Marketing and Strategy for Adidas Protein Supplements in Australian Sports Market

This paper evaluates the brand repute of Adidas and its new product launch that is Protein Supplement that is essential for muscle growth. The paper analyses 2 marketing theories (Ansoff Matrix and SWOT Analysis) and 2 marketing plans (Word of Mouth and Relationship Marketing).

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MARKETING AND STRATEGY
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Executive Summary
In every business sector there can be identified certain companies, which typically takes the lead
and comprises an immense customer trust and loyalty in their products. Adidas can be
recognised as such a group which has been successfully leading exports business in countries
like Europe, Asia Pacific region and other developed countries and has received immense brand
recognition after it's contemporary competitor Nike. Adidas group has been complimenting its
brand portfolio that comprises Adidas Reebok brands and has obtained a substantial prominence
for its wide product range. The paper provided a comprehensive evaluation of the way Adidas
has planned to launch its brand new product category ‘Protein Supplements’ into Australian
sports market and develop the product to acquire similar prominence, which it has received with
other products as well to uphold its Adidas brand.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Adidas Brand Recognition and Prominence................................................................................3
Adidas Brand Analysis through Ansoff’s Matrix........................................................................4
Implication of market penetration and market development on Adidas......................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Adidas is recognised as one of the renowned business enterprises in the world, which specializes
in the production of a wide range and excellent sportswear, footwear as well as sports equipment.
The company has been efficiently executed its business operations by using the trademark under
the company’s name of Adidas, tailor-made Adidas Golf and Reebok (Adidas.com.au 2018). Its
extensive business operations range from Europe North America and Asia Pacific region and
comprising a strong workforce of over 40,000 employees engage in various parts of the world
with around 200 subsidiaries, which exclusively focus on manufacturing. The company
fundamentally focuses on sports whereas the brand specialises in footwear, apparels as well as
sports accessories (Carter 2018). Adidas has attained a substantial level of prominence with its
sports segment where buy the brand recognition of the company has been promoted in its sports
such as running football basketball Tennis Cricket (Adidas.com.au 2018). The following paper
will evaluate the brand repute of Adidas and its new product launch that is Protein Supplement
that is essential for muscle growth. This protein supplement is equally effective for both men and
women who are fitness conscious. In addition to this the paper will analyse 2 marketing theories
(Ansoff Matrix and SWOT Analysis) and 2 marketing plans (Word of Mouth and Relationship
Marketing). The newly launched product will benefit the athletes from consuming this
supplements twice daily ranging from 1.5 to 2.0 per kg of the body weight.
Discussion
Adidas Use of Marketing Theories
Adidas’s marketing executives strategized a new marketing plan to introduce Protein

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Supplement product to successfully sustain its position in the sports retail domain (Cho, Fiore
and Russell2015). As the company has been immensely prominent in delivering sports
merchandise to customers ranging from all across the world, the new product of protein
supplements also can be projected to obtain substantial recognition and loyalty from athletes and
sportsmen who have been the ardent purchaser of the brand.
PESTLE Analysis
Political Adidas will supply the Protein Supplement worldwide, thus needs
to expand global supply chains. The company must follow
political procedures while selling the new product online. Thus it
should comply to global trade agreements and consumer safety
product regulations.
Economic Adidas must manufacture the new product in Saudi Arabia due to
its labour intensive rate and low cost for creation. Furthermore,
the recent sport wear sector of Saudi Arabia has witnessed a
decline in net profit in sport s retail sales due to the sudden change
in demographics. Adidas must take this as a vital avenue and
penetrate into this market to develop a strong position and make a
global recognition in areas where sports or fitness enthusiasm is
not identified as valuable determinant like other countries such as
Spain or Australia.
Social As Adidas’s Protein Supplement products are primarily aimed for
athletes their core focus group should be based on fitness
conscious consumers with live for healthy life and sports (Jung
and Sung2017).
Technological As it is for the consumption of health conscious sportsmen,
Adidas will evaluate this product through multi-level assessment
and under varying conditions to check the efficiency of the
product.
Legal Adidas has possession of intellectual properties as well as IP
systems. The company also design patents and defends their
ownership against copiers and violation (Cho and Fiore2015).
Environmenta
l
It decreases environment impact and examines unsafe substances
and eradicate those factors.
Created by author

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Adidas Protein Supplements SWOT Analysis
Strength Weakness
Broad Network
High level customer trust and loyalty
Composition of Protein Supplement
Succession
Distribution Expense
Opportunity Threat
Emerging health concern Competitors
Created by author
Strengths
Adidas since its establishment has comprised a broad network of buyers who are spread across
the world with approximately 200 subsidiaries who have been trading Adidas products. Such a
vast expansion not only ensures a smooth development of Adidas business but also takes into
consideration on time supply of Adidas products range (Cho and Fiore2015).
High level customer trust and dedication- As Adidas comprises a multi-level marketing
model, there can be witnessed an extensive level of reliance and dedication among the
purchasers as well as stakeholders. The immense dedication further reinforces Adidas’s customer
network and further guarantees reliable business performance.
Composition of Protein Supplement- The newly launched protein supplements marketed for
the athlete customer segment have been essentially designed with critical marketing planning and
subcontracting few organic farms in Australia. As this product is exclusively purposed for fitness
and sports enthusiasts, Adidas has given utmost assurance of its steroid and chemical free
ingredients which is totally harmful to the particular buyer segment.
Weaknesses
Succession- The attainment of Adidas Protein Supplements can productively attribute to the

