Business Marketing

Ralph Lauren Corporation's design excellence works in concert with its disciplined business approach. They have a flexible integrated business model, which encompasses retail, wholesale and licensing. While staying true to their luxury lifestyle sensibilities and executing their global vision, they seek to expand the Ralph Lauren brand into new markets, countries and shopping environments. The key elements of their strategy is to always continue to build and extend the brand.

Ralph Lauren is one of the world's premier brands, universally recognized and associated with distinct design, luxury and quality. Their integrated approach to advertising and marketing uniquely showcases the world of Ralph Lauren. Retail stores continue to be an important physical extension of its global brand. And the success with their own specialty retail business has given them the confidence to apply their expertise to wholesale business, including merchandise mix, visual presentation and excellent customer service. There is more to come as they expand and extend the Ralph Lauren lifestyle through new products, in new categories and in new parts of the world.

Segmenting and Targeting Markets
Ralph Lauren started forty years ago as an company that started selling ties, but has grown into something of an American lifestyle across the board. They have always stood for quality products, creating worlds and inviting people into their vision and their dream. Ralph Lauren is one of the true innovators of lifestyle advertisements which told their story and let's customers participate in the lifestyle.

Ralph Lauren targets all over the world, but most of they're base is men. They men from the age range of 16-40 mostly because those are the ones who buy most of they're clothes. They have many locations in the United States and in Europe. How they target most of the people are through magazine ads and news print. By doing this it gives them a wide base to sell their product to and has kept them in the main stream of fashion for years to come.

Developing and Managing Products

Ralph Lauren has been managing and developing products for over 40 years now, and he continues to create new lines every few years. His latest lines have been Rugby & Denim and Supply. Clothing lines like RLX was lauched in 2008, Ralph Lauren has always provided the necessary products that consumers want and need. He has broaded his horizions tapping more into the younger crowd or better known as Generation X with Rugby. With Rugby it was still classic & preppy but also a little more urban for today's youth. Ralph Lauren has been a trendsetter for most clothing lines because of his longevity in the business, and he will continue to be for years to come.

Integrated Marketing Communications

Integrated Marketing Communications

Ralph Lauren is known for inviting customers into a dream world of luxury. That flawless man in the ad wearing the Ralph Lauren shirt has a story and a lifestyle that consumers want to see themselves in.They have always strived to keep themselves as a classic brand which people always can always see themeselves in. An iconic brand that represents timeless style, Ralph Lauren has also revolutionized retail using technology, creativity and their own passion for innovation.They’ve been at the front of the pack since digital became an option, seeing an opportunity to tell a story online when many retailers saw the internet as a place that would hurt store sales. And the retailer has been pushing the envelope ever since, investing heavily in video, editorial content, a Minority Report-inspired interactive store window, mobile apps and perhaps most fantastic of all, a 4D spectacle on the streets of London and New York.

 The brand story is a storybook tale told by great storytellers. Ralph Lauren feels the driving concept as “merchantainment,” the seamless blending of merchandising and entertainment. Ralph Lauren himself envisions a lifestyle around the merchandise. In the store, the character’s sweater might be on the rack, but he also left his kayak in the corner, and you might even run into his dog as you browse. With Ralph Lauren they don't feel like they're just selling clothes but they are selling a dream, the thoughts behind the companies thinking is “We sell a lifestyle that’s exciting. When you’re shopping, you’re dreaming. You want access in that world.” The keys to success to Ralph Lauren is, don’t wait for everybody else to do it, just take the risk and and go for it. There’s a balancing act of knowing your customer and reacting to them, but also showing them something they haven’t seen before. And most importantly, in merchantainment, you must excite your customer. They also feel if the company is excited about it product that makes the consumer feel comfortable themselves.

Product Concepts

Product Concepts

Forty years ago a man born Ralph Lifschitz, better known as Ralph Lauren produced a product that is known worldwide to all people called Ralph Lauren. He took a collection of ties and built it into something that no one could of expected. Ralph Lauren has always provided his customers with quality products, from clothes, accessories, fragrances to home products. Year after year they have always given most of they're loyal customers things they want with the quality of their product. Lauren's marketing has always caught people's eye for years, because its product is always eye catching. 

With their vivid colors and style, even the products from years before are still a want by many consumers. Ralph Lauren always releases a teddy bear collection, that was a high seller in the 90's because of Ralph Lauren faithful. His Ralph Lauren Polo line is focuses more on people of all ages because it is the first line he created. So it's based more an American style even though there are some European cuts. While his other lines are mostly based for men & women, so most of Lauren's marketing is fixed on a mixed crowd old enough to wear the RL products. No one would ever question the quality of their product because it has always had the reputation for top quality. Most people who own Ralph Lauren products, can attest that the products they do own have survived for years because of the quailty of the material. They're products will always dominate for years and years to come because they are more of an everyday lifestyle compared to other clothing lines and their products. Others will always come and go but Ralph Lauren will always last because its product is a necessity and not a want.

Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

Ralph Lauren offers many different sales promotions, if you purchase items online if you spend over $195 you get free shipping. Which in tell makes you spend even more money without even leaving the house. Think about it they are saving you the trip of either driving or riding the train to one of its many locations.With e-commerce sales at Ralph Lauren growing annually by 30%, the apparel manufacturer and retailer has a big appetite to take on more international expansion.

For the fiscal year ending March 31, Ralph Lauren reported: Web sales grew 30% to around $479.9 million from 369 million. Total sales increased 17% to 3.24 billion from 2.77 billion for the fiscal year of 2011. Comparable-store sales increased 14%, net income increased year over year 20% to 681 million from 567.6 million. The web accounted for 14.8% of total sales compared to the 13.3% for the fiscal year of 2011.

Ralph Lauren uses the web, text, catalogs & flyers to let all of its customers know of all new items that come out for whatever season. They also let you know about items that have gone on sale from the previous seasons clothing line or other merchandise. Ralph Lauren knows that they're customers value good deals & try to make sure that everyone is aware whether it a holiday sale of just for being a long time customer.

Advertiising and Public Relations

Ralph Lauren is the world's most successful fashion designer, selling clothing and luxury goods worth around $12 billion a year at retail.The secret to its 40 year success has been careful control of the Ralph Lauren and Polo trademarks, but above all an unrivalled understanding of the multiple strands that make up classic American style.In fact,  Ralph Lauren's biggest challenge by far is to broaden its audience, especially in Europe and Asia, where there is still a preference for homegrown designers. 

Ralph Lauren has used The New York Times for a lot of they're advertising and have had a long standing partnership with them just for those needs . A regular in the print paper, on the website, and increasingly in mobile as well, it’s proven willing to follow its media partner into uncharted waters and to spend big on premium digital ad space. Ralph Lauren’s advertising images have changed from a country club lifestyle image to urban/hip the company has adjusted to the changing of times. They're clothing line is used different sports which they are the official line used for the US Open & even the Summer and Winter Olympics.

Between TV, radio, internet & prints Ralph Lauren definitely spends a lot of money in advertising to try to reach out to many of they're customers. They even used a music group called "Silhouettes" to expand they're advertising to a larger market of people to promote they're new line on YouTube. It just shows that Ralph Lauren goes to any length to sell they merchandise and continue to be a trendsetter in fashion.