Fashion Buying and Merchandising

This report conducts a situational and market analysis of AllSaints, a well-known apparel brand in the UK. It includes a SWOT analysis, competitor analysis, and marketing tactics to enhance the company's competitive advantage.

Running head: FASHION BUYING AND MERCHANDISING
Fashion Buying and Merchandising
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author Note

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Executive summary
The All Saints organization is a British fashion retailer which has its headquarter at London, UK.
The company chiefly offers the consumers menswear, womenswear, footwear as well as other
accessories in 232 stores in UK. The company is quite well known in the fashion industry of the
Nation. Being a multinational company, AllSaints has its outlets at various parts off the world
including France, USA, Russia, Canada, Taiwan and South Korea. Considering the fact that with
emerging time, the competition in the UK fashion market is increasing, in the following
paragraph situational analysis of the mentioned company will be performed. The purpose of this
report is to conduct the situational and market analysis of UKs well-known apparel brand
AllSaints. For this, Competitor Analysis, PEST analysis and SWOT analysis will be conducted.
Along with that, promotional tactics that will be beneficial for the company will also be
discussed in this report. Finally, the marketing tactics will be evaluated in order to understand the
effectiveness of the strategy.

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1. Situational Analysis
i. SWOT analysis of AllSaints
Strengths
1. The AllSaints company is a globally
recognized brand and thus huge brand
equity.
2. The quality of the products that are
offered to the consumers are high
3. The company possess strong online
brand presence that includes their
official website, Facebook, Twitter as
well as YouTube channel
4. The management always tries to keep
up to date with the contemporary
culture of the UK fashion industry
(Jaworski 2018).
Weaknesses
1. One of the major weaknesses of
Allsaints is that it lacks exposure due
to limited advertisement.
2. Due to the Icelandic banking collapse,
AllSaints got almost wiped out.
3. The company offers one specific style
to a specific market.
4. In 2012, the profit of the company fell
from 221 million pounds to 199
million pounds (Kearney 2016).
5. Expanding to North America was
highly expensive for the company as
a result of which the company was
struggling to pay for the suppliers.
Opportunities
1. Considering the fact that the fashion
industry of UK is getting highly
saturated, the organization can
establish its businesses in potential
market of the eastern countries like
Threats
1. The rapidly changing trends in the
fashion industry are a major threat to
the company.
2. Oversaturation of the UK apparel
industry

3FASHION BUYING AND MERCHANDISING
China, India and others (McKelvey
2015).
2. In order enhance their pool of
consumers, the company can
diversify their product and offer
apparels at lower range so that middle
class consumers can afford the same.
3. Considering the fact that obesity is a
major issue in majority of the
developed as well as developing
countries, the organization can
introduce plus size range.
4. It is highly crucial for the
management to introduce new and
innovative styles and trends
5. In order to gain competitive
advantage, the organization must
work on creating new advertising
strategies.
3. Huge amount of competition in the
market
4. Introducing new style an d trend can
detract the AllSaints popular brand
image.
ii. Competitor Analysis

4FASHION BUYING AND MERCHANDISING
From the SWOT analysis it can be clearly understood that the oversaturation in the UK
fashion industry along with its changing trends is a major threat to the AllSaints Company. The
chief competitors of the mentioned organization in UK and USA are as follows:
From the above table, it can be clearly understood that the AllSaints Company poses a
huge range of consumer in both UK as well as US on the basis of price, quality and design.
AllSaints is a brand who are neither designer nor a high street brand. The company is considered
to be a very upper high street brand. As a result of this, the company attracts competitors from
both the sectors. In order to deal with the competition, it is highly crucial for the company to
have a USP that can differentiate themselves from their close competitors. Currently the chief
strategy for differentiation includes offering the consumers with high quality products of a
specific and unique style (Mann and Byun 2017).
UK Competitors
 American Apparel
 Urban Outfitters
 Religion
 Topshop
 Zara
 Vivienne Westwood
USA Competitors
 Topshop
 Forever 21
 H&M
 American Apparel

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Political
 Strict Taxation policies of UK
 Changing Government
Economical
 Recession
 Disposable income
 High cost of raw materials
Social
 Change in lifestyle
 Ageing population
 Birth rate
Technological
 Online Shopping
 New investment
iii. Organizational chart of the AllSaints Company
Since the company needs to implement effective promotional as well as marketing
strategy in order to enhance their competitive advantage and revenue, it is highly crucial for the
management to restructure its organizational structure so that that all the strategies can be
effectively implemented. Since company needs to diversify its apparel range while addressing
the current trend in both the national as well as international market is highly crucial for the
management to understand the importance of is fabrication department.

