1) History of Arcadia Group

Arcadia Group was formed in the Pre World War 2 era by entrepreneur Montague
Burton, one of the forefathers of modern retailing. The company initial name was
The Cross- Tailoring company. In 1900, Lithuanian emgire Montague Burton arrives
at Britain and borrow Euro 100 pound to set up his own menswear business in
Chesterfield. Burtons’s initial operation consist of a men’s clothing manufacture,
tailoring and retailing operation which became the core foundation for the current
Burton menswear chain, as remains as one of the subsidiary outlet in the company.

In 1914, Burton became the first tailor to be in charge of tailoring for nearly a
quarter of the armed forces . By the end of World War 2 . Burton has employed over
a hundred staff at the Leeds headquarters. Seven years later, Hudson Road factory
in Leeds was developed by Burton , now this factory has become the Arcadia
Group’s accounting and facilities teams. Within 15 years , this clothing factory has
become largest in the Europe continent. The company has become so famous that it
was visited by the Princess Royal in 1934 and Burtons is awarded knighthood in
1931 for his philanthropic approach to every employees that he employed. By the
end of World War 2, Burton has craved its name to be one of the clothing factory
responsible in tailoring a fifth of the British male population.

In 1946, Burton Company accuired the Peter Robinson women ‘s fashion chain as its
next approach to target the ladies market. When Sir Monatague dies, he manage to
raise the company status as the largest multiple tailor in the world with over 600
stores in the Europe continent. Later, Burton company was given the honour of
becoming the the official sponsor for the world cup in 1966.

In the mid 60s era, The Peter Robinsons company revamped its name to Topshop.
This was a move to develop and bring walk way fashion into the high streets of
London. Topshop has positioned itself to a trendy , young and modern ladies wear
outlet , a role it continues to hold. Initially , Peter Robinson only create another line
within its stores. However , due to the overwhelming response from its respective
customer , the first Topshop standalone store was launched in 1974. Eventually, the
Peter Robinson name was deleted and not used anymore.

In the 70s, Burton Group begin another segmentation of market type. This time it
has become more precise in catering the needs of young men . Burton Group decide
to launch Topman the brother of Tophshop . The move was made based on the
decision that the profit gained in capitalizing Topshop catering for the young and
fashion forward has however coincidentally reflect a growth in men’s casual
clothing. Not only so, in the mid 70 eras, there is a significant drop in the sales for
tailored made formal wear suits ( partly due to the changes in taste and rise in
prices.)

In 1971, Evans a line specially tailored for plus size female found its way to be one
of the subsidiary line in Burton Groups. Eight year later , Dorothy Perkins joins the
Burton Group, thus strengthening and expanding women wear market. What sets
Dorothy Perkins apart from its sisters, is the target market of the groups’s flagship
ladieswear operation that focused on a similar target audience as Burtons in
menswear.

In 1984, Principles became one of the chain in Burtons’s Group. This chain caters to
the fashion conscious women with an indispensable income and loves to indulge
into luxurious fabrics. Mainly the target market will be women that are independent
and loves to dress power suits. Principles for men was launched a year later , 1985,
seeing the success it carries in ladies division. On the same year itself , the Burton
Group acquired Debenhams,( one the largest department store group in UK ) . The
firm also purchased menswear firm Colliers which was now merged as one with
Burton , Topman and Principles for Men chains.

A series of dermerging and reshuffling events occurred which finally leads to the
formation of Arcadia Group in 1997, that is born out of the old Burton Group ,
diverting its department store business to focus on its fashion multiples. During the
mid year of 1990 , the group acquires Sears womenswear businesses , comprising
the warehouse , Wallis , Richards ,Miss Selfridge and Outift brands from the defunct
Sears plc. Not long after that, the group decided to demerge Richards while shops
in suitable locations were rebranded under other Arcadia store brands. Arcadia
continue to reinvest on other subsidiaries chains from Sears plc.

At last in 2002 , Arcadia group Plc was brought by taveta Investments , owned by
Taveta Ltd based in Jersey. The taveta company is owned by Philip Green’s family,
the sole director then was Christina green , the wife of billionaire Philip green . Such
takeover from taveta resulted in Arcadia Group to become a private company and
was delisted from the London stokc exchange.

In the present time, Arcadia has undergoes many reforms and some chain stores
that was once owned has been sold out to other company.

Below will be a summary listing of the Arcadia Group’s current and former
operation.

Former Operation (alphabetical order)

1) Debenhams- demerged from group and become a separate company in 1998

2) Etam-closed shortly after purchase

 3) Hawkshead-sold to Rubicon retail

4) Innovations- sold to Gus in 1997

5) Peter Robinson- rename itself thus becoming Topshop

6) Principles- sold to Rubiscon Retail, now onwded by debenhams

7) Principles for Men- closed

8) Racing Green- sold to Rubiscon Retail

9) Richards- closed shortly after purchase

10) Su214- closed

11) Wade Smith- sold circa 2002

12) Warehouse- sold to Rubinson Retail

Current operation (alphabetical order)

1) BHS- department store with Burton/ Dorothy Perkins/ Wallis/ Evans & Miss
Selfridges, Burton

2) Dorothy Perkins

3) Evans

4) Miss selfridge

5) Outfit

6) Tammy- a clothing line sold within BHS, no standalone store

7) Topman

8) Topshop

9) Wallis

2) Marketing Mix of Topshop (subsidiary line for) Arcadia Group

What makes Arcadia group such as successful company lies in the secret of its
diverse target market. Firstly, lets have a look at British Home Stores (Bhs) Bhs is a
British department store with branches mainly located in the high streets of
London . This store has the primary concept of selling clothing, homeware and also
partly offering delicious foods at its various restaurant. To be more precise , it is the
building of our One Utama and Ikea combined together. British Home Store offers so
many product ranging from Christmas shop category ( confectionaries to DVD sets
& games), homeware, furniture, lighting, Electrical, Women clothing, Lingerie ,
Tammy collection , babies products to even wedding gowns. Bhs has one mission
that is to become the best in High Streets that is to offer the best shopping
experience for customers and provide the most ideal environment to work with. In
order to archive this mission , bhs has not only offer quality products but also
quality services. For instance on its Home Stores range , there is the beautifully
designed retail experiences focusing exclusively on products for the home. British
Home stores also realize there is the need to position their products as the first
choice in most consumer by constantly re-innovating. In the mid- 1990s , the brand
saw a further re-invention under guidance of the retail design house “20:20” Bhs
has renovated most of its store chains with a “millennium concept’ by using softer
‘bhs “ logo and warm interior lighting concept, Such is another clever perspective
for Bhs to rebrand and re-position itself in the minds of consumers . In the product
perspective, Bhs not only offer convenience product such as confectionaries and
gifts for special occasion , but also shopping product likes clothing and specialty
products such homeware and even wedding gowns.

1)Marketing Mix – Topshop Products

Topshop being one of the most successful and profitable chains of the Arcadia
Group has its share of secrets. Firstly, the outlet itself has a target market of ladies
aged 16 to 35 years old. This signifies consumers born in the era of generation X
who loves to indulge in the most current and outstanding trends. The product that is
sold in Topshop consists of shopping products such as ladies wears , accessories
( glasses , bags and purse) , lingerie to even shoes and boots. What makes Topshop
products differ from other brands of Arcadia Group is its fashion forward nature and
quality material. The products sold mainly shout out to customers that what you
see in the latest runway is what you will get (Topshop is amongst the first clothing
line to transfer the runway look into the everyday wear of normal consumer).

The clothing line is also sensitive to environmental changes that happen in recent
years, One of its eco friendly move is to produce clothes that are able to be washed
under low temperature ( decrease the usage of electricity), and tag every product
with a reusable print logo. Beside that, the clothing line has been decreasing the
use of polyethene bags to package their products and re-using card board inserts to
it as footwear. Such move inexplicablely assists consumer to spend with a good
conscience at heart while being able to dress up beautifully.

In order to place Topshop as the most quality assured clothing line, the company
offers customers an option of re-funding their products withn seven days if any of
the purchases was less than satisfactory. Such cases rarely happen as the factory
that was assigned to produce the product has to undergo strict quality assurance
procedure, This result in customer being able to shop without worries.

Try asking any ladies in their mid 20s “ where is the place to go if I were to get the
most in look?” And there are a 60 % chance that you will get Topshop in the list.
The question for us here will be why is the brand so successful , how did it make
every one in UK to be queuing up to buy that limited edition dress or even pre-order
one just before the launch of it in respective clothing line. The answer to these
question lies in its name : Topshop. The shop that is the first to transfer runway
look to the lives of everyday girl. The first shop to collaborate with a nostalgic
supermodel Kate Moss and launch its own clothing line. The first shop to officially
sponsor London Fashion Week by launching budding designer creations . Such
achievement make customer to not only feel they are the top in fashion but top in
style.

