UPDATE Buying Report April Kimber (S11717328)

Rachel Tomlinson.

Contents

Intro [3] Establishing Our Customer [4] Customer Behaviour [8] Branding [9] Range Construction [12] Pricing [15] Suppliers [19] Size Sets and sell thrus [21] Marketing [23] Ethics [26] Appendix [28] Bibliography [43]

Intro
For this report, I have created a fictional business within a group. Our business will be a clothing retailer, selling to a specific target market, within a big city Centre and/or shopping malls. My group consists of different buyers for each individual piece of clothing Name April Carrie Hanna Sam Tazvene Zara Section Jersey Shoes Outerwear Knit wear Blouse Accessories

By the end of this report you will know the 5-week journey we took to have this business set up, from naming the company to deciding the amount of products to order in.

Establishing our customer

Our Target Market: Our target market was given to us in our first buying class, the age range given was 13-18yr olds, as this is quite a large bracket, we discussed at great length, and decided on shortening the bracket to 15 to18 year olds, as its unlikely that a 13yr old will wear the same as an 18yr old. Making our age bracket smaller will make it easier in the long run, when marketing this brand to the public too. Within this age band it is acceptable to say that this is a young students based category, whether they are still in high school, college, 6th form and possibly university too, so its still a large target market to cover. So our brand will need to take in to account the age bracket circumstances, e.g. do they have a part time job? Have pocket money? Or do their parents still pay for their clothes? As you can see from my questionnaire in appendix A, most people in this age range get there clothes purchased for them by their parents or other family members. Although, there was also a lot of people who have used their own money be it from part time jobs or from pocket money to purchase their clothing. Cheaper clothes would be more realistic for this age as it can be brought with pocket money/part time job and as they are still growing it can be used as a type of throwaway fashion. On the other hand, according to the survey I held teens would rather buy a product from Top shop, a brand known to be expensive but desirable unlike Primark, known for its cheep but cheerful ranges of throwaway fashion. From this research we conducted, we know we need to find a healthy balance between the two, moderately priced and desirable. I have already brought up that teens may still have their clothes brought for them by parents or guardians, so we will have to look in to marketing towards their parents as well as making the brand desirable to the younger age bracket too. We need to take in to account that this age range is old enough to start recognizing style, they are starting to gain a need to be unique rather then following the crowd, so this brand needs to be able to make a statement for teens to feel assured, and in trend, which will inevitably gain them confidence, not only in them selves but confidence in the brand too, so when moving between high school, college, 6th form and University they feel comfortable and buoyant in what there wearing to give off a good impression and fit in. Why have we chosen to work for the female gender? We chose to market towards the female gender as we are all female, we have first hand experience, so we already have the knowledge of what its like to shop when we were 15-18yrs old. There is also a bigger market for women and a larger selection of both clothing types and competitor high street stores making this a good challenge. Boys of around this age may not be as interested in finding in trend clothing as girls at this age would be. Where would our base be? We discussed the location of our brand for a great deal of time, as the different areas the brand could be placed had distinctive effects on the

consumer. By placing our brand in the big city and large shopping malls just like our competitors it allowed teens to travel to get to our shop. Gaining trust and independence on public transport without their parents, allowing them so socialise with their friendship groups. In my questionnaire I discovered that most young adults go shopping with both their parents and their friends. We have to remember that young adults have different influences around friends then parents, while shopping with parents young adults may not go for as on-trend fashion, as their parents may see some things as unsuitable, which wouldnt be an issue if they were to go out shopping with their friends. Their friends would also tell them that what they are looking for is good so would push them more towards buying the clothes to which their parents may not recommend. We therefore, have to cater for both influences as spoken about above. Our Shop Competitors, The High Street! 1. Top shop 2. River Island 3. New look x3 stores 4. H&M x 2 stores 5. Forever 21 Ranging from cheep and cheerful, reasonable priced, and expensive. These are all desirable and impressionable brands, which is exactly where our brand needs to be. On our comp shop we found that all of the stores are in the same area in the bullring, Birmingham, and most of them have more then one shop in the area. Being placed together means that people do not have to go out of their way to visit more than one fashion shop, so it is more likely that they would go into your shop. (See appendix B, for our comp shop reports) Will our age range use Internet shopping and mail order? Not only do people like physically visiting shops but also in the past 5 years online shopping has become more highly used. The idea of shopping in the comfort of your own home, not needing to go out in bad weather or shop in crowded shopping malls appeals to most, as well as stores offering discounted prices or special offers online. This is why mail order and Internet buying has become so popular, but will our age range use mail order? And should we include an online shop? When I conducted my survey (Appendix A) I discovered that most people enjoyed using online shopping to make a purchase, as well as in the next question we find out that a lot of people see shops advertised online through social media and networks and Internet. So we know that a lot of people in our target market are active online. This tells us that we should be looking to include an online shop for our brand. With online shopping becoming bigger and bigger, high street stores are starting to struggle due to high rent costs giving them huge fixed costs before they start, retailers are having to follow the trends of the market for this reason, as people start to stop using stores and resort to shopping online. Sir Philip Green, whose fashion empire spans Top-shop, Burton, Miss Selfridge and Dorothy Perkins, has said he may axe 260 outlets in the next three years, a 10th of the total, if he cannot renegotiate his leases.

