Estee Lauder Essay Example for Free

Estee Lauder Essay The company sells a variety of beauty and hair-care products and currently employs 31,300 people. Over the course of its lifetime, the company has bought or merged with many famous beauty brands. Some of the more recognizable companies that are a part of the Estee Lauder family include: Clinque, Aramis, La Mer, Origins, Bumble and Bumble, Aveda, and Bobbi Brown. In 2006, they were marketing their products to over 130 countries, and in September, they made agreements with the popular designers, Coach and Missoni, to create their fragrances. Also in 2006, Estee Lauder sold their makeup line, Stila, as it was not generating enough revenue. In 2007, they acquired Ojon, a popular Canadian hair-care company, but sold their Rodan + Field brands. Sales began growing tremendously in China and Russia and helped the company’s overall sales grow nine percent from the previous year. The company also announced that Frabrizio Freda, originally from Proctor and Gamble, would become their future president and chief operating officer starting in 2008. In 2008, Estee Lauder hired Omnicon Media Group’s M2M as their advertising agency in twelve different countries including places in Europe and Asia. During 2008 Estee Lauder also introduced their Time Zone Line and Wrinkle Reducing Moisturizers which were clinically proven to reduce the skin’s visible age. The company also opened up a brand new facility in Ontario for manufacturing and development. Situational Analysis: During the months of September, October, November, and December, Estee Lauder advertised the following products: Double Wear Lipstick, Advanced Night Repair, Double Wear Makeup SPF 10, Bold Volume Lifting Mascara, and Sensuous by Estee Lauder (perfume). The most popular items advertised were the Double Wear Lipstick, which ran three different magazine ads, and the Advanced Night Repair which was featured several times on the fourth cover page of magazines and in promotional company emails. Situational Analysis: The features of the Double Wear line include the option to choose liquid or powder makeup, the ability to create desired coverage, and a wide range of shades for every skin type. The advantages of the Double Wear line are the twelve to fifteen hour staying power and that makeup is comfortable to wear and silky smooth to the touch. The benefits of the Double Wear line are that the products contain SPF-10 and once the makeup is applied, there is no need for touchups. The features of the Advanced Night Repair are that it prevents future aging damage from occurring and it reduces damage that has already been done to skin. The advantages of the Advanced Night Repair include over twenty-five years of research behind the formula, Estee Lauder’s exclusive Chronolux Technology, and it has over 20 patents worldwide- so you can’t find it anywhere else. The benefits of Advanced Night Repair are the dramatic reduction in the visible signs of aging on the face. Estee Lauder sells a variety of beauty care products besides the ones that are advertised. They sell makeup for the face, eyes, and lips, along with tools such as makeup brushes, makeup remover, and nail polish. They also sell many skincare products for different needs, such as firming, age-prevention, anti-wrinkle, moisturizers, and the evening out of skin tone. They also have a luxury line called Re-Nutriv that contains an assortment of makeup and skincare that contain real gemstones within their formulas. Estee Lauder also sells fragrances for men and women. Many gift sets that contain a mixture of skincare, perfume, and makeup are also offered for reduced prices. Estee Lauder’s target market is defined by several categories, the broadest being females. This is due to the fact that most of Estee Lauder’s products are catered towards females. Since many of Estee Lauder’s products involve anti-aging, their customer should be interested in preserving their youth; therefore, the target market age is a more mature woman, in her thirties or older. The income of these women can range from average to a high income, as the prices of their products range from $20 to $1000. Two consumer categories from VALS II that describe the Estee Lauder target market are Achievers and Actualizers. Achievers want premium products which Estee Lauder can offer them. They like to try a variety of products, and even though they may brand hop, Estee Lauder knows they will come back due to their high quality products. Actualizers make the most money so Estee Lauder looks to them to buy their luxury line, ReNutriv, which can cost up to $1000 for an 8. 4 ounce jar of creme. The Actualizers also like technology, so the company tries to attract them by advertising the science behind their new formulas, such as the Chronolux Technology used in their Advanced Night Repair. Two Retail Target Markets that pertain to Estee Lauder’s target market are Classic and Update. Estee Lauder caters to the Classic Market’s needs by offering exceptional service at their sales counters in specialty stores. The salespeople are very knowledgeable and are willing to help customers find their perfect makeup match or skincare problem solver. The Classic Market also does not care whether or not a product is on sale, which is a reason why Estee Lauder rarely puts items on sale and is able to charge more money for products. The Update Market is more fashion forward group who want to keep up with trends. Estee Lauder advertises mainly in women’s fashion magazines in order to catch the attention of this market. Since the Update Market favors shopping in department stores, Estee Lauder puts their sales counters in stores like Macys, and Lord and Taylor. They also put their counters up in more upscale department stores, such as Bergdorf Goodman and Nordstrom. One of Estee Lauder’s competitors is Lancome, who is a part of the L’Oreal brand. Lancome offers similar products and services as Estee Lauder and at competing prices. Lancome even has an equivalent of Estee Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair which is called Genifique. Both companies advertise mainly in the same magazines, and therefore have the same target market. Lancome also has sales counters in the same department stores as Estee Lauder and the two are often located near each other. They also offer similar gift sets at reduced prices and have the same â€Å"free gift with purchase† sales promotions. Development of Creative Strategy: Estee Lauder’s advertisements in magazines are usually two pages or are on the second and fourth cover pages. In American magazines, the advertisements are all bleed ads and their backgrounds are very dark colors, usually a navy blue or black. For instance, the Double Wear Lipstick, Sensuous by Estee Lauder, and Double Wear Makeup SPF 10 ads all have a black background. All of the Advanced Night Repair advertisements have a navy blue background and also have a picture of a DNA ladder behind the photograph of the product. However, in the November 2009 issue of U. K Cosmo, the company’s advertisement for their Bold Volume Lifting Mascara has a golden yellow background. The product (Bold Volume Lifting Mascara) was also only advertised in the U. K issue. No other advertisements for the