Week Three

THURSDAY – 

After yesterday I decided to separately visit Urban Outfitters, this store stocks a variety of streetwear brands, it was interesting to see the difference between Selfridges yesterday and Urban Outfitters today. I felt that Selfridges provided a wider variety and a higher quality and price of products compared to urban outfitters. I think this point really highlights the difference in markets for both stores as Urban Outfitters main consumer will be younger than Selfridges and will spend less on their average shop.

Additionally I conducted a SWOT analysis on urban outfitters, this helped me to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that a brand can face and how to avoid them. By understanding this I believe I will be able to apply it to my own rebranding:

Strengths:

1.     High Quality products.

2.     Wide variety of products and brands, to therefore appeal to a wider market.

3.     Offer 20% student discount, targeting their main market 18 -30 year olds with promotions to entice them.

4.     On trend and up to date with changes within the street wear segment.

5.     Clear aesthetic through out all stores in keeping with the urban, ‘hipster’ and street wear style of the store

Weaknesses:

1.     A large variety of products and brands, no clear cash cow within the brand.

2.     Pricing varies greatly from having cheap products alongside designer brands, suggesting too much variety, and possible confusion amongst consumers.

3.     Recent criticism for producing and selling offensive and inappropriate products.

4.     Store ambience and visual merchandising is dull and not very eye catchy.

5.     Their main street wear brands have a small range of products, which is may not meet consumer demand.

Opportunities:

1.     Creating a cash cow product in order to guarantee constant profits, as the large variety of products may become question marks and not produce a reliable source of revenue. 

2.     Change store aesthetic to a much more eye catchy and visually pleasing store in order to attract more consumers.

3.     Focus on a smaller variety of products instead of supplying lots of products/brands in small quantities.

Threats:

1.     Competitors are more established and well known amongst consumers and have a larger online presence.

2.     Too much diversity amongst products may drive customers to competitors that provide more focus on their brands/products.

3.     Due to high end products and expensive pricing it may not appeal to their market of 18-30 year olds as the majority are students who have less income and would therefore shop else where with cheaper pricing.