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It wastes their fuel and time for nothing. In the same way for company which can handle millions customers without big store and thousands employees, It is possible for web store only. The cost and the result are too far different. So, pick up this interesting one to show how they work. Let’s begin with overall information from the raw information in table 1 and 2. As you see that Under Armor’s swimwear for women has 14 products with $15. 99 – $37. 99 price range and 10 products with $24. 99 – $59. 99 price range for men’s. The shown information and AD image in Nine’s web store (http://store. Eke. Com) is impressive but the price is more expensive than Under Armor’s about 2. 75 times for the lowest product. Nine’s swimwear for women has 11 products with $44 – $84 price range and 10 products with $40 – $136 price range for men’s. To sum it up, men swimwear for both companies is similar. Almost women swimwear of Under Armor are bikini while Nine’s go for swimsuit. The price of Nine’s is far higher than Under Armor’s. 2) Comparing promotional strategies First thing first, we are currently in summer which customer demand for swimwear will be increased automatically.
But the information that mention above has raised the question “Do they have the same target customers? ” Before we go for this question, let’s see how they use promotion for their products. Under Armor, Inc. Is an American sports clothing and accessories company. The company is a supplier of sportswear and casual apparel. Under Armor was founded in 1996 by Kevin Plank. For promotion, of internet marketing, they give away coupons for some of their products in coupons. Com and retaliation. Com. The related promotions for swimwear from coupons. Mom are based on shipping; 1) Free Shipping On Orders Over $45, (2) Free Shipping on Your Next Order with AU Email Sign Up, and (3) Free 2-Day Shipping on $150+. The retaliation. Com offer the similar promotions; (1) CIA Outlet + Free Shipping On $35+, (2) Free shipping on $35+, (3) New Arrivals + Free Shipping On $35+, (4) Free 2-Day Shipping On Orders Of $149+, and (5) Off For Service Members & First Responders. Nikkei, Inc. Is an American multinational corporation that is engaged in the design, development, manufacturing and worldwide marketing and selling of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories and services.
The company was mounded on January 25, 1964, as Blue Ribbon Sports, by Bill Borrower and Phil Knight, and officially became Nikkei, Inc. On May 30, 1971. Their promotion was the same way as Under Armor’s. The coupons. Com offer these promotions; (1) Save Up to 50% Off Clearance Items, (2) Free Shipping on $75+, and (3) Free Returns and Exchanges. The retaliation. Com offers the same promotions as coupons. Com. In short, Under Armor offers free shipping on $35+ and faster shipping on $150+ while Nikkei offers free shipping on $75+, free return and exchanges and sale up to 50% for clearance items.
Analyzing from these remissions, Under Armor has no intention to discount their price which is already acceptable. So, they go for free and fast shipping promotion alone. The Nine’s promotion seems showing us their customers’ behavior which might return or exchange. Sale up to 50% off promotion state that there are a lot of items unsold. Though the customers might expect a good quality for Nine’s high price but some of them might disappoint and then related promotions have been created. These companies are also having the different swimwear.
Under Armor’s swimwear for women is focusing on Bikini while Nikkei is focusing on swimsuit. Even the men’s swimwear of both companies is similar but the designs of Nikkei are cooler. So, the lower price is the main marketing strategy of Under Armor. They also use psychological pricing with 9 digit ending. As Geoff Lancaster and Lester Massing (2011) said “There are behavioral forces at work with respect to price involving psychological factors such as perception, learning and personality. These behavioral forces have led to the notion of considering the psychology of pricing processes”. Kettle (2002) mention a good example that often sellers set prices that end in an odd number, believing that customers who see a television priced at $299 instead of $300 will perceive the price as being in the $200 range rather than the $300 range. Another explanation is that odd endings convey the notion of a discount or bargain, which is why both toys. Com and toys. Com set prices ending in 99. 2 2) Advantage in marketplace For additional information, have used Google Towards’ tool to find customer’s search and found interesting search result within United States of America which shown in table 3.
