Marketing Plan for Urban Style: A New Apparel Business in UK

This report details a marketing plan for Urban Style, a new apparel business. It begins with an introduction to marketing principles and the marketing mix, then provides a background on Urban Style, outlining its business rationale and target market. The report includes PESTEL and SWOT analyses to assess the macro-environment and the business's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It establishes SMART marketing objectives, detailing market segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies. A 7Ps marketing mix is created to achieve set objectives, along with a promotional launch implementation plan that includes budget considerations. The plan focuses on increasing customer base and brand awareness through various marketing strategies.

Marketing Essentials
(TASK 3)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
P4. Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation.........................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the business process in which operations are undertaken by an organisation
so that selling and buying of a product or services can be promoted. Media exposure, packaging
etc. are some of the promotional strategies to attract the target customers (Baker and Magnini,
2016). Marketing mix is the combination of tactics used by the company for the promotion of its
goods and services. It is a tool that the firm uses to achieve its marketing objectives. Neil H
Borden has coined the term Marketing mix in the year, 1964. The presentation aims to produce
and evaluate marketing plan for new business start up, that is, Urban style.
MAIN BODY
P4. Produce and evaluate a basic marketing plan for an organisation.
Before launching a new product, it is necessary to study the variables of marketing so that
strategic decisions can be taken for smooth run of the concern. Marketing mix is classified into
two, namely, Product marketing mix and service marketing mix (Brady, 2014). The four
variables of Product marketing mix are Product, Price, Place and Promotion, Whereas Service
marketing mix consists of three variables, that is, People, Process and Physical evidence.
Background of the business and rationale why the business will succeed.
Urban style is an apparel store which will be established soon in UK and will provide
varieties of garments for women. This will includes mix of skirts, trendy tops, dresses, pants,
kurtis and trousers both for casual wear as well as party wear. The size will range from XS to
XXL with economic price depending upon the item. Fabric of clothing will be of good quality.
The shop will create its Facebook and Instagram account too so as to make more followers and
will help to target its customers. Pictures of the items will be uploaded on regular basis by which
demand and requirements of the market will be known. At the starting level, Urban Style will
hire two people for management. One is the person who will use social media and takes good
photograph and the other will be a good researcher and will handle the sale of product and cash
department. The company will be registered and have a small factory were the production will
takes place. Some skilled workers will also be hired for the factory so that they will use the raw
materials effectively and design the products and think from a customer perspective.
The aim of the business will be fashion marketing and retailing, which means to manage
the flow of stuffs by selecting the designs to be manufactured and will present the products to the
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retail customers. The audience and market will be targeted so that Urban style will be able to
increase its productivity and profitability. The business will provide cost effective products with
standard quality which will definitely increase its sales. It will make the goods by analysing the
external and internal factors which can affect the company. By gaining proper knowledge about
the factors, products, customer, market; it will act accordingly which will help the firm to
achieve success.
Overview of the macro environment and potential strengths and weaknesses of your business.
For analysing the macro environment of the business, it is necessary to use the tool
named as PESTEL analysis. The external analysis of Urban style is explained below -
 Political factor – Taxation policies, trade regulations are some of the factors that can
affect businesses. Urban style should be aware of change in the tax rates, regulations or
any other incentives, the government will be providing and also the political instability
because these political factors will have direct or indirect impact on the firm (Carr, 2014).
 Economical factor – Before starting the business, it is very important to consider the
purchasing power of the market in which it will deal. Inflation rate, disposable income of
customer, unemployment level etc. are the factors that will affect the purchasing power of
the target customers. Starting new business at the time of economic recession will
influence its sustainability.
 Social factor - These factors includes the changes in culture, taste, and lifestyle of the
customers. So, the study of social factors of the target market is essential for the firm
before thinking to produce goods. Consumer pattern of buying, level of education, brand
preferences etc. also affects these factors.
 Technological factor – Before investing in any of the latest equipment, it is important to
know about its usability in future (Lane, 2016). If the tools does not give much
productivity than the money invested will be a loss to the organisation. Therefore, it is
necessary to be aware of the trends in technology and purchase only if it is profitable to
business.
 Environmental factor – The use of environmental friendly materials should be taken in
consideration so that pollution can be reduced. Friendliness with legislations of
environment is very essential.
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 Legal factors – Employment law, consumer protection law, health and safety law etc. are
the legal factors within which every business should operate.
So, before starting new business, it is necessary for the firm to evaluate all the macro
environmental factors so that these forces does not affect the functioning of the concern.
For evaluation of the strength and weaknesses of the business, it is important to use the
framework namely SWOT (Malhotra, 2015). This will enable to know the strength, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats of the new firm. Thus, it is discussed below -
 Strengths – These are the internal factors which will be helpful for the firm in achieving
its objectives. These attributes will be used to take competitive advantage. These factors
enables patent right, good reputation among target audience, strong brand name,
Advantages in promotion etc.
 Weaknesses – These are the internal factors will be harmful for the entity in achievement
of its objectives. It includes weak brand name, lack of patent right, lack of access to
resources, bad reputation among consumers etc.
 Opportunities – These are the external factors that enables in attainment of the goals. By
analysing these factors, opportunities will be revealed which will contribute to the growth
and profit for the start up of the concern. These includes Change in technology,
Unfulfilled consumers need, Growth in market segment, Loosening of regulations and
Socio-cultural changes.
 Threats – These are the external conditions that will destroy the performance of the
business. External threats is the opposite of opportunities which includes Increase in trade
barriers, negative cultural changes, Threats of changes in laws, Shift in the preferences
and taste of the customer from the product (Mueller and et. al., 2015).
