Companies Comparing criteria

Assessing Footwear and Apparel Companies

Our team made the decision to assess the four footwear and apparel firms based on their ethical makeup, code of conduct, brand recognition, and degree of mass customization. This criterion will aid in the identification of businesses with a high likelihood of success, solid brand recognition, and ease in hiring personnel to work for the company (Apparel & Footwear, 2015). These three factors—well-trained employees, a reliable client base, and properly maintained financial records—are the core justifications for purchasing an existing company. Therefore, any element that can have an impact on the equities you intend to buy with your $15 billion needs to be carefully considered.

Mass Customization

First of all is mass customization, which refers to a plethora of changes in the manufacturing and distribution systems of a company. With the many rising footwear and apparel companies, one that adopts changes; advancing technologically by including the use of digital designing and body scanning, taking more flexible methods and terms of manufacturing about culture and workers output is a company worth investing in (Pendarvis, 2017). Through mass customization, customers are assured of authentic designs that are just according to their personal preferences. Therefore, it’s an effective way of coping with the competition within the industry and ensuring that the workers are fully equipped with their working gears.

Ethics and Working Code

The second factors to be considered are the ethics and working code for the different companies; comparing how efficient and how well Under Armour, Asics, Puma, and Sketchers implement their moral laws. The ethical code of practice regulates the internal operations in a business and how it interacts with its stakeholders and other businesses (Kell, 2014). Therefore, a company that has a high and working code of ethics has a well-organized internal structure where the social expectations of workers are attained, leading to a non-disputed workforce. A company with this setting is worth consideration since it has and will retain a positive image and be highly reputable.

Reputation and Brand Recognition

Lastly, there is a need to consider the reputation and how well a company is known to the masses and prospective investors. This can be discovered by reviews by the public about a company, their products, services, and quality of their products. For example, Lululemon failed on their yoga pants due to the poor quality “see me through” (Kell, 2014). Inferior products lead to a poor review, which equals a bad reputation. So even if the business continues with a different management or owner, the setback would remain. An already well-marketed company is also one to be considered since it would save tons of money creating awareness of its presence among the masses. So, a company should invest as much as possible for its reputation that will help it improve on profitability and have a high market share.

Conclusion

Following the few but major areas criteria will ensure that there is value for your money despite the current or future economic statuses. There are plenty of credible information sources, both governmental and private resources that will provide a comprehensible outline of all the four companies in mind. Other sources include the media, who are good at getting even the finest details like highlighting the poor conditions in the sweatshops of both developed and third world countries (Pendarvis, 2017). Footwear and apparel always has a steady growth, especially in Europe but faces a few challenges like any other business.

References

Apparel and Footwear in 2015: Trends, Developments and Prospects. (2015) (pp. 1-42). Retrieved from http://www.euromonitor.com/apparel-and-footwear-in-2015-trends-developments-and-prospects/report

Kell, J. (2014). Athletic apparel: Outperforming the competition in 2014. Fortune.com. Retrieved 28 February 2017, from http://fortune.com/2014/12/25/athletic-apparel-top-performer/

Pendarvis, E. (2017). What to Consider Before Buying a Business. Entrepreneur. Retrieved 28 February 2017, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/196550