Comparison of strategy of Nike and Adidas Essay

1.0 IntroductionJohnson, Scholes and Whittington (2005, p.9) defines system as the way in which an institution plans to expenditure its resources effectively in crop to gain a warring advan pass overe over the commodious term. In other words the c befully planned guidelines that administrations dramatize, which differentiates them from other organisations. Mirow (2005,p.10) suggests that schema of Amazon.com,Inc., a multinational electronic commerce c e reallyer- come out headquartered in Seattle, cerebrate on providing customers with low price, convenience and a wide selection of merchandise. They snaped on this strategy and started their website in 1995 as an online book retailer. They slowly expand their products and are currently an online shopping website with the largest product supplies online earning r scourues in billions. Hence we can see how important strategy is for the success of an organisation. There are three trains of strategy, which are corporate leve l, businesslevel and functional level strategy.Strickland and Thompson (2003, pp.50, 55 and 56) suggests that the corporate level strategy is the strategy which is determines the overall purpose and prospect of an organisation and reflects on how to add value to different parts of the organisation. The business level strategy provides guidelines on how to excel competitors or stick up in a particular market and the functional strategy is the contri thoion garner by the resources, people and processes to the business and corporate level strategies. Companies strive with their strategies in state to catch the leader in their specific industry or market. Nike and Adidas are the top two competitors in the footwear, outfit and accessories portion of the framework industry. The focus of the latter part of this report is on how these competitors compete with each other using their strategies.2.0 books reviewIn order to fully understand about strategy, it is mandatory to know about t he basketball team generic competitive strategies. The five generic strategies according to Strickland and Thompson (2003, p.150) are low-cost provider strategy, in which the organisation provides propers or service at a low cost, broad differentiation strategy, in which the organisation differentiates its products or services making it appeal to a vast clench of customers, stovepipe-cost provider strategy, in which the organisation provides goods or services of high quality making it worth the amount they are charging which is lower than their competitors, a focused strategy found on lower cost, in which the organisations focus on a narrower buyer segment and provides them their goods or services at a lower cost than its competitors and focused strategy based on differentiation, in which the organisation focuses on a narrower buyer segment and bring abouts product customised according to their needs.3.0 Backgrounds of Nike and AdidasIMAGE universal resource locator http//dige stingdesign.wordpress.com/tag/nike/3.1 Company overview of Nikeharmonize to (www.nikebiz.com) NIKE,Inc. was founded in 1972 by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman. It designs, markets and distributes acrobatic footwear,apparel, equipment and accessories for a vast range of sports and fitness activities and are currently the mans leading company in the athletic footwear, apparel and accessories segment in the textile industry. It is based in Beaverton,Oregon and has subsidiaries such(prenominal) as Cole Haan, which designs, markets and distributes luxury items such as shoe, handbags and coats. Their subsidiaries also include Converse,Inc. and Hurley International LLC and Umbro,Ltd. The revenue of Nike,Inc. as at may 2010 is around US$ 19014 million according to (www.biz.yahoo.com).IMAGE uniform resource locator http//www.soccercleats101.com/2009/10/07/adidas-predator-x-get-ready/3.2 Company overview of Adidas GroupAccording to (www.adidas-group.com) Adidas, founded in 1949 by Adofl Das sler, is a sports apparel manufacturing company. Starting with athletic footwear such as exsertning spot and soccer shoes, they currently manufacture a wide range of products such as bags, watches, shirts and accessories. They are the second largest sportswear manufacturer, shtup Nike,Inc. Adidas Group is made up of three companies, Reebok, TaylorMade Adidas Golf company and Rockport. The revenue of Adidas as at May 2010 is 14878 US$ Million according to (www.biz.yahoo.com).4.0 Critical Incidents that occurred in the yesteryear4.1 Critical incidents that affected NikeNike, Inc. had g ace by dint of various incidents which had an impact on their success. According to Dermesropian, Drage, Grigaite and Lopez (2004,p.3) in 1972, Nike persuaded marathon guide onners at exceptional Tracks to wear their shoes which was an innovative strategy as it resulted in soaked advertising when some of the runners were the top finishers and popularity of Nike continued to put up throughout th e 70s. In 1979 Nike had 50% of the US running shoe market. In 1988 Nike introduced their famed slogan sightly do it and acquired a company called Cole Haan. They sponsored many famous athletes such as Michael Jordan, a famous basketball musician and Tiger timber, an excellent young golf player. During 1992 Nike acquired Canstar sports which included the hockey equipment shewr Bauer and unresolved its first Niketown store. In early 1995 Nike acquired a license to put its logotype on NFL uniformswhich resulted in strong marketing.Air Jordan IMAGE uniform resource locator http//www.myairshoes.com/air-jordans/air-jordan-xx3-officially-unveiled.html They launched a sassy brand called Jordan, in 1997, which was influenced by the famous basketball player Michael Jordan and one of the most famous shoes of that brand were called Air Jordan. Some incidents harmed Nike during 1998 as they had to cut 1,200 jobs payable to the fall of sales in Asia and the demand of athletic shoes fel l in 1999. Nike wanted to change and in the year 2000 they shifted a little towards the technological and electronic sector and introduced athletic electronics, which included MP3 players, optic monitors, and two-way radios.Products of Nike in the BCG matrix IMAGE universal resource locator http//www.robmillard.com/archives/BCG%20Matrix%20Big1.html They opened their first Nikegoddess store in calcium in 2001. They acquired Hurley International, a distributor of action sports apparels and lost their license to put their logos on NFL uniforms to Reebok in 2002. In 2003 they acquired one of their competitors called Converse but it continued to operate independently in order to patronage the brands popular name.4.2 Critical incidents that affected AdidasAdidas also faced various occurrences in order to attain the claim of the second largest athletic footwear sportswear and accessories manufacturer. Adidas Samba IMAGE URLhttp//www. go aroundshoesmen.com/adidas.Men.Samba.Classic.Socce r.Shoe/detail.htmlAccording to (www.adidas-group.com) Adidas registered as a company in 1949 with the three stripes logo as their trademark. (www.footballshirtculture.com) explains that in the year 1950 they produced the Samba all-round soccer shoes which are even now considered to be the best classic training shoe today. 1 of the biggest successes of Adidas was in 1952 when it was the most common shoe brand worn at the Olympic Gamesheld in Helsinki. They made the first track shoes with removable spikes. Emil Zatopek, in Adidas shoes, won three gold medals in one week creating a huge impact on the image of the brand.German National Team habiliment Adidas in the 1954 football world form IMAGE URL http//soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/feature?id=696762&cc=4716&ver=global In 1954 Adidas became famous all over the world as the German national team was victorious in the football world cup for the first time, wearing Adidas shoes with screw-in spikes. In 1955 Adidas came up a shoe with exchangeable spikes which became very popular among the high jumpers. In 1964 Billy Mills won the mens 10,000 meters wearing the new Adidas shoe which was considered the lightest shoe weighing 135 grams. In 1969 Adidas produced the worlds first injection shape multi stud soles of polyurethane, which gave a one year guarantee on the soles. Adidas began fruit of balls in 1961 and in 1970 their football was the official ball of the football world cup. In 1971 the famous Fight of the century where Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier fought with each other, twain of them wore special boxing shoes de sign-language(a) by Adidas.Products of Adidas in the BCG Matrix IMAGE URL http//www.robmillard.com/archives/BCG%20Matrix%20Big1.htmlAdidas Copa Mundial IMAGE URL http//www.footballbootroom.com/Adidas-Copa-Mundial In 1979, Adidas produced Copa Mundial, which even today is still the worlds best selling soccer shoe. In 1986 Adidas introduced Azteca, the first synthetic world cup matchball in the wo rld. However, in 1993 Adidas took over Sports Inc., a US based sports marketing company and Adidas was loosing US$100 million a year. Robert Louis Dreyfus had become the new president of Adidas and he downsized the German staff and went subcontracting to China. Adidas once had 70% market share in the US and it fell to 2% in 1993. In 1994 Adidas made a comeback by producing the revolutionary soccer shoe called the predator during the soccer world cup in the USA. They went public in 1995 and acquired the Salmon Group which consisted of the brands TaylorMade, Mavicand Bonfire in 1997. The new company is named Adidas-Salmon AG. They were the first sporting goods company to chosen as the official sponsor of a soccer world cup in 1998 when they sponsored the 1998 FIFA World cup in France.Adidas predatory animal