Strategic marketing

Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................... 3
Company Profile: Adidas Group.......................................................................................... 3
Strategic marketing about Adidas Group................................................................................ 3
Marketing strategy link with corporate strategy in Adidas.........................................4
Keys area develop Adidas marketing strategy.......................................................................4
Promoting original line of Adidas group......................................................................5
Resource based approach of internal environment.....................................................................6
Competitor analysis approach.............................................................................................. 7
Integrated approach of internal analysis and external analysis......................................................8
Porter Generic strategy...................................................................................................... 8
How marketing decision taken............................................................................................. 9
Strategy used by Adidas group.......................................................................................... 10
Conclusion................................................................................................................... 10
References................................................................................................................... 10

Introduction
Marketing strategy is the core concept for any business. Marketing strategy can develop a
company make a company to get competitive advantage. That is why every organization should
implement strategic marketing in order to operate business successfully. Moreover, strategic
marketing help a lot to explore business and dominate in business world. In this assignment
would focus on strategic marketing that can play vital role to become Adidas world recognized
sport brand. In addition we can generate some valuable information which is interrelated with
marketing strategic and corporate strategy. However, we can also analysis Adidas competitive
position along with Adidas approach regarding their external and internal environment. This
assignment would help a lot to get better understand about pros and cons element regarding
strategic marketing.
Company Profile: Adidas Group
Adidas group, which German Multination Corporation is very well known for in the area of sport
product where included Rockport as well as CCN-Hockey was established by Adolf Dassler in
1948. In 2012 this companys revenue has been worth about 34.48 billion. However According
to Reinartz, Werner, and Kumar, (2002) this Adidas assist athletes to perform well and the
mission of Adidas group mission is to become world leader in the area of sporting goods. Adidas
group carry out their business more than 160 countries and more than 50700 people are working
in this group to produce 650 million unit of work average in every year. Now this group is
operating their business successfully all over the world.
Strategic marketing about Adidas Group
In every organization must have goal to achieve. In order to attain goal or objective all
organization should also develop marketing objective and company can make plan so that
company can achieve. However this plan to attain marketing objective can be said marketing
strategy. (Sullivan and Mary, 1998)
Adidas marketing strategy is to find innovative and sophisticated way by which they can engage
as well as encourage its 14-19 years target audience.
Therefore Adidas focus on sponsorship for performance sportswear as well as sports fashion that
is why they selected London for their target market that means sportswear market. London 2012
has provided a great platform to Adidas in order to target their expected audience. In Olympic
history Adidas got opportunities to become sponsorship by dealing with agreement of official
partner of London game where exclusive licensee for all branded along with branded cloth. After
getting this right they have construct about four marketing objective which are given below..

1. Making sure a clear association as sportswear partner of London 2012 regarding Team
GB as well as Paralympics role
2. With a view to driving brand preference based on UK to involve as well as excite 14-19
years old
3. To supply a licensed product (ROI)
4. In 2012 become the most popular sports brand.
The kit which is delivered opportunities to Adidas by dealing with in order to excite their target
audiences and Adidas produces goods in order to meet their commercial selling target. Before, in
2012 they started their marketing activities by starting campaign. (Gale and Chapman, 1994)

Marketing strategy link with corporate strategy in Adidas

Adidas corporate strategy is actually concentrate on football, basketball and training as well as
keeping their product line to style along with performance. In addition, Adidas group strategy is
to become the leading position of sport industries product. In order to lead sports product
industry and get competitiveness marketing strategy can contribute a lot.
Adidas group strategy has about six key areas for which they are concern
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Diversification of Brand portfolio

Producing long term shareholder value.
Designing on a flexible supply line
Focusing on High potential market and channel in which they are going to invest
Focusing on Innovation to become leader
Developing team grounded
To be a sustainable company

However marketing strategy is linked to the overall strategy of Adidas group. As , marketing
strategy can help lot to increase brand value, promotion, productivity by they became able to
sustaining in competitive business world and above this strategy are very close related with
marketing strategy. Marketing strategy would help to lead company in productive way by
providing set appropriate price, focusing on target market in 14-19 years old audience, London
2012 was the place for appropriate platform, they have got rights licensee that may help to
increase brand promotion. Generally marketing strategy we know that 14-19 years young
audiences of football, basketball and focus on their style. Therefore in order to implement Adidas
corporate strategy it is quite impossible without their marketing strategy. (Gale and Chapman,
1994)
Keys area develop Adidas marketing strategy
Actually Adidas strive to become world leader in market particularly goods on sports industries.
There are various types of Adidas marketing strategy are given below..

