The Macro and Micro Environment

I. Market Analysis

A. The Macro and Micro environment

The Shoe Industry consists of a multitude of footwear manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers. The retail segment of the industry ranges from owners of large multinational chains to small local businesses. Many shoe companies operate in both the retail and wholesale arenas. Taken as a whole, the Shoe Industry could be described as mature. However, barriers to entry are far from insurmountable. The marketing environment is composed of two parts: the macro environment and the micro environment. In the market analysis phase we will study the macro environment. This represents all the factors and incontrollable forces that affect the business.

B. The competition

Our company, Head Over Heels®, will enter the high heel shoes market rather timorously, having a smaller target than other shoe producers have. Namely, we decided to make a more conservative approach, targeting only the younger consumers, like adolescents or students between 18 and 25 years old. The competition on the high heel shoes market is very strong in Romania. But given our target of consumers, we can exclude the top high heel shoes producers like Zara, Otter and so on, because our targeted consumers cannot afford their products. As our target is young people with low income, the most important aspect in their priorities is the design and the comfort the shoes have to offer, the brand being the less important one. This makes us conclude that our competitors are not so well known, this being a great advantage for our business since we will enter the market as foreigners.

C. Market segmentation

The market represents a group of consumers which are consisted of: consumers, relative non-consumers and absolute non-consumers.

The consumers of our product happen to be in a very large number, since fashion is getting nowadays more and more prioritized, especially in women’s case where the shoes make the difference.

The relative non-consumers is formed of those people that use substitute products ( like sneakers, sandals, generally casual footwear).

The absolute non-consumers can only be formed out of men, because at some point in time every women has to wear a more elegant footwear like high heels shoes, at a party, wedding or a graduation party for example.

Criteria categories Segmentation criteria Possible segments

Demographic Gender Women

Men

Income 300 lei or less

300-700 lei

700-1400 lei

More than 1400 lei

Occupation Student

Working

Psychographic Personality

Lifestyle

Behavioral Buying occasion Personal need

Special occasion