Economies of Scale and Purchasing Power - Women's Sport Market

I. Executive Summary

II. Situation Analysis

A. Environment

1. Economic conditions and trends (Just mere analysis I induced from the exhibit, no precise information from the case about the economy, not sure about the economies of scale and purchasing power, just finding ways to relate it with the subpart of the analysis, can we certainly include this? I'm having second thoughts if I was able to include some assumptions of which I must not.)

The economies of scale and the increasing purchasing power of the buyers can be considered as key identifying factors that would tell that the economy is getting better compared with the previous years. Despite the statistics presented on the declining market share of the footwear market, still the increase of production on alternative footwear such as sandals and slippers, substitute brands, and increasing number of competitors can definitely explain that economy is getting more development and technological advancement. The various technology attributes presented in Exhibit 4 – Technology Attributes by Brands will give us idea of the increasing trend on more technology applied on products are perceived to be of more value. This kind of trend is expected to continue until year 1997.

2. Cultural and social values and trends

Women nowadays became sports enthusiasts which were concluded by the study from the Woman's Sport Foundation that there are 1 out of 3 girls participating on high school sports. There is also a number of thirteen million woman aged six and above who also participated in basketball compared to eleven million on 1987. There was an evident increase in women's sports participation at that time. According to Exhibit 18 – Sports Participation among Teens emphasizing the women section, swimming rank number 1 sports where women participated more followed by exercise/ aerobics, running/ jogging, basketball respectively. Having a small disparity on the percentage of the women's participation from men, this affirm the study being conducted.

3. Political and legal issues

The women's sport market had been influenced by some rulings supported under the sports committee. Included are the 1972 Title IX that helped to bring sex parity to intercollegiate sports and the related emergence of sports participation among pre-teen and teen-age girls. According to the Women's Sports Foundation, in the year 1971, one in every 27 girls only participates in high school sports. However, this figure has changed to one in three by the year, 1997. The ruling had made way to eliminate "gender game assignment" example basketball is for men only not until many sports association opened it for women through the 1972 Title IX.

4. Summary