SWOT And 5Cs Essay On Fitbit.

The wearable technology market is rising with an increasing and upsurge rate as both the companies as well as the users are rising. The wrist wear is continued to gain the market share by having compatibility with modular wearable technology, ear-wear, eyewear and other applications. The market growth has been started with the establishment of one of the most renowned brand in the wearable technology i.e. Fitbit. The company was established in the year 2007 by the mutual efforts of Eric Friedman and James Park (Liao, 2017). The company initiated selling its products both online and at the physical stores. An extended range of the wearable devices are offered by Fitbit for gathering a strong market share. The company is experiencing a number of opportunities as well as threats because of the continuously increasing competition in the wearable industry. The devices offered by Apple, Samsung, Nike and other brands are gaining the market share with a stronger pace and thus posing a threat to the leading position of Fitbit (Brandao, 2016).

Various Designs: The one of the biggest strength of Fitbit is that there are available a number of designs for the device. There are various designs suitable for male and female customers. A variance and availability of designs attract the higher range of masses and fetch the attention of the potential customers to purchase the product.

Compatibility: The next key strength of Fitbit is that it is highly compatible which means that it can be used with other smart devices also which make the use easy for the users. The higher rate of compatibility makes the device user friendly.

Easy to use: Other strength of the Fitbit is that there is no need of any special knowledge or skill to use the Fitbit bands as it is very easy to use and people can easily wear it on their wrist and measure the calories burnt.

Trendy: The Fitbit bands are useful as well as trendy in nature which inspires the new generation or the youngsters to take use of it in daily basis. The trendy and fashionable aspects of the bands are one of the strength which offers competitive benefit too.

Increases awareness: One of the key strength of Fitbit is that is not only helpful in increasing the calories but it is one of the best way to teach people to be aware of their health and remain cautious for following a healthy lifestyle.

Strengths

Strong customer base: The next strength of Fitbit is that by attaining the first mover advantage in the field of tracking devices, the company had gained huge base of customers. The strong customer base offers number of competitive advantages to the brand in terms of reliable customers, sales as well as profit (Poulsen, 2017).

Lack Of Brand Recognition: It is one of the weaknesses of Fitbit that it does not able to gain string brand recognition across the globe. There are a number of other famous brands which have higher brand recognition in the wearable devices in comparison with Fitbit and this appeared as a weakness for the company as from worldwide aspect, there is decreased presence of the devices of Fitbit.

Price: The process of the products and devices of Fitbit are comparatively high as it is not easy to purchase by a lower class or semi-middle class people. The prices are comparatively high from other global bands which are one of the factors behind decreased sales and squat global presence of the company and its devices.

Attracting new customers: The one of the key weaknesses of Fitbit is also that it lack behind in gaining eth attention of the new customers as in present there are various other companies which offers innovative technology based devices and it becomes difficult for the organisation to fetch the attention of the new customers to buy the devices of Fitbit.

Lack of motivation in people: the next weakness of the company and its devices is that there is lack of motivation in the people to take use of these devices on a regular abs is as maximum of the people are not much aware and concern in respect with health habits and it decreases their willingness to buy these devices and use them on a regular basis.

Less confidence in brand: For any brand or company, to have increased sales and large customer bases, it is essential to develop the confidence in the brand. In case of Fitbit, the customers do not have much confidence in Fitbit as there are available brands such as Apple, etc. which are worldwide and have high level of reliability. Thus, the decreased confidence is another major weakness of the company (Ritter, 2015).

New market: there are opportunities available for the devices of Fitbit such as the new market for youngsters and the school and university people. These are the markets which can be targeted by Fitbit for increased brand awareness and upsurge sales.

Weaknesses

Partnerships: The next big opportunity for Fitbit is the partnership with other big companies and brands. As already discussed that Fitbit has less worldwide presence and thus to increase the market share, it is one of the most suitable and appropriate opportunity to develop partnerships with other major brands and gain access to overseas market and increased number of customers.

Customization: the next opportunity for Fitbit is to fetch the attention of the masses; it is beneficial for the company to provide tailored and customized devices to the customers. The increased level of customization in availability of devices will help the brand it getting more reliable and new customer base and will also help in developing the brand as more trendy (Poulsen, 2017).

