Log onto the Puma website, and you will see just how cool the brand is. The design is slick, with bold colours, snappy headlines, and photos of young trendsters pouting for the camera. Users can click through to the ‘Mongolian Shoe BBQ’ to customise their shoe colours, relax with a chill music mix, or read the latest on Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt’s world tour. Or simply browse the merchandise, of course.

For a company which aims to be the world’s ‘most desirable sports lifestyle’ brand, this website is an essential element in the marketing strategy. Chief executive Jochen Zeitz, with a degree in international marketing, surely knows this well. Puma may be hip at the moment, but fashion is a fickle industry.

In the late 1990s, Zeitz rolled out a plan to turn the Puma name into a ‘brand that mixes it up by fusing the creative influences from the worlds of sport, lifestyle, and fashion’. Puma brought in well-established fashion designers, like Jil Sander of Germany and Yasuhiro Mihara from Japan. Model Christy Turlington launched a ‘yoga-inspired’ range. Its products were placed strategically in Hollywood blockbusters. Top sports players and teams were signed to wear Puma products in front of the worldís cameras.

The strategy was labelled ‘phase two’ of a long-term plan which Zeitz had started shortly after being appointed CEO in 1993. All was not well in the German sportswear firm at the time. Competition from rivals Reebok and Nike was fierce and, since listing on the German stock exchange in 1986, the company was yet to post a profit.
In an interview with CNN, Zeitz described the company as being very German-centric when he took the top spot. He said he steered it towards a more international outlook, making English as the predominant business language, for example. But at the core of the first ‘phase’ of Zeitz’s plan was restructuring the company to make it financially viable. “We just took out management layers; we took out roadblocks and restructured the company from top to bottom,” he told the news network.

It was an ambitious project for someone who had only finished university seven years earlier. But it worked. The company posted a profit within a year of Zeitz becoming chief executive, and earnings increased in each of the first four years he was in charge.

With company financials improving, Zeitz launched phase two of the corporate strategy in 1997. It focused on building the brand through marketing and also involved a concerted push in selected international markets and especially in North America. Phase three began in 2002, continuing the company’s focus on strengthening its brand.
Now the company is aiming to expand geographically under the fourth phase of Zeitz’s strategy, which was launched in 2006. In particular, it is tapping into growing markets in Africa, a continent which Zeitz professes to have a ëgreat interestí in, according to his corporate profile.

Earlier this year, Puma launched an ‘African-themed’ collection together with an initiative to source environmentally sustainable cotton from the continent. Zeitz hailed the moves as the company’s way of helping lift quality of life and environmental standards on the continent.

While the company expands geographically, it remains focused on one of its core product categories: football. Its big cat logo has decorated the feet of many stars of the beautiful game, such as Diego Maradona, and as sponsor of teams at next year’s football world cup, the company hopes the big cat will continue adorning successful players.

Zeitz was born in Mannheim, a German city near the French border in 1963, at a time when Puma was known around the world for being worn on the feet of Brazilian football legend Pelé. The company was already 15 years old, and its roots dated back more than two decades further. The future company leader studied international marketing and finance in Germany, France and the United States. When he finished his degree at in 1986, Zeitz took up a role at the US-based household products giant Colgate-Palmolive, working both in New York and Hamburg.

Four years later he was snapped up by Puma. He spent a year in the marketing section and was then moved up to be head of the department. He was soon promoted again to vice president of international marketing, but only stayed in the post a few months before being appointed company chairman and CEO. Zeitz, at 30, was the youngest person to head a company listed on the German stock exchange.

Now the supervisory board has approved Zeitz as chief executive until 2012, meaning he is set to round out 20 years on the job. He lends his experience to US motorcycle manufacturer Harley Davidson, where he sits on the board of directors, and also has a non-voting position on the board of PPR, Puma’s main shareholder.

But the 46 year old branding star has not taken his eye off the ball, and marketing remains his primary focus. Commenting on the effects of the recession on business, Zeitz acknowledges that Puma is not immune to the economic climate and that the company is trimming costs in response to the conditions. But Zeitz believes the branding will see it through the tough times. “As one of the most desirable brands we have the strength to persevere and realise significant gains once the storm settles down,” he wrote in the 2008 annual report.

Zeitz has transformed the company from its loss-making days of the early 90s into a trendy fashion label with streamlined internal systems. His final, self-imposed hurdle is to make the big cat the most sought-after sports logo around. With celebrity designers, sports star models, and a top marketing team, Puma has all the basic ingredients. Now, perhaps, it is down to the fickle whims of fashion devotees whether it gets to the premier spot.

Jochen Zeitz CV
Born: April 6, 1963, Mannheim, Germany.

Education: European Business School of Oestrich-Winkel.

Career: Joined Puma 1990. 1993 appointed CEO and Chairman of the Board of Management.

Trivia: Zeitz sits on the board of Harley Davidson Motorcycles.