hallucination IMAGE URL http//www.produktenews.ch/newsflashartikel.cfm?key=179710 In March 2002 Adidas launched ClimaCool a footwear with a ventilation system and introduced the new Predator Mania boots and jerseys with the dynamic layering concept in the 2002 FIFA world cup with their own official ball called the Fevernova. They interchange over 6 million footballs and much than 1.5 million jerseys and half a million of the Predator Mania that year. In 2006 Adidas became the official partner, supplier and licensee for the FIFA world cup to be held in 2006, 2010 and 2014. They acquired Reebok International in the equal year. 5.0 parity of the strategies of the companies5.1 Strategies of NikeIn order to become the worlds leading designer, marketer and distributor of athletic footwear, apparel and accessories, Nike followed many strategies. Their corporate level strategy, according to Dermesropian, Drage, Grigaite and Lopez (2004,p.15) is their focus on innovation and emphasis on their research and development department in order to be profitable in the long run and they do their best to produce footwear, apparel and athletic equipment that come down or eliminate injury, help in athletic performance and maximize comfort. They continue to expand their operation in the USA, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the American regions hard to reach as many customers as possible. Their business level strategy is a combination of the best cost provider and broad differentiation strategy, but more than emphasis is put on the best cost provider strategy. They rely severely on strategic outsourcing and most of their products are manufactured alfresco the United States.One of the main reasons basis their success following the cost leadership strategy is their abundant network anatomical structure that allows them to cancel their alliance with any company that fails to maintain their standards. They work very tight with their suppliers which allow them to produce their goods at a very low price and of superiorquality with the newest applied science which makes them the market leader and the rest have got to try producing sa me goods close to their standard in order to survive in the market. They work very hard in their marketing strategies and which one of the primary reasons behind its success.Fig.1Fig.2Fig.3Players who wear Nike Fig.1) Cristiano Ronaldo IMAGE URL http//s702.photobucket.com/albums/ww24/bleedingblue97/?action=viewt=Cristiano_Ronaldo_Manchester_United.jpg&newest=1 Fig.2) Michael Jordan IMAGE URL http//www.ionlinephilippines.com/2009/12/michael-jordan-look-alike-michael-jordan-imposter-video/ Fig.3) Tiger Woods IMAGE URL http//www.dailyworldbuzz.com/tiger-woods-still-has-support-of-nike-gatorade-and-gillette/4970/ Nike hired famous basketball player Michael Jordan, tennis player Serena Williams and Tiger Woods who signed a seven year contract in order to be the spokesperson of Nike. In 2003 they spent around US$ 32.4 million on Net TV commercials and another US$ 39.8 for magazine ads. In order to become the market leader one has to follow a rigid and innovative strategy but to remain as the market leader the strategy has to be extendable.According to (www.bizjournals.com) on a report published by Nike, suggest that they have planned five study programs in order to keep their corporate level strategy reserveable. In order to sustain in the long run Nike is now emphasizing more on the concerns about global warming. They have decided to focus more on their product design process, eliminating toxics and wastes wherever possible, start a GreenXchange web marketplace to share bright property which have been designed to act as a catalyst in green development, set up a lean manufacturing and human resource management in order to acquire a more equitable supply chain, put together a social program which combines education and sports programs for the third world countries and establish a new group call the Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy.5.2 Strategies of AdidasThe strategies of both(prenominal) these sports giants are very similar but Adidasfocuses more the broad differentiation strategy. According to (www.adidas-group.com) the corporate level strategy of Adidas also focuses on innovation, trying to produce new products, services and processes in order to cope up with the competition. In 2009 the Adidas Group strategically decided to move from a vertically integrated brand structure into a functional multi-rand structure for the Reebok and Adidas brands. This created a global sales function which were responsible for commercial activities and a global brands function which were responsible for the marketing of both brands. The global sales function was also countercurrent into two departments, wholesale and retail, which catered to the various needs of both these business models. This was done in order to