Puma unveils strategy to unify brand

Puma is launching a global marketing strategy to unify its brand across its running, team sports and fitness categories, a move that follows similar recent campaigns from rivals Adidas and Reebok.

PumaNatureofPerformance-Campaign-2013
Puma’s campaign will look to unify the brand across several sports categories including running.

The ‘Nature of Performance’ campaign aims to emphasise the brand’s athletic roots and will support new products in the football, running, training and fitness categories. TV, Facebook, in-store and print activity will initially focus on the brand’s football and running products. The football push builds on last year’s push to bolster its presence in the European football market.

Puma’s ACTV and RCVR apparel ranges, which use compression technology to boost muscle power, will also be promoted throughout the campaign.

The brand will also launch a new “adaptive” technology for running shoes.

Filip Trulsson, director of international marketing at Puma, says: “The platform works across all of our sport categories and offers a compelling and effective way to convey pinnacle performance Puma products and the user experiences at its most natural state.”

Puma is also using the campaign to promote its sustainability initiative. The sports lifestyle brand’s upcoming InCycle collection of footwear, clothing and accessories are fully biodegradable or recyclable and use the ‘closed-looped’ system, whereby waste material used in the manufacturing process is returned back to that same process for re-use. Some products in the collection have seen their impact on the environment cut by a third, according to Puma.

The company’s focus on product innovation, particularly in the running market, will see it go head-to-head with rival Adidas, which unveiled its global brand platform Boost last week.

Product development is set to be a key battleground for sportswear manufacturers in the coming months as companies look to emphasis their credentials as innovators. Reebok and Under Armour have both launched cross category marketing campaigns already this year to showcase how their products help enhance performance across various sports.

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