Lit Review Decathlon

Wutan Huatan Jisuan Jishu ISSN:1001-1749
A study On Sports Industry – A Case Study On Framing Pricing Strategy And Their Applications At
Decathlon Pvt. Ltd Stores In Karnataka
“A Study On Sports Industry – A Case Study On Framing Pricing

Strategy And Their Applications At Decathlon Pvt. Ltd Stores In
Karnataka”
Divya Bharathi
Research Scholar, Dept. of Management Studies, Ballari Institute of Technology and
Management, Visveswaraya Technological University – Karnataka, India
Mobile: 8951810996, Mail: divyaammu82@gmail.com
Dr. G. P. Dinesh
Professor & Chairman, DOMS, Vijayanagara Sri Krishna devaraya University -
Karnataka, India
Mobile: 9880779387, Mail: gurrumdinesh@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is regarding a study on sports industry – a case study
on framing pricing strategy and their applications at decathlon Pvt. ltd in Karnataka.
Design/Methodology: The researcher has applied descriptive research design by
constructing the structured questionnaire and subjected the structured questionnaire to 30
Decathlon stores in India, by using convenience and random sampling for data collection
in India. The collected data has been analyzed using simple tools such as averages,
percentages and measurement scales and SPSS software (One-Sample Statistics, One-
Sample Test) were used to arrive at desired results.
Findings: It is found in the study that Decathlon is known for its value based pricing
strategy where the customer’s preferences and needs are considered while offering the
products with reasonable prices and they have established themselves in the international
market and created a competitive edge over others. Athletes and sports players are fond of
this brand and even their strategy and service has created huge brand loyalty towards the
company.
Research limitations/implications: The study is restricted to Karnataka.
Originality/value: Price is an essential and crucial aspect of any business organization

particularly to those firms whose primary goal and objective is to maximize or earn more
and more profits. Sometimes the price can be set to gain the maximum profits by large
sales and sometimes it can be used by the business firm to defend the current market from
the new entrants and the other times to increase the market share within the existing
market. Hence in this research Decathlon company in detail pricing strategy analysis is
carried out which is one of the best brand & leader in sports segment having an edge over
its competitor even in international market.
Keywords: Decathlon, Pricing, Karnataka, Sports industry.
1
Volume XVI, Issue VI, JUNE/2020. Page No:319
1. INTRODUCTION
In the recent trends, sport is considered as one of the largest industries widely with respect
to employment and as well as revenue terms. Sports business is regarded as a multi-billion
dollar global industry driving by immense amount of demand by the consumers from time
to time. Sports business refers to the various kinds of things to different people. Sports
industry is referred as one of the most developing industry in the world. More and more
number of people is taking part in sport and recreational functions throughout the whole
wide variety spectrum of functions.
Sports goods retail industry in India has grown immensely and significantly over the last
decade. Technology which is coupled along with the few Government initiatives, which
lead to the techniques of cost-effective production, would be the mandatory for thus highly
emerging industry. The retailing goods sector in India is becoming a fiercely competitive,
as many players are coming forward for the same set of consumers and at the same time it
is also witnessing an essential transformation.
Sports industry generally refers to the market which includes people, firms, and business
organizations basically involved in manufacturing, producing and organizing the activities,
different experiences or business firms which are concentrated and focused on the sports as
their primary and main goal. Sports industry in simple terms is a market where the business
firms and organizations generally offer various kinds of products and services to the buyers
in the market who are sports related and at the same time it maybe goods or services or
places or people or sometimes related to ideas.
Usually, a fast developing market is more attractive, desirable, not only it consists of
wonderful opportunities in terms of sales but at the same time in such kind of industry it is
easy to enter and increase sales in such fast developing market. When it comes to every
small businesses, however for such firms a large market such as sports industry can be a
double edge sword. But on the bright side, for such firms there is a huge opportunity to
increase the sales from time to time based on demand but on the negative side larger firms
with more access to the advertising and the marketing channels and better financial ability
get a temptation to enter into such a market place with huge attraction.
1.1 2020 Sports Industry Outlook - The biggest trends on the sports scene:
In the annual outlook, it is predicting that the trends we believe will dominate and disrupt
the sports industry over next 12 months. As we look toward 2020, it is believed that five
trends will have the biggest impact on athletes, team and league executives, and players
across the sports ecosystem:
1. The rise of women's sports

