Analysis of Wilson Tennis Racquets' Market Positioning

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments. This project analyzes Wilson's business strategies and market position.

Extended Business Project
1 | P a g e

Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
An overview of WILSON tennis racquets manufacturer.........................................................4
Identification of what makes the organization different, Positioning of WILSON tennis
racquets manufacturer and how it has changed in the recent years....................................6
Exploration of certain aspects relevant to the organizational position of competition that
is supply chain, brand values, pricing, marketing, HR............................................................7
The strategic decision-making process that is used by WILSON currently, with reference
to the STP model........................................................................................................................20
Recommendations about what the company needs to do in the next five years to
achieve success in the market..................................................................................................22
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................23
References...................................................................................................................................24
2 | P a g e

Introduction
Business essentials are referred to as the innovative set based on certain courses that
are self paced within different key areas. These are designed for improving the skills of
critical business for individuals who are working in international gas and oil industries.
All the courses are accurately and carefully designed regarding flexible as well as
efficient learning within the corporate environment. The aspect of business essentials
are considered ideal for people who need the improvement of their knowledge and
understanding fo0r the processes of business along with the proficiencies in the context
of gas and oil industry. There are certain key features of business essentials that results
in an effective learning within modest cost, being flexible for the current business
professionals. It also involves tailoring towards the industry of gas and oil, being
composed for the rigorous content, and at last, it is also known to base upon engaging
in to the readings, and examples of real world along with case studies.
However, a competitive advantage is considered as the advantage over the gained
competitors through the offering of greater value of consumers. This is possible with the
help of lower prices or rather with providing of greater benefits along with the service
that may justify the higher prices. Effective strategy of positioning is known to consider
the weaknesses and strengths within the organization that may need the market and
customers along with the position of the competitors. Hence, the purpose based on the
positioning strategy allows the company for spotlighting particular areas where, the
organization can outshine as well as beat the competition. This helps the companies to
sustain within the current market with a good position and these strategies also helps
the organization to gain competitive advantage within the market. Hence, the present
study focuses upon the different business functions of the organization “WILSON
Tennis Raquets Manufacturer”. This includes the positioning of the particular
organization, exploration for certain aspects that are associated with the organizational
position and similar other factors as well.
3 | P a g e

An overview of WILSON tennis racquets manufacturer
WILSON Sporting Goods Company is a very well known company of the United States
of America. The head office of this company is in Chicago, USA. This company was
established in the year 1913. On that time, this company was named as the Ashland
Manufacturing Company. In the early days, this company established for finding new
ways to use the byproducts of the slaughter house. Afterwards, in the year 1914, the
company started to produce many items such as surgical sutures, strings of the violin
and the strings of the tennis racket. Then it extended its products to the tennis rackets
and the shoes of the baseball. In the year 1915, Thomas E. Wilson was appointed as
the president of this company. Afterwards, the name of this company changed to Wilson
Sports Goods Company.
In the present era, the company deals with the baseball, basketball, football, golf sets,
tennis, volleyball, soccer set, tennis rackets and several other sports goods. Wilson
Company is a part of Amer Sports Company. The company extends its branches in
many other locations such as Puerto Rico, England, Germany, Tokyo, Hong Kong,
Dallas and Texas. The company has to face a lot of competition during these years. In
the early days, there were few companies who deal with the sports goods. Day by day
this number increased. The market competition also is increased due to the massive
number of sports related companies. The Wilson Company is a renowned name in the
sports world. The company tries to increase the quality of their product to survive in this
competitive market. The company has many licenses with various sports brand. In the
year 2003, Wilson Company signed a license with the MLS or the Major league Soccer.
With help of this license the company can produce all the sports equipments of the MLS
Brand.
Previously, this company starts their business by manufacturing the strings of the tennis
rackets. Gradually the profit level of this company increased significantly. The company
starts to produce the overall tennis racket. The company always tried to provide a better
quality tennis racket in a reasonable price. This was the first and the main strategy of
this company to compete with the leading brands of the tennis equipments. The strategy
4 | P a g e

became very effective in those days. Therefore, during few years, the tennis rackets of
the Wilson Company become very popular. Now, the company deals with all the tennis
equipment (Wilson, 2019).
5 | P a g e

