Green and gold for wool marketing TERRY SIM 19 Aug, 2010 12:00 PM AUSTRALIAN Wool Innovation has negotiated an exclusive deal to promote luxury woollen garments branded with a new gold Woolmark to at least 66 million Chinese consumers. AWI’s greater China general manager Sam Guthrie said China’s only television and media network that focused on the country’s business elite – the Chinese Business Network – approached AWI to provide content on how the 66 million viewers of its CBN China television luxury lifestyle program could dress with a greater level of sophistication. Reinvigorati on of the Woolmark was a key part of Australia Wool Innovation’s marketing strategy for Merino wool across the Northern Hemisphere and China this season. Mr Guthrie said the CBN network was owned by the state-controlled Shanghai Media Group with television, radio, magazine, newspapers, billboard and online outlets. “We said that we could help them by introducing them to all of our higher tier partners around the world. “So our means of communicating the gold Woolmark will be through this television program for a period of nine weeks, where we have complete creative control of each 45 minute episode to tell their viewers – all 66 million of them – anything we want. “And what we want to tell them is that if you are looking to dress with style you need to dress with wool,” he said. “And the way to make sure that the wool they are buying is of the most prestigious luxury tier is to look for the gold Woolmark.” The CBN China program series featuring wool and the gold Woolmark would start in November this year in China – the fastest growing luxury market in the world. Mr Guthrie said the gold Woolmark would help Chinese and global consumers focus on what a product was made of. “With the gold Woolmark we are trying to go in at the very, very top with a message about wool and having the consumer look for wool as a luxury purchase and that message trickling down as an aspirational one to the rest of the consumer base.”

AUSTRALIAN Wool Innovation has negotiated an exclusive deal to promote luxury woollen garments branded with a new gold Woolmark to at least 66 million Chinese consumers.

AWI’s greater China general manager Sam Guthrie said China’s only television and media network that focused on the country’s business elite – the Chinese Business Network – approached AWI to provide content on how the 66 million viewers of its CBN China television luxury lifestyle program could dress with a greater level of sophistication.

Reinvigorati on of the Woolmark was a key part of Australia Wool Innovation’s marketing strategy for Merino wool across the Northern Hemisphere and China this season.

Mr Guthrie said the CBN network was owned by the state-controlled Shanghai Media Group with television, radio, magazine, newspapers, billboard and online outlets.

“We said that we could help them by introducing them to all of our higher tier partners around the world.

“So our means of communicating the gold Woolmark will be through this television program for a period of nine weeks, where we have complete creative control of each 45 minute episode to tell their viewers – all 66 million of them – anything we want.

“And what we want to tell them is that if you are looking to dress with style you need to dress with wool,” he said.

“And the way to make sure that the wool they are buying is of the most prestigious luxury tier is to look for the gold Woolmark.”

The CBN China program series featuring wool and the gold Woolmark would start in November this year in China – the fastest growing luxury market in the world.

Mr Guthrie said the gold Woolmark would help Chinese and global consumers focus on what a product was made of.

“With the gold Woolmark we are trying to go in at the very, very top with a message about wool and having the consumer look for wool as a luxury purchase and that message trickling down as an aspirational one to the rest of the consumer base.”

The original Woolmark was everywhere in China – with 600 low and high-end licensees – so it was very important to differentiate with the gold colour into the luxury market of tailor-made suiting and the finest fabrics, Mr Guthrie said.

“Gold is a very powerful colour in China – everyone wants to be associated with gold because it has a link to luck and to wealth.

“All of this goes back to this concept of ‘face’ in China – if you give someone ‘face’ you give them recognition of their status,” Mr Guthrie said.

To link the gold Woolmark into luxury brands and designs of heritage, craftsmanship, quality and provenance, it would be offered to top quality partners – UK and Italian fabric makers, and Saville Row tailors supplying luxury markets in China and globally.

A stylised green Woolmark symbol denoting sustainability would also be used for apparel and interior textiles in The Campaign For Wool in the United Kingdom supported by the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles.

As part of a ‘Wool Week’ campaign in September this year the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, would urge consumers to embrace wool as the natural fibre for a sustainable future. UK fashion icons and retail leaders would be urged to put more wool on shelves and reduce landfill as they place orders for the autumn/winter 2010-11 season.

AWI chief executive officer Stuart McCullough said there had been some resistance to making any changes to the Woolmark.

“But if we keep doing what we’ve been doing, nothing is going to change.”

AWI global marketing consultant Rob Langtry said the green Woolmark for The Campaign For Wool was a “campaign-only” logo, but the recognition levels for the symbol were still high in the UK and in China.

“The key things about this are number one it is in green and what this is signalling is wool’s natural, biodegradable, sustainable positioning.

“The other thing it does is it actually links us directly into the space consumers are looking,” he said.

The green Woolmark linked wool to someone authoritative like Prince Charles consistently talking about sustainability and gave wool headlines in key areas and fashion centres, putting it back on the public issues map, he said.

“Wool linked to sustainability … which is probably the most pervasive trend we’ve seen in any consumer market in the last decade.”

AWI’s new marketing theme for Australian Merino wool being developed with the United Kingdom advertising agency Euro RSCG would also be woven into The Campaign For Wool in the UK and AWI’s China and other global marketing efforts.

H&M faced a storm of protest after it emerged that a New York store was destroying and discarding unworn garments as unemployment soars and the city’s homeless brave sub-zero temperatures.

The popular clothing chain responded by promising to stop mutilating new clothes that it cannot sell at its Herald Square outlet and will instead donate the items to charity.

There had been outrage on websites, blogs and H&M’s own Facebook page after a graduate student discovered that workers at the store were throwing out bags of clothing after slashing the items with box cutters or razors.

Cynthia Magnus wrote to the company’s Swedish headquarters after she found bags of cut-up clothes behind the store in the heart of Manhattan’s shopping district. When she received no reply, she alerted the New York Times to the practice.

New York’s unemployment rate stands at more than 10 per cent and the city has been making extra shelter space for its homeless population during the current freezing temperatures. Families reliant on food stamps stand at record numbers.

So the destruction of new clothing to make it unusable – fingers were cut off gloves and men’s jackets were slashed apart so that insulating fibre spilled out – was greeted with anger and disbelief.

H&M spokeswoman Nicole Christie said: “It will not happen again.”

She said company policy is to donate unworn clothes and did not know why this store was instead cutting them up and throwing them out.

The company said that it gave half a million pieces of clothes to charity last year, but that not all items qualified. “We do not donate clothes that do not meet our safety requirements, chemical restrictions or are damaged,” it said in a statement. “We are currently looking into if we can further improve our routines.”

Related articles by Zemanta

• H&M Has an Appetite for Destruction [Retail] (cityfile.com)
• Internet hands H&M its ass over mutilated clothes, H&M apologies and promises to stop (inquisitr.com)
• Clothing Retailer Says It Will No Longer Destroy Unworn Garments (nytimes.com)
• Manhattan H&M, Wal-Mart Destroy New Clothes Before Trashing Them (businesspundit.com)
• Wal-Mart and H&M Destroy Unsold Clothes So No One Else Can Have Them (unaskedadvice.wordpress.com)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Eddie Bauer Headed for the “Big Sale” Bin? (seattlest.com)
• Morning Deals [Sales] (consumerist.com)
• Product Management Question Corner: Jason Miceli, Perimeter eSecurity (theproductologist.com)
• 5 fashion mistakes and how to avoid them (timesunion.com)
• Bankruptcy in store for Eddie Bauer? (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Eddie Bauer goes to courts for auction (thestar.com)

New Delhi: The Indian government Thursday said it will release a subsidy of $535 million (Rs.2,546 crore) for the crisis-hit textile sector, which will directly reach the beneficiaries in three days.

“The fund will reach 12,540 beneficiaries through 121 financial institutional banks,” Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran told reporters, adding that amount will be released in three days.

“This is for the first time that such a large amount of subsidy has been released in a single tranche and the amount will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries in the record time of 72 hours (three working days),” the minister said.

In India‘s annual budget presented last month, the government allocated $654 million (Rs.3,140 crore) for the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) for textile firms. The subsidy will be released from this fund.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had also raised the planned allocation for the textile sector to $937 million for the current fiscal from $852 million the year before.

Maran said that the beneficiaries would get 10 percent capital subsidy for the machinery they had purchased.

He added that a committee has been set up to formulate a national fibre policy and it would submit its recommendations in three months.

The country’s textile sector is facing one of its worst crises as business orders from the advanced economies like the US and Europe fell sharply due to the global slowdown.

According to the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), India’s garment exports fell 15.4 percent in the first quarter this fiscal.

If you want to produce high quality garments, you need high quality piece goods. When a sewing factory receives fabric from the mill, it is difficult to conduct a full 100% inspection of the fabric. Apparel Search recommends a minimum 10% inspection of all piece goods prior to spreading the fabric. Many factories attempt to inspect the fabric during the spreading, but this is probably unrealistic to depend on the spreader to control the fabric quality evaluation. The fabric should be inspected prior to the fabric reaching the cutting tables.

There are several piece good inspection systems for measuring the quality of fabrics. Their is a Ten-Point System, which was developed in the 1950′s. That system assigns penalty points to each defect, depending on the length of the defect. The system is a bit complicated because the points per length vary for warp and filling defects. There is also a Dallas System published in the 1970′s. That system was developed specifically for knits. According to this system, if any defect was found on a finished garment the garment would then be termed a second. In regard to fabric, this system defines a second as “more then one defect per ten linear yards, calculated to the nearest ten yards.” For example, one piece 60 yards long would be allowed to have six defects. Another system for evaluating piece goods is the Four-Point System. In this system, you should inspect at least 10 percent of the total rolls in the shipment. Make sure to select at least one roll or each color way. The defect classification works as follows.

Size of Defect:
3 inches or less = 1 point penalty
Over 3 inches but not over 6 inches = 2 point penalty
Over 6 inches but not over 9 inches = 3 point penalty
Over 9 inches = 4 point penalty

Note: a maximum of 4 points should be charged to one linear yard. Also, note that only “major” defects are charged.

The acceptable score varies. Many companies use 40 points per 100 yards as acceptable defect rate. However, others may find this not acceptable…

Here is some math to show you an example.

Total Yardage received: 5400
Acceptance Point-count: 40 per 100 yards
Total Yards Inspected : 540
Total penalty points found in the sample inspection: 150 points

150 divided by 540 times 100 = 27.77 points per 100 yards (because the allowance is 40 points per 100 yards, this shipment would be acceptable).

Above are only a few examples of fabric testing procedures. In fact, above is only a short summary of the processes. If you are responsible for inspecting fabric, you really will need to do more research on this subject

Make sure that your company has a very good QC Manager.

If you could not guess from the name, “in-process quality control” is actually quality control steps that take place thought the process of fabric production or garment production. This is also often referenced as “inline” inspections or inline audits. As opposed to simply doing audits after the completion of production.

One of the keys to producing good quality merchandise is an in-process quality control program. Although it is possible to control your outgoing quality with only a good final audit, it is NOT recommended to simply rely on that approach. Unless you install an effective in-process quality control program, your cost of excessive seconds and repairs may be high. It is far more effective to correct the problem at the operator level, then after the garment is completely assembled, pressed, packages and prepared for shipping. Being able to deliver your merchandise on time is important to your customers. Good in-process controls help assure that the final audit runs smoothly and allows for timely delivery. You certainly do not want to learn in your final audit about problems that could have easily been fixed if detected earlier.

