gore tex marketing case study

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Case studies, lessons and stories about effectuation, breath of fresh air - the story of gore-tex.

Stuart Read and Robert Wiltbank look at a company that managed to grow yet still remain entrepreneurial.

Adventurers from New York to Nepal have long appreciated Gore-Tex. The material's seemingly paradoxical ability to keep the weather out while enabling perspiration to escape enables a wide range of functional and comfortable outerwear. And as the firm which delivered this innovation, WL Gore & Associates, has reached its 50th birthday, we celebrate by taking a closer look at how the company has stayed entrepreneurial for half a century.

Difficult Climate for Corporate Innovation

W.L. "Bill"ù Gore started his career at DuPont in 1945 and joined a team finding applications for a novel polymer called polytetrafluoroethylene ? Teflon to the rest of us. Bill experimented with the material as a tough, heat-resistant coating for wiring, an application which he felt offered great potential given the likely rise of the computer. Convinced of its technical merits, he tried unsuccessfully to convince DuPont to productize Teflon coated cable. Frustrated, in 1958 he created his own firm with his wife Vieve in their basement. WL Gore & Associates' cable product did create a market and within 10 years the firm employed more than 200 people, and Gore cable had been used on a mission to the moon.

Strong competition in the cable industry kept Bill and his son Bob focused on innovation. Continuing to work with Teflon, the pair figured out how to heat and stretch the material so it could be woven as fabric, and Gore-Tex was born. But even before that, Bill had started carefully crafting WL Gore & Associates' organization so that it could embrace innovation in the way his previous employer had not.

The Committed Associate

Employees of WL Gore are called Associates. In the non-hierarchical 'lattice' structure, Gore empowered all his employees with the same level of authority. Leaders could only emerge if other Associates committed to follow them, and Associates had the choice of which projects to work on. The intent and outcome of the structure was to enable good new ideas to grow organically at the discretion of the team. And the teams also had the support of Gore as he let them do just about anything that would not jeopardize the entire company.

Smaller Sizes

Gore quantified optimal team size, and constructed his organization accordingly. He felt that when a team at a manufacturing facility exceeded 150 people, two things happened. First, the team lost a sense of cooperation, shifting decision responsibility from "we"ù (the team) to "they"ù (some anonymous faceless bureaucrat). Second, accomplishment per person started to decrease on teams exceeding 150. Consequently, when manufacturing teams exceeded 200 people, Gore split the operation into two.

Expectation Repellent

The approach has worked. Today, WL Gore & Associates has created innovative products in areas you probably know, such as clothing and shoes, and in many more that range from guitar strings to dental floss, and space suits to sutures. Gore is one of the 200 largest private firms in the US, and in 2007, for the tenth straight year, the firm made FORTUNE 's annual list of the U.S. "100 Best Companies to Work For." Today, with more than $2 billion in annual sales, 2,000 patents and more than 8,000 employees worldwide, the company continues to defy the common expectation that large cannot also be entrepreneurial.

Stuart Read is professor of marketing, IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland. Robert Wiltbank is assistant professor of strategic management, Atkinson School, Willamette University, Oregon.

Publication:  British Airways Business Life Author(s): Stuart Read Robert Wiltbank

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Contently Case Story: Inside the Launch of The Gore-Tex Brand’s Gorgeous Adventure Mag

“The bears stood on their hind legs and looked at us, sniffing. For one long moment, we had no inkling whether they’d leave or come after us instead of the caribou.”

This could be a teaser for a National Geographic piece or an excerpt from a lost John Irving novel. But it’s actually part of a riveting adventure story published in Experience More , a digital magazine from W. L. Gore & Associates, launched in May in partnership with Contently.

Each month, the brand that pioneered the category of performance outdoor apparel delivers eight original stories featuring everyday adventurers doing extraordinary things. For example, in this fall’s “Unknown” issue, readers have their pick of journeys on which to embark—from Jimmy Chin’s  groundbreaking Mount Meru climb to one adventurers trek across the Wadi Qelt from Jerusalem to Jericho.

This isn’t Gore’s only effort in content marketing. As part of a broader global branding campaign, the brand had launched an educational, product-differentiating campaign page to help consumers peel back the layers of its advanced waterproof, breathable, and durable technology. But there was still something missing.

“We were doing a good job of talking about the technical differentiating benefits of Gore-Tex products,” said Josue Sierra, the North American digital marketing associate for Gore. “But we needed to better connect with consumers through our shared passion for the outdoors.”

With the strategic support of LaneTerralever , the lead agency working with Gore on this campaign, the team decided a high-quality monthly online publication would be the right approach. LaneTerralever was tasked with identifying the key resources needed—namely, a workflow organization tool and access to writers who could bring these adventure stories to life.

“The challenge was to find the right partner to collaborate in creating unique, original content that would inspire our audience to get outside and explore,” Sierra said. “Through LaneTerralever and Contently, we were able to set up a process that allowed us to make this happen each month.”

Using Contently’s platform, Libbie Miller, the content strategy director at LaneTerralever, was able to set up a comprehensive, efficient editorial workflow that flowed smoothly between all parties involved. The team also didn’t have to worry about capturing beautiful images for each story, since Contently was able to provide writers with backgrounds in photography.

“Thanks to the great support from our digital agency, and the processes and structure provided by Contently, it has actually been easier than most expected,” Sierra said. “By centralizing the internal process around one single Gore marketing team point of contact, we’re able to identify stories that require extra input, brand review, or fact-checking. This ensures we publish authentic, high-quality stories that consumers will enjoy reading, while increasing the reach of our brand campaign.”

All three companies were also able to work together to deliver content that seamlessly integrated Gore-Tex products when appropriate.

“Through the online magazine, we’ve been able to reach that balance where we’re highlighting our brand and technology while also engaging our consumers about the outdoor lifestyle,” Sierra said.

For example, Experience More is features a column called The Lab , which tells the story behind the Gore-Tex product technology.

To get the content in front of outdoor enthusiasts, Gore’s marketing team leverages LaneTerralever’s resources to execute a multi-tiered approach that includes email newsletters, paid social distribution, and Contently’s integration with Outbrain. To measure and report back on the success of their content, LaneTerralever relies on Contently Insights to track key engagement metrics.

“As a content strategist, I think there are a lot of vapid measurements out there that don’t actually mean anything at all,” Miller said. Through Contently, she’s able to check on metrics that tell her not just how many people are coming to the site, but also what people are doing with the content: Are they sticking around? Are they looking at more than one story? How far down the page are they reading?

“We can get a real sense of whether our content is hitting the mark or not based on those meaningful analytics,” Miller said. “We’re able to see that behavior unfold … and modify our strategy to make changes along the way to better serve our reader needs, and in turn, deliver on our brand goals.”

After just three issues were published, Sierra and the brand marketing team saw a 72 percent increase in visits to their content since launching Experience More in May, and a 23 percent week over week growth in organic search traffic. Sierra also found that visitors to the online magazine are spending 40 percent more time on site than they are on other campaign microsites that are part of the same effort.

Additionally, Experience More is generating impressive amounts of engagement, including organic lift and social shares. A story about a woman and her dog adventuring on their own through the Colorado wilderness was the highest-performing piece in terms of social activity.

“It’s nice validation to know that we’re not just putting out content, we’re putting out meaningful content,” Sierra said. “We’re making content that matters to consumers, and that we hope will encourage and inspire more outdoor recreational activities.”

With their fifth issue out now, and sixth and seventh issues in pre-production, Miller feels they’ve really hit their stride.

