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T APPLY): This is my FINAL submission for this assignment.

By electronically submitting this work, I certify that: This assignment is my own work It has not previously been submitted for assessment Where material from other sources has been used it has been acknowledged properly This work meets the requirement of the Universitys ethics policy Student Name: Eve Fisher Student Number : (Put in ALL for a group submission) Q7981 8099 Faculty: FCIS Level of study: 6 Course title: BA (Hons) Fashion Management with Marketing Unit title: Retail Management Assignment title:Project Assignment tutor: Israr Jan- Parker Word count: 4393 Learner request for feedback:

The Big Sell Off Yellow Team Eve Fisher

e v i t u c xe

y r a m m Su
The Big Sell Off is an exciting live project in which the students of BA (Hons) Fashion Management with Marketing have competed in four separate teams to sell the collegiate range for Southampton Solent University. This project analyses the planning, development, execution, and results to the four day event managed by BA (Hons) Fashion Management with Marketing Level 6 students, The Big Sell Off. The event was an exciting opportunity for students to create an innovative marketing strategy to sell the universitys collegiate range, with the products designed by students, for students. The project has given the students a great experience to learn about how to combine sales and marketing to meet marketing criteria. This crucial knowledge can be applied to the employability skills of the students involved in the event. The Big Sell Off was a fun experience to participate in. This project will look at the business from every perspective, for people management, the supply chain, risk assessment, the market overview and consumer definition.

Contents Page
Introduction Primary Research
Methodology Ideal Sample for the Research Research Methods Analysis of Preliminary Research

The Supply Chain

Trend Moden Production Process Jack Wills and The Supply Chain Collegiate Range and The Supply Chain

37
37 37 38 39 40 41 43 44

1 2
2 2 3 4

Planning

Marketing Aims and Objectives SMART Objectives The Marketing Strategy The Marketing Programme

40

Secondary Research

Competitor Research and The Marketing Mix- Hollister Competitor Research and The Marketing Mix- JD Sports Competitor Research and The Marketing Mix- Jack Wills

9 10 11 Market Overview 12 Definition of Pop-Up Shops 12 Perceptual Map 12 PESTLE Analysis 13 SWOT Analysis for Yellow Team 19 21 Consumer Overview 21 Target Market 22 Pen Portrait 23 ACORN Consumer Profiling: Collegiate Range Maslows Hierarchy of Needs in Relation to the Collegiate Range 24 25 Customer Relationship Management Matrix: Collegiate Range 26 Diffusions of Innovation

Sales Forecast Development and Execution Sales and Margins

Advertisements/ Poster and Flyer Images Breakdown of Team Yellows Sales Profit Margins for Old Stock 2011 Profit Margins for New Stock 2012

45 47 51
52 53 54 56 58 60 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 49

Risk Assessment

The Four Categories of Organisational Risk

55 58 62

Competitive Analysis

Competition USPs and Strategies Collection of Competitor Imagery

Competitive Evaluation

Positioning Strategy

Marketing Mix Ansoff Matrix Boston Matrix Relationship Marketing Kellers Brand Equity Pyramid Positioning Strategy Conclusion

27
28 30 31 32 32 33 34 36

Appendix 1: Survey Questions Appendix 2: Team Roles and Responsibilities Appendix 3: Team Yellow Rota Appendix 4: Price List Appendix 5: Stock Allocation and Sales Instructions Appendix 6: 2011 Stock Order Documents and Cost Prices Appendix 7: 2012 Stock Order Documents and Cost Prices Appendix 8: Yellow Team Sales Beakdown Appendix 9: Yellow Team Budget Appendix 10: Employability Skills

The Importance of People Management

Belbins Team Roles Adizes PAEI Management Roles

34

Harvard References/ Bibliography POPAI (Point of Purchase Advertising International)

Dimensions POPAI Entry: Questions and Answers Visuals

73 76
77 78 80

Int

n o i t c u d ro

The Big Sell Off is a four day event, in which four teams of sixteen will compete to sell Southampton Solent Universitys collegiate range, designed by students for students. The group will be responsible for preparing the clothing to sell in four different locations, managing takings, working as a team and accounting for stock.

The group will alternate locations during the four days. These include the universitys main reception, JM building, HC building, and the new exciting project Re:So (Retail Solent) based very central to the city of Southampton in the Marlands shopping centre. The groups task is to devise an innovative marketing strategy in which to sell the universitys collegiate range, taking into account models and theories learnt through the course and apply them to the practical success of a realistic business. The idea began with the revolution of pop up shops, an answer to the many shops shutting on the high street due to the impact of the tough economic climate and prolonged recession. The yellow team have many exciting ideas to explore, and in order to fully utilise the project, the team aims to use this opportunity to directly help the well established charity, Children in Need, which occurs every November. This project will examine every aspect of the project and will account for the planning, development and execution of the event, as well as analysis of the final outcomes and a competitive evaluation. In order to succeed, the group will need a thorough understanding of retail management as a concept, and a skill to sell to the chosen target market, and will need to attain a competitive advantage over other teams.

Primary Research
Methodology The methodology aims to identify the optimum methods of research in order to gain as much information into the collegiate range as possible for the purpose of maximising the potential of the marketing strategy. During the recession, pop up shops have been an effective method of utilising space and generating growth in the economy, so to find out if the range has potential, primary research will examine whether selling the collegiate range will be a positive idea to generate profit for the university. In order to gain the best quality of information possible, the group would need to incorporate qualitative and quantitative data to find out opinions of the range as well as strong, reliable statistical facts. Ideal Sample for the Research

2
The collegiate range of Southampton Solent University has been identified by Team Yellow as having the most potential within the students which attend there, with a stronger emphasis of first years (their high levels of excitement and enthusiasm towards their new university life) and third years (as their university life is drawing closer to ending, these students will perceive the products as a sentimental reminder of their university experiences). Therefore, the sample for the research will consist of students from Southampton Solent University, from all year groups and from all course subjects. This will effectively be the target audience for selling the collegiate range, and these are the consumers who will be present and most likely to purchase in the four pre-set locations. As students of the university provide quite a broad perspective of the range, the questions in the survey will also aim to gain information into different psychographics and demographics in order to establish what types of consumers are most interested in purchasing the range and what factors would help them with their buying decision process.

Primary Research
Research Methods As the group is limited for time to plan thoroughly, the ideal methods to use would be surveys, as they can be created and distributed very quickly via social media networks, and additionally focus groups, as networking can gain a reliable sample quickly and it will give the team an in depth knowledge of what the consumers would be interested in, therefore helping the group devise a thorough marketing strategy. By choosing to create a survey, the group needed to plan thoroughly what information was relevant and would help generate a thriving marketing strategy. Therefore, it was decided that there would be a mix of open questions to gain qualitative information based on the range, as well as closed questions to allow for quantitative information of one specific answer, which would be easier to analyse and therefore statistical reliable data can be produced and cross referenced. The survey will be structured, as the survey needs to be consistent and adding and changing questions would be difficult. However, to overcome this problem, and to gain more thorough qualitative research, the team will conduct focus groups with a mixed sample of Southampton Solent University students, from all years and both genders. The focus groups will be semi structured, with a list of questions and the chance to increase the depth of knowledge if needed or if a point made by the participants is unclear to the conductor of the focus group, and then they will be given the chance to elaborate.

Primary Research
Question 1 Question 1 aimed to establish the gender of the consumer to distinguish how the marketing strategy could differentiate from this, as 73% asked were female and 27% male. This shows that information could be more biased towards females. Question 2

Analysis of Preliminary Primary Research into the Collegiate Range 2012 The use of market research is important into concluding what marketing strategy would be most effective at selling Southampton Solent Universitys collegiate range to the selected target market.

Analysis of the primary research will help conclude how students perceive the range and what the team can incorporate into their marketing strategy to make the range more successful and fulfilling for the consumer.

This question simply asked for the participants age. This was to distinguish what ages the students who attended the university were, and if there was a dominant age group, the team could then define this groups wants and desires, therefore the marketing strategy could be more effective as a result. To conclude, the age groups 18-20 and 21-23 were the dominant groups, meaning the team could use this information to identify likes and interests to create a thorough marketing strategy. As this group has a lower disposable income, and the group surveyed are all students, it is clear to define that these consumers would be interested in freebies, and to aspire to their personal interests, the team could include freebies for fashion, music, food, and nightlife. These items would be appropriate to this demographic. Question 3 This question was simply confirming the participant attended the university, to ensure that during result analysis, the team could be sure the sample was 100% students that attended Southampton Solent University and the survey had not been completed from people outside of the idealistic sample. Question 4 Question 4 was designed to establish what year group the participant was currently studying, to help the team distinguish if enthusiasm levels were higher within the proposed target market of first and third year students. The information was biased, as due to the teams networking, most of the participants were third year students. Unfortunately, there was little information from first year students, however, it seemed that the majority of the sample (third years) were still interested in the collegiate range, therefore confirming that the team had chosen a correct target market. These students are most likely to fall in the majority age group of 21-23 as well, making this groups interests the dominant focus of the marketing strategy.

Primary Research
Question 5 Question five looked into asking what consumers wanted from a lifestyle clothing brand, with the option of suggesting any factors that had not been mentioned. One person chose to add that they looked for brands that were fashion forward. The most popular answers were quality, style, comfort and value. The collegiate range is high quality and comfortable, but finding out whether consumers perceived the range as stylish and to have value will define whether the product fulfils consumer desires and therefore whether it will have potential for generating high levels of profit. Question 6 In order to identify whether building brand awareness was important to the teams marketing strategy, question six asked students whether they were already aware of the collegiate range. According to research, 63% of students were aware, whilst 37% were not. This suggests that even though the majority of students knew of the range, the marketing strategy would need to account for the students that were not, and as a small proportion of students were first years, it could suggest this market are not as aware. In order to ensure that awareness increases, the marketing strategy will need to build brand awareness using a variety of marketing actions to advertise.

Question 7 This question was open, asking participants opinions of the range, in order to gain qualitative information. Comments included were quite basic, quite expensive, limited colours, cool styles, uncool and overpriced, its the same as every other uni, uninspiring, theyre ok, not very fashionable, sporty, its not my style of clothing, I wouldnt wear hoodies and trackies, lacks credibility and choice, as there are not many colours to choose from and its not perceived as trendy as other universities, there is a good variety, but the prices are quite high, its something I would wear around the house, but not out and I think the designs are good, however not so keen on some of the colours for example the purple and green. It seems that some students like aspects of the range but not others, such as price and choice, whilst the majority believe it is not stylish or fashionable or they perceive the range quite negatively. Most students surveyed did not believe that the clothing matched their criteria of what they want, however, due to the teams networking it is to be considered that many students that answered could be studying fashion courses and are predominantly female, suggesting that students from sports courses could be far more intrigued by the range or that it is far more suited for students who are active and need the comfort and quality the collegiate range offers. In order to incorporate this into the marketing strategy, the team could take on a sports theme, and aim for students who are not as fashion conscious.

Primary Research
Question 8 This question asked if the participant had already bought an item from the range, in order to establish their thoughts on the product whilst consuming, and whether they were happy with the purchase. It will also help to identify what items have sold well and if the range is already credible from previous consumers. The majority had not bought an item from the range, showing that the range has not been hugely popular so far. With such a high proportion of the participants already having awareness from the brand, the evidence of this question shows that consumers currently dont have high levels of interest in the range, and not enough desire to drive purchasing. The marketing strategy will need to be persuasive in order to encourage the potential consumers to purchase. As for the consumers that had purchased, there was one consumer unhappy with the sizing (however, this was from a previous and different range with different specifications) and the other consumers were happy. The items were two t-shirts and two hoodies which show that these items are products that need the highest focus during selling.

Question 9

This question asked the participant whether they would be interested in purchasing from the collegiate range, with 60% claiming they would. This implies there is still huge market potential, as this is a clear majority who are willing to purchase.

Primary Research
Question 10 Question 11

They are quite good value, I would be encouraged to buy

Depends how unique it is

The survey then continued asking the Question eleven was an open question to participant as to which items they would be determine what consumers thought of the interested in. This is to establish what products pricing for the 2012 range, and whether they are likely to be best sellers, so that the team can would be willing to purchase with the set prices. They are much better compared then predict which items to merchandise more . Consumers felt the prices were fair, but were to last year, I would be more effectively, and how to utilise the increased not too sure whether they would purchase due potential of some of the items within the range. to the brand lacking credibility. Of course, this likely to purchase As the results suggest, the hoodies and joggers means that the team needs to meet the They are quite fair have the highest potential with a combined objective of creating favourable perceptions to prices, however I dont result with 86.66% of participants interested students within their marketing strategy. think theyre worth it into these items. Only 20% were not interested Another key point to make is that consumers due to the style at all, which suggests 80% of consumers have at feel that the range was far better priced than least some interest in purchasing. Shorts looked the 2011 range, and this would make them feel The t-shirt is reasonable but the hoodies to be very unpopular with only one participant far more inclined to spend the money if they and joggers are too high interested, however t-shirts also have a strong Question 12 ability to sell during the week. The team will need to focus their visual merchandising on the Question twelve examined whether incentives with purchases, such as games and freebies, would encourage hoodies and joggers, with consideration into consumers to buy products from the range. As the results are shown in this pie chart, only a small percentage of which marketing actions can boost sales of these 13% answered No. The large proportion of 47% answered Yes to incentives encouraging a purchase, items (which will lead to a higher average spend additionally 40% of consumers were slightly sceptical, answering Depends how good the incentives are. This per consumer as well as higher levels of profit proves that as part of the marketing strategy, team yellow need to contact companies to try to gain incentives due to these products being the most as well as incentives which are perceived as good by the participants (as discussed earlier, this could consist of expensive). fashion, food, music and nightlife freebies).

I think they are all at good prices and wouldnt have a problem buying any of them for that price

Primary Research
Question 13 Question thirteen is an open broad question asking the participant to state what attracts them into a store. It seems that consumers are attracted to similar variables, such as music, good visual merchandising, good atmosphere, style, effective window displays, mannequins and friendly staff. As the project is based on the concept of pop up shops, it will be difficult to make window displays possible, but making the products eyecatching and visually merchandising them effectively will help attract consumers to browse, which could lead onto sales, meaning that this element of the project needs to be thoroughly planned and executed during the Big Sell Off.

Question 14

This question wanted to know as to what extent customer service affects purchasing decisions. I dont like to be pushed A lot. I will not return to a store and pestered to buy, but again if I receive bad or rude service. Massively. It helps if it a friendly face is always

If the staff are rude or t my no g; in uy b t ea p re y m s It affect unwilling to help or ct fa ig b a e b t n o w so initial buying then it reflects e. ng ra it e t at gi u lle b in the co negatively on the products, e h t e k li y e ll d a u e r r I e uch if istants ar store, less likely s s a e h t Not very m if d n a r b y off the und is ver o to make a purf e v a h i does put me h ic h w , h g u eno It d chase. . s e r o t or not polite s n o o t p e m Southa item snt re common in a

is available and friendly. nice

Not too much, if I want something Ill buy it.

deci

An interesting store layout, nothing too cluttered with lots of interesting visuals. Also not too bright fake lighting as it hurts my Something new and original. eyes - big windows with natural light would be a major plus. Also friendly and helpful Reputation, aesthetics, and staff.

The comments tend to follow the concept that good customer service affects purchasing positively, and also will determine whether they return as a repeat buyer, therefore suggesting a link between positive customer service and brand loyalty. Delivering good customer service is important for the collegiate range, so The brand as a package. It must fit assisting browsing consumers with sizes and colours as well as the style I want to achieve. being friendly and smiling will be a tactic in order to gain sales. Question 15: Additional Comments

. Bu t it w lly if I r sion e to re ould de ally like finit turn ely a the . ffect my

pricing

Good lighting, very visually creative and ambitious displays, colour and Attractive exterior, well presented mannequins to display clothes models, good vibe how the garments look.

Window Displays and Colour

The range is not attractive to people who want to look stylish. maybe more stylish as it is pretty basic The products are good but i would be more likely to purchase one if there was more variety of items, additional different designs and lower prices. More advertising

Competitor Research and the Marketing Mix

Secondary Research
Hollister
Product

Secondary Research into the Big Sell Off will indicate what strategies are successful for selling lifestyle clothing, by looking into competitors with a similar product mix.

The main identified competitors for the collegiate range based on the marketing mix are lifestyle retailers Hollister and Jack Wills, as well as the University of Southampton collegiate range and potentially sports retailers such as JD Sports. By observing the main identified competitors of the collegiate range, it is clear to see how three very different companies with similar products manage their marketing. By absorbing this information, the yellow team can use this information to help them develop a marketing strategy which utilises the effectiveness of their competitors. Hollister is the sister company of the American brand, Abercrombie and Fitch. The brand is based around the idea of Californian lifestyle. Marketing Mix
Hollister base their products on Californian fashion and lifestyle. The products are very casual and simplistic with their famous seagull logo and the brand handwriting. The physical product revolves around very versatile colours, such as greys, reds, navy blues, and denim, basic cut shapes like hoodies, t-shirts, joggers, shorts, shirts and jeans. The functional product revolves around comfort, high quality, versatility and practicality through good fits, thick materials and waterproof outer garments. The product is based heavily on the psychological product, which incorporates the Californian theme which is aspirational to young people and students. The brand has a strong American beach style heritage, and appeals to the sense of belonging to this interesting, cultured lifestyle. The product mix is very similar to those offered within the collegiate range, both physically and functionally. Hollisters sister company, Abercrombie and Fitch, is marketed from the American high school culture, which is more similar psychologically to the collegiate range. The price of the product is quite expensive, due to the quality and demand for the brand. For example, the male joggers are 44 and female joggers are 39, male and female plain t-shirts are roughly 16-20, male zip-up hoodies are 60, and female zip up hoodies are 50, whilst female jersey shorts are 19. Of course, these products are far more expensive than the collegiate range. Hollister use premium pricing as they are a far more established brand, so despite their quality being better, they can charge more for their clothing, compared to the less established collegiate range. Hollister currently have twenty nine UK stores, including one in Southampton. They are a multi channel retailer, as they distribute goods through their stores, their online website and through a phone app. Their stores are very unique and the brand is very much built on the Californian culture. The store from the outside resembles a beach hut, with dark wood panelling. The customer can enter one of two sides: Dudes or Bettys. This further justifies the American beach culture. The lighting within stores is very dark with occasional spot lights to highlight key products. The Hollister perfume is blown throughout the store to heighten the senses of the consumer and to make the store environment more aesthetically pleasing. Every product is presented very neatly, with mannequins to display the desired Californian look. The online channel and mobile phone app are displayed similarly, with very dark browns and vintage wood effects, which is very simplistic yet effective. Hollister use direct marketing as promotion to consumers who sign up to email updates, as well as having their own online soundtrack, social media pages on Facebook and Twitter as well as a mobile phone app. They also occasionally release online codes offering discounts as well as regular in store and online sales.

Price

Place

Promotion

Secondary Research
JD Sports Product Marketing Mix

JD Sports is a retailer supplying large sporting brands, with the idea of quality and purpose throughout their product mix.

Price

Place

Promotion

The products offered by JD Sports are known to be functional, as their purpose is predominantly on sports. The physical products vary from what sports market the clothing is aimed for, however, products tend to be t-shirts, hoodies, joggers and trainers in a range of colours. They are very basic shapes. The functional product is comfortable, fit for purpose, basic and well fitting. The psychological product varies from brand to brand, but mainly revolves around the idea of fitness, sportiness, and active lifestyles. The products resemble those within the collegiate range, based around comfort and practicality. JD Sports offers a wide variety of prodicts from sports brands, such as Nike, Adidas, Lacoste, and much more. All these brands product products aimed for practical and comfort reasons, therefore making the product mix very similar to those offered in the collegiate range. Branded hoodies range from 20-65 for women depending on the credibility of the brand, and 20- 115 for men. Joggers for men are 20- 70, and 10- 65 for women. Brands at the higher end of the scale, such as Lacoste, Nike and Adidas, are the more expensive labels, making them far more expensive than the collegiate range. They order in bulk to get lower cost prices in order to use competitive pricing against similar retailers. JD Sports operates dominantly from bricks and mortar stores. However, they also operate through their online channel and mobile phone app, making them a multi channel distributer. Within their stores, a large area is allocated to footwear. The stores are merchandised using their key colours, black and silver. Their website is laid out with similar colours, but is not particularly impressive. It does not follow fashion or style as a dominant theme. JD Sports use direct marketing by emailing their consumers, as well as social media. They also advertise in newspapers and magazines, such as FHM and NME. The company collaborated with Adidas to feature VIP tickets for an exclusive N-Dubz event at the O2 arena, and use competitions, sales promotions and athlete endorsement to promote the brand.

10

Secondary Research
Jack Wills Product Marketing Mix

Jack Wills is a British brand aimed at university students, with the slogan University Outfitters. The brand specialises in good quality lifestyle clothing.

Jack Wills is a lifestyle brand aimed for British University students, so offers a very similar product range to the collegiate range. The products are based around the university lifestyle, with many casual, practical items designed with a sense of style. The physical product is made to a high quality, with a range of colours, cuts and shapes. Their basic clothing with the Jack Wills logo is the best sellers of the brand. The functional product that the items are comfortable, practical, high quality and versatile, as the product is designed to be durable as they are aimed for student lifestyles. The psychological product is a sense of involvement, community, status and intelligence. The clothes project the image of being young, aspirational, fun and ambitious. Price The price is quite expensive, especially for a brand aimed at students, due to the value of the range and the status the brand projects. Male joggers are priced from 49.50 to 59.50, whilst female joggers are priced form 39.50 to 49.50. The basic t-shirts with the brands logo are around 29.50 for women and men, whilst hoodies range from 59.50 to 98.50. The brand uses premium pricing, with the status supporting the price. It is far more expensive than the collegiate range, but offers the same clothing with more of choice and a stylised essence. It is a well established credible brand, which justifies the high price and makes it an aspirational brand. Place Jack Wills has fifty five UK stores. They have also expanded into Hong Kong and the USA. The stores are authentically British, with large efforts placed into the visual merchandising, such as deer antlers, quirky wallpaper, bath tubs, wooden wardrobes and cabinets, lampshades and framed British art. The store environment is very luxurious and unique, spacious with beautiful furnishings. Their online environment is displayed extremely well, as products are easy to find and style ideas for different ranges give excellent inspiration for their target consumers. Contrasting to Hollister, it is very bright with the bold font standing out amongst the use of white. Jack Wills is aimed to the aspirational student demographic, similarly to the collegiate range; however, Jack Wills as a retailer lacks a bricks and mortar store within Southampton, therefore lowering the threat of competition to the collegiate range. However, the brand is still accessible with the use of an online distribution channel. Promotion The company uses event marketing to support the themes of community and status to the brand. They are sponsors to the Varsity Match, hosting after parties with the Mystery Jets DJ set. They also hold student lock ins with free drinks and live music with a free goody bag (tickets are priced at 10 each). Consumers can also go to their late night Christmas shopping events for 20, which is redeemable with purchases over 50 and receive a free goody bag. They also promote their brand with seasonal videos, and inspiration pages on how to wear the latest trends. The company also offers 15% student discount with a valid NUS extra card.

11

Market Overview
Pop Up Shops Pop Up shops have become increasingly popular in the recession, as businesses are suffering to operate throughout the duration of a whole year. According to The Guardian, every day twenty shops are closing on UK high streets with one in six properties empty, compared to just one in twenty at the start of the recession (The Guardian, 2012). Pop up shops are a way of utilising these spaces, benefitting both the retailer and landlords. This illustrates a fantastic opportunity for the collegiate range, regarding The Big Sell Off. In order to understand the opportunity fully, research needs to be conducted to give a market overview, through an external analysis. Perceptual Map Identifying the collegiate ranges competitors can help determine the current positioning within the market and distinguish how the range is perceived amongst consumers. The identified competitors are Hollister and Jack Wills, as these lifestyle casual wear brands are highly popular amongst the student demographic, as well as JD Sports and Sports Direct, as the Yellow Team are aiming the brand towards the concept of sports. The University of Southamptons collegiate range will also be a direct competitor to the potential demographic outside students, as it is perceived as a more credible and established university. Southampton Solents collegiate range is reasonably priced, and quite good quality (due to the thick materials, the fleecy interiors and the strong colour quality), however, primary research suggested that a percentage of consumers thought that the range was overpriced due to the fact that it was not stylish enough, which then lowers the value of the products. This is why the range is perceived as being higher in price.

12

(Pop Up Businesses for Dummies, Dan Thompson, 2012)

Market Overview
Political

Conducting a PESTLE analysis enables the group to gain an in depth understanding of the external market, which will help to forecast any potential opportunities and threats. This will help to form the foundations of the marketing strategy.

13

PESTLE Analysis

Student Fees Increasing in 2012 The coalition government announced in 2010 that people who applied for university for the year 2012 would pay an increased amount in tuition fees. Prior to this change, the maximum tuition fee was capped to 3,290 per year, which has now risen to 9,000 per academic year. This has had a huge impact on the higher education industry, as a report by Andrew McGettigan states that higher university fees will add 100 billion to public debt over the next twenty years (BBC, 2012). UCAS stated that by January 2012, total applications compared to 2011 had decreased overall by 7.4%, UK applicants had decreased by 8.7%, whilst English applicants decreased by 9.9%, and applicants from the EU decreased by 11.2% (UCAS, 2012). The Guardian also claimed that the rise in tuition fees led to 15,000 fewer applicants from England, whereas students applying for Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Universities barely dropped (*Scotland do not charge tuition fees, Wales pay for any fees above 3465 for Welsh students attending UK institutions, and fees from Northern Ireland are capped at 3465). The Guardian suggests that the average annual tuition fee in England was 8,385 for 2012, which will rise in 2013 to 8,507 (The Guardian, 2012). The Big Sell Off could be threatened by these figures, as the current first year students of the university, who are the ideal target market due to their keenness and excitement towards university life, are the first year of students that have to pay the increased tuition fees. As a result, these students will be more cautious of the money they are willing to spend, as well as wary about whether the prices set by the university are fair for the products being offered. In order to overcome this threat, the Big Sell Off needs to offer more than the clothing for the price being charged, with the use of incentives, free gifts, and anything which will appeal to their lifestyle of having low disposable income (food, clothing, social occasions, ect). Rising Transport Fares Many students are resorting to commuting from home instead of living in their university cities, due to the high prices of rented and shared accommodation and not enough government funding. In 2010, more than 310,000 students chose to apply to local universities and commute from their home, which is 19% of undergraduates compared to just 8% in 1984, as eight out of ten of these students claim they chose to live at home during their studies to save money (The Guardian, 2011). This figure was predicted to increase dramatically with the rise in tuition fees, as aspiring students who still wanted to go to university researched ways of cutting other debts. However, stay at home students will stay have a small amount of money to live on, as staying at home will mean a smaller student loan. With the rising commuting costs, this leaves the stay at home students with very little disposable income. By January 2013, rail fares will have raised by 6.2%, roughly twice the rate of inflation which stands at 3.2% (BBC, 2012). Rail fares, prior to this, was perceived to be extortionately high, which has driven public outrage at the rise in rail fees. Of course, for stay at home students, these prices will have a severe dent in their finance. This will result in either having little disposable income, or not even coming into university unless there is important information to gain. This will affect the Big Sell Off, as a threat, as these students will be difficult to target and unwilling to spend the money on the collegiate range. They also do not have a lot of spare time for browsing the range, as their only purpose is to attend lectures and then catch their train on time to avoid repaying the fare for missed trains. As tuition fees increased this year, there will be fewer students and more stay at home students, therefore significantly lowering the amount of students to target the collegiate range at. Therefore profits could be lower than last year, or buying habits have shifted suggesting that fewer students are willing to pay the cost of the clothing.

Market Overview
Economic

PESTLE Continued: Economic

14

The Recession The Recession has been affecting the UK economy for a number of years, significantly impacting on the economic climate. According to the BBC, the UK entered a double dip recession in April 2012, after the economy shrank by 0.2% in the first quarter in 2012 (BBC, 2012). This resulted in consumers becoming increasingly cautious over their spending, as inflation has resulted in a smaller amount of disposable income. This also applies to the student demographic, who have a very small amount of money to live off, with cost commitments which include rent, bills, internet and food payments. NUS estimated that for 2010/11 the average cost for an undergraduate student living outside London was 15,523 (David Malcolm, NUS 2010). A study in 2009 by the NUS also suggested that one in four students would receive less financial support from their parents due to the recession, and that 80% of students were concerned or very concerned by the graduate employment levels and their likely career prospects (NUS, 2009). However, even with limited finances, students are still willing to purchase clothing during the recession. A report conducted by Mintel Fashion: The Impact of the Recession 2010 examines how the recession has impacted consumers during the recession. The report states that One in five 16-24-year-olds spent more on clothes last year than they usually would twice the average. The recession appears to have bypassed young people who continued buying clothes to keep up with the latest trends and plan to continue doing so in 2010 (Mintel, 2010). Even though this statement is representative of young people, it does not consider the impact the recession has had on students. The report suggests that the carefree attitude could stem from young people living at home with their parents, or full time college education, therefore the effects of the recession have not affected them directly. Fashion is prioritised to this age group none the less, as wearing the latest trends and styles in important and being perceived by peers to look attractive is also ranked at high importance. Therefore it is important that the Big Sell Off overcomes the recession by using the opportunity to market the collegiate range from a fashionable, stylish and trendy perspective, and to strategically encourage impulse purchasing either by offering incentives for a purchase or by making purchasing easy, via a variety of distribution channels. By creating favourable perceptions of the range, either by effective use of visual merchandising and advertising to create the illusion of the clothes being stylish, could prove to be beneficial to the profitability of the collegiate clothing range. Rising Cotton Prices The collegiate range is a casual, lifestyle brand created by students of Southampton Solent University, which means that most of the clothing designs incorporate cotton to make it as practical to its purpose as possible. Therefore, rising cotton prices are going to affect the cost price negotiated to the University from their supplier to accommodate these changes, which could inevitably threaten The Big Sell Off. With a higher cost price comes a higher selling price, in order to ensure a substantial amount of profit is being accumulated. However, the price also needs to accommodate their student market. According to the Daily Mail, cotton prices were set to rise from February 2011 by 10% in the months after, therefore impacting on the fashion industry quite heavily (The Daily Mail, 2011). This has brought on social change, as consumers choose fewer items of higher quality in order to fulfil criteria for the product to last longer. Of course, the University simply needs to thoroughly negotiate with suppliers to gain the lowest cost price possibly, so that the pricing of the clothes could accommodate the student demographic. With such little disposable income, the main incentive to attract students into buying the collegiate products would be a low price, so ensuring the products are not too expensive will help to boost sales and profits. The 2012 Collegiate Range is priced far lower than the 2011 Collegiate Range, which provides an excellent opportunity to sell this year and boost the year-on-year profits.

