The Market Segment of Adidas

“Just for Kick”

The Market Segment of Adidas in the movie are people whose ages are 15- 20 years old. Most of them were black male students who really give importance to their appearance and style. Although most of them do not have the money to buy the shoes immediately, these people will save no matter how expensive the sneakers costs just to keep up with the craze.

The Market Segment of Nike at first was only focused on white athletes or on white people image. Seeing the success and growth of Adidas by relating the sneakers to hip-hop and rappers, Nike hired Michael Jordan a promising basketball player to endorse the brand. The age group they targeted were people from 18-25 years old who had extra amount of spending dollars.  The kind of teens and young adults who wanted to look cool and sporty, they also targeted sneaker collectors and enthusiasts.

The Market Segment of Reebok would be the people who do not want to follow the norm and trends of Adidas and Nike, the people who want to be different.  Their target age group would from 22-26 years old. These kinds of customers do not want to spend crazy amounts of money on shoes that would most likely have a risk of being stolen or put their lives in danger. These people want to have an image of being cutting edge.

Sneakers and shoes in general cater to people's physiological needs but due to advertising and marketing of brands like Adidas, Nike and Reebok, they started moving up Maslow’s Hierarchy of Wants. They became a social and self esteem need because people wanted to fit in and be accepted by society, they wanted to feel good about themselves. Since Nike’s Air Jordans were made from luxury materials and adding the rising popularity of Michael Jordan in the basketball industry, people like drug dealers and rappers started seeing the sneakers as status symbols. Nike also started remanufacturing some of their retro sneakers at limited quantities to create a niche market. Instead of the original position of sneakers in Maslow’s Hierarchy of wants as a physiological need it raised up to a self actualization need.

        Hip-hop and pop were really popular in the 70’s as well as pastels and funky laces. Adidas made use of the Hip-hop B-band RUN-DMC to promote the brand after seeing the band’s “My Adidas” song top charts. This gave adidas tons of advertising and easier acceptance by the young black community because they can feel connected to the black rappers. People everywhere started wearing adidas even though they weren't the most comfortable sneakers at that time they looked good and were really popular.

        Nike on the other hand hired the new promising basketball player Jordan to endorse the brand. They made him wear the Nike shoes to his games when in the first place it wasn't allowed, the company paid for the fines but the said issue sparked the curiosity and interest of many people. They also manufactured limited editions of their old sneakers and collaborated with various graffiti artists and popular young artists.

        Hiring popular and influential artists and personalities like Jay-Z and 50-cent was the strategy of Reebok. This would allow them to have instant appeal to the mass and the large fan base of these artists. Fans would most likely buy the shoes and sneakers being endorsed by their favorite artist. It was expected that if an artist could set a trend in America then most likely the world would follow next.