Debenhams Plc Project: Summer Shoes Design and Marketing Plan

This project plan focuses on Debenhams Plc's initiative to design and market a new line of summer shoes for the London Fashion Week. The project encompasses various stages, including research, design, testing, and marketing. The plan outlines the project aims and objectives, emphasizing the creation of a competitive product. It details the project management plan, covering scope, cost, quality, resources, communication, risk assessment, and a timeline. Key elements such as the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Gantt chart are included to illustrate project activities and schedules. The research methodology, based on the Onion model, is also explored, highlighting the chosen interpretivism philosophy and qualitative research approaches. The project aims to effectively manage the design, production, and launch of the summer shoe line, ensuring its success in the fashion market. The project plan emphasizes the importance of market research, quality control, and effective communication strategies to meet the project's objectives within the given timeframe and budget.

Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1(a).......................................................................................................................................1
P2 & P3 (b).............................................................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................9
P4(c).......................................................................................................................................9
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................12
P5 and P6(d, e, f)..................................................................................................................12
Conclusion: ...................................................................................................................................19
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................20
P7(g).....................................................................................................................................20
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................21
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................21

INTRODUCTION
Project plan refers to the formal document which is specifically designed to guide the
control and execution of a project. It is a key to achieve successful project and is termed to be the
most important document which every organisation must create before starting up of any
business. Therefore, the company which is being taken into consideration in order to carry out
this assignment is Debenhams Plc. It is one of the British multinational retailer operating firm
under a department store format in the United Kingdom (Ariely, 2012). This company is
specialised in its products like fashion clothing, shoes, other accessories etc. The company has
challenged to create and market a brand new summer shoes to compete with bing name brand
along with putting together a launch event to sell the product to majority industry representative
during London fashion week which is taking place on 16th - 20th February 2019. This project
basically explains about the aims, objectives, project management plan taking into consideration
the Gantt chart and work break down structure. Moreover, interpretation, recommendation has
also been done in order to carry out project plan effectively and efficiently.
TASK 1
P1(a)
Research plan:
The company which is taken to carry out this project is Debenhams Plc which is termed
to be one of the British multinational retailer operating firm. It is specialised in different types of
products like shoes, fashion clothing, accessories, cosmetics, electricals, gifts and toys
(Cleveland, Laroche and Hallab, 2013). As the company is achieving a successful growth in
market so it has decided to create and market a brand new summer shoes in order to render
competitive edge with big name brand along with putting together a launch event so as to sell the
product to majority industry who are representing during London fashion week which is taking
place on 16th – 20th February 2019.
The time frame required to create and launch new brand summer shoes by Debenhams Plc for
taking part in fashion week in London is 8 weeks and the estimated cost to be incurred is
5000000 pounds.
Project aims and objectives
Aims:
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“To design and market a summer shoes for London fashion week which is taking place
from 16th - 20th February 2019”-. A case study on Debenhams Plc.
Objectives:
 To design and market summer shoes by taking global competitiveness into consideration.
 To test the designed shoes before signing off into the market.
 To evaluate the success of project implementation so as to suggest any measures which
can be used by the company in future.
 Renewing other people work to be able to design the shoe.
P2 & P3 (b)
Project management plan: It is termed to be a formal approved document which is
specifically used by the project manager so as to effective manage the project execution. It
documents the actions which are necessary to prepare, design, integrate and to coordinate the
different planning activities. Therefore given below specifies the project management plan of
Debenhams Plc organisation which included various elements and they are specified
below(Crane and Matten, 2016):
Project management plan
Scope The scope of Debenhams Plc organisation
termed to be broad as the company is planning
to create and market a summer shoes for
London fashion week which is taking place
from 16th - 20th February 2019. Whereas,
researcher scope is also termed to be wide as
the researcher have to carry out is research so
as to get the knowledge and understanding
about the culture, of London market before
launching the new shoes for London fashion
week.
Cost It is termed to be the essential source which
must be available with the company so that
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they can execute the project on time. As the
Debenhams Plc organisation will require fund
at the time of launching or for producing new
summer shoes. Whereas, a researcher will
required funds at the time of understanding
the market and culture of London fashion
week. So the estimation cost of Debenhams
Plc organisation is 2,00,000 pounds, and as
per researcher point of view the estimated cost
terms to be 50,000 pounds.
Quality It is the most important aspect which must be
considered by Debenhams plc organisation so
as to influence and attract more customers. So
it is essential for organisation to create
between quality summer shoes for the
customers. Whereas, researcher must take into
consideration primate research method so as
to ensure and to carry out better quality
research
Resources It is an essential aspect and must be taken into
consideration by Debenhams Plc organisation
so as to ensure proper and optimum utilisation
of resources like funds, human resources,
technology etc. Whereas researcher must also
make best use of its resources like books,
journals, magazines etc. so as to get valuable
and accurate data for carrying out best quality
