Marketing Soccer in China 101

There is a common myth that having Chinese players on your team means that you will sell a million jerseys to adoring Chinese soccer fans. If your team thinks this way, they are either on drugs or have nobody on the ground in China.

1. In China, only young kids wear jerseys around
You will very rarely see Chinese over the age of 12 wearing a soccer or sports jersey anywhere outside of a sports ground. It is simply not done. While its almost fashionable in the US and you can get away with it for the most part in Europe, you won't see it in China.

2. In China, at least 75% of the jerseys you see are fake
There are two reasons for this to be the case. First, outside of major cities, it is very hard to find stores that carry official soccer jerseys. Second, the official jerseys are extremely expensive. Most official jerseys go from around RMB 500-700 (on par with pricing in the US and Europe), but after reading number 1, you will know this is meant only as an item to be worn while playing sports, and thus not worth the expense when a fake can be purchased for RMB 50-150.

3. Unless you are a major European club with a history of winning/are currently winning, nobody will care
Chinese fans are fickle and will gravitate towards teams that either have a long history of success or teams that are the "in team". While 5 years ago, everyone loved Man U, then it became Real Madrid, and now loyalty is shifting toward Chelsea.

How do you combat these things?
1. Offer a "supporters version" of your kit.
Umbro offered two versions of the Shenhua jersey to their fans, a version that was around RMB650 (?) which was the official version, the same as what the players wore. There was also a supporters version, which, from a distance, looked almost identical to the real one, but was made out of a lesser material and sold for RMB 160.

2. Offer things other than jerseys
When Sun first went to Man City, they offered a number of items (tshirts, hats, backpacks, etc) that had the City log and Sun's name and number. These things sold well because it enabled fans to buy things of the player they wanted and not just the team. Most fans will already have a team they support and won't switch their allegiance just because of a Chinese player, but they will watch in interest when that player is on the field. This is part of the problem with jerseys, unless they come with the name and number, fans will have a hard (almost impossible) time getting the officlal name and number on it and thus will have a jersey that supports a team, not a player. Tshirts and stuff allow a wider group of fans to buy things in support of that player (as fans of other EPL teams will buy more willing to buy the item if its in support of a specific Chinese player) and it will also be priced less and an item that someone could wear more regularly.

So there are some tips, I know nobody with any pull will read this, but the idea that buying Chinese players will lead to merchandising gains is an absolute myth.

 

Well, I'm not sure what the real difference is between the official replica and the player's jersey, but the Shenhua "superstore" carried both the "official" one and the "supporters" one. The "supporters" one has all the features (including the ZhongHua wang) printing on the shoulder, but its a little smaller from the official. I can't remember if they did, but I'd guess Shaolin would have them both.

 

Hmm, perhaps they're on sale now because the team will switch to something new. I know when I bought the supporters version, it was on sale, but the official one wasn't (or only slightly on sale). For Shenhua stuff, the main places are the Shaolin stores at Hongkou, the Shenhua superstore, and I think its the Number 1 Department Store on Nanjing Dong Lu (never can remember if its that one, or the one past it, Xin Shi Jie(?)). Most large department stores will have sporting goods sections that will include Umbro, where they'll have at least a few Shenhua items (obviously only in Shanghai).

 

Dalian's shirts used to be available via sina, but that's only if you're inside China. Subside has some very old Dalian shirts. That's about it...I hate it, you really need to be in that specific city if you want a chance of buying the teams jersey, and even then its not a guarantee (though a few years ago, adidas did make tshirts for Shandong and Dalian that were available in stores in other parts of the country).

As for the second question, I feel another thread coming on!

 

supply and demand, my man. Guoan used to have a "store" (more like a closet) open at Gongti that sold Guoan things and also tickets, but it is no more, replaced by a store selling iPod accessories (and tickets can be purchased from a guy who sits in front of his car all day. There was another general soccer shop at that gate that carried some Guoan things, but, like everything else, it me the wrecking ball. On game day, there are stalls at 2 of the gates (at least, maybe all 4) that sell a few Guoan things. The merchandise is mostly crap, but its cheap. The only people I've seen buy it are foreigners who will buy a jersey.

In the US, every few years the men's fashion mags talk about soccer jerseys as "fashionable." However, like I said, in China you only see people playing soccer or going to a game wearing jerseys. As for China MNT jerseys, when China made it into the WC, you started to see jerseys in all the major department stores. However, before that, the gear (the jerseys and a few training things) would have "Zhong Guo" written in Chinese instead of the flag on the left chest, very lame! In the runup to the Asian Cup, you also saw stores carrying jerseys and the shorts, but that was basically it (and always just the home jersey).

When I was in Dalian, many of the larger department stores would carry a few Dalian things. In the past, some of the stores in Beijing would carry Guoan stuff, but no more. In Shanghai, most of the larger department stores would carry a few Shenhua things and then the especially large had a special "soccer department" which had jerseys from all the major national and club teams.

In Shenyang, I wanted to buy something, ANYTHING, with the logo on it. The big department stores would have an ad of the Ginde players wearing Kappa (in the Kappa section), but no team stuff with the logo. I'm not sure what the situation is elsewhere, its my impression in Anshan there is a lot of the LiaoZu stuff available.

I think a major factor behind it is in the cities, if people are going to pay that much money (500-700 RMB) for a jersey, they want to buy one of a famous foreign club, which are somewhat easier to find. There is very little online commerce in China because credit cards aren't that widespread, so I think we're a long ways away from a CSL online store. It is disappointing that even subside doesn't seem to get that much of the China stuff, though it does seem to sell.

 

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Mr. Bellis, if you're reading this, I'm available and would be more than happy to work for you!

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