APPAREL

MERCHANDISING
ASSIGNMENT 1
TOPIC- competitive analysis
PUMA
From the roots of a sibling rivalry PUMA, one of the most well-known German Brand,
was born. Puma is currently one of the largest sporting goods manufacturers in the
world, competing with companies like Adidas and Nike. The brand first appeared in
1948, when founder Rudolf Dassler created a new shoe factory.

Rudolf earned a massive following for his innovative products, as well as his use of a
memorable logo with the iconic puma.

Materials Used
PUMA uses cotton and polyester for T-shirt. In 2020, it achieved a milestone by sourcing
100 per cent of the core materials used in apparel and accessories, such as down,
viscose and cotton, and other sustainable sources. PUMA partners with The Better
Cotton Initiative/BCI to improve cotton farming globally. They use Better Cotton, organic
cotton and recycled cotton in their production. It uses bluesign® or Oeko-Tex certified
polester other than recycled and dope-dyed polyester.
In 2021, Puma also launched several collections with a specific sustainability focus.
Puma sought to rethink waste with the ReGen collection, which is made from Puma’s
own waste material and other recycled materials: leather off-cuts, cotton off-cuts, and
polyester made from recycled plastic. The products of the First Mile collection, first
introduced in 2020, use sustainable yarn made from recycled plastic.
Colour
The PUMA colours are black, grey, brown, blue, green, orange, tan, yellow, red, purple,
pink, white.
Promotional strategy
Puma, being a global brand, has an extensive marketing & advertising strategy.
Generally international sports stars are appointed brand ambassadors. It has been
endorsed by a number of legendary athletes, the list of which includes names like
Michael Schumacker, Pélé, Joe Namath, Neymar and Usain Bolt. Puma has a long list of
players from more than 30 countries endorsing the brand.
Along with players, Puma sponsors different clubs, teams and associations across the
world as a part of its promotional strategy. To promote its women product line, Rihanna
and Kylie Jenner walked on ramp flaunting Puma’s designer apparel and shoes. Puma
also launched various innovative campaigns to engage customers. One such campaign is
the peel off sticker campaign as a part of “Run the Streets” campaign. During this
campaign, they put 2000 stickers in the form of Puma’s logo in Bugis MRT station in
Singapore. These stickers were offering 30% discount off the next Puma purchase.
Along with television commercials and print media, Puma is also present in digital
platforms, and social media. Puma invests heavily in online promotion & digital
marketing to increase its online sales.
Pricing
Puma’s pricing strategy is comparatively lower than its competitors. It offers premium-
priced products also as an outsized range of products priced more affordably. The
brand offers products at a lesser price than the industry’s two main brands, Nike and
Adidas. It is a premium brand that delivers a quality product and that’s why the pricing
is justified under the brand name.
The pricing of the company is affordable and gives customers a feel of a premium brand.
Entry price ₹1,299

Exit price ₹6,999

Styles
Available t-shirt styles for women
 Unisex t-shirts for women
 Crew neck tees for women
 Sleeveless women’s t-shirt
 Polo t-shirts for women
 Women’s running t-shirts
 Sports t-shirts for women
 Cropped women’s training tops
Available t-shirt styles for men
 Running sports t-shirts
 Rapid-dry sports t-shirts
 Graphic sports tees
 Men’s training t-shirts
 Short sleeves men’s slim-fit t-shirts
 Long sleeves men’s t-shirt
 Relaxed fit men’s t-shirt
Fits
 Boxy
 Slim
 Loose
 Standard
 Fitted

Silhouettes
 Seamless stride short sleeve
 Script short sleeve
 Zip long sleeves
 Pocket polo
 Zip polo
ADIDAS
Adidas is one of the most recognizable global brands in the industry of sports footwear
and apparel today. Adidas is a German Multinational corporation founded in 1959 by
Adolf Dassler, headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany. It is one of the oldest
footwear brands that is still considered a style statement by youngsters worldwide.
Even after facing immense competition from the traditionally competitive US
sportswear market, Adidas through its creative and appealing marketing campaigns has
managed to remain one of the leading sportswear brands in the world. Having
operations in over 100 countries, Adidas is a large and multifaceted organization that
employs 62000 people all over the globe.

