As we all know, the Olympic Games is the world's largest comprehensive sports event, but also the world's most influential sports event, but also a rare masterpiece of human society, because its influence far beyond the scope of sports, in the contemporary world's politics, economics, business, philosophy, culture, art, life and news media and many other aspects of the impact can not be ignored.
Logically, the bigger the thing and the more information there is, the greater the value that participants get.
The Beijing Winter Olympics is the second in-depth contact with Chinese brands with the Olympic Games, but the Winter Olympics are still fresh for Chinese brands. As a global event, for China that is thriving and Chinese brands in a period of rapid rise, the impact of the Beijing Winter Olympics on Chinese brands is huge and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Establish the goal of brand learning
The Olympics play different roles for people in different roles. For enterprises, if you just join in the fun and rub hot spots to do marketing, then the value can be said to be almost zero.
The Olympic Games lasted 126 years from 1896 to 2022 and were a century-old brand. Although the Olympic Games also had some twists and turns in their development, they did not stagnate and became more and more powerful. It can be said today that there is no second non-governmental organization in the world with such a strong and charismatic NGO as the Olympic Games, which shows that there are many codes for the vitality of the Olympic Games.
Mastering this kind of password is valuable to any organization, and the stronger the mission of the organization, the greater its value. For any brand that wants to have a world presence, learning the Olympics can bring about a new transformation.
How do corporate brands learn?
We can't stop learning from reading a few articles and holding several seminars, but we must analyze the Olympic Games, participate in all employees, treat employees as athletes, and apply the codes we find to business operations. Such learning is an effective beginning, so that the magical power of the Olympic Games can empower the transformation of corporate brands.
A unique opportunity to drive branding
The development of the brand is an important sign of business maturity. For businesses, brands are at the heart of their growth. A good brand can not only bring more sales, but also increase the added value and sell better value.
However, the mainland's branding is still very immature. Among the world's top 500 enterprises, the mainland has surpassed the United States to become the world's first, but in the world's top 500 brands, we are far inferior to the United States, or even worse than Japan and Germany. It can be said that the influence of mainland brands does not match the status of enterprises, and compared with the entire Western developed countries, the brand building of the mainland is still in a catch-up position.
Some would argue that we can learn how brands operate in developed countries through the Internet. The fact is that the brand operation is a strategic secret of a company, it will not be made public, we can only understand the skin of their brand building through media reports, and learning through the media is to scratch the itch of the boot.
So, who should we learn from?
This year's Beijing Winter Olympics is the best opportunity for mainland enterprises to build their brands.
In the development of the Olympic Games in 126 years, its branding has been quite perfect, and it has achieved the best level in almost all aspects of the brand, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is the first super brand on the earth. But in the face of such a good brand, we have all been spectators and participants before, and we have only been operators 3 times: the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympics, and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. At this year's Beijing Winter Olympics, our company can participate closely to understand the secrets of brand building.
In 2015, after Beijing was voted as the host city of the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the Olympic Organizing Committee was immediately established to begin the preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, an important part of which was to shape the brand of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games: emblem, promotional film, mascot, color system and core graphics, volunteer logo and torch relay theme activities and other cultural elements.
This series of operations is the shaping of brand elements. Without these foundations, the brand operation of the Winter Olympics is a rootless ping.
Bring new thinking to brand operations
With a series of cultural elements of the brand, it can only be said that the brand has a good foundation and beginning, and the brand needs more professional brand operation to be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
If brand building can be learned seven or eight points according to the gourd painting scoop, brand operation requires more detailed system operation. Because operation is much more difficult than shaping, more resources are needed to participate in it, and it also needs to be fully coordinated and well operated in order to make the brand elements of shaping land, enter the hearts of the people, and generate value.
A brand operation needs to consider the entire brand life cycle. At the same time, brand operation requires strategy, strategy, and operation execution.
Every Olympic Games is a complete brand operation, and companies can learn a lot from it.
We know that the super symbol of the Olympic Games is the five rings, and the super slogan is "faster, higher, stronger and more united", but each Olympic Games will also have its own emblem, slogan and so on. This is the brand strategy of the Olympic Games, so that each host country has its own right to design emblems, slogans, etc. to reflect its own culture. It can be said that it is the unchanged five rings, the emblem of each session of the flowing water.
Each Olympic Games has its own characteristics, such as the innovation of the opening and closing ceremonies, the route of the Olympic torch, this strategy makes the Olympic Games full of surprises. However, how to do it well requires the management and organizational capacity of each host country.
Therefore, studying the operation of the Olympic brand can bring great value thinking to enterprises.
Event operations empower new growth
Through observing the Olympic Games, it is not difficult to find that although each event has different rules, the framework of each event is the same; the mechanism and system are the core of the event operation, the scientific mechanism makes the competition more reasonable, and the reasonable system makes the competition more fair, the judgment more fair, and the result more convincing.
