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GEOXS PRODUCT INNOVATION

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Contents
Contents................................................................................................................. 2 INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................3 CREATIVITY ............................................................................................................3 COMPETITOR ANALYSIS....................................................................................5 MARKETING STRATEGY ..........................................................................................8 Geoxs strategy blue strategy.............................................................................8 Geoxs red strategy ..........................................................................................11 How innovation element help Geoxs achieved the strategic.............................12 RECOMMENDATION..............................................................................................14 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................15 Appendix 1........................................................................................................ 15 Appendix 2 .......................................................................................................15 Appendix 3........................................................................................................ 16 Appendix 4........................................................................................................ 16 Appendix 5........................................................................................................17 Appendix 6........................................................................................................ 18 References ..........................................................................................................18

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INTRODUCTION
It was in the summer of 1992, when Mario Moretti Polegato, during a short walk in the Nevada desert, his feet got sweat and smelly. He knew that his shoes are absolutely inappropriate for the environment and he had to suffer. Taking out the pocket knife and cut holes in each of the sole, just the let the heat out. Immediate relief come to Polegato and also thinking, the ever new idea, "shoes that breathe". Back in Italy, he then searching every corner for breathing sole, and no shop had it. 3 years studying, researching, development just to transfer his idea into product, a shoes that breathe and watertight, and he did. However, his passionate is not in manufacturing shoes, instead is his family wine-producing and exporting, so he tried to sell his invention to leading shoes company in Italy and worldwide, but they all turned him down. Thanks to those shooking head, Polegato, with 5 other employees decide to manufacture the shoes themselves. And the genesis of Geox begins. As the result, 15 years later, ,Mario Moretti Polegato, whom groomed to take over the wine-making business of his family, have made his young company Geox, the world second-largest casual lifestyle footwear ( Figure 1) (Appendix 1 ) . Adding on that success, there is a combination between creativity, product innovation as well as distinctive marketing strategies

CREATIVITY
First of all, what is meant by creativity? According to Amabile et al. (1988), it is the development of novel ideas, products, processes or procedures by individuals or a group of individuals working together. In addition to that, Linda (2012) also advised that creativity is the process of turning the imaginative or new idea into product. And that's how Polegato did with his thinking. And the question now is how creativity relates to different types of product innovation? We acknowledge two popular type of product innovation which are incremental innovation- in which we make an improvement from what already existed, whereas radical innovation is giving the completely new product to the world. In a business concept, Ford (1996) figured out that creativity and innovation are perceived to be so closely linked that these terms are often used interchangeably. Just take an example from Volkswagen. When they trying to create
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some joke for a car on an April Fools Day joke. The Polo Harlequin was created, with the idea of each part of the car was painted a different colour (figure 1.2) (Appendix 2) Surprisingly to Volkswagen, that idea got many customers interest, and of course this car was all over Europe. Realize along with Jacob and David (2002), there is similar between creativity in products and service. Taking the world leader in pizza delivery Dominos Pizza. They launch their new novel idea which is if you have to wait longer than 30 minutes, the price of pizza reduced. And there is a boom in Dominos business after this promised (Jacob & David 2002). Two above example have somehow demonstrated how creativity relates to product innovation, specifically the incremental innovation. Back to Geox, the most important factor that lead to a successful young shoe company is while most innovation now is incremental innovation, Polegato had a think of absolutely a product that like-no-other. The shoes is a basis product, and even though he just think of a shoes with hole in a flash time, but a lot of times and effort were put in to create a shoes that breath and watertight. Thats how his creativity relates to the world-known products, which make Geox stand out from the crowd and quickly achieve what they got today. Think and act, two basic and key things for creativity. You think of better idea, you work on them, make what imaginative become to real products, thats how creativity relate to product innovation.

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COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

Product Categories

Classic product ( elegant and traditional) Casual product (wearable and adaptable) Sport product (running and golf)

Casual product, Smart product( Active air, GORETEX), Work wear, sport , Unstructed product and Leather bags

Wide range of sport equipment( Runni ng, Training, Basketball, Soccer, Sportinspired Casual shoes, Kids shoes, Sports apparel and Accessories

Product Description

Comfort and breathing, watertight shoes

Classical and formal wear

Sporty and fashionable shoes

Features ( Competitiv e

Breathing Technology( k eep feet dry

High quality product and long wearing

Brand recognition and stylist design

advantages) and cool) Country of Origin Pricing Medium to high High- end price, costly Affordable price ( depends on
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Italy

UK

U.S.A

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categories) Website www.geox.com www.clarks.com.au website not yet fully operational poor layout, classic design and confusing navigation www.nike.com.au layout ok, informative and professional design Target Customer Kind brand catering to the entire family Men, Women and Kids Essentially for specific athletic use and casual shoes for variety age Marketing strategies Advertising campaign( bill posting ) Based on Innovative technology instead of using celebrity Promotions and TV Advertising Use celebrity athletes, sponsorship for sport event

Throughout the competitive analysis, competitive features are mentioned, comparing with Clarks and Nike across defined criteria. The purpose of the analysis is to help manager having a better understanding about the Geoxs innovative product will be competing within global footwear market. On the other hands, based on how competitors brands are perceived by customers, Geox can maintain a competitive advantage, which is the key factor for the companys strategic planning.

