Chapter 408: Rise of a New Force
There is a line in the movie "Inception": If you are dreaming, then dream big.
Thinking of this, Tobias's slightly hesitant thoughts finally settled down and he made a decision.
Gawain carefully observed Tobias's expression and could sense Tobias's relaxed brows. He couldn't help but smile slightly, "It seems that you have made a decision."
Tobias nodded slightly, a smile in his eyes, but after thinking about it, he still needed to inform Gawain, after all, this was closely related to Gawain, "Tonight, Crocodile proposed an exclusive sponsorship contract, $700,000 a year, for a five-year contract, I'm actually a little tempted."
Crocodile?
It wasn't Nike or Adidas? Instead, it was Lacoste, which had been watching the show from the sidelines, that took the lead? A sudden rise to disrupt the situation?
Quite interesting.
Gawain was not too surprised, as if the five-year, $3.5 million sponsorship contract was just a joke, waiting for Tobias' next words.
It's not that Gawain was so calm. After all, in his two lives, Gawain had never really seen what a million dollars looked like, let alone US dollars, even a few dollars were not there. It was precisely because of this that he knew it was a huge sum, but it still lacked a sense of reality and he was not sure how amazing the number was.
What's more, from Tobias' tone and expression, it can be seen that there should be a twist later.
"but……"
really.
"I decided to put it on hold for now and not rush to agree," Tobias said.
Gao Wen raised his chin slightly, "Oh, that's it."
That’s it?
Tobias laughed, "What do you think?"
Gao Wen shrugged. "You are my agent, aren't you? I trust your professional judgment."
It was just a simple sentence, but it conveyed enough trust, which made Tobias feel happy.
As mentioned before, competition among sports brands in the field of tennis is particularly fierce, mainly because it is an individual sport and every player has different ideas and concepts. In addition, it is difficult for top sports brands to cover all young players in one fell swoop, so naturally there is a situation of flourishing.
There is no doubt that Nike and Adidas are still the leaders in the industry, but compared with team sports such as football, basketball, and rugby, other brands have a larger and broader space to survive in the tennis court, and even some niche brands that take a different approach can find a place here.
Looking at the current men's tennis, Murray chose Under Armour after bidding farewell to Adidas, Kei Nishikori chose Uniqlo, Raonic wore New Balance, and the niche Italian brand of the same name founded by tennis star Sergio-Tacchini signed Djokovic.
There is a bad debt about Djokovic's switch to Sergio Tazzini's camp. In 2010, Djokovic, who was on the rise at the time, left Adidas and signed a new brand. Sergio Tazzini had no way to pay the high sponsorship fees, so they signed a "performance clause" with Djokovic and signed a ten-year contract.
Simply put, additional bonuses will be awarded based on Djokovic's performance on the court.
As a result, Djokovic had a full-scale outbreak in the 2011 season, winning three Grand Slam titles. On the one hand, Sergio Tazzini's market share soared, but the brand factory failed to keep up with the supply chain, resulting in the inability to quickly occupy the market.
On the other hand, they were unable to pay Djokovic's "tournament bonus", which violated the contract agreement. As a result, in early 2012, the two sides had a very unpleasant argument and Djokovic applied for termination of the contract off the court.
Then, Djokovic switched to Uniqlo.
This is the most realistic and bloody portrayal of the competition in the tennis brand market.
Because apart from the shoes and rackets, the jersey itself is not particularly difficult to make, and the professional tennis arena does not have strict requirements on players' jerseys: the Williams sisters wear jerseys of their own design every year, and Nadal's sleeveless shirt and shorts when he just debuted were also called "pirate shirts." In other words, as long as the costumes are not too exaggerated, they are allowed in the arena, so any clothing brand can produce them.
Naturally, there are many different tennis jersey brands.
Among them, French crocodile is the origin of the "tennis shirt".
The French crocodile was created by the legendary French general Rene-Lacoste. "Lacoste" itself means crocodile.
At the beginning of the 20th century, tennis players generally played in long-sleeved shirts and ties, which was very inconvenient. Lacoste was the first to challenge the tradition and wore short-sleeved sweaters during the game, which later evolved into the current POLO shirts and tennis shirts. This is the real ancestor.
In addition to its four decades of official sponsorship of the French Open, Crocodile has also been working closely with tennis players, including Andy Roddick and Stan Wawrinka.
However, when Roddick won the US Open, he was wearing a Reebok jersey; when Wawrinka won the Australian Open, he had already switched to Yonex. So far, no player sponsored by Crocodile has won a singles Grand Slam title wearing a Crocodile jersey.
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In recent years, Crocodile has been accused of being too slow in innovation, lagging behind the times, and gradually becoming out of touch with the mainstream. They have not had a new spokesperson for a long time, but the Crocodile Group is also aware of this. Currently, their senior management is engaged in an internal struggle and is preparing for a blood transfusion.
Following the historical trajectory that Gao Wen is familiar with, in early 2015, the new CEO Thierry-Guibert took office. Under his leadership, not only did the brand design become younger and more youthful, but he also advocated investing more money in the tennis court.
It was not until June 2017 that Crocodile officially signed Djokovic, and then signed Medvedev, ushering in a new era.
Gibel mentioned a very important strategy, the Chinese market. He believes that this market has huge potential, but Crocodile's positioning is still mid-to-high-end. He hopes that when Chinese consumers see Crocodile, they will associate the brand with labels such as tennis, gentleman, and elegance.
What is certain is that entering the Chinese market has always been one of Crocodile's important strategies.
Back to the present time, August 2014, the Crocodiles are still in internal turmoil, and the struggle between conservatives and reformists has not yet been decided. Therefore, even though they noticed the wave of changes during the US Open, they still maintained a wait-and-see attitude and did not act rashly.
However, the flapping of the little butterfly's wings in the Amazon, although unable to change the fate of Bellis's loss, successfully impressed Knox.
Charlie Knox, the senior executive of the North American marketing department, is obviously a representative of the reformists. He is eager to open up the young people's market. If he can also open up the Chinese market at the same time, it would be even better. Especially after watching Gao Wen's game on the spot today and having close contact with Gao Wen, he came up with a bold idea -
With Gao Wen as a fulcrum, can they change the established landscape of the entire tennis market?
(End of this chapter)