Business Environment: External And The External Environment Of Adidas

There are many sport apparel companies that exist throughout the world such as but not limited to Nike, Reebok, Under Armour and Puma. Adidas is a prime example of a famous global company that is continuously growing. Athletes endorse in these sporting apparel companies because these companies resemble fitness and a lifestyle of sport. Adidas products can be most department stores such as Dick’s Sporting Goods, Academy Sports, and Champs. The target audience is for athletes in high performance. The adidas company is very successful in their financial status and this report will analyze the company’s overall financial and performance status.

Purpose of this paper is to analyze Germany as it is profitable for Nike to open a store in Germany, this paper start with the background both of the company and country and continue with the PESTLE analysis, Porter’s five forces analysis of the company’s competitive environment, strategic recommendations to avoid problems uncovered from the PESTLE or Porter’s analysis and the conclusion of the current state of the company and its operating environment.

There are Cats and Dogs , Coffee and Tea and then there are Nike and Adidas. It is no twist in the story that they are arch rivals. But what is the Plot? Nike and Adidas seemed to have a good and almost equal market initially in the ‘00s. Adidas then dropped the mic with its super popular Y-3 label and signed David Beckham for a lifetime $160m deal while Nike went shopping and came back with Hurley, Converse and Starter for an estimate of $450m. While backstage Current CEO Herbert Hainer took over in 2001 and Nike Co—founder Phil Knight stepped down from CEO a year later. Meanwhile Michael Jordan hung up his sneakers in 2003.

Adidas is a well-known sports company that manufactures shoes, sportswear and accessories. Adolf Dassler in Germany established the company in 1949. Adidas was started in a washroom and over the years triumphed the world. Recently Adidas has been going through a lot of turbulence. In the year 2014 the company stocks went down staggeringly. Adidas recently closed down close to 200 stores in Russia due to deteriorating economy. Nike has been giving Adidas a stiff competition. Adidas definitely need better planning and better leadership to give its competitors a healthy competition.

In addition, these companies are able to easily compete in the sports apparel market because the barriers to entry are low. On the other hand, many companies should think twice before entering the market. One reason is the large capital costs that are required to meet consumer demand in the market. In addition to large capital costs, some of the largest companies have gained customer loyalty based on their strong marketing skills. For example, Under Armour, Nike, Adidas, Reebok, ASICS, make new entrants into this industry much more difficult to compete with when these companies have a big share in the market already. According to Exhibit 4 in the textbook, it shows the major competitors and brands in 2013. Nonetheless, competition is intense in the sports industry market but, the high levels of product differentiation can also act as a barrier to entry for many companies because company’s need a high level of marketing to market their brand to consumers.

Competitors in the industry can wreak havoc on the bottom line for a company. With rivals, a price competition usually ensues, which benefits the customers but hurts the competing businesses that share a common strategy. In reviewing rival sellers, many competitors exist within the sports apparel and footwear industry, but most of them are unable to compete with the industry giants, Nike and Adidas. They are well seated in the industry and their sales reveal this ultimate strength, however, Under Armour is putting pressure on these mammoths. In 2015, global sales of sports clothing and footwear equated to $250 billion, of which Nike grabbed $30.6 billion, Adidas held in its grasp $18.8 billion and Under Armour had a much smaller piece of the pie, at $3.9 billion globally. In reviewing these numbers, it looks like Under Armour is really subpar to the industry giants, but this is not exactly the case. Under Armour in the past couple of

In the following essay, I will write about Adidas Company and will describe the relationship among its various quality costs which are failure costs, internal failure costs, external failure costs, appraisal costs and prevention costs. In addition, I will analyze the efforts the company should focus on to further improve the quality of its products/services. Therefore, this essay is divided to 3 main points which I think the company should focus to improve its quality. The first point is the prevention cost which’s the most important quality cost that

Consumer demand risks for this group occur because as product demands change, it takes the company on average 12 to 18 months to obtain new products. If consumer demand changes too quickly, this can result in revenue loss. Over a period of time, if the consumer demands are not met in a timely fashion, this can be detrimental and critical to Adidas Group. Industry consolidations risks result in decreased bargaining power and price wars. It could also lead to inflated discounts on Adidas products as well as limited space within the retailers. This risk comes from market consolidation and strategic alliances. Political and regulatory risks- trade policies in particular, stem from restrictions on importing, tariffs, and other factors that could influencing or disrupt the free flow of goods within the company and other vendors. There are several sources that legal risks could come from. The main legal risks that the Adidas Group is faced with are patents and third-party trademark infringement. With so many competitors in the same industry, they must be careful not to raise concern for risk. Risks from product counterfeiting and imitation come from brand and design theft. Social and environmental risks for Adidas Group refer to the company’s responsibilities to their employees, vendors and the environment in which they provide.

As the brand name of Nike continue to soar, other companies in the industry; learning from the success Nike has experienced, start focusing more on brand development to keep up with the increasing levels of competition. These companies resort to brand maintenance, which has become the main target in this industry due to product differentiation made by Nike. Nike, being market-advantaged, produces an extensive range of products, through which it gains a balanced level of profits. This has influenced rival companies to initiate a new range of products in their businesses too. Previously these companies had high risks of failing in business, if their single products did not appeal to the market. Due to the impact of Nike’s business strategy, the other companies are also enlarging their product range,

While other areas of responsibility of Adidas would be product development, in which they carry out strategic analysis for reviewing their existing plans and identifying newer opportunities and risk associated. There two main forms of strategic analysis and that would be SWOT Analysis and Ansoff’s matrix, Adidas uses Ansoff’s matrix as their model to review their product

Nike‘s vertical structure includes CEO Mark Parker and a board of directors chaired by co-founder Phil Knight. Although Nike has functional divisions and divisions based on specific products it is not a matrix organization. In a matrix organization, employees report to a functional and divisional manage. At Nike, employees report to the divisional manager and the president of each division reports directly to the CEO. Nike’s continued product innovation and successful marketing are due to the combination of functional and divisional organization using an operations department to insure communication between divisions. There is division of labor but it is not clearly identified. With a more pronounced division of labor and levels of direct supervision Nike can improve its

Adidas has also been referred to as a ‘virtual enterprise’ however, it may be better characterized as a ‘strategic network’ because its

Adidas was founded by Adi Dassler on August 18, 1949 in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Adidas has been in business longer than Nike, they have had their logo since the inception; thus, the three stripes on the side of their shoes. In Spring of 2015, they came out with their new strategic business plan called, “Creating the New”. The focus was on Cities, Speed, and Open Source. According to Herbert Hainer, the CEO at that time stated, “The company is working every day to inspire and enable people to harness the power of sport in their lives (Adidas Group, n.d.). Adidas current competitive strategy is not the same as Nike’s competitive strategy. In October 2016, Kasper Rorsted became Adidas’ current CEO. He believes health and fitness will continue to become a lifestyle not a fad. Furthermore, he wants to expound the three clear strategic choices: Speed, Cities, and Open Source.” They are more focused on the broad target market, a low-cost provider strategy. In March 2017, he updated the focus for Adidas to include “Corporate Culture, Digital, One Adidas, North America and Portfolio.” (Adidas Group, n.d.).

Since Adidas Group is a very large corporation; it has to structure the organization efficiently and effectively in order to

Adidas is a major German sports apparel manufacturer, which was founded in 1948. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and the second biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world, after Nike. The company's clothing and shoe designs typically feature three parallel bars. The company revenue for 2009 was listed at €10.38 billion. The market segmentation; targeting and position play an important role in this company. This essay will use the three factors to analyze this company.