Market Overview
Social

PESTLE Continued: Social

15

Rise of Social Media Social media has revolutionised the way in which people communicate, as the creations of websites such as Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter allow people to interact using the internet. Social media is also a recent development in marketing, as many companies, brands and businesses are using social media as the ultimate communication tool to update their consumers of the latest news, competitions, videos, images and much more. Facebook, which was founded by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, was originally created to be used amongst university students to aid in making friends and updating them on information, as well as inviting them to events, and displaying pictures from social occasions. The original target market for the social networking site was students, and with 900 million active users, it is now aimed at a huge majority of demographics which makes the site an optimum environment for companies to advertise. According to statistics, in 2012 50% of Facebook users were aged between 18-34 (24% 18-24, 26% 25-34), as well as an average of 40 million users per day visiting the site for an average of 22 minutes (Fourth Source, 2012). Twitter, also a popular social networking site, has 140 million active users, with an average of 340 million tweets per day in March 2012 (Twitter Blog, 2012). In January 2012, two thirds of Twitters users were under the age of 34, with 40% being aged 15-24 and 28% aged between 25-34, as well as being the most mobile, with 82% owning a smart phone and 22% owning a tablet (Wall Blog, 2012). One of the Big Sell Offs main marketing objectives is to build awareness, as the range has the potential to succeed amongst students at Southampton Solent University. By connecting and communicating to potential consumers by targeting them via these social networking sites will hopefully benefit the Big Sell Off Collegiate Range, as well as building consumer awareness and informing consumers of what incentives are being offered. The Big Sell Off needs to therefore fully embrace this opportunity and create a buzz in order to attract the attention of potential student consumers. The Rise of Fashion Blogs Fashion blogs are growing in popularity, mainly via the internet, where innovators display their latest outfit trends, discuss what brands appeal to them,and what look they are trying to achieve. Most fashion bloggers are very creative, and can use a variety of key items to transform a simple outfit. Fashion bloggers are not only in growth due to their popularity but are also increasingly influential in the fashion world. In 2011, DigitallyLUX examined the influence of fashion blogs. They were categorised into continents, before then being further categorised either into personal style, editorial, street style or DIY fashion. In the UK, there were 55 significant fashion blogs, with 41% of these being Personal Style, 31% being Editorial, 25% being DIY and 3% Street Style, with 91% of bloggers on Twitter and only 47% on Facebook (DigitallyLux, Sept 2011). Fashion blogs tended to be more popular in North America and Europe compared to anywhere else in the world, as North America claimed 304 blogs whilst Europe claimed 102. Bryanboy, a worldwide famous fashion blogger, has been very influential for the brand Marc Jacobs and then got a bag designed by Marc Jacobs devoted to him, named the BB Bag. BryanBoy is reported to earn $100,000 per year and has also attained the position of a judge on Americas Next Top Model (The Daily Mail, 2012). This displays the extent of how influential fashion bloggers can be, and if the Big Sell Off utilises this opportunity, it is possible to use viral marketing via a fashion blog to stir interest for the range from potential consumers. However, in the small amount of time the groups have to develop a marketing strategy, it could prove difficult to attract a large enough quantity of followers.

Market Overview
Technologic

PESTLE Continued: Technological

16

Online Shopping Online shopping has changed the way in which consumers shop by increasing the convenience and availability of any products consumers desire. Bricks and mortar will always be significant in the way people shop, however, the online channel allows consumers to browse any products of interest at any time of the day, and with improvements to logistics, many consumers can obtain a product within hours of ordering it. Online shopping has become a phenomenon within the fashion industry, and many retailers and brands have access to an online channel. Many new businesses are even operating only through the online channel, making them pure play retailers, such as ASOS and Boohoo. Even if consumers do not use online shopping to actually purchase their clothes, they will use it as a research tool to help them seek good deals, as the recession has brought wariness to how much consumers spend on luxuries such as fashion. Mintel makes the following key points: 1.However, over half (53%) of shoppers also use the internet to compare prices and hunt out the best bargains, as cost-conscious shoppers tighten their purse strings in the current era of austerity. As consumers become more skilled at seeking out bargains, the importance of brand or retailer loyalty is waning and shopping around will rise. 2.Speed and convenience prevail as the main advantages of shopping online. Eight in ten consumers say that shopping online helps in avoiding crowds in shops and three quarters say that browsing online has reduced the amount of time they spend in stores. 3.Eight in ten (81%) consumers with access to the web have purchased items online in the last 12 months, an increase of 8 percentage points since 2007. Furthermore, internet users are buying via the web more frequently as trust in ecommerce builds. 4.Four in ten internet users make fashion purchases online, an increase of 13 percentage points since 2009, making it the most popular product category to be bought via the internet. 5.Popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are powerful platforms for fashion retailers to connect with their fans, and some brands allow shoppers to make purchases directly from these sites. 6.Women are much keener online fashion shoppers than men, with almost half of females purchasing from online clothing and footwear sites, compared to three in ten men (28%). This mirrors the fact that females overall have a greater interest in fashion than men. 7.Mobile internet usage peaks among under-25s and ABs and, as this demographic is also the primary driver of sales within the clothing market, the powerful potential of mobile commerce (m-commerce) within the fashion arena is clear. (*Mintel, 2012, Fashion Online) With these statistics, it is vital to see that online shopping has not taken over the traditional methods of shopping with bricks and mortar stores, but has simply enhanced the methods in which a consumer can shop. Fashion is the largest performing industry online, which suggests that it is vital that retailers and brands take advantage of the opportunity of expanding into online distribution. In relation to the Big Sell Off, creating an online environment could help boost profits, as consumers can purchase from home, offering convenience and a possible competitive advantage from the other teams. However, the website needs to be easy to find and accessible, which could be difficult to achieve. 40% of 16-24 and 38% of 25-34 year olds buy clothes online, but buy more clothes in store, which displays a clear market amongst students for an online channel, as well as 22% of these age groups buying clothes dominantly online compare to in-store (Mintel, 2012). However if the Big Sell Off embraces this opportunity and clearly states to consumers where they can browse and purchase the clothing, then it could be a successful tactic to boost profits.

Market Overview
Technologic

PESTLE Continued: Legal

17

Smart Phones and Apps Smart Phones have been a revolutionary technology in recent years. The technology uses the basic concept of a standard mobile phone, with advanced features such as access to the internet, gaming, music, photography, video, downloads of applications and much more. The Smart Phone allows the consumer to access anything anywhere, meaning that the fashion industry needs to consider this technology and how it will impact on consumer behaviour. Many fashion brands and retailers, such as Topshop to Burberry, have explored this concept by creating applications that allow their consumers to be updated by the latest news, view new collections and key pieces online, stream live catwalk shows as well as buying via their Smart Phone. Burberry is known for being advanced within their marketing technology, by allowing consumers to buy pieces from their collection as it is literally being shown. Click and Collect services are also very popular, to offer the consumer ultimate ease and convenience to purchase a product without the hassle of waiting in queue to purchase. According to research conducted by Mintel into Digital Trends, evidence showed that 56% of the UK population own their own personal Smart Phone, with Apple and Google dominating this market. It seems that young people are the strongest market for Smart Phones, as 76% of 16-24 year olds own one, as well as 78% of 25-34 year olds. From January 2012, 14% of consumers intended to upgrade their Smart Phones in the three months following, displaying a keen interest to have the latest products (Mintel, 2012). From this information, it is apparent that younger people tend to show higher levels of interest in their Smart Phones, which then opens the opportunity to utilise this technology within the marketing strategy for the Big Sell Off. This could either be through the development of an app, showcasing the clothes, or as an additional distribution channel. QR (Quick Response) Codes are also a developing technology to offer the consumer ultimate convenience, by allowing the consumer to scan the code with their Smart Phone and then be directed straight to the page of interest. By implementing this system via the Big Sell Off advertisements will enable consumers to be linked to pages on Twitter, Facebook, and possibly a website which allows consumers to purchase online within seconds. Creating an app in the short space of time without the relevant resources is unrealistic, however it would be an interesting concept to explore as such a high number of students are Smart Phone owners. Sales of Goods Act 1979 The Sales of Goods Act was introduced to the UK in order to give consumers rights whilst purchasing products, as well as to regulate any selling activity. The law states that the product description has to be accurate and in no way misleading, as well as in a suitable state for the consumer and not faulty in any way, and if any problems occur the consumer has the right to return the product either in exchange or for a refund. The Big Sell Off needs to ensure that all products sold are in excellent condition, meet the criteria of the product description, as well as to allow any consumers to gain a full refund if they are unhappy with the products. This way, the retailers will be taking full responsibility and the consumers will be far more willing to buy the product with the reassurance that they can return it if any problems arose.

Legal

Market Overview

PESTLE Continued: Environmental

18

Environmental

The Increase in Demand for Ethical Clothing Ethical clothing is increasing in popularity, due to intelligence and media exposure to the negative issues surrounding a fashion business. As a result, there has been a shift in social attitude towards ethical clothing, as consumers are more conscious and compassionate as to where their clothing is sourced from. According to a Mintel Report, 49% of 15-24 and 60% of 25-34 year olds claimed that it was important that a company act ethically, whilst 38% of 15-24 and 43% of 25-34 year olds claimed they would refuse to buy products from a company they disapprove of. The same report also suggests that 18% of 15-24 and 19% 25-34 year olds would only ever buy items from a company whose ethics they agree with, showing a significant market to young people for ethical clothing (Mintel, Ethical Clothing, 2009). Mintel also suggests that there is a link between education levels as to how compassionate a consumer is towards ethical clothing, by implying that Mintels research confirms that level of education is a key predictor of attitudes and behaviour in this context as in many others. Consumers with Higher Education show significantly greater familiarity with ethical clothing, including being more likely to appreciate the potential link between low pricing and dubious production practices. As more teens and adults choose Higher Education, then this will be another positive driver to appreciation of ethical issues and the potential benefits they can bring to the producer, the environment and themselves by choosing Fairtrade or sustainable clothing for instance. (Mintel, 2009). It has also been stated that the organic cotton and textile industry is growing, as sales for this industry in 2011 rose in the UK by 2%, as well as the organic clothing industry being valued at 100million (The Guardian, 2012). All this information shows an opportunity for aiming ethical clothing for students. Ensuring the supplier acts ethically is important whilst in the process of creating the collegiate range, as any students that are concerned with ethical practices in the process will only purchase the clothing if it has been made well and people involved in creating the products have been treated as ethically as possible. It is also the Universitys responsibility to ensure that the process of obtaining the clothing is as friendly to the environment as possible.

Market Overview
Strengths
The Collegiate Range for 2012 has much lower price points than the 2011 range, which works well as low prices are a desirable trait within a lifestyle brand aimed for students. Prices this year include 12 for shorts, 21 for joggers, 25 for a hoodie and 9 for a t-shirt. The Collegiate Range is high quality and offers comfort, practicality and warmth. As identified in the PESTEL analysis, with the result of a recession consumers are willing to spend more money on an item which is long lasting and high quality. Primary research shows that 66.67% prioritise quality and 63.33% seek comfort from a lifestyle brand. Therefore marketing the range on the quality of the products should work to the teams advantage. The design has been created by Southampton Solent University Students, which makes it a design by students for students. Therefore, the colours, shapes, and detailing has been chosen to accommodate the student market. Hoodies and Joggers, the most expensive items of the range, are the most popular items according to primary research, with 53% of participants interested in hoodies and 33% interested in the joggers. Only 20% were not interested in any of the items at all. The University Students Union website sells the collegiate range online, therefore opening this distribution channel and making it easier for consumers to buy.

SWOT Analysis for Team Yellow

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Weaknesses
The Collegiate Range is only available in two colours for the 2012 collection, meaning that it is quite limited for choice. Adding more colours could increase choice and therefore offer more to consumers The range is not perceived as stylish, which acts as a weakness due to this being a desired trait amongst the target market of students. Primary research suggested that 86.67% of students looked for style in a lifestyle brand, whilst 26.67% looked for trendiness, which shows that fashion has a strong significance. Market research suggested that it was very basic, uninspiring, uncool, limited choice, overpriced and not very stylish. This suggests that students would be looking for more trend oriented clothing with more choice, which could lead to difficulty trying to sell the products. The 2011 Collegiate Range offers more choice, however, the same high prices as last year apply. A varsity jacket is priced at 45, which is simply not affordable for the student target market. If it were possible, placing these items in a sale of discounted prices could boost sales for old stock.

The new prices of the range are accurate to the target market however; this means that the clothing in the range does not have a high profit margin per item. In order to ensure that the range is as profitable as possible, the team will need to sell a high quantity.

Market Overview
Opportunities
Social Media provides a convenient and easy method to target students by creating a Facebook and Twitter page, as well as the possibility of a blog and phone app. As one of the groups aims is to build brand awareness for the collegiate range within Southampton Solent University students, engaging with social media will help with both word of mouth marketing through networking with peers and to build knowledge of the range and what the yellow team is offering. To create an online retail distribution channel would be a great opportunity to offer consumers the convenience of buying the range anytime. The group has an opportunity to aim the project from a charity perspective, as a method of meeting a marketing objective to create favourable consumer perceptions could be collecting money for a worthy cause. Primary research showed that even though 87% of students had not purchased any items from the range, however, 60% of students would be interested in buying from the collegiate range and 47% being more likely to do so with offers and incentives, offering the team a perfect opportunity to gather ideas for incentives and to obtain them. The locations of the Universitys main reception, JM and HC buildings will provide an optimum opportunity to communicate and sell directly to the student target market. Utilising these spaces in order to draw consumers in will need to be considered tactically in order to overcome the threat of competition from the other teams.

