Acne Studios: Merchandising Strategies (Essay Sample)

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Acne Studios: Merchandising Strategies
Acne Studios was founded in 1996, but the first ever collection of Acne clothing was launched in 1998. The company was founded by Jonny Johansson although he did not have any background when it comes to design before starting the company. Acne today is one of the leading and most successful brands in Sweden. Currently, Acne is associated with the young people who have an interest in fashion (Stuart and Jones 47). The studio offers furniture collections, art gallery, advertising agency as well as magazine. The studio has five brands namely; Acne Art Department, Acne Paper, Acne Advertising, Acne Fashions and Denim, as well as Acne JR. The organization boast of 200 employees with an approximate annual turnover of about 38 million Euros. Acne Studio enjo ys the association of a capital risk firm that is known as Oresund. Oresund offers Acne a wide variety of possibilities when it comes to development and investment. In terms of self-expression, Acne views fashion as the best opportunity of having style. Style is a typical thing in the Scandinavian nation, the existence of the simple lines that do not have an abundance of colors. The style has to be simple but maintain the identity of Acne clothes as cool and personal. The organization develops an image that is not only targeted for clothing brands. The company intends to develop a lifestyle brand through products that are desirable. The brands that the firm produces target the celebrities and young people who are so much into fashion. The first audiences to be thrilled by Jonny Johansson’s work were graphic designers, filmmakers, and hipster kids. Today celebrity acts such as Rihanna, Justin Beiber among other, are some of the people seen wearing clothes that are created by Acne. The organization also aims to develop an identity through jeans that the manufacturer that have the famous red stitches. The identity is as a result of Jonny Johansson’s willpower in creating garments that will make the consumer have a strong feeling as well as having self-confidence (Alexandra and Barbera 61). The brand that the company is dealing in is known as denim jeans, but the company is not comfortable of being of the denim brand. Instead the company is looking for ways of providing wear that includes denim as a product. The firm does not produce denim jeans only; the other brands that they offer to the market. Some of the products that Acne produces include men’s as well as women’s footwear’s and accessories. The strategy that the firm can use to produce was of high quality that has longer life span. Although the word Acne does not sound more of a fashion name Acne simply means Ambition to Create Novel Expression. Assortment strategy is based on group work. According to Jonny Johansson, the success for him as a person as well as the firm is dedicated to the nature of group work in Sweden. There are two collections in a year namely: Autumn and Winter and Spring and Summer that the brands are produced. The collection has a handful of articles that are usually made on the arithmetic scale of maybe 17 pieces for a single product group (Stuart and Jones 74).. After starting the company, Jonny Johansson and other founder members came up with the idea of launching some fashion products. The group had to come up with a brand that was fantastic therefore they had to develop items that were very special that could meet the needs of the consumer. There were many challenges the Jonny Johansson and cohorts faced along the way. First it was very difficult for the company to make a breakthrough especially in Sweden where there was no domestic industry that was dealing in garments or had a tradition of fabric manufacture. After some time, the company dealt with some icons that were so obvious. The product that was launched to the market first was a raw denim jean that was stitched in red and had five pockets. In 1997 Jonny Johansson was inspired Marylyn Monroe and James Dean to design dungarees (Alexandra and Barbera 65), Johansson design the dungarees with the aim of giving his friends. The firm produced 100 pairs; the strategy of Jonny Johansson was to see his friends dressed in cool clothes in front of his colleagues. The idea worked very well and even got the admiration from fashion insiders, filmmakers, hipster kids as well as graphic designers. After some time, everybody wanted to have a pair of the red stitched dungaree that was embraced with Acne. Later on, Johansson brought some other products to the line that led it to be identified with one item. The firm responded to the quick growth by separating different branches of the fashion market with the aim of meeting the needs of the consumer. And that’s how the big department came along. The apparel county of origin is Sweden. Jonny Johansson found acne Studios alongside his friend I Stockholm. The currency that is used during the transaction is Euros. However, this does not hinder consumers from other nations or online shoppers to use Euros, but instead they can use the currency they have. The conversion of the currency is well taken of so long as the consumers make their payments. In terms of promotion and markdown cadence, Acne Studios have created four stores in Sweden with the location being Gothenburg and Stockholm. The sales channel that is developed through departmental stores as well as internet plays a significant role when it comes to promotion and markdown cadence. The choice of the firm to work and at the same time be in control of the image of the brand has played a major role in choosing that they would like to work in (Alexandra and Barbera 35). Acne Studios and shops plus the internet have the total control over the image of the brand. The approaches are very paramount in promotion and markdown cadence of Acne Studios. Acne Studios are facing stiff competition in the Swedish market. Companies such as Velour and Whyred pose strong completion to the firm. The companies have Swedish background just as Acne and they also deal on similar designs for their collection. Therefore, it is upon...