PUMA has always had a digital strategy even before COVID: Abhishek Ganguly

PUMA entered the Indian market in 2006, much later than competitors like Nike and Adidas did. However, within a decade, the sportswear brand captured the market, giving rivals a run for their money. 

In the digital era, when brands are pulling out all stops to stay relevant, PUMA is also trying out different marketing tactics to cater to the shifting needs of the new-age consumers, especially those hailing from tier 2 and tier 3 cities. In an exclusive chat with e4m, Abhishek Ganguly, Managing Director, PUMA India, and South East Asia spoke about staying ahead in the time of digital disruption.

The edited excerpts from the interview:

How has Puma been keeping its business relevant?

There is not one answer to this. There are various ways to keep up with the relevancy. First and foremost is the marketing funnel, one needs to appeal to the consumers in a language that they find relevant, and the time of putting the product in front of the consumer to buy has gone. One needs to have a story and a narrative around the brand. We have not come up with a campaign that is just copy-pasted because we are a global brand, as connecting with the Indian audience always requires the language that they understand. 

To be relatable, the channels also play a very important role whether you walk into our stores or it is online. Digital is not just a convenience medium today it's quite so that one needs to create the right experience for the consumer. 

How is PUMA connecting with the GenZs?

Every generation comes with different expectations or behaviour, their approach is very different. The young audience wants to express and be a part of a community, brands that are able to provide a platform where consumers can come in and exchange an expression and connect and build community, and in that process and delivering a message works well with the younger audience.

This audience is are also looking for a purpose around social causes our environment resonates a lot with young audiences. Convenience is also one of the factors today The E-Commerce mechanism as well as the payment mechanism has made life so much easier and young audiences today are starting with convenience. So Genz consumers seek relatability, being a part of the community, are inclined towards purpose-driven brands, and expect convenience.

With Anushka Sharma and now Harmanpreet Kaur as brand ambassadors, what is the messaging that PUMA wants to convey?

We are very focused on having the right kind of opinion leaders, especially women opinion leaders associated with us like a partnership with Mary Kom. Off late we’ve signed up more as a brand which is becoming larger we are trying to stay relevant with the various consumer segment. We want to provide a platform for women to come and express especially in India, for example, in our campaign Proper Lady well women came and expressed themselves breaking gender stereotypes. For years cricket has been called a gentleman's game and now it is changing, we are trying to enable this change to become faster. 

How did PUMA navigate the post-covid era in terms of business?

Before Covid, we have been in India for as long as 13 years. In the last three years including Covid time, we have doubled the sales seen during pre-covid times. We have always had a digital strategy not just during Covid times but for the last 5-7 years. 

How are you leveraging the tier 2 and 3 markets?

We are opening more stores and we will continue to do that for accessibility. e-commerce is obviously helping us to penetrate the market. In the last 3 years, we have grown about 4% point of our share from the non-tier 1 markets. We have almost 490 stores and a lot of them are in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

How much is the online and offline business in these figures - segregation in percentage?

56% of the business comes from physical stores, whereas 44% comes from various digital platforms.

Who has been more impactful for PUMA --  micro or macro influencers?

The truth lies in between as both are very important; it also depends upon your business scale. A very solid influencer strategy other than the selection and execution and the kind of content that goes out is to check credibility. Credibility should be really standing what your brand stands for. 

What's the marketing strategy lined up for the year?

Our choice of channel will be digital and given the kind of demographic profile of our market, it is very important for us to be there. We are going to every channel which is relevant right from search platforms to OTT platforms even news platforms, and sports platforms.