Category: Case Studies

Comparing the biggest ecommerce brands

Analyzing the Marketing Strategies of Nike, Adidas, Puma, Reebok and Fila

Here we go again with one of your favorite blogs on our website. This one is directed more to B2C brands, but I can guarantee that the competitive insights included in this blog can be used across industries. Keep reading, whether you are B2B or B2C in healthcare, tech, or e-commerce.

In this blog, we monitored competitors in the athleisure market. Here is a breakdown of the process we followed

Step 1: Identify the biggest competitors in the market.

We used our AI Competitor Finder tool to identify the top competitors in the market. By adding nike.com (because we all love some Nike), we found that its biggest competitors were adidas.com, reebok.com, fila.com, and puma.com.

We then found their most competitive keywords and analyzed their SERP rankings.

Step 2: Break down the data based on the Customer Journey

To simplify the process this time, we decided to go a step further. We broke down the channels we monitored for each competitor by funnel stage. For each channel, we’ve also added a few useful insights that could give you a competitive edge if you identify similar gaps in your competitive landscape.
More specifically, here is a breakdown of what we did:

Top of the Funnel:

Middle of the Funnel:

Bottom of the Funnel:


Here is what our competitive analysis showed:

If you want to run a similar competitive analysis, you can get inspiration from our competitive analysis templates.

Top of the funnel (Acquisition Channels)

Social Media 

Top Posts

The top 3 posts are brand collaborations. Nike with Lebron James, Puma with One Piece, Nike with the singer Drake. 

What other posts work well?

Posts that grab people’s attention. 

For example, weird photo shoots:

Insights for your brand:

  • The number of times you post is not so important. Quality over quantity. 
  • Create partnerships with influencers. It looks like the top posts of brands like Nike, Adidas etc. is being generated by partnerships. Especially those with humans (not brands). Focus on getting more of this for your brand as well. Start small and scale over time.
  • Take photos that grab people’s attention. Don’t settle for the classic product photos. They won’t cut it. Innovate and find ways to take creative pictures to gain people’s attention. That’s true both for B2C and B2B brands. If you are a B2B brand look at this video from Keap from our previous blog about marketing software marketing tactics.

Ads

Looking at the count filter on ads on Competitors App we can see that the most popular channel for advertising is Google Ads with second best instagram. It looks like big brands have found that advertising on Facebook doesn’t work as well. As their demographics have moved away from the platform. Who is though advertising the most and on which platforms?

To answer this question we generated a competitive benchmarking graph that focuses on the PPC and Social Media Ads analysis of each competitors. We didn’t show any linkedin ads as you can see that there is no linkedin ads for competitors to track.

Middle of the funnel (Website)

We analyzed our competitors’ new pages and website changes over the past month. What we actually did is that we went into ChatGPT. We downloaded all the insights into a PDF file and imported them with this prompt.


Here is what we found for Nike, Adidas and Puma:

Nike:

  • Introduction of new products focusing on the Jordan series and the Air Force 1 lineup. Notable releases include the Dunk Low Retro Herrenschuh, Air Max Plus III Herrenschuh, and special editions of the Air Force 1 07.
  • Emphasis on Jordan Brand with updates spanning several models such as the Jordan 1, Jordan 12, Jordan 13, as well as new apparel under the Jordan Air category.
  • Launch of running and training gear, including the Mercurial Superfly 9 Academy High-Top Fussballschuh, demonstrating a broad focus across both performance and lifestyle segments.

Puma:

  • Collaborations and special collections stand out, with partnerships including Rick and Morty, Lemlem, and Cheetos, indicating a strong focus on unique, themed collections that could attract niche markets.
  • Significant updates in the running shoes category with the introduction of the Nitro series, highlighting Puma’s focus on performance running gear.
  • Expanded offerings in casual and lifestyle footwear, including the Palermo Special Sneakers and various lifestyle collections like the Dare To and White Sneaker collections, showcasing Puma’s emphasis on trendy and comfortable lifestyle options.
  • Launch of sports and training wear, indicating a comprehensive approach to both performance gear and casual wear.

Adidas:

  • A focus on running and outdoor activities is evident with the launch of the Terrex Trail Mentorship Program and a celebration of classic silhouettes in the Originals category. This shows Adidas’ strategy to blend heritage with modern performance demands.

