CUSTOMER PROFILE 200993178 Wen Hsin Feng
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Contents
1.0 Rationale & Evaluation 2.0 Louis Vuitton 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6
Brand brief Geographic Demographic Psychographic Behavioural Perceived Brand Unique Selling Points
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Brand brief Geographic Demographic Psychographic Behavioural Perceived Brand Unique Selling Points
4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6
Brand brief Geographic Demographic Psychographic Behavioural Perceived Brand Unique Selling Points
3.0 White Stuff
4.0 TK Maxx
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Rationale and Evaluation
The series of 3 customer profiles - being Louis Vuitton from the luxury sector, White Face from high street, and T.K. Maxx from the off-price retailing sector - were constructed based on data collected from surveys and other online secondary resources which include newspaper articles and company websites. Two books were also read in preparation for the survey design and customer profile content. The surveys for White Face and T.K. Maxx were carried out by actual customers leaving the stores. Due to the fact that all surveys were carried out in Leeds store locations, it creates a bias for the geographical element of the survey, therefore, geographical data gathered from surveys were mostly discarded in favour of information gathered from secondary research, such as store distribution and e-commerce outreach. For these two surveys, further bias was created because the type of people who are willing to stop and fill out surveys are limited and may have specific characteristics and values (kindness, helpful, etc.), and therefore also giving slight bias to the psychological and behavioural elements of the survey. This is controlled by combining secondary research from newspaper article interviews with high level managements and observing and analysing the shopping experience and services offered by the
brands, both online, and in-store. Due to the difficulty of collecting surveys from customers in physical stores, the Louis Vuitton survey was carried out online by people who have been known to shop at Louis Vuitton. Because the sampling was selective and not random, this may result in bias, including geographical information, therefore, this was again mostly discarded in favour of information gathered from secondary research. Sample size was relatively small due to time constraints (5 per brand), this may be cause for less focused and obvious results, and effected the data’s significance. Other limiting factors include, people having a tendency not to express extreme opinions, therefore often gravitating towards middle values when asked to rate. Another limit is for self-evaluating questions, people may orient towards a more positive image of themselves and avoid revealing their more negative traits. For future improvements, the sample size for the survey should be greater and more random, and preferably carried out in multiple store locations, also, all brands should preferably carry out surveys in identical ways. Primary research should also be more extensive to include other sources of information, such as focus groups or store manager interview.
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BRAND BRIEF
Louis Vuitton is the Fashion & Leather Goods division of LVMH, originally founded in 1854, France, by Louis Vuitton himself (Forbes, 2016). The brand has a historic heritage as a maker of customized boxes and trunks (Louis Vuitton, no date). Currently, it is the most valuable luxury brand in the world, with a brand value of $28.1 Billion up to May 2015 (Forbes, 2016). It. Its products include apparel, leather goods, handbags, trunks, shoes, watches, jewellery and accessories (Forbes, 2016).
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GEOGRAPHIC
The majority of their customers reside in the geographical regions of West and Central Europe, the US and East Asian Countries including China, Japan and South Korea (Louis Vuitton, 2016). They live in
apartments, flats or detached houses in urban areas such as the capital, or other major cities of their country . From the spring/summer 2016 women’s ready-to-wear collection, with metal meshes to knits,
to full length leather coats, one can tell that Louis Vuitton caters for a global customer base within various climates.
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DEMOGRAPHIC
Demographic The typical demographics of a Louis Vuitton customer is a married female above 40, being of the generation X or on the trailing edge of baby boomers (Posner, 2011, p.108), majority with children but without grandchildren. However the number of male customers are also currently on the rise (Kaushik, 2013). Their occupation is usually of a high managerial role in corporations with an annual income exceeding ÂŁ150,000. Their education normally reaches at least a bachelor degree. Recently, there is also the rise of young professionals and entrepreneurs in their customer base (Kaushik, 2013).
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PSYCHOGRAPHIC: LIFESTYLE
A typical customer does not often watch TV, sometimes watches a film, mostly action, sometimes a comedy, a romance, a historic or adventure. She enjoys a bit of classical music, sometimes R&B and Soul. And dines out more than 3 times a week. This means she doesn’t exactly have the healthiest diet, but does have a relatively experimental taste towards food. She keeps snacking at an intermediary level. Is not exactly tech savvy. She goes on vacations
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with her family around twice a year with destinations commonly being South East Asian countries, such as Thailand and Viet Nam.
PSYCHOGRAPHIC: ASPIRATIONS
SELF-IMAGE
INTERESTS & HOBBIES
For the Louis Vuitton customer, there is no real aspirations in brands as she already shops quite commonly the Luxury Brands she enjoys, such as Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Calvin Klein and Givenchy.
