Building A Global Brand
When we started to distribute the sports wear brand 361 Degrees in the Philippines, our position is to be an alternative sporting shoes.
The idea is to be like what Sun Cellular did in the communications industry, wherein it did not compete with either Smart or Globe — who charges about one peso per text, and six pesos of call per minute. Instead Sun gives the market an alternative to unlimitedly communicate on a fixed price, but only available to their subscribers. The result was astounding, about 70–80% of Globe and Smart users have Sun Cellular powered phones in their back pockets.
We’d like to apply this concept in the sporting wear industry by easing the pain of wearing out your expensive shoes in training. The average lifespan of a footwear is about 800–1,200 kilometers. Do you think it would be practical to exhaust those kilometers during training? We say keep your expensive shoes for game day, and use ours during practice instead. We don’t mind working behind the scenes . On marketing stand point, the brand is positioned to help people get better. 361 degrees exceeds the normal cycle of 360 degrees, with symbolic message of going beyond what is expected. Thus increasing their shoes’ durability to twice the lifespan than normal.
Now don’t think that 361 Degrees is not good in any way, that’s why we position it as an “alternative” sports wear. On contrary, the brand can compete head to head with the giants such as Nike, Adidas, or even Under Armour when it comes to product quality — or may even surpass them in some areas. In fact, some parts in the middle east, 361 have already been the number one selling athletic wears since last year.
Given that 361 can compete on the main stage, we think it’s still best to position it behind-the-scenes, at least for now. Why? Because the brand is still light years away when it comes to advertising. Competition today isn’t just about product quality anymore — it’s about branding. As a Chinese brand, we think they’re more focused in marketing to their own country than globally. Who can blame them, their country is about the size of a continent. Truly, they don’t need to expand internationally unlike those smaller countries like Japan, Taiwan, and Korea. The sales within their territory alone is already sufficient. Whatever they sold outside is just gravy.
As foreign distributor, we are obliged to do our own marketing without getting any support from the principal. This is the biggest challenge for us distributors. We find it impractical, or even risky, to spend so much for a brand we do not own.
For now it’s a question of chicken or egg. They said we should purchase a certain quantity first, before they’ll give marketing support. But we say, help us build the brand first to create the demand, then orders will naturally follow. Whatever the case is, unless words goes out there and make the world realize what they’re missing, 361 Degrees will remain to be perceived as a second rate brand.
Posted on May 24, 2015
