BusinessHABWomen’s fashionable Shoes Business :Passion Soles is a women’s only shoe store in Tacoma.
WA. Tacoma badly needs an upscale shoe store for women because the current stores have an inadequate selection.
Currently, women that need a special pair of shoes often must travel up to Seattle to find the right shoes.
Passion Soles will have an unmatched, extensive selection of different shoes.
Generally, the size of Passion Soles’ selection is cost prohibitive due to all the different sizes that must be stocked per style.
Passion Soles has a unique business model that allows them to have an extensive selection at the cost of only stocking one size per style.
This is accomplished through a special relationship with the wholesaler so Passion Soles can receive a customer’s needed size within two days.
Rush overnight shipping is available at additional cost.
While some people might not like a store where shoes cannot be tried out before purchasing/ordering, women’s fashionable shoes are different.
When it comes to trendy, nice looking shoes, aesthetics are prioritized more than fit.
This is evidenced by the fact that women wear high heel shoes with narrow, pointy toes.
Clearly these shoes are not comfortable, but they look so nice and that is what counts.
Passion Soles will leverage Holly Heels’ extensive knowledge of the women’s retail shoe industry to quickly gain market share.
Profitability will be reached by month ten and 3284,000 will be generated in revenue in year three.
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1. Know the Situation Analysis
Passion Soles is entering their first year of operation.
A comprehensive marketing plan is required to reach profitability and ensure future success.
Passion Soles offers an unprecedented selection of current women’s fashions.
2. Know the Market Summary
Passion Soles has captured good information.
Regarding their market and knows a great deal about the common attributes of the most prized customers.
Passion Soles will leverage this information to better understand who should be served.
Their specific needs, and how Passion Soles can better communicate with them.
3. Know the Market Demographics
The profile for Passion Soles’ customer consists of the following geographic, demographic, and behavior factors:
Geographics
- The immediate geographic target is the city of Tacoma with a population of 254,000.
- A 45 mile radius is in need of the products.
- The total targeted population is estimated to be 27,000.
Demographics
- Age range 23 – 50.
- 55% of the customers are housewives.
- The housewives have a household income of $60,000-$150,000.
- 45% of the customers are professionals.
- The professionals earn over $45,000 themselves.
Behavior Factors
- Fashion-conscious.
- Tend to eat out at least once a week, typically more.
- Live the motto “fashion over function.”
- Are always aware of the different fashion trends.
- Subscribe to, or at least read, several women’s magazines that are fashion orientated.
4. Know the Market Needs
Passion Soles is providing the market with a wide range of fashionable shoes with an unprecedented selection.
Currently, women must travel up to Seattle in order to come close to approximating Passion Soles’ selection.
Passion Soles seeks to fulfill the following benefits that are important to their customers.
- Selection: The widest selection of fashionable shoes in the Tacoma area.
- Accessibility: The central location and wide range of business hours designed to accommodate all customer’s needs.
- Customer service: The patron will be impressed with the degree of care that they receive.
- Competitive pricing: All products will be priced competitive to the Tacoma/Seattle market.
5. Women’s fashionable Shoes Business:Know the Market Trends
The market trend for women’s fashionable shoes is toward a wider selection of common design elements.
Over the last few years, there has been a proliferation of several design variations from a base design.
A base design is released and then there are many different spurs that have common elements but include a few distinctive characteristics.
While this is great for the customer because it allows them to be fashionable but distinctive.
It is tough for most retailers because it increases their overhead in the form of inventory.
This trend is ideal for Passion Soles which has a business model that allows for stocking many different styles.
6. Market Growth
The market for women’s shoes is a strong, steadily growing market.
It is generally not affected by economic downturns.
Women seem to consume shoes regardless of the economic climate.
In a popular mini-series, a women’s habit of buying shoes was described.
As a release when they are feeling bad, a way to make them feel better, similar to eating chocolate.
While this stereotype might not be entirely accurate, women love their shoes and cannot seem to get enough.
7. SWOT Analysis
The following SWOT analysis captures the key strengths and weaknesses within the business and describes the opportunities and threats facing Women’s fashionable Shoes Business
Strengths
- Extremely strong relationships with distributors.
- Excellent staff who are well trained and customer attentive.
- They also get great discounts, increasing job satisfaction.
- An efficient, stylish retail store.
Weaknesses
- The struggle to build brand equity.
- The inability to provide instant gratification by having all sizes in stock.
- Forecasting fashion is difficult but necessary to profitability.
Opportunities
- A growing segment of the market is increasingly bothered by having to travel to Seattle for nice shoes.
- An industry that seems immune to recessions.
- The ability to operate on lean overhead relative to competitors.
Threats
- The introduction of a competitor to the Tacoma market with a similar business model.
- Completely misjudging where fashion is headed.
- Constant delays in the shipment of products or the unavailability of many of the advertised designs.
