haha, yeah right...Difference in rule of law in Shanghai & Beijing: Shanghai: rule of law = how much money you have Beijing: rule of law = who your father/brother/cousin/sister's boyfriends fathers bestfriend's mother is
That's free market economy, the essense of rule of law. That's cronyism, especially if your political opponents are doing it. But if you have the big money and the mainstream media (from the West) backing, relationship based activities become Public Relation or legal lobbying, which is also a big part of the market economy. Basically, Beijing doesn't have enough money (from the West) yet , which may or may not be a bad thing.
Haha, actually, that has nothing to do with rule of law, its called corruption and bribery. Yeah, in Beijing it's just called corny corruption. I don't think rule of law requires a free market economy, it just requires having laws and following them and not letting people off because of connections (BJ) or letting people off because you get bought off (SH). The rules and realities are so that money from the West doesn't really enter Beijing, instead its sent mostly to Tianjin (and somewhat to Hebei). I mean, the money you are talking about is for building factories and stuff. Beijing, not being a port city, doesn't offer the same access (thus Tianjin) and the land space and tougher regulations (thus Hebei) are meant to discourage factory building in the outskirts of Beijing. alas, once again, a post has been hijacked....
Nah, I think poor performance has a strong relation with shirt sale. When China qualified for 02 everyone jumped on the bandwagon and wanted China jerseys. Now, if a fan has money to spend on a jersey he'll more than likely buy a Barca or England jersy than a China jersey. Sure, marketing helps. But when the underlying product, the MNT, sucks big time, there's nothing much you can do to boost gear sales.
I'm not talking about money as in bribery and corruption. I'm talking about PR fees, retainer fees, laywer fees, the money that goes into training and maintaining a dedicated law enforcement force, and the money that goes into educating the people about what it means to be law biding, and the incentives or disincentives to break or play by the rules, etc. Without powerful streams of money from a well functioning free market economy, rule of law is impossible and the rigid enforcing of it could actually lead to chaos. Same is true with any drastic political reforms. Just ask the Soviets. We are good.
The actual NT performance is one of the important factors but definitely not the deciding factor. Good marketing is what it needs now to overcome this little negative factor called poor performance by the NT. To begin, put the goddamn thing for sale on Bigsoccer at least.
Marketing the NT is a daunting task. You're basically marketing a inferior product. Sure there are die hard fans like xfact who will snap up a NT jersey with a blink of the eye, but to sell the jerseys to the average fans, there's competition from the Inters, Real Madrids, and Englands of the footballing giants you have to deal with. They're all vying to get a piece of the fan's dollars. Not to mention the plethora of bootleg jerseys on the streets you'll have to compete against. Not an easy task at all. The best marketing is let the performace do the talking. Other forms of marketing are simply sideshows.
Doesn't Addidas carry the damn shirts? So you're saying purchasing channels is the deciding factor? I'm sure you can find the shirts at a major department store or a large sports goods store. If not, chances are there is less demand for the shirts than you think. Addidas isn't that stupid not to put their shirts in the stores, unless of course people don't want them and they're just eating up valuable shelve space.
The NT may not be the best NT on earth, but the NT players are the best players in China, more or less. And I really don't think they're that bad in comparison with the other top teams in Asia. But unfortunately the fans and the players and the stupid Chinese sports media seem to believe they are that bad so there's a big perception problem right there to be addressed. People who believe they are good and destined to be great tend to perform better. Unfortunately recently Chinese soccer is caught in the vicious cycle of the opposite of this equation. Whoever that manages to market the NT gears successfully may help rejuvenate Chinese soccer as well, by changing the tide of public percecption and confidence No. I'm saying the lack of it shows how shabby a job it's been done marketing this product.
