2 GoPro Inc. Five-year Strategic Plan Student’s Name Name of Institution Date

2

GoPro Inc. Five-year Strategic Plan

Student’s Name

Name of Institution

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Table of contents

Contents

1. Summary 2

2. Vision and Mission 3

2.1 Mission 3

2.2 Vision 3

3. Environmental Analysis 4

3.1 External Environment 4

3.1.1 The political factors 4

3.1.2 Economic Factors 5

3.1.3 Competitiveness 5

3.1.4 Technology 6

3.1.5 Social factors 8

3.1.6 Industry 8

3.2.1 Research and Development 11

3.2.2 Marketing 12

3.2.3 Management 12

3.2.4 Production 15

3.2.5 Conflict 16

3.2.6 Waste management 16

3.2.7 Accounting 17

4. Market Analysis 18

Market 18

4.2 The Electronic Industry 19

4.3 GoPro Inc.’s Growth Strategies 21

4.3.1 Investment in Social Media Engagements 21

4.3.2 Subscription Services 22

4.3.3 GoPro Price Cuts strategy 22

Action Cameras and Accessories 22

Demographics 23

4.4.1 Sporting Activities 24

Gender 24

Medical Field 24

Major Competitors and Participants 25

4.5.1 A comparison between GoPro and its key competitors in the market based on various parameters. 26

5.0 Five-Year Operating Budget 28

6.0 References 30

1. Summary

The GoPro Company is a new member of the photography and technology field in 2002. It began its processes by generating and distributing mobile applications and action cameras.The Market and Financial Analysis showed that the company’s income was $391 billion in the 2021 financial year. The revenue was up by 9% compared to the 2020 financial year. The analysis also revealed that the company’s growth prospect was 10% per year in the next five years (“Topic: GoPro,” 2022). Despite being the newest entrant in the market, the company was doing well, contributing to a profitable action cameras segment and permitting competition with larger companies.

The market analysis focused on the business division. The market quantity will be valued at $150 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow by 1.44% every year from 2022 to 2027.The average market for EBITDA in the electronics marketplace is about 13.7 times in 2022.The market valuation and growth forecasts have permitted GoPro to upsurge its investment in hardware and R & D, concentrating on stabilizing software tools and camera devices. The company took advantage of its R&D to enhance consumer subscription approaches to offer unique camera products like emerging HERO and Max merchandise. GoPro Hero 7 is the most recent hero action camera that introduced in mid-2018 and is already receiving uncountable reviews, praising its improved features over preceding models and its innovativeness.. The company is additionally enlarging its roadmap in the software by integrating desktop and cloud applications.. In order to accomplish the company’s objectives, strategic options such as reduced marketing costs, technology, and creative product designs were also investigated.

GoPro Inc’s primary objective is to constantly lead in the market since it has made every effort to ensure its products significantly attract many consumers. This primary aim and consideration of the strategies would effectively exploit profitability and broaden its market share to ascertain long-lived steady business growth (Schmidt & Rzhanov, 2012). Being a technology company, GoPro Inc. falls under the prospector group since constant innovation and development are necessary. Most technology corporations push hard to launch new product progresses (Dascano, 2018). The corporation takes on and puts on Miles and Snow’s organizational strategy to maintain its lines of attack and support its objectives (Ketchen, 2003). In the face of global innovation and development, the corporation focuses on developing distinctive products to demonstrate a transformation in the competitive marketplace.

Nonetheless, GoPro must be positively to apply the strategies, particularly in a situation that is an abundant source of competitive benefit. The strategies were adopted for market penetration transaction that inspires a percentage increase in sales within the current customer base. The company lowered its prices to achieve market penetration while implementing diverse marketing and balanced approaches to reach high sales volume in the current customer market. By going through the analysis and supports by cost projection allowed eliminate out of numerous rational choices to argue in favor of technological novelty to enhance engagement according to the company goals and to enlarge the extent of transactions and revenue. The action plan reproduces phases within the chosen strategy, centering on technology by making good use of market research for improving industry profitability. Lastly, the five-year Pro-forma provides benchmarking standards for evaluating actual future performance.

2. Vision and Mission

2.1 Mission

GoPro’s goals align with its missions, visions, and core values. The company’s mission is to empower people to capture the events in their daily lives, share current experiences around with friends. The declaration is founded on the experiences people get hold of using the company’s products and the services involved. The company intends to improve the users’ lives while making connectivity better. The company cherishes the memories that it generates for its customers. The company engages in the distinctive generation of quality cameras, drones, and essential apps to ensure the devices capture the clients in the finest ways (Quesenberry, 2020). It is in the company’s interest that obtaining products from GoPro accessories creates fun in life and makes it more rewarding for the clients.

2.2 Vision

The main desire of the firm is to recognize its coming reputation and all the tactical strategies required for the organization to advance toward its expected objectives. The critical component of the vision is to increase opportunities while motivating the world. The core values that motivate the corporation are trustworthiness among the organization and its clients, maintaining interest that position the employees to achieve its goals. GoPro assumes different approaches to achieve its goals of continuous market growth.. The corporation dramatically relys on social media, whereby it has enlarged the number of supporters on social network sites, allowing it to infiltrate internal markets and acquire maximum sales over its online outlets. Its success is behind offering an opportunity for the consumers to allow others to get feedback on the company and products from a personal point of view.

3. Environmental Analysis

3.1 External Environment

The external environment entails macro-setting aspects that meaningfully impact how GoPro Company functions, its manner of strategic decision-making, the overall business performance, and those approaches that can be adopted by the top management only. On the contrary, the corporation cannot regulate every aspect of the exterior environment that has distinctive effects on the GoPro firm. As a result, it is necessary to obtain precise methodologies to allow the company to handle the threats posed by these factors while exploiting the opportunities offered (Newcomb, 2018). The review of the external environment entails a broad look at the global. GoPro’s current external environment needs careful analysis to create successful tactics in light of growing unpredictability.

3.1.1 The political factors

Some of these aspects bring advantages for the corporation due to the low-interest tariffs and the financial policies in most nations where GoPro operates. These flexible policies permit the corporation to exploit its revenues. Economic constraints hinder the company’s operations as most customers prefer cheaper cameras offered by most of its essential competitors in the market (Pride et al., 2016). Since the company conducts operations of photographic tools in different countries globally, it self exposes to diverse political climates (Doeden, 2015). As a result, in certain countries, politics affect the corporation’s profitability in the long run.

Therefore, the company needs to analyze several aspects before investing in any market areas. Such aspects entail the level of political steadiness and long-lived value of the photographic gear. On the nation’s budget and the risks of martial invasions. Observing the legal guidelines for contract operation and intellectual property protection would be wise.

Pricing regulations determine the level of revenues and profits by the products, while taxation and wage regulation determine the company’s entry into the market. The managerial team critically assesses how varying political factors in a particular atmosphere may initiate pricing and general consumption changes to determine the appropriate approaches to keep the business afloat despite the challenges.. For instance, during the expansion stage, the CEO took advantage of his political influence to drive GoPro’s cost of sales to $767 million in 2014, yielding a gross profit of $627 million and a gross margin of 45% (Thuresson, 2015). Nick Woodman, the corporation’s CEO, leverages his political power to make the correct call when new products and additional supplies are required.

