Shoe and Puma free essay sample

Puma is a major German multinational company that produces athletic and casual footwear, as well as sportswear, headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. The company was formed in 1924 as Gebruder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory) by Adolf and Rudolf Dassler. PUMA has establishes a history of making fast product designs for the fastest athletes on the planet. PUMA offers performance and sport-inspired lifestyle products in categories such as Football, Running, Training and Fitness, Golf and Motorsports globally. It engages in exciting collaborations with renowned design brands such as Alexander McQueen and Mihara Yasuhiro to bring innovative and fast designs to the sports world. The PUMA Group owns the brands PUMA, Cobra Golf, Tretorn, Dobotex and Brandon. The company distributes its products in more than 120 countries, employs more than 10,000 people worldwide. The relationship between the two brothers deteriorated until the two agreed to split in 1948, forming two separate entities, Adidas and Puma. Both companies are currently based in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Following the split from his brother, Rudolf Dassler originally registered the new-established company as Ruda, but later changed to Puma. In 1952, Rudolf Dassler successfully develops a football boot with screw-in studs, in collaboration with experts, such as Sepp Herberger. The launch of the â€Å"SUPER ATOM,† the world’s first screw-in boot marks the beginning of a long-term and highly successful relationship between PUMA and football. With more in-depth research, PUMA kept creating various new types of shoes and also sponsored numerous world class sportsmen like Pele, Eusebio, Johan Cruijff, Enzo Francescoli, Diego Maradona, Lothar Matthaus, Kenny Dalglish, Didier Deschamps, Robert Pires, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Radamel Falcao, Sergio Aguero, Cesc Fabregas, Marco Reus, and Gianluigi Buffon. Puma is also the sponsor of the Jamaican track athlete Usain Bolt. In February 2007 Puma reported that its profits had fallen by 26% to â‚ ¬32. 8 million ($43 million; ? 22 million) during the final three months of 2006. Most of the decline in profits was due to higher costs linked to its expansion; sales rose by more than a third to â‚ ¬480. 6 million. In early April 2007 Pumas shares rose â‚ ¬29. 25 per share, or about 10. 2%, at â‚ ¬315. 24 per share. On 10 April 2007 French retailer and owner of Gucci brand Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR) announced that it had bought a 27% stake in Puma, clearing the way for a full takeover. The deal values Puma at â‚ ¬5. 3 billion. PPR said that it would launch a friendly takeover for Puma, worth â‚ ¬330 a share, once the acquisition of the smaller stake was completed. Since 17 July 2007 PPR owns 62. 1% of the Puma stock. While, PPR owns the majority of Puma’s stock, Puma still remains an independent company. UNDERSTANDING PUMA Puma is committed to working in ways that contribute to the world by supporting creativity, sustainability and peace and by staying true to the values of being Fair, Honest, Positive and Creative in decisions made and actions taken. PUMA Vision, a foundation for their activities is a concept intended to guide their work with its three core programs PUMA Creative, PUMA Safe and PUMA Peace. PUMA Safe comprises their initiatives for environmental protection and improves working conditions that have been in place for many years now. They will be complemented by new programs, which focus on implementing cleaner, safer and more sustainable systems and processes within the supply chain. Some of the major steps PUMA has taken to become sustainable are the Bring back bin and the clever little packaging. The bring back bin basically takes in any of your old clothes and shoes and PUMA recycles the raw materials from them such that they are putting back the materials in the right place. Now, they are only borrowing from the environment instead of stealing from it. Their other initiative, the clever little packaging, is all about getting rid of the shoebox such that they reduce the use of cardboard boxes, which in turn reduce the number of trees cut. They have replaced the box with a cloth bag. PUMA Peace supports the global day of ceasefire and September 21 every year through its initiative â€Å"One Day One Goal†, which aims at getting people to play football with the idea that the power of sports will unite people in peace. Another example for the work of PUMA Peace is the creation of PUMA Dance Dictionary, which is based upon the concept that even before the language barriers came about people used to communicate using body language and focuses on reconnecting with that idea. Creativity being the core competence of the brand, PUMA Creative aims at bringing together artists and different organizations for a mutual creative exchange and offering them an international platform. PUMA believes in getting in touch with the environment and taking inspiration from it. They have launched a whole campaign around it making a huge range of products that make it either easier to brave the nature or perform like the most superior animal in their constricted environment. For example, Puma mobium, shoes made for adaptive running, are based upon the concept of expansion and contraction, taking inspiration from puma and other large cats to understanding the way their muscles move and provide natural cushioning while running to combine with, interpret and create the same comfort for humans. PRODUCTS Puma manufactures a variety of products ranging from hats/caps, bags, trainers, jackets, sweats, hoods, flipflops, sandals, ballerinas(women), polos,shirts, shorts, tanks, pants, denims, socks, innerwear, wallets, bets, perfumes, sunglasses, mobile accesories, football shoes, sneakers, gloves, scarves, water bottle, tablet cases, casual shoes, range of products for Ferrari, Mercedes, Mini and BMW etc. They also have cricket products like batting gloves, batting pads, wicket keeping pads, wicket keeping gloves, shoes, bats, balls etc. All of their shoes have the patent form strip trademark. The company is also known for the suede basketball shoe it introduced in 1968, which eventually bore the name of New York Knicks basketball star Walt Clyde Frazier, and for its endorsement partnership with Joe Namath to mention a few. MENS Casual Boots Running shoes Motorsport shoes men Flip flops Casual shoes Sports Performance shoes Polos Shirts Tees Sweatshirts and sweaters Shorts and 3/4ths Tracks and sweatpants Pants and denims Jackets Small accesories Belts Gloves Backpacks Bags Hats WOMEN Casual shoes Running shoes Ballerinas Flipflops Trackpants 3/4ths and shorts Tanks and Tees Sweatshiirts and sweaters Pants and denims Polos and Tees Swimwear Jackets KIDS Girl’s apparel Girls’s shoes Boy’s apparel Cricket equipment Boy’s shoes TARGETTING AND MARKET RESEARCH PUMA’s target audience consists any person from within the age group of 8-60 yrs , belonging from atleast a middle class family who have a minimum average income of 50,000 75,00 Rs/- per month . Puma’s consumers want to buy their products because they are looking for sports or lifestyle product that are stylish but still cost efficient. They buy its products because they can be used along with a wide range of other products and in numerous different environments without looking out of place but still having an impact. They trust Puma because they would have never been disappointed as they get comfort along with style and everytime they look out for a new product they find it on PUMA’s shelves. The target audience also has easy access to our products via numerous shopping options like stores, factory outlets, online shopping with home delivery on PUMA’s websites as well as other online shopping portals. PUMA’S UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION PUMA, actually questioned what actually could become the alternative in the sporting goods market? Each and every sports manufacturing company is trying to offer the consumers the latest technology and comfort, so how was PUMA different? What would make it stand out. The answer was simple, each and every person wants to look beautiful. Hence, Puma is mixing sport lifestyle and fashion in a unique way. They always try to reinterpret sport in an innovative fashionable way, and when they do fashion they are always trying to bring their sports heritage into the fashion world. Obviously they dont define sport in a traditional way anymore. To them sport is living an active lifestyle, whether you are a businessman, active traveler or a marathon runner, its a different kind of interpretation of sport today. Its a much broader definition than what it used to be its not about traditional categories anymore, its about living an active lifestyle. PUMA had an opportunity to use the small size of the company as a competitive advantage and establish themselves as the alternative to the established fashion players. They aimed at selling more fashionable sports and lifestyle products at a cheaper price and better quality as compared to its contemporaries.