Lonsdale Women Tops T-Shirts - Quality, Price, and a Comparison with other Products - Example

Running Headers: Short report - a sport wear product (Lonsdale women tops t-shirts) Your Name: Course: Institution: Instructor: Date July 30, 2010 Table of Content Transmittal Letter July 31, 2010. Dear : Enclosed is a copy of “Short report - a sport wear product (Lonsdale women tops t-shirts).” This report is a summary of my research about Lonsdale women tops t-shirts. This report includes the information on quality, price, and a comparison with other products. Lonsdale cannot be compared with some giant competitors, such as Nike, Adidas, and many more. However, with the launch of new product, the company has maintained a position into the stiff competitive market. Apart from this strategic, there are others more market strategies that Lonsdale has being using over years, which are going to be discussed in this report. This report also includes Lonsdale challenges and weakness. Most of these challenges normally come from other competitors. Moreover, business strength/competitive position matrix has also been evaluated in this report. The finding of this paper has been conducted from various previewed journals, and Lonsdale official website. Sincerely, Introduction Over the years, there has been a lot of sport wear merchandise for women. In recent times, Lonsdale launched a new product (tops t-shirt) for women, (Krenzer, Starr, and Branson, 2005). This product is mainly used by women for sport activities. The product is aimed at substituting the women world with sophisticated yet a higher quality product, (Krenzer, Starr, and Branson, 2005). The modern women have valued sport when compared to the old times, and as result, it creates an opportunity for sport dealers to open a wide market for their merchandises(Duits and Zoonen, 2007). However, this field is occupied by many players including large and small manufacturers. Therefore, the journey for a new product into the market will be bumpy, (Duits and Zoonen, 2007). Executive summary Lonsdale is a manufacturing company that deals with sport cloths. For a long duration, sport cloths manufacturing industries have been dominated by few cartels, such as Nike, Adidas, Reebok and Asics, (Walseth, 2006). These few cartels have dominated the market all over the globe, thus weakening others firms. However, in recent times, Lonsdale launch a new product for women (tops t-shirt). This product was targeted at certain age, and as result, this product has flourish in the stiff competitive market, (Dickson and Pollack, 2000). Women tops t-shirts are made of different sizes, high quality, and at affordable price, for both low and high standard peoples, (Duits and Zoonen, 2007). Apart from these market strategies, the company has fully advertised this product through all forms of media. Conversely, apart from competitive challenges, the company also faces other threats, like retaining customer and others that have been explained in this paper. This paper will also analyze the women tops t-shirts, company strength and weakness. There are different varieties of women tops t-shirt, but Lonsdale has manufactured women tops t-shirts in a unique way, and is of high quality, (Krenzer, Starr, and Branson, 2005). The price of this product is higher, and this is considered as a market strategy, as most of consumers normally think that the most expensive product has a higher quality, (Krenzer, Starr, and Branson, 2005). The life duration of this product is long when compared with other brands in the market, (Duits and Zoonen, 2007). Bellow is the picture of Lonsdale women tops t-shirts: Lonsdale V Neck T Shirt Ladies (£5.99) Apart from the above brand, there are many different types of tops t-shirt for women. The prices for these products normally ranges from 5 to 15£, and this a big challenge because not all consumers can afford to stand with this price. In market, there are many products that are cheap, and majority of consumers especially from underprivileged people, usually goes for this cheap products, which their prices ranges from 1 to 5£, (Walseth, 2006). Consequently, the manufacturer of Lonsdale will require a strategic planning in order to continue enjoying the fruits of stiff competitive market, (Krenzer, Starr, and Branson, 2005). Strategic planning is one of the strategic methods used in different organizations to determine is headed to whether in the next one year or more. It is also a useful tool that determines the resources required to ensure that the organization heads to the intended direction. It is imperative to distinguish between the focus of a business plan and the strategic plan because the former deals with a particular program, service or product in the organization while the later focuses on the organization as a whole, (Duits and Zoonen, 2007). There are number of approaches, models and perspectives used in different organizations for strategic planning, (Walseth, 2006). However, the organizational culture, leadership, environmental complexity, organizational size, planner’s expertise determines the development of a strategic plan, (Walseth, 2006). For example, a number of models for strategic planning include issues-based, goal-based, scenario and organic (to mention a few). Planning based on goals is the most widely used model for strategic planning and entails the following: Focusing on the mission, values or vision of the organization, goals aimed at working towards achieving the mission, Approach towards achieving the goals of the organization Planning action that determines who will be responsible for particular actions And when particular actions should be undertaken. Lonsdale competitive strategy Lonsdale has flourished to the European market, but it faces a stiff competition from giant sport manufacturers Nike and Adidas, among other competitors, such as Asics, Rebook, and Fubu, , (Dickson and Pollack, 2000). Nevertheless, Lonsdale has formulated a competitive strategy to sustain its existence in the market, (Baker, 2009). These strategies are: Lonsdale’s target market for its women top t-shirts and other products, for women between 18 and 35 years