Reebok 2010 Annual Report Download - page 94

90 Group Management Report – Our Group Global Brands Strategy
Marketing and communication
leadership
To be competitive in the sporting goods
industry, brands must have a clear profile
towards their target consumer. To achieve
this, adidas and Reebok are focused on
creating inspirational and innovative
brand marketing campaigns and
communication techniques to build brand
equity and support the achievement of
the Group’s commercial goals.
A key tenet of our marketing and
communication strategy is to harness
the emotion of sport and the benefits
of a sporting lifestyle across all
communication channels. Both adidas
and Reebok regularly bring new global
marketing concepts to life, which can
be easily leveraged to create simple and
powerful brand messages and support an
array of product offerings. For example,
adidas will use the “One Brand Anthem”
platform to transcend its key categories
and sub-brands in 2011. Reebok will
continue its global campaign, which
will use the motto “Ree” as a guiding
theme for the brand’s communication
with consumers. The key message
of the campaign is simple. Reebok
“ReeDefines” sport and style, bringing
fun and joy back into consumers’ lives.
In addition, Global Brands also
endeavours to ensure all of its brands are
at the forefront of new communication
techniques, particularly as information
flow becomes faster and faster. Through
investment in digital marketing and
technologies, both adidas and Reebok are
empowering and encouraging consumers
to interact in personal dialogues with
the brands. Whether through in-store or
online customisation platforms, digital
social networks or digital broadcast
mediums, these methods are providing
a new scope of consumer experiences in
a real-time and cost-effective way.
Activation and validation via a relevant
set of promotion partnerships
The utilisation of promotion partners
such as federations, teams, leagues,
events and individuals is an important
part of endorsing brand positioning, and
an area to which the Group dedicates
significant resources. This not only
serves as a vehicle to showcase the
credentials of adidas and Reebok
products in the performance arena, but
also to facilitate the extension of the
adidas and Reebok brands in the sports-
inspired lifestyle market. Both adidas
and Reebok follow a partnership strategy
geared to best reflect their respective
positioning in the market.
One of the guiding principles of adidas
is to equip all athletes to achieve their
“impossible”. As such, adidas brings its
passion for great products to the biggest
stages in the world with sponsorship
agreements for the FIFA World Cup, the
NBA, the European Rugby Cup and the
upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games.
In addition, adidas has an extensive
roster of high-profile sports teams such
as AC Milan, Liverpool FC, FC Bayern
Munich and Real Madrid in football,
the New Zealand All Blacks in rugby,
American universities like UCLA and
Notre Dame, as well as high-profile
individuals such as FIFA World Player of
the Year Lionel Messi, football icon David
Beckham, basketball stars Derrick Rose
and Dwight Howard, marathon legend
Haile Gebrselassie, athletic stars Tyson
Gay and Jeremy Wariner and tennis stars
Justine Henin, Caroline Wozniacki and
Andy Murray.
To activate and validate its key
concepts, Reebok is partnering with
top women’s and men’s sport athletes.
In Women’s, Reebok is partnering
with some of the world’s top women’s
fitness instructors renowned for their
inspirational approach to fitness.
In Men’s Sport, some of the most
recognisable athletes support Reebok,
including Peyton Manning, John Wall
as well as Lewis Hamilton. In addition,
the brand holds exclusive, long-term
licensing agreements with the National
Lacrosse League in North America,
giving Reebok the exclusive rights to
manufacture and market both authentic
and replica uniform jerseys and sideline
apparel.
Extending brand reach and appeal
through strategic partnerships
adidas and Reebok have both success-
fully pursued design and co-branding
strategies with complementary partners.
For example, adidas has partnered
with Yohji Yamamoto, Stella McCartney
and Porsche Design, designing sports-
inspired fashion, high-end functional
ranges or even luxury sportswear. adidas
Originals continues to engage in unique
collaborations with well-known brands
such as Burton, Vespa and Star Wars,
that ensure adidas remains relevant to
the style-conscious streetwear consumer.
In Women’s Fitness, Reebok and
Cirque du Soleil continue their strategic
partnership, which has given rise to
inspiring new workout experiences and
product collections. In fall/winter 2010,
Reebok launched its first collection with
Giorgio Armani S.p.A. The global style
credentials of the EA7 and Emporio
Armani labels combined with Reebok’s
fitness and training heritage and
technologies fit together to provide a new
perspective and concept in the global
sports style marketplace.