The employment law is another legal factor that influences business operations because violating the legal terms may make it difficult for the business to operate effectively. The GoPro Company has formed legal terms and contracts about employment, ensuring that employees do not go against expectations. Some relevant government bodies authorize these contacts and involve all aspects of employment. The GoPro Company practices the employment laws by briefing the employees about the expectations during the recruitment procedure. In addition, the company regularly conducts workshops and relevant training sessions that make the employees aware of the existing laws and other legal formalities. Employment laws ensure that the employees give their bests while the companies do not violate the employee’s rights.

Legal factors influence business operations, and GoPro Inc. Company has to adhere to them for successful operations. The company has to observe health and safety laws that pertain to the well-being and safety of the employees at the workplace. The company regularly checks with the relevant associations about the implementation of safety gadgets that reduce the chances of accidents at the workplace, a move that may violate the employees’ rights (Holt, 2021). Safety involves physical well-being and emotional and mental stability in the workplace. It is worth noting that the GoPro Company has emphasized the safety and benefits of its employees and is constantly striving to improve its standards.

3.1.2 Economic Factors

The economic limitations hinder consumers from upgrading to the corporation’s present hardware. On the other hand, the social factors have merits and demerits for the business and mainly rely on how GoPro uses digital social network platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter as contemporary marketing channels (Newcomb, 2018). Privacy concerns over aspects like drones may impair the company’s operations. The technological dynamics largely influence the company due to its increased inventions. The increased innovations contribute to it the corporation’s cost-efficiency during its operations.

Economic aspects like inflation and saving rates would impact the quantity of revenue the corporation attracts. Additionally, the interest and foreign exchange rates significantly define the economy’s collective demands and investment levels; hence, GoPro focuses on them to successfully estimate its growth trajectory (Dempsey, 2015). GoPro considers consumer expenditure patterns critical for the corporation because their increased spending translates to higher purchasing power, increasing the overall consumption trends. The unemployment inclination impacts the corporation’s products and services in different countries. Thus the countries with high unemployment rates lower the general disposable returns circulating in the economy, affecting the enterprise’s performance. GoPro’s operations greatly struggle in countries with a higher unemployment rate as it creates a gap in labor expertise and knowledge, significantly harming the consumers over an upsurge in the products’ prices.

3.1.3 Competitiveness

The GoPro Company has a giant business framework aiding its attractive competitive advantage. The exclusive model accelerates its competitive edge by empowering the business to accomplish excellent brand quality while growing consumer traffic over promotional determinations (Serhat, 2021). The company’s brand has helped generate a long-term quality image in the consumers’ minds such that any time they think of the cameras, GoPro becomes the first brand in their minds. As a result, the loyal customer base has increased, irrespective of the tough competition in the technological industry.

The excellent reputation boosts the corporation’s revenues constantly as it avails unique cameras that could capture an event without the user having to hold them. The solid financial performance has placed the company ahead of its competitors, as portrayed by the analysis of financial ratios for three consecutive years since 2016, which proved the present is performing better than other companies in the technology industry (Serhat, 2021). In addition, GoPro’s financial position favors its annual operations while the current assets ratio precedes the liabilities.

The affirmative business framework and viable edge give the corporation a positive image that further supports its competitive advantage through drawing promotional efforts from diverse sources to enhance client engagement. This model has positioned the organization in a suitable environment to control the action camera industry, hence a significant market share compared to its competitors.

3.1.4 Technology

Expertise in photographic gear is vital to maintain the company’s growth in the next five years. The company successfully developed an entertainment medium that allows users to stream live to share their videos and experiences and purchase the equipment from one platform (Serhat, 2021). The company kept develop with the rapid technological advancement by evolving its products. As a result, GoPro invented the HERO3+ camera in various editions and colors that supported high-ratio filming and higher rate sales as it could support a 4K UHD video and 12MP photographs (Dempsey, 2015). It has also attempted to partner with more outstanding technology companies like DJI and 3D Robotics. Even though the attempts failed, the company has long adopted technology in developing and broadcasting the cameras to make over the design to meet the varying market demands concerning the shifting technological aspects and anticipations.

Digital gadgets have made it challenging for the company as they obtain similar video experiences from their smartphones. As a result, GoPro constantly relies on information technology to redesign its gadgets through innovation to stay ahead of its competitors (Holt, 2022). The corporation generates an innovative setting to solve technological problems. Due to the open social network channels, the corporation has shortened the extended supply chain to access final clients through information technology.

Technology innovation has provided greater access to the information needed by the suppliers by availing the data through online platforms for everyone to reach relevant decisions with ease concerning their understanding levels.. Consequently, the general production and servicing costs are reduced within the recurrent end-user sectors. The technology has enabled the company to innovatively market its products through social media techniques enhancing collaborations with current customers (Schmidt & Rizhao, 2012). The company uses technology to leverage the opportunities associated with media marketing to expand its overall business performance.

GoPro, a technological company, targets countries with solid technology to reach the necessary advancements. The infrastructure would enhance innovation across the industry to give the company a competitive and progressive advantage. Additionally, an improved technological infrastructure plays a vital role in appealing to foreign investors leading to further advancement. Thus, GoPro has gained a fantastic competitive advantage due to supplementary technological progressions the business holds. The innovative practice it constantly participates in improves its business progressions and the required operation levels.

Internet penetration critically influences product consumption levels. GoPro benefits from increased internet penetration that mirrors the advanced and educated people. The corporation has successfully utilized high internet penetrations in numerous nations to cover a wide range of clients, marketing approaches, and direct consumer interaction (Eckel et al., 2018). The internet has enabled the company to improve its quality and deliver highly engaging services. The internet connectivity has supported strategic communication arrays and the essential marketing processes beneficial to the company.

GoPro uses social media for marketing its products and collecting consumer data and information. Since a higher population in society use social media for connectivity and increased engagement, the company comprehensively interacts with its clients over media platforms while collecting feedback and sharing the available promotions on the official social platform. In addition, GoPro also uses social media to carry out recruitment processes.

The utilization of digital audiovisual cameras to carry out inquiries has been demonstrated to be operative in recording, inspiring recall, inducing, and backing practical knowledge cognition, 3-D, material, the sensory and affective domain of social domains and societies’ lives. When close to body parts, the camera empowers ‘point-of-view’ visualization; the same applies when the camera is focused in proximity to sporting gear and vehicles. The camera demonstrates efficacy at capturing a vast display of facial expressions such as grins, frowns, and raised eyebrows.

Additionally, the camera shows excellent images in a varied recording of bodily pulses and interesting recall of what contributes to those fluctuations. The GoProTM camera is currently a global technology in the surfing culture. Fans upload several hours of recordings to the internet. The wearable digital audiovisual camera is, in effect, recording, inducing, and endorsing affective experiences of masculinity among surfing men.

Technology innovation has further disrupted the supply chain by providing greater access to the information that the suppliers may need. The data is available through online platforms, and individuals can easily make relevant decisions based on their levels of understanding. Generally, the adoption of information technology has dramatically lowered the general costs of production and the general servicing costs within the cyclical consumer sectors.. The company would effectively go about its marketing over social media through technology.

The company leverages the opportunities that come with media marketing to improve its general business performance (Schmidt & Rizhao, 2012). Moreover, it can use technological trends to start a creative social media campaign that may enable it to develop an online brand community. Through technical information and innovations, the company remains ahead of its major competitors because it manufactures products that change with the demanding changes in the customers’ tastes ad preferences. Currently, the company is keeping a close eye on the analysis of 5G and the determination of its potential to deliver positive business outcomes through enhancing sales growth.

3.1.5 Social factors

Demographics influence the performance of GoPro’s products in target countries by demonstrating the kind of social groups expected to purchase the products. GoPro targets countries with affluent young consumers to record improved and upbeat performance. Furthermore, younger customers would satisfy the company by availing skilled labor and educated talents. Social class similarly impacts the consumption level of these products (Doeden, 2015). As a result, GoPro targets the higher social class in the target regions of its operations, as the high social class benefits the corporation by being the brand ambassador while inspiring the forthcoming and younger residents to maintain their brand loyalty.

GoPro also targets consumers with higher education as an indicator of increased skills, awareness, and abilities in the business pool. Moreover, its consumers would probably be conscious of the purchases and the varying price trends.. Besides, the educated social group would focus on helpful consumption giving the company a unique competitive standing and advantage due to their awareness of product quality.

The structure and family size impact the nature and quality of consumption and engagement. Targeting healthy families ensures most of their resources are channeled to the consumption of the products; hence GoPro targets its operations in countries where health matters are prioritized (Doeden, 2015). GoPro introduced health aspects in its marketing approaches and ad features to assess consumer behavior and trends. In areas with increased health unconsciousness, GoPro has created collaborations while making important initiatives focusing on the overall population’s physical, emotional, and mental health.

3.1.6 Industry

GoPro’s unique business model gives it a competitive edge by empowering the company to achieve high brand quality while increasing consumer traffic through promotional determinations (Ertan, 2021). The best organizational competitive strategy that GoPro enjoys, therefore, emerges from the capacity of the business to effectively capture, manage and share the necessary content with its customers. The positive business model and competitive edge have further resulted in a positive organizational image. The company uses this tool to draw promotional efforts from diversified sources, thereby increasing customer engagement.. Generally, the GoPro business model has placed the organization in a better position to dominate the action camera industry, hence having a more significant market share than its competitors.

The organization’s financial performance is strong, placing it ahead of its competitors. The financial ratios analysis for three consecutive years, 2016, 2017, and 2018 proved that the current is doing better than other companies in the industry (Ertan, 2021). In addition, there are higher chances of the company maintaining better performance in the next five years and beyond because its current assets offset the current liabilities by up to three times. It is also worth noting that consumer electronics recorded a quick ratio of electronics 1:10 in the past three years while the cash ratio remains unrecorded. Generally, its financial position favors its operations over the years, while the current assets ratio is higher than the liabilities.

3.2 Internal environment

GoPro is an active image company that deals with diversified lines of wearable digital cameras for various ranges of events in society. It is a digital technology company that becomes its distinct competency that can be exploited to realize a competitive edge in the global market (Michelson, 2018). It is worth noting that the company produces relatively expensive cameras because of their quality. This move has always been challenging because its competitors produce relatively cheaper cameras. Through its technological advances, the company can develop a strategy oriented towards synthesizing the available resources to make more affordable cameras, thereby expanding its customer base. Additionally, its current position in the market is a great advantage.

It is easier for the company to market its newly invented products because the quality of its brands is already speaking for itself. Therefore, the company can develop a product that satisfies the low class in society and maneuver through its technological advances to market such products and reach the highest number of consumers possible in the domestic and foreign markets (Hambrick, 2019). The company has a strong market strategy that not only facilitates its better performance in the competitive market but also increases its customer base and expands into foreign marketsThe GoPro cameras are the best brand in the market because of their unique features that result in quality images and videos. The company, therefore, has its areas of strength worth exploring to invent more features and introduce more products into the market because the areas of strength already assure the public of the involved quality..

The GoPro Company is generally good at producing cameras and accessories that meet the diversified needs of the customers and hence, the ability to lead in the competitive market regardless of the challenges (Evers, 2015). Its cameras are unique because they can be used in extreme action video photography and present quality images and outcome. The cameras and other accessories further have unique features that enable the customers to use them efficiently. Based on the ability to produce unique features that match the changing technological demands, the company sells its products in over fifty countries globally. In addition, the company has a broad base of customers who reach out through established online platforms and social networks. The GoPro Company has a unique capacity to embrace cultural diversity. The management team is flexible enough to work with employees from different ethnic groups while embracing inclusivity.

The company’s female employees constitute up to 34% of the overall staff, and little ethnic backgrounds make up 47.5% of the general staff (Holt, 2022). Despite the cultural diversity and other social differences among the staff, the company successfully manages its employees, thus working together towards sustaining the organizational position in the competitive market. Therefore, this move serves as its strength because retaining a diversified staff population equates to the ease that the company experiences in handling customers from different cultural and ethnic groups worldwide.

Despite the company having a population of staff from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, it displays unique abilities to retain its employees. The employees who stay for a short period cover an average of four years. Additionally, the company values its employees and ensures that it subjects them to a valuable income that helps them meet their demands without strain. Generally, the company has strengths in effectively embracing cultural diversity and retaining its employees regardless of cultural differences., and its level of technological advancement enables it to remain relevant in the competitive market.

Nonetheless, GoPro has weak areas that occasionally lead to its sharp drop in shares and need to be addressed to make it more profitable in the next five years. The company sometimes makes poor decision that negatively impacts its performance in the competitive market.. For instance, between 2014 and 2016, the company wanted to become a media house to effectively capitalize on its content framework (Eckel et al., 2018). The company viewed the move as a positive move towards diversity because it felt it had all the required resources. Thus the company released considerable resources to hire senior executives from different bodies such as HBO and Skype. In addition, it produced original content and created licensing and revenue-sharing platforms that could pave the way for content creators. Eventually, the idea could not pay off, and the company encountered a substantial loss. Even though it is a stable company, GoPro engages in poor long-term decisions leading to massive losses, and something has to be done to guarantee success in the next five years.

The company further has its challenges in over-estimating its competitive advantage, a move that is a misstep. The company always dreamed that it could quickly turn its camera business into something more within a short time. The company had significantly invested in media drones and 360 cameras, but the moves have yet to satisfy the customers changing needs (Colten, 2019). Generally, the products have been very useful in sports and other relevant applications. Still, the company is constantly trying to expand the products into other diversified uses even if they are sure the move may be risker and has limited chances of yielding success. The company needed to recreate the everyday magic customers sought as they tried their product expansions. Making the crazy Superbowl ads was another weakness that proves the company experiences difficulty in making just decisions (Schmidt & Rzhanov, 2012). Despite gaining stability, the company’s brand and quality still shifted to making Superbowl ads. The company lost a considerable amount of revenue when the ads failed to fetch the returns as expected.

The company has a disadvantageous slow response procedure because it may affect the clients’ loyalty. The company realized a share drop, and part of the challenge emerged from the long wait for the previous releases. There was a significant delay ahead of the US festive seasons, and even the customers who looked forward to upgrading their cameras could not do so. In addition, customers have always complained about the company responding very slowly to user demands, especially when it comes to more effortlessly transferring the editing tool.. However, in early 2016, the company bought and integrated two video startup tools effectively into the PC and mobile apps. In late 2016, it finally launched an effective cloud backup platform. This makes the foundation to overcome some hindrances in the next five years.

