‫ كلية اآلداب و العلوم اإلنسانية – مركز‬- ‫الجامعة اللبنانية‬

‫اللغات والترجمة‬

Principles of Marketing

Adidas

Dr. Youssef El Kareh

Paul Khoury – Chinese 2nd Year

Part1: Introduction
Adidas is a German multinational corporation that designs and
manufactures sports shoes, clothing and accessories
headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria. It is the largest
sportswear manufacturer in Europe and the second biggest in the
world.
It is the holding company for the Adidas Group, which consists
of the Reebok sportswear company, Taylor Made-Adidas golf
company (including Ashworth), 9.1% of FC Bayern Munich and
Runtastic, an Austrian fitness technology company. Adidas
revenue for 2012 was listed at €14.88 billion.
Adidas was registered on 18 August 1949 by Adolf Dassler,
following a family feud at the Gebrüder Dassler
Schuhfabrikcompany between him and his older brother Rudolf.
Rudolf had earlier established Puma, which quickly became the
business rival of Adidas and is also headquartered in
Herzogenaurach. The company's clothing and shoe designs
typically feature three parallel bars, and the same motif is
incorporated into Adidas's current official logo. The brand name
is appropriately uncapitalized, with a lower case "a"
The brand works out 3 major lines which are Adidas Performance,
Adidas Original and Adidas style:
1. Adidas Sport Performance 
The guiding principle of the adidas Sport Performance Division is to
equip all athletes to achieve their “impossible”. adidas Sport
Performance brings its passion for great products to athletes
in all sports and mainly focuses on four key categories globally: football,
running, training and basketball. 

2. Adidas Original
Personal collections, innovative style, groundbreaking fashion. Originals
by original is the sum of all three, pure celebration of originality in
footwear and apparel.
From born originals like Mark Gonzales and Nike Nastase, to the music
and style of Missy Elliot and Run DMC, to true champions like David
Beckham and Stan smith the three stripes has been there since the very
beginning.

3. Adidas Style
The Sport Style Division is the home of Originals, defined as authentic
sportswear, the Fashion Group, which is the future of sportswear, and
Style Essentials, the fresh sport-inspired label made accessible for style-
adopting youth. Together they offer consumers products from street
fashion to high fashion, all uniquely inspired and linked to sport.
Adidas Inc is marketer of sports and athletic shoes. The company is a
global brand multinational company with its head office base in
Germany. In keeping with the brand image is its association with the
distinctive logo and its advertising slogan, "Impossible is Nothing." as it
appears on the print attached. In order to maintain and sustain this
image, the company makes huge investments in advertising and brand
promotion. At some critical times like during global economic crisis,
adidas always react to the consumers’ pessimistic attitude and stressful
emotion. This time somewhat become a good chance for Adidas because
it can take advantage of its previous advertising way of “Impossible is
Nothing” campaign by sponsoring sports stars to express the corporate
philosophy of grit, determination, passion and humor, giving people
more courage and psychological comfort in face of economic crisis. “For
over 80 years, Adidas has been part of the world of sports on every
level, delivering state-of-the-art sports footwear, apparel and
accessories. Today, Adidas is a global leader not only in the shoe
industry, but also in the sporting goods industry.
Part 2: Marketing Strategy
1-Adidas Unique Selling Proposition (UPS): use of kangaroo
leather to make their more expensive shoes.
This strategy has given adidas better advantage than other players in the
sportswear industry. This selling proposition has made adidas to be the
sole supplier of:
Apparel and equipment for all teams in Major League Soccer. Adidas
remain a major company in the supply of team kits for international
football teams.
Referee kits that are used in international competition and by many
countries and leagues in the world.

2-TARGET AUDIENCE
 Race: all races
According to Carleton S. Coon (1962), the world race can be divided
into white/Caucasian, Mongoloid/Asian, Negroid/Black, and Australoid.
All people under these races are target of adidas advertisement. Sports
are everywhere in the world, hence, there is no particular region or race
been targeted in the advertisement.

 Age-group: 25 to 40 years.
The advertising strategy of adidas is targeted at age group between 25 to
40 years old working professionals. This age group understands and
appreciates sports. Innovation means a lot to them because their life-
styles are sophisticated and demanding. They demand high quality
products, therefore, branded product rank high in their scale.
  Occupation: footballers, athletes, sports lovers and other
professions.
Those in the sport field and sport lovers are the major target of Adidas
advertisement. The advertisement was designed to motivate and boost
their moral in the field of sport. This class of people needed innovation
and quality. Sports lovers sometimes mimic the super stars that Adidas
use in its advertisements. They have a lot of interest in sports, by
supporting one super-star or the other.

 Income: $3000 and above per month.

People with minimum income of $2000 in all over the world should be
able to spend reasonable amount of money for purchasing adidas
products. This class of people are at the mid of their life and therefore
attach much emphasis on pleasure and durable products.

