The marketing marathon

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Gold the most preferred investment

: 2,000 stores in over 300 Chinese cities, plans to double the number of stores in China by 2008. The German sportswear company has invested heavily on multiple marketing fronts. Aside from being the official sportswear partner, it will outfit the Chinese Olympic football team and is sponsoring individual basketball players expected to compete for China.

Like Adidas, McDonald’s is pushing to expand in China. It operates some 800 restaurants and is expected to have 1,000 by the start of the Games. Mcdonald’s activities involve more than physical expansion—they are trying to turn the Games into a cultural forum of sorts. In early August, the company launched Champion Kids, its newest Olympic Games programme, in which 300 children from around the world travel to the Beijing Games to talk to athletes, visit cultural sights and meet other kids. The fast food giant also created a live online chat series (featuring business, entertainment and sports figures) with the portal Sina, and Askme.com.cn, a health-oriented website launched in China in 2006.

Companies are also using a combination of word-of-mouth activities and promotions. For example, Coca-Cola is trying to make up for market share lost to rival PepsiCo by launching its Coca-Cola 2008 Olympic Pin programme last summer, allowing people to design and trade Olympic-themed pins, and even vote on the best designs. Chinese track-and-field champion Liu Xiang, revered by the Chinese for his gold-medal performance in Athens, designed three pins to kick off the programme.

Even non-Olympic sponsors are hoping to cash in—PepsiCo is a sponsor of Team China, but not of the Games themselves. To successfully tap the market, foreign brands need to be relevant to Chinese consumers. Marketers familiar with the situation say that Chinese consumers are more likely to respond to campaigns that position the product as something that helps them get ahead.

To rise above the pre-Olympics marketing clutter, brands need to key in on unique attributes of the Chinese consumer, such as their strong attachment to the family or their penchant for being cautious spenders.

With more than 50 Olympic sponsors vying for brand awareness, standing out won’t be easy. More importantly, brands need to stay engaged with China after the Olympics, and continue to build relationships with their target customers.