Working as a fashion stylist Essay Example for Free

Working as a fashion stylist Essay I. Introduction The world of fashion is a very exciting, glamorous and challenging world. There is no doubt that everybody, the rich and famous as well as ordinary people with discriminating tastes, patronizes the fashion trends for nothing is much more satisfying than to indulge oneself in presenting beautifully to the public. In fact according to Sandra Burke, author of the book Fashion Artist: The Design Series â€Å"Fashion has become a global phenomenon†. It is because fashion caters to ones craving for change and excitement in presenting oneself. Burke added that fashion reflect a person’s sexuality, morality and individuality (10). Fashion is advertised in television, newspapers and magazines. From there one can see models dressed glamorously or fashionably with all the matching accessories, make-up and hair do. But these models did not attain their glamorous or fashionable look by themselves. Models are dressed and adorned beautifully by a stylist. For it is the stylist’s job to make people look and feel beautiful. II. Discussion A. What is a stylist? When the word â€Å"stylists† is mentioned, common people automatically thinks that this is a person who cuts hair or do make-up and works in a beauty saloon. Little did common people know that to work as a stylist is to engage in a job that provides opportunity for working with the rich and glamorous of the world. If a stylist is lucky, he/she gets to work with the celebrities, high-profile politicians, businessmen and royal families (Sullivan and Simon 1). Far from being an ordinary beautician in a saloon, a professional stylist is an† expert who uses art and science to make people and objects look good in order to make a statement†(â€Å"Breaking Into†2007). In other words, a stylist is more than just someone who is trying to make a simple ordinary woman looks like a glamorous babe in a haphazard manner. To transform someone to a fashionable person or somebody of discriminating tastes, a stylist employs an extraordinary talent to create a distinct style for a particular individual. Stylists are not just ordinary people who are knowledgeable in fashion although it may be one of the requirements. What is important is that a stylist should have an eye for style and is not ignorant of the latest trends in the fashion industry. A degree in fashion may be an advantage for any stylist, but there are some who learned about the trade by experience. For those who want to learn about styling there are many schools that offered varied courses about the subject (Marie-Claire 2007). For a stylist to be successful he must possess certain qualities. First, he must love to shop to get acquainted with various fashion styles. Shopping is very essential for it enables the stylist to get to look for materials available in the market which will give him additional inputs on styling techniques. Aside from that a stylist must have an eye for detail, meaning that he just do not look at things like any ordinary people do but should scrutinized details of how are things are made or is made up of. He should notice how colors and shades are combined and where and how accessories are placed. If he is a fashion stylist he must be able to know what certain styles fit certain body types, and how they should be put on and what color, shades or color combination is suitable for certain skin tones. In other words, he just do not pick things up or conceived styles without much thought and consideration otherwise his client would look like a clown or would be a laughingstock to the public. Another characteristic of a stylist is his ability to present traditional things in unusual and trendy ways. Other words, he must love to experiment things and see which combination, style, materials would bring out the best in the physical appearance of his client (Fibre2fashion 1). A stylist should always remember, however, that having all this traits would not guarantee that he would become successful. Like in any other profession, stylist should exhibit exceptional interpersonal skill. He must be able to communicate clearly, politely and tactfully with a number of people for in his chosen field of work he will have to interact with various individuals whose work is connected with the fashion industry (Marie-Claire 2007). In other words, a stylist must be able to maintain and initiate good personal relationships B. What are the works of a stylist? The work of a stylist varies and with such specific tasks they are also known in certain job titles as hair stylist, makeup stylist, celebrity stylist, costume stylist, fashion stylist( Fibre2fashion 1-2). As stated earlier, a stylist creates a distinct style for a particular individual. His clients include celebrities, royal families, businessmen, models and other ordinary individuals who desired to present a distinct image of themselves (Fibre2fashion 1). To achieve a certain look a stylist, especially a fashion stylists, should be able to rightfully combined wardrobe, accessories and hair for his client’s style (makeup is included specifically for women). In choosing a dress to wear it is very critical that a fashion stylist should be able to know certain body types. According to Kendall Far author of The Pocket Stylist: Behind-the-Scenes Expertise from a Fashion Pro on Creating Your Own Look a stylist must know about silhouette (the outlined shape or contour of a person’s body and what will flatter it best), proportion (individual pieces of an outfit in relation to one another), fabric as well as other information needed in fashion wear( 1-4). More often than not, stylist are called trendsetters for they are the ones who first dictate to the public what’s in, what’ new and what’s right for the occasion. For example, he may require a certain to celebrity to wear a fancy accessory in an important event that would surely catch the eye of the onlookers and then eventually the onlookers will wear the same type of accessories themselves. Or they can give certain styles a hip look to traditional garment that sets the trend in the fashion industry (Fibre2fashion 1).