The primary purpose of the in-process auditing is to identify problems as early as possible. A problem may be caused by the operator, the machine, or other factors. The inline audits will help you find specific problems in production. The only way to fix a problem is to find the problem. It is important to find errors as quickly as possible so that they can be corrected as fast as possible.

Some companies will do their own inline inspections and others will utilize inspection services.

If you are looking to utilize 3rd party inspection services, you can check the with us. We have team of professional qualified teams in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Egypt, who provide technical services at lowest cost.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Cost of Quality (WWW.BUSINESS901.COM)
• New Canadian auditing standards and quality control standard for firms now available (newswire.ca)

Askewed or Bias : condition where filling yarns are not square with warp yarns on woven fabrics or where courses are not square with wale lines on knits.

Back Fabric Seam Impression : backing fabric is often used to cushion fabric being printed. If there is a joining seam in the backing fabric, an impression will result on printed fabric.

Barre : occurs in circular knit. Caused by mixing yarn on feed into machine. Fabric will appear to have horizontal streaks.

Birdseye : caused by unintentional tucking from malfunctioning needle. Usually two small distorted stitches, side by side. This term should not be confused with birdseye fabric which is in fact created intentionally.

Bowing : Usually caused by finishing. Woven filling yarns lien in an arc across fabric width: in knits the course lines lie in an arc across width of goods. Critical on stripes or patterns and not as critical on solid color fabrics.

Broken Color Pattern : Usually caused by colored yarn out of place on frame.

Color Out : the result of color running low in reservoir on printing machine.

Color Smear : The result of color being smeared during printing.

Crease Mark : differs from crease streak in that streak will probably appear for an entire roll. Crease mark appears where creases are caused by fabric folds in the finishing process. On napped fabric, final pressing may not be able to restore fabric or original condition. Often discoloration is a problem.

Crease Streak : Occurs in tubular knits. Results from creased fabric passing through squeeze rollers in the dyeing process.

Drop Stitches : results from malfunctioning needle or jack. Will appear as holes or missing stitches.

Dye Streak In Printing : Results from a damaged doctor blade or a blade not cleaned properly. Usually a long streak until the operator notices the problem.

End Out : Occurs in Warp knit. Results from knitting machine continuing to run with missing end.

Hole : caused by broken needle.

Jerk-in : caused by an extra piece of filling yarn being jerked part way into the fabric by the shuttle. The defect will appear at the selvage.

Knots : caused by tying spools of yarn together.

Missing Yarn : Occurs in warp knit. Reuslts from wrong fiber yarn (or wrong size yarn) placed on warp. Fabric could appear as thick end or different color if fibers have different affinity for dye.

Mixed End (yarn) : Yarn of a different fiber blend used on the warp frame, resulting in a streak in the fabric.

Mottled : Color applied unevenly during printing.

Needle Line : Caused by bent needle forming distorted stitches. Usually a vertical line.

Open Reed : results from a bent reed wire causing warp ends to be held apart, exposing the filling yarn. Will be conspicuous on fabrics that use different colored yarns on warp and shuttle.

Pin Holes : Holes along selvage caused by pins holding fabric while it processes through tenter frame.

Press-Off : results when all or some of the needles on circular knitting fail to function and fabric either falls off the machine or design is completely disrupted or destroyed. Many knitting needles are broken and have to be replaced when bad press-off occurs. Bad press-offs usually start a new roll of fabric.

Printing Machine Stop : Dye or ink smudged along width of fabric as a result of the printing machine stopping.

Print Out of Repair : Caused by print rollers not being synchronized properly. This results in various colors of the design not being printed in the proper position.

Puckered Selvage : Usually caused by selvage being stretched in finishing or by uneven wetting out in sanforization process.

Runner : caused by broken needle. The runner will appear as vertical line. Most machines have a stopping device to stop the machine when a needle breaks.

