Monsoon kids clothes

[Belo]

Haven't posted on Mumsnet in ages. Only had time for lurking. But now I need some help for dh....

He's got a job interview at Monsoon tomorrow, working in childrenswear, and one of the questions the recruitment agency has said he will likely to be asked is how Monsoon Childrenswear is positioned in the market. I know we can't afford to buy clothes from there, but that's not much of an answer. Can anybody help us? This is quite a job change for him and apart from having 2 dds we know nothing about this market. We just tend to go for the cheapest stuff.

Any comments would be appreciated!

They're based in Paddington.

that's true for the boyswear particularly Pruuni, but tbh have never bought Monsoon boys - ds was past it by the time it appeared. I'm not sure Monsoon is perceived as a male brand really, for adults or kids.

From a marketing perspective its positioned at the high quality, high price end of the market with few competitors there but also a limited number of customers. It concentrates on a unique product design, complimenting the main adult range and concentrates on girls ware. Boys ware appears to be a suplimentary product.

Neither product ranges(boys or girls) are front of shop hence they are an agumented product rather than core product to buiness but I would suspect that the profit made on the childrens clothes is larger than ladies and hence any sales of these contribute significantly to the profitability of individual stores.

It is not positioned for the everyday use market where price is the driver, rather as an occasion ware product ie party or wedding and hence customers have to seek the product rather than impulse purchase as they may do with supermarket clothes.

Main competitors would be Pumpkin patch and M & S on high street with exclusive catelogue outlets and Boden as other

Hope this helps

True LIZS.
It's a shame I think as the Monsoon boys' clothes really are different from other high st boys' clothes and god knows there are enough threads on MN complaining about the dearth of clothes for 50% of the child population.

Dh now wants comments about the store in general. I've created another post. Can anybody help him on this?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk?rn=56753&topicid=2350&threadid=334477&redir=56753

He's very appreciative of all the comments so far. I never thought I'd hear him praise mumsnet like this! Maybe I can persuade him to join!

What are the boys'c clothes like? Up to what age?

Is M+S a competitor? I have given up looking in M+S as it's all so dull dull dull. Chalk and cheese imo

agree, forgot about Boden as a competitor - Monsoon is online too.

Boys clothes are up to 10 girls up to 13.

The stuff does last though, I brought a beautiful cotton jersey pink dress there with muslin edges on the sleeves (in the sale for £10) when dd was a baby 3-6mnths, then as she grew I teamed it with a pair of jeans as a top and it lasted till she was 2 years. Best value for money I have ever got for childrens clothes.

I always check out the sales for clothes the following year. Have also used them for a couple of special occasions.
It works out very expensive for ds as he needs separates so have used it more for dd when I can buy a dress.

M&S Per Una probably is for women but I don't think the childrens wear can compete with Monsoon.

Some of the big M & S stores have a very up market range of clothing now and also have a very cheap range as well.

They do party and wedding type clothes in the local one to me which are fab but we never go anywhere like that.

this sort of thing in M and S and this , so they do have some similarities, although agree the range is limited.

DS are chosen Monsoon clothes by their grandfather's second wife. Very good quality. I dread to think how much they cost (no Monsoon in rural France!).

Apart from the designs, her main reason for buying Monsoon is that she has read somewhere they they treat the people who make the clothes (mostly India and Bangladesh I think) very well.

My one criticism of the boys stuff is that all the jumpers we have been given are handwash only lambswool. One had a beautiful design and so was ok to keep for special occasions but the others were pretty plain (stripes etc) so barely got worn as I would stick a machine washable sweatshirt on DS instead.

Ooh yes lizs I can see the girlswear is comparable
M+S boyswear is really a case of slapping someone about the head with a marketing report and shouting "Did you not read who your core customers are? NOT CHAVS."