INTRODUCTION

The advertisement strategy selected is that of adidas Inc. Adidas Inc is marketer of sports and
athletic shoes. The company is a global brand multinational company with its head office base in
Germany. In keeping with the brand image is its association with the distinctive logo and its
advertising slogan, "Impossible is Nothing." as it appear on the print attached. In order to
maintain and sustain this image, the company makes huge investments in advertising and brand
promotion. At some critical times like during global economic crisis, adidas always react to the
consumers’ pessimistic attitude and stressful emotion. This time somewhat become a good
chance for Adidas because it can take advantage of its previous advertising way of “Impossible
is Nothing” campaign by sponsoring sports stars to express the corporate philosophy of grit,
determination, passion and humor, giving people more courage and psychological comfort in
face of economic crisis. “For over 80 years, Adidas has been part of the world of sports on every
level, delivering state-of-the-art sports footwear, apparel and accessories. Today, Adidas is a
global leader not only in the shoe industry, but also in the sporting goods industry.

Advertising Objective: To create a unique adidas experience, attraction and mean more to more
consumers.

Adidas focuses on sponsorship of team and events e.g. national teams and big sport events like
the Olympic Games and different World Championship events. This helps them to create
awareness with help from different types of media. Also, adidas uses sports stars to express their
determination and reach the whole world. For instance, in the advertising print above, a girl”
LAILA ALI” three time middleweight champion winner was used to buttress the “nothing is
impossible” slogan. This strategy is likely to draw attention of people thereby making adidas
achieve their objectives.

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TARGET AUDIENCE

Demographics

Race: all races

According to Carleton S. Coon (1962), the world race can be divided into white/Caucasian,
Mongoloid/Asian, Negroid/Black, and Australoid. All people under these races are target of
adidas advertisement. Sports are everywhere in the world, hence, there is no particular region or
race been targeted in the advertisement.

Age-group: 25 to 40 years.

The advertising strategy of adidas is targeted at age group between 25 to 40 years old working
professionals. This age group understands and appreciates sports. Innovation means a lot to them
because their life-styles are sophisticated and demanding. They demand high quality products,
therefore, branded product rank high in their scale.

Occupation: footballers, athletes, sports lovers and other professions.

Those in the sport field and sport lovers are the major target of adidas advertisement. The
advertisement was designed to motivate and boost their moral in the field of sport. This class of
people needed innovation and quality. Sports lovers sometimes mimic the super stars that adidas
use in its advertisements. They have a lot of interest in sports, by supporting one super-star or the
other.

Income: $3000 and above per month.

People with minimum income of $2000 in all over the world should be able to spend reasonable
amount of money for purchasing adidas products. This class of people are at the mid of their life
and therefore attach much emphasis on pleasure and durable products.

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Culture: all culture

There is no culture that forbids sports. The advertisement has no cultural sentiment. Though
woman was used in the picture, in all culture women are allowed to participate in sporting
activities.

Education: formal education

The advertisement language used was English language. It is believed that anybody with formal
education (level not withstanding) should understand the language and give it the necessary
interpretations. However, the language favours English speaking country more than those their
mother tongue are not English. Also the statement as it was used in the advert is very
straightforward that even those who are not proficient in English language can easily understand.

Upper middle class

Because adidas products are of high quality, it attracts equivalent cost. The classes of upper
middle class are those individuals with comfortable incomes. Adidas uses differentiation strategy
to woo this set of people into its product.

Psychographics : psychographic segmentation divides the market into groups based on social
class, lifestyles and personality characteristics, it is based on this assumption that the type of
product and brand an individual purchases will reflect that persons characteristics and patterns of
living.

Spendthrift people

The advertisement is meant to capture the interest of that group of people in the society that is
willing to spend for social recognition. These classes of people seek attraction from people,
making them go for high class materials with brand image like adidas.

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Loyalty group

Adidas has brand loyalty among its customers. The customers can be classified as hard core
loyalist and soft core loyalist. The hard core loyalists always stick to the brand at all times, while
the soft core loyalists sometimes switch to other products. Because adidas brand is a unique
brand, they were able to capture this group or market segment easily with their advertisement
strategy.

Preference class

Given the level of competition in markets today, it is often the case that the potential customer
will like several competing products on the market, promotion must now therefore seek to
develop within the audience a preference for their product. Through research the business
must establish the key features of the product in the eyes of the target market; these might
include efficiency, performance, economy, value, and quality. Promotion will now therefore
underline the advantages of the product in terms of these key features, which differentiate it
from the competition. This class of people will always prefer adidas product because of its
quality.

Competitive edge: differentiation, covey a brand image, bring emotional and experiential and
make the brand promise.

The sport wear industry is dominated by adidas and Nike making the market oligopoly in nature.
The market structure can be seen as a special form of oligopoly known as “duopoly” where only
two players dominate the market. However, adidas uses its differentiation strategy to gain
competitive advantage over Nike and the advertisement strategy adds to customer retention
strategy.

Positioning: forever sports

This statement is in line with the company’s mission statement “The adidas Group strives to be
the global leader in the sporting goods industry with sports brands built on a passion for sports

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and a sporting lifestyle” which assures adidas customer of the company’s determination to be a
global leader and provide customer satisfaction. Positioning is arranging for a product to occupy
a clear, distinctive, and desirable place relative to competing products in the minds of target
consumers. Adidas desired to position its product and capture those who yearned for a more
lightweight shoe from the Adidas brand. The positioning strategy as it appears on the print is
clearly communicated to the target audience.

Adidas Unique Selling Proposition (UPS): use of kangaroo leather to make their more
expensive shoes.

This strategy has given adidas better advantage than other players in the sportswear industry.
This selling proposition has made adidas to be the sole supplier of:

 Apparel and equipment for all teams in Major League Soccer. Adidas remain a major
company in the supply of team kits for international football teams.
 Referee kits that are used in international competition and by many countries and
leagues in the world.

Current perception: with adidas we can

By seeing the advert one can easily think that everything that has to do with sport is very easily
with adidas wear. In fact the use of a woman is very strategic in the sense that women are
regarded as weak breed. But the image signifies that with adidas women can do better than
expected.

Desired perception: using adidas product is as good as excelling in the sport world.

There is stronghold perception with the advert that those who use adidas are those who perform
wonders in any sport competition.

Support premises:

 Strong and powerful

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 Comfort
 Fit
 originality

All the statements above are incorporated into the body language displayed by the
advertisement strategy.

Tone and manner: convincing and well meaning

The advertisement tone and manner of adidas as reflected in the print shows that adidas
uses convincing tone for its advertisements. For instance, to bring inspiration and
innovation to every athlete, it also communicated that if you have a body, you are an
athlete and above provide a competitive edge; by uplifting the moral of the users.