Recently, the article about China's oldest football club, Beijing Guoan, selling Frisbees has reached the top ten in Weibo. Some people think that Guoan Club is "ugly", while others understand that "Super League Club is not easy to operate now, which is a new source of income".

There are many opinions about mutual tearing, so I don't need to repeat them. We actually talked about why Frisbee is popular before (click to jump). This paper hopes that with the help of this hot search, from a commercial point of view, there are still some places worthy of consideration behind this phenomenon.

Text/Su Yi, Li Hong

Sell frisbee or feelings?

Fans who have been to European club derivatives stores are amazed at the size of their stores and the types of derivatives, so they feel that their clubs in China have no decent peripheral goods.

Beijing Guoan adopted the internationally accepted authorization model from 20 18, becoming the first club to establish a modern sports derivative system. Subsequently, the product range expanded sharply, reaching the peak of nearly 300 SKUs. Every time Guoan plays at home, the club's flagship store in the stands of Laogongti 17 is crowded with fans. Among them, the typical representative works are the number T-shirt of Beijing, the lawn commemorating the workers' movement, the blind box badge and so on. Especially the blind boxes of jerseys and badges have been fried on idle fish several times.

In essence, the frisbee of Beijing Guoan logo, like hundreds of other peripheral products of Guoan, is a supplement to fans' daily necessities.

In Europe, a man, old and young, not only wears the jersey of the Centennial Club, but also uses the tea set, cups and cushions of the club logo. In the United States, he wears the clothes, backpacks and scarves of his favorite club or university team every day except match day to show his love. These are all indispensable parts of their daily life.

There is another point worth thinking about. If a fan likes Guoan Club, he may or may not play football. They may play basketball, table tennis, e-sports or frisbee, but this does not prevent them from becoming fans of football clubs.

I remember once talking about a joint promotion activity of "Jing Shao" in Beijing, that is, bringing together Beijing Guoan Football, Beijing Shougang Basketball, Beijing Tiger Baseball and Beijing RNG E-sports Club, which was still in Wukesong at that time, to issue a set of derivatives. Although it is not formed for various reasons, I hope that sports fans who like different sports can be interconnected and form more interactions.

From this perspective, Beijing Guoan sells Frisbee, in fact, hoping to provide Guoan fans with more and richer products that connect with the club. Frisbee is just a product carrier, but it is magnified in the current public opinion scene. Many people regard "football" and "Frisbee" as black and white opposites. Naturally, they think that as long as it is the opposite of football, how can such "rebellion" be allowed?

As mentioned above, in terms of business types, Guoan sells frisbee, which belongs to the derivative business line of sports clubs and is one of the three major incomes of sports organizations or events.

The business of sports derivatives is not simple. Not only product sales, but also the connector between fans and clubs (events). In addition, it also plays the role of communication carrier needed in many commercial activities. For example, club sponsors will use these derivatives as gifts, exhibits or giveaways for various related marketing activities.

Sports IP derivatives should carry these functions, especially the function of communicating with fans, and the product categories need to be very rich to meet the needs of fans in various consumption scenarios. In a Weibo comment, it was mentioned that "I picked up Guoan's cup and drank water with Guoan's mouse. Keyboard input the following contents ",and" ... My keyboard, mouse, T-shirt, desk calendar, gloves, keychain and water cup are all around Guoan. What happened to the frisbee? In fact, they are all supported by similar views.

Coincidentally, in the process of coding, I watched the live broadcast on the short video platform, and the audience were all asking for goods and wanted to buy a Frisbee.

Therefore, sports IP derivatives are not only a consumer product, but also a marketing tool and an identity. But is this business easy to do?

From the author's observation, because the development of professional sports in China is still in its infancy, affected by the epidemic, this business is not good. For example, from the production point of view, each product has a minimum order quantity, and a large number of SKUs means small-batch and multi-variety orders, so the production cost will not be low. From the operational point of view, derivatives involve design, production management and operation (including online operation, logistics service, marketing promotion, retail management, etc.). ), and the sale of hundreds of frisbees can not fundamentally solve the dilemma of China sports IP derivatives industry.

In that case, why sell frisbees? Just to chase hot spots and hype yourself?

In recent years, some Super League clubs have begun to understand the role of derivatives and are willing to spend part of their marketing budget to supplement and build their own club's derivatives system. They are not considering some immediate interests, but the longer-term development of the club.

Similarly, take Guoan, which is at the center of public opinion, for example. In addition to conventional clothing, daily necessities for fans and stadium cheering supplies, they have also developed many products that have not been tried by domestic sports clubs and events, such as blind boxes of badges, pet supplies, national tide joint names and so on. Their purpose is to connect more fans. Moreover, as a traditional sport, it needs to win more young fans under various shocks. Frisbee is the darling of young people nowadays. As a cross-border and out-of-circle representative, the author agrees with this practice.

We sincerely hope that domestic sports organizations, including clubs and competition organizations, can carefully examine this market, respect the development law of sports industry and establish a sports IP derivative system that is in line with international standards. Here are some of our ideas:

1. Correctly understand the positioning of derivatives: derivatives are a concrete extension of IP and a part of its value. Many clubs or championship organizations regard derivatives as simple business, or think that business is too small to look down upon, or mistakenly think that it can increase the income of clubs and lead to self-harm;

2. Understand the method of constructing derivative system: under the guidance of club brand positioning, derivatives are dynamic, persistent and strongly related to marketing, so it is necessary to construct an ecosystem of club derivatives including visual system, production system, channel system, marketing system and authorization system;

3. Mining the value of IP local attributes; According to the city attribute or regional culture of the place where the club is located or the event is held, the derivatives will be upgraded to cultural and creative products, so as to expand the crowd, further enhance the brand of the club and make the club a business card of the city where it is located;

Although many characteristics of China's sports market are different from those of Europe and America, sports is an industry with international competition standards. If China wants to do a good job in sports industry, it must not only rely on internal circulation, but also "double circulation".

At present, China's derivatives business is only a fraction of that of the United States. Derivatives giant fanatics exist in the United States because sports derivatives account for a large proportion of American daily consumer goods. We also hope that with the vigorous development of China's economy and the upgrading of the consumption of a better life, the market scale of sports derivatives in China will reach a new level.

China's fan culture and sports derivatives have just started. It is always easier to judge than to explore. Don't jump to any conclusions. Let the game fly for a while.