The reason why they have become so successful is because of their passion of whom they stand for as a company. In addition, they seek to create a differential shopping experience. Now, Urban Outfitters merchandise is described as sexy, vintage, bohemian, and hipster.
They are mainly known to be servicing the “hipster” and “vintage” culture and fashion. Since their target market is the ages of 18-30 years old and their sales associates are around the same ages they want to create that emotional bond with all the consumers that walk in to the door. In 2011, they then brought in the Polaroid cameras, which in no time became a huge hit to their consumers. Even though Urban Outfitters had some controversies with their clothing they sold, due to religious and ethnic issues, they continued to still have brand loyal consumers.
Urban Outfitters, to this day, is one of the most popular and strongest tortes for their target market. The retailer Anthropologist was established in Wayne, Pennsylvania in 1992. Having both online exclusive shopping as well as catalogs for their customers. Owned by Urban Outfitters, originally, Anthropologist was a label being sold at Urban Outfitters before becoming its own specialty store (About. Com Retail Industry). Currently, Anthropologist has one hundred and seventy five stores in US, Canada, and London (Anthropologist. Com).
Urban Outfitters was introduced in 1970 by Richard Haynes and Scott Blair and later opened the specialty stores Free People (About. Mom Retail Industry), and eventually introducing Anthropologist. The retailer Anthropologist uses a variety of merchandise such as clothing, accessories, gifts, home decorations, and more for young women to flaunt their creativity (Anthropologist. Com), and for young women to create an identity and Journey with their products and relatable to their everyday lives. During the sass’s, Anthropologist was becoming successful because their merchandise was considered to be the most adaptable.
According to Women’s Wear Daily, division sales were 30% from specialty stores (Gale Database). Anthropologist’ merchandise deals with contemporary casual wear for young women, which is mainly consisted of fabrics such as cotton, wool, and silk and known for their sweaters to appeal to the young trendy women (Gale Databases). Attracting women from about ages 18-35/40. Anthropologist’ strategy is lifestyle merchandising allowing women to create and relate to their fashion forward, trendy, and personable merchandise and products that Anthropologist has to offer (About. Mom Retail Industry). These young women can create their own style and way of living. Anthropologist’ company’s mission is for their customers to create an emotional injection/attachment to their merchandise and provide great value service for their customers to receive the ultimate shopping experience. Anthropology has achieved an enormous amount of success through out the years anthropologist market By sameness Anthropologist is strategic in portraying its brand image. They capture their customer’s attention with their visual displays, merchandise, as well as its store environment.
With over 135 retail stores in the United States, Anthropologist can be described by its, “One-of-a-kind, compelling shopping experience that makes women feel beautiful, hopeful, and connected (anthropologist. Mom). ” Visual displays are one of the most obvious strengths of Anthropologist. From a distance customers are captured by the intricate, handmade designs that are visually appealing. Full time visual merchandisers are used to keep the store looking new and exciting and use their creativity to produce new ways of displaying merchandise.
Displays are changed several times during the twelve-week cycle in order to keep the store looking fresh (urban. Com). Apparel concepts inspire the display elements, as well as the seasons throughout the year. Some unique displays include, plastic and Styrofoam cups on walls over tableware displays, also a horse made of wood used to hold rugs and bedding. This strength clearly draws customers into the store and by capitalizing on different architectural elements, makes each store unique and different. Anthropologist’ merchandise is the second way they have achieved success.
This strength comes from within their buying team. The buyers at Anthropologist each have their own unique style and search the world to find the most unique items to offer to their consumers. 50% of their stock is private label, while the other 50% is market driven (urban. Com). Anthropologist also stocks a vast number of trends and styles that reflect the brand. The mood in the store is established by creating a unique store mix of apparel, linens, books, and furniture. This allows every customer to find something that suits his or her specific needs and wants.
Clearly, Anthropologist’ entrepreneurial buying fashion allows them to offer a unique assortment that sets them apart from its competitors. The store environment is another reason why Anthropologist has achieved success in the United States. Anthropologist does several things to make people feel as if they are in the comfort of their own home. The environment appeals to the customer’s sense of sound, sight, touch, and smell. From the wood floors to the smell of fresh greenery on the walls, customers are intrigued by this environment and it draws them to the merchandise.