Inditexs Zara: An Analysis

Inditexs Zara: An Analysis The overall focus of this dissertation will be the Spanish organization Inditex, in particular its clothing brand Zara. More specifically it will concentrate on Inditexs past and current performance and its unique business model. In order to effectively write this dissertation it will be split into five sections. In the second section a brief overview of the company, operational and financial performance will be described as it is vital to establish an understanding of Inditexs background before commencing on further analysis. The third section will provide an industry analysis in relation the organisations business environment which will include a PEST analysis and Porters Five Forces model analysis. This will allows for an understanding of Inditexs external business environment which can then be used to analyze the marketing strategy (PEST) and an understanding of the industry in which Inditex is located (Porter). The next section involves an evalutation of Inditexs business strate gy through all stages of business process; design, manufacturing, distribution and marketing stages. The fifth section consists of the business model analysis and a SWOT analysis of Inditex. The business analysis explains why Inditex use a vertical integration model and the SWOT analysis allows for clear evaluation of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the organization. The final section offers a series of recommendations that I will put forward based on my research and analysis carried out in the preceding sections. The company overview 2.1 The company profile Inditex ( Industria de Diseno Textil) is a global fashion retailer and has expanded rapidly to become one of the largest fashion retailers in the whole world. The company designed, manufactured and retail apparel, footwear and accessories for women, men and children through its seven apparel retail chains: Zara, Bershka, Stradivarius, Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Pull and Bear, Skhuaban. Each of these brands targets varied market segments in terms of age and disposable income. The group owns more than a hundred companies involved in different textile, manufacturer, infrastructure and distribution businesses. At the end of the 2009, the group operated 4607 stores around the world. At the beginning, Inditexs operations were mainly focused on its domestic market in Spain with the first Zara shop was opened in 1975. Following on the company has expanded internationally quite quickly within clothing sector. History of Inditex In 1963, Amancio Ortega Gaona, Inditexs founder, founded confecciones Goa to manufacture products such as housecoats. As the demand increased, the company integrated forward into retailing, then the first Zara store was opened in 1975. Zara stores expanded quickly within Spain market. In 1985, Inditex was founded as the holding company of the group of businesses operating at the time. In 1988, Zara opened its first store outside of Spain and began to expand internationally. In 1991 , Pull Bear was founded, and Inditex bought 65% of the Massimo Dutti Group in 1991. Shortly afterwards, Inditex acquired 100% of Massimo Dutti Group and launched its first shop in 1995. Inditex launched the Bershka chain and then acquired Stradivarius respectively in 1998 and 1999. Soon after, the group launched Oysho chain in 2001 and Zara home in 2003. Zara home was introduced as Inditexs first online store in 2007. Exhibit 1 Timeline of Inditex Picture 1.png 2.3 Products Mix Over past few decades, Inditex has built its own multi-brand portfolio, which has allowed Inditex to target various market segments more effectively. The group uses a multi-brand name strategy to diversify their seven endorsed brands and one extended brand. Zara is the flagship brand of Inditex . Although Pull and Bear and Massimo Dutti are both fashion brands for women and men, their target market is different. The former brand targets a younger group with more leisure and sports based design, while the latter one targets men and women from 24 to 45 providing a higher quality. Bersha and Stradivarius provide elegant and latest fashion for only young woman. Exhibit 2 Inditexs brand portfolio 2.4 Financial Performance and comparison Exhibit 4 Total revenue Exhibit 5 Net profit margin Operating profit margin and return on capital employed  ¼Ã‹â€ ROCE ¼Ã¢â‚¬ ° are two indicators used to evaluate profitability of the firm. The comparison of net profit margins between Inditex and its main competitors over the same period is another indicator to show how effective a company is at cost control and profitability. Net profit margins are calculated from the Net profit divided by net revenues. The net profit margin is a good measure to compare companies in the same industry due to similar business environment all companies confronted. The higher the net profit margin is, the more profitable the company is. To put it in another way, the more effective the company is at converting sales into profit . According to exhibit 4, we can see that HM have strong capacity to consistently convert around 22% of its total revenue into profit; Inditexs net profit margin is similar. However, when compared with Inditex and HM, GAP has lowest net profit margin. Exhibit 6 Return on capital employed Exhibit 6, above, demonstrates return on capital employed (ROCE) demonstrating how much profit a company can earn from the investments of its shareholders have made in their company. It basically is used to show how much a company is gaining from its capital. In figure 6, GAP underperforms in this measure, not just due to low profit levels, but also because of huge amount of capital in order to generate profit. However, GAPs return on capital employed ratio is increasing gradually. On the other hand, Inditex requires higher capital per unit of profit than HM. there has been a decline in its ROCE ratio since 2007. HM vastly outperforms all other firms. Inditex invests more than HM in fixed assets dues to its vertical integration. Inditex has 5371 million euro in assets, plants and equipment ¼Ã‹â€ Inditex Annual Report, 2009 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °, while HM only has 661 million euro. This is the main reason that HM has much more higher ROCE ratio than Inditex. Inditexs business model focuses mai nly on vertical integration and in-house production. While at the same time outsourcing is becoming a popular trend in clothing industry. Inditexs closest comparable competitors had narrower vertical scope than Inditex but outsourced all productions. In todays competitive business environment, more and more companies choose to send out non-core operations or their manufacturing sections to a supplier in order to reduce the cost by specializing and making the firm focus purely on its core operation. This is due to the low labor cost in some developing countries such as China and Vietnam. On the other hand, there are some companies that constantly try to gain control over as many sections as possible within entire value chain, usually by in-house production. 