General Observations:

  • Nike appears to be leveraging its strong brand heritage, especially with the Jordan brand, and expanding its lifestyle and performance offerings.
  • Puma is focusing on unique collaborations to appeal to diverse consumer interests, alongside strengthening its performance running gear lineup.
  • Adidas is seen emphasizing its running segment and paying homage to its classic designs, possibly to tap into the nostalgia trend while promoting outdoor activities.

These updates indicate a strategic emphasis on broadening product ranges to cater to diverse consumer preferences, from performance athletic wear to lifestyle and casual options, with a notable trend towards leveraging brand heritage and unique collaborations.

Easy right? In just 10′ we were able to understand where our competitors are focusing on.

Bottom of the funnel (Email, Reviews)

Last but not least, we asked ourselves what reviews say about these brands. Are customers and employees satisfied? Our new AI Review Analysis Feature helped significantly here. Wondering what it was saying?

Here is where it gets interesting:

Insights about the market:
– Poor quality and customer service have been big issues for most brands. That’s not the case for Adidas and Nike.
– Puma is being highlighted as a brand with the best culture and highest employee satisfactions score.
– Shoes are the apparel that gets the most complaints among these brands. Durability is the very first issue that is highlighted.

We then asked chatgpt to analyze our reviews. Here is what we found out:

Based on the emails, here are some of the most important competitor updates:

  1. FILA is promoting their Spring Collection with free shipping on all orders. This includes new sportswear styles in classic silhouettes and colors. They’ve also added new markdowns to their tracksuits, highlighting discounts on items like the Mansur Velour Jacket.
  2. Reebok has launched several collaborations and collections:
    • A luxury loungewear collection with ANINE BING.
    • The return of the Nano UNKNWN, back by popular demand, and the introduction of the FloatZig 1 for runners.
    • Collaborations including Reebok x Cam Hicks and Reebok x Sports Illustrated, the latter featuring the Lift As You Rise Collection.
    • A mid-season sale offering 30-50% off and a spring sale with up to 50% off storewide.
  3. PUMA is focusing on sales and exclusive collections:
    • A private sale with up to 60% off, and a promotion highlighting their golf season gear.
    • An announcement about their head-turning partnerships and exclusive collections.
    • Promotions for their app, encouraging users to enjoy a personalized shopping experience, including virtual try-ons.

Nice and easy, right?

For more insights on how to monitor competitors visit our blog.


CASE STUDY: BIGMAILER maintains its competitive advantage with Competitors App

“Well built product and incredible value.” – Lilia Tovbin, Founder, BigMailer.io


DOMAIN DETAILS

BigMailer is an email marketing platform, optimized for agencies and makers, that runs on top of Amazon SES.

GOALS

  • Monitor and keep up to date with competitor’s prices and price changes;
  • Detect each time when competitors add new features or characteristics to its services ;
  • Build a stable competitive advantage.

BIGMAILER SAVES MANUAL WORK AND TIME WITH COMPETITORS APP

“I have competitor comparison articles with pricing+feature comparison tables that I need to keep up-to-date, so this service saves me manual work and time needed to check competitor sites.”  – Lilia Tovbin, Founder, BigMailer.io

SPOT COMPETITORS’ WEBSITE CHANGE 

With Competitors App, BigMailer’s team can spot competitors’ website changes as pricing change, new web pages added, as well as SEO changes. The team needed a tool that can help them to easily get into competitors’ website updates and changes.

My favorite feature is the highlight of the web page change with before/after comparison – that is so helpful for ease/speed of review when keeping tabs on multiple competitors.”Lilia Tovbin, Founder, BigMailer.io


PRICING DETECTION & E-MAIL ALERTS 

Being an active online presence willing to build a strong competitive advantage and to overcome competitors’ strategies, the Bigmailer team wanted to save hours of manual competitive research and focus more on actionable decisions. The possibility to receive email alerts and notifications each time when a competitor updated their pricing or added new features allowed the team to save time and resources and to improve their website.

“With Competitors.app I get notified when my competitors update their pricing pages or add new services, so I can update our comparison pages. No manual VA work needed.” – Lilia Tovbin, Founder, BigMailer.io

WHY COMPETITORS APP?

Bigmailer’s team needed a tool that can help them to automatically track competitors’ website changes and updates, saving time and resources. Also, the team wanted to monitor competition and easily get into the competitor’s action without the need to spend hours on the platform.

