Lesportsac

A. The nature of business and background LeSportsac, established in 1974, is the leading international brand of affordably priced luxury nylon fashion bags, accessories and luggage. With its signature lightweight rip-stop nylon and iconic repetitive logo ribbon, LeSportsac has become internationally recognizable. The Classic and Designer Collections (designed by trendsetters Stella McCartney, Jonathan Adler, Diane von Furstenberg, tokidoki and Gwen Stefani) have established LeSportsac as the leading American brand of casual nylon bags in the U.S., Mexico, Asia and Europe. The Collection's trademarks are sporty American styling, a wide color and print assortment and lightweight functionality with high performance fabrics and hardware. Known for its design flair and its exciting colors, patterns and fabrications, LeSportsac is sold at leading specialty stores and department stores throughout the world, with a strong customer base in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Available in sixty fashion forward styles, including handbags, travel totes, backpacks, tech gear, accessories and more, LeSportsac is true lifestyle brand. LeSportsac is sold in over 20 countries worldwide including Italy, Mexico, U.K., France, Sweden, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, Colombia and Saudi Arabia.6 B. Competitors Analysis Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of LeSportsac and its competitors such as Kipling and Lacoste are fundamental for the company to design its marketing programs. This can, in turn, help the firm grow and succeed through building on the strengths and correcting the weaknesses2. The strengths and weaknesses of Lesportsac, Kipling and Lacoste are as follows: 1. LeSportsac LeSportsac’s strength is that it is a well-known brand name. It provides customers with a wide range of handbags which are stylish, light and durable with reasonable price. Besides, designs are found to have a wide array of color and a plethora of patterns and prints which allow the company to produce eight to ten new prints each month, and this can avoid customers using the same bags with others; therefore, it can enhance the uniqueness of the brand and the buyers. Customers can customize their handbags with different colors and prints through the online service which makes LeSportsac more accessible to its customers.(delete it) Furthermore, LeSportsac constantly maintains good business relationships with famous celebrities and designers in collaboration to introduce crossover products. For example, “In 2008, LeSportsac teamed up with the designer Stella McCartney to produce its limited edition “Lifestyle” series”7, which quickly arouse a wave of enthusiasm. The collection helps the company build on a young and environmental friendly image. The weakness of LeSportsac is that it has little promotion in Hong Kong. Unlike other brands, it has inadequate advertisement in promoting its products in Hong Kong. People can hardly identify the brand unless they have the habit of reading fashion magazines and newspapers, and people can only know its products mainly by shops or official website. Besides, LeSportsac’s bags are not very formal and hence it is not suitable to carry to work or an interview. Therefore it is not so versatile when compared with other brands.