From information in table 3, I might set swimwear into two main theme; swimsuit and bikini. As the earlier information, Nine’s women swimwear aim for swimsuit while Under Armor aim for bikini. For keyword “cheap bikini” and “bikini sale” might prove that Under Rumors price strategy is correct. And for Kevin. ‘rod “sexy swimsuits” and “cute swimsuits” might end up buying bikini as well. In my view, Under Armor seems getting advantage for bikini product with cheap price. Even Nine’s AD product image is impressive but they cannot show customer how sexy they can be.
Under Armor using model to wear their bikini get the marks for sexy needed customer. Nikkei has advantage in design in the first place. There are two ways that might bring more market share to Nikkei; producing better design bikini with the same price range of Under Armor or producing niche bikini, as shown in keyword, which Under Armor does not have with the same price range or higher. The question “Do they have the same target customers? ” might be answered here as needed information is explained. For observing Nine’s swimwear website (inkiness. Mom), you will see the slogan “the next generation of fast” which would make us clear that target customer of Nikkei is aimed for sport but Under Armor aims for casuals as producing bikini for this task. Hence, products of both companies are different in the first place. To gain advantage over competitors, Nikkei might reduce the product’s price or put bikini in the marketplace with vary design such as shown in Google’s monthly average search keyword; micro bikini, Brazilian bikini, push up bikini, crochet bikini, skimpy bikini, scrunch bikini, red bikini, white bikini and black bikini. Those different type of bikini might share the market.
Under Armor already works on bikini, then the new type of bikini might boost their market share. There is a slim chance to chase Nikkei for women swimsuit. So, working on men swimwear with better design might be enough for casual customers. 3) Consumer-oriented promotions In short term of summer, bikini sale might bring more customers but both companies should produce sexier and vary style of bikini for the long term. Quality of product is needed before promotion. For Nikkei with the high price slimmest for women, they might use Customer Referral Incentive Program by giving promotion for bikini.
With the certain number of new customer bringing, to buy bikini, Nikkei might give away some high price swimsuit. This might work in long term for Nikkei. As Michael J. Baker (2003) said “Referrals (word of mouth) and referentially can reduce the cost of acquiring other customers; product innovation for, and learning from, these customers may benefit the whole company. These indirect relationship effects can mean that certain customer relationships do create shareholder value, even though the direct financial returns generated do not indicate a positive net present value. 3 In short, I suggest Nikkei to discount swimwear, as their price seems to be a problem for casual customers, in this season and target for casual customer for next year by reducing bikini into marketplace. Nikkei might take advantage on design, which is currently better than Under Armor’s, to share Under Armor’s bikini market. 4) Competitive advantage For the third company to get competitive advantage, same cost bikini as Under Armor’s might be acceptable but better design and eve style but price should be higher for profitability objective. Niche product concept might avoid price war as well.
This sense meets competition. In this point, there is the book that gives a good attitude (2008) that weaknesses can exist, but they are not necessarily important to the customer and so do not influence demand significantly. For example, analysis may show products are 10% more expensive than those of competitors, but analysis of customer behavior may indicate demand is price inelastic. 4 It is true that price base on value as Frank Bradley (2003) said “Buyers often infer that value is reflected in price; for these people higher prices mean higher value. 5 But Nine’s price seems a bit too high. New company might not match Nikkei for prestige objective and the price for bikini must not high. Hence, if we consider only Under Armor and Nikkei, then competitive price of other many should be around $25 – $35, in case that they really have better design and vary type, for bikini. Chasing Nine’s swimsuit technology might not be good idea as taking risk in big investment. So, targeting casual customers might be the better choice. ) Most effective advertising medium For the world wide connection in this era, we have narrowed them with the internet and internet marketing has been born since internet is the new requirement for people. Then social media has come and that is the new way of medium also. Number of internet users increasing every year. Hence, no intention for social media means losing the big market share. In my view, social media medium might be the most effective for sports apparel. Nikkei already success by using Twitter as customer service tool.
Nowadays, people are more likely to head to their smoothness or computers to tell the world how terrible a product or service is. That’s why customer service is becoming increasingly important on social media platforms and Twitter is chosen one to do this duty by Nikkei. 6 Although it is called customer service tool, it also is advertising, indirectly, in the same time. Nikkei also making channel in Youth to advertising their brand (youth. Com/user/nonnegotiable). Including the AD product image which can rotate in Nikkei web store, Nikkei seems determining social media medium as their main medium.