SWOT Analysis for Team Yellow 20

Threats
The main threat to the Yellow Team is the direct competition of other teams and their marketing strategies, as they could either attract more sales based on their location or claim an increased market share due to more appealing marketing strategies. Ensuring Team Yellow appeals to their target market with incentives appropriate and use tactile visual merchandising and advertising could be used to draw the consumer in. Competition through high street established lifestyle brands, such as Jack Wills and Hollister pose a threat to the Collegiate Range. These brands are aspirational to students, and offer a wide choice of colours. The items are made to high quality, which will essentially mean consumers will be far more willing to spend their money on an established credible brand as opposed to the collegiate range. Increasing student fees and rising commuting costs will result in the target student consumer having less disposable income, which means buying the range could prove to be challenging. This factor will threaten the potential success of the Big Sell Off.

The Marlands Shopping Centre as a location for the Big Sell Off is a threat, purely because the Marlands does not attract a large student demographic, and due to the Re:So shop being upstairs, and quite hidden, it will be a challenge to draw consumers into the shop. The group could overcome this by advertising thoroughly, as well talking to consumers and using suggestion as a tactic to draw consumers into the shop.

After examining the external market, the team now can identify their consumer and to overcome threats and embrace opportunities in the market. Defining the optimum consumer is significant to any form of marketing strategy, as targeting a consumer that has interest or aspires to a product will maximise the potential of the range selling, therefore gaining the maximum amount of profit possible. Target Market

Consumer Overview

Geographic

The geographic segment of the target market is based in central Southampton, as this is where the students of Southampton Solent University are situated, dominantly in the polygon (for second and third years) or halls located near St Marys (for the first years).

The Yellow Team made a group decision to target students of Southampton Solent University, with emphasis on first year and third years. This is firstly due to the collegiate range being specific to Southampton Solent University which implies that the clothing would be aspirational to students who attend the university, as it appeals to their psychological need for a sense of belonging to the student community. The group agreed to dominantly aim the products towards first year students, due to their heightened sense of enthusiasm and excitement at the prospect of student life and their desire to participate within the student community. Third years also have high potential for the range, due to their university experience being close to ending, and the idea of the product will serve sentimental value as a souvenir of their experience and memories of studying at the university. In order to create a successful and effective marketing strategy, the group needs to thoroughly define their target market. This will assist in delivering to consumers what they would need and want from the collegiate range, which will effectively draw a higher market share and lead to higher sales and profits as a result. To ensure the group successfully targets this market, the group will need to devise a marketing strategy which will use a series of marketing actions to fulfil the aims and objectives of the project. This will mean ensuring that the event is publicised to generate interest and awareness, by communicating to the targeted market appropriately through selected mediums (such as social media, around the university, networking) as well as attracting them and generating a buzz in relation to the collegiate range (by offering incentives which would be relevant to students, such as food vouchers and offers, vouchers, and free gifts with purchases).

Psychographic The psychographic of the target consumers tend to revolve around a mixture of classes, but dominantly the group is aiming for middle class students that have financial help from their parents, suggesting they will have more disposable income and are therefore more willing to purchase. The target market will tend to lead exciting lives, by getting involved in the student lifestyle and by being a part of their community. The target market focuses their time on completing university assignments and socialising within their peer group, mainly though activities and sports. The consumer is ambitious, driven, impulsive and exciting. Demographic The dominant age group of the student demographic according to market research was 18-23. The collegiate range is designed for both men and women. The demographic currently share accommodation with friends made through their university experience, they either are unemployed or have a casual part time job, and their occupation is being a full time student. There is a mixture of ethnicities, however they are dominantly British. The target consumer, which is a student that attends Southampton Solent University, research thoroughly into purchases they want, however this group is easily persuaded to impulse purchase. This group is highly loyal to the brands they consume, especially fashion brands. They are aspirational buyers. They use fashion as a method of creating an identity, one which is idealistic and desirable from their peers.

21

Behavioural

w rvie Ove er sum Con Hannah

Hannah is 21 years old and is in her third year at Southampton Solent University, studying marketing. She is originally from Cardiff, and has had a middle class upbringing in a nuclear family. She has a wide range of friends that she has met through university networks, as Hannah often socialises for fun. Her friends are dominantly female, with occasional male admirers of her. Hannah has a bubbly, youthful, warm, friendly personality, with a good wit which has made her popular amongst her peers. Hannah is ambitious and wants to be successful in life. She works hard and achieves good grades at university. Education is an important value to her, as all her family have been to university. Hannah lives in a student housing in the Polygon area of Southampton. Hannah tends to wear fashionable sports and casual wear, as she values comfort in her clothing. Her favourite brands are Jack Wills and Hollister. When she goes shopping, she tend to impulse buy products that she wants, as she is fashion and image conscious and likes to update her style. She is an innovator, which is often admired by friends. Hannahs parents have their own successful business, meaning they can support Hannahs studies and increase her disposable income, which enables her to afford luxuries such fashion. Hannah attends the gym to maintain her fitness level, as she is concerned about her health. Hannah has considered buying from the collegiate range as a souvenir of her time at the university, making her an ideal target market for the collegiate range.

Pen Portrait

22
Dan

Dan is 19 years old and is in his first year at Southampton Solent University, studying Engineering. He is originally from Surrey, just outside of London, so has had an urban city upbringing. Dan is excited at being away from home for the first time, and is thoroughly enjoying the social scene that Southampton has to offer to a fresher. He has made many friends but dominantly socialises with his flat mates, living at Lucia Foster Welch halls. He has a wide mix of male and female peers, who are attracted to him for his bright, lively, enthusiastic personality. Dan is the first member of his family to attend university, but believes education is important to gain a good career in the competitive job market. He wants to expand his skills and prepare himself for working. His family cannot afford to give him financial help, meaning he relies on his loan and part time job in a bar for disposable income. Dan tends to socialise in bars, clubs and pubs, but during the day he usually plays football with his male friends. To accommodate his on the go lifestyle, he seeks comfort, practicality and durability in his clothing. He tends to shop in a variety of shops and brands, such as Topman, JD Sports and Hollister. He likes the sense of status trendy brands give to him, as how he appears to his friends is important to him. Dan is keen and enthusiastic about his studies and the Southampton Solent University network, and wants to buy a collegiate hoodie as a sign of status and pride of his current situation.

Consumer Overview
CACI, a company that offers services based on marketing solutions, has created a thorough method of customer profiling, ACORN. The company explain ACORN as a geodemographic segmentation of the UKs population which segments small neighbourhoods, postcodes, or consumer households into 5 categories, 17 groups and 56 types (CACI, 2012). Using this system can help to indentify the target consumers. Applying it to the project, the target market comes under the category Urban Prosperity, in the group Aspiring Singles with type 23, Student Terraces.

Acorn Consumer Profiling: Collegiate Range Market

23

Consumer Urban Profile/ Be haviour High popu Prosperity / lation on y account fo ounger peo Aspiring Si r 38% of th ple, studen ngles e p ts o d p u u r lation living ing term tim for Studen in e t these area Peop s Terraces, T le often pa ype 23 w rticipate in ith football exercise an and rugby d sport, among the Long haul h popular ac olidays are tivities. popular bu budget, inc t often done luding back on a packing. Le include visiti isure activiti ng the cine es ma and an and clothe interest in s fashion The r ecession ha d little imp spending a act on their nd it may e ven have in Although h creased slig ousing, ene htly. r g y a relatively a n d c o m munication large part o s form f their outg leisure are oings, cloth a significan ing and t part of th more likely e ir spending. T to buy in sh hey are ops or onli They ne than ma are more li il o kely to use products eco friendly rder. Thes e are peop le very ope technology n to the us . They are c ed of new o nfident usin home finan g ce, buying the interne books, clot t for and for res hes, DVDs earching an and CDs, d booking t Univ ravel online ersity tows such as Ox have high c f o r d oncentratio and Cambr ns of this ty idge population pe, as do o centres suc ther large h as Leeds, and Southa Nottingham mpton. , Cardiff *(All Inform ation taken from CACI, 2012)

Maslows Hierarchy of Needs in Relation to the Collegiate Range

Consumer Overview
Self actualisation refers to the idea of living to an individuals full potential. The idea of being a student has connotations of status, ambition, intelligence and determination, which is suggested through the consumption of the collegiate range. The collegiate range appeals to the ideas of being highly educated and intelligent, which is symbolic of what a university represents. The range fulfils esteem needs through recognition, status and acceptance of a student lifestyle. The collegiate range fulfils this need through the belongingness of a student community and network. The collegiate range provides protection and shelter from harsh weather conditions. Security from the cold. Warmth and Clothing: The functional product of the collegiate range is based on warmth.

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Maslow (1943) created the hierarchy of needs as a means of displaying how humans live and what they need during their lifetime. Using this theory will help the yellow team position their strategy by using psychology as a means of appealing to the target market.

Consumer Overview
Customer Relationship Management Matrix in Relation to The Collegiate Range
The customer relationship management matrix will help distinguish brand loyalty through target consumer to further profile the consumer. Reinartz and Kumar (2002) distinguished four different categories of consumer loyalty and relationships to brands, true friends, barnacles, strangers and butterflies. By defining the true friends, the group can target the consumer correctly and efficiently for the marketing strategy.

25

Butterflies The butterflies are highly profitable, despite their short term loyalty. The Big Sell Off is only four days which means butterflies will be one of the most significant consumers. This group will consist of students with an above average personal disposable income, either from a part time job or from generous parents. They are very easily persuaded to make impulse purchases and spend a higher amount of money, as these consumers are more likely to impulse purchase with the right persuasion. Strangers Low Profitability These consumers are people who do not connect with the range at all, so there is little point in targeting them. These consumers consist of anyone outside the student demographic, as consumers outside this bracket are neither loyal to a collegiate range nor interested in the products offered. These consumers will be difficult to encourage despite incentives. Low Loyalty High Profitability

True Friends This consumer is high in terms or profit and loyalty, however, this consumer will be difficult to target. The true friends of the collegiate range will be the wealthier students who are keen to purchase from the range. This will most likely be first year students, who are more enthusiastic and keen to buy from the range, who are in a more secure financial state from saving in preparation for university. This group will be the key target for the project. Barnacles Barnacles are key consumers to the range, as they are long term consumers, however are low in terms of profitability. This will represent the majority of the target market, as students are not highly profitable but loyal to their university network. There is potential for this group, as they can be easily persuaded to purchase due to their high loyalty. These are likely to be third year consumers. High Loyalty

Diffusions of Innovation

Consumer Overview

26

Rogerss 1962 model, Diffusions of Innovation, helps determine and profile different patterns of consumers in terms of how and when they use the product and how this has a social impact on how trends grow and adapt to the market. In the fashion industry, this theory is highly relevant in terms of trends and fads, as the early consumers (innovators) begin to use a product, it then begins to get used more widespread across other types of consumer.

In terms of the collegiate range, the yellow team is aiming to target innovators and early adopters. This may only be a low percentage, however, the quicker the innovators begin to wear the clothing, the quicker the sales will begin increasing from consumers following the innovators. If a consumer who is perceived as quite trendy and desirable by their peers begins to wear and model the collegiate clothing, consumers (such as early adopters and early majority) will therefore aspire to be like their innovator, which will result in a desire for the clothing. Jackson and Shaw (2009) suggest that In many cases innovators will move away from, adapt or evolve a style to suit themselves, which further indicates the power and influence innovators own over their fellow consumers, hence why the team believes this group is the most significant to target. Statistics from The Guardians University Guide for 2013 claim that over 19,000 students attend Southampton Solent University, meaning that 475 (2.5%) of these students are innovators, demonstrating a potential large market share.

POTENTIAL MARKET SHARE

(Jackson and Shaw., 2009)

Positioning Strategy
The collegiate range for Southampton Solent University has been designed by students, with the idea of them being for students. Therefore they have been designed to be comfortable, high quality, and affordable for this target market. The range comes in sizes small, medium and large for males and females. The colours of the 2012 range consist of a deep purple and a turquoise green. From conducting primary research, the range was generally not particularly credible, which made students sceptical as to whether the range held value for money. Most students agreed the price was fair, however, many students desired the brand to be more fashion focused and stylish. The range did hold potential, however, as 60% of participants claimed they would purchase the range, as well as 47% of them saying incentives with a purchase would encourage them further to buy. The products that students were most interested in purchasing were hoodies and joggers, due to their high quality, as these products are perceived as higher value for money than a basic t-shirt or shorts. It is clear to see from the market research that students wanted more versatility and choice from the collegiate range, as the range was only dominantly available in two colours with very basic designs. By analysing the research, the current positioning of the range has been established, and from this the yellow team can define aims and objectives to create a marketing strategy. The strategy will be relationship based with dominating personal selling techniques implemented to push consumers to buy.

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Positioning Strategy
Product
The products from the 2012 range consist of zip up hoodies, t-shirts, shorts and joggers all available in the colours green and purple with the Southampton Solent University logo. T-Shirts are available in cream with green and purple logos. The products from the 2011 range included varsity jackets, pull over hoodies, t-shirts and joggers. The range was available in grey, navy blue and red. The products are high quality, warm and comfortable. Primary Research suggests that 67% of consumers looked for quality and 63% sought comfort within a lifestyle clothing brand, which positively reinforces the products on sale. Consumer primary research shows that out of the participants asked What items appeal to you?, 53% of consumers were interested in the hoodies, 33% interested in the joggers, 23% were interested in t-shirts and 3% displayed interest in the shorts. This primary research implies that the best selling items would be the joggers and hoodies, and with a higher price point, that profit will be higher as a result. The physical product comes in purple and green, in the form of joggers, hoodies, shorts and t-shirts in sizes for women S-L and male S-XL. The functional product is high quality, warm, comfortable, practical and durable for a student lifestyle. The psychological product involves a sense of community and belongingness to the university as well as connotations of status, intelligence, youth, ambition and fun. The products are a mix of basic and fad (as the product is applicable to being a student of three years), and are currently in growth on a product life-cycle.

The marketing mix will help the group determine where the range is currently positioned based on price, place, promotion and product, as well as helping to define how the group wants to position the range in preparation for The Big Sell Off.

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The Marketing Mix (The Four Ps)

Price
The 2012 Range was priced as followed: Joggers are 21 Shorts are 12 T-Shirts are 9 Hoodies are 25 The 2011 Range was priced as followed: Joggers were 29.99 T-Shirts were 10.99 Varsity Jackets were 44.99 Hoodies were 34.99 The products are lower in price this year compared to last. The reason for this is to attract the target market to a greater extent, as the prices last year were far higher than a student was willing to pay for a brand that is not highly established. Entry Price: 9 Mid Price: 23.62 Exit Price: 44.99 The range uses penetration pricing, meaning the products are high quality with a low price. Primary research, combined with secondary research from Mintel, displays a need for quality in the clothing industry, which means the product has filled in the criteria, however, the range is not currently well established or credible, which is why the price is lower to build a consumer base. The 2012 profit margins are much lower due to the lower price.