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Figure 1: Organizational structure of Allsaints
Source (Created by Author)
2. Objective of the market analysis and promotional plan
The chief objective of the market analysis is to understand the current position of the
AllSaints Company in both UK as well as Global fashion industry. While the situational analysis
helps the researchers to understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats faced by
the mentioned company, Competitor analysis helps the same to understand the position as well
as strategies of the competitors (Vuma 2016). The target segmentation will help the company to
understand the specific requirements of the target consumers based on consumer profile. When it
comes to the promotional plan, it will help the managers of AllSaints to attract its potential
consumers and thus enhance its consumer loyalty and revenue.
3. Marketing Strategy
Director
Accountannt Production
manager
Fabrication
Manager
Line Checker Floor in
Charge Store keeper
Export
Manager
Admin
Manager
Purchaser Secuirity
Gaurd Electrician

7FASHION BUYING AND MERCHANDISING
i. Market Segmentation
The term market segmentation can be defined the act of segregating a broad pool of
consumers into subgroups depending on the consumer profile. In order to develop promotional
techniques, the management of AllSaints Company needs to understand their potential
consumers. For this, the market segmentation of the AllSaints Company has been conducted
bellow:
 Demographic segmentation
The target consumers of the mentioned organizations are consumers of age range 18 years to
25 years, specifically the teenagers and adults. However, in order to enhance its market diversity,
the company is also targeting middle aged consumers. Consumers of this age range are found to
be young, style conscious and edgy. This age group has also been noticed to possess the disposal
income for trendy alternative pieces of clothing. Majority of the consumers belong to the upper
middle class and elite social status. A good number of loyal consumers of the organization are
tourists and couples. In spite of the fact that that the company target both the male and the female
gender, the chief target consumer of the company is predominately female. The stages of the
target consumers includes young single adults, young married adults with as well as without
children, older single, married with and without children adults (Talay, Oxborrow and Brindley
2018). The minimum income of the target consumers is 65,000 dollars along with high
disposable income.
 Physiographic Segmentation
Majority of the consumers of the AllSaints company are trendy, creative, innovative, edgy,
entrapunal, style conscious, grungy and music lover. The lifestyles of the targeted consumers are

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often found to be unstructured as well as creative. They likes to socialize with friends, value art
and attend fashion shows.
 Behaviorist Segmentation
When it comes to behavioral segmentation, the beneficial aspect of the target consumers, that
is the teenagers as well as middle aged adults of the AllSaints brand include style, quality and
individuality. The usage rate of the clothing is generally medium to heavy. The user status of the
consumers ranges from first time users to regular users and the loyalty status varies from
medium to high.
From market segmentation and situational analysis, it can be clearly understood that in order
to attract the target consumer, the organization needs to focus on quality as well as variety. Since
the consumers possess appreciation for innovation an art, several competitors of the company are
introducing new and innovative styles in their apparels (Hammeret al. 2015). Allsaints should
follow this resent trend in order to enhance as well as maintain the loyalty of the consumers. Not
only is that, since the majority of the consumers of the company music lover. The management
should consider music as one of the major promotional techniques. Another fact that needs to be
considered is that the brand needs to diversify its consumer range. Considering the fact that like
AllSaints, the target consumers of its competitors targets the consumers of age ranging from 18
to 25 years, the company needs to target the consumers of age 40 years.
ii. Choice of promotional tools
Considering the fact that AllSaints is a multinational organization, in order to attract both
national as well as international consumers, the company should invest in online promotional
techniques. While online promotional tools that can be utilized by the company include popular

