AMBALIKA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY

MOHANLALGANJ, LUCKNOW

MINI PROJECT – 1
ON
“FASHION FORWARD: H&M’S TRIALBLAZING INITIATIVES”

SUBMITTED TO -
MR. GAURAV SHUKLA
HEAD OF DEPARTMENT, AIHE
SUBMITTED BY-
SHRISHTI SINGH
MBA 1ST YEAR

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 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the thesis titled “FASHION FORWARD: H&M’S

TRAILBLAZING INITIATIVES” is an authentic record of the research work
carried out by me under the supervision of
Mr.Gaurav Shukla (HOD) Ambalika institute of management and
technology, Lucknow.

I declare that I have faithfully acknowledged and referred to the works

of other researchers wherever their published works have been cited in
the thesis. I further certify that I have not willfully taken other's words,
paragraphs, texts, etc. reported in the journals, books, magazines,
reports, dissertations, thesis etc. Or available at web sites without their
permission and have not included those in my thesis citing as my own
work.

SHRISHTI SINGH

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

My utmost gratitude to almighty for endless blessings in life. Entrusted

with this task of eminence is in itself an honor and blessing.
I could not see this task accomplishing without the continuous support
of lot of people whom I would extend my gratitude. Foremost, I thank
my research supervisor MR. GAURAV SHUKLA, Ambalika institute of
management and technology, Lucknow. For his support, patience and
expertise. His experience and foresightedness helped during the course
of completion of the study. His concern for quality benefitted me in
persistently improving the quality of thesis. I owe him my major
learning's and developing my research aptitude.

I am also grateful to Miss Sushmita Singh, alumni of my institute who

helped me a lot in completing this project report.

Collecting sizeable amount of data was the greatest challenge of this

research hence I am thankful to all my respondents who were patient
and cooperative enough to give their valuable time & providing their
unbiased responses.

This journey has been grueling industrious yet enriching. Conclusively, I

thank all directly and indirectly supported me during this journey.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

DESCRIPTION PAGE NUMBER

TITLE PAGE 1
DECLARATION 2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 3
TABLE OF CONTENT 4
IMAGES 5
INTRODUCTION 5-6
BUSINESS OBJECTIVE 6-7
MARKETING STRATEGY 8
MARKETING MIX 8-9
H&M’S CORE VALUES 9-10
INNOVATION IS THE CORE OF H&M’S BUSINESS 11-14
SALES OF H&M WORLDWIDE FROM 2007-2020 15
SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES BY H&M 16-17
SWOT ANALYSIS 17
INNOVATIVE SUGGESSIONS TO H&M 18
CONCLUSION 18

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 INTRODUCTION
H&M is multinational clothing-retail company known for its fast fashion
clothing for men women, teenagers and children. It is the second
largest global clothing retail, behind Spain based Zara. As of November
2019, H&M Operate in 74 countries with over 5,000 stores and also
company have made its online shopping available in 33 countries.

The company was founded in 1947 by Erling Persson with very first
shop established in Västerås , Sweden. The original name of shop was
called “Hennes” which is Swedish for “hers” as the store at the time
exclusively sold womenswear. It wasn’t until 1968 when person
acquired the hunting apparel brand Mauritz Widforss that he changed
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the name of the company to Hennes & Mauritz t o reflect the brand
inclusion of menswear into the product range. Soon after the merger
and the official rebranding into the shortened H&M the company’s
expansion gradually began to expand outside of Sweden’s borders.
In 1976 the first store outside Sweden opened in London, H&M
continued to grow on Europe began to retail online in 1998.

Product of H&M
The H&M also include other brands like – COS, Monki, Weekday Cheap
Monday, H&M Home and ARKET. Together these brand offer customer
a wealth of styles and trends in fashion, beauty, accessories and wears
for Women, Men and for children.

Mission of H&M
The prime focus of H&M is to serve fashion and quality at the best price
in sustainable way. The believe that they should have best customer
offering in each and every market and offer collection that are wide
ranging and varied for women, men, teenagers and children. For them
design, quality and sustainability are not a question of price but ability
to offer inspiring fashion with unbeatable value for money.
Vision of H&M
H&M’s business operations aims to run in a way that is economically,
socially and environmentally sustainable where it means that the need
of both present and future generations must be fulfilled.

BUSINESS OBJECTIVE

H&M, or Hennes & Mauritz, is a global fashion retailer renowned for its
commitment to offering trendy clothing and accessories at affordable
prices. At the core of H&M's business objective is to provide fashion-
conscious consumers with a diverse range of high-quality apparel,

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catering to various styles and preferences. By continuously adapting to
changing fashion trends and consumer demands, H&M aims to
maintain its position as a leader in the fast-fashion industry. However,
beyond profitability and market dominance, H&M places a strong
emphasis on sustainability and ethical business practices. In recent
years, the company has made significant strides towards becoming
more environmentally conscious and socially responsible. This
commitment is reflected in initiatives such as the use of sustainable
materials, reducing carbon emissions, and promoting fair labor
practices across its global supply chain.

