PGBM04: Alexander McQueen and Paul Smith Business Comparison Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the international business environment, focusing on a comparison and contrast of the activities of two prominent UK-based fashion brands: Alexander McQueen and Paul Smith. The report examines the brands' marketing strategies, business descriptions, and how they maintain their competitive advantages in the global fashion market. It delves into the external and internal factors influencing their operations, including globalization, consumer behavior, demographics, and technology. Furthermore, the report highlights the use of technology, such as Clienteling POS software and AR/VR, by each brand to enhance their market position. The analysis includes their current achievements and potential for sustaining high performance, along with recommendations for future strategies.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Comparison and Contrast of Activities of Alexander McQueen and Paul Smith for
Maintenance of their Competitive Advantages
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Executive Summary
The main aim of this report is to understand the entire concept of international business
environment for two popular UK based brands, Alexander McQueen and Paul Smith. It is
required to maintain a proper balance of customers’ demands and their current position in the
existing international market of fashion industry. Both of these brands have their unique
marketing strategies so that they are able to deal with the complexities of marketing and
hence gaining major competitive advantages in business. This report has clearly described
about the comparison and contrast of their activities in market. Moreover, it is analysed that
Alexander McQueen is using Clienteling POS software and Paul Smith has implemented AR
and VR technologies in their respective businesses for obtaining better competitive
advantages.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
2. Discussion..............................................................................................................................3
2.1 Business Description of Alexander McQueen.................................................................3
2.2 Business Description of Paul Smith.................................................................................4
2.3 Comparison and Contrast of the Activities of Two Companies......................................4
2.4 Development and Utilization of the new Technology for Maintaining the Competitive
Advantages.............................................................................................................................8
2.5 Current Achievements and Potential for Sustaining High Performances in Alexander
McQueen and Paul Smith.....................................................................................................10
3. Conclusion............................................................................................................................11
4. Recommendations................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................13

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1. Introduction
Business environment can be referred to as the summation of the total of every
external and internal factor, which comprises of a stronger influence on the business. These
external and internal factors could influence on one another and then work together for
affecting a specific business (Dunning 2013). The external factors are political factor,
macroeconomic factor, microeconomic factor, social factor, technological factor, legal factor
and environmental factor. The internal factors include strengths, weaknesses, threats and
opportunities (Shenkar, Luo and Chi 2014). The following report outlines a brief discussion
on the proper comparison and contrast on activities of two popular and significant fashion
organizations in the UK, Alexander McQueen and Paul Smith. A new technology would be
developed for maintenance of their competitive advantages. Moreover, their current
achievements as well as potential for sustaining higher performance will also be provided.
2. Discussion
2.1 Business Description of Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen is one of the most popular and significant luxury fashion house
that was being founded by the significant designer, Alexander McQueen in the year of 1992.
Alexander McQueen launched an online store in the market of the United States in the year of
2008 and this was later expanded with another online store for the market of the United
Kingdom in 2010 (Alexander McQueen. 2019). In 2006, they launched a low priced diffusion
line, McQ, which was different and unique from any other fashion organizations both in the
UK and in the world. Due to the innovative business strategies and cultures, it was quite
easier for Alexander McQueen to gain its position in the market. They mainly target the niche
market and hence the main targets are easily identified without much complexities.

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2.2 Business Description of Paul Smith
Paul Smith is the second important and significant fashion brand mainly popular for
men’s clothing. The business was expanded to other areas and since the year of 1970, they
had been serving their customers in more than 70 countries (Paul Smith. 2019). They sell
their products through standalone stores, departments in the high end malls or stores and even
within the airport terminals or electronic commerce sections of the international web site.
Few of the physical stores of this brand are being recognized for their uniqueness as well as
eccentricity. The first products of this brand were children’s wear and then work wear were
started. Paul Smith has even been included in several collaborations as well as partnerships
over the years such as they have worked with Cappellini for creating a smaller home ware
collection (Paul Smith. 2019). They have even collaborated with Maharam, which is again
one of the most popular US based textile brand. For their business strategies, it has been
much easier for Paul Smith to gain and hold their position in the international business
environment for longer period of time.
2.3 Comparison and Contrast of the Activities of Two Companies
The entire organizational operational situation is highly affected by this environment
and the major factors included here are clients and suppliers, the major competition and
owners, major improvements in the technology, government as well as legal activities, and
finally social and economic trends (Killing 2013). International business environment is the
type of environment that is being analysed and used internationally. Although both Paul
Smith and Alexander McQueen are extremely popular and significant in their business and
are providing major and the most unique products and services to their customers, it is
extremely vital for them to organize and run their organizations for success (Beamish 2013).
They even outsource their work for improving their managerial skills and bringing revenue to
include more skilled employees. About knowing the most basic functionalities, these two

