Topshop Brand Report by FashionAtChesterUni

TOPSHOP

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Leanne Piper

CUSTOMER PROFILE

PLACE

07 CONTENTS

PEOPLE

PRICE

08 PROCESS

PRODUCT

PROMOTION

09 PHYSICAL ENVIROMENT

Topshop is part of the Arcadia Group, which is a British multi fashion house by Sir Phillip Green. Topshop was founded in 1964 as a youth fashion brand inside a department store called Peter Robinson in Sheffield. The success of the department store developed into Topshop opening its first independent store in 1970, with a menswear range launching the same year called Topman. In 1973 Topshop announced a division in its womenswear collection splitting it into two collections to be known as ‘Topshop’ and ‘Peter Robinson. The aim of the division was for Topshop to focus on a younger target audience between 14-25 and the Peter Robinson collection to target the over 25’s. (Arcadia, 2017) Topshop is now known as a very successful young, trendy and must go to store. Topshop stores are continuing to grow and most high streets in the UK have a Topshop store or department on them. Topshop currently have over 300 stores in UK with its flagship store located on Oxford St London, recent statistics show that more than 250,000 customers visit this store on a weekly basis. (Arcadia, 2017)

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INTRODUTION

INTRODUCTION

This report aims to define and research into the fast fashion brand, Topshop. Throughout this report I will look at Topshops marketing mix and in particular define the 7 P’s that Topshop use.

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Name: Alyssa Jones FIGURE 6

Gender: Female

Occupation: Full Time Student Personality: Outgoing, Bubbly, and Fun. Hobbies: Alyssa likes to keep active and regularly goes to the gym and attends boot camp classes. When Alyssa isn’t studying she likes socialising with friends. Alyssa goes on two holidays a year, one with friends and one with family. Alyssa likes to keep up to date with current trends and takes pride in her appearance. Shopping: Alyssa likes to shop in a variety of fast fashion brands including Topshop. Zara and Mango.

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Topshop have a very wide range of products, which include clothing, shoes, accessories, underwear and cosmetics. Topshop prices are reasonably low with Topshop sitting in the category of ‘fast fashion’ however for the prices of the garments Topshop products are well made and the quality is much better than what a lot of their competitors offer. Topshop have collections to fit and suit all different builds with Topshop offering a petite range, tall range and a maternity range. Topshop clothing has a size range from a 4 - 16 with shoe sizes starting at 35 – 42. Topshop also offer brands within Topshop such as, Topshop unique and Topshop Boutique these two brands offer a higher priced item with better quality materials used. The garments are not as mass-produced and our very exclusive to certain Topshop stores. In addition to this, Topshop also stock other in house brands to be purchased on Topshops website with over 50 brands available to purchase, ranging from Kurt Geiger to Olivia Burton. This helps broaden Topshops target audience meaning they can appeal to a bigger market of customers. A few of the brands that Topshop offer are celebrity endorsed brands which are exclusive to Topshop such as the ‘Kendal and Kylie’ collection and also the ‘Ivy Park’ sportswear collection who is influenced by Beyoncé. Topshops have a very unique selling point for their customers which is that they give their customers the chance to have current catwalk trends at a very reasonably price. All of Topshops garments have black labels with the white writing very similar to the Topshop Logo inside, and this is consistent with the swing ticket on the garments in-store.

PRODUCT

CUSTOMER PROFILE

Age: 19

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Topshop’s price points sit at a mid-high end high-street market. Although Topshop is a fast fashion brand they set a higher price point compared to some of the other high-street brands for example H&M and New Look. Clothing at Topshop can range between £3.50 for a pair of socks up to £795 for a shearling coat. However the majority of Topshops prices tend to range between £20 - £60 for basic items such as jeans, dresses and tops. FIGURE 13

Their stores are mainly located on the high street in city centres. Topshop has over 300 standalone stores in the UK and over 140 stores internationally. Topshop departments also sit in OUTFIT store, which is a store with departments of each of the Arcadia brands within. Topshop also have departments in a number of department stores including Selfridges and John Lewis. Topshop have a very strong online presence which gives you the option to purchase through the Topshop website (www.topshop.com) and the Topshop APP which is available on mobiles and tablet devices.