product could be found in an American magazine. The text on all of the makeup magazine ads is white. The headline, â€Å"Estee Lauder†, is always in all capital letters and is either on the very top or very bottom of the ad. The Double Wear Makeup ads always contain â€Å"Estee Lauder† (headline) on the bottom left page under the picture of the model. The text on the perfume ad for Sensuous was in purple, and was probably due to the fact that the shirt that the model was wearing was white. The headline of this ad was also in the middle of the page, which was very unusual compared to every other ad ran in this time frame. All the advertisements that contain a model seem to have the same one: a beautiful, skinny, pale-skinned, brunette with bright blue eyes and long, lightly wavy hair. This model is seen in every ad except for Advanced Night Repair. The model is always located on the left page. She may also be on the right page, but there will always be a picture of her on the left page as well. This is seen in the Double Wear Lipstick ad where the left page is mainly taken up by the model’s head and then the same model is also shown in profile which spans on to the right page. This same model also appears in email advertisements from the company and is also featured in the Virtual Makeup Tool on the Estee Lauder website. No matter when or where the product was advertised, the graphics remained the same. In the Advanced Night Repair ad, a large picture of the serum is splashed across the page. In the Double Wear Lipstick ad, five lipsticks in various shades are in the bottom right corner. In the Sensuous ad, the eye is first drawn to the model, who takes up the entire page. The perfume bottom is located in the bottom right corner and is not instantly noticeable. In the Bold Volume Lifting Mascara ad, there are four mascara tubes and one brush located in the bottom right corner. The Double Wear Makeup SPF-10 ad contains pictures of a compact filled with pressed powder, and two liquid foundations again located in the bottom right corner. The Double Wear Lipstick line ran three different ads during this time period. The three ads were exactly the same except the sub-headlines and amplifications were different. In the September and October ads, the sub-headline read â€Å"12-Hour Staying Power. New Double Wear Lipstick†. In the December advertisement, the sub-headline read, â€Å"Double the Wear, Double the Color. New Double Wear Lipstick†. There was only one difference between the amplification in the September and October advertisements. This difference was that only in October was the price of the lipstick shown. The amplification for it read, â€Å"$22. 00 suggested retail price†. The December ad’s amplification was completely different from the prior two, but still mentioned the same features, advantages, and benefits. All of these ads had the same action to take which was â€Å"shop now at esteelauder. com†. There is not much white space on these ads. The most noticeable white space would be on the back page of the Sensuous ad. The headline, Estee Lauder, is at the top in a large font. At the very bottom of the ad is a picture of the Sensuous gift box that takes up the bottom forty percent of the page. In the middle of this ad, the sub-headline, â€Å"Wrap her in warmth and luxury. Seductive Destination 82. 50, Worth over 120. 00†, is centered and there is a great deal of white space around it, which allows the eye to focus on it. The objectives of the ad campaigns were to be informative and persuasive. Because both the Advanced Night Repair and the Double Wear Lipstick were new products, Estee Lauder wanted to make sure people knew about them. These were the two products they pushed the most in this time frame. Both products’ ads had more text than some of their older products in order to explain their features more clearly. Advanced Night Repair’s ad dedicated most of its space to several paragraphs explaining how the serum fixes damage caused by the environment and a person’s genes. By being informative, Estee Lauder was able to teach people about their new products which then helped persuade them to buy them. They explained how they were the only people to have this new technology and how even scientists agree that their product works best. The execution style the ads used were slice of life, lifestyle, and scientific evidence. Slice of life is used in the Advanced Night Repair ad when it says â€Å"For every woman, every night†. The product is supposed to be used nightly to reduce the signs of aging, so they stick that phrase directly into the advertisement to let people know that this is a product used in everyday life. The Double Wear Makeup SPF- 10 ad also uses slice of life in their ads. They read â€Å"whether it’s a workday, a workout, or a weekend there’s a Double Wear formula to keep up with your active day† which also shows that this makeup is perfect for every day, no matter what may be on the customer’s agenda. Lifestyle is also seen throughout all of these ads. Sensuous speaks to a male audience and tells them to â€Å"Wrap her in warmth and luxury†. Estee Lauder tries to show that the perfume is meant to make a woman feel luxurious and special when she wears it, and that it will enhance her mood. The Double Wear Lipstick enhances a woman’s life by making her life a little easier by not having to worry about the staying power of her makeup. They say â€Å"glide it on once and don’t think twice†, showing women that there is no need for touchups with this lipstick. Advanced Night Repair boasts that their product reduces the signs of aging due to â€Å"past damage caused by every major environmental assault† and will help prevent future damage. Scientific Evidence is also seen in the Advanced Night Repair ad. The ad says right away that scientists believe that DNA damage ages our skin too fast and that this product contains twenty five years of â€Å"ground breaking DNA research† and the newly patented Chronolux Technology which helps reduce the effects of aging. They then say â€Å"its tomorrow’s technology- today†, trying to make the product seem futuristic and more technologically advanced than any other serum out on the market. Scientific Evidence is also seen in the Bold Volume Lifting Mascara advertisement. The ad talks about their exclusive â€Å"BrushComber† that â€Å"gives you all the thickening of a brush with the definition of a comb†. All of these ads contain at least one of these execution styles. These styles tie into the advertising objectives for informing and persuading consumers. The scientific evidence informs potential buyers of the new technology that only Estee Lauder has, while the lifestyle and slice of life execution styles try to persuade them to buy the products due to enhancements they will make in a customer’s everyday life. Media Analysis: The media vehicles that Estee Lauder used to advertise were the magazines, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Cosmopolitan U. K, Self, Vogue, Instyle, People, and Glamour. They were also featured on department store websites, such as Macys. com and Nordstrom. com. Estee Lauder also sent out promotional company emails every couple of days to people on their mailing list. The reach for Elle Magazine is 1,105,456 customers. Estee Lauder ran their Double Wear Lipstick ad which consisted of two full page, colored bleed ads. The asking price for a colored, one page bleed ad during December is $138,175. Because they used two pages, the total cost of the ad was $276,350. The CPM of this ad was $249. 