Guess is an American apparels company specializing in men, women and children clothing’s, watches, perfumes, and jewelries; Marciano’s four brothers namely Georges, Maurice Marciano, Paul and Armand founded it.
The company is also the owner of Marciano apparels company; Guess has an operating name of GUESS?; the company has been in operation since 1981 (Guess Corporate Website, 2011).
This paper undertakes a company analysis of Guess Apparel Company.
The reason why I choose the company is after considering the success it is having in the fiancé competitive apparels industry; the company has been in operation over three generations and still keeps innovating relevant and fashionable products to keep it competitive despite social-economic changes in the world.
The company’s profile
History
Guess was listed in the New York stock exchange in 2010, twenty-eight years after its first branch was established at Los Angeles to deal with men and women clothing.
Currently the chief executive office (C.E.O.) is Paul Marciano and its Chairman or co-chief executive officer is Maurice Marciano; the leaders are responsible of over 8800 employees.
In 2006, the company’s sales amounted to $1.19 billion of which the net profit after tax and interest is $123.2 million (Guess Corporate Website, 2011).
Ethos / Philosophy
The success of the company amidst competitive apparel industry can be seen in its management strategic decisions; they have robust marketing team supported by well-managed human capital that has the philosophy of continuous improvement through research and customer behavior analysis.
Identity
The company has an identity name as GUESS? Which is well positioned in domestic and international markets; the logo of the company is as follows:
Store environment
The company has a variety of collections, some of them are:
Marketing at Guess
Cohort
Market segmentation is focusing a brand to a certain population in the market; Guess uses different methods of segmentation they include income, status, niche markets creation and class mechanism. The company also prepares for festivals and times of high market to enable it gain higher incomes during these times.
During festive seasons, sometimes the lower class people and the lower medium uses this product and thus the brand should be advertised to the general population during this time (Guess Corporate Website, 2011).
Guess has a variety of products targeting different market segments, the most basic method of segmenting the market is by the use of age parameter; there are apparels for kids of different ages, school going children, adolescents, teen’s young adults and the mature population.
The apparels include clothes, like jeans, women tops, shoes, watches, accessories and jewelries. Periodically to meet the demand of the market and to remain relevant, the company engages in massive innovation, invention and products developments.
The brand of products are targeted to high class people in the society, upper medical class market and those people who value recognition and being acknowledged. These are peopling who like quality and uniqueness.
They are not much interested with the cost of the products and actually they have a feeling that the higher the cost the better the quality. To be successful selling to this class of people, the company undertakes numerous campaigns and researcher to observe the trend (Mercer, 1996).
In 2010, when the country was celebrating its twenty years of success, the company got a chance to launch its special-edition Guess watch, it has also and diversified it brands to low income earners through its outlet of Marciano.
Other than having products for all people in the population with their ages, the company has created a strong brand name and forms one of the designer apparels; in the field of designer, they aim at offering high quality products that meet niche markets created in the market for its own development and growth (Jones, 2000).
Lifestyle
One of the strongest market areas of the company is the sale of men apparels; in this category, the company has shoes, clothes, jeans, watches, and perfumes. Men Jeans have been the marker driver and have made the company remain competitive in local and international markets.
In October 2006, the company aimed at reinforcing the men market when it invented a line of shoes of different sizes to the segment of the market; one year down the line, the company had 15 styles ranging between sandals to dress shoes, the new invention has been seen as one area that is driving the company’s sales.
In spring of 2007, with the same target market, the company decided to venture into designer watch collections and it started stocking GC watch collection, which were highly priced but good enough to cater for the market and create niche markets.
The fast developments that the company is undertaking can be attributed to research and development programs that have led to creativity and innovativeness from the company.
The management understands that creativity can only be attained if the company has a clear understanding of what the people want (Mooij, 2009). What is fashionable for which population is known through research and development; the research is done in countries and continents that the company has establishments.
To be able to blend, culture/tradition, modern life and class a lot of research is required. Research data is gotten right from the field, from internet and feedbacks from customers (Alvin, 2006)
Geographical locations
Guess presence is not only in the United States; however it has its branches in different countries; like Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe, when operating in other counties it takes the option of supplying goods from the united states. To remain competitive, the company embarks on brand management.
Guess ensures that its brands are unique and superior to those of its competitors. The company brand management has the role of ensuring that a certain brand remains marketable and competitive in the market, and when it fades, the company has devised another brand that takes the market.
To do this, Guess ensures it undertakes massive customer behaviors trends so that it can come up with products to fit the needs its customers. The marketing teams are also robust to ensure that they aggressively sell these products. A lot of research is undertaken to look for ways that the brand can be improved.
Another way that the brand is maintained is direct/personal selling of Guess products to modelers and people who have influence. These include footballers, modelers and high-ranking people like politicians, some of the public figures who have featured in adverts are Claudia Schiffer, Carres Otis and Eva Harzigova.
When they put on the products, they influence a large population and remind those people of the superiority of the brand (Groucutt, Leadley, Forsyth, 2004).
The men market segment has been diversified further to include branded watches, wallets inner wears, caps, and belts. The products are available in the company’s over 1210 stores distributed over 80 countries; other than in the company’s outlet, its products can be found in more than 19 licensed outlets.
References
Alvin J., 2006. What is marketing? New York: Harvard Business Press.
Jones, P., 2000. International advertising: realities and myths. London: Sage.
Groucutt, J., Leadley, P., Forsyth, P.,2004. Marketing: essential principles, new realities. New York: Kogan Page Publishers.
Guess Corporate Website., 2011. Web.
Mercer, D., 1996. Marketing. New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell.
Mooij, K. , 2009. Global Marketing and Advertising: Understanding Cultural Paradoxes. London: Sage.