Materials used
Adidas mainly uses cotton, spandex, polyester, and nylon in their production. Adidas
has steadily increased the sourcing of cotton according to the Better Cotton Initiative
(BCI). Polyester is the most single-used material in adidas products and, by 2024, they
aim to replace all virgin polyester with recycled polyester in all products. Moreover,
almost two thirds of the polyester used for their apparel range for the spring/summer
season 2020 was recycled polyester. Adidas uses Parley Ocean Plastic as an eco-
innovative replacement for virgin plastic and almost three million pieces of apparel was
made containing Parley Ocean Plastic.
Adidas feature game-changing technologies such as Climacool in their FreeLift and Own
the Run shirt models. Climacool fabric offers outstanding moisture management and
ventilation to keep body cool and dry. These shirts have ventilation channels, open
mesh and performance fabric that allow one to play or train hard even in hot or humid
conditions.
Colour
The PUMA colours are black, blue, red, green, yellow, white, beige, grey, brown, orange,
pink, purple, burgundy, turquoise.
Promotion strategy
Adidas has always endorsed and promoted itself through media. Adidas promotional
strategy is to use a 360 branding strategy covering each aspects of media and
communication. It promotes itself through commercial campaigns on TV, print, online,
billboards etc. With over 35 million & 25 million followers on Facebook & Instagram,
the brand constantly involves with its users online. With this Adidas’ tagline “impossible
is nothing” was also released. It was the biggest campaign of all times. Adidas also
sponsors leading players in different sports segments. It is also featured in various game
advertisements like Sony play station, etc. These techniques make sure that the
legendary Adidas brand remains in everyone’s mind, the brand awareness is increased
and the targeted customers can be retained and attracted easily.
Pricing
Due to its innovations and continuous product improvement which leads to top notch
performance, all the Adidas products are premium priced. The pricing strategy of
Adidas has focused upon high quality and competitor offering. The price of Adidas
products are already high due to the high quality of the material used.
Entry price 999

Exit price 13,799.50

Styles
Available t-shirt styles
 3-Stripes t-shirt
 Trefoil t-shirt
 Polo t-shirt
 Linear Graphic t-shirt
 Pride Trefoil t-shirt
 Vintage t-shirt
 Training t-shirt
 Mini Embroidery t-shirt
 R.Y.V. t-shirt
 Ultimate365 Gradient Block Stripe polo shirt

Fits
 Slim fit
 Loose fit
 Oversized fit
 Fitted

Silhouettes
SLEEVES:
Half sleeves
PATTERN:
Solid
Print
Textured
NECK:
Round neck
Polo neck
NIKE
Nike is an American Multinational Company, which is famous for its production of
athletic shoes for a long time. But with time they not only manufacture footwear but
also apparel, accessories, and equipment which are sold all over the globe. 
It was established in 1964, named Blue Ribbon Sports. It officially became Nike in 1971
inspired by the Greek goddess of victory. Its headquarters is near Beaverton, Oregon in
the Portland metropolitan area in the US. One of the most valuable brands among sport
businesses, Nike employs over 76,000 people worldwide. Nike has 700+ shops
worldwide. It sells its apparel through the Nike brand, as well as its Jordan Brand and
Converse subsidiaries. In the US Fortune 500 list of companies, Nike ranked at number
85 in 2020.

Materials used
Nike mainly use recycled polyester, sustainable cotton and recycled nylon in their
apparel production. The recycled polyester is made from plastic bottles which are
cleaned, shredded into flakes, converted into pellets and then spun into a high-quality
yarn.
As of 2020, 100% of the cotton it uses across their entire product line is certified
organic, recycled or Better Cotton. All of the organic cotton is grown without fossil fuel-
derived pesticides or synthetic fertilisers, and also recycle more than 680,000kg of
cotton each year. The recycled nylon is transformed from a variety of materials, like
carpet and used fish nets. The nylon is cleaned, sorted and converted into flakes, all
before undergoing a chemical or mechanical recycling process.
Nike uses the new Forward material for their apparel. Nike Forward material isn't a knit
or a weave. It doesn't even use yarn. Instead, the manufacturing process creates fibres
from recycled plastic flakes and attaches them together using needle-punching
machines mostly found in the automotive and medical industry. From there they can
connect these multiple thin layers using the needle-punching process, crafting a
garment's layers how they choose.

