ESPN.com - Sizing up Yao Ming's marketability

ESPN.com: Sports Business

Tuesday, July 23, 2002
Updated: July 25, 2:08 PM ET
Sizing up Yao Ming's marketability

By Darren Rovell
ESPN.com

Sixteen years ago, Hakeem Olajuwon had Houston Rockets fans talking about him. Not only was it about the way the former member of Phi Slamma Jamma was scoring 20 points a game, but how "The Dream," who was then named Akeem, had come off in a McDonald's commercial.

In the spot, Olajuwon dunked Chicken McNuggets into sauces, as Rockets radio announcer Gene Peterson supplied the play-by-play. Then Olajuwon, in his thick Nigerian accent, uttered a single word: "Unbeatable." It was a phrase that was soon heard on the lips of every Rockets fan and seen on shirts, posters and signs during the team's run to the NBA Finals.


	Americans are still waiting to size up Yao Ming.

The Rockets' top draft pick this year, 7-foot-6 Chinese center Yao Ming, already has a catch phrase of sorts. Minutes after being made the No. 1 overall selection in the draft, he announced via satellite from Shanghai, "Houston, I am come."

But this Rockets center is searching for more than a catch phrase. Yao and his handlers -- already challenged by conflicting first impressions that seek to portray him either as an intimidator or a gentle giant -- are searching to find the right identity.

"Yao has a lot of ('Rocky IV' villain) Ivan Drago in him," said David Hardisty, the Webmaster for the popular Rockets fan site, Clutchcity.net, which has signed on some 2,200 registered users since the team selected Yao. "He has the same deep voice and he kind of has the same haircut."

But Hardisty also has heard stories of the humble, quiet Yao who would ride a bicycle to games in Shanghai. "We want to know because we want to be able to say that he's an easy guy to like," Hardisty says, "but nobody really has any idea what the real Yao Ming is like."

Unlike Olajuwon, who twice led the University of Houston to the NCAA championship game, Rockets fans and Americans in general have limited knowledge of Yao, a 21-year-old who remained relatively anonymous outside of China despite playing professionally for five seasons with the Shanghai Sharks. Perhaps they know that he has great shooting range and agility for his size, but they don't know what he likes to do, how he reacts to adversity and if he ever has fun.

The latter question comes in light of two extremely rigid public appearances -- at his televised tryout in front of NBA scouts in May and the satellite feed from Shanghai on draft night three weeks later.

The Ming market

Yao Ming's autographed player card hits store shelves Wednesday.

The first autographed cards of Yao Ming, scheduled to hit hobby stores Wednesday, are expected to command top dollar, based on the $150 price being paid for Upper Deck redemption cards of Yao on online auction sites the past couple of weeks.

Sa-ge Collectibles, which shipped boxes of its HIT product last Friday, and Press Pass, which will ship this Friday, each has about 650 Chinese script autographed cards of Yao.

Yao's agent, Erik Zhang, had Yao sign the cards in China and brought them back to the United States with him a week ago.

Reebok, which has exclusive replica and authentic jersey rights for the Houston Rockets, has to wait until Aug. 15 -- the day the NBA releases the official jersey numbers -- before it can print Yao jerseys, according to Reebok spokesman Ron Rogers. Rockets officials told ESPN.com that Yao, as of now, will wear No. 11 and will have his full name on the back of his jersey.

-- Darren Rovell

"Of course he can have fun," said his agent and cousin, Erik Zhang, who will begin his second year of business school at the University of Chicago in September.

But it's Zhang's job to help decide if an easy-going Yao is ever going to emerge much like Tiger Woods did in advertisements for Nike, Buick and American Express early in his professional career. That Woods is the gold standard of marketability today was made possible thanks to a concerted effort by his agency to show sports fans that he's not always serious.

"We are going to have to do market research and decide what brand best fits Yao Ming," said Zhang, who will likely enlist the help of University of Chicago business professor Jonathan Frenzen, a marketing professor who teaches "Laboratory in New Product and Strategy Development."

"It would help us determine if he should be endorsing a pharmaceutical company or an oil company," Zhang said. Students who take Frenzen's course help determine business strategy for real companies and in the past have worked with American Airlines, Frito Lay and Johnson & Johnson.

If the study is done, Zhang says the results would be ready by the end of November. Yao won't have time to do endorsement work before then anyway, since he is scheduled to arrive in Houston just two weeks before the start of the season. He's training with the Chinese national team and plans to play in the World Basketball Championships in Indianapolis, which begin Aug. 29, and the Asian Games in Busan, Korea, which end Oct. 14.

Yao had a Nike endorsement deal (he wears size 18 shoes) while playing in China and still has one year left on the contract. Zhang said terms of the last year are being reworked because the value of the contract will increase as a result of Yao playing in the NBA.

Other marketing deals are being considered, as both American- and Asian-based companies have inquired about Yao endorsing their products and services. Still, Zhang said, "we are taking plenty of time because the image of Yao Ming is more important than the quick profits that can be made." Zhang wouldn't disclose how much of his future endorsement income Yao would have to give back to Chinese authorities.

"He'd be perfect for domestic companies hoping to reach Chinese Americans," said David Carter, principal of The Sports Business Group, a sports marketing firm. "And he'd also be ideal for U.S. companies that hope to use him to extend their reach into China."

While Zhang is content to wait on branding and marketing Yao, the Rockets are not. "We are going full-speed ahead with our marketing plan and Yao is a big part of that," said Tim McDougall, the team's vice president of marketing. Yao is expected to sign a contract worth nearly $12.5 million over three years, and an agreement with Chinese authorities, who needed to OK his NBA participation, was sorted out before he was drafted.


	Rockets fans will get their first look at Yao on billboards around Houston beginning in August.

Next month, the Rockets will debut a bigger-than-life-sized picture of Yao's head on at least six billboards in Houston. Some will be in English and some in Chinese, but all will urge fans to "Be Part of Something Big." The Rockets staff also is planning cultural briefings in order to ensure they know how to best present Yao to the marketplace, McDougall said.

Even without the help, Yao is apparently selling. One Chinese businessman recently called the team to inquire about purchasing a block of 500 season tickets. Last season, the Rockets finished second to last in NBA attendance at 11,737 fans per game.

Fans already have taken their first shot at branding the center with a nickname. But reaching a consensus before the Rockets' first home game on Nov. 2, when they will take on Olajuwon and the Toronto Raptors, might be tough. In the month since Yao's selection, online message boards have filled with clever monikers. The team has received 1,796 suggestions on its official Web site since June 26.

Will it be "The Dynasty" or "The Dragon?" "Ming Kong" or "The Great Wall?" "Ming the Merciless" or "Apocalypse Yao?"

If a nickname won't do the trick of getting closer to the city's fans, maybe a McDonald's commercial will.

Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at darren.rovell@espnpub.com