Prince Sports: Tennis

Peter King

Empire State College

Marketing Principles

Prince Sports: Tennis

This case is about how the world is adapting and changing and how social marketing and social networks are the new focus. The social networks being; Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and others. Prince Sports is a racquets company that sells; tennis, squash, badminton, ektelon, and Viking. Prince is known for their many varieties of equipment as well as new innovative products. Prince invented the first oversize and long body racquets, the first synthetic gut tennis string, and the first natural foot shape tennis shoe. Prince continues to attempt to be creative in making their products and the tennis population continues to grow from 48% from 2000-2008.

Tennis players have been divided into three categories according to their special needs. The categories are as stated in the text, “Those with shorter, slower strokes: They want maximum power in a lightweight frame, those with moderate to full strokes: They want the perfect blend of power and control, those with longer, faster strokes: They want greater control with less power” (Kerin et. al p. 240). To fulfill all the needs of their customers they conduct detailed market research on the players at each level. This extensive research was the building stone for the new O technology. The O technology as stated in the text, “solved an inherent contradiction between racquet speed and sweet spot” (Kerin et. al p. 240). This was an invention that was never made, no racquet had the ability to have speed and a “sweet spot”. The “sweet spot” is the middle of the frame that has the most power when hit. Prince then delivered more customer satisfaction and innovation by developing more to the O technology and producing EXO. The EXO increased the sweet spot by 83% while reducing the frame vibration by 50%.

There are three primary market segments for the tennis racquets for Prince. There are; Performance line, recreational line, and junior line. Prince has to make designs for each segment there are three. The three being as stated in the text; “the price a player is willing to pay, what playing features they want, and what technology can be built into the racquet for the price point” (Kerin et. al p. 240). In Figure 1 it goes into detail about the sub-segments of each segment, the segment characteristics, brand name, length, unstrung weight, head size.

Prince has distributors such as Wal-Mart, Target, Sporting Goods, and tennis shops. Prince’s marketing strategy is that for large chains such as Wal-Mart they co-op advertising in their stores circulars, point-of-purchase displays, in-store signage, consumer brochures, and even “space” planograms. For the small specialty shops