...Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study: Marketing a Business Jason A. Knight August 21st, 2011 Professor A. Garabedian 1. Explain why Sears or Wal-mart cannot effectively create a trendy counterculture image. Urban Outfitters can be credited for successfully creating a trendy counterculture image. They have been able to do this by targeting specific markets in key areas and locations, offering exclusivity, and promoting a certain lifestyle. Sears and Wal-mart have both established themselves as being highly successful and profitable business chains. However, even though these large chains have established themselves as strong contenders in the retail market Sears and Wal-mart cannot effectively create a trendy counterculture image. Sears and Wal-mart lack the ability to offer exclusivity and the ability to target specific markets. Both chains are just simply too large. Even though there are Urban Outfitters locations worldwide they still manage to offer a very specific selection of items on a small scale to accommodate the social and socioeconomic demographics of the area in which they are located. You can find a sears or Wal-mart in virtually every state in the U.S. and find the exact same broad range of products. There is really no differentiation, nothing that sets the stores apart. Literally just anyone has the ability to shop in these places and offering such a broad range of products, including groceries, clothing, and electronics attracts a wider range of people...
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...Unlike other retailers, Urban Outfitters’ marketing nearly begins and ends with the shopping experience itself. The company does little if any advertising, in print or otherwise. Nearly everything rides on producing a unique experience. Urban Outfitters has been a consistent winner with tight marketing and storefronts that completely set it apart from other retailers. Typically a niche company finds a narrow category in the broader industry where it can outperform larger retailers. Once the consumer is singled out and approached with the right sort of attention, that consumer will respond to the brand. For Urban Outfitters, this meant understanding the psychology of a very specific group of customers and then doing something a big retailer literally could not do: be small and exclusive. But Urban Outfitters did it on a not-so-small scale and without much traditional marketing. From the beginning, Urban Outfitters used location, the shopping experience, and a certain sense of fashion to sell to people who were somewhat counterculture and certainly not looking for conformity. Originally thought of as the “hip” college crowd, the typical Urban Outfitters’ customer is looking for a sense of differentiation. By all indications, this conception was accidental; when Hayne opened his first 400 sq. ft. store, he probably had no illusions of “chipping away” at JC Penney’s or Sears’ market share. All the same, Hayne essentially invented a category, and discovered that his customers...
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...American Eagle Outfitters, Inc.: Retail Store Analysis Company Overview: American Eagle Outfitters, Inc., a billion dollar corporation, is ranked as one of the largest retail chains in America. With their central corporate headquarters in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and two other corporate facilities located in New York City and Tokyo, Japan, American Eagle, Inc. operates numerous mainline stores, factory stores, franchised stores, and distribution centers across the country and the globe. Company History: In 1977, the Silverman brothers, Jerry and Mark, who owned and operated Silverman’s Menswear, a Retail Ventures, Inc. company, founded American Eagle Outfitters. Opening the first store in Novi, Minnesota, the Silverman brothers were hoping to diversify their menswear line. Several stores were opened up and a catalog was created. American Eagle Outfitters continued to grow into 1990, when a leadership change to Jacob Price led to the introduction of casual, private-label merchandise for men and women. In 1994, American Eagle Outfitters became part of the NASDAQ stock exchange, which enabled the opening of 90 stores the following year. New executives came aboard in 1996 and decided to alter the target demographics of the target market and reach more women, as well as focus on those 18-32 years of age. Shortly after, American Eagle expanded to e-commerce with ae.com. By 2000, American Eagle operated 500 stores and revenues for the company quintupled to $1 billion. The Canadian...
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...Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study Part 4: Marketing a Business Introduction to Business – BUS 100 November 22, 2010 Abstract Urban Outfitters is a continuing case study that describes the basic components of the marketing process (product, promotion, pricing, and distribution). This assignment gives insight into several companies marketing strategies that businesses use to excel in customer service and satisfaction with their product(s) and or services. The study specifically addressed four questions regarding counterculture image, big box stores, exclusivity and the enjoyment of shopping. The study’s hypothesis was that a business must complete an external analysis in order to determine what changes are taking place in their city, county, state, country and around the world that could potentially impact its business? Also, it’s important to find out want and how they make their final purchase decisions. A company must be able to determine their potential, weaknesses, opportunities, and competition. Explain why Sears or Wal-mart cannot effectively create a trendy counterculture image. One reason as to why Sears or Wal-mart cannot effectively create a trendy counterculture image is because it would completely go against the general norm. This image normally targets a specific group of people. Wal-mart’s main focus is to help customers save money, which will hopefully result in them living better. Before opening Wal-mart...
