Japanese sportswear firm Asics is on a mission to push brand at an executive board level in 2026, going back to the company’s “founding purpose” to differentiate from the market.
An acronym for Anima Sana In Corpore Sano – aka Sound Mind in a Sound Body – the name Asics encompasses the brand philosophy, explains global head of marketing Gary Raucher, which is the focus “consistently, season after season, year after year”.
According to Raucher, the launch last week of the brand’s ‘Move Your Body, Move Your Mind’ campaign, created with independent creative agency AGIT8, has garnered an “overwhelmingly positive” consumer reaction. Going live in January when many consumers are focused on fitness, the Asics marketing boss describes the campaign as “the latest execution of the same story” the brand is trying to tell.
“We start every year with exactly the same brief of how are we going to bring our sound mind, sound body story to life? But we’re constantly looking for new and creative ways to tell that same story again and again,” he explains.
I genuinely believe marketing is there to not just build the brand, but also to build the business.
Gary Raucher, Asics
While this ethos has been behind the company since its foundation, Raucher feels externally this philosophy is “just starting to break through the surface”.
“It’s important for us to stay the course and the strongest brands are the ones that do this for decades, and maybe even longer,” he claims.
Being more than 75 years old, Asics is keen to balance its heritage status with the modernisation of marketing. This is where consistency comes in.
“The strongest brands are the ones that are masters in consistency,” says Raucher.
“New technologies and new techniques give us new opportunities to bring that message to life. I like to say that it might change our tactic, but it doesn’t change our strategy. It’s a new way for us to engage with people, but it doesn’t necessarily change what we say, it’s more how we say it.”
The Marketing Week Podcast: Inside Adidas’s brand revival with VP of brand activation Roy Gardner
An example of this thinking is around events, which the brand is investing more into as it dials up its community-led approach. Rather than just one day, Asics looking at running races, for example, as “an entire digital journey” from the moment of registration. Providing events and training, the Asics FrontRunner community has grown from a handful of runners in Germany in 2010 to more than 700 runners across 30 different markets
Alongside investing in community building, Asics is experimenting with large language models such as ChatGPT and working with influencers to help ensure the brand is front of mind when consumers are searching for products. Raucher believes these tactics play into the firm’s “consistent” goal to be “one of the most recommended running brands”.
“The essence of marketing always has been and always will be the same. It’s about identifying who is your target audience, uncovering insight into that audience and then finding a way to deliver an experience that addresses that insight,” he adds.
When it comes to influencers, the brand isn’t looking for people with the biggest reach, but those who are “genuine and authentic ambassadors and advocates”.
Looking for commonalities
Being a global brand, Raucher acknowledges Asics can’t take a “one-size-fits-all” approach to marketing and leverages “local insights and local opportunities”, which has even impacted what teams are called in different regions.
“It’s why we call our regional marketing teams ‘activation teams’ and not execution teams, because we don’t want to say: ‘Ok, just translate this into French or just translate this into Mandarin and make it work.’ We want you to really understand, what is the opportunity in a market and how do you activate that?” he explains.
The “commonalities” across markets are always looked for before differences. Especially in sportswear, there are “a lot more universal insights and universal truths” than differences, says Raucher. Although it may result in slightly different executions, there is typically a “common approach”.
In 2017, Asics overhauled its marketing strategy in a bid to be known for more than just running and emphasise its brand philosophy. Beyond running, the brand has invested in other categories such as tennis, with the latest campaign also featuring a tennis-focused film.
Raucher says having a “category management approach” and dedicated teams looking at different categories has helped the brand focus on different sports, seeing itself as a “branded house” with all categories united under the Asics brand.
It’s important for us to stay the course. The strongest brands are the ones that do this for decades and maybe even longer.
Gary Raucher, Asics
Before stepping into the role of global head of marketing a year ago, Raucher was head of product, marketing and merchandising for Asics EMEA for almost six years. In this position, he still had to be mindful of marketing across different regions, acknowledging the UK is different to France, which is different to Germany.
Even within America, he notes New York is different to Texas, to California, which impacts the marketing tactics used. A recent campaign explaining why 15 minutes of movement a day is more impactful than a week-long wellness retreat aimed at Western markets, for example, featured American actress Natasha Rothwell from TV series The White Lotus. Other talent were used in different markets where Rothwell wasn’t as well known, but all work still linked to the “universal insight”.
For Raucher, transitioning to the global role has been “like coming home again”, as he worked in global roles before Asics at the likes of location tech firm TomTom. However, he believes the EMEA-specific role helped in understanding the nuances between different regions.
‘Tremendous trajectory’
Raucher is also an executive board member at Asics, which he feels is “really important” as having a marketer at the top table is a means to champion the consumer.
“I genuinely believe marketing is there to not just build the brand, but also to build the business. Demonstrating that is incredibly important, which is why we ground all of our marketing discussions with clear business objectives, and we have to collaborate very closely with both our category and regional business leaders,” he says.
Raucher insists it’s “essential” for a marketer to be on the board to ensure the voice of the consumer is “strongly considered at all times”, even in conversations about less brand-related topics such as IT investments.
The strongest brands are the ones that are masters in consistency.
Gary Raucher, Asics
When it comes to measures of success for marketing, both business and brand objectives are analysed. From a business perspective, Asics aims to be “the number one performance sports brand” and gain market share. The firm is looking to grow brand preference to become “the most preferred” in the category.
To achieve this, campaigns are “integrated” between brand and product to show the “superiority” of product, while still linking work to the brand philosophy.
In its latest Q3 results for 2025, Asics saw sales grow by more than 20% and operating profit reach a record high for a quarterly period. Raucher claims the company is on a “tremendous trajectory” helped by “great marketing” and “driving greater efficiency” as part of a “strong strategy” across the wider business.
Looking ahead, Raucher sees brand and marketing adapting to fit the wider shift of consumers increasingly participating in sport for wellness rather than competition, which he sees as a “perfect” fit for the brand’s philosophy.
However, Raucher notes competitors recognising this change too and “encroaching” on its brand’s space, making it even more important for Asics to remind consumers of its 75-year heritage.
link