Puma: Expanding Brand Awareness By The 2008 Olympic Games

Johan Zeitz, the chief executive of Puma, the world famous sports and leisure brand, came to Beijing with the bronze skin, tall and robust, and officially opened the countdown of Puma Olympic marketing countdown.

According to the planned steps, Puma will continue to launch new and innovative sports products that consumers like in early 2008, and launch a large market promotion campaign with the theme of runway products as the theme during the Olympic Games, and continue to consolidate its leading position in the Chinese sporting goods market.

"There are still more than 300 days to go before the Olympic flame is lit in Beijing, and Puma has been providing strong support for sports. We are excited to look forward to the dazzling debut of Puma's new runway series. Meanwhile, Puma's brand new and innovative products will become the leaders of sports and leisure in China.

Whether in the arena or outside the arena, Puma will leave its flash mark.

The 44 year old CEO said confidently.

Founded in Germany in 1948, Puma brand is one of the world's largest manufacturers of sports shoes, clothing and accessories. The company regards sports as an attitude towards life, emphasizing the pursuit of physical and mental health, simple and vibrant life style.

In order to achieve the lofty goal of "becoming the most respected sports leisure Brand Company in the world", Puma has successfully integrated sports, life and fashion elements into a whole with unique perspective, sophisticated technology and forward-looking design. It has established a huge sales network in over 80 countries and regions, including its sporting goods stores, department stores and specialized stores. The total revenue in 2006 fiscal year is 236 Euro 9 billion 200 million euros.

Why can Puma remain in the top three position in the competitive market of sports products?

Johan Zeitz, who won the "annual strategist" award in Germany for three consecutive years, told reporters: "everyone has a different understanding of sports, so Puma has developed products from a comprehensive perspective of life and leisure, while ensuring excellent product quality. It has always adhered to the basic concepts of tradition, sports, technological innovation and new design. With sport and leisure as its purpose, sports, lifestyle and fashion elements have been integrated into every product line, so that each series has a unique design style and caters to the characteristics of the international market."

Johan Zeitz was only 27 years old in 1991 when he joined Puma, but his potential was fully displayed in 1993 and was appointed chairman of the Puma CEO and board of directors, and became the youngest director of the board of directors of the German history.

Johan Zeitz began a radical reform.

Looking back at the development of Puma, he said, "we have divided Puma's long-term business development plan into four stages, the first stage from May 1993 to 1997.

At this stage, a profit oriented business model and a tight financial system for future development are established.

In the first year of office, Puma achieved its first profit since 1986 and achieved significant growth.

By 1997, Puma has made a record profit of four consecutive years and has been listed in the M DAX1 list of blue chips, becoming one of Germany's strongest growth stocks.

Puma, who won the first fruits of victory, entered the second stage of enterprise development plan in the autumn of 1997.

Johan Zeitz said: "the goal of this stage is to enhance the brand image of Puma by investing in the market, production and equipment.

We have increased R & D funds from 2% of total profits to 4%, while marketing expenditure has increased from 10% to 15%, so as to fully enhance brand awareness and Puma as a sports leisure brand that combines sports, lifestyle and fashion elements.

We have regained access to the North American market and established a huge sales network in major markets across the world.

In 2002, Puma announced the goal of the third stage of the enterprise development plan, namely, further tap the potential of products, enhance the charm of the brand, achieve continuous value-added business and achieve an ideal profit.

The core of Puma's strategy is to build more flexible and efficient organizations to adapt to this increasingly diversified and fast-paced industry.

In view of this, in the past few years, Puma has gradually dispersed its organizational structure, striving to portray itself as the first truly sporting goods company, "Johan Zeitz stressed.

During the 2006 World Cup, Johan Zeitz announced that he would enter Puma's fourth development stages and increase brand investment from the aspects of marketing, sales, including retailing, product development and design.

At this stage, Puma's long-term goal is to become the most respected sports leisure Brand Company in the world.

According to Johan Zeitz, in order to achieve this goal, Puma will follow clear guiding principles: demand, sustainable development, product life cycle management, enterprise values, organizational structure optimization, value creation, etc.

Based on this, Puma promotes the development plan in the new stage in three aspects: product category expansion, regional market expansion, Puma brand expansion.

At the same time, Johan Zeitz, who has a clear mind and a clear mind, decided to seize the opportunity to sign a contract with the Italy National Football League.

At present, Puma is a sporting goods supplier of the African national football team. Not only that, Puma has also been committed to supporting the development of African football.

At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Puma will again become the dominant brand in the tournament.

When it comes to how Puma implements the fourth stage development plan and the specific plans for the long-term development, Johan Zeitz said Puma will strive to combine sports with fashion trends. Now it has worked with the French luxury group PPR to expand the product diversification with the famous designers in the three major fields of football, running road and racing car. The development of new products includes Golf and motorcycle series, and the products of sailing series will be developed in 2008.

"China is the largest market with the greatest potential for development. We will expand the popularity of Puma brand by taking the opportunity of the 2008 Olympic Games.

To this end, we will invest a lot of money and strive to increase to 1200 stores in China from 1600 to 40% in 2008. "