The Swot Analysis of the North Face

5. List five brand names and indicate what product is associated with the brand name. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the brand name. Amazon, Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Nike, and Dunkin ' Donuts. The products associated with these brand names are: purchase merchandise online, computers, iPod, shoes, and donuts. Strengths: Product development. Doesn 't invent the market, but its products set high standards for the market. Weaknesses: Very proprietary and controlling. Won 't open the operating system to outsiders to develop hardware to work with the products, keeping hardware sales to it. While this keeps design control inside and up to standards, it has hurt wide adaptation of its hardware, especially computers, where it has a relatively small market share. Apple has veto power over Apps sold.

Able to diversify its product range to meet market demand including women’s wear, men’s wear, accessories and home wares.

Well-established and enjoys a good reputation and good relationships with its retailers. A respectable name in the industry is very important when it comes to standing out from the competition and contracting with different retailers.

One of the strengths that the company has is its good quality brand and product. Their products are light and travel friendly as they are folding bikes making them very unique and popular with people who commute a great deal. This leads to the next strength which is the company’s wide target market. People who tend to commute daily to work or university, who have caravans and boats

products, have attracted a lot of customers throughout the world. The company has a huge

Furthermore, one of the weaknesses is the prize of a drink. Some customers think that the prize is quite high and it does not worth the money for a cup of tea even if Chatime is the best tea house in the world. There are many others competitors and stores that are selling the similar products and this will causes them to be hard to compete and to compare and determine the pricing and promotion strategies.

The most serious threat to The North Face is Patagonia, as both companies target the more serious outdoor adventurers. But of the two outdoor apparel companies, The North Face is trendier and appeals to a younger market, particularly college students, and products are available in thousands of retail stores nationwide. Therefore, The North Face appeals to more of a mass-market. In comparison, Patagonia has a distribution strategy that requires the operation of a limited number of retail locations in areas where demand is not as popular for outdoor apparel. Moreover, Patagonia continues to target the same market and do not aspire to become a trendy brand that is similar to The North Face.

This strength is critical if Tennant chooses to venture into other emerging markets or further expand their product line. Tennant has already established a strong name for them within the industry and has experienced success adapting to different market situations in the past, this should make it easier for them to succeed in with new products and in other markets. Tennant’s focus was rare as they chose to deliver a sustainable value to their customers without compromising on price or performance. This strength is not imitable with new companies as it something that is built over time although many existing companies have built the same brand strength with their products. This strength has proved to be a sustainable competitive advantage for Tennant. They have exploited this strength and achieved organization.

The brand seeks great opportunity to further develop the business, enhance product design as well as company’s brand image.

Its ability to have created a global brand these products is a valuable asset and a sustained competitive advantage

The North Face was founded in 1966. In 2000, after facing serious financial and distribution problems,

Strengths of this brand include: it is the 4th largest marketer, brand longevity, and it has a large/high awareness in big cities. Its’ weaknesses are: low market share, low market coverage, limited bottlers’ network, relatively low advertising

Sharing Zhang’s belief that a superior level of category leadership was within reach if the Li Ning brand could somehow acquire elements of brand strength equivalent to those associated with the Nike and Adidas names, vice president of marketing Abel Wu was pursuing a marketing strategy aimed at establishing in people’s minds, just in time for the Olympics, a uniquely differentiated position for the Li Ning brand. Chief among Zhang’s concerns at this point was how to integrate Li Ning’s decision-making to ensure that new opportunities could be seized while making the most of the company’s current competitive advantages.

3》 Current fixed customer channel network is not perfect, and market coverage of its products is low

5) Another example of creating value by using a related diversification strategy was when Haier applied innovation to product design and production from the Liebherr Corporation of Germany. This strategic move created value by not only competing and expanding its product categories, but also by creating market needs. (pg. 7) The activity sharing and market need helped create product breakthroughs like washing machines that operated without detergent or water, and refrigerators that needed no compressors. (pg. 8) Another example of creating value was when Haier entered a strategic business alliance with Sanyo. Sanyo wanted to increase its competiveness in China taking advantage of Haier’s extensive distribution network, whereas Haier hoped to enter the Jampanese market by utilizing Sanyo’s distribution and service centres’s. (pg. 12) In the end Zhang Ruimin utilized this diversification strategy in an attempt to gain market power. B.Also discuss how Haier can use unrelated diversification strategy to create value.