“Now that we’ve got our feet under us, it’s a matter of just improving the overall reader experience and starting to really grow this publication,” she said. This includes syndicating content with international partners, optimizing the packaging and presentation, and even tapping into video content creation. But no matter where Experience More may take Gore and its readers, these efforts always point back to the same goal.

“As an ingredient brand, we want consumers to recognize our products as enablers of great outdoor experiences,” Sierra said.

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‘Our work is never done’ salutes Gore-Tex’s storied past and sustainable future

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By Audrey Kemp, LA Reporter

September 15, 2022 | 6 min read

Listen to article 4 min

The global campaign shows how the waterproof apparel brand continues to evolve and innovate for outdoor enthusiasts.

From drying off hippies in the 1970s to cooling down skaters in the 2010s, Gore-Tex has revealed its plans to consistently build and rebuild on its 40-year history.

The outdoor apparel brand today announced a global campaign that shows its journey of innovating high-performance apparel, while revealing a new product line that emphasizes sustainability. The new creative and products come as the brand also releases a new tagline and promise: ‘Going further, together.’

The new creative, developed by AKQA’s Berlin studio, takes the viewer on Gore-Tex’s four decades of developing waterproof, windproof and breathable protection. Scenes are shot with historically-accurate formats from each respective decade. The brand also enlisted up-and-coming Canadian director Caraz, who recently brought home two golds for her short film at Cannes.

“It’s a rare event that you get to launch a campaign for the first radically new products in a brand’s 40-year history. Such an event needs to be honored with a bold, eye-popping, mind-changing campaign,” said Andre Blanco and Alex Rose, AKQA creatives. “To capture the brand’s history in 60 seconds, we journey through time and space, using vintage cameras from each decade. Shooting with 8mm, 16mm, VHS and old iPhones was as exciting and aesthetically rewarding as it was challenging. The soundtrack was another key element to the storytelling, developing and changing seamlessly according to each era.”

At the end of the spot, Gore-Tex’s new clothing line is revealed, which not only prioritizes durability but also represents a key milestone in the brand’s ongoing sustainability efforts. “We believe performance and sustainability are not mutually exclusive, and protecting people also means protecting the planet,” said Silke Kemmerling, sustainability team leader of Gore’s fabrics division. “Responsible Performance defines our sustainability commitment beyond technical product performance benefits to include a wider combination of protection, comfort and sustainability. We are ... striving to create products that positively impact both people and the planet, and deliver the high-performance benefits customers and consumers trust and rely on from us.”

“We use science as a proof point to cut through a sea of undifferentiated sustainability marketing and build trust among skeptical consumers,” said Kerry Summers, global marketing leader for the Gore-Tex brand. “We see the new Gore-Tex products as a present-day innovation within a long history of innovations – a key step in our responsible performance journey – but by no means the final step.”

The digital campaign will launch on September 16 in Europe, North America, China, Japan and Korea, with content appearing on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Weibo and WeChat.

WL Gore & Associates

Global content leader: Marc Bock

European marketing team leader: Chris Blackwood

European digital marketing and social media management: Fabian Gruenwald

Account manager: Luisa Verhagen

Senior project manager: Sable Yeh

Senior producer: Leandro Santini

Group creative director: Alex Rose

Associate creative director: Andre Blanco

Senior copywriter: Siouxzi Connor

Associate art director: Leandro de Torres

Associate Strategy Director- Stacey Zhao

Project Manager- Gaia Mancini

Programme Director- Flavia Ancuta

Senior Motion Designer- Christian Detken

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Director: Caraz

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Music: Wolfsrudel Music

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More from Brand Purpose

At W.L. Gore, 57 years of authentic culture

Go re-Tex fabric is certainly W.L. Gore’s best-known product, but it is just one of many in a diverse portfolio that includes vacuum filters, microwave cable assemblies, guitar strings, dental floss, acoustic vents for cellphones, and even medical devices to treat heart defects. If it were publicly traded, the $3.1 billion private company would appear at No. 712 on the Fortune 1,000. But Gore-Tex is not the only thing this company is known for—it’s also famous for making employees deliriously happy.

Appearing at No. 17 on this year’s list , Gore has earned a spot on Fortune ’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list every year since 1998, and workplace experts have long studied and replicated the Delaware-based company’s people practices. “We’re quite proud of that,” says CEO Terri Kelly. “You can have a blip, a one-off good year. But for us it’s all about sustaining that over time.” Longevity, it seems, is a company hallmark: Full-time voluntary turnover is a very low 3%.

But don’t confuse Gore with Google or Twitter. Today the word “culture” is often equated with free perks, like lunches or massages. Gore’s HR team says it has a “conscious culture,” one that Malcolm Gladwell used as a case study in The Tipping Point and that hasn’t changed much since 1958, when Wilbert “Bill” Lee and Genevieve Gore created the company.

The founders sought to combat the traditional notion of management. Instead of a typical corporate structure, Gore has no rigid hierarchy but is instead a unique organization described by Bill Gore as a “latticework” of strong interconnected talents woven together like a tapestry, or—if you want to go there—like an impermeable textile. Managers are called “leaders,” who oversee teams and divisions, and all employees are known as “associates.” Yes, it has a CEO, but Kelly says she doesn’t like the term. The thinking, she says, is to “empower the individual. That scares a lot of companies because you think you’ll lose control.”

And unlike many other, newer companies focusing on culture, Gore shirks the perks that are showered liberally on many of the other 100 Best Companies. Its headquarters doesn’t have foosball tables or napping pods. “We had culture before ‘culture’ was a buzzword,” says Leslie Nachbar, an associate in fabrics who has been at Gore for five years and says she’d be happy to stay forever. “It’s authentic. It’s not a façade or marketing strategy.”

Making culture authentic requires buy-in from the entire workforce. Betty Snyder, a board member and one of five children of the founders, says the company has earned that over time. “Values continue on through the life of the organization,” she says, “and it can take an earthquake to change them. We have a value system that looks at results not only in monetary terms but also in emotional terms. And once you’ve been here awhile, you become an advocate.”

Faith in the culture naturally leads to employee loyalty. Gore was Terri Kelly’s first employer after graduating from the University of Delaware; she’s never had another. When she became CEO in 2005, after 22 years, she says, “It shocked the heck out of me.” Leadership opportunities at Gore are based on how much of a “followership” someone has among co-workers. Gore also uses peer assessments to determine compensation.

Matt Schreiner, an associate in fabrics, has worked at Gore for more than 20 years and says peer camaraderie is key. “People here really enjoy getting up and coming in to work every day. I know that sounds clichéd, but it’s an uplifting space.” In his work at the footwear division, interacting with companies like Nike and Timberland, he constantly hears feedback that there is “something special about people from Gore.”

To be sure, the company says it is always looking for ways to grow. Case in point: Over the past 57 years it has expanded overseas, with manufacturing facilities in Germany, the U.K., Japan, and China, and it now counts 6,500 employees globally. But Gore in 2015 is not so different from Gore four decades ago, and Snyder wants to change that. The company prides itself on the informal reporting structure—more senior people have abstract “higher water lines” instead of fancier titles—but it also aims for more clarity. And although Snyder says Gore’s physical spaces are “utilitarian, not showy,” the company loves to tout its “capability center” in Delaware, which opened in 2007 and was designed with help from IDEO. Part corporate museum, part interactive science center, it’s where the company conducts meetings with potential partners. Two more capability centers are planned, for Tokyo and Germany.

