Advertising and Consumer Culture in China by Li Hongmei;

Author:Li, Hongmei; [Li, Hongmei]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Polity Press
Published: 2016-07-09T00:00:00+00:00

Foreign Competition in the 1990s

Initially, Li-Ning experienced little competition from foreign brands because foreign marketers generally treated China mostly as a place to find cheap labor. For example, even though Nike started buying from Chinese factories in 1981, it did not begin selling in China until 1988 (Fiddes, 1994, Dec. 8). A growing middle class and increasing disposable income, however, gradually made China a desirable consumer market. In 1992, Nike opened its first retail store in Shanghai, and by 1994 Nike had opened stores in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Nike's initial ads in China were mere translations from its American ads. Endorsed by sports icons such as Michael Jordan and Andre Agassi, Nike products were popular among Chinese youth. Nike also boosted Jordan's popularity in China at a time when the National Basketball Association (NBA) gained wide recognition. A survey found that Jordan was the most recognizable person in China after Deng Xiaoping (Weir, 1993, Oct. 7). Nike's intensive effort to seek and support mainstream youth sports programs also enhanced its brand image and loyalty (Low, 1994, Oct. 21). High school and college students strongly aspired to own Nike products, even though most Chinese then could not afford a pair of Nike shoes, which cost a few months' salary. At the turn of the twenty-first century, Nike had already became the coolest brand in China (Forney, Fonda, & Gough, 2004, Oct. 24).

Other foreign brands (Adidas, Reebok, and New Balance) began selling in China in the 1990s. While these global brands experienced rapid growth, Li-Ning's growth stagnated between 1997 and 2001, with its sales fluctuating around 700 million yuan (approximately $90 million USD), merely 1 percent of Nike's $9 billion USD revenue. Typical of family businesses, Li-Ning experienced difficulties because of nepotism and mismanagement. Its marketing and advertising strategies in its early days were based on intuition. Its advertising position shifted among athletics, fashion, and leisure. Its slogans also oscillated between collectivity and individualism, philosophical abstraction and worldly pursuit, and outward assertion and inward pursuit. Some of the slogans in the 1990s included: “the hope of China's new generation” (which sounds similar to Pepsi's slogan), “winning in each step,” “leave excellence to yourself,” “I exercise, I exist,” “seasonal winds, new sports,” and “excellence originating from Nature.” Additionally, the brand faced challenges because of a pervasive counterfeit culture in China.

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