Clothing Sector

Marketing in Commerce and Services

Report 1: The Clothing Market

1. THE PERFORMANCE OF THE PRODUCT

In the beginning, clothing was used for covering the body. But over time, it was alsoexpected to fulfill other functional aspects. As the expectations regarding clothing underwent a transformation, manufacturers came up with innovative solutions to attract the consumers. 
Nowadays, theClothing Industry satisfies a “relative” need beyond the basic. This is the need or desire of being fashionable. At the time the need evolved, the whole clothing market changed, and it also became a“services market”. It means that the companies in the sector started to offer customers not only clothes to cover the need, but also a huge variety of models and the opportunity to choose in what way theywanted to dress.
At the same time the market changed, the services became an important part of the market, and currently, we cannot talk about clothing without talk about the service.

2. CHANGESOF THE MARKET

In the last ten years, the evolution of the number of companies in the Clothing sector has dropped in a remarkable way, from 34,000 to 21,000.
The main reason is the current crisisSpain is living from August of 2007. But this, not only has caused that the number of companies dropped, but also the number of sales. This is due to the uncertainty people face day by day, that makesthem to save more money than before, and spend it in basic needs instead of secondary ones.
That is why the services in the sector also fell. Only the biggest companies as Inditex or Cortefiel havemanaged to keep their production in a big scale, offering customers the same services than before.
However, to keep also the amount of sales, the companies in the sector have had to resort to thestrategies of the 4th “p” of Marketing Mix, promotion; or 4th “c”, communication, if we are talking about the consumer-oriented model. And through discounts, sales promotion, advertising, personal...