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5.1 The Influence of Japanese Design on the Taiwanese Market 5.1.1 How different of clothing style between Japan and Europe: During recent years, Taiwanese fashion trend has been deeply affected by the Japanese culture and fashion style. There are many reasonslocation, fashion magazine, TV programme, advertisement and media. And the most important, Taiwanese body shape is almost the same as Japanese’s; therefore Japanese design does quite fit Taiwanese girls. Fashion in Japan has its own characteristic style, especially in Tokyo, which is the capital city in Japan; there are many high street brands and fashionable people around the entire city. Indeed, in fashion show worldwide, Japanese designer , artist and clothing always attract people’s attention, such as Rei Kawakubo , Takashi Murakami and Issey Miyake (see appendix4). The main difference of clothing style between Japan and Europe, are shape and fit, and use of colours.
Figure 20
Figure 23
Figure 21
Figure 24
Figure 22
Figure 25
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5.1.2 How do Japanese girls dress? Fashion In Japan have their characteristic style, especially in Tokyo which is the capital city in Japan, there are many high street brands and fashionable people around all the city. Indeed, in fashion show worldwide, Japanese designer,artist and clothing always attract people’s attention, such as Rei Kawakubo,Takashi Murakami and Issey Mitake. The most different of clothing style between Japan and Europe, which is shape and fit, and colour using. However, according to some news reported*, we can know some British brands have enter Japanese market, such as Ted Baker, TOPSHOP etc. In Japan, there are two TOPSHOP stores in Japanese capital city-Tokyo, “one of store of TOPSHOP just next to H&M and both of them located in primary and the largest shopping centre in Tokyo” ( Japanconsuming, 2009)”, it is strongly showing how Japanese people love using Europe high street brands. Nevertheless, as some Japanese fashion image, we can observe they are similar with Europe fashion, likes below:
Figure 27
Figure 26
Figure 30
Figure 29
Figure 28
Figure 31
From these pictures, people can understand there are not totally different between Japanese and British fashion style, it is an analyse for how different of them by many aspects: 36
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Aspect / Similar or Different
Pattern
Colour
Similar
Different
• Vintage illustration • Colourful
• J apanese fashion use too much English words as a topic in t-shirt • Their pattern style always prefer adorable image.
• Brave to use fancy • J a p a n e s e s t y l e colour sometimes prefer simple but adorable, they can only put single fancy colour in a dress, such as if someone is already wears pink jacket, she won’t add other fancy colour into dress. • the British people is always brave to put many colour into one dress which showing a vintage image. * (think this point should connect with people’s colour of skin, and different facial features. Indeed, people still cannot use colour very bold in clothing in Eastern fashion. )
Colour
• B o t h o f E u r o p e p e o p l e a n d Japanese quite love wearing hat and always use it well, they love to use hat head ornaments do some style.
• Japanese style do not too much accessories such as , rings, earringsscarf (but they have types of scarf to in Winter, they are not often use scarf accessories in other seasons.) JP style is quite adorable but simple.
People can observe some different between JP style and Europe style, and Taiwanese prefer JP clothing style. The key point I think that is Japanese body shape is similar with Taiwanese people. And fashion trend in Japan have their unique style compared with Europe. As some fashion illustrations, Japanese clothing shows some image message—clean, simple, adorable and sweet-natured. They love to use some colour likes pink, sky blue or grass green. On the contrary, they use less red, orange colour, purple or skin colour. In design style, indeed I think pattern is not really different between JP and Europe. Some pictures can tell us, some particular pattern is similar and dressing style as well. However, Asia people’s body shape is shorter compared with European. That is why some clothes are the same but have different outcome by different people’s wearing. Finally, different atmosphere is a point. Most of clothing advertisement in TV or magazines, it all shows an atmosphere—warm, lovely and creative. The image they want to convey is not quite tough and bold.
