Strategic Analysis and Recommendations for Brown Sports Footwear

This report offers a comprehensive strategic analysis of Brown Sports Footwear, examining its position within the UK market. It begins with an introduction emphasizing the importance of strategic change for organizational growth. The report then delves into various analytical frameworks, including PESTEL analysis to assess political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors impacting the company. Porter's Five Forces model is used to evaluate the competitive landscape, and strategic grouping is employed to identify key characteristics for competitive advantage. The McKinsey Seven-S Model is applied to assess internal organizational effectiveness, while Porter's generic strategies and Bowman's strategy clock are used to determine competitive positioning. A SWOT analysis summarizes the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Finally, the report concludes with strategic recommendations, including the adoption of new technologies and investments in research and development for market development and diversification, based on the Ansoff matrix.

Strategy choice and change

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
PESTEL analysis....................................................................................................................1
Porter five forces....................................................................................................................2
Strategic grouping..................................................................................................................3
McKinsey Seven S Model......................................................................................................3
Porter's generic strategy..........................................................................................................4
Bowman's strategy clock........................................................................................................5
Swot analysis..........................................................................................................................6
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Change is the aspect which is mandatory for each and every organization in order to
expand and grow as per the market trends to meet the need of the customers. In order to meet the
requirement of customers proper strategies are chosen. The present report analyses the different
perspective of Brown Sports Footwear in order to apply appropriate strategy model. This
determines strategic position of the Browns. Beside this, proper analysis is done in order to
determine the future strategic direction in order to keep it functioning.
PESTEL analysis
This analysis helps in determining various perspective that are involved in order to
determine entire functioning as well as allocation of the resources in order to grow in the pool of
the competing brands (Marszk, 2012). There are various factors which are involved, which are
discussed below:
 Political factors: The political arena affects the functioning of the shoe manufacturer as
they impose certain restriction over the Brown Sports Footwear (Thompson and et.al,
2013). Due to this, the entire revenue generation structure is changed and that affects the
business environment to a greater extent.
 Economic factors: These factors determine the performance of Brown Sports Footwear
which has direct impact which affects the prices that are related to the product and
services. In the shoe industry, the offerings are made at a wider scale which impacts the
purchasing power of the customers because of the ample amount of offerings (Ziout,
Azab and Atwan, 2014).
 Social factors: In UK market different dimensions are involved in order to serve the
customers as per their preferences by properly analyzing the demand. Various dimensions
are involved in order to make the offering to the customers by considering the different
aspects that are based on the culture and trends (Medvedev, 2016).
 Technological Factors: Over the past year, Brown Sports Footwear does not made any
technological adaptation in order to make the offering to customers. They have adopted
the technology at a very lower scale in order make the offering to the customers.

 Environmental factors: As per the market trends, the area in which Brown Sports
Footwear are making the offering is expanding at a greater speed as there are lots of
competitors present which operated in the same sector. This resulted in excessive
competition from the other brands.
 Legal factors: In UK, the major preferences are laid upon customer’s security and their
standards. Proper analysis is done in order to determine the entire functionality regarding
offering which they make to the customers.
FACTORS DESCRIPTION
Political factors These performance of Brown Sports Footwear get affect due to
frequent instability in the government functioning. The government
provide the permission to make the offering into the market which is
new for them.
Economic factors The fluctuation in the monetary policies also affect the confidence of
the customer to make the purchase of the product.
Social factors The earning power of the individual as well as the frequent change in
the lifestyle also determine the adoption of the fashion as per the
trends which are present in the market.
Technological Factors The speed of the technological interventions is to develop the market
because there are frequent change to attain the information with the
help of technology.
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Environmental factors Due to the environmental regulations and protection Brown Sports
Footwear need to reform their policies to build up healthy
competition.
Legal factors Increase in the labour rates and other tax policies affected the
performance of Brown Sports Footwear because the have to follow
the employment law.
Porter five forces
This model is adopted by Brown Sports Footwear in order to identify the perspective
whether the new product and the services are profitable (Wu, Tseng and Chiu, 2012). It helps in
attaining clear understanding of the business environment in which it is operating and identifies
certain forces.
 Bargaining power of suppliers: As the supplier’s base is large due to which the
rejection is made at a greater speed as there is easily availability of the product. This is
due to the reason because the market gets easily segregated as new innovation and
product differentiation is not done in the offerings (Medvedev, 2016).
 Bargaining power of customer/buyer: As the customers in UK are frequent buyers and
they try to follow the trends that is present in the market structure they prefer the new and
innovative products and services. Brown Sports Footwear is making low price offering of
the products in order to attract new generation customers.
 Threats of new entrants: The footwear industry constitute of different offerings due to
which number of entrants are trying to enter in the market of UK which is increasing the
competition (Teh and Corbitt, 2015).
 Threats of Substitutes: Browns sport footwear operates in the market of UK which has
an intensive threat from substitute products as there are many companies that are offering
the same product and service.
 Industry rivalry: There are many brands that are operating in the same sectors such as
Adidas, Nike and New Balance are the new brands who are the inductive competitors of
Brown Sports Footwear. The target market was same for all competitors, due to which
hard competition was faced by them.

