From blogs you can get interesting information and new knowledge. On the Huffington Post an interview which had been made for CNBC appears with a link to a clip of the interview. Sadly you have to join to view it. The link is CNBC.

In it the marketing people from Nike and Adidas explain their positions on the Olympics.

Charlie Denson, Nike Brand President said the retail opportunity in China is almost immeasurable. He said, ‘I don’t think anyone has seen anything like what China is today.’

Then comes the conflict. Adidas has paid tens of millions for the podium rights to all of the Chinese Olympic teams. Nike has decided to do deals with 22 of 28 Chinese teams so that they’ll compete in Nike gear — even though they’ll be wearing Adidas on the podium.

To Charlie Denson that seems not to be a big problem in the greater scheme of things. He said, ‘The Olympics are a great point in time and the Beijing Olympics are going to transcend the world of sport. They will become a monumental event throughout the world. It represents an incredible opportunity for us as a brand to participate in the world of sport at the highest level on the biggest stage. It’s a great checkpoint for us but it’s not a destination.’

That last sentence is pure marketing-speak. It doesn’t mean much but it sounds terrific.

Representing, as it were, the opposition, Paul Pi, Adidas vice president of marketing, Greater China said, ‘We have more than 3,500 shops Adidas shops in China today. We had less than 100 stores eight or nine years ago. We’re growing an average of opening two shops per day. That’s a phenomenal number if you compare that to other benchmarks around the world. We’re opening at least 600 locations around the nation and we’ve been doing that for several years. So in 2010, we forecast that we’ll have well over 5,000 Adidas locations in China.’
Source: Huffington Post