LONT066 International Fashion Management

Introduction:

The 21st-century global business world is a very competitive one for the organisations operating in this century. The business organisations are performing in an already saturated market. Only by utilizing the core business competencies and skill will an organization be able to create something called sustainable competitive advantages. The aim of this report will be to diagnose the role and contribution of the two specialist functions of Reformation. An attempt will also be made to identify the future trends and their impacts on the world of the fashion business. Again, it will be evaluated if these trends will turn to be beneficial for the sustainable growth of the

Company profile:

It was in the year 2009, that Chief Executive Yael Aflalo formed the fashion brand called Reformation. This organization is based in Los Angeles. The firm launched an online shop in the year 2012 to sell the products that were being manufactured in a factory located in California (Thereformation.com 2021). Yael Aflalo along with his five hundred skilled and efficient employees operates and manages the Reformation. The organization was able to collect an annual revenue of 150 million US $ in the year 2019 (Thereformation.com 2021). That the organization makes and offers not only sustainable but also green clothing for its customers have come to act as their USP (Thereformation.com 2021). This organization works with the mission to bring sustainable fashion to everyone. The vision of this organization is to prioritize feminine figure and make effortless progress. Also, the organization wants to ensure that the practices that they under are all sustainable. Focusing on people while progressing in each step is also something that the firm wants to do (Thereformation.com 2021). The brand also designs its clothing for real women. this means that the clothing that this firm makes is to fit all women of all body size. It is also their sustainable business practices that make the organization stand out from the others. They have been doing this since 2009 (Thereformation.com 2021). The Reformation brand was able to change the idea that sustainable cloths are not fashionable with the help of their buzzy marketing procedure, celebrity following and out of the box products.

Role and contribution of two key specialist functions:

This organisation operates in an already saturated marketplace. That is the reason the management of the Reformation brand should have a distinct idea about its core business competencies and skills. Appropriate utilization of core business competencies and skills can allow this organization to create competitive edges over its rival business entities. In this part, a VRIO analysis of the Reformation brand will be done, which will be helpful for the management of the Reformation brand to identify core business competencies and skills.

The management of the Reformation Brand has to utilise its rare, valuable, inimitable, and organised resources in order to retain its position in this competitive macro-environment. The management of this American business entity must generate value from its valuable resources that are organisational culture, sustainability, excellent brand reputation, financial capability, technological resource, and omnichannel storytelling. Rare resources of the Reformation must be limited because it can allow this company to create competitive advantages. In the context of the Reformation brand, it can be said that organisational culture, sustainability, excellent brand reputation, technological resource, and Omni-channel storytelling are rare resources. The inimitable resources of the Reformation brand are difficult to copy or replicate. In order to sustain competitive advantages, the management of the Reformation brand has to exploit organisational culture, sustainability, excellent brand reputation, and technological resource. Having valuable, rare, and inimitable resource will not allow the Reformation brand to create values and sustain competitive advantages if the management of this American brand fails to organise its core business competencies and skills. Except for financial capabilities, each identified resources of the Reformation brand are generating values because the leaders of this organisation are utilising these resources in an organised way. Organisational culture, sustainability, excellent brand reputation, and Omni channel storytelling allows the Reformation brand to sustain competitive advantage. On the other hand, financial capability, and technological resource of the Reformation brand to gain competitive parity.

Omni channel story telling:

Omni channel storytelling can be identified as a specialist function of this American brand. The promotional campaign of this American brand is driven by Omni channel storytelling. For this brand, it is a projected growth approach that will allow this company to boost its interaction with different customer segments. Excellent utilisation of various channels such as Face book, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, official website, and digital platform of the Reformation brand, is the strength of the reformation brand's marketing approach (Cortiñas, Chocarro and Elorz 2019). The marketing team of the Reformation brand creates a positive impact on customer's psychology and influence intellectual touch points. Through its promotional campaign, this company targets environment-sensitive customers, who prefer to live a sustainable life and prefer sustainable fashion. The brand positioning statement of the Reformation brand influence intellectual touch points of environment-sensitive women. It is also the core message that the brand wants to promote (Rouquet, Henriquez and Paché 2018). Online platforms are not the only places where the marketing team of this company promote themselves; they also take the help of offline channels to share their brand story. It is innovation and sustainability, the two main points that the brand focuses on. An important role is played by intriguing curated social content in the brand story of the firm. Not only does the marketing time use omnichannel storytelling but also they engage in other promotional activities to share the brand story (Melero, Sese and Verhoef 2016). Through its Omni channel storytelling, the marketing team of the Reformation brand highlights how sustainable this brand is. This company highlights the way this company ensure sustainability, use spectacular and eco-friendly fabrics to manufacture the most eco-friendly products for its clients. In order to maximise organisational and operational efficiency, this business entity has started advanced technology and train its employees to maintain the highest sustainability standards. The organization works with the motto to educate its audience about sustainability. By using various channels, the marketing manager provides detailed information regarding raw materials, fabrics, fit information of a specific product, which stimulates the environment-sensitive women to purchase the sustainable product (Hendriyani and Chan 2018). This gives the customer an idea about the impact that the garment will have on the environment.

