Mexx - 4P marketing mix in Uzbekistan

1. 1.1. Aims of the report.
The aim of this report is the research on the marketing mix of Mexx store located in Tashkent, at
Amir Temur Street, 60. This will be done though the analysis of the international positions of the
brand, its strengths and weaknesses, together with the activities made by the local store to
enhance the every part of its marketing mix. In spite of using the experience of XX by Mexx, the
XX store will not be analysed there, because it has different approach to customers, as well as
different product line.
1.2. Scopes and limitations of the research methods used.
There was a harsh lack of information about Mexx store located in Tashkent because of the total
reluctance of both Mexx store and Union Space to share any information about the company, its
positions, or even about the promotional activities of the company. The management of the store
prevented the attempts to take a photo of the store from inside; they justified this prohibition by
safety reasons. Therefore, the unwillingness of the company and the store to share any
information, even vague and general, limited the preciseness and embrace of the research to
some extend.
So, other methods of research were used, such as observations of the work of employees in the
store, the behaviour and preferences of the customers. Various internet-sources were used to
make an analysis of the Mexx brand in whole. Also, the comments about the level of service in
the store and discussion of the prices and brand positioning of Mexx brand and particularly the
Mexx Store in Tashkent

2. store in Tashkent were studied on different sources, including www.afisha.uz , forum.afisha.uz,
gap.live.uz, lets.drink.uz and www.livejournal.com.
To add, Kamola Atajanova, the fashion editor of The Fashion Time Magazine
(http://www.thefashiontime.com/) and shopping consultant, was interviewed on the theme of
Mexx brand and Tashkent stores. She also shared ides about the positive and negative aspects of
Mexx store in Tashkent.
1.3. International overview.
Mexx is an international company, specialising in clothing chain, designing clothes and
accessories. The company was established after the merging Moustache and Emanuelle brands
owned by Rattan Chadha, a Dutch entrepreneur with Indian origins. Therefore, MEXX brand
appeared in 1986, where M stands for Moustache, E stands for Emanuelle, and XX means kisses.
The quality and “combination of high style and moderate prices” made Mexx a prominent brand
with more than 10,000 store outlets and 351 franchisees full-equipped stores in 65 countries
(Scardino, 2004). Despite the phenomenal success in 1990s and early 2000s, Mexx now is
permanently losing its positions to more successful stores, such as H&M and Zara (Forbes,
2008). Because of all these problems, Thomas Grote was appointed as the new CEO of Mexx
chain in yearly 2010. Grote thinks that the changes are needed for Mexx, though he does not
expose the details of his innovations, as Reuters (2010) says. So, different design of collections
will also affect Uzbekistan stores of Mexx.
Mexx Head Office in
Amsterdam

3. 1.4. Local overview.
In 2004 Mexx store was open in Tashkent with the collections for both men and women. Later,
the sections for baby and teenager were opened. Consequently, separate store for woman was
developed with the brand XX (by Mexx). The Mexx store was reopened on 12 March 2010, after
the considerable reconstruction started in January.
The store is an official franchisee, according to mexx.com (2010). It is owned by Union Space
Company. Mexx supports the sustainable way of development, so the majority of the clothes in
Tashkent stores are manufactured in Uzbekistan, using the design patterns prescribed by the head
office in Amsterdam.
Mexx Store,
12 March 2010
Mexx Store in Tashkent is officially recognized

4. 2.1 Product.
The analysis of product area should comprise the research on the products available in the store
on the on side, and the quality of the service in the store on the other side.
Mexx store tries to provide men and women with trendy bags, fragrances, accessories,
underwear, casual and city clothes, etc. Of course, the product line is significantly affected by the
head office, which influence it though the franchise agreement. However, this deduction is made
logically; any features of the agreements were not exposed. So, in spite of the peculiarity of
Uzbekistan closing industry, the international trends influence the positions of the Mexx store in
Tashkent, because the design of all the clothes are made in Holland. However, Mexx store can
influence the quality of the products they purchase; the clothes are made on the “Yulduz”
manufacture. To illustrate, the quality of Mexx products is perceived as high by both customers
and specialists.
The rate of refreshing clothes collection by Mexx is slower than the global competitors have, that
is one of the reasons of its losses the market share. But, the rate of refreshing and introducing
new collections in Tashkent stores is rather reasonable and suitable for the needs of Uzbekistan
customers, as Atajanova says. Besides the rate of introducing new collections, the speed of
reactions to the main events in fashion industry, such as fashion weeks held in New York City is
very important this industry. So, while the customers of Zara and Mango stores are be able to
buy trendy and affordable clothes in half months or ever earlier after the fashion week, the
customers of Mexx have to wait much more time (Tiplady, 2006; JessicaR 2010). This factor is
less important for Uzbekistan customers; this is probably the reason why many units are offered
slightly later than in the Mexx stores in European countries.
Atajanova thinks that Mexx store should not get rid of any types of products, though she notes
that from her point of view the availability of quality shoes is a weak point of the store.
The quality of the service in the store is considered to be high. The sales assistants are not
obsessive, arrogant or rude. They are willing to help to choose the suitable for customer clothes,
if asked; they do not try to “push” the sales.
To sum up, Mexx store has qualified sale assistants, though it depends on the head office in the
product area; however it can influence it through the purchase or not purchase of particular
products in every new collection.
2.2 Price.

