Vans Marketing Strategy & Marketing Mix (4Ps)

Published in Products category by MBA Skool Team

Marketing Strategy of Vans analyzes the brand with the marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). These business strategies, based on Vans marketing mix, help the brand succeed in the market. Let us start the Vans Marketing Strategy & Mix to understand its product, pricing, advertising & distribution strategies:

Vans Product Strategy:

The product strategy and mix in Vans marketing strategy can be explained as follows:

Vans is one the leading apparel & footwear brand in the world. The Vans brand, since its inception has been associated with skateboarding given the design and utility of the shoes matched the likings and the needs of the skateboarders. Slowly Vans started associating itself with BMX, surfing, snowboarding and motocross all of which qualify for Adventure Sports and increased its product portfolio Its products include footwear and apparels all related to the above mentioned sports categories and it targets active boys, girls and kids; mostly the youth.

The offerings in its marketing mix produc portfolio include:-

- Footwear- Shoes, high tops-ankle tops, surf shoes, skate shoes and slip-ons etc.

- Apparels- Jackets, T-shirts, Tops and Tees, Denimwear, hoodies and sweaters and dresses and bottom wears

- Accessories- Laces, belts, backpacks, key-chains, wallets socks sunglasses and beanies.

Vans is known to produce merchandise in collaboration with artists and sportspersons like Metallica, Kyle Walker, Spitfire, A Tribe Called Quest and many others. The brand has a famous Vans Vault collection online where it keeps all the special edition merchandise on display like the recent one celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Mickey Mouse in collaboration with Walt Disney.


Image: pixabay


Vans Price/Pricing Strategy:

Below is the pricing strategy in Vans marketing strategy:

Vans has positioned itself well with the young people who take part in sports like skate boarding and BMX and has thus targeted the upper and the upper-middle segment of the urban population, school and college going teens. They keep the style and designs of the footwear and apparels commensurate with the latest happenings in the sports world and the buyers better are able to associate themselves with the latest happenings of these sports.

Vans’ main strategy is to price the products affordably and sell in volumes. However, the trend is seen that often the brand comes up with limited edition products which are priced much premium and sell quite well thus generating increased revenues. The competitors for the Vans brand include Converse Inc., Nike, Jerry Hsu, Ryan Scheckler, DC and Element. All of them tend to match the prices of their shoes the point of difference being different value propositions and styles.

Vans Place & Distribution Strategy:

Following is the distribution strategy in the Vans marketing mix:

Vans has strong geographical reach and a good distribution worldwide. From a single store in 1966, Vans has grown to become $3billion generating firm whose products are being sold in more than 170 countries through a network of 370+ own stores and partner channels like retail stores, sport equipment stores selling skateboards and surfboards It has a strong online presence with great tie-ups with ecommerce marketplace companies and also sells through its own website. The ecommerce business alone is expected to grow.

The strong distribution channel enables the company to supply quality products across different channels worldwide in many cases from skateboard and surfboard stores.


Vans Promotion & Advertising Strategy:

The promotional and advertising strategy in the Vans marketing strategy is as follows:

Over the years the brand has developed a strong brand value by participating in sponsoring sports events, promotion via opening skateboarding parks and becoming title sponsors to many global sports events. Since 1996, the company has been yearly sponsoring Vans Warped Tour event. Vans has sponsored and supported the Warped Tour for over 20 years. Vans became the title sponsor of the Surfing events in the USA and the company sponsored the Duct Tape Invitational. The social media marketing of the brand speaks volumes about its popularity as its Facebook page has 18million likes and the Instagram page has 13+ million followers. They time and again launch creative content on their official pages as well as on Youtube, Facebook and Instagram. Hence this concludes the marketing mix of Vans.


About Vans:

Vans Inc was founded as The Van Doren Rubber Company in 1966 by Paul Van Doren, Gordon C Lee and James Van Doren the first store had come up in California, USA. The Vans brand is the manufacturer of skateboarding shoes and related apparels and headquartered at Santa Ana, California and owned by VF corporation.

The brands famous and classic products include the style #44 Deck shoes which are now known as “The Authentic” and the iconic #36 Old School style was launched in 1977. The skateboarders of the time started sporting Vans in huge numbers liking the Van’s rugged make-up and sticky soles.

This article has been researched & authored by the Content & Research Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

Browse marketing strategy and 4Ps analysis of more brands similar to Vans. The Marketing Strategy & Mix section covers 4Ps and 7Ps of more than 800 brands in 2 categories.

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The names and other brand information used in the Marketing Strategy & Mix section are properties of their respective companies. The companies are not associated with MBA Skool in any way.

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