Prada is an Italian fashion label company based in Milan, which specializes in luxury goods and products. Some of the company’s main products include leather accessories, luggage, ready-to wear apparel, shoes and hats, among other distinctive fashion products. Having been founded in 1913 by Mario Prada alongside his brother Martino, the company has been in operation for the last one century and over the time, it has transformed into one of the most successful and influential fashion houses in the world today.
Prada Group is well-known for its original products and its leading portfolio of luxury goods and fashion products across the global markets. This report provides an in-depth analysis of the company whereby aspects such as value chain, geographic scope and competitive advantage are observed.
Through its superior nature of internal organization, Prada has been observed to be a good example of how businesses can utilize the concept of value chain in making a difference in the market. The term value chain is used to describe all activities and processes that are involved to ensure that a product or service is finally delivered to the end-users, in the desired form and shape (Heskett and Sasser, 1997).
Value chain involves all technologically and physically distinct activities undertaken by firms in ensuring that they add quality and value to their customer experience approaches. The company’s exclusive value chain model has been a useful tool in defining its core competence in the luxury market.
As a reputed global leader in designing and producing luxury products, Prada applies a well-laid chain value. The company’s focused planning and coordination of internal and external processes has made it one of the most acclaimed global leaders in luxury products.
To begin with, Prada Group is known world wide for their effective management processes and excellent strategies of doing business. The company’s management team has always tried to ensure that all parties in the production department come into terms with the company’s market objectives. This plays a significant role in ensuring that quality and value permeates all segments of the firm’s operations.
Every step of the entire production process, within and outside the company, is carefully designed and monitored to maintain the company’s uncompromised quality in all its products (Davenport and Brooks, 2004).
More importantly, the company utilizes a unique industrial process management and this has enabled them to constantly thrive in the competitive luxury business market. This way, the firm’s excellent value chain has over the time enabled it to transform re-invention and innovation ideas in fashion into unmatched quality and exclusivity, as it is evident in most of their top brands.
As a successful fashion company, Prada has always acknowledged the contribution made by its suppliers towards its overall success in business. This recognition has over the years succeeded in facilitating good ties between the company and its suppliers. The company believes in long term business relationships with all its suppliers, and this has been one of the major forces behind the company’s flow of standard quality in all its brands.
There are numerous notable ways through which Prada differentiates itself from competitors in the market. Apart from their exemplary value chain approach which is said to be incomparable to none of any other known company, the firm is also reputed for the nature of the raw materials used in designing most of its high-end products.
Over the years, Prada Family has made headlines for using unique and elegant raw materials to design its products. The materials used in manufacturing Prada brands are of high quality and this is something which comes out clearly whenever consumers try to compare the products from the company with those of the competitors’ in the market. Prada consumers are guaranteed of quality stylish products made from unique raw materials and this gives them value for their money on the products.
The company’s in-house production capability is significant in that, it maintains originality of products, while retaining the firm’s ability to come up with unique and unmatched luxury products. The company’s value chain is controlled through effective management of programs and activities as it is enforced by managers in various operational units. One of the most notable business tactics used by Prada is its agility to respond in a timely fashion to changing preferences and trends in the luxury market (Power, 2010).
The company normally reacts to changing market trends by ensuring that it supplies products which tend to match the preferences of the consumers. Innovation and re-invention approaches are some of the major creative efforts applied by the company’s development team in designing new products. Prada believes in coming up with new designs, as one way of making its products more fashionable. This, coupled with the firm’s control over technology has enabled it to maintain their quality standards in the market.
As a giant player in the world of luxury products, Prada Group covers a wide geographical area of the world. The company operates in about 70 nations via 345 store outlets that are operated directly, a good number of franchise stores, plus a chain of chosen high-profile mega-stores and also luxury sector stores.
This way, the firm has comprehensively covered many regions, thus making its products available to people all over the world. However, most of the company’s major stores are found in the United States. Other outlets have also been established in other developed countries such as China and Japan, among other regions that are certain to offer big market opportunities for luxury brands.
Prada’s competitive advantage in the market has always been based on aspects such innovation and re-invention of design, among other business tactics employed by the company in maintaining quality standards of its brands. Another competitive advantage of the company is its ability to make use of reliable suppliers to help distribute their products to their customers allover the world (Lobo, 2008).
It is also apparent that the company has also established its sustainable competitive advantage on the overall commitment of its workforce, which is dedicated in offering nothing less of the best to their esteemed consumers. As observed from this report, Prada Group is a well-established company, and this coupled with a century of experience in the field places it far ahead of its competitors.
The idea of using effective and reliable channels of communication in the modern era to establish the preferences of consumers is another competitive advantage enjoyed by the company. This way the company is able to change with the market trends in relevance to the customers’ preferences, thus maintaining strong business relationships with the end-users.
References
Davenport, T. & Brooks, J. (2004). Enterprise systems and the supply chain. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 17(1), 8-19.
Heskett, J., & Sasser, W. (1997). The service profit chain: How leading companies link profit and growth to loyalty, satisfaction, and value. New York: Free Press Publishing Company.
Lobo, A. (2008). Enhancing luxury cruise liner operators’ competitive advantage: A study aimed at improving customer loyalty and future patronage. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 25(1), 1-12.
Power, D. (2010). The difference principle? Shaping competitive advantage in the cultural product industries. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 92(2), 145-158.