GEORDANO-POSITIONING FOR INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION Question 1: Describe and e a!

uate Giordano"s #roduct$ business$ and cor#orate strate%ies

&or#orate strate%': ( F!at or%ani)ationa! structure ( &oncentrated on retai!in% *usiness strate%' ( &ost !eaders+i# ( Nic+e ( di,,erentiation Product strate%': ( -a!ue ,or .one' #roduct/ ( E0ce!!ent ser ices/ ( Focused on core ite.s/ ( &usto.er oriented/ ( Giordano is e,,ecti e 1+en it co.es to t+eir #roduct$ business and cor#orate strate%ies/ Their product strategy: the value for money, focused on core items and excellent services. Their success is because of relentless focus on providing quality products, simplicity, innovation and service. The company is renowned for its basic and practical mens, womens, and childrens Tshirts and trousers, especially denims. The employees are customer oriented and they are treated as assets, paying them with high wages. The Giordanos business strategy: the inventory controlled system which helps them in more efficient inventory holding. llowing the company to solve some problems and cut some cost resulting by slow moving inventory. The company also swift cost- control strategies in the areas of rent, outsourcing, inventory control, cash management and etc. nother business strategy is differentiation and serving niche mar!et. Their "orporate strategy relies more on retailing. Their vision is to be the best and the biggest world brand in apparel retailing. The company operates #$%% stores worldwide in &% countries and it continues to expand more. 'elling the name under brands of (Giordano), (Giordano "oncepts), (Giordano *unior) and (Giordano +adies). The company tries to maintain flat organi,ational structure and this facilitated easy communication between people within the

organi,ation, which helps to ma!e speedy decision which are critical ingredients to success amidst fast changing consumer taste and fashion trends.

Q2ESTION 3: Describe and e a!uate Giordano"s current #ositionin% strate%'/ S+ou!d Giordano re#osition itse!, a%ainst its co.#etitors in its current and ne1 .ar4ets$ and s+ou!d it +a e di,,erent #ositionin% strate%ies ,or di,,erent #ositionin% strate%ies5
Giordano-s current positioning strategy is a!ue ,or .one'. This means that Giordano believes in creating and maintaining customer satisfaction. "onsumers are given more preferences in their business. .owever, at operating level it is the employees and sales people who are attending these customers, but they are not paid as they are suppose to get paid. /or this Giordano provides its employees bonuses all over the year and different !ind of leaves. These !inds of services are also !nown as ser ice di,,erentiation. 0ther !ind of positioning strategy followed by Giordano is merchandise to their customers in such a way that the #rice is sti!! a,,ordab!e and t+eir #roduct re.ains uni6ue because o, t+eir 6ua!it'/ Giordano should reposition itself in the current mar!et and the new mar!ets because they have enough fame with the brand (Giordano). The management has ways to ma!e money and to wor! on the concept of value for money. 1mployee-s efficiency and speed up when out of stoc! has brought a good reputation in the existing mar!et. Giordano is not going to face any !ind of ris! involved if they are willing to expand their business or reposition in new mar!ets. .owever, creating the same value of customers and customer satisfaction will ta!e some time which is not at all specified. t the same time it can also cause troubles to existing mar!et due to the target segment. This might being up some issues for repositioning themselves in the new mar!et and the customer-s respond is hard to predict. The only concept and idea they have is the customer services which are given to all its customers from different part of the world. 'econdly, they should maintain the quality and the merchandise of affordable cost towards its customers. +astly, they should bring up and improve their service differentiation in the mar!ets as compared to the existing mar!ets. This will lead them to create customer awareness to their product and !eep them happy. "ompany might also improve their services in this way. 2e thin! that if Giordano is ready to position them self in new mar!et and reposition in the existing one then they s+ou!d a!so create di,,erent 4ind o, strate%ies so t+at t+e' can e0#erience di,,erent 4ind o, res#ond. They should wor! on those strategies which are not followed in sian countries. .owever, loo!ing at the economy and if its booming then they consumers spending power increases because their income also increases. t this point Giordano can actually come out with new products and new strategies so that customers are aware of company-s existence in bad and good times of the economy. pparently, this will increase Giordano product prices and higher value brand. They should position them self in the new mar!et slowly as the economy rises. 3ue to economical crisis it will be hard for Giordano to catch up with customer-s attractions which lead to company to not understand and the customer and customers will be confused with their brand in the new mar!et.

Q2ESTION 7: 8+at are Giordano"s 94e' success ,actors" and sources o, co.#etiti e ad anta%e5 Are its co.#etiti e ad anta%es sustainab!e$ and +o1 1ou!d t+e' de e!o# in t+e ,uture5
"ost 4uality 'peed 3ependability /lexible

The !ey success factors of Giordano are that t+e' +a e contro!!ed t+eir bud%et on ad ertisin% and +a e 4e#t a er' %ood s'ste. ,or recordin% t+e in entor'. They have !ept a really good and effective system which records their inventory and sends a report to sales and distribution department at the end of the day. The delivery of the new stoc! is done in the night and inventory is available before they open their stores. This system is computeri,ed and there different !ind of flows of transmits data in different branches. The control on stoc! is normally on those products whose demand is more than other products depending on the seasonal offers provided by Giordano in different countries. "onsumers normally tend to buy products which are (discount or on sale). The competitive advantage for Giordano is the brand itself. Giordano has a good reputation in the mar!et and thus people are normally happy and satisfied with the services and goods provided by them. .owever, the employees appointed are well trained and hired by professional interviewers. 5n return these employees are not paid as good as other companies do, but Giordano offers them bonuses all over the year. 0ne good advantage is that fewer employees at every Giordano are given few rights to ta!e any sudden or important decision which saves time and create trust among employee and employer. 6es, these advantages are sustainable because among these advantages no competitor has actually stood up in the mar!et to compete with Giordano and hence, they are one of the leading corporations in services world which are provided to both customer and employer. Giordano was also awarded at different !ind of places for !eeping their brand as a familiar brand to the world in almost 7%-&% countries all over the world. ll of these advantages are occurred currently. .owever, in future they can still create awareness in customers by improving their services, ma!ing proper investments, managing trained employees and budget their finances. Their main target in future should be 1uropean countries as they don-t have any branch over there. Giordano should be more services oriented and should ma!e proper investments in organi,ational goals and recruitment and training and development for employees.

