Executive summary
Wear2Win is a company that specializes in creating and printing custom t-shirt designs for e-sport teams. This paper defines the difficulties of operating in a market with a narrow customer base that required a significant effort in analysis and strategic planning for the company. It also reveals how Wear2Win created its competitive advantage and what other companies are present on the market. This report aims to summarize the experience of Wear2Win after its initial launch and highlight what factors affected the company’s performance.
Indirect competitors
While not all competitors provide services directly aimed at e-sports teams, their products can be used by this customer base. Therefore, we consider both specialized and general companies that print custom t-shirt designs as competitors. The primary indirect competitors are the following: owayo, TeamShirts, and Perfectwear. Moreover, owayo and Perfectwear state on their websites that they provide services dedicated to e-sports teams along with other sport-related gear. While TeamShirts does not include any similar statement, their service can be used by an e-sports team to order and print a custom t-shirt design.
Competitive analysis
The table below shows the key differences between the companies described as direct and indirect competitors to our firm.
Table 1. Factors that affect competitive potential
The price range varies slightly among direct competitors, which can be linked with similarly structured business models. These companies focus on a specific set of products that provides maximum design opportunities. Simultaneously, the price range for similar products, namely custom t-shirt designs, varies more among indirect competitors. Most of the companies clearly show their discount, with indirect competitors having more major discounts available. Social media presence is a valid indicator of competitiveness for a company that is involved in e-sports. Two of the direct competitor firms keep a very high level of social media presence by posting daily on their Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts, with other social platforms lagging behind slightly. However, as can be seen, social media presence is lagging among indirect competitors. This notion can be linked with the lack of proper representation of e-sports-focused products, as other types of services provide sufficient income.
Learnings from the challenges you have faced starting your business
The importance of marketing can not be underestimated, and a company can gain a significant competitive advantage by upholding customer relationships. When starting a company, it is essential to analyze which social media channel is more popular among its customer base and requires more attention. For Wear2Win, Twitter garnered more followers than Instagram, and the style of communication there differed significantly. Moreover, it can be challenging to kickstart a new social media account without preparing content ahead of launch. If our company had promotional material and samples of products, the amount of content would be enough for the beginning. Lastly, there is a need for a company to create new posts regularly, preferably via a schedule. Major time gaps between messages generate an image of inactivity.