Abhishek Ganguly, MD, Puma India, talks about the brand’s focus on riding the fitness wave by creating stories with consumers and tactful use of media
By Saloni Dutta
Sports and fitness in India have seen a rise in interest in the last few years. What is Brand Puma doing to leverage this marketing opportunity?
The growth of sports and fitness has been phenomenal from the time I started off in this industry. We see this growth not just in rising numbers of fan base or viewership, but people have actually started playing sports and games and other fitness activities, be it running or any other means. Ten years later, you will see a very different India from a sports perspective. We at Puma will ride that well and truly. Puma’s overall strategy in India is to create stories, generate conversations for our properties which then garner media attention. We don’t believe in only using media above the line for the sake of it, but it is used to help us create engagement.
Recently, we got Usain Bolt, the world’s No.1 marketable athlete. India is a focus country for Puma and we did a lot of integrations and engagements with him. Usain and Puma checked in traditional media and trended on new age media. We had more than 1.2 million impressions in the digital world with Usain’s India visit.
Also, with our global tie-up with Arsenal, instead of just launching the Arsenal jersey at a press event, we created a tunnel of time in Bangalore. It had some of Arsenal’s trophies and other iconic things which helped us tap the fan base in India. Outside of the UK, India is the largest fan base for Arsenal - 10% of the 35 million fans on the club’s Facebook page are from India and it has grown ever since we came in.
We have just launched Pulse XT, perhaps the most dynamic product we have. It is great for women’s fitness, and is light-weight. We associated with Jacqueline Fernandez because the integration happens so naturally with her and Puma. We believe that we can use Jacqueline as a motivator and inspiration for our women consumers. Hence, we go beyond just buying media. We engage with our consumers at a very different level.
What is the media mix that the brand employs?
Our media mix depends on the campaign and what we are doing. Some of the campaigns can be 100% digital. Talking on the basis of a trend, we are spending more on new age media and it will continue to be like that because that is where our target consumer is. Digital will be our most important platform going forward in this market.
How do you see Urban Stampede as a property contributing to Puma’s growth in India?
Puma is the No. 1 sports brand in the country since the end of last year. Running is our biggest focus. Also with Usain Bolt globally and our positioning of forever faster, there is a lot of credibility for Puma’s running products like Fast, ignite, Mobium... we are a very strong running brand. The best way to engage customers is on-ground with an activity and instead of just tying up with any other race, we thought to create a property which would be contextually relevant... Therefore, we created a corporate running property which is a 5x4 corporate relay. It is great because young corporates are also our target segment, having a substantial disposable income, and we also want to promote running from an organization camaraderie perspective, it is a great HR story. Puma Urban Stampede has been checking in very positively. We are now going to do it in seven cities. I am a firm believer that 50,000 people running Urban Stampede is in a very decent horizon. We are confident about reaching about 30,000 in this calendar year. So it has garnered immense interest because we have hit it right and Puma’s integration with the property is very strong.
What is your take on the competition in the fitness segment?
From a brand perspective we are a sports brand, forever faster, the fastest sports brand in the world. The uniqueness is that we have traditionally been a sports brand with unique assets and great products. Another unique differentiation is that we are also a sports style brand, so our products even if they are for hard core performers have a style element and a design orientation to it. We want our products to look good because we believe our consumers today are not just consuming products for the sake of performance but they also want to use it when they want to feel good about themselves.
How would you define Puma’s pricing strategy in the sports market in India?
We are premium. There is no doubt about it that Puma is a premium brand and we want to stay premium. However, I strongly believe in right pricing and giving value for money to our consumers. That doesn’t mean selling cheap. It means we give a good price value proposition which should be less than 1, which means if a customer pays 100 for your product he should go out of the store that he got 150 out of it. It is not just functional, it is a feeling that he should have. That is something we track. Price value proposition and right pricing is our strategy.
How has Brand Puma fared in brick and mortar retail outlets versus e-commerce portals?
The growth of online has primarily happened in the last couple of years. The heartening thing for us is that while we have grown a lot in e-commerce as an additional channel opportunity, our physical retail also grew about 13% in 2014 over 2013 in our exclusive stores, and that too in a year when online was actually booming. We are in about 115 cities with about 340 stores, with the last 10 being added in the last few months only. We will definitely open stores in more cities and add to the number of stores in the existing cities. We are present on all major e-commerce websites and have an exclusive Puma online store as well.
What can we expect to see from Brand Puma in the coming six months?
There is a lot of excitement, we have launched Urban Stampede, Ignite and now Pulse XT and announced associations with Jacqueline Fernandez and Lisa Hayden. ISL is coming up, and it will be a big draw for us. We firmly believe that it will be 30-40% better than last year. It is already the fifth most watched football league in the world. We will kit for three teams this year as compared to one last year. We also are the ball sponsors of ISL. We will also continue our association with Arsenal and have new launches with the new season coming up in August as it is an important element of our marketing machine. There will be another exciting product launch in the second half of the year which we will announce later.
Marketing Tip
Listen to consumers more than anyone else, because if your brand ticks with them, everything else falls in place.
CMO File
A business leader with a successful track record in the sports, lifestyle and retail space, Abhishek Ganguly, Managing Director of Puma India, believes in steering his team with passion and excelling in everything he does. He has a degree in Mathematics and is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow. He joined Puma India as the Director- Sales & Marketing. The second employee to be hired by the company in India, he was integral in laying the foundation for Puma in the country. In September 2014, Ganguly was appointed the Managing Director of Puma India. Motivating his 450+ member team at the company’s headquarters in Bangalore, Ganguly endeavours to make the brand dominate the sports performance market in the country.
About the Brand
Puma is one of the world’s leading sports lifestyle companies that designs and develops footwear, apparel and accessories. It supports safe sustainability and peace, and being fair, honest, positive and creative in decisions made and actions taken. Puma starts in sports and ends in fashion. Its sport performance and lifestyle labels include categories such as football, running, motorsports, golf and sailing, and involve sport fashion collaborations with renowned designer labels such as Alexander McQueen, Mihara Yasuhiro and Sergio Rossi. The Puma Group owns the brands Puma, Cobra Golf and Tretorn. The company, which was founded in 1948, distributes its products in more than 120 countries worlwide, employs more than 9,000 people and has its headquarters in Herzogenaurach (Germany), Boston, London and Hong Kong.
Facts
BTL agency: Toast Events
Creative Agency: In-house design team
Media agency: OMD
Social and digital media marketing agency: Glitch
PR agency: Madison
Feedback: saloni.dutta@exchange4media.com
