Fashion Design and Product Development - Case Study Example

Fashion Management Issues

Overview of product developer role

Apparel product developer is important part of the team that ensure quality of products and their influence on the target audience. Furthermore, product developer works on the profitability of new collection or even single piece. Product developer oversees decisions, which predetermine intersection of design with profitability and business. Apparel product developers plays the role of decision-maker what material designers will use for the new product and to ensure that completed designs will meet technical requirements. In addition, product developer is engaged in aesthetic coherence between designs and brand image they create (Black, 2013).

Product developer responsibilities

Product developer works with fashion designer to define the clear line of direction of season’s line. For instance, market study can state that product line should be in green and floral design. This information is analyzed and given to fashion designer who will use particular materials to create something popular and effective in particular period of time. Working with fashion designer, product developer can define preliminary pricing; get the list of fabrics, which will be the main partners for this season. Fashion merchandisers should have the communication with fashion developers, product developer is also should be open for communication with these two officers (Black, 2013). It makes clothes salable, cost-efficient and appealing. These three characteristics are the main ones for the successful product development and thus communication with these staff members is highly recommended (Black, 2013).

Differences from fashion designer and product developer

Fashion designers treat fashion as an art, while product developer should treat fashion as business. Cuts, colours and other fashion features are associated with shares, current trends and revenues, which can be acquired through sales of new product. Product developer utilizes quantitative skills and understanding of design range to achieve goals. Product developer is always aware of the current trends and their development to predict further fashion trends to get ready some clothes to offer (Bos, 2000). Furthermore, based on the observation of the current state of market, product developer can easily innovate and provide something new that will amaze customers. Thus, all issues, which are related to the quality of products, its overall design and its affiliation with the current trend is the main responsibility of the product developer (Bos, 2000).

How product developer contribute to the range

Range is contributed by the product developer in finding better alternatives and maintaining more diversity of product to face customers’ requirements. That is the main role of the product developer in establishment of good fashion range. Within the chosen company, responsibilities and role of the product developer lies in the development of range and adding more various items, which will emphasize the diversification of company from competitors. It is good to underline that product developers work hard on their proper effect on the target audience. Considering the modern trends and their influence on company and product, product developer is responsible for the establishment of relevant and quality product development to face all customers’ expectations. In addition, product developer should make it to cover all characteristic features for the brand image, which currently differentiate company from competitors.

Brand, customers’ profile

UNIQLO is one of the developed companies in apparel industry that originated in the Japan. This company has started its activities from the high quality clothes, which belong to the high quality segment. Furthermore, company is trying to meet all customers’ expectations through establishment of good customer feedback system that influences the product development. It means that company listens to customers and their wishes. It finds its reflection in the constant innovation of products to face customers’ wishes. Company encourages customers to tell about their experience of working with UNIQLO, it results in 90,000 comments from satisfied customers who have purchased something in the company. Company Always emphasize the fact that they work for high-quality segment, that is why, customers opinion is quite important factor for UNIQLO in product development (Dillon, 2012). To face its strategic goals in quality, company is working with many suppliers around the world to purchase quality and cheap solutions to produce their products. UNIQLO has exclusive experience of making quality products and thus, they control the process of manufacturing of materials around the world to get only quality materials, which will be used in further production of clothing. It controls own production processes, where materials turn into the closes. That is why, customers understand that UNIQLO is provider of good solutions (Dillon, 2012).

Majority of customers, who want to purchase products in UNIQLO belong to the emerging Asian markets, the main

Particular issues are:

• Price consciousness, customers understand the pricing for products and are reluctant to purchase expensive fashion clothes, since there are many competitors, who offer cheaper solutions;
• Customers are mostly influenced by brand’s celebrities and the way they like to choose clothes, in case of the excessive use of fashionable clothes, customers prefer to use rather casual models, instead of fashion.
• Majority of the market belongs to the women’s wear that is why UNIQLO is concentrated on multiple solutions for women.
• Customers are aware of the opportunities, which internet can offer, that is why, they use internet prefer online shopping.
• There are many alternatives in the Asian market and low switching cost.
• There are many cheap and discount apparel stores, which customers like to use.
• Largest segment is women.