5. The price factor is the most important for many customers, and of course, the store can
significantly vary the prices for products. In general, the prices in Mexx store are perceived as
“rather high”. Kamola Atajanova exemplifies the disparity of prices for the same Mexx products
in Tashkent and in Canada stores, the first ones are 10 – 35% higher in general (if use
commercial exchange rate of USD and then convert it into Canadian dollar).
The methods of price promotions, such as sales are used effectively in the Mexx store, the
notification about the discounts of up to 50 per cents compel Tashkent people of fashion to buy
the products that remained unsold together with the products without any discount at the same
time, as the practise shows. During the period of sales Mexx, the rate of the visitors who buy at
least one unit increases drastically, as well as the number of visitors. However, it should be noted
that according to the observations made men are generally less exposed to price promotions than
women.
Mexx store also uses the system of discount cards; information about each transaction in the
store is entered in the special database, so that discount card of the customer can increase from
initial 3 to 15, or even more percents. This system obviously increases the loyalty of the
customers, and even insignificant discounts given to the customers of Tashkent Mexx shop make
them buy more quantitatively.
On the whole, the prices for Mexx products are considered to be higher than fair, but the store
uses price promotions effectively to sell of the remainders of passing collections
Sales are price promotions helps to get rid
of the remains of old-fashioned collections

6. 2.3 Place.
The place for the store that was chosen is very fortunate because of the range of the reasons.
Firstly, the store is situated in the centre of the city, and it is also locate in the convenient for
transportation place. Secondly, the whole system of the stores was developed on the street of
Amir Temur, so that customers with the middle and high income could buy everything from
underwear to sportswear. So, during the “passage” though the whole street with all the stores,
solvent customers also visit the Mexx store and give a chance to convince them to buy Mexx
products because of the quality of the service and goods. Thirdly, the store is located near the
Oloy bazaar, the visitors of this bazaar often goes though the Amir Street too.
So, Union Space uses the batch of advantages of the place chosen for the Mexx store.
2.4 Promotion.
The main method of promotion that Mexx store uses is outdoor advertising, including banners,
posters and billboards. They are valued as “stylish” but not attracting attention, as Kamola
Atajanova suggests. However, she notes that the advertisements with notifications of upcoming
sales are very effective.
3. Recommendations.
The banners are made according to the guidelines prescribed by the head office

7. The preparation for the possible repositioning should be made, because of the changes in the
head office. Grote wants to ensure the balance between “casual” and “city” parts to create the
style of “metropolitan casual,” so Tashkent store should prepare for the moderate shift to causal
style of the products. Of course, change in product line, even minor, should be supported by the
appropriate promotion policy.
But, there are many factors that can be significantly affected by the store in Tashkent. This
includes the price and promotion strategy. One example is the humorous note said by one of the
customers during the observation process about the increased prices, according to which the
management of the store wants to retake the costs on the repairing through the advance in prices.
So, many customers are not satisfied with the prices and stop making any purchases in Mexx
store, giving their preferences to other brand stores.
Recently, the new trend in the situation around the brand stores was set because of various
reasons. According to this trend, the price for the products became much more important for the
customers of the brand shops in Tashkent. Firstly, the awareness of quality of brand-name
clothes increased throughout the population, so many of them want to buy trendy clothes labeled
with middle-class brands. Secondly, the price disparity between the fake (mostly produces in
China and sold on the bazaars, such as Oloy) and genuine products has decreased, and now
people buy more and more clothes and accessories in brand and franchise stores. The income of
these “new” customers is lower that the “initial” customers of the brand stores had, so they are
more sensitive and flexible to the changes in prices. This means that Mexx store should make its
prices more affordable to increase, or at least to remain its level of popularity.
Mexx store have to increase the range of untraditional promotional activities, for example special
promotional activities, including youth parties or cultural events should be made with the support
and promotions of Mexx store. The banners and ads on the radio should be more memorable, this
is also a week point of the store.
The factor of place is not needed in any alterations because the current location of the store is
fortunate and there is no need in the second Mexx store in Tashkent. However, if all the
recommendations are made, the increased popularity of the store will compel to open new stores
in other places of Tashkent.
4. Conclusion.
In spite of the dependence on Amsterdam, the local Mexx store can significantly influence all the
areas of marketing mix. The current situation with the high profitability but lowering market

8. share will bring negative results in a long term. That is the reason why the recommendations
should be implemented.
Bibliography

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10. Forbes. (2008). Mexx to close 61 stores across the UK. Available:
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2008/02/27/afx4701203.html . Last accessed 30 March 2010.
JessicaR. (2010). Mango Fashion. Available: http://hubpages.com/hub/Mango-Fashion . Last
accessed 30 March 2010.
Reuters. (2010). Mexx CEO lays out turnaround plan; Wall Street listens. Available:
http://blogs.reuters.com/shop-talk/2010/02/23/mexx-ceo-lays-out-turnaround-plan-wall-street-
listens/. Last accessed 30 March 2010.
Scardino, E. (2004). Mexx feeds market madness for value-based euro glam. Available:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FNP/is_11_43/ai_n6072134/. Last accessed 30 March
2010.
Tiplady, R. (2006). Zara: Taking the Lead in Fast-Fashion. Available:
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2006/gb20060404_167078.htm?
chan=innovation_branding_brand+profiles . Last accessed 30 March 2010.
Union Space. (2010). Union Space Company. Available: http://union-space.com/ . Last accessed
30 March 2010.