COMPARATIVE SHOP REPORT
WONG Sau Laam
janetwongarashi@gmail.com
Nottingham Trent University School of Art & Design2018 / 2019 Institute of Vocational Education – Hong Kong
ba
ifb
Module: FASHION BUYING Module reference: FASH30007 IVE
Module Leader: Vivian Lee
Module Name Declaration This submission is the result of my own work. All help and advice other than that received from tutors has been acknowledged and primary and secondary sources of information have been properly attributed. Should this statement prove to be untrue, I recognise the right and duty of the Board of Examiners to recommend what action should be taken in line with the University’s regulation on assessment contained in its handbook. I confirm that this work has gained ethical approval and that I have faithfully observed the terms of the approval in the conduct of this project.
Signed ______________________________ (Full Name) WONG Sau Laam
Date 29/10/2018 (Word Count:__1804____)
1
CONTENT Company Overview Brand Purpose Hong Kong Environment Project Introduction Research Methodology Target Customers Profile Diffusion of Innovation Maslow Hierarchy of needs vs Market Level Target Consumer Profile Competitor Analysis Conceptual Map Product Life Cycle Product Comparison Denim Jacket T-Shirt Dress Comment SWOT Analysis & P.E.S.T Conclusion References Appendix
2
COMPANY OVERVIEW COTTON:ON was found since 1991 in Australia. There are over 1,400 retail store in 19 countries including Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong etc. COTTON:ON, BODY, KIDS, Typo, rubi, FACTORIE and Supre are the 7 branches of COTTON:ON. Upcoming the new branch called Lost which mainly provide bags and suitcase for travelers, students.
BRAND PURPOSE “We exist to make a positive difference to people’s lives.”
As Australia’s
largest global retailer, we want to make a
positive difference in the lives of everyone we touch; whether that’s in our backyard or on the other side of the world. It’s as simple as that.
3
HONG KONG ENVIRONMENT Causeway Bay
COTTON:ON has total 4 retail store in Hong Kong distributing in Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok, Causeway Bay and Central. All 4 shops are providing the branch line—COTTON:ON while Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway Bay store are providing
the brands
COTTON:ON Typo.
Kids
of and
Tsim Sha Tsui
4
PROJECT INTRODUCTION Concerning
one of the giant fashion market—children wear
market in Hong Kong, several brands such as Uniqlo and Gap launch the branch line like Uniqlo Kids and Gap Kids to fulfill the market needs. The project is mainly focus on COTTON:ON kids. To ensure COTTON:ON has certain competitive power with those competitors, this project aims to produce a competitive shop report by analyzing and assessing the market context, consumers and product offer etc. After the research, a proposed casual and denim collection proposal for the coming AW19/20 will be created under the consideration of COTTON:ON’s current product offer.
5
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY In this comparative shop report, both primary and secondary research have been conducted. Target customers and consumers profile data was mainly come from interviewees’ feedback. Total 6 target customers have been interviewed coming across the questions about their demographic status, lifestyle and holiday activities etc. Some reports done by Hong Kong Government department were referenced as data support. For the competitors analysis, retail stores field trips have been taken in order to compare the pricing and material using of the clothing.
Field Trip Date: 13 October 2018 Venue: Tsim Sha Tsui COTTON:ON & Harbour City GAP Time: 14:00-16:30 Date: 16 October 2018 Venue: Causeway Bay COTTON:ON & Lee Theatre Uniqlo Time: 13:00-15:00
6
TARGET CUSTOMER PROFILE ▪ Age: 25-35 (Generation Y) ▪ Gender: Female (Mother) ▪ Income: HKD$10,000-HKD$18,000 ▪ Education: Secondary school level or above ▪ Occupation: Sales Assistants, Clerk or Housewife ▪ Social Platform: Baby Kingdom, Facebook, Instagram ▪ Activities: Friends and family gathering, handicraft workshop, Kids play group ▪ Only 1 kids ▪ 1st : Price 2nd : Product Range 3rd : Stylish 4th : Quality
7
According to the responds from the interviewees, 6 respondents replied that they are aging from 25-35 years-old which is within the Generation Y. All of them are the mother of 1 kids. Apart from gathering with friends and Pepperazzi with the tasty food, these mothers enjoy joining the children activities such as Kids play group and handicraft workshop.
As for kids clothing preferences, since the income
of
target
customers
are
from
HKD$10,000 to HKD$18,000, over 60% of them (5 out of 6) put price at the top while only 1 respondent chose quality first. Product range came the second. 2 interviewees said that more design the brand have, more choices for dressingup theirs kids
8
Target customers are young and energetic. They love dressing-up their putting
baby
girl
some
by
fancy
clothing on their child.
9
Generation Y mother love gathering with friends and family, usually with kids. Moreover, they enjoy joining the handicraft workshop such as handicraft leather workshop.
10
DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS
According to MASLOW’s Hierarchy of needs, COTTON:ON’s customers are realized as the group between Early Majority to Late Majority.
