Jigsaw innovation

DESIGN MANAGEMENT 1208 MODULE TUTORE LIZ MACLARTY BY MOONTAHA NASIR REG.w15009026

1 CONTENTS 2

Executive summary: .............................................................................................................................. 3

3

Introduction: ......................................................................................................................................... 4

4

3.1

Objective of this project:............................................................................................................... 4

3.2

Methodology:................................................................................................................................ 4

3.2.1

Primary research includes:.................................................................................................... 4

3.2.2

Secondary research includes: ............................................................................................... 4

Literature review................................................................................................................................... 5 4.1

4.1.1

Business level strategy: ......................................................................................................... 5

4.1.2

Operational strategy: ............................................................................................................ 5

4.2

5

The level of strategies: .................................................................................................................. 5

The Role of Design in strategy: ..................................................................................................... 6

4.2.1

Design thinking for innovation .............................................................................................. 6

4.2.2

Innovation: ............................................................................................................................ 7

SITUATION ANALYSIS: JIGSAW .............................................................................................................. 8 5.1

Where are we now? (Internal environment): ............................................................................... 8

5.1.1

Company review ................................................................................................................... 8

5.1.2

Product categories: ............................................................................................................... 8

5.1.3

Target market:....................................................................................................................... 8

5.1.4

Strategic leadership: ............................................................................................................. 8

5.1.5

Value: .................................................................................................................................... 9

5.1.6

Mission: ................................................................................................................................. 9

5.1.7

Vision:.................................................................................................................................... 9

5.1.8

Strategy: ................................................................................................................................ 9

5.2

External ENVIRONMENT ............................................................................................................. 10

5.2.1 5.3

Strategic tools: .................................................................................................................... 10

Analyzing the gaps: ..................................................................................................................... 15

5.3.1

Lack of brand identity: ........................................................................................................ 15

5.3.2

Lack of product category: ................................................................................................... 15

5.3.3

Lack of distinctive product: ................................................................................................. 15 1|Page

6

OBJECTIVES: WHERE DO WE WANT TO GO? ...................................................................................... 16 6.1

Brand Goals: ................................................................................................................................ 16

Value innovation: .................................................................................................................................... 16 6.2

7

What are the market opportunities? .......................................................................................... 16

6.2.1

Ethical fashion: .................................................................................................................... 16

6.2.2

Crowed sourcing: ................................................................................................................ 16

6.2.3

New technology Dye dry: .................................................................................................... 17

HOW ARE WE GOING TO GO THERE? (IMPLIMENTATION) ................................................................ 18 7.1

The horizons of strategies: .......................................................................................................... 18

7.2

SHORT TERM STRATEGY: Technology driven innovation ........................................................... 19

7.2.1 7.3

Adding value: ...................................................................................................................... 21

MIDTERM STRATEGY: Design driven innovation ........................................................................ 22

7.3.1

Crowdsourcing in Jigsaw: .................................................................................................... 22

7.4 LONG TERM STRATEGY: Building brand personality by implementing sustainable management inside Jigsaw............................................................................................................................................ 25 7.4.1

Build brand’s personality: ................................................................................................... 25

7.4.2

Highlighting the use of organic product to build brand identity: ....................................... 25

7.4.3

Building Sustainable core product: ..................................................................................... 26

7.4.4

Integrated marketing communications: ............................................................................. 28

8

Recommendations IMPACT: ............................................................................................................... 30

9

Reflection: ........................................................................................................................................... 32

10

Conclusion: ...................................................................................................................................... 33

11

Bibliography .................................................................................................................................... 33

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2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Research illustrates that UK is the most promising and attractive market for fashion organizations.

Furthermore it has been predicted that by 2018 the market will reach to approximately 24.8 billion leaving behind leading fashion countries like France and Italy. (Group, 2015) Furthermore the advanced technology, mobile apps, Social media, the demand of fashion blogs and fashion magazines are leading UK fashion market in a very positive direction. As a result, the attitudes of consumer towards fashion is changing and the demand of fashionable clothing is increasing. Thus, this positive influence is creating numerous market opportunities for fashion companies from highstreets brands to be-spoke fashion tailoring.