Competition and Buying Patterns
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business has three direct competitors in Tacoma:
- (name omitted): This is a women’s only clothing and shoe store. They have a nice selection of clothing but a poor selection of shoes. The shoe styles tend not to be cutting edge. The price point for the shoes is $30-$120.
- (name omitted): This is a large, complete, department store. The store, however, suffers from cluttered displays and a general sense of disorganization. Shoes here are $30-$120.
- (name omitted): This is a national franchise that only sells shoes, for both men and women. This company will sell knock-offs, shoes just like name brands, but with their name on them. While this store has a huge selection, the quality of the shoes leaves a lot to be desired. This is somewhat understandable as the shoes typically sell for $13-$50. While the shoes are often good copies of famous brands, the execution is sometimes off. Many of the shoes are made out of leather and look like they were dipped in wax, giving them a tacky appearance.
An indirect competitor is a shoe smith that will dye shoes.
The shoes are typically dyed to match a specific dress.
Not all colors can be dyed, and dying, in general, is not the ideal situation.
Dying shoes creates a new shoe color that is acceptable only 20% of the time.
The two major competitors in Seattle are:
- Nordstrom’s: Mid- to high-end department store known for their outstanding customer service.
- The shoe price point is $60-$300.
- Saks: This department store caters to the high-class, older crowd. Shoes range from $75-$400.
The buying habits for fashion-conscious women consist of typically buying at least one pair of shoes per month. Women generally purchase a pair of shoes to go with a specific dress. Once the woman purchases the dress she will then begin the long search for the perfect pair of shoes.
8. Product Offering
Passion Soles sells upscale women’s shoes.
The general categories of shoes that will be sold are:
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business: Passion Soles strives to have the largest selection of shoes in Washington, barring the larger stores in Seattle.
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business will accomplish this by having in stock one size per style as a demonstration model.
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business will then order within two days (rush one day service is available) the style in the needed size.
This will be accomplished through a special relationship with the wholesaler who is able to send out on-demand the right size in the right style.
Often a wholesaler will be unwilling to ship out individual shoes all the time.
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business was able to secure an exclusive arrangement with a particular wholesaler to meet Passion’s needs.
Women generally care more about style than fit.
This is evidenced by the fact that there are so many high-heeled, narrow mid-foot shoes that look incredibly uncomfortable.
With this recognition, the Women’s fashionable Shoes Business will meet the customer’s needs by providing an unmatched selection of women’s fashion shoes.
The customers will truly appreciate the selection that will allow them to find the perfect pair of shoes for any outfit.
9. Keys to Success
The key to success is to meet the demand for an upscale women’s shoe store with a wide selection and focused customer attention.
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10. Critical Issues
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business is still in the speculative stages as a retail store.
Its critical issues are to continue to take a modest fiscal approach.
Expand at a reasonable rate, not for the sake of expansion in itself, but because it is fiscally prudent to.
11. Marketing Strategy
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business marketing strategy will be based solely on location.
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business is located in a trendy mall that receives abundant walk-through traffic.
This location will cost a premium and will not be directly linked to the marketing budget as rent has been categorized under general overhead.
Another form of marketing to be described later in detail will be advertising.
The strategy of the marketing campaign is to increase the target customer’s awareness of Women’s fashionable Shoes Business
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12. Mission
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business ‘ mission is to provide Tacoma.
With an upscale selection of women’s shoes and outstanding customer service.
We exist to attract and maintain customers.
When we adhere to this maxim, everything else will fall into place.
Our services will exceed the expectations of our customers.
13. Marketing Objectives
- Increase repeat customers by 7% per quarter.
- Decrease customer acquisition costs by 8% per year.
- Build an effective pull campaign, bringing in new customers at an increased rate of 9% per quarter.
14. Financial Objectives
- Experience a double-digit growth rate for the first three years.
- Reduce store overhead by 5% each year.
- Reach profitability by the end of year two.
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15. Women’s fashionable Shoes Business: Target Markets
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business is targeting two population segments.
Within the broad category of the fashion-conscious female with disposable income.
- Professionals: these are full-time working professional women.
- They typically earn more than $45,000 themselves.
- They will purchase shoes for the workplace as well as for leisure time.
- This group is being targeted as they work full time and therefore have the need for many different pairs of shoes for all of their different outfits.
- They also have the money to spend on shoes and will take advantage of this reality as women typically love to collect lots of shoes.
- Housewives: this segment has plenty of disposable income because of their husbands.
- These women love shoes and spend fair amounts of time shopping for shoes and clothing.
- The household income of this group is $60k-$150k, generally toward the higher end of this range.
- This group is attractive because they have the money and the time to shop for shoes.
- With both money and time, there is no limit to the number of cool shoes that they would like to own.
16. Positioning
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business will position itself as the premier outlet for women’s fashionable shoes.
