...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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...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 Case Study Part 4: Marketing a Business Shanita Provoid Strayer University Explain why Sears or Wal-mart cannot effectively create a trendy counterculture image. The reason Wal-Mart or Sears cannot effectively create a trendy counterculture image is because in the case of Wal-Mart it operates on a high volume low profit margin and the only way to do this is to be able to mass produce or have your products mass produced for you or at least buy in bulk, that very philosophy males it impossible to be either trendy to counterculture. Trendy counterculture is about be unique or different going against the norms of society. While Sears prices are higher they still sell massed produced items which they believe will appeal to the general population. To try too enter into a niche market and attempt to compete with a retailer like Urban Outfitters would be financially disastrous for either Sears or Walmart. Could the big box stores sell merchandise identical to Urban Outfitters? Explain your answer. I do not believe that the big box stores sell merchandise identical to Urban Outfitters because unlike other retailers Urban Outfitters has a history a unique shopping experience and targeting the counterculture, Urban Outfitters cater to the those who see them self on the forefront of fashion. Forward looking research is important; Urban Outfitters has people (fashion hunters) who prowl the products made but in a very small quantity. Urban Outfitters...
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...In “The Hanover Insurance Company v. Urban Outfitters, Inc”, the Navajo Nation had sued Urban Outfitters for infringement of its trademark, with the complaint alleging that the infringement had taken place since 2009. It is noted that Hanover, on the other hand, had offered Urban Outfitters commercial general liability insurance cover from 7th July 2010, a coverage that encompassed advertising and personal injury. This policy, however, excluded liability emanating from written or oral publication of material that was first published prior to the start of the policy period. A District Court in Pennsylvania ruled for Hanover’s motion that the “prior publication” exclusion was encompassing the resultant injuries given that the alleged injuries had...
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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...
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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”...
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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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...Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study Part 4: Marketing a Business 1. Explain why Sears or Wal-Mart cannot effectively create a trendy counterculture image. Wal-mart and Sears in large part created the idea and foundation for the thinking of bigger is better. How can they try and cater to the little man or sub-culture when they are the very corporation that killed the little man. The basic principles of a sub-culture are to go against the “norm”, and Wal-mart is one of the largest examples of the corporation normalcy. Therefore, the reasons above would be by answer to why they cannot effectively create a trendy counterculture image. 2. Could the big box stores sell merchandise identical to Urban Outfitters? Explain your answer. Of course they do in my opinion! Big box stores always take a look at what the market around them is selling best and most of (the trends), anything from clothing to kid’s toys or apparel or even house hold items. The big box store creates a cheaper, less quality product that they mass produce for less. For example, the latest fad for children even young adults is “silly bandz” (rubber bracelets that pop back to their original shape when you take them off, they have animal shaped ones, Disney themes, etc..). Now you see them everywhere but they are called something slightly different from the original brand and are most likely made of cheaper rubber as well and sell for less. Thus in my opinion how the big box stores cater to the “middle...
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...Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study Part 2 1. Setting up a new business can be a tumultuous task. Order, timing and planning is key when trying to execute a successful business. Even though you might have an excellent idea without proper execution a business can fail. It is imperative to understand that starting a business is not easy and conducting your own research, heeding the advice of experienced business owners and seeking other organizations and resources that help small business owners are key steps in addressing these challenges. - Financing. Does the owner have sufficient cash to fund the opening of the business as well as its ongoing operations? Many times the owner has enough financing to open their doors but they run into cash flow troubles and end up losing their business because they have failed to consider that the business has ongoing cash flow requirements. Excess growth can be a factor, and financing limitations can hinder growth, or growth can outstrip financing and cause a liquidity crisis. - Securing an Appropriate Location. In retail, location can be a deal maker or a deal breaker of the success of the firm. The type of product can have a big impact on the appropriateness of a given location. For example, in the Urban Outfitters case, the owners decided at first to focus their store openings near college campuses where young people looking for trendy fashions would tend to be in close proximity. - Legal Issues: Patents and trademarks must be...
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...Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study: Marketing a Business 1. Explain why Sears or Wall-mart cannot effectively create a trendy counterculture image. Sears and Wal-Mart do not solely devote time to the fashion business. They sell clothes because it is a necessity everyone has and to make money. That is their main goal. In doing so, they are like a high school teenager. They see a fashion trend in the magazine or in their case, big corporation see what the leading fashion industries are buying and follow suit. Then they mass produce that look, using cheap materials and most of the time the craftsmanship is poor. People interested in being trendy want to make a statement about who they are and are out and be different. The clothes sold at Sears and Wal-Mart is available to everyone and is not in any way unique. 2. Could the big box stores sell merchandise identical to Urban Outfitters? Explain your answer. Wal-Mart and Sears are unable to sell merchandise identical to Urban Outfitters because they mass produce there items and the clothes are often poorly made with low end quality material. They focus more on quantity instead of quality to meet the highest profitability. Urban Outfitters sell their merchandise for a higher price and sell a smaller amount of items to turn a profit; Sears and Wal-Mart must sell a significant amount more to make the same profitability. Also, Urban Outfitters makes sure they have the current trends, Sears and Wal-Mart stores are...
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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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...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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...Urban Outfitters mobile advertising campaign Brand I would like to build a one-month mobile advertising campaign for is young clothing brand – Urban Outfitters (UO). The brand is now famous for its music relations – their Vynil records sales are a major part of UO’s inventory. It already has the mobile app that works as an in-app online shop, it also collects a lot of data about the users, though, many users still prefer to use the original website for online shopping. Urban Outfitters doesn’t just sell the outfits, it also sells life-style: the beauty of being young, hipster-ish, stylish freedom. And this things are directly correlated to music tastes. I would suggest to buld in the app the music player, that will suggest different outfits on the basis of the music people like, as well as suggest music on the basis of the clothes people choose. Partnering with the streaming services – I would choose Deezer, since it is new to American market and also needs advertising partners. UO also can launch a commercial campaign on Deezer in the way of pre-roll audio that shows the method of clothing-music binding and gives the viewer download app immediately. I would also add audio insert message advertising UO in Spotify app when user chooses particular playlists (like Indie music, all mood-based playlists, etc.). I wouls also try programmatic ad-buying platform for the UO, since it is good at identifying target audience. And UO fans are really particular audience that is easyly identified...
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...Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study: Creating a Business Steve Jobs Introduction to Business Professor Mariatta Lewis July 31, 2011 Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study: Creating a Business Starting a business can be very challenging. There’s always a positive and negative side to it and it’s not always easy. Entrepreneurs and business owners will always over come different challenges when setting up a business. Finances, location, and finding a good staff is all linked together but can be challenging when opening up a business. Finances have a big part to opening up a business. You will have to find the right lender and see who has the best interest rates for business loans. For example, if I was to start up my own restaurant I will need money to buy or rent a facility, buy restaurant equipment, or buying the food. First I will have to sit down and set up a business plan and see what is within my budget. If the bank qualifies you for a $100,000 loan you know that is your budget. Figure out what you need to get for the business, find the location, and hiring a staff. A good way to budget is find stores that sell cheap items and buy things in bulk. Budgeting money can be very challenging because when you have that large lump sum it’s easy to just buy whatever you see. So as a new business owner plan out what you need for the business and budget the money you got. Finding a location can be very challenging. Explore your options to see if it...
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