Purpose Of Shoes

Shoes are not only worn to protect the human feet. … The very first pair of shoes was created many years ago. Its purpose was to protect the feet from rocks and debris and also to provide warmth. It was created in a very simple form.As humans do, they improved upon each method for covering their feet by trimming, tailoring, and improving the combination of materials, the fit, the wearability and durability.

It is important to recognize the huge variety of purposes and activities for which individuals wear shoes, and the very different requirements they might have for various types of shoes to match their hobbies, lifestyle and occupational requirements. Just as a ‘one size fits all’ approach will not work for all people, each person is likely to wear more than one pair of shoes, depending on factors such as weather, activity or occasions. As a result, consideration of whether a shoe is ‘fit for purpose’ should be an important aspect of any consultation around footwear choices.

One of the clearest distinctions made in the data was between ‘everyday’ shoes and ‘occasion’ shoes, with the latter consistently the most difficult to find. Some participants also commented on the challenges of finding appropriate footwear for work.

This section explores some of important factors like social,psychological,cultural,economics,politics and environmental that have influenced all these years on what people need from shoes from different angles that take into account their occupation, hobbies and lifestyle.

• SOCIAL – A consumer‟s behavior is influenced by such social factors as reference groups, family, and social roles and statuses. Reference groups consist of all of the groups that have a direct (face-to-face) or indirect influence on a person‟s attitudes or behavior. Groups that have a direct influence on a person are called membership groups it includes family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers, with whom individuals interact fairly continuously and informally. Secondary groups, such as professional and trade-union groups, tend to be more formal and require less continuous interaction. Sometimes people are also influenced by groups to which they do not belong. Aspirational groups are those the person hopes to join; dissociative groups are those whose values or behavior an individual rejects. Family is the most important consumer buying organization in society since a wife; husband or a child has strong influences. Finally, role and status can be defined in terms of the person‟s position in each group a role consists of the activities that a person is expected to perform.                                                                                                Referencing: Addis Ababa University,2012, marketinglessons for social-factors-influencing-consumer behavior , Addis Ababa University,2012/11/01,<http://etd.aau.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/2397/3/Endalew%20Adamu.pdf&gt; Slideshare.net, n.d.,  Slideshare.net, <https://image.slidesharecdn.com/factors-130525225001-phpapp01/95/factors-which-influnce-the-consumer-choice-7-638.jpg?cb=1369522239&gt; Slideshare.net, n.d., Slideshare.net,<https://image.slidesharecdn.com/footwear-industry-130306234326-phpapp02/95/analysis-on-footwear-industry-54-638.jpg?cb=1362613526&gt;Social Factors are made up of :
  • Reference groups-A person’s reference group consist of all the groups that have a direct/ indirect influence on the person’s attitude/ behavior.
  • Family -Family of Orientation (parents/ siblings). It gives a person
    • Orientation towards religion/ politics/ economics.
    • Source of personal ambition/ self worth/ love.
    • Family of Procreation (spouse/ children). It influences a buyer based on position:
      • Husband: may dominate decision related to insurance/ automobiles.
      • Wife : may dominate decision related to furniture/ appliances.
      • Equal : for decision related to vacation/ housing.

Roles/ Status-Person’s position in group is defined by role/ status.

Role     : Activities a person is expected to perform.

Each role would influence person’s buying behavior.

Status   :Each role carries a status/ position.People choose products that communicate their role/ status.

