Pirelli China accelerates

The appearance of Pirelli, the world’s fifth-largest tire manufacturer, has made China’s Super Football Professional League no longer have to worry about the title “Streaking”.

On March 20th, 2009, at the Kunlun Hotel in Beijing, Lv Feng, General Manager of the Chinese Football Association and Super League, and Bai Bei, CEO of Pirelli of Italy announced jointly that from 2009 to 2011, Pirelli will become the title of the China Super League. Sponsors. The two sides signed a three-year sponsorship framework agreement, but did not disclose the specific sponsorship costs.

Pirelli has a long tradition in sports sponsorship, especially football. Pirelli has sponsored the Italian Inter Milan team for more than 10 years. At the same time, it is also a partner of the Basel team in Switzerland. In addition, it has also signed sponsorship agreements with the Brazilian Palmeiras team and the Argentine Sarsfield Club.

As a manufacturing specialist for high-performance tires, Pirelli has won the favor of world's top car manufacturers such as Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini. The power performance and the links between footballs have contributed to the integration of Pirelli with the China Super League.

Provera, chairman of Italy’s Pirelli Group, stated that “China is one of the fastest-growing regions and markets in the world. For Pirelli, the sponsorship of China Super League is an excellent showcase.”

In 2005, the completion of Phase 1 of Pirelli's Shandong plant marks its official entry into the Chinese market. At present, Pirelli has two production lines in China, all located in Luzhou, Shandong, producing truck tires and car tires. Pirelli has taken a series of active and effective marketing campaigns in China, such as the 2008 Pirelli Calendar Conference and other cultural events held in Shanghai, which have increased its brand awareness. Pirelli hopes to strengthen its image in the sports field through sponsorship of Chinese football.

Sports genes

Pirelli tires with more than 130 years of history have become the legend of the tire industry itself. The core business of this brand was born in 1872 and began producing tires from the end of the 19th century. "Milano" bicycle tire was born in early 1890, and in 1901 "Ercole" tires have been equipped with some early road cars.

At present, the production of Pirelli tires is distributed in 24 factories around the world, including one in China. Its global business structure spans major markets in more than 160 countries and owns approximately 10,000 dealers and retailers.

According to the tire market turnover, Pirelli tires are already the fifth largest tire manufacturer in the world and rank among the highest in the high-yield segment. In 2005, Pirelli tire sales reached 3.63 billion euros, an increase of 12% over the same period of last year, pre-tax income reached 328 million euros.

In the context of the economic crisis, while the world’s major companies have reduced their expenditures, Pirelli has gone its own way, even sponsoring Chinese football that was once considered to be a very poor image. It is obvious to see that its focus is not on football. In China's vast tire market.

Pirelli in the Chinese market, although it built a factory in Shandong in 2005, its popularity is not high among Chinese consumers. On the contrary, because Pirelli is a sponsor of the Italian giants Inter Milan, many football fans understand Pirelli through their attention to European football.

As Lv Feng said, “In the economic crisis, everyone wants to find a market with huge potential, and China is the most promising market that the world currently recognizes, and therefore chooses to sponsor the most influential platform of the China Football League. “Lv Feng emphasized that the support of the Chinese government and fans is a factor that Pirelli cares about.” We told them that the sponsorship of the Super League will definitely not suffer.

Provera also admitted that "this sponsorship will help Pirelli brand rooted in the hearts of ordinary Chinese people." In fact, in order to strengthen the brand's impression of Chinese consumers, Pirelli has 4 times in its sponsored Inter Milan. The advertisement for the Chinese "Pirelli" was printed on the chest of the uniform, most recently on April 27, 2008.

According to Zhang Lu, deputy chairman of the Beijing Guoan Club, last month he went to Italy with General Manager Lu Feng of the Chinese Super League. The destination is the headquarters of Pirelli in Milan. “In fact, the company that had been negotiating with Zhongchao Company was not a Pirelli one at a time. As to why Pirelli was chosen, I think in addition to the satisfactory price they gave, after all, this is a company that sponsors high-level events, its international brands and The cooperation between Inter Milan and Serie A will also invisibly improve the brand of Chinese football."

Since its inception, Pirelli has repeatedly sponsored motorcycle races, F1 events, World Rally Championships and many other events, and has extensive experience in sports marketing and management.

“Pirelli has a long history of cooperation with football and sports. We sponsored many international football teams and local leagues. Pirelli and sports have the same genes: passion, competition, performance. So I believe that through sports The sponsorship will enable us to bring Pirelli closer to the hearts of the fans and everyone. After sponsoring the Super League, we hope to enhance our brand awareness through the China Super League. We firmly believe that this kind of sports sponsorship is an active sponsorship.” Bai Bai, CEO of Pirelli China Tell China New Age.

Pirelli's China Commercial Director Mike Carty said that Pirelli will use this opportunity to do some very positive actions in the market and sales. Bringing the most advanced technology to China, providing the most advanced technology and products for China's truck and car market.

