MERCHANDISING

By:

Shivani Sharma Shirin Kaur

CONTENTS:
Company History Labels Advertising The

Profile

Range Materials The Marketing Mix SWOT The Controversies

COMPANY PROFILE

Type: Subsidiary Industry: Retail Founded: 1990 Headquarters: Dorval, Quebec Number of Locations:

252 company-owned Stores; 463 Franchised stores (Jan, 2011)

Products: Lingerie Parent: Limited Brands Websites: www.lasenza.com

La Senza Corporation is a Canadian fashion retailer based in Dorval, Quebec, Canada, which sells lingerie and intimate apparel. The La Senza brand is currently owned by Limited Brands.

History
La Senza Corporation is a major Canadian retailer of women's lingerie and apparel, avoiding the sexy niche carved out by Victoria's Secret and Fredericks of Hollywood in favor of focusing on high quality merchandise sold at affordable prices. Based in Quebec, Canada, the company owns and operates more than 200 La Senza Lingerie stores in Canada, and another 140 stores located in 18 countries, which include licensed operations in the United Kingdom, the Middle East, and elsewhere. In addition, the company owns and operates more than 80 La Senza Girl stores, which target girls between 8 and 14 years of age. Through subsidiary Wet Seal, the company has operated in the United States since 1984, but only since 2003 has it attempt to crack the U.S. market with La Senza Lingerie. Although a public company, La Senza is 90 percent owned by chairman and CEO Irving Teitelbaum. Since its first store opened in 1990, the company has grown to include more than 300 stores in Canada. A further 487 stores under the La Senza brand operate in 45 other countries worldwide via licensing, franchise, and cooperation agreements. La Senza is wholly owned by Limited Brands of Columbus, Ohio.

La Senza's products focus on tasteful lingerie and nightwear but also include loungewear, daywear, and accessories. The concept is similar to Victoria's Secret, which is also owned by the Limited Brands Corporation. In the United Kingdom and Ireland (with sub-franchises in parts of the European Union), La Senza stores have been separately owned since July 2006 by Lion Capital, a private equity company. Theo Paphitis is on the board of the La Senza U.K. business, and retains a minority shareholding in that company.

Labels
Similar to most fashion brands, La Senza owns and operates other labels; including La Senza Girl clothing stores for teenagers as well clothing for younger children, La Senza Express stores for bras and panties, and La Senza Spirit for active wear.
Lola and Coco

La Senza has recently launched a line called Lola and Coco by La Senza that is aimed at high school and university students, much like Pink by Victoria's Secret. Beauty by Victoria's Secret was available but was discontinued 1 March 2010 in favor of La Senza Beauty.
Robin Antin

In 2008, the creator of The Pussycat Dolls, Robin Antin, was asked to design a Pussycat Doll-inspired lingerie collection for the La Senza brand. The collection uses luxurious fabrics imported from Italy and Spain. The line ranges from girly and flirtatious to sexy and glamorous intimate apparel. Antin says, "The words for me on this collection are flirtatious, fashion, and fun!"

Pussycat Dolls, Robin Antin

Advertising
Similar to Victoria's Secret, La Senza uses high profiled fashion models to endorse their product. Models such as Lauren Gold, Petra Nmcov, Isabeli Fontana, Bianca Balti, Yamila Daz, Doutzen Kroes, Daniela Pestova, Sophie Anderton,Rebecca Romijn, Caroline Winberg, Emma Heming, Jessica Stam, Maria Sokolovski, and Niclyn Rendall have been featured in array of campaigns. La Senza does not limit their advertising to high fashion models and often uses high profile celebrities to endorse their brand. Previous celebrities to endorse the brand include Dancing on Ice's Tess Daly, Ex Hollyoaks actress, Gemma Atkinson, and legendary English soccer player Gary Lineker's wife and commercial print model,Danielle Lineker.

The Range
La Senza Lingerie is the ultimate shopping destination for a vast array of exclusive high quality lingerie at affordable prices. Their mission is to provide an outstanding lingerie presentation in a world class environment. La Senza provides customers with attentive personal service, while combining quality, fit and value.

