Adidas and Nike: Evaluation of Global Competitiveness & Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive comparison and evaluation of Adidas and Nike's global competitiveness and strategies within the sports industry. It analyzes their market share, online sales issues, segmentation, targeting, positioning, competitive strategies, product offerings, and communication strategies. The report also uses the Ansoff Matrix to assess their market penetration, product development, market development, and diversification efforts. Furthermore, it explores Adidas's potential expansion into the Russian market, considering market size, growth, and competitive conditions. Finally, the report recommends strategies for Adidas to enhance its global presence and competitiveness, highlighting key factors for success in the international market. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a wide range of study tools and solved assignments for students.

Running Head: International Marketing 0
International Marketing
(Student Name)

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
2.0 Part 1....................................................................................................................................2
2.1 Comparison between Nike and Adidas............................................................................2
2.1.1 Market Share and Sales represent that.......................................................................2
2.1.2 Online sales issues.....................................................................................................2
2.1.3 Segmentation, targeting and positioning...................................................................2
2.1.4 Competitive strategies................................................................................................3
2.1.5 Different products companies offer...........................................................................3
2.1.6 Communication strategies..........................................................................................4
2.1.7 Ansoff Matrix............................................................................................................4
3.0 Part 2....................................................................................................................................5
3.1 Expansion of Adidas.........................................................................................................5
3.1.1 Analysis of Russia.....................................................................................................5
3.1.2 Analysis of Adidas.....................................................................................................6
3.1.3 Growth opportunities.................................................................................................7
3.1.4 New Market opportunities.........................................................................................7
3.1.5 Issues affecting global trading...................................................................................7
4.0 Part 3....................................................................................................................................7
4.1 Recommended Strategies.................................................................................................7
5.0 Conclusion............................................................................................................................8

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6.0 References..........................................................................................................................10
7.0 Appendices.........................................................................................................................12
1. Comparison between Nike and Adidas............................................................................12
2. Different products both companies offer..........................................................................12
3. Segmentation, targeting and positioning..........................................................................13
4. Ansoff Matrix...................................................................................................................14
5. Analysis of Russia............................................................................................................14
6. Competitive conditions.....................................................................................................15

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1.0 Introduction
The sports industry has grown by leaps as well as bounds in the past five decades. It
contributed significantly to the economy of the country in an effective manner. The major
leading companies in the sports industry are Adidas, Nike, and Puma that cover maximum
market share in the global market. They have different marketing strategies to target their
consumers that made them unique in the market (Ehrman, 2015).
In the following part, detailed analysis will be done on Nike and Adidas for through their
performance and the way Adidas can expand their business in another market.
2.0 Part 1
2.1 Comparison between Nike and Adidas
2.1.1 Market Share and Sales represent that
In the year 2009, the market share of Adidas was 22% or international sporty footwear. In
contrast, the market share of Nike was about 33%.
During the year 2009, the proportion of the sale of Adidas stated decay in profit. In the last
quarter of the 2009 the sale of Adidas decline by 5% due to the reason for the increase in the
marketing cost. In contrast, the sales of Nike in the fourth quarter of 2009 were reduced down
by 7% while the first quarter of 2010 represents 53% enhancement in the net income.
From the above data, it can be analyzed that Nike has great market share than Adidas due to
the reason, they have covered their market in a more effective and efficient manner (Mahdi et
al., 2015).
This has been illustrated in Appendix 1
2.1.2 Online sales issues
Nike and Adidas both have adopted an online platform to target their consumers. However,
Adidas faces certain challenges in targeting their consumers through online due to their slow
service provided in the online increase the level of dissatisfaction among the consumers of
Adidas. In contrast, Nike manages online services more effectively as a comparison to the
Adidas.

