Marketing Strategy Analysis of Rapha Performance Roadwear

This report analyzes the marketing strategy of Rapha Performance Roadwear and discusses the launch of a new smartwatch by the brand. It includes an evaluation of the brand's competitive advantage, environmental analysis, and segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies.

MKT 306 :
Marketing Strategy

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The below report is based on marketing strategy analysis of Rapha Performance
Roadwear. The entity has been performing exceptionally well within the sportswear sector of
UK. The USP of this entity lies in its marketing strategies which have provided aid to it in
attaining its business goals in a timely manner. Further, firm’s competitive edge lies in the
initiatives taken up by this brand to stay aligned with the current as well as emerging trends of
market place. The macro environmental factors show that there is a scope for company to
incorporate trends such as AI, wearable technology, AR and VR within operations. Further,
SWOT analysis reveals that entity faces threat from competitors and political adversities in terms
of BREXIT. Further, the report unfolds the launch of smartwatch by company into the market.
This product has tech features, capable of appealing to people. Owing to this, the price of
product has been kept to be high and thus, it can only be afforded by middle class and upper
class persons.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
PART 1............................................................................................................................................4
About Organisation and Performance till now.......................................................................4
Environmental Analysis.........................................................................................................5
Evaluation of Current Marketing Strategy / Performance......................................................8
Analysis of organisation's Competitive Advantage and USP................................................9
PART 2............................................................................................................................................9
Product Rationale and Specification......................................................................................9
Segmentation, Targetting and Positioning...........................................................................10
Recommend Marketing Objectives and Goals.....................................................................11
Marketing strategy through application of marketing mix to chosen product.....................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Marketing strategy is defined as the strategic set of activities or actions undertaken by a
corporation that are aimed at entailment of extensive contentment from the customers present at
market place (KAL and ABED ALGHANI, 2019). It is considered to be a crucial and significant
part of business plan of a company. Such strategy sets effective correspondence between the
clientele and organisation.
The present project is done to gain comprehensibility of the marketing strategy
undertaken by Rapha Performance Roadwear to ensure long term sustainability. Rapha is a
globally renowned sportswear as well as lifestyle brand dealing in apparel, sports accessories,
bags, leather goods and many more. This sportswear company put due emphasis over bicycle
racing and even provides associated accessories for riders. The report is categorised into 2 parts.
The first part consists of environmental analysis, evaluation of organisation's present marketing
strategy and analysis of competitive advantage as well as USP of the brand. The second part
deals with launch of a new product at market place. This section throws light over rationale for
selected product and its features. Also, it includes STP analysis and stipulation of marketing
objectives for new product. Lastly, marketing strategies as per marketing mix are devised.
PART 1
About Organisation and Performance till now
Rapha Performance Roadwear is a well renowned and established sportswear
organisation which was founded by Simon Mottram in the year 2004. This company has its
headquarters situated at London, United Kingdom. It is globally renowned among the people for
designing and selling the finest apparel for cycling purpose. Over a period of last 15 years, the
merchandise offered by Rapha to customers, has re-established the definition of comfort, ease,
style, convenience and performance. This brand has made its way from the stage of absolute
beginner to the level of WorldTour professionals (Liu and Li, 2019).
Rapha Performance Roadwear is popular for frequently arranging and sponsoring
innovative events and rides. This entity formed The Rapha Cycling Club in the year 2015 to
unite a large number of cyclists. As a result of this, the brand has been successful in building a
base of 12000 members of the club by now. Further, the corporation holds 23 clubhouses across
the peripheral boundaries of North America, Europe and Asia which have now become the

famous spots for members of RCC as well as localised cyclists. These clubhouses offer cafe
facilities and stock the latest sportswear arrivals.
In last some time, the entity has come up with 2 important initiatives. The first one is
company's Custom programme that provides opportunity to customers for creation of totally
customisable merchandise of the brand by making use of a unique online designing tool. The
second initiative named The Rapha Foundation is implemented to provide funds to NPO
corporations with the sole motive of creating a better future for sports through exalting,
empowerment and assisting the group of next gen. racer.
Environmental Analysis
Rapha is a brand which has extensive base of customers across the world. This poses
pressure upon the corporation to come up with offerings that have the capability to disrupt the
market place and also, meet the needs and choices of clientele. To deal with this, it is required by
management of this corporation to constantly analyse and evaluate the macro and micro
environment. This provides them with the scope to identify the latest and emergent opportunities
as well as threats that may have a significant influence over the organisation. Thus, marketing
audit has been done by this sportswear brand by applying business management and strategic
planning tools such as PESTLE and SWOT analysis.
PESTLE
This is a strategic management tool that provides assistance in conducting external
market audit of a firm in an effective manner (Khan, Akter and Mahmud, 2017). PESTLE of
Rapha Performance Roadwear is presented as follows:-
POLITICAL ECONOMIC SOCIAL
- Change4Life is a campaign
launched by UK Government
to promote healthy lifestyles of
people. This has increased
demand for sportswear
merchandise (Change4Life,
2019).
- Strong economic conditions
of UK facilitate extensive sale
of sportswear items (Karafyllia
and Zucchella, 2017).
- High disposable income of
citizens of UK create demand
for merchandise sold by
- The increase in quantum of
obese stricken persons within
UK generates demand for
products offered by Rapha
Performance Roadwear.
- Opportunity to capitalise on
social media to enhance sales