Q2ESTION :: &ou!d Giordano trans,er its 4e' success ,actors to ne1 .ar4ets as it e0#ands bot+ in Asia and in ot+er #arts o, t+e 1or!d5
The competitive advantages for Giordano li!e computeri,ed system, transmit of data flowing across branches will be slightly harder for them to operate in other countries. /or Giordano to create such !ind of 5T based systems they need strong and powerful softwares which can be operated in different continents. 8ot every country follows the same codes and principles li!e sian countries. 5n fact, 1uropean countries have stronger 5T systems and it will turn to a tough competition. .owever, the competition for them to operate their transactions will be slightly impossible. 9ut, they can still continue operating there on a small system which can transmit date across different cities in the same country and then the headquarters can send the information to the main headquarter which is .ong :ong. The competition increases in respect with different brands included in foreign countries. /or instance, The Gap operates only in ;' , 1urope and *apan which are the main industrial countries of the world. 1spirit operates in almost every country in this world, but comparatively The Gap ma!es more profit than 1spirit. 5n terms of sales turnover The Gap ma!es <#=>=? million which is way higher than <>==> million for 1spirit. These two companies are the leading corporations of today-s world. Giordano existence in this mar!et and to maintain the same reputation as it is in sian will be really hard. To recruit new employees in a new mar!et is easy but to train them with the existing strategies in a new mar!et is slightly challenging. There is a big difference between the sian and other country-s mar!et. .ence, Giordano should analy,e and understand the mar!et properly so that they can operate easily and still !eep good reputation and competitive advantages in the new mar!et. 8evertheless, they can still operate in sian countries and operate and expand their business in other countries on a small scale and periodic time.

Q2ESTION ;: <o1 do 'ou t+in4 Giordano +ad=1ou!d +a e to ada#t its .ar4etin% and o#erations strate%ies and tactics 1+en enterin% and #enetratin% 'our countr'5
2hen Giordano entered @alaysia they had to follow the same mar!eting strategies as they did in .ong :ong when they started operating their business. t first there wasn-t anything which concerned them for customer service. s they started operating in other countries it rapidly became a trend for Giordano. .owever, every country has different scope of growth. 5n @alaysia, consumer taste and style differ from other countries. Thus, the mar!eting strategies might be the same but the scope of response is different.

t operational level every country has different strategy of convincing and satisfying their customers. .owever, this depends on the management as per how they develop and train their employees. 8ormally at operational level it is the employees interacting with the consumers every single day. These strategies ta!e huge planning and investment on a particular proAect. Tactics depends on the mar!eting style of that particular country. 1very store, management, country follow their own tactics to get customers. 'ome come up discounts and some come up with sales. These are tactics which are done by their management to attract customers. 5t normally depends on how well that particular store is in ma!ing money. .owever, it also depends on the economy of that particular country and what actions is the management ta!ing towards their business. Giordano-s main strategy of value for money, service differentiation, inventory record and fast distribution centers are a remar!able and spectacular strategies for any country. .owever, transmitting the transaction in other branches is cheapest and the fastest way to report the head quarters.

Q2ESTION >: 8+at %enera! !essons can .a?or c!ot+in% retai!ers in 'our countr' !earn ,ro. Giordano5
Giordano-s reputation in sian countries is at a very good level. They have plenty of branches in @alaysia. The basic concept of value for money can be a good lesson to other clothing retailers. This concept can ma!e them reali,e the importance of customer satisfaction. Broduct differentiation is another concept created by Giordano and to maintain the inventory. 9asically, anything which includes Giordano strategies can be a general lesson for other retailers because their outstanding strategies has leaded them to success and ma!ing profits. "ustomer service is another strategy followed by Giordano. pparently, this has become one of the most powerful and efficient strategy followed by Giordano and hence, @alaysian clothing retailers can learn and experience it in this country. s per the mar!et in @alaysia, consumers are normally loo!ing for services. They are clever enough about the mar!et and they have the !nowledge of other clothing retailing shops too. .owever, it has been analy,ed that Giordano is one of the leading clothing retailing shop in @alaysia. 'o normally other up coming firms will follow the same steps and the same strategies to stand in the mar!et. The other strategy which is followed by Giordano is the pay to their employees with bonuses. To give services to the customers these employees should be well trained and should be given bonuses so that they are always happy with the firm. @alaysian clothing retailers should recruit good employees and s!illed one this will save their time of training. .owever, these employees should have at least one year contract so that they don-t leave the company and the company is committed to their employees. @ost of the businesses experience this problem in @alaysia that they train their employees and the quit the Aob after few months. 1ven if the employee needs

training, then a strong training and development program should be created by .C department through which they can train their employees which mainly includes customer service. +astly, the concept of other retailing shop should be to understand the customer as Giordano does. This has lead Giordano to gain profits and customer satisfaction. nd this can be a strong strategy from the management to the employee of any business in @alaysia.