 Culture: all culture

There is no culture that forbids sports. The advertisement has no cultural
sentiment. Though woman was used in the picture, in all culture women
are allowed to participate in sporting activities.

 Education: formal education

The advertisement language used was English language. It is believed
that anybody with formal education (level not withstanding) should
understand the language and give it the necessary interpretations.
However, the language favours English speaking country more than
those their mother tongue are not English. Also the statement as it was
used in the advert is very straightforward that even those who are not
proficient in English language can easily understand.

 Upper middle class

Because adidas products are of high quality, it attracts equivalent cost.
The classes of upper middle class are those individuals with comfortable
incomes. Adidas uses differentiation strategy to woo this set of people
into its product.

3-Psychographics: psychographic segmentation divides the market

into groups based on social class, lifestyles and personality
characteristics, it is based on this assumption that the type of product and
brand an individual purchase will reflect that persons characteristics and
patterns of living.
 Spendthrift people
The advertisement is meant to capture the interest of that group of
people in the society that is willing to spend for social recognition.
These classes of people seek attraction from people, making them go for
high class materials with brand image like adidas.

 Loyalty group
Adidas has brand loyalty among its customers. The customers can be
classified as hard core loyalist and soft core loyalist. The hard core
loyalists always stick to the brand at all times, while the soft core
loyalists sometimes switch to other products. Because adidas brand is a
unique brand, they were able to capture this group or market segment
easily with their advertisement strategy.

4-Digital Marketing Strategy:

 Digital and technology
Adidas’s five-year strategy that issued in 2015 has the name “Creating
the New”. Describing itself as a digital company, Adidas wants to be the
world’s best sporting apparel brand. In order to achieve this, they use
subsequent digitalization as the key part of their marketing strategy. For
them “Best” means designing, building and selling the best sports goods
in the world. The company spends 90% of their marketing budget to
digital campaigns and social media.

 Speed
High-speed manufacturing is one of the essential parts of Adidas’ digital
marketing strategy. They digitized production process with 3D printing
technology and robotics at Speedfactory in Ansbach. Futurecraft 4D
shoes that crafted with light and oxygen is one successful example of the
brand’s advanced technology.
Purpose of the manufacturing process is to deliver the most innovative
and personalized running shoes for every athlete. The sporting goods
brand always tries to meet the high demand. Created with innovation
and collaboration, the fresh and desirable products always ready for
customers where and when they want them to purchase.
Part 3: Conclusion
The Adidas Group has made a commitment to its people, the
environment, communities in which they operate, and their partnerships.
As a global business, Adidas Group has a responsibility to preserve the
world for the people of today and the future of tomorrow. With that in
mind, Adidas Group strives to integrate sustainability into their business
from their product design, through manufacturing and the retailers. Even
with a few downturns, Adidas has achieved their sustainability model by
CSV and focusing on ESG issues through its 4 pillars of sustainability
strategy. Each pillars has reached its projected goals which includes the
implementation of the SMS Hotline Program, DryDye Technology,
Framaprene® ECO heel, and the Ginga Social.

With sustainability as a key vision integrated into Adidas’ business

model and transmitted through their operations guarantees active
performance in the future. To demonstrate the continuous sustainable
efforts put forth, Adidas reports its social and environmental
performance through the publication of their annual sustainability
reports where they follow the GRI principles. In 2013, Adidas has
fulfilled six of the ten GRI guidelines in their sustainability report. This
allows the company to focus on their overall performance -and lack
thereof-throughout the year while measuring their economic, social,
environment and governance performance side by side.

Adidas has demonstrated Porter & Kramer’s CSV model through

various initiatives stemming from the 4 pillars model. By engaging in
its community, Adidas is bringing business and society back together
through various programs globally similar to the Ginga Social. Not only
is engaging in society through business practices sustainable for the
community, it is all beneficial for the business itself. While Adidas has
successfully accomplished the creation of innovative products, they have
managed to stay profitable, generating from ten, to upwards of twenty-
five percent of their sales as profits. By prioritizing crucial ESG
concerns similarly to preserving more water, and innovating the product
line, like using the Framaprene® ECO heel, and then reporting on the
progress, Adidas has satisfied Eccles & Serafeim’s theory.

Although Adidas exhibited a great amount of community engagement,

as a global corporation, there is still much more that could be done from
having many resources at their disposal. For example, Adidas’ should
not convey any form of “greenwashing” in the future. As a growing
multinational sustainable business, they should always be conducting
business in an environmentally friendly process. They have identified
three environmental impact categories where improvement on their part
is possible: sustainable resource use, emissions, and hazards. Improving
these environmental impacts will have a direct effect on the supply chain
and the sustainability potential the company can reach. However, Adidas
realizes this journey is not a sprint but a marathon and they are
committed towards growing their brand in alternate ways that will lead
to a more sustainable future not only for their business but for society as
a whole.
References
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