Promotion strategy
Nike’s key source of promotion is advertisement and sponsorships. The company does
advertisements involving high-profile celebrities and athletes from different countries.
Some celebrities who promote Nike’s products are Serena Williams, Christiano Ronaldo,
Mo Farah, Kunal Rajput, Rafael Nadal, and LeBron James. It also Sponsors the sports
teams like cricket, NFL, and NBA.
The company does direct marketing by personal communication with organizations,
schools, colleges, and local sports teams. They also give time to time discounts and great
offers to their customers which comes under sales promotion tactics. They give financial
support to the NGOs to make public relations strong and able to promote their products
through it. Nike’s target customer is fitness-centric, elite class, and sports enthusiastic
people especially youngsters. Nike also promotes its products through social media by
connecting with millions of people.
Nike’s ” Just Do It ” campaign launched in 1988 which motivates people to do their job
efficiently. To date, this slogan is a trademark of Nike. The company’s Latest hashtag
#YouCantStopUs for their new campaign tells us that every sports field is equal which
has gone viral on social media. Nike does such inspiring campaigns of different themes
to gains the emotional trust of their customer.

Pricing
Nike uses value-based pricing and premium-based pricing strategy for their products.
Before setting up the prices, they measure what overall customers are willing to pay for
a product.
Nike sets premium prices for its high-quality products. By gradually increasing prices
the company enjoys higher sales and revenues.
Entry price ₹995

Exit price ₹8,995

Styles
Available styles for t-shirt
 Graphic t-shirts
 Long sleeve t-shirt
 Short sleeve t-shirt
 Polos

Fits
The fit options are
 Oversized
 Slim
 Loose
 Standard
 Tight

Silhouettes
SLEEVES:
Half sleeves
PATTERN:
Solid
Print
Check
NECK:
Round neck
Polo neck
Crew neck

Colour
The Nike colours are black, blue, brown, green, grey, orange, pink, purple, red, white,
yellow.
REEBOK
Reebok is known for its quality footwear and apparels. It produces fitness, running and
CrossFit sportswear, including clothing and footwear for sports and fitness enthusiasts.
Since August 2005, Reebok International Limited, footwear, and apparel firm has been a
subsidiary of Adidas.
The brand was formed in the United Kingdom in 1958 as a subsidiary of J.W. Foster and
Sons, a sports goods firm founded in Bolton, Lancashire, in 1895.  The firm’s roots were
symbolized by the use of the British flag in its emblem from 1958 until 1986. With
regional offices in Amsterdam, Montreal, Hong Kong, and Mexico City, the company’s
worldwide headquarters are located in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States.
Currently, Reebok has created an independent identity for a comfortable, stylish and
unique fashion image.

Materials used
Reebok uses cotton, lyocell, modal, acetate, viscose, polyester, recycled nylon, and
acrylic in their apparel production.
Lyocell is a semi-synthetic fabric that is commonly used as a substitute for cotton or silk.
This fabric is a form of rayon, and it is composed primarily of cellulose derived from
wood.
Modal fabric is a bio-based fabric that is made from spinning beech tree cellulose. Modal
fabric is extremely hard-wearing and keeps its shape and finish, even after frequent
washing. These properties make it useful as an underwear fabric. Its silky texture also
makes it comfortable for close-fitting intimate wear and is breathable. Unlike garments
made from synthetic fibres like nylon and polyester, modal does not trap perspiration
and odours, which makes it perfect for activewear.
Acetate fibre is a semi-synthetic polymer also known as cellulose acetate used to
make textile fabrics for clothing. It's a type of rayon, a regenerated cellulosic fibre,
made from wood pulp. They are comfortable, soft, and lightweight. They are very
pleasant to the touch. They are also resistant to moths and mildew. Acetate fibre
drapes and hangs well. It has excellent resistance to pilling but a rather low tensile
strength.

COLORS
Nike colours are Black, pink, blue, white, green, grey, lilac, red, peach, purple, yellow,
orange, beige, brown, cream, and maroon.