3.2.1 Research and Development

The corporation has yet to invest much money in internal technology to help its products conduct comprehensive research. The photography industry’s performance, quality, and competitiveness of its products emerge from a series of advanced technologies such as the product’s own scientific and technological content and intelligence, and the company has not given adequate financial support for technology research and development will lead to the product’s technology and intelligence by competitors. Research and development inspire corporations to invest in foreign countries efficiently (Evers, 2015). GoPro has equipped itself with more flexible business operations practices. Since investing in R&D expands the range of innovation, GoPro has an increased opportunity to leverage the innovation and intensify its operations in the global markets to build a more significant competitive edge in the industry.

GoPro’s research and development expenses are minuscule compared to those of the other two big camera companies. However, between 2014 and 2016, GoPro’s research spending jumped from $152 million to $359 million (Macrotrends, 2022). As Coimbra pointed out, the demand growth rate of the action camera market increased further during 2014 and 2016 due to the positive impact of macroeconomic market demand (Coimbra, 2020). Therefore, GoPro, as the leader in action cameras, was the first to launch various camera models successfully

To meet the market and consumers’ needs.

On the other hand, GoPro’s research and development expenses continue to be depressed because of the company’s growth prospects. GoPro has been keenly aware that the UAV market is the future development direction of action cameras since around 2015. As Lança points out, the drone market has been on the radar of action camera enthusiasts and represents a vast market opportunity (2022). Therefore, the company rushed into this market in 2016 but finally failed due to a series of problems caused by insufficient technology (Coimbra, 2020). After the blow, GoPro experienced a downturn in its growth, and thus its spending on research and development was at a disadvantage relative to its industry rivals. Even so, investing in research and development is necessary as it would help the company achieve more in the future.

3.2.2 Marketing

Despite the stiff competition, GoPro has strategies to maintain and increase its customer base, market share, and revenue. The company has invested in advertisement and marketing strategies that focus on customer demand, touch on the prices, and embrace user-generated content that gives a competitive advantage in the market and drives its projections of increasing its revenue by 10% in the next five years.. GoPro’s growth strategies are practical, and it has leveraged its social media platforms and website to increase customer engagement and create goodwill among its customers (Ramanathan et al., 2017). The company’s unique and modern products that increase customer demand in content creation make them distinctive. The company also positions itself in the global markets due to its affordable and unique products. These strategies allow the company to practice niche segmentation that gives them market dominance.

Narrowing the market and innovation of their products makes the company dominate its competitors within the industry. The business sells its products to independent specialty retailers specializing in sports and consumer activity capturing markets through location-based independent manufacturer merchants. Moreover, company employees offer highly individualized support to these shops to collect orders and help with product mix planning, channel marketing, and in-store merchandising (GoPro, 2022). They also conduct clinics to teach retail sales staff about GoPro products. Additionally, the business has an internal sales team with a regional focus that offers a secondary level of support to both the manufacturer reps and these merchants.

The corporation’s higher-priced items are typically sold through independent specialty merchants primarily focused on serving their core clients, who tend to be early adopters of new technology. An equally important sales channel for us is independent specialized stores outside the United States. Additionally, advertising and marketing companies are shifting to using short video content rather than audio or image. The industry is expanding because of the growing usage of social media platforms for marketing and advertising. The market for action cameras is also expanding as a result of the escalating use of smart devices and the expanding consumer electronics industry.

As market domineering progressed, GoPro devised a strategy to stay ahead by investing in social media to establish its brand to market its action cameras, such as VIRB and VIRB Elite. The company is establishing footage on its products that feature the world’s tallest water slides featuring screaming riders—using this marketing strategy created social media buzz on the company products that highly established their social media engagements (Ramanathan et al., 2018). The company also engaged its customers and helped them produce content with remarkable events and places by integrating the Video Submission Portal into the company website. It allowed customers to upload theory videos taken from GoPro action cameras. This strategy increased customer engagement, which drove sales and increased the company’s market share.

3.2.3 Management

The company’s management has done an excellent job diversifying its product line and achieving double-digit growth in its various market segments. GoPro adopts a differentiation strategy because its main focus is to differentiate its products and services from the competitors, satisfying the customers’ demands uniquely (Amos, 2016). The company further adopts this strategy by focusing on full product diversity by initiating unique features within the core products. Before settling for this strategy, the company must consider factors like the market’s maturity, where the products and services are offered, and the critical history of the competitors’ innovations. GoPro focuses on what their customer feedback suggests before they opt for the strategy because the move is essential in making critical decisions.

Additionally, the company has evaluated its features and decided to take advantage of new features within the present strong marketing. The company further considers its sales deals and the research and market requirements. Furthermore, critically reviewing the management team’s skills, such as creativity, outward thinking, and market expertise, are necessary.

The company team includes Nicholas Woodman, who doubles his founder and CEO role. His high academic achievements enabled him to run the company effectively. Before establishing the company, he served as the founder and the CEO of the online game promotion company, also known as Fun Bug. His primary role as the C. EO is to set and oversee the strategic directories that the company takes while working closely with the management team (Colten, 2019). The company head office, through its management, makes the relevant decisions that do not only apply to the headquarters but other international branches. Even though the country has branches in over fifty countries, a stream management team oversees the operation of the business in other countries. The management team critically evaluates how the changing political factors in the given atmospheres might initiate pricing and general consumption changes, thereby getting the right strategies to keep the business moving amidst the challenges.

Nonetheless, the international branches only depend partially on the headquarters for all the decisions and the necessary directives. Their internal management structure and the governance team keep the operations going. They have to rely on the information from headquarters on the way forward in case of changes in the policy. The author mentioned in the article that formulating moral values by an organization’s top management could affect the level of individual morality within the organization (Baker et al., 2006). GoPro has clear guidelines and strict procedures in its code of ethics and business conduct. While GoPro’s overall ethical values have been successful and worthy of praise, there have been weaknesses and lapses in other business areas.. Therefore, GoPro needs to strengthen the training and publicity of the code of ethics, make up for and pay attention to the other missed areas to achieve the leading position in the industry and become a moral example.

GoPro’s organizational structure is more straightforward than its competitors and organizations. Therefore, lower-level employees refrain from participating in the organization’s decision-making process and giving corresponding suggestions and opinions. Due to the unitary organizational structure and the power concentration in the organization’s internal operation and management structure, the organization, the power of the organization is too concentrated. At the same time, the lower-level managers and managers cannot participate in and pay attention to the organization, which leads to a lack of confidence in the organization or the sense of belonging of the employees. On the other hand, GoPro’s internal organization has become younger since its 2014 IPO (Coimbra, 2020). Today’s GoPro board has an average of 2.7 years of experience working and managing GoPro, leading to a need for more confidence in GoPro management from investors and outsiders.

When GoPro was expanding, the organizational structure was in its infancy. However, the leaders and employees of the organization had a pretty good understanding of what was happening inside the organization. At the same time, they also have a keen sense of smell and observation of the external market demand environment of the organization. As they enter the market with Hero 3 and 5 cameras and reap huge profits, their decision-making process with the bounding model is effective and Bounded.. In the process of expansion decision, GoPro management identified market problems and successively launched products similar to alternative solutions according to market demand, which showed that GoPro had perfect information on market demand and understood the advantages of its products.

The GoPro Company has realized a series of advantages since adopting the differentiation strategies because the move has opened up several options for the company. It has effectively entered a new market, thereby enabling it to diversify its revenue and giving it an excellent chance to grow existing revenue streams through upsells and winning more deals. Such a strategy has further allowed the company to adjust prices and grow the current revenues while opening up marketing networks with distinct characteristics of its merchandise.. It is also worth noting that the differentiation strategy has opened the company up to risks.

