Term Paper on the Company Guess_

Adam Kolb
Guess?
TMD 222
Dr. Susan Hannel
December 9, 2013

2

Guess With a Touch of Marciano
Guess is a worldwide company that designs, markets, distributes, and licenses one of the
world’s largest collections of lifestyle contemporary apparel and accessories for children,
women, and men.1
Their target market consists of style conscious consumers aged 18-30.2
The
Marciano brothers that had a dream of redefining denim established the company in 1981. The
corporate headquarters of this company is located in Los Angeles, California. Guess designs
their apparel to reflect the young, sexy, and adventurous American lifestyle with an added touch
of European fashion sense. The lines of apparel that Guess provides in their stores include jeans,
pants, skirts, dresses, shorts, blouses, jackets, knitwear, and intimate apparel.3
Today, Guess is a
worldwide company located in over eighty countries. It directly operates over 830 stores and
concessions in the US, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East, and also has 1690 stores
worldwide. Despite competition with top competitors, The Gap Inc., Ralph Lauren Corporation,
and Abercrombie & Fitch, the popularity of Guess is largely due to there other brands,
specifically, Marciano which elevates and allows their apparel to be more recognizable under
more than one name. This brand, which is named after the two brothers that created the
company, is a very upscale and luxurious collection that offers a fashion forward collection for
trend setting women and is the brand that will be a main focus in this paper. Because of this
company’s multiple distribution channels, various licensing agreements with manufacturers,
factory collaborations, environmental efforts, and inner company job diversity as well as their

1
Speer, Jordan K. “The Apparel Top 50 for 2012.” Apparel. Accessed on December 5, 13
http://apparel.edgl.com/reports/The-Apparel-Top-50-for-201387333

2
Guess Annual Report 2013. Accessed on December 5, 13 Pages: 1-120.
http://investors.guess.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=92506&p=irol-reportsAnnual

3
Speer, Jordan K. “The Essence of Guess? Wonder, passion, and freedom.” Apparel.
Accessed on December 5, 13 http://apparel.edgl.com/old-magazine/The-Essence-of-GUESS--
Wonder,-Passion-and-Freedom64534

3

luxurious other brands, Guess is one of the leading apparel companies in the world and is ranked
in the Apparel top 50 magazine.
Guess believes their success is largely due to their multiple distribution channels. The
company uses retail, wholesale, e-commerce, and licensing distribution channels to market their
apparel and accessories. Guess and their licensee partners sell Guess merchandise globally under
brands such as Guess?, Marciano, and G By Guess. The largest Guess brand is the company’s
brand that sells their full priced and full assortment of merchandise including their licensed
products for both men and women.4
Their Marciano brand includes a women’s fashion forward
collection designed for trendsetters. This brand is upscale and pricier appealing to older and
sophisticated women. Their last brand, G by Guess, includes lower priced merchandise for both
men and women along with all licensed accessories and footwear.5
Ever since Marciano was
established, Guess revenue numbers have increased dramatically which is why there is such a
focus on this element of Guess. This company has become such a leading force in fashion that it
uses licensing agreements dealing with accessories and apparel, with other companies in order to
sell in bulk.
Guess gives out licenses to manufacture and distribute products that compliment the
lines they provide. The company owns seventeen international licenses for products that include
eyewear, watches, handbags, footwear, swimwear, fragrance, and jewelry. Guess international
licensees operate 858 stores located outside of the United States as well as 128 operated

4
Speer, Jordan K. “The Essence of Guess? Wonder, passion, and freedom.” Apparel. Accessed
on December 5, 13 http://apparel.edgl.com/old-magazine/The-Essence-of-GUESS--Wonder,-
Passion-and-Freedom64534
5
http://guessbymarciano.guess.com/en/Catalog/Browse/women/