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organizations require to structure their subsequent activities for building the companies to
obtain success in work.
Both of these brands are being leading the entire market with their effective and
efficient marketing strategies. Globalization is the most significant and complicated
procedure, which has been at work in several ways and even to different degrees.
Globalization has been emerged from the field of international business (Dunning 2013).
They have been providing major importance to the market entry strategies and
internationalization is being broadly recognized in international marketing. After combining
with global marketing uncertainty, it is being analysed that both of these international fashion
brands are extremely efficient in comparison to others.
The processes by which the integration is occurring are having distinctive impacts and
influences from one location to the next (Verbeke 2013). Thus, although these brands are UK
based, there is always a major importance of branding strategies. Globalization has one of the
major effects on companies and their marketing strategies to provide globalized market
opportunities and also raise global competitive threats. Paul Smith and Alexander McQueen
have considered globalization with the help of global business drivers (Shenkar, Luo and Chi
2014). The major and the most significant global business drivers of these two organizations
are as follows:
i) Globalization: The first and the foremost global business driver for these two
fashion brands is globalization. They have been able to realign their global supply chain and
change the global governance effectively and efficiently (Cavusgil et al. 2014). Moreover,
economic shift in their business as well as elevated financial volatility and risk is also
enhanced with this particular driver. Due to this type of risk, it becomes often difficult to
manage the organizational benefits.

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ii) Consumer Behaviour: The second important and significant global business driver
is consumer behaviour. There are few models of consumer engagement that are being
implemented by Paul Smith and Alexander McQueen and it helps to understand customer
demands to a higher level. Since, it will be providing a new era of squeezed profitability, it is
highly required to maintain consumer behaviour to a high level (Forsgren and Johanson
2014). Being, fashion brands, they have to keep customer demands and behaviour on top
priority.
iii) Demographics: This is third and another important global business driver of these
two brands. As there are growing infrastructure needs and a war for talent, Alexander Mc
Queen, is focusing on all types of clothing for all kinds of customers. Hence, they have been
quite popular in comparison to other fashion brands (Dunning 2013). On the other hand, Paul
Smith is popular for men’s clothing and hence kids and women’s clothing are not emphasized
on top priority.
iv) Technology: The next vital and subsequent global business driver for Paul Smith
and Alexander McQueen is technology (Verbeke 2013). There are few new paradigms for
unique product designing as well as manufacturing and the new and innovative research and
development models are enhanced to a high level. The strategic role of information system is
extension of the enterprise that is being examined (Bartlett, Doz and Hedlund 2013). All of
these solutions also focus on a number of entities for identification, in which they could
obtain advantages from the application and management of technology being utilized.
The comparison and contrasting of the activities of Paul Smith and Alexander
McQueen should be considered effectively while understanding the variety of products and
services. The utility of the brand identity in modern enterprise is promptly evolving beyond
their push based advertising agenda of these brands (Rugman 2013). This brand identity is

