INTRODUCTION

MARKETING

“Marketing is offering people something that is more valuable to them than the price you are
charging – and getting them to see that it’s a good deal.”

The first part is trade. The second part makes it marketing.

Marketing comes in a wide variety of flavours based on audience, media platform

and business in today’s evolving and dynamic marketplace. Therefore, it’s no
surprise that marketers define what they do differently. For Puma, marketing is the
heart of all their business. In India, where most brands follow a traditional marketing
approach, Mr. Rajiv Mehta, the Managing Director – Puma India does not feel too
strongly about this. In his own words "We don't believe in the in-your-face approach
as seen in India, across all mediums of communication. The consumer is evolved
and recognises when a brand is trying too hard; hence, we remain understated. If a
Bollywood actor happens to wear a Puma cap in a movie without any mention of the
brand along the way, then it is received a lot better than having the brand
deliberately placing the product in a scene, when it really does not fit in."

As for any other company in the world, a customer is the core of all business and
profits Puma strongly believes in keeping all their customers happy and kicking.

What exactly is marketing and why is marketing important? Simply stated, marketing
is everything a brand or company does to place their product or service in the hands
of potential customers. It includes diverse disciplines like sales, public relations,
pricing, packaging, and distribution.

With markets becoming more competitive, it is important that a brand gets ahead of
its competitors by any means necessary. And that should start with a great
marketing strategy.

All businesses rely on customers to keep them afloat, with no customers there is
really not much reason to be in business. Attracting customers will be one of the
biggest challenges that a brand will face as a business which is why the need to
have an effective marketing plan. This is something that a lot of companies really
underestimate the importance of.Nevertheless the emergence of Twitter and
Facebook has made it a bit easier to contact their customers.

The reason that marketing is so important to businesses is that it is how they get
customers. Clearly nobody is going to walk into an office and ask for whatever it is
that the company is selling unless they know that the brand is there and what they
are selling. The way that to make sure that a customer does know is through
marketing. All companies understand the need for marketing but most really don't
understand what it is. Marketing is not the same as advertising or sales, it is much
more involved than that. Largely marketing is about generating leads that can then
be turned into sales.

Certainly a big part of marketing is advertising and this is something that isinvested
heavily in because it generates sale. This is how people are going to hear about the
business and largely they will decide whether or not they are interested in the
product based on the advertising.

It is important to keep in mind that in large part advertising is about the making sure
the brand. It has to make sure that it is a brand that differentiates it from the
competitors.

What is marketing?

There are many definitions of marketing but one of the simplest suggests that:

"Marketing is getting the right product or service in the right quantity, to the right
place, at the right time and making a profit in the process".

Marketing is about identifying and understanding your customer and giving them
what they want. It's not just about advertising and promoting your business.

Effective marketing is a result of examining every aspect of your business and how it
affects the consumer's end experience. It covers everything you'll need to do in order
to deliver your products and services to the consumer including research, planning,
pricing, packaging, promotion, selling and distribution.

The six “Ps”

The following six areas provide a comprehensive framework for developing an
effective marketing plan. These areas are often referred to as the “6Ps” or the
‘marketing mix’:

Product

This covers the combination of goods and services that your business offers. It could
include the following characteristics of your good or service: quality, variety, design,
features, services, warranty, sizes, packaging, brand name and returns.

Place

How does the consumer access a product or service? Things to think about in this
area include: distribution channels, coverage, inventory, transportation, logistics and
retail outlet location.

Price

What approach will one take to pricing a product? Will they offer discounts or
extended payment periods? What credit terms will be set?

Promotion

Refers to how one communicates with customers. Most businesses use a mix of
advertising, personal selling, referrals, sales promotion and public relations.

People

The staffs are ambassadors for the business. Think the following in relation to staff:
knowledge, experience, skills, communication, teamwork and attitude.

Process

The processes that are used in the day to day operation of the business have a flow
on effect on the customer's experience, even if it's simply ensuring that orders are
effectively managed. Think about the following aspects of business operation:
systems, quality control, planning, review, continuous improvement, and
documentation and feedback channels.
Marketing plan

A successful business operator understands what they are offering the customer and
how it differs from their competitors. The process of developing a marketing plan will
help you understand the key benefits and features of theproduct or service, and how
to go about attracting and retaining the right type of customer. The marketing plan is
usually a component of a business plan.

A significant component of any marketing plan involves in depth industry analysis

which will help segmentthe target market and appropriately position the business.

A good marketing plan will also provide you with clear objectives so that one can
benchmark achievements and measure the success of marketing endeavors.

