También tendrá un efecto en Zara, “cuya fama de renovar stock (...) se irá volviendo menos diferenciadora”.
POR CONSUELO MEJÍAS SMITH
En base a un estudio de valoración de marcas realizado por la consultora The Lab Young & Rubicam, el director de la firma en Chile, Vicente Carrasco, afirmó que la propuesta de la tienda H&M –inaugurada en marzo pasado- impactará a “marcas cuya propuesta de valor es similar, como las marcas propias de las tiendas por departamentos”.
En concreto, detalló, afectaría a Basement, de Falabella; Alaniz, de Paris; y Marquis, de Ripley, entre otras.
Asimismo señaló que tendrá un efecto similar en otras tiendas como Zara, “cuya fama de renovar stock (“cómpralo ya, que sino luego no lo vas a encontrar”) poco a poco se irá volviendo menos diferenciadora”.
La estrategia
Carrasco explicó que a nivel mundial “estas marcas como H&M y Zara han desarrollado la oferta de ‘moda conveniente’ desde hace mucho tiempo. En Chile se han posicionado como de alto perfil, son aspiracionales, pero cuando vas a la tienda te encuentras con que los precios no son tan altos. Así, a las tiendas por departamento, que han construido una propuesta de valor bastante similar, les sale una competencia feroz (...) porque a eso se suma que llegan con la carga aspiracional”, explicó. Señal de ello, dijo, es la estrategia de posicionamiento que utilizó H&M al llegar a Chile, “que tiene mucha carga simbólica de alto valor”.
Asimismo, las marcas presentes con anterioridad a la llegada de H&M en Chile, son valoradas principalmente por estar a la moda, tener estilo y glamour, entre otras cualidades, sin embargo, no destacan por el atributo “vale lo que cuesta”.
Características de H&M
De acuerdo al estudio Brand Asset Valuator (BAV), que es la base de datos sobre marcas más grande del mundo -se realiza en 51 países-, H&M destaca a nivel global por una serie de atributos. En una escala del uno a 100, tiene un promedio mundial de 94,21en el atributo “de moda”, 88,03 en “actualizada”, 80,59 en “vale lo que cuesta”.
Carrasco especificó que H&M, a nivel mundial, “es percibida como una combinación de moda a buen precio, que cautiva, seduce y rompe esquemas, pero que tiene su tercer atributo más fuerte que es ‘vale lo que cuesta’, una combinación que ya le está dando réditos acá en Chile”.
En otros atributos como estilo, dinámica, entretenida, cautivante, con glamour e innovadora, entre otros, H&M obtuvo un promedio de valoración superior a 74,50.
La diferencia
con Europa
H&M, en otros países, principalmente en Europa, “es una marca accesible, acá aterriza como una marca aspiracional”, afirmó Vicente Carrasco.
El director de The Lab Young & Rubicam explica que éste es un “elemento perceptual ampliamente utilizado por las marcas en Chile, donde (…) observamos que al factor chic (de moda, glamour, estilo), se le suman otros ingredientes como una imagen de clase alta y mayor disposición a pagar”.
En todo caso, esta marca tiende a ser más fuerte en los países de Europa, factor relacionado a su origen.
Es así como, considerando la muestra completa del estudio, realizada en el Viejo Continente, se puede apreciar que “es una marca más fuerte que el 80% de las medidas en cada país, en comparación a más de 1.000 marcas en cada mercado”.
El estudio
El Brand Asset Valuator (BAV) es elaborado por la consultora The Lab Y&R, que realiza servicios de brand consulting.
El modelo considera la evaluación de 24 atributos de imagen y un número igual de personalidad para todas las marcas.
En Chile el BAV ha recolectado una base de datos de más de 2.471 marcas pertenecientes a unas 240 categorías. En 2012 la muestra consideró a un estimado de 2.000 consumidores de Santiago, Viña del Mar, Valparaíso, Concepción y Talcahuano, con edades entre 18 y 65 años. Los estratos que abarcó la muestra van desde el ABC1 al D.
www.df.cl
Mostrando las entradas con la etiqueta HyM Fast Fashion. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando las entradas con la etiqueta HyM Fast Fashion. Mostrar todas las entradas
2013/05/17
2013/04/11
Inside H&M's Quest For Sustainability In Fast Fashion
In the midst of retailers are making headlines for what they’re doing wrong (hello JCPenney) Swedish juggernaut H&M is trying to do right. Hard on the heels of debuting its latest “Conscious Collection” filled with fibers of the recycled and organic cotton varieties, the world’s second largest apparel company also publicly released a list of its suppliers, something many retailers keep tightly under wraps.