Identification of what makes the organization different, Positioning of WILSON
tennis racquets manufacturer and how it has changed in the recent years
Better quality product
There are several companies that produce various sports goods (Stone et al.2015). In
the early days of this company, there were very few companies that produce the sports
goods. Day by day, the numbers of the sports goods manufacturer companies got
increased. Therefore, the Wilson Company has to face a lot of competition in the market
place. This company always tries to serve the customers with the better quality products
in a reasonable price. This was the first strategy of the company to survive in a
competitive market. This first move makes the company different from the leading
brands of those days. With help of this first technique, the customers get attracted to
this company’s products easily.
Modern technology
This company always prefers modern equipments, advance and upgraded technology
to manufacture the sports items. With the help of modern and advance technology, the
company can manufacture a large number of better quality products (Wilson, 2019). It
can easily fulfill the demands of the customers. In the same time, the product cost
becomes very little. Therefore, the company can provide a better quality product to the
customers in a reasonable price.
Selection of the president
The Wilson Company has appointed many presidents from the earlier days it always
selects the experienced persons as the president. This is another unique technique of
this company. The company once appointed Jim Baugh as the president in the year
1966. Jim Bugh is a well known businessman of the United States of America. At that
time, he had 20 years of experience as a sports goods dealer.
6 | P a g e

Exploration of certain aspects relevant to the organizational position of
competition that is supply chain, brand values, pricing, marketing, HR
Organizational position deals within several aspects that are associated with the
competition of the market and involves many factors that are to be mentioned below:
Analysis of the external and the internal environment of business
Marketing environment is generally referred to as the combination based on internal and
external factors as well as forces that affects the ability of the organization for
establishing a relationship along with serving to the customers (Campbell et al., 2018).
Pestle Analysis
Political factors: This is the most important factor for any organization. The policies of
United States consist of growth for the particular company of Wilson tennis racquets
manufacturer. This involves the rates of low interest along with the well arranged
agreements of international tax (Diana, 2018). The present organization comprises to
the changes as per the laws of manufacturing and tax department of the country.
Hence, the different political conflicts are known to make difficult processes that are
customs related but also prevent the exports and imports of the organizational products.
Economic factors: The organization of Wilson produces medium ranged products that
are well respected and are generally less vulnerable to the factors of economy ( Hugos,
2018). But, there are certain economic variables such as a collapse of market can seem
as a bad news for the organization. The total revenues of the company are somehow
dependent upon low cost related to labors within the Eastern countries.
Social factors: The increased consciousness of health across the world refers to the
people who are moving further to lead better lifestyles and the respective individuals
seems to buy more and more equipments of sports to be fit and healthy that makes the
organization of Wilson happy (Zhang and Su, 2018). However, it also receives criticism
based on its process of dubious production such as, producing certain equipments that
consist of doubt in respect to their quality.
7 | P a g e

Technological factors: The particular organization seems to perform well with the
platform of social media for building their brand whereas, on the other hand, it can also
result in a sword that can be double edged in case used in an incorrect way (Muller,
2018). Regarding the technological advancements, the present company also gets the
opportunity to deal with the valuable information associated to metrics.
Legal factors: There are not so many legal factors that affect the particular
organization but some of them can be mentioned (Riccucci, 2018). Such as, Wilson
Company is known to dodge the tax that was of substantial amount. Hence, the
particular organization other than this maintains the legislations of the country in a
proper manner.
Environmental factors: There are certain factors that are related to the environment of
the particular organization (Sheldon, 2018). The production factories of the organization
are known to affect the environment through releasing their industrial wastes and gas.
On the other hand, Wilson Company also sees to show the promise for a change within
their recent practices that consists of the perspective to resolve the practices for
becoming more ecological.
Porter’s Five Forces Analysis
The analysis of Porter’s Five Forces regarding competitive position was introduced by
Michael E Porter in the year of 1979 in the school of Harvard business. This was
developed, being a simple framework that is required for assessing along with
evaluating the position and competitive strength for the business organization (Liu,
2018). Hence, this theory is generally based upon the concept which consists of the five
forces and determines the attractiveness and competitive intensity of the market. This
model helps to identify the position of power that lies within the business situation.
8 | P a g e

Figure 1: Porter’s Five Forces for the analysis of competitive position
Source: (Scholz, 2018)
Supplier power: This includes some suppliers based on the essential input,
uniqueness for their service or products, relative strength and size for the supplier along
with the cost of shifting within two suppliers (Bernstein, 2018). Hence, the particular
organization deals with the innovative products that are supplied in the market for the
customers to be fit and healthy.
Buyer power: This includes several buyers within the market along with the importance
of the individuals for the organization. If the organizations consist of fewer number of
buyers, who are powerful, can often lead to dictate the terms. Hence, the present
organization deals with authoritative buyers for the company who can acquire the
products within a reasonable range and eventually can lead to the profit of the
organization.
9 | P a g e

