Ch. 18 - Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

      Along with advertising having sales attract more consumers to certain products and or companies. Advertising offers the consumer a reason to buy and sales promotion offers an incentive to buy. In other words having sales give people incentives, consumers love to shop but if the incentive being is saving some money and getting a percentage off of the original price they will buy more and make efforts to buy more during the sales promotion span. Sales promotions also motivate certain consumers to purchase the goods or service immediately, this is done by either lowering the price or by adding value to the product such as a new color or quality.  


Coupons and rebates also play a major role in sales promotions. Coupons and rebates allows the consumer to an immediate price reduction when they make a purchase. Coupons are oftentimes used to encourage sale of a certain product or re-purchase of a popular one.  Unlike coupons rebates do not give the consumer instant savings on the spot, a rebate is more of a cash refund for the purchase of a certain product such as a phone, household item or electronic and the refund is given in a certain amount of time not instantly. 


Contests and sweepstakes are also a way to re-create interest in a good or service. Contests give a chance to participants where they can use a certain skill or ability to win a prize or a product. There maybe one prize only or certain prizes for certain places. Contests and sweepstakes are kinds like scholarships where you have to answer certain questions and write paragraphs and or essays

   


     Adidas rarely offers any coupons or rebates as such but they do have sales every now and then to promote certain new or original Adidas products. Such as Adidas recently had a sale where they offered 70% of most products and along with the flier were two coupons saying $10 off with a purchase of $50 or higher. Adidas also holds season clearance sales to get ready for new products or a new season. For example a summer season clearance sale would be held to clear all summer products such as shorts, tanks and light sneakers to bring in products for the fall which may include sweatsuits, jackets and hoodies. 

Ch. 17 - Advertising and Public Relations

    Advertising is a critical part in a company's fortune and future. Advertising and reaching out to the public helps the company become popular and known for certain things. Such as The Adidas Group is highly know for Soccer and Basketball campaigns around the world and the United States. Adidas uses a advertising strategy where they use high profile athletes to promote certain areas. As for basketball Adidas campaigns with Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard and a couple more, for soccer they campaign with players from teams such as Mexico, France, and Italy.  Adidas catches an athletes mind with unique graphics, style, and comfort. Adidas also advertises through FIFA, NBA and their retail stores.

According to a recent post on AdWeek, Adidas has launched it's largest as campaign ever called the "All Adidas Campaign". The campaign includes Bulls point guard Derrick Rose, singer Katy Perry, rapper B.O.B. , soccer stars David Beckham and Lionel Messi and popular skateboarders.

Adidas is currently going "All In" with present and future ads of their brand they are focusing on more than sports. They have expanded their focus on casual wear and comfort in sports and in everyday life. The following is a Adidas commercial from their All Adidas Campaign

Ch. 15 - Retailing

     Retailers ring up over $4 trillion in sales annually, about 40% of the gross domestic product. That's an overwhelming amount of money for any company. Retailing helps companies sell certain product(s), make profit in certain areas of the brand, generate popularity to certain consumers and show them what the company is about while selling most of their products on a daily basis. 


Adidas is a successful retailing company and they have developed chain stores all over the globe. One of Adidas main focuses are retailing even though they thrive in that area they plan to continue to push their success.  




 The picture above is of one of The Adidas Group dynamic retailing stores in Soho in lower Manhattan, New York City. Over the past five years, The Adidas Group has evolved into a dominant retailer, they have operated 2,270 stores for the Adidas and Reebok brands worldwide. For the future Adidas has simplified their chain stores, by clustering it into three different formats, by brand centers, core stores and factory outlets. Which falls into Adidas Group business plan for the future called "Route 2015". 

• Brand centers, such as large stores carrying the full range of each of our adidas sub-brands under one roof, are the bold and powerful statements about their strength, breadth and depth. This format will be kept to a limited number and only in exclusive locations.


• Core stores are the commercial engine for sales and profit across the Group’s retail organisation, upholding and accentuating each brand’s reputation. There will be adidas brand core stores, Originals core stores and Reebok core stores and, depending on their size, they will be categorised and clustered into A, B or C.


