My point was not that yonex has held the sport back, but lack of competition to yonex has. I concur with Oldhand. Hockey is Hockey. You guys play ice-hockey as a variant because it is too cold to play the real game outside...
Ok ice hockey..field hockey. One's on TV in NA and the other I think probably is less popular than badminton in NA. So here ice hockey is not a business class sport as in Krisna'a post. Ice hockey here is probably the # 4 or 5 sport in terms of $$$. Ice hockey players here ,make from 1 to 6-7-8-9 million US dollars a year to play the game. Are there any field hockey players making that much? My point is that badminton is, by Krisna's grading, less than field hockey and far less than ice hockey in NA. I would think ice hockey is bigger worldwide than field hockey as well but I could be wrong. Now I love playing badminton and many here know of my feelings about the labelled "Evil Empire" and I have commented in this vein before. Before Yonex became the modern day Yonex that you seem to dislike they competed hard to gain market share. There was a time Minoru Yoneyama was refused admittance to the All Englands, now how is the Yoneyama family regarded? The productivity of many national badminton organisations was supported by Yonex. If they had not done this was there somebody prepared to step up with the money and the products? Hey, yes, Yonex profited but they helped grow the sport in countries where there was little support for the sport or it was so poorly organised it wasn't going anywhere. Many of you use Yonex and that is great. Sone don't and that is what the world is about.....Freedom of choice and speech. I think so far one person has said Yonex hasn't held the sport back but I'm still waiting to hear other comments. Competition is fine in a sport or between suppliers to the sport. My question still remains as such... Is the badminton pie going to get bigger because Li Ning and Victor have ramped up their efforts or has it just divided the pie with Yonex losing a portion? Because Li Ning has become a supplier to the Chinese team does that mean more Chinese are going to be able to play badminton and grow the sport or does Li Ning just become a more profitable company? Some will argue that it's a Chinese company and they will support the Chinese team better. I don't think so. More Chinese may purchase Li Ning because of that but Yonex has done a pretty darn good job supporting the team to this point and maybe in the future. I'm not saying they shouldn't have Li Ning or that they should just stay with Yonex. The fractures I mentioned earlier to the sport may see individual sponsorships instead of team sponsorships like we see around the world in downhill skiing. Notice I said downhill because like the hockey reference earlier there is cross country, skate style, classic stye, jumping, biathlon, maybe more... The goal should be to grow the sport not throw rocks at those that support it. I belive all of the National Badminton Associations have had this opportunity because of Yonex involvement. If that has not happened is that Yonex's fault? To address another point if your company was paying big $$$ to players to play and they refused what would you do??? If I paid Cooler to be at his desk each day and be an engineer and he refused what would my options be? BTW we don't play ice hockey here becuse it's too cold to play field hockey. We play it because it's fun, good exercise, and from a business point of view broadcasts on TV better than other sports so watching it is exciting. I will not further comment on this vine but will watch and listen.
Regarding Krisna's comments about market and specifically the shoe business..... I've now read through a bunch of the previous posts. You have said more than once that Yonex was holding the game back and not competing yet in your shoe comments and others rant on about how great it would be for badminton to have a specific product that would be cool as you like to say. Yonex has developed and continued to improve badminton shoes and has created just what you criticize them for not doing. In respect of the fact that badminton is so small a market how would you justify a worldwide marketing campaign on the scale of a Nike or Reebok when the return is so low and the cost so high? You might be able to do that for a year then be bankrupt. Not good business. As for growing the game in NA good luck. Many have tried. Yonex HAS contributed allot of $$$ and continues to but the average NA teenager has more fun doing other things and you can't change the culture here. TV is big here and just like we've said badminton doesn't televise well. As has been noted sports are somewhat regional and badminton is not the global sport you think or want it to be. There are so few countries participating at the top level the IOC may just not want it anymore. That would be a disaster for the sport. Blame Yonex if you want but I respect your passion. Just think it would be better used in another way. I'm done now for sure...
Eggroll - Are you referring to me? I assume not as you are not debating an issue I am talking about........... Referring to the LN/YY/Victor debate. This will allow Yonex to have more money to spend on other events (Unless their marketing budget is cut). If LN does increase profit from this deal, then surely they will try to sponsor more teams to increase their profit further (That is how business works). This will then either leave yonex with more money to spend on other events/people, thus put more money in the sport as players will have higher earnings, tournament holders have more to spend on events & players might be able to become truly professional. I am certainly not in any way downplaying the importance of Yonex or the contribution Yonex have made over the years, but heralding the significance more competition will have on the sport.
in term of brand loyalty and marketing, i'm sure there are lots of emotion and things said got mis-interpretated. No question that yonex had done more for badminton than any other companies combined to date. Yonex and badminton can be said interchangabely. This LN initiative (china team sponsor, buying kason, buying DHS) is a big change in the badminton scene for the longest time, that's why so many discussion about it on the what if this and that. That said, how dominant will LN become in badminton is still up in the air or if they really wanted to. Maybe LN is happy enough to have high presence in china that's all. LN is just a marketing firm that branched out from a shoe company, their real competitors are nike and adidas, not yonex. Making leading and innovative products take more than just buying up some clone racket makers. Given the massive amount of money LN spent on endorsements, it is yet to be seen if plan they plan to lead in the racket, bags, strings innovation. I doubt it tho, as i mentioned, maybe they are just happy enough to supply to the low to mid end market for rackets, and stick to shoes as their specialty. I haven't seen or used their shoes before so i can not say much about that.
Pure marketing can only take a product so far and has limited duration(ie a life cycle). In the end, it still come down to quality and product/services value for the money, that is how pure capitalism work. If LN or other focus purely on product marketing, it might serve them well in young market like china and SP regions where product knowledge is 'poorer'. For ex. things from asia: JP vs CN/CP vs SP bias, armortec LTD edition, MP99 LTD, AT700 LTD to look like and feel like LD's modded AT700, NC Tuff. I doubt EU or north american markets would fall for those marketing that worked in asia.
