Well, in fact, this situation is actually happening on Forever 21.
Forever 21 is an American chain of fashion retailers which sales all kinds of fashion items from clothes to accessories. The brand name---Forever 21, obviously, perfectly illustrates its objectives and seems like attractive enough for female groups. According to Los Angeles Times, Forever 21 is known for its trendy offerings and economical pricing.
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Saint Laurent(left) And Forever 21(right)
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In fact, Forever 21 has been sued more than 50 times for allegedly stealing the work of other designers and passing it off as their own.
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| Forever 21---$29.9 |
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| Mansur Gavriel---$495 |
However, faced with infringement accusations, Forever 21 has never responded to the requests directly, pretended like nothing happened.
As for a company, I have to say, what Forever 21 has done is not an appropriate public relations strategy for crisis management. Because you can remain silence once, but you can't keep silent forever. The accusation wouldn't disappear by itself.
However, the problem is the customer base of Forever 21 even becomes larger than ever before.
As for this situation, what comes to my mind first is females always believe they have one less dress in their wardrobe. However, the fact is, even though the female consumption power has become stronger than ever, not every female can afford a dress which cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
However, the problem is the customer base of Forever 21 even becomes larger than ever before.
Generally, girls who come from mid-class families can't afford to buy a dress at the luxury level. Therefore, the desire for following the trend of fashion drives them to shop at Forever 21. Because from their perspectives, Forever 21 only inferior to the original products but with more attractive prices.
Nowadays, the fashion trend is transferring at a surprising pace. You would never know which kind of fashion style will go viral in the future. Besides, it seems like women are born to be shopaholics. Because they would never be satisfied with what they already have. Especially when it comes to something related to fashion fields, women can lost their senses immediately.
Ironically, what Forever 21 has done, to some extends, can be regarded as another form of listening to the groundswell.
Forever 21 understand quite clearly about, for most of women, what is its customer base really wants from the fashion field---most of women want to buy the cloth not only in fashion, but also with economic price. Therefore, in order to cater what customers want, Forever 21 provides perfectly substitutes for famous apparel brands to its customers and thus successfully stands out from other fashion apparel brands. I think that is one of the main reasons why such a large customer group choose Forever 21 regardless of its rumors.
However, whatever the reason is, Forever 21 should be blamed for its infringement. And it is always wrong for a company to listen to the groundswell selectively: listen to what the company wants to hear, and ignore what the company thinks is unfavorable.
Most importantly, sometimes, the demand from the groundswell can be misleading. As for a company, to meet the need from its customers, it should apply reasonable ways, instead of being opportunistic.
Even though it is impressive that Forever 21 has the ability to satisfy customers' craving for fashion, however, it would be better for Forever 21 to choose a more appropriate way to achieve its objectives.
For girls who come from middle-class families may can't afford for a dress of
Forever 21 understand quite clearly about, for most of women, what is its customer base really wants from the fashion field---most of women want to buy the cloth not only in fashion, but also with economic price. Therefore, in order to cater what customers want, Forever 21 provides perfectly substitutes for famous apparel brands to its customers and thus successfully stands out from other fashion apparel brands. I think that is one of the main reasons why such a large customer group choose Forever 21 regardless of its rumors.However, whatever the reason is, Forever 21 should be blamed for its infringement. And it is always wrong for a company to listen to the groundswell selectively: listen to what the company wants to hear, and ignore what the company thinks is unfavorable.
Most importantly, sometimes, the demand from the groundswell can be misleading. As for a company, to meet the need from its customers, it should apply reasonable ways, instead of being opportunistic.Even though it is impressive that Forever 21 has the ability to satisfy customers' craving for fashion, however, it would be better for Forever 21 to choose a more appropriate way to achieve its objectives.
For girls who come from middle-class families may can't afford for a dress of
I love Forever 21. It is true that big companies, like Forever 21, have a strong following. Even when companies are caught doing something wrong, most people would not care because of the influence of their brand. It is sad to say that despite the controversy around Forever 21 I would not stop buying their products. It depends on if it would directly affect me or not. However, I do hate companies who know they have a strong influence, and purposefully try to fool the public because they have power and money. It all comes down to personal values of right and wrong, and how you would feel buying a product from a company that is not doing business according to the law. Something in today's time it comes down to what company is doing the least bad, because it seems all companies in some way are doing something underhanded.
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