Enhancing Strengths and Overcoming Weaknesses of H&M Clothing Products

This proposal discusses the background of H&M, analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of its clothing products, and provides recommendations for improvement.

Proposal

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Background of organisation and description of situation................................................................3
Discussing relevant literature associated with the topic..................................................................4
Critical analysis of the product, service or process..........................................................................5
Putting forward recommendations with justification.......................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................9

Introduction
Innovation is an executing an idea which addresses a particular challenge and attains
value for both the customer and company. Innovation is important for the growth and success of
company. Innovation helps an organisation in developing of new product in marketplace.
Product generation development is known to be the creation of a new technical products by both
new development of partial systems and specific carryover. New product development in
marketplace facilitate business organisations in improvement of its brand image and also in
attainment of competitive advantages successfully and within in less period of time. In this
proposal, H&M is a chosen retailer that sale out clothing for women, men, teenager and children.
It is the second largest global clothing retailer that is popular and well-known for its quality and
designs. Beside of the exclusive online shopping, Hennes & Mauritz also collaborated with
designer labels, fashion designers, celebrities and fashion models to offer customers or clients
the exclusive collection, including Karl Lagerfeld, Viktor & Rolf, Stella McCartney, Kate Moss
and Madonna (Asif and Asif, 2020). This proposal divided into some aspects that will be
essential in its completion. These aspects are background of the company and current situation,
information regarding the products i.e. strengths and weakness and recommendations for
overcoming weakness and improving strengths. These are main aspects that will be essential in
completion of current proposal successfully and systematically.
Background of organisation and description of situation
H&M (Hennes & Mauritz) is a chosen organisation for this proposal. It is a Swedish
multinational clothing retailer. Company specialise in selling of clothing for women, men
children and teenagers. Company was founded in 1947 by Erling Persson. It is a new fashion
chain for women in Sweden with a progressive and new concept. H&Ms business concept is
quality and fashion at the affordable and best price (Fung, Choi and Liu, 2020). Company has a
design as well as a buying department that develops H&M's collections, creating it possible to
offers the fashionable or latest fashions. Company has long history and is around 62 years. H&M
did a large expansion in all over the world. In year 2009, there are approximately 1700 stores
spread over 33 various nations and markets, and employ around 73000 people. There are
basically three target market where, H&M provides their products. These markets are Germany,
UK, France, Chine, Sweden, Russia, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and many others. Therefore,

company has a strong brand image in market place because of its qualitative and fashionable
products.
COVID 19 is a situation and in this, H&M close its 250 shops as Covid drivers sales
online. This is a pandemic situation that negatively impact on all types of business organisation.
H&M is a second biggest retailer in the world, that faced issues of Covid 19. Fashion retail is one
of the leading industry hit difficult by the Covid 19. In many nations, clothing retail shops closed
throughout the months of March, April and May as part of lockdown protocols. In accordance to
the half year trading news of fashion retailer H&M, the business's sales loss continued via June
2020, with sales per week decrease by 34% in the calendar week 22 compared to the same period
in 2019 (Coronavirus: H&M to close 250 shops as Covid drives sales online. 2020). Therefore, it
is a biggest situation that impacts on sales and business growth of H&M in negative manner.
Despite of this, H&M clothing products are the biggest strength that facilitate company in
making of its brand image more strong. Thus, H&M is a multinational organisation and provides
quality products to the customers.
Discussing relevant literature associated with the topic
According to the Illes (2020), innovation and product creation are important for the
growth and development of company. Innovation will help business in retaining of employees
and increasing of customer base. Product development helps in improving brand image and
goodwill in marketplace. H&M group reaches fashion lower in all over the globe and also has
come a long approach since the primary Hennes store started in the Swedish. Company offer the
world's design and fashion within a suitable and exciting way. H&M is a multinational
organisation and its is known for its quality product and high brand image. H&M is develop on
effective or solid foundations. Business concept of H&M is Fashion and quality at the affordable
prize. Company consist of eight understandably brands such as H&M, Weekday, COS, Monki &
Other Stories, H&M Home, Cheap Monday and ARKET. Company offer clients a trends in
fashion and wealth of style, accessories, beauty and homewear and also experience that include
modern, healthy food.
As per the view point of Javed and et. al., (2020), at H&M, there are 5 basic rules or
conditions for customer service including wear a name badge, say hello, make eye contact, smile,
say thank you. Thus, company treat their customers as a member that turn to helps company in
improving of its brand image, attraction of customers, making them loyal towards the brand etc.

