...“The Future of Gap” Jocelyn Bridgett Columbia College Gap Inc. is a large retail company that operates outlet stores which sell casual apparel and accessories for men, women, and children. The company primarily conducted its business through four business divisions: Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, and others (Wheelen & Hunger 2010, p.21-3). A resource must have five qualities to be seen as contributing to competitive advantage: it must be valuable, durable, rare, difficult to imitate and complex. That is, the resource must be valuable in that it contributes to the value perceived by the customer. It must also be durable, meaning that it is not temporary. It must be rare as well; many other companies should not possess this competitive resource. As Gap growth started to plummet the manager came up with something new such as: Gapkids, babygap, and then discount stores. Gap had a method wearing khakis and blue shirt. However, it was easy to replicate therefore Gap found themselves competing with other retailer’s such as Target and Khol’s at the time. Now-a-days there are several stores duplicating Gap’s same image of the khakis and blue shirt. The Exchange where I am employed is now going to the khakis and blue shirt as well starting May 15, 2012. Capabilities Old Navy capabilities incorporated plus sizes for women which help boost their sales. Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic were able to expand their target market by offering their clothing etc. online as well...
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...SPANISH FASHION BRAND ZARA Carmen Lopez Ying Fan Brunel Business School Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management (2009), 13:2, 279-296 INTRODUCTION Zara is one of the world’s most successful fashion retailers operating in 59 countries. However, there is little research about the firm in English as the majority of publications have been written in Spanish. This paper seeks to address this gap in the literature by examining the internationalisation process of Zara. This study adopts an in-depth case approach based on extensive secondary research. Literature published in both English and Spanish has been reviewed, including company documents such as annual reports. The paper starts with a brief overview of the global textile and clothing industry, followed by the case study of Zara. The main part of the case examines the key aspects in the internationalisation of Zara namely: motives for internationalisation, market selection, entry strategies, and international marketing strategies. In the final section, comparisons are made between Zara and two of its main competitors, H&M and Gap. The global textile and clothing industry The removal of all import quotas in the textile and clothing industry from January 2005, involving the unrestricted access of all members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to the European, American and Canadian markets is considered a key driving force in the development of the clothing sector (Keenan, et al., 2004). This new scenario has created opportunities...
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...Assignment Questions for Case 11 Gap 1. What does a five-forces analysis reveal about the strength of competition in the U.S. family clothing stores industry? 2. What factors are critical to success in the U.S. family clothing stores industry? 3. Develop a competitive strength assessment of the four major competitors in the U.S. family clothing stores industry using the methodology presented in Chapter 4. Based on the results, who is in the strongest overall competitive position? Who is in the weakest position? 4. What is Gap Inc.’s strategy? Which of the five generic competitive strategies discussed in Chapter 5 most closely fi t the competitive approach that Gap is taking? What type of competitive advantage is Gap trying to achieve? 5. What does a SWOT analysis of Gap reveal about the overall attractiveness of its situation? 6. What is your overall appraisal of Gap’s financial performance? (Use the financial ratios in Table 4.1 on pages 94-96 of the text as a guide in doing your financial analysis.) 7. What recommendations would you make to Gap senior management to improve upon its turnaround strategy? What actions are necessary to restore the competitiveness of its core Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy brands? Hints: You can use a five force model like this one below . And a weighed Key Success Factor/Strength Measure | Importance/Weight | Gap Inc. | TJX Companies | Ross Stores | Abercrombie& Fitch | American Eagle Outfitters | | | Rating ...
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...INTERNATIONAL MARKETING CASE STUDY ZARA: THE SPANISH RETAILER GOES TO THE TOP OF WORLD FASHION Professor: Jennifer Stack Student: Martina Sekuloska San Sebastian October,2014 International marketing [ZARA:THE SPANISH RETAILER GOES TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD FASHION] INTRODUCTION Inditex is a fashion retailer which dates back to 1963 when it started life in a small workshop making woman’s clothing. Today it has more than 6.460 stores all over the world (Inditex, 2014). Officially it all started with the launch of the first Zara store in La coruña, north-west of Spain in 1975. At that time the textile maker Amancio Ortega decided to open his own store after years of work in the textile industry. This was followed by the brand’s internationalization at the end of the 1980s and the successive launch of several another retail concepts: Pull&Bear, Massimo Duti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe. Today, Inditex is considered to be the greatest fashion retail group, and its founder Amancio Ortega, the richest person in Spain. Zara is the flagship chain of the Inditex Group which generates nearly 65% of the net sales of the group (Inditex annual report 2013). It encompasses many different styles, from daily clothes, to more formal elegant clothes for women, men and children. This case study tackles the challenges of being the world’s fashion retailer, the sustainability of the competitive strategy, and the group’s internationalization process. ...