"According to recent statistics published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the UK has a higher proportion of adults who shop online than any other OECD country. The statistics revealed that 60 per cent of UK adults bought something online in 2011; according to the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), the UK spent 68.2bn on the Internet in 2011, which is equivalent to 2,180 for every adult in the country." So as we can see, in the UK, online shopping really is big. Mail order shops like ASOS starts to appeal to our age range, probably the top half of the range (17-18) as they are more likely to be earning money and have the independence of having a bank card. 15-16yr olds cant get bankcard till there 16yrs old so its unlikely that this age to have a bankcard to order. So its better for us to use an online site and mail order because the older half of our category will more likely spend more on clothes anyway, its also likely that the younger part of our age range ask parents/ guardians to order products. In the survey we can see that most peoples parents would use their card when their children would like to order from online.

How to inform the customer? The following list shows how we will inform the consumer about our brand. 1. We will use Adverts throughout media services, such as TV and Radio 2. Billboards will allow us to gain a large audience for the advertisements. This is also great visual advertising, which is perfect for our brand. 3. We had this idea from a comp shop, when we saw H&M advertising with celebrity endorsement on billboards around the city centre. 4. Magazines, such as teen Magazines, including Cosmo Girl, now, top of the pops. 5. Internet media is a very prominent source for advertising at the moment, this could be a large place where visual advertising can be used to link to a websites. 6. Social media/networking. A Facebook and twitter page will help to create more hype about the brand. 7. Apps. A shopping app for mobile devices would enable us to create access to a larger market. The Global market has lots of options for consumers, the fashion market is vast, and so competition is high. We need to look at how we can draw this market into our store instead of well-known brands. What draws customers in? 1. Look of the shop windows. 2. First impressions of the brand 3. Value for money 4. Celeb endorsement 5. Pricing 6. Quality 7. Brand loyalty 8. Social media 9. Customer service

10. Popularity 11. Visual merchandising 12. Ethics 13. Assets Above are agreed by my survey results see appendix A Why do we still have the high street when we can get everything online? The first thing customers see is on high street is the shop window, visual merchandising is the first point of contact so its very important that it appeals to our target market. Having personalized manikins in store dressed in the current trend/promotion helps inspire our target market, evidence in appendix A to support this. For online stores, not only can you not feel the different fabrics, most of the time, what you see on the web looks totally different then in real life, this isnt good feed back if we were to open an online shop. Government statistics for shops I want to see which competitors are currently doing well in the current economic climate so know how to make our brand flourish just as well. Arcadias young fashion brands are doing very well and trading in positive territory, showing a strong market for this age range and branding. (Arcadia, 2011) We need to have a manageable store layout, Where the isles are easy to get round and also welcoming, how its kept tidy and also the layout for the clothing, one item and area or all mixed about? In a crowded store it needs to be easy for push chairs/ wheel chairs to get round too, theres nothing worse then being crushed in a shop, when you could be sitting at home with a cup of tea shopping on your computer. What would constitute a good store layout? Would we consider certain layout for certain age ranges? I believe our store for the market we are aiming for will have to be busy, young adults like to try things on whether they buy it or not is a different matter. They like to try things on to see if they like it, and if there with mates they are more likely to buy items under peer pressure. They like to take pictures of theme selves in the garments/shoes, post it up to social media sites, which is more advertisement for our brand anyway. They are also more likely to perchance a product the they have picked up them selves then having to wait for an assistant to get the correct size for example shoe. Higher priced shops with an older target market are more likely going to have a layout, which better suits their market. The exception of forever 21 whose market ranges from young children to adults had the best store layout through out all the shops we tested in the comp shops it was tidy, spaced out, it had a different area for the different products. Is there a Global aspect? Forever21 is an American brand, is that what young adults want? To emulate, Americans because its different? Is this why forever 21 so popular because Young adults pick up a lot of style through the influences portrayed over TV, film and Internet. The clothing chain Zara has stores all over the world and puts the different trends in the different stores in each country so no Zara between countries is the same because each country has different dress senses

Consumer Behaviour
Our brand needs a trigger to get customers to buy clothes; to do this our marketing need to suit our customer, the marketing tool, AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) will help us judge a good marketing campaign to attract customers to our brand. Rules of AIDA: 1. ATTENTION: Makes you engage/interested to come in the shop and to sustain interest in the shop 2. INTEREST: Promotions and sales gain interest and also the way things are visually merchandised also keep customers attracted 3. DESIRE: visual merchandising and inspiration from mannequins will all add up to get a customer to desire the item they want. 4. ACTION: purchasing the item. More likely if theres some sort incentive to purchase e.g. loyalty cards, student discount. Examples of consumer behaviour -The lipstick effect is the theory that when facing an economic crisis consumers will be more willing to buy less costly luxury goods. Instead of buying expensive clothing, for example, people will buy expensive lipstick worn with older clothes. The lipstick is used to jazz up an old outfit. -Men that dont like shopping are more likely to multi buy so they dont have to go back to the store in a while and likely to spend a lot more because they dont want to browse other shops to find things cheaper. How to get the attention of our age range 15-18yrs What would fascinate our customer? In order to get the attention from this age range we need to look at including colourful impressionable mannequins, featuring trends that suit the age range. This will make the store brighter and will attract attention. Playing current music will also help to bring in more customers of this age into the store. Playing current songs will let them know that the store is modern and on trend. Being able to try on clothing free of will rather then having to ask an assistant, a lot of young adults may feel like they cannot ask to try on clothing in stores. Online shopping behaviour for our age range How do they want to purchase their goods? Our age range may shop online but may only be able to shop/pay via parents. A physical store would probably be better for our age range as shopping with friends/family are fun social activities. People would rather use Internet to shop rather then having to use petrol pay for parking or walk in the rain to get shopping. Catalogue are more appealing to the older generation as they are not sure on technology and like to flick through glossy magazine We have stores because we want a shopping experience and to try it on feel the fabric and have the excitement of finding something you wouldn't necessarily buy online