This competitive analysis has identified Geoxs two major competitive advantages. Firstly, Geox company is leading brand in manufacturing shoes breathe , the
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GEOXs product innovation differentiates itself in footwear industry, the new technology : the shoes had many small channels and made by watertight breathing membrane that helps keep feet dry and cool. Unlike competitors, the Geoxs strategy is not focus on style and fashion and appeals to the Italian trendy style but relies on the products technical characteristics. Furthermore, Geoxs technology innovation makes their product unique, dominated and difficult for competitors to copy and imitate. Since, Geox had the very first step in creating a new line shoes breathable with the eye-catching and craved out a niche for Geox in the red ocean of global footwear industry. Geox had no rivals in manufacturing the breathe shoes because they are the very first, in other words, a leader in this field. The second competitive advantage for Geox would be distribution channel through franchise or international expansion. Each countrys individual distribution structure and calibrated to the widespread network of multiband clients (Mario Polegato, founder and chairman of Geox). That could be considered key success factors by the company beyond product innovation and could be seen the companys success. Since, Geox just entered the shoes market in 1995, it is about 17 years old comparatively younger than other shoes making giants, as Nike 55 years- account for 33.27% in market share and Adidas with 63 years took 15.97% in market share (Appendix 3) .Geox was ranked No.2 in the international footwear market with the 10,000 multi-brand stores around the world, also had 997 single brand Geox stores located on urban property worldwide. (Appendix 4) Geox is on the way to expanding their business in potential market like China and India by committing partnership with Hong Kong- listed company Belle (one of the biggest shoes retailer brand in 2007 with 22% market share). In Geox background analysis, Geox has bought Diadora, a sports shoe brand of Italy. Diadora has great advantage to enable the Geox to broaden the sports shoe market with the existence located store retailer in Europe and other countries. Finally, the biggest competitor for Geox is Clarks the number 1 shoe retailer in U.K, (Appendix 1) who currently is trying to win market share in Europe market and already has secured distribution channels in large parts of South-East Asia like China, Indonesia and Thailand. Clarks also launched into the market product categories for women, man and kids. Both company meet up in one point, more
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focus on the research and development (R&D), Geox introduced the breathe shoes and watertight , Clarks also had recognized product Active Air, Waterproof for men, Flex 24 for women. Furthermore, Clarks Company also has done research market to launching a line of shoes that have features designed for customers with specific foot needs. One more point to assist the Clarks have more market share in the shoes industry is fashion design, Clarks always deliveries to customer variety of new design shoes with trendy and stylist collection within year while Geox does not, a few seasonal collection came out .

MARKETING STRATEGY
Geoxs strategy blue strategy
Geoxs strategy that focus as the blue ocean strategy that means Geoxs strategy is varied. As lots of efforts and capitals already spent on the research and development of the shoes, Geox also make it more complex or almost impossible for competitors to catch up with what they are doing. For the purpose of product innovation, Geoxs has focused its efforts on the application of new technology to the shoes industry, either fashion is the main thing they need to concentrate as shoes need to be update, style and design or comfortable, conveniences for customer. Geoxs offers a range product which could be suitable for all group of target customer based on customers needs and wants.(Appendix5). After seventeen years working on the footwear industry, Geoxs is became the second largest causal lifestyle footwear sector operator, and Geoxs has penetrated markets in over sixty eight countries all over the world and has strong reputation in customer mind . Geoxs are using the new strategy position and unique configuration of complementary activities in the footwear industry, also with helping form new technology, Geoxs to offer a unique product the shoe that breathes that is assists the feet breaking and is waterproof by absorbing and expelling the perspired sweat without letting temperature hence, not just remain healthy also provide good looking product and comfortable for customer who using Geoxs product. (Geoxs company focus to wide customer base or an affordable price for customer)

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Moreover, Geoxs concentration is on the shoe-sole technology. It can solve customer problem as they provide one product that better and more comfortable. In addition, customers health problem also been taken care of. Furthermore , Geoxs has a good team of managers who conceive breathing shoe sole as a type of technological platform upon which the design and manufacture of footwears that meets customer need of all group customer. Finally, not just focusing on the quality of shoe sole also Geoxs look at the way promotion that help them can achieved customer mind by up to date new fashion style, make new design every single season, using promotion program as sale off in public holidays, loyalty program and lastly is using adverting and communication in mass media, magazine, newspaper or new event and etc. After following the Geoxs new strategy, Geoxs can attract more customer by selling the benefits of the shoe that breathes, which lead to an increasing in number of potential customer and market segmentation.

Figure 1 Stage gate

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Geoxs red strategy

In this report Geoxs focus on two main competitors are Nike and Clark, both of them are direct competitors, with Nike focus on the sport shoes and Clark focus on the casual. Each of company that tent to be specialists as making different form their competitor as product within a narrow product range in one or few market segments as different group of customer to provide different type of product as sport shoe, casual, footwear, etc. on the other hand they can using the different type of material to help customer feel comfortable, conveniences with their company product that also provide the differences style, design and material that adapt for each group of customer. Also the new strategy of Geoxs worked quite well because, unlike most of Geoxs competitor the focus was not on fashion and style alone, although on a technique aspect of the product that clearly differentiated it form other product, more over with new strategy Geoxs can use one message that can be used to address consumer of all target groups all over the world and becoming the multinational corporation success company whereas Goexs competitor just give their message directly to special group of target audience that make them wait time and money. Also in Geoxs marketing strategy they using around 10% of the companys turnover were invested in promotion as they determine the advertising really important thing need to do. They using the simple traditional to achieve customer mind as billposting and print. Last but not least Geoxs target is to all group customer event low, middle or high income, potential customer can define as whom no wanted wet or smelly feet.

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How innovation element help Geoxs achieved the strategic

Source: Sawhney, et al (2006) The 12 Different Ways for Companies to Innovate. MIT Sloan management review, SPRING, VOL.47 NO.3

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Geoxs has good manager term, that they using the new technology to make guidelines for their own company business development

Product innovation they using the group focus, online, telephone service that give deeper inside customer need and want also they keep researching by using loyalty program after that they come up with patenting and implementing new solution that help customer fix problem as make three type of shoes ( Appendix 6 ). Also by using high technology Geox believe that they can make one product that makes their competitor hard to copy event when company product was sole. Not just focus on the style and new design of product Geoxs company also want to brings as much as benefits for their customer as they can by reducing the water wet and smelly feet

Consolidation of the leadership position achieve in any location around the world by using Italy as the sample they opening more new Geoxs shop in shopping centres or high traffic city centres. It can help company increasing the market share and strengthening the loyalty program of multination corporation brand in the world

International expansion : Geoxs company want to achieve customer around the world and by extend more foreign shop Geoxs can increasing amount number of customer served to increasing market share and loyalty among existing customer and target to potential customer by opening new shop in the main shopping centres, airport shopping, and city shopping centres in the country Geoxs focus.

Also by focusing in the new distribution channel Geoxs can make more successful to achieve customer and help company increasing market share and brand equity. After 17 years running the business now Geoxs has been more than 10,000 multibrand stores over the world and more than 997 single brand located. Which 77% were franchises and 23% were directly operated store. The goals of Geoxs Company that they want to promote Geoxs brand to end-consumer on the consistent basis. They also to provide two ways for customer searching company product as directly in store( personal selling can provide much information as customer need) or online store by searching, choosing and payment after that company product will delivery to customer house.
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RECOMMENDATION
To be successful and capable of taking market shares from other leading brands in the shoes industry, Geox should first focus on incentivizing marketing activities. First and effective approach may concern with greater cooperation with social celebrities (in the field of sport, cinematography, in particular) for better reputation of the brand in the vast area of social media integrating with the development of specific range of product. The disadvantage of the approach is its cost and attachment to the figure being advertised. Further, public relation approach in marketing principles can be applicable for Geox, for instance, sponsoring for sport events, competitions, sport teams, and other sport activities in exchange for visibility fronting public eye. Most importantly, strategy should shift to fashion values since, empirically, successful cases in shoes manufacturing industry experienced a trend not only in improving technologies but also to satisfy diversified taste in fashion and mass trends. Focusing on fashion does not necessarily mean sacrificing technological simplicity and practicality of the product.
CONCLUSION

This paper extensively discusses about creativity, competition playing field and different strategies of Geox to be highly competitive in shoes industry. Recommendations are offered upon analyses. Geox is competitive brand on the market and its strategic scheme and creativity in marketing field are paramount in the long-term development of the brand itself to compete with other rivals. The focus on technology and simplicity have been remained central; therefore marketing strategies should be also address the unique strength of the range over other companies counterparts.

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APPENDIX
Appendix 1

Appendix 2

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Appendix 3

Appendix 4

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Appendix 5
Demographic Age: All group age Gender: male and female. Family size: 1-2, 3-4, 5 above. Family cycle: both married and unmarried. Income: 3000 Australia dollar above per month Occupation: white-collar and services worker, student Education: School, colleges and Universities. Religion: All. Race: Australian and all people around the world.

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Appendix 6

References
Amabile, TM. et al., 1996, Assessing the work environment for creativity, Academic of Management Journal, vol 39, pp. 1154-1184 Amabile, TM. et al., 1998, A Model of creativity and innovation in organisations, Reseach in Organisational Behaviour, vol.10, viewed 22nd March 2012, Greenwich Conn Linda, M 2012, What is Creativity, Creativity at Work, viewed 21st March 2012, http://www.creativityatwork.com/what-is-creativity/ Jacob, G & David, M 2002, Creativity in Product Innovation, Cambrige University Press, United Kingdom, viewed 23rd March 2012, http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam033/2001018106.pdf Clarks Shoes, 2012, viewed 15 March 2012, < http://www.clarks.co.uk/> Nike, 2012, Nike Annual Report, Nike, viewed 19 March 2012, <http: //www.nike.com.html.>

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