3. In order to understand the reputation of how brands work,
we shall be covering two sports brands and discuss how
their marketing strategies and the brand itself have made
their name in the market. For this paper, we will be
covering and narrating about 'Nike' and 'Adidas'. Nike
and Adidas are renowned sportswear brands, who have
penetrated, targeted, segmented and positioned their own
brands in the minds of customers. Nike although
continuous to compete in the global market as the leader
in terms of sportswear accessories, Adidas is growing
exponentially at the speed of light and gradually coming
to the verge of giving Nike a competition. On one hand,
Nike owns around Umbro, Hurley, Converse and Cole
Haan. While on the other side of the coin, Adidas stands
with a variety of brand extensions and acquisitions of
Reebok, Taylor made Golf Company and Rockport.
Nike was originally found in 1964 by Phillip Knight
and Bill Bowerman, as 'Blue-Ribbon Sports'. The name
was changed to 'Nike' in 1978 coming from the
Greek goddess of victory , which clearly shows its
magical impact upon the grounded, yet amazing
success of the brand in the market.
Nike's headquarters are in OREGON USA

4. Adidas is much older as compared to it's American Rival,
found in 1948 . The name 'Adidas' is based on the name of
the founder. Adidas', on the other hand, was framed by
the name of the founder Adolf 'Adi' Dassler; the iconic
name can act to support the purpose of their
products, standing for 'All day, I dream for sport

5. Nike's symbol, the swoosh was created in 1971
by a woman named Carolyn Davidson. She
was working with Phillip Knight, attempting to
create a new logo for the company and out
of frustration she drew a sloppy check mark on
her paper which was later to become the
signature of Nike.
Adidas has three stripes as their performance logo
and a trefoil representing the Adidas Original
heritage line of products.

6. Nike and Adidas are two of the most popular sports equipment
companies in the world. Both of their popularity has become so immense
that they are literally household names. They pretty much have the same
target: people who love sports. Nike is very well known to today's
generation because of their countless celebrity sponsorships, but of
course, their notoriety does not end there. Their principal target markets
are those people into basketball and running, what with their products
mainly focused on these two endeavors. Their market used to be solely
just domestic (the United States), but in recent years, they have expanded
internationally. Their sponsorship on athletes is very prevalent.
Adidas' key markets are those people in the following sports: soccer
and tennis. They used to have Europe as their sole focus in terms of the
market but internationally, they are well known too. This is because of
their soccer connection, labeled as the world's sport. Some of the
companies under Adidas are Reeboks and Rockport. They also have their
share of athlete sponsorships made over the years.

7. One of the most key aspects of Nike's
marketing strategy is sponsoring popular athletes and
teams. While Adidas also recognizes the importance
of sponsorship, it's not as aggressive in it's approach
regarding aposerships as Nike is. Nike's main focus
has always been to sponser the most
popular athletes and teams. For example, Cristiano
Ronaldo , roger fedrer , Rafael Nadal and teams like
Manchester United which are extremely popular
worldwide, encouraging Nike's sales to go up.

8. Adidas on the other hand mainly sponsors big events and organisations, for
example it's the official sponsor of FIFA, UEFA Champions league and the
summer Olympics

9.  Nike and Adidas have almost similar strategies but different
implementation methods. Both the companies concentrate heavily on
technology and strive to produce new and innovative products. Nike
focuses on the American markets whereas Adidas focuses on the
European market. Nike does not have any production plants as they only
design, distribute and market their products and hence they outsource to
various countries in Asia, mainly Taiwan and Korea, which outsource
their production to China, Indonesia and Vietnam. Adidas on the other
hand, carry out all
their production in Germany and recently has adopted Nike’s outsourcin
g policy by outsourcing to Asian countries. Nike and Adidas both follow
a premium pricing strategy which
is a strategy where companies charge a premium price for their products.
Their competition is always intense and according to Anderson (2010)
during the world cup 2010 Nike launched the popular “write the future”,
three minute advertisement featuring world cup stars which was a major
hit on Youtube and Adidas replied with their two minute video with
celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Daft Punk into a famous scene from the
movie Star Wars. Nike sponsored nine teams whereas Adidas sponsored
12 teams.

10. In order to become the world’s leading designer,
marketer and distributor of athletic footwear,
appareland accessories, Nike followed many strategies.
their corporate level strategy, according to
Dermesropian, Drage, Grigaite and Lopez (2004,p.15) is
their focus on innovation and emphasis on their research
and development department in order to be profitable in
the long run and they do their best
to produce footwear, apparel and athletic equipment that
reduce or eliminate injury, help in athletic performance
and maximize comfort. They continue to expand
their operation in the USA, Asia Pacific,Europe, Middle
East, Africa and the American regions trying to reach as
many customers as possible.Their business level strategy
is a combination of the best cost provider and broad
differentiation strategy, but more emphasis
is put on the best cost provider strategy.

11. The strategies of both these sports giants are very similar but
Adidas focuses more the broad differentiation strategy.
According to the corporate level strategy of Adidas also
focuses on innovation, trying to produce new products,
services and processes in order to cope up
with the competition. In 2009 the Adidas Group
strategically decided to move from a vertically integrated
brand structure into a functional multi-rand structure for
the Reebok and Adidas brands. This created a global sales
function which were responsible for commercial activities
and a global brands function which were responsible for the
marketing of both brands. The global sales function was
also split into two departments, wholesale and retail. This
was done in order to sustain their corporate level strategy
for the long run so that these divisions could emphasize and
work hard in their respective departments.
STRATEGIES OF ADIDAS

12. It is easy to become the market leader or the market challenger for organisations but
sustainability is the primary concern and hence organisations focus of the sustainability
by coming up with strategies that will make their position sustainable in the long run.
According to Nike’s future plans are to focus on the environment and production of eco
friendly products. They mentioned in their 2005 and 2006 Corporate Responsibility Report
that they will become carbon neutral by 2011 by reducing their Caron Dioxide emissions.
They have decided to design all Nike brand footwear in ways through which they
can reduce waste production during product design and packaging. They will eliminate the
use of volatile organic compounds and use more environmental friendly material in
their products and be carbon neutral by 2011. Adidas on the other hand became the
official sportswear partner of the London 2012 Olympic Games. The London Organising
committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOGOC) has few regulations
which all of its partners are obligated to follow. The see obligations are focused towards
the environment. Adidas, being a partner of LOGOC has to follow all these regulations as
their future plans are to be the official sponsor of almost all major events in the world, and
in order to achieve this goal their strategy is to produce environment friendly goods as
well. quite

13. The main element that determines an organisation’s success or failure is
the strategy it follows. Any industry is vast and the competition is also
fierce and in order to survive in the competition organisations must
devise innovative strategies. Nike and Adidas have started their journey
decades ago and they have struggled but sustained their positions; Nike
as the market leader and Adidas as the market challenger. Various
incidents have occurred in the past to both the companies which were
both good and bad, but it was the strategies that helped them survive and
sustain their positions. The strategies of both these companies are quite
similar and Adidas is not far behind from Nike, but any small mistake
by Nike, might make them the market challenger and Adidas the market
leader. Nike has to be very careful while implementing their strategies
because Adidas is very close to becoming the market leader. Nike’s initial
strategy of being just the product designer, distributor and marketer gave
them the competitive edge against Adidas, because their investments
were low compared to Adidas as they have production plants, but Nike
should be very careful to sustain their market position.