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Tajuddin Ahmed HRM 410 North South University


Date of Submission: August 01, 2011

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Owner of one of the most popular brand names in the United States, Fossil,
Inc., designs, markets, and distributes fashion watches, leather goods, sunglasses, and other merchandise for retail sale on an international basis. Fossil grew quickly during the 1980s, propelled by the retrospective designs of its watches, which were inspired by magazine advertisements from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. After recording phenomenal success with the sale of its watches in the United States, the company entered international markets and diversified its product line to include leather goods and sunglasses during the 1990s. In addition to marketing merchandise under the Fossil brand name, the company also marketed a line of less expensive fashion watches under the Relic label.

ounded in 1984, Fossil represented the second entrepreneurial effort launched by Tom Kartsotis, a Texas A&M dropout living in Dallas. When he was in his early twenties, Kartsotis and a partner operated a ticket brokerage business in Dallas, where the two entrepreneurs enjoyed moderate success by hawking tickets to Dallas Cowboy football games and other events. But "I didn't want to be a 30-year-old ticket scalper," Kartsotis confided to Forbes a decade after founding the business that would launch him toward fame and wealth. The inspiration that led Kartsotis into his second business venture came from a suggestion by his older brother, Kosta Kartsotis, a merchandising executive at Sanger Harris, a large, Dallas-based department store chain. Kosta told Tom about the large profits that could be made from importing retail goods made in the Far East, particularly the money that could be made in importing moderately-priced fashion watches. Date of Submission: August 01, 2011 Tom Kartsotis flew to Hong Kong without any concrete plans about his business future except to investigate the possibilities of starting an import/export business. During his travels around Hong Kong, Kartsotis explored various import/export
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possibilities, including dealing in stuffed animals and toys, but finally settled on the suggestion made by his brother. Kartsotis hired a Hong Kong manufacturer to produce 1,500 watches and brought the products back to the United States where he sold the watches to Dallas department stores and boutiques. These sales marked the fledgling moments of his new company, Overseas Products International. Before consumers could flock to their local stores and snatch up Fossil watches, Kartsotis needed to broaden and deepen his distribution network. With financing from Asian manufacturers and after several years of peddling his products to an increasingly greater number of retailers, however, Kartsotis' company stood on the brink of explosive growth. By 1987, Fossil, Inc., as the company was now called, was collecting $2 million in sales a year after having established a solid reputation among Texas retailers. Kosta Kartsotis joined the company in 1988, midway through the most prolific period of growth in Fossil's short history. Kosta Kartsotis' job was to help the company sells its watches to department stores--the area of his expertise--and ensure that as many retailers as possible stocked Fossil watches.

By the end of the decade, there was ample evidence that the efforts toward
increasing Fossil's distribution network were successful. In 1989, the company generated $20 million in sales, having increased its revenue volume tenfold in two years, and made one important change in its marketing approach that spurred further growth in the years ahead. In 1989, the company began packaging its watches in elaborately decorated tin containers and wooden boxes, which strengthened the nostalgic appeal of Fossil merchandise. To further excite consumer demand, a marketing campaign was launched featuring Fossil watches on the wrists of models engaged in adventurous activities in exotic settings, an approach that evoked comparisons to the popular mystique surrounding the "Indiana Jones" films.

The leap from $2 million to $20 million in sales between 1987 and 1989 bred irrepressible optimism for the 1990s, as the company quickly evolved from an entrepreneurial whim to a fast-rising company attracting considerable attention from the retail business press. As with any company able to register robust financial growth, an equal, if not greater pace of expansion was expected in the future, something Kartsotis hoped to achieve during the 1990s by penetrating international markets, expanding domestically, and diversifying into other product lines.

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During the first few months of the 1990s, Fossil was deriving nearly all its
business from selling watches in the United States. Roughly three percent of the company's sales came from international markets when the decade began, but this would soon change. So too would its reliance on the sale of watches as the sole source of revenue. In 1990, the company introduced a line of leather goods and it introduced a new brand of watches.

Enviable sales growth continued as Fossil entered the 1990s, with sales climbing from $20 million in 1989 to $32.5 million in 1990. A greater increase was recorded the following year, when sales leaped to $57.1 million, as the strength of the Fossil brand name increased and drove sales upward. Located on the main floor of Macy's flagship store in New York City, the Fossil shop represented a marketing boon for the Texas-based company, its debut a precursor to the retail outlets Fossil would open on its own during the mid1990s.

