The competition that Ralph Lauren faces is mainly divided into two parts: the apparel brands in luxury market and fake imitations.
Actually, the luxury apparel market is not the market where there is a clear leader, but many brands compete together. Ralph Lauren’s top 10 competitors includes Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Versace, Micheal Kors and so on. Besides, more and more new competitors are entering the luxury market such as Supreme and the competition is more fierce than ever. Since millennials are nowadays main consumers of luxury apparels, there are many things that Ralph Lauren need to do or change to retain the market share and even attract millennials by competing against the popular young brands. This year, Ralph Lauren changed to collaborate with British street skateboard brand Palace and gained great success (maybe inspired by some efficient brand collaborations, like Louis Vuitton x Supreme). This strategy can be seen as a strong response to other popular brands and that Ralph Lauren has taken action to compete with them.
Photo source: Raprnb.com
In order to understand the competition clearly, here I will compare the products of Ralph Lauren with Burberry. Personally, the main difference between the two brands is that they have successfully shaped and represented separately the American and British styles and become classics. Although they also have overlapping product lines in clothing, such as Ralph Lauren also produces Trench coat, Burberry also has polo shirt, but consumers’ opinions on the two are mixed. Some people think that the fabric of the Burberry polo shirt is better, but the pattern of the collar is too ugly. Some people think that Ralph Lauren's polo version is better and much cheaper, but the quality is not as high as Burberry.
Photo source: <How To Spot A Counterfeit Polo Ralph Lauren Hat!>, YouTube
The other threat that Ralph Lauren faces is counterfeit goods, which mainly exist in some developing countries such as India, Indonesia, and China. In 2017, Ralph Lauren seized more than 6000 counterfeit clothes in India. Before entering the Indian market, solve the problem of local imitation and the protection of intellectual property rights is very necessary for Ralph Lauren, only clear the market can keep Ralph Lauren in local competitive advantage.
See you soon!
Yifei
Sources:
https://in.fashionnetwork.com/news/Ralph-Lauren-looks-to-clean-up-counterfeit-market-before-India-entry,873452.html
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