P1: Describe the characteristics of the target markets of two different fashion retailers In this assignment I will be describing the characteristics of the target markets of two different fashion retailers the two businesses I will be doing are Debenhams and Boohoo
What is fashion? Fashion is something that we deal with on a day to day basis, fashion is the habitual trend in which a person dresses in, even though people claim to not like fashion their fashion sense can indicate how they are feeling and their personality it also gives an insight into their behavior. Fashion includes products such as accessories, shoe wear, make- up and clothing.
What are the different fashion outlets? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Haute Couture ( Dior, Chanel, Valentino) Department stores ( John Lewis, Fenwick and Debenhams.) Market stalls ( Camden market, North Finchley market) Discount stores ( TKMaxx, Tiger and Wallis) Supermarkets ( Tesco F&F, Asda George and Sainsbury's TU) Outlet shops (Bicester Village , Asics Outlet) Mail order (Next, Freeman and Littlewoods) Multiple Chains (H&M and Zara) Television ( QVC) Internet shopping ( Boohoo, Asos, Misguided and Amazon)
What is fashion retailing? Fashion retail is typically a consumer goods market. It is characterized by very short product life, consumer preferences and numerous competitors. What is fashion marketing?
They are responsible for choosing which apparel items appear at retail stores. People who work in this field have to decide which product will sell a large amount at that specific time and which products will be hot each season and how to market those items in the competitive world of retail. What is target market? This is a specific group of customers in which a business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and effectively merchandise towards. A well-defined target market is the first element of an effective marketing strategy. What is market segmentation? Market segmentation is a marketing strategy which includes separating a broad target market into, subsets of customers, businesses or countries depending on common needs interests and priorities. Then designing and implementing strategies to target their markets. Target market segmentation is divided into four parts: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Demographics- this includes the ages, genders, weight, height income etc… Geographic – This is where people live Behavioral- why do people purchase the products? Psychographic – social class (middle class, higher class and lower class etc…)
What is fashion merchandising? Fashion merchandising is the promotion of apparel sales and involves all of the tasks necessary to deliver the clothing requests and meet the needs of potential customers and designers.
What is the fashion life cycle? Like any other product, fashion also has its own life cycle, this is the phenomena that is adopted by consumers for a particular time and fashion. The fashion life cycle is the spam of a particular fashion in which the fashion exists, this goes from: The look of the product, the style of the product and the shape of the product. Every fashion flow has 5 stages in the life cycle and these are:
1. Introduction stage – During the introduction stage, the fashion trend is introduced by the designer or by the outlet to an exclusive audience. 2. Rise – During this stage, the trend is made familiar to fashion shows, TV commercials, magazines Sand advertisements but at this time the product is only available in specific brands or at specific outlets. 3. Peak/ saturation – At this stage the particular trend is made aware and common to the public and will now be available to a wider and common outlets. This stage defines how long the fashion trend will stay in market. This stage can last up to one year or even more for some of the products, there is no set pattern for this stage, it just depends on the length of the peak of the fashion up to when it reaches. 4. Decline- At this stage the trend is starting to decline, fashion retailers usually offer the trend at a discounted rate so customers will be more likely to purchase the products, because they are cheaper. 5. Out of fashion- And lastly at this stage the trend becomes outdated and it is very difficult to get a hold of mainly because it will not be in stock at this time.
The two businesses I have decided to do are Debenhams (this is a store that usually sells different items but mainly focus on clothing, they have many floors and that specifies on the different products that they sell. An example of this could be clothing, fragrances and furniture) Retail outlets that sell things like this are usually known as department stores. And the second store I have decided to do is Boohoo, (this is an online retail outlet that focuses on the trendy and daring side of fashion Boohoo do not sell anything other than clothing, shoe wear and accessories).
Debenhams Debenhams is a department store that sell quite a large amount of products, this ranges from clothing, furniture and perfumes. Because Debenhams is so diverse they're able to attract thousands of customer on a weekly basis. Debenhams have been smart to target people with different ages, different economic backgrounds and different styles, they also sell different sex clothing this helps Debenhams reach a large amount of people and this helps them differentiate between the types of clothing they sell. If you look at their website: http://www.debenhams.com/women you can see that they products vary so much from bridal wear, new season and sportswear etc... They also have a men’s website that allows them to attract the opposite gender and it expands their target market to a new level. This allows the customers to be able to buy all types of products that appeal to them on the website. Also Debenhams are in partnership with different brands, this goes from Dorothy Perkins, "Nine" by Savannah Miller and many more, by Debenhams doing this they have appealed to a wider range of consumers this is because there may be some consumers that would only buy designer clothes and by Debenhams going into partnership it allows them to gain access to that particular target market that is usually quite hard to find.
