Marketing Mix of Adidas: Sportswear Giant

About Adidas

Adidas is a German Multinational corporation founded in 1959 by Adolf Dassler, headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany. It is one of the oldest footwear brands that is still considered a major style statement by youngsters worldwide. Even after facing intense competition from the traditionally competitive US sportswear market, Adidas through its creative and appealing marketing campaigns has managed to remain one of the leading brands in the world.

Having operations in over 100 different countries, Adidas is a large and multifaceted organization that employs 62000 people all over the world. Since its establishment, Adidas has opened its successful brand subsidiaries including Reebok, TaylorMade, and Runtastic.

Now that we have a brief about the company, let us dive straight into Adidas’ Marketing Mix

What’s new with Adidas?

• Adidas is in talks with Bata, the Indian shoemaker to form a strategic partnership in the Indian market. Bata’s 2100 retail stores located across 700 cities, offer an amazing opportunity for Adidas to expand its reach.
• Adidas collaborated with multiple award-winning Nigerian singer, Adekunle Gold, and unveiled its latest wear by making him model the latest Manchester United Adidas LFSTLR collection.
• Adidas, the sportswear giant announced the launch of its latest running shoes, the Switch FWD. These shoes were focused on beginners with the theme, of “forward momentum”, on the press.
• Addidas updates its classic Stan Smith shoe for its new season with the Adidas Originals CG Boost Stan and CG Split Stan. This update took place with an ongoing collaboration with Craig Green, the British designer.
• Adidas’s latest online sales campaign for the unsold inventory of Yeezy shoes was a huge success with orders exceeding $565 million dollars. This unexpected demand resulted in temporary shortages.
• Adidas is funding projects in areas hit by extreme weather for a second year, showing commitment to climate action and community support.
• Adidas Originals has partnered with Chinese designer Dingyun Zhang to introduce their first collaborative shoe: a fresh interpretation of the iconic Samba sneaker, showcasing innovative design elements.
• Adidas unveils its SS24 Paris Collection, consisting of 15 pieces tailored for the upcoming clay season in 2024. Designed to aid players in adjusting to clay court conditions, the collection features a core range of 8 apparel and footwear items. Additionally, it aims to promote awareness of Adidas’ annual Move For The Planet initiative.
• Adidas adds Xochitl Gomez to its global family, recognizing her as a rising star in film, fashion, and activism. She’ll represent the Sportswear category.
• Adidas teamed up with Adaptive Sports Northwest (ASNW), a Portland-based non-profit, to design adaptive basketball uniforms tailored for wheelchair and seated athletes.
• Adidas surpassed expectations in the first quarter of 2024, propelled by strong brand momentum.

Buyer Persona

Marketing Mix of Adidas

Marketing Mix refers to the foundation model of any business which is centred around mainly the 7Ps which are product, price, promotion, place & distribution, people, process and physical evidence. Companies lay out strategies and marketing techniques around these to reach out to their target audience to achieve their marketing objectives.

Let us understand the following 7 Ps of Adidas-

1. Marketing Mix of Adidas: Product Mix

Adidas deals in various product lines including footwear, apparel, accessories, football kit, golf equipment, etc. The range of Adidas product mix is also divided according to different sport games for which Adidas provides kits and equipment. Some of the sports games where the company majors in supplying the team kits globally are: Association football, Baseball, Basketball, Cricket, Gymnastics, Ice hockey, Lacrosse, Running, Skateboarding, Tennis, Kabaddi, and Golf. 

Adidas has gained huge popularity by opening its subsidiaries including Reebok, Runtastic, TaylorMade, and Rockport. Though there are around 110 subsidiaries of Adidas Worldwide, the subsidiary that overtaken Adidas itself is Reebok footwear and apparel. Whereas Runtastic is a digital health and Fitness app, TaylorMade is centred on golfing clothes and Rockport offers outdoor footwear, apparel and accessories.

Though this company offers various products, its major product line is Footwear. Given that Adidas’ foundation was built on footwear itself, its footwear is still deemed the most robust and athletic in the market, followed by its apparel and accessories.

The product strategy of Adidas focuses on three key areas:

• Sustainability: Being committed to sustainability, the company uses recycled materials in its products and invests in technologies such as 3D printing, to reduce enviromental impact.
• Innovation: Adidas is always searching for new ways to improve their products.They are known for having a good track record when launching new products that are both innovative and popular with consumers.
• Performance: Adidas product mix are designed with the aim of helping these athletes play their A game. For this purpose, the company works with athletes to develop products that meet their needs and requirements. Tests are run to make sure that the product meets these requirements.

Adopting this product mix of Adidas, has helped the company to be a part of the leading sportswear brand in the world. The dedication of the company towards sustainability, innovation and performance has increased the popularity of its products around the world.

2. Marketing Mix of Adidas: Price strategy

Another aspect of the Adidas marketing mix is the pricing strategy. Adidas includes Skimming Pricing and Competitive pricing in its marketing mix. Adidas pricing strategy is competitive prices are used for its mill products to compete with brands like Nike and Puma and skimming prices are used for the newly introduced products in the market. 

