Kickboxing Industry Essay In Australia.

Discuss about the Framework For The Marketing Management.

Kickboxing is a group of stand-up combat sports which was originated in the year 1963 in Japan, the sports has now becoming popular all across the globe. Kickboxing is a great mix of Karate and boxing which apart from being a popular sport is also practiced for self-defense and enhanced fitness (Gupta, Sharma, Bansal & Kumar, 2017). The evolution of Kickboxing since 1960’s has traversed a long journey; it moved from Japan to America and now is developing a lot of interest in sports enthusiasts all over the world. Kickboxing has been pivotal in the emergence of mixed martial arts using the characteristics of the group fighting techniques from Brazilian jiu-jitsu and folk wrestling. Punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes are some of the strategies used in the game of Kickboxing (Bowman, 2015). Buakaw Banchamek, Superbon Banchamek, Giorgio Petrosyan & Robin Van Roosmalen are some of the popular names in the sporting world of Kickboxing. The rules of Kickboxing varies from country to country, the absence of a central governing body allows the rules to be inconsistent in different parts of the world (VanIngen, 2016).

The idea of the report here is to analyse the kickboxing industry in Australia with an intention to open up a business related to the hugely popular sporting event. The report will focus of finding the size of the market, its drivers for growth and market intermediaries required for the success of the sport. The analysis will then be applied to evaluate the goals and objectives of the new formed company, identifying its STP, service quality features and budget. In the present business day, environmental analysis has become more than a necessity, thus a PESTLE analysis will be conducted to evaluate the macro environmental forces affecting the business. Towards the end of the report, a further study will be conducted on the present kickboxing landscape in Australia and accordingly conduct a SWOT analysis if the business.

Kickboxing has picked up really quick in the Australian market, the growing conversation around kickboxing, opening up of different companies giving training to the people; increase in the number of kickboxing competition and increase in the number of kickboxing gears are some of the factors depicting the wide penetration of Kickboxing in Australia.

The global kickboxing market for the equipment is estimated to grow at 3.25% (CAGR) during the FY 2016-2020. The Key drivers for the growth of Kickboxing are:

• Popularity of kickboxing as a part of fitness program (Kumar & Mishra, 2015).
• Kickboxing improves the ligament and tendon flexibility and oxygen flow.
• Improves balance, flexibility and coordination(Nicholson, Kerr & Sherwood,2015)
• Full body workout which helps in putting away the danger of cardiovascular diseases (Rojas, 2016).

Drivers for the growth of Kickboxing

Australia has a population of 24,772,247 out of which 12.8% of the population falls in the age group of 15-24, which is roughly one in eight Australian residents. The further demographic for 25-37 consist of another 24% of the population, hence it can be said that roughly the market size for the kickboxing constitutes of almost 12, 00,000 people (Park, 2017). These are the people who have the strength, zeal and fit in the age group to practice kickboxing. The global market size of the entire boxing industry is valued at 1 Billion USD (Mahdavi, 2018).

The global market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.25% and the same can be expected for Australia, which is emerging as the leading players in organizing and practising kickboxing.

Leading market players operating as intermediaries in the kick boxing market includes; Adidas AG, Century LLC, Everlast worldwide, combat sports, Ringside and Twin special company limited.

The company has to be opened for providing equipment’s used in Kickboxing in Melbourne, where there is maximum attraction towards Kickboxing. The decision to open up a store (Offline and online) is taken based on the rising demand of quality products of Kickboxing.

The goals and objectives are defined keeping in mind the scope of growth in the Australian market.

Goal	Implication
Increase the awareness of Kickboxing in Australia	More awareness drives more business
Create a system of rules to bring uniformity in the sports	Uniformity will bring coherence in the system
Open a gym exclusively dedicated for Kickboxing	Will help in improving the health of Australian citizens
Open up a training facility to prepare international players for the tournament	It will raise the bar of sportsmanship in Australia

The company does not want to go with a full throttle strategy and at the moment is focussed on leveraging the target audience of New South Wales and Melbourne market. The strategy is to secure 20% of the entire market in the initial 2 years of its existence.

Service quality is the benchmark according to which the services of the institution or the organization are measured. The aim is to use SERVQUAL method to design the services for the company (Prinsloo, 2018).

The company will be positioned as “Provider of best quality product and training for Kickboxing”.

The Kickboxing industry has a global turnover of 1 Billion USD, and the result can be extrapolated to the Australian market. The extrapolation of the result and the tremendous popularity of Kickboxing in Australia show a very healthy financial status for the company.

PESTLE analysis, also called as macro environmental analysis is the analysis of the country’s Political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental forces. PESTLE analysis helps to understand how these forces may affect the business in present and near future (Knoke, 2018).

Political	The political climate of Australia is extremely stable. The policies of government are inclined towards easy development of business and filled with innovation. Australia gives relaxation in taxes to new ventures which is a good sign for the kickboxing industry. Other factors such as import export policies do not play a role in this industry. It can be said that the political forces are an indication of conducive business opportunities in Australia (Karabulut & Sen, 2018).
Economical	The GDP per capita of Australia stands at 49,927 USD, which is extremely good in comparison to other developing economies. The economic force is an indication of the economic conditions of Australia. The country has kept its inflation in check and the purchasing power parity of the country is really strong. All these factors point towards a positive state for the Kickboxing industry in Australia
Social	These factors comprise of the demographics, behavioural, psychographic and demographic characteristics of the population. Social force is a very big influencing force in the environmental analysis. The social forces point towards a health conscious nation with rich eating and exercise habits. Thus, social forces are in favour of the kickboxing business.
Technological	This force focuses on advancement of technology, automation, investment in research and development and innovation to improve the current state of technology. Kickboxing equipment’s will be more modernized and be of great utility to the population because of the technological advancement in the industry.
Legal	Legal environmental forces mean complying with the regulatory framework of the country. Australia ensures that every company is working in according to the legal compliances. It does not intervene in the business until and unless it finds out that the company is turning a blind eye towards its legal commitments.
Environmental	This force is related towards preserving the natural ecosystem, work towards the goal of environmental sustainability. In order to do so, Australia has formed a body which audits every company which can cause harm to the environment, and heavy penalties are levied on finding any breach in the environmental sustainability program.

