MARKETING MIX OF ADIDAS

ADIDAS MARKETING STRATEGY

"Impossible is Nothing"

BEGINNING OF ADIDAS  

The company was started by Adolf Dassler in his mother's house; he was joined by his elder brother Rudolf in 1924 under the name Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory. Dassler assisted in the development of spiked running shoes (spikes) for multiple athletic events. To enhance the quality of spiked athletic footwear, he transitioned from a previous model of heavy metal spikes to utilising canvas and rubber. In 1949, following a breakdown in the relationship between the brothers, Adolf Dassler created Adidas, and Rudolf established Puma, which became Adidas' business rival.Business was successful and the Dasslers were selling 200,000 pairs of shoes every year before World War II.

ALL ABOUT Adidas 

Adidas, a company that started off with a core vision to support athletes, has always been true to its positioning that is highlighted by the Adidas slogan, “Impossible is Nothing.” 

A great brand or a company slogan lays out the complete brand philosophy in just one small phrase: it should explain what is the reason behind the very existence of a brand.

Though over shadowed by Nike and other sports brands in recent decades, Adidas is a super brand that exists to support athletes in its core sense; and the Adidas slogan did justice to what the brand stands for.

MARKETING MIX(4P's) OF ADIDAS

Adi Dassler, the founder of Adidas, had three guiding principles for his development work, from the time he made his first canvas training shoe for runners in 1920:

1.     To produce the best shoe for the requirements of the sport.

2.     To protect the athletes from injury.

3.     To make the shoe durable.

1 PRODUCT MIX.

The Adidas group has 4 main subsidiary’s. 

1.     Its has own brand name – Adidas, which is present in clothes as well as footwear. 

2.     Reebok which has overtaken by Adidas and is one of the leading subsidiary’s in the Adidas group. 

3.     Rockpot which specializes in outdoor footwear, apparel’s and accessories 

4.     Taylor made cloth which is focused on golfing clothes, equipment etc. Out of all the above subsidiary’s, Reebok is the strongest followed by Adidas.

2 PRICE MIX.

Adidas, because of its Style, Design & Promotion uses skimming prices as well as competitive pricing.

1. For run of the mill products, Adidas uses competitive pricing keeping in mind competitors like Nike, Reebok & Puma.
2.  The products which are newly introduced in the market & are uniquely designed, Adidas uses Skimming price.
3. Apparel’s of Adidas constantly use skimming price & are higher priced due to brand equity of Adidas in the apparel’s market. 
4. Adidas never uses Penetrative pricing because that will affect the brand equity of Adidas. 
5. In fact, the higher price point helps in the price quality approach and psychologically, customers think that a higher price will mean better quality as well. 
6. Thus, Adidas rarely drops its prices.

3 PLACE MIX.

1.     The major way in which Adidas is sold is through retail outlets. 

2.     Adidas has its own exclusive stores in which the material is provided directly from the company.

3.     many multi brand showrooms will also have Adidas apparel’s and footwear on display. These multi brand showrooms get the products from a distributor.

4.     The last mode of distribution is online. The products are sold through online medium via fashion stores like myntra.com as well as the online website of Adidas.  

Thus the distribution channel of Adidas is as follows

1) Manufacturing > Adidas outlets > End customer
2) Manufacturing > Distributor > Multi brand showrooms> End customer
3) Manufacturing > Online fashion websites / Adidas website > End customer

Due to the excellent brand equity of Adidas, the operating margins are fairly high thereby keeping the distribution channel motivated. A happy distribution channel means better promotion for the company.

4 PROMOTION MIX.

The creative team of Adidas is known to pump adrenaline in their customers through ads which are well made, very creative and filled with energy. These ads attract the customers towards the brand by sending the right marketing message to the customer.

The tagline of Adidas “Impossible is nothing” is in itself a very powerful statement for the brand.

1.     Adidas markets through various marketing channels  but the majority of marketing is concentrated on television and product placements. 

2.     Product placement (Brand Ambassador) is the way of promotion for Adidas. The popularity of the brand is because it ties up with the top players across the world such as Lionel messi, Ronald inho, Sachin Tendulkar and various others.

3.     Adidas also sponsors teams and some of the top teams include Real Madrid, France, Great Britain (in football), England and South Africa (in cricket) and several others. 

4.     The line marketing of Adidas includes some very creative outdoor campaigns as well as events marketing.

5.     Sales promotions and trade promotions are also regularly offered by Adidas to their channel partners to promote the sales of the brand.  

This concludes the marketing mix of Adidas.

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTH

1.     Adidas sponsors major sporting events including Olympics and major sportsmen and teams.

2.      The company has worldwide presence and is internationally recognized

3.     Adidas has a much diversified product portfolio ranging from sports shoes, equipment to clothing and accessories.

4.      Excellent advertising through TV's, online ads, print media, hoardings etc.

WEAKNESS

1.     The products by Adidas can sometimes be costly due to innovative technology or production method.

2.     Stiff competition and similar big brands means customers have high brand switching.

OPPORTUNITIES

1.     To keep up with the competition, Adidas generates close to 60 new foot-friendly designs each year.

2.     Tie-up with emerging sports teams/clubs/players internationally can boost Adidas's brand presence.

3.     Brand building by setting up sponsored sports academies.

THREATS

1.     Other brands offering more styles and varieties, thus more competition.

2.     Threats from other competitive brand that produce sports equipment and accessories at a lesser cost.

3.     Pirated/fake imitations affect brand image of Adidas.

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KHUZEMA BURHANI

khuzemakb63@gmail.com