Introduction to Retail
The retail industry stands for the different job descriptors in which the product is sold to the consumers directly through the different retail outlets. In the fashion and apparel industry there has been a considerable rise in the brand dependent retail outlets so that the brand value is made and the company can make more profit. The retail industry is not a modern concept but quite antique and one of the best ways to make the product reach the masses selling them in small quantities at a competitive price. Today retail market has a much wider function. It helps the producers to get in touch with the consumers to understand the needs of the market and develop their plans accordingly. Moreover, it also makes it easier for the consumers to have faith on the brand of their choice taking into perspective the trustworthiness of the brand.
French Connection also branded as FCUK is a UK based apparel retailer which deals in fashion clothing. The brand was established by Stephen Marks in 1972 and used to deal initially in women wear but they expanded to men’s clothing in 1979 (Frenchconnection.com, 2018). The brand used its name in lowercase and it created a controversy because of its similarity to a curse word. It is one of the largest global apparel brands in Europe. In the recent times it has also bought a number of clothing brands in UK like YMC Great Plains and TOAST. It has also diversified its approach by launching a range of perfumes targeted towards the different market segments.
It has an international market with the help of the brand owned stores and the franchised stores all over the world. The turning point of the store’s brand image was in 1978 when the designer Nicole Farhi joined the company and made it a high-end brand label in the market. The company initially lost stock in the late 80s but Marks again helped the brand gain its reputation in the market. Despite the controversies as the stiff competition faced by emerging brands such as Zara, Topshop and ASOS FCUK has held on its own and had a mixed retail marketing experience because of its different retail strategies. It has also diversified itself into marketing and retailing a number of fashion products and accessories under its brand name for a better market reach. These products are sold through a number of retail stores of the brand as well as by some specialist retailers.
Introduction to the Company
The UK fashion retail industry has seen a drastic change with time. The increasing competition in the market along with the growing multiculturalism and the different aspects of the consumer-based changes in the marketing approach. The fashion and accessories industry have the constant pressure of changing and upgrading itself with time leading to a number of challenges in the different industries. The PESTEL analysis helps in the understanding the environment of the UK fashion retail industry in accordance with the different aspects of the different environmental factors.
Political: The political environment of the fashion retail industry is very conducive for its growth and development. The growth and development of the market is helped by the government policies since the government understands the value of the fashion retail industry of the country. the development of London as the leading fashion tourism destination has led the government to devise strategies to aid its growth. The government plans include the inclusion the help to SME for the development of the fashion retail industry (Ball, 2014). Conversely, the BREXIT has greatly affected the fashion retail industry having a great impact on the import-export policies thus affecting the sales of the organization.
Economic: The economic growth of the fashion industry in London is greatly aided by the inclusion of the luxury brands in its market and the high amount of money the people are willing to invest in the fashion retail industry in the country. The fashion retail industry is also aided by the investment by the government for the better development of the market in this area (Ünay & Zehir, 2012: 315-321). It is also economically viable option due to the growing GDP and high per capita income in the country that the luxury brands are favoured in London and therefore UK. The development in the economy of the country helps the business of FCUK as it helps in the establishment business in the market due to the increasing consumer base.
Social: The society of UK is a mixed society of multiple cultures living together. The different people have their own tastes and choices as far as the fashion choices are concerned in the society. The different cultures and the urban lifestyle of the people in the city provide a better market to tourism as the people coming to the country and most importantly London to but the different types of apparels based on their choice of brand (Pookulangara & Shephard, 2013: 200-206). The society and the lifestyle of the country being affluent the fashion changes are very well accepted and the people tend to prefer upgrading themselves which improves the market reach which assists FCUK in constantly upgrading and trying better strategies in the market.
Relevant changes within the UK fashion retail
Technological: The technological improvement in the country not only helps the growth and development of the production and the designing but increases the possibility of the marketing the products to the intended clients manifold. The technological growth seen in the different sectors in the market is greatly affects the scale of the production (Piotrowicz & Cuthbertson, 2014: 5-16). The technology also helps the different fashion retailers to have a consumer aided innovation approach by understanding the changes that they seek in the development of the fashion which helps FCUK in consumer-based innovation processes. It also adds to the improvement of FCUK and the understanding the consumer acceptance and feedback of the different products.