In this competitive state of business, business organisations have to utilise promotional campaign in a unique way. Being an expert in storytelling can allow the marketing team of the Reformation brand to create interest among the target audience towards the brand. The objective of this American business entity is to boost engagement with the target audience. Unique storytelling will allow the marketing team of the Reformation brand to engage and communicate with the potential customer segment. The primary objective of storytelling should be targeting the right audience and engage with the potential customer segment with the right marketing procedure (Dahl et al. 2018). The marketing team of this company needs to divide the potential customers based on different characteristics. It will allow the marketing team of the Reformation brand to understand the specific interest of different customer segment. This company has to divide the target audience based on demographic factors like education, annual income, profession, age, gender, and other demographic factors. Women between the age group of twenty years to thirty years with stable income will be targeted by this company. Those women, who have the financial capability to purchase sustainable products, which is expensive than traditional fashion, will be targeted by this company. In order to divide the target audience, this organization has to employ geographic factors like urban area, rural area, zip code, country, and other geographical factors. This company should target women between the age group of twenty years to thirty years with stable income from both urban and rural areas. It will be profitable for this company to heighten its customer base and market share. By using behavioural factors, the management of this American fashion brand has to divide its customer segments (Sutanti et al. 2018). Based on purchasing habits, user status, brand loyalty, and brand interaction, this company has to divide the target audience. For the success of the Reformation brand, the psychographic segment can play a pivotal role. Firstly, this company needs to divide its target audience based on interests, lifestyle, attitude, preferences, personality traits, and values. This organisation has to target women who [prefer to live a sustainable life and reduce the negative impact on the environment in each possible way. This customer segment will prefer the sustainable fashion of the Reformation brand.

In order to become the market leader, the management of the Reformation brand has to target the most potential customer segment. Targeting the wrong customer segment can lead this organisation to failure (Ghahnavieh 2018). Women, who have a preference for a sustainable lifestyle and sustainable fashion, between the age group of twenty years to thirty years with stable income from both the urban and rural areas will be targeted by the marketing team of the Reformation brand for its Omni channel storytelling.

After the market segmentation and targeting, the marketing team of the Reformation brand has to focus on the brand positioning. Appropriate brand positioning will allow the Reformation brand to create a positive impact on potential customer's mind. Through the appropriate positioning and unique promotional campaign, the marketing team of the Reformation brand can create a stronger and emotional connection with the potential customers (Cummins, Peltier & and Dixon 2016). This organisation has to highlight the USP of this brand through its brand positioning.

Sustainability:

The preference for eco-friendly business operation, eco-friendly products and services has increased drastically. People have seen the adverse impact of rapid globalisation and industrialisation. That the reason, the number of environment-sensitive people has been increasing radically as well as the demand for sustainable products. The Reformation brand creates a positive impact on customer's psychology and influences intellectual touch points. Through its promotional campaign, this company targets environment-sensitive customers, who prefer to live a sustainable life and prefer sustainable fashion. It is innovation and sustainability, the two main points that the brand focuses on. An important role is played by intriguing curated social content in the brand story of the firm (Hill and Hyun-Hwa 2015). The implementation of advanced technology has led this American fashion brand to produce eco-friendly products for environment-sensitive women. In order to differentiate itself from its competitors, this company customises its product portfolio and fills it with eco-friendly products. The objective of this American firm is to transform the concept of sustainable fashion. The revolution made by the Reformation brand changed the perception that sustainable fashion can not be trendy and elegant. In order to produce elegant sustainable fashion, the highly qualified professional team of the Reformation brand uses advanced and eco-friendly technology, sustainable raw material, and eco-friendly fabrics. The organization works with the motto to educate its audience about sustainability. RefScale, which is a life-cycle assessment tool used by the Reformation brand, is beneficial for this American company to calculate the environmental footprint of the final product (Chang and Jai 2015). By using this tool, the management of this American brand assesses the pounds of Co2 emitted and gallons of water this firm utilised and pounds of waste this firm produced while creating an eco-friendly product. Through the partnership with the Brazilian Rosewood Amazon Conservation Project and the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) Water Restoration Program, this organisation protects a thousand acres of Amazon Rainforest. In order to accomplish the zero-carbon emission objective, the Reformation brand has collaborated with Carbon Neutral, a renowned NGO. By ensuring recycling, donating textile waste, composting organic waste, this organisation recycles seventy-five per cent of its waste, which is generated from the manufacturing procedure. Sustainable purchasing, eco-friendly equipment, minimum usage of nonrenewable energy, are part of its operational strategy. By using the BLUESIGN® system, and OEKO-TEX® Standard 100, this American fashion brand control the adverse impact of business operation.

