Target Market

DOWNEAST
CONTENTS
Executive Summary.................................................................4
Target Market............................................................................6
Survey Results..........................................................................10
Additional Insights..................................................................16
Appendix.......................................................................18
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
DownEast began as a small college town, student oriented business reselling brand
name items for amazing deals. Since the beginning it’s been a family run business
steadily growing throughout the west, offering great deals and sales to fashionable
customers. DownEast has expanded from reselling other brands, to designing their
own private line, DownEast Basics. Catching onto the modest layering t-shirt trend
in Utah since the very beginning, DownEast Basics has designed their colorful, fun,
and simple style around the women that shop there. DownEast continues to find
ways to connect to their customers and expand their collection of affordable modest
clothing for women of all ages.
Brand Evaluation
With the expansion of the company,
DownEast opened up new stores.
These splinters cause
a serious problem
with brand recognition to the public.
Brand image struggles because of the
inconsistency in store bases.
However, DownEast has a
strong hold on the LDS
community because of their
modest selection of clothing.
It is a staple for modest outfits or
clothing that will help
make other brands more
modest.
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SWOT:
Strengths:
-High Accessibility: There are numerous locations
in multiple city centers, especially college towns.
-Offers alternative style: Making stylish and trendy look modest is important to target market
-Brand Champions: Especially members of the LDS faith appreciate and look for the type of clothing that Down East has.
Weaknesses:
-Social Media: There is not much of a presence on social media, which is one of the main ways to be in touch with the target market
-Brand Image: There are multiple brands within the company and none are very identifiable (what is the trademark?)
-Matronly vibe: Clothing and store environment feels like it’s more for older women than younger women.
Opportunities:
-Target Market: Women ages 18-24 surround each location, and
many of them value modest, yet fashionable clothes
-Online presence: Many of the direct competitors have very similar websites as far as look and feel to DownEast’s. Making the site more unique could spur the younger target market to spend more time there
Threats:
-Direct Competitors: Sweet Salt, SexyModest, Mikarose Boutique, ModBod
-Indirect Competitors: J. Crew, Anthropologie, H&M, Bohme Boutique
-Target Market: Not being in touch with the target market and knowing what is valued by them will likely hurt the brand in the long run
-Social Media: taking advantage of twitter and instagram for ads and
promotions will really resonate with the target market
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TARGET MARKET
Major Insights
She loves the sale
Our shopper loves to save money. She is likely a student and does not have much
expendable cash. What she does have is an outside expectation by her peers to live up to
current fashion trends. For this reason, when a sale presents itself, she can’t afford not to
make the purchase. With a discount, she can keep up on fashion trends, and feel good about
saving money. It gives her an excuse to feel good about herself on both fronts, aesthetically
and financially.
She wants to connect both online and off
Like many well-to-do college students or young people, our shopper finds ways to use
her time more efficiently than merely perusing through racks in a store. She shops online,
getting ideas for potential clothing options. Her brands offer suggestions and examples of
what she might wear. She feels catered to, and important as a customer when she can
interact with her brands. She even shares dialogue with some of them, and participates in
online competitions with other customers to win discounts or giveaways. Her loyalty to her
brands develops alongside her online interaction and relationship with them.
Although she makes clothing idea choices online, she rarely purchases them over the
web. She appreciates what a brick-and-mortar store can offer her: human interaction, a brand
persona physically manifested, and tangible clothing she can try on. She feels more
comfortable buying if she can ask questions about the potential purchase to a friendly
representative. A pleasant, clean and attractive store atmosphere--one seamless with the
online persona--also gives her confidence that what she’s getting is what she expects.
She wants to be comfortable
The most important factor in deciding which clothes to buy is comfort. Although
she needs to be praised and accepted by her peers in regards to trends and fashion, the
clothing she wears must also make her feel relaxed. The comfort level of her clothing is
highly correlated with her confidence level. Restrictive, uncomfortable clothing can make her
miserable, unconfident, and can amplify insecurities within her. Comfortable, fashionable
clothing gives her confidence by helping her think more of herself, and less about herself.
