• DEUTSCH

Each brand and sub-brand is separately responsible for bringing its respective positioning to life, through the creation of products and communication tools that not only support the commercial functions in their day-to-day business activities, but also provide the platform and framework for long-term market share and profitability improvements. While adidas and Reebok each have unique identities, heritages, technologies, designs and reputations, the strategic principles and methods for driving future sales growth and profitability improvements are common to both.
These include:

• Leadership in product innovation to excite and inspire the consumer
• Marketing and communication leadership
• Activation and validation via a relevant set of promotion partnerships
• Extending brand reach and appeal through strategic partnerships.

Leadership in product innovation to excite and inspire the consumer

Through Global Brands, we are determined to address every consumer in a specific and unique way – with product initiatives that generate trade and consumer interest.

We believe that technological innovation is essential to sustainable leadership in our industry. By leveraging the extensive R&D expertise within the Group, adidas and Reebok continuously challenge the boundaries of functionality and performance. In addition, innovation plays a significant role in differentiating the adidas and Reebok product offerings in the minds of consumers.

For example at adidas, personalisation is one of the brand’s lead innovation concepts, and it is an adidas goal to be the most personal sports brand by 2015. At Reebok, innovation focus is on fitness and training, where a priority is creating products that provide a material benefit to the consumer in terms of strength, conditioning and flexibility  see Research and Development.

By creating inspiring product and brand experiences, adidas and Reebok strive to enhance their positions as premium brands. This, in turn, is an important catalyst to sustaining and improving the brands’ gross margins, therefore making continuous innovation an important enabler for future profitability improvements.

	02 Brand differentiation