Essay on Forms Of Industrial Organizations

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

Microsoft is the software giant responsible for bringing Windows operating system to the PC (personal computer). Microsoft is also a known and well respected company in the global market. The tech giant has dominated the computer industry since 1981. Due to the nature of such a huge company, Microsoft has its hands in multiple markets. Microsoft currently competes in file hosting, software, operating systems, and gaming consoles. Unfortunately, each of the afore-mentioned markets differ from one another. For the purpose of this paper, the market that

A majority of the attractiveness stems from the abnormally low buyer and supplier power. However, this gain is offset by the current low barriers of entry and high competitive rivalry. In order to remain competitive, incumbents must (1) invest heavily in research and development, (2) secure technology via patents, (3) market heavily to monetize products, all of which will diminish bottom line results.

Nike; one of the most well known companies across the globe today is most known for being the world’s #1 shoemaker. They design and sell shoes for a variety of sports including baseball, golf, tennis and football. Nike also sells dress and casual shoes as well as athletic apparel and equipment for almost every sport imaginable. In addition Nike also operates NIKETOWN shoe and sportswear stores, factory outlets along with Nike women shops. One of Nike’s biggest competitors on the rise is Under Armour, Inc. Under Armour; the primary maker of performance athletic underwear and apparel has risen to the top with main competitor Nike. The company has also begun to become a factor in the footwear market as

The Rivalry among competing sellers of sporting goods such as Under Armour, Nike, and Adidas-Reebok is strong and likely to intensify. The rivalry among sporting good sellers of energy will keep growing and will become stronger in coming years. Under Armour. Nike, and Adidas-Reebok have similar or competing product offerings and that is why competition among them is so high. If these companies want to stay in business they need to come up with different strategies that will set them apart from the opposition. Competition is intense and revolves around performance,

6). This strategy is a major component of Nike’s business strategic level plan. In applying this strategy, Nike has attained a great deal of consumer insight, which it uses to offer uniquely designed premium products to the athletes. Still on product differentiation, Nike focuses more on research and development at a greater level. These unique features to Nike, have transformed the competition levels in this competitive industry, leading to a trend of a paradigm shift in the market. Most consumers opt for Nike branded sports products and apparels, at the expense of the other brand names.

There are many companies in the sports apparel, footwear and accessories industry, such as Nike, Adidas, Puma,

This form of marketing can be described as brand positioning or brand architecture. Brand positioning can be best described as a motivational reason to buy one's product over others, "is guided, directed and delivered by the brand's benefits/reasons to buy; and it focuses at all points of contact with the consumer" (Management study guide, 2011). Nike creates value and sustains competitive advantage over other competitors with this technique because image is a big factor in today's markets, a large number of consumers are likely to develop product intimacy; those who care more about the quality rather than the price. This takes us to Nike's price strategy, which they target consumers who focus more on product intimacy and care less about the price. Giving Nike the advantage over other competitors setting higher prices for its products; consumers who believe a product to be of high quality are prone to pay a higher price.

The threat of new entrants in the athletic shoe industry is very weak. Currently the market is dominated by three major competitors, and

Competition is very fierce due to the number of companies competing for sales. Lots of money goes to marketing and promotions using various channels to reach the young demographic group of consumers who spend the most money on Nike’s products. Growth is slowing down in the athletic footwear industry. But new markets are emerging with high growth rates. These markets include extreme sports market and the corporate merchandise market.

The sportswear industry is very price sensitive and most competitors prices are about the same. Nike sells its products in Nike shops and the selling of its products direct to the consumers conflicts with other resellers of the brand. Most of Nike’s earnings are derived from selling into retailers.

Seeking Behaviour Although Nike is the market leader in sports shoes, this doesn't guarantee consumers will switch to competitors alternatives. There are consumers who switch brands in an attempt to be different. This is often due to changes in fashion 4.6 Consumer Decision Making in the sports shoe market, for a running shoe: Total Set

The markets today are so complex and deal with so many variables it can be difficult to understand just exactly how they operate. In the following I will reveal the different kinds of market structures along with their different pricing strategies. Relating to these topics, I will focus on the importance of cost, competition and customer.

According to McConnell and Brue “Economists group industries into four distinct market structures: pure competition, pure monopoly, monopolistic competition, and oligopoly. These four market models differ in several respects: the number of firms in the industry, whether those firms produce a standardized product or try to differentiate their products from those of other firms, and how easy or how difficult it is for firms to enter the industry” (McConnell & Brue, 2005, chap. 21). As part of the MBA/501 course the learning team is tasked with identifying a company for each market structure, and describe the pricing