On the other hand this opportunities and attractiveness are making high street fashion market very competitive and placing brands in a red ocean market, where brands like Reiss, Hugo boss, Topshop, and many more, are competing with each other. In this content, JIGSAW is a London based high street fashion brand with purist collection. Despite having limited target market they want grow their business and planning to achieve 100 million and more within the next five years. (Gallagher, 2014) However to expand their business, jigsaw need to come up with different strategical approach to distinguish themselves in this competitive market and to explore UK market opportunities.

Strategies are the important decisions and steps to individualize a brand from other competitors in the market and to achieve the long term direction of the company. Therefore this report is aiming to analyze the high street fashion brand Jigsaw critically to explore new market opportunities in order to provide strategical recommendations and to make their competitors irrelevant and for the expansion of their business.

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3 INTRODUCTION: 3.1 OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT: The purpose of this project is to analyzing the brand JIGSAW internally and externally from business and design perspective in order to explore the market opportunities with rational and creative thinking .The strategic recommendations was stablished by exploring the literature review and by connecting the theory with the findings to illustrates how corporate and design strategies can be applied in a high street fashion brand in order achieve innovation within the organization

3.2 METHODOLOGY: Primary and secondary research was conducted to achieve the purpose of this report.

Primary research was used to understand the brand’s cultural environment, target market, sales contribution, and demographic states. Besides, this research was also useful for identifying the positioning of the brand in the market.

3.2.1 • •

Primary research includes: Online questioner with jigsaw employee ( via email) Presentation session with two employee of Jigsaw.

Secondary research was used to support the knowledge of primary research and to connect the theory to the practice. In addition, secondary research was done to understand the literature review of this report. Besides, secondary research was useful to understand design management, design thinking and strategy from a deeper perspective for value innovation brand. This research method also used to understand the process of applying different level of strategies in the organizations for example, long term, midterm and short term strategies.

From a different perspective, secondary research was useful to collect information about the future strategies of the brand, positioning, analytical tools, market opportunities, new innovation, new technology, and scopes.

3.2.2 • • • • • • • •

Secondary research includes: An interview with CEO Peter Ruis Online Journal Online article Websites Strategic books Design management books Business books Design thinking books

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4 LITERATURE REVIEW The role of strategy to achieve goals: Strategy can play one of the most important parts in an organization by which a company can achieve their goals and also can grow their business in competitive market. However it is not easy to describe and can be very complicated.

Strategy can be explained as the long-term or short term direction to achieve innovation within the organization. (Gerry Johnson, 2014) Professor Michel porter from Harvard business school explained strategy as some series of choices and decision making process, which can differentiate the organization from the competitors in the market. Moreover, it is fundamental in strategy to explore considerable options and analyze that option in broader scales to take important decisions. According to Henry Mintzberg, (Harvard business review, 1996) strategy is a pattern in stream of decisions. However, strategy is not limited only in making choices. It is a different aspect of choosing particular and important position established in the system of activates within the organization, which is hard to intimate. (Michel E. porter,1996).

In addition to this, strategy can be applied after analyzing a particular brand to understand what should be done in order to achieve the goal of the company.

4.1 THE LEVEL OF STRATEGIES: Strategies can endure in different level of organizations. All the strategies are very important for the implementation of any goals.

Corporate level strategies: Corporate level strategy is related to achieve the goals, opportunities and mission of the organization. It is very important to communicate the corporate strategy in all the levels of an organization to achieve any goals. Moreover corporate level strategy can make scopes for an organization to create more values in the organizational whole. (Gerry Johnson, 2014) 4.1.1 Business level strategy: A business level strategy helps individual business organizations to compete in their appropriate market.

This strategy solely focuses on value innovations. (Gerry Johnson, 2014) 4.1.2 Operational strategy: This strategy focuses on the use of the resources, process and people within the organization in order to deliver the effective corporate and business level strategies. (Gerry Johnson, 2014)

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4.2 THE ROLE OF DESIGN IN STRATEGY: Nowadays big organizations like google, Pixar, Disney and many more are using design as a strategical tool for the constant innovation and also to achieve business growth. In this content professor Tim Brown believes that In order to operate the corporate strategies, managers need to think like designers.

Moreover corporate strategies can be very complicated and hard to understand. But design can eliminate the complications and make new innovations within the organizations. Furthermore it can be said that, Design can explore problems or situation by using rational thinking with design thinking to build strong strategies for organizations.

