Marketing Analysis Of Zappos.com Owns A Stable Source Of Competitive Advantage By Producing Its Own Shoes Line

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.

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.

Keep the Status quo. As they are already doing, they just need to keep finding more distributors and increase manufacturing either by finding factories to make the shoes, or improving the existing machinery used to make the shoes

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.

it is important to identify key strengths of the company over upcoming threats and weak points. Macy’s differentiate itself from competition with upscale “Celebrity” brand exclusivity, merchandise based on local preferences, and unique store design atmosphere. Based on analysis performed the company weighted strategy is to move towards the online and technology advances with maintaining Macy’s upscale storefront culture, integrating new product offerings with revising promotions to satisfy its target market and expanding operations to a new markets with present demand. From opportunities analysis strategy can be divided in three fragments

Given the strength and rapid growth of online retailers coupled with the national brands attempting to decrease their dependency on middlemen retailers, Dick’s must consider a strategy that ensures their continued relevance and dominance in their respective industry. Attempting to go against Amazon or other large online-only retailers would place Dick’s at a disadvantage given that their overhead costs will never be as low as the companies that do not need to hold and operate prime retail real-estate. For the aforementioned reason, this report advises against committing excessive resources towards the development of the e-commerce platform, DicksSportingGoods.com. Similarly, the focused expansion of private labels may not necessarily achieve long-term market relevance for Dick’s in the sporting goods industry. Furthermore, aggressive expansion within the private label sphere may alienate current key partners, such as Nike and Under Armour, which would be detrimental to Dick’s revenue streams both in the short- and long-term.

In this paper, we present an elaborate analysis of the marketing mix employed by Nike in its marketing strategy. The marketing mix is conducted on the basis of the concept of "marketing mix" which is usually referred to as the "4Ps" as an important means of effectively interpreting as well as translating the marketing strategy into practice as noted by Bennett (1997).A recommendation is also provided.

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

Crocs’ value chain management system allowed it tremendous advantage in meeting customer needs (Business Pundit, 2008). By controlling all aspects along the value chain, Crocs could quickly adjust to customer demand, building additional shoes and fulfilling extra orders within a single selling season (von Briesen, 2009). This allowed retailers to order smaller

Quick response of Zara leads it to be successful in the fashion clothing industry. Zara adopts international strategy for its operation. With vertical integration, it benefits Zara in cost aspect, however, it involves some risks. Due to our anaylysis on Zara’s operations, some of the recommendations are made to facilitate its further improvements.

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.

Zappos’ primary selling base is shoes, which accounts for about 80% of its business. There are currently about 50,000 varieties of shoes sold in the Zappos store, from brands like Nike, Ugg boots, ALDO Shoes, and Steve Madden heels. They also serve the niche shoe markets, including narrow and wide widths, hard-to-find sizes, American-made shoes, and vegan shoes. In 2004, they launched a second line of high-end shoes called Zappos Couture.

Since 2006, when the TOMS Shoes was founded, their ‘one for one’ business model has been widely embraced or criticized by different companies and the consumers. While, Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS Company, was on trip to Argentina in 2006, he witnessed the extreme poverty and poor health conditions. After countersigning children walking barefoot, it dramatically heightened Blake’s awareness. Consequently, after witnessing those events, Mycoskie came up with a simple and innovating plan to create a for-profit business with a philanthropic component. Consequently, Blake created TOMS company with a unique principal and business model referred to ‘One for One’. TOMS ‘One for One’ is a unique business model, where for every pair of shoes purchased TOMS donates a pair of shoes to children in need in developing or underdeveloped countries. The company’s name ‘TOMS’ generated from the word ‘TOMORROW’, which was the original concept of the company, ‘shoes for tomorrow’.

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.

(Philip Kotler and Gary Arms Strong, 2012) The pricing of this company is designed to be competitive to other fashion shoes manufacturers such as Adidas and Puma. This company charges a high prices for its high quality product it provide and because of its famous brand. The pricing of this company is based on the basis of premium segment as their target customers. Nike as a brand that targeted high income customer. This company make use of vertical integration in pricing in which they own participants to take part in more than one channel level