Sales in 1992 jumped to $73.8 million, more than 90 percent of which was generated by the sale of Fossil and Relic watches. The company's foray into the design and marketing of leather goods accounted for less than five percent of total sales by this point, but this complementary side business would become more important to Fossil's bottom line in the near future.

In June 1993, Fossil completed its initial public offering of stock, selling 20 percent of the company to investors, with Tom Kartsotis retaining 40.5 percent control over the company and his brother Kosta retaining 18.8 percent ownership. The proceeds from the conversion to public-ownership yielded Fossil $19 million, half of which was earmarked for reducing the company's debt, while the remainder was set aside as working capital.

The year of Fossil's initial public offering of stock proved to be a busy one for the nine-year-old company. By this point, Fossil was producing more than four million watches a year, the actual manufacture of which took place overseas and was conducted by contracted manufacturers. Retailing between $45 and $110 dollars, Fossil watches were sold at more than 2,000 locations, including the department store units of companies such as Carter Hawley Hales Stores,
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Dayton Hudson Corporation, Dillard Department Stores, Federated Department Stores, May Department Stores Company, and R.H. Macy, as well as specialty stores. Relic watches, on the other hand, were targeted for a different market, appearing in retail units operated by Ames Department Stores, J. C. Penney Co., Service Merchandise Co., and Target Stores.

In 1994, the company achieved strides in each direction through three noteworthy developments. Early in the year, Fossil announced plans to add a line of men's leather goods to its merchandise mix, scheduling the shipment of leather key fobs, money clips, and wallets to arrive in time for Father's Day. Next, in April, Fossil moved into what one company official described as "another substantial international market" by signing an agreement with rival Seiko Corporation. Under the terms of the five-year deal, Fossil gave Seiko the rights to distribute Fossil products in Japan through Fostim, a wholly owned subsidiary controlled by Seiko, thus allowing the Texas-based company entrance into the Japanese market.

In 1995, the extensive line of Fossil fashion watches was sold in department stores and in other upscale retail settings in more than 50 countries. International sales were accounting for much of the company's sales growth by the end of 1995 as sales growth in the United States began to ebb. By early 1996, the company was operating 20 retail outlets compared to four units the year before and was counting on overseas markets to provide financial growth for the late 1990s. Toward this end, the company acquired 81 percent of the Seiko-owned Fostim in April 1996, paying $700,000 in cash to gain greater control over the distribution of Fossil products in Japan. After the acquisition Fostim was renamed Fossil Japan and figured to be one of the primary areas of focus for Fossil as the company charted its plans for the late 1990s. The Company wholesale customer base includes retailers, such as Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's, Dillard's, JCPenney, Kohl's, Sears, Wal-Mart and Target. It also sells it products in the United States through a network of company-owned stores, which included 127 retail stores located in retail sites and 74 outlet stores located in outlet malls.

Fossil, Inc. products are distributed in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Central and South America, Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico and the Middle East. The Companys products are offered on airlines, cruise ships, international company-owned Websites and in international company-owned retail stores, which included 126 accessory retail stores, 11 multi-brand stores and 16 outlet stores in select international markets as of January 2, 2010. Its products are also sold through licensed and franchised FOSSIL retail stores and kiosks
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in certain international markets, as well as its Websites in Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Singapore.

The Company offers a line of fashion watches under its brands and under other brands in the world. Its brand includes FOSSIL, MICHELE, RELIC, ZODIAC, ADIDAS, BURBERRY, DIESEL, DKNY, EMPORIO ARMANI, MARC BY MARC JACOBS and MICHAEL Michael Kors.

The Company has developed a line of fashion accessories for both men and women, including handbags, belts, small leather goods, jewelry and sunglasses. It also offers a line of cold weather accessories, including hats, gloves and scarves under the FOSSIL brand, as well as priced handbag collection under the FOSSIL FIFTY-FOUR brand name. Its small leather goods are made of fine leathers or other man-made materials and include items, such as mini-bags, coin purses, cosmetic bags and wallets. The Companys jewelry lines include earrings, necklaces, rings and bracelets marketed under the EMPORIO ARMANI, DIESEL, DKNY and FOSSIL brands

The FOSSIL apparel collection is designed for both men and women and includes jeans, outerwear, fashion tops and bottoms and tee shirts. The products' vintage-inspired style, packaging and graphics capture the energy and spirit of the FOSSIL brand. As of January 2, 2010, the FOSSIL apparel collection is offered through 33 company-owned stores located in malls and retail locations in the United States.

