Puma's Marketing Strategy Marketing vision and goals

Puma's marketing vision today centers on its representation of positive values both in life and in sport. Its goals include a continuing penetration of markets beyond the sports of football and running where it has achieved its best success to date and the further penetration of the U.S. market.

Product strategy and positioning statement

In the intereste of achieving these ambitions, Puma introduced a new positoning statement in 2009 which would articulate this vision of positive values in life and sport. According to Puma (2013), the company "refined our brand manual. '10' is the very first brand manual to incorporate the four keys to success of the global PUMAVision -- fair, honest, positive and creative. Our brand mission -- to be the most desirable Sportlifestyle brand in the world -- has not changed at all." (Puma SE, p. 1)

With respect to the strategy of maintaining and extending these values, Puma must face many of the controversies that have impacted its reputation in relation to the labor and environmental practices of its outsourced production facilities. As these impact the company's public image, so too do they threaten the credibility of this positioning statement. The same is true of its product strategy.

Here, Puma declares that "Joy' is what we will try to bring to our consumers and is what will differentiate us from our...

While others talk about blood, sweat and tears of sport, we recognize that they cannot be the only rewards. Rather, we'll talk about the moments of joy inherent in both sport and life. We are the brand that remembers what it was like to play the game -- and to play it with joy." (Puma SE, p. 1) The company will work to convey this image by continuing and expanding its association with highly regarded and well-performing sports stars.
Customer snapshot

For a customer snapshot, we consider some of the hybrid strategies used by Puma today to integrate the various interests of its consumer base. In doing so, it also lends considerable insight into who it believes its customers to be. According to the article by Johnson (2013), "Puma is launching a time-sensitive mobile photo sharing global contest that gives soccer fans an opportunity to share photos in exchange for winning cash for their uploads. Puma is one of the first brands to test campaigns using the Foap mobile app. The brand is using the platform to spark up some engagement with soccer enthusiasts." (p. 1)

This denotes an integration of the interests of its consumers in international football competition and the manner in which this consumer base uses mobile technology in concurrence with its fandom. It also suggests that Puma sees its customers as young, technologically savvy and engaged through social media sharing. It is…