Principles of Marketing - Shoes

For most women shoes are probably the most important part of the whole outfit. The shoes you wear can increase your confidence or destroy it, and you can never have enough. Companies capitalize on this idea by mostly targeting women when they are marketing their shoe products. The market for fashion forward men is growing rapidly, thus more stores are providing a lot more variety of men’s shoes as well. The shoe market is divided into three major product categories athletic shoes, casual and dress shoes, and then “boom-or-bust” novelty designs. The shoe industry is one of the more “mature” industries, meaning that it has passed the emerging and growth stages and the sales are slower and more constant. The average woman owns 17 pairs of shoes. Women make up 25% out of the 40% casual/dress shoes segment, while the remaining 15% of it belongs to men. In order for a company, to retain its old customers and attract new customers, they must continually offer better and bolder shoes. The taste of shoe buyers changes often, and so the retailers must improve their shoes. The improvements in an athletic shoe would focus on comfort and performance enhancement. The dress and casual shoes would rely on the fashion-forwardness and the superior products and novelty designs focus on improving profitability. The whole shoe industry has to be able to adapt to change and with the electronic era here. The biggest change the industry probably has to make is moving to an e-business adjusting a company’s sales to stay the same and even increase, while keeping up with the technology and trends at the same time. That could mean expanding internet sales and closing down low performing stores or just marketing their online segments harder.
The Designer Shoe Warehouse, more formally known as DSW, opened in 1969 and over the years has become a “leading branded footwear and accessories retailer”. DSW offers a wide range of brand name shoes and sneakers for men women kids as well accessories.