Before I came to the UK, I had never heard of Primark before. Some students from last year recommended me to buy socks, stockings and accessories there and they used “cost-effective” to describe it, but this “word-of-mouth” still not persuasive enough to motivate me to take action. The first time I went to Primark was last year at the end of September while I traveled in London. I passed by the Primark flagship store on Oxford Street, I was extremely surprised at the crowd in front of the outlet because almost everyone bought loads of things and carried several bags. I was curious what kind of brand it is and how can it make customers become so enthusiastic about its products? So I decided to find the answer by myself. When I entered the store, I was even more astonished that the products range was wider than I expected, from clothing, shoes, food to electronic items. However, I examined those clothes carefully by touching and looking at the component labels, and found that neither of the design and quality is decent. From my point of view, the design was acceptable but not distinctive enough. Moreover, based on our Marketing and Society course, the reason why Primark can offer products at such competitive price is it employs child labour and ignores the responsible supply chain management. Nevertheless, I observed that customers seemed not care about these issues and kept taking items into their shopping bags. For me, I will feel uncomfortable to buy something that exploits the employees’ basic welfare even it is very cheap. Therefore, I cannot fathom what is so great about the brand that the outlets were often packed with natives and non-natives and they always put loads of stuff in shopping baskets without consideration. I alwa...
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...ety of choices and stimulated impulse buying for interesting and appealing nonessentials. It can be indicated that Primark was the only store where they could buy anything they wanted without considering the price because everything is worth its value. Therefore, it also became evident that these customers felt connected to the brand because Primark presented a symbol of freedom and delivered the message that customers could pursuit fashionable without spending much money.
Through gaining an empathic understanding as to why certain people consume regularly at Primark, I can conclude that the brand relationship is disposal fashion at low price. According to McAfee et al. (2004), Primark’s designs are made to be worn less than 10 times. As a result, they are satisfied with the products life cycle and price because they are easily fickle in affection on old products.
In China, Kelsey Timmerman spent time with a couple who worked at the Teva factory, traveled to the countryside to meet the couple’s son, insert name, who hasn’t seen his parents in three years due to his parents working long hours and it being expensive to take a train ride. In the US, the author visited one of a few clothing factories in the US to talk to the workers about his shorts, and the decrease of American garment factories. Timmerman wants the consumer to be more engaged and more thoughtful when mindlessly buying clothes. By researching how well the brands you want to buy from monitor their factories and what their code of ethics details, you can make a sound decision on if this is where you would want to buy your clothes. The author writes about brands that improve employers lives like SoleRebels, a shoe company who employs workers and gives them health insurance, school funds for their children, and six months of maternity leave. Brands like soleRebels that give workers benefits most factory workers have never even heard of help improve the lives of garment workers and future generations. From reading this book, Timmerman wants us to be more educated about the lives of garment workers, bridge the gap between consumers and manufacturers, and be a more engaged and mindful consumer when purchasing our
Something people might frequently worry about is self-identity, and how to express who they are. When looking for an outlet to do this, the easiest way to show what kind of person someone is, clothes are usually the first choice: a black t-shirt with a cynical saying, or maybe some skinny black jeans. Whether the advertising agencies created the personalities that come with clothes or took advantage of what was already there, clothes are often sold as something more than just clothes. Companies must ask how to convince consumers to buy their product instead of the competitors’, regardless of price difference. Particularly Levi’s jeans, a 150+-year-old American business, has been trying different approaches to packaging the type of consumers that buy their jeans.
To conclude, we need to understand the connection between the consumer behavior and ethical fashion; and accordingly, two-way awareness needs to be generated i.e. the consumers should be made aware of their environmental and social responsibility and the manufacturers should be apprised of the value creation through ethical fashion. Dissuading consumers from fast fashion may be difficult, but it’s not impossible and can be achieved by making them realize of their individualistic identity and aligning their fashion sense with their environmental sense.
Since 1967 Polo Ralph Lauren the brand is impeccable example for how a company must develop strong brand equity through the years. Indeed, the brand has established its image across a diversity of products and markets using a perfect lifestyle marketing approach. To understand how the brand has achieved strong brand equity, and resonance with its customers, analy...
Marks & Spencer is one of the UK's foremost retailers of clothing, foods, homeware and financial services, boasting a weekly customer base of 10 million in over 300 UK stores. Marks & Spencer operate in 30 countries worldwide, and has a group turnover in excess of £8 billion. It has specific values, missions and visions. It’s main vision is ‘to be the standard against which all others are measured’, it’s main mission is ‘to make aspirational quality accessible to all’, and it’s main values are quality, service, innovation and trust. (www.marksandspencer.co.uk).
