Search results

Despite menswear is gaining a significant relevance in terms of retail sales, it represents a neglected topic within the academic literature. Therefore, this paper aims at providing a better understanding of the formal menswear market by developing a tailor-made classification model for the identification of retailers' clusters and at discovering the critical success factors (CSFs).

This research looked at most formal high-end menswear retailers in Italy adopting a methodology based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process and multiple case studies. Thirty interviews were conducted with experts, managers and shopkeepers from case studies.

The study develops for the first time a classification framework of formal high-end menswear retailers and a matching matrix to jointly analyse retailers' clusters and customer profiles in Italy. The results identify the CSFs pursued by menswear retailers and highlight the existence of four clusters of retailers (Differentiated Fashion Firms; Formal Menswear Leaders; Tailoring Firms and Luxury Brands) and seven customer profiles (Habitual Professionals, Special Events, Young People, Occasional Professionals, Foreigners, VIPs and Fashionistas).

The formal high-end menswear represents one of the most traditional Italian heritage markets while being almost ignored in the academic literature. Thus, the value of this research lays in deepening our understanding of this market from the retailers' perspective, by providing for the first time a taxonomy of its players and contributing to identifying the CSFs and the main customer profiles.

Given the high costs of creating and sustaining brands it is not surprising that organisations wish to capitalise as far as possible on these assets. Designers and their financial backers are also active in this process; many of their customers or would‐be customers aspire to the label but not at the market level initially catered for. Extending brands has, as the literature attests, implications for the designer, manufacturer, retailer and customer. The purpose of this small‐scale study was to examine the phenomenon at least as it relates to menswear, from the perspective of the independent retailer, who still has a major role to play in this market.

UK fashion retailing is characterised by high levels of market concentration, centralisation and outlet standardisation. In the pursuit of market share, the multiple fashion retailers are implementing branding strategies that aim to differentiate their product offer and reinforce their market positioning. Empirical research, via key informant interviews, examined the branding decisions of two multiple fashion retailers and established four main methods of brand differentiation.

Physical distribution management in New Zealand, is still, in many companies, subordinate to other functions in the corporate organisational hierarchy. In this study of three industries (Menswear, Foodstuffs and Pharmaceuticals) it was found that most distribution executives were responsible for warehousing and transport with very little involvement in setting customer service levels, the very essence of physical distribution. These results were surprising considering that it was claimed that there existed a large degree of awareness about the importance of physical distribution in terms of a company′s overall success. The actual level of adoption and successful implementation of an Integrated Physical Distribution system was around 50 per cent. Here there was considerable disagreement between top management of a company and the senior distribution executive. These conclusions were drawn from the response by the General Manager/CEO of participating companies, together with independent responses from the person in the company “responsible for the planning and control of the distribution activities”. These responses were examined in three distinct areas: attitudes towards distribution, adoption of integrated distribution concept and company organisation of distribution activities.

The purpose of this paper is to identify men’s clothing market segments based on store types and generational cohorts and the retail attributes.

A total of 2,808 US male consumer data from Predictive Analytics survey were analyzed with correspondence analysis (CA) (to identify segments based on store types and generations), general linear model (GLM) (to determine what retail attributes were important to target each segment) and a Rasch tree model (to test items of each factor in their relative importance).

The CA produced three segments: Segment 1 (Gen Y male consumers who frequently shop at specialty stores), Segment 2 (Gen X males who frequently shop at discount stores and online stores) and Segment 3 (Baby Boomers and Seniors who frequently shop at department stores). GLM shows that fundamentals were important to all segments; experiential was most important to Segment 1, while promotion was most important to Segment 3. Rasch tree analysis provided specific information on retail attributes for each store type and each generation.

Future research could employ both the importance and performance of retail attributes that are measured on a rating scale to understand consumers’ attitudes toward each retail format.

This study provided men’s clothing retailers with current insights into the male consumer segments based upon generational cohorts and store types from which they can better develop appropriate positioning strategies to satisfy the needs of each segment.

This study addressed the men’s clothing market, a growing but largely ignored market in the clothing industry and the retail literature.

The degree of association between sophistication in distribution management and service performance differs across industries. While there are significant associations with some of the indicators of management sophistication in all three industries used in this study, there was no consistency in the results. The only industry for which there was statistical support for a positive association between management sophistication and service performance is foodstuffs. Even this only indicates poor service providers were less sophisticated management. For all three industry groups there is evidence that factors, other than the level of management sophistication, have influenced the service rankings. The differences in the relevant importance of customer service and the various elements of distribution service may be one such factor. The inconclusiveness of association results may have been contributed to by the failure to take into account inter‐relationships between various subsets of management variables.

Supply chain management (SCM) is conceived by academics and practitioners as either an extension of logistics or an all‐encompassing approach to business integration. From the authors’ point of view, SCM involves not only logistic activities but also other processes such as quality management. This paper seeks to understand how quality can be managed using a supply chain perspective and what the operative and strategic consequences are for both the individual companies and the whole supply network. It reports a case study conducted on Marzotto, an important Italian textile and apparel company, and its supply chain relationships. The study compares the quality practices in the two different kinds of supply network of which Marzotto is the focal firm. One is managed using a traditional customer‐supplier approach and the other a broader and more co‐ordinated perspective. In the latter case, it was found that the whole supply network could improve its ability to meet the expectations of the final consumer in terms of quality through the joint definition and co‐management of quality practices/procedures.

We examine the work undertaken by salespersons in the menswear department of a well-known department store in New York City that sells specialized “luxury” clothing by using the theoretical perspective developed by Kenneth Burke, the philosopher of language and communication. He has argued that the most comprehensive way to describe human conduct is to examine what was done, what attitude did it manifest, where was it done, who did it, and how was it done. Burke summarized these questions as act, attitude, scene, agent, agency, and purpose. With these terms comprising a “hexad,” a great deal of complexity can be captured within an organizational context. Indeed, Burke refers to these terms as “the grammar of motives” – that is, the motives of human conduct (1969a, 1968). In the carefully staged menswear environment we find salesmen who negotiate the goals and purposes of the store as well as their individual motives through implicitly defined sequences of acts on the selling floor.

The learning outcomes of this case are in understanding core concepts of brand management and brand dilution. Assessment of macro-economic risks and proper positioning strategies are the key take-away from this case. The case gives an understanding of how brands are built and positioned, and the pitfalls of poor brand planning and assessment that could lead to brand dilution. The case is useful for highlighting the importance of brand management and the challenges of re-positioning. The discussions would shed light on why it is important to plan and manage spending on marketing for brand building activities, and why brands would suffer when spending is reduced. This case is a teaching case and not a research case. It will help participants assimilate available information in combination with existing academic theories and publications to help develop an accurate assessment and prognosis of the events leading until the point of slicing the case.

Reid & Taylor in 2015 had been reduced to a discounter brand offering extended end-of-season sales when most other competitors have ended their promotions. In the 17 years since its big-budget launch in the Indian market in one of the most memorable brand introductions, Reid & Taylor changed its ambassador twice and repositioned itself thrice. The case would allow participants to delve deeper into aspects of marketing spending, brand management, positioning and advertising effectiveness. The case brings to the fore discussions on marketing, specifically on branding, positioning and its related advertising in the textile sector for a brand that has not been studied in academic literature until the present time. The discussion allows for novelty, involving both forward- and backward-looking assessments and evaluations to help participants better imbibe learnings in brand management and positioning.

The case is suitable for a graduate-level (Master’s level) course in marketing and brand management. This case is suitable for elective courses that discuss positioning and brands.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing