Introduction to Rebel Sport

This report is intended to conduct market research on the Rebel sport which is one of the NZ along with the Australia based retail chain that offers various sport related equipment and related products regarding the sports equipment. Rebel sport was started in the year of 1985 by facilitating an effective franchise agreement among two different organisations that was Rebel sports and the Briscoe Group. After the development of the agreement, the joint venture has provided their focuses in expanding the Briscoe homeware stores and after that, the director of the joint venture has developed a better design and then establishes the sports chain of Rebel in NZ. In NZ, Briscoe has the exclusive rights on the rebel sport.

Rebel sport is belonging to the retail industry. It is observed that in the present time, the annual figures of the retail sector regarding revenue are $557.3 billion and it creates a business of 182290.  The retail market of Australia has achieved the growth among 2017 to 2017 is 1.1% along with that the forecasted growth among 2017 to 2020 is 1.1% so that it can be said that the retail sector organisation has the opportunity to get enough growth in the upcoming years (Business.gov.au, 2018). It is observed that in the present time the employment in the Australian retail sector is the 1934297. Therefore, it is clear that the Australian retail industry can getthe enough skilled human resources with the help of which they can achieve active growth. The Australian government has implemented different types of law to make the retail sector more useful such as Australian consumer law, competition and consumer act 2010 etcetera (Ibisworld.com.au, 2018).

For the conduction of the research, the researcher has decided to collect both the primary and secondary data to achieve a brief understanding regarding research. For collecting secondary data, the researcher has identified current and relevant books, websites and journals. Along with that, for collecting primary data, the researcher has received both the qualitative and quantitative data. For the collection of qualitative data, the researcher has interviewed with managers of rebel sports, and for collecting quantitative data, the researcher has surveyed 22 customers.  

For understanding the products of Rebel sports from the strategic level, a useful set of primary data need to be collected. Here, both the qualitative and quantitative data need to be raised:

Quantitative questions:

Q1) What is your age?

Market Statistics and Growth Opportunities for the Retail Sector

Table 1: Age

Analysis:

The above survey table has made it clear that most of the respondents are female and they are 54.54% of the total respondents. There are a sufficient amount of male respondents who are 45.45% in numbers.

Q2) From which age group you are belonging?

Table 2: Age group

Figure 2: Age group

Analysis:

The survey table has described the fact that 45.45% customers are there who have explained most of the respondents are belonging from the 30 to 42 years of age group because this age group suffered by body fat so that they become more attracted towards the sport related products. On the other hand, there are a sufficient amount of customers who are belonging from 18 to 30 years.

Q3) Which products of Rebel sport attracts you most?

Table 3: Mostly attracted products

From the above survey table, it has been observed that 31.81% customers are there who have described that they like women sports products than anything. On the other hand, 27.27% of customers want their various sports-related sections. Therefore, the organisation need to focuses on their other sector such as footwear, men along with fitness products so that they can attract some customers towards the organisation.

Q4) How far do you agree that Rebel sports create superior quality products?

Table 4: Rebel sports creates superior quality products

Analysis:

The survey table has made it clear that 22.72% customers are strongly agreed, and 45.45% customers are recognised with the fact that Rebel group creates excellent quality products. Customers think that along with the superb quality products, Rebel group also follows a better product differentiation strategy that always attracts some employees towards the organisation. There is a decidedly lesser number of customers who have described that they do not think that Rebel group offers better quality products so that they need to provide more attractive design to the customers so that they can be attracted towards the organisation.

Q5) How far do you agree that Rebel sports offer you competitive prices strategy?

Table 5: Rebel sports offer you competitive prices strategy

The survey table has demonstrated the fact that 9.09% customers are strongly agreed, and 13.63% customers are recognised with the fact that Rebel group offers the competitive pricing. On the other hand, there are vast numbers of customers who have demonstrated the fact that Rebel sport does not provide the competitive pricing strategy. Therefore, for attracting an enormous amount of customers, it is always essential for a Rebel group in developing a better pricing strategy so that they can draw some customers towards the organisation. Rebel group presently follows a premium pricing strategy that may not excite some customers.

Primary and Secondary Data Collection

Q6) What are the other organisation from which you buy many products?

Table 6: Competitor

From the survey table, it is clear that Decathlon group is the main competitor of rebel group because most of the respondents who are customers of sport-related products have demonstrated that they like to buy products from the Decathlon group. However, there are also other organisations such as BLK and Catapult sports from which the customers also want to buy their products. Therefore, it is clear that Rebel sports have a huge number of customers.