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...Urban Outfitters Financial Analysis Financial Accounting Introduction A financial ratio (or accounting ratio) can best be described as being “the relative magnitude of two or more selected numerical values taken from an organizations financial statements (Libby, Libby, Libby & Short, 2011),” that can be used to evaluate the overall financial condition of a corporation or other organization. Whether they are viewed by stakeholders within a firm, or current and potential stakeholders outside of the enterprise, financial ratios can used to compare the strength of a company against its own performance objectives, or in comparison to those of its leading competitors within the industry. Although there are a variety of financial ratios in use today, there are basically five main categories in which they reside: liquidity, efficiency, financial, profitability and dividend (Libby, Libby, Libby & Short, 2011). In this report, selected financial ratios, one or more taken from each of the aforementioned categories, will be used to compare the operational performance of Urban Outfitters for fiscal years 2009, 2010 and 2011. Liquidity Liquidity ratios, such as the current, quick, and cash ratios provide an interested party with insight into a firm’s ability to pay back its short-term liabilities (debts and payables) with its short-term assets (with cash, inventory, and receivables). For example, the current ratio tells you “how much...
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...Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study Part 5: Managing a Business Dr. Deborah Hill December 15, 2009 As businesses today is about passion and creating new things. The word fun has become a big element in the business strategy of many highly successful businesses. Make fun an important part of your corporate culture to enable relentless innovation and create an inspiring culture. 1. Explain how Urban Outfitters’ management ensures that no two stores are the same. Urban Outfitters ensures that no two stores are the same by knowing what is selling in the retail stores nationwide. In addition, Urban Outfitters has corporate directors which are in charged of what merchandise is brought and sold to the different stores. The store concepts, operations and products are very much integrated. Some stores are duplicated across the nation; Urban Outfitters does not have the same stores due to management and the company policy. John Kyees has stated that upper management is responsible for the mundane bones of the business, such as distribution and call centers, design at the store level. For example, director’s over sight the budgets for the store displayed at corporate level, but managers many of whom are artist and are very intelligent in interior design regarding specific store design. Moreover, in opening up new locations it demands that store managers and product developers are to be in teams to make sure each store is different. Their brand is to be unique even with the...
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...Introduction Urban Outfitters, Inc.(URBN) is a lifestyle retail company, which operates retail clothing stores. It operates through two reportable business segments: Retail and Wholesale. The Retail segment consists of Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, Terrain, Leifsdottir and BHLDN brands, whose merchandise is sold directly through stores, catalogs, call centers and web sites. The Wholesale segment consists of Free People division. It designs, develops and markets young women's contemporary casual apparel. Urban Outfitters was founded by Richard A. Hayne and Scott A. Belair in 1970 and is headquartered at Philadelphia, PA. Financial Ratio Analysis Firms release financials at their fiscal year end which includes an Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Statement of Cash Flows. Financial ration analysis and forecasting is performed based on the numbers from these financial statements. Financial ratio analysis consists of a series of ratios that measures a firm’s liquidity, profitability, and capital structure. These ratios illustrate how effective and efficient a firm’s operations are. Urban Outfitters Inc. has experienced an increase of sales volume with an average sales growth of 22.4% per year. As far as their competition, Urban Outfitters Inc has outperformed their nearest competitor’s sales growth. However, this must be kept in perspective since URBN has experience such significant gains due to the amateur status of added stores and wholesale lines. One...
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...involved in starting a business are finding an idea or ideas, finance or funding, and finding committed people. Finding an idea or ideas for a new business may not be as hard as it sounds or seems. Most of the time, the idea comes from inside you. There is a deep, nagging desire to see something accomplished or provided. This focus may start with a select group of people, as it did with “Urban Outfitters”, who began by targeting college students. Finding financing or funding may prove to be a bit more challenging until you decide to do some serious research. You may find various opportunities to acquire the financing you need through investors from different business industries. There are investors searching for small businesses in which they can invest money, time, and/or resources. Finding committed people who can see your vision for your business, and commit to working hard to meet the mission and goals for the business are valuable assets. These people may be family members, friends, classmates, or someone you met and connected with soon after sharing your vision. Urban Outfitters was started by Richard and Judy Hayne, and Richard’s old college roommate, Scott Belair. Roughly a year after the first store opened, Judy and Richard divorced and went separate ways; Scott Belair graduated from school and left the enterprise for Wall Street (Steve Jobs, 2011). Finding these great people does not mean they will stay with you forever, so choose wisely. Question 2: Define what...
