Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, volume 203

Proceedings of the 2021 3rd International Conference on Economic Management and

Cultural Industry (ICEMCI 2021)

Investigating the Impact of Social Media Marketing on

Millennial's Purchase Intention of Sports Brands in
China
——A Case of LI NING
Zhen Niu1,*, † Rongbo Zhang2, †
1
Business school, Newcastle University, Newcastle, NE1 5SE, United Kingdom
2
College of Agricultural & Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States
*
Corresponding author. Email: Rzhang397@wisc.edu
†
These authors contributed equally.

ABSTRACT
This study mainly analyzes the importance of social media for sportswear companies, including marketing and
influence, and how social media affects millennials' purchase intention of sportswear brands. This paper explores
some cases of marketing activities of some sportswear companies (Nike, Hongxing Erke) on social media such as
TikTok and Weibo and the influence of different social media marketing methods on customers' purchase intention
through the method of case studies. The results show that social media can play a positive role in the publicity and
marketing of sportswear brands. In addition, the study also showed that the use of social media has a significant
impact on millennials' willingness to buy sportswear. The research has enormous implications for how sports brands,
including Li Ning, can use social media to expand their marketing and influence. In the future, social media will be
mainstream. Sports brands need to adapt to such changes by selling live on the primary platforms and signing famous
stars to promote people's willingness to buy their sportswear.

Keywords: Social media marketing, Millennial, Purchase intention, Interaction

comprehensive website with main network

1. INTRODUCTION
characteristics. Its characteristic is that most of the
website content is provided directly by users (UGC),
1.1. Research background and there is no direct employment relationship between
Social media is a communicative platform that users and the website [2].
engages millions of young users with its characters of With the development of the economy, there is a
solid interaction, personalization, and information tremendous in sports consumption, and people tend to
sharing [1]. This young user traffic enables social media have increased expenditure on sportswear for various
to become a potential gathering place of value, which purposes, for instance, improving sports performance,
attracts many multinational high-end brands. professional training, and pursuing fashion [3]. As a
Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a new type of result, according to Statista [4], the global sportswear
marketing through the Internet. It refers to companies market has experienced exponential growth in the past
participating in various social networking sites to few decades, which is expected to reach 191.9 in billion
achieve their business goals. Social media marketing US dollars by 2021, achieving a 19% increase from
channels comprise Forums, microblogs, blogs, SNS 2016 to 2021(Statista, see figure 1).
communities, pictures, and videos. In addition, They were benefiting from the rising awareness of
companies can build media through self-media healthy life; China, as the largest apparel market, has
marketing or borrow media platforms for online gathered more attention on sportswear with the influx of
marketing. Social media in marketing mainly refers to a many high-end international brands into the market and

Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press International B.V.

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the continuous expansion of consumer groups. Besides, continues to increase. The changes in clothing styles are
the high growth of China's sportswear industry is mainly weaker than those of ordinary men's and women's
due to the increase in consumer awareness of sports. clothing [5]. At the same time, marketing and brand
First, the diversification of national sports and sport effects have a more significant impact on consumers'
types has promoted consumers purchasing sports shoes purchases, which is conducive to the leader's advantage
and clothing, and the per capita consumption has in scale and increase market share.
increased. Second, the concentration of sportswear

Figure 1. Total revenue of the global sports apparel market from 2012 to 2025 (source: Statista)

According to the "2020 Microblog user development

report", it shows that the number of monthly individual 1.2. Literature Review
users on Sina Weibo reached 500 million, with the age As an essential digital communication platform,
distribution of users born in the 90s accounting for 48% social media has an effective tool for band and users'
and users born in the 00s, occupying 30%. They are the communication [8]. Compared to traditional channels,
main force for social media platform users and have also social media is mainly focused on creating brand
contributed to the consumption of international brands images, spreading, and consuming, which transforms
[6]. The users are called Generation Y, also knowns as the brand image into user-generated content [9]. The
Millennials, who are the first digital generation, living fundamental function of social media platforms is to
in a digital environment and sharing their daily lives on encourage users to share information and communicate
social media. Nam [7] pointed out that millennials' with each other. Sportswear brands widely use social
purchase intention will be mainly affected by social media marketing to promote their online channel,
media platforms, and they can easily make a purchase improve brand awareness, and engage more customers.
decision by using online shopping. In addition, Kim and Ko [10] suggested that the
China's high internet penetration rate enables the effectiveness of social media marketing activities has
business to adopt social media marketing strategies been affected by four dimensions: entertainment,
efficiently, enabling companies to use customized interaction, trendiness, and word of mouth, which have
information to reach target consumers directly. For been considered the main factors of this study.
example, many high-end brands publish information Entertainment refers to the users obtain enjoyment and
that uses famous mainland celebrities as their brand amusement from social media platforms [11].
endorsements or focusing on social events to publish Interaction is defined as the communication that social
relative marketing campaigns to attract more social media platforms provide to brands and customers [12].
media users to participate in brand activities. Besides, trendiness refers to users who can acquire the
Consequently, it is intriguing to identify what social latest information, hot topics, and fashionable product
media marketing will affect millennials' purchase information from social media platforms [13].
intention towards sportswear. Subsequently, Chu and Kim [14] conclude that E-WOM
is user-generated reviews of certain products with
higher source credibility than online content created by
marketers.

