Puma Classify Its Consumers By Their Lifestyle

By Author: jason Linken
Total Articles: 14
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At that time,almost all companies classified consumers in a traditional way,such as consumer's age,education,income and other criteria.While Tony Bote Lun,Puma's director of global brand management,thought "a 19-year-old Japanese high school student's lifestyle and brand preference may be similar to a 30-year-old New York black.Thinking attitudes and lifestyles are the two important factors that affect consumers most,so to create a unique brand attitude is the core of our brand marketing. We will definite as an active lifestyle. We hope the consumers would be our loyal customers even if they become 70-year-old grandmother."

The core of Puma's market segmentation is to firmly grasp the Early-Adopter (people who try the shoes firstly).According to the marketing theory,all consumers can be divided into "Innovator", " Early-Adopter " "Early Majority.""Late Majority" and the "laggards" basing on their receiving degree to the new products, new technology. Of which the people who try the shoes firstly account for about 13.5% of the total, they are generally the" opinion leaders" of a certain market or area who can help recommend ...
... the brand or product to the majority and the laggards.

Bote Lun, the director of brand management, said instead of classifying the brand's product line in accordance with the price, Puma consider to differentiate the product by consumers' lifestyle, they firstly think clear about what products are designed for the first attempters and what products are designed for the majority, because the product designed for the first attempters should be more fashionable. The same strategy with the distribution channels of the product,that is, Puma makes the avant-garde designed products appear in a number of small fashion shops according to the characteristics of different product lines, while some of those mainstream products are put in the famous store such as Foot Locker

Jochen Zeitz said, Foot Locker had once proposed to sell the Puma in multiple store with its full range of products;in that case,Puma could easily make the number of its sale doubled. However,this proposal was declined by Puma, Bote Lun said;"We do not think that those guys who buy the coolest products of Puma want to see their shoes can be found everything in the street.Zeitz said that the sale growth was not the only thing that Puma considered; their goal was to achieve a long-term stability and to establish a strong link with consumers'all life.Then, Puma cooperated with the famous supermodel and yoga trainer Christie Torrington to launch the campaign of design line specifically for women sports—yoga, which set off a wave of yoga in the West countries.In Puma's efforts, it is now common to see famous people like Madonna appear in the public with Puma shoes on feet. As we can see,Puma developed a new way to classify its consumers,which is definitely important for the development of Puma.Therefore,creative thoughts are vital to business running,just think out of the convention box.