Runners World: Case Study Sue Koenig Established

runners world: CASE STUDY

Sue Koenig established Runner World in 1987 at age of 24. The Shop was an immediate success due to certain reasons that are still part of her present strategy. One of the most important factors that contributed to her success was herself: a nationally acknowledged runner. This helped her attract customers as people find it easier to trust someone who was well aware of the needs of runners.

Secondly, when she started her business the fitness craze has just hit the country and people were ready to buy shoes specifically design for running. Thirdly, she had super quality Nike shoes that boosted her profits and added to the number of her regular buyers. However, soon her profits stabilized and her shop has entered the maturity stage of its life cycle.

However, the market in which operated is at a different stage. It is expanding rapidly and is in its growth stage. Runner World now faces new and fierce competition from all around her - especially from departmental and retail stores such as Foot Locker and Wal-Mart that offer a large variety of shoes.

Trends in fitness and sport world have changed drastically. Many people have given up serious running and are into more milder and flexible sports. In her desperate need to expand, she always introduced shoes for all kinds of sports such as tennis, basketball etc. This did give a sudden boon but soon her sales leveled without any further increase.

In order to survive in the extremely competitive environment, and to prolong the maturity stage of her shop, she needs to take some dire steps She needs to re evaluate her marketing mix.

Place: Though, it is not really clear whether she had one or more stores. But in any case, she should stick to the number of present shops she has even if its only one compared to large number of stores of departmental chains such as Wal-Mart. This is important because it would not confuse her regular customers and future ones as everyone exactly know where the shop is presently located for past 12 years. This will also help to keep her product exclusive, an advantage over the low cost retail shops and departmental stores. Thirdly, she would be able to personally deal with customers, giving her another edge over her competitors. Lastly, as her profits which though present stable, can decline, she can not afford any more financial burden of opening up new shops, employing and training new people and advertising the new locations

Promotion:

Sue's success to date was largely dependent on her name and promotion through word of mouth. However, this worked in the early days of her success when there was little or no competition. However, now she needs to extensively promote her shop and her product and the reason as to why they are better than the rest in the market. Her competitors such as Wal-Mart are already famous for their lower prices. She can build her advertising on the exact opposite, that is offering of expensive, exclusive and high quality products. However, as finances are a real concern for her, she need to keep in mind to use promotion which don't only leave an impact on the customers but are also cost effective. For that she needs to use below the line means of promotion, such as pamphlets and direct mail.

Still, if she wants to her promote on television, to counter the advertising and promotion of her competitors she can, for example, instead of advertising on all nationals, promote her products only on sports channels.

Furthermore, because of extensive use of Internet by people of all ages especially young, she must develop her own website (www.runnersworld.com http://www.runnersworld.com) so that people can view her products at any time they wish to.

Product: