1. Situational Analysis
Purpose of Organization and Product
Patagonia is an outdoor clothing company worldwide leader of environmentally responsible business that offers products that are simple, functional and multifunctional. Patagonia’s product line is composed of four main product categories: Sportswear, Technical Outerwear, Technical Knits and Hard Goods.
It is an industry leader in technological innovation, that invest in development and tests raw materials to cause the least amount of harm to the environment as possible. Patagonia’s mission statement is: “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis”.
Promotion
Their marketing strategies are quite different from what is customary for an outdoor clothing company. Patagonia’s main idea of marketing is to inform its audience, so they have incorporated educational messages for its consumers instead of just publicity of the brand. Patagonia invests less than 1% of its sales on advertising and marketing. The ethics and the unique vision of the company has especially attracted the attention of the media, and this has led them to get free publicity from the press in many occasions.
Price and Target Market
Patagonia consumers have a median age of 38 years and an annually average income of $160,000. Basically, its target market are lovers of outdoor sports that are willing to invest approximately 20% to 50% more on an innovative, multifunctional and durable product that offers high quality, as well as consumers that are concerned about the environment, sustainability and nature conservation.
Distribution
They pursue four sales channels: wholesale, retail, catalog and internet. For Patagonia, a retail store not only represents a trade. It is more than that; for them is the representation of the brand itself. That's why Patagonia has a very small wholesale channel compared to its competition. In the United States