Adidas, also known as the three strips brand, began in 1924 by two German brothers Adolf Dassler and Rudolf Dassler who had a shoe shop together. During the World War 2, Rudolf was accused by his brother for collaborate with the Nazis and the two brothers split up. In 1949, Adolf then opened his own company and named it Adidas, while Rudolf created today’s Adidas’s main competitor: Puma. Few years later, in 1990, Dassler family sold Adidas and the company continued to prosper to become the giant we known today. In order to growth and maintain success against competitors, Adidas put a lot of efforts to build a strong and unique brand identity.
1. Simple while efficient logos
We all known the famous mountain shape three stripes logo, but Adidas got a wide portfolio of sub-brands with different logos. The first logo of Adidas launched in 1949 represented a running shoe hanging between two bars which were the continuation of the letter “d” from “adidas” with the name of the founder above. In 1950, the logo was simplified to only the word “adidas” inside a black banner. In 1967, the black banner disappeared, and the logo became only the word “adidas”. And in 1971 - at the occasion of the Olympic games of Munich - Adidas introduced its new logo, the famous trefoil, which is today representing their lifestyle and streetwear Adidas Original sub-brand. Each of the trefoil leaves are representing three parts of the world where consumers can buy Adidas products: North America, Europe and Asia, while the horizontal crossing stripes are representing the pluralism of the brand. In the 90’s, Adidas introduced its famous mountain shape logo. The logo was designed by turning the stripes 30° left, with the word “adidas” written below. The mountain shape is representing performance, success, and encourage to go beyond limits. This logo is representing a mountain to climb or three steps of the progress, which reflects the well-endorsed values of self-surpassing and improvement. This logo is present on most of their clothes and shoes for any discipline and is probably their most famous logo. In 2002, they introduced a round logo crossed with stripes, used for the labels and collaborations such as Y-3, NEO, Silver, Yeezy and many others. The round stands as a globe meaning adaptation to change. They did not stop there as they introduced in 2005 a new logo with three parallel horizontal stripes alongside the word “adidas”. This is the Adidas’s group logo, which covers all the sub-brands.
Through its large range of logos, Adidas achieved to build strong and distinctive identity for each of the sub-brands. Despite the diversity of its logos, Adidas always created easily recognizable, distinct and versatile symbols, provided with powerful messages and inspiring values.
Adidas’s logos history
2. Adaptable colors
The two main colors used by Adidas are black and white. Usually the logo is black in a white background, but they also use blue, purple or green.
3. An authentic brand name
The name Adidas was inspired by the name of the founder Adolf Dassler. It is the simple mix between “Adi” that was Adolf’s nickname, and the first part of its surname “Das”. Then, was created Adidas.
4. A complex brand architecture
Adidas got a multi-brand strategy which allow to fill every segment, from streetwear to highly performant products. There are 3 sub-brands Adidas Performance, Adidas Style and Adidas Original. Moreover, Adidas got several labels such as Adidas Equipment or Adidas Skateboarding, allowing the brand to focus on a particular discipline. Besides that, in 2005, Adidas owns the famous shoes brand Reebok which allow to multiply its positioning on the sportswear market. This complex structure allows consumers to know what they could find under each of the sub-brands and labels.
5. 3S’s slogans
Adidas always successfully succeeded in creating straightforward while catchy slogans for its marketing campaigns. Basically, they follow the law of the 3S: Short, Simple and Snappy. In 1974, was launch the famous “Impossible is nothing” slogan. The brand used it in several advertisement and marketing campaigns. This sentence was inspired from Mohammad Ali and delivers a powerful and inspiring message to the community. Among the advertisings using this slogan, we can remember the famous match Mohammad Ali vs his daughter Laila Ali, “The long run” advertising where Muhammad Ali take a run with many athletes including David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane, and also “David Beckham story” advertising. In 2011, Adidas wanted to renew its approach and launched the “All in” slogan and launched an advertising in which we can see several sport and music superstars, and again it was an engaging and encouraging message and gives strengths to people and athletes all around the world. Since there, Adidas created several campaigns with many different slogans such as: “Unite All Originals” “Your Future Is Not Mine” and “Unleash Your Creativity”. The common points between all these slogans is that they are all short (from 2 to 5 words) and show the consumers what the brand will help us to accomplish. They are all unique, catchy, and timeless. They all reflect brand’s values including perseverance, motivation, and self-surpassing.
"All In" campaign
Today, Adidas is the second leader in sportwear industry with more than 13 billion dollars sales revenue in 2019, just behind Nike and before Puma, and counts more than 2500 shops worldwide. Adidas is a not to be missed sportwear brand, with a strong brand identity and a wide loyal consumers community. Through years, Adidas built its brand identity using powerful marketing campaigns and delivering inspiring and stimulating messages in everything they undertake.
References:
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- Adidas Logo History. [Image]. Logos World. Retrieved from https://logos-world.net/adidas-logo-history/
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- Statista. (July 13, 2020). Chiffre d'affaires du secteur des chaussures des entreprises Adidas, Nike et Puma de 2014 à 2019 (en milliards de dollars des États-Unis). In Statista. Retrieved November 01, 2020, from https://fr-statista-com.skema.idm.oclc.org/statistiques/666661/groupes-adidas-nike-puma-chiffre-affaires-monde-secteur-footwear/
- The Power of The Adidas Slogan: Everything You Need to Know. Canz Marketing. Retrieved from https://www.canzmarketing.com/adidas-slogan/
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