SPEEDO CASE STUDY

Speedo Case Study

Speedo Case Study

Introduction

Speedo was established in 1914 under the name of Fortitude, which was taken from the family coat of arms of the company's founder Alexander Mack Ray. Till, 1928, the brand was little known amongst the consumers of sportswear and the general public. The company was founded by a young native of Scotland, Mc Rae, who immigrated to Australia in 1910 and opened a factory for sewing lingerie under the name Mac Rae Hosiery manufacturers. In response to growing interest in the beach culture, in Australia, he quickly decided to expand production and added the variety of swimsuits to his products, and renamed the company as Mac Rae Knitting Mills (Ziethmal, Bitner, 2003, pp. 206 -211).

Speedo's brand name was born in 1928, when the company created a fundamentally different swimming costume “Racer back”. Whirlwind burst into the world of swimming and was adopted by leading swimmers, such as world champion Arne Borg. It was clear that the swimming costumes were purchased by many famous swimmers around the world. Speedo gained a lot of success, and, it even resulted in high revenues for them. Therefore, the main idea, which will be discussed, in this literature is the success that Speedo has gained in their industry. The other factor which will be analysed is the competitive strategies that they adopted to maximize revenues and to become a market leader in their industry. (Wilson, Feitelberg, 2000, pp. 8-11).

Strategy Adopted By Speedo over the Years Which Has Contributed To Its Market Leadership Position

This case is about Speedo International Limited, a part of the London-based Pentland Group, Plc. Speedo, which is the world's leading swimwear brand. It was founded in 1914 and Speedo was a pioneer in sports fashion wear. Competitive swimsuits are a core area of Speedo. Since its inception, Speedo had been innovating in the competitive swimsuit market to manufacture suits aimed to enhance the performance of swimmers. Over the years, its swimsuits had been hailed as innovative and athletes sporting its swimsuits had won prizes and broken records in various swimming events. More recently, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Speedo was recognised as the biggest brand in their industry. Athletes competing in Speedo swimsuits won 47 medals and broke 23 world records. As of 2008, the revenues of Speedo were US$200 million which higlighted their good performance in this industry. Speedo was the market leader with about 60% of the market share (Weilbacher, 1993, pp. 189-196).

The case has discussed the strategy adopted by Speedo, particularly its technology strategy and the way it has emphasized the fashion aspect of the brand. The case has even discussed the promotion and distribution strategy of Speedo. Speedo enhanced its brand image by sponsoring world-class athletes, etc. The controversy surrounding its new swimsuit, the LZR Racer, has been even discussed, which some critics felt gave an unfair advantage to the competitors of Speed. The case concluded with the challenges faced by Speedo in the swimwear market and had a ...