4.2.1 Design thinking for innovation Design thinking is a user centered way to solve problems. Moreover design thinking is a complete process of exploring new ideas in order to innovate. Nowadays a lot of companies are using design thinking as a tool to build effective strategies in their organizations to achieve goals. Design thinking usually starts with analyzing the particular situation or problem from a designer perspective. (Martin, 2009) From a broad perspective, design thinking drives information within the knowledge funnel and helps to narrow down the options for innovation. According to Professor Roger Martin, many companies cannot provide innovation within their organizations and the reason behind it can be the lack of exploitation and exploration of information.

On the other hand, Design thinking enables managers to look back the knowledge funnels and analyze the concept again in order to make a balance within exploration and exploitation of options for constant innovation.

Source: the design of business, Roger Martin, 2009, page: 8 and 54

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Furthermore design thinking drives innovation within the knowledge funnels by analyzing reliability and validity with intuitive and analytical thinking. (Martin, 2009) This method enables organizations to analyze the situation from a designer perspective to build effective strategies for the companies.

4.2.2 Innovation: From a strategic aspect, innovation can be defined as the use of technology and creativity in order to enhance the superiority of the product or service which can provide value for money. (Douglas West, 2010). Moreover with the help of innovation companies can build their own market place where rivals cannot intimate the product or services.

On the other hand, Douglas west and john Ford, (2010) mentioned in their book “strategic marketing� that, there is a difference between invention and innovation. Invention can be defined as the product which is new to the world, whereas innovation can be defined as changes and adoption within the organization.

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5 SITUATION ANALYSIS: JIGSAW 5.1 WHERE ARE WE NOW? (INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT): INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT: 5.1.1 Company review As a fashion organization, in 90’s JIGSAW was a very well-known London based high street fashion brand. The brand was established in 1972 by John Robinson and Malcom Webster. Moreover the brand achieved tremendous popularity because of the uniqueness of the product and trendy classic collections. However over the decades, the brand lost its uniqueness and became very edgy in terms of their product. Even though the brand believes that they provide high quality products and services to the customer, brand awareness is a major challenge for them. Besides, among the competitive market in high street brands, their brand identity is also considerably low.

5.1.2 Product categories: Jigsaw has four product category including menswear, womenswear, home and Jigsaw junior. (JIgsaw, 2015) 5.1.3 Target market: Jigsaw is having loyal and niche as target customer; (Russell, 2014)however; they are focusing on age male group 25-35 for Jigsaw menswear and female 20-35 age group as their womenswear target customer.

5.1.4

Strategic leadership:

When leaders connect the mission, vision statements with the company’s core value, they make a difference within the organization and within the future Growth of the business. Research illustrates that strategic thinking and planning for the future can give a positive impact on the organization’s profitability. (Draft, n.d.) In this content, the CEO of Jigsaw Peter Ruis is one of the dynamic driven factor of Jigsaw. His experience and expertise in design and retail helped Jigsaw to grow rapidly over the past two years.

Figure 1 CEO Jigsaw

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5.1.5 • • • •

Value: The main value of Jigsaw is to produce High quality fabric and to provide unique shopping experience for their customers.

Jigsaw also values affordable clothing with timeless fashion.

Profit sharing 1 Friendly environment within the organization

5.1.6 Mission: According to the CEO of Jigsaw Peter Ruis, the main mission of Jigsaw is to gain profitable growth through designing and producing products for life and targeting those customers who prefer vintage timeless fashion over following trends. 2 Tagline: FOR LIFE NOT LANDFILL 5.1.7 • • • 5.1.8 • • • • •

Vision: The vision of the brand is to build their brand identity nationally and internationally. ( Jigsaw questioner) Bring back the personality within the brand. 3 Grow sales more than 100 million within three to five years.

Strategy: Expansion of their menswear business. 4 Investments in website to enhance online shopping experience.

To get into new market like Beauty.

International expansion.

Full price strategy for Christmas and black Friday. 5

Therefore strategical tools were used to understand the present position of the brand, and to identify the opportunities and gaps within the brand, and within the competitive market some.

