Coach's Vast Product Line

1. What challenges does Coach face relative to pricing its vast product line?

Coach has always been known as a high quality brand that comes with a status. People see Coach and there is a level of class that comes along with it. With that being said, Coach has run into the issue of pricing their brand when it comes to staying relative to their competitors and staying within a range. The outlet stores also serve as an issue because they carry the collection from the previous season, while this may seem like a good thing for the bargain buyers who cannot afford the brand at full price it causes the brand to lose a uniqueness and exclusivity that is supposed to be associated with the brand. If everyone has Coach, then nobody has Coach.

2. Based

Coaches main competitors like Michael Kors have remained stagnant, but Coach hasn’t exactly made great leaps recently either. According to Quarts.com “Coach, the venerable but rather staid American brand best known for its omnipresent leather bags and accessories, wants to become a genuine luxury house—or at least be perceived that way. The company is in the midst of serious regrouping at the moment. Sales growth has been slowing for more than a decade, and then plummeted last year. Today (August 4), the company reported that its earnings for fiscal 2015 fell 12.8% to about $4.2 billion. Like its closest American counterpart, Michael Kors, Coach has become pricey yet basic at the same time—the kind of brand people tend to only buy on sale or at outlet stores, rather than at full retail.” (Bain) Coach in the long-term would love to transition to something more like an “American Louis Vuitton, with modest prices” (Bain). As stated in previous chapters, Coach has been making changes, but not because they’re innovated, but because they were forced to. According to Forbes, “Many of these changes at Coach are the result of fiercer competition and greater recognition of the Michael Kors brand. Kate Spade is also bringing more freshness and newness in handbags. It was Kate Spade that introduced boxy nylon bag in 1993 starting that company on its road to success. Under the management of Craig Leavitt and Deborah Lloyd Kate Spade has grown rapidly since it became a standalone public company in 2014. It currently has over 400 doors in 80 stores in the United States and 100 internationally with plans to open 35 in 2014.” (Loeb). While other brands entered the market after Coach, Coach has allowed itself to be caught up with due to failure to innovate when they could have been making innovating and new products the last 70 years. Kate Spade being