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Psychographics
-Loves Her Friends: Our market is always looking for an excuse to be with her friends. Any
activity is better for her when she can share it with a great group, especially shopping. At the
same time, our market is always trying to outdo their friends in terms of fashion. When she
is getting dressed up, it is to impress her friends.
-Social Media Minded: Our target market is very up to date on the latest social trends. They
are heavy users of the following apps: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Snapchat.
She uses these platforms to stay in touch with the lives of her close friends, a
nd also to gather ideas from her
favorite brands on new looks and styles.
-Health Conscious:
Staying in shape and setting health
conscious goals are a big part of
our market’s life.
They love to look good and feel good too.
Brand Loyalties:
-J. Crew
-Nordstrom
-Windsor
-MAC Cosmetics
-Nordstrom Rack
-T.J. Maxx
-DSW
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A Day in the Life of your Target Market
6:00am - Wakes up, checks Instagram, puts on lulu lemon outfit and heads to her
favorite little yoga studio to work out with her best friend and chat about yesterday.
7:00am - Stops by a cute cafe with her bff to get an organic, all natural pastry with a
fun drink for breakfast.
7:45am - Time to get ready for the day, takes a nice long shower followed by her regular beauty routine: blow drying hair; trying on a few outfits and deciding on a JCrew
top paired with a fun skirt bought at Nordstrom Rack and some Tory Burch flats,
a statement necklace, and a kate spade purse; using a hair wand to create soft beach
waves; and applying MAC makeup.
9:00am - First class starts, class is a great time to meet new people and catch up with
friends. She usually takes notes on her laptop while scrolling through instagram, Pinterest, snapchatting, and checking up on her Twitter.
12:00pm - Break from classes, she goes to lunch with her boyfriend and hits up their
favorite mexican place because she has a special instagram deal for a buy one get one
half off meal.
2:00pm - Finally her last class of the day, she pays attention while checking on a
couple of the online boutiques she follows, finally purchasing a shirt from the sale
section that she’s been eyeing but hasn’t been sure one because she can’t try it on.
4:00pm - Drives home from school and does some homework while listening to
her new Spotify playlist, texts her Mom about plans for the weekend, and eats some
raspberries for a snack.
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5:00pm - Edits and posts a photo on instagram of her in the cute cafe wearing her
new yoga outfit.
5:30pm - Goes to the grocery store to pick up a couple things she wants to make for
dinner, she asks her boyfriend to come but he has to work on a group project, she
ends up buying a little more than she came for, but only because they were having a
sale on her favorite cereal.
6:30pm - Quickly makes a veggie burger for dinner and then goes to see her boyfriend at his apartment.
7:00pm - Her boyfriend wants to watch the game on TV so she snuggles up next to
him and looks at pinterest for inspiration on what to get her father for Father’s Day.
8:30pm - She goes out to grab a soda with one of her friends they catch up.
9:30pm - Goes home to catch up on the newest season of The Bachelorette, while
snacking on some gummies from Trader Joes and writing a blog post for her personal style blog.
11:00pm - Gets ready for bed, puts on some great pajamas from the Gap, applies her
weekly Crest Whitestrip, washes off her makeup and exfoliates, and braids her hair
so that it stays nice while she is sleeping.
11:45pm - Checks up on all her social media sites and text messages before she falls
asleep
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SURVEY
Introduction for Survey Data
We initially started with a reputable survey company, SSI, to distribute our
survey randomly to areas that have DownEast stores nearby. The data was lacking,
because many people weren’t in the target market or hadn’t heard of DownEast. We
were able to get 112 responses from SSI, but we wanted to be able to give more solid
numbers and findings, so we also sent our survey out to our personal social media
friends. These women were able to give us added insights from college students
throughout Utah and the West. We also checked to see if there was a significant
difference in what survey responders had said through SSI and through our social
media and found that they were extremely close and not practically significant. We
also looked at the difference between those that lived in Utah and those that lived
outside of Utah and also found that there was no significant difference. All of the
information is thus presented together.
Personal style.