1

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-3005808/Jigsaw-s-John-Lewis-revamp-boss-Peter-Ruis-turned-department-stores-founderinspiration-radical-makeover.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490 2 3

http://www.just-style.com/interview/peter-ruis-chief-executive-of-jigsaw_id121567.aspx

http://www.drapersonline.com/retail/multiples/ruis-pursues-further-growth-at-jigsaw-after-full-price-strategy-delivers-profitsurge/5056419.fullarticle 4 5

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/jul/02/john-lewis-fashion-peter-ruis-jigsaw

http://www.drapersonline.com/retail/multiples/ruis-pursues-further-growth-at-jigsaw-after-full-price-strategy-delivers-profitsurge/5056419.fullarticle

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5.2 EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT 5.2.1 Strategic tools: Competitive forces: The five force frame work Porters Five force is one of the frame works, which can be applicable to most of the organizations. This frame work helps the organization to understand the attractiveness of an industry, and the five competitive forces, for example, threats of entry, threats of substitutes, threats competitors, power of buyers, and the power of suppliers. (Gerry Johnson, 2014) Moreover the tool was used to identify the potential market and product for Jigsaw’s new innovation strategies.

Five force frame work was applied on Jigsaw to understand the brand’s position in the market, and also to analyze the threats.

Figure 2 Porter's five force

5.2.1.1

Porter’s five forces:

Supplier power: Medium to High • • • • •

The Supplier power of Jigsaw can be measured as medium to high, because most of their raw materials and Fabrics are from Europe and constricted in Italy.

“Made in Europe” is the fact that Jigsaw clothing is all about and do not have any future plans to source from any other countries.

Italy is one of the leading high quality fabric producers in the world. A lot of high street brands are dependent on Italian mills, including Jigsaw.

The Needle Punching technique is a new innovation which Jigsaw is using for their Coat, can only be found in Historian Italian mills.

Suppliers cannot be switched at low price as high quality fabric construction is expensive.

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Buyer Power: High • • • • • • •

For Jigsaw, buyer power can be measured as high. Because they are focusing on limited niche customers.

For women the age group is 20-35 and for men its 25-45, however the customers are purely London based and mixed media or artistic characters.

They are mostly related on women customers as womenswear is their core business.

They have a lower price sensitivity as the customers sometimes find it expensive as they can find similar products in local areas.

Jigsaw is having a lower brand awareness which gives more power to the customers.

Many high street brands are available in the market that provides more product category than Jigsaw.

UK economy is growing leaving more options for the customers to switch to their desire brands.

Competitive Rivalry: High • • • • • •

A lot of High street fashion brands like Jigsaw are available in the market.

Lot of competitors are providing more product category than Jigsaw Competitors are focusing on the same target market as Jigsaw.

Competitors are more powerful in terms of using social media and ad campaign as marketing strategies.

Competitors have more brand awareness and identity than Jigsaw.

Competitors are providing same high quality product as Jigsaw.

Threat of substitution: High • •

Jigsaw Products are highly imitable.

Customers can find substitute products in some other brands.

Threat of New Entry: Medium to High • • • • •

Too difficult to enter the industry requires creative thinking and experience.

Other High street brands like H&M, REISS, WHISTLES, TOPSHOPN, and M&S are ruling the high street for a long time.

Economical situations are making easy for a lot of brands to come forward.

Social networking system are making easy for the new brands to attract same target market in cheap price.

Technological development

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5.2.1.2

SWOT Analysis:

SWOT is an analytical frame work to provide market information to identify the external factors of the organization like the opportunities and threats. It also determines to provide information about the internal facts like organizations strength and weaknesses. (Posner, 2011)

STRENGHTH: • • • • •

Where other brands are struggling to get inside the UK high street market, Jigsaw has a clear advantage of being a UK based high street brand.

Family oriented culture and positive attitudes towards innovation indicate the existence of design thinking in their organization.

Loyal customer is another advantage for Jigsaw.

One of the main USP for Jigsaw clothing is their high quality fabric.

International presence also considerably growing.

Weaknesses: • • • •

Jigsaw is more concentrating on their womenswear collection rather than balancing other sectors like menswear and children.

They have a limited product category for menswear.

They also have limited shops for menswear.

One of the major weaknesses is lack of brand awareness.

Opportunities: • • • •

UK market is one of the big fashion markets in the world. (Group, 2015) Growing demands of menswear is creating a lot of opportunities for jigsaw as the brand is now wanted to focus on menswear business.

Social networking systems are creating a vast market and a lot of options for Jigsaw to expand their market nationally and internationally.