5. 2 SWOT COMPARISONS - TOPSHOP SWOT in UK • Strengths Compared with other UK brands, no doubt TOPSHOP is symbolic fashion brand and gives a strong performance in Arcadia Group. 37
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Being part of Arcadia is a strength, no matter in the past or now, Arcadia Group is keeping an excellent performance in fashion retailer. “I am pleased to be able to report operating profit for the group of £279.6m, up 10%, and excellent cash generation of £386.2m, up £43m on last year. I believe this to be a good performance in what was a competitive and challenging year.’’ Sir Philip Green have commented on the announcement (Mintel, 2010). It is obvious that TOPSHOP is a very important investment for Philip Green, he said ’’Our leading fashion brands TOPSHOP and TOPMAN have again had a strong year producing record turnover and profit. Indeed, At the other end of the spectrum from Bhs, Arcadia’s second focus of investment has been the TOPSHOP and TOPMAN brands. In 2009 and 2010, a number of new stores were opened, including flagships in New York and Tokyo. The New York store was Arcadia’s first directly-owned overseas store. 8.0 7.0
6.6
6.3
6.4
6.3
6.5
6.0 5.0 [%] 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0 0.0 2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Figure: X 2009’s market share figures have been boosted by the inclusion of Bhs sales data for July–August. Sales are believed to have been strongest at TOPSHOP-TOPMAN and Miss Selfridge. Bhs, meanwhile, saw sales fall by around 7% for the year.
The TOPSHOP brand targets the younger consumer and the focus on this sector has made economic sense. While older consumers, likely to be more cautious and burdened with mortgages, have cut back, the shopping habits of the younger end of the market were impacted less by the recession – younger consumers carried on spending. Investment in the TOPSHOP/TOPMAN chain has successfully cultivated an image of ephemeral, contemporary fashion and an indulgent, youthful shopping experience. International media attention and unsolicited celebrity endorsements have seen the brand develop something of a cult following outside its domestic market – something that other high street brands can only dream of. The opening of new stores in glamorous districts such as SOHO in New York and Knightsbridge in London (as well as Liverpool) with showbiz parties and events such as the ‘TOPMAN Ctrl’ student music tour have added to the brand’s zeitgeist-y image. (Clothing Retailing - UK - October 2010, Mintel2010) Moreover, the habits of younger shoppers have been less affected by the economic conditions, which is likely to have helped contribute to the record turnover posted by T O P S H O P, T O P M A N a n d M i s s S e l f r i d g e . TOPSHOP and TOPMAN have probably also benefited from a number of store openings globally and store refurbishments.
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For customer in high street, TOPSHOP has hit-the-trend styles, in clothing, they almost have new collection every week; in accessorize, their design style also have original idea as well as clothing. Their dressing style is an icon in modern teenager society. Moreover, they have over 300 stores in UK and 100 overseas which increased competitive edge on the international retail market. They set up a strong image and market position in fashion field in UK, of course some of influence was from famous spokesman such as Kate Moss. In price, they have choices at multiple price points for different choices of styles and qualities, people can just spend a little money to buy some basic t-shire or choose a luxurious dress which costs a big money. In addition, they offer student discount, this is quite good for a majority of their target market. Besides, the most surprised point compared with other Europe fashion brands which is TOPSHOP has many sections-salon, nails beauty, café’ and a lot of fashion magazines, customers can spend whole day in the store. • Weaknesses How TOPSHOP works must depends on their company - Arcadia Group. There is an online SWOT analysis which talked about TOPSHOP’s company-Arcadia Group, by it, people can know more about Arcadia’s structure and how Arcadia’s business strategy is.