Legal: The legal aspect of the functioning of the organization in the country is a very important aspect to be looked into while understanding the different aspects of the success of the company in the different sectors. The legal norms of running fashion related operations in the country are relaxed so that they favour the growth and development of the industry in the city (Okonkwo, 2016). The laws relating to the import and export of the clothing industry are relaxed helping in the growth and development of the FCUK as a strong competitor in the UK fashion market.
Environment: The environmental factors that affect the fashion industry is the green and the environmentally sustainable approach they have in their growth and developmental planning (Goworek et al., 2012: 935-955). The environmental friendly approach of FCUK has been appealing to the consumers as the companies today regularly roll out green fabric-based clothing as they have better acceptance among the consumers.
The French Connection UK needs to make a number of changes in the environment for its growth and development. The different aspects of the growth and development of the industry will be helped by the information gathered from the PESTLE analysis. The different factors to be analysed by the organization for the proper growth are:
Competitors: The competitors are an important part of an organization to be analysed for the better understanding of the market and developing the strategies to suit the needs of the market (Banerjee & Banerjee, 2014:270). The competitors of French Connection in the current market include a number off market retail brands like Zara and H&M.
Consumers: The consumer base of the company are the people who are the users of the products and therefore the most important stakeholder in the functioning of the organization. The target market of UK includes consumer of the age group of 25-35 in the different markets and should focus on them as it is one of the trusted brands among them.
Relevant changes within the micro environment
Suppliers: The suppliers in this case are the producers who market the product directly to the retail environment. The suppliers should make sure that the quality of the product remains intact and the overall market of the product is not hampered. It should also be made sure that the different products are refurbished depending on their sales.
Public: The public of the organization includes the overall general people of the population where the product has influence irrespective of the fact that the consumers use the product or not in their general life. The understanding of the publics also helps the organization in gathering information to raise the interest of the different people to get more investment and marketing the product to a greater population.
Marketing Intermediaries: The different market intermediaries in this case includes the different intermediaries who take part in the marketing and transportation of the products as the major part of the manufacturing takes place in India, China and Turkey.
The different strategies and tactics are needed to be employed by the organization for the better development and approach in the market and increase its reach among the consumers. The different impacts of the situations faced by the brand affects the environment of the organization differently. The different problems faced by the brand needs to be mitigated using a varied approach for the various problems faced by the organization. The organizational structure helps in the development of a number of strategies based on the different analysis. A certain amount of change in the macroenvironmental and the macro environmental area of the organization will help in the growth and development of the market reach and appeal of FCUK. The macroeconomic and the microeconomic changes will help in the improving the reach of the product better and globally to the different parts of the world (Fernie, 2014:35). The micro economic changes in the organization will help in the development of the better strategies to manage the internal functioning of the organization taking into account the different aspects that affect it. There are a number of changes that are to be implemented for the proper evaluation of the strategies in the different sectors by FCUK for increasing its reach in the market and having a consumer dependent innovation approach for the proper management and planning a market reach and the deviation plan so the competition is mitigated.
Firstly, the company needs to plan its strategy such that it has a maximum appeal in the global market and the probable consumers. One of the major reasons of the relative failure of the organization is the fact that it has failed to maintain a continuous loyalty from its consumers. One of the major reasons for the troubled times of FCUK is its inability change reinvent and diversify itself according to the market demands (Allan, 2016:342). The consumers like to upgrade their wardrobe depending on the latest fashion trends in the market and the policy of FCUK to not change its designs according to the time leads to a number of issues in the overall market reach of the products.
Secondly, the rebranding strategy of the of the company was too promptly implemented in the market and the consumer feedback was not taken into account. The rebranding process greatly affected the overall marketing strategy of the company constantly getting negative feedback from the consumers. The rebranding process should have been proceeded more in the terms of the rebranding of its competitors like Burberry instead of taking a stringent approach towards the rebranding of the products (Lee & Johnson, 2013). The rebranding without any proper measures of implementation in the rebranding strategy will help in the overall development of the brand.
Thirdly, the different aspects of the company that are to be taken in to account for the proper implementation of the structural changes for a better reach after the acquisition of the different brands. The people or the masses need to be aware of the different structural benefits to the company to understand the variety of the products available across the different brands in the company (Jakhar, 2015: 391-413). The lack of the information and in this case a flaw in the marketing approach of the products is one of the major areas to be worked on for the better functioning of the organization.
