We'll Call You: Adidas

Adidas Good afternoon, Adidas customer care. [Name] speaking, how can I help?

Mktg Hi, I've been trying to find the Team GB kit made by Adidas, but everywhere seems to be sold out.

Adidas The demand for that was quite high. None of our retail partners have still got it in stock. But we will be making the Paralympic version, which is exactly the same kit, but it will have the Paralympic logo on it rather than the Olympic logo. Would you be interested in that?

Mktg I might take a look. So are you not going to be making any more of the Olympic kit?

Adidas No. It was so popular, but it takes quite a long time to remanufacture things. I think it was in discussions last week at head office, but we're manufacturing so much Paralympic apparel.

Mktg But I've just been looking on eBay and the shirts are going for up to £200. How come you didn't manufacture enough?

Adidas We only manufacture and supply enough products to meet the demand from our retailers. Generally what happens is that we produce catalogues for our retailers up to 18 months or two years in advance. So this would have happened in 2010. They can only 'guesstimate' how many items they are going to sell. We don't manufacture extras in the hope that they will sell out. Everyone just underestimated how popular they were going to be.

Mktg So when does the Paralympics kit go on sale?

Adidas I'll have a quick look and check the date. [Puts Mktg on hold.) I just asked one of my colleagues and he thinks it's due for release this week. But we don't have a specific date.

Mktg OK, so shall I keep an eye on the Adidas website?

Adidas I imagine it will be on there first.

Mktg Will that sell out quickly as well?

Adidas We hope so. It's hard to determine, but the only thing you can do is keep checking the website. They should get a fair amount of stock, so you should be OK.

Mktg OK, many thanks.

Verdict 6/10

The call-handler was eager to help, and explained some of the issues behind the lack of stock. However, he was unable to provide many details, and his claim that the Paralympics kit is 'exactly' the same is patently untrue.

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk