managing director of the University of Oregon Warsaw Sports Marketing Center.

In typical Nike fashion, the world's largest sporting-goods company, based near Beaverton, is doing what it can to get back on track -- and counter any negative press that might build.

Nike bought full-page ads in support of Liu for Tuesday's editions of English-language China Daily and at least seven Chinese-language newspapers. Though it had to ditch congratulatory ads, the brand sought to appease disappointed Chinese sports fans by seizing on, as one company official put it, "a moment in the spirit of sports."

"Love sport, even when it breaks your heart," the ad read, according to Nike spokesman Derek Kent. It ended with Nike's "Just Do It" tagline.

Speaking Tuesday in Beijing, Kent said Nike is pleased with the games so far.

"If you look at track and field, when athletes are crossing the finish line, the vast majority are wearing Nike footwear," he said. "The men's basketball team has been playing great. If you look at the games as a whole, in terms of all performances of Nike athletes, we feel extremely great about Beijing."

Nike still has plenty of time to nab more exposure. Swangard noted that much of the push Nike gets from the Olympics came in the lead-up to the games. It likely made great strides in marketing Liu on TV and in print over the past few months, even if it will lose some punch from his injury, he said.

"Reports I hear on the ground is people continue to see Nike very front and center in Beijing," Swangard said. "So much of what the value for what (Liu) was was in the lead-up to the games. I don't think the Chinese population will blame Nike for his bad Achilles."

Nike claims to be the market-share leader in China. Independent marketing and research firm Frost & Sullivan estimated Nike commanded 16.7 percent of China's $3.8 billion sportswear market in 2006, compared with Adidas' 15.6 percent and Li Ning Co.'s 10.5 percent.

Adidas, an official sponsor of the games, has said it expects to lead the market by year's end. Frost & Sullivan predicts China's sportswear market will grow to $10.4 billion by 2011.

Liu's injury, Bolt's histrionics and former Chinese gymnast Li Ning's torch lighting during the opening ceremonies weren't the only events overshadowing Nike athletes.

The Nike-outfitted U.S. Track & Field team didn't win its first gold until Monday. Bernard Legat, sporting Nike's new lightweight Zoom Victory Spike, failed to qualify for the 1,500-meter final. Puma-sponsored Jamaica swept the medals in the women's 100-meter dash.

And much of NBC's airtime has been devoted to Speedo-sponsored Michael Phelps and his eight-gold-medal quest.

NBC's focus on Phelps and 41-year-old women's swimmer Dara Torres occupied "a lot of the airtime that would've been spent possibly on areas where Nike would've been stronger," said Keven Malkewitz, assistant marketing professor at Oregon State University and a former Adidas marketing executive.

Nike did, however, ride Phelps' wake. U.S. athletes wear Nike sweats as part of the company's sponsorship deal with the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Adidas has taken its lumps, too. U.S. sprinter Tyson Gay failed to qualify for the 100-meter final and is no sure lock for the U.S. 400-meter relay team.

But Nike's German rival has benefited from medal-winning performances of U.S. gymnasts Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson. Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva on Monday won gold and set a world record in the women's pole vault, beating fellow Adidas endorsee and U.S. competitor Jennifer Stuczynski.

German swimmer Britta Steffan, another Adidas athlete, surprised the field by winning the 100- and 50-meter freestyles, knocking off U.S. favorite Torres in the latter race.

Still, Nike has many more athletes yet to race in the final week of the games, along with a star-studded U.S. basketball team that has a rabid following in China.

"Nike has always been good about having a portfolio strategy to the Olympic games," Swangard said. "It never really comes down to the single performance of a single athlete."