Observations from Shanghai Marathon

I ran the Shanghai Marathon yesterday in 4 hrs 23 mins, my tenth Marathon in the last ten years. Although the temperature in Shanghai was above the ideal temperature for marathon running, the event was very well organized and the crowd was great. It always feels great to have completed another marathon but I want to share a few marketing related observations about the experience.

Shanghai is truly a global metropolitan city

The Shanghai marathon attracted a total of 38000 runners (25000 full marathon runners) with about 6500 international runners from 85 different countries. The event was kicked off by the Consul Generals from Hungary, Greece, and Belgium. Like many other marathon events, the elite group tends to be from Africa. Paul Kipchumba Lonyangata from Kenya finished first in 2:08:11.

In addition to large presence of international runners, I also saw quite a few groups marketing marathons events from other countries. 

The one I least expected was probably the few British ladies marketing a travel tour to Pyongyang along with the Pyongyang Marathon in North Korea. I kind of knew that there was a marathon event in Pyongyang but marketing a tour in Shanghai by a few British was not what I would have expected.

I also saw a booth promoting Belgrade Marathon, very reasonably priced, no need for visa for Chinese passport holders. Growing up in the sixty or seventy in a China, there were quite a few popular Yugoslavia movies in China. Chinese people of that generation had a strong sense of historical bond with former Yugoslavia, though I am not sure if younger generation still has that sentiment. 

The most interesting one is the booth for Athens marathon. Naturally, Athens is THE original place to run a marathon and I have fond memories of my visits to Athens. The gentlemen I was talking to, Mr Dimitris Kyriakides, is not only the representative of Athens marathon organizing committee in China, but also son of the late Greek hero marathon runner, Stylianos 'Stelios' Kyriakides, the winner of 1946 Boston Marathon. His father was much more than just a marathon runner, but a true hero to his country. I am still reading the autographed book Dimitris wrote about his hero father. This truly gave me another motivation to seriously consider running the Athens marathon.

Marathon reflects a life style shift in China

Oddly enough, I did not see promotions for other domestic marathon events, but saw a company promoting its Marathon medal making business. Marathon running is becoming a fashion in Chinese cities. On the one hand, it is crazy to see Marathon events pop up in every city with or without the infrastructure or experience to host such events. On the other hand, this is truly a reflection of fundamental shift of life style for the middle class in China. 

Western companies have been trying hard to tap into the 400 plus millions Chinese middle class market, with many still focusing on marketing luxury goods and name brands. While that market is still strong, there are obvious signs that increasing numbers of Chinese middle class start to focus on experiences over just material goods. Travel, especially oversea travel, has been a fast growing industry. As the middle class has more disposable income, they are starting to seek more specific experiences to enrich their life, beyond just travel. Running marathon, tennis, photography, painting are just some of the popular choices, but increasing numbers are also seeking ways to give back to the society by volunteering for causes such as education, poverty reduction, and environment.

It is not just the younger generation. With a mandatory retirement age of sixty, many retirees realize that they still have a long life ahead of them and start to plan for all the time they all of a sudden have. Likewise, the Shanghai marathon has a good representation of men, women, young and middle aged including probably many retirees.

Localization of global brand

“Just Do It” is arguably one of the most well known tag lines ever created. Nike has been leveraging that line, along with the famous logo, for many years. Interestingly, I have never seen that slogan in Chinese any where. A quick search did not find any official Chinese translation of that tag line. 

As one of the most successful sportsware companies in the world, Nike did not simply copy and paste their successful campaign slogan in English and translated it into Chinese. The phase is very action oriented and resonates with American well and the phase in English is short and punchy. There is simply not a good Chinese translation to capture that essence, at least I have not seen one. It seems Nike has created several different tag lines to go with its specific marketing campaign. For the sponsorship at the Shanghai marathon, the Chinese tagline can be roughly translated as “dare to run faster”.

I am guessing the market segmentation for sportsware in China is also very different from that in the US, in terms of decision making process. The marketing campaign probably needs to be connected differently with both the users and also the purchasers.

All in all, it was a great event and I am glad I made the decision to run the Shanghai marathon this year.

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Making Decision Under Stress (12/10/2018)

Journey is the Reward (7/23/2017)

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