Positioning Strategy and Statement 1,2,3 profile| Online Assignment Help

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Positioning Strategy and Statement:

1. What position within the competitive marketplace will this campaign support for the brand?

2. Who are the competitors and whatcriteria do the compete?

3. Create a positioning statement that your brand will need to adopt in order to successfully compete in the marketplace. Follow this format: To_____(target market),______(brand) is the _____(category)_____that provide_____(key benefit).

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Current Situational Analysis of Brand in Market Place:

1. David’s Bridal was Founded as a neighborhood bridal salon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1950. In 1972, Phil Youtie purchased the salon and opened multiple others throughout Florida. From 1973 to 1988, Youtie owned 18 salons, which were operated primarily as leased bridal boutiques in department stores under the name of David’s Bridal. While the stores in Florida were doing really well, Youties noticed that at the time many brides were trying to find dresses on clearance, whereas years before brides were willing to spend much more money and time on wedding dresses. Once the late 1980s hit, many changes were seen within the bridal industry. Youtie described the bridal market as being in terrible shape because brides wanted to do everything smaller. However, he was determined to adapt his stores and salons to these changes. In 1990, he teamed up with his childhood friend Steven Erlbaum, who was the founder of Mr. Good Buy chain. The two men incorporated the company and launched the first David’s Bridal Warehouse in Hallandale, Florida. This warehouse was the first of its kind. Stores were larger than any others, 12,000 square feet, whereas other bridal stores were around 2,500 sq. ft. The warehouses held a variety of wedding dresses ranging from special occasion, accessories, wide size range, headpieces, gloves, and shoes. The warehouse though didn’t have the traditional bridal store/salong feel with luxurious interiors and full service associates. Instead customers would search through racks with little help from associates. Signs were up throughout the warehouse stating that sales were final and there were not alterations made in store. Although these stores aren’t typical bridal stores, brides could get a bargain on a wedding dress. Brides could walk out of the warehouse with a designer look alike that only cost anywhere from $150 to $900. However, not everyone loved the idea of a non-traditional bridal store, but Youtie felt that he attracted brides that didn’t want the traditional experience so he wasn’t harming other stores sales. With their $99 bridal dress sales, David’s Bridal gained media attention which allowed them in 1994 and 1995 to grow from 14 stores to 36. Under new management, the company decided to convert its warehouses to bridal superstores. These store would still offer the same things as the warehouses but with better interiors and service. A lot of David’s competitors were changing their stores to bridal superstores which allowed foreign manufacturers to do business with discount bridal stores. David’s Bridal now felt that having good customer service was the way to success because they knew if the bride had a good experience she would also buy her bridesmaid dresses there and then the bridesmaid would buy her wedding dress there. David’s Bridal then dropped ‘Warehouse’ from their name. In 1996 the company named Robert Hurth as president. Hurth was formerly the chief financial officer of Melville Corporation. Youtie wanted Hurth to manage the financial side of the company, so he could concentrate on fashion. Paul E. Taub was vice-president of marketing. However in the 1990s David Bridal’s quick expansion and store upgrades put a strain on their capital resources and inventory controls. Because of the expenses, the company has a loss of $415,000 in 1996 due to the company lacking a distribution center, and most merchandise flowed directly to its stores and the company had an excess inventory of gowns. The company’s earnings rose to $2.6 million in 1997 and to $5.8 million in 1998, but they still planned to go public. Youtie and Erlbaum were the principal shareholders before the company’s public offering. Once it went public, David’s Bridal raised $104 million from selling eight million shares, including 6.39 shares sold by existing stockholders such as Erlbaum, who sold 1.2 million shares. The company used this money to reduce the debt caused from their expansion and upgrades, and to fund new expansions and a new distribution center. In 1999, David’s Bridal launched an e-commerce site. Customers could use the website to learn more about the different styles of gowns at the stores and to find a store closest to them. The company has succeeded in capturing a large portion of the industry’s market share and should continue to grow in the future. In 1999 Erlbaum said that the company’s biggest challenge was finding enough people to work in its stores and Youtie expected the company to continue to thrive and said that he still found the bridal business rewarding.

