Marketing of Athletic Shoes - Essay Example

We have athletic shoes for basketball, running, and tennis, among others. There are athletic shoes that can also double as casual shoes and these are what we popularly call trainers and sneakers.

Nike, Adidas, and Reebok dominate the athletic shoe market and the competition is fierce because there is a large market for it. The young people/the college student culture is our target consumers due to their active and upwardly mobile lifestyle.

Our research took pains in coming up with designs that could address their personalities, lifestyles, gender, and other marketing variables reflective of their age group.

            The actual purchasing process of our target market could be categorized into two: traditional and online purchasing. The traditional purchasing process is when the consumer buys from a store while online purchasing is when the consumer orders the product using the internet. Online purchasing is the more interesting of the two. Today, the college-students subculture is popularly known as the MySpace generation. This tag is after a hugely popular social networking website called MySpace.com. It came to be synonymous with our target market because it represents how the web figures in young people’s lives especially socially and as a consumer. BusinessWeek reported that our market lives online, buy online, and plays online.

To penetrate the market and acquire a significant share of mind, we should tap the endorsement of popular icons among college students. It would not hurt if we follow the lead of Nike when they hired Michael Jordan to endorse their shoes. There was a quantified improvement in the Adidas sale when trendsetters like Claudia Schiffer and Madonna started sporting their products. (Wallace)

The strategy of launching a comprehensive sponsorship of sporting events not just professional but on the American collegiate level must also be seriously considered. There is nothing more effective than touching base with our market leaving us with the message that we are real and giving them an opportunity to gauge our products’ strengths.

Finally, based on the characteristics of our target market, it is my opinion that our marketing strategy should be aggressively pursuing a strong internet presence. We should be reminded that Pew Internet & American Life Project found that fully 87% of 12- to 17-year-old Americans use the Internet, while about two-thirds of adults do. (Hempel) Integrating online marketing and setting up an online store infrastructure could propel our product lines to the forefront. This strategy may include tie-ups with popular websites as what Ipod has successfully done.

I would be glad to discuss with you my recommendations on Tuesday.