H&M added “& other stories” in business portfolio. & other stories provides high quality clothes than any other H&M stores. The first store is opened(March 8th) in London, where & Other stories first product line is hold and also the products from other labels and designers are combined. Their targeted segment is 30s and 40s those who want “poetic& Dandy” and classic semi-casual clothes.

However, H&M delayed the e-commerce in the U.S because i believe that H&M is considering the effects of their brand image as low-priced with fair quality which could possibly affect the image of new brand(& other stories) which will solidifying the false image that are created from customer’s perspectives. Throwing away the “cheap” image is the critical point that H&M should know and the image can be thrown by educating people with advertisement and promotions. Fearfully, if they fail solidifying new high-quality image and have same “cheap” image as H&M, they will have big loss of investment and importantly, all the media, ZARA and GAP will laugh at H&M and their set of strategies.

If “& other stories” successfully implement their high-quality image, a good and fair “fight” will be created and will provide more diverse choices to consumers. The healthy competition with direct competitors will motivate and encourage each other. I am looking forward to see how H&M will build the & other stories image, which way they will advertise, how consumers will react towards the “new weapon” and what results will be draw.

source: http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2013/03/12/HM-Other-Stories-031213.aspx