The growing demand of fashion accessories also makes a new dimension for Jigsaw to capture new market.

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Threats: • • • •

5.2.1.3

One of the major Threats for Jigsaw is the powerful competitors.

There are lots of heritage British brands targeting the same target market as Jigsaw.

Competitors are providing more product categories than Jigsaw.

One of the major threats is constant customer demand.

BRAND ONION:

This analytical frame work is use to emphasis the total brand identity in a diagrammatic form. The main objective of this frame work is to understand the essence, value, personality and action of the brand to differentiate it from the competitors. (Posner, 2011)

The first circle of brand onion emphasizes the essence of Jigsaw, where the second circle illustrates the value that Jigsaw have. Afterwards, the third circle shows the personality of Jigsaw and the last but not the least, fourth circle identifies the activities that Jigsaw is recently interested in. This tool was used to get an insight of the brand and to understand the brand from a consumer perspective.

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5.2.1.4

Competitor analysis:

The competitor analysis focuses on each company individually to understand which brand is competing with the particular organization directly. Moreover this helps the organization to decide the future objectives, current strategies and target market by looking at the direct competitors. (Ireland, 2009)

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5.3 ANALYZING THE GAPS: To understand where we want to go in the future it is important to identifying the current problems or gaps within the organization.

5.3.1 Lack of brand identity: Establishing brand is a long term process and The Growth of High street fashion brands all over the world are bridging the gap between designer clothes and mass production. Nonetheless a lot of high street brands are growing themselves globally in order to achieve profitability. A lot of options, innovations and product categories making the market very difficult for brands like Jigsaw to distinguish them from other competitor’s .to build their brand identity. The brand also has limited shops over UK, (Jigsaw questioner) which is one of the reasons that they don’t have brand awareness among the customers. The research analysis also shows that they have a limited target market to approach; therefore to come forward as a high street brand, they need to have continuous innovation within the brand.

5.3.2 Lack of product category: Where other companies are having different types of product category to attract vast potential customers, jigsaw is having a limited product category for both men’s and womenswear. As a result, only loyal customer can affiliate with the brand. Moreover it is affecting the brand awareness.

5.3.3 Lack of distinctive product: The luxury brand Burberry is using their core product trench coat in a strategic way to build their brand identity. Moreover the brand Raphael Lauren is also distinctive for their polo brand logo. However jigsaw is not having any distinctive product that can be identified in the market. This a drawback for jigsaw brand and it’s affecting the brand’s identity.

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6 OBJECTIVES: WHERE DO WE WANT TO GO? 6.1 BRAND GOALS: One of the main goals for Jigsaw is to grow sales more than 100 million within the next five years. (CEO, Jigsaw, Peter Ruis). Moreover currently Jigsaw is focusing on building brand identity by opening new stores in order to expand their brand internationally. (Drapers) Another perspective of building brand’s goal is to decide what not to do in the future, and that includes for jigsaw being not a womenswear but a high street brand with menswear, womenswear, children and home.

VALUE

INNOVATION: to survive in the competitive market jigsaw need to come up with new value innovation in order to stay ahead from the competitors. Creating Blue Ocean market: Blue ocean market: The usual market place where all the competitors exist can be explained as red ocean market. (W. Chan Kim, 2005)Research indicates that jigsaw is positioned in the red ocean market because of the same product category, less brand awareness, lack of identity and competitive high street market. If jigsaw wants to grow their business 100 million and more within 3 to 5 years, they need to come up with new value innovation. The three strategic recommendations for implementation can provide new value innovation for Jigsaw. Therefore the impact can be explained by showing the value innovation curve.

6.2 WHAT ARE THE MARKET OPPORTUNITIES? 6.2.1 Ethical fashion: Research illustrates that population awareness will become the major focus in terms of fashion from highstreets brands to bespoke collections. Furthermore Mintel research emphasis that 33% UK consumers get influenced by environmental policies in their shopping. The highstreets consumers are more concerned about ethical fashion and it has been predicted that, consumers will demand clarity of the making of the product. In addition to this, research also illustrates that 76% UK adults pay attention to the environmental friendly products including manufacturing and distribution channels. So, Jigsaw can utilize this opportunity to stablish their ethical fashion brand.

