Competitive Advantage in Fast Fashion

*CHAPTER* 3 COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE *IN THE* FAST FASHION Fast fashion is a term used to describe clothing collections which are based on the most recent fashion trends presented at Fashion Week in both the spring and the autumn of every year. These trends are designed and manufactured quickly and cheaply to allow the mainstream consumer to take advantage of current clothing styles at a lower price. This chapter highlights the sources of competitive advantage that may exist inside the field of fast fashion, as shown in Figure 3. , studying in detail the major players who are part of: H&M, Gap, Zara and Benetton. {draw:frame} FIGURE 3. 1 : THE SOURCES OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE *3. 1 *SUPPLY CHAIN A supply chain is a system of organizations, people, technology, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier) to customer. Supply chain activities transform natural resources, raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer.

In sophisticated supply chain systems, used products may re-enter the supply chain at any point where residual value is recyclable. Supply chains are increasingly being seen as integrated entities, and closer relationships between the organizations throughout the chain can bring competitive advantage, reduce costs, and help to maintain a loyal customer base. There are two main differences to value chains: Supply chains are more detailed since they incorporate not only activities. Supply chains connect intra-organizational value chains by products, services, and information flows.

Supply chains underlie value-chains because, without them, no producer has the ability to give customers what they want, when and where they want, at the price they want. Producers compete with each other only through their supply chains, and no degree of improvement at the producer’s end can make up for the deficiencies in a supply chain which reduce the producer’s ability to compete. {draw:frame} FIGURE 3. 2: EXAMPLE OF SUPPLY CHAIN A typical supply chain begins with ecological and biological regulation of natural resources, followed by the human extraction of raw material, and includes several production links (e. . , component construction, assembly, and merging) before moving on to several layers of storage facilities of ever-decreasing size and ever more remote geographical locations, and finally reaching the consumer. All organizations have supply chains of varying degrees, depending upon the size of the organization and the type of product manufactured. These networks obtain supplies and components, change these materials into finished products and then distribute them to the customer.

Managing the chain of events in this process is what is known as supply chain management. The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) defines Supply Chain Management as follows “Supply Chain Management encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion, and all logistics management activities. Importantly, it also includes coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers.

In essence, supply chain management integrates supply and demand management within and across companies. Supply Chain Management is an integrating function with primary responsibility for linking major business functions and business processes within and across companies into a cohesive and high-performing business model. It includes all of the logistics management activities noted above, as well as manufacturing operations, and it drives coordination of processes and activities with and across marketing, sales, product design, finance and information technology. Effective management must take into account coordinating all the different pieces of this chain as quickly as possible without losing any of the quality or customer satisfaction, while still keeping costs down. The first step is obtaining a customer order, followed by production, storage and distribution of products and supplies to the customer site. Customer satisfaction is paramount. Included in this supply chain process are customer orders, order processing, inventory, scheduling, transportation, storage, and customer service.

A necessity in coordinating all these activities is the information service network. In addition, key to the success of a supply chain is the speed in which these activities can be accomplished and the realization that customer needs and customer satisfaction are the very reasons for the network. Reduced inventories, lower operating costs, product availability and customer satisfaction are all benefits which grow out of effective supply chain management.

Furthermore, market demands, customer service, transport considerations, and pricing constraints all must be understood in order to structure the supply chain effectively. These are all factors, which change constantly and sometimes unexpectedly, and an organization must realize this fact and be prepared to structure the supply chain accordingly. 3. 1. 1 DECISIONS ON THREE LEVELS Supply chain management decisions are often said to belong to one of three levels; the strategic, the tactical, or the operational level. Figure 3. shows the three level of decisions as a pyramid shaped hierarchy. The decisions on a higher level in the pyramid will set the conditions under which lower level decisions are made {draw:frame} FIGURE 3. 3 HIERARCHY OF SUPPLY CHAIN DECISIONS On the strategic level long term decisions are made. According to Ganeshan and Harrison, these are related to location, production, inventory, and transportation. Location decisions are concerned with the size, number, and geographic location of the supply chain entities, such as plants, inventories, or distribution centers.

The production decisions are meant to determine which products to produce, where to produce them, which suppliers to use, from which plants to supply distribution centers, and so on. Inventory decisions are concerned with the way of managing inventories throughout the supply chain. Transport decisions are made on the modes of transport to use. Decisions made on the strategic level are of course interrelated. For example decisions on mode of transport are influenced by decisions on geographical placement of plants and warehouses, and inventory policies are influenced by choice of suppliers and production locations.

Modeling and simulation is frequently used for analyzing these interrelations, and the impact of making strategic level changes in the supply chain. On the tactical level medium term decisions are made, such as weekly demand forecasts, distribution and transportation planning, production planning, and materials requirement planning. The operational level of supply chain management is concerned with the very short term decisions made from day to day. Figure 3. 4 shows for each level types of decisions made. *3. 4 FIGURE:* DECISION-MAKING LEVELS IN SUPPLY CHAINS . 1. 2 DRIVERS OF SUPPLY CHAIN Drivers determine supply chain performance and are the managerial levers on which to guide the operational process. For each driver manager must make tradeoffs beetween efficiency (cost) and responsiveness. {draw:frame} FIGURE 3. 5: DRIVERS OF SUPPLY CHAIN Facilities Are the actual physical locations in the supply chain network where product are stored, assembled or fabricated. The two major types of facilities are: Production sites( factories) Storage sites (warehouse). Components of facilities decisions are:

Location: centralize to gain economies of scale (major efficiency) or decentralize to be more responsive. Other issues include quality and costo f workers, costo f facility, infrastructure, taxes, quality of life,etc. Capacity: excess capacity allows a company to be more responsive to changes in the level of demand (major flexibility), but at the expensive of efficiency. Manufacturing methodology: decisions between a product or functional focus, between flexible or dedicated capacity. Warehousing methodology: choose between:

SKU storage: stores all of one type of product together, Job lot storage: stores different products together to satisfy a particular customer or job, cross-docking: product is not actually warehoused in the facility, instead the facility is used to house a process where trucks from suppliers arrive and unload large quantities of different products. These large lots are then broken down into smaller lots. Smaller lots of different products are recombined according to the needs of the day and quickly loaded onto outbound trucks that deliver the product to their final destination.

Inventory Inventory encompasses all the raw materials, work in process, and finished goods within a supply chain. Changing inventory policies can dramatically alter the supply chain’s efficiency & responsiveness. There are three basic decisions to make regarding the creation and holding of inventory: C_ycle Inventory_: this is the amount of inventory needed to satisfy demanf for the product in the period between purchases of the product. Safety Inventory: inventory that is held as a buffer against uncertainly.

If demand forecasting could be done with perfect accuracy, then the only inventory that would be needed would be cycle inventory. Seasonal Inventory: this is inventory that is built up in anticipation of predictable increases in demand that occur at certain times of the year. Inventory has different impacts: Can increase amount of demand that can be met by increasing product availability Can reduce costs by exploiting economies of scale in production, transportation, and purchasing. Can be used to support a firm’s competitive strategy.

More inventory increases responsiveness, less inventory increases efficiency (reduces cost). Can significantly affect material flow/cycle/throughput time because if you move your inventory faster, you don’t need as much inventory (inventory velocity). Transportation Transportations entails moving inventory from point to point in the supply chain. Components of transportation decisions are: Mode of transportation: is the manner in which a product is moved (air, truck,rail, ship, pipeline,eletronic). Each mode differs with respect to speed, size of shipments, cost, and flexibility.

Routes and networks selection: are respectively paths along which a product can be shipped and a collection of locations and routes. In house or out source the transportation function. Many companies use third-party logistics provider (3PL) to perform some or all of their transportation activities. Usually companies outsource the distribution. Faster transportation allows a supply chain to be more responsive but generally less efficient. Less than full truckloads allows a supply chain to be more responsive but generally less efficient.

