Marketing Principles: Adidas

In an effort to get as far away from the beach as possible, they put their first store in the Meadows Mall in Las Vegas. However, they backtracked with their next four locations, each one of which was located in California.

It is a fact that nowadays Adidas appears to be one of the most famous multinational company, which designs and produces sports clothing, shoes, and different kind of accessories. The popularity of the brand is hard to describe, but the is no doubt that today it is one of the most successful clothing corporations in the world and it is the largest sportswear producer in Europe as well. The corporation with the well-known motto "Impossible is nothing" presents the perfect example of the efficiency, comfort, and sustainable development, considering its strategy which is focused on integrity, diversity, and performance.

In this portion of the report, I will conduct an analysis of Asics’ two biggest competitors, Adidas and Nike. In 2015, Asics stores totaled at 785 worldwide. These stores were located in the Americas, Japan, EMEA, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Oceania. In comparison, Nike had a total stores of 803 worldwide and Adidas doubled with a total of 1,616 stores according to ASICS company documents, NIKE, INC. 2016 Annual Report, and ADIDAS Group Annual Report 2015.

In the running era, the two brothers were separated and Rudolf began his own company Puma while Adi took over Adidas. The original name Adidas came up with a logo, the three stripes under that today stand out in the market. The company Adidas gradually gained the stance in the market after the logo was introduced in the global market. Adidas products were used in different sports during the Olympics and revolved around renowned athletes. At this time, the business had up to 100 employees who were engaged in the production of sport shoes for 11 different sports. Despite of the separation, the company grew and became the leading sportswear manufacturing company

The company I am presenting is Nike which was founded in 1965 by the athlete Phil Knight. Nike is a well known brand which is selling its products worldwide and has 36% of the market share.

Adidas is a large sportswear brand with a large customer base for all genders and ages. Adidas who is a very similar brand to Nike, have exclusive ranges, including their Jordan range and Original, they are also a

Adidas general approach is to be a sustainable company. Adidas Group is one of the global leaders within the sporting goods industry. Adidas offering a broad range of products around the core brands such as adidas, Reebok, TaylorMade, Rockport and Reebok-CCM Hockey. Headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany. From the assesment, adidas Group’s sustainability strategy is rooted in the Group’s values which are performance, passion, integrity and diversity. Furthermore, the adidas Group is selected to join the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI), which is positively welcomed by investors who integrate sustainability considerations into their portfolios.

The name is easy to remember for the consumers, you can recall ability and you don’t confuse it with any other brand. Logo The three mark stripes is without doubt the quintessential adidas symbol. It was created by the founder Adolf Dassler and first used on footwear in 1949. In 1972 they launched the trefoil symbol which is representing the adidas Originals line today. The present corporate logo was introduced in 1996 and consists of three bars and the name adidas written in smallcap. The three bars represent a mountain and stand for future challenges of the consumer. The consumer should have the impression that with wearing adidas every goal can be achieved and he/ she can get over every challenge. The adidas logo is recognizable for every consumer, bright, sporty and easy to remember. It differentiates adidas from any other brand in their competing frame.

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.).

1. What is adidas’ position in the athletic shoe market? How does the brand seem to be doing in this market? Position: the position of adidas has transferred from “leading supplier of soccer footwear worldwide” to “leading sport brand”. Adidas was founded in Germany in 1920. In 1995, it became a public company as well as the leading supplier of soccer footwear due to its great performance of footwear sales. In 1998, adidas began to move into the U.S. market. Adidas doubled its U.S. market share within only one year, so it hoped to continue to make big move in following years. In its way to U.S. market, adidas confront with the

Starting out post World War II, Adidas was an important provider of the national German soccer team. Later, Adidas they changed their marketing approach to expand their products to “fringe sports,” such as high jumping and bobsledding. By the 1990s, Adidas secured their global sales on soccer footwear. In 1998, Adidas began to focus on the U.S market. By sponsoring some famous basketball players such as Kobe Bryant and by doing so Adidas was able to gain doubled market share.

This Adidas retail store happens to be located near to New York City; which according to the 2010 U.S. city population ranking, it is number one with an approximated population of 8,175,133, which at least 30% of this statistics fit within the 13- to 30-year-old target market of Adidas. This makes of this area a really good trading area that geographically contains a large amount of potential customers of this particular retailer store.

Considering each sub brand, it uses market coverage strategy which identifies as a market coverage strategy in which a company goes after a large share of one or a few submarket. (Kotler et al 2010, p279) For example, Adidas Orginal promotes classic style. It comprise the side collection of numbers of items such as sneakers, clothes, eyewear an watches. In addition, it promotes for different gender, also it targets on customers refer to their lifestyle, which are interest, hobbies and personality , for example, the people like skateboarding would like Adidas Original. adidas Originals with its Trefoil logo has become a relevant part of many people’s lives, whether they are skaters, rockers, artists, musicians, sneakerheads, sports fans and so on. In 2011, Adidas Originals promotes a new line which is

Adidas is the second largest sportswear and apparels manufacturer (Dogiamis & Vijayashanker, 2009). By far, Adidas holds a market share of 22% (Dogiamis & Vijayashanker, 2009). Adidas had also registered the infamous ‘3 stripes’ as its trademark (Berntson, Jarnemo & Philipson, 2006). The founders of Adidas, Adolf and Rudolf Dassler had the vision of providing athletes with the best suited pair of shoes for their respective sports (Dogiamis & Vijayashanker, 2009). In efforts of achieving that, Adidas is had used the strategy of collaborating with important athletes to gain their insights on the products offered (Berntson, Jarnemo & Philipson, 2006). This contributes to the fact that Adidas had earned

Today, the adidas® product range extends from shoes, apparel and accessories for basketball, soccer, fitness and training to adventure, trail and golf . adidas®, like many companies during the 1960s, believed in large volume sales. Lot of effort was put into advertising the brand in the early days through sporting celebrities. One of the main reasons that the colour of the 3 stripes on the running shoes was changed from black or dark brown to white was to facilitate easy brand recognition and identification, which in turn would promote the overall sales. The ideology was that the ability of a brand to stand out in the market place will enhance its chance of standing out in the customers mind. adidas® produced shoes that could be used for different types of sports.