The brand House of Fraser is one of the most dominating names on the high street renowned for its diverse mix of designer and lower premium fashion brands, the brand offers its consumers an extensive variety of product attracting a wide clientele and offering an impeccable shopping experience. House of Fraser has been recognised as the leading department store group across the UK and Ireland stocking a range of young and contemporary fashion brands, as well as in-house labels such as their Therapy collection and an attractive range of homeware and cosmetics. In recent years the brand have developed an ever growing online platform producing new ranges and collaborations including the launch of the BIBA collection as a way of reviving the iconic 1960’s fashion brand. This involved constructing a modern range infused with the same nostalgic quality as the original BIBA clothing, Daisy Lowe has been used as the face to launch the collection attracting a lot of interest, exposure and a younger more fashion-forward customer. Furthermore the brand has developed a close relationship with the retail expert and TV personality Mary Portas, a partnership that has brought the brand great publicity. Mary Portas is also developing her own concession instore aimed at the contemporary fashion sector and a more mature consumer. The main focus of the project will be on enhancing the shopping experience and customer service in-store, aiming to produce a more aspirational feel to the brand and putting it more in line with luxury fashion retailers such as Selfridges. The development of this relationship has been documented through multiple TV appearances creating strong associations for the brand and offering the inquisitive consumer an insight into the people and the company. House of Fraser is a brand with extensive heritage, with over 160 years in the UK retail market the company is a well-established household name known for quality branded merchandise at competitive price points. The company was first established in 1849 in Scotland and named Arther and Fraser by the company founders Hugh Fraser and James Arther, the brand infact began life as a small drapery shop in central London. Developments after the War saw the company transform into a national chain. After steady growth the company progressed with successful rebranding attempts, which led to the establishment of the House of Fraser name. This produced a strong identity for the brand and a sense of certain longevity. House of Fraser once owned a number of famous stores even including the Harrods Knightsbridge property before it was privately owned. 2001 saw the opening of the brands flagship store on Oxford Circus; in recent years the company has become
much more established across the globe and now has 60 successful stores in existence across the UK and Ireland, the company is now owned by a consortium of investors. The brands target customer base is incredibly vast with a mixture of young fashion own bought brands such as Lypsy and yumi, who attract a younger and a wide range of contemporary/classic brands, producing styles more suitable for the older customer, not forgetting homeware and cosmetic ranges essentially attracting all ages! However homing in on specific departments that prove to be the most profitable, it is clear that the brand mostly attracts an older customer and is attracting a core customer within the 40 years and older band, consumers with real spending power. The company has really established itself in a middle-market position between high-end luxury retail brands and the more commercial world of the high street. It is a brand that is extremely accessible with a sense of understated luxury. The structure of the company is relatively complex with an extensive team of support centre staff with varying roles. The womenswear department alone Is divided up into several departments, with buyers, merchandisers and allocators distributing styles in to store. As well as marketing teams, creative and press department working in close contact. The womenswear sector is made up of private label collections, own bought brands and individual concessions. These sectors function very differently; for example the private label team work more directly with the creative development of a garment, buyers on the own buy sector view a brands existing collections and select product which they predict will work for the House of Fraser customer. Cost margins also differ between these two departments. With the private label buyers having more freedom to set cost prices; there is more room for negotiation with suppliers. Private label womenswear is often more profitable for this reason yet advertising and promotional costs are higher on this department. A small-specialised team runs each sector and each team member has different responsibilities. The buying team is made up of buying assistants, junior buyers, assistant buyers, buyers and seniors. The role of a buying assistant is essentially to assist the department buyer, to process orders, meet with suppliers, and also track and manage samples. The senior members of the buying team oversea all orders working more directly with merchandisers to determine price and quantities. They are in charge of selecting product and they work alongside brand directors to finalise collections. It is obvious at House of Fraser that every team member is integral to the running of the company and so responsible for its success. House of Fraser sits closely alongside competitors such as Debenhams and John Lewis, but
