The Market Strategy Behind Skechers’ Pickleball Shoes: A Comprehensive Analysis

Essentially the assignment boils down to answering this question: What is Skechers’ market strategy behind its Pickleball shoes? 
The material covered in this course provides a conceptual framework for developing a comprehensive, integrated analysis. However, to ensure you stay on track, your professor offers the following “nudges”: 
Break out your answer into discrete sections, appropriately named in boldface (headers). The main sections can follow the different sections (weeks) of the course, if we think of Week 1 primarily as the “Situation Analysis” or “Five C’s” section. You will want to declare the scope of the analysis to be Skechers’ pickleball business (i.e., not the entire company/product mix). 
For targeting and positioning, be sure to consider segmentation possibilities and company aspirations.
You can refer to the pickleball products as a line. What is the underlying logic of the line’s variants? What role does branding play?
What key factors drive pricing for the products? (Why the different prices?) 
How are the products distributed? What are notable differences, or else interesting peculiarities, about the distribution for these products?
Assume that the company’s target audience is synonymous with its target market. How should Skechers’ communications mix move its audience through the Hierarchy of Effects (HE)? Be sure to align specific media/tools with specific HE results (objectives). 
Scoring Guidelines:
Situation analysis  10
STP 10
Product policy 10
Pricing 5
Distribution 5
Communications 10
Total 50 pts
Citations
Skechers’ Pickleball shoes
https://www.skechers.com/search/?q=pickleball&search-button=&lang=en_USLinks to an external site. 
Sample Pickleball merchandise website
https://www.totalpickleball.com/Skechers/catpage-SKECHERSPB.htmlLinks to an external site. 
Skechers Pickleball shoes (sample) on dickssportinggoods.com
https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/search/SearchDisplay?searchTerm=skechers%20pickleball&storeId=15108&catalogId=12301&langId=-1&sType=SimpleSearch&resultCatEntryType=2&showResultsPage=true&fromPage=Search&searchSource=Q&pageView=&beginIndex=0&DSGsearchType=Keyword&pageSize=48&selectedStore=4410Links to an external site. 
General Pickleball merchandise on dickssportinggoods.com
https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/search/SearchDisplay?searchTerm=pickleball&storeId=15108&catalogId=12301&langId=-1&sType=SimpleSearch&resultCatEntryType=2&showResultsPage=true&fromPage=Search&searchSource=Q&pageView=&beginIndex=0&DSGsearchType=Keyword&pageSize=48&selectedStore=4410Links to an external site. 
Pickleball’s popularity (primarily US)
https://usapickleball.org/about-us/organizational-docs/pickleball-annual-growth-report/Links to an external site. 
https://www.pickleheads.com/blog/pickleball-statisticsLinks to an external site. 
https://www.pickleballportal.com/blog/pickleball-what-is-why-popular/Links to an external site. 
https://deadspin.com/pickleball-america-courts-malls-1850436141Links to an external site. 
https://www.wpbf.com/article/pickleball-replace-bed-bath-beyond-old-navy-malls/43882259Links to an external site. 
Feel free to use other cites if it makes preparing your answers easier