Building its brand on “passion for sport,” Ideas prides itself on an unrelenting work ethic, its strong international roots, and its active management style that helped establish several decades of industry leadership. Armed with a goal to establish Ideas as the leading global sports brand, the company tradition of product excellence will play a key role in getting there. Ideas is well known throughout the world for its product range that extends from basketball, soccer, fitness and training shoes to bags and equipment.
Ideas is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Germany and Europe and the second biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world. Vision: The Ideas Group’s vision is to be a world leader in sporting apparel and sporting products with brand built on a passion for sports and a sporting lifestyle. Mission: – To continuously innovate and develop the product design in each product category. To heavily support brand-building activities to differentiate Ideas group from competitors – To provide the superior quality of product and of customer service to encourage the repeat sales to customers by focusing on the supply chain management – To be responsible for society and environment by reducing the environmental impact in operation – To gain strong financial results Objectives: To be a company that focuses on the customer and on strengthening and evildoing the brands to maximize the Group’s performance, Ideas Group targets to expand its profile and enhance brand profitability by getting highest markets share in US market and improve revenue. SOOT ANALYSIS A. Strengths Distinguished Brand Name Ideas GAG has been in the market for more than 60 years and is still renowned as one of the world’s biggest sports clothing and accessories provider. It’s a company that is known to provide high quality products and makes sure that their customers are comfortable with what they wear. And now, Ideas GAG has men very popular that everyone in the world knows the three stripes company.
Inspirational and innovative brand marketing campaigns and communication technique captures a lot of attention, wrapped up with strong distribution chain & commitment, dedication and continuous efforts of partnerships with retailers’ worldwide.. Partnership with Sporting Events Sponsors individual sports personalities & various sports and events like Olympics, Soccer, Tennis. Being the sponsor for many sporting events like the FIFE, FAA as well as the NAB, Ideas proved another edge with its competitors. This shows that this company is really trusted worldwide. In FIFE, Ideas even designed a ball for the 2010 World Cup which was held last 2010. In FAA, Ideas became the partner for the event until 2016. They were contracted to provide balls, equipment, staff, officials and even referees for the said event.
While in NAB they will be the uniform providers until 2017. Adaptability to Change As Ideas really emphasizes on innovation and new unique design of the products since the beginning of the business, the company can use “differentiation” which is defined by uniqueness and targeted industry-wide racket as its competitive advantage in order to gain more market share from other competitors in the sporting goods industry. Subsidiaries Ideas GAG comprised of Tailored as well as Rebook and these subsidiary companies are also very renowned worldwide like Ideas GAG. They also provide the consumers with satisfactory products and are able to compete and in 2006 became second brand in the golf industry. B.
Weaknesses Ideas outsource over on production to independent third-party suppliers to minimize the production costs, mostly in Asia. Furthermore, most of the suppliers were located in China. As the company purchases its merchandise from foreign manufacturers, it is difficult to control the product quality. Besides, some product’s price is higher would be a bad effect for Ideas, due to the financial crisis and inflation, people may not spend too much money to buy sport goods, it can reduce the company’s income. C. Opportunities Ideas has sponsorship agreements for major sports events across the globe. In 2009, Ideas extended its partnership with FAA for the FAA EURO 2012 and FAA EURO 2016 football championships, as well as for the FAA Champions League.
In addition, Ideas has a sponsorship agreement with the Japan Football Association until March 2015 and with the Australian Olympic Committee until 2016, and then they got the sponsorship rights to the 2014 FIFE World Cup. Moreover, Ideas is the Official Sportswear Partner to 2012 Olympics in London. Also, FAA and Olympics will become the big chance to entry the women’s sports market. This is indeed a potential market, given an opportunity to attract female customers. About its website, the online customer service not much “helpful” or easy to find. The website can just for browsing products and cannot search for the price. Ideas can improve the online shopping system, make customer get more details on website easily.
D. Threats Ideas faces a significant threat from counterfeits of its products. For instance, some retailers in China and South East Asia are allegedly selling private label merchandise which bears a great deal of resemblance to the company’s products. The abundance of counterfeit goods and accessories is adversely affecting the sales of branded products. Such counterfeits reduce consumer confidence in branded products. Although the company has invested resources in protecting its patented technologies and aggressively countering the sale of fake products, counterfeits continues to proliferate, posing a threat to Ideas revenues and brand name.
The market for sporting goods is intensely competitive in the US and across geographies. Ideas competes internationally with a large number of athletic and leisure shoe companies, athletic and leisure apparel companies, sports equipment companies and companies with diversified lines of athletic and leisure footwear and apparel and equipment. The company faces competition room Nikkei and Puma in the international market. Besides, in the US, the company has to face competition from the cheaper imported footwear from Asian countries like China. Thus, intense competition and availability of cheaper products could put pressure on the price of products and therefore adversely affect the company’s margins.
Ideas sells its products in virtually every country around the world. As a result, the currency risk is an extremely important factor for Ideas’ earnings. Any unfavorable change in other currencies would have an adverse affect on the profitability of the company. CONCLUSION Today, the Ideas Group is a global leader in the sporting goods industry and offers a broad portfolio of products. Products from the Ideas Group are available in virtually every country of the world. Their strategy is simple: continuously strengthen the brands and products to improve their competitive position and financial performance. Ideas has a clear mission ” “to be the leading sports brand in the world”.
To accomplish this mission, the organization at Ideas is segmented to meet the needs of distinct groups of sport-oriented consumers. Their product and arresting initiatives primarily focus on key global sports categories and on the sports lifestyle market. The Ideas brand attitude “Impossible is nothing” drives all the brand communication initiatives and helps it strengthen the Ideas brand’s bond with the consumer. With their broad but selective distribution approach and their pricing strategy, they clearly position Ideas as a premium brand in all markets.
