Adidas, one of the largest sport shoe and sport wear companies around the world, has had its highs and lows in the marketing world. Adidas values are innovation, customization, and brand/status. This is shown and not shown in some people's opinions with Adidas. For years, you have often heard the term, " you can not wear adidas's with nike." Most people who are brand loyal say this and it is often broadcasted on social media such as twitter:

However, most fans will argue that Adidas and Nike are the top ranked sport brands in the world. The question is, what drives such a loyal following base? This question alone interests me because I have found myself pondering in this dilemma. I could never wear Nike and Adidas together. Adidas is located in Germany, which gives Nike an advantage which is located in America. The American market felt like Adidas was not trying hard enough to stay up to status with American fashion and this lead to a major fall fall in this market for some time. In the US there are not as many Adidas stores which leads consumers to buy online, and with this generation that is becoming less of an issue. However 24,000 customer reviews tell you to not trust shopping online for Adidas products. From what I have gathered the Adidas customer care service is not the best:

Customer complaints of the online shopping experience is bad, and American consumers know how untouched the American market is. Most of the reviews and complaints come from products being damaged and no refunds are given and this clearly shows when going through most of the reviews online. I never knew how horrible their service was until I continuously kept scrolling to just find a rating more than 3 stars. 

Adidas is in the business of selling shoes and telling consumers that creativity and innovation is the key to their brand. How do they show this? Well Adidas missed out on a deal to carry Micheal Jordan shoes because they did not believe the market would want his shoes and believe it or not... Because of his height. Adidas saw the mistake they made when Nike took the deal and continue to make millions on the product. Adidas then took a risk that most companies may have thought twice about and got a deal with Kanye West to do a shoe. They gave him freedom to customize his shoe and they have become so expensive and of high status that it completely lines up with their values, Innovation and status. Good job Adidas you did a good thing you are finally promoting what your values are and it is successful. 

The main point I am trying to argue is that Adidas have and are turning around to see brighter days. The American market is still not as fond of Adidas such as Nike but there still can be a chance! Adidas has been dedicated to being sustainable and using old materials to produce new products and that alone has grabbed attention of a new market. They need to focus their customers over sees in order to top Nike. The small steps they are taking is improvement. Here is a headline from twitter:

Adidas is targeting a smaller community in the target market and that is sustainable athletes. Adidas does good for the world again. They are trying to become relevant again and by signing a deal with Kayne West and using 1.8 million bottles to make a football field is definitely the way to do it. Adidas has not made much public apologizing for customer service since 2015 from what I can find but the haunting horrible comments are still pouring in. As a manger I would try to remind myself that the sport world is all about brand loyalty and it is very hard to convince someone who favors nike to wear your Adidas shoes with their nike jacket, in America THAT WILL NOT HAPPEN. I would work from internally making sure customer service is at its finest and repair those relation ships and then move to external problems affecting the company such as the untouched market in the US. 

I learned that you can not be afraid to take risk when building your brand and Adidas does not take as many risks as Nike does. The brand needs to connect with customers more and fix both ends of their operations in-order to begin to take those risks and well essentially become the PURPLE COW.

Resources

https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-where-adidas-went-wrong-2015-3 

https://adidas.pissedconsumer.com/review.html 

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/retail/adidas.html?page=4#sort=top_reviews&filter=none

In this weeks post I would like to bring some attention to a ad I found on MarketingWeek.com. This article is titled, " Heineken Pushes Non-Alcoholic Beer In James Bond Ad." This segment goes on to examine how Heineken has been apart of the James Bond movies for a long time and this year they used there non- alcoholic beer in the commercial. James Bond himself, says to a regular beer, "no thank you I'm working." Heineken is targeting 25-30 year olds who are the target market of the next generation in the drinking legal age limit.

I think that pushing non-alcoholic beverages during a huge James Bond release is risky but really well thought out. They have narrowed down their target market and trying to reach the 15 percent of the tipping point into this generation. By having James Bond approve their message it is encouraging to see brands taking a step in the right direction. Non-alcoholic beverages are not "cool" to most people with out the drunk buzz, but for the small amount of the market who likes the taste of beer but does not want the side affects will enjoy this product a lot. Since James Bond films have been labeled as men orientated and has some level of women abuse, Heineken is trying to change their brand and move in a new direction with safer alternatives. I see this has them trying to get ahead of other brands. Since they have had such a tremendous run with the Bond Films, Heinekens is trying to change the way themselves and movies are seen to the audience. This is great since their core value is to advocate responsible consumption. If I was told that our next ad would be with our partnership with the next Bond film, I would do exactly the same ad. It is simple, to the point, and it is a big wow moment since an alcoholic beverage company is producing non-alcoholic products. Great move marketing team, this one caught my eye.



RESOURCE: https://www.marketingweek.com/heineken-james-bond-sponsorship/

Hello readers,

My name is Erica Baker, I am currently enrolled in Oregon State University and Linn Benton Community College. I currently work at Autozone and I feel very satisfied with my job and how well I balance work and school. I wanted to take this course not only for my requirement of my major, but also to learn how marketing works. Ever since I took a trip to New York and visited Times Square, I have been so fascinated with marketing. Currently I am a business administration major with a add on of sustainability and may venture into law school. I really want to learn about the cost and benefit of marketing and if in this generation it still works. Outside of school and work I travel and I coach a lacrosse team which is very demanding but fun at the same time. I like to explore and meet new people and I am trying to take my college experience nice and slow to make sure I do not miss out on anything.

Here are some recent pictures of me in Times Square!