Boda Skins, Research Paper Example

The fashion brand known as Boda Skins, founded by Nathan Alexander, is a new business that is trying to break into the apparel and fashion industry. Founded recently in 2010, Boda Skins specializes in leather manufacturing and design of unique clothing products, primarily jackets for both genders. The business is based in Manchester England. The Boda Skins team has the creative designing skills needed to produce the fashionable clothing products that are in demand throughout the fashion industry. Boda Skins has demonstrated their talents in fashion and design by creating leather jackets for the London Fashion Shows as well as many other famous clothing brands. Although based in England, their leather products are stitched outside of Sucati, located in the country of Turkey. This area is unique for the business because the area has a prolonged history of manufacturing the highest quality lamb leather on the globe. Although the Boda Skins brand was founded in 2010, their factory has been operating for the past 26 years in supplying leather clothing products to wholesalers and larger retail chains around the world. (Alexander, 2015) (LinkedIn, 2015)

Nathan Alexander stated in an interview that it normally takes three to four months to create a new product from design to finished goods. Despite successfully selling their leather jackets, Alexander has yet to open any stores under the Boda Skins brand name. His business primarily makes sales through their online web page. The United Kingdom Trust Pilot website rates Boda Skins as excellent, with a 9.7 out of 10 rating based on 120 reviews. On a five star scale, 95.8% of customers rate Boda Skins at 5 stars, 1.7% at 4 stars, 0.8% at 3 stars, 0% at 2 stars, and 1.7% at 1 star. (Pilot, 2015)

Having only ten employees in the business, Boda Skins is considered a small to medium sized business, or (SMB). Specifically, Boda Skins is a small business because they consist of fewer than 100 employees. A medium sized business would consist of greater than 100 employees but less than 1000 employees. Although Boda Skins is a small business, they are considered a multinational business under Yip’s globalization drivers. This is because Boda Skins is based in England, but they have investments in their operations in Turkey for producing the fine quality lamb leather. They also sell to customers all over the world through their website. (Tech, 2015)

Although Boda Skins is a business that is open to the public through their sales of products, they are not exactly considered a public company. A public company is worth billions of dollars and is open to sell shares of ownership in the form of stocks to the general public. Such stocks are traded on the major stock exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ. Boda Skins does not fall under this category of publically traded companies because they are still a growing business. Perhaps with enough time, Boda Skins could someday innovate on the global scale and become a publically traded company. However, for now, they are a small business and this business analysis will assess how well they are performing.

Under Yip’s framework for globalization, Boda Skins possesses a strong macroeconomic and financial factor as their sales revenues are generated from various global economies. Their business cost drivers would consist of the cost of goods sold as well as salaries and wages, which all are kept at a minimum. Most of their costs are variable costs which are dependent on the level of sales revenue. The fact that Boda Skins can keep their fixed costs at a minimum makes them a competitive driver under Yip’s framework for globalization. (Saurav, 2014)

Their technological factors are surely influenced by the technology used to design and manufacture such appealing leather clothing products for their target market. Also, the use of their online store as their primary point of sales demonstrates their use of computer technology, but they do not stop here. Boda Skins is able to gain exposure through their use of social media platforms. Boda Skins advertise their product line through the most popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube, and Instagram. This form of advertisement through social networking is their primary market driver under Yip’s framework for globalization. The business’s social and demographic factor is dependent on the trends in the fashion industry. As long as leather continues to stay in demand in the appeal and fashion industry, then Boda Skins will stay in business. (Saurav, 2014)

Under the Porter 5 forces analysis, Boda Skins stands as an industry rivalry within the fashion industry. There are of course, other businesses in the fashion industry that too specialize in designing leather jackets. Boda Skin will need to consider Porter’s marketing forces if they seek to remain relevant in the apparel and fashion industry. The bargaining power of Boda Skins suppliers of the high quality lamb leather they use to manufacture their jackets appears to have a great deal of power. Boda Skins uses leather specifically from their supplier in Turkey, which means they this supplier has all of the supplier bargaining power under this force of marketing. Alexander may want to consider seeking other suppliers with similar qualities of leather to give his business more leverage in bargaining with suppliers. (Investopedia, 2015)