Marketing = easier decisions

Because easy means faster and that’s really the hidden secret behind marketing
success. If you can get customers to make decisions faster for your product than the
competitor’s products, then you accumulate customers faster, even without greater
brand choice.

But “faster” isn’t the primary thing to focus on. When people focus on getting the
customer to act faster, they end up pushing or pulling the customer, creating
resistance, and prolonging the decision cycle.

It’s sort of what happens when people focus directly on making money as the
primary goal, rather than creating value. Money is a consequence of value creation,
in fact, it’s the primary way that value is stored. Focus on money first, and weird
things happen. Focus on value, and magical things happen. In the same way, focus
on making customer decisions easier and simpler every step of the way, and sales
accelerate automatically.

Marketing = easier decisions. Another reason

People are overloaded, with dozens of New Media. They don’t have time to
deliberate. They are swamped. They don’t have time to sort through the flood of
information. You provide the service of saving people from the time and burden of
deliberation.
Marketing helps the customer at every step of the decision-making process:

 Helps the customer find you more easily. In fact, marketing in good
companies is part of product development in most good companies. The
product wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for marketing.
 Helps the customer get information about you more easily, understand it,
weigh it, see what’s relevant, compare you to the competition
 Helps the customer try your product, evaluate the trial, decide who the winner
is.
 Helps make it easier to buy, pay, get delivery, reduce risk (return policies,
guarantees & warranties)
 Helps the customer learn, use, fix and teach the product. Only a few
companies have discovered that customer service isn’t a cost center, it’s a
marketing center. Companies like Amazon, Zappo’s, Apple.
 Should be insisting on better user interfaces, better help methods, better
training tools.
 Should be teaching customers how to expand their use, become more expert.
 Should be stimulating word of mouth. Giving the wording, channels, tools and
motivation to tell other people

So, it isn’t just about getting people to buy. It’s about smoothing the way, every step
of the way.

The main goal of a business is to provide the best product for a given situation. The
main goal of marketing is to get people to see that it is the right choice, given the
circumstances. In some circumstances, your product itself, in the abstract, isn’t the
best product, or isn’t any better than any other product. But if you make the decisions
easy, that is, make it easy to get and weigh information, to try, to use, to deal with
you, to tell the people about it, your product then becomes the better product
because, even if it’s equivalent in physical characteristics, it’s easier to find,
understand, try, learn to use, fix, explain to others, etc. That’s better, even if the
physical product is identical to the competitions’.
BRAND AWARENESS

Brand awareness is an essential part of Marketing. All brands strive towards

increasing awareness.

To simply define the term, it is “the extent to which a brand is recognized by potential
customers, and is correctly associated with a particular product. Expressed usually
as a percentage of target market, brand awareness is the primary goal of advertising
in the early months or years of a product's introduction.”

Getting new business is the key to your company's future, and increasing brand
awareness will sure help let potential customers know you are there to serve them.

Without a doubt, brand awareness is one of the two most important variables in
marketing any business. The other is brand loyalty. It doesn't matter if we are talking
about a two person boutique or a 1,000+ employee corporation, having brand
awareness is simply one of the most invaluable parts of a marketing strategy.

What exactly is brand awareness? Brand awareness is the percentage of a target

population who know a company exists and what products or services the company
offers. For example, let's say PUMA has store in a small town of 12,000 people and
they want to measure the brand awareness. Based on a survey, of the 600, only 200
of them knew about the store. This estimates that roughly 33% of the population is
aware that PUMA as a brand exists in that locality.

So, why is this important? Common sense tells us that if theycan double this number
to 66%, it should be able to substantially increase their sales. Based on this
information, the goal for the next twelve months could be to concentrate marketing
efforts on increasing brand awareness of the store.

If a company's brand awareness is very low, it is very realistic to increase awareness

by 100–200% with a concentrated marketing campaign and simple marketing
strategies.

The concept of increasing brand awareness and the benefits of doing so are pretty
simple. However, executing this increase will require some patience from most
business owners. There are a number of tactics that can be utilized to increase
brand awareness. The aim should be to have the brand and the message be seen
by many, many people over a long period of time.

This strategy includes outdoor billboards, bus banners, wall posters and things of the
sort. The way this works is also very simple, the billboards, banners and posters are
consistently seen by many people throughout the day, and many people will see
them very often during their daily commutes. Over time, the majority of these people
notice your advertising, often times without realizing it. Over time, if the message is
simple and appealing, a large group of the people exposed to the campaign will
retain the information.

Marketing experts discuss the importance of raising and measuring brand

awareness all the time. Along with customer loyalty, this is one of the two most
important brand variables in marketing.

