The offspring of an interesting collaboration of two budding entrepreneurs- Julian Dunkerton and James Holder in Cheltenham, the UK in 2003, Superdry is usually exemplified as a perfect blend of East and West and has Super group plc as its parent brand. Bringing out the classic fusion of American and Japanese clothing styles molded into the British Fashion sense, this international brand has its rooted birthplace in Great Britain. Exemplifying the tagline of its brand “British Design, Spirit of Japan” in its true sense, the brand has sprung to fame in recent times. With its core aim to get quality, value and design under the same umbrella, it tried to seek an innovative and unique approach.
Beginning its foray into fashion with a mere stall at Cheltenham market, it was initially the Cult Clothing Brand founded by Dunkerton which further collaborated with Holder’s skatewear trend “Bench”, thus, giving way to the formation of “Superdry”. Launching its successful story with its first store in Covent Garden in London in 2004, this brand has expanded multifariously.
Entry into the Indian Market
Superdry was launched in India in 2012 with a pact of long term distribution with the business tycoon, Mr. Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance brand as its local partner. The company’s sales were facilitated in large numbers in the Indian stores, which led to the brand gaining immense popularity from the Indian customers. With crossing each checkpoint and attaining a greater number of success stories, the brand decided to launch its e-commerce website in India in the Mid-August of 2019, adopting an omnichannel retail strategy.
The company had claimed a hike of seven to ten percent in its sales with the launch of its website which would provide a diversified range of over 4,000 products. Indeed, the chic American style with Japanese inspired graphics stole hearts. With an impressive number of thirty-five exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) in India and already selling on Amazon, Myntra, and Ajio, it planned to store about thirty more outlets with its e-commerce site. It also put to sea a number of its sub-brands such as “Superdry Sport” that was first opened in Delhi and was planned to start in Bengaluru. Manu Sharma, the Business Head of Superdry India had talked about floating ten Superdry Sport standalone as well.
Brand Strategy
Changing the platforms
Superdry does not blindly follow the market trends but decided to cater to the needs of the customers, which in itself, is the benchmark of a good brand. It also changed platforms of its marketing, such as deciding to have a smartphone application, a website operational in countries of its selling, and exclusive brand outlets.
Keeping it simple
Superdry has tried to keep its clothing basic and simple with no confusion. This is very evident in its tagline as well as its products. There have been brands trying to make innovative products out of unconventional clothing styles; however, they often render themselves failure because the crowd does not really appreciate too much of fussy clothing. On the contrary, Superdry has made it very clear that its aim is to keep clothing lucid yet attractive, adhering itself to the demand of the customers.
Making amends to bring sports lovers in the loop
Superdry is another name for ‘fashion in trend’. It launched Superdry Sport and Superdry Snow to bring into limelight the activewear/sportswear in summers and winters respectively. They are absolutely ready to take down the fashion and sports tycoons. They have also announced to set in motion a complete range of game equipment for everyone soon.
An exclusive marketing strategy
Superdry has tried to make perfect use of the trust and faith of its customers to carry forward its legacy of blending innovation with fashion finely. More than that, it has looked into all the lines to benefit customers. The pricing structure has been carefully constructed to encourage both profitability and huge sales, keeping into account the quality of the products. Plummeting sales are a result of low and smart pricing rates. Currently, there has been an interesting hike in sales and profits, and estimation provides even more achievements. The competitive marketing strategy stems from its innovative styles that have brought in more customers, excellent non-fussy clothing quality and pricing style which is ten to fifteen percent cheaper than the big clothing brands.
The indomitable vision and mission
It aims to create a platform for significant financial growth. The brand has totally invested in creating itself an innovation and customer-led company to redefine styling.
The values
The secret to Superdry’s success is a set of its core values, that are-
Passion to love their work and excel at everything they do to surpass everyone in the race of being the best.
Creativation, that is, a blend of creativity and innovation to look for assorted approaches to things and to push themselves beyond normalcy to achieve difficult yet possible things.
Quality is what makes them rare, as Superdry itself claims. They keep it a strong point in itself that quality is not to be compromised and should be kept intact and maintained.
Family is what exactly the entire staff and team of Superdry believe themselves to be. Making every move together, it is the Superdry fraternity working to build a big name around Superdry.
Individuality is an important force where Superdry tries to make products liked and preferred by its customers, not merely following the stereotypes.
Fun is yet another key source of motivation because Superdry believes that work is meant to be enjoyed.
Sustainable goals
In 2017, Superdry established firm grounds in favor of sustainability and adopted the framework of “People, Product, and Planet”. Here, they have ensured that everyone involved in the business as its employees or the supply chain, benefits and get support, the products were manufactured in safe conditions causing minimal environmental harm and were not against the animal welfare norms, and lastly, to procure sustainable resources for planet protection.
Following the “SuperdryResponsible40” goal method which states that by the year 2040, a hundred percent organic cotton would be utilized from the manufacture of clothes, about one lakh young people to be supported and involved in order to boost the local economy, and to utilize hundred percent renewable resources in their business. They work to uplift and promote human, environmental, and animal rights and do not create an imbalance.
Superdry has a program named as the “Modern Slavery Programme” which ensures the prevention of human trafficking and slave labor within the cycles of Superdry’s business and supply chains. It has incorporated the principles of the “California Transparency in Supply Chains Act (2010) and the “Modern Slavery Act (2015)”.
Road to success
The major reasons behind the inherent successes of Superdry as a brand have been the excellent and revolutionary goals, principles, beliefs, and the passion to create the best without toppling the trust of its customers which most of the brands fail to comprehend and ignore in order to turn in more profits and fame. With marvelous and insurmountable policies, Superdry has surely made a huge pace of its own in this World, the fashion industry, and the hearts of the huge masses of people.
Superdry was also featured and listed on the London Stock Exchange and is undoubted, going to soar to greater heights of achievements in the upcoming years with even better and more engaging policies.
Conclusion
The Superdry fusion of American, British and Japanese styles had no bounds. The impressive blend had attracted gigantic numbers of buyers from all over the world. Currently, with a significant presence and an outstanding public reach, and operating through the 768 Superdry branded locations in 65 countries, there are 245 stores across the United Kingdom and mainland Europe, over 497 franchised and licensed stores, and about 26 concessions.
Additionally, Superdry also delivers happiness around 100+ countries operating from 21 international websites. With the entire journey of successful outcomes yet to come forth, Superdry has never failed to keep up the smiles of its customers and live up to their expectations.