Other cheaper fitness programs: one of the major threats to the sales of the devices is that the universities and schools are initiating their self-developed programs which do not need any kind of intervention from the company. Thus, it decreases the sales of the devices in the schools and universities.

Increased competition: The biggest threat for the sustainability and higher sales of Fitbit is the existence of number of competitors. There are number of famous and globally recognized brands which offer similar products and device to the masses. Thus the intense market competition poses a great threat to the revenues of the company.

Higher promotions: It is also identified that the other brands promote their devices with increased level of advertising and promotion and it is a major threat for Fitbit as comparatively Fitbit does not promote its products on larger platforms. Therefore, the brand visibility is less and so the sales of the company.

Technology interventions: the next major threat for Fitbit is the continuous technological updates and interventions. Every day, the company and the competitors come with some new technology which garbs the attention of the masses and thus the sales of the existing products with lesser technology decreases (Ritter, 2015).           

Fitbit being an American company is one of the recognized names of the consumer electronic industry. The company is serving huge set of masses since the year 2007. The products it offers are basically the wearable technology and wireless-enabled devices and activity trackers which are used for measuring data such as personal metrics, steps climbed, quality of sleep, heart rate, total steps walked and few other things. The key objective of the company is to become the leader of the wearables consumer electronic industry and also to attain back that portion of the market which it had lost to the various other competitors. The company has strategically divided its complete product line on the basis of pricing by labelling the fitness trackers such as “Everyday Fitness”, “Active Fitness” and the “Performance Fitness”. The company adopt strategies for increasing the awareness of the brand and the devices so that it can become and remain the market leader. It had also adopted strategies to make the devices available in more colour variations, sizes and also by making available various customized options for the users (Brown, 2016).  

Opportunities

The customers of Fitbit are found to be highly satisfied in terms of quality of the products as in terms of service and value gained for the money. From the case study, it has been analysed that the number of the users have increased rapidly from the year 2012 to 2015. The increasing set of the users defined the reliability and satisfaction gained from the brand. There has been analysed an increase in the paid active users, registered users as well as in the percent of the paid active users. The customers are mainly between the age group of 18 to 44 as this is primary customer base or users of Fitbit which on a regular basis use the devices of Fitbit. 

In the wearable industry, there are present numbers of competitors of Fitbit and the competition is rising with an increasing rate. The major competitors of Fitbit includes Garmin, Samsung, Jawbone, Xiaomi, Apple, Nike and few other companies. These are the companies which are bringing highly updated and technological intervened products in the market to capture a large portion of the market share. But from the overall analysis, these companies pose a threat to the leading position of Fitbit but then also Fitbit has a greater market share with it and with a few strategic moves it can remain at the leading position in future. Thus, there are both opportunities and threats for Fitbit as in terms of technology there is threat to Fitbit but in terms of market share the company can retained it for a longer time frame (Case, et al., 2015).

From the various lenses of business climate i.e. political, social, environmental, legal and economical, there is very less impact imposed on the brand and the sales as the products or the devices of Fitbit are easily available at various I internet based retail sites so it is not impacted by the economical, legal or political aspects. The one of the major climatic aspect which impacts the business of Fitbit is the technological aspect (Statista, 2017). By the entry of Apple as well as Google in the wearable industry with their high technology based devices, there has been a sudde4n impact posed on the sales and revenues of Fitbit as people are more fascinated with the products of these competitors of Fitbit. But from the various insights and analysis, it is identified that Fitbit keeps on adding smarter feature sin its products to remain its market position. Thus, it is necessary for Fitbit to remain concerned of the technological updates and interventions to have reliable base of customers (Condon, 2016).

Threats

Fitbit has a strong level of collaboration in terms of its partnerships and alliances. There is a strong and extended distribution channel of Fitbit which made it popular among the users. In terms of its collaboration through partnerships, it has its partnership with BP, Time Warner and Bank of America. These three are its key partners which had a great alliance and supporting partners in the success of Fitbit. The company also had collaboration with few corporate customers and it has also analysed in the study that by partnering with Fitbit, the corporate customers had reduced an overall percentage of health care costs. The company also had strong collaboration with its distributors which includes Amazon, Walmart, Bestbuy, Target, Kohl’s, QVC and REI. These are the major distributor channels for the devices of Fitbit. Thus, from the collaboration aspect, the company has built up a vibrant and extended network which supports its continuous growth and success (Dibia, 2015).

