Date : - 8th May 2006

To : The Managing Director of ACTIONWARE,UK.

From : Mayur Shah,Marketing Consultant
Subject : A report on Marketing Research and Planning for company’s product
( Sportsware ) in Spain ( Future Involvement )

ACTIONWARE is successful in uk for their sportsware range And company is

planning to expanding their business in Europe through placing its first step as a
international company in spain for its sportsware. This report addresses aspects
of the Marketing Research and Planning of ACTIONWARE for their future
business in spain. This report focuses on four different sections.The first section
focuses on Micro Environmental factors (SLEPT factors) which influences the
marketing strategies and operations.The second section focuses on the Market
Research for ACTIONWARE’s sportsware range.The Third section deals with the
Internal aspects of company.The Forth section addresses strategic options that
company can consider for their future involvement in spain market.

Section – 1

The forces which impact on organization’s trading and ability to satisfy its
customers are termed as marketing environment and falls into two categories.
The very broad forces are the Macro Environment – (SLEPT) Social, Legal,
Economical, Political and Technological.

SLEPT Factors for Spain

Social Factors : The people of Spain are very fashion-conscious and may take
well get the wrong impression of a person if they are not properly dressed. In
Spain, style and an overall good impression is much more important than flesh-
baring flashiness. When entering a church, your clothing should scream:
"Conservative and stylish." Public places, for example clubs and restaurants,
also expect you to dress at least smart-casual.

Spaniards are passionate about their sports. Football is very popular and with the
large amount of snow covered peaks in Spain, skiing and snowboarding have a
large following too. Spains' success on cycle tours around the world and the
popularity of Spanish cycling hero Miguel Indurain have given rise to a new and
enthusiastic cycling generation.

In Spain, active wear and sportswear have become part of street fashion, are sold
by the increasing number of large, high street sports chain stores and are worn as
leisurewear. Non-specialist outlets like clothing stores, department stores,
hypermarkets and other outlets have also noticed this trend and included large
sections in their stores of this type of active wear.

Legal Factors: Spain has a civil law system, with regional applications. Most
small and medium sized companies appoint partners of law firms as company
secretaries on a retainer basis to cope with the plethora of legal obligations.
Company law is governed by local laws (ley de sociedades etc) and by the
commercial code (códigodecomercio) which defines invoice requirements and so
on.Also recently EU proposed Directive combating late payment in commercial
transactions. It applies to all businesses including incorporated and
unincorporated businesses and self employed who carry on a trade and
professions of any kind. Aim of proposal is to encourage respect of contractual
payment period, for benefits of all business. It gives rights to the creditors for
adequate compensation when they paid late and to introduce or improve
procedures to recovering debts.

Economical Factors: Over the last decade Spain has undergone a period of
modernization, investing heavily in its transport infrastructure. The country now
has 33 international airports and 44 seaports. The textile and apparel sector in
Spain is modern and rapidly growing. The country's economy relies heavily on
this sector which employs more than 275,000 people, and accounts for 10.7
percent of the nation's total industrial employment. In the textiles sector, the
market for apparel in Spain is the most important with several events taking place
throughout the year that stimulate demand. These events continue to highlight
Spain’s image as an international center for the fashion business.

The clothing/apparel sector in Spain is constantly growing, particularly imports.

In 2001, imports increased by 20% in the clothing sector. In 2002, imports in the
Spanish textile/dressmaking sector went up 4.5% to USD 7.3 billion. Imports in
2002 of off-the-rack garments and knitwear (USD 5.1 billion) were responsible for
much of this rise with a growth of 11% over the previous year. Main suppliers of
these products to the Spanish market are China, Italy, Portugal, Morocco,
France, Germany, Turkey, India, Vietnam, The Netherlands, and U.K. The U.S.
ranks 19th with exports to Spain valued at USD 71.8 million, in 2002, with good
possibilities for growth in the Action Sports segment.

