Entrepreneurship
Nigel Austin is the founder of the Cotton On chain. The company was founded in 1991 and started as just one shop selling womens fashion in Geelong, Victoria. Before Nigel started his Cotton On business, he sold women clothing from the back on his car.
Nigel's reason for starting Cotton On came from his love from creating stylish women's clothing at affordable prices. Nigel's vision and ethics for his wide spread business later allowed the Cotton On franchise to be expanded to men's clothing, children's clothing, sleepwear, sportswear, lingerie, footwear and stationary.
Nigel's reason for starting Cotton On came from his love from creating stylish women's clothing at affordable prices. Nigel's vision and ethics for his wide spread business later allowed the Cotton On franchise to be expanded to men's clothing, children's clothing, sleepwear, sportswear, lingerie, footwear and stationary.
Operations
The first product that Nigel produced for the Cotton On company was women’s clothing. The Cotton On company is in the retail industry, they are part of the "Clothing Retailing in Australia" industry. Cotton On operates approximately 1,00 stores worldwide in countries like Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and the US, with 600 of them being across Australia and employs over 5,500
staff. Each Cotton On store sells a minimum 1,000 garments per day (e.g. a small suburban store in Marrickville) and ranges to 20,000 items per day (a store in George Street), tallying an annual profit of $24 million. Cotton On offers 2 for one deals with their clothing garments e.g. one top for $15 or 2 for $20, hence the amount of units per day increases, making Cotton On’s multi’s (multiple items per transaction) increase.
staff. Each Cotton On store sells a minimum 1,000 garments per day (e.g. a small suburban store in Marrickville) and ranges to 20,000 items per day (a store in George Street), tallying an annual profit of $24 million. Cotton On offers 2 for one deals with their clothing garments e.g. one top for $15 or 2 for $20, hence the amount of units per day increases, making Cotton On’s multi’s (multiple items per transaction) increase.
Finance
In 2010 the Cotton On company was valued at $236 million. Cotton On was originally a partnership, between Nigel Austin and his wife Tania. When the couple separated in 2009, Tania signed over her owning of the company to Nigel (at the price of $156 million) and Nigel Austin officially became the only owner of Cotton On. This made Cotton On a Sole Trading Company. In 2012, Cotton On worldwide made a profit of $314.6 million profit.
Tania Austin
Marketing
Over 1000 stores in 12 countries and is one of Australia's biggest fashion houses.
Cotton On's main target audience is for people who want high fashion at affordable prices. Cotton On is aimed at multiple audiences ranging from adults, teens and children.
Cotton On has a store for almost any need, gender or age. The ”Cotton On” franchise delivers a chain of stores ranging from its main store ‘Cotton On’ which is mainly aimed towards teenage boys and girls to children aged 0-7 with ‘Cotton On Kids’ to ‘Cotton On Body’ which is aimed towards female adults with its lingerie, sleepwear and sportswear. The franchise also expands to women footwear with ‘Rubi Shoes’ and their latest store ‘Typo’which has all your stationary needs with a stylish twist.
Cotton On has a variety of marketing strategies to make the business work better and have longevity.
1. Online store with free delivery which targets people who don't have the time to go physically to the shops.
2. Social Networking - Cotton On has Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, email sign-ups with constant promotional prizes. Latest edition "Win a shopping experience with Lara Bingle"
3. Celebrity Personels - Australian icons having their own labels in store. Lara Bingle, Australian supermodel, is now working with Cotton On and producing her own line.
4. Westfield Promotions - Majority of Cotton On's stores are located in the Westfields across Australia. At christmas time, Westfield create booklets with special discounts offering a certain percentage (%) off and Cotton On use this as one of their promotional strategies.
Cotton On's main target audience is for people who want high fashion at affordable prices. Cotton On is aimed at multiple audiences ranging from adults, teens and children.
