Ch. 2 - Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

 

Vogue has without a doubt been for many years now not just a leader in the fashion industry but also an inspiration for the modern woman. This continuing influential role stems from the magazine’s deep creativity and innovation.  At its inception Vogue Magazine focused almost exclusively on a readership of elite, wealthy women, but from the depression years of the 1930s onward began shifting towards more varied, ready to wear affordable collections. Through its continuing progressive support of evolving women’s culture and fashion, Vogue helped empower the fashion model and in effect helped create the super model arch type we know so well today. Before the super model came to prominence female fashion models were not much more than living manikins, whose personality and identity as a woman was far less important that it is today. 

 Vogue’s editor in chief Anna Wintour is one of the most powerful women in fashion industry today. As one of the elite members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America she insists on true excellence in her fashion standards and under her dedicated guidance Vogue has profoundly affected the evolving fashion industry. Wintour has proven to be a key factor in Vogue’s overall strategic planning success and her great experience and leadership skill has brought the magazine a definite competitive advantage.  

 Vogue continues to participate in New York Fashion Week twice a year organizes its own party event, fashion's night out, which always draws the most sophisticated crowds and shows the media and fashion world luminaries that Vogue knows how to really shine in the lime light of the public eye.

Vogue is not an institution that necessarily caters to customers needs, but more typically helps set the standards of style each season. This puts the magazine in a position of strategic advantage over many others. It operates in effect as a beacon of culture that relies on a rich, highly respected reputation built up over many years. It represents the past, present, and future of fashion.  

These days Vogue not only focuses on women’s fashion concerns but has also diversified to address the quickly emerging interests of teens, men, and interior decorating. This flexibility and ability to adapt to changing market patterns shows that Vogue’s strategic planning is alive and well. It continues to use this planning to keep its competitive edge in the fast paced, high stakes fashion world.