Puma Marketing Plan

I. Executive Summary  

Puma will launch its campaign in 2017 with an overall goal of 35% sales increase in revenue for the first year. This number is based on growth that UA was able to achieve in 2014. UA spent 18 million on advertising and was able to increase sales by 30% for 4 consecutive quarters (Marketer of the Year). With over triple the budget, we believe Puma will be able to achieve 35% growth in the first year.  

Strategy: Segmentation

A key problem we have identified in Puma’s marketing strategy is there lack of focus on any particular segment. This is very similar to the strategy Nike and Adidas have executed. Unfortunately, Puma do not have strong enough brand recognition to execute this effectively. We are suggesting a new strategy in which we target two large segments and one smaller segment. This will enable Puma to build strong brand recognition in these segments and in time they can advance their strategy into the other segments. We have detail the segmentations we found (see Exhibit 4)

Our strategy will be to focus on Athletes, Active Lifestylers and trend-setters in the near future. We will offer a unique brand and satisfy different needs within each section. This will help us to build up recognition in these segments. We will discuss the new branding strategy and product offerings in a later section. A natural progression of this strategy would be to develop products in the under 18 segment. Parents (‘Deciders’ in many cases) will be more aware of our brand and this should position our brand well to move into this segment in future.

Positioning

Puma Fit: For Active Lifestylers, Puma Fit is the only brand among all casual athletic apparel and shoe manufacturers that provides trendy, comfortable, and functional loungewear because of our unique collaboration between the style and sports worlds.

Puma Style: For Trend-Setters, Puma Style is the only brand among all fashion athletic apparel and shoe manufacturers that provides stylish, high quality products because of Rihanna’s creative direction within the style line.

Puma Performance: For Athletes, Puma Performance is the only brand among all high-quality, high-performance athletic apparel that provides both functionality and durability to perform at the highest level because the unique insights from athletes our designers work with.

Branding Tactics:

We are suggesting Puma restructure its brand architecture and transition towards becoming a brand house. This involves re-segmenting their current product offerings into 3 specific segments: Puma Performance for Athletes, Puma Fit for Active Lifestylers and Puma Style for trend-setters. We suggest ‘Rise Above yourself’ as Brand slogan for PUMA and create an inspirational campaign around new slogan. Campaign will take place through a combination of professional athletes and motivational slogans emphasizing sportsmanship and personal improvement. This will make PUMA as an aspirational brand among consumers

The 4 Ps

Product Policy - Puma Performance

Puma Performance will offer both width and depth. We will offer a broad range of apparel products including: running shoes, cleats, training shirts etc. We will also offer depth in this range. Athletes will have a deep selection of  products available in a given product line, for example training shirt will include the following: breathable shirts, heat control shirts, stretchable shirts etc. All of the products available under the Puma Performance brand will be of the highest quality and latest technology. Being of the highest quality and latest technology in apparel design, Puma Performance will offer clients an ‘augmented’ level of product experience. As we introduce new technologies consumers will learn about and value our products should reach the ‘potential’ product experience level. Current products have Puma’s latest ACTV technology.

Puma Fit

Puma Fit products are designed to complement an active lifestyle and inspire people to ‘Rise Above’. Puma Fit products offer high quality with focus on comfort, durability and the quality of material. Products will be multi-purpose; consumers can wear this product line for gym training, running, and outdoor activities. As the new technology in Puma Performance becomes more mainstream we will include it in this product line.  For shoes, customer will be given the chance to customize their product through interactive online interface.  These changes will be made to attract a diversified customer base. (talk about product level)

PUMA continuously innovates in its product range, so that the customers’ expectations are fulfilled.

Puma Style

Puma's emphasis on lifestyle is a major departure from its original concentration on sports apparel. We have broadened our product line by including high end fashion. This product line will be narrow and have limited depth. Puma Style will provide a variety of stylish and high quality functional products for all Trend-Setters. The Puma Style brand will be promoted for making fashionable products that give consumers ‘emotional’ and ‘psychological’ value. Our recent partnership with Rihanna and Kylie Jenner has allowed us to launch Puma Style. The celebrities we collaborate with and the styles we produce will continually adapt to current trends.

Promotion - See Exhibit 8

A major focus of our promotional strategy is to increasing customer awareness of the value our products offer both functionally and experientially. Through a more focused brand ambassador campaign and the introduction of PumaLab we will educate consumers about the functional benefits of the technology we have developed. Furthermore, our brand ambassadors will promote the experiential and social value of our products: how they ‘feel’ wearing Puma Fit, the ‘confidence’ they take from wearing Puma Performance or the personal brand that Puma Style allows me to show. This will reach our customer on a more experiential level than just promoting the functional aspects, while also growing our brand recognition.

Place

Puma Performance and Puma Fit brands will the available through the same distribution networks. As mentioned in the ‘5 Cs’, we have a strong distribution network using: Multibrand Distributors, multibrand retailers, company owned retail outlets, and online offerings (both company owned and external sites). Puma do not own the distribution network for their online store instead they contract this out to FedEx in the USA and the cost is included in the cost of the item. The majority of our company owned retail outlets are located on prime shopping streets. These stores will be a key to our distribution network as our staff will be highly educated and able to inform our customers of the benefits of our shoes. We believe that this current channel structure is efficient as it allows them to reach a broad section of the market both directly and indirectly. We will be appointing an FTE to manage channel relationships and more longer term gather data on which stores sell which product better. This will allow us to become selective in who we distribute certain products lines to, hence mitigating horizontal conflict between our distribution channel members in future. (See Exhibit 5 for visual)