Sport en Chine

        La diversité des pratiques rend aujourd'hui la compréhension du marché des articles de sport plus délicate.

       La performance apportée par le produit dans la pratique d'une discipline, critère sur lequel s'appuient les grandes marques pour entretenir leur image, semble ainsi peu à peu perdre son caractère prédominant. Les consommateurs expriment aujourd'hui des aspirations plus fonctionnelles (confort, solidité, facilité d'utilisation…) et n'hésitent pas, par exemple, à utiliser dans leur vie quotidienne des produits comme les sacs à dos ou les chaussures de sport. De même, les critères immatériels regagnent du terrain (plaisir apporté par le produit dans la pratique, qualités esthétiques…), comme l'illustre l'influence grandissante de la mode dans le sport qui rend plus floues les frontières entre prêt-à-porter et habillement sportif. Enfin, la segmentation du marché se renforce avec l'apparition relativement récente de nouveaux univers de consommation comme l'outdoor.

Pour les fabricants de sport, la complexité du mode de fonctionnement du marché se traduit par l'accélération de la diffusion des innovations et le raccourcissement du cycle de vie des produits. Cette tendance doit donc les inciter à mieux prendre en compte les aspirations des consommateurs pour assurer leur compétitivité, notamment vis-à-vis des distributeurs dont la promotion de marques propres les amène sur le terrain de la conception des produits. Un telle démarche devrait également leur permettre de se repositionner sur des créneaux techniques et à forte valeur ajoutée.

          Les segments de la fabrication d'équipements collectifs sportifs et d'aires de jeux n'entrent donc pas dans le champ de l'étude. Dans un premier temps, on visera à mesurer les évolutions quantitatives et qualitatives de la pratique sportive et leur influence sur la dynamique du marché. Un éclairage sera ensuite porté sur la segmentation du marché et les comportements de consommation.

Due to the abundant labor resources, huge market potentials and favorable policies, China sporting goods industry has developed, within more than 50 years, from small to large, imitation to creation, planning to market and even from closed self-support to international market. It not only made an outstanding success, but also drew the general attention. However, as China sporting goods industry started operating and joined the market at a much later time, some problems such as unreasonable structure system, scattered marketing scale, low standard degree and poor brand effect still restrict its re-development now.

The annual sales revenue of China’s sporting goods is currently RMB 30-40 billion and its annual production value will be expected to share 0.3% of GDP by 2010. Driven by rapid growth of China sports industry and great demands for sporting goods/equipments of 2008 Beijing Olympics, China sporting goods industry can still see a big room for development. Furthermore, urban residents now prefer the middle and high grade sporting goods to low-grade ones, while people in rural area have new demands for low-grade sporting goods.

The statistics show that, at present, about 20,000-25,000 companies engage in sporting goods industry in China. Apart from satisfying the great needs of China sports undertaking and nation-wide fitness for equipments, the advanced manufacturing still serves almost all the world sports brands with processing business. World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry declared recently that Made in China has shared more than 65% of world market. The figure may increase dramatically in the next 4-5 years.

Top 10 Sporting Goods Brands in China, 2006-2009

Strengths.

• Nike is a very competitive organization. Phil Knight (Founder and CEO) is often quoted as saying that 'Business is war without bullets.' Nike has a healthy dislike of is competitors. At the Atlanta Olympics, Reebok went to the expense of sponsoring the games. Nike did not. However Nike sponsored the top athletes and gained valuable coverage.
• Nike has no factories. It does not tie up cash in buildings and manufacturing workers. This makes a very lean organization. Nike is strong at research and development, as is evidenced by its evolving and innovative product range. They then manufacture wherever they can produce high quality product at the lowest possible price. If prices rise, and products can be made more cheaply elsewhere (to the same or better specification), Nike will move production.
• Nike is a global brand. It is the number one sports brand in the World. Its famous 'Swoosh' is instantly recognisable, and Phil Knight even has it tattooed on his ankle.

Weaknesses.

• The organization does have a diversified range of sports products. However, the income of the business is still heavily dependent upon its share of the footwear market. This may leave it vulnerable if for any reason its market share erodes.
• The retail sector is very price sensitive. Nike does have its own retailer in Nike Town. However, most of its income is derived from selling into retailers. Retailers tend to offer a very similar experience to the consumer. Can you tell one sports retailer from another? So margins tend to get squeezed as retailers try to pass some of the low price competition pressure onto Nike.

Opportunities.

• Product development offers Nike many opportunities. The brand is fiercely defended by its owners whom truly believe that Nike is not a fashion brand. However, like it or not, consumers that wear Nike product do not always buy it to participate in sport. Some would argue that in youth culture especially, Nike is a fashion brand. This creates its own opportunities, since product could become unfashionable before it wears out i.e. consumers need to replace shoes.
• There is also the opportunity to develop products such as sport wear, sunglasses and jewellery. Such high value items do tend to have associated with them, high profits.
• The business could also be developed internationally, building upon its strong global brand recognition. There are many markets that have the disposable income to spend on high value sports goods. For example, emerging markets such as China and India have a new richer generation of consumers. There are also global marketing events that can be utilised to support the brand such as the World Cup (soccer) and The Olympics.

Threats.

• Nike is exposed to the international nature of trade. It buys and sells in different currencies and so costs and margins are not stable over long periods of time. Such an exposure could mean that Nike may be manufacturing and/or selling at a loss. This is an issue that faces all global brands.
• The market for sports shoes and garments is very competitive. The model developed by Phil Knight in his Stamford Business School days (high value branded product manufactured at a low cost) is now commonly used and to an extent is no longer a basis for sustainable competitive advantage. Competitors are developing alternative brands to take away Nike's market share.
• As discussed above in weaknesses, the retail sector is becoming price competitive. This ultimately means that consumers are shopping around for a better deal. So if one store charges a price for a pair of sports shoes, the consumer could go to the store along the street to compare prices for the exactly the same item, and buy the cheaper of the two. Such consumer price sensitivity is a potential external threat to Nike.

'If you have a body, you are an athlete' - Bill Bowerman said this a couple of decades ago. The guy was right. It defines how he viewed the world, and it defines how Nike pursues its destiny. Ours is a language of sports, a universally understood lexicon of passion and competition. A lot has happened at Nike in the 30 years More . . .