Strategic grouping
This is the method or the tool which is being used in order to identify the similar
characteristics of the Brown Sports Footwear in order to compete with the similar brands in the
work environment (Smith and Jarrold, 2014). These aspects assist in determining various
dimensions that ensure the proper functioning in order to make offering of the product and
services. The economy has been formulating at a greater speed and inducing higher competition
in context of its offerings. In countries like UK, the customers are concern about their standards
and purchase according to the set standards.
Brown Sports Footwear has to do the grouping of the strategy in such a manner that they
are able to adopt different aspects in a systematic manner and can make the offering (Ghertman,
Obadia and Arregle, 2013). The strategies are drawn over the heritage aspects that help the brand
to build up global fondness among customers in order to increase the purchasing of the product
which they are offering.
McKinsey Seven S Model
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Illustration 1: McKinsey 7S Model: A strategic assessment and alignment model,
(Source: The Organizational strategist,2011)

This is the model which was applied over Brown Sports Footwear in order to decide the
different scope of various dimensions (Teh and Corbitt, 2015). This framework helps Brown
Sports Footwear to effectively organize different operations in order to make the offerings. It
consists of following aspects: Shared value: These aspects determine the core value of Brown Sports Footwear and the
fundamental values which they have determined in order to meet the several aspects and
make the offerings to customer. Strategy: In order to retain the position, Brown Sports Footwear properly makes
alignment in order to win the market by adopting different resources and the capabilities. Structure: Brown Sports Footwear ensures that the proper structure is framed in order to
carry out different roles to meet requirement of the customers. Skills: Brown Sports Footwear ensures that the right workforce is being employed in
order to carry out different operations and re-build its position (Thompson and et.al,
2013). Staff: Brown Sports Footwear ensures that the work base is effective and helps in
attaining huge profits by making the beneficial offerings to the customers. Style: Different learning style and culture is being adopted at Brown Sports Footwear in
order to carry out the function in a collaborative and cooperative manner in order to meet
the competition which is present in the market where they are making the offering.
 System: It includes technical aspects that determine the functioning of Brown Sports
Footwear employees which they use in their day to day functioning (Wright, Paroutis and
Blettner, 2013).
Porter's generic strategy
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There are different strategies that are adopted by Brown Sports Footwear to be applied on
the product and the services they are offering to the customers are discussed below:
 Cost leadership: This aspect was determined by Brown sports footwear in order to
increase the profit by offering product at a lower prices. (Merchant, 2014).
 Differentiation: This strategy is adopted in order to determine that the offering to the
customer are attractive which influences the customer to buy the product.
 Cost focus: Brown Sports Footwear is concentrated on particular niche market in order
to understand the market dynamics and meet the unique needs of the customers.
 Differentiation focus: Brown Sports Footwear aims to meet demands of the customers
by adopting creative strategy in order to strengthen the offering.
Bowman's strategy clock
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Illustration 2: An Introduction to Porter's Generic Strategies
(Source: Business Models & Strategy. 2011).