Positioning Strategy
Place Promotion

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There are four locations in which the products are being sold, including Promotion relies on the marketing strategy. The marketing objectives the main reception area, the JM building, the HC building and The Marlands focus on boosting sales, creating brand awareness and creating favourable Shopping Centre in Re:So. perceptions. Therefore promotion relies heavily on advertising, via posters and flyers. Catching the target markets attention is the main focus of Yellow Team were assigned the following locations: promotion. Sales promotion is not possible, due to a tight budget. Monday 22nd October: Re:So (Marlands) Tuesday 23rd October: Main Reception Above the Line Promotion Wednesday 24th October: HC Building In order to build awareness and inform consumers of the event, The Big Thursday 25th October: JM Building Sell Off, the yellow team will use advertising as an ATL promotional technique. This will be conducted using flyers, posters and social media The Yellow Team has not got an online retail distribution channel, so as these methods are low cost. The team will place the advertisements lacks this facility and opportunity. However, if the team did utilise this around the university and in areas surrounding, such as the park. opportunity it would be difficult to foresee how useful a resource this would be, as many students will not have any direction or awareness to the Below the Line Promotion website. The yellow team will be using BTL promotion dominantly. The main method pursued will be word of mouth marketing, by talking and networking with Due to lack of skills and time, the team have not managed to expand students and asking for their support during the project. The group will also into the opportunity of creating an application for the clothing. However, QR be targeting students using social media (Twitter and Facebook which has a codes have been placed onto posters which will direct students to the high number of students), personal selling (as students pass by the teams Twitter and Facebook pages. designated area, talking to them and being helpful and friendly), and maintaining positive public relations using the Children in Need charity to The predicted location in which the group will gain the most profit is build publicity. going to be the Main Reception as this area has the highest footfall of students. The place predicted for the worst profits is the Re:So shop in the Marlands due to little brand awareness, and small numbers of student footfall. For this location, the group will need to be pushing harder for sales and this area will heavily rely on personal selling skills.

Positioning Strategy
The Ansoff Matrix

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The Ansoff Matrix is a marketing tool to help a company distinguish their marketing strategy. Currently, the range stands at product development; however, the range also follows the marketing penetration strategy due to last years existing products once again being aimed for the existing student market.

Positioning Strategy

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The Boston Matrix
The Boston Matrix is a method used to determine the current positioning of a companys product mix, to distinguish what items have high market share and growth and which items have low market share and growth. From primary research conducted into the collegiate range, the product mix has been categorised into the Boston. The best selling pieces will be the joggers and hoodies, so to ensure the team generates as much profit as possible, these items will be prioritised during The Big Sell Off.

Positioning Strategy
Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing is when a brand positions their strategy around positive relationships with their consumers. Brassington and Petitt (2006) define relationship marketing as a form of marketing that puts particular emphasis on building a longer term, more intimate bond between an o rganisation and its individual customers. In order to fulfil product criteria of psychologically projecting messages of community and belonging, it is important that the marketing strategy is revolved around creating positive relationships between the university and the customers. To do this, the group will implement excellent use of customer service and personal selling via direct communication.

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Identity: Salience

Salience: The brands identity is strongly established on the student lifestyle. This has connotations of fun, youth, ambition, drive, creativity, uniqueness, education and intelligence. Satisfies needs for student involvement and belonging.

Kellers Brand Equity Pyramid

Keller (2003) created a pyramid to express how a brand is created and developed. As the marketing strategy is based strongly through the psychology and connotations of the product and relationship marketing, this model is highly relevant to the project.

Performance: The product is functional and durable, as it is designed for warmth and comfort Meaning: Performance appropriate to the student lifestyle of walking and living in the city. It is suitably priced for a student and Imagery budget, with a hoodie costing only 25. Imagery: Strong Southampton student heritage. Fun, free, popular, liberated student brand personality. Values of being highly educated, young and ambitious.

Response: Judgement and Feelings

Feelings: Feelings of involvement, enthusiasm, belonging and pride to the Solent student network, as well as fulfilling the assumption a student is educated and ambitious. Judgement: High quality, comfortable and versatile clothing. Brand not as established and credible as it is a new range and relies on innovators to build credibility.

Relationships: Resonance: Consumers are loyal and proud of their association with the university. The relationship between the clothing and consumer suggests a sense of community and similarity to the student identity, Resonance
particularly important for first year student target market.

Positioning Strategy
Positioning the brand to be perceived as a fad Focusing the brand towards casual and sportswear, product, representative of connotations of part of the lifestyle being sold through the products. student life: intelligence, community, belonging, fun, youth, ambition. Reposition the products to represent a lifestlye, to make the collegaite range a lifestyle casual brand. Heavy use of Relationship Marketing using Personal Selling communication techniques, by approaching consumers and offering a personal, friendly, high quality customer service.

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Creating the lifestyle brand through fashion styling, which will then create favorable perceptions and a desire and aspiration within consumers to buy into the lifestyle, similar to American High School style and culture.

Positioning Strategy

Southampton Solent University student target market will mean that the incentives offered in the marketing strategy will need to appeal to this market.

To Conclude...
The yellow team will follow a positioning strategy which will involve building desire for the brand through advertising, visual merchandising and social media, to create connotations of American High School lifestyles, with a sports and casual wear focus. During the Big Sell Off, the group will aim to gain as much attention to the range as possible, by approaching students, offering incentives and driving purchases. This will be done with a high quality of customer service, which will be personal to the consumer, as well as tactile promotions to the charity, Children in Need.

The Importance of People Management

People management is important in the execution of The Big Sell Off, as teamwork and managing the group will result in the efficient running of the project. Of course, in order to be efficient key qualities such as organisation, communication, time management and a strong work ethic is essential within the team. According to the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), people play a key role, with the following points; Peoples knowledge and competencies should be identified, developed and sustained. People must be involved and empowered. There should be dialogue between people and the organisation. People should be rewarded, recognised and cared for. (EFQM, Key Management Models 2003) These points are all relevant, in the sense that they contribute to the well being of the workforce. By managing people effectively, the group can all distribute the work load, participate to ideas, and execute an effective marketing strategy in the duration of The Big Sell Off.

Belbins Team Roles (1985)

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Belbin (1985) conducted a study into what makes an effective team by using many business simulation tasks and concluded that there were nine distinctive business roles within an organisation. Belbin defined a team role as a tendency to behave, contribute, and interrelate with others in a particular way (Belbin, 1985). The nine categories are explained on the next page.

The Importance of People Management

Of course, these team roles would be efficient in terms of people management for The Big Sell Off. As the team is a group of sixteen, there will be a variety of roles and personalities in order to fulfil each of these roles and therefore maximising the chances of successful people management.
The co-ordinator is mature and confident, usually derived from experience of leadership. This category of person tends to create goals and encourage team decision making, as well as assigns tasks to other team members. However, this person can show signs of manipulation and bossiness by assigning their work load on to others, which should be conducted by this individual. The Co-Ordinator

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The Team Worker The Resource Investigator The Plant The Monitor The Specialist The Shaper The Implementer The Finisher

The team worker tends to be co-operative, mild, perceptive and diplomatic as well as showing strong friendships amongst their team. This person is a good listener and balances the group, averting hostility. The resource investigator shows a great extent of enthusiasm and is extroverted in terms of personality. This person will develop contacts and explore opportunities. Very optimistic but tends to have a short attention span and loses interest quickly. The plant is a creator or inventor, the genius of the group, making them imaginative and creative and able to solve difficult problems or issues. However, they lack communication skills due to being preoccupied. The monitor tends to be very evaluative in terms of strategy and action. This team member tends to judge accurately but lacks a sense of drive, ambition and an ability to inspire and motivate others. The specialist is very knowledgeable in their field, providing complex skills and knowledge to their team. This person takes pleasure in technicalities, yet does not illustrate the point well. The shaper is challenging and dynamic in character, and thrives on pressure. Unlike the monitor, the shaper has a huge quantity of drive and ambition as well as courage to overcome any problems. The implementer is fantastic at turning ideas into practical actions, with personal qualities making them disciplined, efficient and reliable. However, this person is unwilling to adapt plans to potential solutions. The finisher endures anxiety to ensure that the plan turns out perfectly and on time, which results in them being punctual, conscientious, and meticulous. This person will hate to delegate work, and aims for perfection.

(Adapted from Key Management Models, 2003)

The Importance of People Management

Adizes PAEI Management Roles

This model looks at how different management approaches can work all together to implement effective people management. Adizes (1979) claimed that there were four key roles that make up an effective management team, defining these as the producer, the administrator, the entrepreneur and the integrator. Each of these roles has a series of personality traits and behavioural habits within a working environment. This displays a weakness for the Big Sell Off project, as with only one team leader, the rest of the team are lacking a variety of management characteristics. Of course, all these roles individually are suitable and capable of management, but having a variety of these attributes will help gain a deeper insight and understanding of an organisation and managing the people involved within this.

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By understanding the significance of people in an organisation and the roles they adapt, to the behavioural patterns and implemented techniques by managers, can contribute to an efficient team who work effectively together. People management is critical to ensure that the team is productive and that the team can cooperate and work together well. People management is needed to fulfil marketing aims and objectives and increase the sales and profitability of the collegiate range.

The Supply Chain

Handfield and Nichols (2002) define supply chain management as:
Production Process- Trend Moden

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The collegiate range has been produced in Turkey, by the Noblewear brand, where the suppliers claim to provide short delivery times, a high quality standard, expert advice on choosing the right materials and fabrics, custom made to measure, environmentally conscious and nature friendly production, and development and planning of customer textiles to the smallest detail. They also conduct three quality control checks during production to deliver high quality, as well as having access to extensive machinery which enables them to place the consumers embroidery and logos anywhere on the products. Noblewear boast a delivery time of six weeks, a minimum quantity of 150 pieces, special colouring (Pantone, HKS, RAL), high quality custom made, neck labels and sizes extra small to 4XL.

(Supply Chain Management in Theory and Practice, 2005) The supply chain is significant within any clothing range, as negotiating a suitable cost price between supplier and retailer can be difficult to achieve, especially with small retailers who are not as established and only need small quantities of products.

In order to get the collegiate range pursued, the customers (Southampton Solent University) needed to establish a cost price with the suppliers (Trend Moden). The suppliers would have been sent the specifications regarding size, colour, dimensions, trimmings, prints and embroidery, making the garments CMT (cut, make and trim). From here, Trend Moden the suppliers would have sent samples to be approved by the customer, and once this was done, the lead time was roughly six weeks to be The university have been working alongside Trend Modern, a supply company that is delivered. The university would have sent the buying quantities per size, based in Germany and produces in China and Turkey, and liaising with Kerem Derem. sex and colour. The company has their own labels, Basic Fashion and Noblewear, which specialises in elegant, high quality fabrics (Trend Moden Website, 2012). In 2010, the company expanded into Southampton to communicate to the UK market. Trend Moden are perfect to supply for the university, due to their local offices and their unique selling point of supplying low minimum order quantities, which many smaller retailers struggle to attain. However, this has resulted in higher cost prices due to the low order quantity, meaning the collegiate range is not particularly profitable if sold in low quantities.

The Supply Chain

The Supply Chain: Jack Wills, Medium Sized Retailer

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Jack Wills pride themselves on their British heritage, with ambitions to open a UK factory and create an entirely British supply chain. They have launched an apprenticeship Fox Brothers, a company based in Somerset, in order to implement traditional weaving skills and techniques. They have also sponsored a flock of sheep in Wiltshire to contribute to their production. They also supply their clothing from Europe and the Far East, with all their suppliers signing the ETI (Ethical Trading Incentive) Code of Conduct in order to ensure healthy working conditions, opportunities and fair wages. Jack Wills is a medium sized retailer, as they continuing expanding their UK retail store base as well as currently expanding internationally. Initially, the clothing will be designed by the designers of the company, working alongside the garment technologist and the suppliers design team. The buyer will then choose which products are suitable, before sketches and initial ideas get sent to the suppliers for production. Samples will be sent to develop the final product, before getting produced in bulk quantities. These will then be distributed back towards the retailer, to then be delivered to the retail stores. The Jack Wills supply chain operates internationally, and is far more complex and therefore requires a far more organised approach with a larger team than the collegiate range needs.

(Jackson and Shaw, 2001)

The Supply Chain

The Supply Chain: Collegiate Range The collegiate range operates simply, as it is only being shipped from the suppliers directly to the university. Jackson and Shaw have outlined a basic supply chain below, which is very similar to the collegiate range.

(Jackson and Shaw, 2001)

This diagram examines the basic supply chain from the supplier to the factory, then back to the university to sell through their distribution channels to the consumers. The supply chain is simplistic as it is only getting sold through the university, so is not operating internationally. This gives the range a sense of exclusivity, vital to the positioning strategy. Despite the difficulty sourcing suppliers who offer the service of a low buying quantity, the university has managed to do so using Trend Moden, who specialise in basic clothing.

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Monday Tuesday Planning the project prior to the Big Sell Off is vital in order to Wednesday ensure every team member has a designated role and responsibility, Thursday which will contribute to the effective running of the event. Team Member Responsibility India Steady Team Leader and Manager Marketing Aims and Objectives Laura Gamble Accounts Florence De Carteret Accounts The general aim of the project is to utilise an effective marketing strategy which will: Olivia Morreale Accounts Tasha Laskey Promotions o Build brand awareness Julia Morris Promotions o Increase brand credibility Annie Wade Promotions o Boost sales and increase profits Eve Fisher Advertising and Market Research o Dominate market share for the collegiate range Charlie Barnes Advertising and Market Research o Create favourable perceptions of the brand from students for the Southampton Solent George Brough Advertising University Collegiate Range. Fiona Brearley Social Media Phoebe Winter Social Media In order to fulfil these aims, the team will need to use SMART objectives in order to retain Sebrina Green Visual Merchandising focus of the aims for the duration of the project. Katie Foley Visual Merchandising Sophie Kennedy Visual Merchandising Ginette Ngwamah Visual Merchandising The group began having regular meetings to discuss ideas, gather information from other team members, as well as establishing how the group was going to operate the event. The following roles and responsibilities were given to each team member. In order to thoroughly plan the execution of the project and what responsibilities everyone had, the group needed to look at the marketing aims, objectives and strategies to devise a plan of action. Team Yellow: USP (Unique Selling Point) Yellow Team have decided as a group to aim the collegiate clothes range as trendy sports and casual wear for Southampton Solent University students, with the unique selling point of collaborating with Children in Need and donating 50p per purchase and any money made from the raffle.

