《华尔街日报》：姚明受伤，一石激起千层浪【在他连运球都还不会的时候，国家体育机制就已经替他做好了成为球星的规划。作为这种体制的产物，姚明长期以来更多的是以国家英雄而非草根英雄的形象示人】

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姚明受伤，一石激起千层浪
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了污染、交通和人权问题，北京奥运会又面临新的威胁：姚明的左脚。
中国球迷、博客作者和跨国公司周三异口同声地向姚明表示了慰问。周二，这位身高2.3米的27岁超级篮球明星在美国宣布，自己的左脚应力性骨折，将缺席NBA休斯顿火箭队(Houston Rockets)本赛季的剩余赛事。
虽然医生说姚明大约只需要四个月时间就能恢复，但今年8月的北京奥运会上，姚明能否出赛仍是个问题。人们并不期望中国国家篮球队能在奥运会上夺得奖牌，但都强烈希望作为中国最著名运动员的姚明能成为中国奥运盛会的一块招牌。
上海的《新民晚报》以《国宝姚明伤了》为题，将通常用来指称大熊猫的“国宝”一词用在了姚明身上。
虽然球迷对姚明仍能出征奥运持乐观态度，但言辞却极尽夸张。
一位安徽网民在新浪网(Sina.Com)上留言：我宁愿女朋友跟我分手，工作失业，中国男足进不了世界杯，也不要姚明打不了奥运会。
最有理由着急的还有姚明的赞助商：阿迪达斯(Adidas AG)旗下的锐步公司(Reebok International)、可口可乐公司(Coca-Cola Co.)和威士国际组织(Visa International)。这些公司每年斥重金1,000万美元聘请姚明担任广告代言人。从可口可乐的易拉罐到Visa的广告牌，姚明咧嘴而笑的形象（还是在做鬼脸？）在中国简直铺天盖地。
锐步公司去年12月创立的网站www.reebokyao.com有一个板块叫“Yao合力站”，通过点击量和电话留言等形式记载姚明的人气指数。
到目前为止，各赞助商都表示同情，态度也很谨慎。
可口可乐驻香港公关主管肯特•凯尔赫格(Kenth Kaerhoeg)说，“我们都希望他早日完全康复。姚明能继续担任公司和品牌的形象大使，我们感到自豪而荣幸，因为他在球场内外的成就不断鼓舞着全中国的球迷和消费者。”
希望通过赞助姚明进军中国运动装备市场的锐步表示，现在判断这一消息会对其营销计划有何影响还为时过早。
阿迪达斯驻香港的企业公关主管Sabrina Cheung谈到，“姚明是锐步最为重视的职业运动员之一。”
姚明的中方经纪人陆浩说，他已记不清自己周三接到了多少慰问电话和来自媒体的电话。他说，几家赞助商也打来了电话，没有一家表示会终止或减少与姚明的合作。
陆浩指出，赞助商与我们合作是基于姚明的长期表现，以及这种表现符合它们的品牌形象，而不光是为了奥运会。姚明以前也受过伤，但脚伤的治愈时间要长一些，尤其是像他这么高大的运动员。
营销人士介绍说，准备在奥运期间播放、有姚明出镜的广告现在多数已拍摄完毕。
姚明受伤对NBA来说也是个风险，后者已将中国视为收入来源仅次于美国的第二大市场。如果没有姚明上场，有些中国球迷可能就不会收看NBA赛事转播。姚明所在的休斯顿火箭队与去年签下中国新星易建联的密尔沃基雄鹿队(Milwaukee Bucks)之间的一场比赛是中国2007年收视率最高的赛事，初步估计吸引了约两亿名观众。
纲易(Netease)体育论坛里的一名中国网民写道，自从姚明加入NBA以后，我就从足球迷变成了篮球迷，没有姚明的话，我是不会看比赛的。
受伤前，姚明正经历着闯荡NBA六个赛季以来表现最好的赛季，他所在的球队也在联赛竞争最激烈的西部联盟中取得了创纪录的连胜场次。
NBA官员表示，他们不觉得有什么问题。他们认为大多数中国球迷都十分喜爱NBA，即使没有姚明也一样会收看。作为佐证，他们指出从2006－07赛季到去年全明星赛期间，中国零售商店的姚明球衣销量仅排在第六位（排名第一的是洛杉矶湖人队(Los Angeles Lakers)的科比•布莱恩特(Kobe Bryant)）。
虽然如此，姚明的受伤还是带来了一个营销难题：一个不完美的偶像能用来做什么？姚明最大的卖点就是他接近完美的形象，而不是什么个性特色或耀目外表。
在他连运球都还不会的时候，国家体育机制就已经替他做好了成为球星的规划。作为这种体制的产物，姚明长期以来更多的是以国家英雄而非草根英雄的形象示人。虽然他是中国最广为人知的运动员，但在他的形象中，其个性远不如他入驻并入主NBA的成就那样引人注目。
姚明以身材高大、孝敬母亲而闻名。相比之下，日渐受到中国营销人士青睬的雄鹿队队员易建联则以俊朗的外表和年轻时尚的风格著称。
不过，此番受伤也令营销人士和球迷有机会更深入了解姚明。在宣布伤势的新闻发布会上，姚明几欲落泪。当被问及如果他缺阵奥运会将对中国球迷有何影响时，他说，事实上我不想去尝试，也不想知道。
