Marketing Management Case Study Reebok India

Marketing Management Case study
ON
Reebok India’s decline and repositioning

About Company
Reebok International Ltd. is a British company for athletic footwear and apparel. Reebok produces and distributes fitness and sports items including shoes, workout clothing and accessories, and training equipment. It is the official sponsor for footwear and apparel for UFC, CrossFit, Spartan Race, and Les Mills.
The company was founded as J.W. Foster and Sons in Bolton, Lancashire, England in 1895 which later was renamed Reebok and has been operating as a subsidiary of Adidas since 2005. Its global headquarters are Canton, Massachusetts, U.S. with regional offices in Amsterdam (EMEA), Montreal (Canada), Hong Kong (Asia Pacific) and Mexico City

Negative impact of the commercial irregularities in India was considered to be the main reason for the fall of sale.
Revenue of Reebok’s for the quarter was at Euro 336 million (Rs 2,280 crore), against Euro 427 million in the year-ago period. Flagship Adidas, on the other hand, grew 11 per cent, while TaylorMade (which is Adidas’ brand for the golf segment) grew 25 per cent during the quarter under review.
Despite Reebok’s weak performance, Adidas executives ruled out the brand’s sale, which it acquired in 2005 for $3.8 billion. On April 30 2012 Reebok officially confessed about commercial irregularities at Reebok India.
Adidas bought Reebok in year 2005. Since the time Adidas has bought Reebok it has continued to underperform in many international markets but in India Reebok enjoyed a head start over its competitors even Adidas.

While globally Reebok ranked fourth after Adidas, Nike and Puma, in India, it was the leader in the Rs 3,500-crore sportswear market with a share of over 53 per cent. It had some 1,000 stores in 325 towns and cities, which Adidas said in a global announcement that it would cut by a

While Adidas continued to concentrate on performance athletics and sports segment Reebok’s new focus became the fitness segment.

Reebok gets a new AVATAR…
New logo of Reebok was released in February 2014 which according to them was not a ‘logo’ but a ‘symbol’. The symbol which resembles a delta is reflective of the change that fitness can bring into every individual’s life. The new found purpose of the brand, now, is to serve the pursuit of fitness. The three arms of the delta represent the three changes-physical, mental and social, that fitness can inspire in an individual. Reebok now promotes dance, yoga, and aerobics and has embraced all of them to grow their business. With its new segment comprising the fitness seekers it has left behind athletes and have abandoned the renewal of contract with the US Football League.
Reebok new stores are known as fit-hubs and they have fitness trainers at the store who tell their customers about fitness.. Reebok has also focussed on its products to complement its new rebranding exercise. They have introduced a brand new product line under the fitness