LA Gear is a sports shoe manufacturer that is struggling in the sports shoe industry. The company is in third place after Nike and Reebok. LA Gear is well known to its female clientele for its line of fashionable shoes. In order to gain ground on other shoe manufacturers, LA Gear will have to develop a line of men's shoes and capture some of the male buyers. This will not be an easy task since Nike and Reebok spend large sums of money on their advertising campaigns, including celebrity spokespeople. The Los Angeles outfit must not only capture male shoppers, but also retain female clientele, so a delicate balance is required. It will require an extensive research and marketing campaign to penetrate this market and still maintain customer loyalty and brand recognition. Once the research is gathered, a full-scale marketing campaign will follow once the company's new direction is determined. An extensive research study will be undertaken to determine what male customers want in an athletic shoe. These studies will take place online, via land mail, and by telephone. Once the information has been collected, the different types of men's shoes will then be developed, focusing on the most common needs determined by the results of the survey, which will include a question regarding price. LA Gear will then compare customer needs to those of industry leaders and determine how the leaders have met the needs of male customers and what opportunities LA Gear could exploit to “outperform” the competition. LA Gear shoes already focus on comfort, style and fashion and will now include high performance. After the direction of the new shoe line has been developed, you will need to determine the price of each shoe to see if you can still make a profit. The price will be compared with other shoes in the same category to make them competitive in the purchasing market. LA Gear may also try to lower prices if it is still able to maintain a profit to entice consumers to try their new product and earn their loyalty. However, they must be careful not to make them too cheap because they want the customer to feel that these are the shoes they need to function best and that the expense would be worth it.