2. The continued evolution of esports
3. Legalized sports betting
4. College athletes maximizing their short-term value, and
5. 5G and sports in the cloud
1.2 Growth:
 As a result of large importance of business firms and the high growth capability, India is on
the verge of attracting more and more customers all around the world.
2
 In foreign direct investment confidence index, India has been ranked 8 th i.e., right after
U.S, Germany, China, UK, Canada, Japan and France.
 There has also been an increase in purchasing capacity of the customers due to immediate
and quick availability of the credit available at their finger tips
 It has clearly seen that there is a shift in the mindset of the consumers towards the buying
of goods related to sports in retail sector.
1.3 Opportunities
 Most of the markets in the rural areas in India have shown a high and increasing potential
growth if it is tapped with the right match of products along with the reasonable pricing.
 Increasing infrastructure investments by both national and international investors,
connectivity to such local markets and the local customers is now becoming much easier
day by day.
 The independent label space in the field of the organized retail sector industry in India has
just begun experiencing an immense amount of increase in the level of the activity over the
last few years.
1.4 Challenges:
 Due to various and different kinds of diversities in the state policies and influences by the
local areas and culture, as a result of this it has become a greatest fallback or hindrance for
the retail sports industry to expand their business fully over the remote areas and in some
other areas.
1.5 Market Size:

Retail sports market in India has been expected to increase and grow by nearly 60 % which
is estimated to US $ 1.1 trillion by the year 2020, and on the back of factors such as
increasing incomes among the middle class people in India and the changed in the lifestyle
among the most of the youth has resulted in the increasing connectivity in the digital field.
And similarly the retail sales and purchases using online or online retail business sales has
been estimated to grow at the rapid rate of nearly to 31 % year by year to reach to the point
of US $ 32.70 billion by the end of the year 2019.
1.6 Investment Scenario:

