Zara Plus Sized A Case Study for a New Product Line Assignment

Zara Plus Sized A Case Study for a New Product Line - Assignment Example Accordingly, Zara does not currently have any offerings in plus sizes or for the fuller figured woman. Therefore, this is a lucrative market in which Zara’s competitors are capitalizing and Zara apparel is not. If Zara intends to maintain its competitive edge in this evolving market, it will be forced to integrate a full figured line of clothes into its product offerings. Normally, the apparel industry is already one that is almost wholly driven by consumer tastes; however, now that consumer needs play such a key role, the evolution of the industry takes place even more rapidly than prior market demands dictated. Objective The overall objective is to create a prosperous new line of plus sized/full figured women’s clothing to augment the existing profitability of the Zara apparel firm. This objective will be accomplished by designing and producing a new line of full figured/plus sized women’s clothing, internally marketing that new product line, working to streaml ine and maximize the profitability of the new product line, monitoring its growth and success, and expanding the product line to different markets based on the profitability both online and in the initial US market introduction. As such, Zara’s primary objective is to achieve market share in an existing market with existing products. According to analysis of Ansoff’s matrix referenced below in Figure 1.0, this strategy is the safest of Ansoff’s 4 strategies. Figure 1.0 However, it is a well known fact that even with this safest of strategies, it is not without its limitations. Most prominent among these drawbacks is the fact that competitors will necessarily react to Zara’s entry into the market. As Zara will be attempting to cut down on the number of customers and market share which these firms previously held, expect the competition to be fierce. By carefully measuring Zara’s objectives within the metrics of SMART (specific, measurable, attainabl e, and time bound), Zara apparel will ensure that the metrics and milestones of the product launch are well defined, possible, and timely. SPECIFIC/Measurable With the plus sized clothing market approaching US 20 billion dollar a year industry in the United States alone (Stark, 2012), it will be Zara’s intent to capture 0.00875% of the US market - equating to total sales figures of around US 165 million dollars per annum. Figure 2.0 below shows overall sales objectives for the first year of the new product line as compared with the overall size of the plus sized clothing economy in the United States. Figure 2.0 Attainable/Time Bound It is the understanding of this analysis that such a figure is attainable given Zara’s current market share and net profits as of fiscal year 2011 totaling over US 2.14 billion dollars (Irish Times, 2011). Even without accessing total internet sales into the overall tally, each of Zara’s 49 stores in the United States will be respons ible for generating around US 3.34 million dollars in sales of plus sized clothing in order to reach the sales number set forth by this analysis. For purposes of this analysis, the sales goals, both online and in