ASICS Team

Melissa Rigby

Alexandra Sorensen

Becky Lyle

Jamie Christensen

Jenna Reeder

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Table of Contents

History.........................................................................3Mission, Goals and Objectives.................................4Strategies.....................................................................5Company Structure...................................................6Past IMC.....................................................................7Present IMC...............................................................9Financial Details......................................................11Effect of Sales............................................................12Competitors..............................................................13Brands Copy.............................................................14Target Audience.......................................................15Creative Brief............................................................18Bibliography..............................................................20

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History of ASICSThe company that later became ASICS was created in 1949 by Kihachiro Onitsuka, a Japanese salaryman with the idea to create his own company that produced sneakers for schoolchildren, a luxury that was in short supply at the time. Inspired by the Latin phrase, Anima Sana in Corpore Sano, which translates to A sound mind in a sound body, Onitsuka developed his athletic footwear company Onitsuka Co., Ltd.

The phrase itself is the company philosophy, which embodies a strong wish that people around the world may live in health and happiness through sports; and we wish to help that goal by contributing to the global sports culture as a general sports equipment manufacturer.

In 1977, after securing a spot as a general sports equipment manufacturer, the company name was changed to ASICS, the acronym of the inspiring Latin phrase. In that same year, ASICS introduced its products to the United States.

In 1990, the Research Institute of Sports Science was opened in Kobe, Japan. Through this institute, ASICS has developed remarkable technological inno-vations in sports shoes and apparel. The main goal of this work is to ...enable professional and recreational athletes all over the world to perform better, to reach a higher level and to enjoy themselves.

Today, ASICS is a well-known worldwide brand that specializes in producing top-of-the-line sports footwear. In recent years, ASICS running shoes have been ranked among the top performance footwear in the sportswear market.

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In 1966, Onitsuka TIger created a shoe line called Limber, later renamed Mexico 66, which featured crossed stripes. These became known as tiger stripes. The stripes are now so common that they are nearly as representative of ASICS as the company logo is.

Mission, Goals and ObjectivesMission: Accoring to ASICS, Our mission is to become the number one brand for the sports enthusiast. To accomplish this, we pledge to continue to make the best product; striving to build upon our technological advances and pushing the limits on what we can learn from the body and its needs in athletic gear.

Goals: Further enhancing the visibility of the ASICS brand and boosting sales in Japan andoverseas.

Objectives: ASICS has implemented a five-year growth plan, of which 2016 is the final year. ASICS is aiming for 400 billion in consolidated net sales in 2016.

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StrategiesIn order to meet its goals and objectives, ASICS has chosen the Americas as the place to focus on growing its market and increasing its visibility. According to its 2013 annual report, We plan to boost sales in the U.S. by focusing on running shoes, our core strength. Although competition in the U.S. is intensifying, the market is expanding, so we plan to launch new products and open more flagship and outlet stores in the U.S.

In the past, ASICS has increased its visibility through global advertising campaigns and through the global store chain. In order to increase its visibility further, ASICS is adopting a new strate-gy. According to its 2013 annual report, This strategy will maintain our existing reputation for high-performance, high-quality products, while also rebuilding brand design, including store environments, to create a brand that is more familiar to general consumers.

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Company StructureASICS Corporation is the parent company, based in Kobe, Japan. ASICS America Corporation is a private U.S. subsidiary based in Irvine, California. The figure below shows the structure for ASICS America.

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Past IMCASICS has marketed for the past few years about showcasing real people who actually participate in marathons. It has done this in many different campaigns, which carry the same message but all have different takes on the sport that ASICS has become one of the top companies. In 2011, VITRO launched the U.S. campaign We Stop at Never.

In January 2012, ASICS hired 180 Amsterdam as its global ad agency. VITRO continued as US advertiser, but lost its global position. This campaign pulled to the audience about how marathon runners never stopped going. They dont quit under any circumstances.

Another marketing movement that ASICS made was in the UK. It made a movement to bring science into the stores. In the ASICS stores in the UK they brought in scientists to show the customers on how the shoes benefit them and how they work. ASICS still to this day has this in its stores. This has built trust between ASICS and its clients.

A past campaign titled Made of Sport, created by 180 Amsterdam, celebrates the true sport athletes journey to personal victory. It shows the early mornings, late nights, and dedication of every waking hour; it shows how marathoners come together and how they achieve their goals.

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Past IMCAl Moseley, managing partner and executive creative director at 180 Amsterdam, said, ASICS is reclaiming the idea of true sport, and giving it back to the everyday athlete. The campaign encourages the audience to ask them-selves if they too are made of the dedication, commitment and passion that true sport athletes exhibit.

The Effort is Beautiful campaign was created in 2012. It took people who have been labeled as Beauty Queen and shows how they are real people.

ASICS put on a marathon in Paris to introduce its new marketing campaign Real Beauty, Real Women. The winner of the race would be the new face of ASICS for its running shoes.

