Giordano International SWOT and PESTLE Analysis

Strength

1. Strong brand image in Asia-Pacific and China region: Giordano has built emotional ties with its customers and continuously strives to provide exceptional shopping experience to its customers. It has a global exchange policy. Its loyalty program, World without strangers, has received great success over the years. Such initiatives have strengthened Giordano’s image of providing exceptional value to its customer at a reasonable price; which is evident from its growing sales over the years. Giordano is one of the top five clothing retailers in the whole Arab region. Its online sales improved by 22.1% in mainland China (2017). And now it’s looking to expand into India through strategic partnerships with Flipkart and with Brandzstorm India Marketing (for apparel, footwear & accessories). Giordano’s image and global presence coupled with strategic partnerships with companies which have received considerable success in the local market (Flipkart and Brandzstorm India), shows good scope for its business.

2. Portfolio of brands catering to a wide section: Giordano international through its wide range of brands cater to different segment wears such as formal and casual clothes for men and women. It has also ventured into the kids segment and is focussed to provide value for money merchandise. As a result it is priced slightly lower than competitors. A well-known brand offering a wide range of good quality clothes at an affordable price act as a strength for Giordano as it helps it serve a wider audience thus enabling the business to take benefits of economies of scale in manufacturing.

3. Quality customer service: Giordano’s efforts to provide excellent customer service have been recognised by a long list of service awards that it has received over the years such as “2017 service & courtesy award”. It has received such awards consistently over the years. Giordano’s commitment towards exceptional service is evident from ‘Giordano means service’ campaign which was first launched in 1989. Since then, providing quality customer service has become one the tenets of Giordano. Also to ensure quality service to its customers, Giordano has linked performance appraisal to service quality provided by employees and frontline staff (service quality is evaluated through mystery shoppers).Giordano also spends a lot on training its employees. Quality service is one of the major strengths of Giordano has it helps ensure customer loyalty through exception customer experience.

4. Continuous innovation in products and systems: Throughout its lifecycle, Giordano International has been a pioneer in innovation of its products and systems, inventory management, in house developed systems, etc. One such example is of its real time retain system, which links all its stores globally. The system is developed in house and is totally customised to ensure that the brand has the information required for its sales, costs and other relevant functions, thus enabling it to take informed decisions on inventory management, customer profiles and requirements.

Weakness

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Opportunity

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Threat

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Political

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Economic

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Social

1. Cultural influences across different markets: Consumers are greatly influenced by celebrity styles and catwalk looks. All these influencers are different pertaining to different geographies. Products offered by Giordano are standardised and needs to take into account different cultures of different geographies. Internal functioning of a business is also affected as company expands into different geographies with company hiring individuals from diverse backgrounds. As a result company’s working style changes and it becomes challenging for a company to maintain standardised processes and homogeneous working style. A recent row of Giordano’s advertising gone wrong is an example of carefulness that a brand should exercise while carrying out certain initiatives in a new market. Giordano inadvertently stigmatized women as cooks while advertising for its new ‘the family series’ of clothing. As a result it had to face a lot of outrage in social media with many individuals calling for completely boycotting the brand. Giordano’s image was blemished as a result of the advertisement. In such scenarios it becomes very hard for a brand to recover and one must carry out due diligence with regards to approaching and carrying out business functions in diverse markets.

2. Continuous adaption to changing tastes and preferences: The luxury and status market base has expanded beyond the traditional affluent consumers to include an increasingly heterogeneous group. As Giordano international looks to expand in different geographies, the segmentation of customer remains the same (as it offers standardized products across different geographies). So setting up of stores at different locations becomes strategically important for Giordano international. To appeal to a greater set of audience and to reach out to its target group, Giordano has partnered with Flipkart, in India, to establish a strong foothold in fashion domain. Also over the years, Giordano has looked to widen its market by introducing new brands catering to different age segments (Giordano ladies, Giordano juniors). Through campaigns such as Life is a journey, teaming up with Disney to introduce its new apparel line, project hope; it has constantly looked to identify new ways of catering to the new era.

3. Convenience to shop online over offline stores: E commerce plays a big role when it comes to convenience. Giordano international offers online shopping, but leads generated through its own website are less than the leads generated through a common online platform which offers different shopping brands. As Giordano international looks to reach out to new customers, ecommerce partnerships act as a strategic step to increase its overall customers. A recent partnership with Flipkart, allowing it to sell Giordano international merchandises on its digital marketplace as well as physical outlets, is along similar lines. Such partnerships are likely to follow in other similar geographies.

Technological

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Legal

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Environmental

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