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concessions in Asia.6
This company has licensing agreements with many upscale retail stores
including Macys, Blumingdales, and The Bay. In Europe, Guess has agreements with upscale
stores such as Galeries Lafayette, Printemps and El Corte Ingles. Guess and their licensee
partners sell Guess products and brands through six different store concepts, Guess? full price
retail stores, Guess? factory outlet stores, G By Guess stores, Guess? Accessories stores, Guess?
Kids stores, and the very popular Marciano brand stores.7
Marciano is a very luxurious upscale brand that offers a fashion forward collection for
trend setting women. Types of apparel under this Guess brand include detailed tops, enchanting
party dresses, pants, skirts and coats. This brand also sells shoes, handbags, and denim products.8
Although the brand’s focus originally was on women, the success and expansion of the brand has
led to the additions of menswear as well as kids wear. The brand also includes accessories such
as necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and watches. The target market for this brand relates to a
mature, sophisticated, slightly older buyer ranging from the higher twenties to forty and above.9
Marciano is a whole store, which includes in it the designed Guess brand. This brand is also sold
in Guess accessory stores and they’re full priced retail stores as well. Marciano stores are also
located oversees in Asia. “This brand apparel products are designed by their own separate in-
house design teams located in Los Angeles, California as well as in Florence, Milan, and

6

7
8
9
Zager, M. (2012). Guess who's a sourcing innovator. Apparel, 53(10), 40. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1025003524?accountid=28991

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Bologna Italy.”10
The design teams identify global trends and correlate them with the Guess
image. These teams travel worldwide to discover new fabrics and fashion trends. This brand is
sold exclusively in Marciano stores and selected Guess stores across the country as well as
globally and overseas. Guess also has their own Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram,
Pinterest and foursquare page where they post about sales and deals as well as new arrivals and
trends with pictures as well. Marciano is sold through magazines, their own website, as well as
their stores. Overall, there are 96 Marciano stores open today.11
As unique as Guess is, they do
get outside help with materials used to create these upscale garments.
Guess as well as their Marciano brand buys its fabrics from independent factories and
relies on these factories to supply and manufacture their products according to their
specifications. Marciano by Guess does not have any long-term contracts with any suppliers or
manufacturers but does have long-term relations with lots of them. It does not own any inside
shops. They buy fabric from China for cheap and test it personally through their quality control
program so that it meets their high quality standards. Guess always tests the quality of the raw
materials from outside shops before production. Random in-line quality control checks are also
performed after production before the brand reaches the floor. Fabrics and findings for Marciano
are sourced from Kowloon, Hong Kong, as well as Los Angeles.12
Guess has made efforts to
centralize vendors for their apparel, in Los Angeles where their headquarters are in order to
impose order on its supply chain. Two technologies have been a huge help to the company for

10

11

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collaborating with its vendors to keep the quality of the apparel high while keeping the price
relatively low. These technologies include product life cycle management and automated
payment and settlement processing.13
One of Guess’s main goals is combining global and local
sourcing. The balanced global supply chain of software and Internet communication within the
country as well as international, along with their deep vendor partnerships provides the company
with and their brands with a competitive advantage. “We believe that our balanced global supply
chain, with deep vendor partnerships, provides us with a competitive advantage where we have
the flexibility to respond to increased demand throughout the world.”14
Getting the point of view
and ideas from oversees as well as in America allows the brands of Guess to appeal to people all
over this country as well as others.
Guess believes that business ethics, health, safety, human rights, and environmental
stewardship are the same and should be carried out thoroughly in all countries involved with
sourcing. This is Guess’s commitment to sourcing their products in a responsible manner. To go
along with the companies humble manner when dealing with oversees factories, Guess is also
trying to make its apparel as environmentally sustainable as possible. Guess has made efforts to
go green for our environment. Guess introduced the “Guess Green” program in 2008. This
program offered organic cotton garments for men and women including jeans, T-shirts, and tank
tops. These products are exclusive at Guess North American stores as well as on the Guess
website. Guess also offers a reusable tote bag that shoppers use when shopping in Guess stores
that is better for the environment because it reduces the use of plastic due to less bags being

13
Zager, M. (2012). Guess who's a sourcing innovator. Apparel, 53(10), 40. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1025003524?accountid=28991

