Brand Management Assignment with The Adidas (GC0351)
1.0 Introduction
The aim of this paper is to audit an international brand in comparison to its competitors. The band’s name is Adidas. The first section of this report conducts research on Adidas brand and product lines, position in the global market, competitors’ brands and product lines. This section also uses product management tools (BCG matrix and Product Life Cycle) to analyze the Adidas product positions. The second section of this report summarizes the finding of the research by defining Adidas product’s position, competitors’ product position, market covered by Adidas in the global market, and identifying potential gaps in Adidas product line. The third section of this report outlines the conclusion of the research and finding on Adidas. Finally, this paper provides recommendations for Adidas.
2.0 Research
2.1 Adidas product lines and brand
Adidas’s brand, brand strategy, product lines
Adidas is one of the market leaders in the global footwear and sportswear industry. It is a designer, developer, manufacturer, and seller of varieties of footwear and sportswear items along with training materials, apparel, equipment and services. Adidas ensures quality and interiority along with affordable prices for all levels of consumers. Adidas has now developed a new strategy, called “Creating New” to improve its brand desirability by 2020 (Adidas Annual Report, 2016). Adidas has a number of sub-brands. The main sub-brands of Adidas and their activities are included in Appendix 1.
Image: A number of Adidas’s sub-brands Source: Emage (2012)
Adidas marketing mix (4p’s)
4Ps | Analysis of Adidas |
Products | Adidas has a wide variety of items including footwear, sportswear, training materials, apparel, equipment and services (Adidas Annual Report, 2016). |
Place | Adidas is now a presence in more than 160 countries across the world. The distribution channels include its website and stores (about 2445), and selling through different wholesalers and retailers (D&B Hoovers, 2016). |
Price | Adidas offers competitive and affordable prices for all levels of customers. The product prices also focus on value-added features (Adidas Annual Report, 2016). |
Promotion | Adidas applies several promotional and marketing techniques and promotes its products and services through both conventional and digital marketing channels (Adidas Annual Report, 2016). |
Adidas’s brand image and brand elements
Ali (2015) said Adidas’s brand elements (brand name, logo, celebrity/slogan, and packaging) are memorable, meaningful, likable, transferable, adaptable, and protectable those have improved brand association, brand awareness, brand perception, and brand appearance of Adidas. Therefore, Adidas has been able to attract its potential and target customers by providing strong, positive and high-quality products. In addition, Adidas has been able to build up strong brand equity that has created successful brand elements and allowed Adidas to be ranked the world’s top 70 most popular and valuable brands (Ali, 2015).
Adidas’s brand perception, awareness, and appearance
Millions of people across the world are now aware of Adidas’s brand. Adidas has improved its brand awareness through promotional techniques and both digital and conventional marketing techniques. Then, Adidas ensures quality products with integrity and affordable prices for all of the customers that increase its brand perception among the target and potential customers. Next, Adidas is very innovative and creative in bringing new ideas and provide an attractive design that increases the brand appearance of Adidas (Adidas Annual Report, 2016).
Our Recommended Resources:
Target audiences and USP
The key market segments of Adidas are young men and women, and children who have a passion for sports and/or fatnesses. The target group of Adidas is the urban upper-middle and upper classes. The positioning for Adidas is its stands for passion for sports. The unique selling point of Adidas is it is a worldwide famous company for sports equipment, clothing, and related accessories (MBA Skool, 2016).
2.2 Competitors’ products, brands and strategies
According to D&B Hoovers (2016), the key competitors of Adidas are Nike, Callaway Golf Company, Puma. Nike and its sub-brands (including Under Armour) are considered as the main primary competitor of Adidas (Adidas Annual Report, 2016). This is because it offers almost similar products with quality and integrity and reasonable prices to the consumers. In addition, Nike is a very famous brand in footwear and sportswear items across the world that has been able to attract millions of customers along with high market share and revenue (Nike Annual Report, 2016). According to Spiderbook (2015), the top competitors of Adidas are Nike, Umbro, Puma, Kappa, Li Ning, Warrior Sports, Ecco, Millennial, Prada, Russell, and Alta Gracia. Nike and Adidas are the industry leaders, where other brands are capturing small portions of markets. This means Adidas is facing great challenges from Nike.
2.3 Adidas’s international markets
Adidas’s market share in the global market in 2015
According to Wilson (2015), Adidas is gaining the second-highest percentage (11%) of market share in the global footwear and sportswear industry, whereas its key competitors have gained the highest percentage (60%) of market share in this industry…………….