rjcrouch's posterous

S.W.O.T.

I feel like I struggled to expand to a wide range on my swot analysis but found a decent amount of information.

 

Swot

PERSONAS

Personas_1

These are the select personas I decided to explore, like many others probably figured out there in an extensive amount of personas that may interact with your entity. I picked the few that I thought would span some important areas of interest. 

System Map: COMMUNITY

Click here to download:
COMM_1.pdf (272 KB)
(download)

This is the community side of the map. Most of it is pretty self explanatory and really shows how Empire gets involved with different areas of play. I thin the largest thing to take away from this is the "KEEP THEM PLAYING" area of the map.

Empire provides off season clinics and tournaments to keep players playing year around. This allows Empire to stay in season and selling equipment at all times. They provide indoor play during the winter, fall tournaments, and summer leagues. But nothing will top sales during regular season in the spring. 

The other aspect of keeping them playing is the start up clinics Empire provides for school systems that may not have a program at one level or another. Empire is always trying to expand the sport in Indiana and that shows with the free clinics and donation of equipment to the sport throughout the state. There is always the thought that further expansion is really an investment in the company.

System Map: SUPPLIERS

Click here to download:
SUPPLIERS_1.pdf (286 KB)
(download)

Empire Lacrosse Goes through a number of suppliers. Lacrosse as a sport is really evolving every single season. New technologies are emerging every year and yet these companies still seem to stay small businesses. You may see some familiar names here though. Nike has recently entered the Lacrosse market with their own line of shafts and heads. All the other companies either started as lacrosse companies from the beginning or came from other sports.

Warrior started as a lacrosse company and soon bought out a hockey company. Warrior was then brought on as a Brand of New Balance shoes and has since then bought out Brine Lacrosse, who was also involved with a large soccer market. This bring two of the largest Lacrosse companies together under one roof still bringing out their own separate products.

One thing that sets lacrosse and Empire apart from big box companies is that these small companies still send out personal representatives to their retailers so that they can give a hands on preview of new products each year. Surprisingly even Nike sends out a personal rep for their lacrosse products. I really don't think Empire would buy any other way.

System Map: COMP

Back in the day the large corporations would move in on small towns and shut down small businesses and now a-day's the thing to look out for is internet business undercutting prices and upping convenience. Empire is no stranger to internet competition. The majority of their competition comes from large inventory online companies.

Being that many people who take up the sport in Indiana are starting at the middle school level or even younger their parents probably take most of the direction in where they shop. To many parents Dick's Sporting Goods in the default for local sports equipment. But their selection is limited and usually overpriced in comparison to Empire. And when their kids know they want something that Dick's doesn't have in stock many times the option is default to online shopping. So the question is, how do we keep business coming back to Empire each time a new wave of players steps into the sport?

Empire already works with just about every coach in the business to bring in as many customers as he can. It just seems as though it somehow needs to be policed that the coaches keep up the advertisement for him. 

Click here to download:
COMP_1.pdf (281 KB)
(download)

System Map: IDENTITY

Click here to download:
IDENTITY_1.pdf (368 KB)
(download)

Above you can see the Identity part of my system map. One thing I like about Empire's logo is that it can stand with or without the text included. The 'E' really exemplifies the brand well. Including the crown on top and the crossed sticks behind really showing the company's power. The Empire logo is copywriten in 3 different configurations. All using the Empire Blue and Orange.

As your eyes follow through the map you can see that the logo can be seen outside of the store on the sign as well as inside the story on the multitude of apparel he offers. This apparel can be seen at events around Indiana. 

Empire has a strong web presence with a newly redesigned website that include all Indiana league sign ups outside of the IHSLA you have to see the Empire website to play any lacrosse in Indiana. The new online store also allows for him to further push his brand to new customers outside of central Indiana. 

Empire has a strong following on both Twitter and Facebook with many players around Indiana conversing and socializing through their pages.

 

CONTINUUMS

(download)
Each attached image has a visual continuum with a description of why the entity has been plotted in that position.

Marketing Aesthetics

I am working on a digital form of this as I type but I wanted to give you a heads up on watching for an update! My written form is below.

Photo

Distribution Meeting with Maverik Lacrosse

On wednesday I attended a meeting between my client and one of his distributors. The distribution rep was there for Maverik Lacrosse. He was there to show off equipment coming out for the upcoming spring season, set to drop in December and January. I got to see a lot of products I was already familiar with with new aesthetic designs attached. The really interesting part came with the introduction of new products. Many of these were not physically there to see but instead in a PDF catalogue for their 2012 line. 

I wish I could have gotten my hands on the PDF to share but they seemed to be somewhat confidential. I thought it was odd that they wouldn't bring in new products considering many of the images in the PDF were physical pictures, as apposed to digital renderings. I guess that't where the company's relationship comes into play. Maverik, like all the other product companies, has a log standing relationship with Empire. I was told since the store opened the distribution rep had been the same. You have to take his word and his company's word to heart and just believe they will be bringing you a quality product year after year.

 

Skipping Class

Today I skipped class to attend a meeting between my client and one of his distribution reps. He invited me to come along and see what it's like. I'm getting ready to leave as I type. I'll post an update later!