Transportation can be used to support a firm’s competitive strategy. Customers may demand and be willing to pay for a high level of responsiveness. Information Information serves as the connection between various stages of a supply chain, allowing them to coordinate & maximize total supply chain profitability. It is also crucial to the daily operations of each stage in a supply chain for a production scheduling system. Components of information decisions are: Push versus pull: push systems (like MRP) need information on anticipated demand to create production and purchasing schedules.

Pull systems (like JIT) need accurate qnd quick information on actual demand to move inventory and schedule production in the chain. Enabling technologies: many technologies exist to share and analyze information in the supply chain: EDI: electronic data interchange. ERP: enterprise re source planning. SCM software: Supply Chain Management Software Internet Forecasting & planning to anticipate and meet future demands. Available information is used to make tactical forecasts to guide the setting of monthly and quarterly production schedules & time table Coordination and information sharing

Information allows supply chain to become more efficient and more responsive at the same time (reduces the need for a trade-off) {draw:frame} {draw:frame} TABELLA 3. 6 CONSIDERATIONS FOR SUPPLY CHAIN DRIVERS 3. 1. 3 SCOR The Supply Chain Operations Reference Model (SCOR Model) is one of the very few dedicated methods for supply chain modelling and has also a high relevance for many industries. The model has been developed by The Supply-Chain Council (SCC), an independent not-for-profit firm with more than 1,000 corporate members.

It was first introduced in 1996 and is now available in version 8. 0. In contrast to generic process modelling methods, SCOR is actually a reference model, because it defines activities that can be found in any supply chain. In that sense, it can be regarded as a successor to the value chain model by Porter. The SCOR model covers the followings levels of abstraction: Top level ( level 1) Configuration level (level 2) Process element level (level 3) Implementation level {draw:frame} *FIGURE 3. 7*:* *SCORE PROCESS FRAMEWORK Top level

SCOR defines five core management processes called process types that are relevant for all firms in a supply chain (scope of the model). Three of these process types form a sequence of source, make, and deliver. The process types are: Source (S) Processes that procure goods and services to meet planned or actual demand. Make (M) Processes that transform a product or service to a finished state to meet planned or actual demand. Deliver (D) Processes that provide finished goods and services to meet planned or actualdemand, typically including order management, transportation management,and distribution management.

Return (R) Processes associated with returning or receiving returned products for any reason. These processes extend into post-delivery customer support. The top level, however, can not be instantiated, thus this level defines only the scope of the SCOR model. The modelling of actual or planned supply chains starts on the next level. Configuration level beyond the five main processes, there is a further classification of processes into three categories: Planning: processes that plan resources to meet demand in appropriate time intervals. re repeated periodically and have a great influence on the response time of the supply chain. Execution: processes as executive involved in the activities of scheduling, sequencing, processing, testing, and handling of products, affecting the cycle time of the order fulfillment. Enable: processes involving information and managerial aspects that affect the other two processes From five main processes the SCOR model identifies 26 processes of second level, each belonging to one of three process type defined above. For instance, categories for ‘source’ are:

S1 ‘source stocked product’: The procurement, delivery, receipt and transfer of raw material items, subassemblies, product and/or services. S2 ‘source make-to-order product’: The procurement and delivery of a product that is built to a specific design or configured based on the requirements of a particular customer order. S3 ‘source engineer-to-order product’: The negotiation, procurement and delivery of engineer-to-order assemblies or specialized product or services that are designed and built based on the requirements or specifications of a particolar customer order or contract.

By selecting the relevant process categories, a firm can represent its operational strategy. For instance, the relevant source categories need to be selected and mapped to respective products and/or services (thus a firm can implement multiple source categories reflecting diverse sourcing strategies). Process element level The process element level decomposes the process categories by adding process element definitions, process element information inputs/outputs, process performance metrics, and best practices.

SCOR does not define functions and organizational entities for these elements, thus it strictly focuses processes. Implementation level Implementation level aims to implement management practices, defining the elements necessary to gain a competitive advantage and adapt to changes. METRICS SCOR defines metrics that measure effectiveness and efficiency of a supply chain. For this purpose, metrics form a hierarchy along the SCOR levels: Level 1 metrics relate to the overall planning of a supply chain (thus these metrics are differentiated to source, make etc. ).

Level 2 and 3 metrics decompose the level 1 and 2 metrics respectively. Each level 1 metric contribute to realising a performance attribute. A performance attributes is a characteristics of the supply chain that permits it to be analysed and evaluated against other supply chains with competing strategies. For instance, a supply chain is reliable to a certain degree or not. The level 1 metrics and associated performance attributes are defined as follows: FIGURE 3. 8: THE LEVEL 1 METRICS 1. Production Strategic decisions regarding production focus on what customers want and the market demands.

This first stage in developing supply chain agility takes into consideration what and how many products to produce, and what, if any, parts or components should be produced at which plants or outsourced to capable suppliers. These strategic decisions regarding production must also focus on capacity, quality and volume of goods, keeping in mind that customer demand and satisfaction must be met. Operational decisions, on the other hand, focus on scheduling workloads, maintenance of equipment and meeting immediate client/market demands. Quality control and workload balancing are issues which need to be considered when making these decisions. . Supply Next, an organization must determine what their facility or facilities are able to produce, both economically and efficiently, while keeping the quality high. But most companies cannot provide excellent performance with the manufacture of all components. Outsourcing is an excellent alternative to be considered for those products and components that cannot be produced effectively by an organization’s facilities. Companies must carefully select suppliers for raw materials. When choosing a supplier, focus should be on developing velocity, quality and flexibility while at the same time reducing costs or maintaining low cost levels.

In short, strategic decisions should be made to determine the core capabilities of a facility and outsourcing partnerships should grow from these decisions. {text:list-item} 3. 2. 1PUSH VS PULL {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} 3. 3. 2. 1 CRP {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} 3. 6 KEY INTERNATIONAL COMPETITORS Fast-fashion specialty retailers with exceptional speed-to-market have outperformed department stores and less nimble specialty stores not only in their profit argins, but also in their pace of revenue growth, according to a study by The Sage Group LLC’s Apparel and Retail Group. The mayor comparable players that compete in fast fashion at international level are: Inditex -Zara Benetton H&M Gap Each of them has a vertical scope. Zara owned much of its production and most of its stores, the Gap and H&M, which were the two largest specialist apparel retailers in the world, ahead of inditex, owned most of their stores but outsourced all production. Benetton, in contrast, has invested relatively heavily in production, but licensees ran its stores.

The four competitors were also positioned differently in product space from Inditex’s chains. Inditex’s flagship brand, Zara, is relatively perceived as more fashionable than all the other three ann prices less than Benetton and Gap but higher than H&M. In these fuor competitors, Benetton and Gap place a relatively less fashionable and higher price, while Zara and H&M is more fashionable and price lower. {draw:custom-shape} {draw:custom-shape} {draw:custom-shape} {draw:custom-shape} {draw:line} {draw:line} {draw:line} {draw:frame} {draw:frame}

Meanwhile, the major Italian player ‘Benetton’ marched on high street with, offering colorful designer clothing for the whole family. Their strategy resulted affirmative with noticeably contemporary window showcase in all stores with independent units. The company was successful in Britain, however, having a long standing in the market, they witnessed failure to keep up pace with the accelerated high fashion pressure by the other European competitors, which are now the known as Mango, H&M and Zara. The rise of these competitors on high street has been witness successful because of a higher demand for fast fashion.

Styles showed in magazines and other advertorials are what people wish to wear. Top designers have created collection extensions, which cater people who can afford to spend their hard earned cash on triple figure. This resulted success to the affordable collection of European fashion brands A Swedish player, H&M offered readymade clothing stores – stocked with fashionable collection at reasonable costs. Its successful strategy was its own slogan ‘fashion & quality at the best price’ innovative design, reasonably priced and competent logistics.

