H & M 's Strategic Goals

The athletic apparel industry has shown a large increase in popularity. Global sales of sport clothing have increased from 146.1 billion US dollars in 2007 to 162 billion US dollars in 2012(Global Participative Sport as Consumption). Particularly in the United States, sales of sport apparel have increased by 7% from 2013 to 2014 (Wingus). There has been a large trend in healthy living, as “activewear accounted for $33.7 billion in sales and made up 16 percent of the apparel market” (Wingus). The industry is booming, as sportswear, specifically yoga pants, has transformed into people’s daily apparel. (Refer to Appendix Table 1) Huffington post noted, “people are wearing trendy workout clothes all day, every

Hennes and Mauritz AB is a Swedish retail-clothing company, which has expanded enormously in the past years. H&M has grown from one single store in a small town in Sweden to a multinational ranked as the second largest global fashion retailer with its 3,600 stores in over 58 countries and $22 billion in annual sales (The World’s). This incredible story of success makes us wonder about their strategies and how they managed to get where they are today.

From 2003-2004 to 2006-2007, annual Real Growth Rate increases from 8.4% to 9.7%. Because of the summer’s credit-market crisis, the Indian GDP Growth decrease to 9.0% from 2007 to 2008 and Indian government estimates GDP Growth for 2008-2009 is 7.1%. The decrease of GDP ascribes the global financial crisis which affects India primarily through trade and capital outflows (The World Bank, 2008:16). On trade, exports are possible to weaken and make its contribution to GDP growth may be drop sharply. However, during

For the past hundred years the need for clothing increased since the number of people of keeps growing. As the years go on, producers must find new ways to produce more clothing to make more profit and keep up with demand. Before people would either have to ride all the way into town to have tailors make their clothes, or have someone at home make the clothing for them. But as the years progressed, methods have changed dramatically.

People indulge in clothes shopping every day and often do not consider the changes that occurred throughout time that led to the development of mass produced clothing for both men and women. As a result of the Civil War, the production of clothing shifted from homemade clothing to clothing mass produced in factories. After the Civil War, Urbanization along with new developments, such as advertising and the new, wealthy urban class, increased the demand for mass produced women’s clothing and clothing stores that made clothing readily available.

This report contains the analysis of value and culture of reputable apparel retailer H&M, as well as three analysis method, which is PETEL, Porter’s five forces, and VRIO framework, to analyse the external influence factors, competitors, and competitive advantages of H&M.

Attention getter: Brands like H&M, forever 21, Zara have a dark secret that they don’t want you to know. Digging deeper in the world of fast fashion I found out of the vicious cycles that our clothing is manufactured in.

1. A representative of the American clothing industry recently made the following statement: “Workers in Asia often work in sweatshop conditions earning only pennies an hour. American workers are more productive and as a result earn higher wages. In order to preserve the dignity of the American workplace, the government should enact legislation banning imports of low-wage Asian clothing.” Answer the following:

* Procurement: As it is the second Europe’s cloth retailer company, for the production H&M uses a lot of material and workers so its mains recourses are material, labour and energy. That is why small changes in prices can affect the company’s profit a lot, and the fact that it does not own any manufactories causes some problems in controlling the production’s prices. However, not owning the factories can be an advantage in some cases. Indeed, if a problem appears, H&M can easily change its suppliers. Moreover, due to its huge size, H&M can easily manipulate with its suppliers to have the best quality at the lowest production’s price.

Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) is one of the largest clothing retailers worldwide. Their target market range age group is about 0-40 years old, but is most popular for those 15-30 years old. The brand reputation has achieved the assumption that their goal is to offer fashionable clothing at a reasonable price. Their clothing is always on trend, and sold at an affordable price from about $0.80 to $450. H&M buys stock in large columns to keep prices affordable for their average consumer. They partake in many collaborations with designers and celebrities, such as, David Beckham, Alexander Wang, and the most recent, Kenzo, as well as many more. They have worked to achieve a quick and well established system with stores all around the world, and a large consumer variety. H&M is regularly featured in respectable fashion magazines, such as Vogue and Elle. The following shows all of the countries a customer is able to shop from on the online website.

In order to be competitive, companies have to satisfy customers’ requirements. They have to provide a fast and dependable service at reasonable price. There are five performance objectives that lead companies to competitiveness. They are:

The H&M guarantees value for their low pricing. This strategy of low prices has made the company very successful in emerging markets, according to Jepeson (2014). From the research conducted H&M seems to be practicing a cost based pricing model. The two major constituents of the brand pricing is the high fashion and the lower cost. The company collaborates with renowned designers in order to offer innovative product design but manages to keep prices low through the manufacturing

H&M sells the latest trend. It adapts to every age and also to the tastes and needs of its customers.

Since H&M opened the first shop in Sweden in 1947, using an American concept of shops selling stylish clothes with low prices bring H&M successful in the domestic market. H&M started to expand internationally from 1964. Not only Europe market, H&M also enter in North America, Asia and Middle East market.

Faruqui, M. (2014, July). Nobody can beat Bangladesh in price and quality. Retrieved from http://www.textiletoday.com.bd/magazine/873