Executive Summary
Adidas is a world-famous sports company with strong positions in the world’s business arena. This paper aims to analyze a worldwide corporation Adidas on its marketing components, specifically in the United Arabic Emirates. Through the research and analysis, innovative ideas and solutions to significant issues are proposed. After carefully analyzing the United Arabic Emirates market, it was clear that Adidas is one of the top popular retail companies which citizens trust. Among the main points of this research is the analysis of Adidas’ marketing mix point by point, its evaluation, and in the result, the suggestions to improve each component of the four P’s. In addition, the key marketing strategies of the brand Adidas in the UAE are applied and thoroughly analyzed.
Individual Out of Class Rubric. Adidas
Adidas is a world-leading multinational athletic retail company that is known all over the globe. With the revenue of nearly $22 billion, Adidas is a large and also multifaceted organization. After 70 years on the market, Adidas gained a positive image and a firm strong reputation on the international arena. Adidas’ mission is to be the best sports brand in the world, by designing, building and selling the highest quality sports products, with the best service and experience (Adidas, n.d.). A big successful company such as Adidas takes the perception of the marketing aspect very seriously, and the United Arabic Emirates is not an exception.
Marketing plays a vital role in forming strong brands, and a loyal customer base, as well as majorly contributes to the value of a firm. The first Adidas store in UAE opened in 2001; the Adidas Middle East marketing manager of that time, Walter Bruppacher, stated that Dubai is one of the essential locations for leisure and business in the Middle East and adding an Adidas store should bring great revenue to the country (Nunan, 2019).
Marketing strategies of Adidas are strong and wisely formed which is an indicator of the work of top marketing specialists. The Dubai office is the headquarters for Emerging Markets, where one can find hundreds of people who work for Adidas every day. Adidas colleagues are always offered various benefits, including a relocation service provider, a start-up allowance, and accommodation for people who move from different cities (“What’s it like to work for adidas in Dubai?, n.d.”).
Marketing Mix
Product component
Based on the critical marketing mix analysis, we can see the full picture of Adidas’ marketing strategies. When it comes to the Product component, Adidas has a variety of athletic sportswear and accessories that it offers to the clients in the UAE’s. The clothing and shoe lines of Adidas in the UAE do not differentiate a lot from other countries. Apparel is commonly divided into three lines Adidas Originals, Adidas Performance, and Adidas Core.
The quality of Adidas’ apparel has always been extremely high. The company has manufacturers all over the world to continually provide its customers with the best clothing and shoe collections. Right at that border of sport and creativity, we continuously strive to come up with the next innovation and original product to make athletes better (Adidas n.d.). Although the UAE does not have its manufactory, the local company imports Adidas apparel from other countries. When it comes to design, the United Arabic Emirates comes out with many special custom collections all the time. The recent collection that was presented to the Adidas customers in the United Arabic Emirates is the Limited Predator Mutator collection aimed at the people who play professional soccer.
The main design feature of Adidas are the three stripes that represent the brand. This logo is supposed to resemble a mountain like it is challenging the people who buy Adidas products to push themselves to their limits (Rogoza, 2020). The stripes are always associated with the brand, and they become the main feature of the company.
Adidas uses universal design for all of its products distributing their latest collections to the stores all over the world, including UAE. Service in the United Arab Emirates Adidas stores is reported to be positive. The personnel tends to always be welcoming and helpful. For clients in the UAE, the warranty period for the purchased item is available. Products manufactured or purchased within the last 12 months are eligible for a Return Authorization. Such a policy gives a customer a sense of protection and builds up trust between buyers and the company.
Price component
Adidas is in the range of medium to highly-priced products. The prices are fairy made and reasonable according to the quality of the product, the company’s brand popularity, place of manufacturing, etc. The international corporation often has sales and discounts for their clients and hosts seasonal sales, which msakes the products more affordable. There are hundreds of sales positions on the UAE website, and one can find plenty of deals by going directly to the store as well. The payment methods of Adidas company in UAE are a standard that allows paying with a credit card or cash. A customer cannot issue a loan on anything that is sold in the store.
Promotion Component
Sales promotions are a big part of companies’ success. Adidas mainly targets the audience aged 12 to 34 years old who are actively involved in sports activities. The corporation bases their sales promotion strategies on the target audience. The UAE Adidas does constant advertisement campaigns, which include TV advertisements, billboards, and social media promotions. In brand awareness, Adidas uses sponsoring and endorsement. The United Emirates Adidas plays a vital role in the country’s soccer sponsorship. The company has been supplying football teams with their apparel for many years.