Because Debenhams is a department store they also sell, electronics, toys and perfumes this means that they are able to target anyone that is interested in purchasing their products. They also dell maternity and this helps them attract pregnant women who may be interested to buy their clothing. Debenhams have used retail policies such as their use of visual merchandising displays to entice their customers and attract them to make purchases even if it's not what they wanted to do. If you look at the picture below you can see that Debenhams have used this big bold poster to attract customers into the store to purchase the new fragrance that they are selling. If you look at the poster beside it you will see that Debenhams have used a Christmas themed style to try and persuade customers to buy their clothing and this has helped them gain a lot of recognition during the festive period. Debenhams have used market segmentation to segment their clothing range from old to young and from reserved to fashion trendy, this enables them to keep in contact with all types of people from different ages and different backgrounds and different needs. This has helped them gain a lot of consumers on a daily basis.
Debenhams have used geographic segmentation to segment their potential target markets by putting their stores in well populated places so many people would be able to easily access their products and services. Debenhams have used psychographic segmentation to segment the target market in terms of the lifestyle that they are living, they have done this by selling different types of clothing to go with the different lifestyles that people are living. An example of this is selling sportswear for the sporty and athletic people and selling designer clothing for the richer people. Debenhams have used behavioral segmentation to segment their customers based on the way that they behave to the products that Debenhams sell. They aim to segment target customers based on when they take the opportunity to purchase their products an example of this is the impulse purchases and another example is the complimentary purchases that customers do when they see products that goes with other products.
Boohoo I will now be moving on to Boohoo, they are an online shopping store that particularly focuses on trendy clothing and accessories. Because Boohoo is such a trendy outlet, they mainly target teenagers and young adults by the apparel that they are selling. Unlike Debenhams, Boohoo don't have a store so all of their persuasive visual merchandising is done on their websites and they have done this by putting notifications that they are selling products at 80 % off. This will entice the young buyers to purchase their products. Boohoo's target market is both male and female, this allows them to expand their target to both sexes thus increasing their sales, Boohoo are also into the trendy and daring side of fashion, this is because there are a lot of young people looking to impress their peers, so when they come across a website like Boohoo they are immediately going to be tied into the "cool look". Because Boohoo is an online store their use of promoting their products is important to them. This is because they know that these days’ consumers are feeling lazy when it comes to going out and purchasing their products, so they know that there is always going to be a select amount of their target market that will go and purchase their products. If you look at the table below you can see that the shortness of the dresses are aimed to teenagers and young adults simply because it just wouldn't appease a middle aged women. Also by the ages of the models you can see it is clearly made for the younger generation.
Boohoo has used market segmentation to segment their clothing from "going out" knitwear or even sportswear. This allows them to reach a large amount of young of people from all over the UK who are interested in purchasing their goods. The only difference is Debenhams sell a WIDE range of products and this allows them to make more marketing strategies that will allow them to gain more consumers and because Boohoo only focus on the clothing and accessories so that limits them from being able to do more market segmentation that could help them.
Boohoo has used psychological segmentation by segmenting their customers based on their class because boohoo is an online store, it is usually middle class teenagers and young adults that buy from boohoo because their prices vary from expensive to cheap. Boohoo have not been able to use geographical segmentation, this is because they are an internet store and they target the whole of the UK as a country. Boohoo has used behavioral segmentation to show deals such as 10% off everything or student discounts. The picture shows that they are bombarding customers with deals so customers will not be able to resist and therefore will lead to more impulse purchases.
Altogether both Debenhams have taken steps to ensure that they are able to reach a large amount of their target on a daily basis. Debenhams have used their visual merchandising techniques to entice their potential target markets to purchase their products. Debenhams have used different types of clothing such as maternity wear or bridal wear to appease to a mass market. Boohoo on the other hand only specialize in clothing and they attract the younger generation of people. Mako Toure