HND Business: Adidas AG Marketing Essentials, Functions & Environment

This report analyzes the marketing essentials of Adidas AG, examining the role of marketing as a business function versus a department, the structure of the marketing department (traditional and digital), and the roles of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Marketing Manager. It provides an overview of the marketing process, including situation analysis, marketing strategy, marketing mix decisions, and implementation/control, emphasizing the importance of the marketing environment. The report also explores how the marketing function influences and interrelates with other departments within Adidas, such as sales, finance, legal, and product manufacturing, highlighting the strategic role of marketing in supporting organizational activities and driving sales. This detailed case study is available on Desklib, offering valuable insights for students and researchers.

Running head: MARKETING ESSENTIALS
Marketing Essentials
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Introduction
Marketing is something that is way broader than just selling of the products and
services. It is not at all a specialised activity. Rather, it encompasses the whole business. This
paper is going to elaborate on explaining the role of marketing in a selected multinational
organisation (Baker 2016). The chosen organisation for this purpose is Adidas AG. It shall
highlight how the marketing interrelated with the other functions of the business. However, in
particular, this paper shall answer the four questions on marketing related to this organisation.
Discussion
1. Explain the role of marketing as a function of business, opposed to marketing as a
department in a company.
Marketing plays a significant role in the promotion of the business of Adidas as well as its
mission. It serves as its face by producing and coordinating all the materials that are
representing its business. One of the key functions of Adidas AG’s marketing is conducting
research on its target market (Keshkar et al. 2018). It pays attention on the buying trends of
customers and look forward for products which can fulfil the present need of the customers.
For example the, the apparel department of Adidas needs to stay on the top of the new trends
in order to know what products in needs to focus on in its marketing campaign. It is to note
that the market research also needs a thorough check out on the other present competitors of
Adidas in order to find out what products and services they are featuring at present and how
successful they are at their marketing campaigns.
Furthermore, along with researching about the wants of the customers, marketing as a
function of business of Adidas also involves the packaging process of its products in a way
that it can greatly appeal to its buyers (Di Benedetto 2017). It designs its packaging materials
and logos as per the mind of the customers and conduct market research in order to find the

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prevailing prototypes which gain the most positive customer feedbacks from the test markets.
Furthermore, marketing as a function in Adidas involve transportation of the goods, quality
control and risk assessment as well. On the other hand, the marketing department of the
company are focused on marketing and advertising their products and services in order to
attract more potential customers. It is basically engaged in the selling, financing, product
management, pricing, promotion and distribution of the products and services. The company
is present in different social media platforms in order to reach high number of customers
(Alipour and Sabzikaran 2018). The marketing department send email to the customers who
have signed up for their newsletters for taking their feedbacks on the company’s products.
Moreover, on their social media sites, they show the upcoming shoes and apparel which are
going to drop in the near future. Lastly, the company also have an app in which the marketing
department showcase their exclusive product range.
2. Explain the structure of the marketing department of your selected organisation,
and succinctly explain a minimum of two different marketing roles (e.g. Chief
Marketing Officer, Marketing Manager, and the Social Media Manager).
The marketing department of Adidas is divided into two segments and they are-
traditional marketing and digital marketing. The traditional marketing department is further
divided into Public relations and office advertising whereas, the digital marketing segment is
divided into Social media and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The CMO (Chief
Marketing Officer) sits at the top of the marketing department of Adidas along with different
retail, public relations, direct advertising, brand advertising and paid media advertising
(Alipour and Sabzikaran 2018). The supporting agencies, especially the Marketing Manager,
reports CMO about the necessary details. It is to note that the there are two Marketing
Manager at Adidas. One looks after the traditional marketing processes and the other after the
social media marketing. Marketing Manager is the one to manage all the marketing related

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business of the company and its products. He or she is highly responsible for different
products and service and is in charge of marketing a particular product. With the same, he or
she is also responsible for both the planned and the unplanned images of their employer. The
planned images basically include the video advertisement, public speaking, print
advertisement, printed literature and endorsements. On the other hand, the unplanned ones
takes place when the representatives of the company misspeaks or misbehaves in public and
therefore, need some immediate damage control. Next comes, the social media marketing
manager. They help in developing the social media pages for the brand products and services.
They manage those pages and work with the teams for creating contents on those pages. With
the same, they also track the demographics and then introduce them to the main content that
they are likely to enjoy and takes measures to push them for interacting more with the brand
and the company.
3. Provide an overview of the marketing process, and analyse the importance of the
marketing environment to the marketing function.
The marketing process comprise of a total of four elements and so does in the case of
Adidas as well. The marketing process of Adidas consists of Situation analysis, marketing
strategy, marketing mix decisions and the marketing implementation and control. Adidas
does a thorough analysis of the situation in which it finds itself serving as the basis for
finding out the opportunities in order to satisfy the unfilled needs of the customers (Wilden
and Gudergan 2015). With the same, the company also work towards gaining a better
understanding of its own strengths, capabilities as well as the environment in which the
company is operating. It is therefore, can be considered in terms of an analysis of the internal
and the external analysis of the company. External environment refers to all the macro
environmental factors which broadly have an impact on the firm. On the other had the micro
environmental factors are both the internal and external ones that are very closely related to

