Marimekko Case
Case Analysis
Ferko Laura lferko@cityu.edu MBA 546
Matthias C. Suthe
February 23, 2014
Introduction
Marimekko (Mari for the girl’s name, mekko- Finnish girl’s dress, whereas Mari contains also four letters of the name of its founder Armi), a Finnish company dealing with the textiles and clothing design (dresses, interior decorations and bags), is established by Armi Ratia a woman of strong personality, which created such a typical company’s philosophy, more than 60 years ago. The company, during the time of its existence, went through the several phases of the international expansion, started from the Nordic countries, throughout the Europe (European Union) and other countries, Japan and USA above all. The feature worth to mention is the non-typical, partly national character of the company, building its brand awareness on the Finnish national features, reflected in the Finnish roots, Finnish employments, location of all three company-owned factories in Finland and, recognizable the Finnish design, wearable, never boring, non trendy but rather timeless. This created unique goods with interesting story to present.
In spite of the strong market position of the company in Finland, the export became very important for the market strategy abroad (its products are sold in over 40 countries). Over time, the managements of the company, aware of its international growth potential, focused their activities on expanding abroad, reaching continuous growth during the 2000s. By the end of 2000’s the goal was formulated, to reach the yearly grow of 20 per cent. But the development of the market conditions, flow of the goods from Asia, connected with the coming and growing crisis, meant the slowing down of the gl...
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...r that chooses the product of Marimekko is often attracted by the brand, its pattern, design and quality.
From all the opportunities brought by the European Integration, the company didn’t fully use the advantages of the markets and business environments with the lower production costs. What could be the threat for the Finnish managers is the topic of the return of the crisis and possible fall of the euro-project.
The ongoing European Integration will continuously influence the whole textile industry and company like Marimekko. We can assume, following previous development, that Marimekko will be able to overmaster the challenges and use some of the opportunities.
References:
Suder G. (2007) The Europeanization of Marimekko: International Growth and Single Market Effects
Marimekko(n.d.)History,RetrievedonFebruary20,2014from https://www.marimekko.com/marimekko/history
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