Fashion brand management: Strategic human resource management perspective

1 October 2015 06:30 pm Views - 1839

Smart fashion is on demand and many fashion marketers intend to embark on it. Design to manufacture of a garment or fashion accessory takes its course. The product is placed on the store shelves and generates reasonable sales. This is an indication of investment of money and time to create an appealing, intricate brand. The value addition will be augmented if the product can generate profits even after it leaves the store. This is a measure of sustaining the perpetual nature of the product. Industry-changing technology is a catalyst that enables effective identification of fashion products from a distance and enables purchase.  


Customer-centric behaviour
When a potential customer sees a product of interest she can use the ‘fashion mobile app’ and scan the item from a distance. The application identifies the product and ready for purchase. It is viral marketing to a certain extent. This is a commodity tool that converts customer interest into tangible business opportunities. It is certainly a strategic self-service option.  


Brand implication via the supply chain
This has instilled an on-going relationship with the customers. The online analytics tool has a threefold benefit for the fashion store and the industry at large. Firstly the rate at which the product is being noticed off the shelf, secondly the number of potential customers talking about it (word of mouth) and thirdly how many are actually buying it can be monitored. Furthermore, the demographics associated with the product such as locations where the product is popular and not can be tracked. 


Customization of product
Personalized data per customer can be maintained by way of the application. The marketer can send customized deals to individuals based on their latest preferences. It is noteworthy that fashion is a vogue that repeats itself from history to future. 


‘The walking advertisement’
The product is an invitation-to-treat for potential customers. It is an object that can certainly generate brand awareness that is measurable and manageable. On the other hand, the customer has a feeling of fame, glamour and prestige. This strategic approach offers a higher percentage of conversion because other styles and colours of the brand can be recommended real time. However, there are ethical or social implications that may arise in the case of capturing the images of products purchased by others. 


Strategic choices
The brand mantra of this application is, “It is time we start looking-be on the shelf”. This has implications on human capital and customers. Accordingly, the most appropriate value proposition is operational excellence, product leadership or customer intimacy. Hence, the corresponding competitive strategies are cost leadership, differentiation or focus respectively.  Research envisages the importance of innovation over cost reduction strategies for long-term success. Hence, managers should focus on innovation in the production process and people. 

Cost leadership (operational excellence) is achieved because customer incurs negligible costs. This is because no additional travel cost to the store and technology is readily available. Competitive advantage is achieved via convenience and low price. Differentiation (product leadership) is evident because the fashion product is innovation focused. It is distinctive from competitors based on speed, technology, outcomes and cost. Focus (customer intimacy) is at the core because the application is a highly distinctive product. It evidence long-term relationship building between customers and business and focus on ‘customarization’ of the product. It further attempts to curtail the supply chain by reducing the link of a supplier. Hence, the smart fashion product is a combination of different competitive strategies at varying degrees.      


HR strategy: A critical evaluation
Technology has replaced the need for sales staff and delivery team members. However, the designer’s intuition and skill, manufacturer’s technical knowledge and skill remain consistent. Hence, under the focus strategy, the human resource priorities of the business are experiencing a paradigm shift. 

Task vs. people emphasis: Ideally in order to provide highly distinctive products and embrace the unique customer needs, middle level managers should focus more on task and less on employees. When there is high job concern the emphasis on people reduces. However, according to Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid this job-people combination is interpreted as “Management efficiency results from arranging work in such a way that human elements have little effect”. This interpretation is more intelligible when coupled with technology innovations. The human involvement in production reduces and certainly the concern for employees reduces proportionately. The concern for technology-based production is high. This has two critical success factors namely human intervention with technology and level of skills required to manage the technology efficaciously. The level of technical skills of employees should be moderate because technology should be managed efficiently. On the contrary, the level of conceptual skills of middle managers should be moderate to high because they should analyse the business needs and provide creative solutions.

Skill depth vs. breadth: In order to provide solutions to complement unique customer needs the designers should be competent to address the different level of needs. Hence, the skill depth in positioning dynamic customer needs (from physiological to social to self-actualization needs) should be high. Hence, the skill breadth of designers and manufacturers may be moderately low. However, technology is an enabler of fashion and the human skills of designers are thus vital.   
Quality vs. quantity: The product design and manufacturing is subject to a single life cycle. The quality per unit should be high since it is customized. Hence, the human resource effort is high and input is diligent. The number of units produced is minimum and there may be replication of original with slight variations of physical attributes. Hence, the employee involvement is moderately low. Once again the technology intervention may reduce the employee effort towards quality. This is because of error detection and associated six-sigma-based apparel manufacturing. 

 (D. Ruwanthi Perera is a Lecturer in Management and Law in a leading university in Sri Lanka. She is a lawyer by profession, specialized in the field of International Commercial Law and Business)