Indian retail sports trading has been received Immense amount of capital from the FDI
foreign direct investment equity inflows which amounted to nearly US$ 1.42 billion
between the year April 2000 to June 2019, according to the latest reports given by
department of the industrial policies and promotion which is also known as DIPP.
 A pan- India scheme has been announced to provide the yearly scholarship of nearly
500,000 Rupees - 700,000 Rupees to the athletes mostly the young athletes for the span of
8 years.
 The government has also been announced to fund more than 20 universities all over the
country to promote and encourage the excellence and the talent in sports while completing
their educational degrees.
1.7 Government Initiatives:
3
 KHELO India is an Indian national program proposed and implemented by the Modi
government for the purpose of the development of sports and it is also set up under the
ministry of Youth affairs and sports.
 This program initiates and also promoted the sports with the use of the latest technology
which are such as mobile apps, in order to reach out the athletes situated in the rural areas
and it has also has various other salient features and as well as facilities for the purpose of
enhancing the sports sector in the country.
 Sports industry in India has huge untapped capacity and realizing that potential, a well-
known and a famous sportsperson have established the various training academies and the
sports centers all across the various parts of the country over the years.
2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
A case study on framing pricing strategy and their applications at decathlon Pvt. ltd stores
in Karnataka.
3. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
1. To identify the challenges faced by the firm in using various price strategies.
2. To analyze the various kinds of pricing strategies used by them.
3. To identify the factors that influences the choice of selecting the pricing strategies.
4. To analyze the effects of adopting various pricing strategy.
4. LITERATURE REVIEW
Here in the review the pricing strategies adopted by various sectors are being reviewed and
compared with Decathlon pricing strategy
Ryan Mcleold Nike pricing strategy cost plus vs. consumer value equation: According to
Ryan McLeod fixing up of a certain price for the company’s products is one of the
challenging decisions in the planning of any business organization because consumers react
differently for different price settings. Some favors the price variable and some react
negatively to the price change. In July 2014, Nike being one of the world’s largest sports
company started to increase its prices as the remaining companies in the industry are
dropping their prices and hence reacted in the dropping up of the company’s profits for
some time.
Leonie Barrie “new pricing strategy at Nike” planning committee of the Nike in the year
2016 decided to come up with the idea of the changes after its pricing team at the company
headquarters decided to redesign the pricing strategy and as a result of this change in
pricing strategy of the company the company’s global ASPs with the world has been rising
continuously. Earlier it was using the cost plus strategy for its products and then it shifted
the strategy to consumer value equation. And the change in pricing strategy provided
competitive advantage over the competitors in the industry with respect to other
companies.
Nicole Pratt. N.d. “Pricing: the sneaker pricing wars (Adidas-Nike): for any business
corporation pricing serves as a fundamental determinant as it is the main element which
determines the profit for the firm as it directly relates to the sales of a commodity of the
company. Nike is the world’s largest and the biggest shoe company in the world as it has
the largest market share and as well as the investment with respect to capital. And on the
4
other hand Adidas is the second largest company next to Nike and hence there is an cut
throat competition which underlies every time between these two companies in the industry
and the competition can be easily seen with respect to the 2010 world cup through the sales
and their influence.
Ingenbleek, P., Debruyne, M., Frambach, R. T., & Verhallen, T. M. (2003). Successful new
product pricing strategies at sports industry as stated that the price of any product or a
series of product is usually associated with the value, quality and as well as the
performance of the product. And on the other hand the price that is applied to a product can
also apply to the products which generally carry a price tag with it which indicates the price
for its labor and price for tuition and rent. For any consumer the purchasing of any product
means the price being paid by the consumer for the sacrifice of the purchasing power.
Guilding, C., Drury, C and tayles M. “ A empirical investigation of the importance of cost
plus pricing” in sports industry states that the price of any product is determined by the
firm when it has the whole and the complete knowledge of the product features such as the
demand and the cost incurred to produce and manufacture the product and on the other
hand the firm will estimate the demand and the costs that is prevailing in the market which
is associated with the reciprocate prices and the price chosen by the firm should also
maximize the current profit of the firm and also the cash flow and the return on investment
made by the firm on the production of the product.
Mukhweso (2003) in his research project about the pricing strategy stated that the firm
higher sales made by the firm will lead to the lower production costs attained by the