prides itself on the variety of product it offers and feels this is the companies’ USP offering the broadest range among UK department stores. The brand aspires to exude the luxury found at Selfridges and the online status of brands such as Net-a Porter, yet the brand positions itself ahead of Debenhams and is in the process of making improvements to attract a younger more fashion forward consumer. Improvements to the in-store level of service will further develop the shopping experience and more creative marketing; The online blog and social networking tactics should attract more interest, putting the company more in-line with young fast fashion companies on the high street. Celina is a buying assistant working on the branded womenswear department; interestingly she obtained an unrelated degree but worked up to her head office position by having passion, drive and in-store experience. Celina is currently undergoing some technical training to help her progress to become an assistant buyer at the company; a personal project will also require completion to assist her personal development. This requires researching into the success rate of maternity fashion, a gap in the market has been noticed, and Celina has been given the opportunity to get creative and develop a new concept to produce a successful department. She has been Inspired by the revelations in eco fashion and the customer demand for a more high fashion feel to maternity wear. Her career ambition is obvious “I want to work up to be an AB within 6 months & within 2/3 years become a buyer”. Celina describes her job as challenging and fast pace. Miranda is a buying assistant working with contemporary/classic brands. She describes her level of job satisfaction as being high, but the work ours long, staying later than 8pm when prepping for meetings etc. Miranda obtained almost a year’s industry experience before starting as a BA at House of Fraser. “I first completed a two week placement at Harpers Bazaar after that I knew I wanted to work in fashion, a temporary summer position at a shopping channel led to full time work as a buying assistant, after that I was in!.”Miranda describes working in the high-street industry as a more creative experience than working for a high-end fashion brand, explaining that as BA she gets
more personal responsibility working for a brand name on the high street and more involvement. Through direct observation I would say it seems clear that the brand runs efficiently. All teams work within a large open space increasing the ability to communicate between departments, which seems crucial. The working environment and atmosphere does seem highly pressurised at times especially near collection review meetings the office appears quite hectic. However it is obvious how dedicated the teams are when stressful situations arise. The job role of a BA seems highly demanding, but with real benefits and the potential to climb with the company enhances the jobs appeal. With personal projects being set to push and challenge employees and assist with there development, employees also undergo frequent appraisals which assess personal performance and present the prospect of promotions. After interviewing a number of employees at the brand it seems future developments within the company will involve more of a focus on the online presence of the brand due to changes in consumer behavior and more sales occurring online. The brand also plans to develop a successful plus size range after noticing a gap in the market. Pressures on the brand involve the need for faster turnover of trends to meet the consumer’s expectations and to keep up with fast fashion retailers such as Topshop who currently dominate the younger fashion market. I also feel the brand will need to become more creative and experimental with their marketing techniques to attract a younger audience who demand more involvement and interactivity. Looking at the annual revenue obtained by House of Fraser this year alone the extent of the companies profitability is clear with 24 million pounds taken this year to date and womenswear taking 6.7 million. In total own bought brands on womenswear took a relatively low percentage of the mix bringing in 527K as a department. The company continues to dominate on the high street, shop fits and new promotional material such as film pieces on the website later this year should spark more interest and essentially drive sales. During my three-week work placement at House of Fraser I have had the opportunity to gain a great understanding of the retail-buying role within industry. I have felt like an integrated and appreciated member of the team and have felt challenged by my set tasks, developing ideas that could assist the brands development and in-depth comparative shop tasks, which effectively analyse the company’s competitors. I have also had the oppurtunity to develop my oral pitching and visual presentation skills.
Visual Communication
Presenting back trends showcased during the Warehouse press day. Using the A/W11 look book to produce a visually inspiring document, displaying the key looks and colours the brand has backed.
IT, Technology and Computure Skills
Developing clear comparative shop diagrams in excel to show price pointing compared to competitors. Oral Communication
During my placement at House of Fraser I was asked to develop an in-store promotional concept to promote the new denim brand ONLY. I conducted a ‘comp’ shop to research ways of doing this; I also conferred with the concession team about ways to visually promote brands in-store. I successfully pitched the idea to senior member of the team to use QR codes in-store to attract the younger customer ONLY appeals to. The QR codes are subtle and do not affect the visual consistency of the store-fit. The QR code could also be used as separate outlet to promote the brand on the House of Fraser website without affecting the overall site layout.