On year 60’s, armour garments company’s competitors started to produce a bad effect on agc. their products, which are same on the agc product lines beat the standard cost of undershirts of agc by lowering their product price. since middlemen were nto layal to brands, they preferred to take the chance on buying undershirts which have lower price than agc’s. Then after ten years, compertition got worsen for more and more margial factories opened and willing to compromised on price and payment terms with the middlemen though those days, undershirts was no longer fashionable to wear.
Because of that, agc produced new product line. Aside from their traditional product line, which is marca troca and armour, they introduced blossom. This agc’s new product line sold more than their traditional product lines. Having failed to improve the market ability of its traditional product they introduced polo shirt, jeans, and printed shirts but The market response was not favorable . because of this, financial condition of agc continued to worsen. SWOT ANALYSIS Strength – Despite their situation, the firm still has their fair share of advantages.
Agc as a stron barand is fully recognized and respected in the market all over the country. Ultimately, they are the pioneers of the production of these undershirts. No only are they pioneers, they also produce it of high quality. Because of the positive response from customers, they earned high profit as they start their operation on 1954 up to the 60’s. Aside from that, the firm also has a vast amount of manpower, which grew from 25 to 250 workers since the start of their operation and production.
One good advantage of the firm compared to other competitors is that they designed their products according to that of Hong Kong undershirts, which gives it an edge among the others in the country. Weaknesses -Sadly, in spite of its strengths, the firm also had a lot of disadvantages and drawbacks. One is that in terms of machineries, the sewing machines they had wasn’t flexible, that it was just suited and limited for making undershirts only. The firm also had a limited market, which only caters to male customers only.
They also outlaying more fo thie profits than reducing costs of their products in the same way as their competitors’. And when agc started to incur lots of losses, they still prioritized their first two major brands, armour and marca troca. instead of the new one, which was doing well in the market, they still focused on their traditional product merely because of pride. This implies that agc is not havin an effective marketing strategy. Also, the product sales is seasonal. it only grows big when the monthe of june starts with openin of classes , and of December with Christmas rush.
Opportunities-Luckily, there was still hope for the firm when they were experiencing difficulties in terms of sales in the market. There are lot of new market opportunities for it that could be a way to push under armour forward. First, there was an increase in the population, which meant a growth in the potential buyers of the firm if they will take advantage of the situation. There is also a way of such exporting to be recognized not only in the county but in others also that could hhelp them raise sales and incresase their product portfolio that will move them forward.
Also, since it depends primarily in wholesale, specifically in Divisoria, there were a lot of potential consumers and of their product that wwill provide a big opporturnity for under aromour to explore by the changes in the way it spend. Expanding into other markets could be a possibility for under armour. By increasing number of retail outlets but decrease pricesof their products, their sales will result to a very satisfying condition. Threats-There were several threats that the firm had to face.
Truth be known, firms that produce clothing had to face and deal with the ever-changing trends in fashion. The firm, in this case was not able to cope with the shift in the consumer’s preferences. Another threat was that its competitors in the market sold the same product and quality but with a reasonably lower price instead that the middlemen were not that loyal and chose the firms other competitors as their suppliers since they offered lower prices for their products.
Though they have an opportunity to have potential consumers, the changes in the way consumers shop and spend and other changing consumer patterns, could be a threat to under armour’s performance. Itf competitors take an action of bringing new technology to improve quality on their products or increase their workforce to meet demand, it could ve a major threat aganindt armour. Its male dominated focus also a threat that competitors can taje advantage of by producing different products not limited in genre. Also substitute products will sooner could be available on the market.
Alternative Solution The Armour Garments Company had experienced its merely see-saw-like trends. In a moment, it went to favourable conditions the fact that it reached its quite profitability on the product sales and had increased its production from years after. Thus, this gave way to the arrival of their well-known undershirts namely Armour and Marca Troca in the market which satisfied the customer’s demand for several years. However, it turned out in one moment that the company faced its downfall due to the existence of different factors affecting its industry environment.
The arrival of their competitors as new factories opened in the marketplace seemed to give them difficulty in getting the eyes again of the consumers on their product lines. Even middlemen in Divisoria were not loyal to any brands. As long as the company was willing to sell at lower price and longer terms of payments, they were willing to carry their products. Also, the customer’s preferences towards the products do not play constantly which hardened them in coming up with new satisfying product lines.