Branding
Age: 15-18yr olds Were going for the curious, playful trend which is a re worked vintage trend that creates the foundation to our brand. I want our brand to be Mystical and sometimes dark to get the attention of our age range. Sweet and quirky animal face prints are very in currently and is something we can adapt to put in to Figure 1 (press) next years collection. With a colour scheme mixture of moody darks and sweet pastel shades. Current trend Ideas from the Chelsea girl collection from River Island that we can adapt and influence for our collection next year. 1. Skater dresses are a quirky vintage look with a modern twist 2. Pussy bow blouses 3. Peter pan collars 4. Patterned leggings 5. Floaty mystical blouses 6. Beaded collars 7. Maybe tie dye, leggings and tops? Jersey 8. The peplum shape? Whats currently in that will help us for next year? 1. Layering, 2. Texture, 3. Baggie and floaty blouses 4. Waist belts, 5. Bowler hats or floppy hats? Inspiration? (Appendix C for WGSN research into trends) Wgsns Romantic vintage inspired beguiling old fashion Turn of the century American style Colours are an androgynous, nostalgic range of faded rosy and powdery tones Contemporary monochromatic Vintage prints and patterns Distressed fabric look for a dress down look
Figure2 (WGSN, WGSN trends for 13-14)

Figure 3 (WGSN, WGSN trends for 13-14)

Naming the company. Possible brand names 1. Diva 2. Majik 3. Dulce 4. Forever young: for the child within 5. Update: fear being boring Final designs for our brand logo and slogan

UPDATE
Fear.Being.Boring

UPDATE Fear.Being.Boring
UPDATE
Fear.Being.Boring
Colour of the logo We, after a long time designing a few logos decided on the plain black and white design, above, its simple and stands out, it also looks similar to our competitions branding, in the sense that its the current trend with branding. With the logo looking more professional and more grown up, it make our age range attracted to the shop as its seen as grown up and they dont want to be seen shopping in a kids shop.

10

What do our customers what from our shop? 1. We want out brand, UPDATE to be a considered trend aware company always ready for the next best thing. 2. Are you ready to be made you super beautiful! 3. Known for the store to be a mecca for cool girls 4. Were on a mission to bring style to you, wherever you are. 5. We want to be known to for its stylish and affordable fashion and the unique touches we bring to our collections, which lets us standout from the rest of the High Street. Our customers should love us for our great going-out looks, as well as being the perfect place to pick up everything you could need to get a complete head-totoe look.

11

Range construction
Top: are the flag ship stores, its where the more interesting garments are sent. The items that is lest likely to sell because they are very out there. Its a store where they send clothes out to be trailed out to see whats popular. Midway is a healthy mix of both top section range and the all section. Its classed as slightly risky because they still may hold risky items but they are also holding safe clothes. All is the safest category; its for all stores. All the products they advertise on billboards and adverts are all presented in this store (graphic line) they want to sell what they know will sell really well and make a big profit off Negotiating the colour scheme We were first told to put our selected 3 colours in to a table, referring to everyones individual garment category. Mine was jersey. The task was designed to show us that even though we selected our colours we had to negotiate them, as they didnt necessarily go with what everyone has put down in their categories. Form this task we could physically see what goes together and we did change colours about to suit the over all garment piece.

Naming our colour scheme. 1:nude- toffee pie 2:bight pink-cherry red 3:dark grey- black jack grey 4:babypink- candyfloss pink 5:light grey (metallic)- glazier grey 6:lilac- Parma violets 7:sky blue- millions blue 8:black- liquorish 9:peach- fruit salad 10: bonbon white It did take us a while to choose these colour names as we did think there were cheesy and a bit to young for our target market, but after lengthy discussions we decided as it is a vintage style we can play about with it, there fun and cheeky, words that describe this age range, so we felt it was logical to keep the names as they were.

