2. + Executive Summary
+ Understanding
+ Recommendations
+ eCommerce and Analytics
+ Player Endorsement
+ Leveraging the Chinese Celebrity
+ Engaging Youth Sports, Alumni Engagement, and Amateur
Baseball Clubs
+ Conclusions
Table of Contents
3. + Executive Summary
+ Understanding
+ Recommendations
+ eCommerce and Analytics
+ Player Endorsement
+ Leveraging the Chinese Celebrity
+ Engaging Youth Sports, Alumni Engagement, and Amateur
Baseball Clubs
+ Conclusions
Table of Contents
4. + Not only is China the world’s largest consumer of licensed goods, but it is also
the fastest growing. MLB is capitalizing on that with over 275 MLB Shop
locations in Mainland China.
+ MLB licensed goods are seen largely as a luxury item and are not directly
associated with the sport of baseball.
+ Using celebrity and Major League players to endorse licensed goods, MLB can
increase both the breadth and depth of their consumer market.
+ Additionally, by taking full advantage of the analytical capabilities provided by a
fully functional eCommerce platform, MLB can identify new markets for its
licensed goods.
Executive Summary
5. + Executive Summary
+ Understanding
+ Recommendations
+ eCommerce and Analytics
+ Player Endorsement
+ Leveraging the Chinese Celebrity
+ Engaging Youth Sports, Alumni Engagement, and Amateur
Baseball Clubs
+ Conclusions
Table of Contents
6. + China is considered to be the 2nd largest merchandising
licensed goods market in Asia
+ The growth of licensed goods is thought to continually
grow and expand the licensed goods business
China’s has one of the world’s largest markets for
licensed goods
7. The Average Chinese Customer Does Not Associate
MLB Apparel with the Sport of Baseball
• One of MLB’s goals regarding
licensed goods is to increase
association between the goods and
the game of baseball itself.
• MLB must be careful not to alienate
the current customers who are
currently generating revenue.
• Most purchases are “Fashion-
Buys” with no real connection to
baseball
8. + Executive Summary
+ Understanding
+ Recommendations
+ eCommerce and Analytics
+ Player Endorsement
+ Leveraging the Chinese Celebrity
+ Engaging Youth Sports, Alumni Engagement, and Amateur
Baseball Clubs
+ Conclusions
Table of Contents
9. eCommerce and Analytics
+ The population of
Chinese with internet
access exceeds the
entire population of the
US. 60% of these people
access the internet via
mobile device
+ By tracking sales,
location, and other key
metrics, MLB can
identify populations of
fans not previously
known.
Player and Celebrity
Endorsement
Youth and Amateur Club
Engagement
+ MLB has access to the
best players in the world.
+ While dressing
celebrities in MLB
apparel will help
generate sales, using
professional will
reinforce the connection
between goods and
game.
+ Pursuit of an enhanced
community engagement
model is recommended
+ Engagement of baseball
clubs that exist outside
of the university program
will augment awareness
of the brand in China
11. 44% of the Chinese population has internet access. That is a
larger population than all of the US.
12. The average Chinese internet user spends 40% of their waking
hours on the internet.
13. The Chinese consumer can buy anything he wants at the click
of a button on his mobile device
TMALL
+ Two click mobile shopping
+ Easy to buy (Ali Pay)
+ Familiar MLB apparel choice
+ MLB does not control this data
Shop.MLB.com
+ At least ten clicks to get to a buying
decision
+ Requires input of CC information
+ Does not offer the same selection as
Chinese MLB Shops
+ MLB Owns Data
14. By using data captured by eCommerce transactions, MLB can
track pockets of baseball activity to which they would not
otherwise have access
+ Where customers are located
+ What are they buying
+ Conversion rate
+ How long are they spending on
each page
+ Where do they “commit” to
buying
16. MLB Should Partner With Popular Chinese Celebrities
to Promote MLB Licensed Apparel
Most Popular Chinese
Celebrities, 2015
1. Fan Bingbing
2. Jay Chou
3. Nicholas Tse
4. Jackie Chan
5. Huang Xiaoming
6. Sun Li
7. Zhao Wei
8. Andy Lau
9. Li Yifeng
10. Eason Chan
17. Leverage Chinese Fascination with Celebrity to
Establish MLB Brand Ambassadors
+ Represents the MLB brand merchandise
+ Uses social media to promote the MLB brand and the sport of
baseball itself
+ Leverages celebrity’s own social media footprint to educate
consumer base and convert fans
+ Celebrity endorser must be engaged and perceived as having a
genuine and authentic interest in baseball
18. The Chinese Celebrity has a Wide Reach, but it is
superficial.
