It’s All About the Who

How do sporting goods companies continue to thrive and survive? It’s like they know exactly what the people want. So what’s their strategy?

Let’s talk about sporting goods companies and their key to making it in our economy today. The best word to describe their success is SEGMENTATION. Segmentation is where the companies segment their target markets and cater to those market needs and wants. Everyone in any type of business needs a target. They need to have a focus. For example, Nike, Adidas, Under Armour and all of those companies would be more likely to promote soccer related products in Europe than the United States where they would promote football or basketball related products. It’s because soccer isn’t as popular in the U.S. as it is in Europe and football and basketball aren’t as big in Europe as they are in the United States. Soccer is on the come up in the United States though.

Most people are aware of the big names in the industry so awareness isn’t really their biggest issue. They create goods that people need and want. So they have to find things that make them stick out from their competitors. This is where community relations and actions like that from companies come into play.

Nike says that their target market is “all athletes”. Nike’s largest market is North America. They focus on 4 specific market segmentations that are: geographic, demographic, behavioral, and psychographic. They use things like athletes, commercials, and ads to target specific types of people. Nike does a very good job of marketing their equipment and giving back to the community. Their motivation behind this is to have everyone wearing their product despite whether they can afford it or not.

Adidas target an age group of around 13-40 years old so more of the children to young adults into fitness and sports. Adidas is the biggest sportswear manufacturer in Europe. Their segmentation is focused on 3 market factors: demographic, psychographic, and behavioral. Adidas says that one of their competitive advantages is their distribution network.

Under Armour, in the beginning, only targeted men. However, they quickly realized that women also had influence in sports and realized they needed to market to women as well. They now market segment based on: demographics and psychographics.

The two market segmentations used in all three of these are demographics and psychographics. Demographics focus on age, generation, jobs, type of fitness, and gender. These are important in figuring out what specific products to advertise to certain types of people. You don’t want to advertise a new, trendy, flashy type of shoes to an older market because they would not receive it well and vice versa. Psychographics focuses on lifestyle and personalities. All of these companies are trying to not only create something people want to wear but are proud to wear. They are trying to create a reputation and an atmosphere of excellence. I mean, isn’t that what we’re all striving for?

Probably the biggest thing for all of these companies is customer service and ensuring their customers are happy with the product and its quality.

What is your favorite brand name? What company do you like buying your products from and why?