The following areas make a strong case about the value of brand awareness
activities and research.

Increased brand awareness lowers customer acquisition costs: The cost of acquiring
new customers is a major cost center for most businesses. Increased brand
awareness helps draw customers through low or no cost methods. Understanding
the current cost of acquiring new customers and quantifying the benefits of lowering
that through raised brand awareness can be a compelling financial argument.

Ongoing brand awareness ramps up customer loyalty: Since acquiring new

customers is such a costly process, retaining customers and bringing them back
again and again is critical to long-term business sustainability. Brand loyalty creates
a certain level of security for businesses. Brand awareness plays an important role in
repeat customer activity. Once a customer has purchased from a brand, does it
utilize tools such as newsletters, promotions, and satisfaction surveys to stay in
touch? These simple actions can sustain brand awareness among its pool of existing
customers.

Using brand awareness through retargeting captures lost leads: Retargeting is the
process of reconnecting with customers who almost bought, and encouraging them
to close the sale. Transactions can be abandoned for any number of reasons, from
tech issues to simple interruptions. Following up with customers who loaded items
into an online shopping cart for example, and then failed to check out, can help e-
commerce companies capture significant revenue. The retargeted customer’s
existing familiarity with the brand can be leveraged, in partnership with an incentive
such as an x% off coupon, to successfully complete a purchase.

Unaided vs. aided recall data can help cut marketing spend: One of the fundamental
approaches to brand awareness research is to understand whether a customer has
aided or unaided recall of your product. Aided recall research asks customers
specifically what their thoughts, awareness, or associations are with a specific brand.
Unaided recall research will ask a subject to share all the brands of a specific
product, for example SUVs that they can think of unprompted. Depending on the
data that this research yields, marketing departments can understand whether it’s
important to focus on getting their name in front of new customers or improving their
image with people who already know about their brand. Focusing on specific
priorities can reduce overall marketing spend.

Brand awareness can be a useful executive metric: Executives outside of marketing

are consistently looking for metrics that they can report to the CEO, the board, the
shareholders, and other stakeholders as evidence of a company’s success. While
financial results and sales data trump most other inputs, increased brand awareness
can signal the yield on efforts to break into new markets and provide tangible
evidence of a company’s potential for growth. This alone can be a successful
argument for why this is important to measure brand awareness and then track it
over time.

Simply put, increase in brand awareness will in turn increase first time customers or
clients. With that said, brand loyalty and making customers or clients come back for
more is next.

The Role of Brand Awareness

Rossiter and Percy (1987) describe brand awareness as being essential for the
communications process to occur as it precedes all other steps in the process.
Without brand awareness occurring, no other communication effects can occur. For
a consumer to buy a brand they must first be made aware of it. Brand attitude cannot
be formed, and intention to buy cannot occur unless brand awareness has occurred
(Rossiter& Percy 1987; Rossiter et al. 1991).

In memory theory, brand awareness is positioned as a vital first step in building the
“bundle” of associations which are attached to the brand in memory (Stokes 1985).
The brand isconceptualised as a node in memory which allows other information
about the brand to be “anchored” to it (Aaker 1991b). The conceptualisation of a
network of brand associations in memory with the brand as a central core has been
put forward by many others (eg. Keller (1993); Holden(1993); Holden & Lutz(1992)).

Brand awareness enhances perceived quality

A further way brand awareness may affect choice within the consideration set is by
influencingperceived quality. In a consumer choice study by Hoyer and Brown (1990)
over 70% of consumers selected a known brand of peanut butter from among a
choice of three, even though another brand was 'objectively' better quality (as
determined by blind taste tests), and even though they had neither bought or used
the brand before. This result is even more surprising considering the subjects were
given the opportunity to taste all of the brands. Just being a known brand
dramatically affected their evaluation of the brand. Intuitively, this makes sense: a
consumer may rationalise that if they have heard of a brand, the company must be
spending a fair sum on advertising. If it is spending a lot on advertising, then the
company must be reasonably profitable which means that other consumers must be
buying the product and they must be satisfied enough with its performance; therefore
the product must be of reasonable quality. Stokes (1985) found that for a low
involvement product (rice) familiarity had a greater magnitude of effect on the quality
perception of a brand than either price or packaging. And further, that familiarity had
a significant effect on purchase intention whereas price and package design did not

Objectives of Brand Awareness

Marketing strategists agree that brand awareness in any industry gives that company
an edge. Brand awareness accomplishes several objectives for companies seeking
to increase sales in the marketplace. A brand awareness campaign needs to be
flexible enough to grow with the company and adjust if needed. The company should
seek to build customer awareness, promote its website and add value.
Brand awareness follows a certain process, although customers do not usually think
through these steps when choosing a product. First, the customer has a perceived
need for a product. In many cases, he will seek information on what product to buy.
He will often evaluate his alternatives, although in some cases, such as in buying a
drink, he may simply buy what’s convenient. At the same time, he will place a value,
both financial and personal, on the product he plans to buy. After he buys your
product, he will review his purchase and make adjustments. Sometimes these
adjustments will be immediate; in other cases, they are long term. For example, if he
doesn’t like the drink he bought, the next day, he will choose a different drink. But if
he doesn’t like the vehicle he purchased, it could be two to five years until he makes
a different purchase.

