International Fashion House
PRODUCT PLANNING
Organization’s Products
The international fashion house will be dealing with tangible products, for example, clothing. Clothes are the core product for the fashion house even as it expands to newer markets globally. Casual wear such as jeans and t-shirts, which will mainly be marketed to the millennials, are examples of the tangible products of the international fashion house. The international fashion house is not looking to diversify into intangible products such as consultation services yet at the moment. Augmentation is core to the growth strategies and activities for the international fashion house. As such, it will be offering free deliveries for all online retail purchases made by their loyal customers. Discount coupons will also be available on online shopping to further enhance its customer loyalty. For the brick and mortar services offered by the international fashion house, there will be instore demonstrations of all the clothing lines with customers allowed to make returns as per the specified policies. There will be no generic products offered to all customers to enhance the standardization of products and customer loyalty.
Marketing Strategy
The casual clothing offered, such as jeans are aimed to be cost-efficient to ensure that the fashion house effectively dominates the millennial market niche with such convenient products. For casual and comfortable wear, the fashion house expects to market itself through word of mouth from an already and willing to buy customer base, thus reducing marketing costs. The international fashion house has established a new line of beauty and perfume products that will serve as their shopping products. As these shopping products will be a new market niche, the fashion house intends on extensively investing in an online advertisement on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WeChat, and Twitter while also effectively applying the use of search engine optimization strategies in marketing the previously mentioned shopping products. The international fashion house is a well-known producer of high end unisex formal wear, and it has all intensions of establishing more dominance. As such, it intends to effectively offer its already loyal customers more price incentives that will stimulate their purchases.
Product Mix
The fashion house has a product width of six, consisting of clothing, accessories, perfumes, beauty products, swim apparel, and shoes. Such width of the products represents the diversification strategies and efforts that will ensure the fashion effectively optimizes its revenues in the fashion house. The product lines of clothing, swim apparel, and shoes consist of men, women, unisex, and children wear. On top of the previously mentioned lines, accessories, perfumes, and beauty products will include a range of products for the LGBTQ+ community. The consistency of all the products will closely relate to each other in terms of distribution but have variations on their intended uses and production for a maximum customer satisfaction experience. Optimum differentiation of the products of the international fashion house will enable it to optimize its activities in all the respective market niches.
Product Positioning
Significant market research on the needs and wants of the millennials and generation Z will ensure that the international fashion house does online advertisements on social media platforms and also through website channels facilitated by companies such as Google Inc. The packaging of all the products of the fashion house will be in gift packages differentiated effectively to complement the specific market segment. Also, billboards will be efficient in marketing the retail brick and mortar operations for the fashion house, especially for the division of baby boomers. The pricing for the beauty products will be lower than the current established market players to ensure that the international fashion house effectively spreads its market share before perhaps increasing the prices by a small margin.
New-Product Planning
The international fashion house has a personnel department in charge of the ideation of all new products to introduce to the market. Such personnel is responsible for most of the current successful products present in the market, which has been facilitated by their quarterly training on market strategies, innovation, and technology. Marketing beta testing will continue to enable the fashion house to monitor the potential responses and critiques for any new products. As such, the fashion house can effectively adjust a product to ensure that it effectively fits into the intended market space. A clearly defined market development strategy enhances the complete evaluation of a product according to factors such as revenue and market share goals, the product’s pricing points, and even the process of launching a new product to the market.
Product Life Cycle Stage
The international fashion house does not operate products in the abandonment life cycle stage in terms of sales and revenues. Beauty and perfume products are currently in the introduction life cycle stage with the international fashion house, estimating that they would be approaching the growth life cycle stage in approximately two years. The spring clothing grouping of the international has recently been experiencing the effects of the declining life stage. Still, the international fashion house has established fashion weeks, especially in their operations in developed countries, to reverse the sales and revenues trend. All the other product groupings of the international fashion house are in the growth stage that has resulted from the steady growth of its operations, and the fashion house is expecting the fall clothing grouping to in a couple of years to reach the maturity growth stage where the fashion house will be experiencing maximized sales and revenues. Extensive efforts have been put in place to mitigate any product grouping against reaching the declining or abandonment life cycle stage.
Life Cycle Extension
Online advertisements supported with the current technology trends such as search engine optimization will enable the international fashion house to extend the introduction, growth, and maturity life cycles. Such an action will allow it to attract new customers while also maintaining existing customers. Price reduction, especially among the products aimed for the baby boomers, will also be critical in the life cycle extension of such products. The fashion industry is keen on physical appearance. As such, the international fashion house will invest in research to ensure that its products’ appearance resonates with its market niche in terms of trends and preferences. The global expansion will also be critical in discovering new product markets, thus extending the life cycles for the products primarily in the introduction, growth, and maturity life cycles.