Under Skimming pricing, high prices are kept for newly launched products to maintain exclusivity and gradually the prices are reduced with time until it reaches the market average. 

When it comes to Apparel, Adidas pricing strategy mostly uses skimming price because of its brand equity. Thus, the Target audience of Adidas includes the upper-middle class as well as high-end customers.

Matter of fact, the High-price strategy of Adidas makes it a luxury brand among people. Folks go for Adidas even when the prices are high because psychologically, they think that high prices mean high quality and confirmation of authenticity.

Adidas’s pricing strategy is created based on the following factors:

• Brand Equity: Adidas, being a well-known brand, is known for offering high quality products. This gives the company the opportunity to offer premium prices for its product offerings.
• Target Market: Adidas targets upper-middle-class and high-end consumers because they are willing to pay a premium price for these high-quality and exclusive products.
• Product life cycle: Adidas pricing strategy employs price skimming strategies when introducing new products so that they can earn as much as possible before its competitors introduce similar variations of its products. When the product meets the maturity stage the company will have to resort to competitive pricing strategy.

This pricing strategy has helped the company in successfully achieving its marketing objectives. This has helped the company to position itself as one of the leading sportswear brands in the world, which has been able to generate significant profits.

3. Marketing Mix of Adidas: Place & Distribution Strategy

The third one in the Adidas marketing mix is the place and distribution strategy of the product. Adidas has its production houses in around 55 countries and has 800 factories pinned across different continents. The major source through which its products are sold is Retail Stores i.e., Adidas outlets. It has more than 2800 retail outlets globally.

The place and distribution strategy focuses on making its products available in a variety of convenient locations. The company’s distribution strategy includes the following:

• Retail Stores: Adidas owns retail stores in Major cities around the world offering wide range of Adidas product mix and providing opportunities to consumers to try the products and get some amazing advice from sales associates.
• Online Retailers: Adidas sells its products through various online platforms such as Amazon, Foot Locker, and JD Sports. Consumers will be able to buy products from Adidas by just sitting at home.
• Wholesale distributors: Here Adidas basically sells its products to the wholesalers. These wholesalers later distribute these products to the retailers. This channel helps Adidas reach a wider audience.

This place and distribution strategy has successfully helped the company to achieve its marketing objectives. This has helped the company to be one of the leading sportswear brands in the world in order to generate higher sales.

4. Marketing Mix of Adidas: Promotion Strategy

This one is the most important part of the Adidas marketing mix strategy. It is a well-known fact that the TV ads of Adidas are Adrenaline pumping. Knowing that Adidas’ strength is derived from sports, their ads are robust and passionate. The major source of promotion for Adidas is marketing through television.

Another major promotion method of Adidas is product placement. Product placement means where references to brands are made by featuring them in other works like movies and television programs. The popularity of Adidas is also because of all its tie-ups with sports icons such as Lionel Messi and Ronaldo.

Along with tying up with major sports celebrities, Adidas also sponsors some popular sports teams such as Real Madrid and in football, Great Britain which helps the company in building its brand image.

Apart from this, Adidas has been known for its creative marketing campaign and event marketing. Social Media is another way through which this company keeps up with folks across the world. There are millions of followers of Adidas on both Facebook and Instagram. The sports angle in their social media handle makes it more magnetic and appealing. 

The most recent campaign by Adidas “Own the Game” was introduced on virtual investor and media day. The campaign is to strengthen and uplift the authenticity of the brand and proliferate the company’s activity in sustainability. This campaign has been created with the expectations of sales and profitability until 2025. 

Adidas has recently announced that actress Jenna Ortega will be the face of its new Sportswear label and the “All That You Are” campaign. The campaign promotes comfort and self-expression and features diverse creatives and athletes. Ortega, who starred in the Netflix series “Wednesday,” is the newest addition to Adidas’ global family.

The promotion strategy of Adidas focuses on creating awareness of its brands and products. The promotional tools used here include the following:

• Advertising: Adidas uses various media to promote its products such as television, print, and online. Creating and visually appealing campaigns are created to capture the eye of consumers.
• Sponsorship: Adidas sponsors the sports events such as the FIFA World Cup and Lionel Messi. Through sponsorships, the brand reaches a wider audience in order to make the audience resonate with the brand with success.
• Public Relations Activities: Adidas indulges in press releases as well as organizes events to generate a positive public image of the brand. These public relations activities help the brand to create awareness as well as position itself as a leader in the sportswear industry.
• Digital Marketing: Adidas leverages the power of digital marketing tools such as social media, SEO and SEM, and content marketing, in order to reach their online audience. Engaging in such activities has helped consumers to build brand awareness and increase website traffic.These promotion strategies have been a huge success in helping the company to achieve its marketing objectives and increase sales.