Strengths - Effective sourcing strategy - W ide range of products under world class brands
Weakness - Absence in Manufacturing -P rivately owned company
Opportunities - E m e r g i n g m a r k e t s providing ladder for growth - Internet retailing
Strengths - E c o n o m i c s l o w d o w n Europe - I ntense competition
From this SWOT analysis (docstoc, AUG 2010), people can know that Arcadia Group is a privately owned company, compared with public company, the biggest different between the two types of companies which is private company is not required to disclose their financial information to anyone since they do not trade stock on a stock exchange. Moreover, the main advantage to private companies is that management doesn't have to answer to stockholders and isn't required to file disclosure statements with the SEC. However, a private company can't dip into the public capital markets and must therefore turn to private funding, which can boost the cost of capital and may limit expansion. It has been said often that private companies seek to minimize the tax bite, while public companies seek to increase profits for shareholders. (Investopedia, 2006) Besides, in store aspects, there are many kinds of items in the stores-it should be a problem for manage, especially numerous lines 39
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of products, big store space and big number of staffs, it might be cost a lot in management. In other hand, it is difficult to control average quality of their products due to they have too many types of item, of course they have no personal services and staff almost unhelpful. Furthermore, their website shopping function is too weak-no detail and size for accessorises, customers are difficult to get the right images of them, clothing have no real people showing how the dress look like as well, for example, ASOS have catwalk to show how a dress looks when somebody wear it. • Opportunities For current Taiwanese fashion sense, it is a good time to expand TOPSHOP’s international market here, this is a period is in developing and enlarge Taiwanese fashion field. During recent years, many Japanese and American brands go to Taiwan step by step, moreover, as news reported, the Europe brands – ZARA and H&M will go to Taiwanese market in the end of 2011. Therefore, this is a quite key time to decide should TOPSHOP go to Taiwan again. TOPSHOP has some international expansion opportunities with its mature market position and status among consumers in the UK and worldwide. Also, TOPSHOP in Japan have a great performance since they have been to there in the first time in 2008. Following fast fashion trend,
TOPSHOP becomes popular in international fashion field. Moreover, TOPSHOP is a good stage showing new fashion designers to present their works such as some small exclusive collections. In the other hand, they create a multi-style but mix and match into this brand. • Threats UK Economic Climate: To be honest, in current global economic climate, it is a difficult period to expand international market. The truth is, Britain has emerged from the recession but is faced with a long and lingering period of uncertainty. Consumers remain wary about the future, and this is reflected in spending habits and attitudes about what is 'essential'. With further cuts ahead, the general mindset is one of caution, with the biggest question of all being 'what next?' However, there is positivity too - people seemed to have moved away from the fear that pervaded much of the two years during 2009-2010. British Lifestyles 2010 examines a society in flux, looking at socio-demographic shifts, market sizes and forecasts, who were hit hardest by the economic downturn, and how people have reacted to their changing circumstances - for better or worse. Here are some examples of things people might be concerned about:
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many choices for people to choose from, they do not need to pay their attention to only one brand. With fashion brands increasing day by day, customers are the only winners. As well as brands in competition, there is competition from cheaper fashion as well, like Primark, Peacocks, TK Maxx and also online shopping website such as ASOS. People normally prefer to spend less money so when they face two products which are quite similar, the cheaper one always wins. For example, if people want to buy a fashionable tops or jacket, they would go to Primark due to their varying styles and of the very low price. Moreover, if people want to buy shoes, they might choose TK Maxx due to their special outlet collections; people can find good shoes but maybe pay half of price. Some people might simply choose to shop online, they might surf on ASOS.com to skim over all the latest trend and pay using their credit cards. Shopping online means you don’t have to go out yourself, just pay the delivery costs and your products will arrive within days. The competition between brands is a price war as well. The threats from price wars do not come from other fashion competitors alone, however, but from many other factors as well. Today, people may choose to spend more on mobile phones like the IPod or the IPad and other gadgets, or on leisure such as eating out 42