99. Elle Magazine is issued monthly, giving the advertisement a one month shelf-life. Estee Lauder also needed to order space in the magazine to advertise at least two months in advance, giving their ad a long lead time. Elle also has a high clutter due to the large amount of advertisements it contains, making it harder for Estee Lauder to impact their customers. The reach for Cosmopolitan magazine is 2,907,436 customers. Estee Lauder ran their Sensuous by Estee Lauder ad and their Double Wear Lipstick ad in Cosmopolitan. The asking price for a one page color ad is $215,900. Both of Estee Lauder’s ads were bleed ads, which costs 15% more, making them, $248,285. Estee Lauder also used two pages for their ads, and added a scent sample (prices not listed for additional insert), making the total price $496,570 per ad. The CPM of each of these ads was $170. 79. Estee Lauder needed to pay for their advertisements at least one month in advance, giving their ad a lead time of one month or longer. Cosmopolitan is a magazine that is issued monthly, so the shelf-life is also one month. Cosmopolitan is also mainly comprised of advertisements, so the there is high clutter and low frequency The reach for Self magazine is 1,516,075 customers. Estee Lauder advertised their Double Wear Makeup SPF-10 on the second cover page and the third page of the magazine. The asking price for the second cover page is $200,123. The full color bleed ad on the third page cost $97,100. The total price for this advertisement was $297,223. The CPM of this ad was $196. 05. Self is published monthly, giving the ad a one month shelf life. There is high clutter due to the large amount of ads in the magazine. The reach for Vogue is 1,298,480 customers. Estee Lauder ran several different ads with this magazine. They used the fourth cover page in October 2009 for an Advanced Night Repair ad. The asking price for the fourth cover page was $188,922. The CPM for this ad was $145. 49. Estee Lauder also ran their Double Wear Lipstick ad and their Advanced Night Repair ad which were both two page, color, bleed ads, which cost $302,266. The CPM for these ads was $232. 8 each. Vogue is also issued monthly, giving the ad a one month shelf-life. Vogue, like Cosmopolitan, is also mainly comprised of advertisements, creating high clutter. The reach for Instyle magazine is 1,738,787 customers. Estee Lauder ran their Advanced Night Repair ad on their fourth cover page. The asking price for the fourth cover page was $201,800, making the CPM of this ad $116. 06. Instyle mag azine is published monthly, giving the advertisement a one month shelf-life and there is high clutter due to the large amount of advertisements within the magazine. The reach for People Magazine is 3,615,858 customers. Estee Lauder ran a one page color bleed ad in the September 28 issue. The cost for a one page color bleed ad was $266,780. The CPM for this ad was $73. 78. People is published weekly, giving the advertisement a shelf-life of one week. Estee Lauder had to send in their printing materials about twenty six days before the publish date, creating a lead time of about 26 days. The reach for Glamour magazine is 2,389,915 customers. Estee Lauder ran their Advanced Night Repair ad which was a two page colored bleed ad. The cost of a full page color bleed ad was $200,491. The total cost for this ad was $400,982, making the CPM for this ad $167. 78. Glamour is published monthly, giving the advertisement a shelf-life of one month. Estee Lauder had to send their ads in at least a month and a half before the publishing date, giving the advertisement a lead time of a month and a half or longer. Estee Lauder also sent out many promotional emails throughout the course of this time frame. These emails, however, were only for people who entered their names on a mailing list on the company’s website. There was no clutter in these emails as they were directly from the company and only pertained to their products. These emails were sent out every few days, giving them a shorter shelf-life than magazine ads. Estee Lauder actively used sales promotions to sell products. They often offered free gifts with purchases over a certain amount. For example, in September, Macy’s offered a free gift bag filled with makeup with any Estee Lauder purchase of $29. 50 or more. This gift was advertised by Estee Lauder in the September 28 issue of People Magazine. Within this gift bag was a deluxe sample of Advanced Night Repair and two Double Wear Lipsticks, which were popular products advertised by the company during this time period. Nordstrom also offered free gifts with any $39. 50 Estee Lauder purchase in October. Customers had a choice of four bags filled with goodies that either lifted, reduced, toned, or prevented aging. This gift bag was valued at $125. In their own promotional emails, Estee Lauder also advertised free shipping on their website with purchases over $50. They also gave three free samples of the customer’s choice with any purchase. During November, Estee Lauder had a free gift bag with purchase of $39. 50 that was also valued at $125. Customers were also able to choose their own skincare and makeup shades for their gift. Once this promotion was over, they moved on to their Color Spectacular Promotion. With any Estee Lauder fragrance purchase, customers were able to buy the Estee Lauder Color Spectacular Cosmetic Traveler for only $55. This Traveler contains twenty five shades of eye shadows and blushes, mascaras, eyeliners, lipsticks, brushes, a travel mirror, and two cases, making it worth over $340. This promotion started on November 16th on Estee Lauder’s website. The promotion started being offered at Macy’s on November 20th. This promotion is still currently in progress. Financial Overview: During the past three years, Estee Lauder’s total sales have risen by over one billion dollars. The total sales increased from $6,463,800,000 in 2006 to $7,910,800,000 in 2008. Their net income has also increased dramatically. Three years ago, their net income was $244,200,000. Last year, their net income rose to $473,800,000. Conclusion: No evidence of pre-testing or post-testing has been found in research for Estee Lauder. Estee Lauder has been working on both market penetration and production development. Their older skincare and makeup products have done extremely well in the past three years and their sales continue to grow at a steady rate. They have also introduced new skin care products as a part of their product development which will also have a dramatic effect on their sales. Although the United States and the Americas has continuously been the number one country in terms of sales, Estee Lauder has been focusing more on increasing their market shares in the Asia-Pacific region. This is due to the down turn in the economy that has been happening over the past two years in the United States. They hope in the future that this area will soon become the number one buyer for their products.

My Personal Philosophy of Education :: Education Teachers Reflective Writing Essays

Philosophy of Education I believe all students have the potential to think critically and mathematically. However, each student manifests this ability at a different level and pace. Thus, it is the role of the teacher to facilitate learning by providing each student with the opportunity to grasp mathematical concepts. Too often teachers assume that only those who have demonstrated a high level of achievement in the classroom will be able to experience higher-order problem solving situations. Often, problems that require critical thinking are simplified to mere procedures and rules. Instead, I contend that it is precisely the struggle and challenge of these situations that can enhance all students’ understanding in some way. As an educator, it is my responsibility to provide the resources (information, experiences, problem solving strategies, etc.) to enable each student to improve his or her reasoning skills. However, it is often difficult to reach students individually and even more difficult to change the deep-set attitudes towards mathematics, especially among those who struggle. I propose that creating a caring, problem-solving based community is the best way to combat negative attitudes towards mathematics and to help individuals make gains in their critical thinking ability. If I encourage students to be working together as mathematicians in a community, then they can learn from and communicate with each other. In this setup, every student has some insight to bring and each will struggle and learn from problems at their own level. My role in this environment is that of a guide, presenting tools and strategies for the class to discover and reason through mathematics. The more students see that there are different ways of thinking about the same situation, the more they will be able to access resources when they encounter a problem on their own. For instance, in a 7th grade classroom , we used two color counters to introduce integer operations. For the exit exercises, some students still needed the idea of chips while others had established generalizations. Through guided discovery, they took away a level of understanding that best suited them. The students who needed visuals still were not forced to resort to generalized procedures that they did not yet understand. They were able to correctly perform the calculations in a way that made sense to them. I also must guide the establishment of a strong community by encouraging mathematical communication, critical commentary and sensitivity. My Personal Philosophy of Education :: Education Teachers Reflective Writing Essays Philosophy of Education I believe all students have the potential to think critically and mathematically. However, each student manifests this ability at a different level and pace. Thus, it is the role of the teacher to facilitate learning by providing each student with the opportunity to grasp mathematical concepts. Too often teachers assume that only those who have demonstrated a high level of achievement in the classroom will be able to experience higher-order problem solving situations. Often, problems that require critical thinking are simplified to mere procedures and rules. Instead, I contend that it is precisely the struggle and challenge of these situations that can enhance all students’ understanding in some way. As an educator, it is my responsibility to provide the resources (information, experiences, problem solving strategies, etc.) to enable each student to improve his or her reasoning skills. However, it is often difficult to reach students individually and even more difficult to change the deep-set attitudes towards mathematics, especially among those who struggle. I propose that creating a caring, problem-solving based community is the best way to combat negative attitudes towards mathematics and to help individuals make gains in their critical thinking ability. If I encourage students to be working together as mathematicians in a community, then they can learn from and communicate with each other. In this setup, every student has some insight to bring and each will struggle and learn from problems at their own level. My role in this environment is that of a guide, presenting tools and strategies for the class to discover and reason through mathematics. The more students see that there are different ways of thinking about the same situation, the more they will be able to access resources when they encounter a problem on their own. For instance, in a 7th grade classroom , we used two color counters to introduce integer operations. For the exit exercises, some students still needed the idea of chips while others had established generalizations. Through guided discovery, they took away a level of understanding that best suited them. The students who needed visuals still were not forced to resort to generalized procedures that they did not yet understand. They were able to correctly perform the calculations in a way that made sense to them. I also must guide the establishment of a strong community by encouraging mathematical communication, critical commentary and sensitivity.

