American fashion house Ralph Lauren aims to increase sales by a billion dollars by 2023. Marketing spend will go up by $100 million over the next five years. The last few years have been about cutting costs including closing 50 stores, eliminating more than 1,000 jobs and removing three lines of management.

The goal is to woo next generation consumers and increase gross margins by improving the core product (which makes up 60 per cent of overall revenue), amplifying under-penetrated categories (including women’s, outerwear and denim) and operating with discipline, which constitutes being more careful about discounts and promotions, more strategic when it comes to price, and cutting costs in creative-but-impactful ways.

One example of this is fabric platforming. At Ralph Lauren, different categories (i.e. home, kids, Polo, ready-to-wear) use different quality of fabrics. Instead of each sub-brand buying its own fabric, Ralph Lauren is buying higher quality fabrics, which brings down the cost and increases the quality of lower priced products.