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...SPANISH FASHION BRAND ZARA Carmen Lopez Ying Fan Brunel Business School Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management (2009), 13:2, 279-296 INTRODUCTION Zara is one of the world’s most successful fashion retailers operating in 59 countries. However, there is little research about the firm in English as the majority of publications have been written in Spanish. This paper seeks to address this gap in the literature by examining the internationalisation process of Zara. This study adopts an in-depth case approach based on extensive secondary research. Literature published in both English and Spanish has been reviewed, including company documents such as annual reports. The paper starts with a brief overview of the global textile and clothing industry, followed by the case study of Zara. The main part of the case examines the key aspects in the internationalisation of Zara namely: motives for internationalisation, market selection, entry strategies, and international marketing strategies. In the final section, comparisons are made between Zara and two of its main competitors, H&M and Gap. The global textile and clothing industry The removal of all import quotas in the textile and clothing industry from January 2005, involving the unrestricted access of all members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to the European, American and Canadian markets is considered a key driving force in the development of the clothing sector (Keenan, et al., 2004). This new scenario has created opportunities...
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... “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands”. That’s the slogan for one of the most popular chocolate candies in the world. The inventor of this marvelous creation was Forrest Mars. M&Ms are nationally popular from regular people to the president. They are so popular that they are stocked on Air Force One. But what makes Mr. Mars truly important is what he has done for the allied troops during World War II by sending tubes of M&M’s overseas to help with the rations. So if he was never born, then millions of people would be lost without their precious chocolate treat and the war might not have turned out for the best. Forrest Mars was born on March 21, 1904 in Wadena, Minnesota. When he was six, his parents divorced and he was sent to live with his grandparents in North Brattleford, Saskatchewan, Canada. Forrest and his mother kept in touch, however he did not see his father until he was a young man. Growing up, Forrest was like a sponge, especially in math and always soaking up more knowledge any chance he could. He was also a bookworm on the hunt for trivia games and trivia knowledge. He was a champ with board games, poker, chess and cribbage. In the year of 1922, Forrest graduated from Lethbridge Central School in Alberta, Canada. Since he was a bright chap he was offered a scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley. At Berkeley he studied mining. Like his father Frank Mars, Forrest was sweet in the kitchen as well as a savvy thrifty businessman. He was thrifty...
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...in stock Exchange per minute. For each stock, for each day, we have a detailed amount of messages, detph for ask and bid and the volume traded. AA ADBE AMAT AMZN BHI BRCM CELG COST CTSH DIS EBAY GE GILD GOOG HON INTC KMB MMM PFE PNC 1.2 Instructions Alcoa Adobe System Applied Material Amazone.com Baker Hughes Inc Broadcom Celgene Costco Wholesale Cognizant Technology Walt Disney Ebay General Electric Gilead Sciences, Inc Google Honeywell International Intel Corp Kimberly-Clark 3M Corp P zer Pnc Finance AAPL AGN AMGN AXP BIIB CB CMCSA CSCO DELL DOW ESRX GENDZ GLW GPS HPQ ISRB KR MOS PG SWIN Apple Inc Allergan Inc Amgen Inc American Express Co Biogen Idec Inc Chubb Comcast Cisco Dell Dow Chemical Express Scripts Holding Corning inc Gap inc Hewlett-Packard intuitive surgical Kroger Mosaic Corp Procter and Gamble Southwestern Energy Construct 4 equally portfolios with the average of message by stock as criteria. Plot the graphs reprensenting the spread, depths, messages and volume for these portfolios. Construct 4 equally portfolios with the average of volume by stock as criteria. Plot the graphs reprensenting the spread, depths, messages and volumes for these new portfolios. Compare between the 2 constructions of the portfolios depending on the criteria. 2 2 METHODOLOGY 2 Methodology 1. Filter the data by minut, so as we can have all the information concerning the variable (spread,...
