Strategic Issues And Management At Lee Cooper

Answer :

Introduction:

Lee cooper is a clothing company that operates worldwide and it has its headquarters in England. The company founded in 1908 named as M. Cooper Overalls. The company mainly sells branded items and in few years has increased its sells by applying some of the strategic process within the market. The company has a specialized sector that is they have started their firm by delivering best denim jackets and trousers in the year 1930s (Cooper, L. (2017). Home | Lee Cooper). The denim jackets and the trousers get exported in various places and from that source the company has earned considerable amount of popularity from the market. The fashion hub has a parent company namely Iconix Brand Group Inc. the company has now become a brand and though it has an English origin so the company has taken the British fashion sense and reach out to the customers mind to serve them thee best value fashion and globally earn name and fame (Collings, 2014). In this study, the case mainly evolves with the idea that Lee Cooper Company is strategizing their business sector in fashion and continue to deliver best things to the customers as well as they want to reach out to the global customers. Furthermore, the study will also concentrate on the possibility that by implementing the organizational process, successive progress in marketing the company is earning growth in global market. 

Business environment of the firm:

Morris Cooper is the founder of Lee Cooper brand and in 2013 Sun Capital Partners has associated with the brand to make his fashion brand a huge success. The company is in retail sector so they follow the retail chain very carefully and from production to selling all process perfectly take care by the business partners and by the help of the management (Basak and Makarov 2014). The marketing, designing and the manufacturing process of this company is quite different so they have strategize the appropriate plan to deliver best things to thee customers and to attract the mind of them in terms of fashion. Lee cooper has several competition in the market, such as Edwin, Levis, Gap, Flying Machine, Diesel and Pepe. The company has products both for men and women and they have a large range of products and they are created with the sense of delivering best fashion to the customers. The international presence of the company makes it the most powerful brand who serves fashion along with the effective pricing (Ertimur and Coskuner-Balli, 2015). The brand first started its operation from Middlesex Street present in East-End London and after this they have invented the opportunity in many countries like India, Japan, Nepal, South Africa etc. the self-procurement facility that the company has makes it a  most powerful brand in the international market and the company takes help from the different manufacturing unit. By the help of several manufacturing channel the company facilitate itself in the global market (Kramar, 2014). 

The strategic licensing policy helps the brand to do successful import and export functioning and for this they can bale to take the suggestion from different manufacturers who help in procure best quality fabric and design. The distribution channel of the company helps a lot about the sales process by using physically close to the customers. The effective distribution channel of Lee Cooper bridge the makers and users efficiently and economically and it helps in breaking the bulk and cater to the small size requirements of buyers (Wright et al. 2014). Moreover, they assemble and offer suitable merchandise assortments of products as required by the buyers and this sub-distributors help in selling to sub-distributors, re-transport and handling of products. The product sales, distributors and the efficient retailers reach out to the customers by the help of discounted stores, various super and hyper markets and some of the conveniences stores (Guerras-Martín et al. 2014). The target customers of this brand is upper class and upper middle class individuals who belongs from urban cities. The core fashion sense has mainly generated from the age group of 15-30 years and they are more fashion conscious and this brand has applied the fashion strategy to capture this kind of customers. 

This group of people easily can directed towards the fashion hub and by serving the best value for things this group will take consideration for the fashionable products (Hahn, 2013). The brand sells qualitative merchandise but the products are mid-ranged so that the customers can take interest to buy this products. The competitive pricing strategy is very much effective for the brand to maintain a strategic positioning in the market and other than that they can able to compete with the other brands as well. The reasonable and affordable pricing policy will help in cater best and wide range of product variety and the customers will be happy (Smith, 2014). When the customers get full satisfaction from the products then it can able to gain large sales volume and profitability. 

Strategy of the company:

The advertisements of Lee Cooper broadcasted in different media channels such as newspapers, television, billboards and magazines. The collaboration with the fashion designers, celebrities and artists help to promote the brand in all new way and the customers take more interest in this brand as they find connectivity with it. The brand visibility has increased as they have incorporated with Lou the famous French model. The company’s denim collection is taken care by Apple Company as they have a partnership with this brand and they produce denim Beatles. With Rolling Stones they have a tour sponsorship in 1960s and for European Championship they have partnership with France in 1984. For British Para-Olympics Lee Cooper has supplied denim jackets in the year 2008 for the team in their opening ceremony. For the strategic development it is very important to go through the SWOT analysis to put an insight into the company’s brand value and the customers’ preference. The strength of the company is basically serve the value for the customers and present in 100 years all over the world 85 countries and create a share for 4000 sale point. The diversification value has generated in eye wear, footwear and other merchandise and it is a life-style brand. The manufacturing process of the company has seen the strategic management method the licensing value will maintain the scale of economics (Bauer and Matzler, 2014). The weakness of the company is they have a portfolio that is widespread and the diversification policy will help only in gaining revenue in denim wear. The customers are getting many options from the other brands and somehow they are switching the brands rapidly (Hagiu, 2014). Opportunities of Lee Cooper brand is they have information channel and by which they can easily get the database about the market and the various countries provide boost for selling and generating a good customer base (Obeidat et al. 2015). The e-retailing processing will be generated through company’s suggestion in the marketing and in India and Africa as they have a strong customer base and it is an effective impact in the marketing essentiality as the customers are now very much connected with e-retailing process (Liu and Maitlis 2014). The company serves their effective and exclusive product lining in the e-retailing base. Other than that the company promotes the campaign related to eco-advertising and it puts a great impact in the life-style brand. The threat of the company is basically created from the rate of exchange that impact to the global sales and traffic. The fashion industry is very much fragmented and gaining brand loyalty is tough in the market and it is a threat for the company that the high bargaining power of buyers. The slowdown in the market of Europe create a back-fall for the company (Marler and Fisher 2013). The Indian market has taken the proper brand value for Lee Cooper with the segmentation policy and the multinational brands in denim has created an existing economic situation. Several countries that has put a powerful consideration for the company Lee Cooper will help in strategize the plans. The lineup promotions for the company will help in reach out to the customers in more positive way and the opportunity serves best value for the customers (Wei et al. 2014). 

Tools and framework:

The possible tools and framework can put a value strategy for the company and in the marketing mix policy there are the 7p’s and the 4p’s those are product, price, place, promotion, people, physical environment, process and product. The company has serves the possible information to the customers so that the customers can take considerable amount of interest and buy the products as the customers are main asset for the company and for them the company is growing and generate value for the brand. The customers help in maximize the profits to a great extent and it eventually helps to strategize the plans for the brand. The right product and the combination of other things will help in put things in right time and right price. Basically this effective pricing policy will help in appropriate business plan (Purce, 2014). The business aspect will plan the entire thing and will help in getting consideration from the customers. The product quality that the brand serves are best so that it can appeal to the customers and this products are fashionable as the current market needs and basically the products can able to satisfy the need of the customers, moreover create the need in the market (Kim et al. 2015). The right product mix is very much necessary to enchant the customers in a broad way. The effective pricing policy will take help from the skimming and market penetration policy and it will create a base for the neutral pricing. 

BCG matrix:

The BCG Matrix will help in prioritize the products and the services within the company and the product mix to get more attention of the customers and along with that earnings growth and profitability. BCG Matrix has two dimensions in the market one is market share and another one is market growth and the categories that the process follows that includes stars, cash, cow, dogs and question marks (Armstrong, 2014). In question market form the brand uses low market share and high market growth and they are not sure about the market opportunities and they decide about the increase in investments (Vogel and Güttel 2013). In stars section there is high market share and high market growth where the company in denim section is doing well in the market and fetching more opportunities.

Figure 1: BCG Matrix

(Source: Ghiani et al. 2014, p. 24)

 Dogs section will calculate the fact about low market share and low market growth where some of the products of the company is weak in market and difficult to earn profit and lastly the cash cow section will generate high market share and low market growth where the company is doing good in no growth market and has limited market opportunities. 

Porter’s five forces model:

Lee Cooper Company is a fashion brand and it has many customers in the market. In porter’s five forces model there is the consideration of four important things they are threat of new entry, threat of substitutes, buyer power and supplier power (Ghiani et al. 2014). In threat of new entry there ae various brands they are opening in the market including time and cost of entry, specialist knowledge, economics of scale, technology protection and barriers to entry. 

Figure 2: Porter’s five forces model

(Source: Barrick et al. 2015, p. 122)

The competitive rivalry from other brands are there like number of competitors in the market, quality differences, other differences, switching costs and customers loyalty (Barrick et al. 2015). The supplier power and the threat of substitution is a necessary information for the brand because of this facts the company get to know about the cost of changing, substitute changing and size of suppliers in the market. The one most important one being buyer power that is number of customers who involved in ten buying process, size of each order from the brand and price sensitivity. 

Conclusion:

Lee cooper has taken many of the marketing strategy to capture the target customers as well as creating a new customer base to generate profit and earn reputation from the market. For getting the information in customer satisfaction level the brand has taken the consideration of different market survey and other marketing strategy. The brand is known for its aggressive marketing strategy and the brand is quite famous as it has taken various tools for their brand promotion. Some of the conventional advertising policy, word-of-mount, public relations all are important measures in this context and it create a proper buzz for the company as they are wide spread in various places.