Present IMCASICS recently hired Starcom to its marketing and advertising team, along with existing agency, VITRO and 180 Amsterdam.VITRO was its global ad agency from 1996-2011.Vice President of ASICS, Gary Slayton, said, The assignment for the Amsterdam-based agency is to drive consumers toward a more emotional connection with the Japanese sportswear brands True Sport position-ing through global marketing campaigns in TV, print, online and outdoor advertising as well as retail, events and public relations.

ASICS for this year has a campaign called the Blogger Challenge. It has invited bloggers to train with Coach Andrew Kastor and run in the LA Marathon on March 9th, 2014. Each bloggers write about how the train-ing is going. Each of the bloggers post about the health, tips, and food for getting ready for the Marathon. These bloggers are on the ASICS website with their posts. Each blogger will write about once a week about how the training is going.

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Present IMCBetter your Best Campaign (2013-Present)In its Better Your Best campain, ASICS targets real life people in real life situations. These people challenged themselves to do better than their best. They showed this with different marathon runners who challenged them-selves to do better than their best. ASICS created videos of people who are legendary marathon runners and how they made their best better. ASICS has had this campaign going on since late 2013. This has been one of its most productive campaigns it has had.

ASICS is using real life people to market towards its audience that are marathons runners or want to become marathon runners.

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Financial DetailsASICS America is a private company, so its financial details are not available to the public. How-ever, according to the ASICS America company dossier from Lexis-Nexis, its net sales for 2013 were estimated at $37.9 million.

ASICS, based in Japan, is a public company which makes its financials known. According to the ASICS 2013 annual report, the net income for ASICS in 2013 was $1.2 billion and the net sales were $2.2 billion.

According to the ASICS 2013 annual report, net sales in the Americas increased 13.2 percent between 2012 and 2013, to $5.7 billion. The net income for the Americas segment of ASICS increased 27.6 percent between 2012 and 2013, to $40.69 million. ASICS attributes the increase in income largely to the increase in sales. According to the report, In particular, sales in the U.S. recovered to double-digit growth, thanks in part to the launch of the ASICS 33 collection.

Sports shoe sales make up 74 percent of ASICS net sales, nearly $1.7 billion out of $2.2 billion.

According to AdWeek, Kantar Media found that in 2013 ASICS spent about $15 million on adver-tising in the US.

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Effects of SalesVITRO is the advertising agency for ASICS America. According to VITROs website, Af-ter 15 years with VITRO, ASICS is now the number two running brand in America. Sales have increased 700%, market share has doubled.

One case study illustrating advertisings effect on sales took place in Spain during 2011. According to the article ASICS Races to Build Its Brand published Feb 14, 2012 in the Wall Street Journal, ASICS did a TV campaign in March 2011 which increased ASICS brand awareness in Spain by over seven percent. ASICS repeated the campaign in Octo-ber. That year, despite a poor economy, ASICS sales in Spain grew 32 percent, far beyond the market growth of just 1.2 percent. Alistair Cameron, head of ASICS European oper-ations, said of the case, With the most expensive brand in the market, to be growing in that market is really a sign of how TV advertising supported our strategy.

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CompetitorsAccording to HOOVERS 2013, the top competitors for the ASICS Company based on gross revenue, net profit margin, and net operating cash flow are Fila USA, Nike, and Adidas. Brooks and Underarmour are secondary competitors. Nike is the top competition with 2013 annual sales of $27.8 billion. Adidas comes in second with sales of $19.95 billion. ASICS had annual sales of $37.6 million in 2013.

In a comparison done by Running Shoes Expert, the top 2014 recommended running shoes are as follows:

ASICS is the only company to have the top rated type of running shoe in two categories.

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Brands CopyThe advertising copy for ASICS deals a lot with running. The main focus of its ads is that ASICS shoes are great for running, especially long distance. It uses common and simple words in its advertising. Sound mind sound body and So comfortable its like running on a cloud are just a couple of examples that were found that show its simpleness when it comes to its advertisements. ASICS does not do comparative advertising. The main focus is on the product and lifestyle.

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Target Audience

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DemographicsThe main age group that purchase ASICS shoes are those between the ages of 35-54, who are mainly white. Between men and women, 58.5% of people who purchase these shoes are women. Specifically there are 66.5% who are married and a large majority of them have children living at home between the ages of 6-17. Many of those who purchase ASICS shoes have an education beyond college graduation, are employed in a professional occupation, and make more than $150 thousand. These consumers typically live in the Midwest and have lived at their current address for more than 5 years.

ASICS users are heavy readers of magazines. The most popular magazine among them is Runners World. Though other fitness magazines are also popular reads, the most common magazine types were airline and business or finance magazines. People who buy ASICS also enjoy Consumer Re-ports, cooking magazines such as Cooking Light and Taste of Home, lifestyle magazines such as Country Living and O, style magazines such as Glamour and Allure, and the celebrity magazines Parade and People.

People who use ASICS are most likely to be medium-light users of live broadcast radio. They prefer to listen to the radio from 6-10 a.m. and from 3-7 p.m. on weekdays, and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends. They also really like to listen to streaming radio sites such as Pandora and iHeartRadio. However, they are less likely than the average to listen to Spotify.