La Senza strives to become the specialty lingerie and nightwear store for all customers, offering everything from everyday basics through to glamorous and specialty lines. Their product range stretches across beautiful lingerie sets, a vast choice of bras and knickers, sleepwear, loungewear, baby dolls, bridal, hosiery and accessories as well as a huge choice of stylish yet cup sized swimwear.

Materials
FABRIC TYPES
Cotton

A natural fiber that comes from the cotton plant. Cotton allows the skin to breathe and it wears and washes well.
Embroidery

An embellishment of a fabric or garment in which coloured threads are sewn onto the fabric to create a design. Embroidery may be done either by hand or machine.
Eyelet

A type of fabric with patterned cut-out designs, around which stitching or embroidery is applied to prevent the fabric from raveling.
Jacquard

Any fabric that has a pattern woven into the fabric rather than printed on it. The name comes from Joseph Marie Jacquard who designed a loom attachment capable of weaving patterns into fabric. This attachment provides versatility in designs and permits individual control of each of the warp yarns. Thus, fabrics of almost any type or complexity can be made. Brocade and damask are types of jacquard woven fabrics.

 Lining

The name given to material sewn into the inside of a garment to make it more opaque or more comfortable against the skin. Frequently lining is used in a bra to add structure or provide a pretty background to sheer and/or lacy fabrics.
Lycra

A trademark of the spandex fiber owned and produced by DuPont. It is lightweight and soft, but stronger and more durable than rubber. It is often blended with other fabrics to produce a lightweight freedom of movement in foundation garments.

 Marl

A term applied to a yarn or a fabric that is made up of more than one fiber. In blended yarns, two or more different types of staple fibers are twisted or spun together to form the yarn. Polyester/cotton is an example of a typical blended yarn or fabric.

 Microfiber

The name given to both ultra-fine manufactured fibers and to the technology of developing these fibers. The fabrics made from these extra-fine fibers provide a superior texture, a gentle drape, and incredible softness. It is a man-made fiber that looks and feels good on the skin as it forms to the bodys shape.
Opaque

When used in the lingerie industry, opaque means the body cannot be seen through the garment.
Panne

A velvet-like fabric that has been flattened to achieve a desired design or look.
Pique

A medium-weight fabric, either knit or woven, with raised dobby designs including cords, wales, waffles, or patterns. Woven versions have cords running lengthwise, or in the warp direction. Knitted versions are double-knit fabric constructions, created on multifeed circular knitting machines.
Polyamide

The basic fiber-forming substance for nylon. It is also the European term for nylon.

 Polyester

This is both the name of a fabric and a fiber. A manufactured fiber introduced in the early 1950s, it is second only to cotton in worldwide use. Its ability to stretch and resist wrinkling makes it a popular fabric for lingerie. Polyester has high strength (although somewhat lower than nylon), excellent resiliency, and high abrasion resistance. Low absorbency allows the fabric to dry quickly.
Scallop

A decorative border on fabric or lace made up of a series or half circles.

Shirring

A decorative effect created by material being gathered into lines.

Spandex

With the same attributes as Lycra but not registered, spandex is often blended with other fabrics to give stretch and softness to a garment

The Marketing mix

La Senzas marketing mix should also be analyzed and considered to ensure that the brand is where it needs to be in order for the re-brand to be successful.
Price: Compared with its competitors, La Senza appears

to be at the cheaper end of the spectrum. The likes of La Perlas average bra cost for example around Rs 10,568, Wonder bra is Rs 1800 and La Senza sits at around Rs 1500. Product: This proposal does not budget for a change in product range but the image re-brand, spokeswomen swap and targeted advertisement will ensure that the product is exposed to its maximum capacity. Less emphasis on the more girly ranges such as pajamas sets and one-liner t-shirts and more emphasis on the more grown up garments will help push the brand in the new direction.

