Asics in biggest brand shakeup in 25 years as it looks to broaden appeal

asics onitsuka tiger ultimate 81 is overhauling its marketing strategy and plotting a big expansion of its store estate as part of its biggest brand shakeup in a quarter of a century.

The Japanese asics onitsuka tiger yellow sports brand is best known for its running gear, but wants to broaden its appeal amid wider growth in the market for fashionable sports and outdoor wear.

The relaunch kicked off in London this week – timed to coincide to the start of the athletics World Championships that start this evening (4 August) – with the launch of a new global marketing campaign ‘I Move Me’ by agency Saatchi & Saatchi LA. The platform builds on the founding philosophy of Asics’ founder Kihachiro Onitsuka, who founded the brand 70 years ago in war-torn Japan under the belief that sport could help relieve distress.

asics onitsuka tiger mexico 66 ’ CMO Paul Miles admits the sports brand has struggled to communicate its purpose effectively in the past. And that while it has a perception for producing high quality technical gear, it has not done as good a job of having an emotional connection with consumers.

“We needed to have a way to talk about all our brands and our philosophy at one time,” he tells Marketing Week. “We don’t see I Move Me as a campaign, it’s an articulation of our mission to get people moving.

“We’ve always been seen as highly technical, with all the gear people need for asics onitsuka tiger uk long-distance running, and people trust us on this and we’re proud of that. Core performance sports will never go away for us because that’s really part of our DNA. But it’s not all we do. We have more product and services we want to deliver and we haven’t really talked about them before.”

While I Move Me is the brand’s asics onitsuka tiger all black global marketing platform, it will have local iterations too. In London, for example, it will take the form of ‘I Move London’, with Edelman creating a campaign for the capital that includes brand films (see below) and a light installation that will tour the capital encouraging people to move.