Target Audience

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ASICS customers have a strong presence on the web, and frequently visit websites such as NBC Sports, NFL.com, ESPN, and other sports-related websites. One of the most popular websites visited by ASICS users is wunderground.com, a weather report website. Goo-gle Maps and MapQuest are also high-volume sites, used to map out and calculate run-ning-routes. Other websites that ASICS customers have a high use of are priceline.com, livingsocial.com, fandango.com, groupon.com, and WebMD.com.

Those that purchase ASICS shoes can be considered Americas athletes. They watch to keep up with their favorite sports on ESPN stations as well as the Golf Channel and the MLB and NFL Networks. These consumers are also watching other networks like HGTV and DIY as they actively keep up with their home projects. They enjoy watching Bravo, which is most commonly known for The Real Housewives shows.

Target Audience

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PsychographicsAmong women ages 35-54, 60 percent say their reason for purchasing athletic shoes is to replace a worn-out pair of athletic shoes. Other reasons include needing shoes because they recently started training or to prevent injury during exercise. Overall, the second most common reason for women ages 35-54 to buy athletic shoes is to wear them as an everyday shoe. ASICS, however, targets consumers who are serious runners. Only 13 percent of women ages 35-54 buy shoes because they are are avid athletes.

Just 2 percent of women ages 35-54 say their athletic shoe purchase was influenced by the en-dorsement of an athlete.

ASICS is a high-end brand, but 78 percent of women ages 35-54 said they are willing to pay more for comfortable shoes. Of people with a household income of $150 thousand or more, 87 percent said they are willing to pay more for comfortable shoes. The target audience will buy ASICS brand if they know the shoes are comfortable.

Despite being willing to pay for comfort, the target audience is looking for a good deal. Of women ages 35-54, 61 percent said they prefer to buy shoes on sale, and only 22 percent usually pay full price for shoes. Even in the $150K+ income bracket, shoppers are more likely to seek sales than buy shoes at the full price.

Creative Brief

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Brand: ASICS

Product/Department: Running Shoes

Project: Research Project/ Company Brand

Region: ASICS is targeting all nations and the competitors of running shoes.

Who we are talking to (Target): Marathon Runners Specific Target: Marathon runners who are advanced. Profile of target segment: The target audience is the ages between 35-54 years old, male and female. The target audiences household income is $150,000 a year, so the audience is middle class to upper class.

Main competitors: Fila USA, Nike, and Adidas.

Strengths: ASICS is a well-built shoe that is made for running. ASICS is also well-known around Europe and Asia. It has good marketing towards its audience which is marathon runners, whereas Nike and Adidas are just breaking into marathon runs.

Weaknesses: ASICS is not as well-known in the U.S for its running shoes. Another weak-ness ASICS shows is that it is not an American-based company like Nike. ASICS has most-ly focused on Europe, but hasnt made a huge impact on America yet.

History: Founded in 1949 by Kihachiro Onitsuka. The motto is A sound mind in a sound body.

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Clients Track record: Most clients are loyal and will repurchase the brand.

Targets perception of competitors: Many find the competitors not up to speed with the ASICS running shoe, because while Nike and other competitors always talk about a light-weight running shoe, what a marathon runner needs is a shoe that wont wear out after a few 26-mile runs. Come away with: The brand truly cares about its clients and want the clients to find that the shoe will last through early morning runs and late night ones.

Call to action: ASICS calls out to the audience by challenging them to do better, push harder, and be their best.

Why the target should buy this product: If the audience wants a shoe that will last a long time and handle all the hard trails with hills, gravel and pavement. The target audience also needs a shoe that will support their feet and knees on their long run, which ASICS provides for them.

Creative Brief

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Bibliographyhttp://www.ASICSamerica.com/about-ASICSRunnersworld.comLexis-Nexis company dossierhttp://www.marketingweek.com/2012/07/19/ASICS-accelerates-uk-expansion-plan/http://adage.com/article/global-news/ASICS-names-180-amsterdam-lead-global-agency-pitch/232040)http://www.runningshoesguru.com/2012/01/ASICS-made-of-sports-new-campaign/#sthash.paHXl1Y9.dpufhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le8En3oKY_chttp://www.runningshoesguru.com/2012/01/ASICS-made-of-sports-new-campaign/#sthash.paHXl1Y9.dpufhttp://search.proquest.com.byui.idm.oclc.org/docview/467204558http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/starcom-wins-ASICS-global-business-158416https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgVsO1-zJ6whttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsA27ueSODYhttp://www.triathlonbusiness.com/2014/industry-news/better-best-campaign-ASICS/ASICS Annual Report 2013 and X-rates.com currency calculatorhttp://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/starcom-wins-ASICS-global-business-158416http://VITROagency.com/project/ASICShttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-24/ASICS-to-compete-against-Nike-adidas-with-lower-priced-shoes.htmlhttp://ureporter.mriplusonline.com/selectdemo.asphttp://subscriber.hoovers.com.byui.idm.oclc.org/H/company360/overview.html?company-Id=120987000000000http://www.runningshoesexpert.com/http://ureporter.mriplusonline.com/selectdemo.asphttp://academic.mintel.com.byui.idm.oclc.org/display/626120/?highlight#hit1

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