PRICE

PLACE

Topshop’s main promotion that they do throughout the year is 10% off student discount. This discount fits really well with the brand, as the target customer for Topshop is a student. Topshop also offer student discount events throughout the year where they offer a higher percentage of student discount, these are communicated to the consumers by email or by advertising on the ‘UNiDAYS’ app, which is only available to students. Topshop also do promotional discounts on certain style products for example, “20% off coats”, these discounts become available for a certain time period throughout the year. Topshop advertisement is mainly done online with them having a strong presence on social media so they can interact with their customers. Topshop have over 8.1 million followers on their Instagram account in which they regularly share images of fashion bloggers and celebrities wearing the latest collections. Topshop recently introduced a #topshopstyle which is to encourage customers to share their Topshop outfits on Instagram using the #topshopstyle in the caption when uploading the image. The hash tag currently has over 97,000 posts. Topshop also share a lot of advertising on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube and Magazines. I think Topshop promotes itself this way is because of often people are now using social media. Topshop have recently created a Snapchat account allowing consumers to follow them and receive instant viewing of new collections. Recent statistics show that Snapchat have 9,000 Snapchat’s posted per second. (Paul Roberts, 2016) FIGURE 16

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Topshop have worked with a variety of collaborations over years including Christopher Kane, Jonathan Saunders, Louise Goldin, Alexander McQueen, Meadham Kirchhoff, Sophia Kokosalaki, Celia Britwell, and most famously Kate Moss. More recently Topshop have introduced a ‘Kendall+Kylie’ collection that is collaborated with Kendall and Kylie Jenner. Topshop use a lot of current fashion bloggers as influences in their collections and marketing campaigns. This is then featured on their social media sites and have a section on the website so you can keep, read and follow the bloggers stories with Topshop.

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Chart Title 9000000 8000000

7000000 6000000 5000000 4000000 3000000 2000000 1000000 0

Topshop

New Look

River Island

H&M

Primark

This graph shows the difference in twitter followers with Topshop’s compettitors. The results of the graph show that Topshop have the seccond highest twitter follows with 1.3million. These statistics resemble how interactive Topshop is with its social media profiles.

PEOPLE

PROMOTION

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Green: They are happy with the way the factory is being run so they will continue to audit the factory once a year to make sure the factory continues trading to a high standard. Orange: The factory has room for improvement on how they are trading however it is not unsafe conditions so they will give the factory 6 months to improve the conditions and then they will do another audit. Red: The factory is breaking the code of conduct and Arcadia will not allow any of their brands to use the factory until it has been audited again and is up to trading standards. Once the products have been designed and the factories have passed the quality control tests they will get shipped to the UK warehouse in Milton Keynes ready to be distributed into store or to the web. Then the products will be photographed and advertised online or in marketing campaigns to try and entice consumers to purchase the products.

PROCESS

Topshop products can be purchased in store where you can try on the products and check for the style and fit before purchasing it. Although online shopping is very convenient a lot of customers still like to see the products and feel the fabric when purchasing. Once you have decided on the products you can them purchase the items in store and take them away with you that day. Topshop have branded carrier bags for purchases in store. Another way to shop with Topshop is online, which normally offers you a wider range of products as Topshop have online exclusive products. Topshops website is very easy to navigate and it makes it easier for you to shop by categorizing everything and giving you the option to add filters to your search if you are looking for something specific. When purchasing online, Topshop give different shipping options to suit the consumer’s needs. Express/Nominated Day Delivery £6.00 Collect From Store Express £3.00 UK Standard delivery (up to 4 working days) £4.00 Collect from Parcel Shop £4.00 Free Collect From Store standard £0.00 When you have placed your order online Topshop continue to interact with you until you have received your purchase. This contact is done by email, you will receive an email to confirm your purchase and then also again when your item is getting dispatched this service gives you the opportunity to track your items when it is out for delivery.

