Strategic Management On Superdry Assignment Sample

Introduction

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Superdry is a well-known clothing company based in the UK. Superdry Plc is the owner of the Superdry plc can be regarded as the owner of the label of Superdry (Wood and Kollewe, 2021). The products of Superdry combine graphics inspired from Japan with vintage Americana styling. The company is present within the listings of the London Stock Exchange. The entire report has been divided into three main parts. The first part will analyze the existing corporate strategies of the company. Based on the discussion in part 1, part 2 will attempt art providing 2 clear strategic recommendations for Superdry. Lastly, in part 3 the industry in which Superdry operates will be analyzed and some recommendations will be provided for further improvement in this industry.

Part 1

The establishment of Cult Clothing Co took place in 1985 by Julian Dunkerton and Ian Hibbs 1985. In Cheltenham. At that time it was gored by the name Cult clothing. During 2003 Dunkerton came across James Holder who was running the company by the name bench, they joined combined their operations and together established Superdry in 2004, opening their initial store at Covent Garden of London. In 2010 the business was listed under the London Stock Exchange, but in 2012 the share price dropped rapidly by 18% (Eley, 2020). Next, on 8^th January of 2018 Supergroup plc altered its name into Superdry plc. In the later part of 2019, Julian Dunkerton again became the permanent CEO of the company and has a contract for it until April of 2021.

Since its establishment, the company has employed some important corporate strategies that have helped in its growth over the years. These corporate strategies can be mostly classified under the Block 4 strategy towards a corporate strategy of horizontal and/or vertical integration The different corporate strategies that have been employed by the company over the years have been outlined in the following.

Brand engagement: Superdry has several innovative social and digital marketing campaigns that have helped the company in building its influence within the market. These campaigns were specifically formulated for reinstating the company's ownership over their core products through the illustration of their wide range of choices that are appropriate for every occasion thereby influencing the communities in which they operate. The major advantage of this is that it allows the firm to introduce new customers in a cost-effective manner while strengthening the relationships with previous customers. The company selects well-known influencers to partner up who are then selected for the purpose of targeting specific markets and customer groups. This strategy has no measure disadvantage.

Cross-Channel and Mobile: According to the strategy of New Superdry 5.0, the company puts core focus on 8 channels within the market (Rigby, 2018). Currently, it is prioritizing the e-commerce and wholesale channel of "capital-light" which are both growing very fast. The company has integrated some modern technologies recently. The advantages of these technologies are that it has helped them in including sales at the mobile point as well as access the live inventory to enable exceptional customer service as well as increase the sales that are incremental in nature. Mobile operations are growing fast in the digital arena and Superdry has successfully used its application.

The Customer: A core strategy of Superdry is that they have invested significantly in user experience. One instance of these investments is that they delivered nearly 700 improvements in the previous year which involves the trials of different techniques such as iBeacons. Putting a significant amount of focus on the customer has helped it to grow its operations in the long run. This is the most important advantage of this strategy. Currently, the company is focusing on growing its operations in China with the help of a joint venture with the Trendy International Group (Nazir, 2020).

Innovation and Strategy: Superdry’s 36.3%sales comes from women wear. Hence they have identified this prospect as a major opportunity. Hence the brand puts a significant amount of focus to identify and understanding the people who are buying Superdry products. This is an important strategy and it can be quite useful as it can help the company in meeting the market needs. The company further incorporated the technology of Radio frequency identification (RIFD) in 5 of their stores which yielded the benefits of labor efficiency and inventory accuracy in store. The company plans to incorporate this technology in more of their stores as it has no major disadvantage.

Logistics and Operations: Superdry works towards the creation of a single consolidated pool of inventory across its wholesale and retail. The major benefit of this strategy is that it will help the company keep its wholesale, eCommerce, and store stocked thereby maximizing profit through various sales channels. The company Further implemented a relatively new order management system in their e-commerce and multichannel capabilities were further extended to their European distribution center (Santamaria, 2017). This helped in speeding up the process to the market fulfill the demands of online sales.

Part 2

As discussed in the previous section, Superdry has employed a number of corporate strategies over the years which has helped in its growth since its establishment. These strategies show instances of horizontal and/or vertical integration. The company has become quite successful over the years. However, some recommendations can be provided as to how they can further improve their operations. These have been outlined in the following

• Innovative promotion of sales: Management of different companies within particular their respective industries often involves the facing of high completion from a number of major competitors. For instance, when a new variety of products is developed, the management should make sure that market awareness is present in relation to the product. Proper market awareness will lead to the consumer purchasing the new product. One sales promotion strategy that Superdry can employ is the distribution of the first lot of products at a highly discounted price. This will facilitate the launch of the product within the market thereby increasing the company's revenue over time.
• Increase of involvement in the CSR activities: From the discussion of the corporate strategies of Superdry in the previous section, it is clear that their involvement in CSR activities is rather less. Hence it is highly recommended that the management of Superdry integrates the concept of CSR in their operations. Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR refers to the ethical responsibilities of a particular firm. It should the maintenance of CSR activities helps a company in improving the livelihood of the society as well as its employees. This indirectly builds a better brand image thereby facilitating sales. In this regard, it should be mentioned that the firm exerts some effect on the society it exists in, and the society, in turn, exerts some effects on the operations of the firm. The company's profits are derived directly from the society in which it is residing. Hence CSR activities should be properly maintained.

Part 3

The specific industry in which Superdry operates is the retail store industry. Some major competitors of the company involve Walmart and Tesco. However, the industry of retail store attracts a wide range of customer as it mainly deals in several basic items of daily use such as clothes and food. In the case of Superdry, the main product that the company deals in is a clothing item. In the following section, the company's business strategy in the retail store industry has been analyzed through Porter's Five Forces analysis.

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

Competitive rivalry: The retail industry has rather high competitive rivalry. Several companies offer the same product as Superdry. Some major competitors of Superdry involve Zara, Tesco, Gap, Marks and Spencer, Aldi, and Walmart. There is significantly less differentiation between the products offered by these companies. Hence companies like Superdry can only grow through stealing products from other competitors. Hence, there is high competitive rivalry (Ferdinand & Tresyanto, 2020).

Threat of new entrant: The threat of a new entrant within the retail industry is comparative less. High investments are required for proper establishment of stores which can compete with the stores of already existing firms. For instance, companies like Superdry, Tesco and Walmart have several stores throughout UK and new entrants will need to have extensive connections as well as resources to set up stores that can compete with the stores of theses companies.

Supplier’s Power: In a majority of the cases, the supplier’s bargaining power is low within the retail industry. This is due to the fact that several vendors deal with the same product. Moreover, there are a variety of substitutes are available that the retailers can easily sell. Also the switching cost that the companies will have to incur to switch suppliers is low. However, Superdry operates in only clothing retail and so the suppliers hold a specific level of power the company (Adelakun, 2020).

Threat of Substitutes: The thereat of substitutes within the retail industry is rather high. Customers can easily switch to another product which suits there fashion, taste or some other preference. The costs of switching are also low and most retail stores such as superdry keep a wide range of products which allows customers to switch easily. An important factor that can lead to customers switching to another product is its price. An uninformed rise in prices without any particular change in the quantity or quality of the clothing item can cause customers to shift to other items.

Buyer’s Power: In the retail industry the buying power is quite low. This is due to the presence of a huge number of buyers. Moreover, most of the retail stores keep different daily essential products. Hence, the only option to the customer is to buy these products. This Superdry also which operates in clothing retail. Further customers are often seen to make small purchases which lead them to losing their bargaining power.

In relation to the industry in which the company operates, Superdry has employed a number of strategies in their operations which has facilated its growth over the years. These include social and digital marketing campaigns, putting significant focus on their customers, incorporation of mobile and other cross-channel technologies and focusing on some other aspects such as innovation, strategy, logistics and operations. The pros and cons of these strategies have been discussed in the part 1.

Recommendations

Based on the industry in which Superdry operates, some recommendations can be provided for growth of the company within the industry in the future.

