Can Decathlon Taste The Sweetness In The Chinese Market Because Of Its Low Key?

In the past two years, the emergence of domestic sports fitness boom has brought the gospel to the sports brand industry, including Nike, Adidas and a number of local sports brands, all of which are promoting the brand marketing of the Chinese market.

However, under this background, there is a special existence.

Although Decathlon will not disclose the specific financial data of Greater China, but in the difficult background of domestic sports brands in the past many years, this accelerated expansion undoubtedly demonstrates the strong strength of French brands.

To this end, Decathlon announced in November last year that the goal of the French brand in the next five years is to have 500 physical stores in 120 cities in China.

At the same time, China's sales account for 25% of the world's total sales.

It can be seen that the Chinese market is very important for Decathlon.

However, this does not mean that the "low-key" Decathlon has not encountered any confusion in the Chinese market.

With more sub brands and less marketing, consumers do not know much about their brand names than Decathlon.

Many consumers know that shoes on their feet are bought at Decathlon, but they can not tell the names of their sub brands.

On the contrary, people see brand sports equipment on the road, but they do not necessarily know that the product comes from Decathlon.

Most of these phenomena are the weakness of brand relationship and lack of market promotion.

It was first established in northern France in 1976.

In November 2003, the flagship store opened in Pudong, Shanghai, which is the first shopping mall opened by Decathlon in China, thus announces that the French brand is officially stationed in the Chinese market.

Unlike sports giants like Nike and Adidas, Decathlon has never sponsored sporting events or invited celebrity endorsements in the past 13 years, and people can hardly see their brand advertisements. The company even shows a "far away" attitude in media communication.

In the context of traditional marketing promotion such as hard broad, sponsorship and naming, Decathlon's brand activities in the Chinese market are rather "plain". Invite their employees to be the spokesmen and tell the stories of ordinary people; only when new stores are opened, will they put a bit of notice on the subway; in 2016, a series of public football matches and badminton matches will be launched, so that sponsorship activities will return to the sport itself to the maximum extent.

Obviously, this is a rather low-key brand.

In response to external questions, Decathlon's response has always been consistent. They expressed the hope that more funds and resources should be placed on product research and development to bring more quality products to consumers, and the marketing expenses would be strict.

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The company believes that users are the best spokesmen.

Let Decathlon feel confident, even if it lacks.

French brands are still well known in the Chinese market.

The main reason is the coverage and professionalism of its sports brand.

It is understood that Decathlon owns 21 independent brands, basically divided by sports category, covering about 80 sports.

Decathlon has set up R & D department and designer team for every brand of the company, specializing in product development in order to ensure the rationality of sports equipment design.

Secondly, Decathlon gets a "return" without spending too much money on advertising, which is important to reduce the cost of the supply chain.

In the Chinese market, Decathlon's role encompasses the entire industry chain from R & D, design, production, logistics to retail.

The whole production process is in its own hands, and the cost of Decathlon is further controlled, so the retail price is lower to attract the masses of consumers.

In addition, focusing on experience is also a highlight of Decathlon's shopping malls. Decathlon will set up an experience area next to the store shelves to provide consumers with pre experience. This experience of Qiandao Lake products is a manifestation of the French brand.

With its high price performance and experiential service, Decathlon, which never advertises, has tasted sweetness in the Chinese market.

According to official data, as of April 2016, the average more than 4000 square meters of large stores, Decathlon has opened 166 cities in 61 cities in China (158 in mainland China, 8 in Taiwan area).

As early as March 2010, the number of shopping malls in China in Decathlon was only 23. In 2015 alone, the number of newly opened stores was 51.