Puma ranks third after Nike and Adidas in the sports apparel industry, but CEO Bjoern Gulden plans to shift the brand’s focus. He wants to reposition the brand from being a sports lifestyle company back to being a sports company.  Although PUMA has been given lucrative sponsorship deals with athletes such as Usain Bolt, it has failed to have much success with brand recognition. Also, projected net profits for 2013 will fall below that of 2012’s.

In a way, Puma is shifting its industry. Using Porter’s 5 forces, it’s shown that Nike and Adidas dominate the sports lifestyle industry; they have a lot of supplier power and have strong market shares. Puma is hoping to thrive in the sports company by focusing on creating products primarily for sport purposes. Gulden said that spending would now concentrate on technical products. I think that Gulden is making the correct move as Nike and Adidas are too strong in the market. By digging back into the roots of sports, Puma can really attract consumers who only want performance products and are indifferent towards the fashion aspects of products. Overall, if Puma can bring back the classic sports-only brand image, they could succeed.

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Works Cited:

Bryan, Victoria. “New Puma CEO Seeks to Return Company to Sporting Roots.” Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 08 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.

“Puma Gets a Boost from Bolt.” The Fresh Peel RSS. N.p., 23 Aug. 2008. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.