Competitor Analysis There Are Dozens

Competitor Analysis

There are dozens if not hundreds of manufacturers of children's book bags. Wholesale listing website Alibaba.com lists several Chinese manufacturers producing such bags. Most of these firms do not market or brand the bags, however. Kidage competes against firms that market the bags, but having this many producers implies that this industry is heavily fragmented, with bags on the market both under brands and without a major brand. Generic bags are more likely to compete in the cost leadership segment of the market, while branded bags are more likely to be differentiated players, competing against Kidage directly. Generic competitors will therefore be considered as a singular entity, because the consumer decision to choose a generic bag is distinct from the choice of brands within that category.

In many instances, the brand attached to a bag is a comic book character or other such children's brand. These licensed goods form a significant portion of the children's book bag market. For example, a search on the Pottery Barn Kids website shows that there are bags for Batman, Spider-Man, Dr. Seuss and Star Wars. Thus, branding in this industry often takes the form of licensed properties rather than manufacturer brand. For Kidage this is an interesting dynamic. The price points for these bags vary by size of the bag, design of the bag, and the features that the bag has. Branded bags can range between $20-$60 in price, depending on the bag, so the Kidage bag fits within these parameters. If anything, the Kidage bag has more features that branded bags in the same price range.

Among the name-brand competitors that are not licensed products are the firms that compete in the backpack industry, like Dakine and North Face, plus other firms like Roxy and Firefly (eBags.com, 2012). These competitors offer a wide range of packs with features and prices to match. Most of the branded packs are of relatively high quality, and therefore competition in this industry depends on Kidage's ability to deliver quality bags with many features at a price point that is competitive with these other branded bags and the licensed property bags. With the latter group, competition is based largely on the property, rather than the quality and features of the bag. Competition for Kidage, therefore, is generally against the other branded bag makers.

Because the industry for children's backpacks is highly fragmented, one of the key success factors is the route to market. Distribution channels are key to success because they put your bag in front of the consumer, instead of a competitor's bag. Most stores will only stock a handful of bags, and possibly only one or two in a given category. Thus, within any store Kidage will only compete against one or two other products. This is an important distinction, because if Kidage cannot get placement in a store it will not sell anything. Competition therefore often takes place at the distributor level, as gaining access to retailers is critical. Even a company like ebags.com only carries a select handful of manufacturers.

The implications for this are significant for Kidage. The chosen strategy of marketing just one bag is probably the wrong strategy. In order to meet the needs of major manufacturers, Kidage is competing against firms that offer a wide range of children's bags, of different types. For Kidage to gain access to retailers, it will need to match the range offered by major competitors like North Face and Firefly. In doing this, Kidage can gain access to important retail channels. Then, the company can put the benefits of each particular bag up against the price/benefits of whatever company's bags are competing in a given retail channel.

The Kidage bag has a number of distinctive features, and these make the product unique from most competitors' bags. This is an advantage that the company has, because the bags can serve a specific functional purpose. Hopefully these concepts have been tested and the consumers have responded well to them. The different and unique features are going to be a valuable point of competition that hopefully retails will recognize the value in. The company is going to need to target channels that sell the most bags, and attempt to position its bags in such a way that they will be offered alongside the companies that already occupy the channel, as this will reduce the need to unseat the established products from the distribution chain.