CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
This chapter is an introduction for explaining the topic of the usage of celebrity endorsement in fast fashion market. It introduces the background of study, the importance of research, objectives for investigation, research methodologies and the organization of this thesis.
1.1 Background of study
The fashion apparel industry has notably developed since 1980s (Djelic and Ainamo, 1999). However, several adverse factors such as mass production diminish, seasonal number increase and supply chain modification have compulsively altered fashion retailers to manufacture apparel in lower price and higher elasticity in design, quality, distribution and speed to market throughout the past twenty years (Doyle, Moore, and Morgan,
…show more content…
The number of fast fashion brand for example H&M and Zara keeps proliferating despite costly rental fee and economic downturn in Hong Kong. H&M opened their first retail store in Hong Kong in 2007 and further set up 20 stores more within less than 10 years. Another well-know fast fashion brand, Zara have possessed totally 14 physical stores since 2005. Fast fashion market is proved to be highly successful when they are easily accessible nearby. It seems that it is taking over the traditional apparel industry, especially in Generation Y market. The power of fast fashion cannot be underestimated and they are worth …show more content…
2005). For example H&M, which is a well-known fast fashion brand, contracts with numerous celebrities gaining popular attention. However, marketing expert asserted celebrity endorsement is just not worth the cost with reference to the study in Social Influence Journal (Mohr, 2012). Furthermore, According to the University of Colorado Boulder study conducted by Mohr (2012), the tactic has no effect on competing brands in same market indicating no increase in market share for the company being endorsed. Several fast fashion brands do not apply celebrity effect. Mohr (2012) states “if a product is really strong, you do not need a celebrity to sell it to consumers.” It is believed strong brand could get over celebrity endorsement. Zara is credited with being a leader in fast fashion (The Economist, 2005; Strategic Direction, 2005, Foroohar and Stabe, 2005). Whereas they do not have any celebrity endorsement up to the moment, Zara could still gain the first place in fast fashion market. Inditex, the Zara’s parent company based in Spain, recently reported profits in the first quarter jumped by a whopping 28%. Sales were up by an impressive 14% in 2015 (Sachs, 2015). Sachs further contended fast-fashion retailers are challenging traditional ones and threatening status quo especially these 10
Case Analysis Disruptive Business Models Markides (2006) explains that disruptive business models are strategies implemented in a company which enables it to outshine the competitors in an individual market. The disruptive model focuses on distorting the existing market and making the customers prefer the new business as opposed to the others (Magretta, 2012). Disruptive business models may include offering higher discounts, after sales services and premium products. Such a model is often sudden, and it takes over the entire market which sometimes leaves the other market players disoriented. During this time, such a company takes advantage by acquiring massive customer following and ultimately more profits.
Due to their huge success, control over suppliers can be always be maintained by the company. Rivalry among the competitors is the force to reckon with and it is the one that will decide the future profitability of the fashion industry. Competition in fashion is very high since there are only a handful of competitors when looking at the giants. Future Industry evolution Scenario 1 The future of today’s world is technology.
Second Assignment – Annotated Bibliography and Thesis Statement by Cheryl Chi Yue Leung (214185045) York University NATS 1840 15th January 2016 Thesis: How material elements of the modern fast fashion practice reinforce the meanings of unethical production, and thus explain low prices come with low product quality and negative environmental and social impacts Annotated Bibliography 1) Anguelov, N. CRC Press. (September 2015) The dirty side of the garment Industry: fast fashion and its negative impact on environment and society.
Zara provides fashion apparels for men, women and kids of all ages . Zara 's target business is youthful, cost cognizant, and exceptionally delicate to the most recent design patterns. They section their product offering in such a way that ladies account for 60%, men 's 25% and kids 15% accounts for division . Reason for choosing Zara for analysis in spite of being U.K. based company is that, it operates largely in U.K. Zara 's and its parent organization, Inditex, maybe taken as the course reading for how to do retail store network right . Zara has turned into a most loved of design fans, including industry insiders.
