Good Example Of Business Plan On Marketing Strategy

BUSINESS PLAN

Business plan

There are three types of market orientation these include customer orientation, competitor orientation, and inter-influential coordination. Lost and Found second-hand clothing store focuses its marketing strategy in meeting the consumer’s through the products the store offers. Therefore, the store’s market orientation is customer orientation. The store wants its customers to become persistent, for this reason, the clothing store has developed a flexible strategy. This is because such a strategy can respond to changes in consumer’s perceptions and demand that the retail industry is constantly subjected to. There are several benefits of a flexible marketing plan. Flexibility in a marketing enables the company to take action when problems and opportunities occur though it can cause chaos if there no brand management.
In order for a business to be able to understand fully its target market and deal with it more successfully than its competitors, it is important to divide the segments characterized by their needs. Lost and Found market has three types of segments geographic, demographic and psychographic.
Firstly, market segmentations show that 65.5% of customers in the used goods store industry are between the ages of 35to 64 years and will constantly continue to compose the largest percentage of the second-hand industry for the next five years. The Lost and Found main target market is parents with no children or those with small families for this reason; this group of people is part of the major market segments. Furthermore, the boutique also targets teenagers as used clothing, specifically is becoming a trend the shop is placed on.
For the geographical segments, Montreal is experiences four different seasons warm, hot and humid summers, mild spring and autumn and very cold and snowy winters. Although primarily the Montreal experiences 2000 hours of sunshine annually and there are approximately 8700 hours in a year (Goldberg et.al, 2000). This means that most of weather in Montreal is cold or humid for this reason, the boutique should stock more on coats, leggings, boots, scarves and hats for the cold weather and less on the short, dresses and lighter materials for the summer months.
On the psychographic segments people residing in Montreal are attracted to versatile, reasonably priced, durable clothes, not too fancy and comfortable materials. They love to shop at smaller stores for better quality, great discounts on prices, unique pieces, recycle aspect, the ambience of the store and thriftiness. Thriftiness refers to getting good pieces in mint condition for significantly less than their original retail price.

Marketing Activity

In order for the boutique to reach out to the target market, a range of marketing processes need to be considered. These include:

Product Branding & Packaging

The production concept and the recent marketing research have indicated that clothes are of unique visual design features which are very attractive to the potential customers. The design features give a distinct impression which customers tend to associate with quality and artistic elegance. Moreover, clothes design can be complemented by packaging design. Highly experienced designers will be used to develop an artistic and elegant package that will be used to serve clients. This is consistent with product quality, innovation and consumer convenience. The development of a line of beautiful design packages is anticipated to be one of the successes of the company.

Social Media

The focus will also be placed on social media. Social media presents numerous benefits. This is in line with the company’s mission. The establishment of a new line which reduces on production costs and improves quality saves the customers on prices thus bringing convenience in their lives. Some of the benefits that are attached with the adoption of social media include;

Decreasing marketing costs

Increases brand recognition
Improves brand loyalty
Higher brand authority
And increases inbound traffic
Use of Brochure and Logo design
We will also print brochures and design a special unique logo for our business. The brochures will be distributed to all homeowners through direct mail and given to all clients who visit our business. They will contain all brands of clothes that we will stock at the boutique as well as the prices and discounts offered. The logo will be important in giving an identity to our business will be placed to any product or sold or owned by our company starting from our website, brochures, staff uniforms as well as our receipts.
Considering the age range of our target market according to a study made by Print Measurement Bureau, 77% of the 18 to 24-year-old Canadians and 72% of the 25 and 34-year-old Canadians visit two or more different social media websites on a daily basis. First, the boutique will set up Instagram and Facebook accounts and upload images of the store and its products respectively on each account. However, the company will be compelled to depend on other methods such as newspapers or Concordia newspaper as social media cannot be relied on completely for recurring. Concordia newspapers are specialty journals that reach niche publics, for example, family magazines.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths
The business can purchase second-hand clothes at very low process depending on the quality and style of the clothes
Despite being a retailer the business purchases and sells just selected goods thus every single piece of product bought and sold has been selected

