Strategic Marketing for InVogue Clothing

This report provides recommendations for InVogue Clothing to regain its market share through strategies like entering the plus-size market, sustainable fashion, customization, and online presence.

Business report: Strategic marketing
INVOGUE CLOTHING
4/30/2019
INVOGUE CLOTHING
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Table of Contents
Introduction……………………….……………………………1
Recommendations……………………………………………...1
Research undertaken and Analytical Processes Followed……..2
STP (Segmenting, Targeting and Positioning)………………...3
Marketing Mix………………………………………………....5
References…………………………………….....……………..7

InVogue Clothing – Now in Vogue Again
Introduction
InVogue Clothing, once one of the most popular retail company for women’s clothing items in
the locality, is now struggling to get back up on its feet. Poor communication, lack of promotion
strategies, online shopping sites and the sheer variety of choices available to the customers have
left the organization in a position where much is left to be desired (Valentine, 2017). After
having witnessed almost a decade of falling market share, the Board has appointed a new
Executive Management team to help develop a plan to overcome this crisis situation. The
Executive Management team has employed us as their marketing consultants to help give solid
recommendations to turnaround this sorry state of affairs and help get InVogue Clothing its
premium position back in the market. As marketing consultants to the organization, we have
developed a report to analyze the situation by studying all available sources to find out the causes
of this falling market share. Further, certain recommendations have been given in this report to
introduce new ideas to give a boost to the sales of the company. An in depth note has been given
on the segmenting, targeting and positioning of the company and on the marketing mix.
Recommendations
As marketing consultants to the Executive Management team at InVogue Clothing, we have
suggested the following recommendations in order to help to increase the falling market share:
 Enter the Plus-Size Market: If InVogue wants to regain its lost share in the market it
should consider entering into segments in the market that it has previously left
unexplored. One of these segments is the plus-size market. Many fashion outlets display
an unconscious bias against women of a larger size because it does not fit into their
traditional idea of beauty (Dennis, 2018). For InVogue, this segment presents a
previously unchartered territory and presents an opportunity to increase its market share.
Also, no outlets in the locality sell plus-size apparel and so, this gives an advantage to
InVogue over the others.
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 Sustainable is the Way to Sustain: The demand for sustainable and ethical fashion is
growing every day. Fashion industry is one of the most wasteful industries in the world
and the need of the hour is to create and sell clothes that would help pollute this
environment a little bit less (Brucculieri, 2018). Research has proven that yes, this
sustainable fashion is one of the most profitable ventures today. For InVogue to gain a
higher market share, this trend can lead the way. The organization can advertise their
environment-friendly efforts and identify ways in which sustainable methods can be used
to create trendy clothing items.
 Customization: Various businesses have not only survived but also reinvented
themselves by putting their customers at the center of their ventures (Tice, 2011).
InVogue can enter into the customization field and allow their customers an opportunity
to customize their clothes with personalized messages, pictures, slogans, quotes from
their favorite shows or books, etc. Various items such as customized t-shirts, socks,
scarves, cloth bags among others can be advertised for sale in the outlet.
 Go Online: Online shopping is the today and the tomorrow of fashion outlets.
Customers, today, love the convenience of sitting at home and getting a good shopping
experience with the touch of a screen or the click of a button (Reynolds, n.d.). We
recommend to InVogue to launch a desktop website and a mobile app to help the
customers to shop online anytime and anywhere. The website and app can feature videos
of models wearing the clothing items to show their fit and appeal to the customers. Also,
the app should give easy return and replace options as that is often the biggest concern in
customers.
Research Undertaken and Analytical Processes Followed
The above given recommendations are based on sources which have been thoroughly researched
and analyzed. The recommendations given in this report follow a ‘strategic logic’. It is the action
planning done to achieve the objectives required and based on the problems to be solved. The
factors which have been analyzed for research are -trends in the market, segmentation in the
market, SWOT analysis and the information available. The sources for information, research and
analysis have been discussed below:
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 Primary sources: These sources are the first hand information collected by our team and
presented to the Executive Management team at InVogue Clothing. The two sources
which have been used in primary research are: Survey interviews and survey
questionnaires (Anastasia, 2015). Over the years, InVogue has seen a trend of customers
visiting the outlet but leaving without buying anything. These customers were given a
survey to fill and were also interviewed regarding the products that they would like to see
in the store. The answers were mostly in terms of sustainable clothing items and bigger
sizes of clothes. Also, many said that they prefer to shop online because it is convenient.
 Secondary Sources: The secondary sources which have been used in analysis are those
already in existence and now being utilized to analyze the problem in hand. Two sources
have analyzed to give recommendations to InVogue – internal sources like the previous
sales records and the feedback from the customers previously recorded and secondary
sources like fashion magazines, blogs on the internet, and previous market research
undertaken by fashion houses facing similar troubles of fall in their market share (
Devault, 2019). The competitors’ data and figures have also been analyzed. Further,
various peer reviewed journals on research and analysis of market share have been
studied which suggest that the customers prefer to buy customized items because it
makes them feel special and they get the feeling of possessing something unique and