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the composite of both retail experience and marketing enterprise, alignment of customer
perception with a transparent and robust spectrum to identify characteristics, which unify the
identity and brand message. The most particular traits and features, which are conductive to
both demand enhancing results and competitive benefits (Casson 2013). Regarding market
position, Paul Smith is in much higher position in comparison to Alexander McQueen.
The function and identity of their luxury store represents the direction of
organizational focus after unification of stakeholders perceptive in a single establishment,
which transcends multi channel marketing strategy of their brand (Vagts et al. 2015).
Alexander McQueen however, is in a low position than Paul Smith, since they often lack
relationally centred marketing message, which is on the basis of continuity and elegance. The
distinction between quality and status in the UK based fashion world is of critical importance
for these two mentioned brands as they are objectifying the products and services in the
context of consumer specified marketing campaign (Picciotto and Mayne 2016). Brand
transitioning is quite common in this sector and the dynamic representation of value and
identity needs a proper alliance within retail establishment and marketing communications.
Alexander McQueen has been doing this effectively, however Paul Smith has only focused
on the in store replication of iconic models from their recent shows to gain consumer interests
(Verbeke 2013).
Regarding brand messaging, the main characteristics of Paul Smith’s effective
campaign include commitment to the image specified factors, which influence consumer
perceptions for brand value and brand identity (Meyer and Peng 2016). They have
emphasized on unique strategies on continuity realization in the entire marketing position of
the brand and hence ensuring that offline and online experience are both consistent and
complementary. After driven by an in store technology, which eventually complements their
aesthetics of products and consumers are presented with lighting characteristics and images.

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This particular facility is absent in Alexander McQueen, where the customers do not get any
opportunity to seek better knowledge about the products and services and hence not
transcending the existing gap within virtual ad physical world (Hamilton and Webster 2018).
Moreover, McQueen has not included RFID tags in the products for introducing experimental
shopping experiences as well as self identification.
2.4 Development and Utilization of the new Technology for Maintaining the
Competitive Advantages
The modern economy can be globally connected as well as is growing better each and
every day. The international expansion of any business is required to remove the several
complexities faced within the business due to their competitors. Major strategic
considerations are being undertaken for this purpose (Clarke, Tamaschke and Liesch 2013).
The multinational enterprises are termed as the major primary players within this
international business and these are present in each and every industry. The major social and
cultural factors, which affect the international business include education, values, social
relationships, language, customs and religion. All of the relationships involve significant
interactions amongst the families as well as other organizations.
There are several distinctive technologies that could be extremely useful and
significant for bringing better competitive advantages (Papadopoulos and Heslop 2014). The
changes in the customer culture is quite vital for every sector in retail and the luxury brands
often get chances to enhance their competitive benefits to a higher level. The global success
of fast fashion retailers such as Alexander McQueen and Paul Smith has had a significant
effect on the entire fashion industry and then forced the luxury fashion retailer for adjusting
to the most developing fashion business models (Chidlow, Plakoyiannaki and Welch 2014).
The newest luxury fashion shopper requires extra shopping channels, personalization and

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loyalty rewards across the board and engaging with the new luxury consumer is one the
major opportunities for retailers to move to the sector from status to price.
This is being effectively done by the proper involvement of technology and
technological advances in sustainably sourced materials. These luxury brands have also being
focused on creation of technology based functionality focused fabrics (Sinkovics et al. 2014).
Alexander McQueen has developed and implemented a unique software of Clienteling Point
of Sale or POS to help out their staff members in assisting the customer on floor with every
distinct information that they require (Doh et al. 2017). By delivering a proper view of
products, which is much similar to any online store, this particular software of Clienteling
Point of Sale has been supporting conversational commerce and hence allowing the staff to
provide a perfectly exceptional one to one service luxury crave of customer. These customers
even want to obtain advice regarding style, which could cater to the taste and when they want
to obtain suggestions on the products, which may complement the purchase, clear data on
items and in-depth request (Vernon 2017). Clienteling Point of Sale software allows the
employees to complete their responsibilities easily and effectively. They have developed and
applied this software so that it does not become an issue to maintain efficiency in work and
hence getting better competitive advantages.
Paul Smith, on the other hand has implemented augmented reality or virtual reality
powered software in physical stores. Since, electronic commerce is gaining popularity in a
high level, there is always a high need to bring out new technologies in businesses or fashion
brands for ensuring better efficiency and effectiveness in the organization (Paul Smith. 2019).
This is required for enhancing their competitive advantages to a higher level. For maintaining
foot traffic, Paul Smith is being utilizing mixed reality like augmented reality and virtual
reality as well as artificial intelligence technology for engaging their customers with
enhanced experiences in store. They allow their customers to try on the cloths virtually at