3. Industry Analysis The culture of fashion has been changed from haute couture and ready-to-wear to fast fashion. Generally, fast fashion retailers do not heavily invest in the creation of fashion trend and designs, but instead are inspired by the most attractive and promising trends spotted at fashion shows and by cues taken from mainstream consumers (Agins, 1999; Reinach,2005). They are able to keep up with these new fashion trends and add them into their products that can be provided on the market almost immediately with relatively lower price. Fast fashion is dominating the industry on the premise of several conditions. Firstly, short lead times and life cycles are two of key precondition of fast fashion. Secondly, considerable number of retail stores can reach potential customers. In addition, a very fast supply chain is required to connect customers demand with upstream operations from design, manufacture to distribution. Nowadays, more and more fashion retailers across the world engaged in this kind of fast fashion race. They make every effort to minimize the time in which they respond to fashion trends and the speed of their supply chains. For examples, Spanish Inditex (Zara), US GAP, Swedish company Hennes Mauritz (HM). British Topshop and Next, all focus on a fast fashion model. This fast fashion retail can be divided into two categories: some with factories to produce its products represented by Zara (Inditex); some without manufacturing competencies of their own such as HM and Gap, which therefore means they outsource production to labor intensive countries. 3.1 PESTEL Analysis Political factors Since 2005 the global system of quota has phased out, textile and apparel industry entered the global free market. In the meanwhile, the textiles and apparel market has become more competitive than before and has also become more intense for the small and marginal players due to such intense competition. It seems that large fashion companies such as Inditex, HM, can dominate the fashion industries due to economy of scale, which gives big companies lower cost per unit resulting from increased production. Also, the remove of all import quotas in clothing industry gives Indiex access to a larger market to operate with greater geographical reach and then generates more sales. Economic factors The world is facing global economic recession. Consequently, the business environment is difficult to operate within, which in turn has a huge influence on textile industry and fashion industry. This due to rising unemployment, the so-called credit crunch and reduced disposable income forcing changes in consumers spending habits. Many consumers have become more price-sensitive and cautious. Consumers are more likely to cut budgets on apparel and fashion accessories. Such a change allows Inditex to attract more consumers shopping at its chain stores. Social factors Strong brands play a significant role in sales, because consumers prefer branded products as oppose to generic products. Most consumers value highly good branded products or services. Even though many companies went to bankruptcy in economic recession, most Brand fashion retail still managed to remain profitable. In the international fashion retail market, strong brand identity is very important. This is not only a precondition to attract customers, but also is a foundation of global expansion. Inditex not only provides fast fashion with relative lower price, but focus on brands building as well. Technological factors Technology is not only limited to companies within the software and computer industry such as Microsoft and Intel. Currently, technology plays a very important role on the fashion industry. With the increased competition, companies are taking advantage of IT to improve its Supply Chain Management (SCM) and using it to ensure a competitive advantage is gained. Many fashion companies are relying on the technological capabilities to add value to their products. More and more companies have adopted an online shopping platform to enhance their service and increase sales. Legal factors The fashion industry has been calling for stronger worldwide copyright protection and intellectual property protection for fashion designs because they fear major losses to their competitors. Fridolin Fischer pointed out that a dynamic interaction between innovation and imitation can be seen as a competition. Indeed, new innovation creates superior products; imitation makes these products more available to a greater number of consumers. Therefore, a lively imitation process is crucial for dynamic competition. It is true in reality, but it is not fair to the designer. At present, more developed countries expand their copyright Law to include fashion designs, fashion design owners would be granted the exclusive right to place their design on the marketplace. These copyright Act will limit the development of some fast fashion retailer, such as Zara. Environmental factors The environmental impact of the textile and apparel industry stems from its consumption of energy and toxic chemicals. The apparel industry contributes to climate change indirectly through the burning of fossil fuels to create electricity which is used to produce chemical materials which are then used as raw material to take place of cotton. Other major energy consumed involves using fuel for agricultural machinery and for distribution. Toxic chemicals are used widely in cotton planting and in many manufacturing stages such as pre-treatment, dyeing and printing. The volume waste from the fashion industry has become higher because of the advent of fast fashion. It is undeniable as regard to the current situation that the Fast fashion is causing a pollution issue due to shorted clothing life cycle, which has more negative impacts on environment. 