WPP Group PLC旗下的JWT广告公司为几家没有聘请姚明的奥运会赞助商进行宣传推广，该公司北亚地区主管唐锐涛(Tom Doctoroff)说，如果姚明克服了这次难关，将会更受中国人民喜爱。
唐锐涛谈到，在大众市场，在那些认为人生有时不公、认为只有付出努力战胜困难才能成就伟大和光荣的人群当中，这种共鸣会更加强烈。
他补充说，“聪明的营销人员将利用这一机会强化品牌的移情效应。”
Yao‘s Injury Has Sponsors Holding Their Breath汉 |大 |中 |小
2008年02月29日11:29
Amid pollution, traffic and human-rights concerns, Beijing is facing a new Olympic threat: Yao Ming‘s left foot.
Chinese basketball fans, bloggers and multinational corporations yesterday all expressed their condolences to Mr. Yao, the 27-year-old, 2.3-meter superstar center, who announced Tuesday in the U.S. that a stress fracture in his foot would prevent him from finishing the season with the National Basketball Association‘s Houston Rockets.
While doctors say he will require only about four months of recovery time, Mr. Yao‘s ability to perform in China‘s vaunted Olympics this August is in question. The Chinese national basketball team wasn‘t expected to win a medal at the Games, but hopes were high that Mr. Yao, China‘s most famous athlete, would be the public face of the nation‘s Olympic pageant.
The Xinmin Evening News, a Shanghai daily, ran the headline ‘National Treasure Injured,‘ using a Chinese phrase usually reserved for pandas, China‘s beloved national animal.
While optimistic that he will still play in the Games, fans were given to hyperbole.
‘I‘d rather part with my girlfriend, lose my job and have China‘s national football team never make the World Cup than see Yao out of the Olympics!‘ read one comment on portal Sina.com, from a Web surfer in China‘s Anhui province.
Not least among those with reason to fret: corporate sponsors of Mr. Yao -- Adidas AG‘s Reebok International, Coca-Cola Co. and Visa International Inc. They have paid as much as $10 million a year to feature him as a pitchman. Mr. Yao‘s grin -- or is it a grimace? -- is plastered seemingly everywhere in China, from cans of Coke to billboards for Visa.
A Web site launched in December by Reebok International, www.reebokyao.com, features a ‘Yao-o-meter‘ of Chinese support for the star, measuring the growth in digital sentiments such as clicks and phone messages.