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social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others. Other promotional
techniques that can be utilized include YouTube channels, internet advertising and emails. Usage
of social media platforms will be highly beneficial for the company since it is high cost friendly.
Not only this, social media platforms allows the management of the organization to directly
communicate with the consumers and understand their specific needs (Gornostaeva and Barnes
2015). Having a clear understanding of the requirements of the consumers will help the company
to develop better products. Social media platforms also allow the consumers to maintain a
regular connection with the consumers which in turns aids the company to enhance the consumer
loyalty.
Message Strategy
The tagline of the mentioned company should be “keeping you comfortable and trendy”. In
order to attract the middle aged consumers, the company should tress on conformability of their
apparels. The online campaigns or video advertisement of the company should demonstrate how
simplicity can be a dominant style statement. Clothing range for different age groups needs to be
highlighted. Consumers need to make understood that there prevails a perfect garment for
consumers of any age range. The vastness and the versatility of the new collection needs to be
highlighted.
iii. Scheduling of plan
1-2
months
2-3
months
1-2
months
1-2
months
1-2
months
1-2
months
1-2
months
1-2
months
Conducting
meeting

10FASHION BUYING AND MERCHANDISING
Final decision
making
Conducting
PEST Analysis
Conducting
SWOT analysis
Analyzing and
evaluating of
report
Developing
promotional
Plan
Communicating
with popular
celebrities and
music bands
Training
employees for
effective online
conversation
iv. Social Responsibility
With increasing globalization, the apparel industry is now often dispersed geographically,
with manufacturing, distribution and retail operations split across several different regions and

11FASHION BUYING AND MERCHANDISING
countries. Hence in order to ensure the global corporate standards for safety, sustainability and
quality of the products, the organizations should adhere to a well as maintain their supply chain
throughout. This will also enhance the reputation of the company and good will of the company
to a great extent.
4. Marketing Tactics
Considering the fact that the company is focusing on the middle aged consumers, in order to
capture their attention, sophisticated, simple yet stylish products needs to be used in both picture
as well as video advertisement. Consumers can be encourage to establish linkage with the brand
by asking them to post pictures dressed in their favorite All Saints outfit- especially pieces from
old collections, over 5 years old, in order to get a discount in store for the present collection
(Hammeret al. 2015). Celebrity endorsement will be performed where videos will be shoot with
popular musician bands wearing the apparels of the brand. Besides that several discounts and
offers will be provided to the consumers on purchasing. Banners should be implemented in
major areas of the city.
5. Campaign budget financial breakdown
Campaign type Quantity Project cost per unit Subtotal
Banner Advertisement 4 500 Dollars 2000 Dollars
Sponsored content
Landing page 12 1200 14,400
Facebook promotion 30 100 3000
Twitter Promotion 20 100 2000
Instagram promotions 20 100 2000
Training Employees 15 50 7500

12FASHION BUYING AND MERCHANDISING
Subtotal=39000
6. Evolution and Measurement of the campaign
A brief interview will be conducted in any one of the social media platforms where
questionnaire of 10 questions will be filled by the candidate adults (Talay, Oxborrow and
Brindley 2018). The first 3 candidates to answer the question will be provided a surprise gift
hamper. The answers will be evaluated and monitored by the management of the
organization to understand the specific trends and requirements of the consumers.

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Reference List
Gornostaeva, G. and Barnes, D., 2015. Offshoring and Backshoring in the British Fashion and
Apparel Industry: a Literature Review.
Hammer, N., Plugor, R., Nolan, P. and Clark, I., 2015. A new industry on a skewed playing
field: Supply chain relations and working conditions in UK garment manufacturing.
Jaworski, B.J., 2018. Commentary: advancing marketing strategy in the marketing discipline and
beyond. Journal of Marketing Management, 34(1-2), pp.63-70.
Kearney, T., 2016. In-Store Design and Marketing Effects: Taking Account of the Influence of
Servicescape Design upon Retail Brand Frontline Employees. In Multi-Channel Marketing,
Branding and Retail Design: New Challenges and Opportunities (pp. 193-217). Emerald Group
Publishing Limited.
Mann, M. and Byun, S.E., 2017. To retrench or invest? Turnaround strategies during a
recessionary time. Journal of Business Research, 80, pp.24-34.
McKelvey, K., 2015. THE MARKETING OF FASHION 30.
Talay, C., Oxborrow, L. and Brindley, C., 2018. An exploration of power asymmetry in the
apparel industry in the UK and Turkey. Industrial Marketing Management.
Vuma, P.P., 2016. Measuring the ability of the police to prevent crime: could this assist in
stressing the importance of crime prevention?. Acta Criminologica: Southern African Journal of
Criminology, 29(1), pp.98-112.