Platypus Swimwear's market challenges and strategic responses

¶ … market environment and details related to the prior-mentioned and -- described product known as Platypus Swimwear. Questions that will be answered include how to react and plan relating to entering the swimwear into a big bog retail store, how to react to a Chinese-made product that is appearing alongside Platypus, how to respond to a consumer-reporting magazine that is reporting that Platypus is poorly made, how to approach a potential partnership with a service provider that can bundle the Platypus product with their own service and how to deal with a product that is at the end of its life cycle and is being sold for a fraction of the price that it once fetched. While things can go quite well with product life cycle, there will always be challenges and they need to be properly reacted to and planned for whenever possible.

Questions Answered

When introducing a product into a big box store, there are a few things that have to be kept in mind if maximization of sale is the desired goal. To get the desired sales, the Platypus product will have to get shelf space and the exposure and space on the shelves literally has to be bargained for and bought. There is also the desire and negotiation of getting a product shown on more high-visibility areas like stack-bases, endcaps and so forth. This would be the norm in stores like Wal-Mart and Target. Products that are highly visible are usually there because of money being paid to the store to get that exposure and/or because the store is getting a high margin and/or high sales from that product. Platypus will need to strike a balance between paying too much and getting enough exposure (Zimmerman, 2010).

When it comes to competitors from China selling the same or similar products to Platypus, there are a variety of measures that can be taken. The product is no doubt cheaper because of where it is made as well as what it is made of. The Platypus line, as mentioned in a prior paper, is made of high-quality Lycra. The Platypus line can capitalize on the fact that they are more of an American company and that they are made with better-quality materials. Indeed, many people will buy American over Chinese and there is also an idea that many people will pay more for a better product. It may not fly as much with people at stores like Wal-Mart and so forth as they would probably focus on the price rather than the other things. However, Wal-Mart and other stores do invoke the "Made in America" and "buy local" mantras more than once (Pare, 2015).

As for the ethical and quality accusations, they should be addressed if they are true and they should be proven wrong in the press if they are not. Demand will not remain at all-time heights if ethical accusations are left unanswered and/or quality concerns are not addressed. Indeed, the Platypus line people should not be defensive but they should not ignore accusations like that if they are fixable or false. It is even better to deal with such problems before they become black eyes in the press (Motroc, 2015). A service provider situation would be lucrative provided that it makes business sense for both companies involved. Indeed, it needs to be a symbiotic relationship or it should be a no-go for whoever is not getting a favorable side of the deal. If one side is clearly making out like bandits while the other side is not becoming a good beneficiary, then the idea should be shot down (MTD, 2015).