4.2 Shaping Taiwan’s Female Road Running Scene
4.2.1 Sporting Goods Manufacturers
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understand how female road running has arisen. To do so, describing the relationship
between different road running actors is essential. In the next section, I will discuss how
sporting goods manufacturers, sponsors and media producers have constructed
Taiwan’s female road running scene together.
4.2 Shaping Taiwan’s female road running scene
4.2.1 Sporting goods manufacturers
Taiwan’s road running races have been more prevalent than ever since 2010.
Sporting goods manufacturers have led the growth in road running. As the two biggest
organizers of Taiwan’s female road running races, Nike and Mizuno both have different
plans.
Nike’s official website categorizes items according to different genders (men vs.
women). We can see that in the sporting market, Nike not only focusses on males but
also views the female market as an important sector in its global structure. Up until
June 2016, among the different sporting categories of merchandise, female running
shoes have been the only items to have exceeded the number of sales of the male
equivalent.10 This illustrates that the Nike series’ marketing strategy has aimed to
10Nike running shoes ratio 4:5 (male: female).
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encourage Taiwanese female runners to pursue their professional development, in order
to ensure consumers in the future female goods market.
In 2010, Nike caught on to the social media trend in Taiwan and launched its first
fan page on Facebook. Strangely, the only page included was Nike Woman, but no Nike
Man. This explains that Nike has been trying to attract more female consumers through
its social media presence. The requirements of running are low and the sport does not
imply much technique. It has therefore been seen as the best way for Nike to cut into
the female market, especially since it initially began as a company that produced
running shoes.
In the same year, 2010, Nike’s Taiwan Running fan page was founded. Social
media advertising continued with the smartphone trend, with Nike launching a series
of running-related online applications, such as the 2010 Nike+GPS, 2012
Nike+Running, and the advanced version called Nike+Training Club. This series of
Nike plus applications was repeatedly mentioned during interviews (interviewee RO1,
RO3). This proves that Nike plus online applications have been a key marketing
strategy for Nike in increasing the size of Taiwan’s road running population.
Nike plus online applications have made running digitized, cloud-based, and
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exciting. Whether it is recording routes, mileage, chasing records online, sharing
running pictures, or sending challenges through social media to friends to show concern
and motivate each other (Nike, 2015), running is no longer tedious. Through
independent online training courses, and road race strength being progressively
accumulated by users, Nike has also been able to obtain basic customer information
through online applications, such as running frequency and level.
The other organizer of female road running in Taiwan, Mizuno, is the largest
sporting goods manufacturer in Japan. In 1970, it set up branches in Taiwan related to
baseball, softball, and golf. Mizuno had a late start in running shoe products (Running
Biji, 2013a). In terms of its long-term sponsorship of Taiwan’s sporting events, running
has not been its main focus.11 However, Mizuno running shoes have fully functional
features and are favored by professionals and male runners. A running shoes survey
done in 2014 showed that Mizuno was crowned as the favorite shoe brand by most male
runners, who emphasized the functions of its running shoes (Running Biji, 2014).
Taiwan Mizuno’s official website uses sport categories and product features as
classifications, and has confirmed that Mizuno emphasizes functionality. The majority
11 According to Taiwan Mizuno’s website, it sponsored baseball, softball, volleyball, and golf for a long time.
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of its customers are male, except in swimming and jogging, where Mizuno offers
products for women.
In June 2016, the number of swimming suits and jogging shoes sold to men
exceeded those sold to females.12 In other words, Mizuno appears not to particularly
focus on women in the two sports. However, if the purchases of male consumers were
to remain largely unchanged, jogging shoes and swimming suits would be the only two
products that would increase in sales. Compared to swimming, running does not have
location constraints, has a high acceptance among the public, and is easier to propagate.
The manager of Delicacy Integrated Marketing (interviewee RO4) says: “Through
female road running, Mizuno was trying to begin communicating with those joggers
who had been doing exercise but not very professionally”. Therefore, the main purpose
for Mizuno in holding women’s road running was not for increasing the female road
running population, but increasing its sales of jogging shoes. This is also reflected in
Mizuno’s relatively passive pre-race marketing strategy. For instance, it provides no
pre-race training plans for women runners. Indeed, before Mizuno held its first road
race in 2013, there were only two road race seminars for women (Running Biji, 2013b).
12 Mizuno swimming suit ratio 2:1; running shoes ratio 5:3 (male: female)
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“After communicating for a while, I will intentionally close the fan page because I do not want to have interaction with the runners. Then, when I notice the theme of the year, I will open it up again…..Basically, when the race has reached a certain point, I am no longer communicating with the runners”.
(Delicacy Integrated Marketing manager, interviewee RO4)
Overall, the different purposes of Nike and Mizuno in promoting female road
running has resulted in different pre-race marketing strategies (see Table 11).
Table 11: Purpose analysis of Nike and Mizuno in promoting female road running
Nike Mizuno
Main sporting sponsorship in Taiwan
Basketball, track and field Baseball, softball, volleyball, golf
Product classification on website
By gender By functionality
(except swimming, jogging) Number of running shoes
on website
Female > male Male > female
Marketing strategy before
Purpose of promoting Increase the participation Attract women who have a
13 Nike began its Nike Running Taiwan fan page in 2011. In 2012, Mizuno began its Mizuno Running Taiwan fan page.
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female road running of women in road running, encourage runners to jogging shoes, in order to increase current product sales
After introducing a fun run in 2011, road running became a hit all over Taiwan.
The most well-known female road running races are still those held by Nike and
Mizuno in the two largest cities in Taiwan.14 To accompany its official races, Nike
pre-race training courses are only delivered in Taipei. Yet, Nike dealers also provide such
training, such as in the third largest metropolitan city, Taichung. In addition, a targeting
of urban women is evident in Nike’s premium services and Mizuno’s marketing strategy.
In 2016, Nike decided to concentrate its services on a card named the “Athlete ID”
(Zuka, 2016). Female runners could go to convenience stores where they would be
given a complimentary water or beverage, receive free products at cosmetic counters
or scan their card for restaurant discounts in Taipei. The premise was that these services
could only be accessed via smartphone QR code scanning. This scheme and the
selection of sponsors is an indication of Nike’s thinking; women runners are assumed
to have smartphones, live in locations with a high-population density, and have access
14 Taipei was the only place to hold female road races after Nike’s event in 2011 and Mizuno’s in 2013. In 2015, Mizuno spotted the potential of Taiwan’s south and added another race in Kaohsiung (林宋以情 Lingsong Yi-chien, 2015).
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to convenience stores and department stores. The process of exchanging premiums
makes women feel as though they are living in a high-tech city and want to explore it.
“I hope that sponsors can join Nike and help to create a great journey for women”
(director of Flight International Marketing, interviewee RO3).
The manager of Delicacy Integrated Marketing (interviewee RO4) reports that the
theme of the 2016 Mizuno female road running race was “Freedom”. This title implies
that Mizuno believes road running can help to release the pressure felt by modern
women. The event invited the fashion psychology expert Kao, Tsu-Ning(高祖寧) to
help arrange four colors for a de-stressing sportswear set. An official from Mizuno has
publicly stated that working women account for ninety percent of participants in female
road running. The problem of how to lessen a woman’s stress has become a main
concern for Mizuno (林宗偉 Lin Zong-Wei, 2016). This further confirms that the
sporting brand’s imagination of female runners includes the fact that they are located
in urban cities.
When it comes to age, Nike imagines female runners as “young and fast”, and
primarily still in the university phase of their lives. In a survey by 陳光宗 Chen
Guang-Zong (2014), it is found that of four hundred and twenty Nike+Running
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Taiwanese users, most are undergraduates under 25 years old. The director of Flight
International Marketing director (interviewee RO3) notes that Nike has intentionally
targeted undergraduates in their campaign.15 Women of this age are familiar with new
technologies, and have a strong consuming ability. Mizuno, on the other hand, is trying
to attract office workers of between 25 and 35 years old. It thinks that, given their
economic independence, these women can fill the gap in Mizuno’s running shoes
market (Mizuno, 2015). Mizuno’s previous marketing strategy was to bring sisters or
mothers out for a run on Mother’s Day. Thus, Mizuno’s imagined female runners would
seem to be older than Nike’s. Although there are slightly different imaginations of
female runners between the two sporting brands, their target audiences are both young,
successful and fashionable women. When it comes to sexuality, Nike and Mizuno also
share the same understanding.
Theoretically, only women can participate in female road races. However, as a
result of the urgings of sports marketing companies, males have been assigned a new
role: giving encouragement and support to females. Mizuno assigns eight to ten
handsome and strong men to stand at the side of the finish line and give high fives and
15 To do this, Nike has used various events, such as campus challenges, set points for free road races, university competitions etc., as well as other means of promotion.
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water to the runners when they finish. Mizuno calls these boys the “finish line boys”.
Nike has employed a similar concept in their races, with groups of men playing violin
on the track, or good-looking men waiting at the end of the race and giving out supplies
to the runners. In the last two years, Nike has also assigned male pacers to help adjust
the female runners’ speed. No matter whether they are finish line boys or male pacers,
both these phenomena point to the sporting brands’ imagination of the sexuality of
women runners.
Figure 8. Mizuno’s finish line boys Figure 9. Nike’s male pacers
Especially during interviews, sports marketing staff report that there are three
concerns while screening finish line boys and male pacers: appearance, figure, and
personality. According to my observation of female runners’ blogs and reviews, these
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mainstream heterosexual women’s aesthetic. In the past, women have been the ones
objectified. However, roles seem to be changing in the present, implying women’s
empowerment.
Table 12: The way that Nike and Mizuno imagine female runners
Nike Mizuno
Age Under 25 25-35
Occupation Student Office worker
Residence Urban city Urban city
Features Strong consuming ability, intimate with technology
Economic independence, a focus on a product’s function
Sexuality Heterosexual Heterosexual
Motivation for running
Health, fashion Health, release stress