As part of a “strategy refresh” last year, the company divided staff into two groups for separate surveys and candid discussions about how they fit into the company’s culture. The split was generational: Older veterans—“I call them ‘The Wise,’ ” says Kelly—and younger employees (think millennials). The results helped Kelly rethink the needs of staff. For example, Gore is known for having lifers who stay for their entire careers, but it can’t assume nowadays that young folks want that kind of path. In the past, at meetings, every associate would go around the table and say how many years he or she had logged at the company. No more. “What we realized is that that really turns people off,” says Kelly. “Young associates might think, ‘Geez, I’m not going to have any credibility until I’ve been here 30 years!’ ”

As for Gore’s use of internal technology, the younger generation “had some things to say that kind of you hit in the stomach. We had been very behind with adopting technology—iPhones and iPads and workflow apps—and using them to help teams move faster and communicate,” says Kelly. As part of the refresh, Gore partnered with Silicon Valley–based Institute for the Future in an effort to modernize. Kelly says that Gore is aiming to become more connected, but cautiously and carefully—a strategy that founders Bill and Genevieve, employees say, would definitely approve. 

Check out W.L.Gore’s perks on our 100 best companies to work for list here.

This story is from the March 15, 2015 issue of Fortune.

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Gore-Tex ® Brand

The power of influencer marketing

GORE-TEX® makes breathable, waterproof and windproof product technology for outdoor gear. Historically, GORE-TEX® conveyed product-technology benefits with content that only engineers could understand. But the real benefit is that GORE-TEX® products allow you to enjoy the outdoors in any weather.

So we created a social campaign that spoke to the heart of what these enthusiasts are after. We started by asking five influential outdoor buffs where they go to breathe. Then, they told us their stories through captivating videos.

We shared the stories with their networks to spark a social contest. Participants were invited to share their own outdoor stories for a chance to win an adventure grant and a pair of GORE-TEX®’s hiking boots.

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Robert Gore

Breathable yet waterproof. When it comes to fabric, these two qualities would seem to be at odds with one another, and indeed they were, until 1969. That’s when the father-son team of Wilbert L. and Robert W. Gore developed a process that resulted in the miraculous product known as Gore-Tex, the world’s first breathable, waterproof fabric. The material is used in a wide and growing variety of products from outdoor equipment and apparel to insulation, sealants, and medical implants.

Wilbert L., who was known to all as “Bill” Gore, was an engineer with Dupont until 1957, when he left the company to launch his own business. He planned to explore innovative uses for fluorocarbon polymers. At that time, Robert, one of Bill’s five children, was a sophomore at the University of Delaware studying chemistry. Robert had discovered that a material known as PTFE, or fluoropolymer polytetrafluoroethylene – which is also known as Dupont’s Teflon – could be used as a versatile and effective insulation for electronic wires.

Bill refined his son’s idea and decided to offer PTFE cables as his firm’s first commercial product. A year later, he and his wife Genevieve began making and packaging the cables under the name of W.L. Gore & Associates in the basement of their home.  Their “Multi-Tet” insulated wire and cable brought them significant success, and by 1961, they moved the business into a plant in Newark, Delaware.

Salt Lake City, Utah-born Robert, meanwhile, continued with his studies and completed MS and PhD degrees in chemical engineering at the University of Minnesota. After graduating in 1963, he turned his full attention to the family business, which was growing rapidly, with a presence in West Germany and Japan and a new plant in Flagstaff, Ariz. by 1967. In 1969, Gore cable was included in equipment that traveled to the moon with NASA’s Apollo 11 mission.

The company’s most significant breakthrough, however, came in 1969 when Robert developed a process to stretch PTFE into a thin, porous membrane, line it with a urethane coating, then bond it to a nylon or polyester fabric. The membrane’s pores were small enough for air to pass through, but too small for droplets of water to penetrate, making it both breathable and waterproof. He and his father perfected the material and dubbed it "Gore-Tex."  Needle holes, which were created by sewing pieces of the Gore-Tex fabric together, would be covered with the company’s Gore-Tex tape in order to make the seal perfect. They began marketing the product in 1971.

Success would prove difficult to achieve, however, because people had a hard time believing such a product could work as well as its makers said that it would. A Seattle, Wash.-based maker of outdoor equipment was willing to take a chance. In 1976, Early Winters, Ltd., began making and selling Gore-Tex tents and, the next year, Gore-Tex rainwear. The 1977 Early Winters’ catalog advertised Gore-Tex rainwear as "possibly the most versatile piece of clothing you'll ever wear."

Gore-Tex quickly proved its worth, and many other manufacturers and retailers began selling Gore-Tex products, while other industries began finding new uses for the material.  By 1981, Gore-Tex clothing and equipment could be found in retail stores around the world, as well as in a variety of implantable medical products, including artificial arteries for heart patients. By the mid-1980s,  Gore-Tex was a household name brand.

W.L. Gore & Associates, meanwhile, continued to grow its product line, with Bill, Robert, and others on their team creating more and more products and finding ever more innovative uses for the firm’s inventions. The company launched its Windstopper fabric in 1991, a windproof, breathable fabric that is similar to Gore-Tex but is not waterproof.  In 1992, the firm launched Glide brand dental floss, and in 1997, it began selling its Elixir guitar strings. The company built up four divisions – fabrics, medical, industrial, and electronic products – and continues to open itself to new possibilities, such as fuel cells. Still based in Newark, Delaware, Gore operates in 45 locations worldwide and has annual revenues in excess of $1.5 billion.

Robert served as president of W.L. Gore & Associates from 1976 to 2000 and continued to serve as chairman of the company’s board of directors for many years after that. His father Bill died in 1986. Both were honored with numerous awards and distinctions over the course of their careers. Robert was awarded the 2003 Winthrop-Sears Medal and the 2005 Perkin Medal. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006. 

On September 17, 2020, Robert Gore sadly passed away due to a prolonged illness. He was 83 years old.

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Case study Gore tex

Related Papers

Organizational Dynamics

Frank Shipper

Terje Gronning

W. L. Gore & Associates, established in 1958, is renowned for several innovative products such as the " waterproof while breathing " textile material Gore-Tex, but it is also known for its remarkable " lattice " organizational structure. Borrowing the lattice concept from architecture and crafts, where it refers to intertwined materials, the company operates as a system of intertwined associates in which no one is anyone's boss. The various activities within the company have leaders who are selected based on their merits and abilities to attract followers. As a company with more than 10,000 employees, Gore does have the equivalent of a chief executive officer who may be contacted by partners and others outside the company, but in recent history, even this person has been selected from among the company's associates.

