There were many complaints during this year's ispo in Munich. The sports industry unanimously complained bitterly about the bad winter, the bad sales figures, and the impending future of their market. Throughout the fair halls, on the podiums and in the specialized trade magazines the "crisis" and new concepts were discussed. There is an ongoing search for concepts for a new upsurge in trade, as well as answers to the price war in the industry and the dominance of the online pure player. Multi-channel strategies were also high on the agenda this year. Multi-channel was discussed as a concept and solution to conduct trade and lead manufacturer's brands to growth and success. I am of the opinion that multi-channel cannot fulfil the hope of most market traders and manufacturer's brands, as it rather resembles a shark tank.
2. CONTENT
00 Prologue
01 Why multi-channel does not work
02 Multi-channel in use
03 The importance of brand awareness and how the term "omni-channel" can be used as a promising
strategy!
04 Summary
05 Glossary – Shark Tank multi-channel
06 Appendix
07 About Julius Geis
*See terminology in the glossary – Page ! von ! –2 18
Extract
3. oo PROLOGUE
There were many complaints during this year's ispo in Munich. The sports industry unanimously
complained bitterly about the bad winter, the bad sales figures, and the impending future of their
market. Throughout the fair halls, on the podiums and in the specialized trade magazines the "crisis"
and new concepts were discussed. There is an ongoing search for concepts for a new upsurge in
trade, as well as answers to the price war in the industry and the dominance of the online pure player.
Multi-channel strategies were also high on the agenda this year. Multi-channel was discussed as a
concept and solution to conduct trade and lead manufacturer's brands to growth and success. I am of
the opinion that multi-channel cannot fulfil the hope of most market traders and manufacturer's
brands, as it rather resembles a shark tank. My reasoning is as follows:
To properly understand why an opening to multi-channel could be dangerous for many businesses, we
must first take a closer look at the motivation that lies behind entrepreneurs turning to multi-channel.
In the industry, multi-channel is proposed as a strategy to prevent declining sales, but also to respond
to the changing buying behavior of the target group. In addition, multi-channel serves as another
strategy to curb the growing competition of online pure players.
Entrepreneurs hope to counter-act against the market trend by opening up to multi-channel ideas.
The advocates of multi-channel argue that the target groups are again reached in their familiar
surroundings by opening the core business and core market. They are convinced that the lost
business can be won back at this point. This belief is mostly based on studies demonstrating that
audiences, now from every age group, access product information online or mobile, compare prices
and an increasing percentage also buys online. Although the numbers and results of the studies are
accurate, the multi-channel concept is the wrong strategy approach for sports retailers and many
manufacturers' brands to address the above mentioned problems. Using the example of specialized
trade, I would like to demonstrate why:
*See terminology in the glossary – Page ! von ! –3 18
Extract