1. Build Customer Awareness

Target the desired customer base. From there, the business can more easily assess
what it needs to do to increase customer awareness. For instance, a customer
awareness strategy will focus on different audiences depending on if the product is
toys, car products or walkers for those with mobility issues. In each case, the
business will use different advertising campaigns to increase customer awareness.
Every business needs to overcome certain challenges so the customer understands
the benefits of working with that particular company.

2. Promote the Website

A website helps create a worldwide customer base. Customers no longer limit

themselves to buying from a specific geographic location. A customer might research
a product and then follow up with a catalog or phone order instead of a personal visit
to the company location. Hiring a graphic designer can assist a business in
projecting the type of image they want to portray. Coordinating business cards,
marketing materials and additional advertising all further enhance customer
awareness. Consistency in design helps customers connect that logo with the
business and product.
 3. Add Value

Every customer will determine value in different ways. Brand awareness can give
your business that “edge” in making your customers aware of the extra value your
company offers. This might be in the form of service, such as three free oil changes
in a year with the purchase of a motorcycle. Your packaging might be slightly larger,
which brings increased quantity. Your location might be unique and easily
accessible. The business may sponsor special events, promote volunteer service or
support a worthwhile organization. You will need to decide which one of these
avenues will work best for your company.

Finally, give the business the time needed to develop brand awareness. In most
cases, this process does not happen overnight. While the ultimate goal is for the
company to identify the success level of brand awareness campaigns, the business
should always continue to appreciate and track even the slightest progress.
PUMA- As a Sport-Lifestyle Brand

The Sport & Lifestyle business aims to foster synergies and knowledge sharing
between brands, to encourage innovation and creativity while preserving each
brand’s identity. The Sport & Lifestyle business also provides for good coordination
with central functions and supports the brands in the commitment to sustainable
development.

The term sportswear brings to mind the image of an athlete or sportsman. However,
it is interesting tomap the growth of Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Puma and Lotto. Iconic,
global sports footwear brands overthe last few years in India as they have expanded
what was traditionally the sports category into a largercategory called ‘sports-
Lifestyle”. These brands together have captured a large part of thecasual wear
branded ‘apparel’ market with consumer recall for them as brands worn for
‘everything outsideoffice’. This coincides with a shift in the Indian consumer lifestyle
to greater fitness awareness and healthconsciousness, thus paving the way for
these brands to benefit from the prevalent consumer trend. With awell established
distribution network and strong brand presence, these brands are upgrading
consumersto newer concepts of fitness products, including special shoes for jogging,
rock-climbing or gym-use, dryfit t-shirts, breathable apparel for active sports like
football, swimming, etc.

The premium sportswear market in India is dominated by global brands like Reebok,
Adidas, Nike andPuma, with a collective market share of 84 per cent. Over the last
3-4 years, sportswear brands have triedto transform themselves into lifestyle brands.
Almost all the brands are investing to orient young consumersto their brands as they
understand that the potential for sportswear will be very big in the coming years.

Reebokis a good example of a brand which used its early mover advantage to
penetrate into the casualand sportswear category through aggressive advertising
and its marketing campaign. Reebok’s Lifestyleline targets the consumer interested
in wearing a sports-inspired product without stepping into a field, courtor track. About
80 per cent of Reebok customers in India have purchased something from the urban
casualLifestyle line. Reebok has a junior collection of athletic and casual shoes and
apparel, sold at its own juniorstores, which is designed to tap into India’s massive
youth population both on and off the field. Reebok India sold approx. 3 million pairs
of shoes and ~8 million pieces of apparel in 2009. Other brands are alsofollowing
suit by signing top actors and models to gain higher visibility.

