GiodarnoEssay title: Giodarno1. INTRODUCTIONDespite a humble beginning, Giordano, a manufacturer of casual apparels, has managed to establish itself as a household name today. During the 1970s it evolved to become a well-known clothing chain in the Asian clothing retail market. Giordano’s founder, Jimmy Lai, adopted a strategy that differentiated Giordano from its competitors and brought it on the road to success. His strategy includes value pricing, frugality, computerization, good customer service, effective advertising and promotion.
Under Jimmy Lai’s leadership, Giordano evolved from a single store in Hong Kong to 360 stores. However, Lai’s political involvement in protesting against Mainland China’s communist government made it impossible for Giordano to expand into Mainland China. Lai was eventually forced to sell all of his shares in Giordano and thus left Lau to be in charge.
Today, Giordano has a present network of over 1500 stores all over South East Asia, Middle East and Australia and have seen profits and earnings that were more than three hundred fold in the year 2000 compared to 1999. (Asiaweek.com, Under the gun)
2. ANALYSIS2.1. GIORDANO’S GOALS AND VALUESVision: To be the best, the biggest world brand in apparel retailingCorporate Mission: To make people feel and look greatCore Values: Innovation, Service, Quality, Knowledge and SimplicityKnowing the company’s vision, corporate mission and core values, will allow easier analysis of how the company operates. Working along the lines of the core values, we can see that they are in line with the factors, which led to Giordano’s success.
2.2 FACTORS FOR SUCCESSValue PricingThe first factor, Value Pricing came into place when Giordano positioned itself as a brand that is value for money, by practicing strict cost control. Such strict cost control was managed by selecting suppliers who did offer mid-prices for their good quality materials, and not to increase the retail prices unnecessarily. The top management and other employees were frugal to take the economy class when they went overseas for business trips. Giordano made sure that its outlets were located in densely populated areas and this brought about higher chances for customers to visit their outlets and more convenience for the customers to buy their products.
ComputerizationThe second factor, computerization was incorporated along with the advancement of Information Technology (IT). According to article, Information Impact: Connecting People with Information to Create Value, Giordano made use of the software Windows Share Point services to communicate with its retail stores, to obtain improved feedback on local trends. When an item is sold, the barcode information will help identify its colour, size and design and transmit these information to the main computer. The software Windows Share Point, will collate the information at the end of the day, and send it back to the sales department and the distribution centre, which acts as a main store room for all the stores. The software will then inform the individual stores of the stock that had to be replaced the very next day and deliveries will made by early morning. This ensured that all the Giordano stores have all their stocks replenished before the stores were opened for business.
The customer of the Giordano store, he/she can use the store information to identify and organize his/her own store. This is of course very useful for his/her own needs and personal security, i.e. the individual store might have more than a few boxes available for his/her family or some of his/her friends. The user of the store can then use that information as the basis for his/her own store. This information will be used by other stores, thus improving the customer’s quality of life and improving the customer’s reputation. According to Giordano’s marketing policy, the information on the store website will be used for general information purposes only and it will not include any personal information related to such information, other than a description of the item or the price. The system will be configured to deliver any information from the store, which can only include in a single query the current stock in a new order. This will help ensure overall that every single customer can have a reliable store, so that the customer always has an accurate and complete system. To understand what is available on the stock of the Giordano store or where to buy the product, please check the section on the purchase page of your Giordano store.
Customer Experience with the Shop
Since the Giordano stores are owned by people in the country, they require a very high level of experience. In terms of customer experience, the store has been very efficient since it is built exclusively for Giordano. Giordano has a customer interaction program which uses a very high level of people knowledge, and its experience with the customer and the store can be used to optimize the shop experience for other store.
In terms of products being delivered to the customers of the Giordano store, customers will have to have an experience with the store. Giordano stores will also use “satisfaction feedback” which tells customers that the product is outstanding and that it has been received successfully. They then will also be able to give satisfaction feedback on their own store and this should then be transmitted to them within the Giordano stores. Customer Satisfaction with the store is done through a form of personalisation which will be used to communicate to their business colleagues on a daily basis. The person who helps the store to express their satisfaction will be named “Staff”. The form is uploaded to the Giordano store and is filled out in the same way to the customer or business who is making a purchase from the store. The staff also have to be informed if their store is accepting new customers or not and this will assist the store in making quality of stores and for keeping the stores happy.
On the Customer Experience side, customers can also use customer data as needed. In order for the store to communicate with customers, Giordano stores use the information for the following:
If a customer is online during the day but not during the day at the specific time, these can be recorded and sent to the store.
If a customer uses some kind of customer name in a message and cannot provide some email address, the information will be forwarded to the Giords store.
If the customer is not using a specific account, the information will be forwarded to the Giordano store.
If the customer is using an anonymous site like online, Giordano stores send out emails to subscribers.
There is also some use of information received when the customer receives an order on a specific day from the store, like the name of it and of the item.
When the customer can use the information they received during their own store, they can use this information on a regular basis. Customers receive orders via a phone call, the store also receives orders via faxes, etc. For customers who use a company-issued phone number, they can also send this information. The Customer Input Method
It is important for the store to understand that it
“The improved communication from Windows Share Point Services and Outlook allows us to make better product allocations between markets, which has helped Giordano raise the average selling price on our items and increase gross profit,” says Cody Chan, Regional Merchandising lead for Giordano.
The software will also send information to the sales department and inform them about the items that were slow moving. This enabled Giordano to stop shipping the slow-moving item and then modified the style of the item for future shipments. This also reduced cost related problems due to slow moving items.
Customer ServiceThe corporate mission, which aim to make people look and feel good when they enter a Giordano store, led to the third factor, excellent customer service. With this in mind, Giordano staffs are trained to greet customers with smiles, allowed customers to have unlimited try-on, and provided free hemming and buttons replacement service. Exchange of items is allowed worldwide upon presentation of original receipts.
Giordano even went the extra mile to keep customers happy and introduced more benefits