So far, the corporate sponsors are being sympathetic -- and cautious.
‘We are all wishing him a full and early recovery,‘ said Kenth Kaerhoeg, a communications director at Coca-Cola in Hong Kong. ‘We are proud and honored to continue to count Yao Ming as an ambassador for our company and our brands as his achievements -- both on and off the court -- continue to inspire fans and consumers throughout China.‘
Reebok, which has largely staked its aggressive push into China‘s giant athletic-gear market on its sponsorship of Mr. Yao, said it was too early to say how the news might affect its marketing plans.
‘Yao Ming is one of Reebok‘s most valued professional athletes,‘ said Sabrina Cheung, director of corporate communications at Adidas in Hong Kong.
Lu Hao, Mr. Yao‘s agent in China, said he had lost track of how many condolence and news-media calls he took yesterday. Among the callers were several corporate sponsors, none of whom, he said, indicated that they now would drop or play down Mr. Yao.
‘The partnership between the sponsors and us is based on Yao‘s long-term performance and its match with their brand images, rather than the Olympics only,‘ Mr. Lu said. Mr. Yao has been injured before, but foot problems can take longer to heal, especially in such tall athletes.
Most of the ads featuring Mr. Yao that are to be aired during the Olympics have already been filmed, marketers say.
Mr. Yao‘s injury is a risk, too, for the NBA, which already counts China as its second-biggest market in revenue after the U.S. Without Mr. Yao on the court, some Chinese fans may stop tuning in to broadcasts. A match between Mr. Yao‘s Houston Rockets and the Milwaukee Bucks, which last year drafted rising Chinese star Yi Jianlian, was one of the most-watched TV events in China in 2007, drawing an audience of some 200 million by some rough estimates.
‘I changed from a fan of football to basketball since Yao joined NBA. Without him, I will not watch the games,‘ wrote one Chinese Web user on the sports forum of the portal Netease.
Before the injury, Mr. Yao had been having the best season of his six in the NBA, and his team was on its hottest streak in the most competitive conference in the league.
NBA officials say they don‘t see a problem. They think most of their Chinese fans are involved enough in the game to watch even without Mr. Yao. As evidence, they point to the fact that Mr. Yao‘s jersey was only the sixth-most-popular in sales at retail stores in China from the start of the 2006-07 season through last year‘s All-Star Game break. (No. 1 is that of the Los Angeles Lakers‘ Kobe Bryant.)
Nonetheless, Mr. Yao‘s injury leads to a marketing quandary: What do you do with an imperfect icon? Mr. Yao‘s main selling point has been his near-perfection, more than any quirky qualities or flamboyance.
The product of a state sports system that planned for him to be a star before he could even dribble, Mr. Yao has long been more of a hero of the state than a hero of the people. While he is the most widely recognized athlete in China, his personality plays a much smaller part in his image than his success at entering -- and dominating -- the NBA.
He is known for being tall and being good to his mother. By contrast, the Bucks‘ Mr. Yi, who is also a growing favorite among marketers in China, is known for his good looks and youthful, hip style.
Yet the injury could give marketers -- and fans -- the opportunity to get closer to Mr. Yao. At the news conference where he announced his injury, Mr. Yao teared up. Asked to assess how his absence from the Olympics, should that come to pass, would affect his Chinese fans, he said, ‘I don‘t want to try, actually, and I don‘t want to know, either.‘
Tom Doctoroff, the North Asia chief executive of WPP Group PLC‘s JWT ad agency, which works for several Olympic sponsors that don‘t employ Mr. Yao, said that if he overcomes this challenge, it will greatly endear him to Chinese people.
‘This sympathy will be even greater amongst the mass market, folks who believe life is not necessarily fair and that greatness and glory emerge from challenges and hard work,‘ Mr. Doctoroff said.
He added: ‘Smart marketers will have an opportunity to deepen the empathy of their brands.‘
Geoffrey A. Fowler