11
All the interviewees mentioned that they usually buy COTTON:ON products during sales promotion period most. In online shop of COTTON:ON, it is common to see there are discount offer up to 45% off. In the retail shop, discount offer is processing like HKD$120 for 2 t-shirts.
12
MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS vs Market Level
MASLOW’S Hierarchy of needs However, the answers from interviewees reflected that they are at love and belonging needs level because all of them are not only satisfying on the basic needs, but also the social status surrounding them. 13
COTTON:ON’s market level is economy and the needs of their consumers would be the physiological level generally.
Fashion market level
COTTON:ON not only target the base level customers, but also take care of the higher level of customers. 14
TARGET CONSUMER PROFILE
▪ Age: 4-10 ▪ Gender: Girl ▪ Primary school students ▪ Only Child ▪ Activities:
Play
group,
Disneyland resort etc. ▪ Enjoy group activities ▪ Outgoing, Creative
15
handicraft
workshop,
go
According to the responds from the interviewees, 6 of them only have 1 kids therefore the consumers is an only child. Since their age range are 4-10, they are primary school student. Due to the character of outgoing and creative, these girl usually join playgroup, handicraft workshop and go Hong Kong Disney resort.
16
COMPETITORS ANALYSIS
17
18
COTTON:ON kids was found in 2004. Realizing the children market is growing, COTTON:ON considered opening the new branch so as to ingratiate the target market. COTTON:ON kids mainly provide the product in funny and fancy style at the meanwhile provide quality apparel.
UNIQLO is a fashion apparel company, which was originally founded in Yamaguchi, Japan in 1949 as a textiles manufacturer. Now it is a global brand with over 1000 stores around the world. Uniqlo kids were built since 2010. In order to fulfill the children wear market need, Uniqlo kids provide simple and comfortable clothing to the target consumers.
Gap Kids was found in 1986. Gap Kids is an America apparel company. Providing American Leisure style. The brand value of Gap Kids is supplying comfortable, durable and diversify clothing to the kids.
19
Brand Country
Hong Kong Online Store
Australia
Japan
United State
✓
✓
2
27
7
Economy
Economy
Economy
Retail Stores in Hong Kong
Market Level
COTTON:ON, Uniqlo and Gap Kids are at the same market level. Uniqlo opened more retail store in Hong Kong than other 2 brands. COTTON:ON has total 4 retail store in Hong Kong, but there are only 2 store are selling COTTON:ON Kids. When visiting the official website of these 3 brands, it is founded that only Uniqlo does not provide online shop. COTTON:ON provide free delivery once the order is over HKD$300 while Gap Kids is HKD$800. 20
CONCEPTUAL MAP Product Range
Price
Comparing brands by Product range and Price Quality
Stylish
Comparing brands by Quality and Stylish
21
Putting these 3 brands on a conceptual map to have a comparison according to the customers’ preference, Product range, Price, Stylish and Quality.
It is found that COTTON:ON kids are the most stylish brand among the 3 brands. Comparing with quality, Uniqlo stand out among the competitors.
When comparing with price, COTTON:ON would the lowest among 3 brands which fulfill the preference of the customers. On the other hand, Gap Kids have the widest product range, but COTTON:ON follows it very close and stand the 2nd position in 3 brands. 22
Sales Volume
23
Introduction
Growth
Maturity
Time
Decline
PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE
According to the responds from the interviewees, all of them mentioned that they usually buy COTTON:ON products during sales period time.
The customers would not buy the product of COTTON:ON when the product release at the beginning. They replied that they even not sure when COTTON:ON release new product.
One of the interviewee, Genie said that she would surfing online store to see how much the product during discount period. At the beginning when COTTON:ON’ releases the latest product at the market, there is not any early adopter in Hong Kong. The customers may know there is new product release when they are shopping in COTTON:ON, but they would not buy immediately. One of the reason is those customers are not really the trend followers.
24
Therefore, the product life in introduction period is slightly increase. Then comes to the growth period, when there is are more collection and category been released to the market, COTTON:ON’s product growth become very fast but in a short time period.
Therefore, the product life in introduction period is slightly increase. Then comes to the growth period, when there is are more collection and category been released to the market, COTTON:ON’s product growth become very fast but in a short time period.
During maturity period, more and more customers realize that COTTON:ON has already release the new product in the market and the product will soon being dropped in price. As a result, the product life immediately drops to decline period.
25
PRODUCT COMPARISON
26
DENIM JACKET
HKD 249
76% COTTON 20% POLYESTER 2%VISCOSE 2% ELASTANE
27
HKD 299
99% COTTON 1% POLYURETHANE
HKD 349
100% COTTON
T-SHIRT
HKD 89
HKD 99
HKD 169
100% COTTON
100% COTTON
100% COTTON
28
29
HKD 119
HKD 199
HKD 229
100% COTTON
100% COTTON
100% COTTON
COMMENT COLOR & PATTERN COTTON:ON : The color using are more playful
than
other
2
brands.
Also,
COTTON:ON like using some adorable and fantasy cartoon such as Unicorns and Angels. However, if comparing the color choices and variety would GAP and Uniqlo more.
