Prince Sports Case Study Valerie Bodner Marketing Principles
Dr. Awesome
October 17, 2015
Abstract
This case study explores different marketing techniques utilized by Prince sports. Research is conducted by utilizing marketing concepts retrieved from various publications as well as Prince sports website. Evolution in technology, joint ventures and adoption of different marketing techniques proved to be successful for Prince sports. There was an evolution of marketing all together at the height of Prince sports success with the introduction and adoption of social media in the marketplace. Prince sports ability to adapt and make changes based on consumer feedback
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These strategies allowed Prince sports to regain previous clients that stop using their products due to the innovations only being available. The use of social media marketing has become a standard way in which organizations advertise their products or services. Social media marketing allows consumers to have immediate access to other consumers reviews or to post a review about a product or service. There is engagement between the company and the consumer (Evans, Dave 2010). Social Media emerged in the late 1980’s when websites such as Prodigy, Compuserve and America Online. Prodigy was first of it’s kind and was known as a ”consumer online service”. Half of the page is devoted to advertising. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Hi5, Bebo and Orkut are all social media platforms that are utilized as platforms today. According to www.princetennis.com, In April 2003, marketing executives at Prince sports realized the importance of updating their website to increase more traffic, stay up to date with designs and ensure their users have a positive experience when visiting. Once these changes were made, through their website, princesports.com, they were able to communicate educational information including tennis tips, information about products and industry news. When first entering the site, a person can choose from tennis, prince squash, ektelon racquetball or viking athletics. Anyone interested in
Another traditional marketing tactic has been to utilize super star basketball players such as Michael Jordan to advertise their products, namely shoes. When the only option was print or television, Nike used star athletes to showcase their products and influence the decision of shoe buyers. Couple the desire to play like Michael Jordan, with slogans that make the average feel invincible and you create brand magic.
Socially, what is working for Prince Sports is that the interest in the sport is increasing. As more and more people look to physical activities to improve their health, tennis is an affordable option. The social downside Prince Sports is facing is some of the preconceived notions regarding tennis. Some view tennis as being a challenge to learn and that is only a fad, where interest will fade and be replaced with the next newer fad. Two economic pluses for Prince Sports is the affordability when compared to other individual sports such as golf and the availability of public and club tennis courts. The economic downside is competition entering the market and recessionary spending may limit the ability to purchase more expensive tennis equipment. Technologically speaking, Prince Sports is very innovative when it comes to their equipment, the downside is that the average tennis enthusiast may not appreciate or understand the innovation and fail to make related purchases. Prince Sports, while an industry leader, faces competition from other equipment providers as well as other individual recreation sports, such as golf. The last environmental force facing Prince Sports is the regulatory impact. While Prince Sports works to protect their
Prince Sports is an original sports equipment retailer that offers many different products for tennis, squash, racquetball, badminton and paddle tennis. The companies’ tennis products consist of more than 150 racquets, 50 footwear models and 50 tennis strings, as well as bags apparel and other accessories. Prince Sports focuses on continuing to meet the needs of athletes of all levels and ages. There are many methods of marketing to various demographics and cultures with many contrasting variables that contributes to the increase or decrease in resulting sales. The key players involved in Prince Sports are Linda Glassel the vice president of sports marketing and brand image, Nick Skally the senior marketing manager and Tyler Herring global
Prince Global Sports started out as an unintentional creation of an oversized tennis racquet that Howard Head created all because the thought of simply larger tennis racquet because the game of tennis was too complex to him. His creation launched a money making company later to be known as Prince Sports INC. This company had grown so much they expanded into the footwear, tennis gear, running gear, accessories, sports bags and many more products that had competitors leaving the market. Prince had learned that creating items and selling them wasn't as easy as it was thought out to be, the constant struggle of needing newer
1. Cultivating Technology to meet player’s needs. Prince Sports, Inc implemented a new technology progress in order to solve the main problem that most of tennis racquets had: contradiction between racquet speed and sweet spot. This new concept became essential after a meticulous work in gathering information about general consumer’s needs. Marketing team has reached out to a younger generation though different channels of social media and social network such as Facebook, be it Twitter, MySpace and then internationally, High Five and Orchid (Video Case 9) to understand what type of technological breakthrough will satisfy potential customers’ need. Prince Sports, Inc Marketing team work directly with R&D team to combine and collaborate marketing knowledge and technological ability. Together these two teams have created an evolutionary O3 technology with a 24 percent faster swing speed than traditional frames. The explanation of why their technology works better than other brands is pretty simple: “The secret is in the holes”. Like all world-changing innovations, O3 technology is based on an ingeniously simple idea. By replacing traditional pin sized string holes with massive O-ports, Prince Sports created a class of racquets that move through the air faster for increase power and greater control. (Tennis Express, Online Store, http://www.tennisexpress.com).