This model helps Brown Sports Footwear to analyze competitive position in order to make
the offering to the larger customer base and increase market share (Wright, Paroutis and Blettner,
2013). This model represents eight strategies to make the segmentation of the customer as per the
pricing category. This helps Brown Sports Footwear to choose a position in order to create
competitive advantage and establish a new position to sustain in the market for the long run.
Swot analysis
There are different dimensions which ensure the entire functioning of Brown Sports
Footwear in UK market (Thompson and et.al, 2013). Proper SWOT analysis is done to determine
the different perspective.
Strength
 Trends: There are different trends and
styles that also influence the footwear
industry and the offering made by
Weakness
 Expensive: The prices of the product
which were offered to the customers
were very expensive and it resulted in
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Illustration 3: Bowman Strategy Clock
(Source: Das, S., 2011)

Brown Sports Footwear is centered
especially to the people who like
changes (Wright, Paroutis and Blettner,
2013). .
 Loyal customers: As the demand for
the sports footwear is high because the
customer consider it as the style icon as
it is easily purchased by the customers.
 There are various other British brands
such as Barker and many more and
help in proper functioning of Brown
Sports Footwear.
less demand.
 Restricted market: The prices were
very high that made the market
restricted for customers who have a
lower income (Marszk, 2012).
 Uncool: Brown Sports Footwear was a
uncool as to a certain extend people are
not familiar with it.
Opportunities
 Sponsorship: With the help of proper
endorsement, the popularity of Brown
Sports Footwear can be increased at a
wider scale .
 Events/shows: Promotion of sports
shoes at the large shows and events
raises the awareness which help in
attracting customers at special
discounts.
 Growth: Brown Sports Footwear also
have effective growth opportunities in
the market of China as it is intensively
populated.
Threats
 Recession: It is the major aspect which
is causing reduction in purchasing
power of the customers in UK. The
prices are quite high and that affect
overall profits. (Thompson and et.al.,
2013)
 VAT: This may induce intense pressure
over production cost and result in high
price which may reduce the customer
base.
 Brown sports footwear has lots of
rivalry as they are acquiring the
customer base into the UK market.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
 As per Ansoff matrix Brown Sports Footwear should adopt new technology to make
offering to the wide number of customer this will help in market development.
 As per Ansoff matrix Brown Sports Footwear can also make some investment on
research and development in order to determine the present trends to meet customer need
specification and diversify as per their requirement..
 As per Ansoff matrix they can also adopt the strategies which focuses on the offering of
the unique product in the entire market place which will help in product development.
 As per Ansoff matrix Brown Sports Footwear should determine the low cost range so that
the offering is availed by the lower income level people also as the focus is on selling the
product and services in the existing market.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ghertman, M., Obadia, J. and Arregle, J.L. eds., 2013. Statistical models for strategic
management. Springer Science & Business Media.
Medvedev, K., 2016. Hungarian women toe the line: How Communist propaganda parallels
corporate advertising. Clothing Cultures, 3(1), pp.41-54.
Merchant, H., 2014. Configurations of governance structure, generic strategy, and firm size:
opening the black box of value creation in international joint ventures. Global Strategy
Journal, 4(4), pp.292-309.
Smith, E. and Jarrold, C., 2014. Grouping, semantic relation and imagery effects in individuals
with Down syndrome. Research in developmental disabilities, 35(11), pp.3162-3174.
Teh, D. and Corbitt, B., 2015. Building sustainability strategy in business. Journal of Business
Strategy, 36(6), pp.39-46.
Thompson, A., Peteraf, M., Gamble, J., Strickland III, A.J. and Jain, A.K., 2013. Crafting &
Executing Strategy 19/e: The Quest for Competitive Advantage: Concepts and Cases.
McGraw-Hill Education.
Wright, R.P., Paroutis, S.E. and Blettner, D.P., 2013. How useful are the strategic tools we teach
in business schools?. Journal of Management Studies, 50(1), pp.92-125.
Wu, K.J., Tseng, M.L. and Chiu, A.S., 2012. Using the Analytical Network Process in Porter's
Five Forces Analysis–Case Study in Philippines. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 57, pp.1-9.
Ziout, A., Azab, A. and Atwan, M., 2014. A holistic approach for decision on selection of end-
of-life products recovery options. Journal of Cleaner Production, 65, pp.497-516.
Online
Marszk, A., 2012. Industry analysis and strategic groups: A theoretical and empirical review.
[Pdf].Available through: <
www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/584578/analysis_of_brown_shoe_co_inc.pdf>.
[Accessed on 2nd January, 2016].
The Organizational strategist,2011. [Online]. Available through: <
https://whittblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/mckinsey-7s-model-a-strategic-assessment-
and-alignment-model/>. [Accessed on 2nd January, 2016].
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