Fila Brand, Essay Example

The Fila Brothers opened their first shop in Biella, Italy in 1911 (Fila, 2013). The brand has gained ever increasing identity since that time. The brand includes shoes, clothing and other accessory. The company is recognized worldwide, with their head quarters in Seoul, South Korea (Fila, 2013). Fila is easily recognizable by the logo and has changed over the years with their consumer base.

Fila practices market differentiation through their advertising. This type of marketing uses different market segments and develops a separate marketing strategy for each segment (Belch, 2009). While researching this company, there are numerous advertisements that can be found. Many advertisements contain sports paraphernalia, to include soccer, running, basketball, and the outdoors. Each of these advertisements is reaching out to a specific segment of the market to increase the company’s market share as well as profits.

Fila practices celebrity endorsements as part of their branding and differentiation. This is done by backing certain celebrities and having them use their brands. This helps the brand to gain recognition in the market.

Positioning can be described as “the art and science of fitting the product or service to one or more segments of the broad market in such a way as to set it meaningfully apart from competition.” (Belch, 2009). The position is basically the image that comes to mind when the product is thought of. Sports, tennis shoes, the Fila logo, all come to mind when this product is thought of. Other interests that may come to mind is 1980’s rap music, The Sopranos television show, or the 1986 movie, Soul Man, which all have heavy product placement of the Fila brand. Positioning puts the product in the market and makes it memorable.

Other aspects of the product that have had an effect on the brand would be aspects of the macro environment, specifically sociocultural aspects and technological aspects. As the world changes, so must marketing of any product. Fila is no different from other products.

Marketing channel structures change as the sociocultural environment changes (Pelton, 2002). As values, attitudes, and lifestyles shift, so do buying habits. Sociocultural aspects of the environment include cultural diversity, social issues, and new product channels (Pelton, 2002).

Fila has changed the product to fit a vast number of cultures due to globalization and product recognition worldwide. This has happen through an enlarged product line and advertising. The brand also focuses on social issues. This is done through their focus on sports and life. Sports promotes exercise which is very important in life today. The brand also takes full advantage of all new marketing channels, such as having a website available to learn about the company and order their products.

Fila has seen many cultural shifts due to the brand being around for the last 100 years. Obviously the brand has shifted from being available in a few small Italian shops to being shipped worldwide through retailers and Internet orders. Once popular because of rap music, the brand is now popular due to its focus on sports and life. As the culture shifts, so must the product. Fila maintains their customer base, while changing enough to increase this base. The brand has moved from being widely used in popular music videos in the past to being used in popular television shows, such as the sopranos.

The technological environment is the environment in which the products are produced or how they are sold (Pelton, 2002). Technology is making marketing channels smaller and faster. For example, Fila being available in Italy at the start of the company. As technology improved, the brand was better able to be shipped to retailers throughout the world. As technology improved even more, Fila was able to host a website that allowed customers to directly purchase the product from the company from the convenience of their homes.

Technology is very important in the aspect that it helps the brand grow. The company is better able to gain brand recognition as well as spread their name more so, then they would be able to without the use of technology. Technology is important to branding.

By using technology, the company is able to be more innovative. It allows advertisements to be more eye catching. When advertisements and products are innovative, they will stay in the consumer’s mind.

Technology has also made the products easier to manufacture. With improvements in technology, the company moved from a few handmade products to mass producing hundreds of products to satisfy the many needs of present day consumers. With an increased product line, the company is able to increase their market while increasing their product.

Technology has also made it easier to increase Fila’s market share through mass media advertising. Though this would have been difficult in 1911, in 2013 it is easy to market the brand through internet and television. This makes the brand logo better known throughout the world.

Fila has done an excellent job of branding and positioning their products. They have also have made it a point to change with their environment to advance the product line. Advertising and marketing has helped the company to increase brand recognition. This is part of what makes the company a success.

Works Cited

Belch, G. &. (2009). Advertising and promotion. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Fila. (2013). Retrieved April 22, 2013, from http://www.fila.com

Pelton, L. S. (2002). Marketing Channels. New York: McGraw-Hill.