Reebok 2008 Annual Report Download - page 54

050 Group Management Report – Our Group Structure and Strategy — adidas Strategy
Sport Performance – Football: expanding market leadership
Being the most popular sport worldwide, football is clearly one
of adidas’ key strategic priorities. For over 50 years, adidas
has led all major developments in football boot technology and
balls. Building on its success around major sporting events
such as the FIFA World Cup™ and the European Football
Championship, the brand strives to increase its leadership
position by continuously creating the industry’s top products
and fully leveraging its outstanding portfolio of promotion
partners.
Promotion partners include leading football associations
(e.g. FIFA, UEFA), national federations (e.g. Germany, Russia,
Spain, Romania, Greece, Argentina, Mexico, Japan), leagues
(e.g. Major League Soccer in the USA), clubs (e.g. Real Madrid,
AC Milan, Chelsea FC, Liverpool FC, FC Bayern Munich, River
Plate Buenos Aires) and individual players (e.g. Kaká, Lionel
Messi, David Beckham, Michael Ballack).
In 2008, adidas continued to grow its market leadership in foot-
ball markets around the world, thanks to the brand’s strong
presence at the UEFA EURO 2008™. Going forward, the foot-
ball category will concentrate on the lead-up to the 2010 FIFA
World Cup South Africa™. In addition, the FIFA Confederations
Cup in South Africa and the UEFA Champions League serve as
important platforms to showcase new products and marketing
concepts throughout 2009.
Sport Performance – Running: building credibility
with high-performance athletes
Running continues to be one of adidas’ highest category priori-
ties and is critical to the brand’s success moving forward.
Because of the category’s global importance, the brand is com-
mitted to support running with a substantial portion of overall
marketing spend.
The brand’s philosophy is to inspire and enable runners on all
levels. First and foremost, adidas focuses on building cred-
ibility with the high-performance athlete. This credibility is the
foundation for eventually tapping into the broader opportunity
in the running category, the casual runner.
In 2009, running will focus on personalisation as well as more
exciting and feminine products for women runners. Using
the marketing mantra “Because Every Runner Is Different”,
adidas Running will introduce the exciting new family Gazelle in
addition to current product families such as the adiSTAR® and
Supernova™ offerings. The huge track and fi eld support that
adidas provides its athletes with will also become apparent on
the world’s biggest sporting stage in 2009, at the IAAF World
Championships in Berlin.
Sport Performance – Training: leading in innovation
At adidas, training is the biggest category for both men and
women. Training supports the preparation needs of serious
athletes across all sports disciplines and is the industry’s larg-
est apparel category. Innovation continues to be an important
strategic priority in this category. In September 2008, adidas
purchased Textronics, Inc., a specialist in integrating high-tech
heart rate, moisture and blood pressure monitoring technology
into performance apparel. This acquisition will help strengthen
adidas’ leading position in the intelligent product category.
Furthermore, adidas will continue to deepen its relationship
with other key partners, providing athletes with insights, advice
and training programmes, which will be delivered on the adidas
miCoach platform.
In addition to new innovations, training continues to evolve and
develop its existing industry-leading technologies. Updated
gender-specifi c body mapping enables CLIMA to stay at the
forefront of delivering optimal solutions for moisture manage-
ment and body temperature control. TECHFIT™ compression,
led by the unique TECHFIT PowerWEB proposition, will further
broaden itself as a cross-category technology featuring on
athletes in sports as wide-ranging as football and athletics to
basketball, swimming, rugby and boxing see adidas Products
and Campaigns, p. 129.
We believe one of our major existing growth areas and key
long-term opportunities for the brand is women’s training.
In 2009, a campaign entitled “Me, Myself” featuring tennis
player Ana Ivanovic and basketball star Candace Parker will be
launched, recognising the personalised and individual needs of
women who want to be “fi t to win” and “fi t for life”.
Sport Performance – Basketball: the “Brotherhood” grows
adidas is one of the leading basketball brands worldwide with a
strong presence outside of North America. Increasing its foot-
print in basketball, in particular in the critical North American
market, therefore represents another key component of the
adidas brand strategy. adidas intends to strengthen its position
in the category by emphasising the brand’s unique position-
ing – with a clear focus not only on individual but also on team
performance.
In 2008, adidas Basketball continued to leverage its unique
NBA partnership and developed the “Brotherhood” campaign
which will continue in 2009. Due to the NBA’s increasing vis-
ibility and popularity around the globe, the partnership repre-
sents an important vehicle to drive the adidas basketball busi-
ness in Asia and Europe. With basketball overtaking football
as the most popular sport in China, adidas brought the NBA
to Shanghai in 2008. With the NBA live and 5IVE grassroots
events, and the introduction of TECHFIT PowerWEB as the
offi cial compression apparel of the NBA, adidas Basketball will
continue to excite consumers in 2009.