Country Road
1.5: Competitive Strategy
Differentiation
To be different is what organisations strive for. The differentiation strategy has helped Country Road differentiate itself on its quality, design and brand.
Quality
Country Road has given top priority to providing customer oriented, high-quality garments and services. The attention of Country Road to detail and dedication to the finest raw materials, high performance fabrics, and woollen yarns is reflected across all its ranges from Man, Woman and Home collections. Country Road is able to create higher quality apparel than its competitors at the time.
Design
Country Road manages to differentiate its product range to meet market demand and it also sets and keeps up with the latest trends in clothing wears. As a result, Country Road has taken on a younger focus in recent years and delivered strong financial results that have been stated in the 2008 annual report that total year sales was up 21.9% in 2008.
Country Road chief executive Ian Moir said, "we now hope to build on what makes Country Road great, and that is commitment to value, design and great fabrics, with a great brand that is aimed at the 40 plus market." (SilvaJelly, 2009). At the end of 2009, the differentiation strategy also helped Country Road to launch a new brand Trenery which aims to redefine fashion for 40-plus men and women in both South Africa and Australia. Trenery will attract older customers, many of whom will have grown up with Country Road. According to a study made by Country Road in 2007, men and women aged 40 and older occupy 45 per cent of the total spending on clothes in Australia. Those men and women spend a largely $8.3 billion on clothes per year, with men spending $3.5billion and women $4.8billion. (Safe, 2009) It is a significant opportunity for Trenery to provide strong growth in Australia and South Africa.
Brand
The brand differentiation has been also attained by Country Road because of its unique quality and design which has
Differentiation
To be different is what organisations strive for. The differentiation strategy has helped Country Road differentiate itself on its quality, design and brand.
Quality
Country Road has given top priority to providing customer oriented, high-quality garments and services. The attention of Country Road to detail and dedication to the finest raw materials, high performance fabrics, and woollen yarns is reflected across all its ranges from Man, Woman and Home collections. Country Road is able to create higher quality apparel than its competitors at the time.
Design
Country Road manages to differentiate its product range to meet market demand and it also sets and keeps up with the latest trends in clothing wears. As a result, Country Road has taken on a younger focus in recent years and delivered strong financial results that have been stated in the 2008 annual report that total year sales was up 21.9% in 2008.
Country Road chief executive Ian Moir said, "we now hope to build on what makes Country Road great, and that is commitment to value, design and great fabrics, with a great brand that is aimed at the 40 plus market." (SilvaJelly, 2009). At the end of 2009, the differentiation strategy also helped Country Road to launch a new brand Trenery which aims to redefine fashion for 40-plus men and women in both South Africa and Australia. Trenery will attract older customers, many of whom will have grown up with Country Road. According to a study made by Country Road in 2007, men and women aged 40 and older occupy 45 per cent of the total spending on clothes in Australia. Those men and women spend a largely $8.3 billion on clothes per year, with men spending $3.5billion and women $4.8billion. (Safe, 2009) It is a significant opportunity for Trenery to provide strong growth in Australia and South Africa.
Brand
The brand differentiation has been also attained by Country Road because of its unique quality and design which has