Reporter | Luo Yingying
Editor | Shi Yiying
Stepping on Curry6's latest signature shoes, wearing a fancy top with lotus elements. At the end of June, Stephen Curry started its fifth consecutive "China Tour" from Dongguan. In a week, he traveled to many places in Guangdong, Beijing and Shanghai.
The first thing Curry did when he came to China had nothing to do with basketball. He first went to the golf course to play a game, and the rainy day did not affect Curry's interest at all. This NBA star also loves golf, and it is no secret inside and outside the industry.
With Curry's golf story, his sneaker sponsor Under Armour intends to do a business. During this trip to China, Under Armour announced that Stephen Curry's SC personal series will extend from basketball to the golf field, and then launched 15 golf equipment items.
"Curry not only loves basketball, but also loves golf. His image is very positive and can influence more sports enthusiasts," Mei Yuqing, managing director of Under Armour China, said in an exclusive interview with Interface News that they trust Curry's ability to sell goods in the golf field.
Although Golden State Warriors just lost in the NBA Finals, it did not affect Curry's good mood. He happily talked about basketball and golf. When asked who played golf best in the Warriors, Curry laughed without hesitation and responded, "It's obviously me."
- The basketball spokesperson for golf is
At Curry's home in California, a scoreboard for the golf match was framed.
It was 2001, and he still played in the NBA. Dell Curry took his son to play golf as usual. Stephen Curry scored 13 consecutive pars, and the score was frozen at 79, defeating Dell Curry by 3. This is Curry's first victory over his father on the golf course.
"I started playing golf at about 8 years old. My father took me to the court, I could drive and learn to play, and then I became passionate about golf, and I enjoyed the process." In Curry's memory, the sport that I talked about the most with my father was not basketball, but golf.
After entering high school, Curry was selected for the golf school team of Charlotte Christian School. Now, after many years, Curry can compete with professional golfers.
In 2017, Curry completed his first appearance on the PGA Tour with a wild card, ranking 142nd among the 156 contestants with a score of 74 in the first round of the Ellis Classic. This is Curry's first time participating in a professional golf tournament. A year later, he scored another 71 in the first round of the Ellimai Classic, the second best result of a non-golf professional athlete on the Webb Tour. After
ended this summer's Chinese itinerary, Curry will return to the United States to participate in the Century Celebrity Golf Tournament in July, after he won fourth place in this event.
Curry said: "Basketball and golf have many similarities. Both sports require high concentration. Each perfect swing is the same as a key shot. Although golf and basketball are different in forms, the competitive attributes are the same. They need to handle every detail and withstand the pressure."
In the view of the 31-year-old Warriors star, family and basketball are their top priorities. Golf can relieve the pressure on themselves in the NBA arena, and play golf with relatives and friends to relax their mentality.
Iguodala and Klay Thompson , these basketball court partners are also Curry's golfers. Iguodala once publicly accepted the disadvantage, "Curry is much better than me in playing golf."
Although his skills are close to professional players, Curry remains modest. "I love this sport, but respect the efforts of professional golf players. Jordan Spieth and others have achieved success in this field after a lot of training. I hope to learn more from them and promote this project together."
Now, with the cooperation with Under Armour, Curry can be closer to this sport as he wishes.
Under Armour and Curry held hands, which began at the end of 2013.At that time, Curry's performance on the court was average, and due to an ankle injury, after Nike gave up renewing his contract, Curry switched to Under Armour with a contract of $5.5 million per year, becoming the brand's number one basketball star.
in just two years, this deal has become one of the most cost-effective cooperations in the sports market. In the 2014-15 season, Curry was crowned the regular season MVP and championship for the first time, and Curry's generation of boots were sold out.
When they became their most glorious in 2015, with the help of Curry's series of products, Under Armour's revenue in the second quarter increased by 28.5% year-on-year, achieving a growth rate of more than 20% for 21 consecutive quarters. Among them, Curry's generation of combat boots sold hotly, driving a 40.2% increase in footwear sales, which was no exception in the sports goods market.
In addition to basketball, Under Armour's performance explosion also benefits from the golf category. The company's CEO Kevin Plank (Kevin Plank) thanked many heroes at the financial report meeting. In addition to Curry, his golf star Jordan Spieth also has his own golf star.
American brand has always had a good vision in choosing spokespersons - in addition to Curry, who decisively won early injuries, the brand also completed the signing before Jordan Spieth's professional debut. In 2015, the American won the Masters and the U.S. Open championships in a row, becoming the two youngest Grand Slam winners since 1922, and Under Armour became the winner behind it.