Karel F . Mulder

This study deals with the question of what determines the outcomes of the choices made by large corporations when they develop new technology. To this end, four types of choice made in the course of the development of technology are distinguished in Chapter one: - concerning the entrance to a scientific/technological research domain. - concerning the product to be developed and its characteristics. - concerning the processes and additional technologies to be developed in order to be able to manufacture and sell the product efficiently. - concerning die construction of large scale production facilities. The outcomes of these choices can only partially be accounted for by existing economic and social theories: In economic theory, only the need for the development of new products or processes is explained, and not the content of these technologies. Theories that also aim at accounting for the content of technology often conceptualize corporations as independent monoliths. The internal relations within the corporations as well as the close relations between corporations are therefore missing in their observations. In this study, relations in regard to the development of a new technology are defined as being the result of an agreement on the part of functional groups on their mutual roles in regard to the development of a new technology. These relations create a technology network. Technology networks can be described by means of a number of characteristics: extension, variety, functional origin of prominent actors, strength of relations, degree of integration, flexibility of relations, degree of secrecy, availability of resources, weak relations with external partners, and the environment of the technology network. In this study, the relation between these characteristics and the outcomes of the choices made concerning technology is investigated further. To limit the influence of 'technology' as a variable, all case studies analyze the development of related technologies, i.e. specific high performance fibers: aramid fibers (Du Pont, Monsanto, Bayer, NPO Khimvolokno, VNIISV, AKZO and ICI) and high performance polyethylene fibers (DSM). In Chapter 2, the emergence of the fiber industry is described. In the twenties and thirties, the artificial silk industry changed considerably. Large scale internationally operating corporations started to dominate the business. Corporate laboratories were increasingly important. New theories developed in polymer chemistry were of great importance. In Chapter 3, an overview is given of the development of the fiber industry and (high performance) fiber technology after 1945. In Chapter 4, the choice concerning the entry to a specific scientific/technologic research domain is analyzed. Pioneers, i.e. corporations that enter a domain first, are distinguished from followers, i.e. corporations that, when they enter, are following competitors. Scientists were the most prominent actors at both pioneer and follower corporations. At pioneer corporations, they maintained many weak relations with academic colleagues. At follower corporations, weak relations with innovative customers were more important in order to obtain information on competitors' research findings. Therefore, in these cases the corporate sales department and patent office were more prominent in the technology network than in the case of the pioneers. A positive environment in which to engage in new research was crucial in this stage. In Chapter 5, the choice of a product is analyzed. Three types of product choice are distinguished: products that had already been foreseen when one entered the domain, unforeseen products which were encountered during research, and products which had been developed by others. Singular and prominent actors were of great influence when a specific product was chosen. The technology network grew gradually when the product had been foreseen. When the product was unforeseen, it could survive by being linked to an existing technology network. In this way, the technology network could rapidly attain a reasonable extension and variety, which was needed to overcome resistance in the organization. In choosing a product following die example of an external organization, the 'image' of die technologic capabilities and motives of this organization were of great importance. Within the technology networks of these corporations, sales departments and patent offices were relatively more prominent. Relations with customers were very important. In Chapter 6, the choices concerning processes were analyzed. In this stage, many projects were terminated, especially when there were recessions that influenced the environment of the technology network negatively. Termination of a project coincided in particular with a lack of extension and varieties in the technology networks. Availability of resources sometimes influenced the processes that were chosen considerably. In Chapter 7, a comparison is given of the choices made by two corporations that decided to start manufacturing a high performance aramid fiber on a large scale. Avoiding the risks that were related to this huge investment was of primary concern. Availability of resources was very important in connection with the risks that a corporation could run. Risks could be limited by extending the technology network further. In Chapter 8, the characteristics of technology networks are evaluated separately and their relative influence on the outcomes of the four choices is estimated. For the survival of an R&D project during its stages of development a number of technology network characteristics were of special importance: strength of individual relations, extension, variety and degree of integration of the technology network. Together, these characteristics appeared to be indicative of the survival of R&D projects if the project was dealing with an unfavorable environment. The content of technologies was determined in particular by the functional background of prominent actors, the actions of singular actors, and the availability of resources. The mechanisms by which these relations between technology network characteristics and the outcomes of the choices made could be understood, are discussed.

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice

Siri Terjesen

R & D Management

Karel F . Mulder , Philip Vergragt

The authors' aim is to examine the socioeconomic setting in which the modern technologies of synthetic fibre manufacture emerged. Their specially developed methodology consists in analysing the emergence at three hierarchical levels of analysis — at the ‘macro’ level, tracing the dominant line of development, the so-called technological trajectory; at the ‘meso’ level, characterizing the industry environment (the main focus of the paper); and at the ‘micro’ level within which each company's development strategy is formulated and implemented.The paper contains a brief history of the development of the technology of synthetic fibre production. The long-term macro trajectory, pursued by the participant firms in significantly different ways, was towards making a polyamide polymer by solution condensation and spinning it into fibres by existing technology, the aim of each firm being to produce its own high performance fibre selling into a premium market. The paper describes how a number of leading firms chose their particular routes to a marketable product. The motivations varied considerably depending, for example, on legal and patent factors, previous technological choices made by the firm, the need to defend an existing core business, and identification of an empty market niche.In spite of the general similarity of the outcomes of the technological development the authors hold that the industry is still far from standardization, a situation they explain in terms of a model of standardization put forward by Reddy and colleagues.