“Stable platform, easy to use UI, the richness of features, quick support via live chat. Great value. Lilia Tovbin, Founder, BigMailer.io

 

CASE STUDY: Jewelry Brand stays relevant to the market

DOMAIN DETAILS

 

Designer jewelry brand, leading the way in demi-fine contemporary jewelry

GOALS

  • Monitor competitors’ Social Media channels and get insights on their content strategies (the type of content; most-used channel; frequency of posts)
  • Uncover competitors’ email marketing strategies (learn when competitors are sending discounts; launching new campaigns or items)
  • Track competitors’ website changes (stay up-to-date when competitors launch new items/campaigns and gather data on competitors’ visual image and brand identity)

 

CHOOSING COMPETITORS APP

As a contemporary booming jewelry label, with seriously affordable prices and very recognizable items, the brand’s team wanted to have an overview of all competitors’ activities, starting with Social Media channels and websites.

The jewelry brand is delivering its products all over the world, so it was a struggle to get and track under the same umbrella all (more than 25) competitors’ moves. The team wanted to automatically track competitors’ moves and to have the possibility to analyze the data in a single place, with very little time investment and effort.

The brand’s Digital Coordinator has chosen Competitors App for two main reasons.
First was the ability to track competitors’ website changes, especially changes that occur on the front page, with the possibility to receive a notification in real-time, anytime when competitors launch a new campaign or a new product, rebrands the business’s identity, change the image of an iconic item and more.

Second is that the platform tracks automatically competitors’ newsletters and email accounts so the team will always be aware of competitors’ promotions, offers, campaigns and understand competition email strategies and how the audience is engaged, so they can take action.


JEWELRY BRAND IMPROVES DIGITAL MARKETING EFFORTS WITH COMPETITORS APP

 

Monitoring Social Media channels

With Competitors App, the jewelry brand, was able to monitor, in a single place, all competitors’ Social Media posts and received notifications each time a competitor was posting something new on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Moreover, the team saved hours of manual research consisting of navigating from a competitor’s profile to others to understand competitors’ content strategies.

Now, the team analyzes, for each competitor, Social Media activity, engagement details, posts frequency, type of content and get insights into their most popular and viral posts. Those insights allow the brand to make strategical decisions, to prioritize their efforts more efficiently and to see what could be improved, based on competitors’ examples and results.

Get competitors’ email strategies 

One important goal for the jewelry brand was to have the ability to automatically track competitors’ newsletters and email accounts and to organize the gathered data. With our advanced timeline filter, the team could select specific competitors, to see exactly their newsletters even from a chosen date.

Additionally, the team started to analyze each competitors’ newsletters’ content in two versions, screenshot, and HTML.

Track competitors’ website changes

Before using Competitors App, the jewelry brand’s team had difficulties in “screenshotting” all competitors’ website changes. Using Competitors App they were able to capture those changes in a single place, allowing them to analyze each change without effort. The “Before” and “After” option facilitated the whole process of searching/finding and analyzing a change, without the need to have technical skills.

 

HOW COMPETITORS APP HELPS AN AWARD-WINNING DESIGNER JEWELRY BRAND TO TAKE ACTION

After the Jewelry brand spotted trends among competitors, it was time to find a path to act differently and to gain visibility. Being aware of their content strategies on Social Media, the team understood better what the audience wants to see and what works for its competitors. Also, competitors’ newsletters gave directions on how the brand should further develop its brand image and helped them to spot new opportunities.

 

Read other competitive articles for your business

  • Competitive Intelligence Business – Competitive intelligence (CI) is a term you may have come across before. Like many industry buzzwords, it isn’t immediately apparent what CI is and how it can be useful to your business. But don’t worry, because we’re going to explain the ins, outs, pros, and cons of CI.

BEST COMPETITORS GUIDES

Monitor competitor website changes
You can get alerted when your competitors are making changes to their website.

Find competitor keywords
Finding your competitors’ keywords is essential for your business. It means that you focus your entire website on targeting high volume, quality keywords.

Track Social Media Pages
Social media competitive analysis is the constant monitoring and analyzing the moves of your competition on social media.

Competitor Email Monitoring
Tracking your competitors’ emails takes some time, but it’s well worth it!

How to do competitor analysis
One important step is to conduct an effective competitive analysis to evaluate your competitors’ brands.

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