Haier and the Olympic Games
On August 12, 2005, Haier Group Co. Ltd. signed a contract with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) in Qingdao making Haier the first official home appliances supplier in the history of the Olympic Games. Qingdao is one of the co-host cities for the Olympic Games and is the site of the Olympic sailing events.
Haier shares the values of the Olympic Spirit, “faster, higher, stronger”, which are symbolized in Haier’s corporate culture of “challenge oneself constantly, have the courage to break through and continue to innovate”. The essence of the Olympic Spirit, in the eyes of Haier, is the same as the spirit of an enterprise that faces challenges and overcomes them in the highly competitive global marketplace.
The Olympic Games are the greatest sporting event in the world, and being associated with the five rings will inevitably raise Haier’s brand profile on the national and international stage. From the company’s beginnings in 1984, Haier has aimed at becoming a world-class brand and a truly global company. Haier has now entered its globalization stage and is present in all key markets around the world. The sponsorship of the Beijing Olympic Games offers the opportunity to draw the attention of the worldwide audience to its brand and products.
Haier leverages its Olympic sponsorship to bring the Olympic Games to households in China and successfully link the Olympic Spirit to Haier’s corporate image, increasing the consumer’s trust in the Haier brand. Upon signing the sponsorship program with BOCOG in 2005, Haier has launched an ambitious marketing program to spread the Olympic Spirit around China.
The first event started on the day the contract with BOCOG was signed, the activity, dubbed “Setting the Olympic Sail, The Haier Ship Has Embarked Upon its Voyage”, featured a ship named “Haier-Qingdao”. The ship sailed for 100 days, covering 2,200 miles visiting eight Chinese coastal cities before reaching its final destination, Hong Kong. Each city on the voyage became a stage for celebrations with sailing regattas, exhibitions, and activities inviting the local residents to joyfully embrace the Olympic Spirit.
In 2007, Haier joined hands with CCTV to conduct the “Haier Olympic City Journey” television program. The program was held in fifty cities across China and invited residents to participate in mini-Olympics and feel the Olympic Spirit in their city. Such star Olympic athletes as Xu Haifeng, the first Chinese gold medalist, and Gu Jun, a Sydney Olympics badminton gold medalist, participated in the program. The program was broadcast on CCTV national television as well as local television in each city, helping to spread the shared values of Haier and the Olympic Games throughout the country.
In 2008, Haier teamed up with Sohu.com to launch yet another exciting activity called the “Haier Olympic Gold Medal Families” to be conducted in over 40 cities throughout China. For this activity, Haier has recruited 100 families from 1000 candidate families in Beijing and Qingdao who pursue the Olympic quality of life, to receive and host foreign visitors during the Olympic Games, introduce them to Chinese culture, and spread the Olympic Spirit. Former star athletes have joined the program, including Qian Hong, the Barcelona 1992 Olympics women’s 100 meters butterfly champion. Qian Hong and her family were the first to be selected to be an Olympic Gold Medal Family. Qian Hong said, “I have long been thinking about what I can do for the Beijing Olympic Games. The Haier Olympic Gold Medal Family campaign has provided me with an opportunity to let me truly become a host to receive and treat foreign friends and help the world understand China today! We are all Olympic hosts. I feel greatly honored that my family has become Haier’s first Olympic Gold Family. The door of my family is open to international friends. They are welcome to learn about Chinese culture and experience the Beijing Olympic Spirit!”
Haier also helps less privileged children discover the Olympic Spirit. The Olympic Games is a long anticipated event for the whole nation, and the less fortunate should not be excluded from the excitement brought by the Games. Following the Olympic theme of “The People’s Olympics”, in June 2007 Haier launched the nationwide program “Haier Olympic Project Hope” in partnership with the China Youth Development Foundation. Haier contributed 3 million RMB to 30 Project Hope primary schools throughout the country, equipping each school with an “Haier electronic reading room” comprising a high definition Haier television set as well as a library so the children can watch the competition and share the joy brought by the Olympic Games while learning about Olympic history and experiencing the Olympic movement.
In addition to the 77 Project Hope Schools funded since June 2007, Haier has pledged to contribute to one Project Hope School for each gold medal won by a Chinese athlete during the Olympic Games.