The decision-making process of GoPro in the integration phase belongs to the garbage-can model. First, the organization needs to make an internal adjustment in the integration stage, including issues such as internal organizational structure and concept. Initially, GoPro had a single organizational structure and little management, so employees were involved in the decision-making process. The adjusted organizational structure makes the structure more bureaucratic, and the phenomenon of power concentration occurs, which makes the employees in the organization unable to provide suggestions according to the market’s actual needs.

Furthermore, the organization needs to adjust the product line and organizational structure in the integration phase, reduce staff, and appoint new positions. Many problems to be dealt with will lead to the shelving of solutions and alternatives generated in the decision-making process, which will lead to the problems that need to be dealt with cannot be solved quickly and become crises. Also, the failure of the UAV market is not only the blind following of the market and the wrong decision of the top management but also the immaturity of the UAV technology.. Because the drone market is so new, GoPro jumped in with no mature technology or knowledge of the product and paid a considerable upfront investment. According to Lanca’s analysis, the Asia-Pacific UAV market will grow from $1.41 billion to $65.3 billion between 2019 and 2024 (Lanca, 2019). The UAV market is indeed a huge business opportunity and an emerging industry. Therefore, GoPro needs innovation and research on UAV technology in its future development path.

Through this approach, GoPro aims to constantly look for new market opportunities, analyze the trends in production and customer preference and create a design that best suits the demands through increased innovations (Dascano, 2018). Miles and Snow would have further classified the organization as a prospector because of its creative nature. The critical activity structure of the company would revolve around designing its products for production services to maximize sales. The company outsources a significant percentage of its manufacturing to the contracts existing in China, believing that the move significantly scales its flexibility. The organization’s most significant and critical partners are the retailers and the dealer partners (Schmidt & Thompson, 2014). The partners would continue selling the company’s product to other consumers.

On the other hand, the company offers training to the partner staff to maximize the likely benefit. The essential resource in the company is its different sets of employees. The team in charge of developing the product actively consults with the buyers and managerial staff in the camera markets to enhance an excellent approach of user-driven experience to the product that the company designs. The company’s media production team conducts regular travels and effectively captures the images. The move is very healthy in inspiring the concepts of the newly invented devices.

3.2.4 Production

GoPro Inc would keep offering its customers’ action cameras, accessories, and cloud storage subscriptions.

3.2.4.1 Action cameras

The company would continue to produce small, waterproof, and rugged cameras designed to capture big action shots. The cameras allow users to become part of the adventure by capturing videos and photos in ways that smartphones or traditional cameras cannot do. Unlike other action cameras, GoPro action cameras are durable, compact, and smaller, giving users outstanding features and providing multiple arrays of activities. These cameras produce incredibly high-quality images and videos, providing everything coloring, electronic stabilization, and excellent image quality. GoPro cameras can capture images and videos that DSLR or smartphones can only dream of. Whether in wild adventures, extreme sports like skating, mountain climbing, cycling, or simply hanging on the poolside with the family, GoPro’s cameras offer the best options for its clients.

The action cameras come with incredible features, and the corporation has a wide variety of cameras with prices ranging from $200-$400. The cameras offer cinematic masterpieces using tools like Hyper Smooth to provide stability and avoid shaky footage when shooting videos. Modern GoPro cameras such as HERO9 Black can capture high quality with its 20MP lenses, producing still photos even in poor lighting environments.. The cameras also offer flexibility by offering tools that enable post-production editing of their footage.

Accessories

The company intends to continue producing accessories that GoPro camera owners and other action camera users could utilize. Accessories comprise mounts, lighting, cases, camera protection equipment, and Go Pro chesty, among others. Each accessory is used for specific usage, as GoPro chesty is used to mount cameras on one’s chest t capture events from a given angle. Other accessories, such as mounts, can capture more stable shots while in action, which avoids shaking videos. Lighting provides artificial lighting to compensate for the lack of natural lighting in the areas while shooting. GoPro 3 tripod is used for stabilization and proving adjustments while taking shots. GoPro accessories are used explicitly in photography and Videography in action sports to achieve better adventure and get more quality shots from different angles.

Subscription Services

GoPro would keep offering exclusive exercises to its customers through the subscription. The company offers a subscription to its customers at $49.99 per year (GoPro, 2022). The subscription enables the customers to receive unlimited cloud backup storage and premium editing tools, enabling customers to save through the discounts offered while purchasing company products such as cameras, mounts, mods, and lifestyle gear. These services enable GoPro customers’ platforms to share their adventure photos and videos within the community and win offers and prices when their content is voted to be the best.

The products and services provided by the company are primarily intended to provide customer satisfaction by offering quality products and services and increasing customer loyalty. The company is diversifying its product quality and prices as well as service delivery in ways that meet customer needs and leverage that to increase its market share and revenue.

3.2.5 Conflict

GoPro is the manufacturer of the product. There are also suppliers and consumers in the production chain where conflicts may arise. Conflict occurs because one or more people are incompatible with each other because of different goals and living values, resulting in negative emotions (Fisher, 2000). Because there are many stakeholders in the whole chain, conflicts will inevitably arise. GoPro, which relies on suppliers’ materials to produce products, will have a tight supply of raw materials when suppliers cannot reach the target due to the price problem..

Although GoPro and suppliers are interdependent stakeholders, GoPro must remove suppliers and develop new supplier guidelines when conflicts occur. For instance, the provision of a supplier’s code of ethics to material suppliers and the termination of contracts and supply relationships in case of violations and unethical trading practices (Wills, 2019). However, due to a series of problems such as quotation, specification, and product grade, the production department of GoPro will be inefficient, and the qualified rate and quality will also be affected to a certain extent. Therefore, for GoPro, the source of conflict is that all stakeholders in the whole chain of interests have different interests and development goals.. So GoPro needs to reduce the possibility of conflict in any activity.

3.2.6 Waste management

Numerous countries have established solid regulations for waste management control that ensure all industries sustain the environment amidst their operations. GoPro ensures to be on the safer side of the environment by effectively registering its activities with the waste management authorities.. It maintains a better position by following the necessary regulations and maintenance checks to avoid future hassles (Michelson, 2017). GoPro Inc. has efficiently regulated and selected the relevant procedure for handling waste and an environmentally pleasant method of trash disposal.

Green consumption is another critical environmental factor that increases the awareness of ecological sustainability and boosts the green lifestyle globally. Based on the increasing green consumption awareness globally, most consumers prefer products and services generated under environmentally friendly situations. GoPro overcomes the challenges of green consumption by regularly engaging in ecologically friendly corporate social responsibility activities (Gopro, 2021). Additionally, the company recently introduced a green product line that distinguishes the existing products, thereby increasing its role in environmental sustainability. Furthermore, the company works closely with the distributors and suppliers within the integrated back chain to ensure that the whole process follows a vital principle of environmental sustainability.

Recycling may enable the GoPro business to function uniquely. Environmental sustainability and recycling are vital factors that the company must consider.. It is worth noting that consumers are currently becoming aware of and demanding ways of recycling and disposal of other substances. On the other hand, consumers also demand recycled products for personal consumption. GoPro is precise about the environmental changes and launches a specific site where the products can easily be disposed of or recycled for other uses (Hambrick, 2019). It is worth noting that GoPro Inc. has also introduced a novice product line that greatly benefitted consumers.