3.2 Five Force Analysis Fashion apparel is a highly competitive business industry that is completely internationalized and posses no boundaries to its operations. The fashion retail industry is a large, mature and highly competitive industry. The annual growth rate of the market was about ** in the past decade. In 2009, total apparel sales were 362 billion. However, high fragmentation gives rise to intensive competition and price pressure in this market. Porters Five-Forces Model will be used to illustrate business environment of apparel industry. Threat of entry The apparel industry has very low entry barriers. Entry does not require huge amount of capital, workshops can be set up with workers with relative low skills. However, the economy of scale in production has significant impact on the entrant. It forces the entrants either to accept cost disadvantage or produce in a large scale. On the other hand brand identification and production differentiation plays the significant role, because brand identification creates a barrier to entry. Threat of substitutes The threat of substitution in this market is very high. The threat comes from other apparel retailers, designer retailers and tailor houses. On the other hand, Generic substitution is more likely to present a threat by offering products at lower prices. Power of buyers Todays buyers have more purchasing power than ever before. Customers demand high quality, a large variety and more frequent changes in the choice available to them. They want the exact garment they require when they want it and accessories in their preferred color and size in same store. This is the reason that retailers differentiate its product in order to satisfy the consumers needs. This is done by ensuring there are alternative sources of supply available for consumer and the cost of switching is almost zero. Inditex exactly meets the these customer demand by offer most fashionable clothes to cover various target markets at inexpensive price. Power of suppliers Power of suppliers in apparel market is low because most of fashion retailers outsourced the production section to developing countries, switching costs are low, buyes brands is powerful enough to get strong bargain power. There existing fashion retail brands command strong enough bargaining power to attain low costs. Therefore, the possibility of forward integration and suppliers customers are not fragmented. One the other hand, Inditex has more bargain power due to its vertical integration business model. Competitive rivalry The apparel industry, due to its low barriers of entry and declined obstacles to trade among nations, is one of the most highly competitive industries in the world. Hennues and Mauritz (HM) and Gap are Inditexs major competitors in terms of size and sales. Hennes and Mauritz ( HM) Hennes and Mauritz, was founded in Sweden in 1947, is another high performing fashion retailor. Today HM has expanded to 2000 stores acorss the world with more than 76,000 employees(HM Annual report,2009). HM offers similar product mix with Inditex in the same market, such as clothes, accessorise, nightwear and underwear to women, men and children. While HM is considered as the closest rival to Inditex, there are many key differences. First of all, HM outsourced all its production section. Moreover, HM tends to offer prodcuts at a slightly lower price than Zara by outsourcing it production. Beyond store-based retailing, HM also ventured into online shopping and Internet retailing. Inditex has been relatively slow to develop its online selling. However, HM has relied almost exclusively on only one brand. Inditex has broader brand portfolio, which is made up of eight brands in order to reduce risk and refine the companys targeting of specific consumer groups Gap The second biggest clothing retailor, Gap, is American fashion retailer founded in 1969. The company has five brands: GAP, Old Navy,Banana Republic, Piperlime and Athleta. At the beginning, Gaps merchandise consisted of other brands such as Levis and LPs. After Gap continuing to expand rapidly across the United States, Gap started to sell its private label products in its stores. Gap is a famous fashion retailer with a distinct marketing campaign consisting of mainly primetime television adverts which target the fashion conscious 15 to 35 age old women and men. The company operates over 4000 stores all over the world. Gap was well known for extensive collections of T-shirts and jeans which is simple but stylish. However, since 2001 the pace of development became slow due to lack of a clear fashion positioning and failing to meet consumers fast fashion demand. More than 90% of its products are outsourced, which has meant the supply chain is too long and they have therefore a slow resp onse to fashion. Also, Gaps core customer base has aged. Gap needs a reposition for its brand and design, but the chain has struggled to attract a younger generation to its stores. The company lacks an effective approach to deal with it. Gap is suffering from a plummet in sales and its competitors such as Zara and HM have consequently profited from Gaps downfall. In 2008, Inditexs fashion chain Zara overtook Gap to become the worlds largest clothing retailer. Inditexs Business Strategies 4.1 Design-Fashion follower, industry leader The process of Inditexs product development design programme is constantly working in order to adapt to new fashion trends . Designers and managers attend high-fashion fairs and exhibitions to obtain fashion information and then convert the latest fashion trends of the season into their designs. Other sources of design inspiration come from TV, Internet, film content or trend spotters. product development teams focus on venues such as university campuses and clubs around the world to capture fashion trends and customer preferences. Zaras product development teams have frequent dialogue via their internal IT system. Inditex gave significant autonomy to each store manager in deciding the quantity of product needed by each store. Moreover, the store manager is able to decide which product to display in their stores and which product is to be sold at a reduced price. The managers responsibility is to make these decision based on market research and sales trends. Moreover, by employing yo ung and fashionable member of staff ensures that employees also contribute by helping to report the sales analysis, the product life cycles, and the store trends to the designers. There are specialized teams in headquarters to analyze feedbacks and information from each store, then design and produce their products. These sales analyses allow the designers to develop the right products to meet consumer Demand. Design team issues up to approximately 12,000 new design styles per year. Such a design concept obviously depends on the regular creation of new design. For example, Zaras designer team came up with approximately 40,000 new designs per year, from which only slightly more than one-quarter of them for production. Zara often follows the fashion trends of the high-fashion houses and offers similar products at much lower prices by using less expensive fabric. It also attempts to offer more colors and larger range of sizes to meet the need of consumers. After a prototype of new design was selected, a computer-aided design system is used to refine colors and textures. Limited number of new items were produced and presented in certain stores for a trial period and large volumes of the product are produced only if customers reaction is positive. As a consequence, failure rates on new products is only 1% which is less than the average rate of 10% of other fashion retailers. 