What A Brand Truly Is: Analysis Of Adidas And The North Face

In this paper, the definition of what a brand truly is will be discussed, as will my favorite fashion brand; Adidas and an old fashion brand that I used to love: The North Face. As learned in module one of lectures for FMD 410, the working definition of a brand is defined as “a name, term, symbol, or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller(s) and to differentiate them from the competition”. Personally, this is a very loose definition of what exactly a brand is, meaning that anyone or anything can be a brand as long as they have an identity. There are many components to a brand. Those include but are not limited to brand identity, image, positioning, personality, equity, communication, brand gap, and brand extension. However, a brand is more than just a bunch of parts meshed together, most of what a brand is comprised of, is intangible.

Currently, my favorite brand is Adidas. Growing up I had always thought that “Adidas” was an anagram for “all day I dream about sports”. At first, this was one of the main reasons I had started to like the brand because I thought that was a clever marketing technique. Even though many people other than me thought that was the definition of the brand name, it is in fact named after the German founder of their first shoe, Adolph (Adi) Dassler. The brand was founded by him and his brother, Gebrüder Dassler, in the early 1920’s when Adolph invented spiked shoes for track and field. In 1924, they patented their first shoe: “Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik”. This first running shoe would later become one of the most famous athletic shoes of its time.

Shortly thereafter, their shoes earned much more global recognition when track runner Lina Radke won an Olympic gold medal wearing the shoe in 1928. Eight years later, in the 1936 Olympics, even more athletes won gold medals wearing his shoes. In 1949, the brand was reinvented with Adolph Dassler as the sole owner and registered the “Adi Dassler Adidas Sportschuhfabrik” and began working with 50 fellow employees in Herzogenaurach, Germany (Adidas Group). His brother that same year would create one of Adidas’ biggest rival companies: Puma. Later the same year, he registered a shoe that included the registration that would eventually become the world-renowned Adidas three stripes. The three stripes trefoil would be used as one of the brands largest branding techniques and become their logo in 1972. The simple three stripes is one of their trademarks that can be seen informally on almost all of their products, like their shoes, sweatpants, sweatshirts and more.

With Adidas being the top selling shoe in the United States in the 1970’s it seemed the brand could only go up from there in popularity and in sales. However, following Adi Dassler’s death and the end of the Dassler Era in 1987, the company was preparing to file for bankruptcy. In 1993, a new CEO was named: Robert Louis-Dreyfus. He steered the company in a new direction, and six years later in 1995, Adidas went public. Over the years, new and innovative products were being made and helped Adidas sales to continue climbing. They had acquired the Salomon Group, along with its brands, in 1997 and renamed themselves to Adidas-Salomon AG (Adidas Group, History). The late 1900’s brought a lot of new administrative changes to the company, which turned out to be positive in the long-run.

In the modern era, Adidas was the first brand in the sports performance industry to introduce a new lifestyle collection, focusing on street-wear. Partnerships with other famous brands would start to develop, such as one with Stella McCartney in 2004. A year later, Salomon leaves the team and Adidas bought Reebok and their partner brands Rockpork and Reebok-CCM Hockey (Adidas Group, History). This move was huge, as it brought two of the largest and best-known sporting goods companies together.

Today, Adidas sponsors hundreds of professional athletes, professional leagues, competitions, and national teams all over the world. They have taken celebrity endorsements to a new level, making sure they get world-famous athletes and not just faces of North American sports. David Beckham, Muhamad and Laila Ali, and Haile Gebrselassie are just a few of the celebrity athletes they have endorsed. Some of the sports organizations and leagues they sponsor include the FIFA World Cup, some Olympic Games, the National Hockey League (NHL), and over 100 North American colleges — including Central Michigan University.

Functionally, Adidas does a lot for a consumer. Primarily, the main function of Adidas clothing is for the function of sports, with a focus on health and fitness, and an emphasis on performance. Over the past few years, when athleisure has risen in style, the typical consumer started shopping at Adidas for not just their functionality, but also for their overall aesthetic. With that, however, those consumers are getting extra functional benefits that they may not have known about. Functionally, they mainly provide comfortable and reliable clothing and shoes for both rigorous athletes as well as for those consumers looking for sports-inspired casual attire. For some consumers, Adidas can produce more emotional benefits for those who know them for their sports sponsorships. An emotional bond can be had when consumers see the three stripes on a certain athlete’s or team’s jersey that triggers a specific memory for them in time. For example, people who have a deep connection to soccer have an emotional bond to Adidas, as one of the world’s largest soccer tournaments, FIFA, is sponsored by Adidas.

