Just for Feet Inc. was a renowned sportswear and athletic shoes company that was based in Birmingham, Alabama. From a simple start in the year 1977, the firm grew to be one of the largest retail companies in athletic shoes and sportswear for the better part of its existence. The firm grew due to its attractive strategies that it applied. In an attempt to identify with its primary market, the firm had a basketball court located in each of its stores or in a fenced courtyard nearby. To compliment on the basketball effectiveness, the firm occasionally invited professional athletes to appear in these courts and the stores. As a result, the presence of these athletes attracted a large volume of shoppers. Furthermore, the firm played loud rock music in stores and also had a large bank of video monitors that enabled its customers to watch live sporting events which kept the customers entertained. As a result, the entertainment created the necessary link with its customers (Reynolds, 2011: White, 2013). To further enhance its customer experience, the firm had created a
In November 1999, the firm filed for bankruptcy under chapter 11. Few months later, the firm bankruptcy status was elevated to chapter 7. As a result, Just for Feet was acquired by Footstar, Inc. In addition to acquisition, Footstar, Inc. also leased seventy of Just for Feet outlets until Footstar, Inc. also filed for bankruptcy in 2003. As such, the last just for feet store closed in 2004. Just for Feet filed for bankruptcy as a result of an accounting scandal which will be discussed in details in this paper. The scandal was mainly contributed by the CEO’s concern with analyst’s expectation. During that time, the CEO focus was to ensure that the analyst gave the firm positive reviews that would have improved the firm’s stock performance in the
Finish Line, Inc. is the second largest leader athletic based company in the United States. The company was founded in 1976 and now operates over 600 stores in 48 states. Finish Line is the franchise company of the Athlete’s Foot in Indianapolis, Indiana. By 1981, the company expanded beyond the 10 franchises they owned. The Athlete’s Foot franchising rights were to operate franchises within the borders of Indiana, so the owners decided to start their own company and named it The Finish Line. Prior to the company being traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol FINL, its annual gross was nearly $100 million. The company has significantly expanded selections and product lines—a typical store will show 600 to 1300 kinds of athletic footwear—and is well known for its famous “shoe wall.” Currently, about 15% of all sales come from apparel and accessories.
Gravity Defying Footwear has put to use certain rhetorical techniques in their advertizing campaign, which can be seen in publications like “Automobile” and “National Geographic.” Their primary question: “Shoes on Steroids?” This advertisement has been circulating since 2005; the shoe was designed by a man named Alexander Elnekaveh, “an inventor, engineer and entrepreneur who has designed and developed hundreds of original inventions” (Alexander). He holds patents for numerous gadgets, innovation, and unique products around the globe. Although his most well-known design to date is Gravity Defyer shoes, a pain relieving footwear that uses advanced technology to help prevent injury and aid in rehabilitation. Elnekaveh led a team of experts from various fields, labeled as the Impact Research Technology Group. Elnekaveh produced the first Gravity Defyer shoe in 2004. Since 2005, Gravity Defyer shoes have been unlike any other shoe on the market. As a result in 2005 Gravity Defyer was introduced to the world through “Gadget Universe” and “Skymall” catalogs. Now that you have some background on the product and the person behind the shoes; Elnekaveh sets to point out the benefits of his latest invention in this magazine advertisement, however, the consumer still has to wonder if his shoes live up to the hype, with reasoning, credibility and emotional claims Elnekaveh will try to prove to the consumer that these shoe are the next big thing since “Nike”.
"Nike." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition 1. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 6, 2009).
Product: As an athletic shoes producer, they try to provide better quality and more comfortable shoes that fit to the sport player through research and development. By claiming their shoes meet the physics need of different sports, which help the sport player to maximize their ability by protecting them and reduce the sport harm.
An extensive research study will be initiated determining what the male customers want in an athletic shoe. These studies will take place online, by ground mail, and by telephone. Once the information is gathered the various types of men's shoes will then be developed focusing on the most popular needs determined by the survey results, which will include a question regarding price. L.A. Gear will then compare the needs of the customers to the industry leaders and determine how the leaders achieved the needs of the male customers and what opportunities L.A. Gear could use to "one up" the competition. L.A. Gear's shoes already focus on comfort, style, and fashion and will now include high performance.
Furthermore, there have been concerns from other Athlete’s Foot employees mentioning you are not a team player. In particular, other employees have expressed their frustration with you because of lack of support when dealing with customers and sales. I have listened to their concerns and views regarding this matter in order to bring harmony back to the team.
The three main crooks Chairman Ken Lay, CEO Jeff Skilling, and CFO Andrew Fastow, are as off the rack as they come. Fastow was skimming from Enron by ripping off the con artists who showed him how to steal, by hiding Enron debt in dummy corporations, and getting rich off of it. Opportunity theory is ever present because since this scam was done once without penalty, it was done plenty of more times with ease. Skilling however, was the typical amoral nerd, with delusions of grandeur, who wanted to mess around with others because he was ridiculed as a kid, implementing an absurd rank and yank policy that led to employees grading each other, with the lowest graded people being fired. Structural humiliation played a direct role in shaping Skilling's thoughts and future actions. This did not mean the worst employees were fired, only the least popular, or those who were not afraid to tell the truth. Thus, the corrupt culture of Enron was born. At one point, in an inter...