The business has stylish pieces

The company can find suppliers which sell cheap products locally
Weaknesses
The shipping of goods can be time consuming
Shipping service fee is expensive
The shipped goods require customs and taxes
During the course of logistics, some items might be damaged
Experience losses because come products might not sell
Even though that some second hand clothes may be stylish they are always believed to be cheap
Opportunities
Trend of recycling extends to clothes
Thriftiness of the customers
Individuality and self-expression
Sourcing opportunities
Higher margin of selling used rather brand-new
Threats
Geographical area with competitors
Possibly more attractive options in cheap-chic stores
Decline in oil prices halting economic growth
Strengthening of the dollar (U.S) against the Canadian dollar
USP and competitive advantage
Lost and Found Boutique’s unique selling point is that it provides well used pieces that are mint condition at half the price an original would cost. The boutique offers its prospective clients items made with quality materials such as breathable cotton shirts, velvet coats, leather shoes and bags at prices that are not available in most stores. The items sold at the boutique are unique, for example, a refurbished rocking chair, and vintage swatch watches. The store does not sell one type of product it varies from clothing to furniture. Our clients can visit the online store if they wish to view or products before coming to the store or purchasing items.
The boutique’s competitive advantage is that it does not manufacture any of its products; therefore, the business has a much smaller environmental footprint than other boutiques that sell brand new items. Lost and Found is clean and well-kept it has proper lighting and organized racks that are well spaced to avoid overcrowding, unlike other second-hand clothing stores which are dingy, dark and crowded. The boutique has an online store that has redesigned and so now the business ships internationally and has clientele internationally. The boutique sources it products from the best local suppliers, and that offer products that are reasonably priced. It also ensures that the boutique caters to local businesses and hence attracting more clients.

Marketing Mix (4P’s)

Lost and Found Boutique has several influential factors to offer both its prospective clients and investors.
Product
The items sold at the boutique are unique, durable, convenient and affordable. The products aim at satisfying the clients’ need to be clothed or have furniture. The products also offer self-expression and self-reward as they maximize the client’s utility (Manchanda, Rossi & Chintagunta, 2004). Other than providing, the one of a kind feel the products sell for prices lower than the average market price. The products are in good quality despite being second-hand and can be used everyday anywhere whether furniture or clothing. The entire product line looks different, they homogeneously conservative pieces, prints and solids and customer’s experience will be to mix and match them. Most clothing products are common sizes from small, medium and large, have basic colors and accent prints and furniture is portable. It is difficult for competitors to have similar pieces because they are unique.

Place

Buyers get the products from the brick-and-mortar walk-in store in Montreal. In addition, there is an online store, Facebook, Instagram and online directories. The business takes part in trade fairs like trunk shows, warehouse events, and donation centers who re-sell donated items. The business’ competitors are thrift stores, vintage shops and traditional retailers this is because they either sell their items at low prices or sell unique items.

Prices

The price points are generally double the price for clothing, significantly more for the furniture. The customers are price sensitive because if the prices slightly increase the customers will decrease. The difference between Lost and Found’s pricing is on average 40% less expensive or more. The online and physical store accepts cash and credit card payments.

Promotion

The business get marketing messages across through its social media accounts; therefore, online presence is important. The best time to promote is November and December since they are the peak consumer spending seasons. During the warm months, there are fewer sales. On the other hand, the online store is consistent annually.

Revenue Projections

As mention earlier, the business will experience challenges with logistics and the time consumption. This business plan will be used to ensure that the business operates efficiently without consuming too much time on shipping (Rohter,2008). Furthermore, the transportation needs management due to the expenses of vehicles and fuel. Through implementing this business plan, the boutique aims at the 10% increase in annual sales.

References

Goldberg, M. S., Bailar 3rd, J. C., Burnett, R. T., Brook, J. R., Tamblyn, R., Bonvalot, Y., & Valois, M. F. (2000). Identifying subgroups of the general population that may be susceptible to short-term increases in particulate air pollution: a time-series study in Montreal, Quebec. Research Report (Health Effects Institute), (97), 7-113.
Manchanda, P., Rossi, P. E., & Chintagunta, P. K. (2004). Response modeling with nonrandom marketing-mix variables. Journal of Marketing Research, 41(4), 467-478.
Rohter, L. (2008). Shipping costs start to crimp globalization. New York Times,3.