Chapter 11 : Developing and Managing Products

       Banana Republic is known as an innovative and fast moving retail company. Like other companies such as Inditex’s Zara, Banana Republic is a company that can be considered a part of the “fast fashion” movement of the past few years. This means that retailers are constantly changing product in order to keep up with changing trends and consumer wants as opposed to releasing collections every season. As a result of this, their product life cycle is somewhat skewed; they don’t have just one product making its way through the life cycle but rather a steady supply chain. However, it is clear that Banana Republic products are not in the decline stage, since the company is still growing and expanding.

Banana Republic and H&M : Two companies constantly releasing products to consumers

      
       This expansion comes as a result of Banana Republic’s constant adaptation to the changing fashion environment and its customer base. There is always new product development since the company is constantly making products the consumers want. They base this development off of customer service surveys as well as market research. Also, since Banana Republic is heavily customer service based, this development applies to its services as well. An example of this is when Banana Republic created their Reserve-In-Store service for customers. Banana Republic is innovative with its products and services, however, it can be seen as a store trying to please its customers, in which case they focus more on what their customers want as opposed to trying to be creative. A good example of this is during their last winter 2013 collection. Banana Republic attempted to stand out by creating their clothing in tons of colors and styles rather than just focusing on what the consumer really wanted. That is why in the future they are shifting their model to specifically provide clothing in the colors and styles that sell the best and please the customers. However, Banana Republic still continues to use a team of experts to develop new products that will keep the customers returning to its stores.