haha, I like how you say that and yet include Real Madrid with the other teams you mentioned. Like I already said, even in 2002 when fans wanted the product, they didn't make it easy to get until the tournament was going on and by that time much of the interest had already died down because if you blinked, you could easily have missed China in the 2002 World Cup. During the Asian Cup, there was strong marketing on the part of Adidas and there was a good performance and the jerseys were being bought like crazy. Why doesn't bigsoccer et al in the US carry Chinese jerseys? They carry a lot of fringe teams, teams that aren't in the WC, but have a large population in the US (ie Israel, Ireland, etc)...Look at Chinese population in the US and how well Chinese fans turn out whenever any Chinese team is playing in the US. I guess there hasn't been enough demand from the people or something, but I don't see this being an issue people stand up and make demands for. However, if they were suddenly going to start selling it, I think there would be a demand (ie Greece). Within China, if you want to find the jersey, it really isn't that hard, however I've already discussed how people don't really buy jerseys. For the other teams, there are usually other items (as it is, Nike and Umbro do a much better job than adidas at this) that fans can purchase and wear on a more regular basis. Forza makes a good point, they are competing in a small market and success will go a long way to give them a leg up. Marketing IS just a sideshow but, when done right, you don't even need much success to sell the thing. The CFA has failed on both counts...
I think Addidas realizes that wearing a football jersey in mainland China is not as fashionable as it is in the rest of the world. Like someone had said, there's very few people who would want to wear one on the street unless he's going to play football or going to the stadium. Shame really.
Put simply, here are the problems, in no particular order: 1. crappy (or perceived crappy) performance 2. small market for official goods 3. lack of marketing during the Asian Cup people were buying up things like crazy, but you had all 3 of those factors turned around (plus the tournament was held in China). There was no other soccer being played (maybe Euro04 was going on for part of it), the team did well, and adidas came out with a lot of big ads in magazines and billboards with their "Impossible is Nothing." slogan and in Chinese stating that "Zhongguo Zuqiu Meiyou Bu Keneng" and featuring heroic shots of some of the players including Xu Yunlong, a player I don't recognize, and Li Yi (not the best choices to say the least)... Wow, I just checked subside and they have all of these player jerseys from WC2002 that I've never seen before on sale for UK20 each, as well as the 04-05 jersey for UK12...
hey, what's wrong with Real? Alright, I should've said Barca not Real. Right, you don't even need much success to sell the thing. But the point is, after the AC there isn't even ANY success to talk about, and I'm afraid there won't be any to talk about in the foreseeable future, barring a miracle at the upcoming AC.
LOL... that slogan cracked me off. But you see, Addidas was just cashing in on the NT's success. You can bet that Addidas won't be spending their money on those big ads now with the pathetic state the MNT is in.
Where in you is the work ethnic and never say never spirit you so admire? Very few people thought smoking cigarette was a cool thing to do until Hollywood started putting it into the hands of cool people in hit movies. And then Hollywood started to promote the opposite and now most people think not smoking is the cool thing. Just an example of what can be done to change public perception. I surely don't think the NT is worse of a product to market, especially in relation to other Asian teams, than smoking, and then, not smoking. Working to the marketer's advantage, in this regard, is the fact that most mainlanders these days tend to be trend followers and not trend setters. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but to me, all it needs here is a well orchestrated marketing campaign. I know. Very amateur sounding stuff. Some ironic double meaning, intended or not, could be easily detected in it.
Change is possible, but it's going to be slow. It's like trying to persuade a Hunanese to quit spicy food. Tough task.
Tough, like everything else in life that's worthwhile. That's where work ethics and never say die mentaility come in. The speed of change is more often than not related to how well the plan is thought out and how much firepower you put behind executing it. But now that we've ventured into the realm of personal philosophy and Hunan cuisine, I guess it's time for me to go get some crickets for my tree frogs. Later guys. edit: Froza you're pulling an allnighter eh?
Never had a frog before. Didn't know they eat crickets... Yeah an allnighter for poor me. Have fun with the crickets. :O
Ha you are not the only one! I dont think anyone refrains from buying the shirt cuz the team is not doing well they refrain becuase the white version looks like crap... its basically a white t-shirt with a sewed on flag ... we need to sign with Pump then they can at least put those embedded images on the white shirt like the great wall or a dragon or something...
since china is not there so I will support korea and probably japan. I don't think japan can go far but korea can at least reach round of 16.
hey thanx to all for the responses, and very interesting feedback. I am not actually surprised that so many Chinese support Iran. To all those who support Iran, I want to say a BIG Thank YOU. Please rest assured that Iran will try its best to please her supporters and once again surprise the foes.