Chanel and the Little Black Dress Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Chanel and the Little Black Dress - Essay ExampleClothing by the company is available in both ready to wear formats and haute couture. The tight has about 100 boutiques worldwide, more than 35 of which are in Japan. (Source datamonitor.com- Chanel)Gabrielle Coco Chanel was the founder of the company. She started small, opening a milliners shop in 1909. Chanel opened her first hammer boutique in 1913. Her foundations were known for their simplicity and the differentiation from the fashions that existed at that period. She basically used mens fabrics and jerseys and created simpler, comfortable clothes along boxy lines that became very popular.Her or so famous perfume, Chanel No 5 debuted in the 1920s and was the first perfume that combined natural substances with chemical aldehyde and was an instant hit. She introduced the bitty black dress in 1926, which became a signature piece and was embraced universally. Alain and Gerard Wertheimer acquired the Chanel Company in 1954.Coco Ch anel died in 1971. Ready-to-wear fashions were not introduced until 1978, after Coco Chanels death. Karl Lagerfeld took over haute couture design in 1983 and ready-to-wear design in 1984. Since then Chanel has grown with acquisitions, newer designers and celebrity endorsements. Michael Porter suggested that for an organization to be successful and obtain a competitive advantage they should follow either iodine of three generic strategies of Cost leadership, Differentiation or have Niche strategies. Cost Leadership is based on the principle of maintaining lowest costs in terms of manufacturing, marketing and distribution and passing on the benefits to the customer and garnering market share due to offering the lowest price. However this strategy is vulnerable to stock-still slight increases in the cost structure. Having a Niche Strategy means catering to a specified product segment with a specialized product. However, having a very focused marketing mix makes it vulnerable to cope with sudden changes in customer trends. Product differentiation is a strategy that induces the customer to abide a little more for the same product category due to a perceived value by the consumer who is convinced to pay a little more for quality. Chanel markets itself as a premium brand and has an invaluable brand image that has placed the brand in the high echelons of the fashion industry. This has created a prestigious brand value to it and coupled with its famous quilted fabric that doe not rip or tear easily, has allowed it to claim expensive price tags for its products.The supplicant of the Little Black DressChanel operates in the fashion and designer clothing industry. The introduction of the Little Black Dress was an extraordinary step for Chanel on the street of success. It still occupies an envious position of being credited as a wardrobe staple to this day. The design school advocates simple formulated design, that is simple as it is explicit, arrived at after consi deration of all the forces in the environment both internal and external. It also offers a prominence of the architect role to the CEO that Chanel play with aplomb when formulating designs. Inspiration derived from the ability to read consumer preferences and developing a product that would cater to