Assume that you are the newly appointed Marketing Manager for either Forever 21 or Tommy Stores. To quickly bring you up to speed on your retailer, your VP of Marketing has asked you to prepare a short report that answers the following question.
What is the target market for Forever 21®? Defend your answer.
Or
What is the target market for Tommy Boutiques? Defend your answer.
The Situation: Tommy Hillfinger® is responding to (1) the current recession and (2) inroads by competitors bynarrowing its (1) target market, (2) product assortment, (3) promotion, (4) distribution (opening Tommy Boutiques), and (5) pricing.
Forever 21® is responding to (1) the current recession and (2) inroads by competitors by wideningits (1) target market, (2) product assortment (making its clothes to fit regular sized (rather than just skinny) folks, and (3) distribution (opening stores in Sears).
Expectations
From Introduction1 and Background1, you should learn that a market is
(1) prospective customers
(2) with willingness to spend, and
(3) ability to spend
Lots of companies(business buyers)/people with little or no willilngness or ability to spend, does not for a market make. And few companies/people with willingness to spend and ability to spend does not for a market make.
In terms of a good market, you should look at the numbers of prospective customers, their willingness to spend, and ability to spend at the same time you look at the type and number of existing competitors and/or type and number of ppossible competitors in the near future.
Considering what constitutes a good target market; your job is to use and reference the case-related readings and the background material to describe the target market for the product/store you chose to analyze and, from a product demand point of view, to explain why that strategy will or will not be successful.
In preparing your CASE1
You need to consider the ways in which the market for clothing is segmented. The key to building a case for or against what your company is doing, you should present the market struture for clothing how the market for clothing is segmented, the target markets served, and who competes in those markets.
Is the buyer/wearer:
A Man vs Woman
A child vs adult
Big vs small
Short vs tall
Need Slim vs regular vs husky
Need Pleats vs no pleats
Does the buyer want cotton, wool, blend, polyester, microfiber?
In terms of price points:
1. Is there any competition at the low end?
2. Is there any competition at the mid range?
3. Is there any competition at the high end?
If you define the target market based on demographic, socio-psychographic, and/or geographic factors; be careful to cite substantial differences in behavior (clothing chosen) of shoppers by age, income, gender, marital status, and family life style. If you don't define the target market based on demographic, socio-psychographic, and/or geographic factors; you need to explain why those factors are not applicable for sellers of clothing.
Also, in terms of your defining the target market to be a 'good market,' you need to consider the ease with which competitors can duplicate products, method and content of promotion, and prices.
Note that this assignment does NOT require you to prepare a detailed essay. Instead use section headings for each of the topics you address in your paper followed by a discussion of each of those topics. Possible section/topic headings are:
Introduce the issue - what product/strore are you analyzing, what are the problems that clothing stores faces?
Analyze the issue: Possible Target Markets
Evaluate the Alternatives: Most likely Target Market
Come to a Conclusion: Target Market - defense of position