In the Mix (#7)

Reporting Live from Fashion Week,

Yes indeed, in this segment we will be talking about fashion, something that I like to think I have a little experience with.  We aren’t going to be talking about just clothing here, the purpose of this is to look at brands and how they operate in order to gain a larger outreach with the hopes of gaining a larger profit.  First vocabulary term that is to be learned is Mixed Branding, here a firm markets products under its own name and that of a reseller because the segment attracted to the reseller is different from its own market. A good example of this would be Marshall’s, for those of you who don’t know Marshall’s Inc. is a chain of American off-price department stores that is owned by a company called TJX, they are the second largest off-price family apparel and home fashion retailer behind its sister company T.J Maxx. The slogan that they go off of at Marshall’s is “Never Pay Full Price for Fabulous,” some of their departments include clothing, shoes, home furnishing, cosmetics, luggage, and tech.  Some of the brands that collaborate with Marshalls are Adidas, American Eagle, Coach, Express, Forever 21, Kenneth Cole, Polo, True Religion etc.  All of these top name brands are willing to mark down their prices for the sake of expanding their market for example if you were to go to the Polo store you spending at least $25 for a shirt were as if you find that same shirt in Marshall’s it will be somewhere along the lines of $12. 

The next term to take note of is multibranding which involves giving each product a distinct name.  I have a really good example for you guys for this one; this actually blew my mind when I discovered this.  We all know Volkswagen, the German automobile manufacturer; they’re also the biggest

German automaker and the second largest automaker in the world.  What I discovered when looking at their ownership slash multibranding status is that they hold ownership of Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, and of course Volkswagon. Audi has been a majority owned (at 99.55%) subsidiary of Volkswagen Group since 1966, Bentley is a British Luxury automaker who started out under Rolls-Royce Limited in 1931 but then was taken over by Volkswagen AG in 1998, now they hold all rights to the automotive company.  Bugatti was founded by Italian-born Ettore Bugatti in 1909 who then sold the company to Hispano-Suiza in 1963 who then sold the company to Volkswagen Group in July of 1998.  Lamborghini is an Italian brand and manufactuere of luxury sports cars and formerly SUVs, their back drop is a bit different they were actually acquired through Audi in 1998 which means they are technically owned by Volkswagen as well.  It seems to me that Volkswagen is trying to snatch up all of the top name luxury car companies any chance they get, can you say monopolistic (cough cough).

Today’s Promotions

It’s the final season and Sam Crow is unleashing hell in poor little Charming California, I don’t know how much more of this that town can take.  After last season shocking season finally (no spoilers for those who watch and aren’t caught up) know Jax and the rest of the gang have got themselves in some situations that don’t look too promising for them but we know the Men of Mayhem will find some way to slip through the cracks as they always do.  I just hope there aren’t any casualties.  This show is featured on FX for those who don’t know, and tonight is the premiere of the 9^th episode at 10pm, the way the last episode ended the suspense is killing all lovers of the show.  I can’t wait to see what Jax and the rest of the Redwood Original Reapers have up their sleeves as their timeline comes to an end.  You can start your crusade from the first season on Hulu.