Product development in UNIQLO

UNIQLO is developed company, however, it has simple supply chain and distribution system, since it has no intermediaries between manufacturers and sellers. Products planning, manufacturing, logistics, sales is done by single company. UNIQLO has no own manufacturing facilities (Grose, 2012). Almost all products are manufactured in China. Few products, which are underlined by the company are produced in high volume to satisfy Asian market that is quite large. Few types of clothing are produced in millions. All manufacturers know the exact costs for such clothes and avoid risk of taking back goods. Such unique conditions allowed UNIQLO to mix high quality and affordable price that is superior among competitors. Distribution system is made to sell products in shops under company’s direct management (Grose, 2012).

Collaboration between UNIQLO and Lemaire

Considering the collaboration between UNIQLO and Lemaire, one should underline that it is one more important step in product development to make it more simple and casual, furthermore, this designer is not so popular as others, however they have skilled designers, who can provide important insights to towards the better products and their further development. In addition, company got new range that is different from those, which company had before. IT allows to get more customers and to innovate company’s activities.

Edgelands

Speaking about the Edgelands, it is significant improvement of the UNIQLO range that can provide substantial insights about new colours and their implementation in the clothes. Edgelands is the superior concept by the prediction organization that knows what trends will be popular in the current or upcoming season. It provides special design features, which are good for brand development and further product development (Keiser and Garner, 2003).

Product development and manufacturing of products in UNIQLO

Since UNIQLO is Japanese company with the main markets in most Asian countries and in America, it has the R&D departments in the New York and Tokio. These two cities are business centres for both countries. Thus, development of products and design of new clothes is carried in these two cities. Company prefer to use its shops to attract customers, since its business model is established to provide good in-shop experience that helps to get loyal customers (Keiser and Garner, 2003). However, along with the shop development, company develop its products through the insights of low-key designers like LEMAIRE. Such designers offer new designs, which are supported by product developer and are made to face the customers’ expectations and to keep corporate image in terms of quality and aesthetic features (Keiser and Garner, 2003).

Product developer’s responsibilities in UNIQLO

Considering the supply chain and ordering important products to produce clothes, the responsible person is product developers who look for better designers and identify the fabrics, which will be engaged in production of the clothes with special design. Thinking about the other companies, the same executive is working on such issues (Mital, 2008).

To produce clothes, company has majority of manufacture facilities in China, however, with the flow of time, company develop even more manufacturing facilities to create sustainable supply chain and to ensure quick distribution among Asian countries (Mital, 2008).

Building range

To build a range there are many steps, which should be taken. First of all, company should decide what will be the product, what constituents it will have, etc. Furthermore, it is necessary to define to what type of clothes it will belong, whether it will be fashionable, basic or directional (Reinertsen, 2009). Thinking about the new range, it should be emphasized that they should be fashionable and relevant to the trends. That is why the first step in product development will be studying of market and defining upcoming trends, which can influence customers’ behaviour. Most companies develop the new product line based on the upcoming season, since there are special peculiar features are popular and using them company can get satisfied customers(Stone, 2012). To customize the product, companies use designers, however, we follow experience of UNIQLO and study current customers’ feedbacks on the UNIQLO products, since the base for our range is UNIQLO’s products. It helps to define products, which had peculiar popularity. It helps to emphasize positive features from the last example and to minimize negative ones. After study of customers’ feedbacks and making some pattern to the further product development, we should address some designers, who will create a design for clothes that should be approved by product designer, who understand what products should be manufactured and what specific features they should have. In our case, we have fashion designer and few ranges to consider. It will help us to define better option and to finish the range book. To create good design, it is wise to get some predictions from fashion forecast organizations like WGSN. (Schramme, Moerkerke and Nobbs, 2013). We have got the Edgelands pattern that was provided by the WGSN that will be helpful in establishment of good design. It helps to understand what characteristics clothes should have to be popular in the upcoming season. Next step is giving the design to the manufacturers, however, it is enough for our project to just create range book that is important part of the further production. (Mital, 2008).