Other than the above changes the company needs to make a number of changes in the functioning and the working of the organization to have a proper market infiltration and success. There have been a number of issues that have been the cause of the various issues in the failure of the organization. These problems need to be mitigated for the success of the company in the present competitive market.
The company’s reins have been constantly under the Stephen Marks which has greatly led to the decline in the reputation of the company in the investment market (Bamfield, 2012). Due to the lack of a new face of ideas for the structural change in the organization the company is constantly losing its stakeholders in the market despite the changes and the numerous efforts it is taking to maintain profit in the organization.
There is a constant talk about the need of the internal restructuring of the organization to ensure its success in the market. The overall market approach of the organization is completely based on the decision of the founder which has made the organization defunct and unable to garner the attention of the masses despite its numerous marketing efforts and diversification.
There are a number of problems to pay attention to for the better success and development of the brand FCUK. The various recommendations for the success of the organization are:
Product Diversification: The product diversification is one of the important aspects which should be concentrated on by designing and manufacturing apparels according the modern needs of the market. The company lost its consumers due to the lack in the diversification of the products. In the modern society the consumers want to upgrade themselves in terms of fashion irrespective of the fact the brand they have to buy from. The adolescent and children have become an important part of the evolving fashion industry and the focus should be given on their apparels as well
Marketing Approach: The company needs to re-evaluate the marketing strategy of the company such that the different segments of the market are influenced by their approach. The new market approach should be more focussed to reinforce the tactics of mass reach and getting the maximum involvement in the ideals of the publics.
Leadership and Structural Changes: The fairy-tale marketing approach of Stephen Marks has long been over and a new marketing strategy is needed for the proliferation and reach among the consumers. The organization needs a new strategy to be implied for the overall success of the organization and most importantly under a more modern and innovative leadership.
Conclusion
Therefore, in this report it is seen that the French Connection UK was in its times one of the best fashion brands which had been profiting from a number of innovative approach that they had implemented. Despite initial success the inability of the organization to change and evolve itself with time has caused a great loss. There have been a number of attempts by the different organizations for the rejuvenation of the brand but the stagnant management policies along with the stubborn approach of the head of the organization in the implementation of the strategies and the future planning led to the ultimate fall of the organization. FCUK is one of the best examples of a decline due to stagnation and needs a number of changes to restore its former glory.
References
Allan, K., (2016). Pragmatics in language change and lexical creativity. SpringerPlus, 5(1), p.342.
Ball, M., (2014). Rebuilding Construction (Routledge Revivals): Economic Change in the British Construction Industry. Routledge.
Bamfield, J.A., (2012). Managing Loss Prevention. In Shopping and Crime (pp. 234-264). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Banerjee, S. & Banerjee, S.C., (2014). Brand Experience Management: The “Titan” Way. BS Publications, p.270.
Fernie, J., (2014). 02 Relationships in the supply chain. Logistics and retail management: Emerging issues and new challenges in the retail supply chain, p.35.
Frenchconnection.com. (2018). About Us | French Connection. [online] Available at: https://www.frenchconnection.com/content/marketing/fashion-is-our-business.htm [Accessed 8 Mar. 2018].
Goworek, H., Fisher, T., Cooper, T., Woodward, S. and Hiller, A., (2012). The sustainable clothing market: an evaluation of potential strategies for UK retailers. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 40(12), pp.935-955.
Jakhar, S.K., (2015). Performance evaluation and a flow allocation decision model for a sustainable supply chain of an apparel industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 87, pp.391-413.
Lee, M. & Johnson, C., (2013). Principles of advertising: a global perspective. Routledge.
Okonkwo, U., (2016). Luxury fashion branding: trends, tactics, techniques. Springer.
Piotrowicz, W. & Cuthbertson, R., (2014). Introduction to the special issue information technology in retail: Toward omnichannel retailing. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 18(4), pp.5-16.
Pookulangara, S. & Shephard, A., (2013). Slow fashion movement: Understanding consumer perceptions—An exploratory study. Journal of retailing and consumer services, 20(2), pp.200-206.
Ünay, F.G. & Zehir, C., (2012). Innovation intelligence and entrepreneurship in the fashion industry. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 41, pp.315-321.
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