The Management of Nike Golf - Essay Example

Chapter 5 Conclusion, Discussion, Managerial Implication and Recommendations Introduction This chapter specifically focuses on the discussion of the main finding of the research, managerial implications and recommendations. The researcher will then suggest recommendations for further study by other researchers and will also suggest recommendations to the management of Nike Golf as well as the consumers in general. Conclusion In conclusion, it can be noted that the aim of the research was to analyze the buyer behaviour of the golf players especially with focus on one of the golf products namely the golf driver. Whilst a number of brands for the golf drivers are available in the market, Nike has been specifically chosen for detailed analysis in this study. The study sought to analyse the general demographic profile of the golf players through a critical analysis of certain characteristics which include age, frequency of playing golf, household income as well as establishing whether the purchases were made by self or others. The behaviour of players with regards to their preferences as well as frequency of their purchases with regards to the value of Nike Golf Drivers were used as the yardsticks to measure the most important qualities sought after in a golf driver by the players. In view of the rising to prominence of golf in Thailand and the booming of the industry, the government has thrown its weight in supporting the development of the Golf industry in Thailand so intensely that it is already involving huge amounts of money and tourists have also recognized Thailand as a Golf tourist destination. It is against this background that Nike has realised a niche in this fertile industry and has sought to craft techniques to be in advantage. However, it has been noted that golf clubs have short lived lifecycles hence the need for manufacturers to constantly research on new technological innovations that would appeal to the consumers. This was thought to be the problem for management of products within their short life cycles. Thus, an important inquiry needs to be addressed if Nike is employing the correct strategy with regards to influencing consumer behaviour in this seemingly lucrative industry. Overally, the study sought to establish the consumer buyer behaviour with regards to the effects of demographic profiles on the purchasing decisions such as the effect of household income on the price of the golf driver bought, the effect of age and frequency of playing golf on quality preferences and the effect of Nike Golf Driver ‘offer sales’ on the purchasing behaviour of golf players. The study also sought to establish how consumer behaviour is influenced by brand perception by each consumer group. This highly competitive environment is the arena where Nike is playing. In most cases, consumers are influenced by various factors to buy certain products. The concept of consumer behaviour though topical is not new in the discipline of marketing and a lot of literature has been published with regards to the subject. The study reviewed a wide range of literature underpinning the theoretical framework upon which consumer behaviour is influenced. The section of literature review as going to be highlighted also attempted to investigate the gap that may exist in the already published literature. Basically, consumer behaviour loosely refers to the factors which affect attitudes of the buyers towards buying a certain product. Henry Assael identified four kinds of behaviour namely complex buying behaviour, dissonance-reducing buying behaviour, habitual buying behaviour, and variety-seeking buying behaviour. However, it has been noted that the identified buying behaviours mentioned above are to a greater extent influenced by different factors which motivate the buyers to have a positive behaviour towards a particular product. Thus, motivation is the drive which gives adequate pressure to command a person to hunt for the fulfilment of a need (Armstrong et al 2003). As far as consumer decision making is concerned, it can be concluded that to a greater extent, their decision to buy a particular product is influenced by marketing related factors such as product, pricing, place and promotion. In carrying out this study, the methodology used in data collection was mainly qualitative though other methods such as quantitative were used to a lesser extent. The main advantage why this method was chosen is that qualitative research takes into account an in-depth view of behaviour patterns of people which is the core of this study. The sample of the survey particularly focussed on the population of golfers in Thailand. Basically, a random sample representing the adult Thailand population (aged above 18) was selected as the target. The total population of Thailand has been recognised to be a total of 61.5 million. The random sampling method has been chosen as a way of gaining responses randomly from the golfers from across the country in a bid to establish and understand their buyer behaviour. One main advantage of random sampling is that each subject has equal chances of being selected and in most cases the responses from respondents chosen randomly will reflect the same feelings of the population at large and random golfers were chosen and presented with this survey with the aim of receiving a minimum of 150 valid and complete responses to the questionnaire. Discussion of main findings The data collected was then analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 12. An analysis of the data collected showed that all the selected respondents were golf players; they also have an experience in purchasing their golf clubs personally and have owned/used to Nike golf drivers which increased the chances of reliability of the study. Among other brands of drivers, data collected showed that Nike had the highest frequency of 45 or 30 percent giving it a clear cut lead compared to the other brands. The frequency of playing also indicated that those who play golf once a week was leading compared to others with their own frequencies. The majority of the respondents have owned only one Nike driver and the results showed that most of the respondents, 28% had purchased latest Nike drivers within six months of the period when the research was conducted. The majority of respondents paid less than THB 5,000 to buy their Nike driver at the latest purchase (40.0%), followed by THB 5,001 - THB 10,000 (25.3%), THB 10,001-THB 15,000 (22.0%) and respondents who paid over THB 15,000 is only 