Victoria`s Secret Economic Environment

IntroductionThe apparel industry faces various supply chain challenges, many due to the fact that the major part of apparel manufacturing activity for the United States market has moved outside the country to low-labor-cost countries in the Far-East. Thus, due to long physical distances, apparel companies in the US are continuously challenged to quickly respond to changing trends, to reduce long lead-times, to execute collaborative product development with suppliers using effective communication and to ensure total supply chain visibility. Moreover, fickle consumer preferences and shortening of the product life cycles make the apparel industry very challenging from a supply chain perspective.The Victoria's Secret business provides a case study representative of most supply chain challenges faced by the apparel industry as a whole. Victoria's Secret is a multi-channel retailer selling its products through physical stores located throughout the United States, as well as through a colle ction of printed catalogs and an online shop. Its major product offerings lie in the category of intimate apparel, sleepwear, beauty, apparel, shoes and swimwear. For the purpose of this research, we focus on the intimate apparel segment of Victoria's Secret. Intimate apparel represents the largest portion of Victoria's Secret business and is sold through all the retail channels described above.Company HistoryAccording to company lore, after a disagreement with his father in 1963 over the operation of the family store (Leslie's), Leslie Wexner, then 26, opened  the first Limited store in Columbus, Ohio, with $5,000 borrowed from his aunt. Leslie Wexner's desire was to focus on moderately priced fashionable attire for teenagers and young women (Hoover's Online). The Limited went public in 1969 with five stores. Rapid development of large malls spurred Limited's growth to 100 stores by 1976.Two years later, The Limited acquired Mast Industries, an international apparel purchasing an d importing company. In 1982, Limited purchased Lane Bryant (a plus size brand) and Victoria's Secret (lingerie). In March 2002 the so called The Limited changed its name to Limited Brands. Limited Brands is currently focusing on its star players, Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body Works.Company StrategyThe company strategy has evolved over time. Prior to 1995, the company's strategy was primarily driven by a knock-off design, shop-and-copy system. During this period, the company's merchants searched for forthcoming fashion designs, all over the world, especially in Europe, and produced merchandise inspired by these designs. Their strategy involved speed sourcing of the products and selling them out even before the original brand could actually be launched. By the early nineties, there remained little competitive advantage in this approach, as the rest of the world had figured out similar ways to do business (Limited Brands Presentation, 2005), between 1995 and 1998, the company st rategically planned an overhaul, focusing on developing a distinct brand identity.The Limited became the largest employer of apparel designers in the world (as mentioned by a top executive). The company re-positioned itself to operate like an upscale consumer package company. With aspirations to be a large powerful brand that controlled its own retail distribution channels and seeking a consistent repeatable business, the company soon incorporated vertically integrated capabilities into its supply chain. In its quest to narrow its portfolio and create a distinct brand image, the company closed all of its poorly performing businesses, including the sale of its bank, and spun off or sold Abercrombie and Fitch, Lane Bryant and six out of seven Henri Bendel stores (Limited Brands Presentation, 2005).Financial PerformanceVictoria's Secret Business UnitWithin Victoria's Secret, all three channels – Victoria's Secret Stores, Victoria's Secret Beauty and Victoria's Secret Direct â₠¬â€œ are experiencing revenue growth as well as profitability. As of august 2013, Victoria`s Secret stores sales increased 3% on top of a 9% increase last year. Increase was primarily driven by strength in bras and panties. Victoria's Secret Direct, the catalog and online business, also experienced growth. Direct enjoyed a 3% increase in sales in 2013. The growth came from improved clothing assortment at more competitive prices and growth of its intimate apparel category, especially of panties and sleepwear.Direct now represents approximately a third of Victoria's Secret sales. A 2001 â€Å"share of drawer† analysis indicated that one-third of the typical customer's lingerie drawer comes from the Victoria's Secret brand. Most of the drawer, however, consists of daily wear lingerie products, of which Victoria's Secret is a relatively lower percentage. Thus, the trend for the new product introductions will likely be toward more pretty, yet every day, styles like the Body by Vic toria sub-brand, a line of everyday intimate apparel.Victoria's Secret StoresVictoria's Secret (VS) is the most profitable as well as the biggest revenue generating brand for Limited Brands. Its net sales for the year 2013 were $ 271 million correspond of 16.7% of the total % of sales. Victoria's Secret comprises 3 sub-businesses: Victoria's Secret Stores (VSS), Victoria's Secret Beauty (VSB) and Victoria's Secret Direct (VSD) network of stores. VSD sells VS lingerie, sleepwear as well as 3rd party brands in the categories of apparel, shoes and accessories through its online store and catalogs. This case study focuses on Victoria's Secret's lingerie business.ProductsVictoria's Secret sub-brands or collections can be said to focus on a central theme. For example, the most recently introduced Victoria's Secret sub-brand called ‘Pink† is a new collection of intimate apparel aimed at a 19 year old  woman (Limited Brands Interview, 2005), and the â€Å"Victoria† is t he new glamorous fragrance launched that build on its fragrance business. Each of these collections is offered in a variety of different styles based on the extent of coverage given by the bra, the configuration of the bra strap or even its entire silhouette.Overall, the products carried by Victoria's Secret Stores can be divided into 3 broad categories: Launch Fashion Products, Non-Launch Fashion Products and Basic Products. About 60% of units in store are basic, 25% non-launch fashion and the remaining 15% are launch products. Basics consist of products which sell all year round and have styles and colors which can be sold in all seasons and for the most part, never go out of style. Beige Dream Angel's bras, white and black bras from the Body by Victoria collection are examples of basic products.Fashion products are loosely defined as items with styles, colors or silhouettes which typically sell for one season (1 season = 6 months) and then shift to regular replenishment. Launch p roducts are fashion items which are heavily promoted and may even announce the introduction of a completely new category. These products involve special planning and are typically launched two times