The bargaining power of Boda Skin’s buyers appears to be high as well. Buyers will always have the option of diverting to another clothing line that sells similar leather jackets. It is up to the Boda Skins team to continuously design their products so that they can keep up with the trends in buyer demands. This leads to the threat of substitutes. There are all kinds of substitutes for leather jackets from other designers as well as counterfeit products. The only way for Boda Skins to defend against the threat of substitutes is to solidify their brand name in the fashion industry. Once their brand name is solidified, the threat of substitutes can be minimized because then consumers will turn to Boda Skins regardless of the design. The last force in Porter’s 5 forces is the threat of new entrants. The threat of new entrants is just as much of a threat as the threat of substitutes. The only difference is that the threat of substitutes already exists in the fashion industry. New entrants will inevitably enter the fashion industry and attempt to market a line of leather jackets. Boda Skin’s job to minimize this threat is to make it harder for new entrants to even want to enter the line of leather jackets. Boda Skin must market their brand so dynamically that they become the ultimate threat in their line of business. (Investopedia, 2015)

According to Boda Skin’s website, they take their stakeholders into high consideration when operating their business. Their ethical standards are very high as they treat each other with fairness and aim the make their products through an environmentally friendly process. Boda Skins maintains legal trade compliance as they refuse to trade leather related to endangered species. All of the goods they purchase for their products are complied with ethical and human farming regulations. These regulations are certified by the United States Fish and Wild Life Services (USFWS). Boda Skins does not engage in business with animal trappers and does not import animal goods from China due to the high levels of animal abuse that occurs there. It is also noted on their website that their philosophy is based on purity. (Alexander, 2015)

The fact that Boda Skins is very considerate of their stakeholders has an impact on the environment. There are many animal activist groups around the world and they too would be considered stakeholders of Boda Skins because their interest for animal rights plays a role in how Boda Skins operates. Because Boda Skins is compliant and highly considers animal rights and human ways of treating animals, this puts them in good standing with not only these group but also the media. The media is another major stakeholder of Boda Skins. Boda Skins will want to remain in good standing with the media because they can either make or break a business. The media’s perception of a certain business or industry and how they relay their perspective to the public has a major impact on whether a business can succeed or not. If the media portrays a bad image about a business to the general public, then this will make the business look bad. When the business looks bad, then they will lose customers out of boycotting and negative views. So far, it appears that Boda Skins is handling their stakeholder factor in a very healthy manner for the business, the economy, and the environment. (Alexander, 2015)

The fashion industry has become a kind of culture, or perhaps more of a sub-culture. Fashion, very much like the food industry, consists of a diverse array of international cultures around from around the world. Every culture has their own sense of fashion, and the industry consisting of these fashions makes up the entire fashion culture. Boda Skins contributes towards the fashion culture, but they only seem to focus on a specific part of it with their leather jackets. Boda Skins target market appears to be focused on American or British pop culture, which is very popular despite only being one part of the entire fashion culture. If Boda Skins expects to expand in other sectors of the fashion culture, then Alexander should consider designs that branch out to other lines of clothing and cultures. This would expand their target market and ultimately increase their revenue as well as strengthening their 5 forces. (Investopedia, 2015) (Alexander, 2015)

Overall, Nathan Alexander, along with his Boda Skins team, is exactly what a strong and healthy business should be. They manufacture a marketable product that is seasonally in demand. This product sells and Boda Skins makes a good marketing campaign through their use of technology and social networking. The only recommendation for Boda Skins is to again, branch out their clothing lines to fit other cultures outside of the culture they currently target. This will drive their revenue, increase their force bargaining power, and help grow their business. (Alexander, 2015)

References

Alexander, N. (2015). Boda Legacy. Retrieved from Boda Skins: http://bodaskins.com/info/our-story

Investopedia. (2015). Porter’s 5 Forces. Retrieved from Investopedia: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/porter.asp

LinkedIn. (2015). Boda Skins. Retrieved from LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/boda-skins-ltd

Pilot, T. (2015). Boda Skins Review. Retrieved from Trust Pilot: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/bodaskins.com

Saurav, S. (2014). Yip’s Framework. Retrieved from Slide Share: http://www.slideshare.net/swapnilsaurav/yipsglobalizationdrivers

Tech. (2015). SMB. Retrieved from Tech Target: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/SMB-small-and-medium-sized-business-or-small-and-midsized-business