Adidas is a legendary sports brand with the ambition and emphasis on performance of athletes in there pertinent sports. Adidas aims to help athletes perform comfortably at different levels and has successfully achieved this so far.
Segmentation & Target Market
Segmentation
Segmentation of Adidas is truly based on geographic and demographic aspects. Geographically Adidas has always targeted developed countries and cities in a different segment and under developed nations and regions in a separate segment. In demographics it basically considers age, gender, profession, income and social class in particular. While in behavioral segment it focuses on knowledge base of customers, attitude, loyalty and product usage. Thus company designs its promotional events to reward its loyal customers via discounts and coupons etc. It further segments the market based on lifestyles and choices of customers as well.
Target Market
For Adidas the products decides the target market and considering that their target market usually is urban youth and adults with the component of lifestyle added to it. That is the region why, Adidas has always targeted established cities and countries of the world to reach out to their target market meticulously.
Competitors & Competitive Analysis
Competitors
The key competitors of Adidas are Nike, Reebok, PUMA, Fila, and Converse. the competition has been quite strong at few regions where competitors are considered better but with time and quality of products Adidas has made its own place in key regions of the world.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
• Financially well-established firm with very good financial repute.
• Extremely well-built brand name which is recognized in key regions of the world as topnotch brand.
• Adidas’s focus lies on key sports being played in the world i.e. football, basketball, tennis, which helps the company retain its presence on global level and improve the customer base year by year.
Weaknesses
• Presence of Adidas isn’t targeted globally as company ignores smaller regions of the world thus leaving behind a significant chunk of possible sales.
• Transportation of goods takes place to several expensive regions of the world with a lot of travel expense involved, which makes the margin quite lower.
Opportunities
• Adidas should explore other product lines besides sports as it is an eminent brand and people have a set reliability already that will help achieve increased sales of any new product line too.
• Company should think of knocking the unexplored markets i.e. smaller economies and other business hubs where sales would be much easier.
• Opportunity to operate manufacturing units of Adidas in low cost regions of the world will help reduce the overheads of the company in general.
Threats
• The competition in this industry is a lot due to several players in the market for sports products. Adidas has a threat of any player booming in the market anytime with smart strategies.
• As the business is dependent over the sports thus it highly matters how political decisions regarding sports are being made
Marketing Strategy
Adidas focuses on branding and marketing itself as a unique name in the market when people talk about sportswear. Same is the reason they used this slogan in their last promotional campaign, i.e. “Nothing is Impossible”. This gives an insight into company’s vision towards its brand image and products in specific. Adidas has always kept its originality and has been working hard on customizing the products as per customer’s needs since start. This is how Adidas has planned its marketing strategy so far and onwards.
Customers
Customer Analysis
Customers of Adidas are all sports people who either play supports or supply sports products at different levels. That is the reason Adidas always focuses on sport events worldwide for branding and marketing its product lines.
Core Competency
Core competency of Adidas is sports and thus the product line is based over sports which is highly trendy in the market and serves as competitive edge for the company.
Marketing Mix
Place
Adidas is a multinational firm thus it wants to place its product mostly in the areas where multilingual and diverse customers exist so they can launch their product at a bigger scale. Moreover they have plans to place their products at their own outlets instead of retailers so customer can buy directly from Adidas.
Price
Currently Adidas carries a huge customer reliable customer base and their prices are also competitive in terms of other companies around in the market. But improvements in prices can bring much more customers in region like Pakistan and India.
Product
The product line of Adidas is extensive in terms of Sportswear especially when it comes to football, tennis and basketball. Its product line works on uniqueness and originality.
Promotion
Adidas primarily works to impress its customers and targets a lot of middle class people who are its potential customers, through competitive prices. Other usual methods of promotion involve TV advertisements, social media campaigns, free coupons and presenting at festivals.
Current Marketing Strategy
Adidas has established its brand across the world, so it has to implement both international marketing strategy and local marketing strategy. Now due to limited local market, Adidas mainly focuses on international market and supplies major %age of their products to global customers. Thus it focuses on key sport events like FIFA football leagues, basketball competitions, tennis tournaments also with high priority being given to Olympics. During Olympics, Adidas sponsors several games to market its product lines and also to study the preferences of diverse customers. This has always served as the key event for Adidas to showcase its products and present itself on a global platform.
Recommendation for Strategy Re-vamp
Adidas is doing great in the field of sports and serves its customers by several attractive marketing strategies. The idea which can probably enhance Adidas’s customer base immensely is to focus rather at an extensive level when planning strategies. i.e. events in established cities of smaller countries will enhance the global presence and overall sales of the company. Similarly with such big name, Adidas is still only focusing the Sports market, while it can either introduce a new product line or promote the same line in other general target groups as well.
References
Cleverism, (2018). Accessed: 20th Feb 2018. Website: https://www.cleverism.com/understanding-marketing-mix-concept-4ps/
Marketing 91, (2018). Accessed: 20th Feb 2018. Website: https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-strategy-of-adidas/
Cheshnotes, (2018). Accessed: 20th Feb 2018. Website: https://www.cheshnotes.com/marketing-branding-strategies-adidas/