research.
Communication It is the major factor as communication plays
an essential role in influencing customers
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toward their products. So in order to attract
and influence customers Debenhams Plc
organisation takes into consideration different
mode or channel like social media,
advertising, pamphlets banners etc. Whereas
research will take into consideration
questionnaire method so as to communicate
with peoples.
Risk Risk is an essential aspect which both the
researcher and Debenhams Plc organisation
must analyse before carrying out project plan.
Risk for the Debenhams Plc organisation can
be in the form of shortage of funds,
inefficiency in workforce, lack of technology
etc. For researcher risk can take place due to
the unwillingness of respondent to fill form so
an analysis need to be done before by
researcher so as to collect valuable
information for research.
Time scale The time scale estimated by Debenhams Plc
organisation to create new summer shoes is of
6 months. Whereas researcher require near
about 2 months so as to carry out its research
in an appropriate manner.
Work Break Down structure:
It refers to a chart under which the different critical working elements of the project or
task are illustrated so as to portray their relationship to each other and to the project (Falguera,
Aliguer and Falguera, 2012). Debenhams Plc organisation uses this structure because this help a
project manager predicts the outcome which is based on various scenarios so as to ensure that
optimum decision are made about whether or not to adopt the suggested changes or procedures.
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Therefore, the key activities which must be completed so as to ensure that the project is
successful are:
a. Create the idea: In order to ensure the project to be successful first key activity is to create
the idea. For example, Debenhams Plc organisation planned to create the idea to market new
brand summer shoes in London for fashion week. The estimated time scale for creating idea is 2
months
b. Design the product: Secondly Debenhams Plc organisation plan to design the product
quality, brand name etc. by taking the different ideas, viewpoints of customers, and employees.
Estimated time scale for designing the product is 1 month.
c. Test the product: After design the final product, the company itself test the product that
whether it is as per customer requirement or not. If not then immediate changes are to be done
so as to ensure that it helps to increase customer satisfaction level. Additionally, the time scale to
the test the product is 2 months.
d. Placing to board for approval: After testing of product, if the product is finalised then it is
placed to board for approval so that the company get the authority to launch new brand product
in London fashion week. The time scale required to get approval from board is 1 months.
e. Marketing the product to fashion week: After the Debenhams Plc organisation get approval
from board of launching new summer shoes in London fashion week, then they finally market
the product to fashion week so as to increase its competitive edge in compare to other brand in
marketplace. The time scale to market the product to fashion week is 2 months.
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Illustration 1: Work break down structure
Gantt chart:
It is a chart which render the graphical illustration of the schedule of each activities
which are to be carried out to achieve successful project plan (Fisher, 2011). In addition to this it
helps the project manager to plan, coordinate and to track the different task in a project.
Additionally, the horizontal axis of the chart represent the time scale within which the each
activity need to be completed. Whereas the vertical axis of chart represents the task which make
up the project. Overall it helps in rendering clear illustration about the project status.
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TASK 2
P4(c)
Research methodology:
It is a specific technique or procedure which is specifically used to identify, select,
process or to analyse the information about a research topic. Additionally Onion research is
being followed while carrying out research This methodology specifically answers of two main
question namely how the data are generated and how they are analysed. Generally, this
methodology helps the reader to critically evaluate the study reliability and validity. Moreover,
Onion research basically includes the following aspects (Jeston, 2014):
Research Onion Methodology can be expressed as stage of illustration which must be covered
while developing a research strategy. In research methodology we study about layers of onion
where each layer describes a detailed stage of the research process. The different layer of
research onion methodology is:
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Illustration 2: Research onion
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(Source: Research Onion Framework, 2018)
 Research philosophy: It is termed to be defined as a way in which the data about a
phenomenon should be gathered, analysed and used. Basically there are two types of
research philosophy namely positivism and interpretivism. Therefore, interpretivism
research philosophy is being taken into consideration in order to carry out the research, as
it integrates human interest into study and also it emphasizes qualitative analysis over
quantitative analysis.
 Research approaches: It is defined as a plan or a procedure which consist of various
steps of broad assumptions in respect of detail method of collecting the data, analysing of
data and interpretation of data. Therefore, it is specifically based on the research problem
which is being addressed. Generally research approach is based on two approaches and
they are namely, approach of data collection and approach of data analysis.
 Research choice:Research choice is the layer of research onion which is mixed method
with use of qualitative approach and a quantitative approach. For better approach
qualitative research is consistent with deductive search approach which broads the scope
of research approach. For research choice, qualitative approach is preferred over
quantitative approach. Research methods: It refers to the strategies, techniques or procedures which are being
utilised during collection of data or evidence for analysis so as to cover information and
to create better understanding about a topic. There are different methods of research
methods like qualitative, quantitative, primary, secondary etc.
◦ Qualitative: It refers to the scientific method of observation in order to collect non-
numerical data. Additionally through this research methods data are gathered about
lived experience, emotions or behaviours of individuals which helps in assisting
researcher to gain better understanding of complex concepts, cultural phenomenon
etc. There are different methods of qualitative research like interviews, focus group,
observations, questionnaire etc. This method is important because with the help of
this method provide in-depth knowledge about the research topic which will be
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