12

13

Figure 2 (WGSN, WGSN colour psychology) Ive included this image as its shows our colour scheme

14

Pricing
Elastic goods such as Leather items and Fur coats are items classed as luxury non-necessity items, as there is a change in price there will show a larger change in demand for the products, as these are luxury products that you can go without. Inelastic items, such as milk and bread show a smaller change in demand when there is a price change as these items are necessities. When we look at this in terms of clothing, cheaper stores and clothing brands, such as that of Primark are more inelastic than that of designer clothing such as Gucci. This is because people are going to need clothing, however, if money is tighter, people are not going to fork out for the expensive designer clothes. Buying in a dress line example To begin with, have a range of sizes that reflect our age range, and are consistent with what sizes are popular. Then have a board selection of garments. ALL-STORE: needs more clothes because they will sell more and have more stores then the mid and top stores. So the ratio for example would be: 1000 MID-STORE: would have a ratio of 500 TOP-STORE: would have a ratio of 250 because the risk isnt high sending fewer clothes to a top store because it is where you send products to trial out any-way and youre most likely to sell the clothes at a higher price anyway. The use of premium pricing will enable us to charge more in our top stores. A different style of merchandising, store layout and items will enable the brand to sell at a higher, premium price that customers will perceive to be good value, due to the way the clothing is merchandised and the store locations. E.g. Armani have mid-range Armani Exchange stores on the high street, these sell mid ranged and priced clothing in comparison to Armani stores you could see in London or Beverly Hills. These are able to charge a huge amount more money due to the store locations, items and the merchandising and customer service inside the stores, even though they are the same brand. Our buying structure What does our range target more of? Tops, bottoms, shoes or accessories We may find that people dont come in to buy full outfit maybe just shoes so in our ratio we need to take this in to account. E.g. (Louis Vuitton) people just go to buy he's bags so that it looks like they shop there for clothes too.

15

Our complete range

All

Dress/blouse Off white 1000 products

Accessories Black 850 products

Jersey Dark grey 750pro ducts Lilac 750 produc ts Light blue metalli c 250 produc ts

Shoes Black 850 products

Mid

Nude 500 product

Dark grey 500 products

Dark grey 500 products Nude 200 products

Top

Dark grey 250 products

Peach 200 products

Knit Light pink 1750 produc ts Bark blue 750 produc ts Nude 500 produc ts

Out Black 750 products

Dark grey 500 products Dark blue 250 products

For all TOP-STORES we will use better quality fabrics e.g. real leather, which will sell for a higher price. Pricing architecture How much for my product, jersey? Depending on where you go within our competition, Jersey products costs between 5-20 which according to my comp-shop (Appendix B) and survey (Appendix A) is well within our customer price range. Jersey is not an expensive fabric so we can make an assortment of products like; vest tops, t-shirts, hoodies and leggings that can jazz it up with studs and patterns for the top market stands. Our range architecture What's going to be the most expensive product? After negotiating with the group we came up with this price structure. Out: 30/35/44.99 Shoes: 25/30/35 Accessories: 15.99/15.99/19.99 Knit: 14.99/14.99/19.99 Blouse: 12.99/ 12.99/19,99 Jersey: 6.99/ 6.99/ 12.99

16

We have changed and cooled down the pricing for the top store as the pricing was to jumpy Order amount 12.99 6.99 6.99 Price 20 6.99 6.99 Amount 250 500 2000 250 750 1500

New Top Mid All Original Top Mid All

Price

Colour Light grey metallic Lilac Dark grey Colour Light blue metallic Lilac Dark grey

Top-level stores will carry a smaller ratio of products Negotiating our range-

This grid is showing our discussions on what our range and store should be based on, there were a lot of changes made to make the brand work. This shows pricing for each product and the ratios, which show what needs to be ordered into each individual store type. We discussed, while negotiating this table the detailing of the fabrics, whether we would need to make our range appropriate for our actual consumer or the parents. By making our products with multiple fabrics could bring down the pricing e.g. a canvas coat with leather sleeves, just so the product would be less pricey for the consumer.

17

Perceived pricing will allow us to charge the most possible money based upon the perception of usefulness on the customers behalf. E.g. A leather coat would cost more than a jersey t shirt, but customers would perceive that a leather coat will last longer and they would get more use out of it so there is a higher benefit to come with the higher pricing for the item. This could also include the level of visual merchandising in the store to increase the level of perceived pricing, the way things are laid out in the store will change the perceived benefits of the items in terms of how in trend the item is or how it will make the customer look or feel. Psychological pricing, such as the use of 0.99 instead of 1.00 is useful, as customers see this as a lot less money than if it was 1.00. Pricing will obviously have to be in line with the market pricing trends. Competitive pricing strategy is also aided by that of cost-plus pricing, where we take the price that we think they market would be willing to pay. This can be discovered using market research or by looking at what our competitors are offering. When we have this price we can deduct a profit margin that we would like to achieve to give us the optimum costing for producing the items. Through reverse engineering we can also look at where our competitors maybe saved money in the costing of the items. Penetration pricing can also be used in the fashion industry, the use of a lower market price to begin with will allow more of that trend to saturate the market and such make others want to follow that type of fashion. When the trend has caught on we can then rise the pricing for the items, and continue selling it due to the product still being in trend. Complimentary items will be a big thing in a fashion store, by using clever visual merchandising you can make it seem that an outfit or article of clothing is not complete without a complimentary item or accessory to the item. Bundle pricing, such as buy one get one free or buy one item and get the complimentary item free would allow me to gain more market pull. People would be attracted to the proposition of getting something more for no more money.

