Introduction

The  retail outlet Fashfoot(hypothetical name) deals in the fashionable foot wears of men. This outlet  enjoys good sales and high turnover. Still, the business is small and the entrepreneur is on the expansion spree.

 The specialty of this outlet is that it analyses the needs and comfort level of the customer very well and by and  introduces products accordingly. It is a specialty retail store dealing only in men’s foot wears and now planning to win the hearts of women also.

 This outlet was established a decade ago and it is running successfully in the western part of the world with headquarter in Cincinnati, US. Though it is not on the large scale but by enhancing product line, the team are trying to expand it globally. Let’s have a look at the retail marketing management plan that may prove helpful to this business.

Strategic Retail Marketing Plan

Marketing is very important for any business irrespective of the size, whether it is small business or small business. A good marketing plan can help a business to survive longer with much profitability.  Retail marketing plan includes various stages that can be listed as follows (Jain, 2008):

• Analyzing  the internal and external environment
• Research regarding customers’ and their preferences
• Segmentation and positioning
• Setting long term and short term objectives
• Adopting marketing strategies and developing the marketing mix
• Measuring progress and performance
• Implementation and control

Internal and external factors, as mentioned by the first stage, can be explained by SWOT analysis (ogden, 2005).

SWOT analysis for Fashfoot:

Strength

• Customer satisfaction
• Paying heed to current fashion trends
• Fulfill demands by providing modern plus comfortable foot wear
• Coming up with low-range products also

Weakness

• Lack of awareness about this brand
• First time introducing women foot wears
• Not a big market player

Opportunity

• Can cover wide range of women’s foot wears
• Can set business globally

Threats

• Competition with established brands like catwalk, Prada etc who are already a big market player
• Upcoming brands with brilliant ideas.

On the basis of SWOT analysis, further stages in the marketing plan for Fashfoot can be set out as follows:

1. The foremost step is to research and analyze the market to select the target audience. As it is planning to expand the product range to women, it can target college girls or kids or professional women as per the development plan it charts out. These are the women one who travel a lot, or who are well educated and qualified and understand the fashion well. This targeted group earns at least $1000 per month. Directors can plan the range of their product line according to these statistics related to the target group. Targeting the right sector of audience is very important as it may make or break long term plans. If  the right audience is not targeted, revenues and earnings may not be optimized.
2. The second step is to understand the needs and desires of customers. For instance, college girls have different desires than a professional women. Considering these desires differently and introducing  the product line will definitely enhance the customer base. For college goers, low range trendy products will work well while working women will get happier with executive style range. Understanding customers’ may seem easy but actually it’s not a small deal. This is the reason companies hire dedicated professionals to do intensive and extensive research for this purpose.

 The important thing is to bring awareness about the product among the targeted group. So, to bring awareness we will use pamphlets as a mode of communication, advertisements plus other modes of promotion. By viewing the targeted group, we can be sure upon one thing which is this section would definitely be reading newspaper, so we will keep pamphlets in the newspaper so that it gets noticed and this pamphlet should be kept on the second page of the newspaper. There is a large group of buyers in a market differing from each other in more than one way. Fashfoot, by adopting effective segmentation of market and positioning their products accordingly, can have an edge over others and gain competitive advantage as well. for instance, dividing the buyers according to their age group may help in catering them well.

Last but not the least, footwear is a thing in which well interactive and communicative staff will convincing powers can do the difference! So, considering this area will also prove helpful.

The Market Plan : Developing the Marketing Mix

Product strategy: – The Fashfoot retail outlet currently offers foot wears for men only. Nowadays, men have also taking care of trends and fashion and our products are compatible to that. We try to offer durable, comfortable and trendy shoes.

For women, the focus will be on flats and shoes since these are in great demand these days. Later on , we will move to high heels and other types of sandals.

Distribution strategy:- As per the feasible distribution strategy, we plan to capture the local market first. Later on neighboring areas will be targeted. However, there are plans to open the retail outlets in some  India , China as well and the team is executing the feasibility of the plan. Simultaneously, our distribution strategy includes (Jain, 2008):

• Product mapping to end users
• Examining competitors’ strategies and comparing that with our own
• Interviews with distribution partners to garner ideas for improvement

Promotional strategy:-   There are two types of promotional strategies: push strategies and pull strategies. Push strategy focuses on creating the demand whereas pull strategy focuses on high-end advertisements and promotions (Bhatia, 2008).

In a footwear range, pull strategy is more feasible as everybody has specific needs regarding footwear and no standardization in that can work well. However, plans can be there to introduce a specific range and push the customers to that.

Pricing strategy: As discussed above, we have targeted professional and college going women who earns at least $1000. So, pricing should be according to middle class and college goers who prefer fashion and trend rather than durability. In the scenario, low range products seem to gain more attention.

Last but not the least, effective implementation and performance control is required to get the desired results. Sales figures, customers’ feedbacks etc can prove a good resource  to check the performance. Changes can be made accordingly as required.

Thus, the essay has briefly discussed the retail marketing plan. There are many stages and each stage of the plan has its own importance. The first stage, understanding of environment in which the company operates somehow sets the foundation of further stages.

In the line, it’s very necessary to understand customers’ needs properly. Needless to say, we are living in a highly dynamic and competitive business environment and no company can afford to neglect its customers. The success of  Fashfoot , a small business of footwear, depends a lot on this aspect. Renowned thinkers say that to get global recognition, a company should search out ‘gaps’ in the market i.e. targeting the neglected products or customers. For instance, most of the brands focus on women, targeting men can be a good and fruitful decision. This aspect will be discussed further with more useful insights into it.

Conclusion

 In nutshell, the marketing plan highlighted some important stages with a brief overview on major aspects. However, these decision depend on lot other things related to market conditions and the respective position of the particular company therein. This is the reason regular checking of the plans is required to keep them in sync with changing external and internal environment.

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