1.0 INTRODUCTION
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).
2.0 MARKETING CONCEPTS - THE MARKETING MIX
According to Blythe (2012), marketing is a management process which identifies and fulfils customers’ needs and at the same time, makes profit. By having appropriate marketing concepts, Charles and Keith manages to develop within few years from an unnoticeable small shoe store to an international footwear brand which occupies a significant place in the industry.
2.1 Product
From selling purely ladies’ footwear, Charles and Keith expanded their range of products to include ladies’ bags and accessories in order to cater different demands of the customers. Charles and Keith owns a team of designers that come out with new products regularly and the company has their own R&D team frequently travels to fashion cities to get in touch with the latest design and trend (Singapore Press Holdings, 2009).
2.2 Price
Charles and Keith uses synthetic materials and polyurethane to ensure affordable prices of their products (Singapore Press Holding, 2009). However, the qualities of the products are not compromised despite its inexpensive prices. The managing director Charles Wong reassured the customers that although the ...
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...enture into overseas market comes with expectations as well as uncertainties due to unfamiliarity. Charles and Keith, the fashion retailer, has to understand clearly that what appeals in one market might not be accepted in the others and this is almost the same for all industries. Thus, a thorough research on cultural background has to be done before entering an unfamiliar ground.
6.0 CONCLUSION
In conclusion, Charles and Keith is not just about trend but also making fashion affordable and accessible for most of the people. The success of the company benefited from the government’s policies and the stable economic growth of the country. However, the weaknesses and threats should not be neglected in order to obtain a bigger share in the market. The success of the business in its own country has increased and ensured its competitiveness in the international scene.
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. Worldwide the footwear industry holds great aptitude for expansion, with a strong hold on over $256 billion in market value . When geographically segmenting the market, the United Sates represents 27.9% of the market at $71.7 billion, leading the market is Europe grasping 38.4% of the market at $98.4 billion and the Asia-Pacific region holding 19.1% of the market at $49 billion; the rest of the world makes up the remaining 14.6% of the market at $37.5 billion. Between 2008 and 2012, the average growth rate domestically has been 4.1%; in Europe and Asia-Pacific markets the growth rate was 1.7% and 4.8% respectively (see Exhibit 1).
A&F superiority in its heritage, user-friendly online website, and in-store experience such as fragrance of the store, the neat and premium store arrangements, as well as music have put A&F as one of the leading brand when retails come to mind. However, as strong as it may sound, A&F is struggling with declining revenue due to its apparent weaknesses. A&F’s simple product designs is failing to amuse the trendy world of young generation, and its lack of customer care programs to keep existing customers gives consumers no reason to come back. Therefore, I have suggested above several recommendations for A&F to improve its brand equity. In order to keep existing customers to purchase more of its products, A&F should produce loyalty programs that give consumers numerous reason to return with greater advantages. Enhancing customer service programs will also make customers feel appreciated and a sense of attachment to the brand. In addition, A&F should produce more advertisements through social media that are highly appealing to its target market. Finally, A&F should adapt to the ever-changing target customers’ opinions and fashion trends through more sophisticated product
Each country has its own culture, with subcultures inside the dominant culture (Schaefer, 2009, p.69). “Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted custom, knowledge, material objects, and behavior” (Schaefer, 2009, p.57). Values, artifacts, and ideas are also part of culture (p57). With globalization there is the integration of these cultural aspects, as well as language, social movements, and ideas throughout the world (Schaefer, 2009, p.20). Internationalization helps with this integration. Internationalization is the process of planning and implementing products and services so that they can easily be adapted to specific local languages and cultures (Linfo, 2006). Numerous American retail firms have expanded to other countries. Many have been quite successful due to their internationalization. However, failure to study the culture, retail practices, and consumer market of the country they intend to expand to can be quite costly. Although Home Depot is one of the world’s largest home improvement stores, their expansion to Chile cost them enormous financial loss, resulting in their divestment (Bianchi & Ostale, 2006, section 1, para3). This paper will look at successful international expansion of Home Depot stores, analyze what mistakes were made in Chile, and make suggestions of what could have been done differently.
Innovation is the key to achieving maximum number of customers with changing needs and demands. They involve their designers and product development staff to establish innovative footwear that emerge their standards of quality, functionality and comfort. They utilize outside designers as they are more capable of appraising a variety of new styl...
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