H&M seeks to minimize its environmental footprint while also

contributing to the well-being of workers and communities involved in
its production processes. Through initiatives like garment recycling
programs and partnerships with ethical suppliers, H&M is actively
working towards creating a more sustainable fashion industry.

Moreover, H&M continually invests in technology and e-commerce

capabilities to enhance the shopping experience for its customers, both
online and offline. By leveraging data analytics and artificial
intelligence, H&M strives to personalize the shopping journey and
optimize inventory management; thereby driving efficiency and
customer satisfaction. In essence, the business objective of H&M
revolves around delivering fashionable and affordable clothing while
embracing sustainability, ethical practices, and technological
innovation. By staying true to these principles, H&M aims to not only
meet the needs of its customers but also contribute positively to
society and the environment, positioning itself as a responsible leader
in the global fashion industry.

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 Marketing Strategy of H&M

Marketing strategy is very essential for each business; marketing is way

to communicate and to reach your target consumer. Choosing correct
strategy makes your brand grow, so H&M has different marketing
technique to communicate to its consumer and this make H&M 2 nd
largest fashion retailer. Once Jorgen Anderson, the marketing director
of H&M was asked what is the secret of so called “Stockholm
syndrome”, with first IKEA democratizing interior design, now H&M
doing the same thing with fashion, to this he answer that ‘this is not
only a business idea, but rather a political one, providing every person
with equal choices as you do not have to be rich to appreciate good
design’. He also added owes its success to three factors:-
1. Innovative design that is always on trend
2. The best quality at best price
3. Efficient logistic

Marketing Mix of H&M

Marketing is “an organizational function and a set of processes for
creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for
managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization
and its stakeholders”. When a company wants to elaborate its
international marketing plan, it is necessary to take into account the
traditional 4 P: product (or service), price, place and promotion.
The marketing mix used by H&M is as follows -
1. Product – Vast range of clothing and other items with a lower price
range and a decent quality.
2. Price -H&M has adopted a pricing strategy that has broader pricing
range to suit every sphere of buyer. In order to maintain a median

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pricing strategy, the business also offers
various discounts and schemes on their core
and fresh stocks.
3. Place – H&M stores are located in
convenient location. They also have online
website hm.com, which give consumer easy
access to their product. Consumers have the opportunity to browse and
order products anytime and anywhere.
4. Promotion - H&M focuses a vast amount of time on Promotion and
advertising. Direct marketing is also used as part of H&Ms campaign.
H&M uses Celebrities, press and Bloggers to carry out the advertising
message.
H&M’S CORE VALUES

Shared by all colleagues worldwide regardless of role, function, or

brand, our values have been guiding and uniting us since 1947. They are
integrated into our entrepreneurial spirit and long term perspective to
our constant drive to keep our constant drive to keep our customers at
the heart of everything we do.
By living our values, we create an open and down to earth culture
where we can work together to do best what matters most to our
customers and our future.
1. We are one team – Our workplace is inclusive and respectful. We
encourage and help each other to win together. We see the big
picture and collaborate across boundaries, sharing our skills and
knowledge in the best interests of our
company to create unbeatable customer
value.
2. We believe in people – We are the best we
can be and bring out the best in everyone
and trust others to take ownership and

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 embrace diverse perspectives. We listen to and learn from
colleagues.
3. We are entrepreneurs – We have a strong business mindset. We
are curious and creative and take every opportunity to adapt to
ever changing customer needs. Our innovative and flexible
approach delivers the best customer offer and experience.
4. We make constant improvement- we are always eager to find a
better way forward. We constantly improve by seeking feedback
to act, learn and adapt with speed. Everyday improvements, big or
small steps, can make a huge difference.
5. We are cost conscious – we make careful,
sustainable choices by using resources
responsibly and doing more with less. We
create value for money, making a
sustainable lifestyle accessible for
everyone.
6. We are straightforward and open-
minded- we are open, honest and
humble. We speak up but once a decision has been made, we
commit to it. We are prepared to have our own ideas challenged
and happy to let the best idea win.
7. We keep it simple –we aim for simplicity and go straight to the
point, because clarity helps us focus on
what matters. We don’t overcomplicate
so we can be clear and efficient. Less
really is more.

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 INNOVATION IS THE CORE OF H&M’S BUSINESS

WE ARE CONSTANTLY SEARCHING FOR NEW WAYS TO BUILD

A BETTER AND MORE CIRCULAR FASHION INDUSTRY.
~ H&M

Why innovation is at the core of our business

The fashion industry is transforming from a linear approach towards a
circular system. This is not an easy shift, but one we need to make to
tackle some of the most urgent impacts of our industry. This transition
will open up lots of opportunities to strengthen our customer offering,
take smarter decisions, create better products and build more resilient
value chains.
We need to invent new materials and processes, develop new business
models and investigate new ways for people to need to find new ways
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to improve working conditions and plan for the jobs of the future in a
digital world with circular supply chains.

How we innovate at H&M Group

Innovation isn’t easy. Ideas need to be trialed and tested, and then
scaled up to make them work in a business our size. At H&M group, we
have built an innovation ecosystem that offers a broad range of support
and helps remove any barriers along the way:

❖ H&M Foundation’s Global Change Awards funds early-stage

innovations that have potential to build a planet-positive fashion
industry.