 Place: With many stores spread across the UK, La Senza

already has good footing and high street presence. With lingerie concessions popping up in many department stores, theres always further competition to be considered. Enhancing the advertising as previously set out and changing the feel and appearance of the shop layouts and windows will encourage consumers to go inside and shop. Promotion: Communication to customers is currently done so via Face book, Twitter. La Senzas own website and magazine advertisements. These are all excellent mediums of converting the message to potential consumers. Another way of doing so however would be to get involved in local fashion event and fairs such as clothes show London and London fashion week where the exposure is high and the target market is present. People: The brand reputation is currently in danger of becoming tacky and old. Employees of the brand should re-connect with so that the new message portrayed is embedded and familiar. This could be done through training sessions and more regular staff newsletters and product social evenings where staff can get to know the products further that they are trying to sell. A competition for a new staff uniform however may be a good way of including staff in the direction of the company and the changes which are afoot.

 Process: La Senza currently provide a bra fitting service

in their stores. This is a perfect opportunity to entice customers into buying when they find a correctly fitted bra, and of course, the matching briefs too create an extra sale. This should be reiterated to staff. Investigation into store sale processes proved successful and so there is no immediate action that needs to be taken here. Perhaps in future, when the company is in the position to do so, further sale points should be installed to minimize wait time.

 Physical Evidence: The in-store service provided shows a

quick and enjoyable experience. The packaging of the product is excellent with tissue paper and branded paper bag at point of sale. This could be emphasized however with a possible free sample included in the purchase and advertising leaflet which will be viewed after the sale and provide further thought when the customer reaches home.

The Marketing Strategies

Sale offers

Advertisements

Visual Merchandising

Models

The Controversies
La Senza Girl In 2008, La Senza has provoked controversy after launching La Senza Girl, which is aimed towards 5-12 year old girls. Parents and critics claim that the line sexualizes children, despite the fact the line was designed to offer young girls "coverage" before they are ready for a training bra. David Davies, Conservative MP for Monmouth, Wales UK, claimed La Senza was "willing to make profits at the expense of public morality. We currently have the highest level of teenage pregnancy in the whole of Europe and the last thing we need is to encourage further sexual experimentation in young children." La Senza released a statement denying that they were sexualizing children and that their intentions were to create fun and colourful underwear for children.

ITEC In 2006, the company faced a major law suit with major competitor Victoria's Secret. La Senza launched the ITEC bra, which claimed to be "the world's most technologically advanced bra" because its one-piece design eliminates tags and seams. After the launch of the ITEC, Victoria's Secret sued for copyright infringement claiming the ITEC was a knock off of their popular bra, the IPEX. Despite the controversy, the La Senza shares were up US$10 from 2005 and its profits more than doubled from the previous quarter. Eva Herzigova In 2003, Eva Herzigova sued La Senza for a breach of contract. La Senza refused to pay her for a catalogue photo shoot because the company did not like her appearance. Herzigova had cut her hair short and lost a substantial amount of weight, which were not the conditions in which they booked her. Herzigova sued La Senza for 20,000 because she felt that she fulfilled her part of their agreement and claimed her new look didn't prevent her from obtaining modeling work.

SWOT
Strength:
Well known in more than 45 countries worldwide for

over last 10 years High quality products Affordable prices Good shopping experience

Weakness:
No nationwide distribution of merchandise Asian sizes are different then western sizes Limited stores Poor constructed websites

Opportunities:
Tendency to purchase international products An average income and living standards Applying new techniques to make modifications

Threats:
Uncertainties of global economic recover Prohibition in lingerie advertising Low economical rating Experimental competitor Other controversies

Considering the Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as a merchandiser:

Distribution of merchandise could be increased.

Merchandise could be available in more places.

As Asian sizes are different than western sizes,

availability of sizes according to the mass could increase sales.

Most women are not aware of their correct breast size.

With advancement in technology, there is now a breastscan machine which tells the correct breast size of the woman. Such a technology could be applied here in Asia to ensure the proper cup-size for proper fitting and measures again breast cancer.
E-marketing was found poor. It could be easier for

women to shop and get what they want over the internet.