Amanda Smith

Marketing Plan

There is an opportunity in the tall women’s market, and a lot of apparel needs rarely represented in brick and mortar stores. Some retailers provide apparel for tall women through catalog or internet, but not enough option or selection given to tall women like Misses sizes. Mention by Pendle (2008), “About 5% of American women were over 5’8 tall, and that is over 8 million women just in the US” (para. 2). It is a special and small population where there are a significant market share and potential business venture. Creating an online website specifically for tall women will provide an endless selection of trendy and necessity clothing. It will eliminate the struggle of not finding what you need and the first stop and go-to website for women with height. The paper will analyze the different components like marketing situation, opportunities and threats analysis, marketing objectives, marketing strategy, action programs, and financial statements needed to implement the overall strategic business plan. The focus is mainly on the customer and searches different ways to meet buyers’ needs more successfully and consistently than one’s competitors. For the sake of this paper, the web site's name is T.W.M, which stands for Tall Women Matter.

Mission Statement

Tall Women Matter is short for T.W.M, a website dedicated to the everyday TALL woman. The site was created to stop the consent frustration of not finding clothing to fit our tall stature, which beautifully and wonderfully made. No more settling or adjusting our apparel to fit out body structure. The lengths of sleeves, crotch lines, shirt hems, and pant legs lengthened for a perfect fit. The company will attempt to dutifully make a meaningful product that not only epitomizes out lifestyle but heightens the ability to live it.

Future Goals

Our objective is to build an increasingly dependable business model, with a customer experience to match. It is a site specifically for the everyday tall woman. Content is an integral part of the experience and a crucial part of what makes us stand out from the crowd. We believe T.W.M is more than a website but the site for a collective individual who struggled with finding clothes made for tall women. Look no further; this site will provide the customer with necessary clothing in a range of selection rarely see in the local stores. This destination for women ranging from 20-something to 50-something to match all inspiration from classic and causal to fashion-forward lovers. We want to ensure the fit and style is pleasing to the different shape of a tall woman. Cited by Jones and Giddings (2010), “The problem reported by the participants included fit, style, and the ability to attain satisfactory resolution to the problems occurring with the fit and style” (para. 11). The goal is to eliminate the dissatisfaction of clothing not suited for our body type. Continuously focusing on pricing and capital investment in three target markets such as the US, UK, and Europe.

T.W.M huge competition is Long Tall Sally website designed for tall women as well and has several stores in the U.S, UK, Canada, and the Netherlands. It is a disadvantage. However, the T.W.M website will prove competitive prices and fashion-forward clothing. Long Tall Sally customer bases target the mature adult, whereas our website targets tall women are ranging from 20-something to 50-something. One-stop online shop for the middle-class mother and her tall daughter shopping needs.

The expectation for the website to grow in sales at 2.5 million and increase to 5 million in 12 months. As a new business, the assumption of having a high number as my competition will be below average. Once the market strategies kick in, and the sales will increase over time. The importance of setting goals for the company will help with meeting or exceed the expectation for the business unit. The website performance is anticipating traffic to double every three months by providing top quality, reasonable prices, and easy navigation. After a year of dominating the market, the company will offer international customer free shipping. Table 1.1 listed below is the potential age population in the million that the company can target in the U.S. The website will cater to adolescents to mature adult woman. It is not only essential to provide a wide range of products but to accommodate women in the different age brackets. T.W.M will offer great trendy clothing but the everyday necessity items that are universal like jeans/pants, shirts and jacket/coats. Online apparel alone in the US is ranging from 41.3 billion dollars in revenue, and if 5 % of the women are over 5’8 tall will be potential revenue over a hundred million.

Table 1.2: Proportion of tall size to total U.S apparel market 2005-2014 (% of sales)

Note: Adapted from “Global market review of outsize clothing – forecast to 2014: 2009 edition: Tall size,” by Pendle, Frank, 2008, just – style; Bromsgrove (Dec. 2008). - US Department of Commerce, Immigration, and Customs Enforcement.

Table 1.2 shown above illustrates the number of sales proportion of the tall size to the total U.S apparel market. The sales have increased by 12% to date this year, where there is a need for T.W.M to tap into this market. According to May 2008 Women’s Wear Daily data, this market had estimated revenues of US $5 billion in 2007, with a 5% increase estimated for 2008 despite global economic turmoil (Pendle, 2008, para. 1). Tall women are a significant market share and have been neglected far too long not to have a wide range of products that fit them perfectly.

PEST

Based on the environment and demand of the business organization, there is a point where a company has to analyze not only their strengths and weakness but also what the outside limitations are. Since Innovative is an event planning business and is solely based on customer demands and needs, there are some external factors that our organization wants to address in order to stay competitive in the market. Some political aspects we will follow are the current tax policies, current e-commerce laws, environmental regulations when dealing with outside events, and also trade restrictions when getting products internationally. By following these, the company will be able to gain success and a good reputation and trust with the employees, vendors, and customers.

The economic stability of a company is also important. We have to attain all economic factors leading to the competition in which this company operates. In this category we will maintain economic stability, economic growth, the inflation rates in high peak seasons, and also any interest rates that may apply for any events that the company has charged on behalf of the customer. The socio-culture sector involves what society and culture view as important base of the global aspect of the company. As a company, we strive to meet the needs of our customers and gain a great reputation, which in turn will put us in good standing as being very reputable and effective in compliance with the social system.