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The online service of Nike is better than Adidas as Adidas faced certain challenges in the
online services provided by them that made the Nike competitive in the market (Song et al.,
2014).
2.1.3 Segmentation, targeting and positioning
Segmentation
The segmentation of Adidas is based on demographic, behavioral, as well as psychographic
factors. The group of Adidas has four brands in their portfolio which include Adidas, Reebok,
Rockport, and Taylor that are made for a different segment of consumers groups.
In contrast, Nike has majorly focused accruing to Psychographic segmentation and
demographic segmentation. They target or cater their products to all the people around the
world that are belonging to any age group who wanted to live the lifestyle of athletics (Rubin
et al., 2016).
Target Audience
In the situation of targeting the audience, Adidas, as well as Nike, have different target
consumers at the global level. Adidas mainly target the age group of 12- 34 years consumers
especially, those who are involved in sports. Adidas target various segment of sports such as
gym regular, football, NBA and so on.
In contrast, Nike has a specific targeted audience. They mainly focus on the male and female
whose age group are between 17-36 years old. As like Adidas, Nike also focused on troupes
of football as their targeted audience.
Positioning
Adidas has their individual distinctive brand positioning in the thoughts of consumers among
which one of the thought that have been set up by the company is that those who wanted to
prefer light shoes prefer Adidas in place of going for further brands. The company has also
set up their image in the mind of consumers is basketball shoes due to the reason, basketball
players mostly wear such shoes due to their unique design as well as lightweight.
In contrast, Nike is majorly known and set up their image in the market as an innovative
company who majorly focuses on making the innovations as well as design new style shoes.

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The main targeted audiences of Nike are football players as they are key positioning in the
mind of consumers that provide a competitive edge that also helps the athlete to perform in a
more effective manner.
The positioning of Adidas and Nike are similar due to the reason they target their consumers
almost the same segment and both enjoyed their unique brand image in the competitive
market (Larson, 2011)
This has been illustrated in Appendix3
2.1.4 Competitive strategies
Both Nike and Adidas lead in the international market in the sports industry. They have
adopted different competitive strategies to target their consumers. Adidas uses market
skinning strategy to target their consumers. Adidas has also used a variety of sales promotion
strategies in order to enhance their sales. In recent, they have provided 30 % or more
discounts coupons to their consumers through deal taker.
In contrast, Nike has majorly adopted competitive pricing strategy which is based on the
basis of the premium segment to target the consumers. Nike adopted product differentiation
as the competitive strategies to target their consumers
The services provided by Nike are better than Adidas as Nike focus on a market niche, as
well as focus on maintaining strong base with the consumers and suppliers that made them
stronger (Berendt, Uhrich and Thompson, 2018).
2.1.5 Different products companies offer
Nike and Adidas offer a variety of products to their consumers that increase their market
share in the international market. The product of Adidas are allocated into three
classifications
 Performance Sports Shoes of Adidas, perfume as well as eyewear
 Adidas style Caps, Hand Gloves, Bags, and Belts.
 Adidas Original Superstar Sneakers, Adicolor Trainer as well as Vintage Clothing
In contrast, Nike offers Sports shows, sunglasses, body care, trainer, hoodies, sneakers, caps,
clothes, perfumes, Bags and so on.

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Nike and Adidas almost cater to similar products that made them competitive for each other.
However, Nike majorly focuses on athlete shoes whereas Adidas cater to a variety of
products to their consumers that made them more competitive.
This has been illustrated in Appendix 2
2.1.6 Communication strategies
Adidas has adopted various communication strategies to target their consumers. The
company has used different media vehicles through which they are doing advertisement on
Television. In the recent Adidas, advertisement celebrities are David Beck Ham, Agnes den
as they used informative advertisement. They have also used outdoor advertisement platform,
arrange events and sponsor programs to spread about their brand in the international market.
In contrast, Nike also uses different promotional tools to reach out to maximum consumers
such as an advertisement on TV. The celebrities for such brands are Renaldo, Roberto Carlos,
and Ronald. Moreover, they have used the platform of the Internet and promote their products
through Billboards as well as Magazines that made their brand more competitive than other
brands in the international market.
According to the analysis, the communication strategy of Nike is effective as compared to the
Adidas due to the reason they have used the main sources to target their consumers, internet
is the best tool to attract people such as social media that made them more competitive than
Adidas (Lim, Kim, and Cheong, 2016)
2.1.7 Ansoff Matrix
Market penetration
The rand visibility of Adidas gives them competitive advantages over the local brands that
help in maintain market penetration. The consumers are targeted by a low process of the
global brands of Adidas.
Nike has increased relationship marketing as well as segmentation to maximize satisfaction
among consumers. Nike grows by increasing the revenue of sales in the existing markets.
Product Development

