Editor’s note: This article was first published in February 2011; Reebok’s market position, the EasyTone sales boom and the forecast that health and beauty would be among 2011’s most profitable businesses reflect that time. In September 2011 Reebok agreed to pay US$25 million to settle US Federal Trade Commission charges over the advertising of its toning shoes.
Today we’re going to use as an example the marketing strategy (Reebok Easy Tone) that Reebok has developed to make a business that had been declining for some time profitable again. Reebok has been losing market share for a couple of years now, especially in Europe, where Nike has pulled far ahead of it, while it also battles cheaper second-tier brands.
In a nutshell, if you want to spend your money on a good pair of sports shoes, you look for Nike, and if you want cheap ones, you look for a store brand or a second-tier brand. Rumour has it that Reebok changed its “thinking staff” and outsourced the work to an external marketing agency, which saw other business ideas, and, as we’ve discussed before, one of the most profitable businesses for 2011 will be health and beauty.
Reebok has launched an aggressive worldwide marketing campaign announcing its new footwear, which it says tones the body and firms up your figure. We can already say it has been a real success: its sales in Europe have soared to the point that Reebok Easy Tone shoes sold out in some large stores.
Competitors with the same or a similar product were quick to appear, but Reebok has already established itself as the number one seller of this toning footwear.
It’s an example of how, when your business is struggling, the answer isn’t to close down or lay off staff, but to invest in new ideas, invest in new products and, above all and most importantly, invest in advertising. What Reebok has done is “reinvent itself”, a word we’ll have to get used to if we want our business to succeed in these times of crisis.
Update: Reebok has been ordered to pay 25 million euros for misleading advertising, so, following this brand’s example, when you decide to create a marketing strategy, try not to deceive the consumer.
Further reading
- 5 ways to grow your business
- Improve your business’s sales with the internet in 3 simple steps
- How to improve your company: a change of image
- Why new businesses fail
Featured image: Andrew Kuchling, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
