Adidas has forever been known in
Europe as the dominant sporting brand, but it seems that recently Nike is
attempting to gain some of their share, or, maybe even take over. Since the start of the German based
company in 1949, Adidas and soccer have always gone together. Nike, on the other hand, whose roots
date back to the 1960’s wasn’t involved in the soccer market until
recently. They have become a
relatively new member to the soccer market when it finally entered in
1994. The biggest thing going on
today is how Nike is beginning to gain more and more support in the soccer
world. With the world cup slated
to be occurring in 2014 in Brazil it will be interesting to see how much of the
market Nike takes over. Nike is
currently sponsoring the home team and one of the main favorites of the world
cup in Brazil. The Brazil deal in
1996 gave Nike a huge share in the soccer market and the world cup of 2014 will
only promote this more. As the
Brazilian soccer team is focused on so crucially during the World Cup, all the
fans will constantly see the Nike sign on the player’s jerseys. In perhaps the biggest international
single sporting contest in the world, Brazil’s Nike jerseys will be at the forefront,
which is something that is daunting to the Adidas Company once in complete
control of the soccer market. Nike
is looking at this opportunity to expand its company internationally as soccer
is the most popular sport around the world with 2 billion fans worldwide. It is believed by some analysts that
Nike will take over the soccer market internationally in the next 10 years. Others believe that Adidas is so deeply
rooted in the roots of soccer that no company will ever be able to take over
the market from them. Nike is
making a very strong case to take over in the soccer industry so it is up to
Adidas to react accordingly to keep their dominance.
-Harris Fanaroff
It will definitely be interesting to see if Nike can take over the market. Not only are they sponsoring Brazil for the World Cup, but also they've already taken advantage of many marketing opportunities that have presented themselves throughout the South American country. Brazil's economy is booming and their digital and social media is the 5th most present in the entire world. Nike can and wants to capitalize on these opportunities through online marketing, and when they combine that with their sponsorship I think they may give Adidas a run for their money. Nike will be all over television, and like you said 2 billions fans will have Nike on their mind throughout all of the international broadcasting. I think Nike has made several smart moves to gain success and Brazil and I will be interested to see how Adidas competes.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting comment Erica, I had no idea about Brazil and their social media. That is something that should help them very much in further developing. The South American soccer community is a booming market so it seems Nike may try to gain a tighter grasp on this in order to continue expanding.
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