"Our brand must do something different from the past," said Jean McCarthy, CEO of Asics.
To this end, recently, the Japanese movement veteran has been twice to obtain Grammy nominated king class DJ 'tiger' Steve Aoki, became the brand's first non-athlete spokesperson.This is not a simple advertising planning, Asics's intention is to tell people by 'fugue' fame that this sporting brand, known as a professional running product, is not just running shoes, and they want to break through the range of footwear and expand the consumer base to further open the world's largest US sports shoes market The
King of Heaven 'DJ' God 'Steve Aoki
Founded in 1949 in the Japanese brand Asics, has been with New Balance, Saucony and Brooks and known as the world's four major running shoes brand. Asics in this subdivision field for many years, even if its sports shoes style is not much, but by virtue of professional Strong cushioning and support technology, Asics running shoes in the professional running around the circle.Jean McCarthy mentioned last year's New York Marathon, about 30% of the runners wearing the brand shoes to play.
However, despite as one of the world's four major running shoes brand, Asics recently encountered some bottlenecks. This brand in the professional runners circle brand, and not recognized by the young and welcome - the US investment company Piper Jaffray latest release of the six months The report shows that only 2% of high-income families and adolescents with 1% of middle-income families say they feel good about Asics.
"The growth of running products remained stable, but the number of Happy Valley was shrinking slightly," said Jean McCarthy, the Business Insider. "It is clear that the number of runners is less than that of Asics, which accounts for more than 60% of total sales What good news.
At the same time, over the past two years, Asics's overall performance did not look good.Financial results show that the company's annual sales in 2016 fell 6.9% year on year to 399.1 billion yen, 2017 first half sales fell 3.3 percent to 2037 Billion yen. Asics estimates that profits as of fiscal year 2017 will be 16% lower than in 2016.
Which accounted for the global share of 1/3 of the US sports consumer market, almost the fastest decline in the Japanese brand performance area last year, sales fell 17% in the first half of this year fell 6% due to the United States is the brand second only to Japan's largest local area, such a market performance is undoubtedly worried about Asics.
Breaking the field of running shoes and revitalize the US market has become the responsibility of Jean McCarthy, in fact, this is a field of footwear in the field of decades of experienced veterans, including Nike's 20 years of experience, two years Former Jean McCarthy was appointed head of the US market.
Steve Aoki loves fitness
In addition to opening stores in New York fashion district, the signing of the United States electronic king Steve Aoki become Asics another practice .This removed music fashion Japanese-Americans, help the brand to open the audience circle, to meet the young people's taste In addition, Steve Aoki loves fitness and collection of sports shoes and sports brands fit, the Asian faces also make its influence is not limited to the US region.
It is worth noting that Steve Aoki is not only an ordinary endorsement star, the future, he will participate in the design of Asics retro series of products to help the brand launch joint design section - this is an old idea, Adidas and American rapper Kanye West, PUMA and popular days Rihanna, the combination of the two star designers has long been converted into real sales.
"The brand is trying to establish an emotional connection with new consumers," said Jean McCarthy, who added that it is now an "interesting" opportunity to expand consumer groups and improve US market performance because industry leader Nike is experiencing a decline in sales Under Armor's footwear sales are stagnant.
Asics 10 years ago has always been a unique brand logo
In fact, in July last year in Shanghai, China's first brand experience shop, Asics CEO Tou Shan-based told the interface news, 'Chinese consumers have a certain understanding of Arthur's running shoes, we also hope to provide them more Multi-product, including sportswear, training equipment, etc. 'From the official website of the brand, at present, Asics product category has been extended from the core products running shoes to a variety of ball shoes, clothing, accessories and even children's clothing.
In order to meet the tide and the taste of young people, two months ago, Asics has announced its renewal in 1992 began to use the spiral logo, which is the brand for the first time in 10 years to make changes on the Logo. It is reported that the latest logo by the Canadian design Team Bruce Mau Design Studios complete, retain the shape and blue tones of the case, the addition of bright bright pink, purple, green and yellow and other main colors to enhance the brand image of the fun and fashion touch.