Football Brands in China:

Understanding the Environment

A Brief: by Patrick Crowe

Contents
Introduction: What does China represent for football brands?...................

Engagement in Chinas digital environment

The key digital platforms.......

How to successfully engage with Chinese fans....

Content design...........

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Summary.....

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Contact Information.......

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Introduction: What does China represent for football brands?

China is in the midst of a football revolution. In 2015, President Xi Jinping stated his intention for China to become a soccer powerhouse and began projects aimed at improving
Chinese football all the way from the pinnacle of the countrys professional game down to
grassroots ventures in schools and community centres. Revitalising soccer, Xi said, is a
must to build China into a sports powerhouse as part of the Chinese dream. It is also what
the people desire.
Indeed, the Chinese people have shown this desire for the game through a recent, intense
interest in the major European stars, clubs, and competitions. Leading football brands have
already built up significant fanbases in the country. At the same time, there is still considerable room for growth and for more entrants into the market.
As China focuses on the beautiful game, there are great opportunities for western football
brands looking to build equity. The country holds a vast supply of football fans who are vigilant, connected, and looking to give their support to the brands that capture their imagination.
However, western football brands cannot simply use the same methods of marketing and
customer relationship management as they do in their home territory. In China, the rules of
engagement are markedly different. This brief will give western football brands a better understanding of these rules. With that in mind, it will discuss:
Engagement in Chinas digital environment
The key digital platforms
How to engage successfully with Chinese fans
Content design for brands looking to engage with Chinese fans

Engagement in Chinas digital environment

With the bases of their favourite stars, clubs, and competitions being thousands of miles
away, Chinese fans rarely have opportunities to engage with football brands using traditional methods. For example, buying tickets and going to a match is a huge undertaking.
For Chinese satellite fans, the best way they can engage with their favourite football brands
is through online digital platforms.
In addition to having the worlds largest internet user base over 670 million as of November 2015, more than double the amount of active users in the USA at 281 million1 - China
also has the worlds most active digital environment. For example, it is estimated that
around 650 million Chinese use online social media platforms2, roughly ten times the population of the UK.
China has a unique and insular digital landscape. A lot of the digital platforms popular in the
west are not popular in China. In fact, many of them are banned through the Chinese governments strict regulation of the internet.3 The image on the following page is a snapshot
of the state of Chinese social media in 2015. (Figure 1) The graphic splits platforms into
categories based on function. In the center ring we have the major western platforms for
each category. The second ring shows us the numerous Chinese equivalents for these platforms. The outer ring shows us Chinese digital platforms dedicated solely to certain recreational interests rather than function. As we can see, there are a dizzying array of
platforms. Not all of them are applicable to western football brands and so we must look for
the ones that are in order to pinpoint our target audience.

1
Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/top20.htm
2
Source: http://makeawebsitehub.com/chinese-social-media-statistics/
3

In May 2010, the government issued a white paper on the Internet that emphasized the
concept of Internet sovereignty, requiring all Internet users in China, including foreign
organizations and individuals, to abide by Chinese laws and regulations.

Figure 1: Chinas digital platforms

Source: Kantar Media CIC (2015)

The key digital platforms

Next, I will discuss a few of the key platforms used by football brands to engage with Chinese fans. To help with our understanding, we will look at what these platforms are, contrast them with western counterparts, and how football brands can use their features to
engage with Chinese fans.

Weibo
Weibo is a microblogging site that has been described as the Chinese Twitter. A group of
similar core features have allowed comparisons to be made between the two sites. For example, both sites use hashtags to link cross-platform discussions, and both sites employ a
verification policy used to authenticate accounts.
However, there are a multitude of additional features available for use on Weibo that make
it a more dynamic and diverse platform than Twitter. This vast array of features may seem
daunting to new users, but once studied and understood present themselves as a valuable
set of tools for brands to use in their efforts to engage with fans in new and exciting ways.
The following list is a brief overview of some of the unique features Weibo has and how
they could be used to engage with fans and build brand equity.

Expansive Posting
Weibo has a 140 character limit on standard posts, just like Twitter. However, you can say a
lot more in 140 Chinese characters (around 70 or 80) words than you can in English. This
allows for more detailed posts that can tell followers more than the slender snippets offered
up on Twitter. Also, there is the option of posting a long-form post on Weibo with an unlimited word count and full formatting options.