6.2.2 Crowed sourcing: Crowdsourcing is a method of using the crowd or a group of unknown people to gather different ideas to solve complicated problems and to achieve innovation. (Howe, 2009)This method was first invented in 1714 and since then crowdsourcing has been used by several big companies to create unique innovations. (crowd, 2015) For example, YouTube is crowdsourced entertainment channel, and Wikipedia is crowdsourced knowledge website. The availability of the internet and social networking system, crowdsourcing is very easy to apply and can be major strategies for organizations to grow their business.

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• • • • •

Low risk Creative ideas Innovation On demand Limitless possibilities

6.2.3 New technology Dye dry: Dye dry is a new technology in which fabric can be dyed without using any water or chemicals.

(Innovation in textiles) Moreover elimination of water waste and the use of harmful chemical is a powerful break thorough in the fashion industry. This new process is done by the use of supercritical fluid carbon dioxide (CO2) in a stainless steel chamber, using less energy than usual dying technique.

Moreover Sports Company’s like Adidas, Nike is started to use this technology in order to save water and to promote sustainable fashion. (Dye dry fabric).

Figure 3 Crowd sourcing history (crowd, 2015)

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7 HOW ARE WE GOING TO GO THERE? (IMPLIMENTATION) 7.1 THE HORIZONS OF STRATEGIES:

Horizon 3

Horizon 2

Horizon 1

Source: M.Baghai, S.Coley and white, the Alchemy of Growth, Texere Publishers, 2000, figure 1.1, P.5

This figure illustrates the use of strategies in different levels of the business in order to achieve the purpose. In horizon one, strategies are used to extend the business in the market and protect their core product from getting intimated. Therefore Jigsaw can come up with their core product knitwear and build their brand personality as long term strategy. On the other hand, horizon 2 explains of using the business activities strategically so that business will have expansion and obtain profit. For this stage jigsaw can use crowdsourcing method as design driven innovation to make more brand awareness. And horizon 3 illustrates the complete uncertain situation where decisions are crucial and important for the growth of the business. The use of new technology dye dry can be a huge decision and strategical move for jigsaw, however this stage is very risky for organizations. But in this stage strategies can help to do the value innovation for the company by exploring different market opportunities. (Gerry Johnson, 2014)

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7.2 SHORT TERM STRATEGY: TECHNOLOGY DRIVEN INNOVATION Collaboration with YEH Group: Over the past few years, in fashion industry collaboration is considered as mainstream form of partnership between the designers, or designers with mass production brands, or supplier to achieve innovation within their company. As cited in (SooKyoung ahn, 2009) A lot of firms are using collaboration as brand strategy to bring different ideas together from different perspective in order to have variation within the product. Moreover this perception can increase the product attractiveness which can lead the brand to achieve more brand awareness. As cited in (SooKyoung ahn, 2009) .

Yeh group is a Thailand based sustainable company also known for their innovation in fashion industry.

Yeh group is also known as a worldwide supplier of innovative fabrics with functionality. By exploring the limitless innovation in the field of sustainable fashion, Yeh group invented a technology named Dye dry and with the help of this technology fabric can be dyed without using water and chemical. As Jigsaw is also very positive towards sustainable fashion, Jigsaw can utilize this new technology to attract new market. Moreover Eco fashion is the new trend now. People are more concerned about sustainability.

Nowadays from designer brands to high street brands, all of them want to promote organic fashion in order to build awareness in people mind about global warming. Therefore, in this situation making collaboration with the supplier Yeh group can be a very strategic move for jigsaw to add new value in their brand.

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7.2.1 Adding value: Advanced technological improvements are helping industrial productivity and allowed suppliers to come up with new innovative ideas. (W. Chan Kim, 2005) Dye dry is a new technology, none of the high street brands or luxury brands are using it. However few sports companies like Adidas and Nike is using this technology for their sportswear. Therefore implementing this technology in their upcoming collections not only can build their brand identity but also can differentiate them among all the competitors.

On the other hand as a fashion company jigsaw need constant innovation in term of staying ahead in the market and for expanding their business. Dye dry technique can be a very good option for jigsaw for value innovation. Furthermore, research illustrates that jigsaw is having limited product category.

Therefore by collaborating with the Yeh group can help jigsaw to come up with new product category.

And this ultimately can lead them to achieve a wider range of target customer.

