Marketing Report of
By Therese Granstrรถm
Word count: 2839
Table of Content Current Situation
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SWOT analysis
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PEST analysis
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Marketing Mix
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Positioning Map
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Pen Portraits
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Where to go from here
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My recommendation
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Bibliography
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Current Situation
Initial Impressionn When first seeing the store I noticed the window displays, quite different and interesting displays in typical River Island style with the white brick wall. Walking in to the store the first thing you’ll see is the mannequins with the latest items on them. The walls are either plain white or white brick walls. The whole store is white and fresh without unnecessary décor. The mannequins in general are well dressed and well placed, the only questionable is the one with a male and a female mannequin that kisses. The clothes are divided in to sections for either colour or trend, there is also a denim section, nightwear/lingerie section and a shoes/ accessories section. The overall look of the store is inviting and clean, the white and clean décor makes the clothing and items stand out and be the main attraction. The only negative about River Island is the amount of pieces in the store, especially in the shoes and accessories section. It is so many items that it becomes overwhelming and messy with all the costumers moving thing around. My first visit was around 11AM on a Wednesday in early September. I mostly saw women approximately between 20 to 30 years old. There were some groups of younger teenage girls, probably tourists or girls who have not started school yet. The customers at River Island mostly had bags from Zara, Topshop, H&M and New Look. Current state of marketThe fashion today is in fast speed, everything is about getting the product out in store as fast as possible. We live in a world of fast fashion and mass-producing. As soon as the fashion shows for the upcoming season is over all the high street stores has to do is getting the new product out on the market. The products come in masses and it is all about being first with the latest trend. Competition Because of similarity in products and price range, also because of the same target market is River Islands biggest threats Topshop and H&M. Topshop have kind of the same price range, but they can be much more pricier. In clothing Topshop has more basic clothing and less embellishment then what River Island have. Topshop’s flagship store at Oxford Circus has a lot going on, they have regular Topshop, Topman, and in the basement they have beauty treatments, café, cupcake selling and other brands. Topshop have a wider assortment with their unique, petite, tall and maturity departments. H&M have probably the widest product assortment; they have women, men, kids, divided, home and beauty. They also have H&M trend, studio and sports within their departments. H&M do collaborations with both celebrities and designers, which tend to be successful. In price range are H&M usually less expensive than their competition. H&M have been around longer and have customers that have shopped at them for ages. Shopping mind state at River Island The dreaming mind state shopper seems to be the most common one at River Island since the majority of the customers is young and have not found their own style yet. As a dreaming mind state shopper you browse through the store without having anything in mind. For the exploring costumer that wants to browse River Island have been putting the same item in different colours around the store so that the costumer get to se more things. They also tend to have their items in a variation of different colours and patterns. They also tend to have one item in a lot of different styles For the locating costumer River Island have divided their store in to sections, denim, nightwear/underwear, shoes and accessories have their own place, also the rest of the store is divided in either colours or trends. Making it easy for the locating mind to find what they are looking for. River Island always has their new stock at the beginning of the store, making it easy for the costumer to find the new items.
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SWOT Analysis
Strengths • River Islands collaborations with bloggers is on of their strengths, the bloggers introduce new customers for River Island and they show of the clothing in a different way then what the store does. Bloggers tend to be inspirations for young people and wearing River Island will make the younger people want it more. • The website create a majority of River Islands selling’s, therefore the website is one of the strengths. Good pictures of the items both on a model and without a model. • Great locations for their stores, only in central London River Island have three stores along Oxford Street. One at the bottom close to Marble arch, one in the middle of the street and one close to Oxford Circus. • Except for their own website River Island are also selling their items through ASOS.com and Nelly.com. Weaknesses • River Islands biggest weakness is their lack of a role model. They can increase their selling with a famous face out for the customer to recognize and associate the brand with. • River Island has a lot of items in the store, sometimes so much that it could overwhelming for the customer. By decreasing the items it would be easier for the customer to find what they are looking for. • River Island is well known in the UK, but not as much in the rest of the world. River Island do not have stores in America which is a loss for them, by possibly expanding to America they could increase their selling. Opportunities • River Island should consider expanding to America, this would make them better known and that would increase their selling. • River Island should also create a flagship store along Oxford Street, they currently have three stores that is okay, but they should invest in one major one that always have the latest and is their best one. • Getting a face out/role model for the brand. Being associated with a famous face will increase the odds of being recognized and remembered, it will also increase the selling since famous people have a major influence on regular people. • While getting a face to the brand, they should also consider a collaboration with a celebrity or designer and having this kind of collaborations more regularly. Threats • River Islands main competitors are Topshop and H&M and also their biggest threats on the market. Especially H&M is a threat since they have similar products but at a lower price. • River Island have a specific style on their clothes, trends do come and go and River Island follow them well, but there’s some trends that River Island may struggle with if they want to keep their specific style. Therefor trend changes could be an issue. • River Island does not have a specific flagship store, this is something that its competitors have but they don’t.
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PEST Analysis Political • River Island manufactures their clothes in different parts of the world, complications such as war can cause problem with the shipping from the manufacturing countries to the countries where River Island have their stores. • River Island do the majority of their selling on their website which means that if policies change on the international market problems can appear due to shipping. • VAT tax changes, in 2011 the tax raised from 17.5% to 20%, changes like this will cause problems for River Islands selling. • If River Island decided to manufacture their clothes in the UK they will avoid complications with other countries, but the manufacturing cost will raise and therefore they need to raise the price on items in store. Economical • The constant currency change affect River Islands selling, when the sterling pound is strong tourists visiting UK will shop less because it will be more expensive for them. • Since River Island do most of their selling online they also do a lot of shipping, if the price for shipping abroad would have increased it would have been more expensive for River Island to run their online shop. • A general depression will cause people to shop less, especially the costumers that shop at River Island since they often are young and don’t have a stabile income. • The weather has a huge impact on the selling, especially in the UK. The rainy weather in August this year affected the “back to school” sales. Social • River Island is one of the larger brands that do not have a “face” out. Lacking a role model makes it easier for the customer to forget the brand because they don’t have a famous face to associate with it. Having a role model can also increase selling. • River Island was a part of 2015’s London Fashion Week when they did a collaboration with designer Zoe Jordan and held an event for their new collection with her. • The discussion about fast fashion and mass produced clothes is divided, River Island is a company that mass produces their clothes and if so people suddenly decides to stop buying mass produced clothing a problem will appear for River Island and their selling will decrease. • While other competitor stores do collaborations with famous designers and celebrities, River Island do collaborations with bloggers (and during LFW with a designer). Not working with as famous people as their competitors can cause a decrease in selling. Technological • River Island do the majority of their selling online, if internet by any chance would crash or if each country get’s it’s own internet it will appear major problems for River Islands because their selling would decrease. • Automation of producing clothing will speed up the producing and make River Island get more clothing out in the store.
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Marketing Mix Product: River Island offers trendy products with the glamorous River Islands touch. According to River Island themselves they offer key trends from designer runway, which they translate into their own unique design without ripping them off. This way they are following the latest trends, but still keeping the River Island feeling. This makes it possible for the customer to follow the trends without paying a fortune. Price: Here River Island is using the skimming strategy to attract costumers. They start of with a higher initial price and then lowering the price over time. This strategy is sales, and sales attract most customers, especially a ½ price sale that is most common for River Island. They also adjust the price after what kind of items they are selling. When they did collaboration with a designer the price on the clothing from that collection was higher. Place: River Islands stores are placed mainly in the centre of a shopping area or in a mall, they also have an online shop and they sell through both ASOS.com and Nelly.com. They have 350 stores across UK, Ireland, Asia, Middle East and Europe. Promotion: River Island advertises themselves mostly through their own social media such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. They also do collaborations with bloggers to attract new fashion-interested customers. And they have commercials that you can see on Youtube before a video. River Island is very active on their social media and for the costumer it is easy to follow them to see the latest trends and what’s new. During London Fashion Week 2015 they also held an event. Physical evidence: Similar for all River Island stores is the white brick wall that you can see in different places, also that they divide the items clearly into sections. Also that they have a, quite often, large shoe and accessory department. The bags at River Island tend to change now and then, but they seem to have a regular white plastic bag with the black logo on it. Process: When walking in to the store the staff is welcoming, while browsing through items they don’t ask if you need any help, they just mind their own business. If you are in need of help you need to find them and ask for it. When buying an item they don’t ask questions and they don’t tell you about the amount of days of return. When returning an item they ask you why you are returning it and if they could show you something else. People: As for the staff they have employee discounts (50%), they can work at different locations and they have flexible shifts. The staffs have training and they get healthcare provisions. The fact that they do training is good for the customer because the staff will have better knowledge and they can offer better help. A well-educated staff will bring customers back to the store. This is a quote from River Island about working at them. “What we can offer depends on your role and your location, but one thing’s for sure. At River Island, you’ll always feel well thanked for your hard work and contribution to our success.”