She likes to think of herself as an open-minded, responsible, ambitious and independent women.
Her hobbies include Culinary & food/wine tasting, travelling and attending social events and parties.
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PSYCHOGRAPHIC: ATTITUDES & OPINIONS
Her priorities in life are first, to have a comfortable one, secondly, health and exercise. Other concerns include family security and relationships, selfaccomplishment and knowledge, and also social issues.
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BEHAVIOURAL:
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PURCHASING MOTIVES
PURCHASING BEHAVIOUR
PERCEIVED BRAND UNIQUE SELLING POINTS
Her primary concerns when purchasing fashion are material quality, functionality and performance, and comfort and fit. She is also concerned with appropriateness to lifestyle, price and value, physical needs, service quality, brand traits, convenience, demonstration of social status and achievements, and the expression of culture, taste, uniqueness and character. There may also be elements of emotional or impulsive motives behind her purchasing choices.
She is relatively fashionable and enjoys shopping and also actively seeks out the latest fashion trends to some degree, mostly from magazines and going directly into stores.
The competition which their customers shop include Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Givenchy, Stuart Weitzman and Loro Piana. They also shop at high street brands such as Uniqlo and Zara. Brand personalities which consumers attribute to Louis Vuitton include expensive, sophisticated, reliable, trendy, casual and chic. The reason why customers shop Louis Vuitton include brand traits, performance and quality, style, comfort and fit, expression of self-accomplishment, and as a treat and reward to self.
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BRAND BRIEF
White Stuff is a British high street fashion brand originally founded in the mid-eighties by George Treves and Sean Thomas, who started off selling t-shirts and hats to fund their ski trips. Their product profile now includes women's and men's clothing and gifts and homeware. They are particularly known for their “original, hand-drawn prints, intricate details and quirky touches�. There is a human approach to their shopping experience, which includes shops serving as socialising spaces and fund raising event venues. Charity is a big part of their identity as each shop supports a local charity and donates at least 1% of its annual profits to them each year. (White Stuff, no date)
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GEOGRAPHIC The geographic region of its customers are primarily the UK, with some stores in Denmark and Germany (Armstrong, 2015). However, they do have a significant amount of oversea customers, with their online business reaching 30 countries and making up a quarter of the company’s 2014 turnover (Armstrong, 2015).
The majority of overseas orders come from the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (Armstrong, 2015). Similarly to White Stuffs policy of not opening stores on main high streets or shopping centres (with the exception of recent expansions into John Lewis) (Wood, 2009), most of their customers live in suburban areas in apartments, flats, or semi-detached houses. Some live in urban areas.
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DEMOGRAPHIC
The typical customer is a “Yummy Mummy” (Wood, 2009), a female in her early to late 30s, belonging to the generation Y (Posner, 2011, p.108), with a young middle-class family (Wood, 2009), and an income of £10,000-40,000 per annum. She would typically work in the public sector (Allchin, 2012), but other occupations may include team managers and team workers. However, following the brand’s expansion into department stores such as John Lewis, there has been an increase in older women shoppers reaching their 50s (Wood, 2009).
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PSYCHOGRAPHIC: LIFESTYLE A typical customer likes watching TV shows like Sherlock or World programs, and enjoys action and drama films. She likes a wide assortment of music, including independent, alternative, classical, jazz, country and rock.
She dines out once or twice a month, but mainly cooks at home and therefore has a relatively healthy diet. But she still has a tendency to snack from time to time. She is quite happy to try out new foods.
And is relatively tech savvy. She takes vacations more than three times a year, often in the UK or around Europe.
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PSYCHOGRAPHIC:
ASPIRATION
SELF-IMAGE
INTERESTS & HOBBIES
Due to personal character and values, she has relatively humble aspirations and desires and likes to keep to what’s familiar and comfortable, such as White Stuff, Oasis and Coast
She is mature, open-minded, responsible, honest, fair, humorous and loyal.
Her greatest interest is reading, followed by travelling, culinary & food/wine tasting and computer & technology.
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PSYCHOGRAPHIC:
ATTITUDES & OPINIONS
Her priorities in life are the feeling of happiness, family security and closeness of relationship between friends and family.
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BEHAVIOURAL:
PURCHASING MOTIVES
PURCHASING BEHAVIOUR
PERCEIVED BRAND UNIQUE SELLING POINTS
Her primary purchasing motives include price and value, material quality, functionality and performance, and comfort and fit. Other concerns include appropriateness to lifestyle and purpose, physical need, service quality, expression of culture, taste, uniqueness and character, and ethical and environmental concerns.