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7.3 MIDTERM STRATEGY: DESIGN DRIVEN INNOVATION 7.3.1 Crowdsourcing in Jigsaw: Jigsaw can apply Crowdsourcing as similarly as general design thinking process. As design thinking is a user centered way to solve any problem, therefore utilizing this modern method can be strategical move for jigsaw. Moreover, Jigsaw is a design based company, where every collection needs some innovation hence achieving innovation within their organization; jigsaw can apply design thinking method to apply the strategy of crowdsourcing for achieving limitless innovation.

7.3.1.1

Applying design thinking process for crowdsourcing:

7.3.1.2

Planning the project brief:

By using brainstorming method, Jigsaw can come up with the whole planning process for implementation.

To use crowdsourcing method, it is very important to understand what the brand, or organization wants from the crowd. After identifying the goal of the use of the crowds, for example achieving designs, sketches illustrations, concept, Jigsaw needs to get ready to peruse the actions. Moreover crowds can find solution much faster than organization. (Howe, 2009)

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7.3.1.3

Research about the crowd:

The crowds usually consist of different categories of knowledge, culture and wide expertise. From scientist to designer, or from manager to school students, crowds incorporate with verity of people in our society. Furthermore to achieve the result from crowdsourcing, it is very important to understand the crowd. Therefore, after completing the planning process, jigsaw needs to have a clear understanding and research about their crowds. For example, the age group, interest, profession etc.

7.3.1.4

Communicate with the crowd:

It is important to communicate with the crowed as clearly as possible, so that people can understand what the organization wants. Using the internet as the communicator, Jigsaw can post a clear brief of what they want to achieve.

7.3.1.5

Testing and prototyping:

After publishing the brief in the internet, Jigsaw needs analyses the information like, • • • • • •

Number of participants The reaction of the crowds,( Positive or negative) Analyze the designs and the trends Categories the people favorite designs Put the best designs for voting Check customer reaction for the best designs

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7.3.1.6

Quality Control:

After receiving the designs and feedback from the customer jigsaw need to analyze the concept and design again for quality control. In this stage Jigsaw need to understand if the designs are matching the requirements of what the brand asked for and also if it matches with the personality that jigsaw is having. For making sure of the quality, Jigsaw can come up with a new quality control team including designers to evaluate the work critically. After the evaluation ant testing the prototyping the designs can send to manufacture department for production.

7.3.1.7

Work reward:

In design thinking, inspiring people and resource always help organizations to achieve their goals.

Rewarding is considered as a technique in corporate strategies to build motivation within the people who is related with the organization. Moreover, as jigsaw will use crowdsourcing technique to get new designs and innovation, they need to provide some reward for the best design. It will not only build their brand awareness, they also will be able to inspire young designers for the betterment of their brand as well as fashion industry.

7.3.1.8

Learning from the feedbacks:

Design thinking enables managers to look back the knowledge funnels and analyze the concept again in order to make a balance within exploration and exploitation of options for constant innovation. (Martin, 2009) . Therefore, by analyzing the previous data from the crowdsourcing method can help jigsaw for building their future strategies. In addition to this by understanding what went wrong and what needs to improve jigsaw can improve their performance.

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7.4 LONG TERM STRATEGY: BUILDING BRAND PERSONALITY BY IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT INSIDE JIGSAW 7.4.1 Build brand’s personality: The term ethical fashion is providing a lot of new opportunities for different brands in fashion industries.

Moreover sustainability means the longevity of the products. (Ulasewicz, 2008) Furthermore according to the Mintel research people are now very concerned about the quality and the durability of the product.

On the other hand, environmental and social issues are also making an impact in fashion industries. The term “ECO FASHION” has become a new trend within the apparel industries.

As in design thinking tool, organizations need to focus on some specific matters to solve any situation, therefore Jigsaw can focus on building their brands personality as sustainable brand and differentiate themselves from other competitors by focusing on Product, environment and innovation and make a strong statement of “buy less and care more”.

7.4.2 Highlighting the use of organic product to build brand identity: According to Janet Hethorn, 2008 Sustainable fashion products represent a new attitudes and fundamentals in the market. Furthermore the materials Jigsaw can use to make their product organic may be unfamiliar to a lot of customers. Therefore in their marketing strategy if they can highlight the use of organic raw materials, for example organic yarn may provide new value to the brand. Moreover to build the ecofriendly brand, Jigsaw’s designers, developers and retailers need to make the best model to contribute to the vision of sustainable fashion.

