Presentation for Prof. Friedberg's FAS 427: Operations Management in the Fashion Business research assignment

1. FAS 427: Operations
Management in the Fashion
Business Library Research
Kelly Bennett
Reference/Instruction Librarian
Kelly-bennett@
berkeleycollege.edu
732-750-1800 ext.2100

2. Your Assignment
You will be assigned a major fashion apparel
manufacturing corporation. Research the following topics
covered in class:
O Marketing strategies
O Target customers
O Promotions
O Licensing agreements
O Apparel product lines and prices ranges
O Global sourcing strategies
O Production planning and strategies
O Quality control procedures
O Overall conclusion

3. Where to find this information…
OCompany Website
O10K report!
ONewspapers/Periodicals
OWWD, Business Week, New York Times,
Wall Street Journal
OElectronic Databases
OBusiness Insights Global
OMergent Online
OIBISWorld
OLibGuide

4. What is a 10K report?
OA comprehensive summary report of a
company's performance that must be
submitted annually to the Securities
and Exchange Commission.
ORequired by law for any publicly traded
company in the US.

5. Look for these terms
at the bottom of the
website:
Annual Reports,
Investor Relations,
SEC filings, etc.
First, let’s look at a company website.
You will find your company’s 10K/ Annual Report on their Investor
Relations Page.

8. Here is the 2013 10K/Annual Report for American Apparel, Inc.
You can look in the table of contents or browse through the document to find the
information you need.

9. The report is Keyword Searchable

10. What are your search terms?
 Marketing strategies
 Advertising/ Advertise/Advertisement
 Target customers
 Promotions
 Licensing /Licensing agreements
 Apparel product lines
 Prices / Price range
 Global sourcing
 Production planning
 Production/ Production strategies
 Quality control
These terms
should be
familiar – they are
outlined in your
assignment!

12. Target young
metropolitan adults in
the US.
Will benefit from
growing trend in
casual attire & higher
quality apparel.
Quality control
In house production
of fabric & knit

13. Continue to search through the entire document for all occurrences of
your search terms to ensure you find all relevant information!

14. Let’s try another search

15. Where the
production for
different fabrics
takes place
Why domestic
production is
important to the
brand, quality
control, etc…

16. Now that we’ve looked through the 10K report,
let’s search in one of Berkeley College
Libraries’ databases:
for company profiles and articles.

17. To access Business Insights Global, click on Databases.

18. Here is the list of databases filed by subject heading.
Click on the A-Z List.

19. Click on Business Insights: Global.

20. This is the homepage for Business Insights: Global. This is where you can search for
articles on your company, or company profiles. Search for your company in the search
box. Let’s search for Gap Inc.

21. There are many types of resources listed
here. Towards the top you will see
Company Profiles.
Here is the profile for Gap Inc.
Click any sub-heading for a specific
report. Let’s view the SWOT report.

22. Click the PDF icon to see the SWOT report. This will tell you
the company’s strengths, weakness, opportunities and
threats.

23. This chart provides basic SWOT information
for Gap Inc. These ideas are elaborated on
later in the document.

24. Let’s go back to our search results for Gap Inc.
To view some articles, let’s click on the results for Recent News.

25. Here are all the Recent News articles that mention Gap Inc. Lots of these look off topic.
You can try going back and searching “Gap Inc” in quotation marks so you find the name
of the company as a phrase.

26. After changing my search to “gap inc” in quotation marks and clicking on Recent News,
I found articles that are more relevant to my company.
Click on an article to read about your company in the news.

27. Social Media
Look at social media to see
companies’ latest promotions.

31. Finally, visit the Fashion LibGuides
http://berkeleycollege.libguides.com/FAS427Apparel
Assignment

32. To access the LibGuide, go to the Library tab and click on LibGuides.

33. Click on Fashion (listed in the Subjects box).

34. Click on FAS 427 Apparel Manufacturing Corporation Assignment

35. This LibGuide includes your assignment instructions and will show what databases to
use, find articles, books, websites and cite sources.

36. Clicking on this tab, for example, outlines and links to the databases most relevant to
this assignment.

37. Questions? Comments?
Kelly Bennett
Reference/Instruction Librarian
Kelly-bennett@berkeleycollege.edu
732- 750-1800 ext. 2100
Chat with a Librarian 7 Days a Week from
the Library Homepage or the LibGuides!