Based in Stockholm, a team of 100 fashion designers assures that nothing has been imitated from the runway platforms. They are mostly inspired from street-trends, movies, magazines and exhibitions. Impressively, the designs reach retail shelves within 2-3 weeks. H&M’s high profile designer tie-ups with Karl Lagerfield and Stella McCartney have resulted entire collections available to the mass people at lower prices. This strategy is supported by huge advertising campaigns, which easily compete with the major brand.

In a world of advertisements and promotions, there is one store that has made strategy to not to spend penny on advertising, “Zara”, a wing of Europe’s biggest, rapidly evolving and most triumphant fashion clothing retailers, Grupo Inditex. Other well popular stores in similar chain are Massimo Dutti, Bershka and Pull and Bear. Inditex operates business via more than two thousand stores in 56 countries. The first Zara shop was launched in 1975 at La Coruna, Galicia and at present it operates more than four hundred owned stores globally.

In the previous five years they have witnessed sales up by 25 percent year on year. Zara runs its own design and production unit in La Coruna, Spain, which leads cancellation of the large out-sourcing operations, like H does in over nine hundred firms. It is modern, offering up-to-date lifestyle yet standard clothing lines for men, women and children. Zara offers reasonably priced, radical clothing, however, not of the top quality, which will last only for some seasons. As same as Zara, H can also put designs on retail shelves within three weeks.

Its product assortment is cheap and small yet frequent, offering consumers huge selection that results repeated visits to their stores to find “What’s New”. Hitherto, Zara has launched over ten thousand new designs and most of these will just be attainable for few weeks. Another Spanish player, Mango is a reputed multinational brand devoted to designing, producing and selling fast fashion and accessories only for women. Its clothing line includes Suit, Casual Sport, and Mng Jeans. It might not be as huge as H or Grupo Inditex, but has played excellent particularly in the UK.

No shopping malls resemble absolute with exclusive of these three brands. The pace of these companies in responding to changing consumer demands is an ideal proof to the retailing, producing and logistics skills needed in latest fashion industry. These new strategies are set up to develop aptitude to take advantage of the challenges of a competitive world market. Besides the diversification in product assortments there is one thing common in all these brands that is “intelligent logistics”. Well-organized communication between sales staff directly to the headquarters and producers lead them to match steps with high speed turnover.

The fact is that buyers are becoming preference savvy and smarter in order to what they shop. Even though they always have their preferred designer, they are also acquainted that a throwaway piece of fast fashion from a retail chain store will complete their outfit choices. At so reasonably priced all of these retail perceptions play on Friday nights when people feels they have nothing to wear. Retailers are sent in a scuffle to make-out the major catwalk trends from the drawing sheets to the sales shelves as fast as possible.

Read more

Customer LIfestyle and Behaviour

According to ‘DC, it is important for local companies in Malaysia to have a good understanding of the marketplace for their products and their target customers before engaging themselves in online retailing to ensure that they are able to develop more effective ND meet the requirements and expectations of their online shopping customers (Deadline Chug AFAIK Hard, All. Kuwaiti, and Husbanding bin Small, 2006) Demographic influences online consumer behavior Demographic based on variables like age, gender, income and occupation which can influence consumer behavior dramatically.

Age Graph 1: Statistic for Malaysian Online Shopping- Age Sources: http://humanities. Com. My/blob/online-shopping-statistics-in- Malaysia. HTML Graph 1 above shows the Malaysian online shopping which affected by age. Statistic shows the highest rank is 26 years old to 30 years old because most of hem are single and non-married nations and they have the ability to purchase in online shopping. However, the lowest rank of the age is 21 years old and below because majorities are students and they do not have financial to purchase products and services instead of their financial is control by their parents.

Gender Figure 1: Percentages of gender in online shopping Sources: http://UCLA. Com/business-hemline-shopping-scenes tm_source=afterburner=feed=Feed:+Kclau+ In perception of genders, statistic shows that males (56%) are more active on online purchasing while the females (44%) are catching up. This is because most of males are sensitive in technology gadgets and they are better in purchasing convenience important products. Whereas, females purchase products emotionally and individually, which means most of the time they purchase clothes, shoes, bags, cosmetics etc.

Especially females who are below 21 years old always purchase K-pop stuffs via online shopping. Income Table 1: Income in Malaysia Sources: http://www. acAcademiaedDueownload Figure above shows the average of MaMalaysianannual income. Nations who earned less than RMARMY000 will always enjoy online shopping because they can look for cheaper products. However, the frequency of online shopping will decrease if the income increasing because they have ability to purchase expensive and quality products Occupation Chart 1: Statistic for Malaysian Online Shopping maMalaysiahtHTMLigure above shows the statistic of online shopping.

The statistic shows that top management executive always used to online shopping as they need to up-to-date for the new products, technologies and systems so that they can earn the profit and reduce the cost. However, most of the retired and unemployed nations are laggards and they are not familiar to online shopping. Online buying behavior There are Top 6 Online shopping sites in Malaysia. However, each online shopping site has their own characteristics and specialty. LeLongmyMynd eBay Malaysia are the most popular local auction in Malaysia that you can search for the cheapest price of gadgets, DSDSSSLameras, computers and fashions.

Customers also can look for discount and great offer in this website. ZaAzaleamyMynd LuLovelaceashion are the most well-known boutique websites that every customer loves to browse especially females because they can buy a lot of clothes, bags and shoes without shipping cost and every purchased items will send to house. SuSuperblyalaysia is backed by MaMaybugor shop luxury and quality products online at affordable cost. Whereas BeBustyorld is the online shop for cosmetics, fragrances, skin care, make up and health care.

Table 2: Summary of Top 6 online websites (self-made) Frequency of Shopping Online Table 3: Frequency of Shopping Online Sources: http://ssSSLaiApplobal. coComN/asAsiaxpress/archives/1090 Chart 2: Frequency of Shopping Online Sources: Self-made According to table 3 and chart 2, the highest percentage of frequency of shopping online is about once a month (24%) and the lowest percentage of frequency of hopping online is almost every day (1 This is because MaMalaysianre busy in their work and family and there are some people who are still believe that the security still dangerous.

Respondents purchase online Table 4. ; What respondents purchase online ; http://ssSSLaiApplobal. coComN/asAsiaxpress/archives/1090 Sources. Chart 3. Based on the table 4 and chart 3, clothes and fashion accessories are the highest percentage which MaMalaysianill purchase online because there are many types of cheap clothes and they can shop around before purchase. ZaAzaleamyMys the example f clothes and fashion accessories website. Figure 2: ZaAzaleamyMyources: http://www. zaAzaleacoComy/YHowever, the lowest percentage of purchase online is white (major) appliances such as refrigerator because consumers prefer to see the quality of the appliances more than the price. If the quality of appliances is higher and the usage is long, consumers will afford to purchase if the price is not so expensive. Reasons of purchasing online Based on the pilot test, 73% of MaMalaysianre prefer to purchase clothes and fashion accessories because it is hard to find suitable clothes in a day and it is wasting of immimef they purchase via offline shopping.

They can do some research like price, shipping cost, services and varieties of products from different website. Besides, 40% of MaMalaysianoves to purchase books from online because there are some books are not selling in Malaysia such as “DuDeducefrom China. These books are recommended by every Chinese teacher but due to the low demand, these are not supply in Malaysia. So, MaMalaysianho are interested in these books only can purchase via online. Moreover, they will save their money as they will only direct and focus on what they should purchase.

