Women's Shoe Store
Passion
Soles is a women's only shoe store in Indonesia. Indonesia 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 $284,000 will be
generated in revenue in year three.
Marketing Strategy
Part of Passion Soles' marketing strategy will be
based solely on location. Passion Soles 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 Passion Soles.
Mission
Passion Soles' mission is to provide Indonesia
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.
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.
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.
Target Markets
Passion Soles 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.
Positioning
Passion Soles 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. Passion Soles
will leverage their competitive edge to achieve this desired positioning.
Passion Soles' competitive edge is an unmatched
selection in Indonesia. This selection will be achieved in two ways. The first
is a very specific effort to carry as many styles of shoes as possible.
Passion Soles recognizes that Indonesia currently does not have a single store
that offers a wide selection of decent quality shoes for the fashion conscious
woman consumer. The competitive edge is the recognition of this unserved niche
and the serving of this demand.
Passion Soles 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 Passion Soles 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. Passion Soles offers two day delivery with an additional expense
rush overnight option.
Strategies
Passion Soles' 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.
The message that Passion Soles 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 Passion Soles will use to communicate this
is location. Passion Soles has chosen an upscale, trendy mall that receives a
lot of walk through traffic. This generates large amounts of visibility
for Passion Soles.
Another method of communication is advertisements
in Tacoma's daily newspaper. 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 Passion Soles 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 Passion Soles 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.
Marketing Mix
Passion Soles 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 Passion Soles store front. While this will necessitate a second trip for the customer to come and pick up the shoes, it allows Passion Soles 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 Passion Soles advertising and promotion effort.
- Customer Service: Exceeding customer's expectations is the company's mission.
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 Passion Soles 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.
Sales
Forecast
Sales Forecast
|
||||
|
||||
Sales
|
|
|
|
|
Professionals
|
$172,454
|
|||
Housewives
|
$112,095
|
|||
Total Sales
|
$284,549
|
|||
|
|
|||
Direct Cost of Sales
|
2003
|
|||
Professionals
|
$68,982
|
|||
Housewives
|
$44,838
|
|||
Subtotal Direct Cost of Sales
|
$113,820
|
|||
Milestones
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
Advertising
|
Budget
|
||||||
Marketing plan completion
|
$0
|
||||||
Advertising campaign #1
|
$2,200
|
||||||
Advertising campaign #2
|
$1,000
|
||||||
Advertising campaign #3
|
$2,600
|
||||||
Advertising campaign #3
|
$2,600
|
||||||
Total Advertising Budget
|
$8,400
|
||||||
PR
|
Budget
|
||||||
Strategic Alliances
|
$1,825
|
||||||
Other
|
$0
|
||||||
Total PR Budget
|
$1,825
|
||||||
Direct Marketing
|
Budget
|
||||||
Other
|
$0
|
||||||
Other
|
$0
|
||||||
Total Direct Marketing Budget
|
$0
|
||||||
Web Development
|
Budget
|
||||||
Other
|
$0
|
||||||
Other
|
$0
|
||||||
Total Web Development Budget
|
$0
|
||||||
Other
|
Budget
|
||||||
Securing space in trendy mall
|
$700
|
||||||
Other
|
|
|
|
||||
Total Other Budget
|
|
|
|
||||
Totals
|
$10,925
|
|
|
||||