International Brand Management Assignment_Adidas (GC0437)

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction.

2.0 Research.

2.1 Adidas product lines and brand.

2.2 Competitors’ products, brands, and strategies.

2.3 Adidas’s international markets.

2.4 Use of product management tools (Product Life Cycle, and BCG matrices)

3.0 Findings.

3.1 Adidas products’ positioning in more than one country.

3.2 Competitors’ products’ positioning in more than one country.

3.3 Markets are covered by Adidas.

3.4 Adidas’s gaps in the product portfolio.

4.0 Conclusion.

5.0 Recommendation.

5.1 Recommendations for Adidas.

5.2 Proposed timeframe to implement the recommendations.

5.3 How the competitors might react with the recommendations provided.

5.3 Recommendations for reaction to competitors.

References.

1.0 Introduction

The aim of this paper is to audit an international brand 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 who 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).

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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 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).

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…………………

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