Unlike offline shopping, MaMalaysianill buy additional items instead of purchase their needs and wants such as physical stores that use the product placement and sales to attract them to purchase items. In addition, there are 25% of the nations will purchase toys from online like minions, piupchucknd etc. Furthermore, 24% of MaMalaysianrefer to purchase medical supplies and cosmetics through online because some of the medical supplies and cosmetics difficult to purchase in Malaysia as they have not be approved by Malaysia’s government. Environmental factor drives/discourages of online shopping

Environmental factor include political (also includes legal) and social which will influence the online shopping. In Malaysia, there are some cyber laws to protect nations for example Digital Signature Act 1997, Computer Crime Act 1997, The Copyright Act 1997, The Communication and Multimedia Act 1998 and The Electronic Government Activities Act 2007 (NiKnitmoMostgoGobmyMy2010). Those are positive influence to nations who are decided to have online purchasing. However, social cases have affected consumer bebehaviorhat there are negative incidents were happened for online purchasing.

For example, nations fear of online purchasing because it is not security via online transaction, which means there will be spsparen your computer like personal data and account number will be detected and stolen. Negative impact from the environmental factor will be hard to boost up Malaysia’s economic. Moreover, It is hard to identify the quality of the product like most of teenagers nowadays prefer to buy K-Pops’ albums, posters and so on through online and they feel angry and disappointed that the products that they purchased are not in good quality.

Psychological factor drives/discourages of online shopping MaMoscowierarchy can be used to represent the psychological factors which developed by Abraham MaMoscown year 1943. MaMoscowierarchy shows the drives and discourages of online shopping. Figure 3: MaMoscowierarchy Sources: http://www. psPsychologicallycoComlblobide-and-seek/201205/our-hierarchy- needs MaMascotsierarchy is used because MaMalaysianeed to have a comfortable and easy lifestyle. After they know the needs and wants via online purchasing, they will ask for safety which is security in morality, family, health and resources.

However, if they got the negative feedback from friends and family, they will not onuntiedo purchase products and services via online. Meaning, nations must go through first step which is physiological before they enter to other layers. China Demographic Age Figure 1: percentage of age purchase online Source: http://www. fzFizzlingcoComnfo/view/2011 _6/1 51020438. htHTMLrom the graph we can see that 18-30 years old people is the most percentage to choose online shopping, the age below 18 percentage is almost similar with age between 31 and 35. Ages at 36 above are less to choose online shopping.

We also can see that age between 18 and 24 the percentage growth very fast. Basic this, we can now that in China, young people are more prefer online shopping than old people. Figure 2: percentage of income purchase online Source: http://www. emNearsightedlycoComouurinalshtHTMLarArticled723343&sh0′. FhFifthhe online purchase group in China is more in low-income family. It is get 62. 9%. (Lower than CNCCNY000 per month); the middle incomes get 35. 5%. (Higher than CNCCNY000 but lower than CNCCNY0000 per month); and the high income family percentage lust 1. 6%).

Gender Figure 3: Gender percentage of China online purchase. Source: http://www. liLionfishcoComcnCNNeb/oversea_show. asAspsArArticled34279 From this graph, we can see that online purchase in China, male is more than female. It is have different with our traditional concept. The male to female ratio was 5. 4: 4. 6, slightly more male consumers. Occupation Figure 4: Occupation percentage of online shopping Source: http://www. liLionfishcoComcnCNNeb/oversea_show. asAspsArArticled34279 For occupation, student this group is get percentage 20. 4%. Technical, worker and basic social worker almost get 39. %. However, the high level managers Just get 2. 2%. From there we can see that the distribution of Job, age, income is the same. Education Figure 5: Education of online shopping From this graph, we can see that the education has negative relationship with the percentage of online shopping. The more education level higher, they will lesser online shopping. Online buying behavior There are a lot of online shoppers in China. But mainly market is share by around 9 brand of online shopping company. The first place for China online market is TmTamaleIt can get around 50. 8% market shares.

And the second place is JiJinglingIt can get around 17. 1% market shares. The third place is TeTangentIt can get around 5. 6% market shares. The details are as below: Figure 6: market shares of China online sales Source: http://www. chCinematographiccoCom836/china-online-shopping-market- snapshot-for-q2sq013/ Frequency of item purchase online Figure 6: Frequency of purchase online in China Source: http://www. reArchdiocesancoComtHTMLeport/2010/5970. htHTMLn China, most people online shopping are about twice to four times per month. And only 3. 8% people no shopping online experience.

As this research, we can find that online shopping is very general in China Attitude Nowadays, online shopping becomes more and more popular in China. In these 10 years, more Chinese choose purchase online. Especially the young generation, they refer purchase online than shopping at store. During the survey, there are 47. 4% people prefer online shopping, 40% have no attitude and 12. 6% people dislike online shopping. (ReRestheHerscoCom2013) Some of people who have online shopping experience worried about the quality of the product and the post purchase service.

During the survey, around 55% people worried about the quality, and 27. 1% people worried about the post purchase service. (ReRestheHerscoCom2013) So the most online shopping people’s attitude is choosing the famous online shopping website and good evaluate shopping store. Reasons of making purchases Price Online product is always cheaper than the one in shopping mall. It is because online shopping can save the capital for rent store, transportation, and so on. And there is no agent to deduct a percentage from a sum of money. So the price is always cheap for customers.

Compare For online shopping website, there are thousands of stores for the customer, and every store has different products for customer to choose. So the consumer can easily to compare the same product from different brand or store. It is better for consumer to make evaluation. Time Online shopping can save time for the people who do not have enough time for hopping. Shopping online Just clicks the mouse, and then you can purchase what you want. It is fast and easy for you. Environmental and psychological affect online shopping Environmental In China, the environmental pollution is a big problem.

The automobile exhaust is the one reason leads that. So the companies provide the website for people shopping online. It can decline the pollution and make a healthful life style. For the customer, they also prefer online shopping. The environmental pollution is bad for the health. People inhale hazardous substance can lead many types of disease. The bad weather lsalsoan lead less shopping for sell in store. But online shopping will not have this kind problem. Whatever raining, snowing, or clouding outside, it will no effect of online shopping. For the company, it will keep the sale stabilized.

For the online shopper, they can purchase their favorites product any time. So the environment can affect online shopping. Psychological Online shopping no needing use the real money, they usually use the credit card to pay. The customers do not have the behavior pay the real money, it will lead they have less conscious of money, thus no control for purchase. For the online shopping ommanyit is an advantage thing. But for customers, they usual regret after purchase. In another hand, online shopping have model to show the product to the consumers.

The visual stimulation also is a point that leads more purchase behavior. People believe that the same effect of product will come to their own. Actually, different people suit for different things. Model has standard stature, and beautiful face. But not all the consumer has that. So we can see that the psychological also a point to affect online shopping. Japan Demographic influences online consumer behavior of Japanese in terms of age, ncincomegender and occupation (KoKettlend Keller, 2012). Age In terms of age, Japanese are mostly made up of generation of middle-age group of people.

From the statistic shown below, Japan might not encounter the same issue of aging like Singapore as the number of young-born generation is increasing and there is a pro for Japan to accelerate their economic transformation. Figure: Average age of Japanese Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication Gender in Japan Figure: Average Gender in Japan From the graph above, it is vivid that the women dominated the Japan population, and then followed by men. There is about 25. 5 million of married couple which forms their family. Only a small part of people are in widow state.

Disposable Income Figure: Disposable income of Japanese families It is analyzed that a family with a working head-of-household had a gross income of Yen 562,094. It is notable that the steep increase in disposable income in December. This is due to the year-end bonuses that Japanese workers received. Occupation and Lifestyle There are six type of popular occupation in Japan which is teacher, fisherman, models, physical therapist, engineer and chef. Japanese people enjoy a high standard f living, and nearly 90% of the population consider themselves part of the middle class.

However, many studies on happiness and satisfaction with life tend to find that Japanese people average relatively low levels of life satisfaction and happiness. Japan Consumer Online Shopping Behavior Figure 1. 0: Frequency of online shopping in Japan Source: http://ssSSLaiApplobal. coComN/asAsiaxpress/archives/1090 From the analysis of the chart above, it can be identified that the online shopping behavior of Japanese is very active. 36% of the respondents will shop online for almost every week. The highest number of Japanese, about 18% will shop online for about once every two weeks.