Promoting original line of Adidas group

1. Growing their sales from 40% to 50 % and by 2015 it would be 22.82 billion
2. Their one of the, marketing objective is to achieve marketing share as well as sales share
particularly on running and basketball area.
3. Starting specialty stores so that cater particularly to the various sports division
Adidas group generally focus on these objective to develop their marketing strategy. We know
that Adidas want to become leading position in sports goods industries that is why they are using
portfolio strategy in order their market size and various types of opportunity. In addition Adidas
specially focus on innovation along with communication strategy to engage on particular target
market. Adidas has been taken various steps to get advantage like London 2012 they worked for
promotion their branding value and concentrate on 14-19 years old audience and this way they
provide sponsorship that could assist to increase their value and selling their product. Hence by
this way they could build up their strategy. (French and Rioos Insua, 2000)
There are 4p which can help to develop marketing strategy are given below.
Product
Product is the important factor that a company should focus what kinds of focus can make satisfy
customers. Adidas has set up itself as strong due to sports appraisal. Continually upgrading
product enhance satisfy as well as innovative feature help to satisfy its customers.
Price
According to Berry, Leonard (1995)
Price can attract more customers in this stage Adidas is adopting with skimming pricing strategy
which can contribute to supply product with a lowest cost than its competitor. Fro example white
T-Mac $ shoes are being more price than others color.
Promotion
Sports are the most popular way to enhance promotion which is adopted by Adidas to become
the no 1 leading sports goods producing company. Adidas generally promoting its product
through mass media or internet, web etc along with their camping which is very unique
impossible is nothing
Place
Adidas is providing a number of sports outlets in different area and locations like Royal Sporting
House. Or they also provided online Purchasing facilities
However Adidas rich heritage and high level of commitment regarding their product could help
to develop their marketing strategy successfully. (Jones, 2000)

Resource based approach of internal environment

In order to gain competitive advantage resource based approach in very important which actually
focus on a company what types of resource are used that can differentiate from its rival. However
it should be defined strength and weakness factors which are the element of SWOT analysis to
analyze internal environment of company.
According to Reinartz, Werner, and Kumar (2002)
Resource can be two types one is tangible resource which is refer to the physical assets, building,
human resources, financial, equipment and so on. On the other hand intangible resource would
be intellectual asset, reputation or good will. Resource based view consist of important three
element
Re
so
u rc
e
Ba
se
d
V ie
w

C o re c o m p e te n c y

C o m p e te n c y

D is t in c t iv e c o m p e t e n c y

Competency
Competency refers to the some kind of organization attribute by which a firm can contribute in
market place. For example: Adidas strong distribution of chain or market leadership.
Core competency
According to Berry, Leonard (1995)
In this term with in organization a group of member are learn from individual member to carry
out their work efficiently and core competency strategy help a lot to differentiate organization

from others company to achieve competitive advantage. Adidas have international operation and
their strong online presence.
Distinctive competency
One of the important factor in which innovation, architecture of organization or reputation of a
company can help to attain competitive advantage. Adidas have strong Brand, good financial
position etc. (Johns, 1999)
Moreover a firm should first define prime potential resource then need to introduce criteria
VRIN that means Valuable which is refer to employ value creating strategy to reduce weakness.
Then secondly REAR which refer to the resource would be rear, Inimitable that is used for
ensure that resource can not be copy by other firm then last one is non- substitutable that means
the feature of the value and resource are not available or there are not any substitutable in market
place. Therefore after analyzing these terms it should necessary to consider in order getting
competitive advantage. (Buttle, 1996)
Competitor analysis approach
According to Pandemic and Hult (2005)
Competitor can affect every organization in which the organization is going to operate. That is
why every organization should analysis existing as well as potential competitor so that company
can understand what the company should do in order to sustain in competitive business world.
However, there are given various types of approach which should be defined and followed by a
company so that any company can take strategic decision to gain competitive advantage.
First of all define competitor
In this stage it is necessary to determine who are producing same kind of same types product
that means in fact it is necessary to define those industries which are delivering same product.
There are two ways like define competitor on the customers view point and that is why
perception making or bran switching analysis can help in this regard. (Johns, 1999)
Second approach is evaluated of industry players together with group firm with same kind of
strategies of competitors.
Secondly gather intelligence
According to Kelly (2000)