per year, in spring and fall. An example of a highly successful recently launched product is the new The Close-Up ®. The company also engages in about fifteen annual reconfigurations of its stores also termed as â€Å"floorsets†. A floorset may or may not involve a launch.Customer SegmentsVictoria's Secret Stores is trying to be the dominant, young, sexy and sophisticated lingerie and beauty brand in the world. Victoria's Secret serves a wide range of customers with varied psychographics and demographics. On a household income scale, the VS customer loosely lies between 30-75 percentile ranges. With presence in almost all major malls in the United States, VSS aspires to become a destination brand, which means that a customer would be tempted to visit the malls just to see the VS store. With the Pink ® sub-brand, the space Victoria's Secret is trying to fill as â€Å"young and casual†, a category which had been previously overlooked  by Victoria's Secret.Pink was developed in response to the fast growing Abercrombie & Fitch brand, which was once a part of The Limited. Out of the three key words describing the overall target customer above, â€Å"young† is the most important. The goal is clearly to target a young demographic. Finally, the company sees VS as an â€Å"aspirational† brand, and as such, older women may be encouraged to buy Pink  ®' products as well, as a 40 year old is likely to aspire to look like 30 rather than to look.Demand Forecasting and PlanningOn the demand planning and forecasting front, the Catalog and Web businesses are governed by separate strategies. This is primarily because the drivers of demand for the two channels are different. For the catalog, the demand forecast is mapped against the curve of the pr oduct life cycle from the point the catalog is mailed to when 98% of the product is sold. Moreover, circulation of printed books is the primary driver of sales. Within a catalog, dynamics related to location of the display of product, and to the model selected for the display, are sales drivers. Once Direct has visibility as to the actual product layout of the catalog, it re-forecasts the demand several weeks before it is mailed, and subsequently adjusts its purchase orders.For the web, on the other hand, the forecast is based on individual item performance on an hourly, daily or weekly basis. One of the key metrics that Direct uses to monitor its sales is given by the Net-Growth Ratio. This ratio measures for every $1 of demand generated, how much was generated for sales after accounting for returns, cancellations and failure to fulfill back-orders. Victoria's Secret Direct, especially the catalog business, has additional levers in the way that offer a wider breadth of fashion asso rtments. This is because the marginal costs of carrying fashion versus basics product in Direct is governed by different dynamics in comparison to stores, as the stores have huge fixed costs due to real-estate.Moreover, it is possible for Direct to leverage assets between the catalog and web operations such as common photography. About 400 million catalogs are mailed in a year; approximately one fresh book a week having anywhere between 60 to180 pages and including between 250 and 600 items. About 95-98% of the Direct products are sold in US. Semi-annual sales are  tied together with Victoria's Secret Stores and a sale period is comprised of 8 weeks, requiring approximately 8 mailings during this time (Limited Brands Interview, 2005). Last, but not the least, if a product doesn't perform well in one media, it is not introduced in the other.Sourcing and ProductionVictoria's Secret Direct utilizes the Mast network, as do the Victoria's Secret Stores. Direct is able to maintain accur ate data about customer preferences and buying patterns due to the online nature of its business. It is therefore able to quickly translate this information to its vendors, making it much more responsive to changing customer needs than the Victoria's Secret Stores. This allows Mast to adopt a sourcing strategy based on the vendors' ability to deliver smaller and more frequent orders. Smaller orders mitigate risk of over-stocking and frequency allows the company to react closer to the demand and to get the right product out to market in time.Distribution and FulfillmentOn the distribution front, Direct uses its own distribution center in Columbus, Ohio, separate from the Victoria's Secret Stores' distribution center. Both web and catalog share this DC. The process of picking in distribution centers is different from stores, as these products are picked as single items based on orders, whereas in the Victoria's Secret Stores' operations the products are picked and shipped in cases. Th e average time it takes to get to customers is about two days. The online business is well integrated to inventory systems at the DC level, but is not integrated with Victoria's Secret Stores. With only about 15-20% of overlap in SKUs between the stores and Direct, this is not an immediate need (Limited Brands Interview, 2005).Direct keeps a close watch on its inventory and maintains fairly accurate item levels as well as order level data. For example, the current percentage of service level that Direct operates shows an 88% in stock and 12% back-order at the item level. This level of data integrity allows Direct to be much more responsive than Victoria's Secret Stores and  as a result allows them to make dynamic changes to order quantities, pre-packs and size-curves based on latest selling patterns. In contrast to placing large orders with Mast, as do Victoria's Secret Stores, Direct can thus place smaller and more frequent orders. Moreover, Direct doesn't require excess inventor y for the purpose of its floor and window displays as do Victoria's Secret Stores.Goals and ChallengesAs a part of the INSIGHT project, Victoria's Secret Direct is working closely with its production team to create a library of fabrics and raw materials to make a choice matrix such that lead times can be reduced dramatically. They are also a part of the same initiative to reduce concept to market lead times from 72 to 40 weeks.The challenge for the company is in the area of returns. Currently, returns amount to approximately 25% of demand and are primarily driven by the Swim and Apparel categories; however, a considerable part of returns are put back in stock. These are products which are in reasonable condition to be resold. The return rate for lingerie is negligible. One of the challenges that Victoria's Secret faces overall is in the category of fringe sizes. Fringe sizes are the ones which are on the tail-end of the demand curve and whose demand patterns are harder to predict. C ustomers looking to buy these sizes typically feel the need to try them on before purchase.If these products are carried by Direct, there is potential for reduced customer service levels. On the other hand, if Victoria's Secret Stores decides to carry these sizes to provide better customer service, they will be faced with challenges of less predictable demand patterns for these sizes, leading to over or under stocking of product. Therefore, the company has