Project Management and Market Research for a New H&M Summer Shoe

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This project details H&M's summer shoe launch.

MANAGING A SUCCESSFULL BUSINESS PROJECT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 4
LO1.................................................................................................................................................5
AIMS.......................................................................................................................................... 5
OBJECTIVES................................................................................................................................ 5
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN..................................................................................................5
 PROJECT SCOPE........................................................................................................... 5
 PROJECT COST AND TIME............................................................................................5
 NECESSARY RESOURCES..............................................................................................6
 COMMUNICATION PLAN............................................................................................. 6
 RISKS INVOLVED.......................................................................................................... 6
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE..............................................................................................7
GANTT CHART............................................................................................................................8
LO2.................................................................................................................................................9
SMALL SCALE RESERCH..............................................................................................................9
Questionnaire........................................................................................................................ 9
Literature Review...................................................................................................................9
Ethical Considerations............................................................................................................. 10
LO3............................................................................................................................................... 12
DATA ANALYSIS........................................................................................................................12
RECOMMENDATION................................................................................................................ 17
LO4............................................................................................................................................... 18
REFLECTION ON VALUE GAINED..............................................................................................18
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PERSONAL PERFORMANCE REVIEW.........................................................................................19
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 21
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................22
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INTRODUCTION
H&M is a Swedish fashion and retail firm which is working in around 62 countries of the world. I
am working as a Product Design manager at H&M and given a responsibility to create and
market a new model of summer shoe which has to be featured at London Fashion Week in
February 2019. This business project will plan different activities so that the new summer shoe
can be launched well in time. In the starting phase of the research, the aims and objectives of
the research will be decided after which the scope, communication, cost, resources and the risk
involved in the project will be discussed. Later, small scale research will be conducted in which
qualitative and quantitative ways of data collection will be used to gather the views of the
customers and industry experts. The research will also review the literature on the latest
fashion and footwear technologies and customer behaviour so that a better product can be
designed which is able to satisfy the demand of the customers.
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LO1
AIMS
‘The aim of this research is to create and market a new summer shoe for H&M so that the
company can create a competitive advantage in the global market’
OBJECTIVES
 To assess the current demand of the customers and design a footwear product which is
able to satisfy the needs of the customers on a global level.
 To understand the completive position of the H&M and analyse major competitors so
that a better product can be prepared.
 To select right marketing tools for the new summer shoe so that it’s unique features can
be highlighted in an attractive manner.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
 PROJECT SCOPE
The scope of the project will be to create an attractive design for the shoe and decide the right
marketing strategies to be used in order to create a buzz in the market. The project will also
analyse the global market situation as the company is planning to launch this product on an
international level. The research will stick to the agreed scope for the projects as going outside
the scope of the research affects the timely completion of the project and also increases the
overall cost of the project.
 PROJECT COST AND TIME
The research will be conducted with a finite budget of £5000. The overall expenses of the
project will include the cost to conduct a market survey and other data collection methods. The
new product has to be launched in the London Fashion week starting from 16th February 2019,
therefore the research projects have to be completed in 30 days starting from 10th January
2019 and will be completed on 8th January 2019. A Work Breakdown Structure will also be used
to break the overall tasks into small achievable tasks.
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 NECESSARY RESOURCES
Resources like funding, people, team, facilities or equipment are used to carry the tasks of the
projects and complete the project on time. Managing these resources effectively is the key to
complete the project successfully. These resources need to be allocated well before the
beginning of the projects to deliver the final product on time. The human resources need to be
managed efficiently so that they can stay motivated towards achieving different goals of the
projects (DeFranzo, 2011). Some rewards may also be planned at different stages of the project
completion to keep-up the spirits of the team.
 COMMUNICATION PLAN
Communication plan includes the line of command which will be followed to execute the
project successfully. Effective communication with various stakeholders makes sure that
different milestones of the projects are being achieved on time. As a product design manager, I
need to communicate with my team members so that a well-researched designed can be
proposed to the management. I also need to communicate with the manufacturing department
so that right material for shoe making is used and a prototype of the final design can be
prepared on time. This prototype will be used in consumer research. The progress report of the
project also need to be communicated to the higher officials; for this purpose, the Gantt chart
will be used to keep an eye on the project completion rate.
 RISKS INVOLVED
When undertaking a project some risks may also need to be considered so that steps can be
taken to avoid mistakes and ensure timely completion of the project. The greatest risk is the
cost risk which causes an escalation in the project expenses. Various expenses of the projects
need to be planned accurately so that different budget needs can be assessed and timely action
can be taken to keep the budget under control. The schedule risk involves the risk of different
activities taking loner time than expected (Heagney, 2016). In addition, the projects also include
performance risk which explains the condition when the project is not able to produce
consistent results according to the project specifications.
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WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
The above work breakdown structure explains different activities to be done in the project.
Primarily there are some broader tasks which need to be performed with some subtasks under
these tasks. The first task is to create the aims and objectives of the research. To complete this
step, a lot of brainstorming needs to be done so that all the aspects of the research can be
covered in these aims and objectives (Sutrisna, et al. 2018). The primary research is done by
asking questionnaires from customers and the secondary research used literature review. This
literature review is prepared by summarising the hypothesis given by the experts in the field. In
the next stage, the data analysis will be done which analyzes the responses of the questionnaire
so that these inputs can be used to make the product design and the marketing policies better.
In the final stage of the project, reflection on my own learning is done. This reflection highlights
the important lessons learning from this whole research process.
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TOCREATEAPRODUCTPLANNINGANDMARKETINGSTARTEGYFORANEWFOOTWEARPRODUCT

