There are many forms of businesses and yet the problems arising from these establishments appear to be quite similar with one another. Various factors affect the becoming of a business, whether it be success or failure. One thing that is not, and should be overlooked in starting a business venture is competition in the market. The nature of competition within the market place is very stiff. There are different industries trying to employ a strategy that can make the company more competitive than the others. The competitive aim is to do significantly a better job of providing what buyers are looking for and, thereby enabling the firm to gain competitive advantage and out compete rivals within the marketplace (Thompson & Strickland, 2003). This paper is a brief analysis of the competitive strategies applied by the Zoots: The Cleaner Cleaner in their field of business, particularly dry cleaning.

          Zoots Chairman Tom Stemberg and Zoots CEO Todd Krasnow founded the company in 1998. Perhaps the edge of Zoots in offering dry cleaner services is its dedication to customer experience, making sure that there are various ways in which customers could take care of their laundry. A part of their strategy is to provide their customers a better service at reasonable prices. They used the web for promotion and for the convenience of the customers as well as the company to keep track of their orders. Despite efforts to provide the best services through convenience and uncompromising quality, the company still facing problems is inevitable. For the purpose of this paper, the researcher is to concentrate on the discussion of the competitors of Zoots and the competitive edge of the company. The largest established company in the industry of dry cleaning is Johnson Service Group PLC. They operated in the United Kingdom and currently operate in the United States. Hangers of New England is a retail franchise of professional garment-care stores. Hangers uses patented and environmentally friendly Micare system developed by Micell Technologies. Another formidable competitor is Anton’s Cleaner which provided on-site cleaning and is able to offer same-day service to customers. There is only limited number of players in the said industry. However, competition among these companies is assessed on a local basis.

          Through Zoots’ continuous dedication to research, data collection and planning, the company ensures that they are giving their customers more value for their money by including good-to-excellent service features at a reasonable and affordable cost than its rivals. Their marketing strategy includes extended hours, which would enable their customers to attain Zoots’ services in their most convenient time. Zoots also has a drive through drop-off and pick up as well as secure lockers for customers. They keep track of ‘orphan garments’ or garments without proper label of the owners so that when customers look for missing item of clothing, they could easily track the said clothing. Zoots also have tie ups with home delivery dry cleaning for the said purpose. In 2000, Zoots extended operations to over 140 communities in nine states. The company has a 10-person IT team in place and it wants to put their talents toward expanding the business. Zoots introduced a new bar-code system to track garments more efficiently for better care of the customers. For better service, they ensure their customers convenience and uncompromising quality, where cleaning is done right otherwise service is free.

          Though there is a great possibility of incoming problems for the company, one factor that Zoots must consider is the maintenance of their high standard services. Maintenance of quality service is perhaps one key that would enable their customers to come back to Zoots. Continuous research would facilitate discoveries of better marketing strategies that would outdo their competition. There are only limited innovations that could be done in the industry of dry cleaning. But research, consistency, quality of service and convenience of their customers should perhaps be the concentration of the Zoots for the longevity of their company in the dry cleaning industry. The company gained its competitive advantage by always letting their customers as their inspiration to provide new and innovative services which is necessary for improving the dry cleaning industry.

Reference:

Thompson, A.A. and Strickland, A.J. (2003). Strategic Management Concepts and Cases. 13th           Edition McGraw Hill/Irwin: New York.