Nick Robins

Mark Bowles

Archaeologists have defined past civilizations by the materials that predominated in their societies. The evolution of the use of these materials—stone, bronze, and iron—enabled significant and concurrent changes in the cultures that mastered them. The ability to develop, shape, and use these substances has been one of the measures of a civilization’s capabilities, so much so that we now identify them as the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. Historians have also associated the comings and goings of other, more recent, periods with the prevalence of particular types of materials. Brooke Hindle identified America’s pre-Civil War period as its “Wooden Age,” and he characterized the society as one that was “pervasively conditioned by wood.” This dependence slowly subsided after 1850 and was replaced in part by metals and the corresponding products of industrialization. There was one common characteristic that defined these former ages. The materials in question all came from nature. However, at the dawning of the twentieth century, scientists and engineers began to master a new class of materials called polymers. Although some of these occurred in nature (like spider silk or natural rubber), other polymers were made in laboratories and factories and had properties superior to those existing in the natural world. Over the past century, the ability to create and manipulate natural and synthetic polymers has resulted in a revolutionary transformation of our own material culture. One hundred years ago, the artifacts of everyday life were made of wood, stone, textiles, glass, or metal. This is no longer the case, as polymers now often replace these substances and enhance the quality of the products made with them. The result is that the emergence of polymers has become one of the most significant scientific and engineering achievements in the past century. The father of polymer education, Herman Mark, suggested in 1982 that society was “coming to an age in polymer science.” In 1976, an author in Chemical Week simply christened this the “polymer age.” Although it is often difficult and arbitrary to pinpoint dates of when “ages” like this begin or end, it might be argued that the Polymer Age had its beginnings in the late 1970s. While the earliest polymer discoveries took place in the 1920s, it was not until a half century later that the consumption of synthetic polymer materials overtook metals in the United States. In 1973, the United States produced the same amount of synthetic polymers as it did steel—15.5 million cubic meters. In 1976, the United States consumed more plastics than metal on a per volume basis for the first time, and plastics became the most consumed synthetic material in the country. The rapidity with which polymers became so prevalent is an astonishing story. In the 1930s, the United States produced virtually no polymers. Forty years later, it produced twenty-three million metric tons. In 1900, only a handful of chemists concerned themselves with materials that would later be known as “polymers,” and none knew what they truly were. Today, half of all chemists work with them in one form or another. Statistics like these are strong indicators that a new material age has begun. Cultural indicators also point to a sea change since the 1970s in how we value polymer or plastic products. Consider how the idea of plastics was interpreted by Hollywood and pop music stars in the 1960s. In the 1967 film The Graduate, Benjamin Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman) was told by one of his father’s colleagues that the future lay in one word—“plastics.” To Braddock, this suggestion conveyed a sense of conformity, selling-out, boredom, and cheap imitation. The audience of the 1960s easily understood how the mere suggestion of “plastics” symbolized the dull life Braddock would eagerly try to escape. It reminded viewers of a similar song released that same year by pop duo Sonny and Cher, who sang about the “plastic man.” Their lyrics warned about a man not to be trusted, like someone selling cars on television. He was working day and night, not disclosing he was recruiting everyone for his commercial desires. They sang, “He’s doing everyone he can . . . Plastic Man.” The Beatles Rubber Soul album, released in the mid 1960s, further exemplified the negative connotation of another polymer term. Significantly, an important cultural shift has occurred since then. By the 1970s, the image of plastics began to lose its substandard connotations and instead conveyed the belief that polymers represented a new and potentially better way of life. Symbolizing this phenomenon was an unlikely musician who recognized the emergence of polymers as a new dominant material reality. From 1976 to 1979, legendary punk rock singer Marion Elliot adopted the pseudonym “Poly Styrene” to make a statement about the significance of the changes she saw happening around her. She created a character who idealized the glamour of plastic and echoed a youth movement that would eventually come to embrace a new polymer world. She chose the name Poly Styrene for this persona as she herself became infatuated with “plastic” society. One of her songs, a top-thirty hit in London, was called “The Day the World Turned Day-Glo;” in its lyrics she observed that polymers were over taking society. This song paralleled the dawn of a new material era—a Polymer Age. While it is now nearly impossible to go about a normal day without interacting in significant ways with polymers, they have ironically become something of a unseen substance. As Steve Love, Akron journalist and coauthor of Wheels of Fortune, wrote, “Polymers have an identity problem. They are, comparatively speaking, invisible . . . .” This invisibility needs to change. After the process of vulcanization was established in 1839, natural rubber quickly became one of the vital material components of society. The dependence upon it grew so great that during World War II, when the United States realized that it could be easily cut off from the world’s sources of natural rubber, its entire military operation nearly ground to a halt. Without rubber, the greatest military nation in the world would be quickly rendered powerless. The quest to develop synthetic rubber during World War II led in part to the predominance of the synthetic polymer materials that surround us almost invisibly. We are living in the midst of a Polymer Age, and few of us realize it, or even know what this means. As Jeffrey L. Meikle argued in his book American Plastic, “most people ignored . . . that the United States entered the ‘Plastics Age’ in 1979 when the annual volume of plastic exceeded that of steel.” We can no longer ignore its presence in our lives, and the history of its emergence requires telling. With some notable exceptions, there is a disproportionate relationship between the significance of polymers and the number of historical, scientific, and popular discussions that analyze their development. Compared to the number of scholarly studies on other scientific and technological developments like computers, automobiles, and electricity, historians have also been surprisingly quiet on the subject of polymers. The retrospective studies that do exist were largely written by former polymer practitioners. These “insider” stories include memoirs, review articles, and autobiographies. Ffor the most part, biographical treatments have far superseded the institutional perspective of the history of polymers. There is no question that institutions have been essential to the emergence of the Polymer Age, and their historical neglect is an oversight that requires attention. An institutional perspective can help us understand the intellectual and social foundations from which polymer science and engineering developed. Much as an individual’s biography yields important insights into a particular historical context, so, too, does an institutional focus reveal key perspectives. The Polymer Age arose through an international network of researchers working within large academic, industrial, and governmental organizations that over time developed the scientific and engineering skills to create and commercialize polymers. Among these institutions are academic programs (including the University of Akron, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Case Western Reserve University, California Institute of Technology, the University of Southern Mississippi, and Brooklyn Polytechnic), industrial organizations (including IG Farben, DuPont, Dow Chemical, Goodyear, Bridgestone/Firestone, B. F. Goodrich, and General Tire), and various government agencies and scientific societies like the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society. It is beyond the scope of this book to present a sweeping account of the entire network of institutions responsible for the emergence of the Polymer Age over the past century. Instead, this book examines the story within the framework of one academic institution that has played the longest, and arguably the most influential, role in creating and shaping the Polymer Age—the University of Akron. This university has played a signal role in the emergence of the Polymer Age starting in 1909 when Charles Knight offered the world’s first complete course in rubber chemistry, marking the birth of a new academic discipline. This course has now evolved into an entire college—the College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering—which has been ranked for the last ten years as one of the top two academic institutions in the United States in the field. An examination of the near century in between the foundation of the course and the flourishing of the college, demonstrates how these long polymer chains became chains of opportunity for an academic discipline, an economic region, and a university.

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management

... Biographical notes: Karel F. Mulder (1956) heads the Technology Dynamics and Sustainable Development Department of Delft University of Technology ... of the 1960s tyre manufacturers were not able to obtain a satisfactory adhesion between the polyester fibres and the rubber. ...

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GORE-TEX: Brand Investment Case

Simone Treubert and Torsten Gaertner

• Clothing, apparel

Campaign Details

Brand: GORE-TEX® Brand Owner: GORE-TEX® Lead Agency: Carat Deutschland GmbH Contributing agencies: IQ Mobile; The Storylab; iProspect; Amnet Country: Germany Industry: Clothing, apparel Channels used: Content marketing, Mobile & apps, Online display, Online video, Print - general, unspecified, Social media, Television Budget: 1 - 3 million

Executive Summary

GORE-TEX wanted to reinforce the leadership position of the GORE-TEX brand with a unique brand proposition that creates a strong emotional bond with the consumer. Hence, the relevance of the brand within the...

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How Ingredient Brands Influence People's Shopping Habits

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What are ingredient brands? This is a common question, despite the fact that the term has been around for a few years now – and ingredient brands themselves for a lot longer than that. An ingredient brand is the brand within the brand. Some good examples of well-known suppliers that are seen by end clients as a brand in themselves are the zipper manufacturer YKK, the textile specialists Gore-Tex and Primaloft, or Shimano in the world of cycling.

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Find out how other suppliers win over end clients here >>>

But how do ingredient brands influence people's shopping habits? Do clients buy a jacket because of its ingredient brand, is the name of this "extra brand" simply a nice addition, or does it not really matter? In order to find out more, ISPO.com gathered valuable insights from a range of ingredient brands and retailers.

Trust, relevance, brand image are all key

Ingredient brands can only really become successful and a staple demand with clients once they have met specific requirements: Both Jochen Lagemann (Managing Director Europe & Asia at Primaloft) and Christian Langer (member of Gore Fabric's Divisional Leadership team) believe that

• it is essential for end clients to trust the ingredient brand,
• for the brand to be extremely relevant to the end product, and
• for the supplier's product to enhance the performance of the end product.

An additional key element is providing end clients with enough information about the ingredient brand. According to Jochen Lagemann, once an ingredient brand has these four qualities (information, trust, relevance and brand image), it will lead to the desired, positive effects:

• increased brand awareness,
• increased consumer acceptance,
• willingness to invest in a price-premium product,
• development of brand loyalty,
• recommendation of the product to others and
• repeat purchase of the same product.

YKK's special position as an ingredient brand

Companies such as zipper manufacturer YKK have a special position. "Though our products are small in size, they have a huge significance in the overall functioning of the product," says YKK Europe Regional Manager Johnny de Boer. "Zippers have the advantage of constantly being 'touched', 'held', 'handled' and 'used' every time the item of clothing is worn." ( Find out how YKK is increasing its market value here. )

Anime by YKK:

According to Johnny de Boer, this tactile experience helps convince clients of the benefits YKK has to offer. "End consumers do in fact decide on which product to buy, based on whether they contain certain 'component brands'," says the YKK Manager, "given that consumers constantly experience different levels of quality." However, informing end clients is also key for YKK, especially in today's market climate.