She believes herself relatively fashionable and very much enjoys shopping and does follow trends closely and actively, primarily from advertisement campaigns, in-store, social networks media and family and friends. She is quite loyal to the brand (Allchin, 2012).
Their customers shop competitors such as Zara, Jack Wills, H&M, Uniqlo, Next, M&S, Oasis and The White Company. Other identified close competitors include Boden, Jigsaw and Gap (Wood, 2009). Consumers perceive White Stuff as a comfortable, casual, country, warm and practical brand. Consumers buy White Stuff due to reasons of comfort, good quality, design, fit, and its quirky style. Its shopping experience (Armstrong, 2015), with engagement activities such as sweet counters and book clubs, also contributes to a high consumer dwell time (Allchin, 2012), customers value this ‘human touch’ and ‘personal relationship’ (Bazaar Voice, no date). Customers also like that White Stuff talks to them in intelligent ways others might not understand (Wood, 2009). They like how the brand offers something extra, a bit different, and makes them laugh, and they also love the hidden details in its clothing (Wood, 2009).
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T.K. Maxx is an off-price apparel and home fashions (Apparel Search, no date) retailer offering brand name and designer products at prices up to 60% less than the recommended retail prices to the market which it operates, primarily in the U.K. and Ireland (T.K. Maxx, no date). It was first launched in 1994 by American parent company, TJK (TJX, no date). Today, T.K. Maxx is the only major offprice retailer in any European country. With average store size reaching 30,000 square feet, T.K. Maxx offers family apparel, women's footwear, lingerie, accessories, and home fashions (Apparel Search, no date). In 2009, T.K. Maxx launched its e-commerce site (TJX, no date).
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T.K. Maxx’s customers are based primarily in the UK and Ireland, with some stores in Germany and Poland (TJK, no date). They live in urban areas in detached or semi-detached houses.
Majority of customers are women above 40, however, the age bracket may extend from 25 to 54 (TJX, 2009). Most are married with middle to upper middle class families with children (TJX, 2009), and an annual income of anywhere between ÂŁ10,000-150,000. Occupations include students, administration, assistants to accountants. Majority have had some form of higher education, though not necessarily at degree level.
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Due to personal character and values, she has relatively humble aspirations and desires and likes to keep to what’s familiar and comfortable, such as White Stuff, Oasis and Coast
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Aspirations include a diverse range of brands, all of varying styles and personalities, such as ChloĂŠ, Calvin Klein, UGG, The North Face, Ted Baker, Paul Smith and Hugo Boss. This falls in line with the vase range of products and styles which T.K. Maxx offers, and demonstrates that T.K. Maxx has a very wide range of customers with all different kinds of tastes and budgets.
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The typical consumer believes themselves to be respectful, kind and helpful. Appendix 2: Survey Results – T.K. Maxx
Their greatest interest is in Health and Wellbeing activities, followed closely by nature, gardening, animal care, and culinary, food & wine tasting.
Their priorities in life are health and exercise followed by comfortable living and excitement in life.
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Their primary purchasing motive is price and value, others motives include physical need, comfort and fit, material quality, functionality and performance and also to demonstrate social status, power and achievement.
They think of themselves as neither fashionable nor unfashionable, and most consumers’ attitudes towards shopping is that, if they need something, they go in, get it, and leave. However, people describe the shopping experience at T.K. Maxx as a ‘treasure hunt’ (T.K. Maxx, no date), this suggests that it is much like a game, and consumers shop without specific physical need or purpose in mind, and may be shopping purely for pleasure. Some actively seek out information on latest trends through magazines, television, social network media and campaigns and advertisement. However, the majority do not actively seek out newest fashion trends.
One collective behaviour of T.K. Maxx customers are that they engage in opportunistic buying (TJK, 2009). Due to the rapidly changing assortments, and many products being one-offs and having no replenishments (T.K Maxx, no date), it gives rise to purchasing behaviours which involve less rational consideration and a shorter, more spontaneous thought and purchasing process. Also, because all stores get deliveries throughout the week (T.K. Maxx, no date), meaning new products weekly, this encourages frequent visiting behaviours from consumers.
Their customers shop competitions such as M&S, Zara, Hollister, Mango, The North Face, or higher end brands such as Moss, Ted Baker and Tommy Hilfiger. But some of them also shop more luxury brands such as Michael Kors and Paul Smith. Customers also shop competing high-end department and specialty stores (TJK, 2009). They perceive T.K. Maxx as outdoor orientated, casual, expensive but also cheap, comfortable, sophisticated, approachable and reliable. Customers buy from T.K. Maxx primarily because of the price and variety, other reasons include brands, convenience, and quality, function and performance.
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