It is the process of identifying the competitors and evaluating their strategies to determine their strength and weakness relative to the company’s product and services. Major competitors of the companies who are supplying kickboxing equipment are:

• GIRI martial arts suppliers
• Shogun martial arts and boxing suppliers
• MASA
• Tans Martial arts suppliers
• Muay Thai Store
• MMA fight store.

Market Intermediaries

The biggest competitors still being Muay Thai store and MMA fight store, their experience in the industry is their biggest USP

Marketing Mix
Products- The company’s product offering comprises of Product	Boxing gloves, Mouth Guard, Shin guards, Ankle support wraps, Head gear & Hand wraps
Price- The price at which the company’s offer product	Due to the niche nature of the industry, all the companies focus on value based pricing.
Place- Physical or virtual store to buy the equipment’s	All the competitors are into brick model and spread across New south wales, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Victoria.
Promotion- The strategy used in promoting the company’s product	All the competitors focus on sponsorship and tie ups with Kickboxing tournaments. Some of them even use digital marketing of promotions
Physical Evidence- The identification of the company through its product	The logo of all the competitors is subtly mentioned on the equipment’s
People- The kind of people who represent the company	The companies have adopted a different recruitment style; they hire people on the basis of their sporting ability, experience in playing sports or Kickboxing.
Positioning	The companies are positioned as reliable providers of Kickboxing equipment who have been in business for quite some time now.

Understanding the customer is extremely important before starting any business, the customers are the people who are responsible in defining the weakness. It is rightly said that without interested customer there is no business (Kotler, 2015).

Australian population stands tall at 24,772,747 people, and almost 30% of the population falls under the age below 35 years. The above data shows that the young population of Australia is a big beneficiary to the development of Kickboxing sport; hence the health conscious population of Australia is a big win-win for the industry.

It is the systematic process which consumers follow when entering the purchase process and making buying decisions. The step by step consumer decision making process along with the common modes of decision making is useful when developing marketing strategies. In case of Kickboxing the buyer behaviour is a factor of Peer group, marketing material, and growing awareness regarding kickboxing and health benefits surrounding the sport (Horner & Swarbrooke, 2016).

The company wants to get into a wholesale model, wherein it will purchase the equipment’s directly from Japan and sell to the retailers of Australia through its retail store and warehouse. The company wants to go with B2C model and pass on the benefit of importing products from Japan to the end consumers.

SWOT analysis is a micro environmental analysis of the company which focuses on the forces internal and external to the organization. It is advised that the company should leverage its strength, minimize the weakness, exploit the opportunities and stay away from the threats

Conclusion

The roots of Kickboxing belong to Japan, where this sport was first discovered, ever since Kickboxing has become a familiar name across the globe. Kickboxing is a combination of martial arts and boxing which apart from being a spectator sport is an extremely healthy way to stay fit. Australia is slowly turning into a growing destination for the sport, people are engaging in different sports tournament and getting trained to master the arts of Kickboxing. Relatively young population of Australia makes it a very favourable nation to expand the business activities in and around the country. The company is on a mission to change the landscape of the Kickboxing products which are being sold in the country. The plan is to not only provide premium quality kickboxing head gears, gloves, knee gloves and many more, but they also wants Australia to emerge as the front runner in the development of Kickboxing around the globe. The USP of the company in this evolving market is to provide the best quality product with cost leadership and provide training to the interested candidates by some of the prominent names of the Kickboxing arena. The report can be concluded by saying, Australia is definitely one of the promising destination to further penetrate the kickboxing industry and the same is proven by its healthy macro –environment.

References

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Gupta, N., Sharma, K., Bansal, I., Kumar, 2017. Kickboxing power hour: case report of fifth metatarsal apophysitis (Iselin disease) and its magnetic resonance imaging features. Translational pediatrics, 6(2), p.98.

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Karabulut, T. and Sen, G., 2018. Analysis of Macroeconomic Factors Which Affect Performance of Global Finance Centers. Asian Economic and Financial Review, 8(1), pp.63-70.

Knoke, D., 2018. Changing organizations: Business networks in the new political economy. Routledge.

Kotler, P., 2015. Framework for marketing management. Pearson Education India.

Kumar, D. and Mishra, S.R., 2015. Introduction to Chinese Martial Arts “WUSHU”. International Education and Research Journal, 1(4), pp.16-20.

Mahdavi, P., 2018. Seduction and the self: movements through precarity, race and sexuality in Japanese host clubs. Culture, health & sexuality, 20(1), pp.1-13.

Nicholson, M., Kerr, A. and Sherwood, M., 2015. The sport and media industries: meeting the global players. In Sport and the Media (pp. 55-79). Routledge.

Park, S., 2017. Digital inequalities in rural Australia: A double jeopardy of remoteness and social exclusion. Journal of Rural Studies, 54, pp.399-407.

Prinsloo, C., 2018. Is SERVQUAL an inclusive indicator of SMEs’ service quality advantage during an economic downgrade? A South African case. Journal of Business and Retail Management Research, 12(2).

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van Ingen, C., 2016. She's a Knockout! A History of Women in Fighting Sports by LA Jennings. Journal of Sport History, 43(2), pp.234-235.

Intermediates