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...FINANCIAL ANALYSIS NAME: Urban Outfitters, INC EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Urban Outfitters is a clothing store for women and men founder in 1970 by Richard Haynes. Urban Outfitters is a public trade company and have over 400 retail locations. This financial overview will show Urban Outfitters company important segments, financial statement, ratios and analyze of the company’s cash flow. Urban Outfitters two major competitors are Abercrombie and Fitch and J Crew. Urban Outfitters is able to increase their sales every year because they focus of the differential of product, brand prestige and customer loyalty. Over the past five years, Urban Outfitters has experience an increase of sales from $349 million to $1,092 which average grow of 33.43% per year. Urban has out performance their competitor’s sales by near 29% and the industry by 22%. The two main competitors for Urban, ANF has an average of sales growth of 20% and JCG has growth of sales of 5%. As an overall evaluation, URBN’s operating efficiency has increased during this time period due primarily to this: operating costs declined while gross profit increased. Asset turnover decreased slightly which indicates their asset basis generated fewer sales. However, this is minimal when compared to return on assets which increased every year. SWOT ANALYSIS: Strengths: • Email customers when it is a new merchandize • Recommend product based on what the customer has previous buy ...
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...Urban Outfitters Professor Lizzie Lewis Business 100 Alfreda Leonard February 7, 2011 Identify at least three challenges when setting up a business. Explain why they are challenges. Three challenges when setting up a business are finding the right location, finding the right employees and developing a mission or vision statement. Location can cause a business to flourish or to fail if a business is not easily accessible or visible it makes it hard for customers to locate or find it. Your employees will be your representatives to your customers and the outside world, if your employee is rude or inconsiderate it will be a direct reflection of your business. A vision or mission statement is very important because it lets customers know the intent of your business. Define what a niche product is. Give at least three examples of niche products. A niche product is a made and marketed for use in a small and specialized but profitable market. Three examples of a niche products Coogi clothing line, a thrift store and neighborhood convenience store. Explain why a niche company might have an advantage in a market. Would price necessarily be an advantage? Explain why or why not? A niche market company might have an advantage in a market because of its location. Price would not necessarily be an advantage because in a convenience store the price is usually higher, but customers frequently visit these places to buy items they forget at the local grocery store. Identify...
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...Financial Analysis of American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. and The Buckle, Inc. As requested, I gathered, evaluated, and processed information on American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE: AEO) and The Buckle, Inc. (NYSE: BKE). I considered both the recent and the expected future financial performance of each factoring in sector risk to support my recommendation of which entity is the better investment at this time. I prepared a financial ratio analysis of each entity with the understanding that the ratios are a snapshot of current performance and not a guarantee of future success. The U.S. equity markets are fluid and subject to unforeseen macro events; the retail sector in general is especially sensitive to consumer discretion that at times is fickle. I considered all input while reviewing our corporate investment parameters and tested my results across a mid-term horizon. Using my base criteria of a strong management team, solid corporate strategy, competitive advantage and balance sheet strength, I reviewed management’s discussion of its own analysis of financial performance as presented in the Form 10-K. BKE has a better return on assets than its competitor and is driving sales growth that is evident in a higher gross profit margin. Although BKE has a higher debt to equity ratio than AEO, management is aggressive in opening new stores as well as remodeling older footprints. Such a strategy increases revenue and accompanying net profit while generating net...