The industry is expected to grow in the next few years thanks to rising wages and
increasing employment. Increased purchasing power will benefit the apparel
industry especially as Spain has been the fastest growing major economy in
Europe over the last 3 years.

Political Factors: Following Franco's death in 1975, Spain's main diplomatic

goal was to establish closer ties with Western Europe and to be recognized as a
West European democratic society. Spain has had a long legacy of tariff
protectionism and economic isolationism, and until the 1960s it remained outside
the West European and international economic mainstreams. Spain's effort in the
late 1980s to accelerate its integration into the EC customs and economic
structures resulted in a drastic accommodation to international and West
European trading standards. Now Spanish Government is committed to opening
up the Spanish market and has embarked on an extensive liberalization
(privatization) programs which has significantly improved Spain's ompetitiveness
and created a favorable business climate for investors. Stock exchange reforms
have increased market liquidity, enabling corporations to easily obtain new
capital.
 Technological Factors: Spain has also established technical specifications,
testing, and certification procedures for telephones, faxes, modems, private
branch exchanges, and data transmission devices. This technological
advancement in spain make easy for the international company to keep up to
date their business contact and get enough data and information from their
offices and market in spain.

Section – 2 Marketing Research

For any company that wants to enter In new market and new country
as well ,they need to do market research in order to know the trend that country for
their products and wheather their product will have enough response from that market.
Objectives Of Market Research :
 To know the people views about sportsware in terms of its quality,price,design
etc.
 To judge different age groups as well as both gender in terms of their attitude
towards sportswear as leisure wear
 To know the demand of sportswear through the the research and what
percentage of total textile-market it contribute
2.1 Methods Of Market Research :
Primary Data : This type of data are collected through the contact direct ( Face to
Face ) contact with peoples likes customers,wholesellers and retailers of clothings
stores etc.The basic technique for this is a to survey the group of these people by
generating questionarries that involved closed questions.
1) Wholesalers and retailers Direct Contact :
Company needs to contact directly with the wholesalers of clothings as well
as the retailers of clothings that place the sportswear range in that stores
through agents. Company needs to visit these people in some big cities like
Barcelona,Madrid,Valencia and get information about which types of
sportswear are in demand nowadays.
2) Customers survey :
The questionnaires with closed questions should be designed and
customers are asked to give their views for that questions.questiones like …
1) Do they bother about price or make compromise with quality when buy
sportswear ? Yes Or Not
2) Do they prefer branded sportswear ? Yes or Not etc.
so, that company can judge customers perception about sportswears. And
For these customers are selected based on sampling from each different
cities. As well as company can also find users of sportswear from sports
clubs in different cities.
Secondary Data : This type of data are collected from documents and general
publications as well as from websites of the sportswear company all ready existing in
spain markets. Company can also gets details about sales volumes and specifics
people demanding for sportswear (like teenagers,Youngsters etc.) from wholesellers
and retailers sales records as well as textiles industry’s reports published by
government’s industry department.
2.2 Data collection and Analysis :
Company will appoint agents for these market research that will go to collect
primary and secondary data.Our company will also appoint one manager( Analyst )
that will collect all these data and analyze those data and gathers useful information.
2. 3 Format Of Data :
That appointed manager will come with those useful information in proper
report format to our ( company) office in UK.So that company’s management team can
make proper decision.

Section – 3 Internal Analysis Of Company

Companies have chain of Stores in UK selling sports wear for both gender and
for teenagers and youngsters. Company promote their sportswear range with the
brand name “WOODLAND”.In home market, it is successful because they offers
sportswear with good quality of cloths and are less expensive compare to other
branded sportswear like addidas, Nike etc.In Uk, appeal of sportswear is strong
as people are veru crazy about sports specifically football,cricket,ruby etc. Our
specific target market are Teenagers ( Age 13 – 19 ) and young ( age 20-30)and
middle age people ( Age 35- 50 ) our sportswear clothing includes t-shirts and
trousers for all the sports.

