Ted Baker is a Global clothing retailer, which was established by Ray Kelvin in Glasgow, Scotland 1988. At the start, Ted Baker sold men’s shirts. In the subsequent years, Ted Baker established itself as a global lifestyle brand that continued to develop and attain significant growth and development. Ted Baker has operations in Europe, Middle East, North America, and Australasia. Ted Baker has managed to gain a high geographical cover even in depressing economic periods. In 2014, Ted Baker had expanded into 35 countries and had expanded its range of products from a single product – men’s shirts – to womenwear, Lingerie and childrenwear among other offerings. This essay will critically evaluate the factors behind the rise and increasing globalisation of the Ted Baker retail brand.
In its efforts to become a global firm, Ted Baker sought to expand its product offerings from men’s shirts specialisation to womenswear, accessories, sleepwear, and children wear (Holland, 2013). The product portfolio expansion is essential in improving the firm’s profitability as new customers are targeted across the firm’s markets. To depict the growth of the retail brand, the expansion is observed as an aspect of product development that involves selling new products to the existing markets (Lamb, Hair, and McDaniel, 2010). However, the product portfolio expansion is also supportive of a market development strategy and diversification strategy since Ted Baker further sought to sell its products (existing offerings such as the men’s shirts and new products in newly accessed geographical markets such as the Middle East, North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia). Besides, the use of innovative technologies including the new media for advertising depicts the potential of the brand reaching numerous consumers who in the contemporary business environment consume internet widely, thereby