Moreover, the brand regularly partners with celebrities for advertisement campaigns. For example, in 2015, David Beckham came to Dubai to officially open a new store. Covert advertising where Adidas products are introduced in entertainment or movie industries is also a big part of companies’ strategy. Adidas’ Integrated Marketing Communication program is quite extensive, and it combines many advertising and promotional elements as well as concepts to generate consumer awareness for the products they are selling, through various distribution channels.
Place component
Adidas has made its products available around the globe through numerous distribution carriers such as franchises, mass merchandise, online retail, and others. The company uses both online and offline channels to promote their products. Adidas has over 200 stores across the United Arabic Emirates that are located mostly in big touristic cities. There are not only regular Adidas stores, but also outlets which play significant importance to the business. The brand directly provides the shop with its products, allowing clients to discover unique items. Besides, there are specific Adidas Original collection stores where only the items from these particular clothing lines are sold. Adidas sells their products in online retail stores aside from their own, which are too quite useful.
Marketing Strategies Implemented by Adidas in UAE
Adidas in UAE has similar marketing strategies to all the other countries with this brand. One of the key marketing strategies of Adidas is collaboration. The company signs a well-known start who capitalized on their name to team-up and create new collections and models. According to their website: we are opening the doors of our brands inviting athletes, consumers, and partners to co-create the future of the sport and sports culture with us (“Strategy” n.d.).
Great examples are collaborations with Kanye West and Pharell Williams. Such a strategy works great for eliminating main competitors. Another excellent marketing strategy Adidas uses is a limited supply. When the demand for particular shoes is getting high, they raise the price and make less supply, this kind of strategy, has been working well for Adidas for many years, it can potentially help Adidas’ merchandise margins, which have already been significantly expanding recently. Adidas has been focusing on social media marketing for a long time, making it one of the most prioritized strategies because it allows the brand to interact with the customers directly.
They use such channels as the website and social media. The United Arabic Emirates Adidas has its website where customers can reach out with any questions, but there is no Instagram or Facebook page specifically for this country.
Evaluation and Recommendation
After carefully analyzing and evaluating the marketing mix of the brand Adidas in the United Arabic Emirates, one can conclude that the brand keeps a strong position on the market for this country and does not show any signs of losing its ground in the near future. However, some issues could use improvements. When it comes to products, Adidas has a wide range of different shoes and clothing collections, that regularly come out.
However, the company’s competitors are continually stepping on their toes. To win over the customers, Adidas in UAE should focus more on the unique clothing and create models that could only be available in this country and have limited availability. In such a way, the authenticity of the brand will increase. Moreover, it could attract more potential buyers that are looking for exclusive clothing. In terms of pricing, there are many sales items on the UAE website, which indicates the unpopularity or irrelevance of certain products.
UAE is known as an expensive country with luxurious stores, so by creating exclusive clothing, which price is much higher than average can get Adidas new customers from the upper class, eventually broadening their market margins. Speaking about the place component, Adidas in UAE does not have a wide range of stores in the center or south parts of the country. After carefully analyzing the locations of Adidas stores in UAE, it was noted that they all are situated in the coastline areas or metropolises. The sparse distribution of the stores should be re-evaluated, and the citizens in all parts of the United Arabic Emirates should have access to the Adidas stores.
In terms of promotion, Adidas has a wide range of customers to serve all over the world. Customers in the UAE have a very specific culture, and marketing strategies that work with European people might not work within United Emirates premises. Therefore, creating and applying different advertisement tools for the citizens, specifically in the UAE to could improve the stores’ popularity. The adaptation and specification of advertisement lead to a more significant success than regular universal marketing. The suggestions mentioned above would be a great addition to the excellent marketing strategy of Adidas in the United Arabic Emirates.
Summary and Conclusion
In conclusion, the Adidas brand in UAE holds strong positions on the market and expands its margins every day. After analyzing the marketing mix of UAE’s Adidas, we can assure that the marketing strategies the company follows are one of the most effective. Their specific focus on athletes and professional sportspeople gives Adidas the ability to have a clear mission of a company. Adidas wants to be the best sports company in the world.
Best in the products they design, the service they provide, and the experience they offer to their customers, partners, etc. The corporation has serious competition on the market represented by Puma and Nike, but the strategies they apply to eliminate them are indeed effective. Adidas remains one of the top athletic companies in the world. As for the United Arabic Emirates, the presence of Adidas on the market allows the country to open its margins to one of the top retail manufacturers. Overall, marketing strategies, products, and promotion methods for Adidas in UAE are identical to the ones in other countries. That is why the company needs to specify and adapt their marketing strategy to the people who live in the United Emirates to have more effective business performance.
References
Adidas. (n.d.). Web.
What’s it like to work for adidas in Dubai? (n.d.). Web.
Nunan, S. (2001). Adidas opens its first store in the Middle East. Gulf News. Web.
Rogoza. (2012). The Adidas logo. Web.
Strategy. (n.d.). Web.