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...Gap Inc. in 2010: Is the turnaround strategy working? Gap Inc. is a leading international specialty retailer offering clothing, accessories and personal care products for men, women, children and babies. Gap owned and operated more than 3,100 Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy stores world wide in 2010. With stores located in the U.S, UK, Canada, France, Japan and Germany, Gap Inc. employees nearly 165,000 employees world wide. Since 2002 Gap Inc. has been a number of issues including the declining sales of the family clothing store industry. During this time many turnaround strategies have been implemented in the attempt to eliminate long term debt, redesign the companies online presence, create a new e-commerce platform, expensing internationally and improving quality, styling and overall image. Through this adoption since 2002, the market share and sales of Gap Inc. have still decreased and the brand image has also taken a hit. An Internal analysis shows that even though sales have decreased, Gaps financial performance has strengthened year on year. Gap’s Liquidity, leverage and profitability have shown a stead increase that has helped the company maintain a stronger business situation than competitors throughout the recession. A SWOT analysis of Gaps Inc.’s internal structure shows strengths in net profit margins, a strong franchising model and the reinstatement of their strong brand image. Weaknesses include high levels of competition, large amount of substitutable...
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...Zara vs. GAP Inc. American GAP and Spanish ZARA Abstract We are going to compare two super giant clothing retail companies of the world in this thesis. These two giants are dominating apparel retailing market nowadays with their simple and attractive with high level quality of clothes. We will try two analyze working culture, business performance and history, competition and geographic dominance of two clothing retailer giants. Years before two small stores opened and they succeed to dominate market with their modern style and different business doing. • Zara has already changed the fashion industry. - Business Insider Zara is most #58 biggest brand in the world according to Forbes. • America's largest apparel retailer is embarking on a turnaround plan to recapture cool customers. - Business Insider Gap inc is #745 Gap biggest brand in the worlds according to Forbes Zara shops followed swiftly in New York in 1989, Paris in 1990. Now the group has nearly 3,900 stores in 70 countries around the world. Gap has 3,100 stores globally and employs about 150,000 people. A Gap spokeswoman declined to comment on the loss of the top spot to Zara. Let's check analyses of these two giants with full provided information. Firstly take brief tour to their history and about founders. Brief History of Brands Fashion giant, Zara, forms part of the retail group ‘Grupo Inditex’ which Mintel (2007) acknowledges as one of the “largest, fastest growing...
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...non-exempt positions. The GM is responsible for implementing the individual store strategy in a manner consistent with Gap Inc.'s Purpose, Values and Behaviors. The GM leads their team to meet net contribution goals, sales goals, customer service targets, and Operating and Human Resources objectives through motivation, inspiration and accountability. The GM is accountable for professional representation of our brands within their locale, understanding our competitors and their operations as well as driving excellent tenant and community relationships. Leadership and Employee Results (25%) • Holds Store team and self accountable to all Gap Inc. standards of performance and behavior. • Effectively sources, recruits, selects and on-boards all management and non-exempt store personnel. • Maintains optimal staffing levels to ensure business needs are obtained while promoting associate retention. • Promotes a high-quality store associate experience from on boarding through the associate life cycle. • Promotes maximum team and individual performance through consistent coaching and feedback. Drives in-store performance management processes. • Partners with District Manager to create individual development plans that support performance needs and career growth for self and direct reports. • Recognizes and rewards behaviors that are in alignment and support Gap Inc. s Purpose, Values and Behaviors to promote a high-performance team. • Recognizes escalated associate and customer...
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...| Assignment2: GAP INC 1. 5-forces analysis reveal about the strength of competition in the US family clothing stores industry:- US apparel industry is segmented based on gender, age, size and price considerations. Most of the clothing industries focus on women’s segment, because their clothing has a major market value of 50 % and the remaining 50% is shared by men’s wear (37%) and children’s wear (13%).Other than this market share is divided by price point.65 percent of market share is value price clothing industry, other 35 per cent is occupied by higher price items. With the help of 5 force analysis we will study the US family clothing industries competition in detail. i. Threat of rivals As per the above conditions we can say that US clothing industry is highly fragmented. In this market there are many small firms which are fighting to improve their market share along with customer base to have higher margins. However, the four largest (Gap, TJX, A & F, Ross) national chains acquired 39.4% of US market share. In this atmosphere every firm is offering discounts to compete with the discount retailers, because of this the profit margins are becoming thinner. Other than this firms need to customize their designs with regular intervals as per fashion and should be up to date to capture the customer attention and satisfaction. ii. Threat of new entrants. Because...
