External analysis Columbia sportswear General analysis The sports wear industry has continued to grow in the united states. The popularity of being...

External analysis Columbia sportswear

General analysis

The sports wear industry has continued to grow in the united states. The popularity of being fit has also grown in the u.s. sine last year sports foot year has grown by 9%

One of the things that affects this environment is commodity prices. The buyers want quality of sportswear at a cheap price.

Another thing is oil prices. Oil prices affect cost by affecting the price of purified terephthalic acid used in polyester fiber by 60%. Oil prices alos affect the cost of transportation.also since Columbia sports wear sells apprasil for outdoor the weather can also have a huge impact on its sales. Because in some parts of the world a few years ago the winters were warmer then usual the scales dropped.

Also there is the changing demographic of outdoor activity

Five Forces model

1.threat of new entrants

the threat of new entrants is relatively low. Its hard to enter because of economics of scale and operational efficiencies.there are high barriers of entry but that in itself dosnt mean that people cant still enter/ outdoor wear is the fastest growing segment of the sports apprasel industry/

2.barganing power of supliers

3.barganing power of buyers

4.threat of substitutive products

the threat if substutue products is really high. Because of the fact that Columbia has so many competitors that means that there are many different varieties of the same product.on the other hand Columbia develops its own technologies so if the customers are really loyal they wont switch to another brand.also since Columbia also owns Columbia ,sorel,mountain hardwear,montrail it also makes it less likely for substitutes.

5.rivlary among competitive firm

Competative analysis

A lot of these brands have strong recongnition

Northface,Patagonia,under armour and cabela’s

Nike

Nike compets a lot with Columbia with its jackets and backpacks.nike is the most well known apprasel brandin the united states.it has21% retail value .one of the reasons why its columbias biggest competitior is that its associated with the American sports lik,e basket ball and baseball.

Timber;and and northface

They are a huge competitor because they own a lot of different companies like wrangler,vans and nautica.one of the hardest things for Columbia is knowing how timberland and northface will emphasise business. They can choose any of the companies that they own to focus on.they compete with Columbia in almost every category.

Ll bean

Its columbias biggest competitor when it comes to siza and target market. One of the biggest diffrences is how they compete. They are huge on customer service

Retail equipment encorporated

One of the things that makes this competitor special is that it carries its own brand and its competing brand like Columbia.also it has a similar size ans target customer to Columbia. It competes a lot with Columbia in their own product line.

Sources

http://nicoleskubic.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/columbia-strategic-audit.pdf

mmoore.ba.ttu.edu/valuationreports/summer2007/columbiasportswear.pdf