Pumais focused on being categorized in the ‘lifestyle’ brand as a ‘sport-lifestyle’

brand and not as a meresportswear brand. It is engaged in the development and
marketing of a broad range of sports and lifestylegoods including footwear, apparel
and accessories apart from apparel. Its mission is to become “the mostdesirable
sports lifestyle company in India”

While the brands have expanded their product mixto include a larger part for apparel
to suit Indianconsumers’ casual needs, simultaneously, Indianconsumers are also
becoming more health andfitness conscious than before. They aspire to lookand feel
good by exercising, taking up active sportsand experiencing the outdoors through
treks, climbing, camping, etc. It is expected that the health andfitness category,
which is currently in a nascent stage, will see more spending in the coming
years.Another growth driver for sports categories is the interest in sports. While
cricket is still the most dominantsport, it has also seen great changes in the recent
years, especially with Indian Premier League (IPL) whichhas commercialised it even
further. India’s performance in wrestling, boxing and shooting at the BeijingOlympics
as well as hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games, have rekindled interest in many
other sportscategories like swimming, football, shooting, etc.With these growth
drivers and the increased spending power of consumers, retailers are
developingsports goods with very specific offerings. PUMA has come up with a
variety of new and specialisedofferings in the shoe category and will also launch
affordable soccer shoes for kids and adults in the INR 2,500–3,500 price range

PUMA is one of the world´s leading sport lifestyle companies that designs and
develops footwear, apparel and accessories. It is committed to working in ways that
contribute to the world by supporting Peace, Creativity, and SAFE Sustainability, and
by staying true to the values of being Fair, Honest, Positive and Creative in decisions
made and actions taken. PUMA starts in Sport and ends in Fashion. Its Sport
Performance and Lifestyle labels include categories such as Football, Running,
Motorsports, Golf and Sailing. The Black Label features collaborations with
renowned designers such as Alexander McQueen, Yasuhiro Mihara and Sergio
Rossi. The PUMA Group owns the brands PUMA, Tretorn and Hussein Chalayan.
The company, which was founded in 1948, distributes its products in more than 120
countries, employs more than 9,000 people worldwide and has headquarters in
Herzogenaurach/Germany, Boston, London and Hong Kong.

PUMA´s mission is to become the most desirable sport lifestyle brand. Fusing sport,
lifestyle and fashion is what defines PUMA. From PUMA shoes to PUMA watches
you can make your personal statement on and off the field.

Whether you going to practice and need athletic shoes and a sport bag or just
lounging at the house PUMA shoes and PUMA clothing have got you covered.

The dynamic growth in Asia and other emerging markets—in terms of wealth,
population and aspiration—has created a new dynamic for French multinational
holding company, PPR. The way to company chose to take advantage of this was by
focusing on the luxury and sports and lifestyle markets, said François-Henri Pinault,
chairman and CEO.

Pinault said that for 50 years the growth in population and wealth in the world (800
million consumers) was centered in the U.S. and Japan. However, in 2006 the
company identified that economic growth has shifted to emerging markets—
particularly China, India,Brazil, and more recently, Indonesia—bringing 3 billion
consumers to the worldwide market, and that this trend will continue.

“It means that in the next 50 years the growth is amazing,” Pinault said. “We don’t
have any idea what it will be. We are always referring to the past but it’s no use. We
cannot compare 3 billion people with more and more purchasing power to 800 million
in the past… The question is what should we do to take advantage of this
opportunity?”

Pinault discussed his company’s strategy and goals during a breakfast presentation
Wednesday at the Consulate General of France and in a brief conversation with
reporters afterward.

He said that consumers in these emerging markets are spending freely on luxury
and lifestyle than those in Europe and the U.S. and are doing so at a younger age.
“Things are moving much faster than they used to. They are becoming richer faster.
They love brands. They are very strong in aspiration,” he said. “This is just the
beginning. (China) is already the biggest market in the world for consumer goods.”

It was at this time that the holding company—which began in wood and electrical
industries and eventually retail distribution—decided to focus on the luxury sector (a
direction it had begun in 1999) and an area it defined as “Sports & Lifestyle.”

It began making a number of changes to its brand portfolio. The big ticket item was
the purchase of a majority stake in Puma in 2007, which gave the company a
stronghold in the sports and lifestyle market and a premiere brand as the centerpiece
of its new strategy.

Then, he said, the company needed to identify areas of growth in this segment that
would not compete with the footwear and sportswear company. Pinault said the
company identified action sports, which led to the 2011 acquisition in Volcom, and in
the outdoors segment of the market.

The ‘Sport & Lifestyle’ division comprises of Puma, apparel brand Tretorn, golf
equipment specialist Cobra Golf, action sport brand Volcom, and Electric, a sunglass
and snow goggle brand.

“We think that by addressing those markets through luxury brands and sports brands
we are building a group that is very significant in terms of role, in terms of size, and
for the future.”