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Positioning Map Trend Focused
Low Price
High Price
Classic Design
River Island is very trend focus, therefore they are very high up on the trend focused scale. The say that they take key trends from the designer runway to follow the latest trends. Even though they always keep up with the trends their price is not the highest one on the market. The price depends on if it just their regular collection, their limited collection or designer collaboration collection.
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Pen Portraits
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Where to go from here To develop their brand River Island has two main opportunities. One is to develop a new collection, River Island basics. River Island don’t have clothes that can be considered basic clothing and if they want to attract more customers they should go for creating a lifestyle and by that creating a Basics line. If creating a basic line the customers would know that they could go to River Island for everything they need. So they could get all the latest trends that are River Island’s main focus but also the basics you need to create an outfit from the trends. River Islands other opportunity is to expand to America. They have over 350 stores all over UK, Ireland, Europe, Asia and Middle East and consider themselves as well known. But to really be as well known as they
My recommendation My recommendation is to start of with wider the assortment with a basic clothing line. This has most value for the current customer and this can make the new customer continue shopping at River Island. To go through with this I think that River Island should start of with their social media, asking the customer what they would need in a basic clothing line. River Island have very good social media and to involve the customer in the production of the new collection shows that they know that the customer is the important one, because they are going to buy the product. While creating the basic line they should still keep the River Island feel, and make clothing that feels as glamorous as the rest of River Islands collections, even though it’s basics. To market the new basic collection River Island should do it via their social media, especially Instagram and Twitter that is their biggest social media. This lets the customer be with the collection from beginning of the idea to the end when the clothing ends up in the store. The strategy to produce the clothing should be a more environment friendly production. Since it’s basic clothing they can use recycled fabrics to create the collection and then market the whole collection as environment friendly clothing. The price range at River Island is not the most expensive but not the cheapest on the high street market either. Considering this they can have a reasonable price on their environment friendly basic collection, not as cheap as H&M have their basics, but not to expensive since River Islands main customer is quite young without a stabile income. Going for an environment friendly line will be good for River Island since there is a majority of environment conscious customers. I believe that this is the best start for River Island to develop their brand and make their store more “lifestyle”. By adding a basic collection the customer can go to River Island for everything that they need for fashion.
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The executive summary During three months I have been studied River Islands stores, done researches about them and followed them on social media to created a marketing plan for them to develop their company. This marketing report contains A SWOT and a PEST analysis, pen portraits of their current and potential customer. My first impressions when walking in to River Islands store and who their main competitors are. After researches and visits at the store I believe that the first thing they should do to develop their brand should be creating a basics line since they are lacking basic clothing. I also believe that they should consider expanding to America but that expanding should come after developing their clothing collection. River Island is a trendy outgoing brand with a majority of young customers who have not developed a complete style yet. The fashion future could be in their hands.
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Bibliography Books: • Posner, H. (2011) Marketing Fashion. London: Laurence King Weblinks: • River Island’s website http://www.riverisland.se/inside-river-island/about-us • Topshop’s website http://www.topshop.com/?geoip=home • H&M’s website http://www.hm.com/gb/ • River Island Taps Zoë Jordan http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2015/07/03/river-island-collaboration-zoe-jordan-design-forum • River Island heads across the pond http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/ features/river-island-heads-across-the-pond-8036648.html Social Media: • River Island’s Twitter @riverisland • River Island’s Facebook • River Island’s Instagram @riverisland Images • Logo ”RI” http://intu.co.uk/uploads/media/logo_retailer/0001/06/thumb_5140_ logo_retailer_1x.png • Logo ”River Island” https://appablog.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/060415_0905_ riverisland1.png?w=500 • Pink texture http://static.thunderlily.com/fabricsimages/novelty/polyester/light-pinkpolyester-faux-fur/full/6705/IMG_7941-top.JPG • Logo Topshop http://www.cairofestivalcity.com/wps/wcm/connect/49b366f35394-4b5c-8c18-f8b53b1db8b2/topshop.jpg?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=49b366f3-5394-4b5c-8c18-f8b53b1db8b2 • Logo Forever21 http://i.forbesimg.com/media/lists/companies/forever-21_416x416. jpg • Logo Reiss http://www.onenewchange.com/shops/reiss • Logo All Saints http://abcosystems.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/allsaints-logo. jpg • Logo Mango http://stilisten.se/bilder/mango.jpg • Logo Primark • Logo H&M http://strawberrymedia.tv/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/hM-logo.jpg 10