Providing Tacoma with the largest selection, rivaling some of the boutiques in Seattle.
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business will leverage their competitive edge to achieve this desired positioning.
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business ‘ competitive edge is an unmatched selection in Tacoma.
This selection will be achieved in two ways.
The first is a very specific effort to carry as many styles of shoes as possible.
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business recognizes that Tacoma currently does not have a single store that offers a wide selection of decent quality shoes for the fashion conscious woman consumer.
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The competitive edge is the recognition of this unserved niche and the serving of this demand.
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business will be able to offer a large selection through a unique inventory model that stocks a large number of styles with only one size per style.
The advantage to this is that for the same amount of money that Women’s fashionable Shoes Business invests in overhead, they can offer far more styles.
This model is effective because women will buy shoes based on style.
The way a shoe fits is of little consequence if it looks good.
For this reason women are willing to order a pair of shoes sight seen but not fitted.
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business offers two-day delivery with an additional expense rush overnight option.
17. Strategies
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business ‘ marketing strategy will seek to create customer awareness.
Regarding the products that they offer.
Develop the customer base, and work toward building customer loyalty and referrals.
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The message that the Women’s fashionable Shoes Business will seek to communicate is that they offer the largest selection of fashionable women’s shoes in Tacoma.
Women no longer need to travel to Seattle to find nice shoes.
The first method that Women’s fashionable Shoes Business will use to communicate this is location.
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business has chosen an upscale.
Trendy mall that receives a lot of walk through traffic.
This generates large amounts of visibility for Women’s fashionable Shoes Business.
Another method of communication is advertisements in Tacoma’s daily newspaper.
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business
The advertisements will be placed in the weekly fashion section whose readership is primarily women.
The last method of communication will be through a strategic relationship.
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business will develop with one of the upscale women’s clothes stores.
The two stores will be co-branding their products as clothes and shoes are intuitively linked.
Often times shoes are purchased to go with the new outfit.
The strategic alliances will be used to acquaint customers of the trendy clothes stores with Women’s fashionable Shoes Business as the customer demographics are quite similar.
The alliances will include discounts when both shoes and clothing are purchased as well as display some of each company’s products at the other store.
These activities are all designed to develop visibility on behalf of the marketing plan.
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business
18. Marketing Mix
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business marketing mix is comprised of the following approaches to pricing, distribution, advertising and promotion, and customer service.
- Pricing: Passion Soles pricing is designed to be competitive to the other fashion shoe retailers.
- Distribution: All shoes will be distributed to Women’s fashionable Shoes Business store front. While this will necessitate a second trip for the customer to come and pick up the shoes, it allows Women’s fashionable Shoes Business to offer a much wider selection than any of the competition.
- Advertising and Promotion: Location, targeted advertising in the newspaper, and strategic alliances will serve as the foundation of Women’s fashionable Shoes Business advertising and promotion effort.
- Customer Service: Exceeding customers’ expectations is the company’s mission.
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business
19. Marketing Research
During the initial phases of the marketing plan development.
Several focus groups were carried out to help gain insight into the most prized customer and some of their decision-making processes as they relate to shoe purchases.
The information collected from the focus groups has been extremely helpful to Women’s fashionable Shoes Business and help justify the business model.
An additional source of market research is a comprehensive survey that has been distributed to an upscale women’s clothes retailer’s customers.
A mathematics graduate student was used in the development of the survey ensuring the survey was statistically significant and relevant.
The survey was also quite insightful into the mind of a prospective customer.
20. Financials
This section will offer a financial overview of Women’s fashionable Shoes Business as it relates to the marketing activities.
Women’s fashionable Shoes Business will address break-even analysis, sales forecasts, expense forecasts, and how those link to the market strategy.
21. Sales Forecast
The first month will be used to set up the store front.
Employees will be hired and inventory will be purchased.
There will be no sales activity during the first month.
The second month will begin to see sales activity and it is foretasted that around month four sales will really begin to pick up.
The reason for this is that word will get out about Women’s fashionable Shoes Business.
And more and more people will be coming in to check out the extensive selection.
22. Expense Forecast
The marketing expenses will be higher relative to other months during the first four months when Women’s fashionable Shoes Business is trying to generate interest in the new store.
The expenses will also spike toward the end of the year during the winter holiday season.
23. Controls
The purpose of Women’s fashionable Shoes Business ‘ marketing plan is to serve as a guide for the organization.
The following areas will be monitored to gauge performance:
- Revenue: monthly and annual.
- Expenses: monthly and annual.
- Repeat business.
- Customer satisfaction.
Difficulties and risks:
- Problems reaching the break-even point due to lack-luster sales.
- A break down in the just in time (JIT) business model.
- Consumers who are unwilling to wait a day or two to get their shoes.
Worst cast risks may include:
- Determining that the business cannot support itself on an ongoing basis.
- Having to liquidate equipment/inventory to cover liabilities.
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