Assessment Brief Introduction:

The Product Management module will challenge you to use your creative and commercial critical thinking skills to identify market trends and opportunities. You will analyse how a business can respond to emerging opportunities in the development of products from concept to shop floor. You will look at the future, to develop your strategic thinking and be concerned with the innovative management of products and delivery of long-term sustainable business strategies for brands. You will examine consumer trends and how design, buying and merchandising (BMD) impact brands as they evolve and seek growth opportunities.

The aim of this module is to build upon your introductory business knowledge and skills acquired in the previous module. It will enable you to examine a brand from the four listed below in more detail as a professional Fashion Buyer and Merchandiser would do in industry. You will develop knowledge and understanding of the key BMD skills involved in developing a product range for your chosen brand, from Competitive Analysis, Trend Evaluation and Product Development to Supply Chain Strategies and Range Building and Planning techniques. This module is designed to simulate commercial roles in retail and develop your Product Management skills.

TASK

Ethical and Sustainable Vision: The role of Head Office Buying teams is to build a business strategy for the product and to fulfil the current needs of consumers. For this module, you will assume the role of a retail fashion buyer and propose an exciting new ethical and or sustainable range that provides innovative new product concepts and ideas. Your ideas should include a new eco-fabric innovation in a collection that will launch in AW24/25.

Please select one of these four brands to work with:

· Lucy & Yak

· Kemi Telford 

· Aliya Wanek

· Sézane

THE MODULE ASSESSMENT IS IN 2 PARTS:

PART 1: (30%) Digital Presentation and PART 2: (70%) 2000-word Illustrated Report

Part 1: 5-Minute Digital Presentation (LO: A1, B1, C1)

A competitive retail analysis and ethical and sustainable proposal for your chosen brand. Your PowerPoint presentation should include the following:

a. A review of relevant market dynamics affecting the brand you have chosen, including impacting trend drivers looking at sustainability and ethical issues.

b. Brand, consumer, position and competitor analysis. Including analysis of the EXISTING product range considering shape, fabrication, colour and/or print, price and country of origin.

c. A proposed new direction for the brand with consideration for new products and new alternate fabrics. What does the brand need to do to drive towards an ethical and or sustainable future? You will develop this for the second part of this assignment.

Tables, graphs, and infographics will help you visually communicate your understanding of the brand and your research and creative proposal. Use various sources to develop a detailed review, including data, news articles and innovation knowledge, to develop a professional presentation that includes a lengthy reference list. Using your own primary imagery would be good. You are being assessed on your business knowledge as well as your presentation skills.

Your Digital Presentation should be no more than 5 slides long and be saved as a PowerPoint with voice-over narration of your slides.

You will have the chance in Week 29, during formative peer-to-peer discussions, to explore your ideas and fine tune them before you submit your component in Week 30. 

Part 2: 2000 word Illustrated report 70% (LO: A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, C1, C2, D1)

The illustrated report must be created in InDesign and saved as a single landscape PDF before submission. Your report will analyse the brand you have chosen, including detailed primary and secondary research, online or brick and mortar (physical) store analysis. A competitive online or physical comparative shop report and basket analysis, focused on the product offer, considering choice, quality and positioning. Your illustrated report will culminate with an innovative range that takes the brand in a new ethical and or sustainable direction. Remember to always focus your work to the module learning outcomes. Use the following essential sections to organise your report:

a. CREATIVE PRODUCT & CONCEPT – approximately 700 words

· Consideration of your brand’s macro environment, brand analysis and new innovative proposal: explore in depth one growth opportunity for your retailer, this could be a completely new line and direction for the brand or a collaboration with an artist, charitable enterprise or a new sub-brand and must include a new fabric innovation.

· Eco Fabric – an introduction to your new innovative fabric.

· The concept – what is the innovation and how is it ethical and or sustainable? How will your concept help your brand grow? How and why is it relevant to a fashion business of 2025?

· What will the range be? Scope this out in terms of shape, fabrication, colour and/or print and price.

· Your range plan should include visual representations of your products, created using Adobe Illustrator.

b. STRATEGIC DIRECTION – approximately 1000 words

· What is the strategic direction and how can you support your strategy? How will it grow your brand or ideas? Think a head, what challenges will need to be overcome?

· Theoretical underpinning here is essential to demonstrate critical awareness in terms of strategic development, range direction and supply strategies. For example, theory of growth, unique selling points (USPs) and added value propositions and sourcing aims to support the flow of product from concept to shop floor.

c. MECHANDISE PLAN – approximately 300 words

· Use data and graphs as well as written word for this section.

· From your market research, create a detailed merchandise range plan detailing your new collection. There should be 20 garments in your range plan. The colour options you detail are on top of the 20 garments.

· Set the buying plan of the product range based on the retail value to include the following:

· Product mix analysis (fabric type, colour, print etc.).

· Country of origin mix.

· Retail price strategies and justification.

· Units and size ratios you plan to buy for each item.