H&M is belong in retail industry that is biggest sector. Company helps customers by providing
clothes according to their requirements that helps an organisation in its success and growth. All
products offered by H&M are in quality and at better price. This will helps in attraction of large
number of customers in less period of time. Along with this, in order to promote products in
marketplace, there are number of promotional strategies used by H&M. These strategies are
digital marketing, sponsorships etc.
According to the Jiang, (2020), Digital marketing is a best promotional strategy used by
H&M. It is integrated the physical and digital for better sales and marketing. This has been
completed in order to give the clients with a seamless experience of shopping. Its digitization
strategy consist of online purchases as well as returns within stores, mobile payments, click &
collect, creating the customer club and also applying mobile devices within stores for enhanced
customer service. H&M has also followed digital services for large marketing. Company use
different channels of promoting its clothing products. These channels are Facebook, Instagram,
YouTube etc. These are major platforms that helps company in increasing of brand awareness
among customers about the product.
According to the Sabanoglu (2020), In COVID 19 situation, company faced different
issues regarding the brand. These issues are managing the demand fluctuations, shoring up the
cash reserve, protecting the people, thinking regarding the long term supply challenges, thinking
to customers etc. These are considered biggest issues of COVID 19 on H&M. This impacts on
the business performance and the productivity of H&M.
Critical analysis of the product, service or process
H&M is well-known for its clothing product. This product helps company in attraction of
large number of customers, increment of sales, improvement of brand image etc. For product
prospect, release family- set outfit is a actual product for maximise the sales. Majority of
customers in Japan loves to wear family-set outfit. In order to provide family-set outfit, helps in
attracting of target customers which are families (Jirawongsy, 2020). H&M offers fast-fashion
clothing for children, men, women and teenagers. Company also offers clothing brand in
different countries across the globe. These are determined as below:
 H&M: In this, the range consider each and every thing from designer collaboration to all
day basics as well as yoga wear.

 COS: Classics and wardrobe useful for children, women and men. The brand or product
had designs divine by technology and art from across the world.
 Weekend: It only makes clothing for style aware young adults.
 Monki: This is only for young women that has on-triend lifestyle collections.
 Cheap Monday: Fashion collection, accessories and Denim for women and men. The
brand is related to music and pop culture.
 Other stories: In this products are connected to the women wear which are shoes,
accessories, beauty, ready to wear, bags etc.
All these are considered main products provided by H&M to its customers. All these are
essential but clothing products are biggest strengths of the company. H&M offers high quality
clothing products at a premium price. Company used different types of promotional channels for
promoting its clothing products. These channels are digital marketing, YouTube, Promo codes
and discounts, PR (Personal relation), Sponsorships, CSR etc. With the help of these channels,
H&M easily attract customers for its clothing product. There are number of strengths of the
clothing product of H&M. These will be explained as below:
Unique identity: H&M sell its product portfolio through various brands such as H&M,
Monki, Weekday etc. All these are effective brands but H&M is a well-known and popular brand
across the world. This will helps company in increasing of sales and improvement of customer
loyalty towards the brand. This will also assist company in enhancement of customer loyalty and
trust towards the product or brand (Norpoth and Kaltenborn, 2020).
Higher quality: H&M products are available at higher quality in different countries that
facilitate company in attainment of competitive advantages within minimum time period.
Company offers clothing products of men, women, teenagers and children at higher quality that
helps company in every situation like Pandemic. Higher quality of the clothing product also
support business in reducing the issue of competitors.
Increased customer loyalty: This is another strength of clothing product produced by
H&M. Company produced quality products at premium price that increase customer's trust
towards the product. This will support company in its growth and attainment of competitive
benefits within minimum time period.
Apart from this, there are some weakness of clothing products produced by H&M. In
Pandemic situation, H&M faced different issues such as financial issue, customer wants are not

fulfilled on time etc. These issues create negative effect on business performance and
productivity. There are some weakness of the clothing products in pandemic situation are
explaining as below:
Higher price: This is a one of the main weakness of clothing products of H&M. This
product is not for lower and middle class people because their income status is not high. This
impact on business performance and growth. This issue has effect on brand image and goodwill
of the company (Rana and Tajuddin, 2020).
Finance and maintenance: H&M have put in a lot of finance and maintenance fee for
entire the various kind of machines needed to produce clothes for all target segment. In pandemic
situation, finance is a major issue because not any one are interested in purchasing of clots that
impact on H&M in its financial condition.
COVID 19: This is biggest challenge or issue faced by company for its clothing products.
In this, customers are not able to purchase clothes from the H&M stores. This issue also impact
on financial condition of company that results in lower customer base and less amount of capital.
Putting forward recommendations with justification
From the above mentioned strengths and shortcomings of clothing products of H&M, it
has been recommended different ways for H&M in enhancement of its strengths and
improvement of its shortcomings. These ways will be explained as below:
Develop effective promotional channels: This is an effective way for increasing
customer loyalty towards the brand. For this, H&M should also promote their products in print
media and promote their brand through the ambassador. This will increase awareness about the
product among customers that turn to helps in increasing of customer loyalty (Siman and Hagos,
2020).
Define quality from the customer perspective: This is another way for company in
enhancing the strength of higher quality. For this, H&M must define quality of cloths according
to the customer perceptive. In this, customer are more interested in purchasing products from the
H&M.
Provide motivation to the employees during pandemic situation: This is important for
H&M to provide motivation to their employees in pandemic situation. Motivated employees
plays important role in attracting large number of customers within less period of time. During
pandemic situation, most of the employees leave the job because of finance. It is the role of