In general, Japanese online shopping is categorized as purchased online regularly as more of the people will be online shopping within a month. Figure 2. 0: Frequency of items purchased online in Japan From the above chart, it can be analyzed that most of the Japanese like to purchase the clothes and fashion accessories by online shopping. This is due to the modern thinking and Y-generation style. The second preferred items that Japanese purchase online are food and drinks. This includes the fast food restaurants as the people owdoodadsre very busy of their hectic life and work. After that, it is followed by books category.

This includes the magazines, newspapers, e-books and so on. This is quite common among Japanese because they like reading pretty much. Meanwhile, stationeries and major appliances shared the same dividend of 5% respectively. Toys score the least for 4% because the parents are more likely to bring their children to buy the toys in shopping complex rather than online shopping. Reasons for Japanese to make such Purchases Generally, Japanese perceive online shopping to be convenience (71 %) and easy 29%), with 62% of the respondents claiming that online shopping is easier than shopping via offline catalogue and telephone (Freeze, 2000).

In the pilot test survey, a questionnaire is distributed and the respondents are allowed to make more than one reasons of purchasing online. For Japanese, according to website of online shopping behavior in Asia(2013), 78% of the respondents indicated that secure payment facility and convenient payment methods are the driving force. This is because they are confident towards the money transfer between bank and mobile phone which needs deidentificationhen they purchase online.

From the website of online shopping behavior in Asia(2013) too, 86% of the respondents viewed that price and value is the most important factors because many times for conventional shopping they tend to spend a lot more than the required expenses like eating out and trtravelingFrom the analysis too, it can be identified that Japanese are really not concerned about the reputation of the website and customer service of the website. For 82% of them provide opinions that low delivery charges will be their major concern since some of he websites provide free shipping of they purchase till certain amount of money (Freeze, 2000).

Furthermore, Japanese are quite neutral towards the speedy transaction of the website. Plus, 70% of them are more focus towards promotional offers because they can find great deals everywhere, that made up for shipping and handling fees (Freeze, 2000). Environmental Factors Drives/Discourage Online Shopping Japan has always been perceived as one of the world’s healthiest societies. Japanese consumers are increasingly conscious of their health. Despite the issue of pollution ndNDegree of polluted of environmental factor, Hawkins and MoMotherboards010) mentioned that Japanese more likely to purchase online.

Besides that, they would not have the problem of finding a parking place. This means that environmental consciousness has been emerging and results in active online shopping in Japan. A survey conducted last year by the global advertising agency J. Walter Thompson found that 51 percent of Japanese consumers are more focused on the environment(ScCoffmannd KaSankt al, 2010). The survey found that the Japanese will buy environmental friendly products in the next five years extensively.

Read more

Hip Hop Childrenswear

The style express how active they were, and this collection adapted the idea of free, colorful, youthful but still comfortable to wear for children. This collection uses a lot of prints, and bright colors but still looks good on Fall/Winter season for children. Last but not least, I hope this collection can give inspiration and knowledge about the world-changing movement, hip hop. THE BEGINNING OF HIP HOP Hip hop started to began in South Bronx, New York city, around late sass. At that time black (skinned) people that mostly African-American was living as a group of minorities in America.

They can’t get the same facilities that white people can easily et. One of the story was, black (skinned) kids had to walk to school even their school has a far distance. But, for the white children, they can use the public transportation like buses. Then to express the injustice, they show it through creative ways. One of the hip hop pioneer is DC Cool Here (Clive Campbell). He is one of the people who developed hip hop music before later spread out through the world. Fig 1. DC Cool Here (Clive Campbell), 2008 At that time, hip hop also helped youngsters.

Instead of fighting with the street gangs, they spend their time dance battling. Then Africa Bumboat founded the Zulu Nation, it’s a confederation of street-dance crews, graffiti artists, and rap musicians. After that, hip hop movement gained more and more media attention, Billboard magazine printing an article titled “B Beats Bombarding Bronx”, commenting on influential hip hop figures like DC Cool Here. Hip hop still developing, until now, there are female hip hop artists too like Nick Mina] and Queen Latish. They also protesting the graphic hip hop lyrics depicting rape and violence against women.

Rap is also a part of hip hop. Rap became a way for artists to spread political and social messages to people who still unaware about the life of African-American people. Fig 2. Africa Bumboat (Kevin Donovan), founder of Zulu Nation, 2012 Later then, Hip hop started to spread out to the world “the center of a mega music and fashion industry around the world” that crosses social barriers and cuts across racial lines. 4 HIP HOP INFLUENCE ON FASHION ” Hip- hop has become a lifestyle that’s no longer Just associated with African- Americans or Latino, it has a global reach. – Task Lewis, Ph. D. ’09, assistant professor of fiber science and apparel design in the College of Human Ecology. Hip Hop movement is no longer associated only with one group of people, the hip hop style adapted to the fashion world, where now people can wear tracksuits, sporting gear, oversized T-shirts, overalls and combat boots. In sass, this look was adopted by major fashion labels, becoming part of the mass culture. Also, the hip hop subculture embraced the country club luxuries of more venerable brands, which features not usually marketed to urban youth.

In sass, one of the hip hop endorsement in fashion industry was done by Ideas, which shell shoe get popularized by group Run DMS. Ideas reportedly paid Run DMS $1 million for the deal. From there, hip hop’s influence in fashion continued to grow with corporations, and later with hip hop artists creating their own fashion labels. Ideas ads, Run DMS Fig 3. Michael Jordan with Nikkei Air Jordan, 1984 Then in 1984, Michael Jordan and Nikkei collaborated to create the Air Jordan basketball shoe. These shoes would become the most sought-after accessory since the Hermes Firkin.

While the price point was high ($100 at the time), it did not stop young men from lining up. Nikkei still sells the Air and releases retro versions of the sneaker that sell out in hours across the globe. 6 Hip hop in early development in clothing was embraced by American designers, Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hellfire. Men would buy clothes a few sizes bigger, adapted the baggy silhouette rappers were known for both on and offstage. Russell Simmons, one of hip hop producer, capitalized on this trend by creating Path Farm clothing, the first hip hop clothing label.

This revolutionized the fashion world, and many would follow in his footsteps, including Sean “Daddy” Combs and rappers Newly and 50 Cent. Path Farm Clothing Fig 4. Russell Simmons, 2013 After that, hip hop style spread out more and more through any part of the world, to he Paris and Tokyo streets. Designers took note of this and began adding a dose of hip hop to high end collections, such as the 1991 Channel collection, where Karl Laagered showed piles of gold Jewelry on models. In sass, many hip hop artists and executives started their own fashion labels and clothing lines.

This ready to wear collection is focused on children at their teenage (5-7 years old) whose parents living in upper-middle class. Focusing on parents who want to dress up their children based on unique street style but still comfortable to wear. Children who also fond of fashion and to look different among the others. All looks in this collection can be worn daily, at any occasions. In this childlessness project, I have learned that hip hop style which usually worn by adults can also adapted to kids garments.

Since its childlessness, all of the garments in this collection use comfortable material and easy to manage. From using the denim fabric, I also learned that many fabric manipulations can be made, such as making pleats from a piece of denim or ripped it. And by using subtle colorful fabric, it give more fun feeling to this collection. Overall, I have improve my knowledge in how to get theme, how to research on the theme and how to realizing my collection room the design stage until finish. BIBLIOGRAPHY Resellers, D. (2012, August 15).

Read more

Refreshing marketing campaigns

In 1996, the CEO of Coach foresaw this trend of convergence and decided to steer the company toward a faster cycle, demand stimulating fashion industry by appointing Reed Krakoff, from Tommy Hilfiger, as President and Executive Creative Director. Coach tried to change its image as the staid all-leather traditional handbag maker that it had been for its entire existence. Coach’s skill of producing high quality bag is prominent for long time. However, the brand was consistent, narrow and deep.

