A Dress fit for a Queen

My work Christmas party is in two weeks and between working overtime, commuting an hour to and from my job, as well as taking grad courses, I’ve had no time to shop for a dress, or even know what type of dress to purchase for this social event. Even if I find an hour of time to run out to the store, I have been so busy that I don’t even know what is popular these days.  The work Christmas party is held at the Weston Country Club and is a formal sit down dinner. I need a dress that expresses my femininity yet maintains my business reputation. I could just settle for a basic black dress, but I wore that last year and feel that it’s a fashion faux pas to wear the same dress to the work Christmas party two years in a row.  I’d really like to just pick an outfit that has been recently worn by a celebrity whose fashion I admire. Specifically, I’d like the wear the dress that Kate Middleton is wearing in the photo below where she and Prince William were meeting the President of the U.S. and the First Lady.

 

If I only had a website that could tell me who she is wearing, I could then search for it on Google and to find the dress, or a knockoff depending on the price. This would allow me to have a sophisticated style and eliminate my fashion crisis for the company Christmas party in 2 weeks. With this in mind, TVtoWear is a website that’s provides a URL link that connects its customers to the outfits they are searching for. This company would allow people like me to type in Kate Middleton’s name into the database and filter on occasions so I can find this dress and be provided with a link to the designer’s website so I can then purchase the dress.  

Estimating Market Size

To refresh everyone’s memory, TVtoWear is a service that provides customers the information on clothing worn by celebrities so they can just click on a link and purchase a complete outfit, or accessories of the outfit.

In estimating the market size for our “TVtoWear” business”, we gathered data for the demand of our service, identified the addressable market, determined realistic opportunities vs. competition, and found our “winnable” market opportunities through a variety of resources.

The demand for this service is out there. As Jose Maria Castellano, CEO of Inditex states: “The fashion world is in constant flux and is driven not by supply buy by customer demand.”So many people see the wardrobes of celebrities and want the outfits, whether it’s for work, casual wear, or a party. As many of us know, it’s not easy to just walk in a store and put the pieces together for an outfit. I’ll use myself as an example. Between working full time as an engineer, and taking graduate courses full time, I barely have a moment to eat let alone piece together outfits to make myself look presentable and professional at work. This service would provide me the opportunity to go onto the internet, and select an outfit that my favorite style/celebrity has worn. This basically allows me to have the stylist of Kate Middleton for free! Speaking of Kate Middleton, she is a great example for the “supply and demand”, because as soon as the first photos were released of her engagement ring, and her wedding dress, companies began making “knock-offs immediately to meet the customers’ demands of these products. The “knock offs” range from a $37.00 cubic zirconia to a real 12.5 carat sapphire stone surrounded by 22 diamonds at a price of $10,500.00.

In order to determine the addressable market, the department of commerce website provided a table with the estimated monthly sales for retail and food services, by type of business. This revealed that online shopping revenues were four times greater than in store revenues during August of 2012. This provides support that our business can thrive with online shoppers.

In addition to the Department of Commerce website, the University of Arkansas at Jonesboro conducted a study which revealed that women between the ages of 45 and 54 spend the most amount of money on clothing and also represent the largest market potential. In turn, women aged 25 to 34 represent the second largest market potential, even though this age category is the third highest spender, behind the 45-54 year olds, and also 55-64 year olds. This younger age range represents a demographic that would be great TVtoWear customers, as they grew up with the internet at their fingertips, and also follow the latest fashion trends and follow celebrities closely. This narrows down the addressable market to a specific age range. The same study also identified that the greatest market potential is for household incomes of over 100k.

Now since TVtoWear will obtain the clothes on its websites from popular television shows, it is important to identify the television shows watched by the target market we described above. TV week revealed 76% of women make up the audience of the “Style” network. The shows commonly watched on Style include “America’s Next Top Model, “Sex and the City”, and “Project Runway”, which are shows that wrap themselves around the fashion industry. By identifying the addressable market to a specific age range, as well as determining the most popular shows for TVtoWear to focus on, our winnable market becomes clearer.

The Effects of Inbound and Outbound Marketing on Businesses Today

Inbound marketing consists of businesses that are found by customers and are advertised through word of mouth.

The role of outbound marketing is finding customers by building brand awareness through advertising and promotions.

I think a majority of companies need both inbound and outbound marketing in order to be successful. Although it may seem like businesses such as Facebook or Youtube solely rely on inbound marketing, these companies still depend on other companies that use outbound marketing in order to make money. For example, just the other day I saw a southwest airlines advertisement on the side of my Facebook news feed. Now as I just mentioned, Facebook does not spend money on advertising, however Facebook’s revenue is through other companies who do spend money to advertise on their websites, in this case it was Southwest Airlines.

The percentages of inbound/outbound marketing for each business varies but insurance companies come to mind when it comes to outbound marketing because although some friends may reference me to a good insurance company due to their lower rates, these types of businesses spend a lot of money on advertising. I always see commercials on TV or the radio for State Farm and Gieco.

Another industry that comes to mind is restaurants. As we just learned from our innovator presentations, Five Guys became popular through word of mouth. However, other restaurants such as McDonalds constantly advertise new items on the menu and the latest prices and deals.

Before this post I always thought social media and other websites such as Facebook are primarily inbound businesses, but after analyzing the strategies of these companies I realized they still rely on other outbound-based companies.