Ch. 8 - Segmenting and Targeting Markets

               

            All successful organizations have outstanding marketing strategies which they segment strategically. The market you sell to is very important to you organization. Companies such as Adidas market to athletes of all ages over the world. Adidas markets to professionals and amateur athletes. The market segmentation plays a key role in the marketing strategy. Each market is unique so the organization has to be careful upon choosing the right one(s). The purpose of market segmentation is to enable the marketer to adjust marketing mixes (product, price, promotion, place) to meet the needs of one or more specific segments. Basically marketers use the market segmentation process to divide big markets into smaller segments according to characteristics of individuals, different groups and locations. 

Adidas the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and the second biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world markets by looking at buying attitudes and buying practices of different people. The sellers design a separate market program for each buyer. Adidas mainly focuses on demographic and psychographic segmentation's. So Adidas develops their brand in 3 different styles of segmentation.

Demographic segmentation refers to dividing the market into groups based on demographic variables, such as sex and age. This method has long been used in clothing market. Adidas brands products into range of male, female and kids, according to age and life cycle segmentation and gender segmentation. Adidas has a branded range of male and female clothing, shoes or body-care and eye wear. Performance, originals and style are all three brands of Adidas. 

Psychographic segmentation is used to divide the market into groups based on social class, life style or personality characteristics. Adidas focuses on social class because people within a given social class tend to have similar buying traits. Companies also use income, gender, ethnic, and family life cycle segmentation's to distinguish their market but Adidas keeps it a little less complicated and more wide ranged so the brand is marketing to many different people all over the world.  

Ch. 11 - Developing and Managing Products

       If you look at it, a company is useless without a product. It's like a basketball without a hoop. In that case it is crucial for a company to develop efficient products and manage them correctly. Did you know the average company introduces 70-80 new products a year? That is a lot of products and not all of those products become successful or sell. You cant just throw a new product out there and expect it to do the rest own its own. If a company did such a thing they would become a laughing stock. New products are important to sustain growth, increase revenues and profits, and replace older items that aren't so big anymore.

Before a company releases a new product they have to have an idea, then with that idea the have to make a model of the idea and then screen it. Then the new product goes through a business analysis which determines how can the product be good for business. At last the product is developed and tested, after the test is passed commercialization is underway for the product then the product is released with a bang along with commercials, posters, bill boards and lots of advertisement. This process is called a new product strategy which is a plan or process which the development and objectives of a product are tested and analyzed before the product is released.

Commercialization is the decision to market a product. When Adidas decided to market basketball sneakers they went through the new product development process in which the sneakers were analyzed, developed and tested on every little feature before they come out to the public. Adidas made sure they were light weight and fashionable. To promote the sneakers even more basketball star Derrick Rose was added to the mix because he is a rising star in professional sports and other athletes especially amateurs look up to him. The adiZero Rose Crazy Light sneakers went through the same process and the products were managed efficiently, which made Derrick Rose a major sports model for Adidas Basketball Campaigns.


Here below are the four stages of The Product Life Cycle

Most products last throughout these four stages. The introduction, Growth of the product, Maturity (Which is the peak of the product), and decline (The fall of the product).

The Adidas adiZero Rose Crazy Light Sneaker is currently at the growth stage even though the sneaker had came out a while ago sales are still rising. The shoe was introduced back in 2011 the year Derrick Rose won MVP in. The shoe carries a slogan of "Fast Don't Lie" interpreting the players lightning speed on the court. This Adidas product will be in the maturity stage soon but as of late sales are at their peak.

Ch. 16 - Integrated Marketing Communications

 The Role of Promotion in the Marketing Mix is necessary to sell, inform and influence your product or service. Some products or services can survive in the marketplace without effective promotion and still sell and bring on consumers on its own. Promotion of a product or service is highly important to its success; marketers promote by  communicating information, persuading, reminding potential buyers of a product in order to influence opinions and generate interest.  


Along with The Marketing Mix (product, place, price, and promotion) The Promotional Mix also plays a relevant part to The Role of Promotion. The Promotional mix includes Advertising, Public Relations, Sales Promotion and Personal Selling which leads to a promotion plan of a product.


The type of promotional strategy Adidas uses follows a pattern in which they advertise through high profile athletes who are sponsored by Adidas this helps them get their name out along with the unique, lightweight and comfortable products that Adidas brings to the table. Adidas communicates their marketing activities through a bunch of different ways, but the most productive ways The Adidas Group likes to use are, Advertising, Publicity and Sales Promotions. These 3 ways have been highly effective to Adidas and has brought them the success they have today. Adidas uses publicity because right about when they are going to launch a new product some information goes public so the media can spread the news that a certain products is coming and before it hits the shelves an athlete demonstrates the product attracting even more consumers generating a great deal of interest and then through advertising and sales promotion Adidas makes beneficial profits. 


The Concept Adidas communicates through is channel which is radio, newspaper, and television also through mass communication which is a method of communication and sending your message to large audiences. Communicating isn't easy as 1 2 3 there is a process to effective communication and sending and receiving messages. Feedback is crucial for companies such as Adidas without feedback you cannot better your companies products, or services. Adidas communicates and uses the promotional mix effectively. Informing, Persuading, and Reminding are huge concepts in Adidas they have set a base around those categories in which they communicate and respond with. 

Ch. 10 - Product Concepts

           The product or service is very important to a company, it is the heart of the organization. Once the company has a stable product it can be a starting point of creating  a new marketing mix which is highly beneficial to the brand in generating revenue and popularity. Without a a product to sell the company cannot determine a price, design a promotion, or create a distribution channel. There are different type of products such as a business product used to facilitate an organizations operations, consumer products which are products made to satisfy and individuals needs and wants, and many others such as product line, mic and item. Unknown products also have marketing mixes but they are unknown to potential buyers and are usually sold in retail.

Rarely does a company sells a single product they sell a variety of things and create products lines. Such for Adidas they have created many clothing and sneaker lines together which are the Adidas Originals that include different colors and varieties of low top sneakers such as the ones on top of the page and the 3 striped garments, Adidas sweatsuit collections, and also a huge collection of soccer and basketball product lines which have turned into consumer and industrial products.

Here is a Adidas product line where they have a deodorant collection. This set includes skin lotion, shower gel, cologne and spray deodorant. This would be an example of a product line depth because it is a number of product items in a product line. 

Above is a combination of a product mix where most of the products that The Adidas Organization sells are shown and also an example of consumer products because they have a product line of Adidas Original sneakers in the back and around the front they have sweatsuits to go along with a modification of similar Adidas Original shoes. Adidas has a variety of products and they all change with time and are modified for customer needs, style and wants also to these products are used to facilitate the organizations operations.