18

Suppliers
How would we choose a supplier? By choosing a well-known supplier or searching for other branded companies that use the same suppliers is a good way of choosing a reliable supplier, whether in the UK or abroad. It is a good idea to have a UK supplier and also suppliers overseas, overseas suppliers are a lot more cost effective, however, delivery dates will be much longer as it will need to be shipped over to the UK and it will not be ecofriendly as you are causing a large carbon footprint. Also, if there are problems with clothing that has been made overseas, there isnt much you can do about it. By using a UK supplier you are building up the countries economy, this may cost more, but they are a lot more reliable and they do not have the language barrier, and if they are based in the centre of the country then delivery times will be short no matter where in the country you are, this means you do not need to hold as much stock in inventory as this can be costly. Quality will also be much better with clothing made in the UK, as people will have higher qualifications than that of someone working in bad working environments in other countries. Choosing a company in the UK is the better way to go. Suppliers who are abroad are notoriously hard to keep an eye on, whether it is down to quality control or unethical labour policies. However, the company needs to weigh up whether the cheaper labour abroad is worth potentially tarnishing the reputation of your company. Advice for choosing suppliers They come with swatches and samples, to persuade you to go with them. - Trouble with being to close to a supplier due to the volatile relationship it could be with bad deals or items. - If there is no loyalty between your company and the suppliers then the suppliers become totally replaceable, this means you have the ability to push boundaries in an attempt to get the best price possible for the items. - If they supply something really bad quality it's hard to get out the contracted deal. - Main suppliers are not ethically meant to sell the same product to other competitors. Make sure you have a sample and it states the product is yours and they can't re sell it to other buyers/ companies. Sizes vary between brands, If you are using a supplier, whether in the UK or overseas and you dont have enough products before the deadline, you may choose to outsource to a different supplier, this means the sizes may vary even more between shops as the size regulations in the different suppliers may be much different.

19

Quality control can be different between suppliers, even cutting out patterns could be challenging as bulk cutting reduces quality dramatically, but this would be a cheaper alternative then having to employ people to cut out patterns. These are all reasons why choosing a trustworthy supplier is for the best when it comes to the brands reliability, as quality control and ethics could be tarnished. Supplying for our brand After discussing the pros and cons of overseas and UK supplying we decided it was best to have one of each, one supplier in the UK and one supplier abroad. After researching I found deco-rose supplier (http://www.decorose.co.uk/about-us/) to be a trustworthy supplier for jersey and for overseas, alibaba (http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/clothing-manufacturersoverseas.html) was very simple to use, like any shop in the UK. This makes them seem like a more trustworthy company. If it all goes wrong you still have other suppliers whether its over seas or in the UK to help you. Obviously if you overseas, and your supplier goes wrong and you have to use a UK supplier to get the job done on time it will cost a lot more and come out of your profit. Why do we want to use both UK and overseas? Example: Might have the main order made overseas and topped up on UK, not good on profit margin will be the buyers fault for not predicting the fashion trend correctly. Factor in 1 extra week just in case why buying. 6-8 weeks to come by boat overseas - Always room for error.

20

Size sets and sell thrus

Sell thru: Is the time it takes from delivery till garment is sold - To find out how long this takes you have to check like for like in head office. - High fashion is sold faster on the high street, as people want it now, as the items could not be in fashion a few months down the line. - High fashion takes between 4-6 weeks to come through - Zara and other high street stores will be around 2 weeks Why is fashion a 4 to 6 week delivery time? You have traditional buying seasons, in the first 4-5 weeks you have autumn/winter, then around Christmas time you get in new stock used up for the next 4 to 6 weeks. So this will then be going to mid season sales. Tailored garments are between six and eight weeks, this is clothing which is fashionable but not high fashion. If garments are selling much quicker than anticipated you could either: -Use your English supplier -Ring up your overseas supplier and ship out more garments, but this will obviously come out of your profits. Problems with this are: - Our budget will be damaged and profit will be low - Buying its all about planning ahead and getting the right quantities at the right time. If garments are moving slowly you could either: - Introducing promotions or make your older promotions better. The problem with this is you wont make much of a profit as it is marked down to sale price. If you had 1000 garments as extra stock and the ones in store are not selling what would you do about the extra stock? - Go to your suppliers and asked them to stop making - Negotiate and good will comes in to play, some supplies will stay tough because the contact still stands. - You could highlight the garments as a must have and promote it! Why is it important to restock every 4 to 6 weeks? - Because its the attention span of your customers. - If youre not selling new products they are more likely shop somewhere else. - You need to have customer loyalty. - Provide stock for customers when they need it. When will our range come in? -Will it be every 4 to 6 weeks like normal high street shops? Our range will start the last week of August, as its a time when schools, six forms and colleges will start back. There will be a second hit at the start of October, which is preparation for the winter. Overstocking during peak times can be helpful and can help with customer loyalty because customers will always have the clothes in your store that they

21

would like, of course, you are then running the risk of having too much stock left over, but selling this down at a reduced cost price will enable you to get this stock out of your stock room and still remain at a break even point with it. Size sets - How do you decide the size set? Ask your consumer - As a buyer you would only need to know the ratio. - Different stores are aimed at different consumers with different sizes and ratios - Average size on the high street is a 14/16 - On the high street in shops the size 14 and 16 on very low stocked though. - Are the shops stopping the right sizes? An example of a ratio for sizes 8 1 10 2 12 2 14 1

This implies youre twice as likely to sell size 10 and 12 as size 8 and 14. Your supplier will deliver in these ratios. Our size ratio Our sizes range between size 6 and 16 If we had an online store size 4 and 18 will be added to broaden our market 6 2 8 3 10 3 12 3 14 3 16 2

We need to justify the sizes From looking in the shops these are the sizes we see most of, theyre the ones that run out the fastest for our consumer. We want to stock size 4 and 18 online not to exclude anyone and appeal to a larger audience. We need to be sure the customer isn't expecting vintage recycled clothing as sizing could be very different, sizes cut in the 60s will be very different to sizes now.

22

Marketing
How do we wish to be seen? How are we going to be promoting the product, It's part of a range so within the range the product we selected will have money off. So buy 2 garments for 20 or we could take no money off and promote it through advertisement and awareness, or use visual merchandising within the store. - Good or bad business not to have money off products? Bit of both because they can make full money off the garments sold for maximum price and profit, but its not as good if the trend doesn't catch on and you cant sell the garments. Some shops have the special VIP shopping times for Special customers that are attached to the mail service that promotes the business. They are more likely to buy products as they feel good and special that there only 1 of few that get this treatment. Primark doesn't have any advertisement, as word of mouth was the best for sales. Primarks USP, unique selling point, is that it's cheap. Need to think of the purpose of your selling point and the marketing scheme How does it affect the brand? Our USP is the age range that our store is targeted towards, our store, unlike new look or river island, will only contain clothes that would appeal to 15-18 year olds. We are going to advertise in the window as well as celebrity endorsements, TV advertisements etc. Although, a large format for our advertising will be social media, such as twitter, our age range will be into this form of advertising as most 15-18 year old girls would see this form of advertising as cooler than others. Our branding and promotion The jumper and the blouse for 24.99 for example, this would run for the first 2 weeks of the opening for the store. We may not be able to handle doing this for long, as we may not use the same suppliers for both the jumper and the blouse, so could not guarantee steady prices for a prolonged period of time.

23

An example of the opening flyer

Examples of our carrier bags

Bags are one of the biggest advertisements Needs to stand out And have a reusable option

24

Paper bag in 3 sizes small, medium, large with additional canvas bag for purchasing. All black no text on them but a swing ticket with the brand name on it and on the bottom left hand side have the strap line on, fear being boring. Bags include - The twisted lollypop handles, strong but cheep. - An optimal canvas bag with printed vintage images that change o (4-6 weeks like the sell thru of clothes) e.g. printed satchel, And on the back have our brand and strap line. - How much for a canvas bag 3.99? - Swing tickets on the brown paper bag Example of a customer loyalty card

UPDATE
Fear.Being.Boring

-Student card will be accepted with 10% off like other stores

25

Ethics
Ethics are important in our business, due to the increased consumer awareness and increased media coverage on the topic. There are various different types of ethics we need to look at in our brand. Slave labour/child labour, Green issues and Debt are the major three issues. We must consider slave and child labour as using this type of supplier could cause customers to not want to use our brand, because they would feel that they are part of harming these people abroad. Green issues are big at the moment, with people wanting to look after the environment. Reusing carrier bags and offering permanent bags, as well as using friendly materials will help with this. Storing a lot of debt in a company could be considered bad practise, and some may see this as immoral. Sometime in a business, however, you must weigh up whether the cost to the reputation of the company may be worth compromising for increased profitability, as less ethical practises are usually cheaper for the company. Transport and waste When transporting our products from suppliers to our stores we need to make sure they are travelling in the shortest, or most economical way possible. This is due to the affect of greenhouse gasses on the environment caused by lorries or freight around the world. There are problems with waste with cheaper clothes; this would be made out of synthetic fabrics, which would not break down. When these clothes are done with they would get sent abroad, which is probably where they originated, so this starts the fashion cycle. We must ask ourselves- is the fashion cycle ethical? Zara are a good brand, the use a continual top up program, which allows them to be able to bring in more clothing on demand, instead of predicting what would be sold and ordering in bulk. Even though this would then be a more expensive way of getting the clothing, the ethics behind it would mean a good name for our company. Debt As our age range is so young, we do not want to advertise credit cards or any way of getting in debt. Store cards will always keep people in debt whether they like it or not, so taking that whole option away all together will help everyone. Credit cards as an idea is not bad ethically, however, the pushing of debt or attempt to cover up the fact that something can get you into debt is bad practise and is regarded as bad ethics in an organisation.

26

Packaging We did decide to get our delivered in large recycled tubs, as we want out brand to be as eco friendly as possible, by the products coming in tub we can fit more clothes in them to. By the clothing coming in the tubs the bad side would be that clothing will be delivered creased or potentially damaged so we would have to think about employing someone to steam out the creases and fix any damages. Our product Our brand will be using Biodegradable bags so they can be recycled; the bad side to using paper bags is that we live in a country that rains a lot. So the solution to this is that we have created canvas re-usable bags, obviously at a small fee but its a bag for life so can be seen as an investment, as well as when the bags are re-used they are perfect for marketing the company. Have awareness that it exists and will monitor it using internal auditing, this means that we won't knowingly use forced or underage labour, and avoid it as much as possible. Products made in either china or India, and the cheapest way for it to be delivered is by boat. This is the best possible policy for our business needs. There is a limit to how ethical you can physically go to. Buying in bulk to make the over all cost cheaper. We know our market is impressionable and have to acknowledge that they are susceptible to promotional marketing but we are a business at the end of the day so we do support the idea that parents should accompany there child. Using fair-trade or organic clothing is an option, however, because we are trying to keep the prices in the brand cheaper, it would not be suitable for us. Also, it wouldnt change the opinions in our store from our age range, as at that age, not as much care would be given towards organic clothing.

