Business Case free essay sample

The Adidas brand is positioned as a globally recognizable symbol for quality and is synonymous with sports and an active lifestyle, while still being stylish and reasonably priced. In comparison to competitors such as Nike and Reebok, Adidas has a less flashy and more classy image. Furthermore, Adidas is known for its commitment to quality as well as it’s pop culture status with musicians and other celebrities. This appeals to its target market of 12 to 24 year olds because they are easily influenced and by seeing their favorite celebrities wearing Adidas they’ll be compelled to either ask their parents to purchase them or purchase them on their own when they’re financially able to do so. What is Adidas position in the athletic shoe market? Who are the other players in the market? How does the brand seem to be doing in this market? Adidas started as a major player in the international soccer market, and other Olympic sports. We will write a custom essay sample on Business Case or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page More recently Adidas is still huge in the soccer market but have become much more prominent in other sports like basketball which has a huge market for footwear. Currently they are a â€Å"hip† brand that’s popular in both the Hip Hop community and the hardcore sports fanatics. Other players in the market primarily include Nike and Reebok. Adidas is doing well as the number 3 brand in most segments with the exception of soccer where they share the global market with Nike, so there is room for improvement but all the while seem to have a firm hold on their position without an immediate threat to be unseated. What evidence does Adidas have that suggests the importance and potential success of digital interactive and mobile marketing? First and foremost, it’s common knowledge that for the past 10 years mobile device use has increased exponentially, and while it may have slowed a bit now it’s still an ever-growing industry with no sign of stopping anytime soon. In the US, â€Å"taking over† Yahoo to promote their Impossible is Nothing campaign, proved a huge success and proved that digital advertising can be a powerful tool. In addition, previous mobile marketing campaigns in Japan and Europe were hugely successful. Now that the US mobile network is comparable to that in Japan and Europe it’s the perfect opportunity to take advantage of mobile marketing with more data intensive and user friendly applications What is the Brand in the Hand concept? What does this mean to Adidas and its branding efforts? The Brand in the Hand concept is a marketing campaign designed to reach a younger target market by utilizing advances in cell phone technology. As data networks became more advanced they’d be able to handle more media rich content like videos, music, or detailed internet pages. A company could now effectively advertise through these mobile sources without a long delay that would be a turnoff to customers. As far as Adidas was concerned, prices were rising on internet advertising and print media like magazines were not as profitable any more so they need to shift their campaign to maximize every ad dollar. They decided to move away from the print ads almost altogether and put some of that into the low cost development of mobile marketing and become the Brand in the Hand. They would also have to remain attractive as a brand to their target market since they were the heaviest user of the data network. What were the objectives of the Missy Elliott (ME) campaign in the United States, and why did Adidas choose to center the campaign based on Elliott? Do you think this campaign will be successful in the United States and why? The primary objectives of the mobile campaign were to introduce the new product line, create demand for the new product, develop recurring customers by offering them benefits for returning to the site, to drive traffic to retail locations, and to collect cell phone data to track the effectiveness of the campaign and build a â€Å"mobile customer† database. Adidas likely chose Missy Elliott because she had mass appeal after selling 7 million albums, she was respected as an artist who stayed out of trouble, and she also had a very unique style and fashion sense. She was also a strong female role model with cross gender appeal and she was experienced in selling shoes after a year under contract with Reebok. I think the campaign had the potential to be successful as they could capitalize on Missy Elliott’s massive success at that point in time. After reviewing the website content it was evident that mobile content wasn’t exclusive for Missy fans as there were wallpapers offered which donned the Respect ME trademark but wasn’t necessarily associated with Missy or her music. The free content is definitely a plus, however the â€Å"pay† content on the site, in my opinion, missed the mark. If Adidas’ target market was 12 – 24 year olds, but their pay content required a credit card, which effectively eliminates half the target market and there are a large number of 18 and older consumers who don’t have credit cards for at least a few years after turning 18. How important a role should MMC play in Adidas’ overall brand communications strategy? Is MMC just a novel approach to marketing communications and a marketing fad (is it merely communicating the same message in a new format), or should it be an integral part of Adidas’ overall brand communications strategy? I definitely think MMC should be an important component in their brand communications strategy, however I don’t think it should be relied heavily on to drive business. While cell phone internet usage is on the rise it’s not my preferred location to surf the internet, it’s only used in situations where I have no access to internet on a PC at all. I think internet advertising is more important as it’s already a proven to be a huge success for Adidas, even if the cost is a little higher. As the newer generation phones continue to come out on faster networks, such as the iPhone, surfing the net will become a more attractive option to mobile users. If Adidas didn’t have as much of a boost in sales as they anticipated when they first implemented it may be an option to revamp the campaign with a new celebrity and try it again now. I’d be willing to bet sales would be higher than they were the first go-round.