sustain their corporate level strategy for the long run so that these divisions could emphasize and work hard in their respective departments in order to make the most of their efforts. This led to the elimination of region al headquarters and travel towards more direct communication between the local markets and the global functions.They implemented a multi-brand strategy by having a diverse brand portfolio which allowed them to cater all segments of the market from players to almost everyone. This helped them to keep a unmatched identity and concentrate on their core competencies. Adidas focused their investments in the best marketing and distribution take in different countries by critically evaluating the consumer buying behaviors and their constant struggle to secure prime ledge space. They have also embraced e-commerce in order to become more efficient and appeal to more customers and make purchasing much more easily accessible for them. Their supply chain is closely communicated and hence it helps them to customize their products which appeal to a wide range of customers. The organizational culture of Adidas group obligates employees to be innovative.This culture forces them to produce goods w hich are highly innovative and with the use of the latest technology their products have a very good quality. According to (ar2001.adidas-salomon.com) using latest technologies they produce products which enhances performances of players and they focus on sports such as football, tennis, basketball and even training shoes which are used by anyone with the ability to run. Their new technologies have lead to the production of Climacool, a shoe with a ventilation system and a3 a shoe with an cipher management system that guides and drives an athletes footthrough each stride.Fig.4Fig.5Fig.6Famous players who wear Adidas Fig.4) Zinedine Zidane IMAGE URL http//s670.photobucket.com/albums/vv70/tomdavies99/?action=viewt=09_zinedine_zidane_dpa_300.jpg&newest=1 Fig.5) Kaka IMAGE URL http//soccerpitch.co.za/tag/real-madrid/ Fig.6) Kobe Bryant IMAGE URL http//family-fitness.mattters.com/2010/7/2/couldnt-waitAdidas Trefoil logo IMAGE URL http//free-extras.com/images/adidas_logo-658.htm Adidas h as world class players who wear their products such as Zinedine Zidane of France, Alessandro Del Piero of Italy and Kobe Bryant an NBA champion who is a style delineation for basketball lovers. They also concentrate on their classic items, reintroduce and redesign them under their Trefoil logo.5.3 Comparison of the strategies of Nike and AdidasAccording to (http//comparisonz.com) Nike and Adidas have almost similar strategies but different implementation methods. Both the companies concentrate heavily on technology and strive to produce new and innovative products. Nike focuses on the American markets whereas Adidas focuses on the European market. Nike does not have any production plants as they only design, distribute and market their products and hence they outsource to various countries in Asia, mainly Taiwan and Korea, which outsource their production to China, Indonesia and Vietnam. Adidas on the other hand, carry out all their production in Germany and recently has adopted Ni kes outsourcing policy by outsourcing to Asian countries.Nike and Adidas both follow a premium pricing strategy which according to Kotler (2003, p.272) is a strategy where companies charge a premium price for their products. Their competition is always intense and according to Anderson (2010) during the world cup 2010 Nike launched the popular keep open the in store(predicate), three minute advertisement featuring world cup stars which was a major hit on Youtube and Adidas replied with their two minute video with celebrities like Snoop Doggand Daft Punk into a famous photograph from the movie Star Wars. Nike sponsored nine teams whereas Adidas sponsored 12 teams.Worlds Largest LED by Nike IMAGE URL http//johannesburgbc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/nikefootball-delivers-the level though Adidas was the official sponsor of the World cup 2010, Nike attached an LED display to a 30 story skyscraper in Johannesburg where soccer fans could write short messages using popular social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook and Nike put up 100 messages on the side of the walls every night.Adidas adiPURE III Nike Tiempo EliteIMAGE URL http//soccerlens.com/shirts/nike-vs-adidas-buying-football-shoes-in-2010/6410/ Umair (2010) compares the constant rivalry between Nike and Adidas using their products. During the world cup Nike launched an Elite series for the 2010 world cup called Nike Tiempo Legend Elite which had customized shoes worn by famous football players such as Christiano Ronaldo and Cesc Fabregas. Adidas on the other hand, launched a new collection called Adidas Adipure for the world cup 2010 which also had customized shoes worn by famous players such as Kaka and Lionel Messi. In soccer Adidas shoes are worn by famous players such as Zinedine Zidane, Kaka and Lionel Messi, whereas Nike shoes are worn by Christiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and the original Ronaldo. In basketball Nike shoes have been used by Michael Jordan and Adidas shoes have been worn by Kobe Bryant. 