As the official home appliances sponsor of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Haier is providing home appliances to the Olympic venues. Haier got its first taste of the Olympic experience by providing air-conditioners to the Athens 2004 Olympic stadium and used this valuable experience to design a line of products for the Beijing Games using as a guide the official themes of “Green Olympics” and “High-tech Olympics”. Thirty-one categories of Haier products are installed in 37 Olympic venues in Beijing and the co-host cities, including the National Stadium, the Aquatic Center, the Athletes village, the Qingdao Sailing Center, the Beijing Shooting Range Hall, Laoshan Bicycle Moto Cross (BMX) Venue, Peking University Gymnasium, Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium, the National Indoor Stadium, Beijing Workers’ Stadium, Beijing Workers’ Gymnasium, Capital Indoor Stadium, Fengtai Sports Center Softball Field, Beijing Shooting Range CTF, Beijing Institute of Technology Stadium, Beijing Olympic Green Hockey Stadium, Beijing Olympic Green Archery Field and Beijing Olympic Beach Volleyball Stadium and so on.
The 60,000 products installed in the Olympic Venues include:
- Natural refrigerant refrigerators in all the stadiums and gyms of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. All the refrigerators use a natural refrigerant - carbon dioxide. Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is the largest event ever to use only environmental friendly refrigerators.
- Detergent-free Washing Machines have been installed in the more than 20 laundries that Haier has set up in the Olympic Village and the Media Village to provide quick and clean laundry services for all officials, journalists, athletes and their family. This machine includes 32 technical patents and has been praised as the "future of washing machines" by experts because it has overturned traditional laundry concepts. The machine is equipped with a diaphragm electrolyzer which can electrolyze the running water into low acidic and low alkaline water. This low alkaline water can replace detergents to clean up the dirt and oil stains on the clothes, and the low acidic water is used for sterilization in rinsing to prevent skin allergies from the chemical residue. The discharged water is neutral and won't pollute the environment. When using detergents, the clothes have to be rinsed three times. With this machine, they only need to be rinsed once. Experiments show that its effect on cleaning is 25% higher, while its water and power consumption is 50% lower than typical washing machines.
- Solar powered Air-conditioners have been installed in the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center in August 2006, making it the first Olympic stadium to use solar powered products. This cost effective system reduces the CO2 emission of the sailing center by approximately 16 tons.
- The Super-silent Refrigerator was designed specially for the Olympic Games and has been praised by BOCOG. These refrigerators will equip the Olympic Media Village providing a comfortable working environment for the reporters. This refrigerator uses semiconductors instead of compressors which is environmental-friendly. In addition, its small-size makes it easy to place in hotel room cabinets.
- The Haier Olympic memorial refrigerator allows both athletes and consumers to enjoy the high quality of Olympic products by using creative technologies such as light wave enhancing freshness, DC full frequency conversion and full temperature zone. With the light wave enhancing freshness technology, five kinds of emulated natural light waves are continuously radiated to allow photosynthesis of fruits and vegetables in the refrigerators and promote the synthesis of vitamins, chlorophyll and other nutrients. This combination of technologies ensures that fruits and vegetables are kept fresh at all times. The rotating speed of the compressor can be regulated along with the change of environment or type of food stored in the refrigerator to achieve longer preservation, energy saving and noise control.
- Haier shockproof water heaters are designed to meet BOCOG's strict standards on product functions and performance. The water heaters are safe, easy to use and hidden. The shockproof envelope and safety warning system incorporated in the Haier heaters will prevent failures and will emit a warning buzz if a potential electricity leak is detected.
- Haier 08 Olympic Wind air-conditioner is the only air conditioner that provides "Grade A" fresh air. It incorporates technical patents such as "Double Fresh Air" "AIP Ionization Purification" and "Constant Temperature & Dehumidification" and also has a self-cleaning function allowing the user to set the cleaning time automatically and keep the air filter clean and unobstructed, providing cleaner air, and saving energy.
- The Luxurii Drum Washing machine is an energy-saving drum washing machine with a laundry capacity of 6kg. It sets the washing time based on the water quality index and stops automatically as soon as the washing is finished.