Adidas Follows Nike'S "Downsizing" Plan

After Nike sold its soccer brand Umbro (UMBRO) and shoe bag brand Cole Haan, Adidas also started its weight loss tour, selling its brand Rockport (Lok step) brand at a price of 280 million yuan.

This is seen as a signal for Adidas to revise its strategy over the past few years.

After a common growth crisis, Nike is seeking a better return on investment through a "broken arm" approach.

Now, after adhering to the strategy of multi brand and multi-channel, Adidas has begun to choose the strategy of focusing on Nike, an old rival.

"Not only the sports industry, but also the daily chemical industry is cutting down its hundreds of brands."

Market participants say that from the same behavior of business giants, after intensive changes in the market, intensive farming will become a new theme.

Difficult to merge

By BerkshirePartners (Berkshire) and NewBalance (New berlon) business entity will take the disc step brand, become the new owner of the leather shoes brand.

Adidas predicts that the sale will help reduce the complexity of the company's business and put its focus on sports brands including Adidas.

The joy step brand was founded in 1971 in the United States. In 2006, it was bought by Adidas group and became a sub brand of the latter.

At present, Yue step has entered more than 55 markets worldwide.

In 2007, Le step entered China, with nearly 100 shops in the second tier cities of China.

Thanks to the popularity and recognition of many American politicians, including George Bush, he was named "white house shoes".

"Before being sold by Adidas, the market performance of Yue Bu is relatively stable, and it can provide tens of millions of euros in profits for Adidas every year."

Hongkong financial analysts said, but because of the sports style of Adidas, which is too different from the main brand, it is difficult to integrate with the main business of the company. It is an embarrassing brand with less growth in Adidas's brand.

Data show that in fiscal year 2006, Adidas's annual sales volume was 293 million euros before being acquired by Adidas, and 8 years later, sales of Lok step were still in place.

By contrast, buyers

It may be more suitable for the long-term development of Yue Bu, both based on the "comfortable" brand positioning.

After many years of stillness, the new brand has formed a good catch up trend in the Chinese market in recent years. Sales in the global market are also growing rapidly. It is ambitious to replace PUMA as the third largest sports equipment manufacturer in the world. It has also announced that it will return to the football equipment market in 2015.

Correcting strategic mistakes

Adidas has been able to concentrate its resources to speed up the pace of catching up with Nike, the industry's flagging brand.

In the past two years, Nike has sold UMBRO and Cole Haan, focusing more on the development of core brands such as Nike and Converse.

"After the growth crisis, Nike and Adidas actually made two different coping strategies."

The former Hongkong financial analysts said Nike focused on the main industry through the way of "broken arm", while Adidas's strategy was to take a more firm brand strategy.

The result shows that the gap between Nike and Adidas has been continuously widened.

The sale of happy steps is a sign that Adidas has gradually revised its strategic mistakes.

The key to sports consulting companies, CEO Zhang Qingyi, said Adidas has adopted measures to channel growth, launch leisure series and low price series in order to maintain growth in 2008. In the short term, it has relieved stock pressure and stimulated business performance, but in the long run, its strength is more dispersed and lacks growth momentum.

In contrast, Nike has been increasing its sponsorship of Chinese sports in recent years. At the same time, it has strengthened communication with the middle class and new urban residents, and has done a solid job in using big data marketing.

In contrast, Nike's strategy is more responsive to the current market rhythm, because the main channel of sports brand has undergone drastic changes.

Zhang Bingliang, general manager of Shanghai lion Consulting Co. Ltd., said that the main channel of sports brand in the past was shopping malls.

A company with multiple brand resources has a congenital advantage in negotiating with the mall, and can get a better store with the brand "group buying" way.

Today, SHOPPING MALL has become the mainstream channel, its characteristics are to develop different formats to attract consumers at different levels, and the mode of sub Brand Co entry is no longer favored.

whether

Or Adidas, despite its different brand positioning, it is ultimately a sports brand.

New channel operators hope to see more brand competition on their own sites.

Against this background, Nike and Adi must consider how to focus on their main brand and enhance the competitiveness of the main brand, rather than let some weak brands continue to consume their own management and costs.

stay

It seems that although it belongs to different fields, the brand reduction of Adidas's selling brand is the same as that of the daily chemical giant Procter & Gamble brand: it is seeking the higher return through "simpler management".

"Today, information between businesses and consumers is becoming more and more symmetrical today, the meaning of multi brand strategy has gradually subsided."