Underdog marketing / Adidas paid €3.1bn ($3.64bn) for Reebok in 2006 and restored it to profitability – but failed to make the brand desirable. This month Adidas announced it was selling Reebok to Authentic Brands Group at a substantial loss.
Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail reportedly said Reebok’s problem was that it was ‘neither seen as the go-to brand for sporting professionals nor for those looking for athleisure fashion and style.’
But Saunders believes the brand has potential to grow if it develops its own ‘differentiated offering’ and a strong distribution plan.
Courting Greatness looks like an attempt by Reebok to establish a differentiated offering by focusing on inner city youths and the kind of resourceful creativity they bring to sport.
Rather than just proclaim support for its new target audience, the AR tool is a way for Reebok to demonstrate its intentions with something practical and – because it was published as a web tool and not an app that must be downloaded – accessible.
Admittedly, Reebok’s new brand position is niche compared with those of Nike and Lululemon, but Reebok is now a niche brand. It had a 1% share of the US sneaker market in 2015, down from 8% in 2006, according to NPD Group estimates, and things probably haven’t improved a lot since then.
But, similar to Adidas and its cities strategy, Reebok is likely anticipating that finding credibility among the disproportionately influential urban youth demographic will broaden the brand’s appeal.
