New Look's Global Market Potential

Introduction

Marketing strategic planning provides a scope to the organisations to promote the organisational products and services in the international market (De Pelsmacker, Van Tilburg and Holthof, 2018). Through developing effective strategic planning for the multinational corporations, it is possible to expand the business internationally and gain high competitive advantage over other competitive firms (Pappas, 2016). The aim of the study is to analyse the brand New Look and identify its strengths and weaknesses in order to analyse the capability of the fashion retail firm to expand their business internationally. The study provides an opportunity to choose an international market and develop proper marketingplanning so that New Look can expand their business and operational activities in a new international market. The target market for New Look is Indian market where it belongs to Asian countries and it is considered as one of the emerging economies for start up the businessefficiently. The Indian market is growing at a raid rate and the fashion industry as well as fashion retail organisations are also operatingsuccessfully in the market hence providing a scope to New Look to establish their business in India successfully through developing appropriate marketing planning.

Organisational background

New Look is the British global fashion retail chain with a chain of high street shops and the firm has been established in the year of 1969. It is successful to expand their business to 66 countries worldwide generating 20% of sales volume. The organisation has 5 million followers on social media, across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (New Look, 2020a). It is successful to deliver high quality products which are mainly clothing and accessories. The quality and the material, fabrics of the clothing are good and follow the latest trend of fashion in order to grab the market opportunity for successful expansion of the brand (New Look, 2020b).

The major variety of products including women, men and kids as well as other product categories such as Teens, Tall, Petite or Maternity are also fruitful for New Look to attract the customers worldwide and sustain in the fashion market for long run. the revenue in the last year was 1281 million pound as well as number of stores are more than 895 where the brand is successful to deliver high street fashionable products to the customers to meet the expectations of the buyers with quality materials, new design and innovative clothing and accessories (New Look, 2020c). The organisation operates around UK, South Korea, China, Belgium, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Russia, Germany, Poland, Netherlands and Ireland. It would be beneficial for the organisation to expand their business in India, which is one of the emerging markets to run the fashion retail business efficiently for ensuring future sustainable development by grabbing the market opportunities (New Look, 2020d).

Reasons to choose Indian market

It is beneficial for New Look to choose Indian market as there is high population and strong customer’s base. The demand for the clothing products and accessories is also increasing at a rapid rate. The organisations in the Indian market are also growing with high sales volume and profitability. The revenue of fashion segment of India in 2020 is projected to reach US$13,160 m and it is also predicted that the growth rate of the fashion market is 14.1% (Statista, 2020). The Indian culture is also effective to attract the foreign investment and the market growth further retains more foreign retail firms to establish their business in the Indian market. The weather condition, production and manufacturing land, marketing scope and the market opportunities through ecommerce and online activities are suitable for New Look to expand their business in India.

STP analysis

STP analysis is appropriate to understand the psychology of the customers in order to acknowledge the actual needs and preferences of the customers in long run. STP analysis includes customer’s segmentation, targeting and positioning and in this regard, the organisation’s target market can be evaluated (Tong, Luo and Xu, 2020). The segmentation of the customers is on the basis of different factors such as age, gender, income status and the customer’s personal preferences (Yang, 2018). The company New Look mainly provide fashionable outfits and latest newly designed clothing to the customers and thus the target market is according to the product of New Look. The target market of the company is Indian market where there is increasing population. The film industry is also flourishing and the fashion market is also growing at a rapid rate. This further influences the foreign investors to invest in the Indian economy to establish their business and run the organisation sustainably. The organisation New Look mainly targets all the age group as the organisation is successful to provide the products in different sizes, from childhood to adulthood. The organisation is also efficient to arrange the quality clothing products for the age group 45 years to 70 years where the old age people can also make effective purchase decision for the quality clothing of New Look.

On the other hand, the target segment of New Look on the basis of gender can be made, where New Look must focus on all the gender including kids, women and men. The organisation designs quality clothing for the kids wear, women fashionable clothing as well as all types of men’s wear are available in the brand. Hence, the New Look is able to target the Indian customers including both male and female members in the market. Additionally, it is necessary to target the middle and high income classes in India, as the company focuses on quality of the clothing and the price range is little bit higher as compared to other company’s products in Indian market. There are local seller of clothing for which there are availability of other low cost clothing and designer outfits and thus there exists high competition in the market. The organisation New Look can target the middle and high income classes for the benefits of the firm as well as the brand also needs to understand the philosophy of the customers (New Look, 2020e). Most of the customers in India prefer to do offline shopping where store expansion is mandatory so that the customers can see the products and feel the quality and fabrics before making the purchase decision (Hollensen, 2019). New Look is hereby efficient to invest in the positioning strategy in order to expand the business in the Indian market. Hence, for positioning the brand, it is necessary to open a physical store in Indian market as well as invest in the online shipping application for promoting the products successfully and attracting the customers as well for the quality clothing of New Look.