Polls and Surveys

Should a brand wish to get their followers opinion on something, they can upload a poll or
survey onto their Weibo page. The content will show up on followers timelines, making participation only one easy click away. This feature allows brands to get an almost instant idea
about what their fans are thinking and feeling.
Hashtag Proprietorship
Weibo allows users to claim ownership of a hashtag through an application process on the
website. This allows for brands to fully control the usage of a hashtag, allowing for greater
regulation of content.
File-Sharing
Weibo allows users to upload and share files directly onto their followers timeline. Whether
its a viral marketing campaign, information about ticketing, or the annual accounts, footballbrands can use this feature to release files relating to any aspect of their operations.
Video Streaming
Weibo allows users to upload or stream videos directly onto their pages. Football brands
could use this feature to share anything from match highlights to ad-campaigns, or even
live interviews with players.

Baidu
Baidu is Chinas answer to Google, it is by far the most popular search engine in the country. In 2015, it held 79.81% of Chinas search market. Any club looking to build digital visibility with Chinese fans needs to tailor its Chinese marketing efforts to fit in with Baidus
output, framework, and algorithms.
Like Google, Baidu has a number of spin off products in addition to their search features,
including everything from Baidu Cloud (digital storage) to Baidu Wallet (online payment processing) There are also popular online communities such as Baidu Space (social network)
and Baidu Tieba (web forums) These communities are significant in Chinas digital world
and brands that successfully build a strong presence within these communities will reap the
benefits in the form of a burgeoning fanbase.
Brands also need to conduct thorough Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in order to
achieve a good level of visibility on Baidu. Baidus search algorithms are complicated, constantly evolving, and catered to Chinese users. It is not enough for brands to simply translate their English language websites into Chinese and expect it rise to the top of Baidus
search results. It is recommended that brands invest in a tailor made Chinese web-page,
using design and content aimed at appealing to the mind-set of Chinese football fans.
There is the option to invest in Baidus Paid Search feature, which allows anyone with a
website to pay a fee and swiftly move to the top of any searches using certain key words.
This is a big advantage in terms of building up a web-pages visibility.

WeChat
WeChat started out as a communication application in a similar vain to Whatsapp. However, it has grown from a simple communication application to a multi-platform service.
Over 650 million daily users4 control various facets of their lives through the application.
It is a one-stop mobile shop, on which users can do everything from book airplane tickets to
pay their utilities bill. In 2015, WeChat reported that it had been a direct driver in bringing in
$1.76 billion in entertainment and lifestyle spending over the course of the year.
Brands can have their own official accounts on WeChat and it is common for brands to
launch mobile marketing campaigns through the application. Through WeChat, football
brands have the opportunity to market everything from merchandise up to travel, tickets,
and hospitality for a match.
Although no football brand has opened up a WeChat store as of yet, there are excellent opportunities to commercialize brand presence on the application. In the future, we may well
see a framework in which Baidu is where fans will search for information on a brand, Weibo
is where they connect with other fans, and WeChat is where they spend money on brand
products.

Source: Sheng-Li Digital (2015)

How to successfully engage with Chinese fans

Most pieces looking at marketing western brands in modern China, including this one, will
tell you the same thing; some things work, some things dont. There is no definitive list of
principles we can use to craft content that will hit the mark every time.
What we can do is look at both the failures and success stories of football brands in China
and what they can tell us about the mindset of Chinese football fans. This should give us a
good idea of what brands need to do in order to successfully engage with Chinese fans.
On the field success definitely helps football brands to engage with Chinese fans. We can
see this in Mailman Groups trusted China Digital Football Index, or the Red Card 5, which
ranks football clubs digital performance in China. The top of their league table contains the
usual suspects from the Englands Premier League, Spains La Liga, and Germanys Bundesliga.
However, it is interesting to note that winning the most trophies does not automatically
mean a club will have the best online performance. For example, we might expect FC
Barcelonas haul of two Champions League trophies in the last five years to put them at the
very top of the list, should the algorithm be as simple as success on the pitch equals success across Chinas digital landscape. In fact, FC Barcelona sit in sixth place on the Red
Cards league table, a full 51 points behind Arsenal FC in fifth place.
The list utilises a metric centred on clubs engagement with fans across Chinese social
media. This not only counts followers on official accounts, but mentions, reads, e-commerce, and the activeness of official websites and video accounts.

Source: http://www.mailmangroup.com/red-card-2016/

Germanys Bayern Munich top the list. Looking at why Bayerns engagement with Chinese
fans is better than other clubs provides brands with a framework for successfully building
equity through Chinas digital environment.
The answer seems to be that Bayern are more simply more thorough in their efforts than
anybody else. The club developed a high quality Chinese language website and an official
video account on Youku, Chinas answer to Youtube. Their accounts on Weibo and WeChat
featured consistent, quality updates tailored specifically to their Chinese fan-base.
All their major stars have their own official accounts as well. Playing on the observation outlined in the Red Card that Chinese fans are often more attracted to star players than the
team they represent. (Mailman Group, 2015) Bayerns club accounts and their players accounts make sure to share content between each other, allowing fans to engage with both.
It is interesting to note that some star players do not have official accounts at all, even if
their clubs do have one. For example, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, and Luis Suarez are still
without official Weibo accounts at the time of writing. Offline, Bayern have dedicated themselves to facilitating growth by touring China in the summer of 2015 and by signing a liverights deal with Chinas biggest broadcaster, CCTV.