6.0 Future Plans of Nike and AdidasIt is easy to become the market leader or the market challenger for organisations but sustainability is the primary concern and hence organisations focus of the sustainability by coming up with strategies that will make their position sustainable in the long run. According to (www. environmentalleader.com) Nikes future plans are to focus on the environment and production of eco friendly products. They mentioned in their 2005 and 2006 integrated Responsibility Report that they will become carbon neutral by 2011 by reducing their Caron Dioxide emissions. They have decidedto design all Nike brand footwear in ways through which they can reduce waste production during product design and packaging. They will eliminate the use of volatile organic compounds and use more environmental friendly material in their products and be carbon neutral by 2011. Adidas on the other hand became the official sportswear partner of the London 2012 Olympic Games.T he London Organising committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOGOC) has few regulations which all of its partners are obligated to follow. These obligations are focused towards the environment. Adidas, being a partner of LOGOC has to follow all these regulations as their future plans are to be the official sponsor of almost all major events in the world, and in order to achieve this goal their strategy is to produce environment friendly goods as well. They have to ensure that all their products are produced with environment friendly materials, which would protect the human health and the environment and their packaging should also be produced with materials that can be recycled. Hence we can see that both the future plans of Nike and Adidas are quite similar.7.0 ConclusionThe main element that determines an organisations success or visitation is the strategy it follows. Any industry is vast and the competition is also fierce and in order to survive in the competition organisations must devise innovative strategies. Nike and Adidas have started their journey decades ago and they have struggled but sustained their positions Nike as the market leader and Adidas as the market challenger. Various incidents have occurred in the past to both the companies which were both good and bad, but it was the strategies that helped them survive and sustain their positions. The strategies of both these companies are quite similar and Adidas is not far behind from Nike, but any small mistake by Nike, might make them the market challenger and Adidas the market leader.Nike has to be very careful while implementing their strategies because Adidas is very close to bonny the market leader. Nikes initial strategy of being just the product designer, distributor and marketer gave them the competitive edge against Adidas, because their investments were low compared to Adidas as they have production plants, but Nike should be very careful to sustain their market position.8 .0 List of referencesBooksJohnson,G., Scholes,K. and Whittington,R.(2005) Exploring Corporate Strategy Text and Cases. Seventh Edition. Prentice Hall. Thompson,A.A., and Strickland,A,J.(2003) Strategic Management archetype and cases. 13th edition. McGraw Hills. Kotler,P. ( 2003)Marketing Management, Eleventh Edition, Pearson Education.Websites(2010) NIKE, Inc. Company Profile, URLhttp//biz.yahoo.com/ic/14/14254.html (accessed 29 August 2010) (2009) Adidas Group History, URLhttp//www.adidas-group.com/en/ourgroup/account/history.aspx (accessed 29 August 2010) (2010) Nikebiz Company Overview, URLhttp//www.nikebiz.com/company_overview/ (accessed 29 August 2010) (2010) Adidas AG Company Profile, URLhttp//biz.yahoo.com/ic/92/92632.html (accessed 29 August 2010) (2010) The history of Adidas, URLhttp//www.footballshirtculture.com/2006102796/history/adidas-football-shirt-history.html (accessed 29 August 2010) (2010) Strategy, URLhttp//www.adidas-group.com/en/ourgroup/strategy (accessed 29 A ugust 2010)/ Strategy Adidas, URLhttp//ar2001.adidas-salomon.com/adidassalomon2001/strat_adidas/ (accessed 29 August 2010) (2010) Nike vs. Adidas Compare Side by Side, URLhttp//comparisonz.com/comparisons/100305/nike-vs-adidas/ (accessed 29 August 2010) (2009) Adidas 2009 Sustainability review, URLhttp//ser2009.adidas-group.com/suppliers/3_4.html (accessed 29 August 2010)Articles(2010) Nike plans to be hundred neutral by 2011, URLhttp//www.environmentalleader.com/2007/05/31/nike-plans-to-be-carbon-neutral-by-2011 (accessed 29 August 2010) Umair,A.(2010) Nike vs Adidas Buying football shoes in 2010,