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Adidas has formed the teams of brands to convey research about the needs and wants of
consumers according to which, the company renewed as well as modified their products.
The primary strategy of Nike is product development. the mission statement of Adidas
highlights that innovation is applied trough new design through new designs for shoes as well
as related products.
Market Development
Adidas majorly used the offensive marketing strategy in the new market in case of the
marketing strategy. The emerging market has also open new channels for Adidas as well.
Nike enters the market of Africa as well as the Middle East to enhance its sales revenue of
shoes. They also invest a huge amount in new technology to penetrate the new market
segment (Song, Huang and Li, 2017).
This has been illustrated in Appendix 4
Diversification
Adidas has managed a multi-brand strategy in order to minimize the competition and to
enhance profits. They have started to fabricate the casual leather shoes to target their
consumers in a more effective manner.
Nike diversified its business by introducing innovation in athletic shoes, equipment, as well
as apparel that made their business more competitive in nature.
From the above analysis, the performance of Nike is far better than Adidas due to the main
reasons Nike always come with some innovative products that are majorly lag in the process
of Adidas (Mahdi et al., 2015).
3.0 Part 2
3.1 Expansion of Adidas
Adidas can focus on Russia to target their consumers due to the reason Russia has been one
of the successfully emerging markets within the last decades and they are more economically
sound than other countries. The further factors that support the focus of Adidas in the

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direction of the country Russia are 100 percent rate of literacy in Russia that would able to
make the company easier within the workforce of Adidas
3.1.1 Analysis of Russia
3.1.1.1 Market size
Total
Russia is considered as one of the largest countries at the global level, spanning eleven time
zones as well as cover 1/8 of the surface in the world. It is the mixture of 89 diverse objects
which establish 16 independent states, 5 independent districts, 10 national region as well as
several provinces and metropolitan cities. The country masses 141.9 million citizens that
consist of more than 100 ethnic groups.
Segment
According to the geographic segmentation, in Russia, the largest city is Moscow as well as it
is increasingly important as an economy with business center. For foreign investment and
business presence, it has become the principal magnet in Russia (Roshchanka and Evans,
2016).
3.1.1.2 Market growth
Total
The retail industry is one of the emerging industries in the economy of Russia. In the recent
scenario, Russia has performed as a foremost country amongst the other countries contributed
to the environment of retail. The business of Russia is fronting the prosperous period as well
as about to earn more impetus in the imminent years
Segment
According to the analysis of the demographic segment of Moscow is considered as the main
center of business that participates in the GDP of the country in an effective and efficient
manner. Thousands of companies are doing their business in such a segment of the country
(MacIntosh and Harris, 2017).
This has been illustrated in Appendix 5

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3.1.1.3 Competitive conditions
Political Factors
The economy of the country enthused from an economy of centrally planned to a unrestricted
market system. In the past few years, the lower price of Russia earns major exporters and a
loss of confidence of investor’s doe the main reason for Asian Financial crises that created
financial issues. The budget deficit of Russia rising sharply with around $60 billion
Social and Cultural Factors
In the past years, the population of Russia reached 141.91 million which is slightly decreased.
The educational system of Russia has produced a 100 percent literacy rate and the life
expectancy remain low as a comparison to the other developed countries.
Legal
The legal factor has also grown highly important in the 21st century. The law and legal
compliances in Russia create pressure on the businesses. Russia has changed its law in order
to be matched with the new regime. The new law is according to the approach of Western
that is very systematic as well as market-oriented (Chernysheva et al., 2017).
This has been illustrated in Appendix 6
3.1.2 Analysis of Adidas
3.1.2.1 Market share of the company
Adidas has already covered its business in Russia. Their products are presently vended over
seven hundred stores in Russia as well as they have their own signature stores in Moscow.
Other than Adidas, numerous other global brands are also concerned to such country such as
Nike that increased the competition for Adidas. It affected the profit margin of the company
at a greater level.
3.1.2.2 Marketing ability and capacity
The company is considered as the second prevalent brand in the marketplace and has always
filtered with the fashion more blatantly than the adjacent competitors. The company maintain

