Marketing opportunities of Columbia Sportswe, Umbro, Ltd. and Lotto Sport - Essay Example

?Research Paper - Marketing Opportunities Prior research about a firm is vital before attending an interview. This would help to understand the company and its operation, and at the same time helps in being better equipped to face and make an impression on the interviewers. I am attending interviews with 3 companies for the position of a marketing manager. This is a research paper outlining the marketing opportunities that the firms (potential employers) can implement in order to improve their businesses. This will help me to demonstrate my understanding of the company and also my potential of being a marketing manager. Firms The three companies that I am attending the interviews are: Columbia Sportswear: Columbia sportswear founded in 1938 is an American company that mainly deals with manufacture and distribution of adventure wear, sportswear, outerwear and respective accessories. The company has its headquarters in Washington County, Oregon. Over the decades, the company has been able to establish a niche market for itself with great products of highest quality and service. The various products of the company are jackets, shirts, fleece, vests, shorts, bottoms, footwear and other accessories such as backpacks, gloves, scarfs, caps, etc. The company has its presence mainly in America and Europe (Columbia, 2011). Umbro, Ltd.: Umbro is England Company based in Greater Manchester. It is now a subsidiary of Nike. Umbros is also a sports oriented company with its niche being sports related products. Its main activities involve designing of spots related apparels and equipments. It also sources and markets its products. Even though the company’s products involve all sports related products, its niche has been football. The company is known of its products for football. Umbro owned majority stakes in the United Soccer leagues. The company’s products are sold in over 90 countries across the world (Umbro, 2009). Lotto Sport: Lotto Sports is again a sports apparel manufacture established in 1973 and based in Italy. It started out as a footwear manufacturer and has today branched out to manufacturing and selling of other apparel and equipments. Today, Lotto distributes its products around the world in more than 70 countries. It also is an active sponsor of various teams and sportspersons around the world (Lotto, 2011). Marketing Opportunities The various marketing opportunities that the above firms can use to gain a competitive advantage and increase their market share are: Affiliate marketing: Affiliate marketing is a tool that helps a business to reach the masses on the internet without actually making a major commitment towards marketing expenses. It is a web-based marketing practice that will generate a sale or a lead for the business with the help of an affiliate’s business or a website. The affiliate will be rewarded if a lead or a sale is generated from the affiliate’s efforts (Ryan & Jones, 2009). Even though this is a common practise it is an effective one and can drive traffic to the website. None of the above companies use this and it is highly recommended for all the three companies. Best example of affiliate marketing on business is Amazon.com. Amazon.com has used affiliate marketing to boost its sales and at the same time reach a greater audience worldwide with an internet presence that is rivalled by very few. Affiliate marketing can be categorised into low-hanging fruit as it is not very difficult to achieve and does not need a lot of effort. It is used by many and is also affordable which can be generate consistent sales even if it fewer in number. One of the main risks with affiliate marketing is the negative perception among consumers about the numerous online tracking technologies and also affiliates who are unethical and create a negative impression for the company. This has to be countered before going forward with implementation. This strategy will result in minor financial improvements for the company and will have a public relations effect on the firm. Social Media Marketing: Social media marketing is another internet based marketing strategy that is based on the ideology of Web 2.0. This is the most of effective of the marketing communication techniques. This allows for the exchange of user generated content and also helps in better targeting of customers. This integrates various marketing communication techniques such as publicity, direct marketing, public relations, advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, viral marketing etc (Evans & McKee, 2010). Hence, this is very attractive and necessary for the companies to indulge in Social media marketing in today’s virtual world. The various platforms available for this are: facebook, linked-in, twitter, flickr, Stumble upon, blogs, etc. Also companies must develop a free service rather than just offering the purchase of products and services. This will ensure that the consumers interaction and repeated visits. This can be categorised as singles as it is not going to generate massive sales immediately but will account to sales and publicity in long term. The risk involved in social media marketing is that it the results are not directly evident and hence the success of the strategy cannot be measured accurately. Also use of a wrong strategy may result waste of resources and negative publicity. But this must not stop the companies from implementing this. This will result in moderate financial improvements of the company. Sponsor a global sports event: This is a strategy that can result in a huge jump in sales and generate huge revenue for the company. But it also is very expensive and needs a lot of effort from the company. This will generate huge publicity and result in increased market penetration. As of now the above companies do sponsor teams and sportspersons but sponsoring a global event like FIFA world cup or Wimbledon will prove to be more advantageous. This strategy can be categorised as a home run as it can result in immediate results. At the same time, it will need intense planning and preparation. This risk with this strategy is that a wrong strategy can be back fire and hurt the company in a long term. This strategy will result in massive financial improvements of the company. It will also have a positive public relations effect on the firm. This strategy would be recommended to all the 3 companies over the other two strategies as, irrespective of the risks, the rewards are great. References Columbia (2011). Columbia Sportswear Company. Available at: http://www.columbia.com. Accessed on 8th September, 2011. Evans, D. & McKee, J. (2010). Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement. IN: John Wiley and Sons. Lotto (2011). Lotto Sport. [Online]. Available at: http://www.lottosport.com/en/?redirect=1. Accessed on 7th September, 2011. Ryan, D. & Jones, C. (2009). Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation. PA: Kogan Page Publishers. Umbro (2009). Umbro Ltd. [Online]. Available at: http://www.umbro.com/#/?locale=en_US. Accessed on 8th September, 2011. Read More