Subsequently, the celebrities that are symbols for these products become a product in themselves. In some cases, we buy products purely because a celebrity has worn it, endorsed it, or has been associated with it in another type of way. A consumer’s inclination towards materializing a lifestyle of a celebrity leads to the merging of the corporate and the self. This is extremely prevalent with the Kardashian family. The Kardashian family became celebrities through their reality television show Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
3.0 Industry and Competitor Analysis The fashion industry in the UK, Europe and the US has several players who compete for the rich market niche. Compare to its competitors in the clothing and accessories industry, Ted Baker performs very well as evidence by its improved financial ratios e.g the EPS over the past five years. 3.1 Industry Overview The high-street fashion industry is dominated by several firms but Ted Baker is continually winning attention in that industry.
The company Fast Retailing Co., Ltd was found and established on 1 May 1963 in Japan by Tadashi Yanai. Presently, they have launched several apparel and lifestyle brand of UNIQLO, GU, Theory, Comptoir des Cotonniers, Princesse tam.tam and J Brand. UNIQLO was first, to be introduced by Fast Retailing in 1984. It was a brand created to provide comfortable causal clothing to everyone, women, men, kids and babies. A lifestyle wear that was made for all, for everyday activities.
For instance, the world population is aging (OECD, 2013a), therefore, changes in demographic may be dangerous to solely teenage-oriented apparel firms based on the fact that competition for that segment is gradually diminishing (e.g. Coneen by design ltd). Nevertheless, these could be an opportunity for open and more flexible existing fashion retailers. Nowadays, customers are demanding for convenient shopping experience due to limited time in accessing or going to the market in person. Therefore, fashion or clothing firms with quality and easy to navigate web page will attract more customer (Chaturvedi, Martich, Ruwadi & Ulker, 2013).
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Zara can be identified as one of the largest international fast-fashion organizations which is owned by the fashion group Inditex. Their first store was opened in 1975 and from that point of time, they have had an unstoppable growth throughout the years as up to now. After 42 years of operations, today Zara has been able to expand themselves with 2169 stored over 82 countries all over the world. Rather than they were a high fashion brand in the country, Zara has focused themselves as a fast fashion brand where they will change their fashions at a great pace where no one can reach them. Also, the most attractive thing is that all those latest fashion designs are introduced to the public at an affordable price.
Zara is vertically integrated and takes care of designing, manufacturing and distributing its products. This gives it an immense hold on the market as most of the operational inefficiencies are eliminated by the company’s on employees who identify with the larger goal and value proposition of the brand (The New York Times, 2012). Zara works along with the consumers to understand them more closely rather than imposing its own predictions on them. Zara creates an environment of artificial scarcity in its stores for every design it manufactures so that consumers get a feel of exclusivity rather than stock pile up (Johnson, 2012). This gives them a sense of pride to buy a limited edition of products which they find at Zara stores only.
In terms of differentiation, ZARA’s “fast fashion” philosophy is unique, which create demands and lead the trend in the garment market. They respond very quickly to the demands of target customers and focus on young fashion. In production, they design quickly, production quickly and update quickly.
Fast Fashion is movement of the catwalk designs into he stores in the fastest possible way. It is a speedy response to the latest trends and making them available to the customers at a lower price. A design idea from a runway show in Paris is now available at say for example, Top shop within a month or few weeks. As quoted in Journal of fashion marketing and management: volume 10(3), “fast fashion is a business strategy which aims to reduce the processes involved in the buying cycle and lead times for getting new fashion product into the stores, in order to satisfy consumer demand at its peak.
1. In order to understand the success of Inditex’s best brand, Zara one has to understand their strategic choices, and at its core this revolves on having a good understanding of who Zara targets, and what makes this brand attractive. Zara’s most important target market can be understood by the use of demographics, they target young (18-40 year old) women, who are price-conscious with a mid-range income, and very sensitive to fashion trends.
Threats of substitute product - high • Buyers are likely to shift to other products considering the weather conditions. • Low price jeans. • Substitute like formals and trousers Bargaining power of customer – high • The power of buyers is comparatively high considering the fact that they can simply change to other brands. • Converting cost is low. • substitutes Competitive rivalry – high • high chance for customers to shift to substitute brands – ( CK jeans , guess jeans, DKNY jeans and Diesel) • mid – class employees prefers low rated jeans • Low level of product difference will increase competition because of no brand ID.
Nowadays, with the improvement of living standard, fashion has becoming more and more important to the world. There are lots of different types of fashion companies all over the world. One of the most popular companies called ZARA. ZARA is a fashion clothes company which was founded at 1975 by Amancio Ortega who is a fashion retailer group company’s founder from Spain. That means ZARA is a subsidiary of INDITEX.