The fashion industry has changed over a period of time due to the growth of boundaries. This is attributed to the varying dynamics of the industry; declining mass production, altered structural aspects in the supply chain, need for more affordable cost and quality. This shows that fashion retailers are able to acquire a competitive power in the market through making sure through which they get their products to the market for the consumers (McAfee, Dessain, & Sjoman, 2007). Consumers are hence able to get product easy and of high quality. Fast fashion has been able to meet the needs of consumers while trying to acquire major merchandize turnover to retailers than local rivals. The Zara case study reported sales $8.15 billion to its competitors Hennes & Mauritz 0f $7.87 billion (Dutta, 2002). This was the consumer’s one stop shop due to the quality products offered both globally and locally.
It has employed over 50,000 people around the world. It is easy for people to be aware of Primark since the stores are nearly everywhere. Moreover, Primark provides a diverse range of apparels such as menswear, womenswear, children’s wear, etc. It offers high street quality garments at the rock-bottom prices and quality service to people. It can satisfy most of the customers’ needs due to the variety of products and the reasonable price of merchandise. Furthermore, Primark has a huge number of customer base which lead to the profits of the firm has increased in every year. The company’s revenue in 2015 (5,347 million) is around 3 times more than the revenue in 2007 (1,602 million) (Statista, 2016). This implies Primark has reached the climax currently and not easily to be beaten by other competitors. Another strength of Primark is that the company is one of the member of Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), which focuses on employees’ rights. It can increase Primark’s reputation if people recognize the firm has showed respect to its
It is necessary to identify fashion and explain the systems apparel industry uses before I start explore the essentiality of fast fashion. According to Dictionary.com, fashion is defined as the prevailing style or custom that is in a current mode and used to express oneself. It can be clothing, accessories, hair, etc. Why certain people like to frequently shop in malls and keep updating apparels in their closets every season? Form psychological perspective, people usually consider clothing as a symbol to show their values, personality and lifestyles to others. Critically, a rapid imaginative change and symbolic expression supports a sense people have about fashion. People believe that an ideal self-identity can be communicated to others through clothing, so figuring out how people make decision when they perceive clothing among different brands and understanding their needs and desires can help apparel industries expending and maintaining market s...
Consumerism has always been a big part of society back in the golden days. In today’s society, the ongoing debate of wants and needs are not justified by an individual’s wealth, but it is rather opinionated by the generalized public. Not only are the consumers getting caught in this mess, but many retailers are being sucked in as well. Retailers, have to stay up to date with the latest trends, to make sure they get their products across. Human identity is no longer determined by how much a person makes an hour, but by the commodities they possess. Consumers are so centralized on the materialistic items, that they forget what is more valuable and important. Unfortunately, the frivolous consumption has taken over the
First connotations were simple: "jeans are tough and rugged as men who wear them". This image of a 100% man was even strengthened after western movies appeared. Soon jeans, and so Levi’s brand which in people’s mind turned to be their synonymous, became a symbol of freedom, adventure and independence. In this moment, managers of LS&Co decided to expand the brand. Even though there where various new cloths introduced to the market ; 501 jeans remained their top-selling product. It was their new brand strategy to "offer products for every life style", which turned to be a fiasco. Not only it didn’t bring expected results, what is more, this to big diversification caused drops in sales. It was so decided to come back to the core product and it’s image. To strengthen the Levi’s position on a market, their launched a new campaign which emphasizes emotional connection between jeans and theirs owner. To wear 501 it is to be yourself – they said.
Fashion is an outlet people use to express themselves. People anxiously wait to see what the next trends are as seasons pass by. We buy anything that doesn’t break a bank, people buy a $10 shirt just because it’s cheap and they might not even wear it, but it’s all right, since it wasn’t expensive. As harmless and normal as that scenario sounds, the fashion industry has created the harmful concept that is “fast fashion”, in which stores sell an abundance of extremely cheap trendy clothing and “where deliveries are small and often, with stock delivered twice a week, for instant-access fashion.” (Cochrane)
-Status symbols: Sophisticated customers who value the distinctive, exclusive collection seem to value the corporate-branded version of luxury. –Philip Martiz, chairman of the board
The sign of moving products promptly from a designer’s table to the retail sales floor has swayed the whole global retail commerce and enticed rivalry. Customers value a “new look” that can be worn for this instant and assess the goods as a monetary fortune; not something that you will keep
in this segment are often brand conscious and enjoy the latest fads and trends. They...
Sustainable fashion is among the developing design viewpoint and movement of sustainability with the main objective of establishing a structure, which can be sustained for the foreseeable future in terms of conservationism and social accountability. This implies that all the products made are developed with much consideration to the environmental and social influence all through its overall lifetime encompassing its carbon imprint. It is revealed that sustainable fashion is not just a short time trend but one, which could endure for a long time (Fletcher 76). Beforehand, conservationism used to represent itself in the fashion world through the contribution of a portion of transactions of products for a charitable reason.