Competitive Strategies and Market Positioning of New Balance in the Athletic Footwear Industry
Overview
This essay analyzes New Balance's competitive positioning within the athletic footwear market using Porter's generic competitive strategies. The paper examines how New Balance employs differentiation and focus strategies to compete against major brands like Adidas and Puma, while identifying both threats to its market presence and opportunities for expansion.
What this essay covers
- Introduction to New Balance as an American sports footwear brand and its market positioning
- Analysis of differentiation strategy through product design, visual presentation, and customer service
- Discussion of focus strategy and competitive threats from major competitors
- Market opportunities for expansion through product diversification and advertising strategies
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New Balance Essay
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New Balance Essay
New Balance is a sports footwear and clothes brand in America. The company offers high-priced merchandise for clients through an online store. Moreover, the company primarily associates its brand and products with athletics. Due to this association, running shoes are prominently associated with the brand compared to apparels. New Balance has a chance to maintain its popularity and expand to other parts of the world.
One of Porter's generic competitive strategies applied by New Balance is the differentiation strategy. This strategy aims at achieving the uniqueness of a product or service delivered by a given organization. New Balance incorporates trendy and visceral designs while maintaining simplicity to improve the customer experience (Tanwar, 2013). Moreover, through manipulative and authoritative visual presentation, the company easily wins over their customers and mitigates price sensitivity. The company also focuses on providing sufficient product information and a range of shoe sizes, something many shoe companies lack.
However, the company applies the focus strategy to be more competitive in the market. New Balance could decide to direct their creativity and focus on athletic shoes only. By employing this approach, the company will provide more options and better services, hence, improving their competitiveness (Dombrowski, Krenkel, & Wullbrandt, 2018). New Balance's profits and sales face threats from major brands such as Adidas and Puma. It lacks variety and products are easy to imitate, making other brands to produce similar products at a cheaper price.