Competitive Strategy and Business Performance. A Case in the German Clothing Industry

Seminar paper from the year 1999 in the subject Business economics - General, grade: 1,0, Berlin School of Economics, course: Competitive Strategy and Business Perfomance, language: English, abstract: The clothing market environment is characterised by strong competition, low demand and declining margins. As prices deflate, many manufacturers are producing premium products. The present paper analyses the German clothing company JIL SANDER AG, which is then compared to BOSS AG and ESCADA AG. Despite their different size they all pursue a similar strategy to survive in a highly competitive surrounding: they built up a strong brand, diversify in other lifestyle segments and distribute their products through own mono-brand shops as well as through franchise partners.

The main task is to assess the performance of a company like Jil Sander in pursuing this strategy, especially considering its size constraints. This is done by qualitative as well as quantitative analysis in view of a environmental analysis, a financial analysis and a scenario analysis

Implementing this strategy, it should be kept in mind that it means less control over franchise partners and factories. The push is on to answer the 'management question' by strengthening the second management level, as a tight control over sales channels will not be possible by the person Jil Sander itself.