Role and function of external fashion business networks

External fashion business network can influence the business operation of the Reformation brand. The fast fashion industry is affected by the continuous change of fashion trends. In order to remain competitive in this complex macro-environment, the management of the Reformation brand has to customise its product portfolio and adopt the new fashion trends. The inclusion of the e-commerce platform has created a positive impact on the fashion industry (McNeill and Moore 2015). It is the outcome of technological progress way. This external factor has expanded the market place for the Reformation brand. This organisation can target environment-sensitive women across the world for its eco-friendly fashion.

Productivity, employee engagement, employee satisfaction, and loyalty can be affected by certain condition. If the organisation fails to provide a safe and healthy workplace, then it can create an adverse impact on the organisation. This ethical issue can hamper the sustainable growth of the fashion industry (Miotto and Youn 2020). Poor employee management and poor working condition create a negative impact on the organisation. This external factor can influence the sustainable growth of the business organisation as well as the fashion industry.

The global business environment has transformed into an intensely competitive one. In order to thrive in this complex business environment, the contemporary business environment has to focus on the operational strategy, supply chain management, and appropriate utilisation of key resources. In the context of the fashion industry, it can be said that this industry is affected by inappropriate supply chain management (Yoon, Ha and Ho 2020). In order to remain competitive and create competitive edges over rival business entities, a business organisation from this industry needs to satisfy its customer. Inadequate supply chain management can delay the delivery of raw material and final products. It can hamper the manufacturing procedure as well as frustrate the customer. So it can be said that these external factors can influence the sustainable growth of the fashion industry.

Identification of future trends:

In this part, future trends that can transform the fast fashion industry will be identified. It will be beneficial for this organisation to customise its business strategy and adopt new trends so that it can thrive in this saturated industry.

The popularity of the online platform has skyrocketed during this pandemic situation. People are forced to stay at home. The public gathering has been prevented by respected authorities and the government to prevent the spread of this virus (Weforum.org 2021). As a result of this people have started ordering various products through the online platform. As a result of this SMEs are getting new opportunity to target a wide customer segment. It can be said that people might be more interested if the seller provides more details about the product on the online platform. For example, in the context of the fashion industry, customers are more interested in getting the fit details, and details of the raw material. By analysing the available information and review they make their decision about ordering the product through the online platform. So it can be said that the trend of online shopping by analysing the product details and information about the raw material can change the dynamics of the fashion industry. This trend in the fashion industry can influence the business operation of the Reformation brand. One of the positive attributes is that this organisation works with the motto to educate its audience about sustainability (Ahmad et al. 2020). By using various channels, the marketing manager provides detailed information regarding raw materials, fabrics, fit information of a specific product, which stimulates the environment-sensitive women to purchase the sustainable product. This gives the customer an idea about the impact that the garment will have on the environment. This organisation has to implement advanced technology and customise its online platform into a user-friendly one. The utilisation of 3D technology and virtual technology can be beneficial for this organisation to satisfy its customers through its online platform.

The introduction of bid data has transformed the dynamics of the global business. In order to understand the interest, preference of the potential buyer, business organisations have started collecting information about the customer. Through the CRM software, business organisations of the fashion industry are collecting the preference, purchasing history of the customer while the customer orders any product. Based on that data, the management of business organisations customises its offerings and product portfolio. This data-driven business approach is beneficial for the business organisation. It can be said that the fashion industry will be driven by this data-driven business model very soon. This organisation has to customise its business operation, By using the data-driven business model, the Reformation brand can create competitive edges over its rival business entities. Implementation of IoT can foster the data-driven business model (Irfan and Wang 2019). This organisation can use Data-analytics. It will allow this organisation to analyse the information of the target audience. In this digital era, information of the target audience plays one of the most crucial roles. This organisation has to utilise ICR technology and track the preference, interest, and purchasing history, search history of the customer. It will allow this American brand to tailor its product portfolio with sustainable products. In order to thrive in the fast fashion industry, this organisation has to implement these changes. It will allow the Reformation brand to cater to the specific demand of its clients. It will let the Reformation brand create a positive impact on customer's psychology and influence intellectual touch points.

Conclusion:

In the conclusion, it can be said that the sustainable business approach of the Reformation brand will enable this American brand to attract environment-sensitive customers. Omni channel storytelling and sustainable business operation with a product portfolio full of eco-friendly products will be beneficial for this company. However, this company has to adopt the market trends. By using advanced technology, a data-driven business model, 3D technology, and virtual reality technology, this American fast-fashion brand can retain its leading position in the market place.

References:

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