Harrington Collection

Harrington Collections

HYEJOO IN, 2018730565

The women’s apparel industry remained in a mature and stable state. Also, it was considerably competitive which made growth rate from 2006 to 2007 was only 4.2%. They industry was impacted by economic downturn in early 2000s, therefore, customers became highly sensitive to the price and were more interested in less than $100, low-price women’s apparel. Moreover, the women’s apparel industry is made up of six categories, Although, such a wide variety women’s apparel, the trend is changing rapidly, and products are in a short life cycle, making it more difficult for companies to challenge in the industry. Also, imports dominated the U.S women’s apparel market, intensifying price pressure. Due to the relative ease of outsourcing production, barriers to entry in this industry were low. And many brands established overseas plants or outsourced to overseas factories. This could reduce their cost of production and labor.

Harrington collection has a clear market positioning which is lifestyle branding strategy, wearing the label is a sign of status. And they targeted affluent, fashionable, college educated, professional women between 25 to 60 years. Harrington collection expanded Vigor and Christina Cole brands, this product line aimed at the younger customer market. Also because of their superior quality, they have a group of loyal customers. Also, Harrington collection didn’t set up overseas factories or outsourcing because they expected high quality women’s apparel products and they wanted to catch up with the trend, the close plants will have a high speed to deliver their product to retail partners. Furthermore, in order to improve productivity and shorten manufacturing cycles, they employed cutting edge technology. This also allowed them to prevent overproduction and to reduce overstocks for their retail trade partners.

The Market trends had a sudden shift in 2009, so Harrington collection got an opportunity to join into the active wear market. Vigor brand, the lowest level of the product line, is the most suitable for the active wear products. It was usually classified in “Better” product classification thus, Vigor’s styles were much more flexible than the other brands of Harrington collection. In the minds of consumers, Harrington collection is a high-end brand, if Vigor was able to launch active wear products, would be favored by the consumers, also, this will not hamper the brand image. Moreover, since Vigor division revenue was decreasing, Vigor brand can leverage the existing infrastructure and sales channel for new product line. As a result, introducing the active wear will be welcomed in the market and will having the positive impact on the vigor brand.