Youngor P.K. Zara

       Zara, the leader of the fast fashion industry, wins the competition based on its business model. As a fashion company, Zara attracts the customer who wants the high fashion style with lower price compare to the expensive couture.  More over, Zara cares more about their consumer and follow the change of their needs. "Fast" is the key factor for them to beat H&M and Gap. But how can Zara make the lead time shorter than its competitors? The core value of its business model is value chain. The efficient integration of the fashion industry value chin reduces the the manufacturing lead time. The supportive information system enable the information, especially the consumer needs, exchange from the design point of view to the production point of view. Thus, Zara only needs 7 days to introduce the new apparel to its consumers in season.

     For Zara, it doesn't put too much energy on its own manufacturing operation. Instead, Zara out source the production part but put more efforts and resources on the marketing expansion and design, their core competitive advantage. It also establish the brand image as fast fashion at affordable price. The company focuses only on the fashion apparels and accessories.  Because of its success, most fashion apparel company take the same strategy and try to earn back their lost market. However, once the brand image established and have its loyal customer, it's difficult to change consumer's loyalty.

Nike, High Heels?

     When you firstly look at those pictures, what's your thinking about this high heels? Funny design? Fake Products?  The picture made by photoshop?  Actually, the answer for those questions are No. These products are the real nike brand high heels that have already introduced to the market.

    While, Nike is known as an international sports wear company that provides high quality products for both professional athletes and the general public who wear its products for the fitting exercises.  It's running and basketball series are popular, especially among the young generations.  In domestic market, Nike positions itself as a professional sports wear rather. Although the acquisitions of Converse and Cole Hann can leverage the companies ability for entering the fashion industry,  Nike's product and marketing activity in US market nerves position as the fashion apparels. Are these high heels shoes is the signal for Nike to enter the fashion?

Snapple

     The first time I knew Snapple via an NBC's reality show,  Celebrity Apprentice. In this show, the participate Bret Michaels and Holly Robinson Peete have to create a new flavor for Snapple, 30-second commercial, and 3-page advertorial. The most popular flavor would introduced to the market as a new product. Although this is the first time that I know Snapple, this is not the first time for Snapple to show in the famous show.How can Snapple win the competition in the market in a sustainable way?

    Snapple was founded in Brooklyn, New York in the early 1970's. The word "Snapple" was introduced in the early 1980s and then become the most consumer friendly and popular name because of its catchy pronunciation. Actually, Snapple is the first company that entered into the New Age non-carbonated juice and iced tea market,  and the first one used the glass bottle as the container. During the past decades, Snapple was managed by 4 different companies and suffer the declining of the sales volumes for the fierce competition. There are some lessons we can learn from the previous experience.

Promising Chinese Luxury Market II- Chinese Luxury Brand

     As mentioned in the previous blog, the promising and fast developing Chinese luxury market attract more and more western brand to enter the market and open boutiques in first to third tier cities. Luxury goods consumers in China rank third in the world behind the Americans and Japanese, spending an average of US$ 6.5 billion a year.Market research by Euromonitor shows 80 million Chinese migrating into the middle class bracket as of January 2007. By 2020, that number is expected to hit 700 million. The attractive luxury markets allure not only the foreign brands, but also the Chinese company. Beside's Hermes Chinese brand, "Shang Xia", the famous luxury brands also releasing the seasonal products by combining Chinese style or Chinese elements to attract more Chinese consumers. Actually, Chinese company also tries to established the premium luxury brand image and compete with those famous brand. 

     Like Shang Xia, the other young Chinese brands legitimize China as a center of fashion and luxury. The other brands include Shanghai Tang original in Hong Kong, which refers as "Chinese Chic" and NE-Tier, which in the last few years has taken the Chinese fashion leadership because of the company's ability to mesh traditional Chinese design and cultural elements. 

     NE-Tige was founded in 1992 and is portrayed as a new entry into the luxury market.NE-TIGER developed an early reputation with its fur and leather products; in fact, in 1998, NE-TIGER’s Furs flagship store became the largest specialized fur shop in Asia.In 2001, NE-TIGER launched its own luxury brand of clothing and in 2003, it introduced the “Lady NE-TIGER” Evening Dress Series. By 2004, NE-TIGER was achieving prominence on the world stage, making appearances at a number of international fashion festivals. In 2007, NE-TIGER was invited to simultaneously attend the English and Dutch Luxury Exhibitions. Now, the company is a leader in Chinese haute couture, offering custom-made outfits for weddings and special events, as well as its Hua Fu (Chinese national dress) collection.

Promising Chinese Luxury Market I

       When talking about luxury goods, most people think about the famous designer original in Europe,  long brand history, always owned by the celebrities and wealthy people.  Now a days, the China and Chinese consumers also become one of the keywords related to luxury. Actually, more and more younger and richer generations prefer to own a luxury good, pushing the luxury products sales in China. As incomes rise, China’s burgeoning middle class is adopting previously unattainable high-end lifestyles and is transitioning from a saving to spending culture.  A CLSA(Asia-Pacific Markets) survey of 340 consumers and 31 luxury store managers in China’s Tier 1-3 cities found that more than half have made or are planning a luxury purchase. Those who bought luxury goods in the past 12 months spent an average 10-12% of their total household income on these items, demonstrating a high propensity to spend.

Kindle Fire-what's the next?

     Just as one of my daily tasks, I checked the deal website after the class and suprised found that Amazon released its new kindle product: kindle and kindle touch, as well as pre-order kindle fire. Does Amazon start to challenge Apple? It seems that Amazon is not only the online bookstore and retailer, but also a new competitor on the light weight media device and compete on the cloud technology and new trends on the mobile business?

     Since 2011, Amazon keeps its change.  Firstly, Amazon provided streaming video for its prime subscribers on Feb. Then, it got deal with CBS, NBCU and Fox(just a couple of days ago) for more video sources,  taking further steps on its streaming video business. Secondly, Amazon reached the App stores based on Android system which is an very important factors for the mobile device user. All these effort contribute to the newest kindle-fire, which is not only an e-ereader, but also a mobile device reach for multi-function of the mobile life. Moreover, Kindle Fire also support the flash format competing on Apple's disadvantage.

     Here’s a representative conversation that Kindle content boss Russ Grandinetti talks about kindle fire, kindle's light media devices.
 

        As a fan of Apple, I'd like to say that apple's brand image,  the gorgeous design, and its relative mature app market attracts me more. But Kindle Fire's $199 price and its streaming video resources attracts more.  Moreover, the original Kindle is a very popular products that allows people to read in a comfortable way. The mature kindle book store and the resources on streaming videos also drive further sales on Kindle Fire.  Actually, Amazon didn't compete on the devices itself,  kindle's business model more like the low priced devices by driving the high volume sales on the online store products, such as the book, music, videos and even the apps.

     From a online bookstore to new competitor against apple's mobile devices, Amazon keeps adapting its business model: offer more value to its customers- the one click ordering, customer databased management, innovated kindle with its electronic books, and the music, video and app stores. All those products or services serves the customer in a convenient way.  Amazon cares about tis customer value and drives its business  based on customer value, benefiting both customers and itself.  I am also interested to see what's the next step that Amazon will take for its future development.
     


   

the first blog

I am now study in Stuart as a MBA student. This main theme of this blog is competitive analysis. 

In this blog, I will discuss more about the strategy and how the company sustain in a long term. I's like to share the topic especially related to China, and how Chinese company compete in the global scale.  I will also do some simple case analysis related to the strategy or sustainability.

I hope this can also be a place to discuss with anyone who are interested to the strategy and competitiveness.