to work a delicate tradeoff between providing better customer service levels and the subsequent financial impact of this service. A survey about multi-channel retailing tactics used by retailers, conducted by Forrester research, showed that 87% of retailers allowed purchases made online to be returned to stores.Limited Brands fully integrated Victoria's Secret with its Direct business. This involves large logistical challenges for the brand but have a  positive impact of customer satisfaction levels as the customers are able to return goods purchased online to Victoria's Secret Stores, and are even able to order products in stores which they purchased online and have them delivered to their house with no additional cost.Victoria's Secret's Supply Chain FrameworkVictoria's Secret's business strategy has evolved from a shop-and-copy system to a branded concept, that of selling innovative, technologically advanced products at reasonably high profit margins. The Victoria's Secret brand is positioned to be the dominant, young, sexy and sophisticated lingerie and beauty concept, targeting young customers who appreciate the value of possessing innovative lingerie. At the same time, the company is somewhat risk averse.It does not rely solely on its fashionable bra launches for all of its sales. It distributes risk by having a mixed assortment of fashion and basic goods. However, having this mixed assortment adds complexity, in that the brand has to operate two supply chains; one for each of these types of products . Below I underlined the operating model, operational objectives and important tailored business activities that drive sustained competitive advantage within the Victoria's Secret supply chain and align with the overarching business strategy.Complementary Operating ModelThe operating model at Victoria's Secret Stores is to achieve desired brand recognition through innovative product development, glamorous bra launches and high shelf availability of its products. Most of the Victoria's Secret Stores' new product introductions are offered in both fashion (items with less predictable demand) as well as basic (stable demand) styles. This mix of fashion and basic items helps Victoria's Secret to distribute risk, to ensure profitability and to offer compelling value to customers. The company identifies that there is not a single all-in-one supply chain solution for both of these categories of products and therefore it maintains two different types of supply chains for each.The supply chai n for Victoria's Secret's fashion items is driven by â€Å"Speed-to-Market† to ensure responsiveness. This is reflected in the company-wide initiative to shorten its â€Å"Concept-to-Market† calendar. This supply chain is further governed by a sourcing strategy that requires a set of suppliers with an excellent record of product innovation, value-adding capabilities and no minimum volume requirements. Due to the prioritization of speed over low labor cost, these items are made in the most capable factories in the world, wherever they may be, and are consistently air shipped to the company's distribution center in Columbus, Ohio.On the other hand, the supply chain for Victoria's Secrets basic items is driven by factors like asset utilization and supply chain efficiency. As a result, basic goods are manufactured in vertically integrated factories which provide close control over capacity utilization and productivity. These factories run at full capacity and provide econo mies of scale (Limited Brands Interview, 2005). Mast holdings have an equity stake in two of Limited Brands' largest factories in India and Sri Lanka. This is a strategic decision in order to maintain tighter control and better supply chain visibility.Operational ObjectivesThe help of Limited Logistics Services (LLS), Victoria's Secret has drafted a Service Level Agreement that defines various performance metrics for services to Victoria's Secret Stores. This agreement also defines the role of the Victoria's Secret Stores in successfully meeting these objectives. The performance metrics are divided into three broad categories as defined below.Customer ResponseThese metrics are customer-focused and customer-facing. They include a set of distribution metrics as well metrics related to store performance such as responsiveness, floor-set, business priorities, new stores, Value Added Services (VAS), meeting cadence, reporting, and air shipments.EfficiencyThese are internal metrics. They are productivity and cost-related and include a set of metrics at the manufacturing as well as distribution center level such as Auditing/Cycle Counts, Through- Put, Network Productivity, DC Metrics, DC Throughput, and Store Throughput.Asset Utilization These metrics are also internal-facing and largely focus on maintaining economies of scale. They include: Capacity Utilization and Inventory Turns.Objectives Balancing FrameworkThe focus placed on each of the metrics mentioned, varies by whether the product is basic or fashion. For example, in the category of basic products, asset utilization metrics like capacity utilization and efficiency objectives like supply chain costs and productivity carry more weight than responsiveness. The factories making these products run at full capacity with two shifts per day to efficiently deliver these products to market at minimum possible cost of production. These products generate moderate margins for the company in comparison to the fashion pro ducts.On the other hand, in high-margin product categories of fashion goods, particularly in highly promoted launch-related fashion goods, which are most often a result of innovative product development and have relatively short-product-lifecycle of just one season, responsiveness metrics are seen to carry more weight overall. The focus in this model is to increase in-season product availability to reduce lost sales and maximize margins.Tailored Business ActivitiesAt the operational level, there are a set of three tailored business activities that provide significant competitive advantage to the Victoria's Secret supply chain and place Victoria's Secret in a unique position in comparison to its competitors. These activities are aligned to the overarching strategy, which is to deliver an assortment of innovative  fashion products and less risky basic products. The first tailored activity emanates from the company-wide open innovation model. The decentralized design culture within V ictoria's Secret adds unique capabilities to its supply chain design.Product Innovation can come from the supplier, from in-house development or through design inspirations from external concepts. This creates the possibility of inter-company operating ties with outside suppliers. For example, if Limited Design Studios in New York initiates a design concept, it can go to a preferred supplier to be further developed and even changed. This relationship during the design process adds flexibility, which is hard to replicate.The second tailored activity has to do with the sourcing model that Limited has adopted as a whole. The presence of Mast Industries as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Limited