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...7 August 2013 Making Products Ethical Global Competition • As global competition increases, many international companies have transferred their production to developing countries. • Consumers demand for quality products at lower prices. • Consumer awareness and concern for ethics has grown. Thus, they seek for products that are made ethically. Products made in Sweatshops • This concern exploded in the late 1990s. • Activists embarrassed famous brands with exposés of working conditions abroad. • Nike and Wal-mart are two of the key targets of these activists. White House Task Force • Consumer activists and industry representatives collaborated to form the White House task force. • This task force suggests that codes of conduct must be established for overseas production. • Firms are to label their products “not made in sweatshops” • Mattel and Disney are two of the companies who adopted and attempted to enforce the codes of conduct. • Mattel hired an independent panel to monitor its factories; Social auditors visit Mattel factories three times a year • Disney conducted overseas inspections and cut off subcontractors who failed to make improvements. Social Accountability 8000 • Involves nongovernmental agencies operating in developing countries and major international auditing firms to oversee firms that comply with this standard. High Profile Culprits: • Nike o Formed a labor practices...
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...Mars Inc. 1 - COMPANY BACKGROUND Mars, Incorporated (Mars or “the company”) is a privately-held company, primarily engaged in the manufacture and sale of confectionary products, pet food products, drinks and staple foods. The company operates in about 68 countries worldwide. It is headquartered in McLean, Virginia and employs about 65,000 people. The company's net sales are estimated to be around $30,000 million. Mars is a private company and has not released its annual report. Therefore, its financial details are not available. Mars produces and distributes branded snack foods, main meal foods, drinks and pet care products. It also makes drink vending equipment and electronic automated payment systems. The company operates more than 130 factories, in about 75 countries worldwide. The company operates through six business segments: chocolate; petcare; Wrigley gum and confections; food; drinks; and symbioscience. The company's chocolate segment operates under brand names such as M&M's, Snickers, Dove, Galaxy, Mars, Milky Way and Twix. The major brands under the petcare segment include Pedigree, Whiskas, Sheba, Cesar and Royal Canin. In the Wrigley gum and confections segment, the company owns Extra, Orbit, Doublemint, Skittles, Starburst and Altoids. The company operates its food segment under the Uncle Ben's, Dolmio, Seeds of Change, Ebly and Masterfoods brand names. Its drinks segment includes Klix and Flavia brands. Furthermore, the company's symbioscience segment owns...
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...……………………………………………………8 Organizational Design for an International Environment……………………….….9 Products and Service……………………………...………………………………………...9 Information Technology and Control Systems………………….……………………..10 Company Size, Life Cycle and Possible Declines………………………………………..11 Organizational culture…………………………………………………………………...12 Ethical value…………………………………………...…………………………………...14 Decision making processes……………………………………...…………………………...17 Conflict, power and politics…..…………………………………………………………..18 Brief Summary of Key Findings……………….……………………………………………...20 References.……………………………………………………………………………..………21 Executive Summary This report is an organizational analysis of The Gap Inc. and its portfolio members. It describes a brief overview of the company to where it is now. It also outlines the major brands that are under gap inc. such as Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta, and Piperlime. The strategies section goes through a brief analysis of the company under Miles and Snow typology, the company’s goals and objectives, the strategies the company has in place to achieve these goals and objectives, and whether these strategies have been effective. A short summary of the organizational designs and its effectiveness along with how the company’s organizational structure and whether this structure works for them and their business. An internal and external analysis outlines...
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...studying the industry model, Gap Inc. business model will be used. Gap Inc. Business Model Gap Inc. is a specialty retailing company which offers clothing, accessories and personal care products for men, women, children and babies under five brand names - Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Piperlime and Athleta. Gap Inc. segments its market by income, with Banana Republic serving the high-end market, Old Navy catering to the lower end market by delivering cheaper apparel and Gap lying in between with apparel of moderate prices. Gap Inc. also segments its market by lifestyle, with Banana Republic serving mainly the working population by selling professional attires, Old Navy catering to the young and families while Athleta serves active women inclined towards sports. The range of diversified brands gives Gap Inc. its competitive advantage as it is able to reach out to more customers through the different value propositions that each brand offers. Other than offering trendy designs, Gap Inc. also provides value to customers through its strong brand name established worldwide. Gap Inc. has expanded multiple brands internationally and currently owns 3,000 company-operated stores and 200 franchise stores over 40 countries. Other than opening stores, Gap Inc. also has an e-commerce platform Universality which enables consumers to shop online from all five brands conveniently. This service has allowed approximately 90 countries to shop from its website, enabling Gap Inc. to gain access to...
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