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Purchase intention is the customer's decision-making business development strategy ("Li Ning Official
process, which determines whether they will purchase Website"). According to the research on Li Ning
the products in the future [15]. Previous research released by Hong Kong Stock Company Report, the
claimed that attitude and perceptions are the key proportion of online channel business of Li Ning rose
indicators affecting customers' purchase intention [10]. rapidly from 2015, and the company introduced the
Social media is a platform for creating and spreading marketing concept of Internet plus. This study will
brand images. To some extent, compelling social media select some cases of Li Ning's marketing activities in
marketing will affect customer's perception of brands social media, including Douyin (TikTok) and Weibo.
[16]. Therefore, adopting the four dimensions in social And then compared millennials' spending data on Li
media marketing will transform customer's attitudes and Ning's social media marketing with spending data on
perceptions, thereby affecting their purchase intention. other places, such as brick-and-morta stores. In addition,
The research will be based on these four dimensions to this study will analyze the influence of different social
focus on Li Ning's social media marketing activities to media marketing methods on customers' purchase
identify which factors contribute to millennials' intention through these cases. For example, will
purchase intention towards sportswear. consumers be more willing to buy sportswear if
celebrities are invited to social media for marketing?
Despite many articles researching social media
marketing, Kim and Ko's [10] main finding proposed
that social media marketing activities directly impact 3. RESULT
customers relationships and then affect their purchase The emergence and development of new media have
intention for luxury brands. In addition, Balakrishnan accelerated the speed of mass media's transformation
[17] found that E-WOM, online advertisement, and into a focused society. The brand marketing model also
online communities are three practical factors that achieves precision marketing through big data and the
influenced customers' brand loyalty and facilitated their use of new media platforms. For example, using new
purchase intentions. However, few studies have media platforms such as the WeChat service account
researched millennial customers' perceptions and and subscription account, Sina Weibo, Tik Tok App,
attitudes towards social media marketing campaigns for Xiaohongshu, various broadcast apps, and other new
sportswear companies. media platforms to place brand advertising on a large
scale. Li Ning is a typical example which adopting
1.3. Research Objective social media marketing to reach target customers
precisely. Li Ning brought the concept of "Internet + life
This study will explore what factors in social media
experience" into the company's daily business
marketing will affect customers' purchase intention
operations; exchanges between emerging channels and
toward sportswear and millennials' perceptions of these
traditional channels have become more frequent. The
marketing activities. This study will focus on a
consumption level of domestic customers and sports
representative sportswear brand and then discover some
demand has steadily increased. The company focuses on
official data in social media marketing.
improving product experience, purchase experience, and
sports performance. Remodelling determined to upgrade
2. METHODS to become a sports life scene experience provider.
This study will explore what factors in social media
marketing will affect customers' purchase intention 3.1. Perspective of entertainment
toward sportswear and millennials' perceptions of these
Entertainment is a crucial reason for users to use
marketing activities. This study will focus on a
social media, seeking enjoyment and amusement. In
representative sportswear brand and then discover some
detail, after the brand founder Li Ning returned to
official data in social media marketing.
management, he created his personal Sina Weibo
This study will use the method of a case study. A account and company official account, publishing some
case study is a study in which (a) one case (single case exciting and fun social media content to realize real-
study) or a small number of cases (comparative case time communication and interaction with consumers. He
study) in their real-life context are selected, and (b) created some content that is proficient in using humor
scores obtained from these cases are analysed in a and emotions, enabling followers to feel relaxed and
qualitative manner [18]. enjoy. It is an effective method to attract more users to
follow their accounts. Also, brand awareness will be
Li Ning will be selected as the research object in this
increased due to the rising exposure rate.
study. Li Ning sportswear company was founded in
1990, after 30 years of exploration, has gradually To some extent, switching customers' perceptions
become a representative of China, the international and attitudes from s tedious and outdated to fun and
leading sports brand company, and take a multi-brand fashion facilitates customers' purchase intention toward