Like the trend toward sheer garments, H&M’s global head of sustainability Helena Helmersson is interested in transparency, both at the corporate level and from H&M’s suppliers.
That’s particularly interesting given that just before Helmersson joined the company, H&M hit several bumps on the road to pursue sustainability. Back in 2010, brand new new clothing was found shredded in the trash outside a Manhattan store and a few months later, H&M conceded that GMO cotton could have been used in its eco-friendly Spring Garden Collection. At the time, the company immediately issued a statement committing to increase the use of organic cotton by 50 percent until 2013.
So how did they do? Helmersson says that in 2012 H&M increased the use of organic cotton by more than 20 percent to become world’s largest user. Still, that only amounts to 8 percent of the company’s total cotton use, but Helmersson asserts that the company’s overall goal is to have all the cotton it uses to be sustainably produced by 2020.
To further illustrate her point, Helmersson trotted out the company’s other initiatives including the recent Don’t Let Fashion Go to Waste campaign which invites customers to bring in bags of apparel –from any store– to be recycled. They get vouchers in exchange for the used goods ( a coupon for 15 percent off a new item). So far the company’s donated more than 3.2 million garments to charitable causes.
The company’s also made strides to save water –a huge part of the garment production process. 450 million liters of water were saved in the production of denim and other water-intense products by applying water-saving production techniques.
Helmersson says that H&M is making progress in transforming factories, too. Company stats claim that H&M conducted 2,646 audits on factories and 9,815 worker interviews. About 25% of potential new factories were rejected at the first audit last year. She says that for the factories that do go on to work with the company as “strategic partners,” H&M offers assistance in the shape of management systems to streamline compliance but also ensure that workers are able to voice complaints if they are being treated unfairly. H&M’s order volume increases for those partners that perform the best, incentivizing the process.
And lets not forget those workers. Fashionistas often have a love/hate relationship with retailers like H&M because they equate the inexpensive price tags to the company’s ability to manufacture its merchandise in sweatshops filled with underpaid workers. Indeed, H&M’s biggest competitor Inditex is under investigation for producing garments in “degrading” conditions in South American factories.
Helmersson says it’s been a challenge on two fronts. “We are misunderstood,” she explains, “Because we do have a big passion for fashion.” That said, Helmersson believes that the days of short lived trends are fading and people are moving away from tossing garments after a season of wear. She acknowledges that people in some countries cannot even afford H&M’s brand of cheap chic and that just reinforces the company’s “huge responsibility” to ditch the throwaway attitude in favor of sustainability. “We have really improved the quality of the garments in the last ten years,” she contends.
The initiative that she refers back to multiple times is the one in which H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson met with Pakistani Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to request an increase in the minimum wage and annual reviews for textile workers. H&M doesn’t own any factories in Bangladesh, but does business with 166 according to its supplier list.
This was a risky move given that a Bangladeshi labor organizer was killed last year when protesting low wages even though the minimum wage was first set in 1994 and only revised twice, in 2006 and 2010. So far, the company has invested more than $6.4 million in communities in Bangladesh and India and helped to create 7,402 additional jobs.
Lofty goals abound at H&M, including plans to source 100 percent of electricity from renewables and zero discharge of hazardous chemicals. This year, H&M hopes to have 95 percent of the waste handled in their warehouses to be recycled.
Despite the allegations of inhumane working conditions, Inditex’s agility for getting product from drawing board to store continues to bear down on H&M. Now, says Helmersson, there is an opportunity to gain ground by engaging customers and educating them to shop consciously. She says that, too, will come, especially as U.S. e-commerce launches later in the summer. Helmersson admits the company has lagged behind online, but says, “We have a plan. We want to do the same things online as in the store. This is a huge opportunity to communicate.”
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