After defining competition it is necessary to collect various types of data in order to provide
insight on the competitors. Plenty of data regarding shareholder report, R&D, strategic partners
can be gathered then those data can be put on spreadsheet.
Analyze rival
It is a very crucial factor to analyze rival that mean competitors strength as well as weakness
factors should be defined. Then it is very effective to scan new entrains.
Therefore competitors strategy about their strength and weakness factors by which the
organization is very efficiently run their business and what types of factors they can utilize
should be analyzed.
For example Adidas high cost structure and limited product line are weakness point where their
one of the competitor puma in that case varies strong. In addition price war between competitors
has become threat for Adidas Company. (Gale and Chapman, 1994)
Integrated approach of internal analysis and external analysis
According to Gale and Chapman (1994)
We have already discuss about internal approach which can help to gain competitive advantage
like core competency which can defined as strength factors fro any company and external
analysis we can define the current competitors and analyzing rivalry which are the core
component of external environment. Actually these total approach can be defined as SWOT
analysis which is refer to the strength and weakness factors component of internal are which
should be determined by any company. Another interrelated part is opportunity and threats are
related external environment where we can be defining how potential rival would be threat for a
company. However in order to get competitive advantage in competitive business world it is very
essential to analyze internal an external environment of accompany with the help of SWOT
analysis. Therefore I n order to strategic marketing SWOT analysis is very effective way.
Porter Generic strategy
According to Pandemic & Hult (2005)
Michel porter, who was the professor of Harvard business school, has defined that how an
organization success and its position match its environment. Porter defined his generic strategy
by cost leadership which focuses on lowest cost of the price than competitor but high profit can
be gain and Adidas strategy is to become world leader in sports good industries for this reason
they could minimize their product prize on order to lead market. Differentiation which actually
concentrates on produce that kind of product that is quietly unique. Adidas actually focus on their
product differentiation by providing unique product by analyzing, performing various types of
research that can help to improve the quality of services and using customer mapping experience.

We know Adidas used their R&D sectors to develop their product in unique way. Then cost focus
which refers to providing quality service in a target market.
After understanding these there are different stages should be analyzed first SWOT analysis then
five forces analysis third step is compare SWOT with potential strategy. (Pandemic and Hult,
2005)
Focus strategy
According to Berry, Leonard (1995)
After understanding these components we can Apt Focus strategy as Adidas group focus on
specially 14-19 years old audience and they are providing special product for this specific niche
market. In addition they focus on athletic that are generally remaining bin these stage and target
market can help a lot to gain completive advantage. Therefore above all this discussion it would
be very effective for Adidas to choose Focus strategy.
Adidas vision and mission
Adidas mission is to become the leader of sports goods in industries that means their brand
would be best sport brand.
The vision of Adidas to make sure balance shareholder and Adidas concern about their
employees along with their needs
Adidas marketing strategy is to focus on 14-19 years old audiences and they are tying to find
out way by which they can engage as well as inspire their target audiences.
Therefore Adidas mission, vision and marketing strategy are interrelated with each other to get
competitive advantage. (Buttle, 1996)
How marketing decision taken
According to Kelly (2000)
In order to take marketing decision at first it is necessary understand vision, mission and
marketing strategy that can help to make become Adidas world leader particularly on sports
product industries. That is why Adidas should define their competitive advantage. In order to
achieve marketing objective like increase sale 40% to 50% it is very important to introduce
SWOT analyze, porter five model and porter generic strategy along with PEST analysis.
Afterword analysis then, if there is necessary to develop R&D of Adidas. In order to implement
marketing strategy it is very necessary to develop their human resource. That is why Adidas can
make understood their employees so that their employee can engage with 14-19 years old
audiences. With a view to achieve marketing strategy and sales share as well as marketing share
on running and baseball sporting it should take proper marketing decision by ensuring that they

have sufficient finance to meet expenses and enhance the performance of their product by
training their employees. Therefore in order to take marketing decision to achieve their
marketing objective there are vision, mission, and competitive advantage affect the area of
Adidas R&D, finance and HRM sectors to achieve their goal. In brief these elements are interred
related with each other. That is why marketing strategy impact on overall organization. (Buttle,
1996)
Strategy used by Adidas group
According to Berry, Leonard (1995)
Actually Adidas get competitive advantage by increasing their quality that could aid Adidas to
get competitive advantage against sport product and they are constantly developing their product
quality to make customers satisfy. Now this time Adidas is using technology and focus on
technological innovation that are the main reason behind this competitive advantage where Nike
or Puma can not beat Adidas easily. Their technological development can assist to create high
quality of value for customers. For example: Adidas established their policy that allows
implementing adequate level of implementation of technology that can enhance high
performance for shoes so that particular customer needs their meet. In addition there are some
others reason behind this competitive advantage like this company are probably getting
feedback from their customers and achieve the loyalty of their customers that is why it has
become very easy to get advantage . Customers relationship strategy assists a lot in this respect
as they are listening customers demand and they have good communication with athletic
celebrity which can help their promotion. Generally high performance appraisal also contributes
to growth their sale. However R&D along with marketing department contributes to implement
their marketing strategy by obtaining their marketing objective. (Buttle, 1996)
Conclusion
Various researches has been showed that marketing strategy can play a big role to complete the
vision of any company thats why in order to get competitive advantage it should implement
marketing strategy very effectively in every organization. Adidas also like that company has
become successful company globally where they occupy the leading position in sports goods
industries.
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