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MARKETINGPLAN.docxRunning head: MARKETING PLAN 1
MARKETING PLAN 7
Marketing Plan- Adidas
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Marketing Plan- Adidas
Brief History
Adidas AG is a multinational company founded in 1949 by Adi Dassler and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany (Simon & Dave, 2017). The company designs and manufactures clothes and clothes, as well as other accessories. The Adidas group company was built in 1920, but it was not until 1954 when the company celebrated its first global success. In the middle 80s, Adidas faced its first challenge financially, which led it to open its doors for investors. In 1995, the company offered the Frankfurt's exchange market (Simon & Dave, 2017). In 2006, through the application of varying marketing strategies, Adidas took over Reebok. By 2010, the company had 169 subsidiaries globally and accumulated massive profits (Winter & Connor, 2017). Through its brand, the company sponsors numerous sports such as Olympic Games, Paralympics, and Soccer Championships.
Successes
One of the greatest successes of Adidas is its excellent brand value. The company has one of the most trusted sports brands, with Nike and ESPN being the only significant competitors (Winter & Connor, 2017). The brand of the company is also iconic and holds a prestigious legacy. Over the years, the company has nurtured a prestigious and robust gift that influences and shapes many societies globally. Adidas is also famous for being an incredibly innovative company. The company prioritizes product quality by ensuring that its products are of high quality (Winter & Connor, 2017). Another success of Adidas Company is its diversified portfolio. While this company's brand is restricted within the industry of sportswear, it has diversified its products to include apparel, hardware accessories, and Footwear.
Notably, the company has a general preference for young customers. The customer base has given the company an international loyal customer base, especially among teenagers and young adults (Simon & Dave, 2017). The company's success also originates from the successful management of its supply chain. Through this supply chain, the company outsources the majority of its manufacturing. Notably, the company is financially stable, making it possible to sustain its competitive advantage over other footwear companies.
Challenges
One of the most significant challenges of Adidas Company is that it outsources most of its products' production to independent manufacturing or 3rd party suppliers. This causes the company to over depend on foreign suppliers (Simon & Dave, 2017). Secondly, the company is not able to reach low-income earners due to their expensive products. The company also has a limited line of products since the company only focuses on sportswear. As such, the company can suffer significant losses if the demand for sportswear goes down.
Globalization is also a significant challenge for Adidas, for it increases the chance of the company facing higher competition. Globalization is making it easy for smaller companies to penetrate the market (Simon & Dave, 2017). The company also can face more dominance of suppliers since they hold more bargaining power. The increase in fake products also threatens the company.
Three Corporate Strategic Goals
One of the significant corporate strategic goals of Adidas is to increase their online presence. The company also aims at investing more in Smart materials that can give it more competitiveness in the industry. Due to the grown economic situations of developing companies, Adidas wants to invest more in premium sportswear production. The company also intends to expand more globally and diversify its products to improve its profitability and market value.
Strategic Plan and Focus.
Being the largest shoe-wear manufacturer in Europe and the second-largest company after Nike, Adidas strives to be a global leader. Adidas aims to be a leader of sports products globally in sporting products with its brand mainly being on sorting lifestyle and passion for sports (Abraham, 2016). The company is committed to continuously strengthening its products and brands to improve its competitive position. The focus of the company is to delight its customers with numerous products and solutions.
Identify the Company’s Core Competency and Sustainable Competitive Advantage
One of the significant core competencies of Adidas is to use strategic creativity and innovation. The company's key competencies include customer focus, resource chain, collaborative competitiveness, and brand recognition (Abraham, 2016). The company's competitive advantage is that it has a great team of experts and a global network of suppliers that makes it very competitive in sporting goods.
Market Concept
In the last few years, Adidas Company has enjoyed massive profits, following the adaptation of new market concepts. The marketing concept used by the company is to adopt a digital marketing strategy. With this strategy, the company aims at becoming the leading sportswear company globally. Through technology, Adidas has managed to build direct relationships with their clients. Today, Adidas Company identifies itself as a digital company since it is spending 90% of the marketing funds on social media and digital campaigns (Abraham, 2016). The company has also managed to acquire high-speed manufacturing through the application of new technology. The company has also introduced robotics and 3D printing technology as a way of digitalizing their production process. The company aims to develop the most innovative running shoes for athletes (Abraham, 2016). The company is also combining collaboration and innovation when creating its products to offer its customers the most desirable industry developments.
Adidas works hard to interact with its customers and to create personalized, premium, and connected experiences. The company ensures that it has formulated excitement and enthusiasm about sports and athletes at an individualized level (Buckley, 2017). Through varying touchpoints such as retail, social, and mobile platforms, the company develops a consistent customer experience. Adidas is determined to be in all areas that its customers are through, taking insights from Big Data and digital analysis. Adidas also uses open-source collaborations and innovations. The company gives consumers, athletes, and partners room to create, share, shape, and learn sports culture and future (Buckley, 2017). The company is also collaborating with famous athletes, singers, and footballers to inspire more consumers into buying their products.
Another marketing concept utilized by Adidas is the use of Strategic cities. The company focuses on six cities: Los Angeles, London, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Paris to shape the trends, buying decisions, and perception of consumers on the importance of their products. The company focuses on selling soccer products in Europe while selling baseball and basket products in the United States. North American is also a central platform used by the company to sell its products. Notably, the company revisits its portfolio regularly to retain its competitive advantage (Buckley, 2017). As such, the company reduces complexities and makes more specific targeting. Apparel and Footwear with the names Originals and Adidas Neo remain famous and marketable across the globe.
Despite Adidas having intense competitions such as Rebook and Nike, the company is working hard to be the most competitive sportswear seller across the world (Buckley, 2017). With the application of the latest technology, among other strategies, the company is hopeful that in recent years it will be more competitive than Nike. Application of the newest technology, Smart manufacturing processes, collaborations, and innovation will soon be the leading company in the Sportswear industry.
References
Adidas-group. (, 2015). PROFILE. Retrieved from Adidas-group: http://www.adidas-
group.com/en/group/profile/
Buckley, C. (2017). "Let the Competition Begin," New York Times
Simon, C. & Dave, A. (2017). International cases in the business of sport. Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 438. ISBN 0-7506-8543-3
Winter, T. & Connor, T. (2017). "4 NCAA Basketball Coaches, Adidas Executive Charged in Bribe Scheme". NBC News
