Blog Author: Mercedes Marie Lahaie

In recent years, the German sportswear firm, Adidas, owes its success to their digital marketing campaigns. Since 2015, Adidas has added $5.8 billion and has grown at an average rate of 17.6%. Adidas has been able to surpass one of their main competitors, Nike, who has only added $4.3 billion and is only growing at an average rate of 6.8%.

What type of Marketing Strategy does Adidas Use?

Adidas uses a straightforward digital marketing strategy to communicate with their current customers and potential customers. By implementing this strategy they have been able to contend with their top competitor, Nike. By changing the behaviors of consumers with this digital transformation, Adidas has to change the way they work. The use of technology has helped Adidas connect with more consumers and build stronger relationships with customers.

5 Aspects that Helped Adidas Marketing Strategy

1. Digital and technology

In 2015, Adidas came out with a new five year marketing campaign called “Creating the New”. This was to help promote the idea that Adidas is rebranding themself as a digital company with the goal of being the best sporting apparel company in the world. Adidas has dedicated 90% of its marketing budget on digital campaigns and social media. Adidas realized that if they did not change the way they market to consumers, they would be left behind. Marketing is always developing and changing; therefore it is important for companies to be up to date with how consumers are getting their information. Adidas uses all forms of social media to market their products. Check out their Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to learn more about their culture and products!

2. Speed

The most essential part of Adidas’ digital marketing strategy is high speed manufacturing. To accomplish this, Adidas digitized the production process with the use of 3D printing technology and robotics. By adjusting their process, consumers do not have to wait as long for their products and are getting information faster. Society today is not as patient and becomes frustrated much faster than in the past.

3. Relationship with consumers

The best way to create stronger bonds with customers is by interacting with them by creating premium, connected, and personalized experiences. Through their social media posts, Adidas generates enthusiasm and excitement about sports on an individualized level for consumers. Besides creating this type of experience for consumers, Adidas wants to provide a consistency as well. Consumers like to know what to expect from a brand and if a company is not consistent, consumers will not be as inclined to return to the brand.

With this knowledge, the Adidas Digital Future Team was tasked with defining an end-to-end customer experience that allows the Adidas Sales Team to guide the purchase decision through data visualization and connected hardware. This helps Adidas to have hands on data of consumer experience and be able to improve the consumer journey.

4. Open-source innovations and collaborations

When it comes to new ideas, Adidas has a door open policy. Adidas will hear any suggestions from all athletes, consumers, and partners in order to learn, create, share, and shape the future of the brand in the sports society.

Adidas collaborates with many different influencers and consumers to get inspiration from their feedback. Consumer feedback is so helpful when creating cool products to put out on the market and the more voices, the better!

5. Strategic cities

Adidas takes everything into account when it comes to their marketing strategy. There are six cities in particular that Adidas has strategically chosen to shape the consumers’ perception, trends, and buying decisions.

● London

● Los Angeles

● New York

● Paris

● Shanghai

● Tokyo

Adidas takes into account the sports culture of the location they are marketing in. In Europe, Adidas focuses on selling their soccer products, but in the US, Adidas promotes other subsidiaries like basketball and baseball. This type of research is critical when it comes to marketing because it will lead to the best results.

6. Portfolio

Adidas is always looking for ways to improve their core brand of Adidas and Reebok. For example, Adidas repositioned Reebok for more profitability in 2018. Adidas wanted Reebok to have a different image and decided to collaborate with influential women like Victoria Beckham, Ariana Grande, and Gigi Hadid.

With the use of digital marketing, technology, target marketing, fast manufacturing processes, innovation and collaborations, Adidas is able to compete with other brands as the best sporting goods company in the world.

For more content regarding the digital marketing and social media campaigns from Adidas, make sure to look at this page created for Adidas marketing projects! There are so many product on Adidas’ website that you can personalize and have them delivered to your home!