Communication along the entire value chain

Ingredient branding's model student Gore-Tex is making the most of a fully integrated communication along the entire value chain, from the start to the clients themselves. Christian Langer explains how the functional specialist is cooperating with brand and trade partners to allow them to integrate the Gore-Tex brand into their product portfolio and communication.

At the same time, "we make use of our own entire and diverse range of channels such as OnProduct ID, hang-tags, PoS or digital and social media in order to reach and win over clients in a constructive manner," says the Head of Division of Gore Fabrics. One result: Sales staff in the Globetrotter branches are welcoming an increasing number of clients looking specifically for ingredient brands such as Gore-Tex and asking for extensive advice on these products. 

Though Paul Tijsen, Buying Manager at Vrijbuiter (a chain of stores from the Netherlands), can confirm this, from his experience clients also "naturally tend to focus on the manufacturer's brands" – another reason why communicating the advantages of certain ingredient brands remains a challenge.

Clients need information for research

"Given that there are so many impulses and products vying for clients' attention in the stores themselves, it is all the more important for ingredient brands to influence consumers while they are still researching what to buy," says Paul Tijsen. Once the client has reached the store, it is really too late, clients should ideally already know what they want at this point.

Digital media play an increasingly important role in this "research phase", as Tijsen calls it. Gore-Tex's Langer can confirm that, "the significance of 'access to consumer' and 'relevant consumer experience' has rapidly increased and will play an increasingly important role in our brand strategy in future." That is why the functional textiles specialist is active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Flickr and YouTube and has his own blog.

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Pull marketing for ingredient brands

Primaloft also sees the merits of addressing clients directly via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and blogging. "It is the only way to increase and foster end clients' trust in and perception of the brand, to boost demand with our partners, and thus to achieve the classic pull marketing effect," says Langemann.

Michi Wohlleben and Simon Gietl become the first to traverse all five summits of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, in winter,... Posted by PrimaLoft on  Wednesday, March 22, 2017

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Reiner Gerstner is also keen on achieving this effect. He is currently Chief Marketing Officer of the TQ Group. TQ is a technology company that for many years now has been applying its robotics know-how to e-bike propulsion systems. Only two years ago did the company start marketing its products under the name of TQ. According to Reiner Gerstner, it is especially important in the e-bike sector that end clients associate the TQ brand with the desired brand image.

E-bike market works the "other way round"

Christian Blank believes Gerstner is spot on. Blank sells Stadler bikes. In contrast to the conventional bicycle sector, e-bike clients tend to look for specific propulsion systems, such as (most frequently) those produced by market leader Bosch. "This makes for a completely different set of shopping habits to those of people looking for conventional bikes," says the sales specialist.

That's why TQ has always valued the importance of developing its own brand profile and communicating it to end clients in the best possible way. "Our technical qualifications set us apart from the mass market. We see ourselves as premium suppliers," says the Chief Marketing Officer of the TQ Group, "given that our electric drive is the most efficient and most compact one on the market." Naturally such quality is reflected in the price.

That's why it is so important for end clients to understand and appreciate TQ as a premium brand. "We want to focus on the topic 'Simply magical: the steep climb to success'", says Gerstner, "to go beyond what other suppliers can offer."

Digital strategy for ingredient brands

Specifically for this purpose, TQ has been developing a digital strategy including video content and using social media. For example, the company is producing tutorials on the benefits of its motor and videos from bike festivals. This is where clients will literally get the chance to experience the brand. TQ staff will use such test tours to explain to potential clients and journalists the origins and identity of TQ and provide them with everything they need to know about the drive system.

So suppliers who want to influence end clients' shopping habits will have to come up with their own (digital) brand and communication strategy in the B2C sector. Only then can a product component be transformed into an ingredient brand.

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Fueling Growth Through Ingredient Branding

How Ingredient Brands Fuel Growth?

Achieving loyalty is a critical brand goal, as customers develop affinity to the experience of their most cherished brands. Yet in highly competitive categories where brand distinctiveness can be more difficult, focusing attention on the ingredients that contribute to your brand can help capture share of mind and wallets.

Ingredient branding, as the name suggests, is the strategy of both borrowing from and lending to the cachet of an end product by positioning your brand as one of the essential components that makes it worth purchasing . Ingredient brands can protect or grow market share, particularly during uncertain economic times, by enhancing the emotional bond between the brand and consumers, opening up growth opportunities in new products, channels, and markets.

It can also create a win/win situation with end-product manufacturers. In the near-term, communicating the unique benefits the ingredient offers will differentiate the end product and help both businesses grab market share. And long-term, creating customer understanding of the value the ingredient adds can help companies command a premium price for the end product.

One of the best-known examples of ingredient branding is the “Intel Inside” campaign, launched in 1991. It helped fuel a 12-fold increase in net income, making the microprocessor a key decision-driver in the PC purchase process. The campaign involved an $800 million in investment in 1999 alone. But the strategy went way beyond just spending marketing dollars to drive awareness.

Three key principals guide the implementation of successful ingredient branding programs. Education and awareness are just a portion of the considerations behind them.

Principal #1: It’s a Lot Like Building a Brand from Scratch

The same tenets guiding initial brand strategy are applicable to building an ingredient brand. This is particularly true when the ingredient brand is reaching a new audience, whether consumer or business, where the ingredient is not currently part of the customer purchase decision. Companies interested in ingredient branding must consider the following:

1) Relevant Benefit : The ingredient brand must communicate a compelling benefit that leverages brand strengths. Back when making purchases over the internet was a more uncertain endeavor, where consumers felt nervous about sharing their credit card information online (and perhaps they still do), PayPal ensured banking information was secure, enhancing the credibility of online sellers. In addition, it also took steps out of the online purchasing process, making the experience easier.

2) Clear Understanding: The end-customer must understand the functional benefits of the brand before deeper, more emotional associations are created. The functional benefit should be clear, credible and easily identifiable, leveraging the ingredient to simplify a complex purchase process. Gore-Tex is a great example where the brands functional benefits associated with rain protection and breathability are immediately imparted on the end garments reaching customers. As a result, over time Gore-Tex has become synonymous with the quality of the end product, moving from a feature to more of an emotional benefit.

3) Deliver in Deeds as well as Words: The ingredient brand promise must be delivered consistently across all brand touchpoints, which can be difficult since the ingredient brand does not necessarily control key end-customer touchpoints. A good working partnership with the end-product brand can ensure its touchpoints reflect, or at least do not hurt, the ingredient brand’s equity.

Principal #2: Cultivate the Middleman

The idea behind ingredient branding efforts is to leverage the equities of the ingredient brand and the finished product manufacturer to create compelling associations for the combined entity. Ideally, these efforts are based on a mutually beneficial relationship, where market share and growth potential stand to be expanded for both ingredient and end product brands. Here are two ways to get the most out of such relationships:

1) Incentives: Provide a monetary incentive for the finished product manufacturer to adopt your logo and/or company name. One incentive is to provide an advertising subsidy based on purchase of your component. Intel, for example, offered a 3% advertising subsidy to PC manufacturers as a percentage of funds spent on Intel processors. Discounts on the ingredient product can also be offered to the manufacturer.

2) Brand Alignment: Offering the end product brand the opportunity to build desired and/or complementary brand associations is another approach to encourage ingredient brand-building. Swarovski, in addition to providing communications support as part of its ingredient branding program, is also synonymous with fine crystal, imparting a sense of quality and glamour to the end-products of which it’s a part. In addition, Swarovski provides research proving the premium that customers are willing to pay.

