y Dogg and that wide range of clientele accounts for the company selling $756.9 million dollars' worth of merchandise each year. Last year, Tommy Hilfiger Corporation (TOM) was one of the top apparel firms traded on the New York Stock Exchange. In the past 52 weeks, stock in the company has traded as high as $59.125 and as low as $36.25. According to its November 5, 1997 quarterly report, the company's net income increased 34.7% to $49,401,000, or $1.30 per share, during the six months ended September 30,1997 from $36,668,000, or $.97 per share, in the corresponding period of fiscal 1997. It's net revenue increased $95,245,000, or 31.4%, compared to $398,281,000 from $303,036,000 due to volume increases in the company's wholesale menswear (up 16.9%), wholesale boyswear (up 72.6%), retail (up 34.0%), and the royalties and buying agency commissions (up 133.6%) operating divisions. Tommy Hilfiger Corporation's gross profit as a percentage of net revenue increased to 48.1% in the first six months of fiscal 1998 from 47.9% in the first six months of fiscal 1997. The highly competitive apparel industry consists of a large number of firms and has a low market concentration, men's and boy's clothing and women's clothing having a 198 and 61 HHI, respectively. With so many firms competing, one may wonder what Tommy Hilfiger's success in the monopolistic competitive apparel industry can be attributed to. Their success lies partly in the effective ways in which they have differentiated their products from those of other apparel companies such as Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein through the company's endorsement by the hip-hop community. In the company's early years, the apparel line was associated with "happy preppie people" not "urban grit." However, in the early 1990's, rappers began wearing Hilfiger clothing as status symbols. In March 1994, rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg put the Tommy Hilfiger label in the spotlight by wearing an oversiz...