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Harrods’ windows (Clarke, Tamaschke and Liesch 2013). Thus, a customer gets an idea
about the look he or she would be getting after wearing that particular outfit. This particular
facility enhances the confidence level of customers and customers do not get into dilemma
that whether that outfit should be purchased or not. Moreover, in the fitting rooms, interactive
rooms allow consumers to set the light mode for checking which outfit should be tried on and
which item complements their body (Hamilton and Webster 2018). It is being analysed that
the total turnover and profit have been raised heavily after involvement of augmented reality
and virtual reality technologies. The electronic commerce and new business models have in a
better position and Paul Smith has increased the competitive advantages to a higher position.
2.5 Current Achievements and Potential for Sustaining High Performances in
Alexander McQueen and Paul Smith
The respective entry modes for the international businesses involve globalized
concentration, strategic global motivation and even global synergies (Bartlett, Doz and
Hedlund 2013). For the complexities of international operating environments, every
organization must consider environmental, social, cultural, technological and economic
factors. The potential returns and risks are being determined for an international expansion
and this is one of the major aspect of global financial management. Designer Paul Smith has
been awarded Royal Designer for Industry in the year 1991 and even was knighted by Queen
Elizabeth in 2000 (Shenkar, Luo and Chi 2014). Recently they have included AR and VR
technologies in the business and hence they have the core potential to obtain more popularity
and to become the best brand in the United Kingdom based fashion industry and market.
Moreover, since they have the potential to involve more effectiveness, Paul Smith have
decided to involve more technological advances in their business so that they are able to
obtain more competitive advantages and sustain high performances without any complexity
(Beamish 2013).

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Alexander McQueen, on the other hand, has always focused on staff with special
expertise as well as complementary skills, who communicate, become creative, innovative
and even produce consistently superior results. The correct and appropriate employees are
being selected after effective and efficient recruitment and training. Moreover, they believe in
employee involvement to the fullest for sustaining high performances (Bartlett, Doz and
Hedlund 2013). Alexander McQueen was awarded Commander of the Most Excellent Order
of the British Emperor CBI in the year 2003 and the Men’s Wear Designer of the Year award
in the year 2004.
3. Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the management of any
specific business within a foreign country eventually needs managers for dealing with the
larger variety of environmental and cultural differences. The international managers should
even continuously monitor the significant environments of technological, economic, social,
cultural, legal and political. Alexander McQueen and Paul Smith are two most important and
significant fashion organizations in the United Kingdom and they have become successful
over the years. The above provided report has properly compared and contrasted the various
activities of two these two organizations in the fashion sector since they develop new
technology for trying to maintain their respective competitive advantages. This is done by
drawing on a relevant theory. Moreover, the current achievements of these organizations and
their potential to sustain high performance is also provided in this report.
4. Recommendations
The few recommendations for the two organizations of Alexander McQueen and Paul
Smith in the United Kingdom based fashion sector are as follows:

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i) Leveraging Expertise: This is the first and the foremost recommendation for both
the organizations of Alexander McQueen and Paul Smith. Since they belong to the fashion
sector, it is extremely important for them to remain updated and upgraded. The expertise
should be improved and this is one of the most significant methods for increasing the total
profit. Being international brands, this particular recommendation would be helpful to them
for running their business hassle free and smooth. They would be getting more clients and the
services would be improved majorly.
ii) Understanding the Demands of Customer: Another significant and important
recommendation for both the organizations of Alexander McQueen and Paul Smith is to
understand and know about the demands of their customers. It is extremely required to reach
out to their potential as well as current clients for knowing about the criteria and
shortcomings they have in their business. An advanced technology is required for better
decision making and this helps to remove the complexities majorly and subsequently. They
can use their unique phrases for helping the potential clients engage with the products and
brands. Social media is the greatest way for testing their outcomes and impacts on the
businesses.
iii) Defining the Brands: The brands of these two organizations of Alexander
McQueen and Paul Smith are required to be defined properly and hence they would be able to
manage the complexities majorly. As change is constant for all organizations, it is highly
recommended to them to extend their brands to the presence of social media. The
professional pictures are other powerful methods for representing the business as well as the
products and services that are being provided by them.

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