Goals- The company is developing and expanding their product line to provide new ways to support athletes whether
Athletics Supreme has become the top retailer in athletic equipment sales not by accident but by employing marketing operations more efficiently through successful marketing implementation and control. The company stays market and customer driven by effectively applying the appropriate metrics to achieve the objectives of its marketing plan and adjusting its strategic path when elements affecting the company’s goals, mission, and objectives begin to waver. This includes the metrics that affects the organization’s customer base that without them the company would not be successful.
All too common products success or failure rides heavily on how the product image characterized matches against the consumers associated beliefs for that same product when they contemplate on buying the product (Bhasin, 2016). Furthermore, the consumers’ willingness to buy based on those core beliefs and expectation of the product, further drives customers in reaching the final purchase decision. A company’s product can easily be short-lived or adopted quickly by a competitor company (Bhasin, 2016). Knowing this makes it critical for businesses to understand additional drivers associated with the customers shopping experience, along with the customer’s core belief and their expectation from the product purchase. Therefore, the following tables created provide details of Lululemon and Planet Fitness. This table shares each company’s core beliefs, basic product offering, customer expectation of a product and the company augmented benefits provided to the product for Lululemon Athletic Apparel and Planet Fitness.
Social media plays an important role in how products and services are discovered researched, and information is shared. As a matter of fact 60% of consumers found information on products and services through searches on multiple online sources such as networking sites. Active users of social media are more likely to read product reviews online, and 3 out of 5 create their
This network of physical locations could also be used as a service / support network for this platform. Sales representatives should be hired to aid coaches in transitioning to this platform. The physical presence and Dick’s branding will encourage confidence and faster adoption within the sporting community. Furthermore, marketing of this platform could be done at a relatively low cost as long as the marketing happens within the confines of the brick and mortar locations. However, the development and marketing of this platform should not transform Dick’s into a service-focused company, it should rather complement its product-focused orientation which is where Dick’s enjoys competitive
BLG’s competitive edge is its unparalleled collection and staff understanding. This is significant because no other store in the area offers the extensiveness within multi-sports as BLG. The type of participants that partake in a variety of sports do so as a part of their lifestyle. As it being a part of their life, they look forward to enjoying
Prince could begin sponsoring recreational and junior player’s teams. By doing this, not only are they marketing their product, but they are also able to stay engaged with consumers and allow their consumers to use their products. Prince could also consider hosting junior players tournaments. The text mentions that Prince reaches their consumers through their website, which I would recommend to continue to do because of the product information, tennis tops, and tennis news they are able to provide to their customers. Something that would be a benefitting promotional activity Prince could consider would be to offer training camps for junior players. Not only will they be able to teach and help develop junior players skills, but they can also allow these players to test their product by allowing them to use their product while attending the camp. This could lead to sales of their merchandise and also a great way to build brand recognition with the younger market. The text mentions that Prince also uses social media as a way to promote their product, so I would continue to recommend that as a way to reach recreational players. With social media having such a large presence in this day and age, this could be a way to reach those players who play tennis as a hobby or leisure activity (Kerin, Hartley, & Rudelius,
As a result, the professional and elite levels have also grown substantially these last three or four decades (Vanderzwaag, 1998). Areas such as recreational sporting programs, corporate-sponsored events, sporting news media and sporting goods have been established within the professional realm of sport as well. It is evident that as the sport industry grew and evolved, it progressively took on the business attributes of other industries (Masteralexis, Barr & Hums, 2014).
In addition to blogs, Nike will collaborate with city based gyms and fitness businesses to set up product tables for users to see. Businesses that provide services such as cycling, yoga, and cross fit are examples of where our target consumer may be spending their time. Product tables will provide samples as well as product information to engage customers in trying and learning about Bold. Nike will also
Our goal as a Group is to lead the sporting goods industry with brands built upon a passion for sports and a sporting lifestyle. Inspired by our heritage, we know that a profound understanding of the consumer and customer is essential to achieving this goal. To anticipate and respond to their needs, we continuously strive to create a culture of innovation, challenging ourselves to break with convention and embrace change. By harnessing this culture, we push the boundaries of products, services and processes to strengthen our competitiveness and maximise the Group’s operational and financial performance. This, in turn, will drive long-term value creation for our shareholders.