"Calvin Klein's love for fashion was seen at a very early age when he started taking interest in sketching and sewing. Born on 19 November 1942, after graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, he began working as a trainee making coats in European style of fashion. However, he was not happy with the trend of copying the European fashion, which most Americans followed, and so he came up with the idea of inventing original fashion ideas for the American people.
He started his company in the year 1968 after taking a loan amount of $10,000 from his friend and named it ‘Calvin Klein Ltd'. Success came knocking at his doors and he bagged the coat order worth of $50,000 of from Bonwit Teller, a large departmental store. His name soon became famous. Soon, apart from designing coats he brought about a new line of sportswear for women. It was affordable and had "The Calvin Klein Look".
His name appeared in the fashion magazine Vogue in the year 1969. He was awarded the Coty award by the fashion press consecutively for the years 1973, 1974, and 1975. He manufactured scarves, belts, shoes, furs and sunglasses with annual revenues of $30 million by the year 1977. The year 1981 saw a steep rise in his annual income with new license for cosmetics and jeans, which estimated to about $8.5 million a year (according to Fortune magazine report)
Nevertheless, the companies foray into the perfume industry proved to be a failure with huge losses. It then began its undergarments business in the year 1980, introducing a range of boxer shorts (for men/women), which again turned out to be a success churning out $70 million a year. His clothes were now available worldwide with 12,000 stores in the US and countries like UK, Germany, Greece, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, India, Australia and New Zealand, increasing Klein's annual income to $12 million.
However, the company became bankrupt in the year 1992 due to some financial issues and unsatisfactory sale. Finally, in the year 2002 the company was brought by Phillips Van Heusen Corp. The recent brands under CK are Calvin Klein Collection, Calvin Klein Sport, Calvin Klein Home, Calvin Klein Jeans, The Khaki Collection and Calvin Klein Underwear to name a few.
Today, clothes designed by Calvin Klein is preferred and liked by many Hollywood Actors. Gwyneth Paltrow, Sandra Bullock, and Julia Roberts are to name a few in the list.
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[...] On broader basis, the company ahs highly differentiated product catalogue offering triple revenue mix (i.e. retail sales, royalty and advertising) to parent corporation i.e. PVH Corp on long-term basis. ➢ Promotional:In the past 2-3 years, the company has aggressively shifted its promotional and advertising budget to digital platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Ren Ren, Weibo etc. Calvin Klein spend US$75 million (2011: US$69 million) on digital marketing and promotional campaigns in 2013. The company plans to expand digital promotional campaign expenditure to 70% of annual budget in 2016. [...]
[...] In 2013, the further reduced price by 20% on casual clothing and fragrances in emerging markets such as India to improve regional and local penetration. On broader basis, it is mid priced apparel and beauty & personal care manufacturer worldwide. ➢ Place: United States is the biggest marketspace for Calvin Klein accounting for 45% of global retail value sales in 2013(The Economist, 2013).China, United Kingdom and Italy are secondary core markets for the enterprise constituting US$350 million, US$250 million and US$200 million retail value sales respectively in 2013. [...]
[...] On the other hand, Calvin Klein has mid priced growth and expansion strategy. The differentiating growth strategy focusing on mid priced volume centric emerging market expansion has enhanced competitive advantage for Calvin Klein as compared to Diesel, Guess and True Religion(GlobalData, 2014). Risks, challenges and Limitations Calvin Klein faces steep macro and micro risks due to its operations across 72 countries worldwide. The core risks are as follows(GlobalData, 2014): ➢ Low employee retention and higher labor disputes will hamper competitive advantage. [...]
[...] In 2003, the retail sales value of Calvin Klein stood at US$ 2.8 billion (GlobalData, 2012). The core strategic developments in past 2-3 years are(Corporate Press Release, 2014): Period Key Developments (2012-2014) Jun 2014 Strategic licensing agreement signed with Vandale Industries for North America May 2014 Strategic distribution partnership with American Sportswear S.A. in LATAM Apr 2014 Acquired minority stake in Karl Lagerfeld Jan 2014 Licensing agreement signed with Axis Golf Pty for IZOD brand in Australia. Sept 2013 Rebranding of its Bridge product portfolio Feb 2013 Acquired Warnaco brand Nov 2012 Opened new megastores in Vaughn Mills (Toronto) in Canada Nov 2012 Ventured into new market Guam (Caribbean) Oct 2012 Launch of Calvin Klein Bold underwear and Calvin Klein Jeans liquid metal product portfolio Sep 2012 Introduction of Encounter fragrance with actor AlexanderSkarsgård Sep 2012 Expansion of colour cosmetics and fragrance retail outlet channel network by 450 (predominantly health & beauty retailers) May 2012 Launch ck Calvin Klein brand of colour cosmetics (face, eyes, lips & nails centric beauty & personal care products) worldwide Apr 2012 Expansion of retail network in Argentina, Peru and Chile Apr 2012 Megastore expansion spree in North America (Opened in Harriman and Miami with stipulated Las Vegas in March 2013) Source: Corporate Press Releases In past 2-3 years, the company has aggressively expanded its licensing and distribution partnership portfolio in non-core markets i.e. [...]
[...] ➢ Opportunities: In 2012, Calvin Klein flagship e-commerce brand www.calvinklein.com attracted approximately 6 million likes annually on social media platform such as Facebook. The global online retail marketspace stood at US$399 billion, with CAGR of 16% in past 4-5 years (2009-2014). Further, apparel segment is stipulated to reach 44% of total spending across digital retail in China (www.atkearney.com). B)Emerging markets such as China, India etc are highly unorganized with counterfeit risks. Recently, majority of consumers are shifting towards branded apparel, beauty & personal care and female accessories attributed to changing lifestyle dynamics in India, China and Eastern Europe. [...]
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