...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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...Identify at least three challenges when setting up a business. Explain why they are challenges. Three challenges a business owner would face when setting up a business are visualizing possible risks, low ambition, and inadequate revenue. Starting a business in itself, is a huge risk. A business owner has to take into account the rewards of a business, but more importantly potential setbacks. The fact that business owners create the mindset that things may not always go the way they plan, will aid them in bouncing back from any setbacks they may incur. If business owners plan on succeeding and not preparing for any hindrances, they will be far less likely to succeed and be able to bounce back from any stumbling blocks. With visualizing risks, you also have to take low ambition into play. If a business owner has any issues with the business, they may start to lack ambition, and it will affect anyone else that is involved with the business. Inadequate revenue stems from business owner basically setting goals based on what they are accustomed to. When you go into business for yourself, you have to realize that you may not make as much as you made before the transition into becoming a business owner. Economic conditions play a major part in this, so you need to make sure you have sufficient fall back money if you are unable to net the income you need in order to maintain your current lifestyle. Define what a “niche” product is. Give at least three examples...
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...Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study Part 2: Creating a Business Anna Hall Dean Carol T. Williams Introduction to Business – BUS 100 July 26, 2010 Creating a Business There are many challenges when starting up a business such as lack of funds, finding the right location, and establishing a customer base. Funding a new business can be one of the biggest challenges because most people do not have enough money saved up to start a business especially if they are young and just starting out themselves. Trying to get funding from a financial institution can be very difficult, therefore it is best to figure out how much it is going to cost to start a business. It is always a good idea to have a financial plan before starting a business; otherwise the likelihood of the business being successful is slim. If the business is going to be a retail store, finding the right location is very important. It is important that the store is visible from the street, and that it has easy access from the street for both automobiles and pedestrians. It is also important to look at the amount of traffic in the area that the retail store is being considered. It certainly would not make sense to put a retail store out in the middle of nowhere. Establishing a customer base is very crucial to the success of a business. Without customers a business will not have any sales, and if a business does not have sales it cannot survive. Doing some light advertizing is one way to start getting...
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...when setting up a business. Explain why they are challenges. One challenge when setting up a business is the obstacle of arranging for financing. In business you’re going to have slow times when revenue is not steady or increasing. Ethically, businesses would like to retain their employees when times get rough. Being able to obtain a loan or establish a line credit is crucial to keeping the flow of the business going. You need capital and equipment to get your business up and running. Another challenge businesses face is finding the right employees for the job. Some people are lucky enough to have friends or family that are self motivated and are willing to put forth the effort to assist in establishing the business plan, practices, and model. Finding employees that have good work ethics: are punctual in their attendance, put in a full day’s work, and their personal integrity is held to a high standard, can be time consuming and difficult to find. Another challenge is getting your name out to a potential customer base. If people are unfamiliar and/or unaware of your company and services that you are offering to provide, they can’t contribute to the growth of your business. Creating an attractive, user friendly website is a great way to gain exposure and attract a new customer base. But most of the time, a company needs a sales force to reach out to its customer base so that the customers feel that there is personal interaction and that their business is valued and...
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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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...Report Urban Outfitters Urban Outfitters brand was introduced by Urban Outfitters, inc. which is a multinational clothing corporation that has its distinct brand and has its headquarters in Philadelphia in the United States. It operates in United States and in Europe serving a dynamic market and also controlling a significant market share. The promise of the brand is to provide for its consumers relevant trends that will make them unique and stand out in a fashion industry that is experiencing complex and dynamic levels of competition. That means that an understanding of the tastes and preferences needed in the market is not enough as the brands need to act as trend setters (Urban Outfitters 2014). Urban Outfitters have a diverse inventory which includes clothing, house wares, and foot wares. The trends incorporated include kitschy, vintage, hipster, bohemian, and ironically humorous styles. Urban Outfitters brand has been associated with several other brands due to their relation to the company Urban Outfitters, inc. and the other brands include Terrain, BHLDN, Free People, and Anthropologies. Urban Outfitters brand in terms of persona it represents a unique style to young members of the society which makes individuals distinct and sets them apart from others. It links trendy fashion to music and lifestyle through presentation of products from famous designers in the modern society (Urban Outfitters 2014). Name and Logo The name of the brand is Urban Outfitters which makes...