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or on dating. This is a modern phenomenon symbolizing that people are stepping towards better living quality. They use high- level 3C products, eating in Michelin restaurants, spend a lot house renovations etc etc. People care about all of the things in their life, and fashion is just one of those many things. -TOPSHOP SWOT in Taiwan • Strengths Fast fashion is growing quickly in recent years in Taiwan, and many foreign brands have entered the Taiwanese fashion field, either through shops located in department stores or stand-alone stores on the high street such as the Japanese brand UNIQLO, the Swedish H&M and American retailer MOUSSY. As Taiwanese online
Figure 36
Figure 38
Figure 37
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shopping website shows, TOPSHOP is a popular search word, when people type the key word – “TOPSHOP”, the websites will show many items which is somebody bought from TOPSHOP or second hand products. The most popular sells online for TOPSHOP are tops, coats and dresses. Moreover, some customers who know TOPSHOP for a long time will spend a lot of money buying from TOPSHOP’s website in the UK, even though it costs more due to the delivery fee from UK. This shows there is already brand recognition in Taiwan and some consumers have motivation to buy it. In addition, fashion style is now quite similar among UK, Japan and Taiwan. Most of girls love wearing legging, short pants and add more colourful item on their dresses. People start to care about how fashionable clothing looks, this is more important than it being cheap but without design style. However, TOPSHOP is not too expensive compared to designer brands. Besides of it, in economic aspect, there are more young girls with disposable income can spend lots of money on fashion. For adult, there are more and more single groups increasing in Taiwanese society. The characteristic of them is they have excellent ability and earn a big money by themselves. They care about living quality so they would spend a lot on house ware and clothing. In this kind of women, most of them have unique thinking and independent view of point. That is a life style which is quite match
with TOPSHOP’s spirit. In the other hand, there is the other group who has capability to shopping though they have no job, this group is student. According some news, there are less and less couples are willing to have too many babies, fertility rate is decreasing year by year, many couples just want to have only one baby because of harder economics. In the past, people did not spend too much time or money on entertainment, they paid their attention on work, keeping a family relationship and have a simple life, most of them would think there are more babies in a family is a better way. However, this is a quite different situation compared with now. Currently, there are so many things need to handle with, such as eating out, watching movies, clubbing or something funny can kill time else, in addition people still need to spend money on buying house, keep a living quality standard. They do not want have too many babies however they would rather have only one baby and gives him/ her a good life. For this reason, some of teenager has enough money to spend in fashion. Moreover, if TOPSHOP have idea to enter Taiwan again, they are lucky to have a previous experience to improve their marketing strategy and make it better. Due to their previous experience, they can collect customer’s thoughts or do some market research to know why they worked not well before. This is a good chance to see the customer’s reflection 43
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to know what problem was. It will be a precious opportunity as when brand want to enter a new market, they always have no idea what crisis will be and how to against that. Although TOPSHOP was failed before, nevertheless they have a huge possibility can be successful this time. Furthermore, there are no brands in Taiwan which has all kinds of products includes clothes, accessorises, shoes, underwear and nail shop in Taiwanese local market. It is a huge possibility that TOPSHOP can be successful due to its multiple product lines. Also, TOPSHOP have their own magazine, fashion magazine sells quite well in Taiwan especially for teenager and office lady. It will gives Taiwanese people a fresh shopping experiences. • Weaknesses TOPSHOP was failed in Taiwan during 20002002, which means if they will go to Taiwan again that would become a quite seriously challenge. They have already withdrawn once, it is symbolize there is impossible to be fail again. However, there is a big change on fashion style since 2002 until now. In this almost ten years, Taiwanese people start to accept foreign culture and the culture has grown similar in taste, the evidence shown we can see by Internet. There are too many brands challenge Taiwanese market in recent years, especially Japanese brands. Although Taiwanese people
start to notice western brands such as H&M, ZARA and TOPSHOP, Taiwanese still have many choices in fashion brands. Moreover, TOPSHOP’s price is not really low, exactly TOPSHOP is a middle price brand but some items still are quite expensive such as shoes and bags. So TOPSHOP would need to find the right combination of price and style, targeted at the right customer. • Opportunities There are some European brands has already go to Taiwan in recent years. For example, Mango is doing well in Taiwanese office lady market; ZARA and H&M will go to Taiwan in the end of 2011, though they have not enter Taiwan, most of Taiwanese people is start to crazy about that.