4.2 Manufacture process Inditex has been able to obtain excellent financial record due to its vertical integration and fast fashion business strategies which provide Inditex with a competitive advantage over traditional fashion retailers in the industry. Generally speaking, apparel retailers always try to keep slower costs by outsourcing production to developing countries where the lowest labor could reduce its manufacture cost. On the other hand, Inditexs subsidiary retailing chain adopted a successful diverse method of doing business by working through the whole value chain. Highly capital intensity and vertical integration is a distinctive feature of Inditexs business model. From the upstream value chain, a subsidiary of Inditex company, Comdietel, funnels fabric and other input supplied by external suppliers. More than half of the fabric was undyed which provide maximum flexibility to produce in-season clothes. Comdietel is able to dye and process gray fabric into certain pattern within only one week to meet the requirement of downstream value chain. Inditex has 20 fully owned manufacture factories across the Europe. These factories use capital intensive production processes and provide cut garment and semi-manufactured products to approximately 500 in-house workshops. The relevant cutting machines and other systems produce semi-manufactured items and cut garments which will be transited directly into workshops. The progress looks rigmarole, but it is quite efficient because bar codes track the cut pieces through the every production steps. Workshops are located in labor-intensive areas across Europe such as Spain and northern Portugal. These workshops manufacture clothes in small scale to offer specialization in product type. The sewn clothes were sent back from these workshops to various product line under different brands. The center will inspect, iron and fold before sending finished garment to distribution center. The secret of Inditexs success is that vertical integration leads to short turnaround times and great flexibility. By implementing in-house production, inditex has obtained high level of variety, quantity and frequency of new styled clothes. Inditex adopts market orientation by reducing lead-times and increasing flexibility. Zara is able to upgrade products in its stores within 10 to 15 days from design to stores. Vertical integration decreased Inditexs stock to a minimum level and reduced fashion risk. In the mean time, providing small amount of products in a great variety of styles rendered Inditex shorter lead times and high level flexibility. As a consequence of offering fewer amount of product more often, Indite obtains larger percentages of the full price due to in-season sell and thus achieve higher net margins on sales. By focusing on shorter response times to fashion trends and keeping up with fashion. Inditex made efforts to make sure that its stores are able to offer latest fashion items that consumers desired at a given time. Inditex can move from coming up a design to having clothes in its stores within 2 weeks. Short lead times is Inditex one of the most important competitive advantages over its competitors. When Inditexs retail stores provide consumer with latest fashion items and gain huge amount of sales, its competitors have still struggled to catch up. In comparison, HMs lead time is more than 20 days. Traditional retailers use 4-6 months . 4.3 Distribution A more systematic approach to inventory distribution is another feature of Inditex. Each retail chain has its own centralized distribution system. Distribution center is located in Arteixo and small satellite centers across the world. In order to keep its stores refreshed with new merchandise every two weeks, the warehouses of Inditex is simply a place to transfer merchandise rather than store them. Under Indetexs distribution system, most of merchandise stayed at the distribution centers for only few hours. Products are inspected and shipped immediately in distribution center. Store managers can check lists of items available to be shipped to their stores. Based on their store inventories, they can request quantities and type of products. However, Inditexs international expansion required constant adjustment on distribution. Zara schedules the shipment by time zone to make sure distribute effectively. Inditex uses this method to gain a competitive advantage by minimizing the lead ti mes. 4.4 Marketing mix Placement Inditexs marketing strategy is very effective because its marketing policy involves zero advertising. Inditex invest in selecting locations for its subsidiary retail chains and the presentation of those stores. For example, products in Zara are relative inexpensive, but shopping in Zara shores does not feel cheap. Zara stores are centrally located with spacious and nice interior. The clothes were presented very tide and upscale. There is a big difference between Zara stores and the store of some upper scale stores. Product Inditex constantly changes its products. Therefore, customers are never sure what is going to be on Zaras shelves the following week. Zara designs apparel to meet consumer demand, attempting to pull customers in by producing small amount to create a fear that if customers do not buy immediately, the product will soon be out of stock. There is not any other company that can produce high fashion clothes faster than Zara, which positions itself as high fashion at cheap prices. Although Zara has been accused of copying the design of other upscale fashion retailers, the prime difference is the price, which allows high fashion to be affordable for average consumer. Price The pricing strategy chosen can affect revenue. The price of a product is very vital for a company to get back all its effort. The other three elements of marketing mix are costs. Thus, no matter how good the garment is. How efficient the supply chain and how creative the promotion, unless the price covers cost, the company will not make profits. Clothes might suffer from prices that are too low among competition. Pricing is very important since it often send quality cues to customers  ¼Ã‹â€ Jobber, 2007 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °Inditex does not compete on price because they know their customers are more sensitive to fashion instead of the