Running Shoes, Fashion, New Way, Puma Wants To Be A Great Horse.

Puma has fallen to the bottom.

At this point, however, the German sporting goods company opened a young CEO.

He has some smart ideas about celebrities, shops and fashion.

Jonge zez, the 40 year old Puma chief executive, hurried across Europe to attend the opening ceremony of the fashion week in Milan.

Due to flight delays, he arrived at the meeting more than an hour later than the scheduled time and arrived late at the gathering of handsome men and pretty girls.

But it doesn't matter: other participants are also coming to the performance hall behind Genoa port.

Zez quickly stepped out of his limousine and tried to find the traces of his colleagues from a group of women who were wearing fur coats everywhere.

Finally, Tsai grabbed his cell phone and called the scene.

The fashion show of designer Roberto Cavalli is being staged there, followed by Puma's urban men's non sports fashion, including trousers, shirts and jackets.

Puma jumped from the "dressing room" to the "cat stage". It was the great success of CAI TSE and the German sporting goods company. Cai Cai rescued the almost forgotten company 10 years ago.

When Cai CI became the chief executive of Puma in 1993, Puma was a poor sports shoe company. Its brand smelled of mud and sweat, and its revenue and expenditure records were even worse.

Cai Ci recalled, "it can be said that Puma was the most popular sports brand at that time."

For the sake of Milan, the tall, strong German foot wore a pair of black Puma sneakers designed by Holland fashion designer Alexander Van Schlauer.

Today, from the shoes of Tsai's feet, we can see that the rebirth of the "Jaguar" is full of fashionable frontiers and alternative elegance.

"If Puma is a person, what kind of person will he interact with?"

Antonio Baer Tinto, the company's global brand leader, pondered.

There is a conjecture that maybe he will join the street heroes like American freestyle cross-country champion Travis prest, or American skateboard star Anthony Acosta. Puma is just the sponsor of the two men.

Maybe he will drive a fashionable and classic "mini cooper" sports car that BMW just launched, wearing Puma's "mini dynamic" driving shoes specially designed for this vehicle.

He will also cheer for the Cameroon national football team. Puma's conjoined tight fitting sports suit designed for the team has just been banned by FIFA (football governing body) in February.

If Puma is a person, he will be rich.

In 2003 alone, Puma's net profit was more than $224 million, more than doubled, and sales increased by 40% to $1 billion 600 million.

Since March 2003, the value of Puma's listed shares in Frankfurt and Munich has increased by nearly 3 times.

Puma has a lot of room for growth. Especially in the US, the US market accounts for about 1 / 4 of Puma's total sales, while Puma products account for less than 2% of the US sporting goods market. Compared with about 5% of the European sporting goods market, the company sells 2 / 3 of its products in Europe.

Tsai intends to expand Puma's global sales of $2 billion 500 million over the next two years, half of which are footwear (currently 55%), and the rest of them are highly profitable clothing.

However, the display of this ambition raises a basic question: whether Puma will lose the product of rebellious and unconventional products that make up its unique attraction while Puma is growing and growing, and these characteristics are the magic weapon for Puma to maintain high price and high profits.

After all, look at Nike, Adidas and Reebok as brands of the industry giants, and their image of anti tradition and urbanization has disappeared.

Tsai insists that Puma can continue to grow and will not become a popular Nike product.

But the risk is obvious: "because consumers will think that everyone wears Puma, the charm of this brand will be greatly reduced."

Christian Schindler, an analyst for the company's insurance business at the Bank of Mainz, Germany.

Puma's position in such a difficult position is a compliment to Cai Zi.

In the sporting goods industry, Puma can be said to bring back to life.

The company was founded in 1948, when the founder of the company, Rudolf dadler, disagreed with his brother ADI, and left the sports shoes company they founded together in the town of heto root in Germany.

Until today, Puma and Adidas are still standing next to each other. Zez proudly said, "we live in the same town, but we do what we do."

Puma began to get into trouble in 1986.

In those days, Rudolf's son Amin put the company's shares on the market, and then he retired.

Several executives who took over the company failed to completely solve the three interrelated problems of the company: the organizational structure of the company was too centralized, the cost of the German production base was too high, and the company's products could not keep up with the international trend.

In the world's largest sporting goods market, Puma also faces another dilemma. In the words of zez, Puma has lost the right to sell products, and the controlling power is in the hands of franchisees who are "intent on expanding sales".

By 1993, Puma was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Desperate shareholders put their hopes on Tsai, the 30 year old marketing director.

It was a risky move at that time, because Tsai's working experience was limited, and he only worked for two years before joining Colgate, the head office of the United States and Germany.