Figure 39
Figure 42
Figure 40
Figure 41 Figure 43
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If ZARA and H&M can be successful in Taiwan, that will be quite good case for TOPSHOP. Indeed, Europe brand is going to be popular in recent years in Taiwan, especially after ZARA and H&M enter Hong Kong. As H&M for a case, H&M's popularity is because of its trendy items for such a low price. This store offers quality clothing at department store prices which is rare for many retailers today. Others strength for this company is their overall delivery time. It only takes 12 weeks to get an item from the design to its retail state which is very impressive for a worldwide, low price retailer. The average for retailers is usually about 6 months which is double the time that H&M uses. They also manage to keep the stores brands fresh with guest designers coming in for different lines in the store. (associatedcontent, 2009) No doubt H&M will be successful in Taiwan, this is a very big and good news for Taiwanese people. Everyone know that the selling point of H&M is fashionable trends at affordable price. No matter how the quality is, H&M is really a perfect fashion sample for fast fashion trend. Price is the key point for H&M issues, the perfect marketing strategies in Taiwan which is cheap, trendy and good quality, however it is hard to say quality of H&M. On the contrary, TOPSHOP have good quality and the latest trend items but maybe based in a little high price. There is a existed successful case in Taiwan – Mango.
Strengths - Its fashion for the young and urban women - Suitable for office ladies. - The image of MANGO is quite clear. - Their design style is really fit and sexy. - Tall girl is their primary consumer group - Which is the Europe brand enter Taiwanese market the most early. - T heir overturn might be not very considerable, but steadily. - T here are many brunch in Taiwan, 25 stores so far, includes exclusive shop and store located in department store.
Weakness - D esign style is not very changeful. - High Price. - T he target is focus on middle-age female. - T h e c l o t h i n g t y p e i s l i m i t e d b y Ta i w a n e s e people’s body shape. - T heir items are not too many. - Most of young people have no ability to afford it.
Opportunities - More advertising. - Taiwanese fashion style is going to similar with Europe fashion style, which means there are more space can develop. - There are less developing opportunities in Taiwan because they have enter Taiwan for a long time, everything is going to steading.
Strengths - More Europe brands will enter Taiwan soon such as ZARA and H&M. - T he price should be a little high compare with other Europe brands. - I n future, most of customer will become teenager, however the design style of MANGO is prefer mature female.
Due to these cases, if TOPSHOP want to enter Taiwanese market, they have many brands can be the sample which they can learned. Price is difficult to be lower however they can learn MANGO which they have particular customer group and their items sells in many places though the shop is not 45
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really big. Compared with H&M, TOPSHOP have more trendy items and design style is high-fashion; compared with MANGO, TOPSHOP’s products are more suitable for teenager and their accessories should be more multiple- choices. • Threats It is not only price that should be the biggest threat for TOPSHOP but there are many competitors in Taiwan such as MANGO that has already been there for a long time. Potential competitors for the future include H&M and ZARA which will arrive in Taiwan before2012. It is hard to say should TOPSHOP can work as well as MANGO, there are a turnover report for MANGO during 2002–2011. (MANGO website, 2010)
1240€ 1181€ 1828.5USD 1741.6USD 1125€ 1071€ 1058USD 1020€ 1507.3USD 942€ 1504USD 1214.6USD
euros 1.125 1.050 975 900 825 750
745€ 782USD
881€ 832€ 1038USD 782€ 1033USD 804USD
675 600 525 450 375 300 225 150 75 0 2002
2003 2004
2005
2006 2007
2008
2009
2010 2011
People can see that their world-wide turnover was going well and became steady in recent years. Due to that, it proved European brands can do well in the Taiwanese market given more time to build their particular customer demographic. ZARA and H&M will soon build their customer group and therefore it will be too late for TOPSHOP to re-launch into Taiwan and compete with, not only these brands, but other emerging companies in the market.. The condition of the Taiwanese economical situation needs to be considered. Indeed, it was bad timing for TOPSHOP to enter the Taiwanese market during 2000/2002. In that time, Taiwanese people were in a financially depressed situation caused by low salaries. They just spent money on their family without too much entertainment. However, the financial condition is going to be better than during their previous attempt. The timing of any re-launch into Taiwan for TOPSHOP will be critical if they are to make gains in this market. 5.3 Competitor Analysis - which store are major competitor? If TOPSHOP will entre Taiwanese market, the biggest competitor should be UNIQLO now. UNIQLO is a Japanese brand which sells many kinds of clothing includes underwear and nightwear which is as similar as TOPSHOP. In Japan, UNIQLO is a middle-price brand and
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Figure 44 Figure 46
Figure 45
Figure 47
Figure 50
Figure 48 Figure 49
their design style are suitable for everyone, from teenager to older. However, in Taiwan, UNIQLO becomes a fashionable brand and the store is located in the Japanese department store which in luxurious area in Taipei, the price is more higher as well. The character of this brand’s clothing should be colourful, good quality and not too fashionable-this is good for everyone to wear.
