Marketing Case: Puma Sportswear

German brand

Puma's outdated brand creates a new attitude towards life

In the 80s and 90s of last century, Puma once sold and sold far behind Nike, Reebok, Adidas and other sports apparel giants.

At that time, Puma was regarded as an outdated brand. Department stores put Puma sneakers on cheap containers, and Puma went to the brink of bankruptcy in 1993.

In 1994, JochenZeitz, 30 years old, was appointed CEO of the company. He was also the youngest listed company president in Europe.

Since the end of 90s, under the leadership of JochenZeitz, Puma has relied on guerrilla marketing tactics to become the "explosive brand" of the world sports apparel market.

From 1993 to 2001, Puma's turnover increased by nearly two times.

In 2002, the total value of the American sportswear market was $7 billion 800 million, while Puma's sales increased by 48% over the same period last year, reaching US $121 million.

Puma is named "the best marketing brand of 2002" by "brand weekly".

John Shanley, managing director of WellsFargo securities investment company in New York, said: "Puma is the best sportswear brand in brand management. Its product line is designed strictly and reasonably, and has a long-term and clear goal in market segmentation and distribution channel management.

"Thanks to its excellent marketing tactics, Puma's stock has been rated as the most worthy stock in the German market for many years.

Press "

Most analysts and observers believe that JochenZeitz's appointment as CEO and chairman of the board is an important turning point for Puma.

Prior to that, Puma's marketing plan was in line with the rules. Apart from that little puma Logo, there was no difference between the brand and Nike and Adidas. Dealers also put the same products on different sales terminals.

As soon as Zeitz took office, he pointed out that individuality is the key to our survival. We want to be the most popular sports lifestyle brand that consumers want most. Otherwise, we can not compete with giants such as Nike.

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At that time, almost all enterprises used the traditional demographic method when subdividing consumers, according to their age, education, income and other standards.

Tony Botn, director of Puma global brand management, said: "a 19 year old Japanese high school student's attitude towards life and brand preference may be similar to that of a 30 year old New York black.

Thinking attitude and lifestyle are the most important factors affecting Puma consumers. Creating a unique brand attitude belonging to Puma is also the core of our brand marketing.

We define sports as a positive way of life, and hope that even if Puma's consumers become a 70 year old grandmother, it is still a lifestyle and a loyal customer of the brand.

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The core of Puma's market segmentation is to firmly grasp the "Early-Adopter".

According to the marketing theory, all consumers can be divided into "Innovator", "Early-Adopter", "early adopters" (EarlyMajority), "late followers" (LateMajority) and "laggards" (Laggard) according to their acceptance time and acceptability of new products and technologies.

Among them, the first attempt "accounted for about 13 of the total."

5%, they are generally "opinion leaders" in a certain market or field, which can help to recommend brands or products to "herd" and "laggards".

Botn, director of brand management, said Puma did not differentiate the brand's product line according to the price, but considered what products were designed for the first attempt, which were designed for the herd, and the products designed for the first attempt were more advanced and fashionable.

The same is true of product distribution channels. According to the characteristics of different product lines, Puma makes avant-garde design products appear in some fashion shops, while those mainstream products are sold in sportswear stores such as FootLocker.

JochenZeitz revealed that FootLocker had offered to sell Puma's full line products in chain stores. If Puma did so, it could easily double the sales of products.

But this proposal was rejected by Puma. "We don't want guys who buy Puma's coolest products to see the shoes they find everywhere."

Zeitz said: Puma is not sales, long-term stable growth and the establishment of a lifelong and solid relationship with consumers is our goal.

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Then, Puma, in collaboration with supermodel and yoga trainer Christie Turlington, launched a series of Nuala designed specifically for women's yoga sports, which set off a craze for practicing yoga in the West.

With the efforts of Puma, Madonna, who is now fashionable, can always see Puma's casual shoes, but Louis Weeden's luxury handbag is in his hands.

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Low price and high return marketing activities

When JochenZeitz just took over Puma, guerrilla marketing tactics were helpless.

In 1993, Puma suffered a loss of 32 million US dollars. Under tremendous pressure, Zeitz could only take measures such as layoffs and reduced marketing costs.

But then, the surprising investment return made Zeitz determined to carry out guerrilla marketing.

Unlike the big investments made by competitors in mass advertising and publicity, Puma limited its limited marketing funds to cheap and creative guerrilla marketing activities.

In 2002, the advertising expenses of Puma in the US were only 3 million 900 thousand yuan, less than a fraction of the competitors such as Nike and Reebok.

In the fall of 2002, Puma sponsored a sports shoe design competition sponsored by avant-garde designers, called Thrift.

Designers must use old shirts, trousers, ties and wallets and other raw materials to design sports shoes, the company will eventually produce 510 pairs of works named "soul sports shoes."

Limited production is sought after by many collectors. The price of each pair of shoes has been raised to $250, and some works have been collected by the London Museum of art.

During the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, other sports brands seized the rare opportunity to get the official sponsorship power and sign contracts with the big stars.

Puma has avoided such a swarming and unique approach, but has signed sponsorship contracts with African teams such as Jamaica and Tunisia.

On the one hand, such an African team performs well and has a high appearance rate, and the sponsorship fee is much lower than that of the big teams. On the other hand, Zeitz said that the character of Jamaica and Tunisia athletes is very suitable for the Puma brand line because sports are not only blood, sweat and tears, but also endless fun.

During the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, Puma also organized a public relations campaign called Shudoh.

Puma invited the famous Japanese chef, MasaharuMorimoto, to design a sushi roll for the world cup. During the world cup, it was supplied in major Japanese restaurants in major cities around the world, including New York, London and Sydney. It was also called "food for the World Cup".

If fans order this dish in restaurants, they will be accompanied by Puma Logo chopsticks, Japanese sake cups and napkins, and sushi production competitions.

JochenZeitz said: "(Americans) in fact, the interest in football matches is not very big. This public relations campaign with" Japanese lifestyle "as the main demand point makes the audience feel fresh, and makes our activities different from other brands.

Cross boundary alliance to enhance brand influence

As early as 1999, Puma put forward the concept of "cross border cooperation" (Crossover) and launched high-end casual shoes with JilSander, a high-end clothing brand in Germany.

After that, Puma's new concept has a large group of followers. Adidas cooperates with the Japanese brand YohjiYamamoto, Reebok and Chanel cooperation, sports brand and fashion brand alliance has become the trend.

In 2003, Puma took the first step to establish a product and brand cooperation relationship with BMW brand Mini, a loyal supporter of guerrilla marketing tactics.

Puma has specially designed a series of "Mini-Motion" sports shoes based on BMW Mini, which are sold worldwide.

BMW designs the seat of the new Mini model with the technology of Puma sports shoes, such as air mesh, and prints the famous Puma Logo on the outside of Mini.

JochenZeitz describes the brand cross-border cooperation as the two brand's date or marriage. "We can not only look at the size of the company, but also see whether the two sides are compatible."

RinatAruh, manager of lifestyle development at BMW Mini, said: "our two brands have so much in common. We hit it off.

We are all "anti traditional brands", all of which believe in guerrilla marketing, and spend a lot of energy on how brands can be disseminated among consumers.

We find our customers through the attitude of life. It is a relaxed, pleasant and interesting job to work out marketing plans with marketers of Puma.

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In 2004, Puma announced that through the cross-border cooperation with BMW Mini, Puma became the top supplier of the BMW Williams convoy of the 2004 F1 winning bid.