"I was also surprised that I was chosen," said Tsai.

After he took office, he immediately began to push ahead with the cost reduction plan for 4 years. By the end of 1993, nearly half of the employees had been laid off, leaving only 367 employees.

Then, zez shut down inefficient German factories and subcontracted production operations to Asia.

In 1996, he bought Puma's franchise in the United States, regained control in the US market, and freed Puma from the danger.

At that time, Tsai was ready to implement his second stage strategy of defeats to win: making Puma the most cool sports brand on earth.

Under his instigation, a Hollywood film and television production company, which is looking for investment opportunities, bought 12% of Puma's shares.

The company's shareholdings gradually increased to 40% (all in June last year).

This partnership is Puma's free advertising: Puma products began to "assassinate Kennedy", "beautiful woman" and other films in the movie, also on the "Will and grace", "Friends" and other series of TV plays.

Even Brad, Pete, Gwyneth, Tero and other superstars are fascinated by this cool cat.

Two years ago, on the eve of her "submerged world" tour, Madonna walked into the Puma store in Santa Monica and bought 16 pairs of Puma Mostro sneakers at one go.

This is the most beautiful marketing battle Puma has ever played.

Tsai said with delight, "this lays the foundation for our products."

Cai CI also sponsored various activities to improve the popularity of Puma sports products.

In this regard, his sponsorship marketing strategy is also unconventional.

Instead of finding a famous Champion (of course he can not afford it), he is looking for new stars who are anti traditional characters who can express the rebel image of "Puma".

Zeiss, who runs most of the day in the gym, says: "Puma is not just winning by blood, sweat and tears, but is constantly enjoying the sport."

In 1998, Puma signed up with tennis player Serena Williams.

At that time, her ranking was behind Williams, but she liked to be more innovative than her sister, and dared to wear the diamond crowns.

2002 in the US Open, Puma deliberately designed a black tights for Serena Williams. It was no surprise that the suit offended the tennis authority.

The contract with Serena Williams was not renewed last year (because she asked for too much price).

But there are many unique sports figures in the name of Puma.

For example, Nicholas Anelka, the French football star, is temperamental and has just been called "the incredible stuffed buns" because he refused to play for the national team.

And Jamaica's Olympic athletes, their leisurely Caribbean style and intense sportsmen's temperament, are compatible with Puma's feeling.

Another key strategy of zez is to set up a self run shop to enhance Puma's corporate image.

Puma currently has 28 stores in the world (including 11 in the US), with fashion centers from Tokyo to Losangeles, and plans to open 12 more in two years.

Because the rents of the downtown pavements are extremely expensive, Tsai says Puma will not follow the other big brands and build a museum like storefront. Its fixed cost is destined to be ridiculously high.

He added that once the store was on the right track, it began to make money (he did not want to disclose the number).

"Self run shops enable Puma to fully display its brand, thereby greatly promoting sales."

Cai Zi personally selected the store site of the Milan store, which also reflected his hands-on management style.

The Milan shop opened in 2002 was selected in a deep courtyard next to a busy shopping street.

He said, "this is a good start, because our brand is to be found by consumers."

There was a soft spiritual background in the shop, and a large white graffiti board. In the presence of celebrity visits, legendary Italy football star Paul Maldini was asked to leave a signature on it.

Store goods range from basic sports shoes (about $50 a pair) to sneakers designed by top designers (priced over $200).

Upstairs, customers can buy "Nuala series" Yoga suits and some fashionable objects, such as Puma white handbags, designed by super model Christie rington.

1 miles away from the shop, Puma's fashion show is about to debut.

The company has worked with British designer Neal Barrett, a British resident in Italy, to design a series of costumes for the Italy national football team, which will also be sold in specific stores.

The fashion show (including Barrett's own winter men's wear and women's wear) begins with a movie showing the Arctic wilderness. At the end of the service, the waiter brings ice vodka to the guests.

In the performance, the models were shuttling on the stage, and from beginning to end, Puma's logo only appeared once.

Later, Barrett explained, "this is a multi-level expression. I don't want to be too straightforward."

As a marketing activity of Puma, it may not be as useless as it looks.

John, Holland, publisher of sporting goods information, an American market research firm, said: "in the fashion industry, Puma creates an atmosphere through some small-scale creative activities and attracts the participation of celebrities."

But if Puma wants to keep the image of "cool", it must always run on the fast track and surpass the traditional taste to launch the next marketing scheme.

Maybe zez should take off Van Schlauer's sneakers and put on some old style running shoes.