Strategic management: Creating a New Business
Vision
To be a market leader in the global online fashion industry
Mission statement
We are keen in manufacturing and selling high-quality clothing products through our online stores to meet the tastes and preferences of our highly esteemed customers.
Core activities and profit streams
JAPO Ltd is to be established as a new online fashion business operating in the global arena. The business is expected to start by dealing with products that are inspired by celebrities and other related design products so that the new company can gain market recognition within the shortest time possible. Also, the management at JAPO ltd will adopt a vibrant growth strategy by launching its online marketplace through a website. This is expected to jumpstart the potential of the new company significantly. Moreover, the profit stream is anticipated to be generated from both local and international sales since expanding to overseas locations is one of the strategic moves that the company expects to take (Stone & McCall 2004, p.39). In order to boost revenue generation and profitability of JAPO ltd, the management team has carried out detailed research towards understanding consumer behavior and market knowledge. In other words, the ability to meet the tastes and preferences will be instrumental in the operations of JAPO LTD.
As an online retail store, it will fully focus on identifying how individual online clients make decisions on where, how, why and when to make purchases of online fashion products. It is expected to design, brand and independently label its fashion products. This will indeed make JAPO ltd a leading online fashion retailer.
The profit stream will also be boosted by employing efficient customer support and customer engagement. Besides, design choice, as well as better presentation tactics, will be used in order to improve the appealing nature of the fashion products being offered by JAPO ltd. Such strategies will also make sure that the company beats other well-established market rivals in the online retail fashion industry.
The company will always endeavor to offer effective and efficient services to its clients. It will also establish about four thousand new product lines at least every month in its online site. However, JAPO ltd will seek to collaborate with other like-minded fashion retailers as well as other independent fashion designers. This step will be necessary towards aligning the products being offered in the market and the current fashion needs of clients. The company aims to attain the aforementioned objectives by making sure that its products are up to date and viable for market competition. Moreover, online fashion products should have a vibrant life cycle to meet the demands of the dynamic online marketing. In terms of choice, taste, preference, and trends, online fashion products may exhibit ether short or long life cycles (Proctor 2000, p.76).
SWOT analysis for JAPO LTD
Strengths
JAPO LTD is anticipated to demonstrate its strength as a leading fashion retailer in the global fashion industry. Even though the fashion trends keep on changing from time to time in addition to the fact that they have shorter life cycles, JAPO LTD will derive its revenue from products that have vibrant life cycles and can go over a considerable length of time. This will be attained by a sequence that its clothing products will go through and which include making products available to customers. For example, the homepage will be customized to offer links to new products. The company will also have the ability to expand its operations to overseas locations with plans for new initiatives for marketing its online retail products. The new business entity will also devise a program that allows customers to resell unwanted items through its new JAPO LTD Marketplace. The company will also have the potential to capture the market by targeting over 4 million registered users, introducing about 2,000 new products every week and expanding the number of accessory and clothing lines.
JAPO LTD will be able to establish a large international market. This will assist it in stock clearance and improved profitability. Since it is market-oriented, JAPO LTD will make its products’ information available to clients, especially through promotions. The ability to develop the knowledge of buying patterns and demography of its customers will also be the strength of the newly established company.
Weaknesses
The weaknesses of JAPO LTD may likely be demonstrated in the distribution channels. The latter may easily fail to meet the needs of the market bearing in mind that the company will be largely an online store with a lack of physical distribution channels. It will also be at high risk of facing a heavy discount stock occasioned by distribution challenges. This may significantly decline its gains in regards to profit-making. Furthermore, the company may be faced with low sales in some seasons thereby compelling it to run a few warehouses. In such cases, the stocks may not be cleared as soon as possible leading to a low rate of revenue generation.
Opportunity
JAPO LTD aims at creating a strong line of sales by allowing its independent and upcoming designers to sell their products through the website of the newly established company. Besides, marketplace initiative is vibrant since it will boost traffic to its site by permitting customers to resell undesired products through the site. Furthermore, JAPO LTD intends to increase its performance by putting in place Fashion Finder. The new feature is expected to increase its marketing opportunities in overseas locations by allowing clients to search for brands that are found within JAPO LTD and also those that are outside the confines of JAPO LTD. In addition to the language website that the company is planning to put in place, an extra opportunity will be created and eventually drive the sales.
Threats
Although the company is poised for several strengths and opportunities ahead of its launch, there are quite a number of threats that it may encounter in the course of its operations. For example, it may face the threat of its brand name getting changed by a rival retailer in the online fashion industry. Also, the threat of competition from other well established online retail companies is real. It should be understood that JAPO LTD will be entering a market that is highly dynamic and competitive. Unless vibrant strategies are put in place, it will be quite cumbersome for the company to establish its presence in the global online fashion industry (McColl & Moore 2011, p.95).
Besides, JAPO LTD may be faced with the threat of counterfeits and other business malpractices in the market. For instance, the production of counterfeits derived from its original products may be a real threat towards realizing the vision and mission of the company. Some jurisdictions are not very keen on standards and quality of products being availed to the market by manufacturers. Such a trend may promote the production of counterfeit products that imitate the original products from JAPO LTD.
All companies involved in the production of either goods or services always encounter difficulties in penetrating specific markets in an attempt to increase the material base. So as to overcome these barriers, there is a need for step progression. In this case, JAPO LTD will require the establishment of strategic measures for improvement. Being an online clothing store, the company may experience difficulties or barriers in the market expansion of its goods. Therefore, strategic decisions on the expansion of its products and services are needed.
