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Intersport - March 2011
With the Olympic Games coming to London in 2012 there is a huge opportunity for independent sports retailers all over the country to benefit from products directly related to the Olympics.
The Olympics brings added benefits from the general investment and focus on so many sporting categories, where a real legacy can be developed at a local level. The legacy it leaves has been a key strategy for the London Olympics, and one which its sports partner adidas is committed to deliver with their retail partners.
The July 27 2011 is the ‘one year to go’ (1YTG) marker when the excitement starts to really build for this once in our lifetime event, and careful planning is needed from now in order to maximise the incremental and unique sales opportunity. The Olympics is a commercial opportunity outside of the sports sector with diverse partners, from Sainsburys to BMW, however the sports retailer has the sporting heritage and expertise to exploit the true sporting goods categories.
Furthermore in addition to the mainstream sports the independent retailer already offers products in the smaller, niche categories such as archery, which have their are moment in the spotlight – helped of course by the Brits historically having medals hopes in some of these smaller focus categories.
We can see a great chance to develop the local areas with a link to an Olympic venue which are all over the country, from football in Scotland to sailing in Weymouth. Then another, possibly overlooked area, would be to develop relationships and build credibility as a true multi-sports retailer by supporting local sports clubs who have Olympic medalist hopefuls in their midst, or who are just excited by the Olympics and finding a renewed interest and increased participation.
In order for Intersport members to get the best of all worlds we have taken the approach of ensuring that we build the best product offering from the Official Olympic Partner adidas, all supplier partners that play a key role in the 26 Olympic sports and new supplier partners who add another element for Official License products.
The communication of the Olympic message, and the product packages for the retailer are of course key, and much more than just some nice point of sale. To reap the benefits the approach should be in everything from a clear focus in store to point of sale and advertising, through brochures and mailshots to local events. The 1YTG signals the start of 12 months of activity generating ongoing sales, culminating in the main event in July 2012.
Tom Foley,
General manager, Intersport UK
