According to @四川Observation news on July 22, on July 19, Nike released a new promotional video on its Chinese official website, which showed an athlete licking a table tennis racket, which aroused heated discussion among netizens. The reporter called Nike's official hotline, and the staff member who answered the phone said that he would report the matter back, but he could not give an accurate answer at the moment. Topics related to
ranked first in Weibo’s hot searches on July 23.
Some netizens said that there is no action of licking the racket in table tennis, which makes people physically uncomfortable and has a bad impact.
Some netizens believe that the hot discussion about this picture is "too sensitive" and there is no need to go online.
According to the New Yellow River report on July 23, reporters found that this is not the first time that Nike advertising has caused controversy. In April this year, Nike announced the latest apparel for the foreign track and field teams at the Paris Olympics on social media, which also caused a lot of controversy. Judging from the pictures posted on social media, the women's track and field uniforms look a bit "unnatural". The clothing is like a swimsuit, without sleeves, and has a high cut in the crotch. Such a design is too bold. Just imagine athletes competing in such clothing. , I’m afraid it’s extremely easy to “go out”, which will definitely affect their concentration in the game.
Many foreign female track and field athletes said that Nike's design completely disrespected them. Nike officials responded that this design was mainly to highlight the "difference" of women. Unexpectedly, some athletes would not accept it, and said that if you don't like such clothing, you can wear the same shorts as male athletes to compete.
On the eve of the "618" event in 2021, in order to make its products out of the circle, Nike hired a group of popular models to shoot Chinese promotional photos. These models all had squinted eyes, wore fancy clothes, and had no sense of beauty. In order to highlight the small eyes, some models even shaved off their eyebrows, which is very different from the public aesthetic. Some netizens discovered that Nike’s advertisements in South Korea and Japan were shot with normal expression management and makeup, sunshine and youth. But when he arrived in China, his style of painting suddenly changed, and he found a group of models who were contrary to traditional Chinese aesthetics for publicity, which was linked by the majority of netizens to the angle of "vilifying Chinese women".
On the 28th of last month, Nike’s full-year financial report for fiscal year 2024 showed that the company was in a dilemma of “almost no growth in global performance.” Full-year revenue reached US$51.4 billion, a slight increase of 0.3% year-on-year. In terms of channels, Nike's self-operated business's full-year revenue was US$21.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1% on the basis of unchanged exchange rates; Nike's dealer business's full-year revenue was US$27.8 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1% on the basis of unchanged exchange rates. Growth of 2%. Compared with the previous fiscal year, which only increased by 1%, this has become Nike's lowest revenue growth rate since 2010. In fiscal year 2023, Nike’s annual revenue was US$51.2 billion, with a year-on-year growth rate of 16%.
brands are also aware of the pressure on growth. Don Ruoxiu, president and CEO of Nike Group, previously said: "We have faced recent challenges, but we are continuing to make progress in areas that are critical to Nike's future, serving athletes through innovations that enhance sports performance, continuing to meet the changing needs of consumers, and Expand and improve market layout."
At the same time, Nike announced a reduction in its full-year performance guidance, and expected sales to fall by 10% in the first fiscal quarter of fiscal 2025. also expected a mid-single-digit decline in revenue in fiscal 2025. , which fell 10% in the first quarter. This is significantly different from Nike’s previous expectations for overall sales growth in fiscal 2025.
Due to poor performance in this fiscal year and the expected next fiscal year, many institutions have downgraded Nike's ratings, including JPMorgan Chase, UBS, Barclays, etc. On July 1, UBS lowered its target price for Nike from US$125 to US$78, noting that Nike's fundamental trends have caused the bank to worry that Nike's business needs to make major adjustments; Barclays also lowered its target price for Nike from US$109. to $80, the rating was adjusted from "overweight" to "neutral."
Against this background, Nike Greater China, which has maintained positive growth for seven consecutive quarters, is particularly important.
Greater China is the market with the largest annual performance growth for Nike and the market that is most in line with expectations.In fiscal year 2024, Nike's revenue in Greater China was US$7.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 8% on a constant exchange rate basis, achieving seven consecutive quarters of positive growth. The full fiscal year performance of Nike, the largest North American market, fell by 1% year-on-year, and the full fiscal year revenue of the second largest EMEA market was the same as the previous fiscal year. Even the low-base Asia-Pacific and Latin American markets only delivered a full-year revenue growth of 5%.
Matthew Friend, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Nike Group, emphasized the excellent performance of Greater China during the financial report conference: "In the fourth quarter, Nike's children's business in Greater China performed well, especially running and basketball products. Men's and women's lifestyle products, retro running and our latest local innovations have received positive feedback from consumers. Series such as structure, vomero and invincible have achieved double-digit sales growth."
Matthew Friend also commented. Paying attention to Nike's slowing growth, he pointed out at the meeting that the company is adjusting its product portfolio to rekindle consumer interest.
Will the Chinese market always become the "comfort zone" for traditional international brands such as Nike?
According to a previous report by China Business Daily, Cheng Weixiong, a senior brand management expert and founder of Shanghai Liangqi Brand Management Co., Ltd., said that Nike’s weakness in the Chinese market is multifaceted, including changes in the overall consumer environment, the rise of domestic sports brand groups, and The intervention of new international brands represented by lululemon and changes in domestic omni-channel marketing have impacted traditional international brands represented by Nike.
In addition, Cheng Weixiong also believes that the Chinese sports market has transformed from comprehensive to segmented and diversified scenarios. The consumption grading of the Chinese market has become more obvious. The middle-income group has certain consumer demand for mid-to-high-end brands. The rise of the outdoor craze has made outdoor sports brands such as Arc'teryx and Descente popular. The popularity of these brands The rise has greatly diversified the market for brands such as Nike.
Yang Dayun believes that as the scale of China's economy increases, domestic consumers' support for local brands drives the growth of "national trend consumption" and provides a huge boost to the rise of domestic sports brands. The trend of substantial growth of domestic sports brands will inevitably give Overseas brands such as Nike have brought shocks and tests.
Editor | Cheng Peng, Du Hengfeng, Du Bo
Proofreading | Lu Xiangyong
Cover image source: Visual China (data pictures and texts have nothing to do with it)
Daily economic news is compiled from Sichuan Observation, New Yellow River (reporter: Li Qiaomei), China Business Daily (Reporter: Wang Yifei), Jiemian News (Reporter: Qin Siyue)
Daily Economic News
