Bebe Stores Inc

Bebe Stores Corporation designs produce and sells stylish women wear. In the latish 1990s Business Week Magazine named it superstar of the fas screen growing companies in the United States of America. In 22 states across the country Bebe has about hundred and one boutiques. The majority of these boutiques are in the expensive malls and the target markets are the chic females between the ages of 18-35.Bebe offers suits, dresses at a price which is very competitive to stores much(prenominal) as banana republic, Express and Guess. The store presents itself as a workable choice to consumers who cannot afford the expensive price tag of dresses.Bebe has achieved its success not simply because of its cost effective management and manufacturing methods scarce also because of the frolic business. The designs of the companionship appear on celebrated television shows such(prenominal) as Friends, Beverly Hills 90210, and associate Mcbeal. Movie lead storys such as Jennifer Lopez, D rew Barrymore and Alicia Silverstone have purposeless Bebes clothing in movies. Starting of Bebe The idea of Bebe was started by a former pastime personality Manny Mashouf who was an expert in the management of line of businesss and restaurants.In the middle of the 1970s, Manny Mashouf saw a chance to earn earn from the rising market of women ear which were being designed specially for stylish young consumers. He opened his first store in San Francisco in 1970. The name Bebe was used as it summarized m each of the descriptions he wanted his apparel to portray. The name to Mashouf represented growth and was taken from Hamlets known phrase which was to be or not to be and in Turkish it means Women and in French it means baby.The name pronounced as bee bee was one of its kind and portrayed the client and youthful and sharp originality which the ac alliance wanted its change state to emerge. Bebe became an instant hit because its main focus was on clothes for the young and pr uney females. The first couple of years, Bebe had one boutique and after several years it opened a branch in the northern part of California. Mashouf at first was very conventional in his approach to expand his business. He focused on the financial constancy of the stores which he had already opened before opening up boutiques in new locations.This approach worked dead and the order started to grow in the northwesterly and Western part in the 1980s. Success of Bebe Bebe had a chasteness all over its design and manufacturing cost which was making it more profitable. All overlaps were being produced by Bebe itself. Keeping its overhead cost lower than other companies Bebe was using locally produced material in its clothing. This benefited Bebe a lot as the gild was rescue on additional costs and was controlling its overall image. To offer physical structure in style and quality in its clothes, Mashouf and his team saw their products from the sign stage to the final present ation.The popularity of the company grew very much in the 1980 and presently the company started to focus from trendy wear to sexy cocktail dresses. In the novel 1980s, Bebe was in competition against big chains such as Ralph Lauren. It neer kept a secret of its target market which was the young trendy females. The economy of United States started to grow and large and expensive malls were being strengthened at a very fast pace. The company got its initial prospect to expand from a local chain to a national brand.By 1994 Bebe with its expanding upon campaign had opened 38 stores in a year in well located mall across the country. The prices varied from a frank t shirt costing $30 to a sexy misfortunate cocktail dress costing $150. Bebe advertised its clothes in famous magazines such as Vogue in which models were shown wearing Bebes dress and session in seductive way. The image portrayed in the magazine worked perfectly and profit and its name soared to new heights. After the initial success of Bebe, it took a bold step to seek name identification from not lonesome(prenominal) its advertising campaigns besides also through celebrity publicity.This step was taken because Bebe wanted the consumers to see the clothing on famous stars which would automatically sort out those stars with the Bebe brand. This association would make profits rise point further than before. ling ko Locklear a host of a successful television series in 1995 called Melrose Palace wore a dress of Bebe. In this show several hypnotic television stars were shown with unique dresses and were copied all around the country. The outfit of Bebe being showed in the series now started appearing on different celebrities including Madonna, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez, Cindy Crawford etc.and all of them were large-hearted to guests whom the company was trying to attract. Than Bebes dresses started appearing on famous shows including The Practice, Ally Mcbeal etc. The growing relationshi p between the entertainment industry and clothes was becoming a trend. In an episode of Ally Mcbeal, the story revolve around the length of a skirt worn by the star of the show. This skirt was of Bebe and after the show was aired, orders of the skirt went up all across the country. By the late 1990s Bebe had become an important part of the entertainment industry. Bebe was not a trend setter like Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan were.The success toilet the company was its skill to precisely and quickly copy the styles of other trend setters from season to season. When Donna Karan came out with a pure, delicate dress for a season, Bebe followed with comparable design in a couple of weeks. By doing so, Bebe was allowing its fashionable client to keep up with the new trendy wear. Duplicating the clothes of other famous brands, Bebe was offering the same trendy wear in half of what the client would pay for the big brands. The company managed to make its own products which were attracting both celebrities and consumers without adding any significant costs.Another success factor was the companys test and reorder method, which was allowing Bebe to move its stock at a faster pace than its competitors. By this method, the company would begin shipping its products to stores in a limited quantity. If the product did remarkably well, the company would hold its new stock and started meeting the customer demands of the product which was doing well. As Bebe was making its own products, they had a firm control over the quantity of the products to be produced and at what pace they were to be produced.This test and reorder method soon became an import part of the companys financial position. Bebe had developed itself spectacularly in the 1990s from a whizz boutique to such a financial strength that it went public in 1998. The initial offering was $11 per share and around 2. 5 million shares were sold. Mashouf had 88% of the share after the company appeared on the stock switch and he played an important part in the companys blowup. The target market of Bebe was the younger trendy women mostly in the 20s just after its spectacular growth in the 1990s, the company started to target to even younger girls.Bebe started to offer less expensive, logo inscribed t shirts, jackets and sweaters. The basis of the new merchandise not only brought new customer but made the name of company more noticeable. The companys particular products were suits and dresses but than it added more casual wear to its already successful collection. The company than was noticed by many retailers who became partners with the company after agreeing on price which was quite profitable for Bebe. Bebe signed an agreement with Genender International which produces fashionable but reasonably priced watches.Later another agreement was signed with Titan Industries to make footwear which was to be sold in Bebe shops and other renowned departmental stores. Than along with California design s tudio, Bebe produced sunglasses and optical frames with price ranging from $50-150. In late 1998, Bebe went online and introduced an online boutique which was a significant step in the technological era. In 1999, Bebe managed to open 11 more stores and by the end of May the company successfully opened its 100th store. Two stores were opened internationally with one being in Kent England and the other being Vancouver, Canada.The popularity of these stored internationally encouraged the company to open more stores in countries like South east Asia, Israel and Greece. Bebes fairy tale success was not without risk. Bebe targeted to a limited customer market and was always condemned due to its small size and for creating clothes which could only be targeted to a small portion of the American female public. The expansion plan of Bebe was better than the company had planned and in 1999 the sales of the company were soaring and it became virtually unbeatable. Bibliography Bebe Stores (2007 ) from Wikipedia. Retrieved on April 30, 2007 from http//en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Bebe_stores Bebe Stores. Retrieved on April 30, 2007 from www. bebe. com Bebe Stores Inc, Company Profile from Wright Reports. Retrieved on April 30,2007 from http//wrightreports. ecnext. com/coms2/reportdesc_COMPANY_075571109 Bebe from Sanfransicoshops. com. Retrieved on April 30,2007 from http//www. fillmoreshop. com/pages/bebe. html Bebe Stores Inc from Yahoo. Retrieved on April 30,2007 from http//finance. yahoo. com/q/pr? s=BEBE Bebe stores from Hoovers. Retrieved on April 30, 2007 from http//www. hoovers. com/bebe-stores/ID__56757/free-co-factsheet. xhtml