Lemaire concepts implementation

Considering the new R&D department in the Paris, and new artistic director Christopher Lemaire, company is going to release the new product line in France that will be result for large expansion to European market. European customers have different expectations and prefer fashionable clothes, that is why, Christopher helps company to develop fashionable line to meet customers’ expectation. Collaboration of UNIQLO and LEMAIRE will bring substantial benefits to the company, which will used for further European expansion(Stone, 2012).

Product development and its peculiarities in the team.

Product development is complicated issue and for the product developer it is hard to provide the range for further production, since it implies design of colour palette, range pyramid, etc. All these things should be developed and our responsibility was to work coherently to make good design. Furthermore, using the LEMAIRE design, we wanted to create key look that will be the basis for our actual range. Range book is hard issue to solve and it requires specific study in design and of modern trends, which can influence the overall results of the work (Mital, 2008). To do so, we have distributed specific aims among our team members to get the job done in a coherent way. Having specific “departments”, we have managed to establish sustainable work process. My responsibility was design of colour palette. Working in team can be both good and frustrating experience, since without leader it is hard to organize the work, thus, we assigned one of our team members to take position of leader to organize and control our activities. We had one team member who made reports for each department. It is import to inform leader about the status of work and what is already done (UNIQLO, 2015). Creation of range is multistep activity that needs some steps to be finished to further proceeding. That is why, once some stage was finished we started another stage departments, which finished their jobs, created new departments within some particular stage to use their strong sides. Such organization of job helps to establish effective process without misconducts and delays. All people who work on the project should be engaged in activities they can do effectively. It was the responsibility of leader to assign our team members to specific tasks to make job done (Mital, 2008). To ensure that voice is heard, it is good to understand that all team members have their own insights and they can help in development of good range book. It is wise to listen to all team members, respect their opinion and then one can express own opinions to present them to team (UNIQLO, 2015). It is leader, who decide what idea will be implemented and results of this decision will be total responsibility of the leader. Thus, one should underline that all opinions are heard and acquired, however, leader should take one decision towards the patterns, which will be used and palettes, which are most relevant to the corporate image and expected fashion trends. Furthermore, considering the choice of provider of palettes, we use LEMAIRE (UNIQLO, 2015). Their design was good for the upcoming season, and considering the use of the fashion forecast, we have decided to modify the palette with the slight changes of colours and their composition to find the best option. We have considered opinions of many team members, who taken part in this process, that is why, it was without unnecessary debates and argues.

Self-assessment

My role in the team was quite important, since I worked on the colour palette that influences the overall look in particular way (Mital, 2008). It is good to underline that I have discussed my vision towards the final version that will be used and there were many things, which I have modified due to the claims of my team members(Grose, 2011). I understood their opinion and taken it to make the product even better. We cannot be absolutely objective when we listen only to our opinion(Grose, 2011). It is good to consider someone’s opinion that can provide substantial insights. Our team was based on the trust and listening to any member and I have understood that I am a part of the team and I work on the important part of the final range. That is why I understood the responsibility for my actions and work and thus, I tried my best to share my vision and to understand leader’s vision, who had the clear picture of the final range that will be made. Therefore, I used palette Lemaire and along with the Edgelands concept made by the WGSN to produce the superior palette that was used by the leader after some minor remarks.

Conclusion

Summing up, working as the product developer is quite hard venture, since it requires multiple actions, which should be made, furthermore, working on the range, there are many particular features, which can dramatically influence the customers’ experience. That is why I understand that working as product developer is hard, however, having the ability to predict customers’ reaction and to see what can be done with some material. Considering the experience of UNIQLO, this company has the best product developers in their industry to make the products relevant to the corporate image and to make them also relevant to the modern trends.