2. MEANING OF MASS
CUSTOMIZATION..
• Production of personalized or custom-
tailored goods or services to meet consumers'
diverse and changing needs at near mass
production prices.
• Customer is integrated during co-
design, configuration and product specifications.
• Mass customization is designed to deliver highly
customized products with mass production
efficiency..
3. MI ADIDAS..
This case examines adidas “mi adidas”
initiative aimed at delivering customized
athletic footwear to retail customers. It
discusses the practical implications
associated with expanding the initiative
from a small pilot to a wider operation with
a retail presence.
4. • Mi adidas was launched in April 2000 to
provide consumers with a chance to create
unique athletic footwear produced to their
personal specifications. It was an entirely
new idea to customize product, test
consumers’ demands and fulfill their
expectations as far as possible.
6. Phase 1: The mi adidas Pilot
It paid attention towards the evaluation of
the feasibility and prospects of mass
customizing athletic shoes . The objective
was to offer a customized product to test
customers demand for the product and
fulfill their expectations as far as possible.
It included the following steps-
7. Product selection
Free shoes as for testing
Marketing
Customer feedback
Check on competitors activities
This led to a positive impression of the
brand amongst the customers.
8.
9. Phase 2-The mi adidas Retail Tours
• After the success of phase -1 & satisfying
customer, mi adidas entered phase-2 where it
paid more attention towards the retail stores.
Retail units were set up which were more
durable and customer friendly.
• A large number of retailers were willing to take
part in this phase but only 50 were selected.
• Adidas paid more attention towards the small
specialty stores where in their products can be
easily marketed and customer can easily access
the customization process.
10. • As the first phase was fully event based, now the
second phase was 90% on the shoulders of
retail outlets and 10% event based.
• There were some problems faced by the
retailers regarding the geographical location and
the fee of promoting and marketing the brand.
This also hampered the engagement of
customers in the project.
11. The main stress was laid on the customized fit
over customized design. For this purpose the 3D
foot scanner was replaced by a simple foot
scanner unit for the best measurement for length
and width.
The prices of the customized shoes were also kept
at premium about 30-50% over the catalog
price.
After being successful in the field of soccer
shoes, mi adidas was now ready to enter into
the running shoe market and launched its
customized shoes during marathons.
12. • As the demand for the customized shoes
increased, Mi adidas faced some problems but
slowly and steadily it tried to maintain fit, design
and performance of the product.
13. Competitors...
Nike
New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc.
Custom Foot Corp.
Creo Interactive GmbII
Customatix.com of Solemates, Inc.
16. Phase-3
• This phase will pay more attention towards
bringing of new shoes under customization
process such as basketball and tennis foot
wears.
• Targets has been set for the shoes like
Precision, Supernova, Bromium and
Barricade.
17. Phase-4
• This phase will pay more attention
towards setting up of permanent
MC units in adidas stores and
selected specialty stores.
18. Future of mi adidas
• Consumer feedback was
enthusiastic and enticing for
adidas to repeat the offerings
of mi adidas.
•In the long run only those mass
customization systems will be
successful that manage the
tradeoff between the benefits
and costs of customer
integration sufficiently.
20. What was Adidas Distribution
strategy for mass
customization approach?
Can you suggest an alternate
distribution strategy for
Adidas?
Discussion..
21. Alternative strategies..
Emphasize on Horizontal Growth
Strategy with Focus on Diversification-
expansion of its products in other
geographical locations, for example, in
emerging countries like India, Brazil and
Russia where the market is growing very
rapidly.
22. Also consider to diversify its sports products by
using price strategy. For instance, under pricing
strategy there are premium prices with high
quality products, medium price with high-high
quality or high medium quality of products, or
low price with average quality. By diversifying
such many pricing strategy, customers will have
much choice and more can choose according to
their affordability.
23. Stability strategy
Adidas can stop or limit its production towards
some products to have an innovation and
redesign. This can help to increase the
company’s products image and reputation. This
is because over produced products will cause
products low value and it will not be appreciated
as it will be easy to get.