3.2.7 Accounting

The company’s 2020-2021 financials reflect GoPro’s annual revenue growth of $1.16 billion, up nearly 30% from 2020, and subscription revenue from APP users, up 39% year over year, accounting for 34% of total revenue (GoPro.com, 2021). Adjusted EBITDA was $168 million, or 14% of revenue. Cash also increased by 64% to $5. $3.9 billion. This financial information provides support and confidence for the expected growth of GoPro Company. Adjusting the organization’s operation and growth strategy, the company is still in the growth period after the epidemic outbreak, which brings confidence to investors and the market. A favorable financial situation is also conducive to investment and expansion of the possibility of innovation.

Working capital can be understood as the distinction between an enterprise’s current assets and liabilities. The proportion between working capital and the company’s total revenue is the proportion of its working capital in total revenue (Mansa, 2022). As you can see from the table below, GoPro has a higher percentage than its competitors. In other words, the company’s ability to repay debt in the short term is good relative to its competitors. When the company can repay debts, it means that the current assets of GoPro are more significant than the current liabilities, and the short-term interruption of the capital chain will not lead to a crisis.

While Canon’s percentage is also high, GoPro’s percentage is increasing year over year, from 17 percent in 2019 to 26 percent in 2021, while Canon’s percentage was down from 25 percent to 23 percent in 2019. We can see from Canon’s trend that the company’s short-term debt servicing capacity is stabilizing. However, it will decrease in 2020 due to the impact of the pandemic and increase when the pandemic abates. On the other hand, Apple’s share is falling fast, from 22% in 2019 to 3% in 2021. It can be seen from the data that Apple Inc. is slowly losing its ability to repay its debts in the short term because the company has a sizeable current debt, and the reduction of the ratio also means that the company may interrupt some projects and regular business operation at any time due to the cash flow.

4. Market Analysis

Market

GoPro Inc deals with five essential products; GoPro deals with five main products; Cameras, Accessories, Lifestyle Gear, Apps, and GoPro Subscriptions. These products technically target the same market since some of them have different markets in terms of demographic, age groups, and classes. Based on their preferences, the analysis is to explore the GoPro Inc. market, financials, customers, services, and products with its competitors. The analysis report on GoPro’s market situation would allow a well-informed decision-making process regarding the market status, projections, and finances to enhance competitive advantage and financial stability. Since consumer electronics is the most dynamic and fast-growing industry in the United States and globally, the videography and electronics market is unlikely to fade in terms of innovation and revenue in the future decades. The ongoing expansion of film industries would continue to increase the demand for cameras and accessories for use in videography and cinematography companies, especially among the millennials who intensely prefer Videography for social media postings and events coverage.

The covid-19 pandemic abruptly halted social gatherings and significant events worldwide and led to a boom in pandemic-fueled home entertainment and the transformation of the entertainment industries. Many people shifted to filming in-house events and sharing through social media platforms such as Tiktok, Facebook, and YouTube, among others. Amidst the pandemic and economic challenges, GoPro Inc launched new innovative hardware and subscriptions that leveraged the company to grow its revenue and maintain its market share amidst the competition. The company’s revenue in the 2021 financial year was $391 billion, up 9% from the previous financial year (“Topic: GoPro,” 2022). As a result of the pandemic adopted online culture, the company would enjoy favorable growth in the next five years.

This analysis examines and defines GoPro Inc.’s market, customers, financials, services, and products compared with its primary market competitors. The market analysis will help the company make feasible financial decisions based on the market projections and status. The demand for electronics is on a trajectory trend due to innovations and evolving consumer needs. The consumer electronics market is a versatile industry in the United States and globally. Due to the recent developments in the social network market and an upsurge in the needs and trends in Videography due to the rise of Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, among others, the demand for good quality and portable cameras and photography accessories is steadily rising.

The consumer electronics industry will be valued at approximately $180 billion in 2202 and is estimated to grow by 1.44% annually between 2023 and 2027. The mobile phone segment is the significant portion, with an estimated market value of $60.16 billion in 2022. GoPro has used these growth projections to make decisions on increasing the company’s investment in software and hardware research and development, focusing on camera sensors and software stabilization technologies. The electronics industry has many competitors, especially the camera segment, with strong brands such as Sony Group, Garmin Inc, VIEVU, Eyesee 360, Power Vision Technology, and Avid Technology. Despite the many competitors, GoPro Inc. has a significant market share of 34.33% due to its advanced technology and quality that enjoy consumer preference. The demand for cameras and accessories is expected to grow by 3.4% between 2023 and 2027, with the digital camera segment expected to reach the 131m mark by 2027. As the overall market enlarges, GoPro Inc.’s market share is expected to increase because of the direct influence of the existing customer base.

To achieve this, the company has invested in a marketing strategy that focuses on customer preference and pricing and emphasizes the user-generated content that is a crucial driver of the company’s revenue by 10%. The company’s growth strategies are practical, and it has leveraged its social media platforms and website to increase customer engagement and create goodwill among its customers (Ramathan et al., 2017). The company’s unique and modern products that increase customer demand in content creation make them distinctive. GoPro has also positioned itself in the global market for affordable and unique electronic devices.

4.2 The Electronic Industry

The electronic industry is a broad one. However, GoPro has specialized in the videography technology segment of the electronic industry. GoPro designs and manufactures cameras and related accessories. The company also provides subscription services and software globally. Stiff competition from other gigantic players in the market, such as Sony Group, forces it to diversify and invent new technologies and software that meet the dynamic market’s demands. There is a market surge in film and videography demand and evolution for high quality and a lower budget. GoPro is determined to produce advanced, stable, affordable cameras with modern electronic features. The consumer electronic market was valued at $1 trillion in 2021 and is projected to grow by 8% by 2027(Global Market Insights Inc., 2021). Products such as cameras and videography accessories are still penetrating the market and thus driving the market growth.

Source: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/consumer-electronics-market

GoPro has gone through with triumph some notable challenges in the market. For instance, the company faced significant products in 2016, such as the company’s first drone, which led to significant losses and revenue decline.. The company’s revenue earnings declined sharply, leading to a decrease in the market share and an overall fall of 51.6%.

Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/8560/gopro-financials/

The company formulated effective strategies that helped it recover from the 2016 losses.. The restructuring led to the loss of employment to streamline the company’s operations to increase sales, profitability, and market dominance. The transformation resulted in streamlining operations and launching two products, HERO, which sold for $199, and Hyper Smooth stabilization (Statista, 2017). The transformation also included the incorporation of TimeWaro, which led to stabilization. GoPro transitioned its model to focus on direct-to-consumer in 2020, a strategic move that streamlined its operations, significantly lowered its expenses and increased profitability.

The company improved its PLUS subscription as a checkout experience in 2019. It also provided unlimited cloud storage and damaged camera replacement at $4.99 and offered its customers 50% off on its accessories sales. In addition, the company provided a blockbuster product that concentrated on the customer’s technological needs to try and meet the customer’s preferences. The company also promoted PLUS subscriptions for as low as $4,99 a month to cover unlimited cloud storage and replace defective cameras. The company gave its customers an impressive 50% cut on purchasing accessories (GoPro, 2022). As a result, the company produced and distributed 479,000 units in the third quota of 2019. This distribution increased by 92.69% in Q2 2020 and 106%, translating to 923,000 in Q3 2020. The company’s subscribers increased from 355,000 in the first quota of 2020 to 1, 1160,000 in 2021. This led to an increase in earnings worth $88 million.