FITS
Slim fit
Regular fit
Relaxed fit
Oversized fit
Fitted
Boxy fit

SILHOUETTES
SLEEVES:
Half sleeves
Full sleeves
PATTERN:
Solid
Print
Textured
Patterned
Stripe
Check
NECK:
Round neck
Polo neck
High neck

STYLES
Reebok training Rbk Pocket tee
Reebok training FND Poly tee
Reebok melange tee
Reebok training FND Vector Polo t-shirt
Reebok training Rbk Polo t-shirt
Reebok Rbk training workout tee

Pricing
To penetrate the target market successfully, Reebok came up with an idea of a standard pricing
policy. In the introduction to any new product, they keep low pricing strategy in their marketing
mix, and as demand begins to rise they shift to regular pricing policy. In many instances, Reebok
has implemented an unusual destroyer pricing strategy to cope up with the growing popularity
of its competitors like Puma and Nike. They either introduce sale season or set a meagre price
that other companies cannot match. This leads to an increase in their sales and a substantial
increase in market share.

Entry price ₹899

Exit price ₹3,599

PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY
To help consumers understand its offerings, Reebok has embarked on a fidelity
promotional campaign. Reebok targeted many sportspersons from NBA, cricket,
football, motorsports etc. as its brand ambassadors to show the association of sports
and fitness with the products offered by them. Actors & actresses are also selected for
Reebok Advertising campaigns. It has also sponsored many sports events like IPL, Davis
Cup, Spartan Race and etc. It focuses on both offline and online campaigns.
Reebok keeps changing its tagline from time to time to promote its product in a unique
way. Some of the famous taglines are "I am what I am," “pain is temporary Reebok is
forever,” "have fun while running," "go to the gym with you." In the year 2004, Reebok
changed its logo with an idea of positive change that fitness brings to a person’s life. It
offers coupons, coupons, discount items to satisfy their consumers. Reebok also uses a
variety of other offline media platforms such as billboards, magazines, ads in
newspapers, radio, and television to show the visibility of its products.

UNDER ARMOUR
Under Armour is a manufacturer of footwear, sportswear and casual apparel based in
United States of America. The company was started in 1996 by a 23-year old Kevin
Plank in Washington DC who later moved the operations to Baltimore. Under Armour is
most famous for being the market pioneer in moisture-absorbing and innovative
apparel for sportspersons. Today it caters to all needs of sportswear and has also
expanded in casual wear and shoes. Its major competitors include Nike, Adidas, Puma
and Reebok.
A Fully integrated global athletic brand rooted in innovation with a simple philosophy
to make “athletes better”.

Performance Apparel
•One of the fastest growing sectors
•Defined as garments that perform or function for some purpose
•Sold in retail and in wholesale
•Employs 274,000 people
•Expected to exceed $146 billion in sales
•On average $38 is spent monthly in America Homes

Material
In terms of fiber use, over 80% of Under Armour's materials are polyester-based (both
virgin and recycled), which, by many measures, is more sustainable to produce than
alternative fibers. Polyester may also reduce GHG emissions from consumer use.

The Under Armour Men’s Streaker Run V-neck T-shirt is made from 100% polyester.
The UA Threadborne Microthread technology in the fabric is supposed to dry faster, so
that the fabric does not cling to you or cause abrasions.
The Men’s Under Armour Swyft V-neck Tee Shirt is made of 50% Polyester and 50%
Elasterell. The term, “elasterell” looks similar to “elastane”, which is fabric with stretch
properties, but it is actually another category of polyester.
The HeatGear is 100% polyester and the original innovation that the founder of Under
Armour came up with. Wearing this is like wearing a part of history
The Men’s Under Armour Warped Route t-shirt is made of Charged Cotton®, which has
the comfort of cotton, but dries much faster.
The composition is 57% Cotton/38% Polyester/5% Elastane.
The Under Armour Men’s HexDelta Short Sleeve Tee is made of 95% Polyester and 5%
Elastane. Its special feature is the ultralight fabric with hex shaped pattern that is super
breathable as you run. Elastane provides a 4 way stretch.
Pricing
Under Armour uses value-based pricing strategy for its products as they are known for
their advanced quality.
Although the company has a lot of well established brands as competitors but still it is
able to charge a little extra than them for its products on the basis of superior
innovative materials and fabrics. Under Armour’s major target segment consists of
players and athletic people, and they focus more on the functionality aspect pertaining
to fabric technology and product quality rather than the price or even design
Entry price ₹1,999

