SWOT Analysis - Swot for group assignment (Vans) PDF

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Swot for group assignment (Vans)...

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SWOT Analysis A SWOT analysis is undertaken on Vans to understand the internal strengths and weaknesses as well as opportunities and threats offered by their external/internal marketing environments (Armstrong et.al, 2017). Figure 1, simplifies identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats impacting Vans. The following section summarises some of the key findings broadly outlined in Figure

Strengths - Concentrated (niche) market focus strategy -Developing loyal customers -Quality and technology -Strong Adverts -Customer engagement -Online presence -High profile names partners

Oppurtunities

Weaknesses - Low ability to penetrate into emerging markets - Low presence globally - High costs (COGS) - High price-point tructure in Australia

SWOT

-New trends (Environmentally friendly production) -Reduce overhead costs COGS -Development of infrastructure - Asian pacific (Global) Market

Threats

Direct competitors (Nike, Adidas, Volley) - Copy-cat/replica Products - Increasing costs with new production methods

Figure 1 SWOT TABLE

1

Strengths and Weaknesses Strengths are referring to capabilities that organisations have when achieving its objectives, while weaknesses encompass limitations and insufficiencies that restrict the company’s ability to achieve these objectives (Armstrong et.al, 2017).

Vans Pro Skate primary strengths includes the concentrated (niche) market focus strategy. Vans Pro Skate has primarily focused on making

shoes designed for professional skateboarding. This has enabled the Pro Skate line to deliver what professional skaters are wanting and adapt quickly to changes in needs/wants within the market segment, this assists with maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction (Armstrong et.al, 2017).

Developing loyal customers, Vans as an established brand in skateboarding sector has developed brand loyalty. Professional skaters offer little risk of brand swapping from the Pro Skate Range due higher product quality in comparison to an indirect competitor like volley who offer a very limited skate range. Furthermore

Figure 2X Common advert for the AVE Pro Skate Shoe (Vans.com.au)

there is not a high level of risk from direct competitors such as Nike and Adidas who offer an extensive skate range with similar attributes, for example the Nike SB Zoom Stefan Janoski RM premium (Nike, 2019B). Competitors lack advertising for the similar quality and research that differentiates Van pro skate range. An example of the high level of quality and technology incorporated into the pro skate range, is the AVE Pro Skate shoe which has “Lux Li neri nnerl i ni ngsf ort heopt i mum fit anddur abi l i t y”( Vans ,2019) ,t hes es hoesar especifically designed to benefit Professional skaters. Unlike its competitors, Vans pro skate’s quality, research and technology is visually represented in advertisements as seen in Figure 1X on the Vans website and other advertising avenues.

Customer engagement, Vans Pro Skate range has a high level of brand presence especially within the skateboarding sector. Similar to competitors such as Nike’s “Nike SB Zoom Stefan Janoski RM premium” (Nike, 2019B) and Adidas “Tyshawn signature shoes” (Adidas, 2019A), the Pro Skate range has partnered with high profile names. For example Ant hony VanEngel enwho is the partner for the “AVE Pro Skate shoe” ( Vans ,2019) ,Us i ng i nfl uencer shel psengaget hepr of es s i onals k at ermar k ets egmentandencour ages pr of es si onals k at er st oc hoos et hePr oSk at er angeov eracompet i t or .ThePr oSk at er ange

i nc r easesc us t omerengagementus i ngAnt honyVanEngel enasapoi ntt oc al lonwhen adv er t i si ng,asseeni nt hedes c r i pt i onoft heAVEs hoe.Quot esr el at i ngt ot hepr of ess i onal s k at ers uc has“ Goodenoughi s n’ tgoodenough”“ He’ donl yputhi snamet ot hemos t c ompr omi s i ng,t ec hni cal l yadv anceds kat es hoe”( Vans ,2019) ,Si mi l art ot hedi r ec t c ompet i t or sNi k eandAdi das ,ac or es t r engt hi sdr awnf r om VansPr oSk at er angef ur t her c us t omerengagementt hr oughahigh level of online presence through social media pages (Including, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the official vans website). Vans use these avenues to advertise and take feedback on a regular basis from customers who influence the design of current and future products, these pages also offer direct reviews from customers on the product itself ( Vans ,2019) ,

Vans Pro Skate range strengths have been established with the expense of high overhead costs due to the high production costs, advertising and partnering with influencers. This causes them to have the highest price $200 ( Vans ,2019) ,when comparing competitors market offers from Volley ($40) Nike ($140) and Adidas ($140). Vans Pro Skate range also suffers from a low ability to penetrate into emerging markets, such as the increasing professional skating market in Asian pacific. These weaknesses allow Vans pro skate range offer its loyal customer products that they can utilize in their passions, however stops them from growing as rapidly inside of other market segments and increasing overall market share.

Opportunities and threats

Opportunities refer to those possible changes or adaptations in the environment surrounding the business, which could be capitalised on to increase its competitive advantage and profitability. In contrast threats are those factors in the environment which can be detrimental to the growth of the business (Armstrong et.al, 2017). Encompassed by the macro and micro

environment surrounding the Pro Skate range today's constantly changing society offers opportunities for the Pro Skate Range to capitilise on. One opportunity is moving from synthetic/non environmentally friendly production of shoes into a more environmentally sound production method, such as utilizing recyclable materials. Moving into this sector would enable the Pro Skate range to appeal to current trends that are prevalent in public demand. While changing production methods an attempt to reduce production costs is important, Due to The Pro Skate range being expensive it would be in the best interests of the product line to reduce manufacturing costs to reduce the cost to customers.

As Australia is lacking infrastructure to host copious amounts of skating events in comparison to other countries, this presents another opportunity in which the Vans Pro Skate range could see benefit in pushing for further infrastructure to be created, or investing in creating their own infrastructure to host global events. Professional skating is increasing in popularity in the Asian pacific market, as suggested in the report undertaken in Nov 2018 by Bizwit Research, in which they express that the “Asia Pacific region is anticipated to exhibit higher growth rate / CAGR over the forecast period 2018-2025”. The Asian pacific market is currently an under-tapped market. Vans Pro Skate range could benefit from expanding into heavily advertising within that arena.

Opportunities of production changes to the range and new established market penetration/presence in the Global market do not go unburdened. Threats that could be detrimental to the Pro Skate Range include: Competition of brands, when trying to expand into a globally that currently are large market leaders. This will lead to higher levels of competition from brands such as; Nike, Adidas and volley. This could make product range expansion difficult and would be detrimental to profits. Other than competition, product design that offers mass appeal within the niche target market is also flaw. The design is open to the threat of the copy-cat products which threaten the brands reputation due to

cheap/poor quality replicas being sold on the open market. These products can develop brand dissatisfaction due, possibly eroding into the profitability of the product line.

(THOMAS SIDONIO REFERENCES) Asdreports.com. (2018). Global Skateboard Market - Forecasts 2018-2025. [online] Available at: https://www.asdreports.com/market-research-report-471213/global-skateboard-market-forecasts [Accessed 1 Oct. 2019]

Armstrong., G., Adam, S., Denize, S., Volkov. M. & Kotler, P. (2017). Principles of Marketing. 7th edition. Australia: Pearson Education. (Armstrong et.al, 2017)

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