Midterm Paper Bench Clothing

Introduction- Company Overview

Bench is the registered trademark of the Suyen Corporation. The trademark is derived from the acronym of the first and the last names of the founder, Ben Chan. The company’s management is shared with Ben Chan’s brother-in-law Virgilio Lim, who handles the systems and operations and Ben Chan’s sister Nenita Lim, who handles finance. Together, they nurtured Bench to become the Philippine’s most successful crossover in the fashion industry. This was the first in the country that was able to grasp a phenomenal trend: “not just fashion but an entire lifestyle.”

Bench is a Philippine-based manufacturer of different kinds of clothing, shoes, fragrances, denim, underwear, accessories, and different apparel available for various age groups. Bench Company’s mission is to spearhead a two-pronged expansion of bringing in top global fashion and lifestyle brands to the Philippines, while maintaining a relentless momentum in bringing out the bench brand overseas.

Bench started in 1987 when Ben Chan decided that he goes to the same path as his sister by designing clothes. Bench began by designing a line for men having t-shirts and jeans. The first Bench store opened in SM Department Store. In 1988, their first boutique opened in Park Square.

The brand became a huge success and it hired Richard Gomez, an actor on the limelight during that time, as its first endorser. Bench became available for both clothing apparel and cosmetics in 1990. By 1994, Bench opened its first franchise store is Saudi Arabia and in Shanghai, China. It also opened a franchise store in Kuwait in 1995.

Bench grew at an unparalleled rate by being the pioneer in the use of celebrity endorsers, television and giant billboards to propel a fashion brand that offers premium quality products at affordable prices.

Bench T-shirts as a Need

In our paper, we will concentrate on the t-shirts of Bench. These t-shirts can be categorize in the Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a physiological need and as a social need. As a physiological need or the most basic need that is vital to survival, including the need for clothing, food and shelter, consumers of these t-shirts are purchasing them as part of their necessity particularly as part of their clothing needs. It is a convenience good because it is mass-produced and its mass distributed as well. For example, a worker purchases a Bench t-shirt for him to use it as part of his daily clothing in going to work. Bench t-shirts can also be a social need or the need for belonging, love and affection because the consumers of these t-shirts will make him accepted in the society since most of the people where Bench t-shirts. Nowadays, we can see that the mass buys Bench t-shirts instead of generic ones and the expensive ones. These t-shirts can be considered as a popular sense of fashion because of