Planning

Marlands Yellow Team Red Team Green Team Blue Team

Reception HC Foyer JM Foyer Blue Team Green Team Red Team Yellow Team Blue Team Green Team Red Team Yellow Team Blue Team Green Team Red Team Yellow Team Selling Locations Per Team Per Day

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Planning
Yellow Team: Yellow Team: Smart Objectives Aims
To build brand awareness of the collegiate range to the target market

SMART Marketing Objectives

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The team identified that building brand awareness was essential in order to gain maximum market share and generate interest in the collegiate range. The primary research stated that 37% of Southampton Solent University students were not even aware of the range, showing that the university is not utilising the full potential of the range to their students. SMART OBJECTIVE: TO INCREASE BRAND AWARENESS IN THE FOUR DAY BIG SELL OFF PERIOD BY 30% USING THE SUITABLE MARKETING COMMUNICATION METHODS, SUCH AS ADVERTISING AND NETWORKING WITH STUDENTS. THIS WILL BE MEASURED BY ASKING STUDENTS, AFTER THE BIG SELL OFF EVENT, IF THEY ARE AWARE OF THE RANGE. Primary research outlined that the range was not perceived very well, due to the lack of style and choice. In order to combat this, the team needs to boost the credibility of the brand to make consumers want to purchase. As students tend to be aspirational, impulse buyers, the marketing and displays of the range need to appeal to consumers. The group can achieve this with effective utilisation of visual merchandising, tactile advertising and incentives to encourage innovators to buy. By trying to get innovators to buy, the range becomes more aspirational and therefore sales will increase as a result. SMART OBJECTIVE: TO BOOST THE CREDIBILITY OF THE BRAND BEFORE THE BIG SELL OFF BY INCREASING SALES FOR 2012 BY 15% (COMPARED TO 2011) FROM IMPLEMENTING MARKETING TACTICS TO ENCOURAGE INNOVATORS TO BUY, AS WELL AS USING CHARITY AS AN INCENTIVE.

To increase brand credibility for the collegiate range

Boost Sales and The Yellow Team aims to win the Big Sell Off, so in order to do this; the group needs to boost sales to attain as much Increase Profits profit as possible and to dominate the market share over the other teams. Of course, the team are aiming to beat sales figures from the Big Sell Off 2011 collegiate range, to demonstrate a sense of growth for the range. SMART OBJECTIVE: TO BOOST PROFITS AND YEAR ON YEAR SALES FROM 2011 BY 10% FROM EXECUTING AN EFFECTIVE MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY AND USING PERSONAL SELLING BY THEN END OF THE BIG SELL OFF 2012.

Planning
Yellow Team: Yellow Team: Smart Objectives Aims
Dominate market share for the collegiate range in the Big Sell Off 2012

SMART Marketing Objectives

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The Big Sell Off is a project in which four teams of sixteen people will compete against each other with their own marketing strategies in order to sell the most units and make the most profit, therefore proving which team has the best strategy. Of course, team yellow want to win the competition with their strategy, through selling the most units, ideally the most expensive items, such as last years stock and the hoodies and joggers (which primary research suggests are the most lusted for items). The team aims to dominate the market share for the collegiate range in order to win. SMART OBJECTIVE: TO WIN THE BIG SELL OFF 2012 AND HAVE PROFITS EXCEEDING 5% OFF THE COMPETING TEAMS, BY DOMINATING MARKET SHARE FOR THE SOUTHAMPTON SOLENT UNIVERSITY COLLEGIATE RANGE, BY EXECUTING THE MOST EFFECTIVE MARKETING STRATEGY DURING THE BIG SELL OFF.

To create favourable perceptions of the Southampton Solent Collegiate range to the students

The group identified that word of mouth marketing is an effective method to create favourable perceptions of a brand, due to the fact that people trust the opinions of their peers more so than a company. In an attempt to boost sales, the team needs to create favourable perceptions of the brand in the eyes of their consumers. SMART OBJECTIVE: TO BOOST SALES FROM 2011 BY 10% USING NETWORKING, INCENTIVES, EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND PERSONAL SELLING TECHNIQUES TO CAUSE A BUZZ AMONGST THE STUDENT DEMOGRAPHIC. COMMENTS FROM CONSUMERS WILL BE COMPARED TO PRELIMINARY PRIMARY RESEARCH TO SEE IF THE RANGE IS PERCEIVED AS MORE FAVOURABLE AMONGST THE STUDENTS.

The Marketing Strategy

Planning
Reposition the Product Improve Product Packaging Alter Prices Improve Productivity Standardise Change Sales or Customer Mix

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The main variable which will determine success in the duration of the Big Sell Off is how the teams distinguish and develop a unique and effective marketing strategy. Brassington and Petitt (2006) suggest that marketing categories can be categorised into the following six concepts.

The marketing strategy outlines the marketing programme, which is a series of actions which implement the aims and objectives with the set strategy in mind. After constructing the main objectives for the Big Sell Off, the main strategy that the group are following is to reposition the product. This is due to consumer perceptions identified in the market research, as the comments made indicated that the target market of the range thought that it was too basic. In order to make the range more aspirational, the group want to follow a strategy that explores the concept of marketing the product as trendy sports and casual wear, similar to that of Jack Wills and Hollister, the main retailer competitors. Part of the marketing strategy is identifying key target markets and creating the marketing mix of product, price, place and promotion. The group has identified their target market as students, with an emphasis on first and third years. The concept of repositioning the product for the Yellow Team will be to make it appear more aspirational. Collegiate ranges often have connotations of American high school culture, which will be what the group aims to create. The idea behind this is that if the range is perceived as trendy amongst students, it can essentially become a fad, which will mean that the group can meet their aims and objectives. This will be created using advertising images accurate to this description, as well as flyers, posters, and then during the event, the group will gain incentives to push sales as well as promote the brand using personal selling.

Planning
Actions to Fulfil Marketing Strategy Advertising
Conduct a photo shoot which is aspirational and reflects student life at Southampton Solent University Edit the photos to enhance the colours/ improve the contrast and brightness Create images which integrate the themes of the Yellow Team (yellow brick road, Children in Need charity) Print these as flyers and posters to place around the university, the parks, the university halls, and around the polygon to build awareness Contact various companies students are interested in and ask them for donations to use as incentives (such as Subway, Pizza Hut, West Quay)to help boost sales and create favourable perceptions of the brand Use social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, to build awareness about the Big Sell Off Networking with peers to build interest for the collegiate range and build potential market share Attain rails to hang the clothes, ideally two (one for 2011 range and one for the 2012 range) to make it easier for consumers to browse, which will in theory contribute to higher profits Colour co-ordinate clothes on the rail, along with sizes in order, to entice the consumer and encourage browsing Neatly fold clothing for Re:So shop, as well as tables in other locations Gain mannequins to display how the clothes look when on, to promote the range Order yellow carrier bags to support the themes Buy yellow balloons to support the themes Buy a raffle book as an incentive for consumers (to boost sales) or for a donation Buy sweets to entice consumers to create favourable perceptions of the yellow team Bake cakes as incentives for purchases or for a donation Speaking to students to encourage browsing during the event and to dominate market share Handing out the flyers during the event to build awareness and build market share

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The Marketing Programme
By identifying from the aims and objectives what strategy the group is planning to abide by, the marketing programm follows, which is a comprehensive set of marketing actions used to meet the orignal aims and objectives.

Promotions

Visual Merchandising

Miscellaneous

Sales Forecast

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The yellow team created a sales forecast to predict how much the group would sell during The Big Sell Off. The Guardian claims that 19,000 people currently attend Southampton Solent University, all of these contribute to the market share of the range. The group predicted that roughly half of these students would attend the university every day (9,500). At an estimate, at least half of these students would walk through the main reception (4,250) whilst the remainder is split between JM and HC buildings (2,125 per building). Out of these, an estimated amount of around 1% of people will talk to us and half of this will buy an item, roughly suggesting that 21.5 of people will make a purchase in reception in contrast to 11 people in JM and 11 people in HC. Based on the Re:So store, with little footfall, the group has made the assumption that they will sell roughly four items. This then totals an assumptive 48 sales. This is 50% more than last years blue team did, however the group has the benefit of having a variety of products from both the 2011 and 2012 ranges and a whole new designed product range. Hoodies: Joggers: Jackets: T:Shirts =9:5:2:16= 32 sales =341.91: 149.95: 89.98: 175.84= 757.68 =43.1%: 20.5%: 12.3%: 24.1% Hoodies: Joggers: Shorts: T-Shirts (Replacing jackets with shorts, as primary market research indicates this item is not very popular and there were only two sales of jackets last year) =517.20: 206.64: 70.85: 104.11= 898.80 Of course, this figure is slightly inaccurate as the group is selling last years products at a higher price, so it could potentially reach 1000-1200. Examining the locations can also help the group predict how the location will impact on sales. Main Reception: Halls: SU: Main Reception =415: 10.99: 187.92: 115.96 =56.88%: 1.5%: 25.7%: 15.9% The locations are quite different and more versatile this year. In order to use this information as accurately as possible, the group suggested the locations which will perform similarly to those above. Main Reception: Re:So: HC: JM =56.88%: 1.5%: 25.7%: 15.9% =511.24: 13.48: 230.99: 142.91= 898

Sales Forecast
Location Sales Predicted Per Product
Main Reception Hoodies: 220.34 Joggers: 104.80 Shorts: 62.88 T-Shirts: 123.21 Total: 511.23 Re:So Marlands Hoodies: 5.80 Store Joggers: 2.76 Shorts: 1.66 T-Shirts: 3.25 Total: 13.47 HC Building Hoodies: 99.56 Joggers: 47.35 Shorts: 28.42 T-Shirts: 55.67 Total: 231 Hoodies: 61.59 Joggers: 29.30 Shorts: 17.58 T-Shirts: 34.44 Total: 142.91 OVERALL TOTAL: 898.80

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JM Building

Of course, these figures are based on assumptions and last years blue team sales locations and figures. To be true of the original judgement, the group predict that more money will be made in Re:So and less money will be made in the HC building. The sample for primary research only totalled at thirty participants, which is not reflective of the 19,000 student population within the university, therefore judging sales figures based on this samples interest would be inaccurate. The figures have been predicted from ratios, and is spread evenly across product categories, which explains why the Re:So figures look slightly odd.

Development and Execution

After discussing what the group wanted to achieve by developing aims, objectives, a marketing strategy and then a set of actions to support the marketing programme, preparation for the Big Sell Off is essential in order to ensure the event runs smoothly. The group had various meetings to discuss potential ideas and inform the group on their progress within their role. The first part of development included the photo shoot, and editing the images in preparation to create flyers and posters. The group agreed on three designs, as they followed the theme of yellow. The models were chosen to create a realistic aspirational view of student life. Whilst conducting the photo shoot, the group recorded it so that a video could be created to play at the pop up shop locations. The group also managed to secure incentives to put towards the raffle for Children in Need. Free Subway voucher books to give away with each purchase as well as six free subs for the raffle. 40 food voucher for 90 Degrees. 20 food voucher for Pizza Hut Yates Yellow Cards (for particular discounts) iPod Docking Station iPad and iPhone cases Headphones Pop phones Day 1: Re:So in Marlands Shopping Centre Re:So proved to be a challenge, as the location is discreet and as a new store, awareness is low as is footfall as a result. Many tactics were implemented, such as approaching people on the street using Children in Need as a talking point, and walking in the surrounding areas handing out flyers to generate interest and build awareness. Total Sales Made: 109.99 Forecast Sales: 13.47 Based on figures from last year, the group predicted that they would make a lot less than we actually did, therefore reinforcing that the aims and objectives were beginning to be met. The group was proud of their efforts, as it seemed very difficult to boost traffic into the Re:So store. However, the group couldve increased this figure by expanding into the SM building, similarly to competitors the Red Team. Day 2: Main University Reception

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Day two was predicted to be the best selling day, due to the high footfall and a high student population. The sales forecast indicated that last year, this was the best location with the highest sales figures. During this day, the stand was getting ignored, and a more effective tactic of directing stopping and talking to students helped encourage and push sales. Total Sales: 369.92 Forecast Sales: 511.23 Day two was the main reception location, expected to be the most profitable and highest sales location. However, the group The group also began networking and placing flyers and forecast roughly 140 more than the group actually made. This posters in areas surrounding the University as well as inside the university itself, as well as producing free CDs to give away was very disappointing as the group wanted to sell a high quantity of units, however, the figure averaged out due to better with purchases. than predicted results at the Re:So shop.

Development and Execution

Day 3: HC Building
Day three proved to be a quiet one. In the HC building, students tend to attend their lectures and leave instantly, with no browsing. In order to combat this, the group tried approaching people but had little luck. Total Sales: 110.99 Forecast Sales: 231 The group was disappointed that they did not even make 50% of their forecasted sales, as this displayed poor implementation of the strategy to encourage consumers to purchase.

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Day 4: JM Building
JM building was a significant day for the team, being the last. In order to push sales, a 10% discount was being offered from the leftover budget. This helped to push sales and gain market share. The team was highly motivated and managed to improve sales from a poor performance at HC building. Total Sales: 220.95 Forecast Sales: 142.91 The JM building was a positive end to the Big Sell Off project, as after two poor days selling and not making the forecasted amount, the yellow team managed to make their target and beat it by a tremendous amount. This day also gained their highest average spends of the week on this day as well. This could be due to extra motivation from team members, as it was the last chance to increase sales, as well as having the facility to use the leftover budget to offer generous discounts to students.

Development and Execution

Advertisement/ Poster and Flyer Images Used to Promote The Big Sell Off

49

These were the final images: They were all picked based on the yellow colours, maintaining consitancy within the marketing strategy and differentiating from the other team competitors.

Development and Execution

Advertisement/ Poster and Flyer Images Used to Promote The Big Sell Off

50

These were draft images, aiming to capture attention with the use of bright colours, and running with the colours of purple, green and cream. However the images were dismissed due to the lack of information regarding the yellow team and no consistancy with the marketing strategy.

Sales and Margins

51

The Sales and Margins reflect how well each team did during The Big Sell Off in terms of sales and average transaction spends. It was predicted in the planning of The Big Sell Off that students would tend to only buy one item, as opposed to a variety of products, meaning average spends were predicted to be roughly 20 per consumer. Yellow Team came third in the event. This was disappointing news, however, the group worked well together and tried their best to sell as much as possible, and despite not being the most successful in the event, the group still managed to make a respectable 72.70 for the well deserving charity, Children in Need. It is also to be taken into consideration that despite the yellow team not selling many units compared to the other teams, the units they did sell tended to be more expensive items such as hoodies and joggers, meaning the group achieved the highest average customer spend. Towards the end of the event, the yellow team did recognise that approaching and speaking to consumers and offering a friendly, good quality customer service that was personal, certainly helped to boost sales and gain recognition for the products. Confidence is the main key important factor in selling, as it reflects positively on the consumer and displays a positive energy towards the products that are being sold. By embracing what the group has learnt during the Big Sell Off will certainly prove useful for employability skills.

Blue Team 138.97 Units: 6 Average Spend: 23.16 Red Team 830.91 Units: 36 Average Spend: 23.05 Yellow Team 369.92 Units: 18 Average Spend: 20.55

Main Reception

Re:So Marlands
23.00 3 7.66

HC Building
278.00 15 18.53 391.00 15 26.06 110.99 5 22.19 294.96 22 13.40

JM Building
132.97 5 26.59 202.00 19 10.63 220.95 9 24.55 384.00 31 12.38

Overall Totals
572.94 29 18.99 1606.91 81 19.09 811.85 37 22.32 2266.83 116 19.86

183.00 11 16.63 109.99 5 21.99 172.98 6 28.83

Green Team 1414.89 Units: 57 Average Spend: 24.82

Sales and Margins

Breakdown of Team Yellows Sales

52

This table displays the total breakdown of Team Yellows sales, which will be used against the Trend Moden order documents to determine the profit margins, the amount of money between the cost price and selling price. 2011 and 2012 both were formed of different products/ trimmings, and therefore were very different, so analysing the results separately will give a completely accurate result.