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7.4.3

7.4.3.1

Building Sustainable core product:

Core product:

Core product plays an important part to build brand identity and brand awareness. Moreover core element can build a proper brand essence which is difficult to intimate by the competitors. It can also differentiate the brand in the competitive market. (Posner, 2011) As jigsaw is having high quality knitwear in the high street market, they can utilize this as their core product and build their distinctive brand identity.

7.4.3.2

Knitwear exploration:

Over the past few years knitting restore its popularity and evolve innovation from interior design to catwalk fashion. Moreover the use of knitwear in fashion has been history for decades. Nowadays fashion magazines, blogs, and international brand are influencing the demand of knitwear in fashion. (brown, 2013) Furthermore, another popular trend is using fabric manipulation technique in knitwear to bring innovation in the product. As a result, this aspect changed people’s perception about fashion and transformed it to innovative craft. One of the important part of using knitwear as core product is utilizing knitwear with the development of the fabric.

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Fabric manipulation with organic yarn:

Jigsaw is using organic yarn like cashmere, merino, Milano, wool, and more. Moreover they can utilize this yarn to manipulate fabric and develop innovative product. Availability of technology made it very easy for brands to do knit wear fabric manipulation for mass market.

The knitted fabric can be manipulated by the use of lot of innovative technique, for example tucking, pin tucks, partial knitting.

These techniques can enhance the beauty of the product as well as it can differentiate the product. (brown, 2013) By utilizing these effective techniques Jigsaw can establish knitwear as their core product and differentiate them from the competitors.

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Source: (Douglas West, 2010) Strategic Marketing, Page: 374

7.4.4 Integrated marketing communications: According to Porter, (1980) marketing communications are the core elements of cost differentiation strategies. Marketing communication channels can communicate with the consumer and enhance brand awareness. Therefor Jigsaw have to create a marketing strategy by emphasizing their core product knitwear and the use of organic materials for sustainable fashion and to achieve unique personality as long term goal.

On the other hand, sending the clear message to the consumer is very important to build brand personality. Jigsaw can hire advertisement agents or organizations as an implementation of the long term strategy and send the clear massage of “BUY LESS AND CARE MORE�.

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BUY LESS AND CARE MORE

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8 RECOMMENDATIONS IMPACT: Jigsaw Current market Positioning:

Jigsaw stands in red ocean market The graph illustrates that jigsaw is in Red Ocean, where other competitors like Reiss, Whistles and H&M is in strong position around the market. If Jigsaw apply the recommended strategical approaches they may be able to differentiate Jigsaw from the competitors as well as they can make the competitors irrelevant

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.

Blue Ocean:

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9 REFLECTION: To begin with, when I started my report I had limited knowledge of corporate strategies and branding, however this project gave me a real life experience to work for a fashion brand Jigsaw and to go beyond my expertise to build blue ocean market for the organization. Furthermore, this project gave me a clear understanding of analyzing a brand critically with rational and creative thinking by utilizing analytical tools.

The theory of this project really helped me to understand how to build and apply strategies in organizations and the implementation process. This project not only helped to explore the business side of a company but also helped to understand the importance of creativity and design thinking within the company. The value innovation and blue ocean strategy helped me to think out of the box and gave me confidence to find recommendations out of the comfort zone of jigsaw.

On the other hand, identifying the relevant information was another interesting aspect I have learned from this project. Excess information often made me confused and lost. It made me challenge myself as a fashion manager to analyze a lot of information together and selecting the relevant one in a complex situation.

Additionally, as I am really interested in marketing strategies and fashion branding, this report helped me to learn about the marketing channels and process. For branding, I have learned the importance of making the brand distinctive for the survival in the market.

One of the most interesting fact about this project was the value innovation for the company. As jigsaw is not exploring much innovation as a fashion company, therefore as a fashion manager I faced limitation in my other project. However in this report it was very interesting to build value innovation strategies by exploring lots of options from technological, marketing and design perspective.

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10 CONCLUSION: To conclude it can be said that, where other international brands are struggling to get inside the UK market, Jigsaw is having a great opportunity for being a British brand. Therefore if Jigsaw can consider the above recommendation as their future strategies, they might be able to utilize the market opportunity and also Might be able to reach the long term goal of building their brand globally.

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