However, this brand’s style is very different compare with TOPSHOP, TOPSHOP is focus on 15-30 age group, design style is fashionable; UNIQLO is focus on all age and style is more simple, good quality as well. To sum up, UNIQLO has their stable market in Taiwan, nevertheless cannot compare with TOPSHOP, this two brand are quite different. 47
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The other competitor for TOPSHOP is NET which is a local Taiwanese brand. The producing factory of NET all located in China. The most interesting thing in NET is their often change their seasonal products and have change different style items fast. For example, NET have copied t-shirt pattern of H&M, casual style was similar with A&F. Although the design style is quite with other brands, however they have very low price, it is the biggest reason which push many Taiwanese female love to buy. Also, they have many series such as for teenager, office lady, child and nightwear. The advantage is their quality is really not good. NET is a smart clothing enterprise because of they have copied foreign fashion brand’s marketing strategy such as they change seasonal
item so fast; they have many choices in different aspects; they know what Taiwanese people love to buy; they have good design pattern but the price is not very high likes H&M. Indeed, copy other brand’s design style is a normal phenomenon in Taiwan, most of Taiwanese fashion is learn by Japan and western style. Besides, if TOPSHOP want to entre Taiwanese market, they will have a new competitor-ZARA. According some Taiwanese news reported, ZARA plan to entre Taiwanese fashion field and they have a store is building in Taipei city from 2011. Nobody knows what date they will open however the truth is they are in the way to entre Taiwan. Thus, whether ZARA could be successful in Taiwan, it must be a big issue in Taiwanese fashion field.
Figure 51
Figure 52
Figure 53
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Figure 54
Figure 55
Figure 56
Figure 57
TOPSHOP Positioning:
Price
TOPSHOP UNIQLO ZARA H&M NET
Trend
Traditional Heritage Classic
Non-fashon
Fashonable 49
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Figure 58
6.1 Online Questionnaire analysis This email questionnaire (see appendix 1) aims at collect more detailed information from Taiwanese customers about TOPSHOP events in Taiwan. By collecting the information from these questionnaires, we can find out what caused TOPSHOP to fail in the Taiwanese market. This outcome does not only show the popularity of TOPSHOP in Taiwan but also an analysis of what kind of clothing style is suitable for Taiwanese female customers. Moreover, according to the statistics, we can set up a target if TOPSHOP will re-enter the Taiwanese market; what factors should be improved to avoid another business failure. After collecting this questionnaire, it is even possible to achieve an outcome for analysis by different aspects, such as design style, price, fit and advertising.