12.7%. From this analysis, it showed that the behaviour of the consumers could have been mainly influenced by the price of the Nike drivers and about 74.7% of the respondents knowingly bought Nike driver on sale. The components of the qualities and characteristics are reliability, positive brand image, technologically advanced, value for money, durability and prestigious and these were noted to be among the factors that influence consumer behaviour. Most of the respondents rated the attributes of the Nike driver to technological advancement as the most important. The results of the data collected also showed that demographic data concerning gender, household income, marital status and age had a great influence on the behaviour of the consumers towards the Nike Driver. About 91%, 137 respondents are males and their monthly income is average with the majority of the respondents earning THB 20,001 - THB 40,000 (32.7%). Mostly single people are the most golf players and they fall in the age category of between 36 and 40. The importance of golf driver qualities and characteristics are classified mainly by purchasing. Reliability is the most important at extremely important level for the respondents who bought Nike driver on sale while value for money is the most important at quite important level for the respondents who don’t know that weather they bought their Nike driver is on sale or not and Durability was the most important at quite important level for the respondent who bought Nike driver not on sale. Basically, it can be concluded from the main findings that technological innovation is responsible for Nike’s positive growth. However, it can also be seen that an assessment of the results of data collected showed that there are various factors which influence the behaviour of the consumers as mentioned above. Managerial Implications The phenomenon of technological innovation and short life cycles is currently not exclusive to golf equipment alone. Technological innovation is taking center stage of almost all facets of any industry Nike Golf is not spared from this. It can also be noted that the golf industry is characterised by fierce competition among various actors which must always be taken into consideration by the management since it has negative implications on the organisation in question of losing the competitive advantage if not properly considered. It is the role of the management to monitor competition among products with the view of an increasing number of industries which are becoming more and more technologically-centered. As noted, the Golf Clubs have short life cycles and the issue of strong competition will make the problem of the management of products more prevalent. The management will have to make sure that they research in order to see if they can devise something new that will appeal to the consumers which would replace the product with a life cycle approaching the maturity stage. There ought to be constant innovation of new products taking place so as to ensure viability of the organisation. Recommendations It is recommended that further research should be conducted with regards to market penetration so as to ascertain the exact interests of the consumers since the technological innovations are bringing about sweeping changes on almost all products in the market. Research would involve precise definition of the market segments since it seems that the middle aged citizens are the prominent users of the golf products. Further research should also be conducted in the area of the factors which cause the life cycles of the golf clubs so short lived if there can be any measure that can be taken to correct the anomaly. It is also recommended that Nike Golf must be extremely careful to ensure that whatever strategies it resorts to in managing the product throughout its relatively short life will not adversely affect brand image in the long-term. Special consideration ought to be taken to ensure that there would be a smooth change over to the new product without compromising on quality as well as the image of the brand. Effort should always be made to ensure that existing loyal customers are not disappointed by the new offering. It is also recommended that Nike Golf should always remember that the phenomenon of technological innovation and short life cycles is not only exclusive to golf equipment but to other sectors of business. Concerted effort should be put in the area of marketing communication where the company ought to make use of new information communication technology to reach a wide number of consumers as a marketing strategy. This is so because competition among products in an increasing number of industries is becoming more and more technologically-centered. Given that the lifecycles of the golf products is short lived, an organisation such as Nike Golf which already has good reputation among its clients should ensure that it constantly embarks on aggressive marketing strategies meant to appeal to both old and new customers. Extensive use of marketing tools to reach a large number of clients should be employed before the launch of the product, the inception of that product throughout all the life cycle stages until the product reaches its maturity stage where it would be ready to be phased out through promotional sales. This is particularly important since the customers would not be caught unaware by the developments that would be taking place with regards to their chosen brand. On the other hand, this would help create loyal customers in the long run who will gradually build confidence in their product fully knowing its characteristics. Market research should be thoroughly conducted before embarking on implementing a new product. It would be recommended that market researchers should attempt to put an effort to get the views of the clients with regards to their expectations about how they would like to see their product like. This would help build confidence among the clients since they would have an idea of the qualities characterising their product. It should also be recommended that the customers should always on the lookout to guard against substandard products proliferating in the market where they would simply base their decisions on the brand name. It is recommended that they should have thorough knowledge of the product before they embark on making purchases in order to avoid making losses after buying sub standard goods. Information about products can be accessed from various sources and it would be noble for them to get this vital product knowledge. . Read More