If the enterprise operation wants to grow, it needs to get rid of the "rule of man", establish a scientific mechanism and a reasonable system, and form a "rule of law first". We look at the world, all great enterprises are "rule of law-oriented" enterprises, and the rule of man only makes the rule of law more effective in landing and implementation.
It can be said that the event is for the Olympic Games like a project or business for a business.
The rule of law at the Olympic Games is open and transparent, and every business can learn from it. Therefore, as long as the enterprise can grasp the secret of the event operation, it can grasp the project or business operation secret of the enterprise, so that the enterprise can obtain new growth momentum.
Spawn new technologies
Looking back at the 30 summer Olympic Games and the 24 winter Olympic Games, we can clearly find that each Olympic Games is not only a sports event, but also a scientific and technological event.
The main purpose of the Olympic Games is to promote the pursuit of human beings to "faster, higher, stronger and more united". In this process, all countries are using the most advanced technology and scientific methods to empower athletes, so that athletes can achieve "faster, higher and stronger", and many times a lot of scientific and technological investment is required for 1% progress.
The technology of the Olympic Games is not only reflected in the competition, but also in the service of the competition, such as more intelligent and energy-saving venues, more environmentally friendly and low-carbon building materials, more convenient and humanistic facilities, and so on.
The Olympic Games will not only promote the emergence of new technologies and promote the progress of science and technology, but also allow more enterprises to see the direction of new technologies, and then stimulate more enterprises to create new technologies, which will be applied in people's lives and business operations.
As an enterprise, we must pay attention to the new technology of the Olympic Games, pay attention to the new technologies that the Olympic Games may drive, and pay more attention to the challenges that can promote progress, and enterprises must have the courage to meet challenges and even take the initiative to challenge.
Communication takes brands to new heights
As the world's top event, the Olympic Games will attract global attention, and it can be said that everyone aged and above knows the Olympic Games.
Everyone pays attention to the competition in their own country, pays attention to their favorite sports, and cares about the performance of their favorite athletes. In this situation where everyone pays attention, every Olympic Games is a grand event of communication.
It can be said that the height of Olympic communication is the communication ceiling of corporate brands.
Therefore, with the help of the Olympic Games, the big brand enterprises of all the world's consumption and services are eager to seize the opportunity to spread their own brands.
As the host of this Winter Olympic Games, the mainland's corporate brands naturally gain the advantage of landlords and can have the opportunity to spread to all parts of the world with the help of Olympic games. Seize the opportunity to do a good job in brand promotion and help the growth of Chinese brands!
Snow sports bring new opportunities
The Winter Olympics is a stage to test the strength of a country's ice and snow sports, but also to test a country's sports, humanities, science and technology and economic strength. As a global power, the mainland will not only become a power in the Summer Olympic Games, but also a strong country in the Winter Olympic Games.
In the past, the mainland focused on solving the problem of food and clothing and poverty alleviation, and the Olympic Games were more about the strength of the country, but now with the mainland's per capita GDP exceeding 10,000 US dollars, on the road to achieving a well-off life in an all-round way, the people have begun to pursue breakthroughs in sports and humanities. The mode of the mainland's participation in the Olympic Games has gradually evolved from the previous state system to a model of parallel development between the state and the people.
In 2008, the successful hosting of the Summer Olympic Games on the mainland opened up a wave of active participation in sports throughout the country, driving a large number of sports projects, enterprises and brands; the smooth holding of the Winter Olympics will surely bring new opportunities. What benefits is not only sports brands, but also new entrepreneurial opportunities, new markets, and new consumption scenarios, so as to empower old brands, create soil and conditions for the birth of new brands, and help Chinese brands become world brands.
Deep correlation leads to new growth
During the Olympic Games, almost all companies will use the Olympic hotspots for related marketing. However, the vast majority of marketing is homogeneous and simplistic, and cannot bring real growth to the enterprise.
How can we make the Olympic Games contribute to brand growth? This should be a question for every brand to ponder.
Shallow use can only be like a gust of wind blowing across the lake, producing only a ripple. Only deep correlation can produce a helpful effect.
How to deeply relate?
Or to brand the brand of the Olympic Games, let the Olympic Games become the endorsement of the brand, empower the brand, such as the sponsor brand of the Olympic Games, and become the glorious history of the brand.
Or create innovative value for the Olympic Games, empower the Olympic Games, and let the Olympic Games go further because of brand empowerment, such as providing equipment for the Olympic Games.
Or create phenomenal and basic services for people during the Olympic Games, so that people feel more happy because of the brand's services, such as Olympic games and Olympic communication.
Therefore, corporate brands need to consider how to make deep connections when thinking about how to take advantage of the Winter Olympics.
brief summary
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are coming and going quickly, but the Olympics are always there. Chinese brands should step out of the comfort zone of the host advantage, and through mechanisms and systems, turn the Olympic Games from once to every time. At that time, Chinese brands will stand at the top of the world's brands, so that China is not only a big enterprise, but also a brand power!
Text/He Jianlei (The author is a business expert and brand expert)
This article was published in Chinese and Foreign Enterprise Culture, Issue 02, 2022