Puma's Guerrilla Marketing Tactics

The German brand Puma is the fastest growing brand in the sports apparel market from 1998 to 2003, with a growth rate of more than two figures for 6 consecutive years.

Surprisingly, in 2002, Puma spent $3 million 900 thousand on advertising in the United States. In the same year, Nike's advertising expenditure was $120 million and Reebok's expenditure was $45 million 300 thousand.

Puma's outdated brand built a new life attitude. In the 80s and 90s, Puma once fell behind Nike, Reebok, Adidas and other sports apparel giants in marketing and sales.

At that time, Puma was regarded as an outdated brand.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, Jochen Zeitz, 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 Jochen Zeitz, 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 New York Wells Fargo securities investment company, said: "Puma is the best brand of sportswear brand management, its product line is designed strictly and reasonably, and has a long-term and clear goal in the market segmentation and distribution channel management."

With excellent marketing tactics, Puma's stock has been rated as the most worthy investment stock in German market for many years.

Most of the analysts and observers believe that Jochen Zeitz 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. Otherwise, we can not compete with giants like Nike.

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 sport as a positive way of life, and hope that even if Puma is a 70 year old grandmother, it is still a lifestyle and a loyal customer of the brand.

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 Majority", "Late Majority" and "backwardness" (Laggard) according to their acceptance time and acceptability of new products and technologies.

Among them, the first attempt "accounts for about 13.5% of the total. They are generally" opinion leaders "in a certain market or field, which can help to recommend the brand or product to" herd "and" laggard ".

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 Foot Locker.