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New Balance: Strategic Management

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– STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
NEWS DISCUSSION- NEW BALANCE

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1. Company Profile:
Ranked 3rd in the US Athletic shoe industry, New Balance Arch Company as it was known in 1906 begun manufacturing arch support, orthopaedic shoes supports and prescription footwear for people with problem feet. In 1954, the company changed its name to New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc. with a focus on running shoes, but gradually entered the other segments such as walking, cross training, basketball, tennis and adventure sports. (Bhat, 2005)
New Balance started with a niche in developing accommodative foot orthotics and insoles to accommodate all kinds of foot issue and therefore when New Balance went into shoe manufacturing, they decided to take advantage …show more content…

(The Boston Globe, 2008)
Re-emphasising the importance of running, New Balance has also developed a new ‘Storm Striker
Jacket’ which can provide technical innovation to help a runner increase their love for running in the rain. This product drives a subliminal message to runners that they need not be confined to boundaries and are not limited from doing what they love even in less than favourable weather conditions. 3. How Adidas Is Affected?
New Balance’s new branding campaign will certainly affect Adidas but to a marginal extent. This is because of elements like fundamental product concept flaws, company mission inconsistencies, lack of originality, no “hook” in new advertising campaign and no major sporting presence.
a. Product Concept Flaws:
According to a statement extracted from the New Balance website, instead of naming the different shoe models, New Balance chose to number them because they wanted to place an emphasis on their philosophy of “not any one particular shoe” (New Balance Official Website)
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Within the shoe industry, this approach seems to backfire, because by not having any company spokespeople to associate shoe models with, through shoe names i.e. Air Jordan, or through shoe image, i.e. consumers wanting to buy sporting goods worn by their idol, consumers will find it

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