Chipman Union Odor Eaters Essay

sale of Nike’s high-margin products to high-end customers. Regardless of the low cost of the World Shoes, they

The concept of market structures and competitive strategies are important when attempting to compete in any market. Understanding what market structure your product falls under can help companies develop better competitive strategies and identify potential for loss and gains. The athletic footwear industry in the United States is highly profitable and continuously growing. In this paper I will identify market structure of the athletic footwear industry, the major retailers, and competitive strategies that can be used to maximize profits.

Obviously, there is a big number of driving forces in the athletic footwear industry. Each of these driving forces has different impacts—some of them can have a more considerable effect than others on figuring out how much cross-company differences influence market shares and a number of units sold. The first line of most influential factors includes comparative prices, S/Q ratings, and a number of models offered among the footwear competitors. These three most important competitive forces affect customer decisions of which athletic footwear brand to choose. Furthermore, the decisions of customers whether to purchase one brand or another are also influenced by such forces as advertising, celebrity endorsements, the number of independent retail

With revenue from Crocs shoe sales reaching to $680 million in 2007, it is clear that the company has developed a successful strategy. Not all of the success can be contributed to the design of the product. Although their products were in high demand, there are more underlying factors that have paved the way for Crocs to be competitive in the shoe market. Crocs’ supply chain design and use of vertical integration revolutionized speed and quality of order fulfillment.

Customers make purchasing decisions based on the information they have among products and the values of goods a company offers. For that reason, companies have to promote their products to increase products awareness. In order to achieve organizational goals, companies must understand the market’s needs to ensure the success of their businesses. Such information can be gained through research. The industry that will form the basis of this paper is Western Canadian Shoe Association. The three brands under study are Reebok, Adidas, and Nike.

Trends also increase the amount of consumption an example is a parent’s aspiration to dress their children like themselves. In the early 2010s, there was an increase in the consumption of luxury children’s clothing as brands such as Marc Jacobs, Fendi, Gucci and others boarded the trend and released their same line, but in children size (Abnett,2016).

In analyzing the market/industry, the company was able to see some things that helped shape their plan. The first was rivalry among competing sellers. Our analyses indicated that there were 9 companies in the shoe industry that Competitive Shoes considered rivals. These companies were relatively new in the industry and produced the same types of shoes as Competitive Shoes. Due to this fact, they knew that the rivalry would be fierce since Competitive Shoes was going to produce a product that was like theirs, and the difference between the products would diminish as the products of industry rivals became strongly differentiated. This indicated to Competitive Shoes that brand loyalty would be minimal and buyers could easily switch brands at will. Competitive Shoes felt that they could produce the same quality shoes as the high-end producers, while at the same time lowering its production cost and offering the product at a lower price. This would make it easy for buyers to switch brands at will.

Companies like Under Armour, Nike and Adidas/Reebok have high threats of substitute´s products. These companies share the sport apparel industry and are vulnerable to competitive pressure from the actions of buyers whenever they view that their products can be substituted for others. The availability of substitutes invites the costumer to compare performance, features, and ease of use as well as price. Under Armour’s major competitors are Nike and Adidas/Reebok because they have a similar or competing product offerings. The top sport apparel brands offer similar products and that is why each one of them needs to keep a high standard and produce good quality products in order for customers to keep buying their product.

As the brand name of Nike continue to soar, other companies in the industry; learning from the success Nike has experienced, start focusing more on brand development to keep up with the increasing levels of competition. These companies resort to brand maintenance, which has become the main target in this industry due to product differentiation made by Nike. Nike, being market-advantaged, produces an extensive range of products, through which it gains a balanced level of profits. This has influenced rival companies to initiate a new range of products in their businesses too. Previously these companies had high risks of failing in business, if their single products did not appeal to the market. Due to the impact of Nike’s business strategy, the other companies are also enlarging their product range,

Many of the big established shoe brands have seen consolidation and hence they have become bigger and more powerful in terms of competing with the rest.

The athletic shoe industry will be first analyzed by the Porter’s Five Forces framework. The well-known Porter’s Five Forces is a model that analyzes an industry and helps firms develop a business strategy. The five forces model focuses on six forces that will determine the attractiveness of this industry: (1) the risk of entry by potential competitors, (2) the intensity of rivalry among established companies within an industry, (3) the bargaining power of buyers, (4) the bargaining power of suppliers, (5) the closeness of substitutes to an industry 's products, and (6) the power of complement providers (Hill, Jones, & Schilling, 2015).

In this industry, the Power of Buyers is low to moderate. It is considered low because athletic shoe producers have two sets of customers, direct consumers and intermediate consumers creating very low buyer concentration. Their intermediate consumers include a variety of stores from discounts stores, sporting goods stores and department stores. Due to the large size of the athletic shoe producers, the majority of intermediate consumers have very little negotiating ability and thus low power, allowing the athletic footwear firms the ability to earn an increase in profits by selling to intermediate consumers at full price. Some intermediate consumers such as large department stores and large sporting goods stores would have the size to be able to leverage some power over the athletic shoe producers giving them moderate power. The industry’s members reach direct consumers through vertically integrated self-operated brick and mortar retail stores as well as through online firms. Direct buyers have moderate power over the athletic shoe producers since there are no switching costs to go between brands. However, athletic footwear is strategically important to people if they are either athletes or people wanting to participate in high performance fitness activities, therefore giving them low power since they depend on the product to fill a

Market analysis C & J Clarks LtdCONTENTSEXECUTIVE SUMMARY1.INTRODUCTION2.COMPANY HISTORY AND PROFILE2.1C&J Clark2.2History2.3Manufacturing2.4Range of Shoes2.5 K Shoes3.MARKET ANALYSISA. MICRO ENVIRONMENT3.1 Market Data3.2Competition3.3Consumer demandB. MACRO ENVIRONMENT3.4Political3.5Social3.6Technological3.7Economic4.SWOT ANALYSIS5.IDENTIFICATIONS OF STRATEGIC ALTERNATIVES6.RECOMMENDATIONS6.1Short Term6.2Medium Term6.3Long TermEXECUTIVE SUMMARYI have been asked by C & J Clark Limited (Clarks) to prepare a report which would include a market analysis of the UK footwear industry and to propose a number of strategic recommendations which would ensure that Clarks secures its short, medium and long term future as the market leader in the shoe

The market industry in men’s wear is constantly growing with a good number companies that specialised in this sector and many new companies entering the industry. Since there are many companies operating in this industry, I will consider only the main competitor of Jack and Jones for the purpose of competitor analysis. One of the key competitors of Jack and Jones are Levi founded in 1872 and H&M founded in 1947.

Companies in this industry also attempt to differentiate themselves by technical advancements in the apparel. Companies compete to find the technology that consumers believe will help their overall performance in sports and activities; whether it’s a sweat wicking shirt or lighter shoe, consumers seek the product they believe will give them the greatest advantage. Overall, the rivalry amongst competitors is a strong force that ultimately lowers the profitability of the industry.