Competitive rivalry: This includes the number of competitors within the market that
offers undifferentiated services and products that leads to the reduction of market
attractiveness (Durham, 2018). Hence, the present organization Wilson deals with
innovative styles of equipments that are rarely available within the market with quality.
Threat of substitution: This includes the close substitution products that are available
in the market and leads to the increase of likelihood of the customers shifting to the
alternatives with the response of increasing the price. Hence, the present organization
also consists of certain competitors within the market but, it serves excellent quality and
innovative styles of products within a reasonable price that helps the organization to
maintain its position.
Threat of a new entry: The profitable markets are known to attract the new entrants
that results in eroding of profitability (Chahal et al., 2018). But, in case of the particular
organization, it comprises of strong economic scale and also satisfies the requirements
of government policies. Therefore, it seems to sustain along with its profitability within
the competitive market.
Hence, the organization is considered to keep the above factors in mind while
competing in the market and this helps to predict the future and sustain within the
market consisting of a good reputation as well (Alibaba.com. 2018).
Analysis of the supply chain
The term supply chain stands for being a network within the company as well as its
suppliers for distributing and producing a particular product and it is also known to
represent certain steps that are taken for providing the service or product to the
customer (Clegg, 2018). The larger corporations seems to value good managers of
supply chain as, they can improve the effectiveness of warehouses, plants along with
the vehicles of transportation within a supply chain. Hence, the increase of cash flow
happens directly as, the product delivery follows a perfect time and the customers are
also allowed to purchase the products.
10 | P a g e

The supply chain of Wilson is known to source the significant proportion based on the
products through the suppliers located across Asia. It consists of approximately 200
external suppliers within all over Asia and Europe. It has around 22% of the company
value production in China, 38% in Asia Pacific, 28% in EMEA as well as 12% in
America. The organization of Wilson is considered to source its office within Hong Kong
and is responsible for the qualification of vendor along with product industrialization,
price negotiations, contract management, and optimization of procurement process
along with export administration. Hence, the aim of the company is to provide the
competitive supply based on goods consisting of a minimum risk of business which
ensures the quality of product, appropriate levels of service along with the
subcontractors for adhering to the ethical standards of the present organization.
The supply chain of the particular organization can be represented well through the
relevance of “Porter’s value chain activities” that are mentioned below:
Inbound logistics: These are the processes which are involved within the storing,
receiving, along with the internal distribution for raw materials of a specific service or
product. Hence, the present organization also follows a formal process of inbound
logistics as well as, the maintenance of relationship with the suppliers is very important
for value creation.
Outbound logistics: This includes the activities that are concerned with product
delivery as well as providing service to the customers. Hence, the present organization
of Wilson comprises of such a process that includes a systematic delivery through
storage, transport and systems of distribution.
Production: This includes the activities that help to convert the product inputs to a
finished product, and also accounts for production line and floor. Therefore, the
particular organization uses the operating systems that act as the guiding principle
regarding the creation of the value.
Service: This involves the activities that help to maintain the product value and the
customer service with the developed relationship for the procurement of products and
11 | P a g e

services (Karlsson et al., 2018). Hence, in case of this specific organization, it follows a
“Service Profit Chain Model” that is also referred to as the alternative model and is
designed specifically for organizational growth and service management.
Sales and marketing: This includes all the processes that are associated with
providing the services and products within the market involving the generation and
management of customer relationship. Hence, the organization of Wilson consists of a
good reputation in the market as, it provides an excellent service to the customers and
this is known to create an advantage for the consumers as well.
Brand Values
The brand value of a company is known to depend upon its reputation and its good will.
In case an organization is sold, it can obtain the value beyond its tangible assets. This is
referred historically, as a good will and also was taken for the meaning of the value
based on loyalty of the organizations (Baron and Hmieleski, 2018). Brand value is
important for the positioning of any organization as, it increases the company value and
is also known to provide the employees with a direction along with motivation and also
makes it easy to acquire new consumers for the organization.
There is a model of brand value that is referred to as CBBE model and stands for
“Customer based brand equity”. This consists of a form of pyramid that specifies the
process of building brand equity through the understanding of the customers and with
the help of implementation of strategies.
12 | P a g e