Exit price ₹7,999

Colour
Black, blue, green ,grey , orange ,pink , red ,white ,yellow

Fit
Fit options
 Compression
 Fitted
 Loose

Silhouettes
Seamless stride short sleeve
Breeze long sleeve
Script short sleeve
Zip long sleeves
Comp long sleeves
Rush mock long sleeve
Cold long sleeve
Pocket polo
Rush seamless mockc
Zip polo
Dash polo
Snap polo

Styles
 Shortsleeve
 Longsleeve
 Polo
Promotion strategy
Under Armour, unlike most of its competitor brands, does not outsource marketing to
outside agencies, instead keeps all of its marketing strategy in-house. Its promotional
mix consists of everything, be it person al selling at point of purchase touchpoints by the
salesperson, large billboards outside Baltimore and famous city routes, TV
advertisements, YouTube and online social media campaigns, magazine ads or
sponsorships. The brand was also promoted by product placements in several movies.
Over time, Under Armour has come up with various campaigns such as “I WILL”
campaign, where athletes and people from diverse backgrounds, races and genders
were shown winning their opponents. Another very successful promotion was the social
campaign “Basketball matters, community matters more”, where the company
developed some of the local basketball courts to help the kids play. Such campaigns not
only increase sales but also act as positive publicity for the company and the brand.
Under Armour also does sales promotions by offering discounts and coupons. The
company also offers free shipping for all orders above $60 on its website and gives away
lots of promo codes to the buyers to increase online sales. Hence, this completes the
marketing mix of Under Armour.

FILA
Fila is one of the major company in lifestyle segment producing sportswear and sports
goods and a prominent brand in the athletic arena. Fila had its origin in Biealla in Italy
with Giansevero Fila as its founder in the year 1909. The company holdings were later
transferred to Cerberus Capital Management in the year 2003 who were committed to
promoting the athletic brand. However in the year 2007 the company was acquired by
its separate company Fila Korea and currently owns all the rights of selling the products
of the parent firm. The company presently owns 11 factories with over 5000 employees
worldwide. Fila has been associated with major sporting events by being event
sponsors and has famous sports personalities as brand ambassadors.
Materials used
Fila mainly uses cotton, viscose, polyester, nylon, spandex, acrylic in their apparel
production. Along with this Fila uses some special fabric in their production, which
are as follows:
 Lycra Sport™ fabric enables faster recovery power, better shape retention and
increased freedom of movement. Lycra fabric gives you a smooth, close fit that's
incredibly comfortable and durable.
 CoolMax® fabric is designed to transport moisture through the fabric and help it
spread quickly. This feature helps enhance the fabric drying rate and enables
your body to stay comfortable even when you sweat. 

Pricing
Being a prominent sportswear brand the pricing strategy in its marketing mix adopted
is generally competitive pricing with large number of famous brands like Nike, Adidas
and Reebok competing for large market share. Generally the trend of pricing is to
maintain prices slightly lower than the competition brands to gain advantage in
capturing consumer share. Some of the products also demand premium value due to its
higher brand value. The major advantage of Fila is to have lower pricing and provide
high quality products making it more affordable to the consumers. Fila products possess
a value based pricing model for its products.
Entry price – 699
Exit price - 2,399
Style
 Graphic
 Cut & sew
 Singlet
 Striper
 Basic
 Logo
 Lifestyle
Silhouettes
SLEEVE
Sleeveless
Short
Long
Half
NECK
Crew
Polo
Round
V neck
Fit
Boxy
Regular
Colour
Blue, red,black,white,olive green,grey,green,brown,pink

Promotion strategy
Fila brand has been associated with major sporting events through sponsorship and has
gained wide visibility through this strategy. Some of the major events include major
tennis events like BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, Sony Open in Miami,
Florida and the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport, Rhode Island, the
Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and the BMW Open in Germany. Fila had brand ambassadors
like Bjorn Borg, Kim Clijsters and recently Virendra Sehwag endorsing its products. Fila
associates itself with being athlete oriented and therefore has a loyal customer base
with its association in different sports. It has also used online platform along with print
media and visual promotions to popularize the brand with its trendy and fashion based
products. However in comparison with its competitors brands Fila has used minimal
advertisement of its offerings. This has reduced the market share in the segment with
respect to its competition. This completes the marketing mix of Fila.