PHYSICAL EVIROMENT

Topshop offer hot current trends for their customers meaning that the turn around on products is very quick. Arcadia doesn’t own any factories as a company. However they like to have the freedom of operating in numerous factories. Arcadia products are currently manufactured in 1,034 factories and deal with 679 supplies. Their most regular suppliers currently provide 45% of their products. Topshop products are mostly made in China, Turkey, Romania, India and Vietnam however certain products may be made in a different country if it is more suitable for the materials needed to make the product. When working with these countries Arcadia focus on ethical trading and conduct audits on each of the factories being used by using a grading system of green, orange and red.

Topshop’s stores are all very bright and trendy throughout. All of Topshop’s standalone stores have a very consistent layout and appearance throughout each store. When walking in to a Topshop stores the first thing you notice is the music, as this is very upbeat, trendy music and is normally being played very loud. The stores always have bright lighting and white minimal walls. The shoe departments in the store are always very tidy and offer seating areas. Topshop’s fitting rooms are always very minimal with simple graphics on the mirrors encouraging you to interact with their social media accounts. Topshop’s visual merchandising is very consistent throughout the stores. Topshop’s visual merchandising layouts are very easy to follow with the store having categories, for example, they have the petite collection, all in one section, a denim jean section, and a underwear and nightwear collection together, Topshop display the cosmetics and accessories in a unit next to the till. FIGURE 19

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography BRAND STRATEGY (no date) Available at: http://topshopdigitalpromotion.weebly.com/brand-strategy. html (Accessed: 10 February 2017). Limited, A.G. (no date) About Us. Available at: https://www.arcadiagroup.co.uk/about-us/our-brands/topshop (Accessed: 10 February 2017). Limited, A.G. (no date) Ethical trading / Arcadia group. Available at: https://www.arcadiagroup.co.uk/ fashionfootprint/our-products/Ethical%20Trading (Accessed: 10 February 2017). Topshop (2017) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topshop (Accessed: 8 February 2017). Citations, Quotes & Annotations BRAND STRATEGY (no date) Available at: http://topshopdigitalpromotion.weebly.com/brand-strategy. html (Accessed: 10 February 2017). (BRAND STRATEGY, no date) Limited, A.G. (no date) About Us. Available at: https://www.arcadiagroup.co.uk/about-us/our-brands/topshop (Accessed: 10 February 2017). (Limited, no date) Limited, A.G. (no date) Ethical trading / Arcadia group. Available at: https://www.arcadiagroup.co.uk/ fashionfootprint/our-products/Ethical%20Trading (Accessed: 10 February 2017). (Limited, no date) Topshop (2017) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topshop (Accessed: 8 February 2017). (Topshop, 2017)

FIGURE 1: http://www.instylelook.com/fashion-photography/taylor-hill-models-topshop-2016-campaign/ FIGURE 2: http://images.fashiontimes.com/data/images/full/99168/topshops-fallwinter-2016-ads-starring-taylor-hill.png?w=600 FIGURE 3: https://www.instagram.com/alyssamayhl/ FIGURE 4: https://www.instagram.com/topshop/ FIGURE 5: https://www.instagram.com/topshop/ FIGURE 6: https://www.instagram.com/topshop/ FIGURE 7: https://www.topshop.com FIGURE 8: https://www.topshop.com FIGURE 9: https://www.topshop.com FIGURE 10: http://www.careers.topshop.com/retail/oxford-circus/the-life-of-abrand-manager/ FIGURE 11: https://www.topshop.com FIGURE 12: https://www.topshop.com FIGURE 13: http://www.milkbubbletea.com/petite-fashion-the-best-places-to-shop/ FIGURE 14: https://twitter.com/Topshop FIGURE 15: https://www.instagram.com/topshop/ FIGURE 16: https://www.instagram.com/topshop/ FIGURE 17: http://www.ribsidecars.com/new.asp?kendall-kylie-jenner/?sz=100 FIGURE 18: http://www.ivypark.com FIGURE 19: https://www.instagram.com/topshop/ FIGURE 20: http://theregister.co.nz/news/2015/07/getting-look-inside-topshop