Forever 21 Corporate Structure

Stagnant sales performance has caused Harrington Collection to explore new avenues for improved performance, including the launch of a new active-wear line. Recognizing an emerging trend of low price and rapid style turnover in the women’s apparel market, along with tremendous growth in the active-wear segment, Harrington needs to work strategically to capture this profitable market opportunity. After careful analysis, it was determined that Harrington should implement a new active-wear line.

The global women’s clothing industry is expected to exceed $621 billion in 2014, marking a 12% increase in five years, reports MarketLine. Clothing retailers account for the largest share of the market at almost 65% in terms of value. We will first seek customers locally, but will increase our range as we build our brand and are confident in our image.

Imagine you were a woman. How much pain are you willing to go trough I order to meet the social standards of society? Would you try plastic surgery, starving yourself, or shove things down your throat? Women have become so self-aware of their physical appearance to the extent where they are willing to do any means necessary to receive their desired figure.

Throughout their lives, women of all ages are constantly being bombarded with advertisements convincing them they must meet an ideal of the perfect body image. This is all thanks to companies that share a common goal to influence the mainstream population into believing they need to purchase certain products in order to compare to the impossible standards set by the beauty industry. In Dave Barry’s “Beauty and the Beast” he displays that it is planted in young girls minds that they need to look, dress, feel, and even act a certain way. However, men aren’t as affected by these capitalistic marketing schemes. In short, the media has affected the way women think of themselves.

Finally, Lululemon’s founder, Chip Wilson, made a publicly offensive suggestion, that some women’s bodies were not made to wear his yoga pants. “The problem was that the yoga-apparel company has been having with its pants on the size of women 's thighs” (EBSCO, Nov 14, 2013). After making those comments discourage plus size customers were embarrassed and felt like they don’t want to shop at the store anymore. Some women blamed CEO for making products that don’t last long. One of the examples from Financial Post. However, despite the unfortunate occurrences last year Lululemon is in a very healthy position in the Canadian and US markets. In addition to that, Lululemon’s baggiest competitor is now Sears Canada. Sears became a new stop for consumers who want high-quality and affordable yoga gear. “The struggling department store chain says its Pure Energy Athletics line of yoga clothes has been a hit with customers since they were introduced in February. The chain says it sells yoga pants for $14.99 or $29.99 — a steal compared to similar clothing from other retailers, like Lululemon Athletica” (Edmonton Journal, May 21, 2014). However, Lululemon has a tremendous

The success of Bravissimo is indicative that standalone specialised offers for non-standard sizes can work, and segmented brands are likely to have increasing relevance, as people place greater emphasis on fit when choosing clothes. Bravissimo aim to take their winning combination of great choice for the big boobed woman and an easy to use online shopping service and translate the success of Bravissimo into the international lingerie market.

The Fashion Industry is affecting the way many people look at themselves. In today’s society there is always an ad promoting fast food, clothing brands, Cars. Etc. almost all of them have a model to promote their products. These fashion models are usually, extremely thin, tan, tall, and gorgeous. This set a negative standard for many women on what they should look like and can often cause to self-esteem issues. The Media is having a negative effect on body image by choosing to settle toward an unrealistic persona. In Addition, this has created many young girls, to have eating disorders such as bulimia, anorexia, and fasting. However, some businesses have started gravitating toward plus size models to stop the affects it has on society. Plus, also many companies are limiting the amount of photo shopping and airbrushing. The issues are far from being resolved but numerous people are working toward making a change.

The ¨One size fits all¨ has some criticism with it. ¨The last thing women need is another company creating low self-esteem and body image issues¨ a blogger named Laura Zaneuth says ¨I will not support a Brandy Melville or any company that discriminates the majority of women. That says that Brandy Melville has some problems with their customers that do not fit ¨one size only¨ and I think that later on our next promotional campaign will be adding more sizes onto their clothing. There are problems with lots of other stores too, but the ¨one size only¨ problem is a big one. Brandy Melville does not mean for any of this to happen, but if you participate in our campaign, later they might add on more clothing sizes if their sales go up.

The body image movement aims to improve the relationship between women and their bodies in a more positive manner (Dove 2014). Currently, women are suffering from an increase in body self-consciousness as a result of medias role regarding beauty ideals. Researchers have found that women worldwide do not view themselves as beautiful and are consistently troubled about their appearance and concluded that six out of ten girls are concerned about their appearances (Dove 2014). As a result, anxiety and self-consciousness are all contributing factors producing significant health concerns among women (Aubrey 2007). Media has developed a reputation in society for women to be held to unachievable beauty standards as they promote a “thin culture” (Hesse-Biber et al. 2006). This promotion of beauty standards has inspired the body image movement to educate and encourage women to love their bodies in order to achieve more self-esteem and confidence (Dove 2014). As well as, corporations are beginning to

Our project focused on how females conform to the expectations of society. Body image has always been a big idea to women. Most men are doctors, surgeons, or in control of major businesses in the world. Living in an

To feel body confident, you need to be happy with who you are as a women with or without curves. Many women in this century are facing a lack of confidence by the way they look. Women may lower their self esteem by seeing another women with a beautiful feature and compare their look with someone else. A women’s body image is based on thoughts and feelings regarding the way her body looks. Sometimes, they also believe other people are judging their appearance which can affect their body image. Victoria’s Secret unveiled their campaign slogan the “Perfect Body” with an image of tall and skinny models. However, Curvy Kate, a lingerie brand, recreates an image using models of all shapes and sizes mocking the Victoria’s Secrets slogan. I argue that the Victoria’s Secret slogan, “The Perfect Body” shouldn’t symbolize their tall physique models by aiming for women with a smaller waist size. The advertisement shows its audience that the perfect body is for smaller and slimmer

The fashion industry is a major object of body image issues, as they believe clothes look better on more than average height and svelte women. Established on a survey partaken by 13 to 17-year-old in the United States, 90% felt intimidated by trends and media to be sleek, with more than 60% routinely evaluated themselves to supermodels, whilst 46% will endeavor to

A new study in the NCA’s Communication Monographs discovered that when women, who were hocked up to a heart monitor, viewed images of other women with the same or similar body type to their own. There were more reports of body positivity and less social comparison. While there is more growing awareness of plus-size models there is also starting to be more demand for plus-size clothing in more styles. When a heavier set woman goes to flip through a magazine and all they see is skinny models being portrayed as beautiful and smart, yet this starts to take a mental toll on them. Thoughts of self-discrimination can lead to low self-esteem issues. To help with these thoughts fashion industries have now started putting plus-size women on their runways, such as the Lane Bryant’s #ImNoAngle and Dove’s Real Beauty campaigns.

1. What is your evaluation of the women’s apparel industry and Harrington’s position? How has the average price of women’s apparel changed? What is your evaluation of their financial performance?

Many young women in today’s society struggle with confidence and their body image. This is a huge problem in society and many people have spoken out against the influence of media on women’s body image. However, it continues to be a major problem and more can always be done to raise awareness about societies unrealistic expectations for women’s beauty. Dove’s Choose Beautiful campaign was started to promote the self-esteem of women and encourage them to see their beauty, however there are some criticisms, including the company using this campaign to increase their sales. Dove is selling a product with the expectation that confident, beautiful women will purchase it, however people still have the ability to resist the ad industry.