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Strategy for competition in clothing business
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Banana Republic's Footwear
The brand that I have identified is Banana Republic. Since Banana Republic has only 1 store which is located at Paragon, Orchard Road, it makes it all the more exclusive. And the category that I’ll be writing on will be their footwear. Banana Republic, a subsidiary of Gap. Inc formerly started out as a catalogue retailer that specializes in safari themed clothing which was founded by Mel and Patricia Ziegler. It was eventually rebranded as an upscale clothing retailer.
Purpose and Value
Banana Republic believes in emotional connections with customer around the world through inspiring product design, unique store experiences and compelling marketing. Their purpose is to make it easy for us to express our personal style throughout our life.
Customers
Banana Republic’s pool of customer are from the young working professional ranging from 25-44.
How Banana Republic gains world recognition
All of us know that Banana Republic as a brand, is renowned and synonymous for its high-end fashion and it’s cutting edge in the fashion industry. The brand itself is the forerunner in the fashion world among other famous brands like Louis Vuitton, Burberry etc. Ever since Gap. Inc acquired Banana Republic, it was rebranded as a mainstream luxury clothing retailer. If it did not make the changes, Banana Republic wouldn’t have gain recognition for its upmarket brand. Back then, things wasn’t as rosy as Banana Republic expected it to be due to unpopularity of the new merchandise and inadequate inventories which overshadowed Banana Republic till the late 80s. As you can see, Banana Republic has a humble beginning and worked its way up by introducing and knowing the need to change. The brand simply didn’t become instantly recognized worldwide and even if it did, they would have to find ways to maintain a high standard of quality and to remain competitive in the fashion industry; Banana Republic would have to introduce a lot of new and unique merchandise to meet the growing changes and demand of the masses throughout the years. Which they have managed to do so after the helm of leadership was undertaken by Richard L. McNally, its executive vice-president and top official. Under his direction, Banana Republic’s menswear has an increased in sales. Banking in on their current success, Banana Republic started to diversify their range of products as well as variety of looks suitable for the office.
Foot locker, Inc. is an American sportswear and footwear retailer that operates in about 20 countries worldwide. Foot Locker, once formerly known as Venator Group, Inc., is the successor corporation to the F.W. Woolworth Company. Foot Locker operates a series of athletic footwear retail outlets such as Kids Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, Champs Sports, Foot Action USA, Eastbay, and footLocker.com. Foot Locker is traded on the NYSE under the ticker symbol FL and according to the SEC had 3,921 mall-based stores worldwide. Between 1963 and the 1980s the corporation diversified its portfolio of specialty shops. F.W. Woolworth Company purchased Kinney Shoe Corporation and operated it as a subsidiary; Kinney later branched into specialty shoe stores, including Styles, Susie Casuals, and Foot Locker. The company’s aggressive strategy was if a particul...
Topman already has more than 309 fashion stores nationwide with another 50 stores outside the United Kingdom division. Topman boasts the worlds largest fashion store in London with over 200,000 shoppers per week, Topman gets twice deliveries per day and 7,000 looks per season. In the year 2006, Topman’s operating profit hits 110 million with its annual sales of 600 million now. It brings a strong brand image of Topman based on the successful achievement to consumer’s mindset. Strong brand image builds confidence and reliability towards Topman’s product. In a nutshell, expending Topman’s market in Vietnam has a strong potential to gain sustainable profit.
Louis Vuitton, a French designer and entrepreneur quickly made a name for himself in the fashion industry by becoming Napoleon’s wife “personal box-maker and packer.” At the age of sixteen, Vuitton and his family started the legendary workshop by creating travel trunks and the famous unpickable locks in 1859 (Louis Vuitton, 2015). As the legendary brand continues to remarkably exceed both sales and expectations, Louis Vuitton as a brand strives for pure distinction and exclusivity.
When Gap was founded in 1969, Gap was unique and new. Gap's target customers were younger generations. Gap's hottest seller at the time was its "basic" look, which consisted of signature blue jeans and white cotton t-shirts. Gap founders realized that jeans were becoming popular among the younger generation of customers. Nevertheless, the company recognized that despite Gaps popularity among the youth, there were not enough assortments of jeans in the clothing outlets. Capitalizing on this deficit was merely the next step in expanding. Gap's founders were sure that jeans could be sold through a chain of small stores devoted solely to that product. As Gaps business idea became successful, Gap expanded their line of offering and now Gap offers a range of clothing for men, women, and children. As Gap's business began to boom, Gap also began to expand. Gap Inc. added two new entities to the company, Banana Republic and Old Navy. All three chains have their own target markets. Banana Republic is known for their casual luxury, with high-quality apparel. Banana Republic tailors their store to appeal to the unique market of pleasing the most fashion conscious consumers.
Also this report will firstly will highlight how Ralph Lauren brand has achieved this complete resonance with its consumers through the all four steps of Keller’s CBBE model in (apex figure1) since its creation. Then, underline the Points of Parity (POP) and Points of Difference (POD) of the Brand to finally recommend ways through which the brand can continue to be successful in future.
