Wise & Young: The nuances of Gen-Y marketing, branding, advertising, trends, & more

Well it was surprising to wake up this morning, flip on the computer, and see Adidas-Salomon announced today that it had agreed to acquire Reebok for $3.8 billion

From my young consumer perspective and education in branding/business, I believe this is the only thing both companies could have done to compete with the ever powerful Nike. In my opinion, currently Nike is doing no wrong, except for maybe signing Kobe Bryant to a shoe deal. Kobe Bryant brings the Nike brand down a few notches, but compared to both Adidas and Reebok, Nike is the strongest brand and over time will actually help Kobe Bryant’s overall image and brand.

Adidas and Reebok both have been close to reaching a perfect lifestyle product by focusing on other industries outside of sports, such as music and street life. They have also both been releasing vintage/old school shoes which have been increasingly popular in the trend world, but they still both couldn’t get that hot product that would propel their prospective brand over Nike.

Nike, to the naked eye, seems to stay out of the vintage lifestyle market with their own products, but when you dig deeper, you realize they have just as much of the market as Adidas and Reebok. Nike’s brilliant idea two years ago to purchase Converse has allowed to them to compete with Adidas and Reebok in the vintage market, and in some cases, even beat them.

For the new Adidas+Reebok company to compete with Nike, they have to continue to explore other markets, such as Reebok’s innovative idea to sign rappers to their own shoes deals. The also have to focus on design, which in my opinion, Nike has a strangle-hold over all the other shoe companies. If Adidas+Reebok throws more money in to design and less in to traditional advertising, you will see the streets talking (word of mouth) which in turn will mean a larger market share for them and in turn, more money overall.