Transcript Collecting Information in the Fashion Industry

Collecting Information
in the
Fashion Industry
Keeping Up with All that DATA!
□ Marketing Information Systems: (MIS)
□ Characteristics of a system
□ Purpose is to manage information
□ Effective systems:
□ Track rapidly changing product assortments
□ Provides information about the customer
□ Is user-friendly
□ Provides reliable data
□ Collects, stores, reports, analyzes, and uses
information
Marketing Information Systems
□ Collecting Data
□ Use technology to obtain details about
what is selling and who is buying
□ Information is collected by price tag
scans, bar code scans, orders being
placed by buyers, etc
Marketing Information Systems
□ Storing Data
□ Usually accumulated in an electronic
format
□ Due to amount of data generated paper
trails would be almost impossible to
manage
□ Data is usually relevant for only a short
period of time
Marketing Information Systems
□ Reporting Data
□ Produced in electronic spreadsheets or
other report formats
□ Often used to compare the past with the
present
□ Same-store sales reports: compares what
is happening today with what happened
a year ago
Marketing Information Systems
□ Analyzing Data
□ Analysis puts data into context that shows
relationships and helps lead to
conclusions
□ Used to catch trends in time to react to
them
Marketing Information Systems
□ Using Data
□ If analysis shows ineffective sales, then
appropriate reactions could be made
□ Concessions: working with the vendors on
price or their return policy
□ Also used to gauge need for markdowns
and closeouts
Marketing Research
□ Marketing Research: the process of
gathering information about current
and potential customers. Research is
usually reported based upon groups of
people with similarities.
□ Market research is vital to a successful
MIS
Marketing Research
□ Market Segments: subgroups based
upon demographics (age, gender,
ethnic group, nationality, education,
and income) and/or psychographics
(ideology, values, attitudes, and
interests)
□ Age groups and gender groups are
frequent divisions in fashion markets
(but can be misleading)
Marketing Research
□ Examples of market segments:
□ Generation X (born between 1961-1981)
□ Generation Y (born between 1979 – 1995)
□ Hispanic
□ Baby Boomers (born between 1946 –
1964)
Marketing Research
□ Mass Marketing: large number of
potential consumers with no specific
limitations
□ Target Markets: catering to one or two
market segments as far as color, style,
price, trend selection
According to WWD….
Consumers of moderate priced fashions are
those that shop at JCPenny and Kohl’s and
who shop during sales at department stores.
About 43% of all moderate apparel in 2001
was purchased by women 25-40 years old
with incomes of $25,000-$74,999. Women
with higher incomes purchased another 42%
of moderate apparel. The moderate
shopper does not enjoy shopping, shoe not
have the time to shop, is not overly
concerned about fashion, and wants value
for the price of the clothing she purchases.
As a fashion marketer, how could you use
this information in formulating a store’s
merchandise mix and marketing strategy?
Judging the Potential of Your
Target Market in Your AREA…
□ Some groups have more potential
than others
□ Some groups have a greater
concentration in an area than others
□ Matching the right target market with
the right marketing strategy is key to a
successful retail operation
Things to Consider…
Although you may wish to target Generation Y
due to their free-spending habits, you could
decide to target women 45-54 years old
since this group is the highest per-person
spender on fashion apparel. Members of
this group are generally career driven,
educated, have a higher income. What
could be a draw back to targeting this
customer in a specific area?
Research Continued!
□ Market research allows the retailers to
collect data on the targeted market in
order to better meet their wants and
needs
□ How does price affect sales?
□ How important is convenience to the
target market?
□ Where on the fashion life cycle will the
target market purchase clothing styles?