Out of the five different brand personalities, Adidas would fall into the personality of competence. First and foremost, a brand personality, as defined in the FMD 410 lectures for Module 1, is the set of human traits a company has that it portrays in its relationships with its customers. A competent brand personality means the brand can be seen as reliable, intelligent, successful, and confident in what they are doing. Adidas has a clear mission of “wanting to be the best sports company in the world”. To their brand this means that they “design, build and sell the best sports products in the world”. If you describe this type of relationship between the Adidas brand the Adidas customer, the customer sees the brand is a reliable brand that they can count on. The customer also knows that Adidas will always deliver the best and most successful products they can.

Adidas is competitive and 100% committed to being the best at what they do. They are athletic, enjoy working out and staying in shape and showing off the work they put in at the gym. By pushing boundaries and staying involved they are versatile, and don’t give up until their goals are reached. They are also aesthetically pleasing yet still going for the sporty yet fashionable look. With that, they are comfortable in their own shoes but still push themselves out of their comfort box. I described Adidas like this because they are an innovative brand that focuses on being the best, no matter how many failures are had.

A brand that I previously loved was The North Face. The North Face can be classified as an outdoor-wear brand, but originally their products were made specifically for mountain climbing. They started in 1966 in northern California; San Francisco to be exact, by two hiking enthusiasts. In terms of branding, they named their brand off the coldest side of a mountain. Their trade mark “Never Stop Exploring” came to be in 1960’s after they started sponsoring some of the most far-reached expeditions. Once the 1990’s hit, they expanded from mountain-climbing and skiing apparel and products to more sportswear. Functionality became a much larger deal in this era of designs, making sure athletes got the ultimate fit. This was also the time their dome style logo emerged. The North Face was eventually bought in 2000 by VF Corporation, become a wholly own subsidiary. Over the last decade, as environmental justice and sustainability has risen in importance for fashion brands, The North Face created different programs for the cause. Programs such as Close the Loop, which helps with raw material recycling, and the Responsible Down Fund (RDS) to ensure animals are not harmed in the production of their goods. The North Face had their Olympic debut for their products in Sochi 2014. The North Face doesn’t have as long of as brand history as some other world-famous brands as it is still a “newer” brand, only having been around for a little over 50 years now.

Their brand personality is rugged; or a brand that personifies a toughness and has outdoorsy qualities. Their brand personality is one of the reasons I stopped liking them, as I slowly stopped liking those types of brands. I enjoy other rugged brands such as Patagonia and Columbia, but I feel that those brands market better towards me personally and use a different combination of brand personalities. Another reason that it used to be my favorite because they were a very popular brand in middle school and early high school. I was essentially conforming to what other people liked, but when I grew my own opinions I started to like them less. I realized this once I started to do more research about other outerwear brands and saw that other brands offered more in a functional sense, as well marketed themselves better towards my personal functional and emotional needs.

A brand is not always necessarily a tangible object. In ways, it is how they market themselves to their consumers alongside what they physically sell. Their brand personality makes up a large part of their brand. Brand personality is one reason why my favorite fashion brand is Adidas. Their brand personality goes hand in hand with their mission statement of always wanting to be the best. They are also one of my favorite brands due to the fact that they focus on functionality yet still make fashion-forward athleisure and sporting-goods. The North Face is no longer my favorite fashion brand because they focus too much on functionality for me. They also do not have as much provide for me as much emotionally as other outerwear brands.

Works Cited

1. Flippo, H. (2019, January 15). Do You Know About the Origins of Adidas? Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/quick-history-of-adidas-1444319
2. Lee, Seung-Eun. Chapter 1.2: What is a Brand. Retrieved from https://chipcast.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=14f0f146-8680-4197-9c13-a86a014a4529
3. Lee, Seung-Eun. Chapter 1.3: Brand Personality. Retrieved from https://chipcast.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=535fd946-6939-44b3-b846-a86a014a4335
4. Sharma, E. (2016, June 3). 10 Branding Elements And What They Mean. Retrieved from http://www.brandanew.co/10-branding-elements-and-what-they-mean/
5. (n.d.). History. Retrieved from https://www.adidas-group.com/en/group/history/
6. (n.d.). Strategy. Retrieved from https://www.adidas-group.com/en/group/strategy-overview/
7. (n.d.). The North Face Story. Retrieved from https://www.thenorthface.com/about-us/our-story.html
8. (n.d.). The North Face: Overview. Retrieved from https://www.vfc.com/brands/outdoor/the-north-face
9. THE NORTH FACE ACQUIRED BY VF CORP. IN $25.4M CASH DEAL. Retrieved from https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2000/04/10/Finance/THE-NORTH-FACE-ACQUIRED-BY-VF-CORP-IN-$254M-CASH-DEAL.aspx