Strategic marketing “Supergroup”

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Table of Contents

Introduction
About Supergroup
The range of the supergroup
Target Market
The position of Super-group in the market
Strengths of Super-group
Pestel analysis
References

Introduction

Super group was begun in the year 1985 by Julian Dunkerton as cult clothing. The original store was located in Cheltenham which later grew and expanded to other parts of the world. In the year 2003, Julian Dunkerton joined business with known designer John Holder. Holder had previous founded the bench brand. The merger resulted to a new brand known as superdry. Superdry brand has gained recognition and popularity both within the United Kingdom and outside.

About Supergroup

The group has its roots in the United Kingdom but has also spread to other parts of the world. It trades affordable clothing fashion in the youth fashion market (Finlay,77). Through the expansion program and efforts of Supergroup, it has developed a number of brands. Of the brands, the major one is the superdry supergroup which currently has forty standalone retail store and fifty four superdry concessions in house of Fraser. Of the fifty four brands, forty five are menswear with the rest being womenswear (Bradford, 25).

Of the forty nine standalone stores, 20 are Cult stores, which sell the Supergoups own branded products as well as third party brands, 18 are Superdry stores from which predominantly Superdry branded products are sold, 77Breed is another of the Supergoups own brands. Supergroup also has three outlet stores and since 2004, Supergroup has established three fully transactional websites. In the United Kingdom, the website deals with wholesale.

The sales in the company can take the path of either being direct or indirect depending on the market demand.. Direct sales include selling to final consumer. Franchising is like a lease of the premises together with the business. Those who get into the business have to follow the already developed rules and regulations of the business.

With a franchise, you cannot expand the business. Licensing is when the larger company allows people to trade in their name which is already established. The advantage is one operates in an already existing and popular name.

The range of the supergroup

Supergroup initially was a local retail fashion outlet in Cheltenham. Through expansions currently the company is international with outlets in Europe and outside Europe. It has also expanded from being a one outlet to wholesaling, franchising, and distribution. Currently it is a chain of businesses (Morden,91). The company also ranges from selling menswear to selling womenswear and it has potential to grow.

Target Market

Super-group targets both men and women of young age. They target youth of between ages fifteen and twenty five years. The reason is this is the group which is always going with fashion. Any new fashion would mean a kill by the company. This group also does not have many other responsibilities as most of them are still in the custody of their parents and guardians.

As a result they can spend most of their earnings and pocket money in buying new fashions as opposed to the elderly people who have many other responsibilities and purchasing of new fashions is not part of their priorities.

The position of Super-group in the market

Super-group occupies a position in the youth brands market. The group has enjoyed continued increasing business due to the constant changing customer tastes and preferences. This ensures that the group has a new fashion in the stock to meet that changing attitudes of the target consumers.

The group also considers itself safe in the market to the strong brands they have developed for instance Super-dry. The strength of the brands is in terms of the quality, popularity, reputation, authenticity and proper design which acts as the catalyst for driving sales and hence revenues.

The financial reports of Super-group indicate that the group is worth forty one billion US dollars. The market has grown by 16.2 per cent and is forecasted to grow by 10.3% for the period stretching to the subsequently 5years. The youth menswear is forecast to record the greatest growth within the menswear market. This growth will be associated with the fact the young are more concerned with the way they appear and are more fashion conscious the alder generations.

Such a growth will have an implication that Super-group will continue to hold their good position in the market, the returns will continue to be high and the company’s worthiness will increase. The growth will propel the company to even a better position in the market among its competitors.

Super-group operates in a very competitive fashion market. One of the ways to stay ahead and which it has used to stay ahead of its competitors is through ensuring it stocks quality fashions, keeps abreast any new fashion which may be in demand and setting pocket friendly prices to meet their financial objectives but at the same time attract new customers while retaining the old ones. But even then super-group has to be on high alert to understanding what strategy the competitors have for they are one of the greatest challenges in the world of business.