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their services of universal marketing actions as well as uses P.R. tools which include costly
TV campaign and Revolutionary marketing.
3.1.2.3 Product and positioning Fit
The company needs to identify its target segment as well as they need to exploit the right
advertising tactic in order to deliver the accurate arcade positioning for their products in
Russia. The company has created a unique image in the intelligence of the potential
customers by focusing on their quality of product and recognized as a trustworthy brand
name. The company dropped behind Nike in term of innovation that needs to be a cover-up
by expanding their business in other areas (Jayawardhana, 2016)
3.1.2.4 Quality of distribution service
Adidas provides quality ion the distribution services. Adidas are major sales of their products
through retail outlets. They have their own exclusive stores in which the material is provided
directly from the company. Moreover, other multi brands showrooms also have apparels and
footwear of Adidas on display.
3.1.3 Growth opportunities
Adidas has already extended its business in Russia but due to high competition, they would
not able to compete in the market. Therefore, in the recent scenario, the growth in the GDP of
the country provides opportunities to the Adidas to reorganize their business. It helps in
growing their business in a more effective manner. The development of free-market entrance
in Russia suggestively made them a prospective objective for the global brands
3.1.4 New Market opportunities
Russia is considered as one of the biggest countries in the world. Therefore, their low-cost
process in the country would give an opportunity to the company to manufacture its products
in such a market. It would help the company to control over their cost and would also create a
good image for the company and its product
3.1.5 Issues affecting global trading
The focus of Adidas for Russia has many advantages however it also possesses the potential
for a few unwanted risks which includes Political, Economic risk, and so on. Russia has faced

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a crisis in the year 2008 from which they have recovered recently, therefore, any
reoccurrence of such case would affect the overall profit of the company at greater level
(Ayres and Howard, 2016).
4.0 Part 3
4.1 Recommended Strategies
The company needs to cope up with their weaknesses and threats that made their company
more competitive in nature. There are certain strategies through which the company would
able to complete their competition in an effective manner as they are explained in below
points:
High-end use of technology
The company majorly not focus on its research and development process. It is one of the facts
that the investment in the research and development with high equipment play an essential
role in the growth of any business. It helps the companies to grow with technical manner
therefore, Adidas need to adopt high-end use of technology to produce their products that
would help the company to survive and would able to compete Nike in an effective manner.
Need to differentiate the positioning of the brand for Adidas and Reebok
The two leading brands are under the control of the company. They can target a huge amount
of consumers through their brands in a more effective manner. They are required to
categorize their brands according to the requirement of the market through which they would
able to make proper utilization of such brands in a more effective and efficient manner.
Reebok should be placed as the strong brand name and should cover the department of casual
shoes, aerobics, running, and apparel. Moreover, Adidas should manage and make a position
for tennis, athletics, golf, soccer to cover the market.
Focus on enhancing the overall market through the innovative marketing process
Adidas need to majorly focus on increasing the base of the customers. They can adopt
innovative marketing strategies to target their consumers. they can promote their soccer in the
club and can offers scholarship to the children in the school that would help the company to

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make interaction with their brands with them at the early age through which they would able
to retain their loyal consumers for the lifetime.
Innovative Products
Adidas come behind the company Nike due to the innovative strategies adopted by the Nike
in producing and inventing the products. Adidas need to take initiative to enter the market
with innovative products that made them reenergize in the existing market as well as able to
keep them unique in such a competitive market. The company needs to concentrate on
enhancing the design of the product as well as an endorsement that get better product pleasant
appearance to the consumers.
Requirement of Cautions
Russia as being a developing marketplace, consist of the prospective for being fruitful for the
global brands and it also stances some extortions of perils. Therefore, it is required for Adidas
to be very careful as well as alike to the approaches that are used before by them in the
market of Russia.
Such strategies would help the company to cope up from the challenges that they have faced
and it also help the company to enter the market in reenergize form. According to the
analysis, Adidas comes behind Nike due to the lag of innovative product; therefore it is
suggested to the company to work in the innovative products. By adopting innovative
marketing strategies and high-end technology boost the company to grow their market sales
in the global market that affected the overall performance of the company at greater level
(Brown and Brison, 2018).
5.0 Conclusion
From the above analysis, it can be concluded that Nike and Adidas are the global companies
that lead in the international market. Both companies are almost equal but the overall
performance of the Nike is better than Adidas that made the company considered as a second
in the market after Nike. Therefore, Adidas can extend their business in Russia to make their
company more competitive due to the reason; the country has a positive environment for the
business that will provide new opportunities to the company. The company only need to

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concentrate on their few issues that would help them to compete Nike in a more effective
manner