Since 2017, Under Armour has faced a serious inventory backlog due to factors such as excessive expansion of product lines. Inventory rose 27% in the first quarter of 2018 to US$1.15 billion, equivalent to sales, with inventory increase of more than four times the sales growth rate.
In the past two years, the company has launched a restructuring plan, eliminating a large number of poorly sold product lines, focusing on categories such as basketball, training, women and running, and golf has also become one of the survivors. Under Armour hopes that streamlining the category will lead to longer-term profitability.
According to Mei Yuqing, managing director of China, Under Armour, which started out as a sports tights, has a training category that is still the "foundation of one's own life" and has relatively stable performance. In recent years, the upward trend of basketball and running has been fast, and it has begun to surpass training, with the three occupying the most important business areas.
can be seen from the sports list on the official website of China. Training, running and basketball rank at the forefront, golf, sports and leisure and football are at the second level, and golf has a clear position in the Under Armour category matrix.
"Golf is a relatively emerging category and also has a place in our matrix. Training, basketball and running are available in every store. Golf and leisure sports categories will be available in larger stores," said Mei Yuqing. Golf is also an area that Under Armour values very much.
For this reason, Under Armour hopes that its top basketball resources can "feed back" to the golf business, and Curry happily accepts this new role. He strives to "sell" his new products, from clothing, footwear to accessories, and the design is also integrated into Curry's daily wear style. This is the first time since the launch of the SC series, it has expanded from a single basketball event to other sports fields.
- shrinking golf market
In April this year, golf star Tiger Woods won the 83rd Masters Championship and won the Grand Slam championship again after 11 years, which once attracted high attention from the outside world.
After re-dressing a green jacket in the Masters, Woods' recovery made its sponsor Nike a winner. According to market research agency Apex Marketing, Woods won the bid to create $22.54 million in commercial value for Nike in Augusta. On the day of the championship, all the Woods series of clothing on Nike were sold out. Nike's stock price was also boosted, hitting a month-long high.
However, this is just one of the few good news in the global golf market. In recent years, the shrinking consumer market and the aging trend of audiences have become many problems facing this sport.
KPMG report shows that in 2012, the European Golf population began to experience its first decline in 20 years. The United States has shown a significant decline in both the Golf population and the number of courses - the sales of the U.S. golf market account for about half of the global share, but the Golf population has shrunk from 30 million at its peak to 23 million today.
has relatively limited development in emerging markets such as China.Affected by the cleaning and rectification of golf courses and verification work, the number of golf courses in China has dropped sharply in recent years, and the market has shown a tepid state. Even if the rectification has been completed, industrial development will be temporarily subject to certain restrictions.
Joe Beditz, executive president of the National Golf Foundation of America, once admitted that "we have lost 5 million golf population in the past 10 years." The important reason for the shrinking market is the aging audience, and this sport is not favored by young consumers. Bloomberg reported that in the past 20 years, the number of young Americans who play golf has decreased by 30%, and the average age of those who play golf once a week has increased from 48 in 2009 to 63 in 2015.
"It is more difficult than ever to reattract or retain golf players under the age of 45," The Economist wrote.
The global golf economy has fallen into a downturn, and the two major brands in the sports goods industry have responded the most fiercely.
In August 2016, Nike announced that it would withdraw from the golf equipment market and produce only golf clothing and sneakers. In fiscal 2016, sales in the Nike golf category fell 8.2% year-on-year to US$706 million. In comparison, Nike's total annual revenue reached US$32.4 billion, and its golf business became one of the few complaints of this industry giant.
In May of the same year, Adidas announced the sale of its three golf brands, including TaylorMade, Adams and Yashiwei (Ashworth). In fiscal 2015, the golf business caused Adidas to lose nearly 100 million euros, and the German brand, whose situation has not improved, decided to give up this burden. A year after
announced the sale, Adidas has been unable to find a buyer. It was not until May 2017 that the German brand was sold to private equity firm KPS Capital for US$425 million. Previously, Adidas's price was $500 million, and the sharp price cut showed its urgency to sell its business.
Under Armour is optimistic about the Chinese golf market. "The Chinese golf market is still in a relatively young stage. Perhaps only one in a thousand people are playing golf, which means great market potential. Although the growth rate has slowed down in recent years, it is still very fast. We feel that there is still a lot of room for development."
golf event is slow and loose, suitable for business or discussing business, and has always been regarded as a sport for upper-class political and business people. Nowadays, this aristocratic movement must become more civilian and younger in order to divide into more sports markets.