• PSYCHOLOGICAL-It constitutes motivation, perception, learning, and beliefs & attitudes. When a person is motivated, he/she ready to act, yet how that person actually acts is influenced by his or her perception of the situation. Perception is the process by which an individual selects, organizes, and interprets information inputs to create a meaningful picture of the world. When people experience new things, changes take place in their behavior, i.e. they learn new things when they take action. Therefore, through doing and learning, people acquire beliefs and attitudes that, in turn, influence buying behavior.                                                     Referencing: Endalew Adamu 2011, Endalew Adamu for Factors Affecting Consumers’ Shoe Preference,June,2011, <http://etd.aau.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/2397/3/Endalew%20Adamu.pdf&gt;   Slideshare.net, n.d.,  Slideshare.net,<https://image.slidesharecdn.com/buyerbehaviour-120130033632-phpapp02/95/buyer-behaviour-16-728.jpg?cb=1327894806)
• CULTURAL- Culture, subculture, and social class are particularly important influences on consumer buying behavior. Culture is the most fundamental determinant of a person‟s wants and behavior. Every group or society has a culture. Although different societal groups have their own culture that affects consumers‟ buying behavior, the extent to which it influences the behavior might vary from country to country. Each culture consists of smaller subcultures that provide more specific identification and socialization for their members. Subcultures include nationalities, religions, racial groups, and geographic regions. The third cultural factor is Social class which is relatively homogeneous and enduring divisions in a society. Social classes reflect income as well as occupation, education, and other indicators.
  • Religion: Obviously, religion is a strong cultural factor, but most important for search marketers is the way this divides different areas of countries. The state of Bavaria in Germany is strongly catholic, for instance, whereas the rest of Germany is largely protestant. Nearby Austria follows Bavaria’s example. You could argue that Bavaria and Austria have more in common than the rest of Germany.
  • Wealth: Again, this is obvious but nonetheless gets forgotten. When someone tells you that there are 400 million Chinese online or that more than a billion people live in India, that can be a captivating and tempting number. They might even search in huge volumes for your keywords but have not a dime to spend with you, which represents something of a cultural trap
  • Dress sense and clothes fashion: You probably won’t find much success with your “Lederhosen” — going back to Bavaria — if you’re targeting the U.K. where “shorts” are more what scouts wear than grown men. I recently did an exercise looking for search terms for “party shoes” internationally. Search terms varied immensely, but interestingly so did the product. What one nation considered “party shoes” wouldn’t have been worn in another.
  • Rural or city forms of living: In many emerging markets, including Russia, India, China, and Brazil, the majority of the web market is to be found living in large cities. Knowing this is key to how you target — for instance, you might start by targeting “Moscow” rather than “Russia.”                                Referencing: Endalew Adamu 2011, Endalew Adamu for Factors Affecting Consumers’ Shoe Preference,June,2011, <http://etd.aau.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/2397/3/Endalew%20Adamu.pdf&gt; Searchenginewatch.com 2010,Andy Atkins-Kruger for 31 Top Cultural Factors to Consider for International search  ,14 July 2010,<https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/news/2067642/31-top-cultural-factors-consider-international-search&gt;Slideshare.net, n.d.,  Slideshare.net,<https://image.slidesharecdn.com/consumerbehaviorandfactorsinfluencingconsumerbehavior-140320050749-phpapp02/95/consumer-behavior-and-factors-influencing-consumer-behavior-6-638.jpg?cb=1406091738&gt; Books.lardbucket.org 2012, <http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/an-introduction-to-organizational-behavior-v1.1/section_19/ad117a195de2ac6eb320650137fca971.jpg&gt;
  • ECONOMICS-In addition to their primary task of creating fresh product, shoe companies often find themselves strategizing to counter similar macroeconomic and consumer-related issues on a regular basis.Consumer-spending lulls have also been attributed to lack of freshness in trends and a growing affinity toward “buy now, wear now” items.Global Economy Effects-One day it’s China’s declining equity market and the devaluation of the yuan, the next it’s Greece and its economic crisis. The past several weeks have been rife with threatening global economic issues. And the U.S. stock market, and footwear stocks by extension, have often moved in tandem with these global financial debacles — at least temporarily.                                                        Referencing: Footwear News 2015, Sheena Butler Young  for 4 things hurting shoe compnies right now, August 18, 2015,<http://footwearnews.com/2015/business/retail/business-factors-impact-shoes-companies-52962&gt;                                                                                                Founder Guide.com 2015,<http://foundersguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/econfactors1.png&gt;                       Static.reportlinker.com 2013,<http://static.reportlinker.com/public/images/clp/footwear/global-footwear-sales-forecast-2013-2018.png&gt;
  • ENVIRONMENTAL-THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
    Social, cultural, demographic, and environmental forcesThe first of these…the health issue…is rather self-evident to all generations. The second…that of the change in dress code…is not self-evident because of generational differences. Today’s high school and college students are only minimally aware of the socially-inspired dress codes of their parents or grandparents. But this change has been an immense one…from penny loafers, gray flannel slacks, button down shirts, pleated skirts, and other clothing artifacts…to the more casual dress codes now evident. This significant change in cultural perspective is the basis for the market strength of the shoe industry.                                                                                                                          THE INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT-In most discussions of the subject, senior management’s role is defined as being responsible for planning, organizing, motivating, staffing, and controlling corporate operations. Because these activities occur for the most part within the corporate body, they are often hidden from public view. The result of this is that the impact on corporate strategy of the management process per se is difficult to assess. To get around this shortcoming, proxy measures of corporate effectiveness and efficiency are often used, for example: profit on sales, profit on equity, market share for specific products,and other statistical measurements. However, these measures do not always tell the entire story if relevant behaviorally-oriented material is not included. Some insights into this aspect of corporate operations many times can be found in corporate mission statements and other similar documents.
  • In order to assess the impact of the firm’s internal operations on corporate strategy, one must gather company-specific information and data on the following:
    • Management strengths;
    • Financial strengths;
    • Technological strengths;
    • Market strengths; and
    • Corporate
    • organization                                                                                         Referencing: Environmental Analyses , n.d.,<http://prenhall.com/divisions/bp/app/strat/html/enviro.html&gt;                                  Yourarticlelibrary.com , n.d.,     < http://cdn.yourarticlelibrary.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/clip_image002154.jpg&gt;Marketing-insider.eu, n.d.,<https://marketing-insider.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/The-Buyers-Black-Box.png&gt;