This questionnaire design is very simple and focuses on a specific group of -18-30years of female (see appendix 2.2). I sent about 70 mails to Taiwanese female customers and had replies back from about 64 mails. Some of them knew that there were TOPSHOPs in Taiwan, some of them don’t; some of the people interviewed expected TOPSHOP to re-enter the Taiwanese market as soon as possible, because they loved British style and fashionable designs. From the questionnaire, I found that TOPSHOP is a midmarket brand and their price is reasonable for Taiwanese customers (see appendix 2.7), their modern and fashionable design style is what attracts the Taiwanese customer to buy the their products. (see appendix 2.6)
6.2 Questionnaire analysis The design idea of this questionnaire is from a fashion magazine. Two similar types of 51
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clothes are shown, but one is from the TOPSHOP website, and the other is from a Taiwanese shopping website. The UK price and Taiwanese price are marked, and people can choose which one they would like to buy, even though the price and quality are quite different, but the style is very similar. 70 people responded to the questionnaire, and it was obvious from the results that most Taiwanese females choose products depending on quality and style. Price is no longer the most important factor.
Figure 60 Figure 59
• Taiwanese brand & TOPSHOP
Figure 66
Figure 65 Choose TW: 10%
Choose UK: 90%
Choose TW: 80%
Choose UK: 20%
The type looks feminine
Good-looking colour
Unique style
Colour looks good
It is fit for Taiwanese people
The length is suitable for petite Asian girls It looks young
Quality seems good
UK one is too long for a stripe dress
Fashionable and better quality
Good quality Its colour and cutting Suitable for short girls
This one looks better personally
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Figure 64
Figure 62 Figure 63
Figure 61
Figure 67 Figure 68 Choose TW: 60%
Choose UK: 40%
Choose UK: 50%
Choose TW: 50%
Colour and style is better
Its type looks fit for body shape
Quality and type looks better
Cheaper and fashionable The length is fashionable The cutting is more stylish than the other one
The quality and price is reasonable for this item
I do not like pockets
It is more stylish and the cutting is good, make girls look skinny
Do not want to spend a lot of money on this casual item
The quality looks better
The TW one looks so old
It looks more comfortable than the other one
Fit for women’s shape Chic
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Figure 71
Figure 69 Figure 70
Figure 76
Figure 77
Choose TW: 40%
Choose UK: 60%
Choose TW: 30%
Choose UK: 70%
The length is shorter which is suitable for Asian girls
The quality looks good
The style looks nice
Its design style looks more stylish
This product is more seasonal and the other one looks heavy when people wear it
Design style and looks fit
Type and price is good and reasonable
Its type looks simple, the other one looks complicated and loose
This one looks fresher for such a white blazer
It looks Stylish It looks more elegant than the other one
It looks more stylish and fit, the other one looks messed up.
The length looks more fashionable and not old
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Figure 75 Figure 73
Figure 72
Figure 78 Choose UK: 20%
Choose TW: 80%
Its type and colour looks high-quality
Its colour looks better and younger
Colour
It looks so hot! The other one is normal and not special
The fabric looks more comfortable
This colour looks more bright and have some details in the head of the pants, the design style makes people look thinner
Figure 74
According to this investigation, the result is going to show a fact: Taiwanese people care more for quality than the price. When they have to choose the best one, the first condition they consider is quality, the second condition is colour, third is how the clothing makes people look fit or younger, however all these answers reflect one thing: price is not everything. From this investigation, TOPSHOP look to have a large possibility of entering the Taiwanese market. The results proved that Taiwanese people consider how fashionable clothes are as important as a reasonable price, which means Taiwanese people wish to upgrade their living quality and not only focus on work or family life. It is an evidence showing Taiwan is a developing country, a better quality of life can stimulate consumer spending. 55
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6.3 Interviews The following is a comparison from this two interviewers, the result will showing will showed below of this (can see Appendix 3 as well):
PRO
CON
1. Are you familiar with TOPSHOP? How you know about this brand?
Name: Lois Tsai Occupation: Local fashion news reporter
Name: Gladys Tsai Occupation: International fashion news reporter
2. Can you describe what image you have of TOPSHOP? This brand has many kinds of products. Which item do you think you would love to buy frequently? 3. If TOPSHOP wants to come to Taiwan again, who will be its main competitor? For example, how would you compare it with the middle- priced Japanese brand, UNIQLO, and Taiwanese local clothing brand, NET, in terms of quality, design style, popularity and price? 4. According to the news, European brands, ZARA and H&M will be entering the Taiwanese market soon. However, TOPSHOP seems to have no plans to re-enter Taiwan. Do you think ZARA and H&M will carve up the Taiwanese market first? Will this become a crisis for TOPSHOP if it wants to relaunch in Taiwan? If you are a customer, and these three brands are located in the same shopping district, how will you choose one of them? 5. From a customer perspective, under what conditions could TOPSHOP be successfully relaunched into the Taiwanese market? Do you think it is possible for TOPSHOP to do well in Taiwan?
