Services Marketing

[pic] [pic] [pic] [pic]

We are committed to provide our customers with value-for-money merchandise, professional customer service, and a comfortable shopping experience at convenient locations.

Giordano’s Corporate Mission

1. Describe and evaluate Giordano’s product, business and corporate strategies.

Although initially focused on wholesale trade of high-margin merchandise in Hong Kong, in 1983 Giordano scaled back on its wholesale operation and started to set up its own retail shops in Hong Kong. It also began expansion initiatives towards other markets, such as Taiwan, China, Dubai, Macao, Singapore and some others. Now, Giordano (having been given an Italian name for creating a more sophisticated image) is considered to be one of the biggest retailers of casual clothes in East Asia, South-East Asia and the Middle East.

In 1987, when sales were low and the business became unprofitable, the founder of the company Jimmy Lai decided to change company’s strategy. He came to realize that Giordano needed to change its positioning and broaden its focus. Until 1987, it sold exclusively men’s casual apparel. However, the number of female customers attracted to Giordano’s stores was rapidly increasing. This trend led Jimmy Lai onto starting sales of unisex casual apparel. From the pricy retail chain concept supporter, Giordano became a retailer of discounted casual unisex apparel with the goal of maximizing unit sales instead of margins, and sold value-for-money merchandise. Its shift in strategy was successful, and helped to almost quadruple their sales within a one year period.

It is important to mention of Lai’s management philosophy, which also contributed into the success of Giordano. Lai looked at mistakes as learning opportunities, which indirectly pointed management to the right decision in the future. I see it as an effective way to handle mistakes. However, it is...