• As discussed the competitive rivalry in the retail industry is quite high due to the presence of a huge number of competitors. To deal with this, Superdry should make sufficient investments in research as well as development (Cardoso Filho, et al., 2019)). Efficiency in research and development is very important and the company’s management should make sure that firm always has the necessary technologies and competencies. This would easily help in adding value to the products of the company. Further proper research and development will also help the company to develop new categories of clothing which will facilitate its global market penetration.
• The management at Superdry should further incorporate the SRM concept that is Supplier relationship management. In the retail industry the supplier bargaining power is less. However, specifically for Superdry, the bargaining power of supplier is a bit high. Hence, the company needs to incorporate supplier relationship management and through it establish a good relationship with its suppliers (Wood and Kollewe, 2021). This will help the company to maintain their supplies and distribution.

Conclusion

The entire report has been divided into three main parts. The first part has analyzed the existing corporate strategies of the company. Based on the discussion in part 1, the part 2 has attempted to provide 2 clear strategic recommendations for Superdry. Lastly, in part 3 the industry in which Superdry operates have been analyzed and some recommendations have been provided for further improvement in this industry.

Reference

Adelakun, A. (2020). Should Porters Five Forces have value in Businesses today. Computing for Business (BSC) Aston University Birmingham.

BBC News (2019) What went wrong at Superdry? Available at: https://www.bbc.com/ news/ business-47524589 (Accessed: 17 April 2021).

Cardoso Filho, C. A., Claudino, J. G., Lima, W. P., Amadio, A. C., & Serrão, J. C. (2019). Superdry Women's Mila Stripe Midi Dress. Revista Brasileira de Medicina do Esporte, 25(3), 252-257.

Eley, J. (2020) ‘Superdry shares dive as profit warning dents turnround hopes’, The Financial Times, 10 January. Available at: https://www-ft-com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/ content/ 85fbc31a-3377-11ea-9703-eea0cae3f0de (Accessed: 17 April 2021).

Ferdinand, D. Y. Y., & Tresyanto, C. A. (2020). Marketing Strategy Using Porters Five Force Model Approach: A Case Study At The Culinary Center In Sidoarjo Regency. International Journal of Business and Management Invention (IJBMI), 9(11), 44-48.

Nazir, S. (2020a) ‘Superdry exits China after strategic review’, Retail Gazette, 18 June. Available at: https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/ blog/ 2020/ 06/ superdry-exits-china-after-strategic-review/ (Accessed: 22 April 2021).

Nazir, S. (2020b) ‘How Superdry can get back into fashion’, Retail Gazette, 17 January. Available at: https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/ blog/ 2020/ 01/ how-superdry-can-get-back-into-fashion/ (Accessed: 17 April 2021).

Rigby, C. (2018) Superdry posts 25% rise in online sales after focus on 'capital light' channels and international expansion. Available at: https://internetretailing.net/ strategy-and-innovation/ strategy-and-innovation/ superdry-posts-25-rise-in-online-sales-after-focus-on-capital-light-channels-and-international-expansion-18020 (Accessed: 17 April 2017).

Santamaria, B. (2017) SuperGroup changes name to Superdry to reflect global brand identity. Available at: https://uk.fashionnetwork.com/ news/ supergroup-changes-name-to-superdry-to-reflect-global-brand-identity,873132.html (Accessed: 22 April 2021).

Superdry (2021b) About us: our history. Available at: https://corporate.superdry.com/ about-us/ our-history/ (Accessed: 22 April 2021).

Superdry (2021d) Annual Report and Accounts 2020. Available at: https://corporate.superdry.com/ media/ 2821/ 27279-superdry-annual-report-2020-webready.pdf (Accessed: 14 April 2021).

Wood, Z. and Kollewe, J. (2021) ‘Superdry warns over going concern risks as Covid-19 hurts sales’, The Guardian, 19 January. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/ business/ 2021/ jan/ 19/ superdry-covid-19-sales-shares-revenues (Accessed: 22 April 2021).