27

Appendix

28

Appendix A) Survey
Questionnaire Establishing my customer I have asked 20 people. 1. What age are you? (Between 15-18) 15: IIIIII 16: IIII 17: IIIIII 18: IIII 2. Are you at high school/6th form /college/other School: IIIIIIIIII 6th Form: IIIII College: II Other: II (Both University) 3. Do you buy your clothes with pocket money and/or a part time job? Pocket Money: IIIIII Job: IIIIII Parents/ Family: IIIIIIII 4. How much would you spend on an average shopping trip? <10: II 10-20: IIIII 20-30: IIIIII 30-40: IIII 40-50: II >50: I 5. Do you like to buy clothes that are currently in trend? Yes: IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII No: IIII

6. Do you go shopping with your friends/parents/both Friends: IIIIIII Parents: IIIII Both: IIIIIIII 7. Where would you like to shop? Big cities/towns/shopping malls Big Cities: IIIIIIIIIII

29

Town Centres: IIIII Shopping Malls: IIIIIIII 8. Do you like to travel to go shopping? E.g. on the train with mates to Birmingham? Yes: IIIIIIIIIIIII No: IIIIIII 9. What shops do you like to visit on a shopping trip? - Top shop/river island/ new look/ H&M/forever 21/ other/ Top shop: IIIIIIIIIIII River Island: IIIIII New Look: IIIIIIIIIIIIIII H&M: IIIIIIII Forever 21: IIIIIII Other: IIIIIIII 10. Why do you shop here? Because its suited to your age range? Good range of clothes/ cheep and cheerful. Suited to your age range: IIIIIIIIII Good range of clothes: IIIIIII Cheep and cheerful: IIIIII Desirable: IIIIIIIIII 11. Do you enjoy using online shopping? Yes: IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII No: IIII 12. When ordering online do your parents use their card to order? Yes: IIIIIIIIIIIIII No: IIIIII

13. Do you see your shops advertised? If so what type of advertisement? Adverts: IIIIIIIIII Billboards: IIIIII Magazines: IIIIIIII Internet: IIIIIIIIII Social media/network: IIIIIIIIIII Apps: IIII Other peoples dress sense: III 14. What draws you in to the different shops? Look of the shop windows: IIIIIII

30

First impressions: IIIIII Perception: IIIIIII Value for money: IIIIIIIIII Celeb endorsement (H&M with Lana Del Rey): IIIII Quality: IIIIIIII Brand loyalty: IIIIIIIIII Social media: IIIII Customer service: IIIIIIIII Popularity: IIIII Visual merchandising: IIIIIII Ethics: IIII Assets: IIII 15. Do you look what the manikins look like in shops for inspiration? Yes: IIIIIIIIIIIII No: IIIIIII 16. Can u find the clothes that are advertised the manikin easily? Yes: IIIIIIIIIIII No: IIII Sometimes: IIII

31

Appendix B: Comp Shop

1. Is the shop gender specific? 2. Are the shop windows effective? 3. Is there easy access around the shops? 4. How many of the same store in the same area? 5. Are the prices similar to the other shops? 6. Any promotions? 7. Any sales? 8. Is there a store magazine? 9. Is the quality in the clothing good? 10. Customer service? 11. Is the shop popular? 12. Brand loyalty? 13. Celeb endorsement? 14. Perception and value for money? 15. Do they have an online shop? 16. Whats the ethics for the store?

H&M report 1. Multiple stores around Birmingham 2. Mostly women's wear and kids but does cater for men 3. Celeb endorsement in shop window 4. Seen a lot of advertisement, billboards etc. 5. Easy access at that time but if it was busy would be a nightmare 6. All other 5 shops on same floor, very close together 7. Cheep pricing 8. Relatively good quality 9. Very popular 10. Store messy, dark and dingy 11. Manikins multi coloured with wigs and eyelashes 12. Jersey products in 1 section, used for the essential range in block colours, very basic, but also good price 13. Kids range at back of the shop hard to find Young adults are more likely to try stuff on like the shoes if its messy already.

32

Forever21 report 1. Both genders 2. Bright windows easy access airy bright looks classy with the chandeliers 3. Quirky 4. Cheep pricing 5. Nice customer service 6. American shop, marketing scheme for young adults to try the American style? 7. Good value for money 8. Again jersey vest tops nothing to exciting 9. No apparent celeb endorsement 10. Split in to separate sections hard to find a specific garment, arranged in style and trend 11. The layout was brill for trolleys, prams etc. The layout was very girly girl, glittery, shinny, pastel colors, and bight manikins

River island report 1. coloured manikins and animals manikins 2. Male garments upstairs 3. Female downstairs (target market) 4. When full looks like it will be hard to get around 5. Sales stands about 6. Bright store 7. Web page good 8. Not really a good range for kids maybe a bit to old looks a bit to mature for a 15 yr old 9. Although kids always want to look older? 10. Had the best window display 11. Had a grungy look Need to ask the consumer what thy think of the store

33

New looks report 1. Bit like a cave although it has just been re decorated really dark 2. Good kids range 3. Really cluttered clothes all squashed together 4. Website good 5. Had a whole floor for shoes a lot more spacious 6. Messy on both floors 7. Sale in front of stairs most likely the busiest part of the shop bad layout? 8. Shoes take over, every type of shoe that you would ever need for good pricing.

