When picking up top brands many folks get confused as to which brand does it better. This relates to which is better suited to their sense of style and pockets.
The major difference between Next as a brand when placed side by side with a high-top brand like H&M is when each was founded and popularity.
The Next brand isn’t as popular compared to the H&M brand of goods. Also, NEXT was founded a couple of decades before the brand H&M was born.
History of Next brand
The NEXT brand is a multinational organization that was founded in England and has operations across Europe, the middle east, and Asia. Surpassing Marks & Spencer as the largest clothing retailer in England.
This brand was birthed by Joseph Hepworth in Leeds in the year 1864. Back then it was known as joseph Hepworth & son.
An earlier partnership with James Rhodes was abandoned in 1872, with joseph going solo with the company.
While on his tracks, joseph grew the brand quickly, championing many rises of chain store development in England.
This led the company to have over 100 outlets by 1884. Much of its products by this time were ready-to-wear suit collections, and by 1963 renowned designer Hardy Amies was brought in to bring a new phase of its ready-to-wear suit collections.
Its expansion, led to NEXT acquiring womenswear brand Kendall & Sons in 1981, adding over 600 hundred stores along the high street of Britain. In 1986, HEPWORTH & Sons moved its headquarters from Leeds to Leicester, where its garment factory was closest.
The company name was changed to NEXT plc following this move.
History of H&M brand
H&M, short for Hennes and Mauritz AB, is a multinational fashion company was founded in Sweden in the year 1947.
This brand of clothing was founded by Erling Persson, with its first store opening in Vasteras, Sweden.
In its early days, Hennes shop dealt only with the sales of women’s clothing. Acquiring a hunting clothing line in 1964, named Mauritz Widfross in Stockholm, Hennes introduced its menswear collection expanding its product range and changing its name to Hennes & Mauritz.
The brand is active in over 74 countries worldwide, with over 5000 stores leased under multiple brand names.
H&M is considered the second largest international clothing retailer with 75 years in the business, employing as high as 126,376 thousand workers worldwide.
Its e-commerce shop was founded in 1998. Having opened its first store in the US in March 2000 in New York. It is known for fast-fashion clothing serving men, women, teens, and children alike.
Why this comparison
Brands like these two have rivaled each other in the various markets over the decades and they have dedicated customers worldwide. This comparison helps to highlight the strong points of each brand for new and old consumers.
With this information, you would get an idea of why you use a particular brand of clothing.
Next vs H&M: Comparison between brands
| Features | NEXT | H&M |
| Fashion style | Sticks to regular clothing designs | Has a wider fashion trend and styles. |
| Luxury | Not a luxurious brand, but design classic wear and fit. | Not a luxurious design, but boasts of very high-quality clothing, |
| Brand popularity | Next is known in England, Asia, and the middle east with 500 stores operating in Britain and 300 spread out. | Operates over 7000 stores worldwide. On almost every continent. |
| Management | Straight management structure | Multi-matrix management system |
| Culture | A corporate culture with a history of following the company’s past culture. | Corporate culture practices with direct control |
| Style | Classic style | Wide range of trendy designs |
| Work environment | Encourages a safe working and healthy environment, promoting diversity. | Very involved in work environment safety and practices. Several of these safety measures are placed in stores. |
Fashion items (male to female ratio)
The H&M brand of clothing offers its products to a much wider range of gender and age differences.
Men, women, teenagers, and children are major consumers of the brand. These products are distributed evenly amongst genders, as most products are unisex.
While, Next is known to have a higher male-to-female customer ratio when compared to the H&M brand, including a range of products such as footwear and home products.
In 2008 they bought a brand Lipsy expanding their merchandise and stores more.
Product range
NEXT brand offers a range of products from high-quality, contemporary styles with affordable pricing, while, H&M is usually classically styled trendy wear.
The H&M organization offers rental clothing services for 24 hours. Also, the company consists of five individual brands with separate concepts. While NEXT brand practices direct-to-sale services.
Initial products
NEXT started as a tailor shop that produces suits for men in England, while H&M started as a women’s clothing store in Sweden.
Design range
H&M over the years has worked with top models such as Kylie Minogue, Beyoncé, and Lana del Ray. These models are the faces of a campaign collection.
Also, they worked closely with designers such as Madonna, victor & Rolf, Stelmay, etc. each launching a design collection with the company.
The NEXT brand operates through three main channels: NEXT retail, Next directory, and Next international.
All these channels have differences in the number of branches in which they control operations. It also has an extensive online catalog.
Luxury
The Next brand is a high-end brand. Offering products and clothing for a wide range of customers worldwide. It’s not a luxury brand, but they have good products.
H&M is a top-of-the-line brand of clothing and accessories. Its stores offer cheap reliable clothing brands that are ranked high in terms of quality build.