price. Inditexs subsidiary brands follow a market-based pricing strategy. Inditex sets price in line with its marketing strategy with reference to other marketing decisions such as position, strategic objective, promotion and value to customers. Therefore, Inditex sets price differently on different brands. Zaras prices are very reasonable. Its objective is to set price as cheap as possible to allow people to have fast fashion clothes. Inditex will adjust its price for certain product to keep low inventories if the company overestimated the demand. Promotion The fact that there is no advertising promotion strategy is another effective cost cutting approach for Inditex. Other fashion retailers spend 3.5% of their revenue on advertising, while inditex only spends 0.3% on promotion. Advertisement is carry out only at a new store opening. But that does not means Inditex make less efforts on promotion. Zara does not engage in large advertising campaigns on television and magazines. It just adopts a different approach to promote its products. It invests its money on location, Zaras stores are situated at commercial center. The company believes that their shop windows presentations are all the advertising it needs and its sores only opened in the most fashionable district. 4.5 International Expansion Inditex has become possibly the most internationalized fashion retail chain. Zara operates 2707 stores in countries outside its home market Spain. By 2010, its has 1900 stores in rest of Europe, more than 150 stores in Asia, 366 in America, 485 elsewhere in the rest of world. Inditex generates 68 percent of its total revenue from oversea markets. Zara contributes most of international sales and revenue to Inditex. Zaras international expansion started in 1988 with the opening of store in Portugal, when Inditex found that the company has dominated domestic market and abroad market was very profitable. Since then, Zara entered into one country per year until it opened stores in 7 European countries. After that, the pace of Zara expansion has speed up more rapidly. Zara has successfully entered 74 countries. On the same period, HM expanded its retail network to 36 countries, and Gap entered into 30 countries worldwide. .( Indetex Annual Report, 2009 ) SALES 2008 2009 Spain 3.730.099 3.708.967 Rest of Europe 4.809.263 5.221.491 America 1.038.065 1.096.709 Asia and rest of the world 829.333 1.056.347 Total 10.406.960 11.083.514 5. Business model Analysis This section will further analyze the reasons why Inditex, who are competing in the same business field and under the same conditions as rivals such as HM, next, Gap and Mango, choose different business models. It describes exact competitive advantages that have derived from Inditexs business model and the negative sides of business models. According to Inditexs financial ratios and business models, we can conclude that Inditexs higher income result from its business model of vertical integration which keeps costs and operating expenses much lower than Gap and HM. In-house production allows Inditex have little transaction costs. In light of the transaction cost theory, Madhok said that manage business activities inside the company is direct way to diminish the transaction costs. The costs of managing upstream or downstream of business activities within an institution will be much lower than through the market. Meanwhile, vertical integration gives a firm more control and flexibilities to operate directly. Forward integration can provide product differentiation advantages that are difficult to imitate as well as superior design intelligence. Potential advantage from integration is the degree of value added at the throughout all stages of the business. The group has authority to operate directly through designing, manufacturing and distribution. Due to vertical integration, the group gains a better po sition in the purchasing of raw materials, controlling the manufacturing process and obtaining better lead time to market. Decreased Cost does not only derive from lower transaction cost but also comes from waste reducing. This happens by designing and cutting its fabric in-house and it acquires fabrics in grey to keep costs low. Zara dyeing and printing fabric until close to manufacture to acquire more flexibilities in order to meet various design requirements, thereby minimize raw material waste and rendered Zara great flexibilit

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and the Jazz Age :: Great Gatsby Essays

The Great Gatsby The Jazz Age In 1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald said that â€Å"An author ought to write for the youth of his generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterwards.† Fitzgerald wrote about what he saw during the 1920’s, which he dubbed â€Å"The Jazz Age,† and The Great Gatsby is considered a correct depiction of that era. After World War I, many Americans felt a distrust toward foreigners and radicals because they held them responsible for the war. These beliefs led to a revival of the Ku Klux Klan, a racist, anti-Catholic, and anti-Semitic group. This general distrust of liberal movements and foreigners lasted throughout the decade. In 1920, Harding won in a landslide victory under the campaign promises of returning to â€Å"normalcy.† People wanted peace and prosperity and Harding tried to give it to them by returning the United States to its prewar conditions. He established probusiness policies and went against labor unions. He pushed peace by urging disarmament. The Congress passed bills to restrict the number of immigrants coming into the country. Harding was very popular because he returned the U.S. to prosperity, after his death in 1923 it became apparent that his administration was one of the most corrupt in U.S. history. Calvin Coolidge took over and followed Harding’s policies and the prosperity continued. Young people, disillusioned by their experiences in World War I, rebelled against prewar attitudes and conventions. Women refused to give up the independence they had gained from the jobs the got during the war. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment gave them the right to vote, and they demanded to be recognized as equals. Women adopted a masculine look: they bobbed their hair, were more open about sex, quit wearing corsets, and smoked and drank in public. Most Americans were brought up to at least a modest level of comfort. They worked fewer hours and were making more money, so the development of leisure activities became important. Prohibition, enacted by the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, attempted to get rid of alcohol. Instead of ending the use of alcohol, Prohibition prompted the growth of organized crime.