- Negative effect of BREXIT
over the import of
merchandise.
- Extensive interest of UK
Government in promoting
healthy lifestyles for people
for which growth of sports
brands such as Rapha
Performance Roadwear is
facilitated.
- Need for Rapha to comply
with international trade
barriers and other restriction.
Rapha.
- BREXIT tends to have a
negative impact over the
demand of sportswear sector in
United Kingdom (Sharma and
Jain, 2019).
as well as profits.
- With the help of “The Rapha
Cycling Club”, Rapha seeks to
stay aligned with healthy
lifestyle needs of people.
TECHNOLOGICAL LEGAL ENVIRONMENTAL
- Sportswear sector is a
constantly evolving sector
which comes up with latest
technologies and innovations,
presenting opportunity to
Rapha to leverage such
disruptive technologies (Nagel,
2019).
- Rapha can implement AI,
wearable technology, chat
bots, Augmented Reality and
Virtual Reality to cater to the
increasing needs and demands
of people and effectively meet
them in a timely manner.
- Essential for Rapha to enter
into and keep written contracts
with sponsored athletes and
sports persons.
- Keeping knowledge of
design patent of rivals within
sportswear sector to avoid
getting indulged within legal
issues (Heroux, 2017).
- Increasing concern regarding
the preservation of
environment present
opportunity to Rapha to make
use of of organic material
while colouring or weaving
sportswear fabric.

SWOT
This can be referred to as a business tool which provides a company with knowledge
regarding its internal components. By analysing its positives and negatives, a firm is able to
enhance its competitive edge at market place and thereby, inflate its brand value across the
globe. Thus, the SWOT analysis of Rapha Performance Roadwear is presented as follows:-
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
 This organisation has strong goodwill
at international scale.
 The high quality offerings of this
brand render aid to company in
establishing a large base of loyal
customers who are not willing to shift
to alternate brands.
 This entity conducts a number of
events owing to which it is able to set
large scale networking people and
thereby enhances its revenues as well
as profits.
 It offers a wide array of products
owing to which Rapha is able to gain
the attention of large number of
persons.
 Presence of a large number of
alternatives within the concerned
sector such as Nike, Adidas, Athleta,
Physiq Apparel, FP Movement etc.
become a weakness for Rapha
Performance Roadwear.
 This brand is lacking behind the rival
firms with respect to adoption of
latest and emergent technologies such
as wearables, AI and many more.
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
 Rapha has the opportunity to gain
entry into new markets whereby the
company currently does not carry out
its operations.
 Company can tap the advantage of
technologies such as AI, chat bots,
wearable technology, VR, AR etc. to
 The biggest threat for Rapha
Performance Roadwear is the
presence of large number of
competitors within sportswear sector,
such as NIKE, Reebok, Gymshark
and so on.
 The political and economic

appeal to people in an effective
manner.
adversities in terms of BREXIT also
pose threat to the sustainability of
corporation in international landscape.
Evaluation of Current Marketing Strategy / Performance
The current marketing strategy of Rapha Performance Roadwear is to gain the attention
of a large number of persons at international scale by conducting events and leveraging social
media marketing. Both of these together serve to be effective strategic course of action for this
brand to attain growth as well as success in market place. At global scale, this entity is
performing exceptionally well in terms of revenues and profits (Bryant, 2019). Social media
marketing of this brand takes place on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vimeo
and YouTube. This entity has a customer base of millions at present which illustrates its global
popularity.
(Source: https://www.similarweb.com/website/rapha.cc)
Analysis of organisation's Competitive Advantage and USP
The competitive advantage of Rapha Performance Roadwear lies in the initiatives taken
up by this brand to stay aligned with the current as well as emerging trends of market place. This
Illustration 1: Current Market Performance of Rapha