Luckily, Coach’s top management deeply appreciated both the shortcomings and the strengths of the leather-good makers. Therefore, they keep this strength while adding more value to Coach’s products. Coach started a serial of changing. Coach wanted its designers to” keep Coach relevant when fashion handbags feed frenzy was just beginning. First, they introduced many new styles, and materials to Coach’s collection. It unveiled the new “Ergo collection” with new shapes and design, and moved into a mixture of leather and fabrics.

To change the brand image, Coach replaced the old advertisements featuring bag-toting descendants of icons like George Washington with living legends such as Candice Bergen and John Irving to hawk its products and attract the younger buyers Coach yearned for. The strategy Coach has employed to gain competitive advantage was differentiation by updating its brand image from high-end and low end players, improving product designs, refreshing marketing campaigns, expanding and updating distribution channels, and remodeling operation process.

Coach would not have been successful if these processes were not done successfully. Alignment Coach was a great classic company with a strong heritage in craftsmanship and quality, which is core value of Coach. With changing consumer preferences, it was vital for Coach to evolve without sacrificing its core values. It had one look and the qualities we’re known for. Today, it has become more refined, more stylish and interpretive of style, but still incorporates the underlying qualities of the brand.

Coach insists giving customers a distinctive and easily recognizable product made out of excellent materials by skilled craftspeople. In process that the company creates value for the consumers, Coach converts the value from a craftsmanlike handbag to a stylish, fashion name brand by immense marketing efforts and building extensive yet selective distribution channel. Strategies: Expand client base without losing existing clients: The brand is gaining stature from being a sort of one-dimensional brand to appealing to a much wider consumer base. Coach used to occupy the `accessible luxury’ segment.

Now it also appeals to consumers in the designer and moderate segment. Changes, though, have not alienated existing customers while bringing in new ones. Over 80 percent of sales come from existing users Five years ago, it was 90 percent. In the year 2002, over 15 percent of our sales came from younger consumer types between 18 and 24. Broaden Coach Brand broadness and maintain consistent information: From 1999, Coach introduced footwear, eyewear, home furnishings, watches and jewelry, each of which encompassed the meaning of the brand from a fashion and design point of view.

Furniture was sleek, modern and dean, while the shoes were classic and often included hardware elements taken from the bags. When Coach moved forward into new categories, it’s really important to maintain the same aesthetic. Everything tried to tell one story or else the customer was going to reject it. This story is driven by a team with a shared vision and deep understanding of our brand. Developing a solid and growing customer franchise, they have expanded into international markets and broadened product lines, all with a consistent marketing message, from product to retail environment.

Update the brand image by more intensive advertisements: In 1996, print ads in the “Living Legends” campaign were elegant but had a staid look, with basic product shots on white background set against conservatively lit portraits. The ads described Coach as “an American Legacy. Since 1997, Coach has made great efforts to update its image by gradually increasing ad spending, which reached $17 million in 2002. Three times each year — spring, fall and holiday — Coach launches a major ad campaign in support of key selling seasons.

In addition, the same message will be reinforced in the catalog, Internet, store windows and outdoor advertising. Moreover, Coach’s retail stores have morphed from dark-paneled wood interiors into airy white spaces. Coach has led the push in-house to invigorate its advertising. Coach ads, once rather stiff and traditional-looking, are now brighter and more colorful with crisp images focused tightly on product, creating a look that–while not quite edgy like Prada’s–makes a younger and more modern statement.

Listen to customers and adjust to consumer’s behavior: One of the most important strategies of Coach is listening to the consumer to keep the brand relevant. Each year, Coach spends $2M conducting extensive marketing research. This company has a 7 million-household database for communication and research, where it can obtain critical knowledge about how the consumer thinks about the brand, how she goes about making a purchase decision and what roles fashion, price and style play.

Coach analyzes this information by consumer segments and category for its predictive power and for its insight into launching new products. It also has 1 million e-mail addresses, which it uses to communicate with its customers. It develops a communications platform via e-mail and gives customers a preview and talk about fashion and style. In the other word, Coach has changed from manufacturing to market driven company. Realizing that its best customers visit Coach every two months and purchase every seven months, Coach has increased the rate of product flow into the stores.

Every month, Coach introduces an assortment of new products to drive sales in all product categories, create a fresh shopping experience and, most importantly, to encourage consumers to revisit. Operation-wise, Coach updates operational model and technology to improve operational efficiency. In evolving from a manufacturer to a marketer, Coach needed a nimble and flexible operating model that could adapt to changing trends and patterns. The company increased its production flexibility, enabling it to introduce a broad range of new products in a rapid, but controlled fashion.

At the same time, it provided the company with gross-margin improvements. Its operating model includes a globally diverse sourcing base, strict quality control, a centralized, scalable distribution center and an established SAP Technology platform. Adopt multiple Distribution channels: Considering that women’s changing shopping patterns have altered the retail landscape, Coach has had to change with the times — with multiple channels of distribution. Its distribution in multiple shopping venues allows Coach to be wherever the consumer chooses to shop.

Currently only 12 percent of Coach’s distribution is to department stores. The rest is divided among Coach’s full-price stores (31 percent); its factory stores (29 percent); international (20 percent); other (6 percent); and direct marketing (2 percent). Overall, 62 percent of Coach’s business comes from direct-to-consumer channels, primarily its retail stores, with catalog and Internet sales contributing to the remainder. Thirty-eight percent of Coach’s business is done through its wholesale operation, which consists of department stores, international and business-to-business.

Expand stores rapidly: As Coach Brand strengthens, stores expansion becomes key growth strategy. It is fundamental to creating a compelling retail experience in accessory industry. The product needs to be heroic. Coach streamlined its format, creating a simpler, brighter and more open store. These stores provide a powerful backdrop to showcase Coach’s product. Coach is selective in its distribution, which is to market mostly in better department and specialty stores. Coach’s business is growing rapidly through department stores. By adding 100 more stores over the next four to five years, Coach expects to double the market share.

In the year 2002, Coach’s market share in the U. S. for handbags and accessories was 12 percent. It’s now 20 percent, and they expect to grow to 30 percent of U. S. market share. Coach had 106 retail stores in fiscal year 2000, and estimates to have 158 in 2003 and 200 in 2005. In addition, it has 76 factory stores, which provide a controlled venue for handling disposition requirements. While increasing the number of retail stores in US and overseas every year, Coach improved its current retail stores’ look to be more attractive – renovating the stores with white color, changing interior design.

Read more

Emo Culture

In today’s society there are many different subculture tendencies amongst young people, they are various and interpenetrating, but to the bigger part of them is leading the element music and above all such kind of music, that is with a history of many years, transformed in classic for many generations. But recently one very different from the entire subcultures tendencies phenomenon, called emo style, especially strongly caused a sensation. It is different not only at the way of clothing, at the type of music preferences, at the type of behavior, but it is different at the way, it understands the world and itself.

It is one “sad” subculture to a great degree namely because of the way, it perceives the ambient reality. The emo subculture is a combination from the punk rock and the hardcore tendencies. From etymological point of view the name emocore comes from emotional hardcore and its roots are in Washington in the middle of 80s. For founders of the emocore tendency could be shown Rites of Spring, Embrace and Rain. Gradually with the notion emocore they start to define themselves hardcore punk bands, which start to add melodic elements to their songs. The sadness, the love, the sense of guilt is the basic topic in the lyrics of the emocore.

The emo style could be qualified as „rock music with emotional-lyric elements”. But this couldn’t be a final definition, because the debates about the definition of the emo subculture still continue. The emo culture continues to develop and in 90s till today it continues to be popular for the young people. A whole teenage generation succeeds the name emo and the young people start to call themselves emos. The melodramatic behavior and clothes introduce a new taste to the music. This subculture is maybe one of the most popular and the most obsessing the mind of young people today.