The major groups that were directly affected are investors, employees, and suppliers. Here we should make the distinction between different types of investors. There are two major types of investors: insiders and outside investors. Insiders are the investors who know the information that is not known publicly and may benefit them in some way. Outside investors are the investors who only know publicly known information. In our case, outside investors was the group that lost the most. On the other hand, insiders, notably Mickey Monus and David Shapiro, were the one that gains millions on IPO. The group who suffered was employees of Phar-Mor. After the scandal was revealed, most of the stores were closed to cover up losses. As a result, thousands of employees got fired. Another party that was damaged by the scandal was Coopers&Lybrant, the firm that did the audit for Phar-Mor, lost its reputation as a firm who does an audit with integrity. The secondary effect of the scandal was the overall mistrust among investors. They thought that if a giant retailer can forge its accounting books, why smaller companies wouldn’t do the same. As a result, investors became reluctant in investing into businesses that caused harm to the economy as a whole. The last but not least group that was affected by the scandal is Phar-Mor’s suppliers. Mickey Monus was fiercely fighting with them to make the chipset deals to cover up his losses, sometimes using inappropriate pressure and causing suppliers making unprofitable deals. In additions, Monus forced them to pay fees and sponsor his basketball League using buyer power of his company. In addition, a lot of bills for supplies were unpaid for months by Phar-Mor. Some suppliers said that they hated doing business with Phar-Mor, but had no choice since it had an access to vast amount of customers.
Nike’s goal is to remain unique and different from others in terms of the items offered on the market. Arguably, Nike belongs to a monopolistically competitive market as there only a few organizations with the ability to regulate the amount charged for their product which means they cannot make their prices high as this is likely to make customers move on to other available choices (Nike, Inc., 2012). However, Nike can find a balance between the prices to charge for their products and remaining competitive with other companies in the industry. Nike has formed a distinction between the appearance and performance of their footwear and that of their competitors. Although products are differentiated from other companies, they still influence each other because they are items of the same
Supreme, a popular Los Angeles based retailer, teamed with the internationally recognized brand Nike to release a shoe called the Supreme x Nike Air Foamposite on the 3rd of April 2014. It’s a re-imaging of the shoe worn by the now retired professional basketball player Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway. An announcement was made via the store’s Twitter page that the shoe would be available for purchase on a first come first serve basis during the early morning of the upcoming Wednesday. There were eighty people lined up upside of Supreme’s Melrose location a mere thirty minutes after the message hit the internet. There were over four hundred people gathered on the sidewalk by late afternoon. So many sneaker aficionados showed up that the police were brought in to ensure the safety of everyone involved.
Duhigg evokes that “Target began building a vast data warehouse that assigned every shopper an identification code-known internally as the ‘Guest ID number’-that kept tabs of how each person shopped” (187). Every time one goes shopping, they share intimate details about their consumption patterns with retailers. Many of those retailers are studying those details to figure out what consumers like, what they need, and which coupons are most likely to make them happy. Sports Authority provides this “Guest ID” method by offering their consumers to join free rewards program called “The League”. They encourage them to create this membership and give them benefits such as coupons and update them on the newest discounts. Also, the rewards program is based off a point system and when one has earned a certain amount of points they send them a gift card to spend however they wish. Though, what the consumers don’t know is that by applying for their free rewards program is that their collecting data and constructing analysis to make them into loyal
In reviewing the case of New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. it is clear that there are a few major problems that the company is facing. First of all, New Balance falls behind its other major competitors, Nike, Adidas and Reebok, in the area of marketing. Unlike its competitors, New Balance does not undertake celebrity endorsements. This puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to brand building. This also causes the company to lose out somewhat on gaining awareness on a global scale as it lacks endorsements in major sporting events. Most global brand names generate strong brand recognition through celebrity endorsements in sporting events that would give them the needed momentum to carry their brand name further into the global market.
The Shoe Industry consists of a multitude of footwear categories, varying in utility, style and occasion. When overseeing the market for the shoe industry, we must look at the influence of all shoe trades universally to comprehensively understand how the disparities in sales relate to the needs of specific regions. The global retail market within the shoe industry currently represents $185 billion, driven primarily by Asian and Latin American economies and is expected to reach $211.5 billion by 2018. The growth rate globally was 6% between 2004 and 2008, contrasting to the 2% compound annual growth from 2008 to 2012. The United States holds over 24% of the overall industry size it projected over $48 billion in annual revenue in 2012. Domestically, the growth rate has been flat at 0.3%. On a unit volume basis, global footwear consumption for 2012 is approximately 11,421.3 million (in pairs), where the United States makes up roughly 2,741.1 million (in pairs). By 2018 the U.S. Census Bureau has forecasted a steady decline within demand domestically of 3% and an increase of 1% globally.
Steve Madden always showed interest in shoes, ever since he was younger and trying to figure out what he wanted to do as far as a career. Steve Madden began working for a number of footwear companies before starting his own. In 1993 he first opened his own store in New York. Since the very beginning Madden had an idea just as far he wanted his company to go. Designing platform shoes, chunky-heeled boots which attracted to a generation whose mothers and grandmothers wore stilettos. (Steven Madden, Ltd.)
The Tyco accounting scandal is an ideal illustration of how individuals who hold key positions in an organization are able to manipulate accounting practices and financial reports for personal gain. The few key individuals involved in the Tyco Scandal (CEO Kozlowski and CFO Swartz), used a number of clever and unique tactics in order to accomplish what they did; including spring loading, manipulating their ‘key-employee loan’ program, and multiple ‘hush money’ payouts.