provides assistance to the respective sportswear corporation to inflate its revenues by satisfying a
large base of audience (Nam, Dong and Lee, 2017). The USP of Rapha Performance Roadwear
lies in the marketing strategies adopted by the brand to significantly appeal to people across the
globe.
By leveraging its competitive advantage and USP over the course of time, this
corporation has built extensive brand image by working with best sports athletes from the start.
Firstly, Rapha served as title sponsor to the British UCI Continental team Rapha-Condor from
2005 to 2012, then as clothing supplier to Team Sky from 2012 to 2016. This sportswear
company continues to operate at the top level of professional cycling with women’s UCI
WorldTour team CANYON//SRAM since the year 2016. Post publishing a 2 years study on the
state of the sport having the title “The Rapha Roadmap”, enterprise returned to the men’s
WorldTour with EF Education First Pro Cycling from 2019 (Taylor, 2019).
PART 2
Product Rationale and Specification
Looking upon the top performance of Rapha Performance Roadwear in international
market, the management of this brand has decided to expand its existent product portfolio. For
this purpose, the company is launching smartwatch in market of UK. This smartwatch would be
sleek, stylish and elegant to be worn by athletes. It would have appealing features such as water
resistance, heart rate monitoring, sleep monitoring, infrared sensor, apps and cellular
connectivity (Ind, Iglesias and Markovic, 2017). This product is selected by the brand to be
introduced within the market place because the entity does not offer smartwatches at present and
there is increased likelihood of people across the globe towards smartwatch. The incorporation of
this product within the product portfolio of company would allow the organisation to enhance its
customer base within domestic market, that is, UK. This implies increment in revenues as well as
profits of the respective sportswear brand, enabling the company to outshine the rival firms at
market place.
Segmentation, Targetting and Positioning
Segmentation, targeting and positioning are considered to be the crucial components of
marketing as they are aimed at identification of target market and placing the organisational
offerings among them. STP is a strategic framework that is applied by corporations with a view

to create awareness among the target audience about the existing or new product of organisation
(Pang, 2017). In this relation, Rapha Performance Roadwear is launching smartwatch at market
place with innovative and appealing features. For the purpose of identifying target audience for
this product and placing the smartwatch of entity among them, Rapha Performance Roadwear
has applied STP model.
STP
Segmentation: This is the process which divides the market into segments on the basis of
1 or more key criteria. The four types of segmentation are acknowledged to be Demographical,
Psychographic, Behavioural and Geographic (Kim and et. al., 2017). In relation to smartwatch,
Rapha Performance Roadwear will segment the market on the basis of demographics. It is
decided that the firm would be targeting the people belonging to age group of 22-36 years as
they are more focussed upon maintenance of healthy lifestyles.
Targeting: Hereby, the market segment selected in previous stage is targetted to enhance
the revenues and profits of company (Sharma, 2017). In relation to the new smartwatch of
company, Rapha Performance Roadwear would be targeting market by making use of a
differentiated marketing strategy, specified as underneath:-
Consumer Aspect Description
Age 22 to 36 years
Gender Males as well as Females
Occupation Middle class and upper class income sections
Income Level Person having an annual income of over $32,000 - 50,000
Consumer Values  Adventurous
 Health conscious
 Fitness and music loving
Positioning: Hereby, a firm places the products and services within the target market to
enhance its financial performance in the long run (Craik, 2019). With respect to the smartwatch
being launched at market, Rapha Performance Roadwear has decided to execute positioning

within target market by way of social media marketing and arrangement of marketing events at
regular intervals.
Recommend Marketing Objectives and Goals
The marketing objectives set by management of Rapha in relation to launch of new
smartwatch are as follows:-
“To enhance the market share of company by 4.25% by the end of 6 months from launch
of new product”
“To increase the profitability of corporation by 12% by the end of 1 year by capitalising
on social media marketing”
Marketing strategy through application of marketing mix to chosen product
It is important for each and every corporation to stipulate marketing strategy while launching a
new product into market. In this relation, Marketing Mix is a theory which comprises of 7
elements that provides assistance to an enterprise in setting out its marketing strategy. This helps
an entity in developing an effective marketing strategy through which an extensive base of
customers can be targeted (Warnaby and Shi, 2018). This would render the organisation the
opportunity to enhance its revenues as well as profitability. In this regard, the marketing strategy
of Rapha Performance Roadwear in terms of elements of Marketing mix, is described as
follows:-
Product The smartwatch being launched by the corporation will have all the latest and
essential features to gain the attention of people and satisfy them to a large extent.
Some of the key features are regarded to be water resistance, heart rate
monitoring, cellular connectivity, apps etc.
Price As the smartwatch has all of the latest tech features, Rapha would make use of
premium pricing strategy to sell this product. This strategy is being used to appeal
to people belonging to upper and middle class sections of society (Hrastovec,
2018).
Place The new product of Rapha would be launched within United Kingdom in the
initial phase. After gaining success in the confines of domestic market, the
management of this sportswear company may consider to launch it in

international markets also.
Promotion Rapha Performance Roadwear would promote the new offering by leveraging
traditional and contemporary marketing techniques. Traditional techniques such
as broadcast media and contemporary such as social media marketing would be
capitalised upon by the firm to inflate its revenues as well as profits.
CONCLUSION
As per the discussion done above, it can be inferred that marketing strategy paves way for
increment of market share and brand value of the corporation, thereby providing assistance in
attaining competitive edge over the rival firms. Besides this, it has been analysed that
competitive advantage and USP of the company render aid to an entity in outshining its
competitors present within same industry and establish a positive brand image among public.
Apart from this, it is acknowledged that social media marketing is an effective way through
which a firm can reach to wide audience. Furthermore, it is analysed that launching new products
at rapid intervals widens the product portfolio of corporation along with its market share.

REFERENCES
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Online
Change4Life. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.thensmc.com/resources/showcase/change4life>.