Archive | April, 2012

GLOCALIZATION or how to “think globally and act locally.”

Last month, Starbucks had announced a multi-million pound investment to launch its newly-engineered ‘British Latte’, as UK coffee drinkers become more discerning.

Indeed, the Seattle-based chain spent a year engineering its milk-steaming process specifically for the UK launch, and will also put an extra shot of Fairtrade espresso in each drink for free.

Thus, Starbucks continues its international expansion while adapting its products to local tastes and finally, it still refines its strategy of “glocalization”.

In the service sector, glocalization is widespread. But, what about glocalization in industry sector ?

It could be very interesting to focus on this glocalization and on the way that firms promote product in differents countries while expanding in the worldwide.

Puma Development and events

25 Apr

Development

local Puma

Bicycle frames throughout the store. Red painted walls which have to resemble typical Amsterdam doors. All to make the Dutch consumer feel at home in the newest Puma store located in Amsterdam. Puma has adopted a way to make every consumer feel at home in their store. They have applied the same concept in cities such as Munich, London and Barcelona.

Interactive

Fun-elements to keep the customer entertained are for example a phone which rings randomly. A curious customer who picks it up will get information about: the brand ‘Puma’ and upcoming events. In the back of the store you will find ‘Dylan’, a big white stuffed puma (the logo of Puma). People like to take a picture of the puma says Nora Schreier (puma marketing).

Events

One of the events Puma sponsors is the Volvo Ocean Race. The Volvo Ocean Race is a sailing competition around that word that is held every three years. The duration of the race is approximately eight months. Currently ‘Team Puma’ is in fourth place. The race started at November 5th 2011

What about mission statement ?

19 Apr

Mission statement is paramount in a context of strong competion.

As a creative leader in the sport sector, PUMA endeavours to be the most desirable sport lifestyle brand. Its purpose is to mix sport, lifestyle and fashion.

Nevertheless, PUMA extends its mission and then, contributes each day to a better world for the future generation. For its vision, a better world would be safer, more peaceful and more creative than today.

Thus, every day, PUMA set out to stay true to its values, to innovate, to inspire passion, to be sustainable and most of all, to be FAIR, HONEST, POSITIVE and CREATIVE in everything they do.

More blogs about PUMA’s mission statement : http://puma-sportss.blogspot.de/ and http://www.lovepuma-shoes.com/

Strong competitors for a strong competition

19 Apr

Now, a post that deals with the intense rivalry among sport wear textile industry.

There are many mighty competitors in this branch. The main competitor is Nike. With a revenue reaching $19 billion in 2011, Nike is the leader of the market. This American Company created in 1972 suffers nevertheless from severe criticisms about child labor and tough working conditions for its employees in Asia.

The second largest rival is its German brother Adidas, founded by Puma’s creator’s brother in 1948. Unfortunately for Puma, Adidas strongly outperformed its fellow brother. Coming from the same area, Puma has difficulties to compete with the $12 billion firm.

To finish, the last main competitor is Reebok. The $5.4 billion weighted English company has however become since 2005 an Adidas subsidiary. Created in 1895, this is the elder Puma’s competitor.

For more information about these competitors : Nike, Adidas & Reebok.

Why Puma ?

18 Apr

Why did we decide to choose the famous brand Puma for our assignement in Strategic Management ?

It’s simple: Puma is a famous and dynamic brand, which has a great history. This brand has to deal with strong competition, that is why we found that interesting to study this firm, as it has great challenges to face.

A little bit of history first…

Puma is a German multinational company, which formed in 1924. The 63-year-old sportswear company owns around 9310 employees (2010) and has an annual revenue of €2.706 billion (2010). Such a sportswear empire was started by two brothers, Adolf and Rudolf Dassler. They original were workers of a shoe company, but after the World War I, they found their own shoe factory called “Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik” (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory). It was a small factory and the electricity supplies were unreliable, the scale of the company was very small. The 1936 Summer Olympics Game became the turning point for the company.

Adolf successfully persuaded the United States sprinter Jesse Owens to use the spikes made by them. Owens won four gold medals, and the business started to boom. However, the relationship between the two brothers deteriorated until the two agreed to split in 1948, forming two separate entities, Adidas and Puma. more info here