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leadership progress of the General Manager of Adidas Asia Pacific Region Steve Castledine. The
GM of this region has been extensively working of the marketing and sales growth of Protein
Supplement to attain a similar position in the market which it has for other products as well
(Cho, Fiore and Russell2015).
Distribution Expense- The goods produced by Adidas is marketed worldwide and have a broad
distributor network in countries like Saudi Arabia. However, the constraints in reaching the
newly launched product in Saudi Arabia along with the number of expenses involved in product
distribution have been profuse.
Opportunities
Emerging level of health concerns- Ansary and Hashim(2017) )claimed that the growing
number of health concerns in recent times has been creating apprehensive situations among
various fitness and sports enthusiasts. Adidas can attain this immense opportunity for health as
well as nutritional supplements to cater to the fitness domain and obtain a high level of customer
loyalty from its existing customer base.
Threats
Competitors- Adidas though have acquired a substantial level of recognition, however, has to
deal with wide-ranging competitors ranging from Nike, Converse who manufactures similar
products to similar buyer segments (Jung and Sung2017). However for Protein Supplement
products the company has to compete with Optimum Nutrition Whey and Protei Supplies who
are immensely popular in the Australian weight supplement market.
Adidas Brand Analysis through Ansoff’s Matrix
The Ansoff matrix essentially relies on four strategies based on products and customers.
These strategies of the Ansoff Matrix model constitute market penetration, market development

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and diversification (Mahdiet al.2015).
Market penetration- Vignali(2015) state that because of its extensive prominence in sportswear
range, Adidas with the development of protein supplements will generate a wide range of
competitive advantages for it. However, by introducing new products, the company can enhance
its sales growth without losing any impact on the business strategies which would enable to
market the products (Bronnenberg and Ellickson2015).
Adidas can implement word of mouth marketing strategy to market Protein Supplements by
embracing high exclusivity. Adidas introducing protein supplements will create a greater degree
of interest with its broad range of customers. Thus offering exclusive access to its product can be
distinguished as an effective process of employing word of mouth marketing strategies.
Market development-Jung and Sung (2017) observe recently a strong prominence of Adidas in
Europe and Asia Pacific region. In such an attempt, the company has a wide range of
opportunities to expand more into these sectors with such unimaginable health and fitness
product (Vignali2015). As a result, Adidas should distinguish the markets whereby it can
successfully expand its business strategies with very less effort in relation to financial resources.
A specific level of concentration on this product also is distinguished to be a beneficial factor for
Adidas and its sports produce segment if it is aiming to enhance its sales and profit growth in the
other market (Cho and Fiore2015). Regions, where Adidas has no or rather no existence, should
be significantly evaluated and the product range of protein supplements and other fitness goods
must be launched there in order to gather a greater range of customers and enhance their brand
image (Neupane 2015).
Product Development- Adidas can announce various types of attractive offers for its newly
launched protein supplements to magnetize both the existing as well as new customer base. It can

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further identify particular target segments like prospective athletes and design its packaging in
accordance to their choices (Cho and Fiore2015).
Adidas must involve social media for relationship marketing for launching its protein and fitness
supplements. Adidas being an international brand has wide social networking channels such as
Twitter, Facebook, Great Content and YouTube (Cho and Fiore2015). The company sticks to an
enforced organizational culture as well as a set of values which divert it from its other tough
competitors. Furthermore, it has worked out if the hierarchical structure for their social media
analysis which can serve as a contributory tool for its new product expansion.
Diversification- The fourth factor of Ansoff’s matrix is related to diversification strategy that is
regarded as a risk-taking approach, as companies may tend to incur extensive losses if they
diversify devoid of any awareness of the type of business will facilitate the company to achieve
successful profits and maximise revenues. Adidas, in this case, can diversify its business
approaches into various segments where the organisation must choose an appropriate path with
new products like Protein Supplements into totally unknown markets (Sasmitaand Mohd
Suki2015).
Conclusion
Therefore from the above discussion, it can be concluded that if Adidas diversification
strategy has been successfully implemented it can have greater risk factor due to its extensive
cost and production of coal business performance. Thus the fourth factor of Ansoff’s matrix that
is diversification can be considered as the most effective strategy. By implementing the
diversification strategy Adidas can increase the recognition of the newly launched protein
supplements in diverse markets. The company should especially focus in the unknown markets
where Adidas has less prominence and enhance the fitness enthusiasm in the potential athlete

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range. Thus the company must use diversification for Protein Supplement product range to
penetrate into global sports sectors and attract targeted buyers from across the world resulting to
an increase in sales diversification strategies in a similar technique, which they have
implemented in other successful markets to introduce new products that have given them the
brand image of ‘Adidas’.

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References
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