+ Candidates for Brand ambassadors
+ Influential Chinese celebrities
+ Wang Leehom
+ Jay Chou
+ Formerly MLB team signed baseball players
+ Wang Wei
+ Zhang Zhenwang
+ Global celebrities
+ U.S.A
+ South Korea
+ Taiwan
19. The Average Chinese Customer at MLB Shop,
Shanghai Can Identify One of These Individuals
20. + By associating MLB goods with high profile, fashion-forward
baseball players, MLB will generate not only increased interest in
the product, but also interest in the game of baseball itself.
+ Bryce Harper and Matt Kemp are among the most popular baseball
players in the league today. Harper and Kemp would serve as
“brand ambassadors” for MLB licensed goods.
+ In-store appearances by MLB players, accompanied by highlight
reels, can generate localized excitement for the products that will
hopefully carry-over to excitement for the game.
Major League Player Endorsement is Crucial for
Linking Licensed Goods to the Sport of Baseball.
21. + McGrady played for the Houston
Rockets at the same time as Yao
Ming and accompanied Yao to
China many times, gaining his own
level of popularity
+ After the NBA, McGrady went on to
pitch in the US minor league
system
+ McGrady can leverage his
popularity from his days in the NBA
to attract customers to MLB
apparel.
Major League Player Has a Great Resource in Former
NBA/ MLB Player, Tracy McGrady
22. Celebrities will leverage their social media presence to
promote the game of baseball, not only licensed
apparel
23. Chinese Fascination with Celebrity
Use of social media by MLB and brand ambassador
+ Weibo –
+ A source of communication between Chinese celebrities
and fans
+ Other social media outlets:
+ RenRen
+ Qzone
+ WeChat
25. Creating Brand Ambassadors
+ Students and Alumni of Developmental Centers should be the
mouthpiece
+ Give them a reason to talk about MLB and baseball and why they
love it
+ Encourage/incentivize Internet exposure for MLB in the social
media space
+ Average chinese citizen spends 40% of waking hours on the internet
26. Engaging/Empowering Alumni
+ View initial investment into players that don’t pan out at the
developmental centers as their first step in a life of educating their
fellow citizens about baseball
+ Create a long term engagement plan to keep them talking about
and participating in baseball
+ Alumni Ambassador Program
+ Create alumni teams from each school to play each other
+ Offer apparel at deep discount
27. Engage Amateur Baseball Clubs
There are more than 300 amateur baseball clubs in China
– MLB must engage this group!
Guangzhou
Violent Goat
Shijazhuang
Tongyi Baseball
Club
Guiyang Foresters
Chengdu
Skyforce
Baseball Club!
28. + Executive Summary
+ Understanding
+ Recommendations
+ eCommerce and Analytics
+ Player Endorsement
+ Leveraging the Chinese Celebrity
+ Engaging Youth Sports, Alumni Engagement, and Amateur
Baseball Clubs
+ Conclusions
Table of Contents
29. Tianyi (Terry) Cao, Former Vice President
of UIBE Broncos Baseball Club
Diversify!!
In speaking with MLB China leadership Chris Park said that they will redefine success and what it looks like. This redefinition must take place before activating on any of the strategies listed in this deck. To quote Mr. Park MLB wants metrics to be at the core of their strategy, but they also do not want to be wholly tethered to those metrics. Licensed goods provide an excellent platform to start that process. Licensed goods are tangible, they have real revenue tied to them, and their sale can be tracked to an individual consumer. This is 2013 data, but currently China is the largest market
Make the graph more visible
Make the graph more visible
One of the interesting things we heard from Jim is that we have numbers today regarding how many people in China are playing baseball. However, that number could change by 10,000 tomorrow if we find a pocket of fans somewhere we didn’t know about it. Using this type of analytics, MLB could gain a true sense of where, geographically, its baseball fans are.
Using celebrities can bring attention to the brand, but it is superficial that current consumers must be used actively to continue to promote the brand
Graph results are from 2014
Weibo reaches over 500 million registered users and has the highest penetration of the local population based on account ownership and active usage out of all the social platforms in China
Connecting with a local celebrity or a global celebrity will be creating a brand ambassador for the MLB brand.
When using social media to promote products, brand ambassadors will link the product to baseball that it will not only cause awareness of the MLB brand, but also for the sport itself.
At Nike, they talked about the biggest influencer of the Chinese Consumer is family and friends. This is key to starting groundswell around baseball and push sales of licensed goods.