However, all products has the undeniable fate of undergoing a life cycle especially
dace paced industry of fashion. So how did Topshop handle the unpredictable
changes in customer taste? This is seen in tis clever tactics of playing with visual
and prices. Topsho has a clever way of extending the life cycle of a particular trend.
During market introduction , Topshop will have its new trend of clothes and
accessories wore by supermodels or famous celebrities alike, They will be
photographed and posted on the official website of Topshop and advertised n those
local or international fasion magazine. In various shop outlet, Topshop will have its
visual merchandiser setting up more of the newest trend on easy to spot areas
( such as those that were worn by mannequins, or near the entrance of the shop0
.As every season , three is more than one trend and each trend itself has a multiple
way of wearing a particular look , most visual merchandiser will decorate each shop
differently. In market introduction phase, the most crucial thing that topshop does
is to spot a new trend first than its competitors and seeing it to mass market.

During market growth of a trend of say the sweet 60s look , we can start to spot
more of our competitor selling a rather similar idea with Topshop. The clothing line
itself will then start to cut down some of products prices to 10% (mostly product
that are still hard to sell of from the shop itself ) while at the same time maintaining
the 60s trend by having its more diverse range of patterns and look ( for instance a
stripe marine color shirt can come in various other color). In this period also, if
particular product has been sold out in one of its outlet and was still a hot request
from the customer, the shop will the call other outlet to send in that product to that
stall. This move is done to prevent product wastage by not re-ordering a new stock
from the factory.

As the market mature, Topshop will be begin to further cut down most of its 60s
trend to a further mark down of 20%to 30 % sale. While at the same time ,the
clothing line will start to inject and introduce one of the newer fashion trend. You
can notice that the whole visual lay out of the shop change completely, the sweet
60s look that was once introduced will not be placed at sales side of the store or
even to a less noticeable area, while a new trend will e spotted at the attention –
grabbing area such as the mannequins.

When demands for the 60s look start to decline , Topshop will then start its monthly
50 to 70% price drop in product that weren’t able to sale, the clothing line still
maintain the practice of transferring goods to other outlet if demands are there.
After more than 3 weeks , the shop itself will then clear off whatever remaining
products that were available previously and sent back to the factory. In the factory,
the company will keep these product until a half a yearly staff sales come about, it
has become one of the inintiative for the clothing line to rever most of the cost of
the product ( in staff sale, price will be dropped to less than 50 bucks for most out
dated products ). After the whole cycle ends , you can actually notice that , Topshop
has made a gain in every of its new trned introduced ,as most of the time prices
marked on the latest season will be 4 times more than its actual costs. This is to
help cover costs of whatever product there were not able to sell out later.

3) Marketing Mix – Topshop outlet.

Topshop has actually strategized its outlet into more than 300 stores across United
Kingdom and another 200 stores across the world such as Malaysia , China , United
States and Japan. The company is clever in setting up its outlet by finding the right
location. Careful analyse and research has to be done before opening a chain ,
mostly the company will like to find a place where there is high traffic of middle
income and above consumer and poses potential attraction to tourists. In United
Kingdom, the Arcadia group will have a direct system to its target market by
offering outlet chains sold in various town and cities alike. However , in countries
other than Europe ,the company will acquire lisenceship of selling Topshop products
by collaborating with local company. Our local company in Malaysia that help in the
distribution of Topshop is called DNP clothing Sdn Bhd.

DNP Clothing Sdn Bhd will act as the indirect channel system where they will be in
charged of opening and distributing Topshop outlet in the hotspot of every state.
The arcadia group has made a wise move by collaborating with local companies to
market their products in foreign lands. As there many micoenvironmental factors to
take into consideration when setting an outlet in foreign land, these local companies
act as distributor and wholeseller that abide by the law and culture of their
countries. For instance, in Malaysia, the local Topshop here will take into
consideration of not distributing much of pig skin products as it is non-halal in
Islamic terms. The marketing strategies here will be slightly different where our
target market here will have a different membership card to obtain than in oversea,
In Uk ,the membership card has a diiferent name and value to it, where as in
Malysia and Singapore, the membershiop card will be known as Fashion Fast
Forward (F3). The DNP Clothing Sdn Bhd will act as a selective distributor where by
its company give special attention to Topshop products and covers the broad area
of market exposure between intensive and extensive distribution. DNP Clothing
Shdn Bhd will be in charge of liasing with the local fashion and media companies
everytime a new trend were about to introduced in the market.

As for the supply chain itself , the arcadia group normally manufactured its
garments and other products in coutires like Cambodia, Turkey , Mexico , and
China. The various factory selected have to follow stringent rules that were lay out
in their code of conduct book . For example; the factory must not produce clothes
that were made of animal skin ( Arcadia Group is a strong supporter of PETA) and
factory itself must solely manufactured Arcadia Group products ( they are not allow
to manufactured products from other competitors). For the logistic chain itself, the
Arcadia Group ensures that they will have their products distributed in most outlet
within a weeks duration , any further delays will be covered by the logistics
companies. This is to ensure that supply and demand are of a equilibrium level.

3) Mareketing Mix – Promotion of Topshop products.