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Content Design
I will now outline a few key theories regarding content design for football brands looking
to engage with the Chinese market. These theories are based upon my personal experience and observations.

Change the practices, not the identity

Understanding Chinas digital platforms, language, and the motivations of its football fans is
key, but you do not need to reinvent your brands entire image. Chinas escalating economic and social developments encourages consumers to seek out aspirational trade ups
to heighten their status amongst peers. A good way for them to do this is by associating
themselves with exclusive foreign brands. Football brands are very much a part of this exclusive group. It is often the exotic nature of these foreign brands, and their perceived
higher quality in comparison with Chinese brands, that gives them this exclusivity.
For example, Giorgio Armani says that when his brand first entered China, he painted the
door of the store in Beijing red as he thought it would appeal more to his customers.6 However, this seemed to have little effect on his brands engagement with Chinese consumers.
Now, Armani says he doesnt really change his offering in China from other markets as the
customers want the Western style he sells internationally.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23364230

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It most certainly is a competition

A particular difference between Chinese social media and western social media is the presence of ranking systems and rewards. On Weibo, for example, users are ranked by activity
and can receive rewards for various digital achievements in the shape of merits which are
badges and symbols that appear on the users homepage. This system appears across
various Chinese social media platforms and might tell us something interesting about the
Chinese mindset. Namely, that the Chinese can be quite competitive, and like to receive
recognition for their accomplishments. This effects the way they engage with football
brands.
In 2014, Havas Sports & Entertainment group conducted a global study into fan behaviour,
attitudes, and perceptions, in order to identify a new set of principles about how people engage with sports brands.7 Whilst other nations advocated the logic of entertainment in engagement, meaning the overall experience and atmosphere of a sport (France & the UK),
or immersion, losing themselves in the emotion and plot of a contest (Brazil & Portugal),
China stood out as a unique outlier amongst the nations surveyed. China was the only
country that advocated the logic of engagement through mastery, or learning and understanding the details of sports strategy or the history behind a contest or brand.
We can liken this method of engagement to a test, in which fans are applicants hoping to
achieve a good score and do better than their peers. It makes sense then that content
based on a competition or quiz format will resonate with Chinese fans, and that prizes or
public recognition should be given to those who achieve the top scores or win.

http://www.havas-se.com/uploads/news/89def337a92eff46662cebf72df9483e9f8b29e1.pdf

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Keep it light
China sits at a delicate point in its history in which government reforms and their subsequent effects on Chinas economic and cultural performance have changed both the way
other nations look at China and the way China looks at itself. As such, the current political
and social situation in China is quite sensitive. It is advised that western brands hoping to
enter the Chinese market be careful when releasing any content based on social issues
and to stay away from politics altogether.
A good example of social content that might not work or at the very least needs to be carefully tailored to the Chinese audience is anything to do with charity. As well as tackling social issues, charitable enterprises by football brands have helped to engage with fans and
build equity. Brands gain the respect, admiration, and trust of fans through being seen to
help people. For example, the work done by Everton F.Cs Everton in the Community has
won plaudits from the British government and across the world, as well as a host of awards.
Any efforts from football brands centered on charitable activities in China may not receive
the same adulation. This is not because Chinese people are uncharitable, far from it, but
because they dont want to be seen as needing help and dont want the less prosperous
aspects of their society to be advertised. As we previously mentioned, it is a sensitive time
and China wants to be seen to be doing well.

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Summary
To summarise the key points:

China offers football brands unparalleled opportunities to build brand equity

The Chinese market is insular and has unique mechanisms. Therefore, the rules for engaging with fans in the Chinese market are markedly different from the rules for engaging with fans in the west.
The best way for football brands to engage with fans in China is through online digital
platforms. Brands must learn how to use and exploit the features of these platforms.
Successful engagement through these digital platforms comes from catering to Chinese
needs and producing a through, interesting profile of content spread over many platforms.
In attempting to produce content that resonates with Chinese fans, football brands do
not need to change their whole identity, but do need to look at what Chinese fans are
motivated by and be wary of social and cultural differences.
I hope this brief will give western football brands a better understanding of how to build
brand equity in China. If you wish to ask me any questions about this brief, or would like
more personalised research and advice, feel free to contact me using the contact details on
the following page.

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Contact Information
Patrick Crowe
5 Druids Cross Road
Liverpool
England
L183EA
Email: patrick1crowe@gmail.com
Tel: 07512071348
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-crowe-965571b3

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