How Puma won the Indian sportswear brand war
After the pandemic Lockdown, the war on the Indian economic sector was started again.
global brands like Amazon, Adidas, Nike, Puma was started competing with each other.
but as of now the brands like Nike and Adidas in India were outplayed by the brand called puma.
How do they manage to do the amazing thing?
The rise of the Puma sports brand in India was an extraordinary story
History
in the year 2006 Puma entered the Indian market 2006 Tum over was just 22 crores in sales
At the same time, Nike has 49 crores in sales Adidas were having 186 crores in sales
Reebok 354 crore rupees in sales when we fast forward to 2020
13 years after the introduction of Puma as a brand in India
Puma went on to become the biggest sports brand in India today
how they beat global brands like Adidas and Nike in India?
when it comes to competition how do they manage to kill their competition?
2020 statistics
Adidas 1250 crore rupees in sales
Nike 831 crore rupees in sales
Reebok 407 crore rupees in sales
Puma 1413 crore rupees in sales
went on to become the most iconic brands of India
Not only Puma was successful after the pandemic in 2020
But over the years PUMA was very very profitable in a consistent manner.
How do they beat the competition?
What is their strategy to become a market leader?
what are the lessons we can learn from PUMA?
in 2006 Puma entered the Indian market all the top brands were having a very good time.
Adidas as having Sachin Tendulkar as their brand ambassador
Nike happened to be the official kit sponsor of the Indian cricket team
All of them were reasonably well at that time
Puma was nowhere in the top spot of the top brands in India at that time
Indian Sports industry
Indian Sports industries were having 3 major problems at that time
The sports industry was too small for the big brands
It is very complex as India is the union of states culture, language, etc
India is too price-sensitive as well.
However Indian cricket team sponsor Nike was having 99 crores in sales initially
and after sponsoring team India from 2006 to 2010 for the period
Nike revenue only went on to become 186 crores. 96 crores to 186 crores
but this time around one brand was killing the Indian sports segment in 2010. who are they?
The brand was Reebok
Reebok
how is that possible to beat national team sponsors Nike and global brand Adidas in India?
When it comes to understanding the success of the Reebok brand the important thing was Reebok’s market positioning
Reebok was positioned not as a performance brand but as a fashion brand in India at that time.
Reebok’s majority of sales were come from selling shoes and the footwear segment
in India, Reebok style statement campaigns have iconically created a buzz in the market
young Indian superstars and cricketers were part of Reebok campaigns
Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni were brand ambassadors for
Reeboks’ newly launched shoe segment ad campaign.
The z-tech shoe’s ad campaign for Reebok was a super hit in India the ad went on to perform really well in the market.
Marketing Approach As a Sports and Fashion Brand
what is the advantage of Being a sports fashion brand?
in India people Buy one shoe. one for all uses in daily life
In India,
We don’t play too many sports a few only We don’t play more games like Americans
for understanding this In India, local Galli cricket was played by wearing slippers,
do you know anyone wearing sports shoes and playing this game
If we position ourselves as a fashion brand we can solve these issues
2010 Reebok scandal was broke out 8600 crores scam Was in the public domain?
And it went on to create a controversy.
Reebok And Adidas merger strategy didn’t go well as well that time
and that was a fall of Reebok
The Fall of the Giants called Reebok
PUMA’S Plan
After the fall of Reebook Puma become an opportunist
what they have done was they are adapted to the situation and made the moves like reebok only same cut- copy- paste.
like the way, what exactly Reebok fashion brand has done in India already.
Slowly Puma went on to fill the shoes of Reebok
They adapted to the price sensitivity market equations of the Indian market
Puma has opened 340 stores in 150 cities,
single location-based model, One city only one outlet.
in the at 340 stores 320 Of the Puma stores where Having that franchise model.
in this time, Reebok closed 300 stores of their 900 stores in India
all the Reeboks B2B and b2c segment dealers middlemen and retail partners was replaced by Puma
Market-based products
Puma even released from flip flops to sandals for the common public to attract their customers
Lifestyle brand Positioning
with the likes of Jacqueline Fernandez as their brand ambassador and many more celebrities
They went on to become a fashion inspiration brand. by their positioning
A stylish brand
Then the Puma has opened social clubs food drink chain venue in Bangalore
it was a success for youngsters.
Again music and counts and Series connected by Puma under the campaign called Puma loves vinyl
Their intention was Connect with customers on a personal level.
Meantime Nike was sponsoring the Indian men’s cricket team
Puma was behind a few celebrities
Puma launched a gully boys series with Divine 9.5 million views they got it on YouTube
Meantime In the women segment, they got few celebrity brand ambassadors
At last, they got Virat Kohli as their brand ambassador then the brand got an extra boost and Recently they got KL Rahul on the side as well
In total, the success of the puma was based on three FACTORS
1.blueprint of Reebok
2.strategic expansion
3.customer-centric approach
2020 Adidas is also position 10 the fashion brand with Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh
Lessons
Lessons from this PUMA marketing Strategy case Study for our entrepreneurs and marketer are :
audience interest does not mean sales
interest alone is not purchasing power, people love cricket means sports goods will sell Easley in India
An example of coca-cola passionate for sports and affordable luxury for the game was the Positioning
Above 1000 rupees for any sportswear won’t sell easily in India
but the products are game inevitable items only sell more than that.
This is why Nike failed and coke won in their campaigns
learned lessons from the Reebok
Learning from other brands mistakes will help your brands to grow and succeed
entry barrier
Nike and Adidas were set the bar so high, the very high price for their product.
Puma adopted its product more affordable for the common peoples
Genuine assessment and I support you.
GOOD ANALYSIS
wonderful article… nice presentation…