Marketing mix of Adidas

One of the top brands in the sports and footwear market, Adidas has seen its share of ups and downs. The company started in 1936 and is one of the oldest footwear brands of the world. However, even though the company has old origins, its heart is young. Adidas faced stiff competition in the 1980s from Nike but soon overcame the competition by targeting youngsters as well as sports oriented people.

This article will focus on Adidas only and not on the other subsidiary’s of Adidas group. Here is the marketing mix of Adidas.

Products in the marketing mix of Adidas

The Adidas group has 4 main subsidiary’s. The first is its own brand name – Adidas, which is present in clothes as well as footwear. The second is Reebok which has overtaken Adidas and is one of the leading subsidiary’s in the Adidas group. The 3rd is Rockpot which specializes in outdoor footwear, apparel’s and accessories and 4th is Taylor made which is focused on golfing clothes, equipment etc. Out of all the above subsidiary’s, Reebok is the strongest followed by Adidas.

Adidas has various products. The major product of Adidas is off course their footwear. Coming in various design and style, Adidas footwear is robust and athletic. The secondary product of Adidas is apparel’s and accessories. Apparel’s like T-Shirts, jackets, sweatshirts, shorts etc are in great demand. Where Reebok is stronger in footwear, Adidas is stronger in apparel’s.

The aim of Adidas is to give the best footwear to their customers which has the combination of technology and design. These products are not need based. In fact, the shoes are bought by customers to satisfy their wants and desires. Similarly, the apparel’s are targeted towards comfort during heavy activity. However, although the main target is sports, the apparel’s are frequently used as a style statement by youngsters.

Pricing in the marketing mix of Adidas

Adidas, because of its style, design and promotions uses skimming prices as well as competitive pricing. For run of the mill products, Adidas uses competitive pricing keeping in mind competitors like Nike, Reebok and Puma. But for products which are newly introduced in the market and are uniquely designed, Adidas uses skimming price.

Apparel’s of Adidas constantly use skimming price and are higher priced due to brand equity of Adidas in the apparel’s market. The target customer for Adidas is the upper middle class as well as high end customers. Adidas never uses penetrative pricing because that will affect the brand equity of Adidas. In fact, the higher price point helps in the price quality approach and psychologically, customers think that a higher price will mean better quality as well. Thus, Adidas rarely drops its prices.

Place in the marketing mix of Adidas

The major way in which Adidas is sold is through retail outlets. Adidas has its own exclusive stores in which the material is provided directly from the company. On the other hand, many multi brand showrooms will also have Adidas apparel’s and footwear on display. These multi brand showrooms get the products from a distributor. The third and last mode of distribution is online. The products are sold through online medium via fashion stores lie myntra.com as well as the online website of Adidas. Thus the distribution channel of Adidas is as follows

1) Manufacturing > Adidas outlets > End customer
2) Manufacturing > Distributor > Multi brand showrooms
3) Manufacturing > Online fashion websites / Adidas website > End customer

Due to the excellent brand equity of Adidas, the operating margins are fairly high thereby keeping the distribution channel motivated. A happy distribution channel means better promotion for the company.

Promotions in the marketing mix of Adidas

Adidas markets through various marketing vehicles but the majority of marketing is concentrated on television and product placements. The creative team of Adidas is known to pump adrenaline in their customers through ads which are well made, very creative and filled with energy. These ads attract the customers towards the brand by sending the right marketing message to the customer.

The tagline of Adidas “Impossible is nothing” is in itself a very powerful statement for the brand.

After television, product placement is the second line of promotion for Adidas. The popularity of the brand is because it ties up with the top players across the world such as Lionel messi, Ronaldinho, Sachin tendulkar and various others.

At the same time, Adidas also sponsors teams and some of the top teams include Real Madrid, France, Great Britain (in football), England and South Africa (in cricket) and several others. Here is a list of all the sponsorships done by Adidas.

Below the line marketing of Adidas includes some very creative outdoor campaigns as well as events marketing. Sales promotions and trade promotions are also regularly offered by Adidas to their channel partners to promote the sales of the brand. This concludes the marketing mix of Adidas.

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