Since, things are getting worse, development of new product is important to the long run of the firm. If we think about it, there were no major problems in their production, financial stability and even amidst of the competition. What the company was lacking were their marketing and product strategies. Although their traditional product lines remained unlisted in the consumer’s taste, the company should come up with improving and updating these product lines because failure for them to change would result in a decline in sales with competitors racing ahead.
Products undergo stages of their lifecycle. They might click now but not tomorrow so they should be eventually replaced. The ideas for new product should take up for considerations. These generated ideas should be feasible that it can’t be costly to the company. In this case, I think it would be better if there would have some modifications on their traditional product lines since these had been favoured by consumers for many years. Put them up with assorted colours with distinctive product style and design which durable and of high quality.
It cannot just be only for undershirts use but can also be comfortably used for fashion statement purposes of consumers. This is another way to add customer’s value to the products. Design is a larger concept than style. Style simply describes the appearance and can be eye-catching to the consumers. It may produce pleasing aesthetics, but it does not necessarily make the product perform better. Good design contributes to its usefulness as well as its look. Now that the company came up with these newly developed products, the question would be the launching of them within the market.
The target audience in a specific area plays a crucial role in marketing these products. The audience may be potential buyers of the company’s product, current users, deciders or influencers. It is to whom the company determines and evaluates distinct group of buyers which are known to be the market segments. Since the company creates only for men’s, why not for girls’ and women’s too at a lower price for current profit maximization. This would test now the acceptance of consumers in the newly developed product lines of the company.
And if these things would work in the market, there’s no doubt for the company to get back its superiority in the industry. RECOMMENDATION In this case I recommend that AGC management is needed to have a decisional roles . First is applying the entrepreneurial role in which it is the key role in the identificatin of new opportunities and the development of these into new products , services , methods or activities w/their organization. They can also apply the use of problem solver , resource allocator , and negotiators as also a part of decisional roles.
After they applying the decisional role they need to think an effective concept to make the consumers interesting to their products . The marketing concept is the most efficient concept because if AGC will use it the firm will define its target market and determine the needs,wants and values of the market. The firm then adapts a srategy to satisfy those needs and wants more effectively and efficiently than its competitors . If AGC will follow those things it will helps their company to become profitable again and it will makes their company to be a part of those progressive and successful company
Action place Because of the cotinous worsening of agc financial condition due to failure of sales of their traditional product lines, and new product lines, and new product lines of polo shirt , jeans, and printed shirts and compretitions , they proposed one way to save their dwindling profitability . it was to infuse more capital to modernize its factory and to turn out more and better quality product lines than compretitiors could produce and ro compute in a totally idfferant market place. Question uestion 1 should the owners of the agc infuse additionalfunds to the company?
Because of agc’s continuously worsening financial condition, a proposition of putting additional fuunds to the company for making its factory be well-equipped with thigh technological sewing machines and other sewing amterials such as high-quality textile, thread, and modernize factory itself by enlarging their environment to be able to produce diffenten sections for making garments not only llimited to undershirts but also for jeans, printed shirts, polo shirts, sportswear, undergarments, etc. will be a good idea to plan of and execute it immeditately to avoid continuously adding losses to their financial condition, and to finally bring to the top among other competitors their new product lines with a better quality. It is a good plan also to bring on their product lines on different market place not only in divisoria where they usually sells all their products to it to distribute to retailers by adding wholesalers as well as retailer stores around the country, and if the added fund is much adequate, an exporting product to other country will bring back up the losses they had.
Question 2 discuss how agc could have avoided its losses. agc should avoid the factors that will push them down on the business field. they could have avoided losses if there operations were in a more creative way of operations in business just like expanding their production from undershirts to different garments and have market places that people liken to come over to buy for They must secure the future that their company had. The product that they are selling has many competitors. Those competitors were being competitive with their business.
AGC must think of a good idea that will make the buyers attracted to their products . we can say they have to level up. With the kind of sewing machines and the workers they have with their business, they won’t gain them attractions of the buyers. If they were competing with other brands of undershirts, they must fit into what the best thing that they must do for their business they have to produce something new to make the customers attracted to their products and not imitating others ideas and products.
