Marketing Paper Example: Marketing Research of JD Sports Company

The phrase marketing is used to characterize the communication a business and its customers with a primary objective of selling a product or service to them CITATION Rob13 \l 1033 (Marich, 2013). One of the key aspects of marketing entails the communication of the value of a business products to the target customers. One the other, public relations refer to the practice of controlling the spread of essential information between a business and its customers CITATION Ron13 \l 1033 (Smith, 2013). Public relations and marketing are important aspects that every business should cherish so as to promote its success in the market CITATION Car151 \l 1033 (Carney & Lymer, 2015). This essay is a discussion of the marketing and public relations concepts of the JD Sports Corporation and also a summary of an advertising campaign performed by the company in the recent times.

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Market Research

Product and Market Orientation

JD Sports has based the production of all its products through aggressive market research. This is because its products are customized to fit the needs, tastes, and preferences of a range of customers in the market. This market orientation strategy has helped the company in promoting its sales of products over the years both in the current and emerging markets. It is focused on the product as the primary aspect of capturing the right target market, and this has helped it to increase its number of potential customers on an annual basis.

Primary and Secondary Market Research Data

Market research has been a significant part of the companys performance. It has helped the JD Sports Corporation in attaining three primary functions. First, the market research data has aided the company in the identification and anticipation of the customers need and wants. Consequently, this has ensured that all efforts generated by the company are focused towards generating the products that fit the needs of the consumers.

Second, the market research data has enabled the company to qualify likely demand. This has ensured that JD Sports produces sufficient products to satisfy the available demand. Third, the market research data has helped the company to gain insight into consumer behavior. As such, the corporation has been able to anticipate the various factors that may change or influence the consumers buying behavior for its products.

Limitations of Market Research, Sample Size, and Buyers

The JD Sports limitations to market research have only been affected by the large target population coverage specifically in areas that lack Internet connectivity. Most of the market research performed by the company has been facilitated through the internet, as such, JD Sports has suffered a big blow in reaching the large sample size of potential consumers, especially in the third world countries. That is the population that cannot be accessed physically and only requires the use of the internet for communication.

Also, this means that the company has not been able to attain any customers feedback from such regions of the world, pertaining some of its products in the market. Also, the lack of having a complete information pertaining such potential customers has made the companys market research to be considered insufficient or biased in the projection of the total consumers feedback pertaining the companys products.

ICT Use in JD Sports Market Research

The JD Sports Corporation employs information from three main online sources in its market research. Such information is attained from websites, social networking sites as well as customer resource databases. The use of ICT has enabled the company to attain a wide coverage of its customers needs and feedback pertaining its products and performance in the market. JD Sports being a multinational Corporation, the use of ICT in market research has aided the company in reducing the costs that would otherwise be incurred in performing physical marketing research.

Market Segmentation

JD Sports market segmentation is demographically defined. This means that special emphasis on the promotion of its products is paid to different regions depending on the number of potential customers the region has. This strategy has been immensely effective to the corporation in that it has enabled the company to maximize on selling its products to such regions. Consequently, this has translated into improved sales for the corporation over the years.

Branding

Unique Selling Points (USPS)/Differentiation

The JD Sports has one unique USP. This is its specialization in the production of sports attire ranging from sporting gear, sports shoes, sports uniforms and sports protective gear among others. As such, it has become a globally recognized corporation for its high-quality sporting brands. Its brands have also been supported by the numerous sporting events, teams, and players it supports through its sponsorship deals. This way, millions of sporting attire enthusiasts have become acquainted with the companys products and taken the corporation to be their preferred sporting products manufacturer. This differentiates the company from numerous other clothing producers around the world.

Advertising

Advertising is a major part of the JD Sports Corporation. This is because the company invests a lot of funds every financial year to promote its brands. This is both its current markets and in new markets. The corporation employs various forms of advertising mediums to promote its products. Such include radio, television, newspapers, business magazines and social media platforms. Through its aggressive advertising campaigns, the JD Sports Corporation has been able to promote its brands both locally and internationally.

