IAdidasMarketingStrategy.docVIP

Adidas is one of the largest companies in the sporting goods industry. The focus of the Adidas brand is on sports. The Adidas brand offers footwear, apparel and hardware in three divisions, including sport performance, sport heritage and sport style. The sport performance division develops sports products, focused on running, football, basketball, tennis and training. The sport heritage division concentrates on sports lifestyle and casual wear. The sport style division is focused on fashion-conscious consumers and includes collections like the Y-3 designed by Yohji Yamamoto.The focus of Reebok brand, meanwhile, is more on style. It offers sports, fitness and casual footwear, apparel and equipment under the Reebok brand. The TaylorMade - Adidas Golf brand offers a range of golf clubs, accessories, footwear and apparel. It also includes Maxfli brand, which designs and develops golf balls. Adidas has concluded several endorsement contracts with several sportsmen and women. Sportsmen under contract include David Beckham (soccer), Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan (basketball), Ian Thorpe (swimming), Maurice Greene and Haile Gebreselassie (athletics) and Sergio Garcia (golf). It also provides the team kit wear for the French football team and clubs such as Real Madrid, AC Milan, Bayern Munich and the New York Yankees (Marketline 2009). Most of the groups products are manufactured by third party independent manufacturers. During 2007, the group sourced products from 377 independent manufacturing partners, of which 71% were located in Asia, 17% were located in Europe, and 12% in Americas. The group undertakes research and development activities on a global scale. Research and development activities within the Adidas group are decentralized, with each brand having its own research, design and development operations across several countries. The group markets its products through an extensive distribution channel. The group has 542 concept stores, 317 factory outle