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...Date: October 27, 2011 Student Name: Instruction Name: Professor James Young Course/Class: BUS100096VA016-1118-001 Assignment #1: Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study Part 2: Creating a Business 1. Setting up a business can be a very challenging job. Having a beautiful dream thinking about the business while sitting in your nice office with all the amenities is not enough. It is great to have an idea, but you have to make that idea work. There are lots of challenges that face their owners when setting up a business. It could take years for a business to produce enough profits for the owners to be able to enjoy. Most businesses start small and in time, with experience, goodwill, and success, they can grow into bigger businesses. Here are three challenges that new business face: ➢ Idea/Concept: Many entrepreneurs face risks to create their own business because they do not have the right idea or concept. Sometime ideas and concepts are good but if customers will not buy what they are offering, the business will fail. Richard Hayne and his wife Judy along with an old college roommate, Scott Belair had a great idea. They wanted to open a small shop filled with unique objects that they could sell. The basically sold used second hand clothes, bohemian knickknacks, and “found objects”. Their customers would come for the unique “found objects” and were willing to pay what they were being sold for. Entrepreneurs- people...
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...Running Head: URBAN OUTIFTTERS Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study Frank Dlouhy Dr. Isabel Graf Introduction to Business- BUS 100 24 October 2010 1. Identify at least three challenges when setting up a business. Explain why they are challenges. First off you should consider "Is there really a need for your new business?"(McNamara, 2002). Market research should first be conducted even at the lowest level. If I drive around my neighborhood and there are already several Mexican food establishments, do I really need to open up a Taco Bell? My wife once had the idea of putting an outdoor mat under the BBQ on our deck to catch all the drippings and such. It worked and she was so pleased until we went to Home Depot the following weekend and there were already several manufactures carrying the same type product! Another challenge is finding the right staff. As Snyder (2009) stated "Staffing is difficult- trust your instincts when hiring, then train, train, train. Ignorance costs more than training." I would see it every day in the Navy. My last job was at a command where we taught either new pilots how to fly helicopters or gave older pilots refresher training on the helicopters they used to fly. It is very fast paced and not the best environment for training the younger personnel who fix the helicopters the pilots learn on. We would naturally prefer to be able to get already qualified personnel but that doesn't happen as often as we would like. You always have to have...
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...Unlike other retailers, Urban Outfitters’ marketing nearly begins and ends with the shopping experience itself. The company does little if any advertising, in print or otherwise. Nearly everything rides on producing a unique experience. Urban Outfitters has been a consistent winner with tight marketing and storefronts that completely set it apart from other retailers. Typically a niche company finds a narrow category in the broader industry where it can outperform larger retailers. Once the consumer is singled out and approached with the right sort of attention, that consumer will respond to the brand. For Urban Outfitters, this meant understanding the psychology of a very specific group of customers and then doing something a big retailer literally could not do: be small and exclusive. But Urban Outfitters did it on a not-so-small scale and without much traditional marketing. From the beginning, Urban Outfitters used location, the shopping experience, and a certain sense of fashion to sell to people who were somewhat counterculture and certainly not looking for conformity. Originally thought of as the “hip” college crowd, the typical Urban Outfitters’ customer is looking for a sense of differentiation. By all indications, this conception was accidental; when Hayne opened his first 400 sq. ft. store, he probably had no illusions of “chipping away” at JC Penney’s or Sears’ market share. All the same, Hayne essentially invented a category, and discovered that his customers...
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...TIMEPLAN AND RESOURCES 7 9. CONCLUSION 7 10. BIBLIOGRAPHY 8 1. INTRODUCTION One would like to take this opportunity to thank the company “Urban Outfitters Inc.” for inviting me to conduct this innovation audit. It is with great pleasure and intrigue that one immerses oneself in the innovative aspects of your company and seek ways to improve the overall success of your establishment. The audit will be conducted over an extended period, as yet to be outlined. In order to establish a thorough audit one will conduct assessments and surveys in most of the company’s UK, Ireland, European stores and the head office headquarters in Oxford Street. Before one begins it must be outlined why one believes that this innovation audit will significantly improve the prosperity of this company: Innovation has become one of the key business progressions to deliver sustainable competitive advantage. It is a complex process, one easily identified as being of critical eminence for organisational success yet not easily controlled. The successful management of innovation delivers value to end users, meeting business and organisational objectives and visions. Innovation is the lifeblood of any business. It prevents a business from stagnation by giving its products or services a competitive edge. 2. DESCRIPTION OF THE COMPANY History Urban Outfitters was established in 1970 in a Philadelphia row house a few blocks from the University of Pennsylvania campus. Originally called “Free People”, the...
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