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the particular situation of the company. Secondly, when the best opportunity for satisfying
the needs of the customers are identifies by Adidas, it makes a strategic plan for pursuing
opportunities that can be developed. It included Segmentation, target market selection, value
proposition and positioning of the product and services. Thirdly, in the marketing mix
decision making, a well detailed tactical decision are made by the company marketing
managers for some controllable parameters of the marketing mix. They include pricing
decisions, product development, the promotional campaign development and the distribution
contracts. Finally, during the implementation and control process, the marketing plan is
developed by the marketing department and when the product is launched.
The marketing environment have a direct impact on the marketing function of Adidas. It
is to note that the three different categories of marketing environment include the micro
environment, the internal environment and the macro environment. Adidas develops different
strategies in order to be successful in all these three environments in its business.
Furthermore, it is to mention that the environment and the culture of Adidas play a significant
role in the delivery of the organisational values to the customers of the company (Banerjee
2017). The internal buyers or customers of Adidas are basically the ones who aid to the
delivery of the final products. Adidas look forwards for various different strategies in order to
motivate its staffs and employees present in its internal environment as well as to satisfy the
ultimate external customers. Moreover, it is to note that the internal customers, the suppliers
etc. all combine together for making the micro environment of the company. Adidas deliver
good final products that meets the needs of the customers in order to develop and to maintain
the continuous analysis of the ever changing micro environment. Furthermore, the macro
environment of Adidas comprise of the global economic condition, the government policies
or the political stability within the country. It is to note that the company does not have direct
control over these factors but it can work accordingly in order to successfully do its business

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in such a macro environment.
4. Analyse how the marketing function influences and interrelates with other
departments in the organisation.
Marketing is all about how a company get its product sales message see by its potential
customers. The marketing designs the messages of the sales which persuade the customers to
buy the products. It influences and interrelated with several other departments in the
company. According to Juneja, Mittal and Boora (2018), marketing is basically a strategic
discipline that underpins most of the organisational activities of the business and is also an
important ingredient of the corporate strategy. Like, in Adidas, it supports the sales functions
by getting the organisation as well as the product known by its target market and by
providing all the necessary materials that the sales operation requires for reinforcing the
selling points. Furthermore, the marketing function with the finance department of the
company to price the products as per what the market would bear as well as the margins
which the financial department insist upon. The marketing function of the company also
works with the legal department in order to ensure that the sales and marketing message stay
within the bounds of the customers and the other applicable law. Furthermore, it works with
the product manufacturing department of Adidas in order to ensure that the products and
services that come off the end of the production line in meeting the requirements of the
customers. It also works with the sales distribution department for ensuring that products are
ultimately reaching the point of purchase so that the customers are easily getting their reach
for buying them. Lastly, when it comes to cutting down the budgets, the marketing function is
present in the very first line. It removes the potential of the organisation to sell its products
and services effectively and this would negate the requirements and needs for the cuts of
budget in the very first place.
Conclusion

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Hence, from the above analysis it is clear that the marketing mix of an organisation is
its own way of uniquely positioning the brand and driving the sales of the product. For
company like Adidas, it included deeper understanding of what its customers’ demands and
producing products as per those demands and requirements.

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References:
Alipour, M. and Sabzikaran, E., 2018. Investigating the Effect of Brand Authenticity on the
Importance of Brand and the Desire to Buy (Case Study: ADIDAS Brand). American Journal
of Business, Economics and Management, 6(1), p.1.
Baker, M.J., 2016. What is marketing?. In The Marketing Book(pp. 25-42). Routledge.
Banerjee, S.B., 2017. Corporate environmentalism and the greening of strategic marketing:
Implications for marketing theory and practice. In Greener Marketing (pp. 16-40). Routledge.
Di Benedetto, C.A., 2017. Corporate social responsibility as an emerging business model in
fashion marketing. Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 8(4), pp.251-265.
Juneja, S., Mittal, I. and Boora, A.S., 2018. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IN INDIA:
SOME ISSUES. Digitalization.
Keshkar, S., Lawrence, I., Dodds, M., Morris, E., Mahoney, T., Heisey, K., Addesa, F.A.,
Hedlund, D., Dickson, G., Ghasemi, H. and Faruq, A., 2018. The Role of Culture in Sports
Sponsorship: an Update. Annals of Applied Sport Science, 6(3).
Wilden, R. and Gudergan, S.P., 2015. The impact of dynamic capabilities on operational
marketing and technological capabilities: investigating the role of environmental
turbulence. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(2), pp.181-199.