different (Mueller-Heumann, 2010). Research sources have also suggested the need for
fast fashion and flexibility in design, price and customer policies (Bhardwaj and
Fairhurst, 2010).
The benefits of these sources are that they help to encourage communication with the
customers, to tap previously unexplored opportunities and establish trends and a market
standing.
STP (Segmenting, Targeting and Positioning)
Segmenting, targeting and positioning is one of the most commonly applied marketing
strategies. It helps in creating a marketing communication plan and has been presented in this
report so as to help the management team at InVogue to identify the segments to be targeted,
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the strategies to be used and positioning to be done in the minds of the customers (Hanlon,
2018).
The primary selected target segments are:
 Demographic Segmentation: This includes the following:
1. Gender: Clothing sellers are the most common users of gender segmentation
(Suttle, 2019). InVoguecurrently caters to females only.
2. Age: InVogue is focused on the segment of females between 18-60 years of age.
 Lifestyle and Behavioral Segmentation: This segmentation is based on the
following:
1. Plus-size consumers: In order to revamp the sales of InVogue, our team has
suggested, in this report, that the focus be shifted to plus-size consumers. Hence,
they are one of the two primary targeted segments of the company.
2. Environment-conscious consumers: Since, one of the new areas introduced at
InVogue is of sustainable and ethical clothing items, the targeted segment includes
those consumers who are environment-conscious and aware that the fashion
industry has a negative impact on the global health.
 Geographic Segmentation: The store is focusing its efforts on the population
residing in the suburban areas. These are those people who are aware that they need
to be sustainable in their ways of dressing.
The targeting strategies that have been suggested are:
 Niche Marketing Strategy: This strategy is used when the company wants to focus on
one or few defined segments in the market. It is also known as concentrated
marketing.InVogue has been suggested to use this strategy to cater to the plus-size and
the sustainable-fashion section of the consumers. It is particularly beneficial in this case,
so that limited resources can be used to get maximum benefit to the consumers.
 Micro Marketing Strategy: It focusses on the small group of highly local consumers.
The main focus is on the single customer that the company targets (Spacey, 2017).
InVogue has been suggested to focus on providing customization to their customers by
focusing on creating specific items to their customers.
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Next, it is essential to profile the key customers for InVogue. It is description of the key or
the ideal customers of the business (Kiteley, 2017). Profiling key customers focusses on
selecting and grouping of customers into segments and recognizing the customers’ needs,
behaviors and factors which will encourage them or drive them to buy your product. For
InVogue, the key customers includes females between the ages of 18-60 and special focus is
on plus–size customers and customers who want sustainable fashion. Also, the customers
include those who want to buy customized items for themselves or for gifting purposes. The
company should recognize their needs and keep those in mind before creating a stock so
that the lost market share can be gained back.
Marketing Mix
The marketing mix is the set of four most important variables to be decided on before launch or
in this case, relaunch of InVogue Clothing. These are also known as 4P’s of marketing and
include the Product, Price, place and Promotion (Bhasin, 2017).
 Product: The product is the core item which is offered for sale. InVogue aims at selling
plus-size garments for females, customized items and sustainable fashion clothes. The
plus-size clothes will be sold under a separate brand name – The InVogue Plus Size
Store. The customized items will be sold under – The InVogue Create Your Own Store
and the sustainable fashion clothing items will be sold under the brand name – The
InVogue Sustainable Store.
 Price: the store cater to both middle class and the higher class of the society. InVogue
sells clothes which fall into the category from expensive clothes and ranging to
affordable items. The price aspect of 4P’s takes into account the cost of production,
marketing, selling and all other overhead items.
 Place: It refers to the distribution channel of the product. Place is the way a product has
reached the intended place of distribution. It is how a product is bought and where it has
been bought (Martin, 2014). InVogue has both direct and indirect distribution channels.
It has a production store for creation of customized items and the channel followed is
direct from the producer to the consumer. The plus size and sustainable clothes are
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manufactured at production centers and generally take an indirect channel from producer
to wholesaler to agent to the sale outlet.
 Promotion: This aspect of 4P’s includes all activities that involve communicating with
the potential and the existing customers about the products that are offered for sale and
the uses that those products have for the consumer (Martin, 2014). The importance of
promotion for InVogue is to create a way of informing the customers the new items that
have been introduced in the store and inviting them to visit the place to potentially buy
the items available for sale. The objective of this is to create awareness in the minds of
the customers and stimulate demand.
In this, the most important aspect is defining a ‘position statement’ for the business. It is
an expression of how a customer fills the needs of the customers in a way that the
competitors do not (Rouse, n.d.). The positioning statement of InVogue:
“For those customers of every size who are environment-conscious and want unique
products, InVogue Clothingprovides plus-size, sustainable and customized clothing items
because we believe that customers of every size and need are important”.
The above given report has been presented to the Executive Management team at InVogue
Clothing to help give recommendations and a plan to be followed to help its decade – worth of
lost market share and get a position in the market which is a mirror of its earlier market standing.
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References
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