Principal #3: Ensure End-Customers Can Interact With and Recognize Your Brand

The last step is arguably the most critical – ensuring the ingredient brand is recognized as part of the end product. In order to ensure recognition of the ingredient brand, companies have found creative ways not only to create visibility of their brand but also to generate interactions with their brand.

1) Visibility: Successful ingredient brands have used a symbol to expose end consumers to their brand. Examples include the Nutrasweet swirl, the Dolby double-D, or the Intel check mark. The visual not only uses the symbol to convey the associated benefits of the brand, but also can provide reassurance and comfort. For example, The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval has long been represented as brand standing for quality, or the Crystals from Swarovski circle conveying a quality and excellence.

2) Interaction: Encourage or underscore interaction with the brand. For example, PayPal offers a simpler experience when going through the online payment process, which benefits associations not only for PayPal but also the end customer brand.

Smart businesses understand that brands are valuable assets that require active management and investment, and ingredient branding represents another avenue to gain leverage from that asset by partnering with end product brands to extend a brands equity to new audiences and markets.

A prior version of this article was originally published in Sales, Advertising & Marketing magazine

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Gore Fabrics sustainability framework bearing fruit

Gore Fabrics Division says strategic sustainability framework established in 2020 has begun to deliver the desired effects.

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WL Gore and Associates (Gore) has released its 2021 Responsibility Update for the Fabrics Division in which it hails the integration of its sustainability framework that was established in 2020 to support the implementation of its evolved sustainability strategy.

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Gore says the framework helped its Fabrics Division set overall strategic direction for 2021 and beyond, in addition to facilitating prioritisation of efforts and resources on the most impactful initiatives.

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Among the highlights over the course of the last year are two material innovations, one which Jacques René, Gore Fabrics Division leader says is perhaps the most important innovation since the launch of the first Gore-Tex product 40 years ago.

The new expanded polyethylene (ePE) was introduced by Gore as a complementary material platform to serve as the basis for its membrane technologies. The new membrane technology is for use in apparel and footwear and will appear in Gore-Tex brand consumer products beginning in the autumn/winter 2022 season.

The other material innovation highlight is Gore-Tex ExtraGuard, described as an innovative upper technology with lower environmental footprint for a new class of safety footwear.

Additional highlights from Gore’s sustainability journey last year include:

• Gore Fabrics Division conducted another full assessment of its total carbon footprint and joined forces with its supply chain partners to reduce carbon emission of the raw materials. • Gore Fabrics Division obtained Global Recycled Standard (GRS) certification for its fabric plants in Putzbrunn (Germany) and Shenzhen (China). • Gore Fabrics Division further increased transparency in its performance and efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of its fabric plants via the Higg Facility Environmental Module (FEM). While the manufacturing sites in Shenzhen and Elk Mills (USA) maintained their performance levels, the Putzbrunn plant significantly exceed its total environmental score. • Gore Fabrics Division also continued to verify social compliance at its manufacturing sites via the Higg Facility Social & Labor Module (FSLM) and benchmarked social and labour conditions in their plants against all other facilities assessed by using the Higg FSLM. Results show that the overall performance of all three Gore Fabrics Division manufacturing plants in 2021 clearly ranked above the industry median overall.

“These initiatives and achievements demonstrate that in 2021 the Gore Fabrics Division continued to make a difference to our planet and the people living on it. Using decades of scientific knowledge, intensive research and development, as well as a strict testing regime, we remain committed to drive environmentally improved material innovations that deliver an optimized combination of high performance with a lower environmental footprint”, says Ross MacLaine, sustainability leader of Gore Fabrics Division.

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Marketing Process Analysis

Segmentation, targeting, positioning, marketing strategic planning, marketing 5 concepts analysis, swot analysis & matrix, porter five forces analysis, pestel / pest / step analysis, cage distance analysis international marketing analysis leadership, organizational resilience analysis, bcg matrix / growth share matrix analysis, block chain supply chain management, paei management roles, leadership with empathy & compassion, triple bottom line analysis, mckinsey 7s analysis, smart analysis, vuca analysis ai ethics analysis analytics, w. l. gore & associates marketing strategy / mba resources.

• W. L. Gore & Associates
• Innovation & Entrepreneurship / MBA Resources

Introduction to Marketing Strategy Objectives & Process

EMBA Pro Marketing Strategy Solution for W. L. Gore & Associates case study

Bob Gore, son of the founder of a privately held company (the inventor of Gore-Tex) is debating the pros and cons of going public, the main challenge of which will be the effect on a company that has developed a successful and innovative culture.

Case Authors : Joseph Harder, D. Reid Townsend

Topic : innovation & entrepreneurship, related areas : leadership, leading teams, organizational structure, emba pro marketing strategy approach for w. l. gore & associates.

At EMBA PRO , we provide corporate level professional Marketing Mix and Marketing Strategy solutions. W. L. Gore & Associates case study is a Harvard Business School (HBR) case study written by Joseph Harder, D. Reid Townsend. The W. L. Gore & Associates (referred as “Gore Tex” from here on) case study provides evaluation & decision scenario in field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship. It also touches upon business topics such as - Marketing Mix, Product, Price, Place, Promotion, 4P, Leadership, Leading teams, Organizational structure. Our immersive learning methodology from – case study discussions to simulations tools help MBA and EMBA professionals to - gain new insight, deepen their knowledge of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship field, company, context, collaborators, competitors, customers, Marketing Mix factors, Products related decisions, pricing strategies and more.

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Marketing Strategy Introduction

Objectives of different types of marketing strategies.

Better establish the brands of Gore Tex – Brand awareness and positioning is one of the critical objectives of marketing and often organization spend a significant part of marketing budget on brand positioning.

Bring in new customers to Gore Tex – It may involve launching version of product that can appeal to new segment of customers or entering into new markets.

Increase market share of Gore Tex – Marketing efforts can be used to increase market share either by driving increase in sales to new customers or by driving higher sales to existing customers.

Get existing customers of Gore Tex to buy more – It often involves selling accessories along with the existing products or increase the usage rate of the existing products. Increase usage rate is comparatively a difficult task even with a war chest of huge marketing resources.

Improve customer loyalty of Gore Tex customers – Marketing efforts can be used to increase loyalty among existing customers by organizing events, and by providing post purchase information and services.

Increase sales of Gore Tex – The goal of marketing efforts is to increase sales of the present products. It may involve selecting a new target segment or positioning an existing product differently to a new segment.

Introduce a new product or service of Gore Tex – It is the traditional function of marketing mix – launching a new product and communicating its features, superior value proposition, and uniqueness.

Definition of Marketing

According to American Marketing Association (AMA) – Marketing is a set of activities that an organization (both for profit & non-profit) undertakes to create, communicate, deliver, & exchange products & services that have value for the - customers, supply chain partners, clients, other stakeholders, and society at large. Kotler in his book “Principles of Marketing” explains - Marketing is a process through which firms such as Gore Tex can create value for its current and potential customers, build relationship, and sustain that relationship by continuously meeting their needs.

