Puma: A Sport lifestyle Company

Puma’s mission is to become the most desirable sport lifestyle company. Currently the company’s long term business plan is known as Phase IV. Phase IV is meant to reinforce Puma’s position as one of the multi-category sport lifestyle brands. In order to achieve this, Puma will harness its resources and experiences to provide its consumers with innovative products that successfully fuse the creative influences from the world of sport, lifestyle and fashion. Furthermore as a business, it develops and markets a broad range of sport and lifestyle articles including footwear, apparel and accessories.
Phase IV was launched in 2006 and is guided by various principles. These principles are desirability, sustainability, product lifecycle management, corporate values, organizational excellence and value creation. As far as strategy is concerned there are three areas that the plan focuses on. The three areas are: category expansion, regional expansion, and non-Puma brand expansion. In category expansion Puma is venturing into new markets ranging from performance to fashion. One example of this is the partnership between Puma and DBA, the second largest German national airline. This partnership will ensure brand visibility for Puma. To expand regionally, Puma is making new partnerships around the world, including ones with Ghana and Egypt. There hasn’t been much news non-Puma brand expansion, however if this were to occur, it could contribute to 10% of Puma’s overall business. Through its marketing visibility, Puma takes part in large sport competitions, such as the Olympics and the Volvo Ocean Race. Participation in the Volvo Ocean Race launches them into the sailing category, which is another example of category expansion.
The key word and strategy for Puma is partnership. Any partnership Puma can make will more than likely be positive for the company. Marketing is another strategy Puma needs to be and is strong it. By making its brand visible will only help the company in the long run. The other thing that a company like Puma should be sure of is the quality of their product. Luckily for Puma, its product is of good quality, which is one of the reasons it has been so successful. If a company has a strong marketing ability, but the product isn’t of good quality, then it won’t be successful. As a Puma consumer, Puma’s products are very well made and of very good quality. Puma is a smart company and has a strong strategy; therefore it will more than likely continue to grow as the years go on.

Laura Rice