Hennes & Mauritz AB striving to meet Inditex
Hennes & Mauritz'a AB namesake brand, H&M is striving to shift its market perception to further emphasize "QUALITY and FASHION at the best price". H&M has been investing in marketing techniques which are traditionally used by luxury brands. Beyond media campaigns featuring top models, the brand recently showed its FW 2013 collection at Paris Fashion Week. Remaining consistent with fashion show cycles, the product featured will not be available in-store until September. Although this differs from the fast-fashion model of immediacy, many fashion customers - and fashion week followers are accustomed to the lead time, and sense of anticipation.
While this is happening at the company's largest brand, H&M AB is also striving to diversify its brand offering - hoping to develop a successful concept. & Other Stories, as the companies most recent launch, further builds upon the company's fashion legitimacy and adds a greater value to its product - with a more forward offering at price-points which start at H&M's high-end. This is a play out of Inditex's book; the company has successfully diversified into 9 retail concepts and the flagship brand, Zara, holds only 29% of the store count (although 66% of net sales). This is a significant difference between the two companies, where H&M comprises 95% of H&M AB's store count. With a deep delta in same-store sales increases between the two companies, it makes sense for H&M AB to continue to push the number of high-contributing brands.
Contributed by GUIDANCE & CONSULT
All sales figures referenced from 2012 annual reports: