ULMS 353

Word Count: 931

Student ID: 20152440

Puma Internal Analysis

Introduction

In this first section an internal and external analysis will be conducted for the sportswear/

fashion brand Puma, Pumas targets it product for young individuals who are active and

outgoing, it mainly places its focus on sports fans who follow events like football, basket,

hockey etc and designs clothing apparel according to the needs of the audience, Puma has a

brand personality which is colourful, passionate, fun and playful, Puma operates in the

sportswear and fashion industry which is worth $1.7 trillion, where the sportswear industry

is worth $71 billion, Puma is one of the largest competitors in the industry mainly competing

with Nike and Adidas, the current strategies which Puma implements are cost effectiveness

and product differentiation both of which has been very effective for Puma to drive sales
and keep customers buying their products, an in depth analysis of the two strategies will be

explained in the later sections.

Strategic capabilities and value adding activities

Puma implements multiple marketing strategies which increase the reputation of the

company and adds brand value, one method which puma adopts is by sponsoring athletes,

sports events and sports clubs, which means the fans which follow the athlete, sport or

event will most likely buy Puma over its main competitors Nike and Adidas because their

loved athlete, event, team was sponsored by PUMA, this strategy also creates a positive

brand image for puma as the sponsored athletes events and sports would be associated

with the puma brand image, hence increasing the desirability of the product and increasing

the value of the brand Rajagopal (2019), one famous example would be Hussain Bolt the

world’s fastest athlete, which allows Puma to claim phrases such as “fast product designs for

the worlds fastest athletes” this essentially places puma in a position which cannot be

rivalled by its competitors.

Puma also has partnerships with high profile celebrities like Rhianna, Jay Z and Dua Lipa

which again increase the desirability of the brand as the customers which listen to and

follow those artists are likely to choose the puma brand over its competitors, celebrity

endorsements like this add more value due to the attention the brand gets from viewers
and followers who follow the lifestyle of these individuals this in turn drives puma sales and

increases profitability Carrillat (2019).

To add value to the brand image Puma has its own charitable organisation Puma FC

foundation where the goals of the organisation to utilise the power of football to inspire,

educate and affect change to underserved youth in the community Puma Football Club

(2022), commitments like these increase Pumas brand value as consumers will perceive

Puma as a socially responsible brand, Puma also has environmental initiatives such as

protecting the Suanglian reservoir wetland, where Puma Taiwan China has partnered with

the Society of wilderness (SOW) and Taiwan Environmental Information association (TEIA)

to assist the local community in Yilan County and protect the Suanglian reservoir wetland by

restoring an area Puma (2022), this is another example of the commitments that Puma has

which increase it brand value by being perceived as environmentally aware.

Puma has a cost effective strategy, we can see this when comparing the retail price of its

products to its competitors Nike and Adidas we can see that Puma offers a lower cost

alternative, this is a competitive advantage for puma because customers who are cost

fucused and looking for sportswear are most likely to select puma due to the fact puma

retails its products at a cheaper price, another competitive advantage puma has is its

product differentiation, puma creates unique athletic footwear which is different from its

competitors this gives puma its competitive advantage as customers who are more

attracted by the design of puma apparel are most likely to buy their product as it would be

something the customer resonates with on a design level.

Puma competitive advantage

The main competitive advantage Puma uses to increase brand value is by partnering with

motorsport companies and creating clothing apparel, this is linked to sponsorship but in this

instance the clothing apparel in specifically made for the motorsport ex Ferrari driving

shoes, but then the brand is also used to make caps, tracksuits, t-shirts, jumpers etc for

multiple brands like BMW, Porcha, Ferrari, Mercedes this gives Puma its competitive

advantage over its main competitors Nike and Adidas as those brands are highly unlikely to

collaborate and partner with those automotive brand or any automotive brand as Puma

took the initiative first and captured the market, therefore Puma has been able gain sales

from a customer base where its two main competitors will find hard to enter as they would

have to change their marketing strategy entirely to do so.

Puma weaknesses

Due to the desirability of Pumas products there have been a lot of counterfeits being

manufactured and sold in the market, this is a big problem for Puma as it the laws and

regulations in the countries are not strict enough to prevent such occurrences from

happening, the leads to a loss of sales for Puma hence less profits per capita Kolb (2021),

one way this can be solved is by adding specific/ minute features like engraving on soles and

shoe laces as counter fit manufactures will find it very difficult to replicate those things,
another way this could be prevented is by adding a security feature like a barcode scanner

linked to a puma website to ensure that the product being brought is from puma, also you

tube videos on telling counterfeits from reals could be released to inform buyers on which

products are real and which products are not real.

References

Carrillat, F.A., O’Rourke, A.-M. and Plourde, C. (2019) ‘Celebrity endorsement in the world

of luxury fashion - when controversy can be beneficial’, Journal of marketing management,

35(13-14), pp. 1193–1213. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2019.1634632.

Community engagement at Puma (2022) PUMA SE. Available at:

https://about.puma.com/en/careers/working-at-puma/community-engagement (Accessed:

December 19, 2022).

Kolb, B.M. (2021) Marketing strategy for the creative and cultural industries / Bonita M.

Kolb. 2nd edition. Abingdon, Oxon ;: Routledge.

Puma Football Club (2022) PUMA FC. Available at: https://pumafc.org/ (Accessed:

December 19, 2022).

Rajagopal. and Ballenger. (2019) Contemporary Marketing Strategy / Rajagopal. 1st ed.

Place of publication not identified: Springer International Publishing.