The footwear line includes sport court sneakers, authentic casuals, dress classics and boots with a modern touch for men. It also includes fashionable flats, heels, wedges and boots for women.

The Company is a party to a license agreement with the Safilo Group for the manufacture, marketing and sale of optical frames under the FOSSIL and RELIC brands in the United States and Canada. This provides the Company royalty income based on a percentage of net sales and is subject to certain guaranteed minimum royalties.

The Company competes with Armitron, Citizen, Gucci, Kenneth Cole, LVMH Group, Movado, Raymond Weil, Seiko, Swatch, Swiss Army, TAG Heuer.

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Fossil is a worldwide recognize brand, especially for watches. They have


successfully expanded their business throughout world and gained the increased market share. The objective is achieved through licensing agreement between the companies which made Fossil brand more popular in the market and the distribution channels. Fossil sells its products to department stores and specialty retail stores in over 90 countries worldwide through 13 company-owned foreign sales subsidiaries and through a network of approximately 52 independent distributors. By utilizing their strong balance sheet, including $435 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2010, and future cash flows funding of this program will be carried out.

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With a decline in its main product watches, and consumers moving away to
other accessories, would Fossil still are able to retain its market share and keep generating revenue?

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Fossil is a design, development, marketing and Distribution Company that specializes in consumer products predicated on fashion and value. The company's principal offerings include an extensive line of fashion watches sold under the Company's proprietary FOSSIL, RELIC and ZODIAC brands as well as licensed brands for some of the most prestigious companies in the world, including EMPORIO ARMANI, DKNY, DIESEL and BURBERRY. The Company also offers complementary lines of small leather goods, belts, handbags and sunglasses under the FOSSIL and RELIC brands, jewelry under the FOSSIL and EMPORIO ARMANI brands and FOSSIL apparel. The Company's products are sold in department stores and specialty retail stores in over 90 countries around the world, in addition to the Company's e-commerce website.

The FOSSIL brand has scaled from its origin as a watch brand to encompass
numerous other accessory categories, including handbags, belts, small leather goods, jewelry and sunglasses to a beginning emergence in apparel. The FOSSIL brand is one of our most valuable assets, serves as a foundational piece of our business and remains very scalable across product lines, geographic areas and distribution channels. The diversified brand gives the consumers options to choose between hundreds of designs originated by FOSSIL. This is obvious that this attribute gives FOSSIL a competitive advantage over its competitors.

Since their inception in 1984, they have continued to develop, acquire or license other nationally or internationally recognized brand names in order to appeal to a wide range of consumers, including ADIDAS, BURBERRY, DIESEL,DKNY, EMPORIO ARMANI, MARC BY MARC JACOBS, MICHELE, MICHAEL Michael Kors, RELIC and ZODIAC. Their industry is highly competitive and subject to changing preferences in style, taste and price points.

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The success of their business model depends upon offering a wide range of
branded products that appeal to the various tastes and fashion preferences of our customers. They have teams of designers and product specialists assigned to each of the brands we offer. The objectives of these designers and brand specialists are to immerse themselves in their assigned brand and product area, identify their customers preferences, interpret global fashion trends and develop style-right offerings to generate volume purchasing. By owning the vast majority of our global distribution they are also able to create and execute both consistent pricing strategies and brand image presentations that protect and enhance their proprietary brands and those of their licensors.

This enables FOSSIL to differentiate its products over the diversified market. Allowing the company to develop unique product as per demanded by the consumers.

Fossil's renowned designers constantly study emerging fashion trends to


bring consumers the most innovative and unique products on the market to date. After augmenting the watch selection choice for consumers, Fossil expanded its selection to other fashionable accessory items. Fossil introduced small leather goods in 1992 for men and women. Wallets, belts, key chains and backpacks helped Fossil establish its expertise in leather goods.