At first considered as a music genre, the emocore today is a subculture phenomenon that unifies music, behavior, fashion, style and way of life. The values, expressed through the music, consist in emotional topics, often associated with the despair, the nostalgia, the broken heart, the hope and the self hatred. Emo-tional fashion… Interesting and contradictory is the fashion of the emo representatives. Staggering hair styles, combined with sport clothing, with many accessories and a strong make-up – these are the most distinctive characteristics of the emo fashion that has its varieties and modifications.

One of the most important signs, characterizing the emo subculture is the way of forming of the hair. The emo hair styles are unisex – they are suitable as for girls, as for boys. Usually the emo hair cut is short, colored in black or at the worst in dark red. Every day to the emo maniac are necessary tons of gel, to make his hair cut in the possible most cult way. A typical particularity of the emo hair style is the bang. It is maybe the longest element of the emo hair that is put closely over the one eye, as in this way it covers almost the half of the face.

Usually it is straighten with the help of a press and it is fixed with gel or wax. The hair at the back is disheveled, again fixed with different styling products. In the virtual space every one emo candidate could find precise advises in his search how to be emo. It exist many movies that explain by visual methods how to be made the hair style at home, what kind of hairstyling products to be used etc. To make a real emo hair cut it is not necessary the intervention of a hair stylist – it is necessary a little bit imagination and the help of one good friend.

Other, also very interesting for examination element from the image of the emo representative is the clothing. Tight jeans and t-shirts, with printed name of the favorite emocore band, skate sneakers, many-colored stockings, a great variety of accessories, badges, bracelets – these and many others interesting attributes characterize the image of the emo-tional young person. As a whole the emos don’t give a great amount of money for clothes, they tend even to make the clothes, that they will wear, by hand – one more sign of their irregularity.

The emos aren’t slaves of some brand, those sneakers they have to possess at any price. Bracelets, belts with caps, hats – all these accessories are various and multicolored and they contradict to the tortured and lacerated soul of the emo representative. Also very significant accessory is the ring, piercing the lower lip of the young subculture person. The emo-tional nature of the subculture youth… At their nature the emo representatives are extremely sensitive characters. The psychologists define them as introverts, who don’t want to communicate with the ambient world.

Because of that they find a field of manifestation in the poetry. The poems that they write are dark, dispiriting, depressive and they inspire sadness and nostalgia. In this respect they to a great degree resemble to the Goths. The life and the pain are basic topics in the poetry of the young creators. The specialists advise the parents to pay more attention to their subculture person at home, because namely this way of living of the young people leads to things, for those I’ll speak down below in the text and that are incorrigible In fact this type young people, as all the rest, need love and seek it all the time.

Just in the process of this search they fall into the dark bottom of their souls and they suffer desperately. They suffer, they cry and they listen to their favorite emocore bands – the only ones that understand them. For all these emotions, characteristic for the emos, it is especially important the moment with the age. Usually the emo maniacs are between 12- and 18-years-old, when they are especially emotionally and psychically unstable and namely this tendency is the vent for the most young emo adherents. When we add to this the factor „family problems” the receipt is perfectly made and the real emocore representative is ready.

Many stereotypes exist for the emo subculture like for the other subcultures. For example could serve the suicides, the vampire character of the preaching by them ideas and many others. Of course, there are young people, who take destructive for them decisions, but we can’t say, that all of them take the same decisions. On the contrary – this is one very interesting, to some degree new and unexplored subculture tendency that we don’t have to ignore, but to try to understand. Except the music and the poetry it exist one more place, where the emo representatives feel good.

This is MySpace – in this community they can really find followers in the ramblings of their minds. The dangerous emo subculture… The emo subculture got very popular in the last years with some negative events that had shaken the parents and the society. It is found to be that the values and the beliefs that he emo culture preaches are extremely dangerous the most for the health and for the life of the young people. But here it is not about alcohol and cigarett?s, but for something more dangerous and frightening, called suicide.

The emo communities decide their problems as they commit suicide by rituals. Even in Bulgaria these tragic events are a fact, to which we become witnesses „thanks” to the media. Before some months two 14-year-old girls horrified the society, cutting ritually their veins. The motto that they believed in was „The kitchen, the knife, the veins, end of the problems! ” And this is not the only case. In the virtual space the information for such tragic events flows. The emos believed, that after their death they will be regenerated and they will go to a better world.

Many sites and bloggs for the emo culture use quite scaring backgrounds that couldn’t be passed so easily by psychologists and other specialists in this area. Animated sites flow where for background are used children with gun points at their temples, broken hearts and blood. This is one more sign, that is evidence about the dangerous philosophy of the emocore representatives – and namely the suicide. In the media are often found articles with alarming headings and shocking photo material, that have for purpose to wake the sleeping social and parent conscience and to tell how suffer their children and how much they need the parent’s love.

However namely because of the creation of negative aura around the topic emo subculture it start to be published materials, examining the emo subculture like every one normal youth subculture with its moment character and sensibility, with its transience and colorfulness, with its poetics and many-siding. The emo subculture – dangerous or saving life… After all this, now in front of us is standing the question to what degree to scare from this tendency, to what degree the children have to be protected and how to be transformed the negativism in this tendency in positivism.

The emo culture is extremely excite, many-facing and various. But there exist deep-seated negative directions of thinking, that the young person have to bear in mind and not to be amenable to them. Every one teenager has the right to be such as he wants to be, independently to what subcuture tendency he is an adherent. The important is to be happy of what he is, of the life he lives and of what he believes in. The young person should believe in good, in beautiful and in positive. The emo subculture is also such kind of subculture. Let young people achieve to get only its good things…

Read more

Zara Fast Fashion Giant

Ezra is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing apparel retailers, owing to a unique blend of business practices and an Internal culture that many might say run “counter- intuitive” to those of competing U. S. Retailers. More recently, however, Industry analysts have started to suggest that the “fast fashion” business model that has made Ezra so successful over the past decade has run Its course and the very notion of disposable fashion is being rejected by the all important millennial market segment. Sing at least one of the company/industry related databases available to you at the Marcus (or some other) Library, as well as the attached articles and case studies, please provide a 5 page assessment of, and proposal for, Ezra as follows: Context: Briefly outline the scope of the company’s operations, including # of stores, the countries in which it operates, # of employees, annual volume and its history. HISTORY Ezra Is owned by Entitled AS (Industrial De Oodles Textile AS) headquartered In Rattler La Corona Spain with companies under the name of Ezra are located In the areas sites below.

Entitled sells on a global scale, with 4,900 shops In about 75 countries under different names such as Ezra, Shoo, Misaims Adult, Pull and Bear, Berserk, Strabismus, Ezra Home, and torque. Inedited reported that for 2014 sales they made $22. 76 billion with a one year sales growth. Their net income was $3. 24 billion which was a one year net income growth. Their total assets were $18. 72 billion with a market value of $81. 85 billion. Ezra Span AS headquartered in Artesia, La Corona Spain is the flagship brand for Inedited AS and is considered the “cheap-chic subsidiary.

Ezra runs about 2,350 stores in major cities worldwide, as well as, some 165 Ezra Kids shops in 75 countries and 125 shops across Canada, the US, and Mexico. Ezra Is considered a chain and sells women’s, men’s and children’s apparel. They also offer plus-size and maternity lines. I didn’t locate any information regarding who sells the plus-size and maternity garments and they are not sold online. Ezra began In 1975 and Is Index’s mall chain and brings In more than two- thirds of its total sales. Ninety-nine percent of Ezra stores are company-owned and other franchises or joint ventures.

