This presentation will help students complete the research for their term project in Prof. Watters' Fall 2014 FAS 427 OL class.

1. FAS 427: Operations
Management in the Fashion
Business Library Research
Kelly Bennett
Reference/Instruction Librarian
Kelly-
bennett@berkeleycollege.edu
732-750-1800 ext.2100

2. Your Assignment
Select a major fashion corporation (for example, Liz Claiborne, Tommy
Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, etc.) and research the following topics covered in
class:
O Marketing strategies
O Licensing agreements (how licensees are selected, average length
of time for licensing agreements, how the fashion organization is
compensated, contractual arrangements, how the fashion
organization decides what it produces vs. what is licensed, if
licensing their name keeps them competitive, etc.)
O Apparel product lines and prices ranges (is there enough diversity in
their product lines/pricing, do they make complementary products for
their primary product lines, etc.)
O Global sourcing strategies, including where products are
manufactured, and why.
O Production planning and strategies
O Quality control procedures

3. Where to find this information…
O Company Website
O 10K report!
O Newspapers/Periodicals
O WWD, Business Week, New York Times,
Wall Street Journal
O Electronic Databases
O Business Insights Global
O Mergent Online
O IBISWorld
O LibGuide

4. What is a 10K report?
OA comprehensive summary report of a
company's performance that must be
submitted annually to the Securities
and Exchange Commission.
ORequired by law for any publicly traded
company in the US.

5. First, let’s look at a company website.
You will find your company’s 10K/ Annual Report on their Investor
Relations Page.
Look for these terms
at the bottom of the
website:
Annual Reports,
Investor Relations,
SEC filings, etc.

8. Here is the 2013 10K/Annual Report for American Apparel, Inc.
You can look in the table of contents or browse through the document to find the
information you need.

9. The report is Keyword Searchable

10. What are your search terms?
 Marketing strategies
 Advertising/ Advertise/Advertisement
 Target customers
 Promotions
 Licensing /Licensing agreements
 Apparel product lines
 Prices / Price range
 Global sourcing
 Production planning
 Production/ Production strategies
 Quality control
These terms
should be
familiar – they are
outlined in your
assignment!

12. Target young
metropolitan adults in
the US.
Will benefit from
growing trend in
casual attire & higher
quality apparel.
Quality control
In house production
of fabric & knit

13. Continue to search through the entire document for all occurrences of
your search terms to ensure you find all relevant information!

14. Let’s try another search

15. Where the
production for
different fabrics
takes place
Why domestic
production is
important to the
brand, quality
control, etc…

16. Now that we’ve looked through the 10K report,
let’s search in one of Berkeley College
Libraries’ databases:
for company profiles and articles.

17. To access Business Insights Global, click on Databases.

18. Here is the list of databases filed by subject heading.
Click on the A-Z List.

19. Click on Business Insights: Global.

20. This is the homepage for Business Insights: Global. This is where you can search for
articles on your company, or company profiles. Search for your company in the search
box. Let’s search for Gap Inc.

21. Here is the profile for Gap Inc.
There are many types of resources listed
here. Towards the top you will see
Company Profiles.
Click any sub-heading for a specific
report. Let’s view the SWOT report.

22. Click the PDF icon to see the SWOT report. This will tell you
the company’s strengths, weakness, opportunities and
threats.

23. This chart provides basic SWOT information
for Gap Inc. These ideas are elaborated on
later in the document.

24. Let’s go back to our search results for Gap Inc.
To view some articles, let’s click on the results for Recent News.

25. Here are all the Recent News articles that mention Gap Inc. Lots of these look off topic.
You can try going back and searching “Gap Inc” in quotation marks so you find the name
of the company as a phrase.

26. After changing my search to “gap inc” in quotation marks and clicking on Recent News,
I found articles that are more relevant to my company.
Click on an article to read about your company in the news.

27. Social Media
Look at social media to see
companies’ latest promotions.

31. Finally, visit the Fashion LibGuides
http://berkeleycollege.libguides.com/FAS427Apparel
Assignment

32. To access the LibGuide, go to the Library tab and click on LibGuides.

33. Click on Fashion (listed in the Subjects box).

34. Click on FAS 427 Apparel Manufacturing Corporation Assignment

35. This LibGuide includes your assignment instructions and will show what databases to
use, find articles, books, websites and cite sources.

36. Clicking on this tab, for example, outlines and links to the databases most relevant to
this assignment.

37. Questions? Comments?
Kelly Bennett
Reference/Instruction Librarian
Kelly-bennett@berkeleycollege.edu
732- 750-1800 ext. 2100
Chat with a Librarian 7 Days a Week from
the Library Homepage or the LibGuides!