G-Star: A Dutch Clothing Icon

1.0 Introduction

G-star is considered to be one of the popular “Dutch designer clothing companies” that is founded in the year 1989. The original name of the company is “Gap Star” and it specialized in manufacturing raw denim clothes. The G-star found to have a total of 6,500 selling points all over the globe. The headquarters of the company is located in Amsterdam, Netherland and deals with the manufacturing of apparel and accessories all over the globe for children, men and women. The marketing of the brands is done through the use of different social media application like "Facebook", "Instagram" and "Linkedin". The marketing is also done through event-marketing like fashion-shows, trade-fair stands and many others. The company supports high ecological sustainability and also optimal cultural diversity. The company basically belongs to the high-street market sector considering the list of the target audience that is specified by them. The company prepares different clothes based on the sustainable approach and the cloth is prepared using 80% cotton. The products are prepared using materials like recycled wools, recycled nylon and many others. Thus it is basically done to ensure that the product looks flexible and perfect even in the future also. The company in order to reduce pollution because of plastic started eliminating it for manufacturing since 2014. There are various fashionable sustainable clothes for men like 3301 slim Jeans, Revend Skinny jeans and Arc-3D slim jeans. The collection of fashionable clothes for women includes Arc-3D low -waist jeans and many others. Thus each of the products that are produced globally is manufactured using sustainable resources for better customer attraction. The “Arc-3D jeans” is basically prepared using 92% cotton and 7% polyester using 3D design principles. The Button of the jeans is prepared without having any toxic chemicals and each garment is 98% recyclable. For those studying marketing, resources such as marketing dissertation help can provide insights into effective brand strategies like G-star’s.

2.0 Discussion

2.1 Cultural value of brand-related to marketing and target audience

Culture can be defined as the set of shared attitudes, values, goals and the practices that are performed or characterized by the institution or organization. It is a type of social practice that is associated with a particular field. It is the way of life that is shared by people in a particular place or time. The "G-star" brand basically utilizes marketing-segmentation theory as well as consumer behavior theory to understand the culture or actual behavior of the target audience. Thus using this model the brand identifies what actually the customer wants and why they are selecting that store comparing to other stores too (Dasgupta et al. 2017). The "G-Star" first understands that what is the customer-purchasing behavior and how it can affect their buying pattern through a different survey using a list of questionnaires filled by customers. It is found that the different attributes that are considered by the consumer are price, Brand Value, Trend, sustainability and celebrity advertisement. The G-Star brand identifies that some customers start avoiding the products because of expensive costs and others might like it because of the design and quality. The young males when wearing a shirt which is having the "G-Star" logo in it then feel pride and luxury to buy it (Banet-Weiser and Sturken, 2019). The G-star promotes the products through the celebrity advertisement which gives a better reputation and identity in the market. Thus the audience loves to wear clothes that are worn by the group of celebrities even having a high price tag (drapersonline.com, 2020). The innovative 3D construction of jeans has achieved lots of customer satisfaction in the market because of the level of comfort and flexibility it provides to the user. The G-Star creates sustainable and environmentally friendly products that might not attract the maximum customer but add a great brand value as well as a design approach. The G-Star analyzed that celebrity promotion can help them to attract a wider audience as they used to follow the trends and styles of different celebrities (Bhandari, 2018). Thus the adoption of celebrity advertisement comes into play and the marketing department has achieved massive success in this sector. The location of "G-Star" in Canberra also makes them more popular and attractive to the group of customers The opportunity to have a high-quality brand in the city like Canberra where there is a lack of trend-based clothing can attract a maximum audience (Carah and Angus, 2018). [Referred to Appendix 2]

2.2 Cultural analysis of brand manufacturing and selling

“G-Star RAW” workers and suppliers work together in order to produce a strong and sustainable G-star product. The brand publishes the MODE tracker progress report to check the sustainability report. The manufacturing map which is initiated in the year 2014 which shows supplier information about location, capacity building projects and many others. In order to verify whether the suppliers all over the location are complying with the code of conduct or not the company audits them on a regular basis. Thus to maintain the transparency of the supply chain management the supply chain-transparency pledge is signed in March 2017 to aware customers and workers about where actually the products are made. The use of any chemical is strictly violated that can have a harmful effect on health and the environment. The textile-engineers and quality-assurance teamwork as a group with suppliers so that there must be a proper use of any chemical substance and it must be compliant with the restricted substance list and Manufacturing Restricted Substance List (Carah and Brodmerkel, 2020). In the year 2018, "G-Star Raw" collaborated with that of the "'Better buying initiative". This initiative allows the list of manufacturers to accurately rate practices of purchasing different brands and a list of retailers that are produced in factories. It helps the manufacturer to make proper advice on brand areas that can be improved. The products that are selling in the company are made of 70-90% cotton and 5-10% polyester. The products are manufactured with an aim that it must get flexible and useful even in the future too without any toxic elimination. The outfits that are manufactured are created using different attributes that can impact consumer behavior in choosing a product (Minton et al. 2017). [Referred to Appendix 1]

2.3 Macro and Microenvironmental analysis

Micro-Environment Analysis

The micro-environment can be defined as the environment which is having direct or close contact with that of the organization. It can influence the daily activities that are performed within an organization. The explanation of the macro-environment of “G-Star” brand is summarized as below

Suppliers: The brand "G-Star" has a total of 27 suppliers all over the globe and they are abiding by the supplier-code of conduct. The products are manufactured and supplied basically from the 12 different countries like Italy, India, Myanmar, Turkey and many others. The maximum production which is 35% is made from China and 27% is made from Bangladesh (g-star.com, 2020)

Competitors: There are large numbers of competitors for “G-Star” brands like “G-III Apparel group”, “Jos. A. Bank Clothiers”, Calvin Klein”, “Energie” and others. However the company is having large twitter followers and Employees as compared to the other competitors like “Nine West” and “Jos. A. Bank Clothiers” (craft.co, 2020).