Television Advertisement Essay -- Communication, Media

Television can be used to demonstrate the product in action, or to use colour and sound to build an atmosphere around the product, thus enhancing its image (Fahy & Jobber, 2006). The emphasis for this thesis will be television advertisements, because of the many elements of television, sound, colour, sight and motion that aid the presentation of the message. Also the fact that Brassington and Pettitt (2000) argue that television is better for creating an advertisement message with emotional appeals, contributes to our concentration to television advertisements. The degree of television advertisement standardization/adaptation at the international level refers mainly to the manipulation by the manager of the promotional mix elements (Bradley & Sousa, 2005). Supporters of standardization say a trend is sweeping both marketing and advertising – the movement to create products that are manufactured, packaged and promoted the same way around the world, regardless of individual cult ures (Mueller, 1989). According to Bradley & Sousa (2005) higher degree of adaptation is encouraged when the manager perceives great differences, in the economic environment and life styles between the home and foreign country. On the one hand, those who support the global standardization approach argue that a single television advertisement should be used in international markets to reduce total costs and promote a global corporate image. On the other hand, those who support the internationalization school of thought see the need for marketing adaptation to fit the unique dimensions of each local market. (Vrontis, 2003). Countries differ widely in the availability, quality, coverage, audience, and cost of advertising media (Root, 1994). According to Laroche ... ... Paek (2007) observed that domestic brands were more likely than multinational brands to use localized Latin music and lyrics in the Dominican Republic. Visual elements Colour is an essential part of products, logos and advertising, and can be an effective means of creating and sustaining brand and corporate images in customers’ minds. Colours are known to possess emotional and psychological properties. The meanings associated with different colours are important to marketers when developing advertisements, because results have demonstrated that people of different cultures have various preferences for colour. It is important for marketers to understand which colours that people prefer. Consequently, managers must acknowledge that the meanings associated with some colours may be pan-cultural, regional, or unique to a given culture. (Hewett, Madden & Roth, 1999)

PHILADELPHIA, HERE I COME! :: English Literature

PHILADELPHIA, HERE I COME! A young prospective man called Gar O 'Donnell is the centre point of the book 'Philadelphia Here I Come'. The action takes place the night before and the morning of Gar's departure for Philadelphia. Gar lives in a small village in County Donegal called Ballybeg. Gar finds his home life very boring and repetitive. Through out the book Gar shows his feelings about the village by what he says and does. "Aye, and but for Aunt Lezzy and the grace of God, you'd be there tonight, too, watching the lights go out over the village, and hearing the front doors being bolted, and seeing the blinds being raised; and you stamping your feet to keep the numbness from spreading, not wanting to go home, not yet for another while, wanting to hold on to the night although nothing can happen now, nothing at allà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦". This is one example were Gar shows his realistic views. The book was set in the 1960's, and at this time Ireland was a lot different than it is today. There was a lot of Irish emigrating to nearer countries to live a new life. One reason for this was because the Irish economy was in a depressed state. The people of Ballybeg were slaves of routine, and they had very little to do in such a small community. Gar soon realises that he will never be able to live an exciting life in Ballybeg and soon recognizes that he has no future in his home village. This leads to Gar deciding to move to Philadelphia, where he hopes life has a better impact on his future. There are many reasons for Gar wanting to leave Ballybeg. Gars life has been a very emotional time. Gars mother died shortly after his birth, this was a huge upset for him and his father. To make things worst Gar's father, S.B, does not get on with his only son, even know Gar lives and works with him. They see each other every day and still their communication levels are low. ''If he wants to speak to me he knows where to find me! But I'm damned if I'm going to speak to him first''. This is one example of were Gar gets so annoyed he starts to take it out on poor Madge who is trying to help. Gar doesn't mean to but it is he is so annoyed at the sate of his life. They only communicate when essential. Gar is leaving for Philadelphia in the morning, and still his father does not take this in to consideration to offer him a fare well. PHILADELPHIA, HERE I COME! :: English Literature PHILADELPHIA, HERE I COME! A young prospective man called Gar O 'Donnell is the centre point of the book 'Philadelphia Here I Come'. The action takes place the night before and the morning of Gar's departure for Philadelphia. Gar lives in a small village in County Donegal called Ballybeg. Gar finds his home life very boring and repetitive. Through out the book Gar shows his feelings about the village by what he says and does. "Aye, and but for Aunt Lezzy and the grace of God, you'd be there tonight, too, watching the lights go out over the village, and hearing the front doors being bolted, and seeing the blinds being raised; and you stamping your feet to keep the numbness from spreading, not wanting to go home, not yet for another while, wanting to hold on to the night although nothing can happen now, nothing at allà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦". This is one example were Gar shows his realistic views. The book was set in the 1960's, and at this time Ireland was a lot different than it is today. There was a lot of Irish emigrating to nearer countries to live a new life. One reason for this was because the Irish economy was in a depressed state. The people of Ballybeg were slaves of routine, and they had very little to do in such a small community. Gar soon realises that he will never be able to live an exciting life in Ballybeg and soon recognizes that he has no future in his home village. This leads to Gar deciding to move to Philadelphia, where he hopes life has a better impact on his future. There are many reasons for Gar wanting to leave Ballybeg. Gars life has been a very emotional time. Gars mother died shortly after his birth, this was a huge upset for him and his father. To make things worst Gar's father, S.B, does not get on with his only son, even know Gar lives and works with him. They see each other every day and still their communication levels are low. ''If he wants to speak to me he knows where to find me! But I'm damned if I'm going to speak to him first''. This is one example of were Gar gets so annoyed he starts to take it out on poor Madge who is trying to help. Gar doesn't mean to but it is he is so annoyed at the sate of his life. They only communicate when essential. Gar is leaving for Philadelphia in the morning, and still his father does not take this in to consideration to offer him a fare well.

