I am standing in today for our marketing consultant Jeff Silberman who is in the middle of giving his Fashion Institute students their painful final exams. He was unable to abandon them to join us today.
First, a little about what you already know. The development of the cotton logo resulted from a desire to shift from Egypt-s obvious comparative advantage in cotton to a competitive advantage. My limited time prevents a full discussion of the differences between comparative and competitive advantage. To oversimplify, add marketing and promotion, and several other important ingredients, to a superior product to build a brand identity.
Much effort by MEFT, ALCOTEXA and APRP brings us to where we are today.
So what is the status of the logo? The focus has been on North America. Recall the recent publicized signing of the licensing agreement by West Point Stevens and Parkdale Mills in Washington DC attended buy President Mubarak and Minister Youssef Boutris Ghali. We are currently processing requests from Egyptian companies, western European companies… even Asian and Australian companies. These applications are currently being checked for accuracy, in order to make sure that only Egyptian cotton will carry the logo.
Also, ALCOTEXA chairman Amin Abaza has announced the formation of Cotton Egypt, a fiber promotion unit within or closely associated with ALCOTEXA to support the logo promotion efforts. We are working closely with Amin Abaza and ALCOTEXA to help structure the unit and to assist in developing a strategy to take the logo forward. We plan on bringing Jeff Silberman to work on this in June.
Now we are in another phase of the logo program, and we need your help. Retailers have had a very good reaction to this logo, yet every time we speak with one, they ask -where can we find products that carry the logo?-
We know that many of your products are made from imported greige (unfinished, undyed) and finished fabrics, and of course, mar
By: Richard Magnani
Submit Date: 6/14/2010 18:00