2. Currently David’s Bridal biggest problems are seen with the changes in casualization of wedding dresses, the companies fall of digital investments, and the changing times. With changes with the 21st century bride wanting a more simple and cheap wedding dress, something that David’s competition are succeeding in doing, it’s causing sales at David’s Bridal to slip. Since 2012, there has also been a 30% drop in the companies earnings which in 2016 worsened due to the company falling behind in digital investments when a website redesign occurred that dropped search rankings in some products. S&P Global has recently downgraded the retailer’s debt ratings on the expectation that the company might restructure its debt in or out of court. Analysts said that in January, at the time of the downgrade, the company “may not be able to refinance its debt because of weak operating performance expectations and poor market conditions.” S&P has also stated that they forecast the company’s operating performance will likely worsen over the next 12 months, as competition, price transparency, and changing bridal habits continue to change. The company is also suffering under a lot of debt. The changing times of 21st century along with a different demographic of bride, need to be met by the retailers of bridal, like David’s Bridal. Moody’s, said there’s a new paradigm emerging in bridal retail. “The bride can buy a budget wedding gown online, or a white dress from any apparel brand instead of a traditional gown,” she said. “That’s increased competition for David’s Bridal and other bridal retailers, especially at the lower end.” The bride has more choices, at lower prices, and it’s all online. The dress market is expanding, instead of small boutiques and department retailers that sell wedding dresses, more and more companies are also creating their own wedding dress lines. Companies like Gap Inc. has Weddington Way, Anthropologie has BHLDN. Nordstrom, Macy’s, and Bloomingdale’s are all taking a piece of the bridal business, selling everything from bridesmaid dresses to wedding bands. Venture capital firms have pumped at least $490 million into the bridal industry in recent years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Dress services from Vow to be Chic and Brideside. There’s new competition from brands that are current and on trend with the 21st century bride. However, it’s not just wedding dress stores that are suffering, it’s the idea of marriage overall. Marriage rates have fallen since the mid 1980s as more couples choose to live together before heading to the altar. The number of adults who never married has reached a record high of 20%. In 1960, just 9 percent of adults aged 25 and older had never been married. And this isn’t expected to stop. Researchers forecast that there will be just 5.8 marriages per 1,000 people in 2022, down from an estimated 6.4 marriages projected for 2017.

Target Market:

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths:

· Established name

· Cheap prices

· Well-known brands

· Largest bridal chain in the US

Weaknesses:

· Lack of understanding who their target market is

· Not marketing their menswear

O:

· Stronger online presence within their site

· New marketing campaigns

· Expand grooms and groomsmen selection

· Having better in store “bridal” experience

T:

· Fast Fashion competitors creating wedding dress lines

· E commerce

· Brides wanting simpler and cheaper dresses

Positioning Strategy and Statement:

1. What position within the competitive marketplace will this campaign support for the brand?

2. Who are the competitors and whatcriteria do thet compete?

3. Create a positioning statement that your brand will need to adopt in order to successfully compete in the marketplace. Follow this format: To_____(target market),______(brand) is the _____(category)_____that provide_____(key benefit).

Marketing Objectives:

Objective- Target new customers — millennials — to increase sales. *maybe reference target market mentioned in target market section, waiting on that part to be done. *reference completed sections *do I need to then come up with “achievable goals or objectives?”

ROI- ROI = (Net Profit / Cost of Investment) x 100 *I need to talk to Hinckley to figure this out

KPIs- We will be able to tell if we achieved our goal of appealing to millenials by monitoring Key Performance Indicators like, increased sales, increased engagement on social media, and increased conversion rates in-store and online. *do I need to do specific numbers?

Target Market Analysis

Current Target Market: brides who were looking for a dress with a reasonable price tag and at the same time they can get their bridesmaids dresses from there also.

Potential Target Market: younger/ more modern bride, same sex couples.

Psycho-graphic and Behavioral data and lifestyle activities:

3 profiles:

Key Insight into their behavior/attitude, how they will use our products/services:

Works Cited:

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/david-s-bridal-inc-history/

https://www.retaildive.com/news/davids-bridal-downgraded-over-potential-default/516853/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-11/there-s-a-war-being-waged-over-the-american-wedding

https://digiday.com/retail/davids-bridal-revamping-online-experience-drive-people-stores/

https://www.klipfolio.com/resources/kpi-examples

https://investinganswers.com/financial-dictionary/technical-analysis/return-investment-roi-1100