There are number of competitive benefits gained by Fitbit in the wearable and consumer electronic industry. Following are the aspects which have supported the company to attained increased number of competitive benefits:

Maximum of the users and the potential customers consider Fitbit as a brand which offers highest value to the users in terms of the money paid by the customers. And thus, this is one of the major reasons behind increased brand consideration of Fitbit in terms of satisfaction and value based customers.

The next key competitive benefit gained by the organisation is the strong market share as the company has an extended market share or increased customer base as it is one of the brands who had gained first mover advantage in the wearable sector. The strong market share is one of the best competitive benefit which gives high profit and sales to the company (Emperador, n.d.).

In terms of the market position, it has been analysed that Fitbit holds the strongest market position as approximately half of the market share is with the products of Fitbit and thus Fitbit is the market leader and have strongest position in the market and thus offers huge competitive benefits to the brand.  

There are a variety of products which are been offered by Fitbit in the range of “Everyday Fitness”, “Active Fitness” and the “Performance Fitness”. The company offer products with a number of features and smart technology which are highly fascinating and grab the attention of the masses (Henne, 2015).

5Cs Analysis of Fitbit

The pricing strategy adopted by the company is also on the basis of its products such as it increases the prices with the technologies as the price range of the “Everyday Fitness” devices are comparatively less in comparison with the other two ranges i.e. “Active Fitness” and the “Performance Fitness” as the devices under this range are less smarter from technological aspect. Thus, they prices are as per the value offered to the users. Thus, the pricing is one of the highest competitive advantage factors for the company in comparison with other brands such s Apple, Samsung, etc. (Gilmore, 2016).

The major segments of Fitbit which it targets include the following segments:

The first key segment of Fitbit includes the athletes as they require the devices to track their overall calories burnt, sleeping patterns and the training routines. These people are the key target customers of the company as they require these devices on a daily and regular basis and are the most reliable users of the devices (Huberty, et al., 2014).

The second segmentation basis is the people who are physically active in nature. These are also the key target customers of Fitbit as it includes those people who want to keep a daily workout summary for getting aware about their activeness level. These people are also targeted because they set a goal with the help of these devices and area also active in communicating with other people in a discussion with the overall calories burnt and other discussions related to workout. This also comprises of users between the age group of 18 to 44 as they are primarily those people who are highly health conscious and pay attention to their health and lifestyles. It also includes those people who want to lose their weight and thus need to manage the weight statistics with the use of these devices (Kalamaras, 2016).

The next basis of segmentation is the clinics and hospitals as they are also the primary target customers of Fitbit as this segment requires these devices top attain high tracking accuracy as they are required to monitor the condition of the patients. There are developed daily statics and graphs on the basis of the data attained with the help of these fitness trackers. The main reason behind using these devices by the hospitals and the clinics is that they are very much reliable and durable and actual condition of the patients can be monitored easily (Millington, 2017).

Company

The next set of customers which are targeted is segmented on the basis of enterprises and the corporations. It includes the various corporate customers who need the fitness trackers on reasonable prices for the employees which are o sleek designs. They prefer buying these devices as they are user friendly s well s the data can also be shared easily and the results acquired can be exchange.

Fitbit position itself as a value driven and among the customers as it offers high value to the money invested by the customers in the products of Fitbit. The company take initiatives to maintain its position as the market leader as well as the most value driven brand in the wearable industry. As compared to other competitors such as Apple, Nike, etc. Fitbit is comparatively a brand which positions itself not on the basis of price or brand but on the basis of level of satisfaction and value. It offers high value at a reasonable price band. Apple takes use of the pricing positioning strategy whereas Samsung take use of technology based prices and so the other brands. But from the overall perspective, the positioning statement of Fitbit sounds most ethical as well as successful.     

By using the tradition price-benefit mapping tool, there has been compared the positioning of Fitbit in the marketplace to the positioning strategies of the various other competitors.

