Swot Analysis Of J Crew

J. CREW

Introduction

J Crew (JCG) is an accessories and clothing company located in New York. Today J Crew have around 260 outlets and stores across the United States. In spite of this, many of their products are purchased online through their website (www.JCrew.com). In 2007, their manpower was around 7,600 workers. The key executives are Millard Drexler (CEO), James Scully (CFO), Steve Dee (CIO), and Tracy Gardner (President of the J Crew retail and direction division).

J Crew offers a wide variety of men and women’s apparel and accessories. They have two different kinds of formats; CrewCuts and Madewell. One kind of format is Crewcuts which offer clothing and accessories for children from ages 2-10 while another one is Madewell, who target

is founded by Mitchell Cinader and Saul Charles to sell low-priced women 's clothing through in-home demonstrations. In early 1980s, Popular Club Plan owner’s (the club which was under the control of Arthur, Mitchell Cinader 's son) watched as catalogue retailers of clothing, which includes Lands ' End, L.L. Bean, & Talbots, reported in increasing the sales of the company. In an effort to duplicate the success of these companies, own catalog operation was initiated by Popular Club Plan.

Aiming for a Ralph Lauren look at a much lower price, the company focused on leisure wear for upper-middle-class customer. Popular Club target its merchandise in the niche segment between Ralph Lauren, which target high end customers, and the Limited, which target on the lower segment. In an effort to suggest a 'preppy ' spirit, Popular Club Plan named this operation ‘The J. Crew.’ First catalogue was mailed by J Crew to its customers in January 1983. Instrumental in orchestrating J. Crew look was Emily Cinader (later Woods), Arthur Cinader 's daughter, who joined the company after her

Crew 's catalogue evolved a distinctive look featuring young and attractive models having fun in a variety of appealing settings. The photographs in the catalogue which were taken from a house party of old friends, all of whom happened to be looking gorgeous and outfitted by the clothes from J. Crew. Their models in catalogues worn the same outfit in more than one photograph, and coordinated with other accessories. As a result, customers get the idea of how the same garments of J Crew looked on your body & how it can be used in different occasions. In spite of this, J. Crew catalogue also included close-up shots of their fabrics from which their garments were made, helping to validate and claim their quality. J Crew has close control on their catalogue. For production of their catalogue J Crew selected images from more than 8,000 rolls of film shot and having all catalogue made in their house. J. Crew mailed 14 times a year, its catalogue to their customers with more than 100 glossy pages. J. Crew also have an internal design staff for production of their garments and other accessories and carefully controlled the manufacturing process, hiring factories to produce products to its specifications. And as a result, sales of the company’s with the help of catalogue operations grew rapidly throughout the mid-1980s, as the catalogue retailing industry as a whole experienced strong growth. During this time, company continued to refine its way of