• Our factory outlets will facilitate the controlled sale of excess stock returned from our wholesale key and field accounts, franchise partners, e-commerce as well as own-retail stores. Through improved management of regional inventory and limited planned production, we want to improve and balance our product offering and therefore further increase our profitability. 

In 2011 The Adidas Group revenued 2,973 trillion dollars in Retailing worldwide which is amazing to any company but The Adidas Group is not satisfied they seek to bring up their retailing strategies by opening more stores and doing things to attain more consumer interest. Also they plan to focus on production on every single one of their retailing stores. Adidas as a franchise is a successful retailer and thrives to do more, they are efficient in level of service, product assortment, and price. Retailing is a huge part of the U.S. Economy, companies like Adidas keep it nice & dandy. 

Ch. 6 Consumer Decision Making

      Understanding consumer behavior is very important for companies who plan to make any sort of profits. Consumers product and service preferences are constantly changing, to market consumers effectively you must study and understand these desires in order to succeed in a well defined market. Adidas looks far into consumers and focus on certain things such as wants, desires, comfort level, and the stimulus cycle which includes the 5 senses sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. 

Remember when Adidas launched the originals and consumers went crazy demanding for the all white low tops and then to keep then interested Adidas released the originals in a variety of colors and styles which helped Adidas develop a name for itself. (Here are the Adidas originals below) 

Consumer wants and need are not the only factors that Adidas considers. Culture and values are also taken in consideration by Adidas. Cultural backgrounds influence the Consumer Decision Making process because consumers of a distinct background tend to have similar needs and identical consumption patterns.  It is Adidas' job to adapt to the various surrounding and to ever evolving and changing needs of  consumer. Not only attracting consumers in their birth place of Germany, Adidas also generates consumers interest in the United States, China, Russia and Mexico. 

The goal for Adidas Group is to lead the sporting goods industry with brands built upon a passion for sports and a sporting lifestyle. Inspired by our heritage, we know that a profound understanding of the consumer and customer is essential to achieving this goal. To anticipate and respond to their needs, we continuously strive to create a culture of innovation, challenging ourselves to break with convention and embrace change. (By focusing on Diversity; Diversity is huge in today's market, not only diverse consumers but diverse needs and wants down to the smallest details) 

Diverse brand portfolio

Consumers want choice. Whether it is the athlete looking for the best possible equipment, or the casual consumer searching for the next fashion trend, Adidas is inspired to develop and create experiences that engage consumers in long-lasting relationships with its brands. To maximize the consumer outreach, Adidas has embraced a multi-brand strategy. This approach allows it to tackle opportunities from several perspectives, as both a mass and a niche player, providing distinct and relevant products to a wide spectrum of consumers. In this way, each brand is able to keep a unique identity and focus on its core competencies, while simultaneously providing for Adidas Group with a broad product offering, increasing in its leverage in the marketplace. 

Presentation of Route 2015

In November 2010, the Adidas Group unveiled its 2015 strategic business plan named “Route 2015”. This plan is the most comprehensive the Adidas Group has ever prepared, incorporating all brands, sales channels and Group functions globally. Based on our strong brands, premium products, extensive global presence and our commitment to innovation and the consumer, we aspire to outperform total market growth (both GDP and sporting goods market) and to grow our bottom line faster than our top line. In addition, the Group plans to lay the foundation for leadership in the sporting goods industry by outgrowing our major competitor over the next five years. The plan aims at growing the revenues of the adidas Group by 45% to 50% currency-neutral from 2010 to 2015. In addition, the Group targets a compounded annual earnings growth rate of 15% and aims to reach an operating margin of 11% sustainably by 2015 at the latest. To achieve these goals, we have made strategic choices and will prioritise our investments under our six key strategic pillars.

Results from UIE's studies show that the online buying process acts as a sieve, where customers are inadvertently filter out at each stage of their decision-making process

Above is a chart of how consumers think and evaluate their product before purchasing it and what happens after the purchase, even though the chart shows a consumer going threw the process of buying a new computer, Adidas consumers go threw the very same process while picking and choosing sneakers and athletic gear. They go by deciding the size, style, color, comfort level, high or low top and the overall experience is shared with other potential consumers and then you receive more attention to your brand as shown before by the Adidas Originals.