By having this type of store environment it allows customers to make purchase decisions based on the environment rather than the sales associates. Anthropologist has clearly achieved success through its strengths in visual displays, merchandise, and the store environment. By focusing on prime locations and inviting displays, Anthropologist and Urban Outfitters has set themselves self apart from other retailers. From a $4 bar of soap too $5,000 antique, customers everywhere find something that suits their lifestyle.
According to Glen Seen, Anthropologist president he states, “One of our core philosophies is to spend money that other companies spend on marketing and create a store experience that exceeds people’s expectations. ” Clearly, Anthropologist’ strengths have influenced and will continue to influence retailers in the United States and also those around the world. And sales. The 2008-2009 downward spiral caused a massive slump on their retailers that has kept them in recovery mode ever since. As a result of having a premium rising policy, the recession had a more significant effect on Anthropologist than it did for other retailers.
This resulted in lower sales, fewer units per sale and lower average unit prices. In addition to the recession slump, they have come across many problems with their inventory in 2011. Their revenues fell 7% due to an imbalance in women’s apparel product mix that was mostly discovered in women’s tops including knits and sweaters. This imbalance resulted in the company taking large-scale promotions to clear the merchandise, which dropped their revenues. Whereas, Urban Outfitters and Free People both showed a positive growth.
Urban Outfitters and Free People are two of Anthropologist’ top competitors, which have proved to perform much better in the past. These competitors do a better circulation of catalogs and web as well as have stronger brand names. Anthropologist offers higher prices and fewer promotions than Urban Outfitters. As a result, the brand attracts a larger amount of affluent buyers due to their limited customer base and unclear target market. Urban Outfitters and Free People appeal to a wide target audience as they put energy into selling a lifestyle to their customers and creating an appealing shopping experience.
Therefore, Anthropologist must fix the overlap in their target market and put more focus on lifestyle branding. After going through Anthropologist’ growth, successes and struggles over the years in the U. S. Its yet very strong brand image it’s now as safe time to take a step ahead and take the brand internationally. When considering to take the brand international we want to take the brand to a place where people do not only see Anthropologist as another brand from the United States but can also relate to the collection and its image.
A target market that not only is looking for apparel wears but is also looking for a theme, a collection f items for home and various accessories. Anthropologist has been strong on showing collections inspired by various cultures and ethics. India will be a good market to understand the cultures and collections of Anthropologist. Not to forget another tangent where a lot of our buyers get pieces inspired by the Indian culture and a lot of the collections have also been being manufactured in India due to low manufacturing costs.
There are a lot more reasons and factors to be considered before. One of the most important ones being the fast paced growth of Indian economy and its retail sector along with the newly changed rules and isolations by the FAD. Continuing a trend of liberalizing foreign direct investment (“FAD”) in its retail sector, the Indian government announced in September further changes to its policies designed to permit FAD in multi-brand retail trading of up to 51 percent, subject to certain significant conditions, as well as further relaxation of its policies on FAD in single-brand retail trading.
The government of India, approved a total of 18 foreign direct investment proposals worth USED 173 million in the single brand retail sector between April 2010 and May 2013, Parliament was informed on Monday. In January 2012, India had raised FAD cap in single-brand retail to 100 per cent from 51 per cent. We aim to closely examine the relaxed FAD policy and to utilize this regulatory shift as an opportunity to enter the vast Indian retail marketplace.
Considering even a limited sample of recent Indian demographic and Anthropologist that are able to successfully navigate Indian’s FAD policies. Indian’s population equaled approximately 1. 2 billion people according to provisional 2011 census data, compared to an estimated 315 million people in the United States as of October 2012. According to the U. S. -Linda Business Council, there are approximately 00 million “middle-class” individuals with a purchasing power parity of IIS$30,OHO per year.
The Indian retail sector is estimated to equal approximately IIS$500 billion and is expected to reach IIS$I . 3 trillion by 2020, according to a September 2012 report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
