Management Basics

"Managing the fashion business by marketing, merchandising and retailing effectively to generate profits and adequately grow the business. "

"Fashion is not an art, it is industry"- Jean Miur

Markets are places for buying and selling, for exchanging goods and services, usually for money. To constitute a market there should be a genuine need, the customers should be willing and able to buy the fashion products and the aggregate demand should be sufficient to enable a supplier to function profitably.

Marketing is a business philosophy or way of thinking about the firm from the perspective of the customer or the potential customer. Fashion essentially involves change defined as a succession of short-term trends or fads. In order for the change which is intrinsic to fashion to take place, the industry must continually create new products. Fashion Marketing is 'the application of a range of techniques and business philosophy that centres upon the customer and potential customer of clothing and clothing-related products and services in order to meet the long-term goals of the organisation' - Mike Easey.

Fashion marketing concept attempts to embrace the positive aspects of high concern for design, customers ad profit by recognising the interdependence of marketing and fashion design personnel. Low concern for customers, profit & design leads to failure. This occurs as a consequence of overestimating design ability while disregarding customers preferences & the need for profit.

'What do fashion marketers do?'  A fashion marketing researcher my investigate the market shares of competitors ad trends in those shares. The manager must collcet and pass on information to ensure that designers are adequately briefed. Later the manager is required to sell the designs at a presentation to the retailer, usually in the face of fierce competition. The manager's knowledge of the retailer's customers and an awareness of his or her own company costs will enable an effective marketing function. After careful research and planning the manufacturer may decide that a brochure is needed as part of the promotional effort. He would need to thus brief the person preparing the visual and textual material for the brochure like an estimate of the number of brochures needed and a list of addressed to post the same to. The major marketing activities needed here would be marketing research, analysis of the status of the business and preparation of a future marketing strategy. A marketing decision must be made about the positioning and pricing of the product, taking into consideration the strategic goals of the company as ell as the price sensitivity of its customers.

Marketing environment is all the influences beyond the control of fashion companies that affect marketing action. It includes considering of the social, cultural, technological, economic and political context within which the fashion marketing occurs. Micro-environment includes factors which ideally are within companies' control i.e. their suppliers, marketing intermediaries (which help to get the goods from the factory to the consumer) and the consumers themselves. Factors considered within the macro-environment affect not only the company, but all the other members of its micro-environment, namely its suppliers, consumers etc. These generally have a much wider influence and their effects become apparent more slowly than factors within the company. A company's macro-environment essentially is composed of politics and law, technology, demographics, social & cultural factors and the economy.

A central component of the definition of fashion marketing is satisfying the consumers' needs profitably. To achieve that it is necessary to understand consumers, their needs and wants and how they will respond to various marketing efforts. Consumer demand is the guide to intelligent production & merchandising. A knowledge of the fundamental facts of what consumers want ad why is clearly of the first importance; to those who plan the policies, design the product, determine the price lines, prepare the advertising and sales promotion, sell the goods and make the collections, in fact all who deal with the problems of the consumers.

All consumers are different from other consumers, but, this is not contradictory, they are similar to some other consumers. Each consumer is unique. Besides bespoke tailoring and couture items, most fashion marketing is concerned with the provision of standardised garments aimed at particular groups of consumers. The marketing volume clothing demands that groups of consumers with similar needs be identified and then supplied with similar products. A study of consumer behaviour not only provides the framework for identifying consumer needs and target markets, it enables the anticipation of consumer responses to marketing actions. 

Marketing mix

The marketing mix is the combination of the elements that a marketeer offers to the target market. It comprises decisions made about the product, price, promotion service and distribution that are assembled in a coherent manner to represent the firm's offering to a consumer. The offer you make to your customer can be altered by varying the elements of the mix. So for a high profile brand, increase the focus on promotion and desensitise the weight given to price. 

Fashion merchandising involves all the activities of planning, developing and presenting product lines for target markets taking into consideration timing, styling, assorting as well as the 4 P's of the marketing mix. It is applied to both retail and manufacturing. The fashion industry is unique in the sense that continuous change is seminal to the definition of fashion. Hence merchandising in the fashion industry is different than in the other consumer goods industry. Merchandising can be defined as 'the activities involved in planning and development (or buying) of a merchandise line for targeted customers, providing them with what they want when they want it and at prices they can afford an are willing to pay'. Thus the key to successful merchandising is achieving the "five rights" i.e. to have the right product in the right quality, available at the right place, at the right time and at the right price.

Fashion merchandising functions

The merchandise planning process allows the retail buyer to forecast with some degree of accuracy what to purchase and when to have it delivered. This will greatly assist the company in attaining its sales and gross margin goals. The primary objective of merchandise planning is profit improvement. As the buyers' plan for each department unfolds, you can get a better handle on potential profitability. There are three definite steps to merchandise planning:

1. Define your merchandise plan - every retail organisation must have a vision in order to provide its buyers with some insight into the store's image, merchandise quality level, price point policy, marketing approach, customer service level, desired profit margins etc.
2. Gather historical information - in building your six month plan, the objective is to prepare a month-by-month total rupee-purchasing schedule for the company. Then, repeat this process for the next level of detail. 
3. Perform qualitative analysis - i.e. identifying the proper components in a mixture. In this case, the mixture is the merchandise plan and the components that affect this plan are customer profile analysis, department analysis, advertising review and visual presentation analysis.

According to Kotler " Retailing includes all the activities involved in selling goods or services to the final consumers, for personal and 'non-business' use." It is responsible fr matching individual demands of the consumers with supplies of the manufacturers. The various processes which help the customer to procure the desired merchandise from the retail stores for their end use refers to retail management. Retail management includes all the steps required to bring the customers into the store and fulfil their buying needs. Retail management saves time ad ensures the customers easily locate their desired merchandise and return home satisfied. An effective management avoids unnecessary chaos at the store.

Areas within Retail Management Process

The American Marketing Association defined a brand as "a name, term, design, symbol or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from the competitors". A retail brand is a combination of the company's heritage, the merchandise mix, the store environment, the service strategy, the advertising and promotion. Successful retail branding starts with a clear definition of what the retailer stands for - an identification of what the customers associate it with, leading customers to think: "This brand is a reflection of me.. This brand is meaningful to me..". 

Fashion Retail has become one of the world's most internationalised and fiercely competitive retail sectors, revolutionised by the web and overhauled by changes in technology, supply chain and consumer demand. Fashion Retailing considers everything from manufacturing and supply chain to managing, marketing and selling of products in-store and increasingly via digital channels, at the luxury and value end of the market.

More recently it is essential that fashion retailers have a strong brand image to stand out in the competitive global market place. Fashion retailers are creating channels that are engaging, inspirational and memorable to enhance the customer experience and build strong relationships. The very nature of fashion retail is a fast-moving industry, as retail organisations try to respond to and predict customer demand and future trends.