Brands is of tremendous value to the company. Mast carefully selects its vendors based on capabilities to manufacture and deliver fashion versus basic products. Mast works with a set of vertically integrated factories as well as raw material suppliers to create a product that is hard to replicate.V ertical integration helps the company to control the production process from fiber to garment. On one hand, this leads to greater manufacturing efficiency required for producing basic products, which generate relatively lesser profit margins than fashion items. On the other hand, vertical integration also helps to speed the product development process essential for new and fashionable products.Finally, the role of Limited Logistics Services' (LLS) â€Å"shared service model† in the smooth operation of its supply chain is indispensable. As mentioned earlier, the Service Level Agreement with each of its brands, including Victoria's Secret, not only defines the detailed performance metrics but also defines the role of each brand in order to carry out the objectives on time. LLS consistently benchmarks itself against outside logistics providers and has been able to provide higher service levels to its brands at competitive costs. The dynamic ability of LLS to constantly evaluate and re-evaluate its performance against external agencies, helps Victoria's  Secret to stay ahead of the competition. In its logistics design, LLS incorporates the fact that whether a product being delivered is fashion or basic.For example, in most cases, fashion lingerie is air-shipped from Asia to Columbus, OH and basic products are ocean-shipped. This is because the fashion products, which have relatively higher margins, are less expensive to transportation costs per unit. Fashion and launch products may also have to go through a customized value-added service process in order to cater to the requirements of the individual stores to which they are shipped. These value-added services are performed at the DC level and the company claims to perform them more cost effectively and efficiently than an outside third party logistics provider. MarketMonopolistic competition is a form of imperfect competition where many competing producers sell products that are differentiated from one a nother (that is, the products are substitutes, but, with differences such as branding, are not exactly alike). In monopolistic competition firms can behave like monopolies in the short-run, including using market power to generate profit. In the long-run, other firms enter the market and the benefits of differentiation decrease with competition; Textbook examples of industries with market structures similar to monopolistic competition include restaurants, cereal, clothing, shoes, and service industries in large cities, which the company Victoria`s Secret fit perfectly.The â€Å"founding father† of the theory of monopolistic competition was Edward Hastings Chamberlin in his pioneering book on the subject Theory of Monopolistic Competition. Joan Robinson also receives credit as an early pioneer on the concept. Monopolistically competitive markets have the following characteristics: There are many producers and many consumers in a given market, and no business has total control over the market price. Consumers perceive that there are non-price differences among the competitors' products. There are few barriers to entry and exit.Producers have a degree of control over price.

Tables of Regular Italian Verb Endings

While there are many irregular verbs in Italian (not pointing any fingers at you,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"essere† or â€Å"avere†), a vast number of them follow a pattern that can be memorized and then applied on the spot. Below you’ll find tables with verbs endings for regular first-, second-, and third-conjugation verbs. INDICATIVE/INDICATIVO Present/Presente ENDING ARE ERE IRE I singular o o o/isco II i i i/isci III a e e/isce I plural iamo iamo iamo II ate ete ite III ano ono ono/iscono Mangiare - to eat io mangio noi mangiamo tu mangi voi mangiate lui, lei, Lei mangia Essi, Loro mangiano Credere - to believe io credo noi crediamo tu credi voi credete lui, lei, Lei crede Essi, Loro credono Partire - to leave io parto noi partiamo tu parti voi partite lui, lei, Lei parte Essi, Loro partono You may notice that in the third-conjugation section (-ire), there are two options—â€Å"-o† and â€Å"-isco.†Ã‚  So how do you know which one to use? The verbs that end in â€Å"-isc† are a part of a special group of third conjugation Italian verbs (verbs ending in –ire). One good example of such verbs is finire (to finish). PRESENT INDICATIVE //  finire - to finish io finisco noi finiamo tu finisci voi finite lui, lei, Lei finisce Essi, Loro finiscono Note that the â€Å"-isc† needs to be added to the stem of all three singular (io, tu, lei) and the third-person plural (loro) forms in the present subjunctive tenses, as well as the second and third person singular and the third-person plural forms of the present imperative tense. Other verbs that need the -isc- suffix and are conjugated similar to finire include  capire  and  preferire. Unfortunately, there is no way to know which third conjugation verbs are isc verbs beyond memorizing them. Imperfect/Imperfetto ENDING ARE ERE IRE I singular avo evo ivo II avi evi ivi III ava eva iva I plural avamo evamo ivamo II avate evate ivate III avano evano ivano Mangiare - to eat io mangiavo noi mangiavamo tu mangiavi voi mangiavate lui, lei, Lei mangiava Essi, Loro mangiavano Credere - to believe io credevo noi credevamo tu credevi voi credevate lui, lei, Lei credeva Essi, Loro credevano Partire - to leave io partivo noi partivamo tu partivi voi partivate lui, lei, Lei partiva Essi, Loro partivano Past absolute/Passato remoto ENDING ARE ERE IRE I singular ai ei/etti ii II asti esti isti III /ette I plural ammo emmo immo II aste este iste III arono erono/ettero irono Mangiare - to eat io mangiai noi mangiammo tu mangiasti voi mangiaste lui, lei, Lei mangi loro, Loro mangiarono Credere - to believe, to think io credei/credetti noi credemmo tu credesti voi credeste lui, lei, Lei cred/credette loro, Loro crederono/credettero Partire - to leave io partii noi partimmo tu partisti voi partiste lui, lei, Lei part loro, Loro partirono Note that the past remote tense isn’t as commonly used in daily conversation in the center and the north of Italy. It’s used, but if you’re a beginner or intermediate student, it makes more sense to stick to the tenses you’re going to need to have a flexible and fluid conversation, like the other three listed as well as il passato prossimo. Future/Futuro semplice ENDING ARE ERE IRE I singular er er ir II erai erai irai III er er ir I plural eremo eremo iremo II erete erete irete III eranno eranno iranno Mangiare - to eat io manger noi mangeremo tu mangerai voi mangerete lui, lei, Lei manger loro, essi mangeranno Credere - to believe io creder noi crederemo tu crederai voi crederete lui, lei, Lei creder loro, essi crederanno Partire - to leave io partir noi partiremo tu partirai voi partirete lui, lei, Lei partir loro, essi partiranno