company to provide monetary benefits to their employees. This results in lower employee
turnover and higher customer satisfaction toward the brand or product.
Set price according to the customer: This is another and effective way for H&M to set
product price according to the customer's income states. In this, all customers such as lower,
middle and higher class are able to purchase cloths from the H&M (Svensson, 2020). This will
assist company in attracting of all types of customer that results in higher sales and improved
brand image.
Provide facility of online shopping: This is effective ways because it helps in pandemic
situation for both company as well as customers (Wenny, 2020). This will helps them by saving
their life from COVID 19. therefore, online shopping is important for customer in purchasing of
quality product from H&M. This will help company in attracting of large customers, improving
business performance, increasing sales etc. These are considered major benefits of online
shopping for H&M.
Conclusion
From the above mentioned information, it has been concluded that product is a major
strength of the company in achievement of competitive advantages. It has been determined that,
selling of quality products at affordable price helped business organisation in its success and
growth. There are different strengths of products such as unique identity, higher quality,
increased customer loyalty etc. These strengths helped business organisation in reduction of the
issues of competitors and also support them in achievement of long term goals and objectives
successfully. Along with this, there are various weakness of the products discussed such as
higher price, finance and maintenance etc. These are major weakness of the products that
negatively impacts on the business performance and growth of company. Pandemic situation is a
main issue or challenge for clothing company because it reduced the sales, customer base,
company image etc. Therefore, it is the role of company to provide quality products at affordable
price. This helped them in achievement of better advantages and competitive benefits within less
period of time.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Asif, S. and Asif, M., 2020. Impact of Environment-related CSR Activities on Consumer
Perception and Purchasing Behaviour in the Global Fashion Industry: A Case Study of
“Traditional” and “Sustainability-Driven” Firms-H&M and Tentree.
Fung, Y. N., Choi, T. M. and Liu, R., 2020. Sustainable planning strategies in supply chain
systems: proposal and applications with a real case study in fashion. Production
Planning & Control. 31(11-12). pp.883-902.
Illes, J., 2020. Corporate Citizenship and H&M: A case study of business participation in
society.
Javed, T. and et. al., 2020. The sustainability claims' impact on the consumer's green perception
and behavioral intention: A case study of H&M. Advances in Management and Applied
Economics. 10(2). pp.1-22.
Jiang, S., 2020. A Comparative Analysis of Chinese and British Consumers’ Consumption
Behaviours and Attitudes Toward Fast-Fashion Brand as Zara and H&M. Asian Journal
of Social Science Studies. 5(2). p.17.
Jirawongsy, N., 2020. Brand identity, the integration of sustainability and sustainability
communication: The case of H&M.
Norpoth, J. and Kaltenborn, M., 2020. Implementation of the H&M Global Framework
Agreement in Cambodia: Producing Outcomes for Industrial Democracy Despite a
Challenging Context?. International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and
Industrial Relations. 36(2).
Rana, M. B. and Tajuddin, S. A., 2020. Circular Economy and Sustainability Capability: The
Case of H&M. In Upgrading the Global Garment Industry: Internationalization,
Capabilities and Sustainability. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Siman, S. and Hagos, J., 2020. Risk Management in the Retail Industry: A Case Study of H&M.
Svensson, V., 2020. The apparel industry’s environmental impact, mitigation and adaptation to
climate change: A case study of three Swedish companies.
Wenny, W., 2020. The influence of using social media marketing towards customer loyalty at
H&M, Medan (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Pelita Harapan).
Online
Coronavirus: H&M to close 250 shops as Covid drives sales online 2020. [Online]. Available
through: <https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54369802>.
Sabanoglu, T, 2020. Weekly sales development of H&M Group worldwide 2020. [Online].
Available through: <https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54369802>.