Q7) What is your rating for Rebel group?

Table 7: Rating

Analysis:

From the above response table, it has been observed that most of the individual has selected the 3 to 6 ratings for Rebel sport. Therefore, it can be said that the performance of Rebel sport is average.

Qualitative questions:

Q1) Where does the core strategic opportunity exist?

The core strategic opportunity can become from the development of a better product differentiation strategy which was opined by the first manager. On the other hand, the second manager has described that by offering economy pricing strategy for their product, their organisation can gain more attraction of products.

Q2) From where the future market growths come?

According to the manager of Rebel sports, they can achieve more market growth as they focus on more customer needs. The first manager has described that they have developed more ergonomic sports and fitness products so that they can attract more customers. On the other hand, the second manager has described that their organisation is focusing on the market expansion for facilitating future growth.

An internal analysis refers to the exploration of the cost positions, organisational competencies along with the competition related viability in any marketplace. Internal analysis is mainly incorporate measures that provide practical as well as useful information regarding the strength, weaknesses, threats and opportunities regarding the organisation. For the conduction of the internal analysis, conduction of the McKinsey 7S model is essential.

Strategy:

The primary approach that is followed by the Rebel sport is satisfying customers and maintaining the top ranking among different organisation that sell retail sports-related products. Along with that, Rebel sport incorporates them into the single core brand by selling it into $1 billion so that they can prepare them for the hard push by Amazon (Business Insider Australia, 2018). Along with that, Rebel sport has developed a competitive pricing strategy to attract more customers.

Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of Rebel Sport’s Products

Structure:

Rebel sports mainly follow the divisional organisational structure, and they mainly integrate brand based along with the geographic divisions because of divisional organisational structure groups various functions of organisations into various divisions. In that context, every division mainly contains different necessary resources along with the tasks for supporting different product line of the company (Sportslink, 2018). As rebel sport has a diverse product line and they operate in limited countries, so it is useful for them in following the organisational structure.

Systems:

There is a wide range of operation that is followed by the Rebel sports that mainly includes an effective transaction system, customer relationship management, a better knowledge management system, a capable team development system along with the recruitment as well as selection system, and a better business intelligence system. For attracting someof customers towards their organisation, Rebel sports has developed three different types of stores such as essential stores, elevate stores along with the accelerate stores. Moreover, there are various premium stores such as other zones, other fixtures along with additional digital.

Style:

Rebel sport mainly follows an active method of management because Rebel sport believes in the fun work culture along with the appreciated work culture. The organisation follows affiliative management style so that they can effectively manage the performance and manage conflict.

Staff:

Rebel sport has developed more than 90 stores, and they have hired more than 4500 number of employees (Glassdoor.com, 2018). The entire sets of staff in Rebel group are more efficient in personal selling along with the skills regarding the customer services that help in achieving competitive advantage.

Skills:

The employees of Rebel sports require different types of skills such as retail related skills, product selling skills, customer negotiation skills, basic and advanced IT skills, an excellent communication skills, a better presentation skills along with the better tax as well as interest related skills (Glassdoor.com, 2018).

Shared values:

Rebel sport has developed a productive and enjoyable work so that higher performance can be secured. It is observed that Rebel sports always ensure safety for employees and implement a better corporate culture so that they can achieve better performance.

External industry refers to examining the industry environments that also includes different factors such as competitive position, dynamics, competitive structure, as well as the history of the organisation. For analysing the external situation of the company, it is essential to conduct PESTLE analyses that are showing below:

Internal Analysis of Rebel Sport using McKinsey 7S Model

Australia is one of the politically stable countries that can help the business to gain an active growth.

Along with that, the transparent regulation system along with the sound governance framework is also one of the factors that help various businesses to gain an active growth (Austrade.gov.au, 2018). Australia offers a compelling business environment that has earned the rank of 15^th among 190 numbers of economies that can help rebel sports in achieving an active growth. Moreover, the robust regulatory system of the country is useful that has assisted Australia in establishing a better as well as stable framework that can help rebel sports ineffective expansion in all through Australia (Habc.gr, 2018). Moreover, Australia also offers various competitive rates regarding the remuneration to the professionals along with the office spaces.

Australia has ranked fifth among overall countries based on the economic freedom in 2016. The economy of Australia has mainly benefitted from the lasting entrepreneurial development with the help of a well functioning legal system along with the independent bureaucracy (GOV.UK, 2018). Along with that, the cost-competitive location for the office space helps various Australian organisation including Rebel sports in expanding the business. Sound fiscal management, abundant natural resources along with the steady growth of populations allows Australia in achieving an active growth. Along with that people have higher disposable income that helps retail organisations to attain a vigorous growth.