GoPro specializes in the manufacture and distribution of cameras and accessories. The sale of digital cameras is projected to hit $24.9 bn in 2026. The market for action cameras is expected to grow to $4.4 by 2030 (Technavio, 2020). GoPro sold 3m units in 2021, giving it the confidence to reach its Lifestyle Gear, Apps, and GoPro subscriptions. GoPro’s revenue is primarily drawn from the sale of cameras and paid subscriptions. The camera industry is lucrative and has high growth prospects.

Source: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200521005552/en/

The total action camera is projected to hit a revenue of $43 in the market by 2024. The growth projections in the action camera segment are attributed to growth and developing trends in social media. Likewise, smartphones enjoy easy penetration in the market due to high-quality cameras. However, professional Videography and photography require specialized cameras with advanced features and technology that cannot be supported on a smartphone. There are five major companies dominated this marketplace. They are GoPro, Nikon Corporation, Germini Limited, Olympus Corporation, and Rollei GmbH & Co. KG. The company has formulated strategies to increase its market share as it evolves and expands. GoPro has formulated the following strategies:-

4.3 GoPro Inc.’s Growth Strategies

4.3.1 Investment in Social Media Engagements

GoPro’s social media engagement strategy is practical, and it has leveraged its social media platforms and website to increase customer engagement and create goodwill among its customers (Ramanathan et al., 2017). GoPro Inc. invested in social media to establish and strengthen its brand and market its action cameras, such as VIRB and Elite. The company produced a video advertising its products featuring the world’s tallest water slides with screaming riders. This video positively impacted social media engagements (Ramanathan et al., 2018). GoPro also engaged its followers and assisted them in creating content with remarkable events and locations by integrating the video submission portal into the company’s website. These developments allowed its users to upload raw videos captured using GoPro action cameras. This strategy increased user engagement and sales and the company’s market share.

4.3.2 Subscription Services

An increase in subscriptions increases the customer base, high retention, and a subsequent increase in revenue. The annual subscriptions were the second highest source of revenue for the company after the sale of action cameras. There was an 84% increase in its subscriptions from Q2 2021 and an increase of 24% from Q2 2020 (Alexander, 2022). This indicates that the company has an increased customer base and high retention rate of its customers, which is the central part of the increase in revenue in the international markets. Subscription revenue in Q4 2021 financial year amounted to $128 million, a 10%vincreament from the previous quarter, and produced 33% of the total revenue.

Source: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4503273-gopro-time-to-shine

Quick subscriptions also led to had 118% increment from the previous years and totaled revenue of $ 16.8 million in Q4 2021. This clearly shows how increasing customer-paid subscriptions by offering cloud storage, replacing damaged cameras, and giving their customers 50% off the purchase of accessories and mounts to its subscribers has increased the company’s shares in increasing its market share amid the growth (GoPro, 2021).

4.3.3 GoPro Price Cuts strategy

As the market is expanding, competition is getting stiffer both from action camera companies and from smartphones with high-quality cameras that are relatively cheaper than action cameras. Customers are transitioning into using smartphone cameras to capture and save memorable activities. Competitors are also using different strategies to try and dominate the market. GoPro executed its strategy of cutting down the prices of its critical cameras from Hero5 and Hero6 to producing its cameras in the current market at a pocket-friendly price (Hambrick, 2019). The primary purpose of this strategy is due to the research that most consumers are unwilling to pay massive amounts of money for cameras with the availability of alternatives in the market. The company leveraged this strategy to upsurge the demand for company products in the market.

Action Cameras and Accessories

Action cameras target extreme sports, seasonal cycles, music festivals, holidays, and other personal consumption. Action cameras are also sought after by increased professional activities and those doing outdoor adventures, and those dealing with consumer electronics. GoPro action cameras have attracted a vast global market due to their wearable nature, which offers a more convenient mode of capturing moments without bothering anyone. These products have a second layer of security, and they also possess some that can be used underwater, making it convenient for capturing coverage inside the water (). Globally, wearable action cameras sold 21.5 million cameras in the market, with GoPro being the most significant market shareholder in the world.

The camera and Electronics industry has numerous players in the market like the Eyesee 360, VIEVU, Sony Group, Garmin Inc, Power Vision Technology Group, and Avid technology. GoPro Inc., however, enjoys a considerable market share of 34.33% due to its high-tech products that meet customer demands. The company plans to increase its market share further through strategic plans by capturing and assorting the content management of its clients. The cameras and accessories are expected to grow by 3.4 % annually between 2022 -2027, with desired digital cameras segment expected to hit 131.7m by 2027 (Statistica, 2021). As the market is increasing, GoPro’s market share is not likely to shrink but is expected to increase due to its direct-to-consumer segment. The company intends to deliver HD quality cameras that fit into consumer budgets ranging from $200 to $400, attracting markets from different markets around the world.

Few action cameras can be compared to GoPro in terms of quality and customer preferences in the market. One of the most common and high-retail products is the GoPro Hero9 back. The product has impressive features such as 1080 live streaming,20MP Photos, and waterproof action front cameras but only retails at $299.Other competitors to GoPro products, such as DJI Osmo Action cameras with a second live view of front-facing screens, sell at the retail price of $299 (GoPro, 2022). Another critical competitor that offers similar action is the AKASO Brave 7 LE, which also comes with the front-facing live view with several accessories, is waterproof, and retails at $149.Another critical action camera that competes with GoPro cameras is the SonyRX0 Mark II, which offers excellent image and color quality options. This action model camera, however, s retailing at $700, may not be affordable for most consumers and is nigh-indestructible.

Lastly, A KASO V50X is one of the cheapest in the row, costing $79.99. However, its quality could be better than its competitors. Consumers typically factor in two major factors while shopping for action cameras; price and quality, and the best price with the best gets a higher rating and higher market share. The strategy of the company to lower the prices of its products, such as $499 to $299, while maintaining high-quality cameras would work to its advantage in the next five years (GoPro, 2022). This is one of the key strategies to maintaining the market base and dominance even in the middle of the industry growth.

Demographics

The total action camera market value is estimated to be $ 2,275.56 million, followed by other continents, as shown below. As per the demographics, GoPro Inc. has the biggest market in North America (Coimbra, 2020). However, the fast-growing market is in China, which is also promising due to its vast population and resources. The United States and Canada in the Northern America region dominate the largest market share. In the market forecast, the continent is still expected to retain its market share due to various factors, such as its strategies for increasing police accountability and recording the suspect or citizens’ behaviors in its countries during the forecast period.

The company, however, has a market globally due to the robust marketing strategies it established to reach customers on all continents. Despite that, most consumers prefer individual cameras; most markets are retailers.. The company is also leveraging retailers as a channel to streamline its sales and reach its market that it cannot reach in person or through its social media platforms. The market is also targeting the booming sports segment due to increased adventure and increased exposure to sports events globally, such as cycling, skiing, surfing, biking, climbing, bicycling, and racing, supporting the market growth for action cameras.

4.4.1 Sporting Activities

The growing number of sports activities and leagues provides a vast market for the company due to its quality action images and videos. Another market is the fast-growing recreational activities enthusiasts, mostly in developed countries (Gopro, 2022). Activities such as sea-surfing, scuba diving, and rowing have become so popular, providing more than 23 million participants annually in the global space. This provides a vast market to the company as they prefer to use high-quality cameras mounted on their bodies or tools to capture high-quality moments (Topic: Gopro, 2022).