COMPANY’S OPERATION Ezra produces 840 million garments per year, no extra Inventory is shipped to the stores unless there Is a demand for a particular garment. Ezra has eight brands Ezra, Ezra Home, Berserk, Misaims Adult, Shoo, Strabismus, Pull & Bear, Torque. They produce trendy, decently made but Inexpensive products sold In beautifully hybrid looking stores located in prime shopping areas such as Redo Drive in Los compared to H&M and the quality is better. You can purchase a sweater at Ezra at a low price of $39. 95 for women and at the high for $89. 5. Winter Coats with no lining UN around $190 and winter coats with lining run around $250 & up. Sara’s top competitors Gap, H and El Cortex Angles. Ezra The Gap El Correct Angles Annual Sales $1. BIB $16. BIB $19. BIB $12. BIB Employees 136,000 81,099 Market Cap $17,096. MM $70,212. MM Strategic Positioning: 1 . ) Briefly explain how the company implements the Six Elements of the Retail Mix as discussed in class and addressed in our text; Pricing, Location, Store Layout, Communication Mix, Customer Service and Merchandise Assortment.

Ezra has a clear focus and vision in the clothing market because they have captured the needs of their customers. They have shortened the conventional supply chain response time from 5-7 months to 2-oh months. Ezra makes about of their raw material. The remaining 60% is outsourced from within Spain, mostly from the La Curran. Designing of clothes at Ezra is done by creative teams of over 300 professionals at the headquarters in La Curran, Spain. After the garments are sewn, the clothes are returned to Sara’s facilities for ironing by an assembly line of workers.

Sara’s merchandise assortment is great in terms of color, styles and accessories for women, men and children. The clothing sizes are based on European body types which are rustically small than American body types. After this, the clothing items are wrapped in plastic and transported on conveyor belts to a group of giant warehouses. In the warehouse, the customized machines patterned after the equipment used by overnight parcel services, sorts, packs, labels, and allocates clothing items for shipment to Sara’s retail stores.

For Sara’s retail stores within a 24- hour drive, goods are delivered by truck whereas goods meant for stores beyond 24- hour drive are delivered by cargo Jets. On a global average of 17 visits per customer prevents any bottlenecks in the vertical integration supply chain. Ezra is constantly communicating with retail managers regarding what their customer’s needs are. Such as, what styles are selling, comments customers make about design features they like or don’t like. Sara’s inventory supply is small and they make frequent shipments to all their stores.

The quick turnaround of merchandise helps generate revenue, reduce inventory, eliminate debt and keep their customers happy. The competitors rely heavily on end of season sales and “black Friday’ sales in order to reduce inventory and eliminate debt. 2. ) How does Sara’s execution of this mix ampere to that of a primary Intricate competitor. Sara’s competitors rely on their products being designed in one location, shipped to a company overseas to make the clothes and shipped to a distribution center where the garments are inspected and then shipped to the various store locations.

The vertical integration in the supply chain definitely creates challenges for the designers, who have are competing with other designers having garments produced by the same manufacturer and factory closes schedules. If products are delayed, the company’s risk not having products in their stores on time. Additional challenges for designers are working one to two years in advanced on lines per season. Their stores introduce new products during the four seasons (fall, holiday, winter, spring/ summer).

Surplus inventory is stored in their distribution centers and shipped to the stores when they need to restock, fill special orders and complete online orders. Sara’s competitors conduct sales in order to deplete their inventory and to prepare for the next season of merchandise. The challenge with this process is that it generally creates overstock in the store’s storage room and added pressures to the employees who work in these areas. 3. What do you believe Ezra does particularly well or poorly? Explain your reasoning. *Advertising – Prices should compare to online logbook.

Sara’s strategic competitive advantage is that they change their merchandise weekly, their prices are affordable and of great quality and finally I think having their merchandised arranged in the store by color with the accessories was a great idea. H has their merchandised arranged by color but some stores are overflowing with products that you get lost. H also has a separate section for shoes and accessories whereas Ezra does not. The Gap’s store layout is and they do a great Job with the store layout.

Women’s merchandise will have more colors and selections and an organized, clutter free shopping space is definitely, at least for me, a great way to shop. H and the Gap sales are so awesome that customers are not concerned with the store appearance Just the great sales. 4. ) Based on what you have read and researched, provide a summary of Sara’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SOOT Analysis); the Times articles provide good insight on this. Action Plan: Based on what you have determined about the company, provide 3-5 specific proposals for how Ezra may continue on its growth trajectory.

Be sure to revived support for your reasoning. I really enjoyed visiting the store and Sara’s website. I think Ezra could improve in the several areas: 1. By offering the same sizes online as in the store, I think would increase in gaining additional customers who many not be able to visit one of the brick-n-mortar locations. This would also benefit those customers who rushed for a quick look at the merchandise, had time to try on several items but the POS line was too long, but they notice Ezra had a website. The customer finds out the item isn’t offered in her size. As a result, a customer is lost and may never return. Adding a plus line may be beneficial. I tried on several beautiful coats but they didn’t fit and I’m not a plus size. The largest size was a large in many of the coats. They do have several other merchandise that are offered in XSL. I checked with the sales person and it wasn’t offered in XSL. It would be wise to offer all merchandise in all the sizes that are available in some merchandise. 3. I know it’s the European culture to not approach customers to ask them if they need assistance. Some goes for some American cultures, but we do like to have sales people available who can answer questions without approaching the POS clerk.

I think this would be a good move. Grading criteria remains: 1 . ) Full coverage of all questions/topics 2. ) Evidence of critical thinking and reasoning 4. ) The “wow’ factor that takes the assignment beyond what has been requested Please see article links below http://thirstiest. In/articles/Imaginations_Ezra_Part_I. PDF http://thirstiest. In/ articles/Imaginations_Ezra_Part_II. PDF http://www. Businesslike. Com/news/2012-11-08/gap-gains-with-Ezra-responding-to- into-the-worlds-largest-fashion-retailer. HTML?

Read more

Swot-Prada

In 1919, PRAVDA became an official supplier to the Italian Royal Family. Over the years, the Pravda name gained increasing renown and prestige. The Group saw a turning point in the development of its activities at the end of the Seventies, when McCain Pravda, Maria’s grand-daughter, launched a partnership with Patriot Beriberi, a Tuscan businessman already involved in the leather goods sector with Grapnels and Sir Robert. This partnership combined creativity and business ideas to commence a new era.

In 1977, Patriot Beriberi set up I. P. I. Spa to consolidate the production resources that he had built up over the previous ten years, including those of Sir Robert and Grapnels. In the same year, I. P. I. Spa obtained an exclusive license from McCain Pravda to produce and distribute leather goods bearing the Pravda brand name. In the following years, the activities of the two families were gradually brought together within a single Group and, in 2003, Pl spa was merged into PRAVDA spa.

In 1983, the Pravda family opened a second store in the prestigious Via Della Sprig in Milan. The new store showcased the new brand image as it blended traditional elements with a modern architectural setting and would represent a revolution and a benchmark for luxury retail. In response to the growing demand for and appreciation of Pravda products, the range was extended from leather goods (such as gag, luggage and accessories) to include footwear, as well as men’s and women’s ready-to-wear apparel.

From 1986, new stores were opened in New York and Madrid, followed by London, Paris and Tokyo. The first Pravda homeowners fashion show was held in Milan in 1988. In 1993, Ms. McCain Parka’s creative inspiration led to the establishment of a new brand ” MIM MIM ” designed for women who are particularly fashion-forward and interested in trendy and sophisticated fashion and lifestyle. MIM MIM now offers women’s ready-to-wear, leather goods and shoes, and is an increasingly important component of our Group’s sales.

Read more
OUR GIFT TO YOU
15% OFF your first order
Use a coupon FIRST15 and enjoy expert help with any task at the most affordable price.
Claim my 15% OFF Order in Chat
Close

Sometimes it is hard to do all the work on your own

Let us help you get a good grade on your paper. Get professional help and free up your time for more important courses. Let us handle your;

  • Dissertations and Thesis
  • Essays
  • All Assignments

  • Research papers
  • Terms Papers
  • Online Classes
Live ChatWhatsApp