Marketing innovation and technology: GEOX analysis

Thèmes abordés

GEOX analysis, footwear industry, Geox's innovation strategy, Geox's marketing strategy, bue ocean strategy, Belle Company, Nike, Adidas, Timberland, sports market, competitive advantage

Résumé du document

Mario Polegato created the company Geox in 1995. He had troubles with his sweaty feet so he cut his shoes to have more air. After having a patent and unsuccessfully sales to footwear manufacturers, he decided to create his own company. At the beginning, Polegato was only selling children's shoes. But then the children's mothers liked those shoes so much that they asked him to do the same for adult. In 2000, the company expanded into international market.

Now, Geox is listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, it is a global name and it is the second-largest casual lifestyle footwear in 68 countries.

Later in 2008, Geox wanted to enter the sport footwear market, despite the fact that it is a large market. Precisely the golf shoes market which is hard to enter, and which has a lot of competitors. The company is positioned in the footwear industry (90% of sales) but it sales apparels as well (10% of sales)

Extraits

[...] Moreover, Geox's chairman decided to create a new market space instead of compete in another existing. This strategy is called: blue ocean. About the distribution methods, one of its key factors is that it had developed a distribution network, that matches with every country distribution way. It owns 997 stores in the world among which 77% are franchises and 23% are directly operated stores. Given the eventual potential, the company decided to expand in China and India, through partnership with for example Belle Company in Hong-Kong, which is now the official Geox distributor in China. [...]

[...] Those engineers work with universities, and they always try to find idea. The company own a department only dedicated to innovation. Furthermore, Geox owns a study program where students from around the world are trained in their technology to become engineers in the company. Geox's founder explains that in a hard-economic situation such as crisis or sales decrease, the best thing to do is to innovate. In some ways, Geox is part of businesses, which created a need from customers. [...]

[...] Geox has to boost its position from the small share it held that is to say the casual sports market, to become the largest, not only improving the big market. It has to draw from big companies such as Nike or Adidas. Even if things don't work as he planned, Mario still bounces. When he noticed a sales decrease in the US in 2009, he decided not to open new stores until an economic improvement. Outsourcing is a strategy often used by companies to improve sales by reducing costs. This strategy is used by Geox, which outsources in China. Thanks to that, the costs are reduced by 30%. [...]

[...] Marketing innovation and technology: GEOX analysis Mario Polegato created the company Geox in 1995. He had troubles with his sweaty feet so he cut his shoes to have more air. After having a patent and unsuccessfully sales to footwear manufacturers, he decided to create his own company. At the beginning, Polegato was only selling children's shoes. But then the children's mothers liked those shoes so much that they asked him to do the same for adult. In 2000, the company expanded into international market. [...]

[...] Mario Polegato always tries to “strive to change the world, innovate beyond the imagination of clients, being globally integrated, staying genuine (having nothing to hide) and generous (looking after employees)”. Despite the big innovation effort showed by M. Polegato, he plans to continue patenting and implementing, it is important to keep his leadership in Italy, and of course and as I said before, always trying to be more global by International expansion. Such as increasing the number of customers and retain existing consumers. [...]