Carlos Fuentes’ Smile

Carlos Fuentes’ smile On top of El Angel, on top of the Monumento a la Revolucion, on top of the Catedral, Carlos Fuentes was always on top. When he was young, he was afraid of height; even in June 1959, at  the  time of  the Cuban  revolution, in the same plane as General Cardenas, he asked: â€Å"Do you think it is going to fall? † We are already flying high. Since he was child, he was destined to be on top. He had just published Where the Air Is Clear, which caused uproar in Mexico City.Back then, all the writers wrote sad stories. The sad Revolution with its useless massacre, the sad province in which the guava paste was cooked slowly in a perol, as Agustin Yanez wrote; the sad leader's shadow and of all who had made the Revolution and now, in a luxurious office, they ignored the slow but steady push of their tummy. At this point, Fuentes made burst, he changed our small world as the Paricutin would have made and he reminded us that we had guts. He always ha s it.With an ambitious, audacious, agile, and elegant step, he was on the stage in one jump. He always was in a hurry, he always plucked up courage. The word â€Å"always† seems  to  do pretty well  to Fuentes and so we can tell to Silvia and Cecilia, in order and with a loud and strong voice, that Fuentes will always live wherever his books are, he will be always with us and that that aren’t words of encouragement, they are a reality. I see him in the distance, standing; I see him here, beside me, he smiled.His smile was the smile of his father, don Rafael Fuentes, that following the publication  of Where the Air Is Clear he said: â€Å"Now I’m the father of Carlos Fuentes†. All surrender by the raindrops of Jalapa, that city where the grass grows up among the rocks; Fuentes was from Veracruz from head to toe, from Veracruz with its table-glass full of cafe con leche from the Cafe de la Parroquia that the waiters filled and refilled at the sound of the spoon, ding, ding, ding, like in a Cri-Cri’s song1, as if  we  were  all  child without the Original sin.Fuentes was kind of like that, he had an inner child  that was like  the apple of  his eyes, his eyes shone, within his eyes there was his vigor, his excitement, his desire of embrace everything, his love for Mexico. His eyes cast sparks because Fuentes was a seducer, but as Angeles Mastretta said, â€Å"a trustful seducer†. 1 Mexican composer and performer of children's songs, best known under the name of  Cri-Cri: El Grillito Cantor.

Reflection of Educational Philosophy

More than ever, teachers have myriad of decisions to make in their classrooms. Naturally, they have to determine curricula, how to rate the students on their work and the specific grades to give to each pupil. However, a teacher's responsibility goes far beyond this. They must decide what other skills would be helpful, or even essential, to live in this fast-paced global environment. Beyond the academics, students need education in intercommunication, diversity and multiculturalism, time management, critical thinking, creativity and expression, and multi-tasking. Many students also need self-esteem building, stress reduction methods, psychological support and just a caring, nonjudgmental hand of support. According to the class readings, educational philosophy reflects the personal values/principles that guide teachers in making choices in their classroom. To determine these choices, they should take into consideration the nature of reality (metaphysics); the study of knowledge that has been disclosed to man by God (revealed); knowledge that is confirmed trough the senses (empirical); knowledge that is accepted as true because it comes form noted experts in their respective fields (authoritative); knowledge that comes from within (intuitive); the study of objective or subjective values; permanent and unchanging values (absoluteness of values) as well the hierarchy of values. My hope is that I will have a broad educational philosophy based on my personal and religious values that guides me in the long run, but, at the same time, the ability to see each child as an individual who has his/her unique needs. Each student exists in a different reality of circumstances, is surrounded by and reacts to different sensual stimulation, learns accepted knowledge at a varied pace and aptitude, and has a special mindset and internal belief system. A teacher should not compare students based on their talents or abilities-each child is special in his/her own way. The pupil's strengths should be encouraged and their challenges improved. I believe that the students of today must learn their academics. That goes without saying. However, above all else it is essential to instill within them respect for others and themselves, the ability to manage change, and the patience to accept temporary setbacks. As they get older, their life decisions will become increasingly difficult. With a strong foundation of self-worth and the ability to respect the differences and needs of others, it is hoped that they can make the decisions that are best for them and their world at large.