FSF (Fashion Scholarships Fund) Case Study 2024

MERCHANDISING OBJECTIVE:
A Curated Sustainable Product Offering

Your task is to develop an environmentally sustainable merchandising strategy focused on fashion, core, or a mixed assortment. It is your task to build a product strategy and assortment plan focused on environmental sustainability and minimizing excess merchandise by selecting the right product in the right quantities for the right time. You will address how your assortment will be integrated with the existing merchandise strategy. The core assortment contains classics that are continually offered from year to year, while fashion refers to more trend-forward styles that are launched within a new season. Based on your chosen brand, the product offering may skew from less-is-more to high-trend maximalism. 

Consumer Research:

• Conduct research to understand the consumer groups that are likely to engage with your brand and collection and create substantive goals for your merchandising strategy. 

• Research the brand, marketplace, and consumer. Identify the focal points of your collection that establish it as environmentally sustainable.

Your merchandising strategy should:

• Be relevant to the brand you have selected

• Be environmentally sustainable 

• Address what type of assortment you are presenting, including core and/or fashion. 

• Include an assortment plan and pricing strategy

• Address how the merchandise will coexist with existing product offerings of the brand

• Can be for an existing product category and market segment addressed by the brand you select or
  a proposed brand expansion into a new product category

Research your Company / Brand + Sustainability:

1. Search in Business Source Complete & ABI/Inform for the company/brand name AND
   1. consumers/customers, sustainable, environmental, social, "corporate responsibility" or a specific sub-topic e.g. recycled, upcycled, fair-trade, organic, gender neutral, size-inclusive, etc.
2. Search sustainable+ clothing/fashion in other resources to get relevant info:
   1. Statista - overall trend data.
   2. Mintel - retail & consumer trends
   3. WARC - trends, channels and marketing strategies
3. A company's corporate website is a great source of information (e.g. gapinc.com).
   1. There is often a dedicated section for corporate responsibility.