• Not familiar with TOPSHOP, only know this brand from • Quite familiar with TOPSHOP from childhood. Kate Moss advertisements. • M i d d l e - p r i c e d b r a n d , • C hic, urban, and British Fashionable and unique, brand; love the tops the love the dresses the most. most. • C o m p e t i t o r i s N E T , • I ts competitor is itself reasons: design style, low price decides everything. price. Mango is a strong NET should be an competitor as well. interesting thought. It has become a copycat these days, Its advantages are price, design and location. • H & M a n d Z A R A w i l l • D epends on the price! carve up the Taiwanese Unless TOPSHOP changes market first, because their d r a s t i c a l l y, Ta i w a n e s e clothing style is similar to people will still prefer to TOPSHOP; H&M’s cut is check out ZARA and H&M. more suitable for western These two brands are very people; the Taiwanese will popular European brands love TOPSHOP due to its for Taiwanese people and popularity, and compared they are always familiar with other British fashion with them. brands, TOPSHOP’s price is reasonable but stylish. • It is possible for TOPSHOP • I t i s n e g a t i v e t o s a y re-launch in the Taiwanese TOPSHOP won’t be market in the future, successful if it is rebecause Taiwanese people l a u n c h e d i n Ta i w a n , usually adore foreign but price is the most brands. TOPSHOP would important reason. If its be successful if it works target is teenagers, it must hard on local market remember to keep the research and advertising. prices reasonable.
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This interviews result showed an interesting phenomenon, this two people respectively is local fashion reporter and international fashion news journalist. As Lois Tsai’s case, she predicted TOPSHOP can be successful in Taiwan like UNIQLO or any other foreign brands, due to the popularity of TOPSHOP in Europe, Taiwanese people will consider this brands is a quite cool high fashion brand in UK and they have a famous spokesman – Kate Moss, this is a top news had reported in Taiwanese fashion market. Moreover, there is a concept in Taiwanese people’s mind – The quality of product from Europe is always nicer than made in China or Asia. Besides, in Taiwanese shopping website, people can research the key word – TOPSHOP and see many items on that, however the price is not really cheap on websites. TOPSHOP in
Figure 79
Figure 80
Taiwan have their consumer market especially for some particular group who love and used to use Europe brands. For those people, the only way to buy TOPSHOP is online shopping, however they
cannot touch the real item and of course they cannot fitting, therefore if TOPSHOP have shops in Taiwan should be a popular issue and people will propose their urban, unique and fashionable design style. Above of all, that is a very local Taiwanese people’s opinion which might be not familiar with Europe brands. For the other person – Gladys Tsai, she is worked for international channel and quite familiar with Europe fashion style and other thing else. Her viewpoint is different with Lois Tsai. Gladys Tsai was reported many fashion news and know how different between Europe market and Taiwanese market, as her thinking, it is a bit difficult to build a successful market for TOPSHOP if they want to re-launch Taiwan. Most the problem is from PRICE. If the target of TOPSHOP is for teenager, in Taiwan, most of teenager has more choices on fashion clothing. There are many places teenager can go to shop, such as night - market, local low – price brand, department store even some little clothing shop around Taiwanese high street. They have such many choices and not necessary to choose TOPSHOP. This is one of reason Gladys Tsai think TOPSHOP have lass possibility to be successful in Taiwanese market. However, this is two dissimilar cases for interviews. They did showed different opinions from a local Taiwanese customer and the other is familiar with international market. In my 57
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