product for its manufacturing and hence this kind of pricing strategy will lead to a lower
prices as a result of the lower production costs which may yield a higher profit in the long
run span. The firms assume that the market will be sensitive if they set the lower price for
their products and the companies favors by setting the high rate of prices in order to ‘Skim’
the market.
Robert Dwain “pricing strategy at Puma” Puma being one of the world’s largest apparel
and the sports industry, the company uses its variable premium pricing strategy in which it
mainly concentrates on considering the products as its premium base and later it offers the
lower and the cheaper prices which has been determined by the comparing its price to its
competitors’ prices. This strategy which is applied by the Puma company has the great
advantage as the lower pricing strategy is seems to be affordable by the consumers all the
time which enables the consumers to buy the products at a cheaper prices. And as the
competitor Reebok uses the penetration pricing strategy it gives a competitive advantage
for the puma company over the competitor Reebok.
Mario Kienzler (2015) in his research “Pricing strategy- a Review of 22 years of marketing
research at sports industry” explained that the with the rapid growth of online retailing and
the diminishing lines between bot the online and the physical channels provide the retailers
to use this opportunity to their strength and use that more effectively and this opportunity
can be efficiently used with the perfect planning and the application of the right pricing
strategy in their products and services. A psychological aspect of the pricing strategy
mainly focuses on the B2C markets rather than the B2B markets.
Joris Drayer, Seoki lee “ Dynamic ticket pricing in sport” throughout the last 3 decades the
most of the sports managers in the sports industry managed to plan and apply only two
kinds of the pricing strategy for every sports company in the market for their tickets and
which mainly involves of the one size fits where the price of every game is same and the
5
other one being the price of the ticket of any sport is based on the field and the play of the
sport and as the times being changed it has becoming essential for the sports managers to
plan their prices for the tickets in order to increase the revenue and with the evolving
technology the company are changing the firm’s approach to its product pricing.
Young Han lee, Joon-Ho Kong “pricing strategies for professional sports companies” every
professional sports team with a potential to adopt the sophisticated types or methods for
designing their various ticket pricing strategies. Over the period of time the sporting
managers face a problem of fixing of the pricing of their tickets for different plays that
exactly fits the favors of the sporting fans. And in order to overcome this problem the
sporting managers have identified the three categories of fans for their ticket selling which
includes mainly Child, an adult and the old age fans and on this base the sporting managers
mainly places their bet on ticketing in the sporting industry for different plays.
Ingenbleek, P, van der Lans I. A “ Relating price strategies and price setting practices at
ESPN” stated that the firm’s pricing strategy is mainly focused on the framing of pricing
and the adoption and implementation of the penetration strategy, competitors price and
finally the skimming policy of pricing strategy. Pricing in the firm is mainly decided on the
factors such as the standardization, competitor’s price in the market for the goods, and
various other factors and it is also noted that the firm mainly follows the monopoly in the
adoption and the implementation of the pricing strategy.
Paul Marines cu in his research “pricing strategy as a tool in the sports retail sector”
explained that the pricing strategy in any business firm or an organization is a whole multi-
dimensional package as it is a key element in any business marketing strategy. In any retail
segment a company an effective pricing strategy doesn’t only include the price satisfaction
by covering the cost of production but also the customer satisfaction and the different
dimensions of the price perception and more additional dimensions of the pricing strategy
in the retail sector.
Paul Hambert “pricing strategy for ESPN plus” ESPN company always concentrated on
increasing its consumer loyalty through its various pricing strategy applied over the years
with regard to the change in demand for the company and this pricing strategy clicked in an
effective manner when Walt Disney acquired the ESPN company and decided to use the
low cost pricing strategy in order to gain more and more consumers. In 2018 the Walt
Disney launched a new Disney branded direct to consumer entertainment streaming service
with a different pricing strategy which changed the shape and design and the image of the
company in the eyes of the consumer forever.
Rebecca Flynn “Adidas pricing strategy” there are different kinds of pricing strategies
applied by the company or business firms with respect to pricing of their products and
services and with the same manner the pricing strategy is a segment related to the
accounting and at the same time the consumer’s ability to pay for the company’s products.
And it is the single and the biggest opportunity of growth for the Adidas brand with respect
to pricing strategy. Adidas never adopts the penetration pricing strategy as it reduces the
image of the company in consumer’s perspective and at the same time it mostly uses high
low pricing scheme based on the consumer’s demand.
5. DECATHLON IN INDIA: AN OVERVIEW

