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Businesses strive to chip in for Paralympics

By Liu Jie (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-08 10:20

A Dutch athlete at the September Beijing Paralympic Games browses information on a desktop in the National Stadium (or Bird's Nest) in Beijing. Lenovo, the world's fourth largest computer maker, is a Paralympic Games partner. According to the contract Lenovo signed with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) in April, more than 30,000 sets of its equipment, including servers, laptops, desktop computers, printers and touch screens, and 580 engineers building and maintaining the information system for the Summer Olympic Games will be retained for the Paralympics. [China Daily]

If the Summer Olympic Games is a perfect marketing platform for corporate sponsors, the Paralympics can be an excellent opportunity for companies keen to present an image of social responsibility.

"One of the three key themes of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games is People's Olympics. Thus support for the Paralympics is a channel for companies to showcase their love and care for the disadvantaged people and society," says Qiang Wei, a veteran sports marketing professional and an Olympic sports marketing consultant to the Ogilvy Group in China.

Savvy businesses have already taken note of the opportunities and been striving to chip in for the Paralympics.

Compared with 63 sponsors of the Summer Games (12 global sponsors in the TOP partners program, 11 partners, 10 sponsors, 15 exclusive suppliers and 15 suppliers) and 33 sponsoring enterprises (18 partners, 10 sponsors, three exclusive suppliers and two suppliers), there are relatively few corporate backers for the 2008 Paralympic Games.

But given the difference in the scale of the two events, corporate participation is still rather striking for the Paralympics. The Beijing Summer Games received over 16,000 athletes, coaches and technical officials as well as 21,500 journalists, while the same figures for the Paralympics are just 6,500 and 4,000 respectively.

Lenovo, the world's fourth largest computer maker, was the only China-based company acting as a Worldwide Olympic Partner or the TOP sponsor for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. It signed up to become a Paralympic Games partner in April.

According to the contract it signed with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), more than 30,000 sets of equipment, including servers, laptops, desktop computers, printers and touch screens, and 580 engineers building and maintaining the information system for the Summer Games will be retained for the Paralympics. The company has added 600 computers to offer services for the blind, semi-blind and the deaf.

Through Lenovo's special hardware and software, the blind can get information thanks to a speech broadcast system; people with low vision can read with an automatic enlargement system; and the automatic sign language software and an embedded video platform can help people with a hearing disability to get information and communicate with others on the Internet. The Internet bar in the Olympic Village run by Lenovo has been improved with barrier-free facilities and all engineers serving the Paralympic Games have been given Braille cards and can get sign language help from volunteers easily.

"To spread the Olympic spirit and enable more people to share the Games is Lenovo's responsibility as a partner of both the Olympic Games and the Paralympics," says Chen Shaopeng, senior vice-president of Lenovo Group and president of its China and Russia operations.

Chen says the technical and service challenges of the Paralympic Games are as serious as the Summer Games, if not tougher, but the company regards it as an extension of its corporate social responsibility commitments. "Lenovo has advantages in information technology and Olympic resources that enable it to participate in many philanthropic activities, including narrowing the digital gap, environmental protection, education, poverty alleviation and disaster relief."

Marketing strategy

However, Qiang also attributes Lenovo's move to its bid for expanding and deepening its Olympic marketing strategy. Thanks to a four-year run-up to the Olympics and the concentrated 16-day campaign during the Games, Lenovo has successfully expanded its brand into a global one.

Some 53 percent of the respondents in a recent Business Week/Interbrand survey named Lenovo as a top emerging global player while a Nielsen survey showed 76 percent of the 12,549 respondents recognized Lenovo as a transnational company.

Dairy maker Yili is also sponsoring both the Summer Olympic Games and the Paralympics.

"Our products and services for the two Games are absolutely the same," says Zhang Jianqiu, executive president of the Inner Mongolia-based dairy group.

Because of high demand, the dairy giant offered products worth 20 million yuan for the August event and will deliver products worth 10 million yuan during the September Games.

The closing price of Shanghai-listed Yili was 15.31 yuan per share on August 8, the opening day of the 2008 Olympic Games, which rose 2.81 percent to reached 15.74 yuan on August 25, a day after the closing ceremony.

"The slight increase is noticeable, given the slump in China's A-share market during the Games," says Hu Chunxia, an analyst at Guotai Jun'an Securities. Over the same period, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 11.54 percent and only 43 individual shares rose.

However, the company does not believe its role in the Olympics has anything to do with this. "Even without the Games, we would make all efforts to enhance our brand and meet our corporate responsibility," Zhang says, adding that Yili has been involved in a string of social activities making donations to programs for disabled people and supporting sports.

"Support to the Paralympics will help them increase their reputation as an ethical company, which is an effective method to win respect from consumers," says Qiang.

Doing their part

People are beginning to attach increasing importance to a company's social responsibilities and its reputation beyond its financial performance, products and services. That is one of the key reasons why corporations are actively supporting the Paralympic Games, according to Charlotte Wang, marketing communications director of Ipsos Greater China.

She also notes that the concept of CSR is affecting the purchase decisions of consumers. According to a global survey by Ipsos in 2007, when asked whether a company's record of social responsibility influences their purchase decisions, 78 percent of the respondents said they take CSR as a "very" or "quite important" factor when buying a company's products or services. In the Asia-Pacific region, the figure was as high as 83 percent.

Overshadowed by the Olympics, the Paralympics have generally attracted less attention in past years. But this year BOCOG has promised to make the event as big as the just-concluded Summer Games. The 2008 Paralympic Games is hence the largest ever in terms of the number of participants, sports items, as well as venues and services involved.

There are an estimated 650 million disabled people in the world, 82.96 million of whom are in China.

State Grid Corporation of China has equipped 17 airports providing services for the Paralympics with 2,995 wheelchairs. Samsung and Motorola have donated mobile phones to athletes, while US-based Otto Bock is offering free wheelchairs and artificial limb repair and maintenance services for the participants.

Though making an appearance at the international event is important for these enterprises, they say they genuinely care for the disabled. In addition to employing the disabled and guaranteeing their rights, many enterprises have initiated various other philanthropic causes to help the disadvantaged, says Qiang.