COACH INC. case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

COACH INC. - Case Study Example In addition, there have been some difficult points in the economy that have affected business in the bagging industry. This means Coach Inc. has learned from and expanded on what competitors are doing within in industry in order to stay on top of the market and maintain their business. THE BUSINESS OF BAGGING CUSTOMERS Coach Inc. is an American company dealing in leather goods from bags, shoes, jeweler, wallets and many other products. Coach was started in 1941 and has expanded rapidly in leaps and bounds, especially after the turn of the 21st century, and right now it boasts of over 500 branches worldwide. Coach started as a bagging firm back then and specialized in the manufacturing and sale of leather bags. The company was later bought by a bigger company called Sara. Lee Corporations in the 1970s. Sara Lee was diversifying its merchandise leading to the purchase of Coach among others. This diversification strategy did not work out well for Sara Lee and Coach suffered from lack of focused management (Encyclopedia, 2012). The large portfolio proved hard to handle under one management. In 2000, Frankfort Lee, the CEO of Coach, convinced the management of Sara Lee to allow Coach to run independently. This strategy paved the way for the growth and expansion of Coach. In fact, the company's growth was averaged at 51% per annum since 2002. This paper seeks to establish the factors that contributed to this rapid expansion and what exactly is the reason why the company was less affected by the economic downturn in the later part of the first decade of the 21st millennium. This paper, therefore, starts by outlining the reasons why the company could weather the economic downturn storm and the strategies it employed. It then goes ahead to discussed what Coach did that its competitors did not hence giving it a comparative advantage, lastly, it analyses the success of these strategies employed by Coach Inc. In 2008, a global economic depression hit affecting the United S tates of America and the entire world. During this time, many businesses collapsed and Coach was expected to follow suit. However, Coach expanded its operations to wider markets in Northern America and competed with leading brands. Although the company started as a maker of small leather handbags for ladies, it is currently a leader in the sale of handbags, wallets, luggage, briefcases and many other related products. How Coach Has Managed to be Successful in Challenging Economic Conditions Coach managed to be successful despite the economic challenges as a result of several management and marketing strategies. One management strategy was the creation of a business plan with a corporate strategy. The corporate strategy gave Coach the authority to run its activities independently without the interference of the mother company. This proved to be the decisive step. Coach planned to expand and diversify its operations. The company, which had a narrow range of products that were made of leather diversified into jewelry, eyewear and picture frames production and selling. It opened more stores in International markets, including Canada and China, setting up multiple stores in the countries it ventured into. The large population in China gave the Coach Inc. a ready and wide market for its products. By increasing its market share, Coach was in a position to navigate through hard economic times. Coach managed to cruise through the economic downturn through proper analysis of trends in the fashion industry and market at large. Through this analysis,