Company	Strengths	Weaknesses	Strategy	Competitive Advantages
Fitbit	Various Designs, Compatibility, easy to use, trendy, strong customer base and large market share	Lack motivation in people, challenging to attract new customers and less brand recognition	Increase brand awareness, enhance market share and position itself through offering high value to users	Higher customer base, extended market share and leading position in market
Apple	High brand recognition, technologically updated and higher profits	Higher prices so less customer base	To take use of most innovative technology to attract the users and position itself through pricing positioning	Have reliable customers and gained huge profits
Samsung	Strong brand value, increased level of technology intervention and high confidence of customers in brand	High competition with other brands and issue related to battery	Take use of technology based positioning and also take use of market penetration as a strategy	Reliable set of customers due to brand recognition and increased profits
Nike	Active brand in sports industry, reliable and huge customer base	Moderate to high prices but pressurized with intense market competition	Position itself as a renowned brand and offering value driven devices.	Have reliable customers and strong brand recognition (Moorhead, 2013).

By comparing and analysing the strategies, competitive benefits, weaknesses and strengths of various market players of wearable industry and through the positioning map, it has been evaluated that from the future perspective, the company which has the most effective strategy is Fitbit as the company not only position itself as a value driven company but also satisfy the customers with its smart technology and reasonable prices which are affordable by the people in comparison with the products of Apple and Samsung. The future market is perceived as Fitbit will hold its position of being a market leader and there will be tough competition by the renowned brands but if the company will adopt strategic ways then it can maintain its visibility and market share (Wright and Keith, 2014). 

Brandao, A.R.D., 2016. Factors Influencing Long-Term Adoption of Wearable Activity Trackers. Rochester Institute of Technology.

Brown, E.A., 2016. The Fitbit Fault Line: Two Proposals to Protect Health and Fitness Data at Work. Yale J. Health Pol'y L. & Ethics, 16, p.1.

Case, M.A., Burwick, H.A., Volpp, K.G. and Patel, M.S., 2015. Accuracy of smartphone applications and wearable devices for tracking physical activity data. Jama, 313(6), pp.625-626.

Condon, S., 2016. Fitbit secures corporate wellness deals with several major customers. Accessed on: 14^th December, 2017. Accessed from: https://www.zdnet.com/article/fitbit-secures-corporate-wellness-deals-with-several-major-customers/

Dibia, V., 2015. An Affective, Normative and Functional Approach to Designing User Experiences for Wearables.

Emperador, V., Gasparyan, K., Hile, H., Jestice, M. and Teeple, A., INDUSTRY ANALYSIS: WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY.

Gilmore, J.N., 2016. Everywear: The quantified self and wearable fitness technologies. new media & society, 18(11), pp.2524-2539.

Henne, P.J., 2015. Link: Designing Activity Tracking Solutions for the Soccer Athlete (Doctoral dissertation, University of Kansas).

Huberty, K.L., Meunier, F., Faucette, J., Weiss, K., Kim, S., Ono, M., Lu, J., Shih, S., Chen, G., Moore, J. and Hettenbach, C., 2014. Wearable Devices.

Kalamaras, W.C., 2016. Validity assessment of biometrics for the first-generation Apple Watch and Microsoft Band during steady-state exercise (Doctoral dissertation, Northern Illinois University).

Liao, C., 2017. Fitbit Final Project. Accessed on: 14^th December, 2017. Accessed from: https://www.academia.edu/19368109/Fitbit_Final_Project

Millington, B., 2017. Fitness, Technology and Society: Amusing Ourselves to Life. Routledge.

Moorhead, P., 2013. Nike, FitBit, Or Jawbone: Who Is Best Positioned To Win In Fitness Wearables? Accessed on: 14^th December, 2017. Accessed from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmoorhead/2013/11/19/nike-fitbit-or-jawbone-who-is-best-positioned-to-win-in-fitness-wearables/#7ffd1315427e

Poulsen, H., 2017. Fitbit SWOT Analysis. Accessed on: 14^th December, 2017. Accessed from: https://heatherpoulsen.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/swotanalysis-2.pdf

Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation, 2016. Fitbit: The Business About Wrist. Pp.14. Ivey Publishing.

Ritter, A., 2015. SWOT Analysis of Fitbit. Accessed on: 14^th December, 2017. Accessed from: https://creately.com/diagram/example/ihqdz6k21/SWOT%20Analysis%20of%20Fitbit

Statista, 2017. Fitbit - Statistics & Facts. Accessed on: 14^th December, 2017. Accessed from: https://www.statista.com/topics/2595/fitbit/

Wright, R. and Keith, L., 2014. Wearable technology: If the tech fits, wear it. Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries, 11(4), pp.204-216.