Sports Apparel Markets in the United States

¶ … sports apparel markets in the United States and Kenya. The aim is to make a comparison between these markets in terms of how the youth perceives branded products within these markets. My population focus will specifically be young people and business owners to determine the interaction of these populations for the marketing of branded sportswear.

With this in mind the research purpose of the paper will be first to determine the attitudes of young people in the respective countries of investigation towards branded sportswear. This will include whether and why they would prefer to buy branded products as opposed to non-branded ones. Also, the popularity of existing brands will be determined, also in a comparative way, determine which is most popular among young people. In terms of this, the size of each market will be determined.

The practical purposes that will follow include recommending ways in which businesses can develop improved advertising strategies to appeal to their specific markets in Kenya and the United States. A secondary purpose will relate to how business owners from Kenya and the United States can most effectively expand internationally. Specifically, businesses in the specific countries being researched will be examined for their willingness to expand to each other, along with strategies that can be used to do this most effectively.

In conclusion, the research purposes will lead to practical purposes that can benefit business owners and the markets being investigated in each country. For business owners, better advertising strategies and possible foreign expanding can result. For the youth market, the quality and range of brands available for purpose can be greatly improved based upon the results of this research.

Exercise 2.2: Focus and Locus of Research

When considering the locus and focus of my research, it is important to recognize that "locus" does not refer to the same thing as "location" (Schram, 2005, p. 30). The study discussed here includes two basic locations; the United States and Kenya. The locus concept, however, is more specific in terms of population, while the focus concept refers to the attitudes and behaviors revealed within the locus. In other words, there is a hierarchy of specificity from "location" to "locus" to "focus."

The locus of my study includes two specific settings and populations. I will investigate young people and sports apparel business owners in the United States in comparison to young people and sports apparel business owners in Kenya, along with the purchase habits of young people and advertising strategies of business owners. These populations represent the locus of the study.

The focus of the study will be the perceptions of young people in the investigated countries regarding sports apparel brands. These perceptions can be determined from their purchasing behaviors. Furthermore, the locus also refers to the sense of value that young people experience in terms of branded sports apparel products. A higher volume of purchases would suggest that those who can afford it will buy branded products as opposed to non-branded products because these are considered of better value and higher quality than branded products. Individual personal experiences of young people with branded products can also be determined as the locus of the study. The effectiveness of certain advertising strategies can also be determined from this.

In conclusion, the locus of the study will be the populations and their behaviour, while the locus refers to the bases of these behaviors.

Exercise 2.3: Analytical Memo on Quantitative and Qualitative Data

Trochim (2006, p. 11) notes that a completely clear distinction between qualitative and quantitative data is not as important as some would suggest. In fact, he claims that trying to be too analytical about such a distinction could confuse the issue. While I am sure this is true to some extent, I am not certain that it applies to the case of the study being conducted on youth markets for sports apparel in the United States and Kenya. Because of the complexity and size of the population samples being investigated, I believe that the distinction is a valuable one. Indeed, I believe it will help me to keep my data organized in a logical way, which will ultimately help me to create a clear and logical research document.