Five Stages of Marketing Strategy Process

Over the last decade the traditional role of marketing has diminished with the rise of artificial intelligence driven algorithms that provides marketers an easy to measure tool based on impression, clicks, and other behavioral aspects. But one thing that has been lost in this easy to measure culture is – The power of marketing functions to create new markets and customer segments. At EMBA Pro, we believe that power of creating new markets still holds great potential for marketers in both digital world and traditional media. The five stages of Marketing Strategy Process of Gore Tex are - Step 1 - Marketing Research & Analysis Step 2 - Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning Decisions Step 3 - Marketing Plan Step 4 - Designing a Marketing Mix using 4Ps - Product, Price, Place & Promotion Step 5 - Sustaining Value through Post Purchase Services

Step 1 - Marketing Research and Analysis

The first stage of the marketing process at Gore Tex is to do research and analysis to identify unmet and even unknown customer needs. A good point to start for the research and development is to conduct a 5C Marketing Analysis . The 5C Marketing Analysis framework comprises –

Customers Needs– What are the needs that Gore Tex seek to satisfy. Who are the present customers and who are the potential customers for the new product or service.

Company – What are the resources and special skills that Gore Tex needs to possess to create products that can fulfill the needs of the prospective customers. Check out the detailed SWOT Analysis for Gore Tex on the following page.

Competitors – Who are the competitors in the target market and what value proposition they are offering in the market place. Do they possess enough financial and knowledge resources to develop new products to compete with Gore Tex.

Collaborators – What sort of supply chain and value chain partners Gore Tex needs to develop and deliver new product to final consumer. What are the respective bargaining powers of value chain partners.

Context – What are the macro and micro environment factors that impacts the business environment in which Gore Tex operates in. You can check out PESTEL analysis of Gore Tex in greater detail on the following page.

Step 2- Selecting Target Customer Segment

The second step of Marketing Process after completing the 5C analysis is – Selecting the Target Market. It requires three steps –

Segmentation

Market segmentation is the process through which marketing managers at Gore Tex can divide the large market into smaller segments based on distinct needs, characteristics, or consumer behavior. Gore Tex can do segmentation based on following criteria – geographic, demographic, usage, user status, income, lifestyle, value proposition priorties, benefits sought, loyalty status, gender, social class, self-perception, psychographic factors, and other attitudes. One of the most widely used multivariate segmentation system is – PRIZM, developed by Claritas. It is widely used by various marketing and advertising agencies. It comprises 68 customer segments based on the US Household Purchasing Preferences data.

Once the overall market is divided into various segments then Gore Tex needs to choose a target segment or few target segments. The key is not to be everything to everybody as the products can only deliver specific value proposition.

Conducting a Segment Attractiveness Analysis

First step in the targeting process is to conduct a Segment Attractiveness Analysis. Under the Segment Attractiveness Analysis all the segments are evaluated based on the following criteria –

Customer behavior and loyalty analysis – How customers are behaving in each segments and are there opportunities of over lapping. Loyalty behavior analysis is also a critical factor in analyzing the conversion rate if the Gore Tex core strategy is based on attracting existing players’ customers.

Mode of competition and business models – Sometimes the way competitors compete shape the whole landscape of an industry. For example email can easily be - paid product- , but organizations chose to make it free products to increase customer base and lure in advertisers. So if Gore Tex is trying to enter a segment where revenue from other division is financing the core service then it has to build a requisite business model where revenue is driven by an adjacent or related product and service.

Maturity of the market – For example within the car industry the SUV category is more mature than Electric Vehicle market, so the margins can be very limited in the SUV category but the demand forecasting is easy. On the other hand EV division can have higher margins because of lower competition but the demand forecasting can be a difficult process.

Profitability in various segments – Some segments often have higher margins compare to another as explained in the automobile industry example above.

Differentiation & Positioning

Differentiation process involves how Gore Tex is differentiating its products and services in the market place compare to its competitors. Positioning is the position of the brand or Gore Tex products in minds of target customers – based on distinctive features, qualities and functions.

The differentiation and positioning task at Gore Tex require marketing managers to do -

Identify competitive advantage or unique value proposition on which position the brand in the mind of the consumers.

Choose competitive advantages that are most compatible with Gore Tex marketing strategy. Marketing managers at Gore Tex can make perceptual maps to better understand competitive positioning of various brands in the market place.

Finally Positioning the brand as a deliverer of superior value to the target segment and effectively communicating that position to consumers using marketing mix and promotion mix.

You can also check out EMBA Pro - 5C Marketing Analysis of W. L. Gore & Associates

Step 3- making a marketing plan.

1. Objectives of the Marketing Plan : There are various objectives for which Gore Tex marketing managers can make marketing plan – New product launch, repositioning of existing brand, targeting new customer segment, entering international markets etc.

2. Marketing and financial goals and objectives: The second step is to correctly assess how much financial resources will be required to execute the marketing plan. It involves resources spent from product development to building a communication strategy mix.

3. Marketing mix: Building a marketing mix based on the marketing plan objectives and limitations imposed upon it by the financial resources.

4. Marketing budget: Budget each prospective activity that will be under taken under marketing mix strategy.

5. Monitoring and evaluating performance: Carefully monitor each marketing mix activity and analyze the target performance with the actual performance. Which media vehicles are performing better compare to others etc. This will help in making changes and adaptation as we go along.

Step 4 – Four P's of Marketing Mix & Go-To Market Strategy – Capturing Value

Guided by marketing strategy, the company designs an integrated marketing mix made up of factors under its control—product, price, place, and promotion (the four Ps of Marketing Mix). To design the best marketing strategy and mix, Gore Tex should closely adopt the Four Ps of Marketing mix in accordance with trends and forces in Gore Tex ’s marketing environment.

Product - Understand the deep-seated drivers of perceptions and behavior of consumers and develop a product that appeal to those drivers.

Place – Evaluate the buying behavior and distribution channel costs to make a channel decision.

Promotion - Engage with customers through use cases and benefits instead of functionalities and features. Communication should be focused on experience rather than product features.

Price – Price is often determined by marketing strategy, cost structure of the company, competitive positioning of firm, brand positioning, and various other factors. If the business model is built on conversion of existing customers then Gore Tex needs to arrive at a price through research at which the present customers are willing to switch to a new brand.

Step 5 - Post Purchase Services – Sustaining Value

Even though the number varies, the efforts taken to gain new customers are far more and costly than those to keep the present customers loyal. Post purchase services are critical to foster loyalty among the customers. Various ways in which Gore Tex can improve the post purchase experience of the existing customers –

Taking regular feedback from customers and asking them how certain features can be enhanced.

Building communities where customers can share experience and help other customers.

Providing product care tips.

Providing regular maintenance services and spare parts, if the customer needs them.

Providing installation and other related services.

Post purchase services are critical not only to foster loyalty among the customers but also to get continuous feedback and improve the products.

5C Marketing Analysis of W. L. Gore & Associates

4p marketing analysis of w. l. gore & associates, porter five forces analysis and solution of w. l. gore & associates, porter value chain analysis and solution of w. l. gore & associates, case memo & recommendation memo of w. l. gore & associates, blue ocean analysis and solution of w. l. gore & associates, marketing strategy and analysis w. l. gore & associates, vrio /vrin analysis & solution of w. l. gore & associates, pestel / step / pest analysis of w. l. gore & associates, case study solution of w. l. gore & associates, swot analysis and solution of w. l. gore & associates, references books on marketing strategy.

Kotler & Armstrong (2017) "Principles of Marketing Management Management", Published by Pearson Publications. W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne (2017) Blue Ocean Shift: Beyond Competing - Proven Steps to Inspire Confidence and Seize New Growth, Sep 26, 2017 W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne (2015) Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, Jan 20, 2015 Joseph Harder, D. Reid Townsend (2018) , "W. L. Gore & Associates Harvard Business Review Case Study. Published by HBR Publications.

M. E. Porter , Competitive Strategy(New York: Free Press, 1980)

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