❖ Our Circular Innovation Lab supports innovators and start-ups in

joint development projects around circularity, from early-stage proof
of concepts to capsule collections.

❖ H&M CO: LAB is our venture capital arm that invests in new and
developing technologies.

❖ The Laboratory is our wider internal innovation hub that supports

our brands and business with research and idea exploration.

Investing in the materials of tomorrow

To test and support the future of sustainable textile processing, we
have invested in Alchemie Technology, and are investigating how we
can implement their technology in our supply chain

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We invested in Colorifix, which uses microbiology to produce and fix
dye on textiles. A number of our brands intend to place orders
following the launch of their first bioreactor.

In 2022, we supported
research from Karolinska
Institute and SLU
(Swedish University of
Agricultural Sciences) to
scale production of a
protein-based fiber that
mimics spider silk.

Our circular Innovation lab and ARKET produced a capsule collection

using SPINNOVA, a natural fiber made in Finland from FSC or PEFC
certified wood using minimal water and energy. The fiber has the
potential to be recycled repeatedly without loss of quality.

H&M CO: LAB also supported Infinite Fiber Company to scale the
production of Infinna TM, a manmade cellulosic fiber made from cotton
waste.

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Offering customers new ways to access our products
From integrating second hand products to our online channels to
offering curate, pre-loved clothing in store, we are continuously
updating the ways our customers can access and engage with fashion.

Building reverse supply chains

We are developing reverse supply chains. These items can then be put
back into circular either as second hand products or reused and
recycled so they can be used as fibers and other resources in our
production.

As a part of this initiative, we launched Looper Textile Co., a joint

venture with our garment collecting partner, Remondis. The Company
collects and sorts used and unwanted textiles for resale and recycling in
Europe.

What’s next?
Access to sustainable products and services should be universal, so
we’ll continue to develop and scale Circular Business Models. This way
we can make sure our products are used more, reduce pressure on
resources and generate new
revenue streams.

We also want to make it

easier to recycle garments.
Today, a small percentage of
clothing is recycled because
it is hard to sort garments
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efficiently and there is a lack of chemical recycling processes working at
the scale we need. We will focus on scaling up this industrial set-up in
future innovation projects

Sales of the H&M Group worldwide from 2007 to 2020

According to graph:-

1. This statistic depicts the sales of the H&M Group worldwide from
2007 to 2020. In fiscal year 2020, global net sales of the H&M Group
amounted to about 20.2 billion U.S. dollars.

2. Since 2009 – 2017 there is positive growth in sales of H&M.

3. In 2020 sales was reduced due to covid-19 pandemic. Covid made

countries to go on lockdown, restriction was made on mobility. This

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made large shift of offline shopping to online shopping, still only basic
necessity was allowed to order online. Being clothing store H&M
Sales were reduced.

SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES BY H&M

Sustainability is significally important for fashion because due to

consumer increasing awareness of environment. H&M recognize the
importance of sustainability and
incorporate green practices to its
supply chain. Some sustainable practice
of H&M:-

1. Eco- material preparation: H&M

has used organic cotton for production
also invested in cotton production.
H&M also cooperates with World Wide
Fund for Nature (WWF) in the strategy
to save water they changed their textile
production to consume water.
H&M aims at sending zero waste
from organization to landfills. To
save energy and water they also
use recycle products like
recycled polyester, recycled
polyamide, recycled plastic and
recycled wool in their product
line.

2. Sustainable manufacturing:
Through local sourcing H&M
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 reduces the amount of product waste and carbon emission in
the production and distribution process. As a strategy this
method supply inventory in time in response quick fashion
market but also avoid wastage of product and carbon emission.
3. Green distribution: It was estimated that half of carbon
emission at H&M are due to transportation; they realized it
started using clean and safe mode in transportation. If road
transport has to be used then H&M train their truck driver and
also does not use trucks which have been used for more than
10 years. H&M also uses
customize transport packing
according to quality and
environment requirements,
so they can also reuse
transport box.

4. Green retailing: Consumer

can return the old clothes to
all H&M store all over the
countries. In return consumer can get 15% in next purchase. By
offering reward H7m makes less ethical people to act
responsible toward environment.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF H&M

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 INNOVATIVE SUGGESTIONS TO CHANGE IN THE
STRATEGIES OF H&M
➢ Virtual wardrobe experience.
➢ AI-Powered personalization.
➢ Carbon-neutral supply chain.
➢ Augmented reality supply chains.
➢ Modular clothing design.
➢ Community- centered initiatives
➢ Partnerships with sustainable innovators.

Conclusion

H&M have been developed as strong and sustainable brand where the
product is innovated well to adapted to the needs of consumer. They
have showed the market through their marketing that fashion is not
very expensive; they brought the runway clothes in daily life of people.
H&M uses different marketing strategy to promote their brand and
increase sale, but they are slow to adapt in online sale. In year 2021
their main focus is increase online sale as people are shifting in online
shopping. H&M also uses environment friendly product through their
brand they also make their consumer aware about sustainability.

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