Recently, the China Outdoor Alliance released the 2012 China Outdoor Market Report. The report shows that in 2012, China’s broad outdoor market reached 32.6 billion RMB, with the core market accounting for 40.5%, the low-end market 25.5%, fashion and leisure brands 19.9%, and sports brands 14.1%.
In light of the current trend where numerous sports brands are entering the outdoor industry, traditional outdoor brands have begun to accelerate their brand building and marketing efforts. Sina Weibo, as a representative of new media with over 530 million registered users, is an important platform for brand promotion and marketing initiatives. From the existing 276 domestic outdoor brands, four were selected as representatives. Their official Sina Weibo posts were analyzed to assess their marketing strategies, strengths and weaknesses from January to August 2013, as well as the overall current state of China’s outdoor market.
Brand Dynamics – Showcasing the Strength and Direction of Brand Development
(Data source: Content statistics from official Sina Weibo accounts of each brand)
Skylon: Focuses more on boosting sales in physical stores, with less mention of e-commerce performance.
Camel: Has the highest proportion of e-commerce content sharing, outstanding e-commerce achievements, and emphasizes its leading position in e-commerce within the outdoor industry.
HASIK: Maintains a general e-commerce stance, not highlighting actions or performance in e-commerce.
Tulintian: Has average sales and ratings on Tmall, and is expanding more to other e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and Suning.
Kailas: Basically no e-commerce information, limited introduction of physical stores, with no clear focus.
Among the five outdoor brands, two use brand ambassadors, two have TV commercials (TVCs), one runs online video ads. Both new and traditional media remain equally important for future brand communication. Public outreach for outdoor activities is a weak point for all brands, lacking a sense of mission, which also reflects the immaturity of China’s outdoor market. In terms of product sales, e-commerce and physical stores each account for about half. However, given the broader market trends, e-commerce will become the main sales channel in the future. Brands that are skilled in e-commerce and have a solid foundation in physical stores are likely to go further.