PRICE Among the 3 brands, COTTON:ON has the lowest retail price.
30
PRODUCT RANGE GAP has the widest product ranges and COTTON:ON comes the 2nd position.
QUALITY After touching the product of 3 brands, it is founded that GAP and Uniqlo have a softer hand feeling to COTTON:ON. Also, the stitch density of a T-shirt and knitted dress of . GAP and Uniqlo are higher.
DETAIL AND TRIMMING To make the product looks more playful and adorable, COTTON:ON sometimes use many sequin on T-shirt to make it shiny. Also, chiffon on skirt to make it pastel. 31
SWOT ANALYSIS & P.E.S.T
32
STRENGTH The retail price of COTTON:ON is comparatively lower than other competitors. Also, the product choice and variety are rarely wide so that the customers have many choices. The most important is COTTON:ON support the 3rd world countries kids and aims to develop more school for the kids.
33
WEAKNESS There are only 4 retail stores in Hong Kong which shows that the brand development is quite narrow and insufficient in Hong Kong. Also, the promotion of COTTON:ON is weak. The promotion in Hong Kong is far less than oversea and cannot widely use the social media to attract customers.
One of the harmful issue is that Typo, one of the branch of COTTON:ON providing necessities , are more popular than the garment line in Hong Kong.
Last but not least, the competitors provide the better-quality products than COTTON:ON which is one of the struggle problem of COTTON:ON.
34
OPPORTUNITIES The expansion of store can be considered more. For example, in Hong Kong, POP-UP store and experiencing shopping have become nowadays’ trends from business strategy to daily life activities. Especially millennials who love gathering and taking photo with friends are very addict to finding popular spot. Moreover, experiencing shopping culture is now one of the most popular retail strategy in Hong Kong.
POP-UP store in Hong Kong 35
THREAT
The birth rate of Hong Kong is declining due to the zero-quota policy release by Hong Kong Government in 2013. In 2011 and 2012, the number of birth was 95,451 and 91,558 respectively. The birth rate suddenly dropped to 57,084 in 2013.
With this government policy and low birth rate, the children wear market may suffer from these issue. It is afraid that the needs of children wears would dropped.
36
CONCLUSION
37
Comparing with other economy brands, COTTON:ON is brand new with only 27 years old brand history. It is stylish and trendy in affordable price that generation Y mother are happy to purchase product from COTTON:ON. Yet, COTTON:ON has several weaknesses that they are facing. For example, the weak promotion strategy and few retail stores in Hong Kong are directly affecting the brand image of COTTON:ON. Besides those problems, some external factors such as low birth rate due to zero-quota policy are affecting the brands too. Therefore, in order to meet the target customers’ needs and not to lose their brand loyalty, it is recommended that COTTON:ON may consider deeply to produce a new product proposal report by using effective brand’s strategy.
38
REFERENCES
39
Cotton on Group. (2018). The Cotton On Group | Australia’s largest global retailer. [online] Available at: http://cottonongroup.com.au/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Cottonon.com. (2018). Store Locator. [online] Available at: https://cottonon.com/HK/store-finder/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Cotton on. (2018). [image] Available at: https://bit.ly/2O7gF1S [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Screen Capture. (2018). [image] Available at: https://cottonon.com/HK/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Friends gathering. (2018). [image] Available at: https://bit.ly/2As1zQZ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Handicraft leather workshop. (2018). [image] Available at: https://bit.ly/2PiEFDI [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Diffusion of innovation. (2018). [image] Available at: https://bit.ly/2AqPN9j [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Maslow. (2018). [image] Available at: https://bit.ly/2j7rGBz [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Market Level. (2018). [image] Available at: https://bit.ly/2yZjgoL [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Art playgroup. (2018). [image] Available at: https://bit.ly/2Rky60W [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Hong Kong Disneyland. (2018). [image] Available at: https://bit.ly/2O3w3MH [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Handicraft Workshop. (2018). [image] Available at: https://bit.ly/2OPVYfO [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Gap Denim Jacket. (2018). [image] Available at: https://gap.us/2OaJ5Yv [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Uniqlo Denim Jacket. (2018). [image] Available at: https://bit.ly/2OaJ9HJ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Uniqlo T-Shirt. (2018). [image] Available at: https://bit.ly/2PTXWIt [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Uniqlo Dress. (2018). [image] Available at: https://bit.ly/2ORrz0W [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Gap Dress. (2018). [image] Available at: https://bit.ly/2EOiaCF [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Cotton on dress. (2018). [image] Available at: https://bit.ly/2Q0riVY [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. pop up store. (2018). [image] Available at: https://bit.ly/2zam5Dt [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Censtatd.gov.hk. (2018). Table 004 : Vital Events | Census and Statistics Department. [online] Available at: https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp150.jsp?tableID=004&ID=0&productType=8 [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Screen Capture. (2018). [image] Available at: https://www.cottononfoundation.org/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Screen Capture. (2018). [image] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/cottononfoundation/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018]. Cotton On. (2018). [image] Available at: https://bit.ly/2JkJAPd [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018].
40
APPENDIX
41
42
43