Launching a designer clothes line. Firm: Fashion designer Isabelle Beaumenay Joannet

Résumé du document

The marketing problem we aim to deal with is that of targeting the segment of customers Isabelle should focus on. Then we will have to define how to reach this segment. How should Isabelle Beaumenay-Joannet place her brand on the market? We will determine for her what kind of selling spot she should go for and how she should try to attract customers to that spot. First, we went through the data available at HEC and then we went on to observe and interview decision-makers of the fashion industry: Espace Créateurs du Printemps, Antoine et Lili, L'Orchidée… The targeted customers are women from age 23 and up to age 55 mainly. These are the women who are ready to spend the most money on clothes. Certainly chain shopping is very popular, particularly among young women who frequently make the rounds of the leading chains as a sort of social outing. On the other hand, department stores have the advantage of offering a much wider selection in one outlet.
Independents are meanwhile having a difficult time keeping up with chains and department stores.

Extraits

[...] While comparing “Grand Magasins” and private stores, we somewhat guessed that the comparison would be fruitful because of important differences. The hypothesis is that unknown creators will launch their brands in corners in big stores so as to reach a wide range of customers' profiles and to observe what appeals most to such customers. On the contrary, creators will choose to settle in private stores and to get the customers' loyalty. We also imagined that there existed significant differences between all the brands: each one has its specificity and its own strategy. [...]

[...] grands magasins: Most of the time, grands magasins do not have very loyal customers because they most of the time welcome tourist or French customers that did not find the piece of clothing they were looking for in some boutique. However, the close relationship that can be built with a customer in a boutique environment can be built in a department store too, but it is more due to the shop assistant personality rather than the grand magasin environment. Hence shop assistants have to listen a lot to their customers and then build a close relation with their clients. [...]

[...] In both cases designer clothes are sold but in a rather different environment and to different type of customers. However there are many common points. First of all, a quick overall of the different brands we have studied How and why are these designers' clothes bought? Pieces of advice given by shop assistants A. grands magasins Shop assistants will help customers in 95% of the cases, either to give them the right size of the clothes or to give them pieces of advice in order to have clothes put the right way. [...]

[...] We tried to gather information on a panel of few brands that appeared to us rather similar to Isabelle' s brands, but for want of time we could not adopt a wider approach. Are the comparisons with such brands relevant? Probably not entirely. It is always hard in the ready-to-wear industry to make generalizations of one particular strategy of one particular brand with its own story and style. On the contrary, the fashion industry is dominated by contiuous innovation and individual initiatives. Moreover, our study is limited since it cannot take into account the “fashion trend” in the long run. Our observations are somewhat perishable. [...]

[...] The second solution would of course be more expensive as outsourcing means additional costs. However, Isabelle already has a lot to do with designing her collections so maybe she cannot afford the time necessary for networking. Another alternative is for Isabelle to open her own shop. In that case she would have more decisions to make, here is our advice. After visiting Antoine&Lili's shop we would recommend to use colours to attract customers' attention by gathering clothes of the same colour on displays. [...]