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Li Ning. Li Ning's Sina blog and company official people have boycotted Western apparel brands due to
account have over 3.16 million and 1.34 million the Xinjiang cotton event. Some celebrities have
followers, respectively, which obtained exponential terminated the endorsement contract with western
growth. More and more millennials tend to interact with brands, turning to cooperate with Li Ning. On the day
Li Ning and publish content related to Li Ning Hashtag when Li Ning's officially announced that XiaoZhan
(Weibo, 2021). From some perspective, Li Ning's social became his brand endorser, the products of his online
media marketing strategy makes some progress in store (Tmall) were instantly sold out, and the stock price
improving brand awareness and reputation of Li Ning immediately rose by more than 6%. It is
clear that Li Ning has a precise company position, and
3.2. Perspective of interaction its social media marketing strategy has combined with
trendiness properly, reaching Chinese millennials
Interaction is an essential factor in social media accurately. Customers tend to recognize Li Ning's brand
marketing activities; for example, businesses use social images and to make a purchase decision.
media to publish content and the latest information to
nurture customer relationships (Godey et al., 2016). 3.4. Perspective of E-WOM
Social media platform provides a place for customers
and brands to communicate effectively. In 2016, Li E-WOM in social media marketing influences
Ning launched the "ultra-light thirteenth-generation" customers' perception and trust towards brands. In most
running shoes. They received 45 million views with the scenarios, information and contents generated by users
help of innovative advertisements and social platforms are more convincing than marketers. Li Ning has
such as WeChat Moments and Wei Bo. Li Ning has selected KOL (Key Opinion Leader) in niche market
created an intelligent running ecosystem, using big data segments, mainly from native social media platforms,
technology to empower content marketing, event including TikTok, Weibo, and Xiaohong Shu. KOL has
marketing. In detail, Li Ning applies social media big the same characteristics; they are from Generation Z,
data to search target customers and integrated though they focus on various fields. With the help of
promotional channels to send personal advertisements to young consumers' follow on KOL in different fields,
them. Also, Li Ning has permanently attached KOL marketing is more appropriate to the Li Ning
importance to the integration and linkage of O2O online image of the fashion brand. KOL's product promotional
and offline channels. The company has been committed advertisements are persuasive. Li Ning's social media
to constructing an integrated omnichannel inventory marketing strategy has acquired apparent achievements.
system to realize the exchange of goods between online Li Ning's operating income in 2019 has reached 13.8
and offline channels and improve customers' shopping billion yuan, increasing 30% dramatically.
experience. They adopt mobile Internet to penetrate
innovative running shoe products into daily life and 4. DISCUSSION
keep a close connection to cultivate customer brand
loyalty. In the future, new media and social media marketing
will play a more critical role in brand influence and
3.3. Perspective of trendiness sales, and even social media marketing will become one
of the primary revenue sources for most brands. For
In terms of trendiness, most social media users millennials, they like to pursue something new and
consider it a significant function because they intend to trendy. Besides, they are fanatical idolaters and will buy
acquire the latest information and fashionable products the products endorsed by the stars they like, including
from social media. Li Ning has captured trendiness and sportswear. Therefore, Li Ning can give full play to the
puts much effort into social media marketing. Li Ning influence of social media to increase the millennial
has deepened the combination of professional product generation's intention to buy Li Ning sportswear. Below
performance and fashion culture and put in social are some instructions on how Li Ning could use social
marketing resources to comprehensively enhance media in the future.
product strength. For example, Li Ning Basketball
Initially, Li Ning can hire sales staff to conduct live
continues to integrate professional tournaments and
online sales on the live platform of short video
player resources such as the CBA professional league to
applications such as TikTok and Kuaishou, the most
continue the company's competitiveness in the
popular short video social platform in China or
basketball category; debuts in New York and Paris
worldwide. According to TikTok Statistics – Updated
Fashion Week with the theme of "Enlightenment" and
June 2021, TikTok is available in over 150 courtiers and
"China Lining"; sponsors marathons such as Hangzhou
has over 1billion users and Douyin, aka TikTok in
and Beijing The event enhances brand influence; cross-
mainland China, just hit 400 million daily active users
border e-sports, join hands with e-sports club EDG and
there [20]. It can be seen that short video applications
badminton champions to promote products and achieve
are popular with the public, especially young people.
high product exposure rate. On the other hand, Chinese