Sales and Margins

Sales Breakdown
In order to thoroughly measure the success of the Big Sell Off, the group needs to find out the profit margins per garment sold, by taking away the cost price from the selling price. To do this accurately, the group will need to look at both 2011 and 2012s stock, and from this the Yellow Group can find out how much profit they made from the Big Sell Off.

Old Stock, 2011

53

To Calculate: T-Shirt has a cost price of 6.15 per unit. The T-Shirt has a selling price of 10.99. T- Shirt: 10.99- 6.15= 4.84 / 10.99= 0.44 X 100 = 44% Joggers: 29.99- 16.56= 13.43 / 29.99= 0.44 X 100= 44% Jackets: 44.99- 24.95= 20.04 / 44.99= 0.44 X 100=- 44% Hoodies: 34.99- 18.98 = 16.01 / 34.99 = 0.45 X 100= 45%

The profit margin for last years range was pretty consistent with all products, at roughly 44%. However, market research indicated that these prices were slightly too expensive for the student target market, suggesting that the 2012 range needed lower prices, so would therefore suffer lower profit margins. The yellow team managed to sell 15 products from the 2011 range, still showing significant popularity, implying that the group could have potentially sold more if the prices were ever so slightly lower. The total profit from the 2011 range totalled at 175.43, therefore making this range worthwhile to sell to the student population of Southampton.

Sales and Margins

New Stock, 2012
T- Shirts: 9 - 6.36 = 2.64 / 9 = 0.29 X 100 = 29% Joggers: 21- 18.69 = 2.31 / 21 = 0.11 X 100 = 11% Hoodies: 25 - 21.72 = 3.28 / 25 = 0.13 X 100 = 13% Shorts: 12 - 10.91 = 1.09 / 12 = 0.09 X 100 = 9%

Total Profit for the Yellow Team= 175.43 (2011) + 57.93 (2012) = 233.36

As a result of low units sold for the 2011 range, the selling prices of the range for 2012 were very different. This was due to an identified need for a lower selling price to suit the target student demographic and price bracket. By doing this, however, the university lowered profit margins dramatically, therefore severely affecting the amount of profits achieved with the 2012 range.

54

The profit margins dropped from 44% to between 29% and 9%. Hoodies and joggers, predicted to be the best sellers of the range, only made between 11% and 13% profit, compared to 44% of what was last year. The cost price would have also risen this year due to external factors such as the recession, rising cotton prices and rising fuel prices, which would have also contributed to lowering the profit margin. In conclusion, raising the selling price for the better selling garments would have increased profit margins and would have generated a better and more profitable result.

Risk Assessment

Risk assessment is always significant to the successful and efficient running of a project, as by analysing risks, the group can tactically eliminate them or facilitate them to meet the markets demands and needs.

Risk assessment is also used in conjunction to people management, as controlling internal factors such as the work force and productivity levels also contributes to an effective approach to business, and in some industries, risk assessment is vital to ensure health and safety of employees. External factors should also be analysed in relation to risk assessment, as this will help deliver an experience relevant to the markets conditions. The cycle of risk management involves assessing, evaluating, managing and measuring the risk. Assessing the risk is the first and most important factor, as identifying the risk will help to determine main and potential risks within the project, which can then be evaluated, managed, and measured to then handle any risky situation in the best possible way.

55

According to Kit Sadgrove, 2005, there are four main categories in which risk can happen within an organisation; operational, strategic, compliance, and financial risks. (Kit Sadgrove, The Complete Guide to Business Risk Management, 2005) Using this model with the risk management cycle and applying it to the project will help determine to assess risks, as well as evaluate, manage and measure the risks efficiently.

Risk Assessment
Operational Risks Assess -Potential negative supplier relationships could jeopardise the range. -Managing staff - bad attendance, lateness, low productivity, low motivation -Fire/ Health and Safety Evacuations -Bad weather -Missing stock -Different Selling Locations -Other teams will pose as a risk, potentially owning higher market share. -The recession and rising cotton prices -Other competitors could use technology to their advantage to dominate the market. -Consumer demands Evaluate -The university needs to ensure negotiations are fair and dont exploit the suppliers. -Staff should be monitored and motivated, in order to improve productivity. -Fire exits should be brought to the awareness of staff -Bad weather needs to be addressed and adapted too. -Stock will be constantly being moved around different locations and will be being attained regularly for replenishment. However, stock could potentially go missing, which would have a severe impact on the operations of the business. -Different locations vary in footfall, making different locations a risk in challenging places, such as Re:So and JM building. -Other teams will be operating their own marketing strategies, or have access to resources to improve them. If they offer the consumer a better deal, then this will act as a huge risk and lose dramatic amounts of market share. -The recession, rising cotton, commuting, and student fees will all leave the student market with less disposable income, causing caution to spending. This could lose the team sales. -Technology could affect the teams sales as they cannot offer an online platform, therefore not meeting market demands. -Consumer demands will act as a risk if the business does not deliver what they want, which is constantly changing in an unstable market.

The Four Categories of Organisational Risk (Kit Sadgrove, 2005)

Manage -Maintain good relations with suppliers through good use of communication. -Motivate staff, with potential rewards, build morale and actively discuss progress with team members. -Manager takes control and shows leadership during emergencies. -Attempt to use the large footfall from bad weather to boost sales. -Record every stock item. -Suit the marketing strategy to cater for each location, to ensure that each location is utilised to its full potential. -In order to manage this risk, the group will ensure thorough market research is implemented in order to gain a competitive advantage. -The group will attain as many promotions as possible to overcome economic disadvantages and encourage consumers to buy in a difficult climate. -The group will use social media to inform consumers of the event, and build awareness for the range. -The group will conduct market research to discover what consumers want to meet their demands.

56

Measure -The university will measure good relationships by discussing arising problems with the suppliers. -Review progress with employees and ensure that particular behaviour gets rewarded. -Evaluate emergency situations. -Be far more encouraging and approach consumers in bad weather. -Check stock against records. -Measure sales and overcome obstacles that arise with new selling techniques e.g. expanding upon the locations.

Strategic Risks

-This will be measured in the amount of money made by each team in The Big Sell Off. -The group will contact various places of student interest such as restaurants, fashion, music and nightlife, to attain promotions of interest to the target market. -The social media will be created and updated regularly. -Market research to be conducted and analysed thoroughly, before implementing what they desire from the collegiate range.

Risk Assessment
Compliance Risks Assess -Advertising standards -Ethical standards -VAT -Stock exchange rates Evaluate -The group will have to abide by advertising legislation, ensuring the content is not offensive. -The suppliers sourced by the university will need to abide by laws to act as ethically as possible, in terms of the environment and their employees. -VAT rates are at 20%, which will need to be added to the products -Stock exchange rates will be significant when paying for the collegiate range. The is currently strong against the .

The Four Categories of Organisational Risk (Kit Sadgrove, 2005)

Manage -In order to ensure the advertising is acceptable, the group will avoid any offensive content and will keep advertising very simple. -Checking documentation and discussing ethics with the supplier will help determine their ethical standards. -VAT will be included in the price of the product. -The university will negotiate purchases against sterling.

57

Measure -Check advertising with management to ensure it is suitable for the market. -Research the relevant legislation and documentation to ensure they are operating to the right standard. -Regularly research the stock exchange rate to have an increased awareness of the market.

Financial Risks

-Profit Margins -The profit margin is essential within sales, as -Sales of Units selling a certain quantity to make a desired -Budget Allocations amount of profit will be difficult to achieve. It could be more risky to focus selling the 2012 stock, which has lower profit margins than the 2011 stock. -Sales of units will be critical in order to boost the amount of money made. It is especially important as the group will be competing against three other groups. -The group will need to attain a certain amount of money to use as a budget for props, a float, and extras such as sweets and cakes.

-The 2012 stock has a far lower profit margin than the 2011 stock, therefore the group will aim to sell the higher priced 2011 stock to boost average spend, sales in general, and profits. -In order to sell more units, the group will use a variety of sales techniques, as well as implementing a well planned out marketing strategy. -The group discussed this and agreed that everyone place 5 into the budget each.

-Profits will be measures and calculated commencing after the event has taken place. This will determine whether the event has been a success. -Sales of units will be analysed at the end of the event compared to the competition. -This amount was successful as it covered costs and an excess of budget meant the group could secure discounts for the last few consumers.

Competitive Analysis
The Yellow Team, in order to succeed, needed a competitive advantage over the Green, Red and Blue teams. By conducting a competitive analysis, the group could identify what techniques and marketing strategies were being executed, and therefore can overcome the threats and exceed the other groups efforts. Marketing Strategy/ USP Blue Quirky, high fashion stylised theme (similar to Urban Outfitters). USP focuses on free garment bleach tie dying. Marketing Actions

58

Created a Facebook and Twitter page. Conducted a stylised shoot with quite a grungy, quirky theme and then used these as posters. Attained a sponsorship with Frangos (a Portuguese restaurant). Held a raffle with free gifts such as Red Bull, 50% off a Frangos bill, mini hairdryer, and mini straighteners. Gave freebies away with purchases such as drinks vouchers, discount flyers (20% off tattoos, Dominos deals) and shampoo/ conditioner samples. Offered a free tie- dying service to customers, which was this groups unique selling point. Visual merchandised the mannequins to look quite quirky and stylised. Created a Facebook and Twitter page. Conducted a photo shoot for social networking sites. Emphasized their marketing strategy on internal networking within the university, such as societies, the Students Union, the canteen and the online portal, gaining exclusive advertising rights to the canteen and portal. Gave out a complimentary Red Envelope with every purchase, which included free nightclub entry vouchers, discount pizza vouchers, and free canteen vouchers for free food and hot drinks. Held a raffle in which consumers had the chance to win a 20 canteen voucher as well as a meal for four at Cantina. Offered a pre-ordering service via Facebook. Free sweets to draw people in as well as red balloons and table cloths for their visual merchandising. Clothes presented neatly on hangers with basic mannequins. Staff painted their nails red. Re- situated to the SM building to enhance sales whilst based at the Re:So location. As their Unique Selling Point, the group collaborated with illustration students to sell their t-shirts exclusively. For every 3 t-shirt sold, the team took 1 profit.

Red

Theme focuses on students, societies, and networks in the university with the USP consisting of exclusive rights to the canteen and portal to advertise, as well as collaborating with Illustration students.

Competitive Analysis
Marketing Strategy/ USP Green Focus on student wellbeing and interests, with the USP being free garment customisation (allowing the consumer have their name on the garment). Marketing Actions

59

Created a Facebook and Twitter page Offered a Lucky Dip to consumers, with prizes including a 10 West Quay voucher, free cinema tickets, drinks and entry vouchers for the Students Union, Pop and Orange Rooms. Offered free cakes to consumers. Built awareness by attaining an announcement from BBC South Radio within the Whats On section of the day, to notify listeners of the Big Sell Off within the Marlands shopping centre at Re:So. Offered free delivery to students using a text service, however the group did not get any responses. As their Unique Selling Point, the group offered free customisation to the clothing by adding letters and initials to create anything the consumer wanted on their garment, for example their name. In order to reach their target market, the group visited halls in an approach to boosting sales. Created Facebook and Twitter page. Carried out a photo shoot and created bright, colourful images to use for advertising on posters and flyers. Went with a sporty theme, by posting sports articles via the Twitter page. Placed nightclub vouchers and Subway vouchers within each purchase as well as sweets. Created a raffle in which consumers could win a variety of products, such as an iPod docking station, iPhone cases, Macbook sleeves, Skype Pop Phone, a 40 food voucher for 90 Degrees, six free subs from Subway and a 20 Pizza Hut voucher. Every 10 spent on the range was equivalent to a free strip of tickets. Went around the parks and student halls on Wednesday and Thursday to try and boost sales. Offered 10% discount on the last day. Visually merchandised both male and female mannequins in both the 2011 and 2012 range, as well as using yellow balloons, helium balloons and yellow carrier bags. Garments either hung from a rail or were neatly folded on tables. Offered the Unique Selling Point of using charity to emotionally motivate consumers to purchase. The group supported Children in Need, donating 50p per purchase to charity as well as selling cakes and raffle tickets in exchange for a donation.

Yellow Sporty theme. The USP focuses on the Children in Need charity and the 50p from each sale going to charity.

Competitive Analysis
Team Red Images

Team Blue Images

60

Competitive Analysis
Team Yellow Images

Team Green Images

61

Competitive Evaluation
The Big Sell Off was an event lasting for the duration of four days, which proved to be challenging in a variety of ways. To finalise, the Yellow Team came third, however led the competition in terms of average spend and managed to make an impressive 72.70 for charity. The group intended to perform better than this and was slightly disappointed as a result. However, during the event it was obvious the group was not performing as well as it could have been. Team Green came first, followed by red and blue came last. By observing the event and studying what the other teams were implementing as a result of their planning and marketing strategy, it became more about the attitudes of the team members as opposed to what incentives the group could offer with purchases. In other words, the incentives did not encourage consumers to buy, and just was an additional bonus to purchasing a product that the consumer was already interested in and considering buying. The teams all offered a range of fantastic services, all suitable and representative of the student demographic, from tie dying, customisation, free technological products and collaborations with illustration students. Market research had already indicated a fair level of interest from students that attended the university, so the event offered these consumers an optimum opportunity to buy and relinquish the promotions each team offered. The most obvious factor was the attitude and confidence levels of students in each group. Teams Red and Green tended to have the most extroverted, confident personalities, which really contributed to the success of their teams. These personality traits helped the teams to approach and build relationships with consumers as well as networking (which helped generate a buzz from word of mouth marketing), which tended to lead to a purchase. Consumers did not tend to approach the stands of stock, and needed to be informed of the products and incentives in order to browse the products. Using the Belbins team roles, it is clear to see that the co-ordinators, the resource investigators, and the implementers seemed to be effective characters during the event, due to their courage, confidence, and high levels of motivation and drive. Team Yellow and blue tended to be introverted, despite being motivated, with more monitors, team workers, and finishers. To conclude, it seems that if the Yellow Team focused on targeting students and were more confident to approach and discuss the products and incentives on offer, then the group could have gained a higher market share and therefore sold more products as a result. However, an important lesson has been learnt that confidence is key to selling, which can be applied to future careers and employability skills. It has been a worthwhile, interesting experience and each team member has learnt in depth how selling works in the market from a practical perspective.

