Retail
Essay Preview: Retail
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Executive Summary
Metamorphosis is a retail store that specializes in chic and trendy furniture. The store offers a large merchandise assortment designed to furnish a dorm, apartment, or a house. The destination store offers services such as: free shipping and the ability to coordinate colors and room themes. An advantage of the store set-up is the consumers ability to see the furniture displayed and having the furniture available for the sale immediately.
Market research shows an increase in furniture sales for 2006. The marketing objective is to aggressively sustain continued growth through execution of the communication mix and marketing strategy.
Mission Statement:
We focus on providing the services/supplies that will give
affordable style, comfort and peace of mind to students and their
parents while helping ease the students transition from home to living
on their own in the college environment. Since going to college requires
lots of moving around, we offer services along with our products that
will make the frequent moves easy.
Situation Analysis:
Our product offerings focus on college students who are living in temporary housing and experience frequent moves. Our customers appreciate that our products are designed to appeal to their specific design tastes, satisfy their unique living needs and fit in their budget. Our market segments include Kent State University students, the parents of those students, the general population of Kent and any other incidental customers who order through the website. We will target our market through catalog distribution, the Internet, guerilla marketing and word of mouth. Catalogs must be requested or picked up from available locations on campus. Since the users of our products spend more time on average than the rest of the population, our website will increase sales significantly. Because our special combination of products and services are only available through our company, we do not have any direct competition. Our nearest competitors are Target and Ikea based on similar attributes.
Strategic Opportunities:
Company: Metamorphosis
Product Line: “Home away from home” Furnishings
Image: Student friendly, design conscious, individual
Technology: Convenient online services with coordinated, decorating help.
Links to a personal account that can be accessed by multiple roommates.
In store kiosks linked to personal account.
Culture: We want to make you feel at home. Our years of college experience
help us know how to service you and make you comfortable in a fun, new space.
We want to help you have a great college experience in a great living environment
without worrying about bills or moves.
Goals: To use the online service as a way to expand beyond Kent to other
college campuses by focusing retail stores in local areas surrounded by
university communities. We might have to limit services to those other
communities until we can physically locate there, but we can still provide great products!
Target Markets
Target Market Profile:
Age: 18 through
Gender: Male and Female
Education: Some College
Income/Allowance: Medium/High
Lifestyle: Trendy, Computer Savvy
Main Geographic Location: Northeast Ohio
We focus our marketing on three types of target consumers:
Kent State and Surrounding Area College Students: According to the Kent State web site, More than 19,000 undergraduate students and 4,900 graduate students enrolled at the Kent Campus for the fall 2004 semester. Approximately 60 percent were female students. Kent State University enrolls a total 35,458 students across the networks eight campuses. 14.4 million Students in United States according to
Parents Of College Students: The income for a family living in Ohio averaged $44,160 according to a census done by, U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. On average, an Ohio family will spend 35 percent of total income to send a student to a university in 2004. (
Households Around Retail Store: The total population in Kent, Ohio is 27,906. The average income for a family in Kent is $29,906. The average household size is 2.27. (American Fact Finder).
Other: We will also sell to some buyers outside of the segments listed above. The website my attract consumers around the United States. The direct mail may attract consumers other then college students, households, or parents such as single family owner occupied homes.
Market Analysis
Potential Customers
Growth
College Students
144,000
146,304
148,645
151,023
153,440
1.60%
Parents
150,000
153,750
157,594
161,534
165,572
2.50%
Households
440,000
462,000
485,100
509,355
534,823
5.00%
Other
100,000
105,000
110,250
115,763
121,551
5.00%
Total
3.99%
834,000
867,054
901,589
937,674
975,385
3.99%
Market Needs
Design: Since we will mainly focus on campus living design is