GANTT CHART
DAYS
ACTIVITIES
0-5 Days 6-10 Days 11-15 Days 16-20 Days 21-25 Days 26-30 Days
INITIATION
PLANNING
EXECUTION
CONTROLLING
CLOSING
The above Gantt chart explains the process of completing the project. The first phase is the
initiation phase which is completed in first five days. Next is the planning process is started
which includes making a detailed work plan to study different variables, the planning is
completed in the next ten days. On the sixth day, the execution process is started which
continues till the 25th day. Controlling will be done from 11th to 25th day. On the 30th day, the
formal closing of the plan is done. The complete project takes thirty days to complete. The
project is started on 10th of December and it will be completed on 8th February so that final
product can be launched in the London fashion week which is going to be started for 16th
February 2019. With the help of Gantt charts strict monitoring of the plan can be done which
helps in completing the projects on agreed time.
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LO2
SMALL SCALE RESERCH
To conduct a small scale research both qualitative and quantitative data need to be collected so
that customer preferences can be assessed effectively. The primary research will collect fresh
data from the respondents in the forms of views and opinions in response to some predefined
questions. The secondary research includes the data which has already been produced in the
form of books, articles, journals and research papers ( Burton and Cherry, 2018). This data
contains expert views of writers, authors and industry experts. The small scale research will also
include discussing the ethical considerations while conducting research. The private data of the
survey participants should be handled in a responsible manner and exaggeration of findings and
results should be avoided.
Questionnaire
The current questionnaire has been conducted on 100 respondents. These respondents were
asked some questions related to their expectations with a new shoe model. The questionnaire
was sent to the respondents through different digital mediums like e-mail and social media and
the responses were recorded so that policymakers can understand the current demands of the
consumers and incorporate these details in the new product development strategy. All these
inputs of the customers play an important role in making the products more and more useful to
the end consumers (Zikmund et al., 2013). The detailed review of the questionnaire is provided
in the data analysis section. The analysis will help in representing the data in an interactive
manner so that different strategies to market the products better can be planned.
Literature Review
According to Checchinato and Vescovi (2018), the promotion of any brand through fashion
events have become a common norm. They believe that launching new and branded shoes
from such a platform would infuse new energy among their customers and they would be able
to connect themselves easily with such shows. Besides this, they also accept the fact that good
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branded shoes launched by a reputed company during such an event would help them to
promote their products among the customers in an effective manner.
The study conducted by Checchinato and Vescovi (2018) has also been accepted by Mohan et
al. (2018) which take it a step further. According to them, corporate brands require to reinvent
themselves so as to get a competitive edge among the customers which is possible only if they
are able to showcase their products in an effective manner. For them, events such as fashion
show have been a good platform where they would be able to convey their message to their
customers in a most convenient way.
In contrast to the above-given studies, Childsand Jin (2018) have refuted the above-given claims
and laid emphasis on understanding the mentality of the customers. They have done wide
research on the reputed shoe brand, Nike and come to the conclusion that only displaying a
high quality of the brand is not an accurate way of promoting a product. They believe that the
product such as shoes would be able to display comfy in wearing, designed in best quality and
their availability within the budget of the customers. Then only, they would be able to
showcase their brand in an effective manner which has also approved in the study produced by
the Turner (2019).
Thus it has been proved that various studies have different views regarding the promotion of
the shoe product and each one must be taken into consideration for their successful launching
effectively.
Ethical Considerations
Ethical issues in the research are associated with moral responsibility while taking interviews or
asking questionnaires. Full consent of the respondents should be obtained before collecting
personal information and this information should only be used for the intended purpose. Using
this information for any other purpose without the consent of the user is considered as
unethical behaviour. The surveyors should also take care that the anonymity of the survey
participants should be ensured. Exaggerating the finding of the research is also considered an
unethical act. Any communication in relation to the research should also be carried with full
transparency. The information presented in the finding should be free from bias and
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generalisation regarding protected characteristics needs to be strictly avoided. The rules and
regulation of data protection also needs to be followed and the private information of
respondents should be
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LO3
DATA ANALYSIS
Data analysis id performed with an aim to interpret the data collected with the help of primary
and secondary research and reach up to some meaningful conclusion. In the present
questionnaire, a total of 100 respondents were taken into consideration out of which 80
respondents have replied to the questions for the organisation H&M in a positive manner. The
views of these 80 respondents are given below:
Q.1 which types of shoes you would love to wear?
Shoe Type Respondents
Flat 25
T-Bar 20
Sling Back 15
Court 10
Mary Jane 10
31%
25%
19%
13%
13%
Shoe you would love to wear
Flat T-Bar Sling Back Court Mary Jane
The given question has revealed that 31% of the respondents would love to wear a flat shoe
which is closely followed by 25% respondents; who would love to wear T-Bar shoes. The given
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