Fewer, Bigger, Better.

Richard Teyssier has been at the helm of PUMA’s  Global Brand & Marketing Organisation since July this year.

Prior to his appointment, our brand management and marketing operation departments were relocated from Boston to our Headquarters in Herzo. Richard has been working on reorganising the marketing division and elevating the PUMA Brand for the last months.

PUMA CATch  had the pleasure to check in with Richard and chat about his vision for PUMA’s future marketing, the challenges he’s seeing and the story he wants to tell with our Brand. Here you go!

Richard, since July this year, you have been heading up our global Marketing Organization. What was the first thing you did when you started in that job? 

Richard: My priority is always people. I focused my first months on meeting people, understanding their needs and priorities. With these key learnings, we have already started the transformation to meet business expectations and at the same time increase engagement of our marketing teams. I can see that this transformation has already reaped tangible results, and I am confident that 2024 will be the start of a new era for marketing at PUMA.

What are the most important issues that need to be tackled?
Richard: I didn’t see any major issues but I do see areas of improvement, however. The largest one being what we call doing fewer, bigger and better, which means define precisely what is creating value for the brand, focus more on the value drivers and deliver excellence in execution.

Brand elevation is one of our core corporate priorities. How exactly do you want to elevate the brand?

Richard: Our consumer surveys are showing that what PUMA stands for is not exactly clear. One of the root causes is that our communication is too fragmented and too focused on short-term impact. We are currently working on a Brand campaign that’s kicking off in April 24 which is going to reinforce PUMA’s performance positioning. In parallel, we will launch a legacy campaign on Sportstyle to establish our key Classic franchises. Less messages, more focused and a more substantial share of investment on brand building. In addition, I would say that elevating the brand is a collective exercise: we obviously need to land more premium product in the right distribution channels as well.

I have heard that you have come quite a way in terms of deciding on a brand positioning. Can you share a little bit of what this is going to look like?

Richard: The intention moving forward is to fine tune our brand positioning and clarify what the brand stands for. We have a clear roadmap in 2024 which includes consumer research, working sessions with senior management & a communication program. More to come….stay tuned!

We will!

Thank you for your time, Richard!