Adidas encounters grassroots operating autotrophic clover

Adidas's positioning of high-end clover sports brand in the Chinese market has become increasingly mediocre.

Recently, Adidas made a sudden decision to own the right to operate the clover brand, or will run the brand directly. It has been quietly put into action. After the reporter obtained the news exclusively from the dealer, it was confirmed by Adidas China.

Recovery of Shamrock Management Rights

Shamrock officially introduced into the Chinese market, exactly seven years.

“Adidas has already taken back the operating rights of the clover and plans to run its own store.” Recently, a Shanghai-based Adidas dealer told reporters.

The Clover series is a major brand series for Adidas. At present, Adidas has three major series: sports performance series, sports traditional series and sports fashion series. Among them, "ADIDAS ORIGINALS" belongs to the sports tradition series and adopts the clover sign.

The responsible person of Shanghai Baiying Sports & Leisure Products Co., Ltd. confirmed to the reporter that Adidas had withdrawn the company's right to operate the clover brand. At present, the company's clover franchise in Shanghai has been used for other purposes. The company hires sales personnel. Currently it has been placed in other footwear brand stores where the company is acting.

Shanghai Baiying Company was established in 2002. At that time, Hong Kong-listed company Yongen Investment (Group) Co., Ltd. co-invested with Ren Xianqi, Lan Xinyi, Lu Liangwei and other entertainment stars to set up the company and formally issued the limited edition of ADIDAS ORIGINALS in mainland China.

Not only Shanghai, the reporter learned from Adidas dealers, including a number of clover stores in Hefei, Chengdu and other cities, are also now quietly withdrawn.

The person in charge of the adidas marketing department confirmed to the reporter that the company had indeed recovered the operating rights of the clover brand from the distributors. Since the corporate person responsible for the brand is still in Germany, the company is unable to answer other questions raised by the reporter about the clover.

Adidas or Direct

Adidas's intention to direct the Shamrock brand has become clear. Some dealers disclosed that after the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Adidas started its rights-based action against the Shamrock brand. According to Adidas insiders at that time, it will be fully recovered as a direct-operated store from 2009 onwards. Adidas will employ sales personnel and the company will train its corporate culture and product knowledge on its own.

The above-mentioned distributors stated that after the large-scale sports meeting, the sales of related sports brands will quickly enter a downhill period. Adidas should have a strategic contraction of its brand in consideration of its 2009 performance. In addition, after entering the Chinese market for 7 years, the clover brand did not get the same popularity as Adidas's main brand, and the market performance was not satisfactory. On the contrary, due to the popularity of counterfeit clover products in many second and third tier cities, the brand’s image has been greatly damaged.

According to Yang Dajun, senior industry expert and general manager of UTA Management Group Greater China, although adidas Global has recently presented investors with a beautiful financial “answer sheet”, it cannot conceal its concerns about the company’s profitability in the coming years. In the current background of the global economic environment has not improved, Adidas is likely to compress some brands that are not yet profitable and do long-term planning for the brand.

In his opinion, this is a very natural strategic adjustment. Since then, clover's direct-operated stores will not focus on profitability, but will continue to maintain continuity in the Chinese market, and then choose the right market opportunities to re-build the brand.

Dai Chunhua, chief consultant of Baichuandao Consulting Co., Ltd. believes that Adidas may currently choose the following two paths. One is the company’s direct operation, and the other is the company’s equity participation in the national distributors. The company is confident that the company’s dealers will be accurate. After the brand's output, it will be handed over to the dealer.

Clover's "Chinese style" decline

Among adidas' domestic product series, sports performance series is the most common brand, and the market positioning is a classic professional sports brand, which also accounts for the vast majority of the company's performance. The positioning of clover is more fashionable and higher than the sports performance series. Another Y3 brand, out of the concept of sports, the main fashion, positioning as a luxury family, is currently relatively rare in the domestic market.

"Under the dealer's 'shanzhai version' promotion, clover's brand awareness among Chinese consumers has become increasingly mediocre." Dai Chunhua said that clover is a high-end sports brand positioning fashion, but in the Chinese market, some dealers The grassroots operation mode has made the difference between the brand and the Adidas brand disappear.

She said that the current channel mechanism of the apparel industry has revealed a huge flaw, that is, the brand operator has lost the management and supervision of the sales channel system, and the so-called management supervision methods and means are reference. Therefore, once the inventory pressure is a little larger, dealers will discount the price of the brand without regard to the needs of the brand. Or in order to save money, it is impermissible for brands to cooperate in branding and marketing. At least in the mind of most dealers, helping brand companies to promote and brand is not their own job.

As Adidas, brand communication and service experience are the company's most important. However, in the eyes of distributors, product profitability is the sole purpose. Short-term discounts and promotions are the starting point for this purpose. At present, most dealers are also representing seven or eight brands at the same time. It is obviously unrealistic to expect distributors to take care of a brand individually. At least so far, it is difficult for the two sides to meet their interests.

"But Adidas must change." Dai Chunhua said that foreign brands formerly rotten in the hands of Chinese distributors, such as Playboy and Valentino, were examples of Adidas who had to face squarely.

Small information:

In 1949, Adidas founder Adi Dassler first registered the three-striped logo. In 1972, the Shamrock brand was officially launched, and all Adidas products used this mark. However, since 1996, the Shamrock logo has been used exclusively in the classic series of Original products.