SWOT analysis of New Look

The organisation New Look is able to stabilise the business and it has many stores across the international market where strong brand values, fashionable clothing products as well as variety of products and services, strong financial position, positive media coverage and customer’s base are the major strengths of New Look to sustain in the international fashion market and serve the customers with newly designed clothing (New Look, 2020b). The organisation also has some weaknesses such as poor marketing planning, lack of market expansion in the Asian markets, lack of uniqueness and poor knowledge about the needs and preferences of the customers around the international markets. The major opportunities for the company new Look are such as, the scope for global expansion, e-commerce facilities in the business, investment in the fashionable retail sector, growth of fashionable products, loyalty programs, as well as collaboration with celebrities and fashion designers. These are the major opportunities which influence the business to expand their fur internationally and grab the market share successfully in near future. Though there are some threats including intense competition, recent economic slowdown and presence of substitute products in the market, the company is able to expand their business trough appropriate marketing mix strategic planning to establish their business in the Indian market.

Principle marketing and promotional strategy

Marketing includes different functions, where the marketing manager play an important role to strategise the business and conduct proper market research for acknowledging the philosophy of the local customers in making effective purchase decision (Batzer, 2019). The marketing manager at New Look needs to conduct in depth research about the Indian customer’s mind set and their preferences about the fashionable clothing market (Boso et al., 2018). The organisation New Look is also stable to invest efficiently in the marketing plan and develop proper tactics to establish their business in India successfully. As per the marketing mix strategy, there are four major factors which are product, price, promotion and place, which are beneficial to strategise the business to enter into new market.

Product:

Product diversification is mandatory for New Look to attract the audiences in India. The customers in the Indian market prefer autumn clothing including fashionable and high quality material. The customers also prefer to have unique design and high quality fabrics so that it can be comfortable to wear the clothing. The brand New Look must focus on utilising organic fabrics and colours to attract the customers and promote their products efficiently.

Price:

New Look also must focus on prices for their products. As the products are branded and are in good quality, the price range for New Look’s products is bit higher (New Look, 2020c). The brand must implement cost leadership strategy to maintain economies of scale and product the products at larger volume to reduce the cost of production and it further helps to set proper prices so that the customers in India can afford the products. Additionally, New Look must promote the products through providing seasonal offers, as well as festivals offers to attract the audiences in Indian market.

Place:

For successful placement of the products, the company New Look must hire efficient suppliers and distributors for maintaining the product manufacturing units in the country India as well as distributors to distribute the products to the customers in India.

Promotion:

As per the promotional activities the organisation New Look must focus on both online and offline promotion for better establishment of the fashionable clothing of the brand. Television advertisement and radio advertisement are the common source of offline media advertisement in India through which New Look can expand their branding and let the customers to access the necessary information of the brand. On the other hand, the newspaper advertisement and magazine advertisement are also other major types to promote the fashionable clothing of New Look.

In addition to this, for e-commerce business activities, the organisation new Look may develop effective organisational website and promote it in India through social media advertisement such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For developing the mobile application, it is mandatory to make clear content and develop one click option for placing the orders of their quality products, the display of the products are also clear with all the necessary information related to the products so that the customers in the country can access all the necessary information and make effective purchase decision after reviewing the products available at New Look. The company must focus on opening its YouTube channel and promote the products through creating attractive videos with proper inclusion of effective information and available products in the company. Facebook is one of the common social media platforms where the Indian customers try to engage with each other and gain proper knowledge and information about the products and services and thus promoting through Facebook page of New Look is effective strategy for launching the brand in the Indian market and attracts the customers in long run.

Conclusion and recommendation

New Look is financial stable and it has high quality products to satisfy the customers. The company is able to expand their business in the Indian market for international expansion and have presence in the Asian continent. New Look must focus on conducting in depth market research and identify the requirement of the customer about the new fashion clothing. The western fashion must be incorporated in the market to maintain products quality standard and uniqueness of New Look to attract the audiences and retain them for long run. Proper promotional activities through both offline and online must be implemented and planned properly to enhance market communication and strengthen their customers to secure future sustainable development.

Reference List

Batzer, E., 2019. Marketing strategies and distribution channels for foreign companies in Japan. London: Routledge.

De Pelsmacker, P., Van Tilburg, S. and Holthof, C., 2018. Digital marketing strategies, online reviews and hotel performance. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 72, pp.47-55.

Hollensen, S., 2019. Marketing management: A relationship approach. London: Pearson Education.

Tong, S., Luo, X. and Xu, B., 2020. Personalized mobile marketing strategies. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48(1), pp.64-78.

Yang, M., 2018. International entrepreneurial marketing strategies of MNCs: Bricolage as practiced by marketing managers. International Business Review, 27(5), pp.1045-1056.