Marketing `investment' big part of game plan

I am thinking Adidas might just kick some real ass with this smart strategy...

Adidas, the world's second-largest sports goods maker, plans to keep marketing spending stable despite the global downturn, in contrast to moves at bigger rival Nike.

"We will continue to spend about 13 per cent of our (annual) net sales on marketing," Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer told a news conference in Germany yesterday.

Industry bellwether Nike, Adidas and Puma all launched recent, broad cost-cutting programs to offset the recession-linked downturn in consumer spending. At Nike, cost-cutting includes reducing marketing spending by focusing more on digital campaigns than on traditional media such as TV.

Adidas sees marketing "as investment" so will cut jobs and close offices and stores to save money. Its goal? Record sales of soccer-related products in 2010, a World Cup year, of "more than 1.3 billion euros ($2 billion Canadian)," Hainer said.