SWOT Analysis

As a group we visited Selfridges and took photographs of a few designer brands. I had taken some photos of the designer brand Miu Miu. Looking at the brand layout and garment details. Here are a few images I had taken...

 

 

 

 



Strengths: The store has a large stock range. The brand also has a strong brand image. The logo is very sophisticated and can be clearly seen from a far distance. The garments are reasonably with all the garments made from such luxurious fabrics. Miu Miu do both Men's and Women's wear, but the menswear department is located on the ground floor.

 

Weaknesses: I found that there isn't many Miu Miu garment stores inside of other well known brands such as Liberty's & House of Fraser. Miu Miu has 4 department stores in London.

 

Opportunities: I think that Miu Miu need to expand their website. They only sell accessories online. Selling more garments online would boost their profits and also the label would get more noticed around the world. They could also do more designer collaborations to create some even more interesting garments.

 

Threats: The current financial climate could be a potential threat to Miu Miu's branding. The standard rates are also getting higher. It seems that other designers aren't wanting to collaborate or that Miu Miu don't seem like they need/want too.

Shop Report

For the shop report each group had to select a brand which is currently under performing. Our group had decided to look at Urban Outfitters. The Urban Outfitters we looked at was located on Oxford Street. It has been in the news quite often recently, but not really for anything it would want to celebrate. Now Urban Outfitters has suffered a major blow, shares for Urban Outfitters have dropped to its lowest levels in two and a half years. During our visit I took photos from inside the store, finding out what is going wrong with the brand...

Ambience & Visual Merchandising

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the photographs I have taken these show an overall ambience of the shop. The store has a Concrete grunge feel to it. Filled with retro signs clearly telling you which way each department is. There is great lighting and it always seems to be kept tidy well. I don't think there are any bad point about the shop layout and the way the present there merchandise within the shop overall seems to be presented in a good way. 

 

 

Branding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking at the branding techniques, I found that the brands within the shop are clearly sign posted. The mannequin presented outfits need better lighting as they seem to be a dim light. All the hangers are wooden, the swing tags state clearly how much everything costs and what size it is. Although I would say most of the garments in here are quite pricy for what you buy. Urban Outfitters desperately needs to learn how to appeal to an older demographic again because right now, its products are too expensive for the type of customers it's attracting.

 

Key Shapes/Fabrics & Prints

 

 

 

 

Shapes: I noticed a lot of draped tops and dresses throughout the store. There were also a lot of oversized coats and tops throughout the shop. Denim skinny, flared and straight shape trousers.

Trends/Prints: A key trend that I had seen a lot of throughout the shop was American vintage sportswear. Black and white Line prints, sports Logos, and big numbers printed on the front/back of plain white tops. I feel that this trend has been around for some time now, there needs to be a more fashion forward/creative approach to sportswear that Urban Outfitters should start moving forward with.

Fabrics: The majority of the coats were made from polyester. The tops were mainly cotton/polyester.

The changing facilities still had the retro feel from throughout the shop. With plain wooden doors, large mirrors with great lighting and wooden rail holders. 

They were very clean and tidy. The layout and design of the changing rooms were very consistent with a great vintage feel...

From my shop report information I have gathered together, I feel that Urban Outfitters is a store that has a very kitschy appearance that relies on customers stumbling upon quirky items. Urban Outfitters clothes are aimed more towards the teenage market. Sure the teenage market isn't a bad one to be in. High Street retailers such as H&M and Forever 21 do very well among this demographic and also attract customers in Urban Outfitters' desired older age range. But if Urban Outfitters wants a chance of competing with them, it needs to sell more affordable items beyond just its sale section.

PESTEL Analysis

The second lecture was an overall understanding of shop analysis. After the lecture learning about 'what is a brand' each group had to pick one high street brand from a list to create a PESTEL analysis. We had chosen the high street brand Zara. Each of us then looked into the individual categorises of the PESTEL analysis. I was researching into the technological aspects of the brand. I found that there is a high percentage of users which prefer to go online shopping as appose to buying directly from the shop. Our group created our PESTEL report on Photoshop to present our findings... 

Recent Fashion Trends - Feminism

After the lecture which introduced us to 'Fashion Forecasts' our group had picked to look at the forecasts within Lingerie. As a group we found that the market value in 2013 was lower than in 2007 and that it is not expected to recover for another 3 years. We had found this according to Just Style's Lingerie trends and global markets report. This was interesting to find out as it makes you wonder did lingerie not manage to evolve the way other parts of fashion are? or if the styles had failed to meet customers standards?...

A major Lingerie brand that is failing at the moment is La Senza. They are not keeping up to date with the current trends and went into administration last year. 

 

 

La Senza's remaining stores in the UK are set to shutter after administrators failed to find a buyer despite having numerous talks with a number of retailers. La Senza are stopping trading in the UK as they are no longer delivering what customers want.

As I researched I had found that a popular trend within lingerie was ‘Feminist’ Lingerie. In the world of lingerie, there is a fine line between risqué and risky. Therefore we have feminism to thank for making our underwear more comfortable yet still modern. Recently Stella McCartney has launched lingerie that is comfortable and fits the body how it should without 'enchanting' the female form. This range Stella has released is everyday lingerie how it should be, both comfortable, sleek and not too revealing. 

'Mapping Your Fashion Profession'

Both BA Fashion & FAD were all introduced to the 'Mapping Your Fashion Profession' unit on 1/10/14 . This brief is all about understanding fashion marketing and branding. For me, its not the most interesting part of the course, however it is vital to know all the aspects of the fashion industry. After the lecture explaining this unit, we got into groups and we spoke about market segmentation, and then looked into tribes/consumers. Thinking about what consumers we would potentially aim our brand at. I found looking at the different tribes very interesting. Some of the tribes that we had looked at I had never come across before. Finding out about tribes such as 'Dollar Dad’s' that I hadn't heard of, was quite inspiring during our group discussion. I am looking forward to developing this unit.