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6.0 References
Ahmed, U.J. (2017) Successful Footwear Marketing [Online]. Available from:
http://sk.sagepub.com/cases/apex-footwear-limited-successful-footwear-marketing-in-
bangladesh [Accessed on 21/02/19]
Ayres, M. and Howard, T. (2016) Utilizing Real-Time GPS (Adidas MiCoach System V2. 0)
to Enhance Soccer Coaches' Ability to Reflect in Action When Engaging in a GCA. Research
Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 87(S1), p.S34.
Berendt, J., Uhrich, S. and Thompson, S.A. (2018) Marketing, get ready to rumble—How
rivalry promotes distinctiveness for brands and consumers. Journal of Business Research, 88,
pp.161-172.
Brown, K.M. and Brison, N.T. (2018) A Tale of Two Trademarks: A US Analysis of the
Protection Strategies of adidas and Converse. The Entertainment and Sports Law Journal, 16.
Chernysheva, Y.G., Shepelenko, G.I., Gashenko, I.V., Orobinskaya, I.V. and Zima, Y.S.
(2017) Business Analysis as an Important Component of Ensuring Enterprise's Economic
Security. European Research Studies, 20(3B), p.250.
Ehrman, N.J. (2015) Out of bounds: A legal analysis of pay-to-play daily fantasy
sports. Sports Law. J., 22, p.79.
Jayawardhana, A. (2016) Financial Performance Analysis of Adidas AG. European Journal
of Business and Management, 8(11), pp.74-82.
Keller, R.C. (2018) How Nike Became Successful and the Leader in the Sports Product
Market [Online]. Available from: https://profitworks.ca/blog/marketing-strategy/545-nike-
strategy-how-nike-became-successful-and-the-leader-in-the-sports-product-market.html
[Accessed on 21/02/19]
Larson, D. (2011) Global Brand Management--Nike's Global Brand. ISM Journal of
International Business, 1(3).

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Leach, A. (2015) Nike vs. adidas: Who Owns the Market? [Online]. Available from:
https://www.highsnobiety.com/2015/11/09/nike-adidas-market-shares/ [Accessed on
21/02/19]
Lim, C.H., Kim, K. and Cheong, Y. (2016) Factors affecting sportswear buying behavior: A
comparative analysis of luxury sportswear. Journal of Business Research, 69(12), pp.5793-
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MacIntosh, E. and Harris, J. (2017) The global sport environment. T. Bradbury & I. O’Boyle,
Understanding sport management: International perspectives, pp.58-72.
Mahdi, A., Abbas, M., Mazar, T.I. and George, S.A. (2015) A Comparative Analysis of
Strategies and Business Models of Nike, Inc. and Adidas Group with special reference to
Competitive Advantage in the context of a Dynamic and Competitive
Environment. International Journal of Business Management and Economic Research, 6(3),
pp.167-177.
Roshchanka, V. and Evans, M. (2016) Scaling up the energy service company business:
market status and company feedback in the Russian Federation. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 112, pp.3905-3914.
Rubin, S., Young, M.H.Y., Wright, J.C., Whitaker, D.L. and Ahn, A.N. (2016) grey Fitness
black Adidas X plr Shoes Men's White tqwnS6T0x in senate. lomotech. com. grey Fitness
black Adidas X plr Shoes Men's White tqwnS6T0x in senate. lomotech. com, 219(5), pp.676-
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Song, G.Y., Cheon, Y., Lee, K., Lim, H., Chung, K.Y. and Rim, H.C. (2014) Multiple
categorizations of products: cognitive modeling of customers through social media data
mining. Personal and ubiquitous computing, 18(6), pp.1387-1403.
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conspicuousness: The roles of self-esteem and self-brand connection. Journal of Consumer
Psychology, 27(1), pp.69-83.

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Statista. (2018) Russia: Gross domestic product (GDP) in current prices from 2012 to 2022
[Online]. Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/263772/gross-domestic-product-
gdp-in-russia/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/263772/gross-domestic-product-gdp-in-
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21/02/19]

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7.0 Appendices
1. Comparison between Nike and Adidas
(Source: Leach, 2015)

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2. Different products both companies offer
(Source: SKEMA Business School, 2018)
3. Segmentation, targeting and positioning
Nike
(Source: Keller, 2018)
Adidas

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(Source: Leach, 2015)
4. Ansoff Matrix
Nike Adidas
(Source: Shobotinsky, 2017) (SourceAhmed, 2017)

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5. Analysis of Russia
(Source: Statista, 2018)
6. Competitive conditions

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(Source: The Heritage Foundation, 2014)