In order to investigate how a company’s can maneuver though present situations it is important to map critical incidents in its past. Historically, the country in which Footwear International resides, Bangladesh, has seen major political upheaval in a short period of time. In the 1940s the government transitioned to British-ruled to that of a providence of Pakistan called East Pakistan. Due to political unrest, in the early 1970s power transferred again, thanks to the help of India, where they gained independence and became known as the country of Bangladesh (Lane, Distaefano, & Maznevski, 2006).
Petro, G. (2012, November 5). The future of fashion retailing --- the H&M approach (part 3 of 3). Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregpetro/2012/11/05/the-future-of-fashion-retailing-the-hm-approach-part-3-of-3/
Miuccia Prada once said that “What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today, when human contacts are so quick. Fashion is instant language”. Miuccia Prada and the Prada brand have grown from humble beginnings making quality leather goods to a public traded company with a current market capitalization of over $26 billion (USD) . With the development of Prada as one of the world’s premier luxury brands it provides an excellent case study to examine how strategy paved the way for the success of the Prada brand. First, an examination of Prada’s strategic positioning against luxury brand rivals Louis Vuitton Hennessey Moet (LVHM) and Kering (Gucci). The acquisition history of Prada will be reviewed, where some preliminary conclusions can be made about what has been contributing factors to both the successes and failures. Then finally, an evaluation of what the future holds for Prada and the sustainability of its competitive advantage.
For the past several decades, globalization has been a hot topic and it also anticipates every aspect of the world to connect each other. Likewise, globalization also allows consumers to have more access to catch up with updated fashion. The advantages of globalization bring a new philosophy called fast fashion, which holds quick response time and enhanced design in fashion apparel industry. In this paper, I will deliver By exploring all the aspects of each system, I will conclude the reason why fast fashion becomes the mainstream of the fashion apparel industry, and use one particular brand, Zara, as an example to discover the impact on consumer behavior in detail. Finally I will make some comments on the future of fast fashion and what luxury brands will react to this circumstance……..
.... The company is announcing its approach to start Old Navy franchise in 2014 in key international markets. Additionally, it will consider building upon its success with Gap in China by adding company-operated Old Navy and Banana Republic stores to this important market.
The Shoe Industry consists of a multitude of footwear categories, varying in utility, style and occasion. When overseeing the market for the shoe industry, we must look at the influence of all shoe trades universally to comprehensively understand how the disparities in sales relate to the needs of specific regions. The global retail market within the shoe industry currently represents $185 billion, driven primarily by Asian and Latin American economies and is expected to reach $211.5 billion by 2018. The growth rate globally was 6% between 2004 and 2008, contrasting to the 2% compound annual growth from 2008 to 2012. The United States holds over 24% of the overall industry size it projected over $48 billion in annual revenue in 2012. Domestically, the growth rate has been flat at 0.3%. On a unit volume basis, global footwear consumption for 2012 is approximately 11,421.3 million (in pairs), where the United States makes up roughly 2,741.1 million (in pairs). By 2018 the U.S. Census Bureau has forecasted a steady decline within demand domestically of 3% and an increase of 1% globally.
The business model that sets Zara apart from other clothing retailers is how rapidly the company changes stocks and releases new product lineups. The company averages 12-16 collections annually which equates to more than one lineup a month. Due to stock being limited and the rapid production Zara brings forth, their items are viewed as exclusive promoting further business. Their customers are happy knowing that their specific article of clothing is more “rare” due to only having an average of a two-week window to purchase the clothing. The company specifically targets current trends and has them in the store within 30 days. This maintains the brand’s uniqueness and relativity in fashion.
There are many products in each product line because a trendy company like Steve Madden offers many different styles of shoes. Flat shoes, boots, heels, and super high heels. Every season the styles and colors change for the shoes that they sell and the older styles go on sale. The Brand name for the company is Steve Madden and their brand mark is the name in the circle. The name is in the Brand Mark so that it is always clear what company the brand mark is talking about. You can never get confused with what company makes the shoe or posted the ad because the name is always on it. The company has been continuing moving forward. There may have been some rocky points, Steve Madden knows exactly how to continue running strong. What competition is there? None.
Found in 1969, San Francisco, by Doris and Don Fisher, GAP is a globally leading American brand, selling garments, accessories and personal care products for men, women and kids in over 3500 stores, in over 40 countries (Gapinc.com). GAP is an attire retailer comprising of five brands: Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta. The Gap was established in the early 1970's.
Charles & Keith, a well-recognized women’s footwear brand was established in 1996 in Singapore Amara shopping centre by the two young brothers, Charles Wong and Keith Wong. The company began its foreign market venture in 2000. To date, Charles and Keith has a presence in more than 20 major cities around the world. The brand are well-known internationally today with the vision “to be the most admired fashion-forward company” and the mission “to offer high quality products and services, with a commitment to perfection” in mind all the time (Charles & Keith, 2013).