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Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
英国曼彻斯特大学市场营销学硕士论文定制Keywords Fashion industry, Market orientation, Marketing strategy, Brand image,Consumer behaviour, Factor analysis

Abstract Topshop and Gap are important fashion retail brands targeting young style-conscious
UK consumers. However, business performance differs widely with Topshop enjoying record saleswhilst Gap has recorded losses at a five year high. This paper investigated these variations in
performance from a strategic and holistic view of retailer brand image, and the adoption of qualitymarketing orientation. Answers were sought https://www.51lunwen.org/manchester/using key image attributes as a vehicle tounderstanding customers’ perceptions of the retailers under study. Survey data were collected froma sample of 300 typical customers who were set the task of ranking image attributes. Factoranalysis of customer responses indicated that Gap customers were offered lifestyles in advertisingthat were out-of-step with the merchandise on the shelves. This reflected a failure on the part ofretail management to satisfy the target market. Topshop customers displayed high levels ofconfidence in the merchandise proposition but stressed the importance of atmosphere and salesstaff in overall assessments. This finding reinforces the view that sustainable retailer positioningpivots on a range of marketing activities as well as matching fashion consumers to styles. Theresearch concludes with implications for strategic retail marketing, theory and practice.
Introduction
Fashion retailing is a highly competitive and profitable part of the UK retail sector. Forretailers of diffusion lines, or the styles that trickle down from catwalk to mass market,the pressure to stock the latest fashion is considerable. Consumer behaviour in thisdynamic marketplace is characterized by impulse purchasing and fickle customers. Toachieve and maintain competitive advantage, retailers must, therefore, pursue a retailstrategy that aligns closely with customer merchandise preferences. Fashion multiples
that succeed are rewarded with continued customer loyalty and profitability. Thispaper focuses on the two major fashion multiples Gap and Topshop, in an attempt toidentify the key factors that influence the market performance of these brands.US owned fashion retailer Gap is a speciality chain that has been very successful atdeveloping its products and merchandising strategies (Thomas et al., 2000). Founded in
1969 in San Francisco, it operates 4,171 stores worldwide, including the UK. Gap’starget market is the fifteen to thirty-five age groups with an average age oftwenty-three. The fashion retailer’s success has been founded on the young dot-com
generation and their acceptance of the plain white T-shirts and chinos look, as anexpression of identity. In 2001, Gap repositioned itself by targeting the morefashionable contemporaries, and in doing arguably neglected its core customersthrough limiting the proven merchandise from the shelves of its UK stores. A recentThe Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.em eraldinsight.com/res earchregister www.em eraldinsight .com/0309-0566. htmThe authors would like to thank the Guest Editor Anne Marie Doherty and the anonymousreviewers whose highly constructive and supportive comments he本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。