The other strategy to for super-group to having a competitive advantage over their competitors is to increasing their roll outs of standalone stores in the United Kingdom at a rate of twenty per year and extending the product range from one thousand pieces in spring to over two thousand in autumn (Holbeche, 166).

This will be possible through developing inner-wears and womenswear. The group will also need to expand the wholesale division in the United Kingdom and beyond. The emphasis will be on franchise targeting Far East, Middle East and Africa (Armstrong, 14).

The group will go ahead to opening up their online business and offers particularly targeting international consumers and enhancing their websites to include several languages as well as multi-currency options at the international level. The group also intends to develop new brands to enhance the existing ones as they undertake further licensing of the super-dry brand.

Strengths of Super-group

The group is endowed with a number strength which they bank on lat for their business progress. Some of the strengths include; strong retail and wholesale outlets in the United Kingdom and the Ireland. The retail outlets contributed to a growth in profits of 76.8 per cent while the wholesale gave a share of over 90 per cent to the total revenues.

Strong supply linkages are other strength for super group. Their designs are in-house but then they contract oversee companies for the manufacturing. The companies are contracted on the basis of their expertise and specialism.

Infrastructure has been on the side of the super-group (Hill, 32; Pearce, 47). The super-group is also developing physical infrastructure to enhance their operations for instance in the United Kingdom there is a distribution center which is meant to improve on the efficiency of the company. Information Technology has been improved with websites being developed and the existing ones improved.

Pestel analysis

All businesses of any strength are faced with different challenges that can be captured in political, Environmental, Social, Technical, Economic and Legal analysis. The social position of the super-group though stable can be improved by expanding their target consumers (Thompson,88). This can include factoring in the other social group. This will help broaden the revenue source base. The youth are unpredictable and so the group should spread the risk of uncertainty. One cannot trust all the eggs in one basket.

According to the executive report the company is well endowed with technical capability. They recruit experienced and well trained managers who are assisted by committed subordinated in the quest for success. However, the group should not stop at that but should continue to train their staff to ensure that they are on as per with the market (Thompson, 101).

Economic implications are sometimes beyond the organizations capacity. Some of the recent economic bumps were associated with the world economic meltdown. The recess in the world economies affected spending, money lost value and people became conscious of how they spend their money. The most important thing was to eat not to purchase a new fashion. Businesses lost revenue and those with weak financial base and strategy left the market (Wheelen, 121; 127).

Super-group is not an exception from such financial calamities. There is need to develop a strong financial base and forecast on future similar financial crises. One way of safeguarding the business from such external factors is having a wide client base and also expanding the business to include other products for example they can include other fiber products like curtains, beddings and even footwear.

References

Armstrong, Michael (2007): Strategies for Human Resource Management, Translated by Khodayar-e- Abili, Fara Publication, Tehran, Iran.

Bradford, R., Duncan,P., Simplified Strategic Planning: The No Nonsense Guide for Busy People Who Want Results Fast, Chanlder House Press, 2007.

Finlay, Paul (2006), Strategic Management. An Introduction to Business and Corporate Strategy. Pearson Education. ISBN 0 201 39827 3

Hill,Charls W.L. & Jones Gareth R.(2005): Strategic Management, Houghton Mifflin Co. USA.

Holbeche, Linda (2006): Aligning human Resources and Business Strategy, Elsevier Publication, Oxford.

Morden, Tony (2006), An Introduction to Business Strategy 2nd Ed. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-709451-4

Pearce, J. & Robinson, R. (2005): Strategic Management, 9th Edition, New York: McGraw- Hill Publication.

Thompson, John L (2006), Strategic Management, Awareness & Change. Chapman & Hall. ISBN 0-412-37500-1

Wheelen, Thomas L & Hinger, David, J (2003), Cases in Strategic Management 4^th Ed. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Inc. ISBN 0-201-568659

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