Our Company’s Strength:

• We provide sportswear with good fabric and color and less expensive than
others sportswear companies.
• Good reputed brand in London and all over UK.
• we have good distribution channel in UK so that we can distribute our
products to each areas of UK and don’t make our end-retailers to wait for
stock.we are distributing our products to end- users through more than
580 sportgoods stores like JJB,SportsWorlds etc.
• We also spend enough money (nearly 16% of our overall sales figure) for
advertising our products and keep aware our existing customers about
any new range of our products.

Our Company’s Weakness:

• As company is targeting more segment and have many ranges so we
don’t have economy of scale.
• And for good fabric we have to depend on our supplies and the theirs
capability of providing enough stock on time.
• We are new in Spanish market.
We have direct competition with global brand like addidas, Nike. Although we are
brand name “WOODLAND” is not popular like them.
 Section -4 Entry Option in Spain Market For “Actionware”

4.1 Oppurtunities In Market : The major stimulant in sales has come from the phenomenon of sportswear being
worn as leisurewear. In Spain, active wear and sportswear have become part of street fashion, are sold by the
increasing number of large, high street sports chain stores and are worn as leisurewear. Non-specialist outlets like
clothing stores, department stores, hypermarkets and other outlets have also noticed this trend and included large
sections in their stores of this type of active wear.
Another stimulant is the trend among young people to be seen in branded clothing, shoes and boots. The big
brands Nike, Adidas and Reebok have benefited from this trend and are now leading the EU sports footwear and
clothing market.

Throughout Europe, extensive consolidation is taking place in which an increasing proportion

of apparel sales are made through large, vertically integrated, multi-national corporate chains.
Flexibility is the key to the rapid expansion of these retailers - flexible supply chains, the
flexibility to price aggressively, flexible product ranges, and flexible retail formats. The
winners are taking market share through a combination of innovative, fast-changing product
offers and lower cost, more efficient business models. Spain is the fifth largest retail market in Europe.
The Spanish and Portuguese retail industries are rapidly changing from traditional structures, dominated by small,
often family owned stores, to modern shopping environments with new retail formats operated by large, foreign
owned multiple groups. The two markets have combined retail sales of USD 140 billion. Development has
reached a level where domestic retailers are now taking their formats beyond the home market, the most notable
examples being the Spanish fashion retailers Zara and Mango , Spanish football club in Barcellon ,Madrid etc.

4.2Its product positioning in the market would very much depend on the branding and how
well it’s associated with the culture of the consumer in Spain.
4.3 Distribution/Business Practices
Sports specialist shops dominate the retail distribution of sports goods in the EU, accounting
for around 60 percent of the market. Significant chain store retailers, who have a large share in
the domestic market, have actively expanded their operations in other EU markets. As a result
of the success of chain stores, the market share of independent, non-organized sports shops has
been drastically reduced, forcing many of them to join larger organizations or buying groups
(Intersport or Sport 2000), become franchisees or close down. Rationalization in the industry
and the globalization process has resulted in numerous mergers and acquisitions within the
sports goods industry. This allows manufacturers and retailers to increase their market shares
and to penetrate new markets. Buying groups had a strong position in the 1990s, but continued
to join forces in order to compete with sports chain stores and non-specialized retail outlets.
Mail order has increased its market share of sports goods in most countries. Catalogues are
more fashion focused and offer the leading brands of sportswear. The mail order business is
now gradually shifting to e-commerce.
This shows “ActionWare” to enter into spain market using “Piggy Baking”
technique and get benefits of all ready established distribution channel.
4.4 The promotional mix :

 Sales promotion - For short term sales to promote the product.

 Advertising – the use of local culture and background, use of local language in
advertisement should be considered. Mail order has increased its market share of
sports goods in most countries.so company needs to develop their website and make
online ordering available.
 The design of the packaging should be appealing to the local Spanish ladies.
http://countrystudies.us/spain/

http://www.umsl.edu/services/govdocs/obr/obr_0019.htm