Reebok 2011 Annual Report Download - page 74

adidas Group
2011 Annual Report
GROUP MANAGEMENT REPORT – OUR GROUP
70
2011
02.3 Global Brands Strategy
02.3
Leadership in product innovation to excite
and inspire the consumer
Through Global Brands, we are determined to address every consumer
in a specific and unique way – with product initiatives that generate
trade and consumer interest.
We believe that technological innovation is essential to sustainable
leadership in our industry. By leveraging the extensive R&D expertise
within the Group, adidas and Reebok continuously challenge the
boundaries of functionality and performance. In addition, innovation
plays a significant role in differentiating the adidas and Reebok
product offerings in the minds of consumers.
For example, at adidas, personalisation is one of the brand’s lead
innovation concepts, and it is an adidas goal to be the most personal
sports brand by 2015. At Reebok, innovation focus is on fitness, where
the priority is creating products that provide a material benefit to the
consumer’s fitness activities (e.g. flexibility, lightweight) SEE RESEARCH
AND DEVELOPMENT, P. 95
.
By creating inspiring product and brand experiences, adidas and
Reebok strive to enhance their positions as premium brands. This, in
turn, is an important catalyst to sustaining and improving the brands’
gross margins, therefore making continuous innovation an important
enabler for future profitability improvements.
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 developing communication techniques
that 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, in 2011, the “all adidas” campaign
brought together the diversity of the adidas brand, transcending all
key categories and sub-brands, in the biggest marketing campaign
the brand has ever executed. It reached an estimated 370 million
people, or 80% of next-generation consumers. In 2012, the campaign
continues and will leverage the brand’s assets, product initiatives and
major sporting events locally, globally and across categories, with a
key goal of amplifying our impact on the consumer through social
media engagement. In 2012, Reebok will begin to declare the brand’s
ambition to bring the “Sport of Fitness” to consumers around the
world. Through a comprehensive campaign that will run throughout
the year, the Reebok brand will show consumers how the competition,
joy and camaraderie found in traditional sports can be discovered in
fitness as well.
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. To increase the pace and
relevance of our brands’ communication with the consumer, digital
marketing now acts as a backbone for all brand marketing activ-
ities. Whether through in-store or online customisation platforms,
digital social networks, mobile apps or digital broadcast mediums,
these methods are providing a new scope of consumer experiences
in a real-time and cost-efficient way. With consumers spending more
time online, the adidas and Reebok digital strategies allow the brands
to move from campaign-based communication to developing deeper
relationships with their respective target audience. In addition to
adding significant value to all our communication efforts, our digital
marketing and social interaction with consumers also provide the
brands with accessible insights, learnings and measurable results,
which in turn can be utilised to drive long-term brand equity.
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 signifi-
cant 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.