Dick 's Sporting Goods, Inc. Essay

Even though Dicks is a premier retailer on the market, there are three suggestions that I would give a marketing manager to improve the company’s overall status would be to research newer products and improve existing ones, start a sports nutrition section in their store, and focus on improving employee knowledge on store products and different types of sports training. I believe the company could try and focus more on developing a Dicks’ value brand of sports equipment. This could help athletes training from lower income houses because they would be able to afford all or multiple sets of equipment to enhance their training experience. Expanding or developing a sports nutrition section would help Dicks to break into a market which has been previously untouched by the company. Offering nutritional products would add to the overall superstore concept where a customer can get all their shopping done in one location. And finally to improve customer service Dick 's could start a company program whose priority is to hire retired athletes who have better knowledge of sports and extreme physical training. In general an employee with previous sports training experience is going to have a better feel for what type of equipment is applicable for different training situations. With these improvements I think that Dicks Sporting Goods could enhance their customer satisfaction tremendously and propel the company even higher in its revenue

We are aiming at understanding how Recreational Equipment INC. (REI) achieved a competitive advantage through their strategies and how they implemented those strategies. REI differs from the other sporting goods stores in their quality product selection, complements, and excellent brand name promotion. These qualities enable REI to sell merchandise at premium price levels (Morse, 2003).

Today, Bass Pro Shops is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that specializes in sporting and hunting equipment. The company's current position is a far cry from its modest beginnings in 1971 when the company's founder, Johnny Morris began selling fishing lures on just two shelves in his father's liquor store. With fifty-two retail outlets as well as a number of Outdoor World superstores in the United States and Canada, a user-friendly Web site and extensive mail catalog sales, Bass Pro Shops has become a leading sporting and hunting goods in North America today. To determine how the company achieved this impressive growth, this paper provides an analysis of Bass Pro Shop's corporate strategy using Ansoff's Growth Strategies and Porter's generic strategies for growth, the company's market segmentation and marketing mix. Finally, an assessment of appropriate Bass Pro Shop's marketing metrics is followed by a summary of the research and important findings in the conclusion.

The background of this paper we need to mention is that West Coast Fashions, Inc. (WCF), a large designer and marketer of branded apparel announced a strategic reorganization calling for a divestiture of certain assets, and one of the divisions it intended to shed was Mercury Athletic, its wholly owned footwear subsidiary. John Liedtke, the head of business development for Active Gear, Inc. (AGI), a privately held athletic and casual footwear company, contemplated an acquisition opportunity of Mercury that would significantly improve his business. So, he wanted to evaluate this opportunity.

Companies currently operating within the golf industry, specifically Calloway Golf, must change their current marketing approaches and strategies to withstand the recession and threats facing the industry. Although Calloway has a strong R&D department that tends to remain competitive with products and technology, there have been little results in reference to scores. It is imperative that if companies are going to market a product that will help golfers drive further and straighter that the results depict this so that not to damage the brand name of a product. Secondly, due to the decline in equipment sales and the number of golfers, prices are dropping and companies are outsourcing to maintain the volume needed to remain competitive. Companies must be cautious and aware so that counterfeiting may be reduced. This reduction would also allow companies to reduce their pricing and have more sales without the competition of these cheaply priced knock-offs. In the instance of

Profitability. The company strategy is to target only 25-45 years for specialist sportswear products, but a lot of

Sportsman Shoes has been a leader in the shoe industry for more than thirty years. Sportsman manufactures and sells athletic shoes for all types of sports. The company has pursued a low-cost strategy in order to sustain their success. They sell a limited number of shoe designs and have held costs low through manufacturing efficiency and standardized operations. However, the past five years have been a struggle at Sportsman. The shoe market has seen a rise in the availability of low-cost imported shoes that has threatened Sportsman’s competitive position. As a result, company executives have decided it is time for a strategy shift.

The database consists of customers that have purchased items with the last 12 months and their demographic information. The use of the catalog, internet, and retail stores has enabled the company to capture customer information, cross-market products, and provide a convenient shopping experience for customers. The company’s customers are primarily females with a passion for the riding sport. The customers are affluent and luxury oriented who tend to choose to buy from the company for the high quality and premier products. The customer base shows high repurchase rates and has been very loyal customers.

Innovation is probably the most important driver of change in most industries, especially ones that are saturated. Dick’s continuous innovation has helped them be one of the leaders in the sporting goods industry for over a decade.

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.

First and foremost, a major competitor of Dick’s Sporting Goods is Sports Authority. Sports Authority is an industry leader providing a wide variety of brand-name sporting goods, relatively similar to Dick’s. The store’s headquarters is located in Englewood, Colorado. According to Yahoo Finance, “The company operates over 450 stores in 45 U.S. states very similar to Dick’s 500 stores in 44 U.S. states. As of 2011, employment consisted of 14,250 associates.”

The release of 2014 financial statements by American Eagle Outfitters and The Buckle Company require analysis to determine the financial position of the respective companies. A decision between the two companies is needed to decide which company Baruch College Fund should invest in. Findings in our research shows that The Buckle Company beats American Eagle Outfitters in terms of the key performance indicators of return on assets, profit margin, and asset turnover ratio. This information reveals that The Buckle Company is the better company to invest in.

If this technology were universally adopted by all manufacturers, there may be benefit to the industry as a whole. However, value brand manufacturers feel that brand image might be tarnished by concern about consumer’s “infringement on their access to cheap used balls.” Additionally, high-end manufacturers’ sales, which represent 67% of total new balls market, will be reluctant to adopt the technology due the belief that the consumers may buy new value brand golf balls rather than their own premium brand golf balls.

We have carefully looked at our external and internal environments. The external analysis looked at the market and the competition, while the internal analysis examined Callaway’s performance, as well as its customers. We also performed a “SWOT” analysis, enabling us to identify our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This analysis lends to the view that it is imperative that we change our existing strategy and focus on other markets. It is not suggested that we ignore our existing markets, but rather that we expand our customers and potential customers access to custom club fitting. I firmly believe that by pursuing this avenue, and by implementing and controlling the proposed fundamental marketing strategies and marketing mix strategies, we will be able to achieve the stated objectives.

Callaway Golf Company began to take form in 1983, after Ely Reeves Callaway Jr. sold Callaway Vineyard and Winery for a $9 million dollar profit. Shortly after the sell of the winery, Callaway ventured in to the golf equipment industry and bought 50 percent of Hickory Stick USA. Callaway knew from the very beginning that this company’s profits were limited as long as the product line wasn’t changing. “Callaway noticed that most golf equipment had changed very little since the 1920s and believed that , due to the difficulty of the game of golf, recreational golfers would be willing to invest in high-tech, premium-priced clubs if such clubs could improve their game by being more