Gender

Approximately 83% of the wearable cameras in the market are male, with the remaining 17% female. Regarding age group,58% f the market are millennials (aged 18-34) due to their active roles in sporting and thrilling activities such as surfing or climbing. The millennials invest a lot in creating memories for moments. 42% of the buyers fall between the ages of 35 and above. Some of whom are athletes or sports enthusiasts.

Medical Field

The rise in the consumer’s priority to digitize their medical records and track their fitness has also been a significant dynamic in the increased market for company cameras. The cameras can be embedded with other hardware and software to monitor nutrition, which has become a top priority for many of the world today. Another vast market is from the military and law enforcement officers who utilize action cameras for various operations. Police personnel wears body cameras to enhance safety and efficient communication when operating in demanding locations. Such cameras also support the police in accurately addressing any scenarios where things get out of hand, and people are hurt or killed.

Furthermore, multiple studies commissioned by the US Department of Justice have demonstrated the value of body cameras to law enforcement. Therefore, the market is anticipated to expand significantly throughout the forecast period as wearable cameras are increasingly used for law enforcement (Gopro, 2022). The California Police Department saw a 90% decrease in citizen complaints against officers wearing body cameras.

The market for GoPro products is expected to gain more dominance and market share in the coming years due to Advanced Research and Analysis and Business Intelligence in the health and business sectors. The wake of collecting primary data in the medical, business, and security is expected to drive and revolutionize the action cameras and accessories market by 2028. This will provide GoPro with a huge market base. However, as the market is growing, competition will also be stiff, and therefore the company should invest much o R&D to ensure that it meets industry dynamics expectations.

Major Competitors and Participants

Significant competitors in the market are Sony, Garmin Inc, and Canon. GoPro is competing with companies, some of which are much larger in revenue and market in consumer electronics, such as Sony, Canon, Samsung, and Olympus Corporation. In the 2021 financial year, GoPro had total revenue (est) of $1.2 bn, while its main competitor in the market such as Sony, had $9.9trillion, while Canon had total revenue of $3.5trillion.However, some companies, such as Avid Technology, had lower revenue than $409.9 million. These competitor companies are profitable due to their fair share in the market.

In terms of Net income in the 2021 financial year, GoPro had a Net Income of $371.2m, Avid Technology $41.4m, Canon had $230.8bn, and Sony had $751.2.It is important to note that crucial GoPro competitors have a more extensive ecosystem than GoPro and bigger company size and products than action cameras and accessories (Pride et al., 2016). For instance, Sony, Samsung, and Power Vision deal with other electronics such as television, home theatre, appliances, media storage and devices, and gaming gear. Therefore may not be easily used to measure the market performance indicator for GoPro.

However, action camera competition has specifically been dominated by GoPro products. The company has a competitive advantage over its competitors in producing action cameras, making it maintain its market share. The company’s main asset is its brand. When customers think f action cameras, they first think of GoPro. The companies have one dominant design strategy over their competitors. It offers time-lapse and high-resolution photography cameras that can also shoot quality videos and photos under extreme conditions like underwater or during rapid movements characterized during activities such as cycling, diving, mountaineering, or sports. This offers services to consumers’ preferences and thus makes the complaint remain the top of consumer choice when sourcing action cameras.

GoPro invested in social media and leveraged various platforms to form customer-centric strategies that enabled them to gain more brand recognition than their competitors (Pride et al., 2016). The company encouraged its customers to upload their videos through the company website to the GoPro Network. It used several platforms such as Microsoft, Google, and Facebook that host a significant customer base that enabled them to gain customers, loyalty, and confidence.

4.5.1 A comparison between GoPro and its key competitors in the market based on various parameters.

GoPro

Sony

Garmin

Industry

Technology Videography Consumer electronics

Consumer Electronics

Communication and consumer electronics

Business

Manufacture action cameras and accessories as well as cloud storage services and software.

Deals with the manufacture of products such as cameras, televisions, home theatre, lenses, audio devices such as headphones, media storage devices, and gaming gears

Global positioning system-enabled products

Net Income (2021 FY)

$371M

$11.015B

$1.082B

Market Cap

$764.66 M

$92.36 B

$16.58 B

Total Revue (2021 FY)

$1.16 B

$84.594B

$4.98M

Merits

These companies sell unique action cameras with high-resolution videos and time-lapse photography (Gopro, 2022). They can also shoot photos and videos in extreme conditions, such as in action, or extreme conditions, such as underwater.

Differentiation as an all-purpose competitive advantage approach. Making distinct its merchandise in the market.

Appealing and profitable merchandise.

The company’s management has diversified its product line excellently and achieved double-digit growth in its various market segments.

Employees

766

109,700

18,700

Founded

2002

1946

1989

Offices

Global

Global

Global

Strength

High brand awareness level. The company has also provided the highest quality camera for filmmakers and athletes globally.

Broad Range: Meets market demands ensuring substantial profitability. Its great innovativeness has significantly contributed to the consumer electronics sector.

Excellent financial standing, skilled workforce, unique merchandise, and great brand value are intangible assets.

Weakness

Poor financial planning prevents the company from achieving its objectives and growth. Lack of balance between spending on marketing planning and introducing different products. Additionally, their third-party integration has succeeded in hampering their growth.

Compared to its competitors, Sony’s marketing and promotion efforts are mediocre. Regardless of their reputation, consumer goods require extensive advertising and marketing to sell.

The US Department of Defense monitors and controls GPS satellites, potentially limiting sales to specific clients. It has a short sales cycle.

GoPro competitors such as Sony have vital weaknesses in their action cameras. For instance, the Sony RX0 II considered one of the significant alternatives for GoPro is unsuitable for shooting under low light and battery life; some may not shoot underwater for a long time (Holt, 2022). Limitations in the product products limit their dominance in the market. Major corporations like Sony, Garmin, and Canon have dominated the global cameras market; however, they failed to launch and capitalize on action cameras, which made GoPro leverage that gap and establish a brand that has become dominant in the global scope (Gopro, 2022). Other competitors, such as Sony action cameras, need to be more easily distinguishable. Sony produces four main action cameras HDR-AS20, HDR-AS30V, HDR-AZIVR, and HDR-AS100V. The four products are named and not easily distinguishable by consumers, unlike GoPro products that are easy to identify with their generic names have made them stand out and thus made them establish their brands in the market.

According to analysts, the market for action cameras and accessories is analyzed to grow to about $5.26 billion in 2026 with a CAGR of 12.96%. As the market is expanding due to the rise of sports activities, innovation among key competitors is alos expected to rise, which may revolutionize market segmentation and shift market share (Gopro, 2022). Additionally, as the law of business, a lucrative industry attracts investors. The industry may experience new companies that are currently not participants as they would also look to reap into the growing market.

The global market for action cameras is more competitive and consolidated with a few players such as Olympus Corporation, GoPro Inc., Nikon, Garmin Ltd, and insta360. The existing players are pursuing product launches and innovations that make them gamble on their market share. The market has low barriers to huge companies capable of producing the same technologies. However, it requires an enormous capital investment that may be a barrier to individual companies with a low capital base. Existing companies should therefore be worried about new entrants offering different business models and strategies. For instance, if phone companies such as Apply produce similar quality cameras on their phones with mountable accessories, it would be convenient for many customers.. It may offer alternatives and threaten major action camera companies such as GoPro.

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