Adidas Case Study

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Adidas Case Study

Executive Summary

Adolf Dassler founded Adidas in 1949. The German company today is a global leader in the sporting industry and is one of the most established brand names recognized the world over through the 3 stripes logo. As such, the discourse of the aspects of adidas in the market, its production strengths and weaknesses, technological aspects, and marketing strategies form a significant context throughout the paper. In addition, the paper analyses the company in terms of external and internal aspects that determine and influence its production, marketing, finance, sales, and competition systems.

Introduction

        Adidas has a broad portfolio from sporting equipment to accessories such as sunglasses and watches. It has an international labor force of 46,000 with more than 170 subsidiaries and in 2013, reported revenue collection at nearly 3.4 billion Euros (The Times 100). The Adidas group of companies’ headquarters is in Herzogenaurach, Germany.  Adidas aims at cementing it position at the helm of the sporting industry through diversified brand penetration targeting sports lovers and sporting activities worldwide to continue attracting its customers in the long term. In this regards, the assessment of Adidas’ internal and external analysis provides a framework on the systems that the company has instituted to remain highly competitive globally.

External Analysis

For Adidas, the marketing function has been pivotal to its survival and more so it is phenomenal success in the sports industry. Marketing can be defined as the proves of management that leads to the desired identification, anticipation and satisfaction levels in accordance with prevailing consumer trends so as to realize profitable business operations (Krüger, Stefan and Tobias 5). The marketing function thus has to be competitive through adherences to customer behaviors and trends in an effort to enhance profitability.

Adidas is a market oriented multinational corporation which consistently identifies market trends and reviews customer feedback so as to ensure Adidas products translate to the desired levels of customer satisfaction (Hawkins, David, and Roger 9). More so, Adidas consistently seeks to surpass customer expectations via flexibly adapting its market portfolio in line with changing trends among consumers. Focus on the customers, research and development towards innovative products as well as innovative marketing ideals has been important in the company’s huge success (Krüger, Stefan and Tobias 6). The company, in its structures and framework identifies marketing structures as the predominant factors in driving sales and increasing its market share; thus, it has remained steadfast in customers’ experiences and measures that contribute significantly to its presence globally. As such, the company has retained the services of highly experienced and aware marketing team that enables the company to offer quality services and products to a large customer base. More so, the company has created a niche market for itself especially among athletes, which has seen it remain highly competitive internationally. In addition, the use of strategies that involve celebrities and sponsoring world-renowned teams has ensured that the company remain in the forefront in the provision of quality products.

Marketing strategies

As with every organization, key organizational objectives goals and targets to be realized govern the marketing function. The marketing mix balances product, price, place and promotion activities an organization chooses to enhance market penetration and in Adidas case, market dominance. To achieve this end, a robust marketing plan is required which in turn defines marketing strategies. In recent time, Adidas has been aiming to appeal to the 14-19 years age group as a niche market audience.

In line with the place factor in Adidas’ marketing mix, the city of London has become a one the focus points. It is one of the centers of Europe’s sportswear market. London is known for setting and developing novel sports market trends with regard to performance sportswear as well as the sports fashion industry. The London Olympics in 2012 set a good platform for the company to reach the 14-19 year old market segment not only within London but the entire world as well (The Times 100). As such, Adidas secured a sponsorship deal with the widest sports rights portfolio in history.  

As the Official Sportswear Partner of the games as well as being the exclusive holder of all branded sportswear licensee, Adidas was able to make a lot of headway in the sports industry further cementing its position in the sporting industry. As such, all sportswear was simply branded as London 2012.

This enabled Adidas to realize a number of marketing objectives. It was clearly associated with the games as the official sportswear partner as well as being the official sportswear and sports gear provider for the British teams. It was also able to reach out to the 14 to 19 years age group as well as being the most discussed sports brand for 2012 (The Times 100).  

The athlete kits were of great importance to Adidas’ marketing campaign as it offered the company the opportunity to showcase innovative products so as to get feedback for the targeted audience so as to created products in line with realizing it commercial sales objectives. It also gained a lot from the excitement it conjured among the target audience who sought to have products that defined a nontraditional British feel and look.    

Internal Analysis

To reach the target audience, the company took on a marketing campaign aimed at giving the company a great competitive advantage in a highly competitive market. Promotional activities were identified as the ideal means with which to communicate its brand ideals to the target audience (The Times 100). The company had to determine the best was with which to communicate a timely and appropriate message through the most ideal channels.