Chapter 281 Indecision

Adidas has been trying to break through women's players and open up the tennis market, but it has never been successful. Why?

Is it because women's players do not have enough business prospects and market appeal?

In fact, in the field of tennis, the commercial value of women's players is higher than that of men's players. From stadium attendance to TV broadcast ratings to market appeal, women's professional players are ahead in all aspects.

As early as 1997, Adidas discovered the first generation of tennis sweetheart Anna-Kournikova. Every game of Kournikova was a sensation. It was not until 2014 that the beautiful girl Eugenie-Bouchard made it to the semi-finals of the Australian Open and French Open and then the Wimbledon final. Nike signed an endorsement contract with her at a sky-high price.

Over the past nearly two decades, the market potential of female tennis players has continued to grow.

Although there is still no gender equality in prize money in professional competitions, male players have an advantage in this regard; but in terms of off-court endorsement fees and market opportunities, female players led by Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams have been able to reach the top of the pyramid in the global competitive sports market.

From this we can see that there is no problem with Adidas' strategy. In recent years, Nike has also belatedly begun to embark on the path of its arch-rival, trying to focus on the women's player market to tap more business opportunities. Their signing of Li Na ahead of their competitors actually has such strategic significance.

So why does Nike still have a higher market share than Adidas in tennis? What’s the problem? Simply put, it’s the consistency of performance.

Overall, male players' performance is more stable, and once they start to perform well, they can keep it up. This is not only the case with the Big Four, but also with Marat Safin, Juan-Carlos Ferrero, Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt and other superstars of their generation before them. They can maintain their peak state for a long time.

But as for female players, ever since the retirement of the golden generation of Justine Henin, Lindsay Davenport, Amelie Mauresmo, Jennifer Caproati, Kim Clijsters and others, the field has been in chaos, with few players able to stay in the top ranks for a long time. This has also seriously affected Adidas's layout.

In the final analysis, competitive sports still need to be judged by results. Ivanovic and Wozniacki are both beautiful female players who emerged out of nowhere, but their performances on the court have been up and down. They have never been able to maintain their peak state for a long time. They have even been criticized as "the world's best parallel imports". As a result, Adidas' global strategy has been unable to make progress.

As of 2014, the only queen of women's tennis is still Serena Williams, so much so that people jokingly call other female players maids.

Back then, Safin, Djokovic, and Fernando-Gonzalez were all players under Adidas, but with Safin and Gonzalez retiring one after another and Djokovic joining Uniqlo, the four giants took over the tennis world, and Adidas' marketing strategy suffered a serious blow.

Until now, Adidas has not been able to escape the shadow of its competitors.

It is based on this fact that Tobias believes Adidas is a better choice.

Because they are more urgent.

A new generation player with superstar potential, a young player who can tap into the Chinese market, and a male player with more stable overall performance...

It perfectly fits Adidas' strategy and can even be the starting point for changing the market landscape. Just look at how many young Chinese players Adidas has signed. They have always had this idea. After all, it is more cost-effective to sign young players than to poach top players.

Whether it is Nike or Adidas, the competition between the two sides in the youth market has never stopped.

So Tobias believes that Adidas should not only sign Gao Wen, but also should rush to Nike and bring Gao Wen under its wing at a high price.

However……

Ideas are beautiful, but reality is cruel.

As a senior agent, Tobias successfully made an appointment for an interview without much effort and had a face-to-face conversation with the senior management of Adidas' entire North American headquarters. He also showed Gao Wen's characteristics, advantages, status and future possibilities to the senior management.

However, the interview did not produce a clear outcome.

In fact, the other party neither refused nor nodded, but just beat around the bush with ambiguous greetings and politeness, and ended the interview in a harmonious manner.

But Tobias could immediately perceive that Adidas was not that interested. In the final analysis, they were probably still concerned about Gao Wen's qualifications:

The U.S. championship plus a Challenge Tournament championship is not enough.

To some extent, Tobias can understand Adidas' hesitation.

In recent years, Adidas has been investing in young Chinese male tennis players, hoping that a player like Kei Nishikori or Li Na will emerge. However, the reality is very cruel. So far, no Chinese male player has made it into the top 100 in the world rankings, and years of hard work have yielded no results.

Such performance is far from the situation where Chinese female players are flourishing in the top ranks.

It is inevitable that Adidas will be more cautious and want to observe and see.

But in Tobias's opinion, investment should be made early. If you wait until Gao Wen achieves more results, the situation may not be the same as it is now.

Now, Tobias needs to take the initiative to promote Gao Wen, and the sponsorship offer is very reasonable. He hopes that Adidas will sponsor Gao Wen with $300,000 every year as training and competition funds - his bottom line is $200,000 a year, because he also knows that the figure of $300,000 is difficult to estimate.

But if Adidas waits any longer, the numbers won't stay here.

Adidas' hesitation, in Tobias' view, is a lack of decisiveness.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

Adidas has not given a positive response yet, so Tobias turned around and went directly to Nike, wanting to see Nike's reaction and also to stimulate Adidas.

The friendship between Nike and Tobias is indeed extraordinary. Even though Gawain is still an unknown, Nike is willing to give Gawain a chance.

Then, Nike made Tobias an offer of $80,000 a year, plus sponsorship of all equipment -

The main reason is not that Nike is arrogant and looks down on Gao Wen; but because Nike has Li Na, their demand for the Chinese market is not that urgent.

Therefore, they can take their time and observe. It would be nice to sign a potential new star for $80,000 a year to train him, but it doesn't matter even if no cooperation agreement is reached.

This number did not satisfy Tobias.

Over there, the Lexington Challenge is in full swing.

Third update.

(End of this chapter)