Business Research Assignment Analysing The Social & Digital Media Of Adidas

Question

Task: Sneakers have revolutionised fashion, lifestyle and the environment.
Sneakers and streetwear have revolutionised fashion, lifestyle and the environment. Global Footwear Market Report 2021, reports that the Sneaker Market is Projected to Reach $403.2 Billion USD by 2025 - Driven by New Design Trends and Rising Discretionary Spending Among an Expanding Middle Class Population.

From Nike, Toms, Puma, Adidas to Converse, Veja, Yeezy to Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Chanel everyone is wearing sneakers. Kanye West, Mark Zuckerberg, Taylor Swift, Virat Kohli, Beyonce and people from all walks of life both young and old are wearing sneakers. The sneaker industry like all industries has had to pivot itself to environmentally friendly and sustainable sneakers. Spain, Italy and many countries in South America are leading the way in producing sneakers made of recyclable materials including food.
TASK: In this business research assignment you will audit, analyse and evaluate the social and digital media of an environmentally and sustainable sneaker brand.

Answer

1. Introduction
The current business research assignmentis focused on the business case of Adidas. Adidas background has a very long history of coordination and innovation since it’s one of the oldest companies in the world of the sporting product industry. It’s a German manufacturer company founded in 1949 and it’s headquarter is based on Herzogenaurach. Adidas was counted as the largest shoe manufacturing company in Europe and second-largestcompany in in the global market of early 21 century. The three strips in its products are a trademark and appear to be an element for the company. The name of the company Adidas is an abbreviation of its founder name Adolf. At the time of the Berlin Olympics 1936, the American track Jesse Owens stunned with his award-winning performance where he wore Adi’s shoes that increase awareness of the brand all over the world. After World War II Adi along with his brother decided to restore their company but because of a dispute between two brothers, they get separated as a result of the origin of two companies Puma and Adidas.

2. Discussion
The chosen company for the discussion is Adidas because of its partnerships with the environmental organization “Parley for the Oceans” in the year 2015 and has devout to change fully towards recycled plastic by the year 2024(Robertson, 2019). Adidas has used recycled waste such as plastic to manufacture 11 million pairs of shoes. In this process, they have been able to reduce the disposal of 2810 tons of in the ocean. In addition to that, the reason for choosing Adidas to be audited and analysed is because of its sustainability strategy. Adidas has committed to target reduction of the emission of greenhouse gas that has been generated from their company’s manufacturing operation. Among many other renowned brands, Adidas comes ahead in terms of sustainability and their labour condition.

3. Audit and analysis
Social media marketing has helped Adidas to reach vast number of people as they can all over the world. Through social media strategy, Adidas is promoting their brand with the help go public figures like Pharrell Williams and Kanye West. Adidas owns and maintains several social media accounts in platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, etc., and every platform is devoted to a particular product line(Erkilic, 2019). With this strategy, Adidas is addressing audiences of different geographic locations. Social media platforms that have been chosen by Adidas is engaging because they allow the company to partner with influencers and this is beneficial for the company the influencer market has been growing approximately $13.8 billion in the year 2021. Partnership can be established with athletes, models, and singers for brand promotion.One example of engaging collaboration of Adidas where the company had launched its new sneakers is collaboration with Pharrell Williams who is known as a global rapper as well as producer. Adidas exposed its product to millions of new customers through the followers of Pharrell which is about 12.8 million.

Adidas is a major fashion brand which has always been vocal about its CSR campaigns. To reduce the overall impact Adidas has collaborated with other organizationssuch as Stella McCartney’s collection and Parley for the Oceans(Bavar, 2017). With these partnerships, Adidas has ensuredproduction of less waste as they use leftover fabrics. Among all the collaboration and partnership, collaboration with Parley was a significant one where Adidas produced millions of products using plastics collected from the oceans. Adidas' most striking product released till now was a shoe that was made completely from recovered plastic(Adidas 2018). With this collaboration, Adidas was appreciated and has helped it to create a positive brand image. Along with that, the company also used public connections the promotion of CSR that became a success.

4. Recommendation using porters value chain
Adidas has used multiple promotional channels for its product marketing for its products. Adidas has increased its focus on digital marketing to increase its sales in this recent years. Digital platforms have been certified to be an excellent platform for marketing and sales of the company’s products. The company has experienced growth in its sales by 34% in the year 2019 through its digital platform(Adamkasi, 2017). Adidas marketing expenses is inclusive of sponsorship contracts with multiple events, communication activities, athletes, etc. In addition to that, it also utilizes online paid advertisement to reach more customers across the world. Several social media campaigns are also a part of Adidas’ promotional platform for growth in sales.

Using the Porter’s Value Chain following three recommendation can be given:
4.1Adidas should focus more on the innovation and design of its products.
4.2Adidas should not commit false statements about their products.
4.3Adidas should focus on post-sale services.
The products of Adidas may appear to be comfortable but the way that few other renowned companies do with their design must be adopted by Adidas too(Pratap 2017). There were few statements released by Adidas which they were not being able to fulfil by their production. Which shows less coordination of their value chain and can have a negative impact. Further, the modern customer prefers post-service one of the important promotional activities that Adidas need to focus on.

5. Conclusion
Adidas can promote green marketing that can help to showcase the company’s Eco-friendliness. Since Adidas is known for its quality and the value they provided to their customer's green marketing will help them to create more awareness to the potential customers. If Adidas will be able to show the way their products are made in their production house and the use of recycled materials will strengthen their sales revenue. Green marketing means the implementation and the practical use of sustainable methods. However, most of the companies are not being able to practice the way they convey their message as a result labeled as dishonesty in their work. Hence, Adidas must ensure the practice of green marketing like they are preaching. Along with the exiting social media platforms, adidas can use other social media platform such as Pinterest and Youtube.

6. Recommendation
After the breakdown of a global pandemic, the trend of online shopping has been increased drastically where people are not being able to visit the physical store as usual. With such direct customers’ business will build a strong network in their retail stores along with the e-commerce business of Adidas in the future. According to a survey, the net e-commerce sales of the company tend to increase by double amount by 2025.

6.1To achieve that Adidas needs to invest more than what they are doing till now.
6.2Several campaigns and events for their membership programs should be included in their strategies for growth in sales.
6.3Along with that Adidas should strategies for its sustainability where there every product should focus on sustainability developing more eco-friendly production processes.

References
Adamkasi (2017). Porter’s Five Forces Model of Adidas [Online]. Available at: https://www.porteranalysis.com/porters-five-forces-model-of-adidas/.
Adidas (2018). adidas Group launches new Sustainability Strategy. [online] Adidas-group.com. Available at: https://www.adidas-group.com/en/media/news-archive/press-releases/2016/adidas-group-launches-new-sustainability-strategy-publishes-2015/ [Accessed 6 Oct. 2021].
Bavar, A. (2017). CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CONSUMER’S WILLINGNESS TO PAY.
Erkilic, G. (2019). 6 Things You Should Know About Adidas’ Digital Marketing Strategy. Business research assignment[online] Digital Agency Network. Available at: https://digitalagencynetwork.com/digital-marketing-strategy-of-adidas/ [Accessed 7 Oct. 2021].
Pratap, A. (2017). Five Forces Analysis of Adidas [Online]. Available at: https://notesmatic.com/adidas-five-forces-analysis/. Robertson, L. (2019). How Ethical Is Adidas [Online]. Available at: https://goodonyou.eco/adidas-ethical/ [Accessed: 6 October 2021].