14

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used.15
As stated earlier, Guess only works with factories that are safe, humane, and healthy.
They take the consideration of risk and health of their indirect vendors and the vendor’s workers
over sees into consideration and only do business if Guess’s terms and requirements of safety are
met. There have been no lawsuits relating to mistreatment of employers by Guess. The
company has provided an annual report pursuant to section thirteen of the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934 for the fiscal year ended, February 2, 2013. Guess has also posted on its corporate
website all the necessary requirements required by law. The company as well as its brands are
working to enhance environmental sustainability of its products in years to come through
scientific testing. Guess has a good record when it comes to their employees and how they treat
them. Their code of conduct requires respect and equality in the job force, as well as a standard
of responsibility and care by their employees. Because of this, many want to work for the
company. Thankfully, due to the success of Guess, many jobs are available.
Upon looking at the careers page located on Guess’s official website under the Marciano
page, one job that was posted was being a senior designer. The purpose of this position is to
develop and execute seasonal lines align with the corporate vision and other market trends.
Another important purpose for this job is to ensure that the steps in the design calendar are met in
a timely manner and that the information regarding each designed style is communicated
properly. Essential responsibilities include being able to work with other senior designers to
present color and seasonal concept to the design director. Another responsibility is to be able to
shop the market for fresh and innovative ideas to pass on to the director. Sketching out
silhouettes and being able to work with product development and technical designers was also

15
White, Renee Minus. "Guess goes green: Organic Cotton jeans & tops." New York Amsterdam
News, March 20, 2008., 17, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost

8

listed as essential. Six to eight years of experience as well as a Bachelors degree are needed to
apply for this job.16
This job would be interesting because it gives the designers a chance to
figure out a new trend or fad for the future. What is really awesome about this is that through
designing and research as well as collaboration, one of these senior designers could come up
with an idea that develops into a design which might have the potential to turn into a classic one
day in the near future. Classes that the University of Rhode Island offers under the Textiles
Fashion Merchandising and Design program that would be beneficial in learning the skills
required for a job like this include TMD 327, which is an apparel design class. TMD 222,
apparel production, and any of the textile science classes dealing with color science and textile
performance would also be beneficial to take. TMD 126, Introduction to design is also a very
important class that would benefit a person that is interested in a job such as a senior designer.
Lastly, TMD 427, which provides students with portfolio skills, will also benefit any job in
fashion due to the organizational aspect of the class as well as its focus on paying attention to
specific directions.17
Guess is a fabulous company with lots of great ideas for the future. They are only going
to keep expanding with new designs and high quality denim apparel. More stores will be built
and Guess’s top brands like Marciano and G by Guess will also keep growing. At the rate of
their success, Guess’s vendors and oversees contacts will be stable and the designing, producing,
and distributing of high quality trend setting fashion will keep expanding as new accessories and

16
Guess “Senior Designer” job.
https://recruiter.kenexa.com/guess/cc/CCJobResultsAction.ss?command=ViewJobDetails&job_
REQUISITION_NUMBER=27797

17
University of Rhode Island. Coarse Catalog. Accessed on November 18, 2013.
http://www.uri.edu/hss/tmd/courses.html

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trends get developed and revealed to Guess consumers.18
With this company’s large work force,
their push to become more environmentally sustainable as a company will increase allowing
them to become more popular to consumers. Due to their connections over sees including their
license and distribution agreements with other popular stores worldwide, Guess and their “sexy”
apparel will reappear on the Apparel Top 50 list of clothing stores in years to come and will have
success in competing with their top competitors in the future.

18

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Bibliography

Guess “Senior Designer” job.
https://recruiter.kenexa.com/guess/cc/CCJobResultsAction.ss?command=ViewJobDetails&job_
REQUISITION_NUMBER=27797
Speer, Jordan K. “The Apparel Top 50 for 2012.” Apparel. Accessed on December 5, 13
http://apparel.edgl.com/reports/The-Apparel-Top-50-for-201387333
Speer, Jordan K. “The Essence of Guess? Wonder, passion, and freedom.” Apparel.
Accessed on December 5, 13 http://apparel.edgl.com/old-magazine/The-Essence-of-GUESS--
Wonder,-Passion-and-Freedom64534
University of Rhode Island. Coarse Catalog. Accessed on November 18, 2013.
http://www.uri.edu/hss/tmd/courses.html
White, Renee Minus. "Guess goes green: Organic Cotton jeans & tops." New York
Amsterdam News, March 20, 2008., 17, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost
Zager, M. (2012). Guess who's a sourcing innovator. Apparel, 53(10), 40. Retrieved
from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1025003524?accountid=28991

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