New Balance Swot

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SWOT Analysis Strengths: New Balance offers a wide array of performance shoes, apparel, and accessories that offer great style, support, and function for consumers. In addition to product differentiation, New Balance has strong brand recognition in due to their sustained history of success under the Davises in their industry. New Balance has numerous strong operational partnerships with retail stores as well as online stores that allow them to distribute there products effectively. Finally with the adoption of NB2E program, New Balance has been able to enhance their manufacturing process as well as effectively get products to their consumers in more timely and efficient manner. Weaknesses: Although New Balance does service many international markets they lag behind most of their competitors in international sales. New Balance also has suffered through some legal issues, most notably the class action filed against them by three plaintiffs, Kimberly Carey, Shannon Dilbeck, and Kimberley Molinarolo in 2012. This plaintiffs claimed New Balance misrepresented the benefits of wearing toning shoes (Global Data 2012, p. 15). Legal proceedings like this hurt New Balance's brand image. New Balance also suffers from higher production costs compared to their main competitors who outsource for all their labor. Opportunities: The emergence of online commerce s represents a great opportunity for New Balance. According to the Internet World States, on June 30th 2012 the internet use the world population stood at 34.3 percent with a growth rate of more than 566.4 percent during 2000-2012 (Internet World Stats 2012, p. 1). With the growing number of international online users New Balance could greatly benefit from selling direct to consumers through various online channels. The growth in the shoe market also represents another opportunity for New Balance. The U.S. alone has
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