Creative brief schön boutique

Creative Brief Schön Boutique 2015 West Franklin, Evansville, IN 47712 schönboutique@hotmail.com Background/Overview Summary Schön Boutique is an upscale women's clothing boutique that will open in April of this year. Schön, which means "beautiful” in German, defines the boutique and its essence of inclusion especially to the Franklin Street family. Schön’s unique clothing selections and exclusive personal style services will ensure that their customers are very well dressed and well represented. Schön Boutique is a female-owned business currently organized as Sole Proprietorship by Kelley Borman.

Schön will provide services such as style assessments, personal shopping, and special ordering to customers during store hours. The boutique will carry ready to wear designer diffusion lines, casual/contemporary apparel, unique accessories, and giftables for women. Sales associates will be readily available to assist customers on a daily basis.

Schön’s innovative style assessments and educational emphasis in helping women develop their personal styles will enhance their reputation as a truly unique boutique.

Apparel Lines: • A’reve • Blu Pepper • Umgee U.S.A. • Liverpool • YA • Nikibiki • French Dressing

Accessories • Two’s Company • Treska Jewelry • Caldrea Candles Target Audience The primary Schön customer would be a professional woman •

Age – 20-55

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Income Level – middle to upper class

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Location – Tri-State Area (Evansville, Newburgh, Henderson, etc.)

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Aiming to attract women of this age group who enjoy fashion, looks for quality over quantity and supports small businesses. Hoping to draw local businesses from the west side during lunch hours as well as after work.

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Target audience will become familiar with and stay informed about boutique through: o

Word of Mouth Marketing

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Email §

Evites

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Flyers (personal delivery)

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Social Media

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Facebook

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Instagram

Local press mentions & ads in/on News 14, Evansville Living, Evansville Courier and local radio stations

Competitors The competitors that should be focused on for the creative brief were chosen based on their proximity to Schön, as well as the similarities in size and product. Local women in the area visit these competitor boutiques. Winning over customer loyalty will be examined in this creative brief. The biggest competitors for Schön are Single Thread Boutique; Flutter Newburgh, & The Lollipop Tree. They each have a good online presence with their websites as well as social media, especially Facebook. They post specials, new arrivals, events, and sales on Facebook asking followers or friends to like, comment, and share to increase brand awareness and in return free advertising for them.

Immediately upon visiting the location and website, Single Thread Boutique doesn’t have the best location, but will be Schön’s biggest competitor. They are located on the north end of Burkhardt Rd. and are overshadowed by other businesses that surround it.

They have a good online presence, and their website is appealing and easy to navigate.

Local college students model the product, which is a great way to get brand awareness and free advertising. Single Thread hosts give back events. For example, recently they were approached by a sorority and asked that 20% of their profit that evening could go to breast cancer education and awareness for their philanthropy. Schön could attract students from the UE & USI campuses to do similar events and could take notes from their clean website.

Flutter Newburgh and Schön are in competition due particular brands they will be carrying. Flutter’s location is on the riverfront in Newburgh, a little distance from Schön, and participates in many style shows for non-profit organizations in the Evansville area. Schön could benefit from getting involved with non-profit organizations to give back and advertise.

The last competitor is The Lollipop Tree. Although they sell both children’s & women’s clothing, it creates a larger target audience, thus attracting women with children

who can shop for both in one place. The Lollipop Tree carries a few of the brands that Schön will carry. The Lollipop Tree and Single Thread are closer in proximity than that of Schön, which hopefully this will be a positive for the new and growing business.

After researching, visiting, and analyzing what Schön’s competitors do well, we began tailoring some of our ideas in order to hopefully gain a loyal customer base as well as informing others of their new location.

Message: “Where Beautiful Happens” Positioning Statement Schön will provide women with upscale designer clothing and exclusive personal services. The main competitive advantage is the unique emphases in helping women develop their personal style.

Brand Positioning Schön is German for “Beautiful”. The tag line “where beautiful happens” is added to the overall name and logo to suggest that women can come to the boutique to learn about themselves and their specific body type and experiment with personal style and new trends. Since Schön is a new business we wanted to first promote where beautiful happens for brand awareness and reevaluate after the business has been open for six months. The name of the boutique alone implies the type of clothing and accessories that will be featured.

Brand Personality The overall brand personality of Schön aspires to be fashionable, customer-oriented, innovative, refreshing, stylish and educational. The boutique will be a place where women can go to transform themselves with beautiful clothes. The sales associates will help them determine the right clothes for their unique selves.

 Visuals Evite

 Grand Opening Flyer

1. Direct mailers: Enlarged logo on front and contact information. If event, provide information about when, where, and what. If thank you letters hand written indicates personal touch. a. Postcards i. Events ii. Thank you letters 2. Online Presence: Starting off mainly utilizing Facebook. On Facebook, posts would be informative information about events, new arrivals, contests, and sales. Since Instagram is a photo based media with a little copy, once Facebook is established, Schön would redirect friends to follow them on Instagram for specials and more.