Identification of all the above factors such as strength, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats is vital for the company so that it can run smoothly and successfully for long term.
Marketing objectives for your business
Every business has set their goals to achieve their specific targets. The success of the
business depends upon the ability to set and attain those goals. SMART stands for specific,
measurable, achievable, relevant and time based goals. This framework is used by the newly
established business to convert their set goals into a working plan which gives results. This five
elements of SMART is explained below -
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 Specific – These are the clearly defined objectives which results in effective outcome.
The goal must consist of much details so that individuals involved in the business can
understand what are the expected results. For instance, Urban style should set goal to
increase the sale of its clothing by 10% and also its customer base by 20% within six
months.
 Measurable – It is not possible for the company to know that the set target is achieved
unless it is measurable. For example, Whether people involved in Urban style had
increased the sale by 10% and customer base by 20% or not should be measured so that
progress of the firm can be checked.
 Achievable – Individuals should agree that the goals are attainable and realistic and have
all the required skills and tools which leads them to reach the targets. For say, the goals
set should be agreed by the workers of Urban style, that sale and customer base percent
can be attainable in the next six months (Nirschl and Steinberg, 2018).
 Realistic – Resources are available or not must be checked by the business before
stepping ahead. Goals must be made by considering the current economical situation and
reality. Example – if the present economic conditions are positive and the customers in
the market have high disposable income to purchase the products, than the goals will be
achieved.
 Timely – Deadline should be defined before setting the goals because if the time is not
fixed by the company to accomplish target than the efforts to attain goals are of useless.
For instance, here the deadline set is six months so Urban style has an opportunity of
being successful by applying the SMART tools (Pike, 2016).
Marketing segmentation, targeting and positioning.
 Market segmentation – It refers to the division of consumers into categories according to
their characteristics. Urban style will divide its market according to age segments. The
company will make skirts, tops and pants for the women of age group of 18-50.
 Targetting – Urban style will target its market according to prestige and price. The firm
will sell the high price and standard goods to the customers living in high society with
high disposable income.
 Positioning – The organisation is a fashion based company which wants to achieve the
largest position in the retail market. This will lead to increase in profitability and creation
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of good brand image. It will also gain customer loyalty which will contribute to the
growth and success of Urban style.
Create your marketing mix and explain how will you achieve the set marketing objectives.
The objective of Urban style is to earn more customer base. This can be achieved with
the help of the 7Ps of marketing. They are described below -
 Product – The company will make the product which will fulfil the needs of the target
customers. The product such as pants, tops, skirts are of high quality with minimum price
so that every segment consumer will get attract towards it.
 Place – The product will be easily available to the customer because Urban style will
open its store at prime location. Also the company will facilitates via e-commerce or
online shop so that customers get ease to shop.
 Price – Urban style will provide the goods which will be value for money so that all
segment customer can make purchase and will feel happy to pay more when satisfied
with the quality products (Pike, 2015).
 Promotion – The firm will promote its products through Social media and Advertisement.
This tools will make aware the target users about the latest product so that proper
information can be reached and more new customers gets in touch.
 People – It is key element for the industry to keep the right staff so that the skills of the
person can influence the functioning of the firm. If the worker communicates politely
with the customers, than the customer base of Urban style will be increased.
 Processes – The company will give best service to its customers so that they can visit to
the store again. Free home delivery will be provided to the regular customers so that they
can be attracted by the services rendered.
 Physical Evidence – Urban style will provide after sale services to the customer so that if
the products colours gets fade than the company will re-dye those products. These will
attract more and more customers to shop from it.
Provide an implementation plan for the promotional launch of the new product/service. You
might want to consider including a promotional budget.
Urban style will promote its products with less promotional budget because the company
is newly established and it is already taking bank loan. Thus, the firm uses social media and
make promotional launch for its products ( Purvis, 2015). It will make an attractive request to its
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target customers. The company will create a teaser campaign on Instagram. It sends a message to
the world of social media that a new product is coming soon. Updates will be given through
posting the teaser in a creative and interesting way. These will attract the audience effectively
and will help the firm to make strong customer base.
CONCLUSION
With the help of above presentation, it is concluded that marketing mix is an essential
part of the business. Without the study of this, no business can sustain for long run. For newly
established firm, it is necessary to understand the term marketing and also the promotional
strategies that can be used to promote its products. This will also help the organisation to earn
more profit and build good brand image.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baker, M. A. and Magnini, V. P., 2016. The evolution of services marketing, hospitality
marketing and building the constituency model for hospitality marketing. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 28(8). pp.1510-1534.
Brady, D. L., 2014. Essentials of international marketing. Routledge.
Carr, E. R., 2014. E-cigarettes: facts, perceptions, and marketing messages. Clinical journal of
oncology nursing. 18(1).
Lane, P., 2016. Human resources marketing and recruiting: essentials of employer branding.
Handbook of Human Resources Management. pp.23-52.
Malhotra, N. K., 2015. Essentials of marketing research: A hands-on orientation. Essex:
Pearson.
Mueller, J.P., and et. al., 2015. Community‐based livestock breeding programmes: essentials and
examples. Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics. 132(2). pp.155-168.
Nirschl, M. and Steinberg, L., 2018. Einstieg in das Influencer Marketing. Grundlagen,
Strategien und Erfolgsfaktoren. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien.
Pike, S. D., 2016. Destination marketing organizations–research opportunities in an era of
uncertainty. In Book of Abstracts-6th International Conference on Tourism.
International Association for Tourism Policy (IATOUR).
Pike, S., 2015. Destination marketing: essentials. Routledge.
Purvis, J., 2015. Human resources marketing and recruiting: Essentials of digital recruiting.
Handbook of Human Resources Management. pp.1-19.
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