5. Marketing Mix of Adidas: People Strategy

Adidas’s people strategy focuses on attracting, developing, and retaining some of the best talent in the industry. The company strongly believes its people to be one of the most important, as a result, they invest heavily in its people development programs.

Thus, the people strategy of Adidas includes the following:

• Attracting good talent: By offering competitive salaries and benefits, it has created a strong brand reputation. This allows the company to attract people with good talent across the globe.
• Developing those talents: By offering a variety of training and development programs, Adidas helps its employees inculcate new skills and knowledge. Adidas encourages its employees to take risks and grow within the company.
• Retaining these talents: The company promotes a positive work environment and strong teamwork within the organization which helps to retain these amazing talents.

This strategy adopted by Adidas has been successful to help the company to achieve its business goals. As a result, the company has developed such a strong team that is committed to the growth and success of the organization.

6. Marketing Mix of Adidas: Process Strategy

The process strategy of Adidas focuses on improving efficiencies by streamlining its operations. A variety of tools and techniques are used to improve its efficiency that including:

• Lean Manufacturing: Adidas adopts lean manufacturing practices to reduce its waste and improve efficiency. This manufacturing is one of the systematic approaches to reduce waste by focusing on identifying and eradicating non-value-added activities.
• Six Sigma: These principles help Adidas to improve the quality of its products and processes. Six Sigma makes use of data and statistical analysis in order to identify and eliminate defects.
• Business Process Management (BPM): In order to improve the efficiency of its business processes, Adidas makes use of BPM. BPM, being a discipline makes use of a variety of tools and techniques to improve the design, execution and monitoring of these business processes.

This process strategy has successfully helped the company to reduce its costs, improve quality, and increase efficiency.

7. Marketing Mix of Adidas: Physical Evidence Strategy

Adidas uses this strategy to generate a memorable experience for its customers. Adidas’s physical evidence strategy includes its retail stores, website, and marketing materials.

The retail stores of Adidas are designed to create a clean, modern, and inviting vibe. This design involves the use of bright lighting, open spaces as well as eye-catching displays. The website is designed to facilitate easy navigation about the wide range of products, and the company’s history, culture, and its sustainability initiatives.

The marketing materials are designed to make the advertising company visually appealing and engaging. These marketing materials also make use of high quality videos and images that showcase the Adidas product mix.

This physical evidence strategy adopted by the company has helped the company to achieve its marketing objectives. This has made it easy for the company to establish a positive image of the company and generate sales.

How does Adidas use Digital Marketing in its Strategy

Adidas indulges in digital marketing activities to reach out to its target audience and attain its marketing objectives. These digital marketing activities include:

• Social media marketing: Adidas stays active on social media platforms such as Facebook, X(Twitter), Instagram, and TikTok. The company uses these platforms to promote its products and increase its brand awareness.

Detailed Marketing Mix of Adidas- Image: adidas tweet

• Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Adidas uses SEM by bidding for keywords that are relevant to their products, in order to facilitate their promotion on search engines. As a result, their website appears at the top of the search results.
• Email Marketing: These emails are collected during the purchases made by the consumer. The company then uses these emails to send some promotional emails to these consumers, so that they are aware of the company’s new products and services.
• Influencer Marketing: The company selects influencers with large followings that are relevant to its target audience in order to promote the product mix of Adidas on social media. Influencers help the company increase the reach of its products.
• Content Marketing: Adidas curates some amazing content that resonates with the audience. This includes blog posts, infographics, videos, and social media posts. The main is of this content is to deliver value to its consumers and to establish Adidas as an amazing brand in the sportswear industry.

Adidas uses these digital marketing tools to achieve its goals. The company constantly experiments with new digital marketing strategies in order to find new ways to improve its results.

Top Competitors of Adidas

• Nike: Being the world’s leading footwear and clothing brand, Kike is for offering innovative products with celebrity endorsements. Hence, it is on of the top competitors of 
• Puma:  Being a german sportswear company, Puma is known for providing stylish and high-performance sneakers making it the second top competitor of Adidas.
• Under Armour: Though being a new player in the sportswear industry, Under Armour has quickly become one of the major competitors by leveraging its innovative technology and marketing campaigns.
• New Balance: It is a Boston-based company that is known for offering high-quality and durable sneakers. This makes New Balance very popular among both, i.e. the athletes and casual wearers making it one of the top competitors of Adidas.
• ASICS: This Japanese sportswear company is known for offering its running shoes with other technical gear, making it popular among athletes and fitness enthusiasts. 

Conclusion

With the above-mentioned 7Ps, it can be concluded that the 71-year-old Adidas is still a robust and successful company out there. It has come up with some of the most creative campaigns and its creative team has never failed to boost the confidence of sports lovers and youngsters in the company worldwide. Adidas has maintained its authenticity and credibility by always catering to its target market by providing quality products. Their thousands of outlets all over the world have made the brand easily accessible. With their signature branding, Adidas has created for itself a distinguished position in the market. 

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