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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 STUDY ON MARKETING A BUSINESS Angelena Johnson Professor Kelly BUS 100 November 24, 2010 Through out this report it shall discuss the ways of marketing a business and how marketing will help to make a business grow and flourish. However, client and sales are what make you a success; therefore successful marketing steps must be done. This report shall also discuss the reason why Sears or Wal-mart cannot effectively create a trendy counterculture image. As well as discussing if the big box stores sell merchandise identical to Urban Outfitters? This report will also identify and discuss reasons why exclusivity is valuable. Lastly this report shall discuss the feed back on Senk saying that shopping is largely entertainment. This report will then conclude these discussions and making them clear of Urban Outfitters study of there marketing process. Introduction “Our success is a direct result of knowing how to market a brand and having the right people representing the brand” (Norman, 2009). Marketing is a key element in the success of any business. Urban Outfitters on the other hand has a marketing strategy that is as unique as the experience it sells. Urban Outfitters is a retailing company with a business portfolio that includes the store brands Anthropologies, Urban Outfitters, and Free People. The difference between Anthropologies from Urban Outfitters target is that they focus on women that are older and Urban Outfitters focus on...
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...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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...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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...How Exclusivity Makes a Difference in a Market Business 100 May 27, 2011 Abstract Many big name retailers rely on buying large quantities of items at a very cheap wholesale price. As consumers some of us are content with buying items that are cheaply priced and being more mainstream. Others need to have that feeling that they are getting something that represents them. Something that makes them feel exclusive. In this paper I will be explaining why big name companies are not able to effectively create a counter image for their products, by trying to make them more exclusive. As well as why big box stores cannot try to compete with items that are sold in a more exclusive store like an Urban Outfitters. Reasons that make exclusivity valuable to a franchise or company. Lastly I will discuss my opinion why I agree with the Glen Senk the CEO of Urban Outfitters on why shopping is largely entertainment. How Exclusivity Makes a Difference in a Market First off I would like to describe counterculture which is a term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day. (Wikipedia, 2004) So why does Wal-mart not try to target people who tend to drift to a style of their own that is unique to either a place of group of people. Well the main reason is it would just be financial suicide for the company. Wal-mart is a company that sells items cheaply and in bulk for profit....
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...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 who risk their time, money and other resources to start and manage business-business basics chapter 1 page 3 ...
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...Creating a Business Gerri Lutz Professor Ashok BUS 10008616 July 25, 2010 When setting up a business there will be many challenges that you can encounter during this process. And why customers would pay a higher price for goods, and others less because of the quality of the product being marketed. In the following questions and answers, this will tell you why customers will definitely pay for the quality. 1. Identify at least three challenges when setting up a business. Explain why they are challenges. 2. Define what a “niche” product is. Give at least three examples of niche products. 3. Explain why a niche company might have an advantage in a market. Would price necessarily be an advantage? Explain why or why not. 4. Identify and explain three reasons why customers would pay more for exclusivity. 5. Explain how a niche player “chips away” at a larger competitor’s base. Give three examples of retailers who have done this. Identify at least three challenges when setting up a business. Explain why they are challenges. Financing: Does the owner have sufficient cash flow to fund the opening of the business as well as continuing operations? Many times an owner does have enough financial background to open their doors...
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...Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study: Creating a Business Introduction to Business Prof. Maria Gambuzza Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study: Creating a Business 1. Identify at least three challenges when setting up a business. Explain why they are challenges. One of the challenges when setting up a business is about finance. First and foremost, business needs to determine the startup cost. To be able to do that, they must identify all the expenses their business will encounter during their startup phase. The expenses will be either one-time cost, such as business license fee or going costs, such as leasing cost, supplies, etc… After that phase, business needs to find their capital sources. If they don’t have their own savings or can’t borrow money from friends or family, their option will be getting loan from banks. In the early state of the business, their inexperience “in financial matters often prompts banks to deny loan requests”. (1) Business owner needs to well prepare and organize to prove to their lender that they are the bank’s good investment. The other challenge is experience and skills. Many people are first time business owners who are inexperience and lack of skills. Some start a business because they see people doing successfully and think they can do the same. However, running a business smoothly and successfully requires owners to have skills and experience in all perspective of the business, including accounting, marketing, etc. The third...
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...ASSIGNMENT #1 2 Question #1 - Given the business situation for Spectrum Brand. Explain. Spectrum Brands, the former Rayovac Corporation, went on a radical business transformation under David Jones’ management. According to Dictionary.com, to transform means to: “change in condition, nature, or character;; convert” (“Transform,” 2011, para. 2). The company that used to produce only batteries ventured into new businesses and currently operates in the market of pet products, personal grooming, and lawn and garden care (“The Buyout  Boom,” 2007). The diversification of products certainly required a new organization structure, which should be based on a matrix structure, or a multidivisional structure; since line, and line-and-staff structures would not be appropriate anymore for the required dynamic of the new company. It has been discovered that “[a]s companies grow and diversify, traditional line structures become difficult to coordinate, making communication difficult and decision making slow” (Ferrel, Hirt & Ferrel, 2009, p 247). Remember, you never end a paragraph with a quote. In a multidivisional structure, the company is organized in divisions, which are large groups that might be formed on the geography, product or customer basis; and within those divisions there may be departments also organized by customer, products, regions or a combination of those groups. This structure enables the decision process to be faster, since the managers...
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