Badminton Market: Behind the Prosperity

　　I was in charge of the area of tennis and badminton in 2011 China Sports Show. Before that, in my eyes, badminton market was very prosperous and every badminton gymnasium was full of fans. Apparently, badminton developed healthily, but after I got into it and found many problems behind the prosperity.

　　Although some giant brands were expanding the market many years, badminton was still an emerging market with great potential. Even though giant brands took bigger market share, plenty of small businesses were still willing to develop in this compressed and attractive market.

　　For badminton market, more brands coming benefited the whole market and brought diverse factors. However, immature market and low access led to uneven brand levels when it attracted more brands. From the exhibition of Sports Show and market survey, we could see small brands were eager to break through. Limited by ability, the production and sales of small brands were lack of standardization, which caused market confusion.

　　At present, most of the badminton enterprises used mode of individual workshop. Meanwhile, small brands had a weak competitiveness, and distributors made small-scale order first and then pick up goods after selling out, which brought about uncertain delivery cycle. As to mature sport like outdoor sport, distributors could order on a large scale periodically, which means a stable and prosperous market. After all, uncertain order cycle impacted not only market stability but also the number of distributors.

　　In 2012 Sports Show, badminton orders all over the world were more than ever, even some oversea clients without badminton business also took part in this show. On one hand, Sports Show enhanced promoting and spectator invitation; on the other hand, clients returned periodically, which was a good opportunity for badminton market development, especially international badminton market.

　　Compared to other mature sports, there were still many channels to be opened for badminton promotion in Sports Show. We needed to open these channels and open more badminton market in other countries; for those countries in cooperation, we needed to enhance the relationship and make badminton market abroad stable and prosperous.

　　Compared to high end sport such as outdoor sport, badminton was easy to access without high cost, and that was why badminton was popular. At present, badminton level in civil had been beyond junior stage, high levels required senior equipment and square, which promoted the whole badminton market to move to the high end. During this stage, it was important to set up regulations and order for badminton market, and then integrate badminton resource in the market and promote it.

　　Nowadays badminton market still had some problems: lack of channels and promotion, low quality distributors and so on. Only if we solved these problems and built a market with regulations and stability, badminton sport would get a better development.