Top shop report 1. Had sections but not all garments in the same section dotted all over the place good if your not going in for a specific thing, just a browse. 2. 2 lots of cash desks to make transaction Easter 3. Manikins Display wasn't that exciting usually interesting and inspiring 4. Visually nice 5. Brand is appealing and desirable to young adults 6. Good store layout 7. To highly price to actually buy full outfits for this age range 8. Top shop had a large range of jersey products all relatively good priced more desirable because it's from top shop rather then H&M 9. When busy though, could see the shop floor being a nightmare to navigate around

34

Images from comp shop

35

36

Appendix C) Research
WGSN Research Girls themes to follow for 2013 A/W Peace and love Brightly coloured 1970s and rock-inspired peace and love themes are dominant for girls as seen on graphic tees, all-over prints, backpacks and back-to-school accessories. Peace signs, hearts and love are key graphics.

Girls' key item: the fur gilet The fur gilet is the most important fashion item for girls of all ages, offered in natural colours and novelty shades confirming our A/W12/13 girls 3-8 key items.

Girls' fabric: sheer Printed and solid colour sheer fabrics are emerging for older girls, seen layered over tees and as skirts with linings.

37

This buyers' guide to autumn/winter 2012/13 womens wear focuses on how the WGSN macro trends have influenced colour and key items for apparel and accessories, and outlines the must-have shapes and styles for the season. WGSN's three macro trends for autumn/winter 2012/13 are Eco Hedonism, Radical Neutrality and Hyper culture. This report focuses on women's formal and occasion wear, casualwear directions and accessories

WGSN key trends Radical Neutrality: Radical Neutrality is about cleaning up and cutting through the fuss and overwhelming choice in fashion. Here it's simplicity that stands out. This is not about basics though, it's about strictly minimal pieces that are often radical in their design and so retain desirability. Eco Hedonism: Eco Hedonism takes natural inspiration points and elevates them through design. This trend should not be thought of as a conventional eco aesthetic, as it includes some very dramatic looks. Hyper culture: Hyper culture is very much defined by print and colour. Africa, China and the Middle East are key influences and combine for a cultural mash-up. This trend is high-energy, with an anything-goes ethos, and essentially is about mixing clashing prints and colours. Glamorous gothic, demure 60s, updated military and folkloric prints drive UK high-street womens wear for the autumn/winter season.

38

Overview 60s gamine Folkloric Modern military Eccentric heritage Gothic glamour

60s gamine: demure styling, clean lines, strong graphic prints and bold colours Folkloric: a print-heavy juniors-focused trend with a boho feel Modern military: perennial military looks updated with sleek and sophisticated styling Eccentric heritage: the commercial heritage trend gets a new twist with quirky details and fun prints Gothic glamour: lavish baroque and dark gothic influences come through for dramatic party wear

39

Appendix D) Colour Psychology

This shade is neither green, grey or brown, but a new practical "in-between" chameleon shade.

This calming green offers a new neutral option that crosses the casual and formal sectors.

This dramatic jewelled malachite green is the new winter-bright fashion statement.

Lobster is the brave fashion choice for women swear, lending a warm energy to knits and occasions wear.

40

Intense red emerges this season as the strongest contender for our seasonal must-have.

This purple-cast indigo has universal appeal and is a versatile update to classic navy.

Ochre yellow is a classic shade, and evolves this season with a richer intensity.

Darks are represented by this deep port red, a quintessential autumn/winter colour.

Colours for our colour scheme Purples Neutral, filtered misty purple hues contrast with the drama of standalone

41

shades, including cosmetic powder pink, winter fuchsia and deep imperial purple.

Blues Purple-cast blues, from light to dark, are a new direction, along with greyinfused shades. Classic navy and indigo mark a return to the understated and formal.

Blue/greens Dramatically intense and opulent shades of teal, emerald and peacock, with blue-cast Wedgewood and duck egg adding restrained elegance.

Monochrome A true black and a pure white punctuate a more subtle season of inbetween greys, accented by metallic silver.

Warm mid-tones Earthy / Pigmented / Warm / Saturated

Bright pastels

42

Chalked-neon / Powdered / Misplaced / Cosmetic

Rich brights Intense / Confident / Defined / Heightened

Pales Comforting / Harmonious / Mellow / Blurred

Neutrals Zen / Stark / Pure / Luminous

43

Bibliography Bibliography WGSN. (n.d.). WGSN colour psychology. Retrieved 11 22, 2012, from WGSN: www.wgsn.com WGSN. (n.d.). WGSN trends for 13-14. Retrieved 11 14, 2012, from WGSN: www.WGSN.com Arcadia. (2011). Group Finances. Retrieved from Arcadia Group: http://www.arcadiagroup.co.uk/press- relations/press-releases-1/arcadia-group-financial-results- 2010-2011 Drury, C. (2007). Managing and Cost Accounting (7th ed.). Huddersfield.: Cengage Lrng Business Press. press, w. (n.d.). pattern colour design. Retrieved 11 20, 2012, from pattern colour design: http://patternscolorsdesign.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/a utumnwinter-2013-trends-for-kids

44