November 2014 archive

Are Adidas marketing geniuses?

With 95% of my e-mails i read the title and just send them to the trash. But when it comes to adidas, more specifically adidas trainers, i have a very very soft spot for them. I get the occasional sale e-mail and a newsletter every month from them which i scan over every so often.

I have recently bought two pairs of the same shoe, different colours of course, online. I then received an e-mail from them trying to promote a certain shoe a couple of weeks later, the same exact shoe i had bought in stores a couple of weeks beforehand. Due to me buying these shoes on my online account, Adidas already knew that I had bought two pairs of the same shoe and are still trying to sell me more and more.

The E-mail I received was very brightly colour and very vivid with the imagery (Image underneath). This could be Adidas trying to tempt me into buying another pair of shoes, even though they know I have already bought two of these shoes. With the shoe pictured below, when I click on the link, it doesn’t actually have the colour of that shoe and it does not have ‘infinite possibilities’ for the choice of shoe. There is only about 30-40 different designs which is a bit of a disclaimer.

Vivid colours of the shoes

Looking at the picture located above, we can also see they are trying to convince me to spend more on their brand by the ‘Free Delivery’ offer.

Adidas also offer a ‘create your own’ option for this product which is the heaven for all shoe lovers as you can have your favourite colours and styles on your favourite shoe. This is a fantastic marketing tactic for Adidas and i’m sure has plenty of people relishing the thought of creating their own shoe.

Although the email was from a valid Adidas address, it didn’t have a personal hello, or anything specific to me it  made it feel as though it was just a standard email with no specific audience which was quite disappointing considering the amount of money I have spent with them.

‘One reason triggered email marketing is so successful is that an automated email system lets you personalise the communication and make it very relevant to the customer.’ (Mohamedi, et al 2013). In regards to this statement, Mohamedi suggest that email marketing is so effective because it lets you personalise the content which is relevant to the customer. While Adidas have included the trainers in which i have bought previously, the no personalisation with my name suggests that Adidas are not completely personal with their audience. This is somewhere where they could potentially improve their service.

 

 

 

 

References:

Mohammadi, M., Malekian, K., Nosrati, M., & Karimi, R. (2013)