Today we visited VF corporation. Walking in I did not realize just how massive of a corporation it is, I had no idea that Timberland, Northface, Wrangler and Lee’s were all subsidiaries of the same organization.
VF’s mission is “to grow lifestyle brands that excite customers around the world.” The entire business revolves around its brands. Northface is meant for people who love to do outdoor, somewhat extreme sports. Wrangler jeans appeal to people that like to be active in jeans. Every brand has a lifestyle applicable to it and so the company revolves around its brands and brand building.
VF has many brands and sell 40% of there revenue outside of the United States. VF is a company that has every kind of customer for every kind of brand. Customers vary from mothers of young children to skateboarding teens, to cowboys from Texas. Every type of person can find a different brand through VF and so they have an infinite amount of customers.
The customers of VF care about their brand. The philosophy of VF is that they build brand loyalty. For example Van’s started out as a simple shoe company. When customers found that they liked the shoes VF grew the brand and started selling hat’s and shirts with the Van design and logos on them. Due to the fact that people trusted the brand of the shoe they made the jump to other apparel. The customers of VF are there because of brand loyalty.
VF has been one of the most successful companies around considering it is over 100 years old. They brought in over $10 billion in revenue just last year. Even looking at just Jeanswear, the place that we visited today, they bring in enough capital to buy out other companies, such as Timberland who they acquired relatively recently and is now one of their biggest subsidiaries.
For the future they plan to continue their success as a leader in their industry. VF also knows that they must continue to be innovative in adapting to the world around them, but not forgetting the customers they have. On another note many retailers have been shutting their doors and so VF has looked to different ways to sell their goods. VF has started to open their own retail stores and sell online. It is difficult to sell certain items in a retail store and so it is very difficult to be independent. Thankfully online sales have been very beneficial to VF
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