In the Australian retail sector, customers mainly follow a seasonal trend to buy any products that mean they mainly like to prefer shopping in a particular season. As an example, it can be said that people belonging from Auckland love to shop in the summer rather than the winter season (FocusEconomics | Economic Forecasts from the World’s Leading Economists, 2018). Therefore, for attracting more number of customers towards the organisation, Rebel sports need to follow the local trend, and they must cop up with various local gaming events, and they must sponsor multiple types of games along with that they must promote the brand name with more efficiencies.

Along with that, 9.46 million Australians are there who loves to shop online. Therefore, Rebel sports can take advantage of the event and then they must develop an active online shopping facility.

Australian customers are more tech savvy that demands more personalised experiences regarding shopping. For attracting them, retailers are combining various unstructured conversation data for customers with the structured data that allows the staff of call centres in improving services (Roymorgan.com, 2018). Therefore, for enhancing the shopping experiences, Rebel sports need to offer more effective customer services. Along with that, customers prefer more empowerment and more effective checkout experiences. Therefore, it is highly essential for the rebel sports in developing a better as well as flexible experiences regarding checkouts. For this purposes, Rebel sports need to offer a better PManagementOS system.

Retail sector sometimes creates vast wastes that carets massive impact on the environment. Along with that, the retail industry consumes tremendous energy that has generated enormous environmental implications (Active.org.au, 2018). Therefore, Rebel sports need to adopt various strategies to reduce the environmental impact through it has been observed that the sports products of Rebel sports do not create any harmful effects on the environment.

Australia has developed various laws that have affected the business environment of the retail sector in Australia. Australia has established a valid, fair trade act, law regarding customers and the legislation regarding labour so that the retail industry of Australia can achieve active growth. According to the fair trade act, customers have the rights in gaining the good quality products so that Rebel sports need to follow every possible law for securing an effective retailing.

Conclusions:

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that for the achievement of competitive advantage of any organisation, understanding the need of customers is most important and then it is essential to develop product and strategy. Currently, Rebel group is in the leading position, but they are facing massive competition in the market so that they need to build better plan such as competitive pricing and attractive expansion strategy to attract many customers. 

Active.org.au, (2018). [online] Available at: https://www.active.org.au/business-exchange/the-2015-australian-economy-consumers-and-lifestyle-trends [Accessed 25 Aug. 2018].

Austrade.gov.au. (2018). Business – Austrade. [online] Available at: https://www.austrade.gov.au/International/Invest/Why-Australia/Business [Accessed 25 Aug. 2018].

Business Insider Australia. (2018). How the company that runs Rebel Sports is planning to deal with Amazon. [online] Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/super-retail-is-banking-on-its-rebel-stores-to-repel-amazon-2017-7 [Accessed 25 Aug. 2018].

Business.gov.au. (2018). Retail and wholesale trade industry fact sheet. [online] Available at: https://www.business.gov.au/planning/templates-and-tools/industry-factsheets/retail-and-wholesale-trade-industry-fact-sheets [Accessed 25 Aug. 2018].

FocusEconomics | Economic Forecasts from the World’s Leading Economists. (2018). Australia Economy – GDP, Inflation, CPI and Interest Rate. [online] Available at: https://www.focus-economics.com/countries/australia [Accessed 25 Aug. 2018].

Glassdoor.com. (2018). [online] Available at: https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Rebel-Sport-RVW12826605.htm [Accessed 25 Aug. 2018].

GOV.UK. (2018). Overseas Business Risk – Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/overseas-business-risk-australia/overseas-business-risk-australia [Accessed 25 Aug. 2018].

Habc.gr. (2018). Australia stable government and geopolitical situation. [online] Available at: https://www.habc.gr/australia_geopolitical.asp [Accessed 25 Aug. 2018].

Ibisworld.com.au, (2018). [online] Available at: https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry-trends/market-research-reports/retail-trade [Accessed 25 Aug. 2018].

Roymorgan.com, (2018). [online] Available at: https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7627-how-we-shop-trends-in-australian-shopping-behaviours-201806180156https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7627-how-we-shop-trends-in-australian-shopping-behaviours-201806180156 [Accessed 25 Aug. 2018].

Sportslink… (2018). Rebel’s game plan revealed. [online] Available at https://www.sportslink.biz/rebel-s-game-plan-revealed-cms-1528 [Accessed 25 Aug. 2018].