old. Lonsdale’s competitive market has expanded and dominated in the international market. Nike disburses TV ads during professional and college sports events, prime-time programs, and late-night TV programs, (Krenzer, Starr, and Branson, 2005). Below is a chart showing how Lonsdale manufacturing and sale compete with their competitors: Primary Strategic Match Position: Business Strength/Competitive Position Matrix Against Nike Against Adidas Against Asics Success Factors Weight Rating Score Rating Score Rating Score Market Share .04 1 .04 3 .12 .04 .16 Breadth of Product Line .06 3 .18 2 .12 .01 .06 Sales distribution effectiveness .03 1 .03 2 .06 .03 .09 Price competitiveness .08 4 .32 3 .24 .02 .16 Advertising effectiveness .10 4 .40 2 .20 .01 .10 Facilities location and newness X X X X X X X Production capacity .03 4 .12 3 .09 .02 .06 Relative product quality .08 3 .24 2 .16 .01 .08 R & D position .12 3 .36 2 .24 .01 .12 Caliber of top management .02 4 .08 3 .06 .02 .04 Customer service X X X X X X X Experience curve .04 4 .16 3 .12 .02 .08 Corporate culture .04 4 .16 2 .08 .01 .04 Profitability ratios .06 4 .24 3 .18 .02 .12 TOTAL 0.80 5.93 1.77 1.23 Key X means that the criterion is not applicable 1-4, means that the firm’s competitive position is very weak 5 and above, means that the firm’s competitive position is very strong As we can observe from the table, the rating against the three competitors is lower than five, meaning Lonsdale is very week against its competitors. Lonsdale Swot Analysis Strengths The strengths that Lonsdale takes pride in getting top sport personalities to wear and promote their merchandise as opposed to events or competitions, (Dickson and Pollack, 2000). . The idea behind this is that people have a tendency to remember the trademark worn by an athlete and not the trademark that promote the event that the athlete or players perform at, (Duits and Zoonen, 2007). Weakness The market that Lonsdale participate is very competitive. Majority of Lonsdale’s revenue comes from the vending of its merchandises to retailers. This normally causes the margins to get squeezed as distributors attempt to obtain low price competition on Lonsdale’s merchandises. Opportunities The technology is dynamic both in the retail market and sport industry. The potential to have the most current fashion trends in sporting cloths, shoes, sunglasses, and other vital equipment is necessary in generating more income, (Duits and Zoonen, 2007). Lonsdale has a wide global market, especially in Europe and the U.S. with their product being acceptable. Threats The retail industry is becoming significantly price competitive. Hence, customers are shopping for an affordable deal. The customers now dominate the control of the manufacturers. Therefore, if a customer wants a product with the lowest price, then he/she is free to move from store to store in search for cheaper product. Women's clothing depends on their weight, body size, and their age. For example, highly colored clothes can be more likely match a skinny body kind. It might not be suitable for a chubby lady as it would add up the actual body weight. It’s essential for women to use fitting cloths for sports because it makes the body competent to perform those activities that are necessitated during the practice of the sport. For that reason, it is important that the practice of sports is constantly performed with appropriate clothes; after all improper clothing may hurt the performance of the sportsman and, in some cases, to cause harm to his health, (Krenzer, Starr, and Branson, 2005). Recommendation The position of Lonsdale in the market is still down, and as result, it require more strategies that will enable it to thrive as other giants competitors. Some of the strategies it requires is outsourcing and opening the market all over the globe. Lonsdale only sell it merchandises in Europe, U.S.A and some other few countries, (Krenzer, Starr, and Branson, 2005). When compared Nike, it has subdivisions all over the world, and this has enabled the company to reach a wider market. If Lonsdale can apply the same strategy, it can reach a winder market considering the new product, (Walseth, 2006). The market strategies that Lonsdale has applied, cannot be considered as unwelcoming, but it needs to reinforce it in order stand in the same position with other dominant competitors, or even overtake them, (Dickson and Pollack, 2000). Conclusion Lonsdale hasn’t dominated the market as compared with other giant competitors, such as Nike, Adidas, Asics, Reebok, among others, (Duits and Zoonen, 2007). However, with the introduction of women sport top t-shirt, the company has started hitting the market with more popularity. Lonsdale has advertised this product through various Media, such as TV, billboards, and many more, (Lonsdale, 2010). This product is targeted for women ranging from 18 to 35, and this is observed as a noble strategic. Diversification has also assisted the company to reach a wide market all over the globe, (Drew, 2009). References Jeremy Drew. “The Lonsdale trade marks: round 2”, Journal of Intellectual Property Law Practice, Mar 2009; 4: 154 - 156. Linda Duits and Liesbet van Zoonen. “Who's Afraid of Female Agency?: A Rejoinder to Gill”. European Journal of Women's Studies, May 2007; 14: 161 - 170. Grace Krenzer, Cathy Starr, and Donna Branson. “Development of a Sports Bra Prototype: Patternworks International Best Solution to a Patternmaking Problem, 2000”. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, Mar 2005; 23: 131 – 134. Lonsdale. “History of Lonsdale London”. Retrieved From < http://www.lonsdalelondon.com.au/History> (accessed July 30, 2010). Mona Scheuermann. “Gender Studies of English Fiction”. Eighteenth-Century Life, Oct 2000; 24: 73 - 102. William Baker. “Bibliography and Textual Criticism”. Years Work Eng Studies, Jan 2009; 88: 1213 - 1278. Kristin Walseth. “Sport and Belonging”. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Dec 2006; 41: 447 - 464. Marsha A. Dickson and Ashley Pollack. “Clothing and Identity Among Female In-line Skaters”. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, Jan 2000; 18: 65 - 72. Read More