62

Appendix 1: Survey Questions

Structured Survey Questions for the 2012 Collegiate Range (Appendix 1)

63

The information needed by the team included knowing what students thought of the range, what they would want from the range, whether the price was accurate to what they would realistically spend, how much awareness existed for the universitys collegiate range, whether students were interested in purchasing and what items, whether they had purchased an item previously, and whether incentives would strongly influence their ability to be persuaded into purchasing. 1. Are you male or female? (Closed question, Male/ Female) 2. How old are you? (Closed question, 18-20/ 21-23/ 24-26/ 27-29/ 30+) 3. Are you a student at Southampton Solent University? (Closed Question, Yes/ No) 4. What university year are you currently studying? (Closed Question, Foundation Year/ First Year/ Second Year/ Third Year) 5. What factors are important to you when purchasing a lifestyle clothing brand? (Closed Question, Multiple Choice, Quality/ Style/ Practicality/ Exclusivity/ Trendiness/ Value/ Credibility/ Comfort/ Other, Please Specify) 6. Are you aware Southampton Solent University offers a collegiate range of clothing? (Closed Question, Yes/ No) 7. If yes, what are your opinions of the range? (Open Question) 8. Have you ever bought an item from the range? If so, please specify which item and whether you were happy with your purchase. (Open Question, Yes/No and Potential Answer) 9. Would you be interested in buying an item from the collegiate range? (Closed Question, Yes/ No) 10. If you are interested, what items would appeal to you? (Closed Question, Shorts 12/ Hoodies 25/ Joggers 21/ T Shirts 9/ None of the Above) 11. T-Shirts are 9, Shorts are 12, Hoodies are 25 and the Joggers are 21. How would these prices affect your buying decision? (Open Question) 12. Would incentives with a purchase, such as games, vouchers, freebies and goody bags, encourage you to by something from the collegiate range? (Closed Question, Yes/ No/ Depends how good the incentives are) 13. What attracts you into a store? (Open Question) 14. How does customer service affect your decision to buy? (Open Question) 15. Have you got any additional comments to make regarding the collegiate range and what you would seek from the collegiate range? (Open Question)

Appendix 2: Team Roles and Responsibilities/ Locations

Team Member India Steady Laura Gamble Florence De Carteret Olivia Morreale Tasha Laskey Julia Morris Annie Wade Eve Fisher Charlie Barnes George Brough Fiona Brearley Phoebe Winter Sebrina Green Katie Foley Sophie Kennedy Ginette Ngwamah
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Marlands Yellow Team Red Team Green Team Blue Team

64

Responsibility Team Leader and Manager Accounts Accounts Accounts Promotions Promotions Promotions Advertising and Market Research Advertising and Market Research Advertising Social Media Social Media Visual Merchandising Visual Merchandising Visual Merchandising Visual Merchandising
Reception Blue Team Yellow Team Red Team Green Team HC Foyer Green Team Blue Team Yellow Team Red Team JM Foyer Red Team Green Team Blue Team Yellow Team

Appendix 3: Team Yellow Rota

Monday 9:00- 13.30 Laura George Eve Ginette India Tasha Sophie Annie Tuesday Laura Sophie Eve Ginette India Wednesday Thursday Phoebe Tasha Fiona Sebrina Eve India Laura Katie Florence Annie

65

13:00- 17:30 Florence Katie Olivia Charlie Phoebe Julia Fiona Sebrina

Sebrina Fiona Olivia Charlie Julia George

Charlie Annie Florence Katie India Olivia

George Ginette Julia Sophie Tasha Phoebe

Appendix 4: Price List

2011 Stock Hoodies: 34.99 Joggers: 29.99 Jackets: 44.99 T-Shirt: 10.99

66

2012 Stock Hoodies: 25 Joggers: 21 Shorts: 12 T-Shirts: 9

Appendix 5: Stock Allocation and Sales Instructions

67

Women Hoodie Green: S x 1, Mx 1 Retail Management Project The Big Sell Off Women Hoodie Purple: S x 1, M x 1 Replenishing Stock Men Hoodie Green: L x 1 Men Hoodie Purple: L x 1 This is a crucial operations activity that will have a direct impact on your sales if you do not have
the right size or garment on offer, the customer is unable to buy and you will lose out on sales.

Women Joggers Green: S x 1, Mx 1 It is up to your teams to decide how to manage this activity, however here is the process which Women Joggers Purple: S x 1, M x 1 you must follow to check stock out. Men Joggers Green: L x 1 Men Joggers Purple: L x 1 Each team will be provided with the same stock and a sheet detailing units and garment Women Shorts Purple: S x 1, M x 1 Women Shorts Green: S x 1, M x 1 Women T-Shirts Purple: S x 2, M x 2 Women T-Shirts Cream: S x 2, M x 2 Men T-Shirts Green: L x 2 Men T-Shirts Cream: L x 2 Start Up Units of Stock: 28 Units Replenished Stock:

description. To replenish you must have stock signed out by the stockroom manager. The stock room manager will be in the stockroom between . The teams must note the replenished stock onto a sheet of paper/book this is to keep a balance of stock going in and out during your sales activity. In your teams, you must devise a strategy that will make this process most efficient. This means getting the stock visible and available to your customer in the least amount of time. Professional conduct You are running a mini business for a period of time, therefore you must conduct yourself in a professional manner at all times. This means offering your customers an excellent customer service and you must display your product professionally. All members of your team should be treated with respect and any issues should be resolved in a diplomatic manner.

Appendix 6: Old 2011 Stock Order Document/ Cost Prices

68

Appendix 7: New 2012 Stock Document/ Cost Prices

Colour Womens T-Shirt Purple Womens T-Shirt White Mens T-Shirt White Mens T-Shirt Green Womens Hoodie Womens Hoodie Mens Hoodie Mens Hoodie Womens Joggers Womens Joggers Mens Joggers Mens Joggers Womens Short Womens Short Purple Green Purple Green Purple Green Purple Green XS S 50 27 16 31 14 7 7 5 13 13 7 7 24 22 M 65 27 25 50 14 13 13 13 14 14 13 13 33 34 L 49 25 25 50 14 13 13 13 14 14 13 13 XL 17 33 8 5 8 8 2XL 3XL Sample Expenditure Set-Up Costs and Print/ Embroidery Transport Costs for Samples Units GBP/ Unit 164 79 83 164 490 6.36 42 33 41 36 152 41 41 41 41 164 82 81 163

69 Order
GBP

3115.40

21.72

3301.44

18.69

3055.16

Purple Green -

25 25 -

10.91

1778.33 260 244 165

Appendix 8: Yellow Teams Sales Breakdown

70

Appendix 9: Yellow Team Budget

71

The budget was 5 per person, meaning the total budget was 80. Leftovers of this budget went towards discounts on the last day to push sales and Children in Need. For each ten pound spent on the range, the consumer received a raffle strip to be entered into the prize draw for team yellows incentives.

Appendix 10: Employability Skills

72

Team Working: The Big Sell Off had a huge aspect of team work, as many group members had not worked with each other before. Motivation and leadership were important during the event, as these skills were needed to manage the team and boost morale to eventually boost sales. The event was realistic to a workplace environment, as working with different people is inevitable and to learn these skills are crucial to preparation for employment after university. Organising and Planning: The event had little direction from tutors, meaning students were completely self-reliant and independent whilst organising and planning The Big Sell Off. Of course, this is an important skill to transfer into the work place as an employee needs to be independent and able to plan and organise efficiently. Problem Solving: Problem solving was critical within the planning and organisation of the event, as the students of the Yellow Team needed to research trends in both the internal and external market, and needed to use analytical research skills to attain the relevant information. Of course, in a marketing career, being able to problem solve and analyse is essential to predict and manage the constant evolving market needs and demands within an organisation. Professionalism: Professionalism was crucial to the event, as lateral thinking and attention to detail were key skills needed to manage the event and adapt the marketing strategy to any unpredicted movements or events. Professionalism is significant in the working environment, as employees are expected to generate ideas and think laterally in order to make positive changes within an organisation. Communicating: Communication was dominantly done through team work during the event, which was important as it helped team members discuss possible tactile decisions in the running of the event. However, in the working environment, employees are expected to have good communication in order to hold positive relations to both clients and colleagues.

Harvard Referencing/

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SMITHERS,R.,2012. Campaign to push organic cotton as sales rise. [Viewed 26th October 2012] [Online] Available From:http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/oct/04/organic-cotton-products-consumers THEGUARDIAN.,2012.University guide 2013: Southampton Solent University.[Viewed 11th October 2012] [Online] Available From:http://www.guardian.co.uk/ education/2009/may/10/universityguide-southampton-solent-uni THOMPSON,D.,2012.Pop up business for dummies.Sussex.John Wiley & Sons. [Viewed 11th November 2012] [Online Book] Available From:http://books. google.co.uk/books?id=iU0u5batPH8C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false TOBIN,L.,2012.Rise of the stay-at-home students.[Viewed 28th October 2012] [Online] Available From:http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/aug/12/stayat-home-students TRENDMODEN.,2012.Brands.[Viewed 29th October 2012] [Online] Available From:http://tm-trendmoden.com/42.html UCAS.,2012.Applicant figures. [Viewed 27th October 2012] [Online] Available From:http://www.ucas.com/about_us/media_enquiries/media_releases/2012/20120130 VADGAMA,S.,2012.Facebook UK stats you should know. [Viewed 28th October 2012] [Online] Available From:http://www.fourthsource.com/news/facebookuk-stats-you-should-know-8577 VASAGAR,J.,2012. Tuition fees increase led to 15,000 fewer applicants.[Viewed 27th October 2012] [Online] Available From:http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/aug/09/tuition-fees-increase-15000-less-applicants WHITEHEAD,F.,2012. UCAS application figures: overview of the statistics and the coverage.[Viewed 27th October 2012] [Online] Available From:http://www. guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/feb/07/analysis-of-ucas-application-figures

POPAI (Point of Purchase Advertising International)

To recognise excellence in design for retail display as submitted by you - students in the UK & Ireland. (POPAI Mission Statement, 2012) POPAI is a competition held for students to design a point of purchase for a product or brand. However, the fashion industry in general lacks in point of purchase sales. Mulberry, an innovative, quirky, British heritage luxury fashion brand, tends to stand out for their bold advertising and unique clothing. The brand tends to use point of purchase effectively; as this is massive for their word of mouth marketing and publicity, which is used to maximize sales and reinforce brand loyalty. The design I have created is a tree, with twelve branches. These branches will have raised parts to accommodate the Mulberry bags, which will be lit up with changing colour fiber optic lights. I think this design ties in with their current marketing strategy of tactical publicity and interaction with consumers, and as a result the design will bring effective utilization of this strategy. Each branch will accommodate a different range of products, from their Bayswater bags to their basic tote bags.

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Dimensions
Base Plate: Steel base, 1 meter in diameter and 25mm in depth. Polyester powder coated to match Mulberry store floor. Tree Structure: 10 foot in height, 8.66 foot in width. Trunk/ Branches: 6.5 foot to enable people to walk under the tree and view it from below. 3.5 foot for the leaves and branches. The tree trunk will be 20cm (0.66 foot) wide and spherical. The branches will be 10cm wide. There will be three tiers of branch, the lowest branch will be four foot per branch, the middle branch will be three foot per branch, and the highest branches will be 2 foot in length, with each foot accommodating one bag. There will be four branches per tier, meaning there will be a 16 bags on the bottom, 12 bags on the middle tier, and 8 bags on the highest tier, totaling 36 bags per tree structure. There will be a gap of 1.17 foot between each branch, leaving room for the bags to be hung. This makes the tree at its widest 8.66 foot wide and 10 foot high, making it a large design. Leaves: Leaves will be made using synthetic polyester, similar to fake flowers, and there will be quite a large quantity to make the tree more aesthetically pleasing. Fiber Optic Lights: There will be a series of fiber optic lights, secured to the branches, to illuminate the products, making it more theatrical and delivering feelings of enchantment and fantasy to the consumer.

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8.66 ft 2 ft 3.5 ft 3 ft 0.33 ft (10cm) 6.5 ft

4 ft

10 ft

0.66ft (20cm) 3 ft

Steel Base

Steel and aluminium square hollow sections (interior) and fibrous plaster (exterior) for main structure

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Popai Entry: Questions and Answers
1. Describe materials used and reasons for selection

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The materials used have been selected to make the structure sturdy and realistic. There will be a steel plate (one meter in diameter and 15mm thick) to support the design that will be polyester powder coated to match the Mulberry store floor. For the trunk, there will be a one meter high steel square hollow section to secure the structure to the base, and an aluminum square hollow section over this roughly 150mm in diameter and three meters in height. This will then be covered using fibrous plaster to create a realistic wood effect, bringing the trunk structure to 200mm in diameter. The branches will be made with the same materials, being four foot long (which can fit a bag per foot, secured with notches). The leaves will be glued on and made from polyester fabric, similarly to imitation flowers and plants. Fiber optic lights will be placed on the notches supporting the bags, changing colours to illuminate the bags. These materials have been chosen to give a realistic and high quality effect, and to ensure the structure is sturdy for health and safety reasons.

2. How will your design fit within its retail environment?

The design is aimed to be placed in their larger stores, such as capital cities such as their London and New York stores, as these locations draw in tourists who could potentially increase market share and build publicity. These stores are also larger with higher ceilings, meaning the brand could afford to allocate the large space needed for the design. The dimensions are quite large, needing roughly 9 foot in width and ten foot in height, so it will only be suitable for larger and more famous stores. It will stand central in the store to get as much attention as possible, and the main focus will be the display of products.

3. What are the cost implications of the design?

The design will be expensive to implement due to the metal costs involved, the labour, and the fibrous plaster, however, the design is such a bold statement that the amount of publicity and interest surrounding it will build market share and justify brand loyalty to Mulberrys consumers. As the brand is luxury, cost is expected to be high for visual merchandising and point of purchase as materials used need to look elegant and high quality to justify thebrand values and connotations.

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4. How will your design communicate the brand message?

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The design will communicate the brand message as it is very representative with the Mulberry brand. For example, their logo is of a Mulberry tree, they often use fixtures and visual merchandising with inspiration taken from nature (such as giant toadstool mushrooms), and they often use point of purchase quite imaginatively. The idea will be relevant to their values of British heritage, as trees are quite representative of countryside and British landscape. The design will also provide consumers with an experience, as they can walk under the tree, touch the design, look at the bags lit up by fibre optics to highlight autumn shades, making it aesthetically pleasing to the luxury consumer. The design could incorporate fixtures under the tree, such as their previous designs of giant toadstools, fake grass, or authentic garden benches in which consumers can sit, making the idea quite expandable. The design would also incorporate their autumn shades handbags, with branches categorised with different products, for example, a Bayswater bag branch, an Alexa bag branch, and their new product, the Del Ray bag branch. The extensity of the product would also generate good publicity, and will encourage footfall for consumers to experience the design which will inevitably boost sales for their handbags. 5. What was the overall strategy behind your design? The overall strategy consisted of gaining attention and publicity and to give consumers an experience to remember, as the tree would be a talking point to their networks. The strategy also aimed to justify and reinforce brand values of their British heritage, as well as being unique, quirky, playful and creative, and to boost sales of their seasonal handbags.

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