Decathlon sports has been started in India for more than 10 years and the first store was
been set up and started in India in the year May 2009 at Sarajpur situated at Bangalore. At
6
present as of now, the Decathlon company in India has more than 65 stores spread all over
the country in every state and cities and it is further planning to expand its reach to further
more stores. From the first store in the year 2009 to 2013 Decathlon was initially a B2B
company, and later in the year 2013 the company opened up to all and went to B2C.
In Electronic city Bangalore the Decathlon Company has 10 stores till now and is on the
verge of expanding to further more stores. By the End of 2020 Decathlon has predicted to
open more than 100 stores in India in every corner and remote places too. Most of the
products sold at Decathlon stores in India are imported from other various countries such as
China, France in order to maintain the quality of the goods so that all the customers are
served with the same products all over the world. Some of the products that we find at
Decathlon Company are not found in some stores or some other location because they keep
the goods and stock at stores based on the demand and catchment and customers
requirement and further if the customers are required to buy the products they can buy it
directly from the Decathlon website and buy.
Decathlon Company was started with a single store located at Lille, France in the year
1976, which was founded by Michael Leclercq. Later, after few years it expanded its
business and started to increase their reach and expansion by opening up of their stores to
Germany in the year 1986, Italy in the year 1998, Spain in the year 1992, later in the year
1999 in Portugal and in UK too, China in the year 2003, India in 2009, Hong Kong in the
year 2013, Malaysia in 2016 and Southeast Asia in 2012, and in the year 2017 South Africa
and Philippines and finally In Australia in the year 2018.
The company has the employees with more than 87,000 from all over the world from 80
different nationalities. The retailer in the sports sector stocks a huge range of products
which includes sporting goods, ranging from the tennis racket to the most advanced
equipment’s of scuba diving, generally in large superstores which are usually located at the
capital and the metro cities with heavy population which are sized to be an average of
4,000 m2.
Decathlon company owns over more than 20 brands, with more research and development
facilities which has spread all over the France to develop the modern and most advanced
innovative designs, registering up to more than 40 patents per year over the last decade.
Every brand of Decathlon Company represents a different sports or group of sports, along
with the most dedicated product development and as well as a design team. As per the
latest reports dated on December 2018, it is estimated that the company has nearly 1510
stores situated worldwide in 49 countries.
In the recent years the online delivery of the products has been introduced in various
countries such as Belgium, France, Netherlands, Hungary, Unite Kingdom, Germany,
Turkey, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Italy, Singapore, Spain, Brazil, Portugal, Romania,
Malaysia, Egypt, Mexico and recently in the countries like Romania, Ireland, and finally in
Vietnam.
In India, sports goods sold by Decathlon Company can be easily bought through the stores
which are established in various cities all around the country with a result of subsequent
change in India’s FDI policy and approval giben to the Decathlon Company as on February
2013. In addition to all the above now the products offered by the decathlon company can
also be purchased online through company website through which the products can reach
your doorstep without visiting the store. This has been a great aid to the customers situated
in the local areas.
7
By the end of the year 2016, the first online delivery service has been introduced for the
first time by the Decathlon Company in the country called Tunisia as in the preparation of
opening of its first store in the country Tunis. The first store was opened on the date
November 2017 at the place Tunis city commercial city in Tunis. And during the next year
the second store was opened at the place situated in La Marsa on the date 2018.
In the year February 2017, Decathlon Company opened its first and the foremost store at
the place in Bagota, Columbia in the mall Parque La Colina. And in the same year in the
month of July Decathlon Company opened its doors to the people of Filipino which is
located at festival mall in Filinvest Corporate city, Alabang, Muntinlupa, Philippines. Their
first store in Australia was opened in the year December 2017 at the place called Tempe,
Sydney, and NSW. In the year August 2017, the Decathlon Company announced that it is
ready to open its first store in Canada at the place Brossard, Quebee during the time of
2018.
In the following year April 2018, The Company with an intention to expand its business to
further extent it has declared that its primary store in Serbia has been opened in the place
called Belgrade, Serbia during the end of spring of 2019, as well as in the place called
Kyiv, Ukraine in the initial months of the year 2019.
In addition to the above stores, during the period of January 2019 Decathlon Company
announced that further it would open 9 more stores in Ireland, which is starting from
Ballymun, North Dublin with special features which include products like Astroturf pitch,
rollerblading track, and bike circuit.
The retailer of Decathlon Company develops and markets its own brands, which the
company features as “passion brands”. Each sport or group of sports has a separate brand
name.
5.1 Decathlon Brands:

The thing or the feature that makes Decathlon unique and different from other companies is
that the company has their own brands through which they sell their products both online
and offline. Decathlon creates designs and then manufactures their own products. At
present there are over more than 20 Decathlon brands and each of them is dedicated to a
different sport like – Artengo, Aptonia, Caperlan, Newfeel, Domyos, Fouganza, Simond,
Olaian etc.
5.2 Competition:
In the year 2009, Decathlon’s sector competitors, Go sports and sports 2000, which joined
the hands in order to set up a common purchasing center at Switzerland, which is intended
to “Pressurize most of the major international suppliers”, according to the Francois
Neukirsh, Managing Director of Go sport, in the newspaper Les Echo’s. Otherwise, the
firm does not have a relevant competition or rivalry because of the targeted specified
audience in the huge market space in retail sector. For Decathlon Company in the European
market Inter sports are the biggest rival and competitor.
5.3 Decathlon Operations and Functions:

Decathlon basically involved in selling wide variety of goods and services of nearly 50
sports. They have distinguished their products into mainly 4 divisions:
8
Firstly, the products price is starting from the very low range, reasonable cost and can be
easily affordable by every public. Secondly, the products and goods which can be bought
and used by the initial learners of all kinds of sports which are of lower costs and at the
same time has lesser specifications. These are generally referred to those kinds of products
which can easily satisfy the intermediate players. And finally, the professional sports
products which are usually of the higher costs and prices and which are higher end product
in each kind of sport and which are mostly used by the professional players and athletes.
Most of the sports products sold by the Decathlon company are mostly imported from
different countries all over the world such as China and France depending upon the
products and sports they are involved in marketing and selling in order to maintain the
quality and at the same time to provide the good and better quality service in all Decathlon
stores all over the world to their customers from time to time.
5.4 Customers of Decathlon:

As decathlon company sports is totally which is perfectly based on the sports industry, their
target customers from the start are all sports players which are belonging to different age
groups i.e., from the kids to adult and of all the stages of life such as occasional sports,
players who are beginners, intermediate and finally experts in the sports field. As the sports
industry in the world has been increasing and expanding day by day and gaining lot of
attraction all over the world is increasing rapidly and incredibly in the world and as well as
the Indian market of retail sector.
Decathlon company has adopted the market area by keeping and selling of the products of
all ranges starting from the lowest prices to highest ones so that people from lower to upper
class can buy the products they want without any inconvenience and can be easily
affordable by everyone to buy and use for different kinds of sports along with high and
luxury products with expensive prices. Generally the targeted customers for the Decathlon
Company are the middle class people who are highly populated and are found in heavy
numbers. And at the same time they are the most frequent customers who love various
kinds of sports but doesn’t want to spend the high prices to buy them and it has intended to
those kinds of customers.
6. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The researcher has applied descriptive research design by constructing the structured
questionnaire and subjected the structured questionnaire to 30 Decathlon stores in India, by
using convenience and random sampling for data collection in India. The collected data has
been analyzed using simple tools such as averages, percentages and measurement scales
and SPSS software (One-Sample Statistics, One-Sample Test) were used to arrive at
desired results.
7. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
7.1 Hypothesis testing: Hypothesis testing in a research refers to an act in statistics in

which the researcher tests the assumption regarding a parameter of the population. The
methodology employed by the analyst in the hypothesis testing depends on the nature of
the data used by the researcher and the reason the analysis and the hypothesis testing.
H1 – there is a positive relationship between the pricing strategy applied and the profit
earned by the company.
9
H0 – there is negative relationship between the pricing strategy applied and the profit
earned by the company.
Table 1: One-Sample Statistics
N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

Pricing
100 2.1900 .98160 .09816
strategy
Target
100 1.6500 .94682 .09468
customers
Competitor
100 1.1100 .31447 .03145
pricing
Pricing
100 1.8200 1.06723 .10672
methods
Formulating
100 1.8000 .91010 .09101
Pricing
Pricing Policy 100 1.8300 .75284 .07528
Table 2: One-Sample Test
Test Value = 0
Mean 95% Confidence
Sig. (2- Differe Interval of the
T Df tailed) nce Difference
Lowe
r Upper
Pricing 2.1900
22.311 99 .000 1.9952 2.3848
strategy 0
Target 1.6500
17.427 99 .000 1.4621 1.8379
customers 0
Competitor 1.1100
35.298 99 .000 1.0476 1.1724
pricing 0
Pricing 1.8200
17.053 99 .000 1.6082 2.0318
methods 0
Formulating 1.8000
19.778 99 .000 1.6194 1.9806
pricing 0
Pricing policy 1.8300
24.308 99 .000 1.6806 1.9794
0
10
Graph 1: Pricing Strategy

pricingstrtagy
50
40
30
Percent
41.00%
20
34.00%
10 19.00%
6.00%
0
mazimization of profit Discouraging entry of Penetration of market Any others
competitors
pricingstrtagy
Graph 2: Target Customers

tragetcoustmers
how should we change the
reference to apa style in
alphabetical orderers
60
40
Percent
64.00%
20
21.00%
11.00%
4.00%
0
Sports persons/ Athletes Explorers Sports retailers Others
tragetcoustmers
11
Graph 3: Competitor Pricing

compitatorpricizing
100
80
60
Percent
89.00%
40
20
11.00%
0
yes no
compitatorpricizing
Graph 4: Pricing Methods