Short term objectives
To begin with, there are unexplored fashion designs in the clothing retail industry. One of the short term objectives is to undertake intensive research in fashion and design to strike the market with new products and customer services. This objective will be achieved through thorough research and development in the fashion industry. The company will have to set aside adequate material and financial resources for research and development. As a monitoring process, there is a need for JAPO LTD to put strategic leadership in place. Effective management teams should be adopted by the company so that the short term goals can be met. However, effective leadership is merely generic and additional monitoring process is required. For instance, a short term objective like launching a website for facilitating online sales will be required. It will be largely monitored through the knowledgeable IT teams hired by the company. Secondly, it should employ demographical price discrimination in its expansion to low income earning areas, especially in third world countries. As a short term objective, questionnaires can be used to reach out to customers during surveys. These should be used for customers who are least likely to give immediate responses to their experience with products from JAPO LTD. For example, discounts and free products given to customers as promotional materials can be used to initiate healthy feedback from customers.
Mid-term objectives
JAPO LTD is a company whose investment base is expected to span across all the major markets in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Nonetheless, even the developing world and third world countries have sizable marketing opportunities that the company may seize after some years of operation. In particular, upcoming economies such as Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) have potential marketing opportunities that JAPO LTD can explore. Hence, product offerings in such markets should be gauged as one of the mid-term objectives to be met by the company.
Although the company will specialize in one line of product at the beginning, it will have to broaden its product offering by availing other types of clothing materials into the market. Of particular importance in the mid-term objective will be the level of variety of products offered to the market. Hence, the company will be in a position to increase its revenue through product maximization.
In order to implement this mid-term objective, JAPO LTD will put in place a product differentiation strategy within the third year of operation. This strategy will be made successful by first investigating the needs of the market and customers at large. Also, the company will seek to understand the level of competition emanating from other market rivals. Hence, product differentiation will be largely based on the desires of customers from various geographical regions as well as the nature of products being offered by other similar online retailers.
The monitoring procedure of this mid-term objective will be made possible by evaluating sales volume emanating from the products available in the market. In other words, the sale of the new product lines will be evaluated against the original products of the company. Moreover, the product life cycle of each of the new products launched into the market will be assessed thoroughly in terms of market performance to determine their market worth and overall profitability. This type of analysis will enable the marketing and production teams to come up with conclusive judgments on whether the company is running into profitability or loss. Therefore, mid-term objectives will focus on product differentiation. As such, there will be a dire need for expansion through strategic diversification of its products and services to experience portfolio growth. Diversification will significantly aid the company in creating opportunities for its expansion hence continual growth in its revenue. This will also lead to augmentation of clientele base and thus it’s market expanse.
Marketing is usually considered as one of the hardest departments in any organization since it is responsible for organizational image as perceived by the general public. Full internationalization of multinational companies emphasizes effective marketing strategies. Successful marketing has previously been involved with awareness campaigns of new and existing products. But product differentiation has been largely associated with fast and effective marketing strategies. Since JAPO LTD will be seeking to be expansive in its product and service offerings, differentiation might seem impossible given the direct lines of a variety of products and services. This may be the most pronounced barrier for the company in its mid-term strategy. This implies that the company needs to create a public image regarding specific products through sub-naming processes (Kaynak 2002, p.54). Product differentiation increases product familiarity and thus pushes the sales over the shelves. Hence, expansive approaches are easily achieved since market orientation has already been done through the direct association of a product and the company in the consumer market. It also creates the required awareness, needed by JAPO LTD into new market territories.
Long term objectives
One of the long term objectives of the company is embedded in customer service goals. After four to five years of operation, the management at JAPO LTD will seek the possibility of obtaining over 90% positive feedback from customers. The fact that the company is an online retail store, it will be easy to integrate customer feedback portal on the company’s website so that their experiences with the company can be known. Since the latter is a long term strategy, it implies that the company will have to deliver as per the expectations of customers so that positive feedback can be received.
A long term objective can be used for employee appreciation goals. This implies that the success of the newly created company will rely on the productivity of employees at the workplace. If employees are duly motivated and their morale boosted, workplace performance will equally be boosted. Rewarding employees based on their performances and also developing a conducive workplace environment will indeed increase the profitability of the new business outfit.
Since JAPO LTD will be an online business entity, the website traffic goal will be a key area of focus in as far as reaching out to customers is concerned. Within the five years of operation, the traffic to the JAPO website should have increased by at least 40%.
All the above long term objectives will be achieved and equitably monitored by adequate budget allocation to various departments of the company, deployment of expertise skills, motivation of employees and effective management and leadership teams in each department of the company (Karise & Quinn 2011, p.317).
Expenses ($US)
Revenues ($US)
Tangible assets
Intangible assets include services offered by the human resource. Employees will be recruited through a formal hiring process.
References
Karise, H. & Quinn, B 2011, “Identifying the characteristics of small specialist international retailers”. European Business Review vol. 23 no.2, pp. 314-327.
Kaynak, E 2002, Strategic global marketing: Issues and trends, Haworth press, Binghamton.
McColl, J. & Moore, C 2011, “An exploration of fashion retailer own brand strategies”. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management vol.15 no.5, pp. 91-108.
Proctor, T 2000, Strategic marketing: an introduction, Routledge, New York.
Stone, M. A. & McCall, J B 2004, International strategic marketing: A European perspective, Routledge, New York.