In 1995, Fossil moved into the eyewear market introducing uniquely designed sunglasses creatively capturing the Fossil image. In addition, the company began opening a group of outlet stores nationwide creating its own discontinued distribution channel. In 1996, Fossil.com was launched becoming one of the first on-line retailers and began opening several company-owned accessory stores. During 2000, Fossil introduced its first line of apparel, launching it both on-line as well as through several larger format company-owned stores. This latest move represented just one more step in Fossil's effort to strengthen the accessory market with innovative style and quality aiding the company in its continued growth.

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he management is very inefficient when it comes to the inventory management. From the financial statements it is evident that from year 2003 to year 2004 the inventory balance has increased more than 50%. The management themselves have forecasted that the sales from their core products will decrease about 13.4%; the increment in the inventory balance is needed explanation and there is not any.

Since it is forecasted that the sales will decrease it is obvious that now FOSSIL will hemorrhage money due to the rental cost of the warehouses. Since these warehouses charge on daily FOSSIL will bleed out very soon if alternate measures are not taken.

he company operates in more than 90 countries worldwide. This business is operated through 13 company owned foreign sales subsidiaries and 52 independent distributors. Now the problem here is that FOSSIL has adopted a uniform approach in all these nations. They do not have specific plan for any individual country. Since it is a multinational business the company must have a well stated corporate level strategy that can support its different business units across the world.

Having a clear corporate structure will set the path for company. It helps to decide short term and long term goals of the organization. Having a well formed corporate organogram will clearly define the duties and responsibilities of each and every member of the organization and also the outlets will have a clear objective about the business. Strategic alliance or the independent outlets will have a clear vision about what will be their objective or target sales to meet company standard.

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OSSIL is too much concentrated on the brands that are not originated by the company like Armani. These licensed brands are eating away the good will and reputations of the in house brands. If a customer goes to a FOSSIL outlet they will obviously prefer a Gucci or Armani over any FOSSIL brands like Machine, Mechanicals.

These licensed bands are consuming on the in house brand and not only that; to sell these brands FOSSIL had to pay a certain amount of royalty. So FOSSIL is paying royalty fee to these alien brands and also draining the good will of their own brand by doing it. It is obvious that FOSSIL needs to set a standard to create brand awareness.

OSSIL lacks the foresight that is needed to operate business in cross countries. They do no market research before entering the market or launching a new product.

This results that the R&D department may come up with a new model for any particular country which may be a flop in that particular market. This is because there is no research done by the company. FOSSIL is suffering from superiority complex. They think every model designed by is going to be a hit. They focus more on their product and less on the current market trends and demands.

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When it comes to timepiece there is a window of opportunity open before the


watchmaker company. There are so many things can be done with a chronometer. FOSSIL can add modern technologies to their product. By the passage of time technologies have developed at a tremendous rate.

Fossil can add various features to their modern designs like heartbeat meter, built in stop watch; features like these will surely add value to their product.

Now a days people are getting more and more concerned about what
products they are using, is the product environment friendly or not things like that. FOSSIL needs to adapt to this trends and can make products that are ecofriendly.

FOSSIL can take initiative to reduce the carbon footprints that are produced during the production. FOSSIL can take part in reducing the emission of CFC gas in the environment. This will increase value to their goodwill and will help to give a boost to their sales.

FOSSIL has a big problem with their stockpile of unsold products and
finished goods. The inventory balanced increase more than 50% from year 2003 to 2004. IF fossil can take initiative to reduce this huge pile of inventories it will increase the efficiency and boost the sales for sure.

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Inventory cost is the most important part of the total expenses. Since a company have to maintain inventory and there will always be an inventory cost. What FOSSIL can do here is that they can improve their production management and achieve superior efficiency in managing inventory balance.

Most of the suppliers of FOSSIL are owned by the company or they control
majority shareholders. The problem with that now the suppliers know that FOSSIL will buy their product since FOSSIL own the suppliers. So the suppliers will charge higher and they will care less about the product quality.

What FOSSIL can do they can look for more independent suppliers who can offer a lower price and better quality at that range. This will improve the quality of the products and increase company value to the consumers. Independent suppliers will be much more competitive than the company owned suppliers. Because they know if they failed to keep up the pace there will be someone else who will take their place. They know if the slowdown in the highway of business they will not get the chance to step aside; they will get run over.

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The market is already filled with hundreds of thousands of brands and


designs. China and Taiwan alone make 50-70% of all the popular branded watch and also the copies. It is very difficult for FOSSIL since they compete in all four segments of the market. FOSSIL alone has more than 300 designs in their 32 different product lines.

This availability of product enables the high bargaining power of buyers. They have thousands of designs before them so it is obvious that they will ask for lower price. If FOSSIL fails to offer what the customers want they will switch to different products. This makes the competition very difficult.

The market is changing every day. There is always a new product in the
market; new design is kicking out the old design. The shelf life of a regular watch is not very long because of these reasons. Most important thing is that the demand is going down for watches.

On one hand the downstream of demand and on the other hand the additional pressure to innovation makes the business very difficult. There is a threat that FOSSIL may have to dump their old products because of the failure to sale those products.

The trends in the youth segment are changing very fast. It is difficult for any
company to understand or forecast about the upcoming trends or how much appreciated the current product is. Now the product is being used more than a
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chronometer; it has become a part of the fashion. People express their feelings, personality and attitude through their timepiece. This put enormous pressure to any watchmaking company. FOSSIL will be affected more because FOSSIL compete mostly in the segment where consumers are young mostly teens. Trends in this sector change faster that any others.

FOSSIL operates business in more than 90 countries including region like


Europe and Asia. The culture varies from country to country. It becomes more important when it comes to cross continental. Because when it comes to a different continent diversification and difference take off to a new dimension. Centralized control system can back fire in the multinational system because everything is variable here.

Centralized power system will not work here because the Americans will not be able to anticipate the market changes in Dubai by sitting in USA. Information goes fast now a day but sometimes we need be in the place to understand what is actually going on there. Centralized control system is a hinder to that process. Operating in 5/6 countries is one thing but when a company is operating in over 90 countries, centralization of system could be a killer to the company.

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here are four different categories of market for the watches. There are international brand like Rolex, Omega; than they are designer watches like Armani Gucci, Rado and finally there are watches sold by mass marketers. This last segment is for the regular people who are outside most of the time.

Now the problem here is FOSSIL has segmented the market of the basis of the purchasing power of the consumers. For example FOSSILs MW line is competing with the luxury market with brands like Rolex, Piager. And FOSSIL is also selling watches in Wal-Mart. But these entire designs FOSSIL make are targeted to 14 to 24 years of people. FOSSIL have no design for people who are a bit mature. People who love to have a formal watch.

y analyzing the strategy of FOSSIL Inc. it is anticipated that the company is tapping the market by broad differentiation strategy. FOSSIL is trying to enter every market in the industry based on the price range of watches. For example; FOSSILs MW line compete with products ranging from $1500 to $20000 at the same time FOSSIL is producing watches for Wal-Mart at $5 bill. But this strategy overlaps with the low cost strategy and it is obvious that adopting low cost and differentiate at the same time is not possible.

FOSSIL has ignored this factors and conducting the business in a wrong way. Though financial statements shows that the company is making profit it is only because of the hip design of the product. But this will not sustain if FOSSIL does not fix this problems.

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ince it is mentioned in the case that FOSSIL control most of the suppliers by owning them or controlling majority shares. FOSSIL also controls 136 outlets. This indicates that FOSSIL has adopted both backward and forward vertical integration.

This strategy can increase the cost structure of the business. In the long run; continuing purchase from the company owned suppliers when outside independent suppliers can offer the same products at cheaper rate can increase the price of the raw materials. FOSSIL is way too confident about the relationship with their suppliers most of them are situated in China and Hong Kong. FOSSIL did not take into consideration that what will happen if this so called strong bonding with supplier does not work out. Since FOSSIL owns most of these suppliers, now they will not care about the price because the suppliers know that no matter what the price is FOSSIL will have purchase it from them. This will surely increase the cost structure of the company.

OSSIL makes watches and accessories for the consumers. The demand of products like this fluctuates heavily and also depends on many factors like trends, seasons, price and others. Since it is difficult to forecast exact demand there is no guarantee that how much inventory FOSSIL should hold for the upcoming period.

On top of this FOSSIL acquired most of its suppliers; now if the demand of some particular products falls sharply and suddenly FOSSIL will face a severe problem. Because to maintain the preexisting good relationship with the supplier and to honor the contract FOSSIL has to take delivery of products that have no demand in the current market. FOSSIL has no other choice but to store these products in to warehouse and bleeding money for these products. Similar kind of consequences happened to the car manufacturer industry during the recent recession. They produced thousands of cars of which they find no customer.

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OSSIL is so obsessed with its value creation activities that it is not customer oriented anymore. Rather than being consumer oriented FOSSIL is now more product oriented. It is true that FOSSIL has more than 200 models on watches alone. Obviously it is the core product of the company. FOSSILs diversified focus on other accessories lead to a decline in sales of watches which is around 13%. FOSSIL is too busy with the production of the subsidiary products that it is losing money from its core product Timepiece. People go to FOSSIL not buy accessory they go there to purchase a hip watch. Accessories are bought in the middle. FOSSIL has failed to understand this situation.

OSSIL has managed its debt financing in a controversial way; the company is using a Revolving line of credit AKA The Revolver. A revolving line of credit is a commitment from a lender to make available to a borrower a certain amount of credit. As each purchase or advance is made by the borrower, the amount is debited from the amount available. As its repaid that amount becomes available again. A credit card is a good example of the way a revolving line of credit works. The problem with this credit line is FOSSIL has executed this loan by using its outstanding share as collateral. This is a very risky business. If FOSSIL ever failed to make payments in time the common stockholders will be the ultimate suffer.

Another issue is the royalty expenses made by the company. FOSSIL paid more than 29 million in year 2005 and the amount is projected to be higher in the upcoming year. It is vague having more than 250 designs on watches why FOSSIL needs to sell other brands? Instead of wasting this money can invested in R&D to come up with more sophisticated products. People obviously not going to purchase Gucci or Armani watches from FOSSIL outlets. If they want that brand they will go to their own outlets. FOSSIL does not need to be the middle man.

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With global operation and hundreds of employees Fossil yet doesnt have
any workers association. For the benefit and betterment of workers they should have a workers association.

A workers association should be created immediately. Workers association is the rights of employees. It makes sure of that workers can voice their trouble and take steps for management to remove it. With the co operation with workers and management, a workers association can help a lot. It is a doorway for people to stay united and work as a team. This would enable workers to work easily without having to think if they are taken care of or not. Workers association should be created on a global level in accordance with laws of each country. Workers association helps the workers to feel empowered and protected in the company. This is why there are lots of laws regarding labor laws and their rights in every country.

Fossils relationship with its employee is not mentioned anywhere. They have a lot of strategy but no employment strategy is mentioned. So we can see their workers are not integrated well enough. To keep a well integrated and incorporating employment environment there should be a workers association. It is vital for any company with large number of employees so that the employees can channel their voice to the management. This also helps the management to come up with strategies that would benefit workers and help them with all the grievances they might have.

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Fossil works more as a retailer than a well-known brand. This is why their
customers know less about their own Fossil brand. Consumers are well aware about other brand lines they offer through licensing than their own created brand.

This problem can be solved if Fossil Inc. tries to improve its brand awareness. To popularize its brand it can go for massive marketing strategy. It needs to expand its brand towards other countries. This is easily possible by Fossil as it already offers lots of retail shops in 90 different countries. It already has the base which could be easily used to promote their brand and popularize it. Their global outlets would have to prioritize Fossil brands first and then the others. This way without taking too much pressure on advertizing they can easily expand their brand name globally. All their licensed brands are making profit through their products, only Fossil is trying make profit with others product and leading its own products to extinction. This should not be happening in a business that has a global base and really good chance of being great.

They work more as a retail shop and have all the other brands licensed with the. But very few people know about their brand. So they need to create more brand awareness to reach new customers. The reason why people have own product line is because they want to sell stuff and make profit not retail them. If Fossil was to work like a retail shop than they should even have a product line. They are creating competition for themselves in their own shops. Its ridiculous that a company would compete with its own company. So they should focus more on themselves and make profit out of their product line.

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Watch is the main product of Fossils sales strategy and its sales is
plummeting fast. This is a matter of grave concern because without this they might be looking at their own disaster.

The watch market has four segment and Fossil has a great presence on the lower three categories. But fossil is not present in the expensive watch category. So Fossil should expand to that category. By trying to serve all the categories Fossil can make profit more. Also the expensive watch category has a bigger profit margin than others so this would make Fossil financially more good. They need to try this market segment with made in Switzerland high end classy and expensive watches. This way Fossil can save its business and steer away from bankruptcy.

In this era of technology people really dont need to wear watches anymore. But yet people buy them out of sheer curiosity to old classy look of elegance. So everyone thinks of watches as an accessory and is ready to pay more for an elegant and beautiful watch. So by going for the expensive category they could actually increase their profit. They need to pick up their sales and by going upward their sales might go up as well.

Fossils watch sales is going low and fossil did not try to boost it up a notch.
They only reviewed their market data and did not do anything about it.

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Fossil should do a proper market research to find out why their sales are going down. As recommended earlier they should expand their target market. But they also need to improve in their current market. If they could figure out why the market is behaving differently than they would be able to resolve that problem pretty easily. They cannot and should not rely upon other people data as they can be biased to something. They should do a market research of their own and find the root of all their trouble of sales decline. Only then they can take a proper step towards solution.

As Fossils watch sales are declining it should improve its strategy to keep its current market share. Watch is the most important accessories category for Fossil and they really should try to keep it going. New way of attracting consumers is very important to stay in this competitive market. They should look into their marketing strategy and go for a total marketing make over. They need to reach out to customers with improved ideas and innovative designs. Without their watch line they could be out of the market easily.

Their way of doing business is completely wrong. There is an ultimate need of


restructuring of the way they do business and they need to have a better strategy.

They should restructure their business strategy. They need to stop licensing so many brands and stick to only few ones. They also need to focus more on promoting their own brand. FOSSIL can hire external consultants to come up with an effective strategy that will allow them to resolve the problem of ambiguous corporate structure. The rate FOSSIL is doing licensing someday it would become hard for them to manage these. This is why it is vital for FOSSIL to look into this matter immediately.
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They should make a new business strategy. Licensing is wrong when one has the privilege to work for his own brand. By licensing to so many people they are actually hurting their own company. Also people are getting confused about what does Fossil actually does as their shops tend to be filled with goods of their competitors. This way their brand image is deteriorating and someday it would be completely vanished. It is not rational to promote others brand while they have their own brands. They are wasting their time in other people while they could have been the new Gucci, Channel, Armani or Rolex.

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With global operation and hundreds of employees Fossil yet doesnt have
any workers association. For the benefit and betterment of workers they should have a workers association.

A workers association should be created immediately. Workers association is the rights of employees. It makes sure of that workers can voice their trouble and take steps for management to remove it. With the cooperation with workers and management, a workers association can help a lot. It is a doorway for people to stay united and work as a team. This would enable workers to work easily without having to think if they are taken care of or not. Workers association should be created on a global level in accordance with laws of each country. Workers association helps the workers to feel empowered and protected in the company. This is why there are lots of laws regarding labor laws and their rights in every country.

An integrated workers association globally should be created and all the workers would have a protocol and certain benefit under this. This way the workers would feel united not isolated. There would be rules and regulation how the workers association would work and how it would be managed. Unity is the core function of union. All the employees united would create a bigger force than individuals. Through the association employees would be better taken care of and they would be able to ensure their proper rights.
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How to implement

To form an association the workers would have to take vote from all he workers. When most of the workers are in favor of union they would file a petition to the managers and ask for the formation of a workers association.

Whom to implement

The employees have to do this. They would come up with the proposal to the management to grant them the formation of the association.

Where to implement

Within the organization this would have to done.

When to implement

As soon as possible this has to be done.

Fossil works more as a retailer than a well-known brand. This is why their
customers know less about their own Fossil brand. Consumers are well aware about other brand lines they offer through licensing than their own created brand.

This problem can be solved if Fossil Inc. tries to improve its brand awareness. To popularize its brand it can go for massive marketing strategy. It needs to
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expand its brand towards other countries. This is easily possible by Fossil as it already offers lots of retail shops in 90 different countries. It already has the base which could be easily used to promote their brand and popularize it. Their global outlets would have to prioritize Fossil brands first and then the others. This way without taking too much pressure on advertizing they can easily expand their brand name globally. All their licensed brands are making profit through their products, only Fossil is trying make profit with others product and leading its own products to extinction. This should not be happening in a business that has a global base and really good chance of being great.