pricingmethods
60
50
40
Percent
30 58.00%
20
22.00%
10
11.00%
9.00%
0
Value based pricing Cost plus pricing strategy Competition based pricing Penetration pricing
strategy strategy strategy
pricingmethods
12
Graph 5: Pricing policy

pricingpolicy
50
40
30
Percent
20
38.00%
21.00%
10
0
Very often Sometimes Very rarely
pricingpolicy
Graph 6: Formulating Pricing

formulatingpricing
50
40
30
Percent
47.00%
20
32.00%
10
15.00%
6.00%
0
Rate of market growth Pricing over the life cycle Mixed strategies Mixedstrategies
of product
formulatingpricing
7.2 Interpretation of the hypothesis:

From the above conducted one sample T test of the null hypothesis we can conclude that
since the P<0.001 as the p value for the tested conducted is turned out to be “Zero”, we
13
reject the null hypothesis that the sample mean tested is equal to the hypothesized pricing
strategy mean and conclude that the mean pricing strategy applied is significantly different
than the profit earned by the company by overall sales.
Which finally indicates that irrespective of the pricing strategy applied by the Decathlon
Company, the profit earned by the company over the years has never changed as a result
null hypothesis is rejected and turned out to be “Zero”. Based on the results, we can state
the following:
 There is a significant difference in the mean pricing strategy applied by the company with
respect to the profit earned by the company (p< .001)
 The average profit earned by the company during the period is about 20 percent more or
less than the relevant pricing strategy applied by the firm during that period.
8. FINDINGS
 The firm main objective of framing and developing of the pricing policy is to penetrate the
market and target the certain customer in order to attain the objectives of the firm in Long
run.
 Financial analysis indicates that size of the firm plays a significant advantage in creating
the competitive edge over the rivals and expands its market globally.
 The most targeted customers for the decathlon Company are the athletes and the sports
persons who buy most of the products sold by the company in various markets of the
world.
 The firms pricing policy is mainly based on the pricing policy adopted by the rival firms so
that the firm can offer a better goods to the customers even less than the competitors price.
 The financial data points that the production costs incurred by the firm acts as a major
factor which influences the business to framing the pricing strategy of the firm from time to
time.
 The financial analysis indicates that the firm follows the value based pricing policy for
pricing the product it offers which in turn indicates that the prices are mostly on the basis
of the affordability of the customer for the products.
 The analysis shows that rate of growth prevailing in the market forms a threat to the firm in
framing the efficient pricing strategy of the firm as the market growth is totally
unpredictable in nature.
 The analysis indicates that the pricing policy of the firm is of the great importance as it
decides the growth and development attained by the firm in the significant years.
 The financial analysis points out that the firm doesn’t change its pricing policy very often
as it is successfully running and gaining the rapid demand for the goods of the firm in the
market.
 The analysis proves that the customers of the firm are most of the time not willing to pay
the high prices for the products if there is sudden hike in the prices as they look for
reasonable price for the products.
 That the firm follows different levels of pricing in deciding the prices of the products as
they offer different prices for different customers based on their affordability
 Analysis shows that the firm is fully satisfied with the pricing policy that they are using
and the price offered by them to its customers as they are the sole leaders in the retail
market of the sports goods in the world.
 Financial analysis indicates that the firm believes that they offer reasonable prices to its
customers who are affordable by everyone based on their need and helps in maintaining
loyalty.
14
 The financial analysis shows that the firm studies the mindset of the customer for pricing of
its product through the continuous interaction with the customers by the employees
regularly.
9. SUGGESTIONS
 Decathlon Company mainly uses only one type of pricing method which has proven to be
effective but still it needs to try and apply other pricing methods to even more maximize
their profits.
 Decathlon Company has the stores only situated at capital cities and other major cities
which make its operations restricted to only certain areas so it should try to expand their
business stores more and more.
 The efforts put into the advertising and marketing of the products is very little when
compared to the rival firms so it should advertise and market their goods more often with
