Chapter 11 The Seven Wolves: Reflections on "After the Bloodshed"

Looking at the 2005 sports marketing calendar, Real Madrid's trip to China is destined to be a nightmare for many sponsors.From the perfunctory at the beginning to the final departure, the real money invested by the sponsors has become a lot of complaints from Chinese fans about the "locusts". In 2003, Chinese companies such as Hongta and Jianlibao had their first intimate contact with the world's number one club, and achieved good results at that time.But this time, the brand promotion dreams of those companies with Real Madrid complex were fragmented because of Real Madrid's poor performance, and the huge investment hardly brought any publicity effect.

In 2005, Fujian Septwolves, which received mixed reputations for sponsoring Real Madrid's China Tour in 2003, moved to sponsor Real Madrid's cheese again.Although sponsoring Real Madrid's first trip to China, because of hidden marketing incidents, people in the industry dubbed "spending huge sums of money to work for ADIDAS", but the Septwolves still greatly enhanced the brand's popularity with the help of the huge eyeball effect of Real Madrid stars.In the collective restlessness of the Chinese media and hundreds of millions of fans, the totem culture and brand image of "struggle", "enterprising" and "thirst for victory" advocated by the seven wolves have been recognized and promoted.

Two years later, on July 22, 2005, Real Madrid started its second trip to China.As the sponsor of this event, Septwolves invested 3 million and signed an agreement with Gaode, which is in charge of Real Madrid's China trip, and invited the whole Real Madrid team to attend the product press conference on the 2nd floor of the Kunlun Hotel on the morning of the 22nd.The seven wolves, who rented the hotel's largest venue early and prepared carefully, ushered in an unexpected scene: the Gillette company across the wall welcomed their image spokesperson Beckham, and the seven wolves waited for two hours. Can announce the cancellation of the conference.The reason is that Real Madrid and Gaode have disagreements on the details of the contract, so they refused to participate in the activities of the seven wolves.Real Madrid's move not only caused the seven wolves to suffer economic losses, but more importantly, they had already carried out a lot of publicity for this event. As a result, they undoubtedly slapped themselves in the face.

But the pain of the seven wolves did not end.Also on the 22nd, Audi China ushered in Real Madrid superstars Ronaldo and Luis Figo to kick off their newly upgraded Audi driving tour; the next morning, Adidas also successfully invited David Beckham and Raul. After Raul encountered a passionate kiss from a female fan, Beckham even wrote down his blessings for the 2008 Olympics. The enthusiasm of the two events was enough to make the seven wolves hate and covet. The performance of the seven wolves in the marketing process this time is like shooting mosquitoes with a cannon, and the huge investment has been in vain.The seven wolves should reflect, and Chinese companies that are interested in using sports marketing as a market weapon should also reflect.

The powerful Real Madrid did not show enough respect for Chinese companies during this trip to China, and repeatedly missed appointments.The seven wolves signed a sponsorship contract with Gaode, which is not binding on Real Madrid itself, which makes it lose the right to speak in capital, and makes it always passive in the game with Real Madrid.Real Madrid's unsatisfactory performance in competitions and commercial activities also makes it difficult to reflect the brand personality of the Septwolves.In addition, the trip to Real Madrid is just a "one-off event" (One-off Event), and the tea is cold, and there is no business cycle for the seven wolves to target their long-term operations.After the game, although the Septwolves established the "Septwolves Real Madrid Club Fan Club" and carried out activities such as donating clothing, the commercial atmosphere was strong and the effect was not obvious.We can condemn Real Madrid's management for lack of business ethics, but the old problems of the Seven Wolves' poor control ability in the marketing process and weak crisis management ability have been exposed again.Afterwards, someone talked about the sponsorship of the Septwolves, and jokingly said, "3 million can sponsor the Chinese Super League or the CBA for a year, but the Septwolves spent it in a week, but got nothing."

The seven wolves chose a wrong sponsorship timing. In 2003, the Real Madrid superstar came to China with the aura of European champions. After the frenzy, Chinese fans experienced the taste of being close to idols. However, Real Madrid's second trip to China did not arouse too much excitement.Moreover, in the 2004-2005 season, Real Madrid was in a precarious situation. Due to three coaching changes, the performance declined. The stars dared not speak out against the club's market strategy of expedition to East Asia regardless of player fatigue. The indifferent attitude caused Real Madrid's popularity in China to plummet. The fact that a few games are not considered high attendance is enough to illustrate this problem.Before and after the addition, Manchester United, Barcelona and other teams filed in, and the sensational effect of Real Madrid's trip was quickly diluted.The seven wolves chose to hold the Real Madrid brand to compete for attention at this time. Even if Real Madrid does not break the appointment, its sponsorship effect will be greatly reduced.

The author has always believed that it is not appropriate for the seven wolves to choose Real Madrid as the sponsor, especially under the premise that Real Madrid has an international giant like Adidas as its clothing sponsor.As we all know, Adidas is a sponsor of Real Madrid, and the contract signed with Real Madrid is an exclusive right (Exclusive Right), that is, in public places where the whole team appears, the Real Madrid stars must also wear Adidas clothing.Such an opponent, such a contract, determines that the seven wolves basically have no stage to display their skills. In 2003, because of the lack of sufficient market research and competitor analysis, the Septwolves made a big joke: At that time, the advertising screen published by the Septwolves in the media was a large photo of the seven superstars, with the slogan of the Septwolves ——"Septwolves men's clothing, believe in yourself, believe in partners."But what is ironic is that these seven superstars are actually wearing Adidas sportswear.This scene was repeated again in 2005. Although the seven wolves were the only designated clothing sponsor brand for Real Madrid's trip to China, in front of the camera, the Real Madrid stars hardly wore casual wear of the "septwolves" brand.The stars not only wear Adidas sportswear on the field, but also wear Adidas in any event, which actually staged an Adidas clothing show.Such a situation can't help but make people wonder, what's the point of the seven wolves joining the excitement of the "Real Madrid China Tour"?

The lack of a systematic sports marketing concept and the lack of a complete estimate of the event risk are also one of the failures of the seven wolves.In order to pursue the advertising effect brought about by sponsoring large-scale sports events, the Septwolves, who are eager for quick success and quick profit, hope to achieve success through simple copying.They ignored the dissatisfaction of the fans with the game, which will have a huge negative impact on the corporate brand. Sports sponsorship is not just sponsoring an event, but more importantly, it can communicate the sponsor's brand with consumers through sponsorship, so as to achieve the purpose of enhancing brand awareness and influence.The achievement of this goal requires a systematic way of dissemination and subsequent follow-up and maintenance.Septwolves is operating this sponsorship more as an event marketing operation, trying to graft the high attention of the event to its own brand and enhance its brand awareness.This is not a bad idea, but due to the lack of systematic implementation and follow-up, as well as crisis response measures, the seven wolves were helpless after Real Madrid broke the contract, and lost the good opportunity of after-the-fact remedy and crisis public relations.

We can use the advertising slogan "Wolf is bleeding" commonly used by the Septwolves to describe its sponsorship of Real Madrid's China tour in 2005-the wrong time and the wrong way to sponsor a wrong team.But as a Chinese company, its courage and attempts in the field of sports marketing are admirable.We cannot demand that a Septwolves, which has only 5 years of sports sponsorship history, can use sports marketing as proficiently as Nike and Adidas to create momentum for itself.But after learning from the pain, how to effectively implement the sports marketing express to achieve brand expansion, how to achieve a leap in brand internationalization like Fuji and Samsung with the help of sports marketing, are topics that cannot be ignored in front of Chinese companies.