The factors that will help to enhance growth include; the population growth rate to manage how many potential customers we will be able to serve and what areas we would need to target, the age distribution to see what age group is mostly using our services, consumer behavior, and culture and religion when dealing with different groups of people.

Technology has evolved and is still evolving to this day. With the complexities of increasing business success through this channel, at T.W.M, we consider these aspects important. With these results and actions that are set forth, we see that other websites with same target customers can challenge us. With this understanding, regardless of the current trends or any unpredicted circumstances, T.W.M will be ready for the implementation of all plans.

SWOT ANALYSIS

Successful companies use the SWOT Analysis to fully evaluate the product or service against the profit potential of the intended customer, market, or product strategies. According to Kjellberg, Storbacka, Akaka, Chandler, Finch, Lindeman, & Nenonen (2012), the ultimate objective of SWOT Analysis is to provide users with an accurate and realistic assessment of the situation facing the firm concerning a specific market opportunity. Once completed it will allow the marketing team the option to proceed with the concept, revise it, or trash the plan. The model will provide a detailed understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats by introducing a new online website for tall women.

Internal Strengths

Merchandising:

· Only features clothing specifically for tall women

· Visually maintain innovative ways to display merchandise for the intended customer and suggestion of style that fix different body types.

· Free return services for the global customer base.

Marketing:

· T.W.M will connect with its customers through social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube, Google+, TV commercials, and Snapchat.

Financial:

· T.W.M expected to achieve sales over $5 million, resulting in $ 2.5 million of profit with local and international growth in the introductory stage.

Management/Operational:

· Incorporate an international supply chain platform so it will increase visibility across T.W.M’s international supply chain.

· Hire knowledgeable; customer service driven by employees that ensure the brand is continuously growing.

Internal Weaknesses

Merchandising:

· T.W.M is online-only, and it is a disadvantage because the customer does not have the option of tying on or feeling clothing before purchase. T.W.M will accommodate the customer by adding digital features like advance zoom and runway videos that feature the merchandise.

Marketing:

· TV commercials not broadcast globally. T.W.M would have to connect with global business and feature advertisement that appeals in major magazines.

Financial:

· Costly shipping fees from the return services.

· New business and slow start – high advertising cost to get exposure. Advertisements are costly, and the outcome will help with sales.

Management/Operational:

· Sufficient logistic system and cost to different countries.

External Opportunities

The external opportunities start with how the environment will adjust the company situated in the marketplace. Economically, the consumers will spend more money on clothing that is rarely offered in a store and even limited to online retailer websites. The power of the internet allows customers to make more purchases from cells phone and tablets anywhere and anytime. Globalization would help with the growth of the T.W.M Company by connecting with broader audiences. Besides the external opportunities trending from consumers and the industry, the website would base out of the United States.

External Threats

The external threats toward T.W.M website economically are not knowing the uncertainty when the consumers would have less money to spend and are carefully watching how they spend their money. The site will offer different sales and shipping promotions to attract consumers that have less money to spend. It is a disadvantage of only selling a product online is they the customer will not be able to touch or try on merchandise before purchase or experience in-store customer service interaction with sales associates. T.W.M website will actively stay interactive with the customer by enhancing the consumer experience on the site. Many brick and mortar stores are entering the market and offering tall sizes through their website. However, T.W.M website is specifically for tall women and will provide a wide range of assortment. Long tall sally website has been around for a while, and capture must be of the attention of the customer base that the company is targeting. Old Navy has the advantage of being a brick and mortar store that carry only long jeans in the store where the consumer has the option to touch and try on the merchandise. It is a large retailer that existing in the digital market and has more brand recognition than T.W.M. Considering the company would be competing with Long tall sally website and Old Navy, the company will enhance the interactive aspects of its site and differentiate from the competition online. Besides the threats in the industry and by the competitors, T.M.W will eventually offer free shipping service for international customers and focus on partnerships and advertisements on blogs, publications, and social media.

Conclusion

Specialty sizes, especially in tall-size, are rarely available in brick and mortar stores, and most retailers only hit the surface of the tall market with limitation selection carried online. There is an opportunity for up and coming businesses like T.W.M to dive deeply into this market and provide an endless variety of trendy clothing for tall women. It will benefit the company more to sell our product through the internet to grasp all the potential customers internationally. Over the last 12 years, brick and mortar have inclined sales while internet retail steadily increases. The internet is the best outlook to market the T.W.M brand, while in-store is declining and catering to the mass consumer.

Opening up business for tall women has always been a passion of mine and has struggled with not finding clothes that fit all my life. There have been other entrepreneurs before who had a hope of retail clothing business expanding to tall-sizes. Expressing that it is time to make a mark and to give tall women choices and options they don’t have now (Warner, 1995, para. 3). The new and upcoming business will mark its brand in the market as the most-shopped website for the target audience. It will successfully execute the marketing strategies for hopes of customer loyalty and profit gain.

References

Kjellberg, H., Storbacka, K., Akaka, M., Chandler, J., Finch, J., Lindeman, S., & Nenonen, S. (2012). Market futures/future markets: Research directions in the study of markets. Marketing theory, 12(2), 219-223.

Jones, M. & Giddings, V. (2010). Tall women’s satisfaction with the fit and style of tall women’s clothing. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management; Bradford 14(1) p. 58-71.

Warner, J. (1995). The entrepreneur has high hopes for the retail clothing business. Central Penn Business Journal; Harrisburg 11(15) p. 17