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Thus, by running ads on short videos and selling them the future, Li Ning could work with Honor of Kings to
on its live streaming platform, Li Ning can attract many create a Li Ning logo skin for a popular hero in the
millennial customers. In addition, Li Ning can do some game. The game's publicity is bound to let more people
social welfare events such as donations and promote know about Li Ning and promote people's intention to
them through social media and sales channels. For buy it.
example, Hongxing Erke, a Chinese sportswear
company, quickly became a trending topic on Weibo 5. CONCLUSION
after donating 50 million yuan in supplies to Henan
province's disaster relief efforts. In addition to Weibo, 5.1. Conclusion of key findings
many netizens spontaneously entered Hongxing Erke's
Taobao and Douyin studios to buy products. The total To sum up, this study aims to investigate the impact
sales of Hongxing Erke Tiktok's official live broadcast of social media marketing activities on Chinese
reached 9.016 million yuan that night, data showed. millennials' purchase intention. To make this paper
Previously, Hongxing Erke's Taobao studio had only a readable and understandable, this paper has selected Li
few thousand viewers. On that night, 2.01 million Ning as a case to explore the influence by summarizing
people watched Taobao Live, and the number of Taobao Li Ning's social media activities. Four constructs,
Live fans also increased to 7.63 million. The numbers entertainment, interaction, trendiness, EWOM, have
are still growing [21]. Li Ning can learn from Hongxing been fully explained with the help of Li Ning. It has
Erke's success in such a short period to make a practical been found that the social media marketing activities Li
contribution to society. There is a strong sense of Ning conducted on Weibo and Tik Tok positively
national identity among the Chinese people currently, influence customers' perception of brands. Consumers
and they also strongly support national brands. tend to have purchase intention when they see those
promotions on social media platforms. On the other
Second, Li Ning can focus on some stars with a
hand, Li Ning has used social media to connect
large number of fans and outstanding influence.
customers with national fashion to increase the attention
Cristiano Ronaldo, the soccer superstar, has the most
of the company's product customer base, which will
followers on Instagram—340 million, more than any
help the brand power be steadily improved and the band
other account. Ronaldo has made a staggering fortune
effect established.
for the brand he endorsed, Nike. According to Forbes,
Ronaldo posted a total of 1,515 times on social media in
2016, with 21.7% of his posts promoting Nike through a
5.2. Research significance
hashtag, mention, or logo. The posts generated 443.5 Based on the results, the research has implied that Li
million interactions (likes, comments, shares, retweets, Ning should include more entertainment, interactive,
and videos watched) and were worth $474 million to and trendiness factors in their social media marketing
Nike [23]. Like Nike, Li Ning could sign some of the campaign, which will increase the brand's attention
top stars in all walks of life in the future, such as dramatically and promote customer's intention toward
singers, actors, or sports superstars. These stars have the products. In addition, Li Ning should spend more effort
following base, so their endorsement of Li Ning is on E-word of mouth, which means cooperating with
bound to bring li Ning considerable wealth. When more influential celebrities or KOL. For instance,
millennials see the brands endorsed by their favourite Cristiano Ronaldo will improve brand image, and
stars, they may strongly desire to buy them, even if they customers tend to interact with Li Ning and create more
have never heard of Li Ning. This is the most intuitive user-generated content on social media. Besides, Li
result of inviting top star endorsements. Ning could work with E-sports by sponsoring the E-
Finally, Li Ning can also cooperate with popular sports team to reach the target niche market; Li Ning
video games such as Honor of Kings. The Honor of can use social media marketing to create a bond
Kings is a famous multiplayer online battle arena between business and customers.
(MOBA) game developed by Tencent Games subsidiary
Timi Studios. The game is quite like DOTA 2 and 5.3. Limitations
League of Legends on PC. According to The Indian
Express, Honor of Kings is the most popular and The research limitations of this study consist of
profitable mobile game globally, with more than 100 different aspects. This paper adopted the case study
million daily active users worldwide. It is Tencent's method, which lacks primary scientific data. Thereby it
most successful game ever, with users spending nearly may cause bias for the result because researchers'
$240 million [23]. The game is popular in China, subjective perception will impact results. Also, this
especially among millennials. The Honor of Kings has method may cause construct validity, and it is difficult
teamed up with several brands to launch limited hero for researchers to test the reliability of variables in the
skins. For example, in 2018, Honor of Kings and Pizza case study.
Hut launched the skin of a famous heroine in a game. In

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5.4. Future studies [8 Kelly, L., Kerr, G., & Drennan, J. (2010).
Avoidance of advertising in social networking
To some extent, a case study may cause bias and the sites: The teenage perspective. Journal of
issue of various validity. Consequently, I recommend interactive advertising, 10(2), 16-27.
that quantitative research should be conducted in the
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test those variables' internal consistency. Moreover, brand pages on social networking sites. Journal of
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Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 1(3), pp.164-
171.
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