more investment in marketing.
 Store at Decathlon was not clearly organized before but now they are making efforts to
correct it so they should arrange the store in a more organized way.
 The firm should open more and more stores even in the same city in order to reach more
and more customers at the right time.
 Decathlon Company mandates the sharing of the cell number and email id of the customer
in order to purchase the product so they should try to eliminate this type of procedure as all
the customers are not willing to share their personal information.
10. CONCLUSION
Price (Value) of any products or services is considered based on various factors which are
both internal and external on which the success and failure of the company exist. Some of
these factors may include account segments, consumer ability to pay, production cost,
competitors actions and many other factors. So it is essential for any business organization
to frame an efficient pricing strategy for their products and services to attain the ultimate
objectives of the firm in the long run. In this regard pricing strategy at Decathlon Company
plays a crucial role as they stand the price leaders in the international market when
compared to the rival firms and the prices offered by them gives a complete edge over the
rival products and hence the pricing serves as an important element for the management at
Decathlon which they carry on and plan with a great research and integrity. Decathlon right
now follows the value based pricing strategy which enables them to fix the prices on the
basis of what the customer is willing to buy and they also offer different levels of pricing to
their wide variety of the product line.
11. REFERENCES
[1] Ryan McLeod “Nike pricing strategy cost plus vs. Consumer value equation”, Girard school of business,
Merrimack college.44 (5-6), 131-138.
[2] Leonie Barrie “New pricing strategy at Nike” International journal for marketing and advertising, New York,
USA, 35(1), 22-29
[3] Nicole Pratt N.D “Pricing the sneaker pricing wars (Adidas-Nike)” Review of economic studies, Vol. 56, 406-
420.
[4] Ingenbleek, P., Debruyne, M., Frambach, R. T., & Verhallen, T. M. (2003). Successful new product pricing
strategies: A contingency approach. Marketing Letters, 14(4), 289-305.
[5] Guilding, C., Drury, C., & Tayles, M. (2005). An empirical investigation of the importance of cost-plus pricing at
Sport. Managerial Auditing Journal, 20(2), 125-137.
[6] Joris Drayer Seoki lee (2012) “Dynamic ticket pricing in sport” Sports marketing quarterly, West Virginia
University, 50(1), 56-81.
[7] Robert Dwain “Pricing strategy at Puma” Journal of economic perspectives, 46(4), 27-35.
15
[8] Mario Kienzler (2015) and Christian kowalswinki “Pricing strategy- a Review of 22 years of marketing research
at sports industry” Journal of business research, 22(2-3), 169-179.
[9] Mukhweso (2009) “pricing strategy at Nike, Adidas sporting companies “Journal of consumer research, 29, 474-
491.
[10] Young Han lee, Joon_ho Kong “Pricing strategies for professional sports companies” International journal for
sports finance, 13, 39-49.
[11] Ingenbleek, P., & Van Der Lans, I. A. (2013).Relating price strategies and price-setting practices at
ESPN. European Journal of Marketing, 47(1/2), 27-48.
[12] Paul Marinescu, Niculae Sabin Muhei “pricing strategy as a tool in the sports retail sector”, in Annals for faculty
of economics (2010) vol 1, issue 2, 1122-1127.
[13] Paul Hambert “Pricing strategy for ESPN Plus” Journal of product and brand management, 28(3), 446-455.
[14] Rebecca Flynn “Adidas pricing strategy” International journal for business and management, university of South
Carolina, 30 (3), 14-19.
16

Lit Review Decathlon

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lit Review Decathlon

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Wutan Huatan Jisuan Jishu ISSN:1001-1749

“A Study On Sports Industry – A Case Study On Framing Pricing

Originality/value: Price is an essential and crucial aspect of any business organization

1. The rise of women's sports

1.5 Market Size:

1.6 Investment Scenario:

1.7 Government Initiatives:

2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

3. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

5. DECATHLON IN INDIA: AN OVERVIEW

5.1 Decathlon Brands:

5.3 Decathlon Operations and Functions:

5.4 Customers of Decathlon:

7. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

7.1 Hypothesis testing: Hypothesis testing in a research refers to an act in statistics in

Table 1: One-Sample Statistics

N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

Table 2: One-Sample Test

Graph 1: Pricing Strategy

Graph 2: Target Customers

Graph 3: Competitor Pricing

Graph 4: Pricing Methods

Graph 5: Pricing policy

Graph 6: Formulating Pricing

7.2 Interpretation of the hypothesis:

You might also like