Marketing intermediates: There are various retailer stores of "G-Star" that is connecting customers with firms like "G-Star Raw Store New York 5th Ave 475 5th Ave” and many others.

Customers: The different target audience for the "G-star" brand is mostly men, women, and children who love to wear stylish accessories. It can be of any age group but mostly for teenagers and children.

Shareholders and Employees: “Pharrell Williams” is one of the shareholders for the “G-Star” brand. “Jos van Tilburg” is the founder of “G-star” brands. According to the analysis there are a total of 9,223 employees working in the "G-star" company.

Macro-Environment Analysis

The study of the Macro-Environment for the "G-Star" brand can be done through PESTLE analysis. The PESTLE Analysis of the “G-Star” brand is summarized as below

Political: The brand "G-Star" should try to utilize the political influence that the group of women is having in the U.S government. This can be done by campaigning in collaboration with them. This can be helpful to them as most of the women living in the country of the U.S are influenced by some big names. The political influence as well as the guidelines and rules on where to manufacture can affects the fashion industry like the "G-Star RAW" brand.

Economical: The actual revenue for the "G-Star" brand is $10-50 million and has more than 9000 employees. The lowest price of the G-Star product starts from $99.95 and it depends on the product that is selected by the consumer (Schroeder et al. 2016).

Social: The "G-Star" brand operates with a total of 9,223 employees within the organization. The cultural differences are important for the brand like needs and the fashion for the brands are different according to the culture. The brand is prepared according to the behavior of the target audience.

Technological: The development of online shopping as well as the implementation of mobile phone applications for I-Phone and Android users. This strategy basically takes the "G-Star" into a considerably new era. There is an SEO department for the purpose of digital advertising and promotion of brands to the respective target person.

Environmental: The "G-Star" brand mainly focused on producing sustainable products that can be less polluting to the environment. The products are prepared using 70-90% cotton and polyester with 80% avoidance of using plastic materials. The company also aims to reduce the actual percentage of carbon footprint through the manufacturing of products (Spangenberg and Lorek, 2019). The organic cotton is only used for manufacturing products and also organic nylon is involved in some products also. All the composition for product manufacturing is basically recycled one so that it can be recycled in the future too.

Legal: The European regulation that is "REACH (Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals) is applied to all chemical substances in order to force the textile industry to be clean. According to article 33(1) proposed by the REACH regulation 1907/2006 the manufacturers and importers are responsible to notify the respective customer about the presence of any substance of very high concern(SHVC) in the given product that can exceed 0.1% actual by weight. This provides clear instruction on the safe use of respective products. The company is also getting abide by the suppliers and the employee-code of conduct (img2.gstar.com, 2020).

3.0 Conclusion and Recommendation

The cultural value of the brand is one of the essential factors that can be helpful in improving brand-reputation and also make it more feasible and adaptable in a competitive environment. The "G-Star" brand has properly manufactured the products considering the cultural difference that exist between the target audience. "G-Star RAW" is having a total of 9,223 employees with a financial turnover of $10-15 million. The pricing of products is starting from $99 and it depends on the design that is selected by an individual. The implementation of the sustainable product is done in "G-Star RAW" with the aim to reduce the carbon footprint and plastic-pollution from the environment. The products are manufactured using 70-90% cotton and 5-10% polyester without any involvement of toxic chemical substances. "G-Star" uses an indigo technology and thus eliminating zippers and replacing it with an eco-finished metal button in different products “G-Star RAW" includes the model of consumer behavior theory for the marketing purpose by analyzing the purchasing decision and trend followed by the particular target audience in any location.

They also include celebrity advertising as a strategy to attract a wider percentage of the audience. The brand follows event marketing, SEO marketing and social media marketing in the business. "G-star RAW" gets maximum supply from China and Bangladesh. The marketing of "G-Star" is culturally strong and better for the market but they can include the free-voucher option too as it will help to get the maximum reach of the audience. The target location must also be expanding so that the business can be more profitable having large market growth.

Reference List

Dasgupta, S., Biswal, S.K. and Ramesh, M.A. eds., 2017. Holistic approaches to brand culture and communication across industries. U.S: IGI Global.

Banet-Weiser, S. and Sturken, M., 2019. Reprint Retrospective:" Branding Politics: Shopping for Change?" from AuthenticTM: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture. Advertising & Society Quarterly, 20(1).

Bhandari, M., 2018. Competitive Analysis of Canali v/s Intra Organisation Competitor Brands at Genesis Luxury Pvt. Ltd. NIFT.

Carah, N. and Angus, D., 2018. Algorithmic brand culture: participatory labour, machine learning and branding on social media. Media, Culture & Society, 40(2), pp.178-194.

Derclaye, E., Griffiths, J., Metzger, A., Ricolfi, M., Rognstad, O.A. and Strowel, A.M., 2018. Opinion of the European Copyright Society in Relation to the Pending Reference Before the CJEU in Cofemel v G-Star, C-683/17.

Minton, E.A., Cornwell, T.B. and Kahle, L.R., 2017. A theoretical review of consumer priming: Prospective theory, retrospective theory, and the affective–behavioral–cognitive model. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 16(4), pp.309-321.

Schroeder, J., Borgerson, J. and Wu, Z., 2016. A brand culture perspective on global brands. In The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Brand Management (pp. 185-195). Routledge.

Spangenberg, J.H. and Lorek, S., 2019. Sufficiency and consumer behaviour: From theory to policy. Energy policy, 129, pp.1070-1079.