This brand has partnered with various models over the years, each spearheading a design in its collections. in 2021 they included rental clothing services which are being tested in the US, allowing men to rent suits for up to 24 hours.
Brand popularity
The Next organization has multiple stores in England, across Europe, the middle east, and Asia. These stores number up to 700 with about 500 in Britain alone. Their popularity is more centered in this location.
The next company produces home products alongside clothing, and footwear for men, women, and children.
While H&M on the other hand sells its products and services worldwide. This means that its reach is unprecedented when compared to NEXT with over 5000 stores worldwide.
They also operate a large online store where products can be easily bought. H&M has a reputation for partnering with top designers and models, bringing new collections of clothing that gains worldwide popularity.
Also, the brand has been involved in various collapses with software and technology companies plus inclusion in art films.
Management
The NEXT brand has a well-articulated management process that is responsible for its growth. One major factor for this is using innovation as their mantra.
Innovation has been critical in ensuring a company succeeds in the market, also increasing financial performance.
To drive its growth using innovation many parts of the company structure have to be integrated, this involves the essentials such as Human Resource Management, market research, and information technology all working in sync.
The NEXT brand has a management with a clear mission statement. This mission is implemented and includes designing fashionable and unique products, being recognized globally, and also having an effective supply chain that leans towards customer satisfaction always.
At H&M the organization has a multi-brand matrix with popular brands underneath them. Each brand is coordinated by a single individual with an indigenous sales organization.
Centrally, the CEO is appointed by its group of directors, who then is responsible for the daily management of the H&M group and management teams.
All teams work towards the growth of the company and are the leader in the industry.
Work culture
Any organization willing to thrive in the industry must have a healthy work culture, and this is seen in its sets of value and principles that oversees employee performance concerning growth.
NEXT has a corporate culture which is seen in its mission statement and annual company report. The company’s mission statement directly equates its success to the important roles each employee plays.
This means its workforce is responsible and meets customer satisfaction by offering high-quality services.
NEXT corporate culture, emphasizes providing a safe working environment, training, support, and ensuring employees’ voices are heard. Rich values, trust, and reliability is prioritized in its company.
H&M has a profound work culture that has a long history dating back to leadership operations being passed down. This culture has impacted the company’s reputation to stand out in delivering its services.
At H&M the company is reputable for offering ideal customer satisfaction through the professionalism amongst its ranks is promoting a spirit of integrity among workers. This ensures commitment to the job role leading to excellent performance in operations.
Style
The NEXT brand is filled with multiple lines or models of products. They have a style that is unique to the taste of its consumers. This style is usually a comfortable and casual fit.
Also, they produce them as simple enough to be worn every day. One good quality of the NEXT brand is that their design style is well accepted amongst a wide range of ages, especially young teens and old persons. It is also available to all genders.
While H&M has a style that is tailored made and detailed. This brand has diversity, maybe because the company is mainly a clothing multinational and has over the years employed various world-class designers in bringing new threads and styles to its consumers.
They offer more classically styled wear.
Work environment
A successful company won’t achieve success if its work environment isn’t safe for workers, and the NEXT brand knows this.
The well-being of employees is the focal point for its managers, ensuring a safe space and reducing workplace accidents.
NEXT has a reputation for supporting diversity in employees and fostering working collaborations all perfectly reflected in its corporate culture.
And by satisfying the basic needs of its workers such as safety, training, and idea exchange they have a successful organization.
At H&M the company promotes a safety-first policy in its locations. With updated measures placed,in their garment-making factories against fire and electrical hazards.
The company is committed to upholding sustainability in the value of its services. Many of its partnerships are selected based on those with a reputation for respect for, people and safe work environment practices.
Final Verdict
The NEXT brand and the H&M brand individually have their name commonly mentioned in circles where good clothing lines are mentioned. With each operating over hundreds of stores across continents, it’s hard to say which is a superior brand.
H&M practices fast fashion. This makes designer clothes readily available and affordable in stores at the best price for the middle class. Introducing new rich styles into the market and are quickly sold off.
Most of the clothing is outsourced from suppliers who provide the goods in time.
NEXT operates by having an expanded product range that services both young and old shoppers. Also, teaming up with shoe designers to boost its shoe sales. Its eCommerce platform is easily navigated and displays that are attractive based on reviews.
H&M employs both demographic and psychographic segmentation in targeting its customers. Understanding their global customers’ needs and various cultures, religions, beliefs, and age groups has been able to reach worldwide success.
Its thousands of stores in the world also use this tool in creating categories based on quality and pricing. This leads to having a more customer base. Every product line is also consistently updated to ensure continuity of service.
The final verdict on these two brands based on the above-mentioned is that H&M does more for a brand when compared to NEXT.
Clothing and wear have a lot to do with a sense of styling and this is what the H&M brand offers above and beyond.
With operational stores numbering in their thousands nationwide, they have a wide reach and accessibility that speaks for the brand as the better choice of the two.
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