Adidas Is Not Giving Up Its Second Place Position in North America
Adidas (NASDAQOTH: ADDYY) took the second place position in North America's athletic apparel and footwear market over a year ago, surpassing Under Armour (NYSE: UA) (NYSE: UAA) and hasn't looked back. The company posted impressive growth this quarter taking share from competitors, seemingly immune to the challenges in the retail market.
2014 was a challenging year for Adidas in North America with the company posting full-year declines of 4% despite a strong sporting goods market, and it lost the number two spot in North America to Under Armour. The board of directors knew that to be a successful global brand, the company needed to win in this region, which represents 37% of the global sporting goods market. In June of that year, Mark King was appointed the president of Adidas North America with the mandate to get back to double-digit growth. He was given latitude to change long-standing practices that were impacting the region.
One of the first steps King made was to have a regionally focused advertising campaign. Adidas had been running one global campaign per year, and King ramped that up to quarterly with sports that mattered to the region, such as (American) football, baseball, and basketball. The company hadn't previously invested in these sports and moved to sign "hundreds" of players.
Source: Fool.com