PROMOTION PLANNING
Promotion Goals
Social media promotion is a crucial goal for the international fashion house. The international fashion house will connect with a broader audience not limited across different geographical locations while also establishing a close relationship and goal with such an audience. As such, it will be able to promote their products on social media platforms such as Instagram, which is a driving promotion site in the fashion industry. Also, Pinterest and Facebook will be ideal for the international fashion house in enabling it to integrate its stores into the online world, which is essential in the modern world. As such, the customers and potential customers of the international fashion house will access its catalogue and online purchase options.
The use of influencers will be a vital promotion goal for the international fashion house. Influencers such as Kylie Jenner and Cristiano Ronaldo have a large and loyal social media following that drives and stimulates the growth and development in terms of sales and revenues and sales, especially for fashion lines. The international fashion house will offer its influencers with access to their products that they will be free to post on their social media platforms to ensure that they reach a broad audience. Such an audience will purchase the products due to their loyalty to their influencers.
Personalized promotions will be essential in enabling the international fashion house to maximize their sales and revenues. Customized offers and experiences in both online and offline business activities will allow potential and existing customers to associate more with the products offered by the international fashion house. For instance, online platforms such as websites and mobile apps for the international fashion house could leverage on chatbots that guide all users of their online sites during their online experiences. Personalized promotions will also be vital in enabling the international fashion house to establish marketing campaigns that will dominate its activities in all its market niches, thus optimizing its sales and revenues.
Overall Promotion Plan
Horizontal integration among the departments of the international fashion house will be facilitated by technological advancements such as the application slack. As such, it will be able to effectively communicate and reduce the decision making channel across all the departments, thus reacting quickly to factors such as changing fashion trends and preferences. Data integration will enable the international fashion house to efficiently share the collected data on systems such as marketing across all its departments. The executive of the international fashion house is keen on optimizing the communication and decision-making channels to all their personnel through technology trends such as acquisitions of small established fashion houses, especially those leveraging on the new wave of technology in the fashion industry. Internal integration on the changing corporate identity, partners, and standards of operations for the international fashion house will be facilitated through factors such as bonuses and incentives to all the personnel and a fast communication channel to all remote staff.
Advertisement will enable the international fashion house to stimulate the awareness of their products in their intended market niche. Also, the ad will allow it to optimize its brand image and loyalty to ensure that it effectively competes with all its competitors in the fashion industry. Public relations is an effective external integration for the international fashion house. Public relations efforts will enable it to handle its reputation and all-round communication systems effectively while also allowing it to prepare and manage any potential crisis. Personal selling, especially on the whole value chain of marketing, will be a crucial external integration factor that will increase sales and revenues. The use of salespersons will, for instance, enable the international fashion house to persuade its potential customer base while also enhancing its existing customer base, thus maximizing its sales and revenues. Sales promotions, especially on the products that are declining in sales, will enable the international fashion house to rejuvenate their customer interest, for instance, through advertisements, thus effectively optimizing sales and revenues.
Strategies for the Promotional Mix
In advertising, it will be essential for the international fashion house to establish optimum methods for tracking and testing any advertising campaign to be employed by the fashion house. For instance, the fashion house should consider using analytics that will enable it to efficiently monitor the potential success of an online advertisement campaign, especially on social media platforms. Such analytics will allow it to either retain or modify a likely online advertising campaign to ensure that it captures the needs of its customer base while also adapting to the changing dynamics of customer tastes and preferences. Establishing a public relations department for the international fashion house will effectively handle matters of public relations. The department would be tasked with enforcing the credibility, appeal, control, and mitigate repetition of any promotion strategy. The public relations department would be tasked with the creation of relevant and compelling content for the intended market niche. A theme such as “Bringing the Best Style For You” could stimulate its sales.
A combined sales and customer service department will drive the personal sales strategies for the international fashion house. Such a department will curate the personal selling services for the fashion house to ultimately persuade its market niche. For instance, face to face selling will enable the fashion house to associate with its customers’ needs. Also, a mobile line and website for addressing customer queries will be critical in streamlining its selling strategies by quickly sending or answering burning customer questions and concerns. For sales promotion, the international fashion house could employ the use of either pull strategies. Pull strategies will offer it with a wide variety of sales promotions that will establish its dominance in its market niche. For instance, loyalty programs and rebates will stimulate its dominance in its market niche, thus optimizing its sales and revenues.
PRICE PLANNING
Pricing Approach
The cost-plus strategy will enable the international fashion house to provide a safety margin that mitigates it from any potential loss arising from the sales and operations of its business activities. Such a pricing strategy will also cover any indirect cost such as carriage inwards that could potentially reduce the potential net profits of the fashion house. Competitive pricing, especially for products in the growth and maturity stages, would establish a competitive edge for the international fashion house to ensure that it effectively creates its dominance in the fashion industry, thus increasing and optimizing its revenues and sales. Penetration pricing will provide the international fashion house sets a lower price compared to already existing market players when introducing a new product in a new market niche to ensure that it effectively spreads its market share. The customer’s valuation provided by the international fashion house is established through the analytics provided on retained customers through activities such as loyalty programs. Also, customer feedback through established channels such as the custom website service ensures the international fashion house can effectively determine its value to all its customers based on the provided feedback.
Categorization of Target Markets
Millennials and Generation Z market segments are movers of the fashion industry, especially in developed countries such as France. The previously mentioned market segments are only interested in changing with the market tastes and preferences, usually controlled by celebrities and influencers. As such, the costs of fashion products is often not a key concern for such a market segment. The international fashion house makes sure that the prices of fashion products for the previously mentioned market segments reflect the fashion trend with, for instance, charging highly for luxurious commodities to ensure that they are adequately identified as trendy and classic. Baby boomers, on the other hand, are only vital to basic needs with no many considerations for luxuries or extravagance. As such, the international fashion house ensures that it markets products for the baby boomers market segment that is in line with the preferred low costs. In developing countries, the international house promotes fashion products that are cost-effective to easily fit with the majority of the population that struggles even to afford basic needs. In contrast, it helps luxurious or extravagant fashion products for developed countries to meet with their high demand for social class.
Pricing Philosophy
Research-based need for a price increase or decrease is the driving philosophy for the pricing of the products of the international fashion house. Constant research on both direct and indirect costs for its operations enables it to effectively monitor its margin of safety that effectively cushions it from a potential net profit. An increase in, for instance, the costs of fabric will be reflected by an equal percentage increase in the price of the products of the international fashion house. The international fashion house informs its customers of a potential price increase or decreases on its website and social media platforms at least three weeks to the possible price change. For a price increase, the international fashion house ensures that a value addition also accompanies it by introducing a new line of clothing that offers a new sense of style. As such, it enables the fashion house to justify its price increase. Price increases are also gradual rather than an instant high increase in price. For a price decrease, the fashion house is usually informed through its market and product research to maintain a competitive edge against its competitors.
Competitive Pricing Environment
The fashion industry is dominated by established brands such as Zara SA and Fast Retailing Company Limited, which is the parent company of Uniqlo Company Limited, driving forces in such an industry. The international fashion house should effectively employ the budget pricing strategy to enable it to spread its market share. Such a pricing strategy will allow it to mainly focus on the volume of sales for its fashion products rather than the profitability per the unit of a product. Low prices, coupled with bundled products across its lines of the width of products, will enable it to maximize the merits of economies of scale ultimately, thus ensuring it maximizes its sales and revenues. For luxury products, the international fashion house should focus on building and developing its brand and overall positioning in such a market niche. As such, the fashion house could push its prices for luxury products higher than the rest of the market to effectively resonate with the intended social class for its loyal customers without plummeting its sales. Such a pricing action will ensure that the international fashion house maximizes its net profits due to increased earnings per unit of fashion products sold.
Elements of Price Strategies
The international fashion house prefers customary pricing to variable pricing of its fashion products as the products’ prices are based on already established metrics resulting from active market research. The one-Price strategy enables the fashion house to standardize its costs across all its geographical markets, thus enhancing customer fairness. It does not practice flexible pricing in any of its markets. Odd pricing, for instance, pricing jeans at USD 18.99 instead of USD 19, has been vital in enabling the fashion house to maximize its revenues. For luxury products, the fashion house charges high prices to associate it with the top social class demanded by the customers, which is also common among fashion companies such as LVMH Moet Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE. Leader pricing has enabled the international fashion house to set low prices that effectively increase its customer market share to merit from economies of scale. All the product lines have different price lining to associate with the intended product quality effectively. The international fashion house offers purchase terms and conditions for all its fashion products across all its geographical market operations.