However, for many people, although they know Pirelli's brand logo, they do not understand Pirelli's products. Bai Bei said that there are thousands of Inter Milan fans in China, but many people actually do not know what Pirelli on the Inter Milan jersey says. This is one of the reasons why Pirelli chose to sponsor the Super League. Pirelli is asking the world to know that Pirelli is a company that produces tires.

“We used to show only the Pirelli logo. Now in the commercials, all Chinese and English ads have the word 'tire' added,” said Mike Katie.

Soon, Pirelli will have strategic cooperation with major international brands in the Chinese market, and the full production line of production and R&D in China will already be able to meet the Chinese market. Pirelli hopes to introduce Pirelli International advanced technology and innovation through sponsoring the Chinese Super League and fully support the progress and development of Chinese football. Pirelli promises to strengthen the localization of the company in the Chinese market and actively integrate into various communities and social aspects of China.

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Power China

At present, the Chinese tire market is developing rapidly. Rapid changes, continuous product innovation, fierce competition, and increasing consumer demand for products have made Pirelli's development in China face enormous challenges.

On January 16, 2009, Pirelli announced the establishment of a new Pirelli Tire Academy in Shengzhou, Shandong Province, aiming to improve the synergies between the various functional departments within the company and to upgrade the product and service technical skills of the truck and bus tire business.

The center of the curriculum consists of various measures that enable Pirelli to have perfect professionalism in the business and technical fields, thus improving its competitiveness. “The establishment of Pirelli Tire Academy marks Pirelli's commitment to becoming a leader in the tire industry, especially in the high-end tire industry. In addition to the tire industry, the automotive industry, including vehicle customers and automotive franchisees, will have the opportunity to participate in training courses at Pirelli Tire Academy. In order to master the world's advanced tire technology, improve their professional standards." Bai Bei explained.

Like the Tire Training Center at the Pirelli Piero Institute in Milan, Italy, the Tire Academy in Chenzhou, Shandong Province, further explains that Pirelli Tire will integrate internal and external resources, and through continuous training, it will enhance the innovation capabilities of its products and technologies.

Since 2005, Pirelli Tire Academy has provided training for 2,000 dealers, customers, and distributors from Europe, Russia, Romania, Egypt, and Africa. Tire Academy also received accreditation from external organizations and institutions, including Mercedes, Volkswagen Group, Skoda, Ford, Fiat, and many other listed companies. Today, Pirelli Tire Academy is already in many important countries.

In 2005, when Pirelli entered China, it chose to build a factory in Shandong, and Tire Academy once again chose Shandong as a base. “The reason for choosing Shandong is that from the industrial point of view, Shandong Province is a province with a large population and it is also a rubber industrial production base in China. There are skilled workers in the local area; the second Shandong is located in the middle of Beijing and Shanghai. It is the central location; the third point is that we have found our very good partner in Shandong." Bai Bei said.

At present, Pirelli's actual production of tires in Quzhou, Shandong Province is 700,000. With the strong momentum of sponsorship of Super League, Pirelli plans to expand its marketing network in the coming years and achieve Pirelli's growth in the Chinese market. "We will have 3 million tires in 2009," said Bai Bei.

However, in the midst of the financial crisis, Pirelli’s pace of development slowed down.

“It is undeniable that 2009 is a very serious year. China has developed rapidly in the past 10 years. Although the financial crisis has great pressure on China, we believe that China’s production plants still have good opportunities for development. After this difficulty." Bai Bai believes that the economic crisis has more or less impact on each company.

“At present, we can still achieve relatively good sales goals. Because our scale is relatively small, we can better protect ourselves more flexibly, and the proportion of the original market is not large, so we can still replace the market. to achieve goals."

Pirelli's marketing network has completed 1,200 goals in 2008. “This year we will increase our goals, through our cooperation with China Super League, and through other means to increase and expand our sales network. With regard to the supporting market, we hope to achieve a satisfactory result in an in-depth period of time. The result," said Mike Katie.

Initially, when Pirelli entered the Chinese market, the development of the Chinese tire market was not good. “In spite of this, our truck tires can be said to be one of the better tires in the Chinese market. This year we will expand our product line. We have launched road and off-road tires in succession. In the second quarter, we had environmental protection tyres for trucks. We hope to bring the latest technology to China."

At the end of 2007, Pirelli also established China's second tire production line, the Meridian Sedan Production Line, in Shandong, and officially put into production of high-performance passenger tires, which means the beginning of Pirelli's second-round expansion plan in China. This time the sponsorship of the China Super League is undoubtedly the third round of expansion. To this end, Pirelli has made a three-year development plan.

Provera said that Pirelli has always been mainly engaged in high-performance tires in China. Through this sponsorship of the mass-based event, Super League hopes to bring the full range of tires to the Chinese market through the introduction of technologies and other means.