Cotton On has a store for almost any need, gender or age. The ”Cotton On” franchise delivers a chain of stores ranging from its main store ‘Cotton On’ which is mainly aimed towards teenage boys and girls to children aged 0-7 with ‘Cotton On Kids’ to ‘Cotton On Body’ which is aimed towards female adults with its lingerie, sleepwear and sportswear. The franchise also expands to women footwear with ‘Rubi Shoes’ and their latest store ‘Typo’which has all your stationary needs with a stylish twist.
Cotton On has a variety of marketing strategies to make the business work better and have longevity.
1. Online store with free delivery which targets people who don't have the time to go physically to the shops.
2. Social Networking - Cotton On has Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, email sign-ups with constant promotional prizes. Latest edition "Win a shopping experience with Lara Bingle"
3. Celebrity Personels - Australian icons having their own labels in store. Lara Bingle, Australian supermodel, is now working with Cotton On and producing her own line.
4. Westfield Promotions - Majority of Cotton On's stores are located in the Westfields across Australia. At christmas time, Westfield create booklets with special discounts offering a certain percentage (%) off and Cotton On use this as one of their promotional strategies.
Ethics and Social Corporate Responsibility
Being in the retail industry, labels of clothing play an important and serious role in the consumer's choice to purchase the product. Some consumers will test whether they like the material, if it's machine washable and especially when mother's purchase pyjamas for their children; they check if they are highly flammable.
In December of 2012, Cotton On was fined for breaching the Competition and Consumer Act by selling pyjamas that did not meet Australian standards and for mislabelling them as being of "low fire danger".
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) deputy chair Delia Rickard said the pyjamas and nightdresses were very dangerous. She declared a statement saying that "The nightwear was so flammable that they should not have been supplied in Australia at all...To compound this, the highly flammable nightwear was misrepresented by being labelled 'low fire danger'."
The legal battle caused controversal views from many opposing views. One lady said “By [Cotton On]supplying around 2,500 unsafe children’s nightdresses and pyjamas across Australia, Cotton On Kids Pty Ltd and Cotton On Clothing Pty Ltd breached the Australian mandatory standard for children’s nightwear,”
The pyjamas were then recalled and Cotton On was fined $1 million for mislabeling clothing and putting thousands of kids in danger.
The one million was comprised for different reasonings:·
Cotton On have the responsibility to draw the line on where they believe it’s ethical and an appropriate representation of the company’s products but they also have the responsibility to know when they are crossing that line so that their corporation is not objectifying women, men, kids etc. especially with their Cotton On body range.
In December of 2012, Cotton On was fined for breaching the Competition and Consumer Act by selling pyjamas that did not meet Australian standards and for mislabelling them as being of "low fire danger".
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) deputy chair Delia Rickard said the pyjamas and nightdresses were very dangerous. She declared a statement saying that "The nightwear was so flammable that they should not have been supplied in Australia at all...To compound this, the highly flammable nightwear was misrepresented by being labelled 'low fire danger'."
The legal battle caused controversal views from many opposing views. One lady said “By [Cotton On]supplying around 2,500 unsafe children’s nightdresses and pyjamas across Australia, Cotton On Kids Pty Ltd and Cotton On Clothing Pty Ltd breached the Australian mandatory standard for children’s nightwear,”
The pyjamas were then recalled and Cotton On was fined $1 million for mislabeling clothing and putting thousands of kids in danger.
The one million was comprised for different reasonings:·
- $400,000 for the contraventions relating to the sale of the nightdresses that did not comply with the
standard - $400,000 for the contraventions relating to the sale of the pyjamas that did not comply with the standard
- $100,000 for the contraventions relating to the misrepresentations regarding the nightdresses
- $100,000 for the contraventions relating to the misrepresentations regarding the pyjamas.
Cotton On have the responsibility to draw the line on where they believe it’s ethical and an appropriate representation of the company’s products but they also have the responsibility to know when they are crossing that line so that their corporation is not objectifying women, men, kids etc. especially with their Cotton On body range.
