Since 2019, the brand has set goals and created actions, sponsoring athletes and influencers, to encourage healthy sports practices.
68% became a symbolic number of a key that Puma set out to turn. It is the percentage of women who did not play sports in 2015, according to IBGE data, and which arrived at the sporting goods manufacturer through a consultancy contracted in 2019 to identify the territories that it could explore with women in Brazil.
Since then, he has set goals and has been seeking to create more and more connections with the female audience, activating practices such as football, running, skateboarding and training. “The approach we chose to talk about is for the woman to start having time with her and to improve her health and well-being”, says Rubia Dalla Pria, communication manager for the brand.
A contrast with the stereotype of the fitness muse, the search for a perfect body or the struggle for weight loss, which ends up creating a situation in which the woman finds herself with the sport in a “moment of pain”.
It is true that the pandemic hindered the brand’s steps, but the strategy has worked, according to the executive. She says that Puma has doubled the number of top of mind and spontaneous recall.
“The numbers have been increasing, which shows that we are managing to talk”, he says. Among the products of greatest interest are the “sport style”, those that carry the sporty DNA, but that can be used on everyday occasions.
In the period, the local posture also gained a strong global reinforcement, the #SheMoveUs campaign launched in March 2021, which seeks to encourage sisterhood and the practice of sports among women.
Among the products of greatest interest are the “sport style”, those that carry the sporty DNA, but that can be used on everyday occasions.
new moment
With the post-pandemic resumption process, the brand, fearful, delayed its return to face-to-face events and left its actions for the second semester.
The intention now is to provide more activities that offer experiences for consumers, such as dance, pilates and yoga, a way to create new points of contact. And, in addition, it must sponsor both women’s and mixed street races.
“Puma didn’t want to start encouraging encounters before full release. From now on, we’re back to planning events and tastings to activate products,” he explains. She recalls that the Puma Nitro sneaker family, for example, did not have a product test moment. It is at this moment of recovery that the brand is also studying the translation of “She Moves Us”, as a way to bring the concept closer to a greater number of women.
Among the goals set at the beginning of the journey, the brand must beat the allocation of 35% of the investment in marketing for the development of the women’s category planned for this year. “It’s already in the budget,” says Pria.
In addition, it works with the objective of reaching 30% in market share of women’s products in the market in 2024 – today, the “gender share” of items made by the brand exclusively for women is 20%. These are strategies that, combined with other actions, seek to lead the company to another result, reaching a 20% market share in Brazil.
In this trajectory, it started to sponsor several football players from Palmeiras, Ludmilla Silva, from Atletico de Madrid and from the Brazilian team, the skater Isa Pacheco, the personal trainer and runner Nic Lima, the triathletes Djenyfer Arnold and Ana Laura, who today dialogue in brand actions with singer Malía and actresses Isis Valverde and Bruna Marquezine, who has just starred in the Puma Wayze launch campaign.
“We bring a name like Bruna with a lesser-known name, but with a sports asset. It is a mix that is bringing the best result, the truth of the brand”, explains Pria.
Despite the movement and the proposal to break with a cursed heritage, such as the ban on women’s football between 1941 and 1979, the brand still has many steps to take. The team of ambassadors, for example, does not have any trans women.
The executive justifies saying that Puma “does not try to make the diversity setlits”. “Unlike many brands, not just sports, what we try to do is count people who have to do with what we think. It is aligned with the issue of sport, of well-being”, she explains. “Today, I don’t have a trans name. We are looking and very open to this type of discussion,” she concludes.