Sponsorship

JD Sports has over the years acted as a sponsor to promote its brand. This is because it has been the sponsor for various sporting associations including football teams and players. For instance, in August 2008, the Corporation announced its deal to sponsor Bournemouth, Oldham Athletic, Charlton Athletic, Lupton Town, Black pool as well as Dundee United CITATION JDS17 \l 1033 (JD Sports Fashion, 2017). Through these forms of sponsorships, the sporting clubs promote the various JD Sporting brands.

In 2009, the corporation also entered into a sponsorship deal with Chau sport, which is an establishment that operates around 75 medium stores in different parts of France CITATION JDS17 \l 1033 (JD Sports Fashion, 2017). The JD Sports also acquired Canterbury, which is a rugby heritage brand in New Zealand as well as the Duffer of St. George brand. JD Sports has also been a major sponsor for the Kooga Rugby brand over the years CITATION JDS17 \l 1033 (JD Sports Fashion, 2017).

Social Media

In todays highly competitive business environment, the social media has become a major medium of promoting the businesses brands CITATION Bob14 \l 1033 (Owsinski, 2014). The JD Sports Corporation is no exception. This is because it has invested substantially in various social media platforms, as an effective strategy of promoting its brand. For instance, the JD Sports promotes its brands through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Also, the JD Sports Corporation has a YouTube Channel, where it posts regular updates of the various brands it produces CITATION Del11 \l 1033 (Delineo, 2011). These social media platforms are effective in reaching a wide range of persons since they millions of followers and subscribers. The vast number of persons who follow the JD Sports social media channels make a substantial market size for the corporations brand of products.

Promotion

There are various ways through which a business can promote its products in the market. JD Sports is a market-orientated corporation. This means that its primary focus is to satisfy the various needs of its customers in the market. The corporation segments its market demographically, and for this reason, its promotion strategies force the corporation to comprehend the buying habits of its customers uniquely. That is those customers who are principally sports and fashion conscious. If the corporation decides to promote one of its product, they make the product a hero product in all its seasonal campaigns.

Also, the JD Sports promotion campaigns are accompanied by the professional photo shoot, where pictures of favorite brands by customers in the market are captured. The images, as well as videos attained during such promotion exercises, are then used to advertise the products at the JD Sports official website and social media platforms. The company promotes its products visually to enhance the desirability aspect of the products to potential customers. Special emphasis is placed on how and where different products are stored in the JD Sports outlets, which is a brand positioning technique employed for promoting the companys products.

Online promotion is also another major promotion strategy employed by the JD Sports Corporation. This is because the entity promotes its products by putting images on its official website. JD Sports is also involved in targeting e-mailing as well as creating social media posts detailing all its products. The company also uses the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as an efficient promotion strategy of ensuring that potential internet users easily find the companys products online. SEO optimization also ensures that the companys products rank high on search lists of various search engines such as the Google as well as Yahoo among others.

The company also promotes its products through local and international magazines such as FHM magazines where it features various products reviews that it retails to the public. Also, the companys promotional campaigns employ press advertising as well as outdoor media campaigns. It also employs carefully selected press, to promote the company's message pertaining its products effectively. Ultimately, JD Sports employs specifically selected media venues in leading cities as efforts to communicate about its products to potential buyers.

Market Position

Market Mapping

This refers to the study of various conditions in the market, which are plotted on a map in an effort to identify various trends as well as corresponding variables that exist between the companys consumers and products. It is an important aspect that allows a corporation to identify the sources of various problems it may encounter through the examination of various variables. So as to ensure that the company retains a good market position for its products, JD Sports normally carries out substantial market research as its market mapping strategy.

The JD Sports market research is carried out annually by a team of professional researchers who interact with the corporations customers. Through such interactions, the JD Sports corporation attains sufficient information on the consumers tastes, fashions, and preferences, as well as problems that they might encounter when using the corporations products. Consequently, the acquired information enables the JD Sports Corporation to improve on their products, so as to fit the preferences of the consumers in the market.

Competitive Advantage

The JD Sports Corporation derives a competitive advantage from its products in several ways. First, the pricing of the companys products is consumer friendly in comparison to the price of competitor products from other rival corporations in the market. Second, the JD Sports Corporation also possess a demographically defined market segmentation. This ensures that the corporation attains the largest possible number of potential buyers for its products. Ultimately, the corporation employs the product positioning technique as an efficient way of promoting the appeal and demand of its products in the market. This has aided the company in maintaining a good market position for its...