Reference no: EM132620243
ASSIGNMENT
Prepare a report for a large fashion clothing retailer, trading in the UK that:
a) Identifies key relevant changes in the UK fashion clothing market and
b) Suggests and discusses strategies and tactics that could be used by the retailer to respond to the major changes occurring in the fashion clothing market
Prepare a report for a large fashion clothing retailer trading in the UK
The assignment asks you to prepare a report for a large fashion retailer that is a multiple retailer with large number of stores in the UK. You should identify the retailer in the introduction and provide a brief (no more than a couple of paragraphs) introduction to the organisation and its position in the fashion retailing market.
Note though that the report is for a retailer that has shops in the UK so any ‘key relevant changes' need to be relevant to a retailer selling fashion clothing in the UK (so for example high unemployment levels in the USA are unlikely to be relevant). Your chosen retailer can be a foreign retailer but must have shops/ operate in the UK.
a) That identifies key relevant changes in the UK fashion clothing market and
To identify key relevant changes in any macro-environment you could use a PEST (Political, Economic, Social and Technological) or PESTEL analysis. You are looking for anything in the external environment of a fashion retailer with a UK store presence that could affect them. So for example the lack of growth in the market due to the recessionary environment.
Your PESTEL analysis does not have to be structured in that order ( i.e analysis of the political environment followed by the economic environment etc.) - you might choose to discuss the categories you see as most important first, but remember in your introduction to tell the reader what you are going to tell them so if you are putting for example technology first, say so. Also, you do not need to spend the same amount of time in each of the categories - you should spend more time on categories that you consider to be more important.
Your analysis should also discuss the micro-environment, i.e. the competitive environment and any relevant changes in the consumer attitudes and behaviour that are driving the fashion market.
b) Suggests and discusses strategies and tactics that could be used by the retailer to respond to the major changes occurring in the fashion clothing market.
From the analysis in part a) select between two and four key changes that the retailer must address to be successful in the future For each key change that you select, suggest strategies and tactics that the retailer could use to combat this issue. So if, for example, you identified the rapid growth of the internet as a key change you might discuss how the retailer might develop a multichannel strategy to deal with this. When suggesting a particular strategy you should pay attention to the retailer's ability to carry it out as well as its suitability for the market that it serves.
Although you are asked for a report, it does not need a contents page or an executive summary. However, it should be make appropriate use of sections and headings to guide the discussion.
Structure - perhaps the easiest way is to use the PEST headings and under each to identify the key changes in turn and for each one, followed by a discussion of the microenvironment before going on to write about strategies retailers could use to deal with the change syou have identified.
Remember to support everything, that is, changes and strategies/tactics, with evidence. Where possible your evidence should be from texts of journal articles (use Journal of Retailing, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Journal of Retail & Consumer Research - Business Source Premier as well as Emerald) and from the quality press and trade press (e.g. Retail Week)
Use your conclusion to summarise your findings and extend your work.