As they have 136 retail outlets, in those outlets they should give more priority to their brand. Massive marketing strategy should be undertaken to promote their brand more. All the outlets would advertize its brands more. Their products would have to be kept in front or on top before other brands. They would put more of their products in the outlets. Changing few of the tactics they use they can achieve a greater sales than before. This new way of marketing would really focus more on its brand and help it be renowed to consumers.

How to implement

The managers and the marketing department would come up with a new marketing plan.

Whom to implement

The wages of the workers should be raise.

Where to implement

It would be implemented in every outlet globally.

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When to implement

As soon as the company is done restructuring which we would talk about later on.

Watch is the main product of Fossils sales strategy and its sales is
plummeting fast. This is a matter of grave concern because without this they might be looking at their own disaster.

The watch market has four segment and Fossil has a great presence on the lower three categories. But fossil is not present in the expensive watch category. So Fossil should expand to that category. By trying to serve all the categories Fossil can make profit more. Also the expensive watch category has a bigger profit margin than others so this would make Fossil financially more good. They need to try this market segment with made in Switzerland high end classy and expensive watches. This way Fossil can save its watch business and steer away from bankruptcy.

In this segment Swiss made watches with precious stones and metal are demanded. Fossil would come up with a new watch line that is designed with these materials and it should be manufactured in Switzerland. The creative designers of Fossil would have to come up with some new designs using these materials. It should be made in Switzerland because people have a perception that best and expensive watches are made there. This would easily create image of expensive and aristocracy to the watches.

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How to implement

The managers would take initiatives of creating a new product line. The designer department would come up with designs that would sell the best.

Whom to implement

This would be implemented in cooperation of the marketing, creative and management department.

Where to implement

It would be implemented in the outlets where the most upper class likes to visit.

When to implement

It should be implemented as soon as possible.

Fossils watch sales is going low and fossil did not try to boost it up a notch.
They only reviewed their market data and did not do anything about it.

Fossil should do a proper market research to find out why their sales are going down. As recommended earlier they should expand their target market. But they also need to improve in their current market. If they could figure out why the market is behaving differently than they would be able to resolve that problem pretty easily. They cannot and should not rely upon other people data as they can be biased to something. They should do a market research of
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their own and find the root of all their trouble of sales decline. Only then they can take a proper step towards solution.

New and innovative designs should be introduced to the current segments they are offering to. They need to focus more on advertizing their watches and marketing to grab new customers. They can try and be creative and come up with edgy ideas. These way consumers would have an opportunity to taste a new touch of modern watches and Fossil would be able to attract young customers more. They should also offer wider range of watches to every segment so consumers would able to choose from a verity of watches. They can also try new and innovative ideas and figure out which sells the most.

How to implement

The managers and the creative department would come up with new design ideas.

Whom to implement

This should be done for the consumers to keep and happy and loyal to this brand.

Where to implement

It would be implemented in every watch outlets on a global scale.

When to implement

It should be implemented as soon as possible.

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They have diversified in so many countries and so many ways that it has
been creating problem. There is a need of restructuring of the way they do business and they need to have a better strategy.

They should restructure their business strategy. They need to stop licensing so many brands and stick to only few ones. They also need to focus more on promoting their own brand. They should make a new business strategy. Licensing is wrong when one has the privilege to work for his own brand. By licensing to so many people they are actually hurting their own company. Also people are getting confused about what does Fossil actually does as their shops tend to be filled with goods of their competitors.

FOSSIL should make an assessment of each and every licensed company to verify with which company they should do business. FOSSIL can hire external consultants to come up with an effective strategy that will allow them to resolve the problem of ambiguous corporate structure. The rate FOSSIL is doing licensing someday it would become hard for them to manage these. This is why it is vital for FOSSIL to look into this matter immediately.

How to implement FOSSILs top management has to take decision regarding this. They would have to hire consultants who would give them a new restructured, effective business strategy.

Whom to implement

This would be done by the external consultants hired by the management.


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Where to implement This would be done to all the outlets globally.

When to implement As soon as possible this should be done.

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