The idea of social media as an advertising spot is increasing everyday. It would benefit Schön to keep up with it in order to engage the younger generation as well as older as they conform. Once settled in after the grand opening, the next step would be creating a website in order to keep up with local competitors and give their customers easier access to buy their products and expand to those who live out of town. Utilizing Evites for special events for specific audiences, and newsletters to inform loyal customers about promotions would be beneficial. The POS system keeps track of what brands specific customers like to buy, and it can send alerts to customers. When something new comes in that is similar in style, it will send an email alert reminding them to come back in and check it out. a. Social Media i. Facebook ii. Instagram

b. Email i. Evites ii. Newsletters iii. Alerts Strategies

For Schön Boutique since it is a new business and has a small budget, large scale advertising was the least of their worries. Advertising is what informs potential customers that you are there and open for business. After speaking with Kelley, her ideas after the Grand Opening are already set in place in some fashion. As she begins to see a profit, she hopes to be able to dedicate more money into advertising, but right now she is satisfied with Evites, Personal delivery flyers, news media, and word of mouth. She explained that Jessica Schmidt from 14News reached out as soon as they saw them working on the building, so she is hopeful that is a good sign that people are noticing the addition to Franklin Street. As far as social media goes, she admitted that she wasn’t the greatest, so she has put one of sales associates on that task. Facebook will be places were event info, new arrivals, contests, lookbook, and sales are posted. One event Schön plans on hosting is Wine down Wednesday (once a month); a Franklin Street neighbor at Winzerwald Winery (two doors down) would do a wine tasting while customers shop. Other events they plan on hosting are give back events for local non-profits and style shows as well. This can sometimes get expensive but is an atmosphere where there are a lot of women, which is the target audience, looking for small businesses that possess quality over quantity. One other event is around the Holidays do sneak peek events. Lastly, the look book would be a nice touch to allow customers to see the clothing in a different atmosphere and how they fit. It also evokes the emotion that it is a fun place to shop!

Tactics Events/Advertising •

Invite Only Event o

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Grand Opening o

Personal delivery flyers

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Word of Mouth

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Facebook Post

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14 News

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Evite and personal invites

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Jessica Schmidt

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jschmidt@14news.com

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(812) 217-1296

Evansville Courier & Press §

Carol Banks

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banksc@courierpress.com

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Check It Out Columnist

Evansville Living §

Jessica Hoffman, Account Director

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Tucker Publishing Group

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(812) 962-1564 x306

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jhoffman@evansvilleliving.com

Wine Down Wednesday’s

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Provide wine tasting while shoppers shop. Two Franklin street small businesses teaming up to create a fun and unique shopping experience after a long day at work or school.

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Winzerwald Winery

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Ray Vigurs, Manager

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(812) 423-2427

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2021 West Franklin Street Evansville, IN 47712

Style Shows o

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Komen “Surviving With Style” §

(812) 962-2202

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Sheila Seiler, Executive Director

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shelia@komenevansville.org

Tablescapes Event (Evansville Country Club) §

Lindsey Meadors, Banquet Marketing Manager

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(812) 602-2801

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office@evansvillecountryclub.com

Gilda’s Club “Giving in Style”

Look book

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Jennifer Simon

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jennifersimon@insightbb.com

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(812) 618-5538

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Discover new creative places in Evansville by dressing in the clothing from Schön and create a digital look book of all the different clothing styles and what each piece actually looks like and fits.

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College Age + Women (20-24)

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Middle Age Women (25-40)

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Upper Age Women (41-+)

Holiday Events (with Franklin Street Association) o

Bar Craws (decorate display window)

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Christmas Sneak Peak

Come back advertising o

Spend $100 dollars get a nice reusable bag, continue shopping with Schön and bring back bag get percentage off purchase that day

Direct Mail •

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Stories to pitch o

Grand Opening (April 12, 2014)

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Wine Down Wednesdays (Specific Wednesdays once a month)

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Give Back Nights (TBA)

Contact Information o

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14 News §

Jessica Schmidt

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jschmidt@14news.com

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(812) 217-1296

Evansville Courier & Press

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Carol Banks

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banksc@courierpress.com

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Check It Out Columnist

Evansville Living §

Jessica Hoffman, Account Director

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Tucker Publishing Group

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(812) 962-1564 x306

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jhoffman@evansvilleliving.com

Local Radio Stations o

WIKY, WKDQ, WJLT & WSTO

Social Media •

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Facebook o

Events

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New Arrivals

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Specials

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Sales

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Contests

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Look book

Instagram o

New Arrivals §

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Same outfit (different angles ex. front/back/side)

Contests §

Gift cards

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Freebies

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Look book content

Schedule •

On calendar pages attached at end

Test & Monitor Since Schön is a new business, we needed to keep that in mind through these first several months, and to makes sure the business is offering all that it can to the tri-state area, and to match the advertising and marketing to that. After creating a calendar that would help Schön stay consistent in it’s promotions and advertising over the first sixmonths of their Grand Opening, the first step is to monitor and test how well events are being attended by the public and to see how those in attendance have heard about the events. Doing a quick couple of question survey before customers leave events or the store will help us pinpoint where the best form of communication is, and more marketing emphasis can be put there. Since social media will be a primary outlet, determine if social media (Facebook, Instagram) page has increased in likes, sharing of pictures, and participation in contests. This will be the end of the first six-month trial period.