County Road Merchandising Analysis Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the County Road-Merchandising Analysis. Answer: About Country Road Country Road is an apparel manufacturer and retailer brand based in South Africa. South African business-house Woolworths Holdings Limited has been the parent company of Country Roads since 2014, and today the brand has over 68 privately owned stores and 77 concessional departmental stores. Country Roads started out in 1974 as a shirt label under its founder Stephen Bennett, and has since gradually increased its line of business to womens apparel, shoes, fashion accessories and miscellaneous household daily-wares (Countryroad.com 2017). Today, Country Roads is a recognized name in the world of fashion, conducting business across the world and parent to a number of smaller companies. Market Position and Promotional Strategies Beginning to 2008 Country Roads undertook a significant remodelling of their business policy and changed their pricing structure and immediate-profit margins. This new strategy brought down the prices if products significantly and as a result, increased sales in huge proportions. For instance, in the financial year 2006-07, Country Roads cut down its prices by 25% which, in turn, raised the sales by 70%. In 2003, Country Roads made a strategic agreement with Myer Departmental Stores, whereby they agreed to sell only to Myer and not to their Australian rival David Jones, another apparel brand. The company also made efforts to infiltrate into the US-fashion market, and to that effect, several Country Roads exclusive stores were opened in cities like New York, Boston and Chicago in 2000 (The New York Times 2017) . However the venture was a commercial flop and the stores had to be closed down because of grossly low sales figures (Craik 2015). 2009 to Present In 2009, Country Road launched the fashion label Trenery, which presently has fifty outlets in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It has also tied up with David Jones and has a number of collaborated concessional departmental stores across David Jones line of stores. In 2012, Country Road financially acquired the Witchery Group, which comprised Witchery and Mimco for a sum estimated to be $ 172 million (Kim 2012). This acquisition marked the foundation of one of the largest fashion retailers in Australia, boasting of 517 showrooms and $679 million in annual trade (Australianexporters.net 2017). However, instead of resting on their laurels, Country Road keeps expanding their business and fulfilling new challenges to maintain their position as one of the largest lifestyle brands in the Australian subcontinent and in South Africa. In 2004, they introduced Country Road Active, a line of sports and fitness-wear ; and in2015, they launched their own line of jewellery and womens sungl asses. In 2016, they completed the successful acquisition of Politix, a leading Australian apparel company, dealing exclusively in menswear. Recommended Business Strategies As already stated, Country Road is one of the foremost fashion-labels in Australia, in terms of annual transactions and turnover. However, as evident from their failure to penetrate into the American and Western markets, they are lacking in the planning and execution of advertising and promotional policies (UK Shopper Track 2017). In order to achieve desired results as far as publicity and advertising are concerned, certain strategies need to be reshaped and new ones are required to be undertaken. Personal Selling Publicity: The company needs to adopt more effective measures to reinforce their retail sales figures. Country Road needs to build face to face publicity measures from ground-up so in order to spread accessibility to the non tech-savvy older generations who have otherwise little scope of knowing about the company and its line of products. They should also hold frequent press-releases and business-surveys in order to keep both their customers and themselves better informed about the status of the market. Public Relations: Public Relations (PR) is yet another field where Country Road can improve. Given that they now own several other brands with their own retail outlets, they can organise various exhibition and endorsement programmes in order to spread the brands renown among the public (Casidy 2012). Inviting regional celebrities like actors and sports-persons to promotional events would certainly augment the appeal and acceptability of the company to potential customers. Sales Promotion The employees should be made to feel included in Country Roads plan of business for better sales. To that effect, the staff should be rewarded with occasional incentives and bonuses, based on performance and sales figures, keeping the motivation high. Customers can also be attracted by providing discounts in the form of price-offs, cash backs, coupons and assured gifts with purchase. Special launch parties and privileges to staple and returning customers would help make them feel included, and in turn, improve business. Advertisement Country Road has a fairly well-organised advertising policy in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. However, in order to make inroads into the European and American markets as they have already been trying without success, they need to remodel their advertising policy. The emphasis should be more on advertising through the mass media instead of personal media due to the latters vast reach and appeal, transcending national and linguistic barriers. This can be achieved by making tie-ups with the regional as well as international print and televised media. Online advertising in the form of dedicated websites, mobile applications and e-mails is another weapon at their disposal, which is sure to bump up sales significantly. Recommendation on Current Strategies Internal - VM Strategies for In-store Enhancement Visual Merchandising (VM) refers to the presentation of the store and its products in such a manner as to attract potential customers (Bailey and Baker 2015). This policy would particularly be beneficial to Country Road, owing to the fact that not only their own outlets, but also the ones of Witchery, Mimco and Trenery can be incorporated into their VM scheme. This would involve furnishing the storefront with prominent advertising boards which display all ongoing offers and sales, and window displays with exclusive merchandise capable of drawing people inside. The interior can be decorated with interior displays and mannequins in such order and spacing that they get highlighted. The atmosphere of the stores can also be enhanced with themed lighting and music arrangements. External VM Strategies for Improved Online Business VM procedures can also be employed by Country Road for managing their online store and promotions. The official store website, though already quite elaborate and informative, still has room for improvement. The user interface may be made more customer-friendly by adding more menus and pop-ups which would provide more options to buyers. The online customer profile and transaction-accounts need to be enhanced by incorporating easier options to check sizes and carry out exchanges, returns and refunds seamlessly. Placement Strategies Another key area that Country Road needs to work on and improve is their policies of placement in terms of business expansion. The situation is quite favourable for the brand as they presently have access to state-of-the-art outlets, owing to the Witchery, Mimco and Trenery showrooms. However, showrooms are located exclusively in posh, urban areas, with country-folk having little or no admittance. Thus, they should conduct intensive surveys as to which regions might become potential customer bases and how to establish the brands acceptance and popularity in such areas. Other aspects such as wholesale prices, go-down and storage expenses also need to be studied and addressed better. References: Australianexporters.net., 2017.Country Road Clothing Pty Ltd - Clothing and manchester, furniture and accesssories - Australian Exporters. [online] Available at: https://www.australianexporters.net/companyID1838.htm#contactdetails [Accessed 29 Jul. 2017]. Bailey, S. and Baker, J., 2014.Visual merchandising for fashion. AC Black. Casidy, R., 2012. An empirical investigation of the relationship between personality traits, prestige sensitivity, and fashion consciousness of Generation Y in Australia.Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ),20(4), pp.242-249. Countryroad.com. 2017.Country Road | Women's, Men's Kid's Clothing Homewares. [online] Available at: https://www.countryroad.com/ [Accessed 4 Aug. 2017]. Craik, J., 2015. Challenges for Australian fashion.Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management,19(1), pp.56-68. Kim, H., 2012. The dimensionality of fashion-brand experience: Aligning consumer-based brand equity approach.Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal,16(4), pp.418-441. The New York Times 2017. Australian Clothier Grows in U.S. [online] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/11/business/australian-clothier-grows-in-us.html [Accessed 4 Aug. 2017]. UK Shppper Track. (2017). [online] Available at: https://uk.shoppertrak.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Country-Road-Case-Study-UK-detail.pdf [Accessed 4 Aug. 2017]