FAS 335:Consultation Project

Library Resources

Your Fashion Liaison

Hi, I am Kelly Bennett, your Fashion Liaison Librarian.

You can contact me for assistance with your research assignment, my contact information

is below.

kelly-bennett@berkeleycollege.edu732-750-1800 Ext. 2201

Your Assignment• You will “act in a consulting capacity”

for a top 100 U.S. based retailer. You select one of the top 100 U.S. based retailers and analyze in depth the overall strategy of this retailer. You will make recommendations for how the retailer can improve, grow, and become more competitive in the industry.

5 steps

1. Research

2. Conduct a SWOT analysis

3. Analyze the effectiveness of the retailers’ application of omni-channel strategies to achieve a customer-centric experience

4. Choose a Key Competitor and Predict their future

5. Recommendations for making retail bigger and better

This presentation will cover how to conduct research, SWOT analysis & locating key competitors.

Don’t forget…

You’ll need a minimum of five articles. The articles may come from the following resources: refereed journals, Business Week, Fortune, Forbes, Stores, and Wall Street Journal.

You will need to cite your sources using MLA format.

Where to start?

• Use the databases

– Reliable, credible information that does not need to be evaluated

– Available at no cost through the library website

• Don’t Wikipedia

• You must evaluate every website you intend to utilize – for more information on evaluating website visit:

– http://berkeleycollege.libguides.com/evaluating

Need help? Click here to launch a live chat with a Librarian !

Mon-Thurs: 8:30am – 11:30pmFri: 9am – 9pm

Sat: 9am - 2pm & 7 -11pmSun: 7:00pm – 11:00pm

To access the Library’s Databases log into your BlackBoard Account & select the Library Tab at the top of the page.

Then click on Research/Explore and select the Database link.

The Databases are organized by subject. Since we know we are looking for the Mergent Online Database select the “A-Z List”.

Scroll through the list & click on the Mergent Online link

This is the Mergent Online homepage. Enter your Company Name to begin your research.

One this page you will see a summary of your company , scroll down for additional information.

Key Financial Data

Stock Performance

Recent News

Explore each Sub- heading and Tab at the top of the page for additional information about your company.

Let’s explore the History of Ralph Lauren

Key historical information is displayed here and you can navigate by year for more detailed information or sort by topics

Select a topic from the drop down list to learn about a particular aspect of your company’s history.

Click on the Competitors Tab to find information forStep 3: Choose a Key Competitor

Competitors

If you choose one of the competitors listed you can access their company profile by double clicking on the company name.

Now we are going to switch gears and find Ralph Lauren’s 10K report. This report will be located on the company’s website.

Company’s 10K Report

• Publicly traded companies are required to file a 10K report annually with the SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission)

• Published on the company’s website

Go to your company’s website and look for the “About Us” or “Investor Relations” link.

Often these links will be located at the very bottom of a company’s homepage.

Company Profile

Mission Statement

You may have to search around the company’s site to find the 10K report – look for Investor Relations, Financial Report or Government Filing links.

Your company’s website is also a good source of

information required for this project

Double click on the company’s most recent 10K report to open and explore the document.

You can search for keywords by using the

“Control + F key” command or on a Mac

the “Mac +F key” command.

Search for sales and profit growth, marketing strategies, financial data,

etc..

SWOT Analysis – We have a guide for that!

SWOT = Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats

http://berkeleycollege.libguides.com/SWOT

This LibGuide details what a SWOT is and where to locate information on your Company’s Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities & Threats.

On the ‘Strengths” Tab you can see several databases to search for information & videos below on how to navigate them.

Let’s explore the Business Insights

Database

This is the Business Insights: Global Database homepage, you can also access this database from the library’s list of databases. Enter your

company name to start researching.

Click on the your Company’s Profile.

This database contains similar information to Mergent: company history, financial data, etc.. and also contains sample SWOT analysis.

Let’s switch gears to the ProQuest Central Business database.

This database contains articles from Forbes, Business Week, the Wall Street Journal and other refutable journals.

The Databases are organized by subject, simply click the Business link to access the database.

This is the homepage – select the Advanced Search Option to search more efficiently for articles.

We’ll search for an article that contains the terms Coach, Inc., brand and strength

Click “Full Text” to only find complete articles,

not citations.

Choose a date range to find only the most

recent articles.

We found 248 articles using our search for full text articles from the last 3 years which contain the terms Coach Inc., brand and strength.

Notice each result lists the title, author, publication title, page numbers, and

publication date. It shows where search terms are used in the article, and shows

that the article will be in full text.

Click the title to go to the full article.

Here is the full text article.

Use tools to print, email it to yourself, download or cite the article. Click on the cite option to access

the citation.

• Kelly Bennett

–kelly-bennett@berkeleycollege.edu

–732-750-1800 Ext. 2201

• Online chat from Library Homepage & LibGuides

Remember Librarians are here to help!