Sanforize Pucker : Results from uneven wetting out on sanforize; usually caused by defective spray heads. Fabric will appear wavy or puckering when spread on cutting table. Difficult to detect while inspecting on inspection machine with fabric under roller tension.

Scrimp : the result of fabric being folded or creased when passing through tenter frames.

Slub (woven fabric) : usually caused by an extra piece of yarn that is woven into fabric. It can also be caused by thick places in the yarn. Often is caused by fly waste being spun in yarn in the spinning process.

Slub (Knit fabric) : Usually caused by a thick or heavy place in yarn, or by ling getting onto yarn feeds.

Smash : caused by a number of ruptured warp ends that have been repaired.

Soiled Filling or End : Dirty, oily looking spots on the warp or filling yarns, or on packaged-dyed yarn.

Stop Mark : when the loom is stopped, the yarn elongates under tension; when the loom starts again, the slack is woven into the fabric.

Straying End : Warp Knit. Caused when an end of yarn breaks and the loose end strays and is knit irregularly into another area.

Thin Place: often caused by the filling yarn breaking and the loom continuing to run until the operator notices the problem.

Water Spots : Usually caused by wet fabric being allowed to remain too long before drying: color migrates leaving blotchy spots.

Yes, there are more fabric defect terms in existence. However, this is the best list we have for you at the moment. If you know additional terms, or updates to the terms listed above, please do not hesitate to let us know. We would be happy to add your suggestions. The goal is to help educate. If you have more information on this subject, please share your knowledge with us.

If you have an experienced cutting room staff to inspect, do NOT assume that they are doing every thing perfectly.

Effective inspection requires random examination of cutting operations. The inspector should not develop a set routine. You do not want the workers to be in the habit of knowing when and how you will conduct your inspection. You should make every effort to get a fair representation of the cutting production by making random checks on the cutting room floor. When checking spreaders, make certain to check for marker placement, shading, table marks, etc. Here are a few issues to check.

Marker Placement : check that the marker is placed on the spread with the edge parallel to the selvage of the piece goods. Verify that all cut pieces will be complete.

Shading : unless all parts are plymarked, it is essential to have a system to control shading.

Table marks : check the table marks as they table is marked. Allow no minus tolerance for the splices.

Markers : ensure that no markers are creased, damaged, or have overlapped parts.

Splices : after completion of the spread, check splice laps to see that both piles extend past the marked splice by no less then 1/2 inch and no more then 1 inch.

Narrow Goods : after completion of the spread, check the far edge of the spread to see that all plies extend beyond the marker line.

Tension : check tension during spreading. This is very important on knit fabrics.

Count : check the count after completion of spreading, and before cutting. Count all plies at both ends. There should be no tolerance.

Leaning : check carefully to ensure that one edge of the fabric is square to table top. Visually inspect the alignment of the edge with the table top.

Record the spreading defects by the quantity of defects found for each checkpoint. Any defective work discovered by the inspector should be immediately corrected.

Do not only record the problem. Make sure to fix the problem immediately.

If you have new employees, you should certainly monitor them more closely and more often

GARMENTS SOURCING CONSULTING

Brand Strategy

• Customized consulting services
• Core competencies – design, marketing, sales, supply chain
• Identify brand strengths, weakness, opportunities & threats
• Identify brand extensions, new markets & licensing opportunities

Brand Development

• brand identification systems, logos & trademarks
• Packaging, information architecture
• Product naming, captions, copywriting & text

The Apparel Search Consulting team comprises our founding partners and a network of senior brand developers with a proven track record in product development, brand innovation, marketing, sales and supply chain management.  We are active advisors to leading global brands, upcoming niche players and high potential startups. As outsourcing becomes a growing global trend, more fashion brands rely on this model for instant access to qualified brand innovators, senior consultants and category experts.  Want to know how our results-driven team can take your brand to the next level? Email us.