Mei Yuqing acknowledges the existence of aging trends. Therefore, Under Armour chose Curry, who is well-known to young people, to approach the mass market. "Let Curry do a golf series. We extend our hands to the young people to form more connections with them, and use the methods and perspectives that young people like to see, so that they can understand Under Armour."
- "Always take China to heart"
North American market is Under Armour's most important area. At present, more than 70% of its sales come from the local area. Although overseas sales growth has left North America, CEO Kevin Plank stressed that more attention should be put into the local market.
"We have to hit the North American market to win, and we are excited to expand our layout around the world, allowing us to re-start in North America and consider the next growth opportunity," Kevin Planck said in an interview with CNBC in May this year.
Outside North America, the Chinese market is obviously the area that Under Armour values the most.
Last time Mei Yuqing went to the US headquarters, CEO Kevin Plank told her, "Although I am thousands of miles apart, I always take China to heart." At the meeting at the US headquarters, executives always spend a lot of time discussing the strategy of the Chinese market.
The starting point of the Curry series cross-border golf began in China, which seems to prove this.
's latest first-quarter results for the 2019 fiscal year show that Under Armour's global revenue increased by 2% year-on-year to US$1.2 billion. North American revenue fell 3% to $843 million, while international business rose 12% to $328 million.
Among them, the revenue of the Asia-Pacific region increased by 25%, leading the global market in performance growth, significantly ahead of other market areas.Mei Yuqing said that the Chinese market has the largest proportion of revenue in the Asia-Pacific region, but it is not convenient to disclose specific data.
In early 2018, Asia Pacific Managing Director Erick Haskell revealed to Interface News that since Under Armour entered the Chinese market in 2011, it has maintained a double-digit growth rate. As North America's growth rate stagnates, China has become a heart-warming agent for Under Armour's overall performance.
Among them, training, running and basketball are the best-selling product lines in the Chinese market, with the most considerable growth rate of basketball shoes and running shoes products.
started with the first store of Shanghai Ganghui Plaza . As of the end of May 2019, Under Armour opened 447 stores in mainland China, and has self-operated official websites and e-commerce platforms such as Tmall and JD stores. In China, the brand maintains a rate of about 100 new stores per year.
Under Armour revealed that it will announce a deep cooperation with the Tmall platform in the future to accelerate the layout of digital e-commerce business in the Chinese market, but the details of the cooperation still need to be disclosed.
"Tmall has different business units, and we often communicate. The current e-commerce channel is no longer a simple process of selling products, but also a very good digital media channel that can establish more connections with consumers," said Mei Yuqing.
In addition to products and channels, celebrity marketing is indispensable for Chinese consumers with a strong sense of celebrity effect. When major brands seized local celebrity resources, Under Armour had been low-key in marketing strategies for a long time. In the first few years of entering China, brands mainly relied on international resources such as Curry to drive domestic marketing.
Until January 2019, Under Armour announced the signing of the Chinese women's volleyball captain Zhu Ting , which is the first Chinese athlete won by the American brand. As one of the top Chinese sports stars, Zhu Ting's commercial value is in an upward period and is a key resource for Under Armour to develop the Chinese market or women's category. Half a year after signing Zhu Ting with
, Under Armour, who has always shown her professional sports image, unexpectedly set her sights on stars in the entertainment industry.
In June 2019, the American brand officially announced the signing of Yang Chaoyue. The latter debuted through the talent show " Create 101", and is highly popular and is known for its "koi". The signing of
has attracted a lot of attention from the outside world, but Mei Yuqing denied Under Armour entering the entertainment industry. "In fact, it did not say that we should plan in the direction of entertainment. We are a concept that we want to convey. Under Armour is not only facing talented athletes, but also for sports enthusiasts." She believes that Yang Chaoyue has a positive image and is close to the public, complementing the top athlete Zhu Ting, which is conducive to opening up the women's market.
This summer is Curry's fifth consecutive year with Under Armour China. Unlike previous years, this time its scale has expanded unprecedentedly. In addition to Curry, Under Armour also brought its , Joel Embiid, , Mohamed Bamba and Dennis Smith and other players to interact in-depth with fans.
During this trip to China, the US brand announced an important news at the end of the finale, becoming the official strategic partner and exclusive equipment supplier of the Chinese three-person basketball national team. This is the first national team signed by Under Armour in China. With the Chinese women's team winning the World Cup in the Netherlands, the domestic three-person basketball industry ushered in an opportunity.
It can be seen that Under Armour, which entered the Chinese market in the early stages of relatively "dolent", is fully launching its marketing strategy. As the head of China, Mei Yuqing said exactly, "We will invest much more marketing in China this year than in previous years."
