Week 6 Reading Reflection

An aspect that left me surprised was that a supplier group is powerful if it is more concentrated than the industry it sells to. Questions I would ask the author are what would happen if a supplier only served 2 industries? Would it be much more dependent on its revenues?Additionally, I do not necessarily agree with the intensity of this authors’ idea of competition because there seems to be a lack of ethics involved— which I know SHOULD be taken into account. I did learn that eliminating rivals is a risky strategy and can backfire on you. 

Customers Interviews No. 3

Other than the initial reaction question, I decided to ask if the wait time lasts for over a day, would that effect your decision buying from my store, and my second question was whether you would prefer if the customization was done online or in-person. I am going to interview mainly guys because that’s who the brand would primarily be for, but I also would like to hear a girls opinion on the idea. In this exercise I learned that each interviewee had their own preference to whether or not they would rather design the shirt inside or online so it is obvious that I should include both in my business. I was most surprised by the differences in opinion each of the people had because I realized it would be hard to tend to everybody’s preference.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1. My name is Derek Baltar, I am interested in clothing design and my skills are surrounded on creativity and problem solving. I would say my talents include drawing and graphic design and in a broader sense, being personable and outgoing.  My aspirations would be to open my own store where the shopper can design their own clothes and I would eventually want design my own line. If I were able to start this business, I would see it taking up most of my time as it is something that I have always wanted to do.
2. The male clothing industry today is very polarized. There are the brands that put their name as large as possible, making you a walking billboard; or there are brands that are so simple, it's impossible to distinguish it. I would like to create a company the bridges the gap between these two sides by having a store that grants you the ability to create your own unique clothes.
3. My business idea would mainly tend to younger males but could easily be popular with any guy who is into fashion, regardless of his age.
4. I am sure many guys feel the limited selection when it comes to buying clothing. This brand would be very valuable to the industry because it would provide clothes that could fit any style the shopper desires while remaining distinct.
5. As far as I know, there isn't any stores trying to implement anything near my idea. I would say the closest thing to my brand would be the online websites where you customize the graphics on t-shirts but even that is very different. Those shirts have very limited options, allowing changes only in the color of the shirt and the graphic/font you decide on. My brand would be making shirts that are customizable from the top-down (i.e: trims, collars, buttons, colors, materials). As I eluded to before, those companies create graphic t-shirts while mine would grant the ability to choose the type of shirt as well as the customizable aspects making it recognizable. For these reasons, I believe my idea stands on its own.

I thought of this idea a couple of semesters ago so I have had some time to flush out the ideas that weren't cohesive with the overall concept. My one concern would relate to the fact that I want to have my own line of clothes that I've designed. Although the style would fit the types of shirts that would be customizable, I think it may be beneficial to focus all my attention on the customizable aspect because that's what really separates my brand from others.