When we asked respondents about how important it was that a brand fit their
personal style, on a four point scale from “extremely unimportant” to “extremely important”
the mean was at 3.51. This was the most important factor for them in choosing what stores
to shop at, closely followed by price. 72% of respondents said that personal style was “extremely important” for them. Our literature review findings support this in that these women
feel that clothes are related to confidence, their clothes are a part of them and it’s important
that they feel comfortable in what they’re wearing. We asked them to categorize their style,
and their top three descriptive words for their style were, “modest,” “casual,” and “practical.”
Modest was 58%, casual 53%, and practical 33% of respondents.
These answers were closely related to what they gave when asked how to describe
the DownEast Basics clothing style with some important differences. They said “modest” at
73%, “colorful” at 33%, and “practical” at 32%. Modest is importantly #1 for both the target
market and DownEast and “practical” at #3, but colorful and casual are quite different.
We compared the ideas about modesty from those that said they consider their style
modest and those that didn’t consider their style as “modest”. There was significance in the
fact that those that consider their style to be “modest”, also agree that DownEast’s style is
“modest”, which indicates that “modest” shoppers know understand that DownEast offers
that. But what was also significant, is that those that did not consider their style as “modest”
did were not as likely to put that DownEast’s style was “modest.” This shows that modesty
isn’t a weakness when it comes to matching personal style, those that are “modest” in their
dressing see DownEast as offering that and those that don’t consider their style “modest” see
DownEast as providing that. Modesty doesn’t seem to be a problem in what they’re looking
for.
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Our market sees themselves as fashionable and trendy, but they are still seeing
DownEast as not fitting their style. When we asked them to list their top three favorite
brands, we noticed that most of the free responses that didn’t list DownEast in their top
three said that it was because DownEast didn’t fit their personal style. Many said that they
thought the clothing was “too mormon”, “too Utah”, “too conservative” - “too” something.
Although some of the target market seem to match up with the style of DownEast, those
that don’t say that it is because of personal style and price.
HOW OUR TARGET MARKET DESCRIBES THEIR
PERSONAL STYLE
OUR SUGGESTIONS
Even if the price is amazing, many of these women are not seeing their personal style in
DownEast. They want something that fits their personality and makes them feel
comfortable and unique. Variety in styles is something that is important to them,
emphasized by their interest in stores like H&M and Forever 21 that offer clothes that fit
a large variety of personal styles. They feel that much of what is offered at DownEast isn’t
what they want to wear, because it fits a certain style very narrowly drawn. Some like this
image, but many respondents don’t think that it is unique or different enough for them.
They go to DownEast to grab the basics, but can’t see themselves wearing much else from
the store, even if it did fit their budget. We suggest broadening the variety of styles found at
DownEast slowly to include something for everyone.
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Social Media.
When asked to choose their top places where they looked for fashion inspiration, 67% of our
survey respondents said they looked to Pinterest. 50% chose Instagram, and 47% said they found their inspirations from the websites from the stores they shop at. Another popular choice for fashion inspiration
were blogs.
As mentioned before, our target market loves to feel connected to their brands. Social media, as
we can see, is a huge way that our market finds their style and in turn can feel apart of brand. The connection between online and the actual store is important to them. Feeling immersed in a brand
through social media leads to a greater feeling when actually in the store seeing and feeling what they had
been viewing on social media earlier that week.
With the help of NUVI, a social media monitoring database, we were able to get a feel for
DownEast’s social media presence. DownEast has difficulty being unique on social media. The main
reason for this is because there is a magazine based in Maine called, “Downeast” and is very popular. Its’
subscribers refer to it online using the hashtag “downeast”, so when looking at the data measuring social
media presence, hundreds of the conversations were actually about the magazine, and not our DownEast.
Some of the users who start conversations have a high influence score, meaning that they have thousands
of followers that see their posts. This influence can grow even bigger if they have followers that have
thousands of followers as well. For example, Windsor Store is a clothing retail store based out of Los Angeles and they have over 7,000 followers on Twitter. On May 26th, they retweeted a link to a fashion blog
including #DownEastBasic. The DownEast Basic profile favorited it. That is a great habit to have. However,
Asha Butterflys, the twitter user with the fourth highest influence and over 12,000 followers, posted a link
to her blog in which she tried on several different outfits from Down East on May 18th, and there was no
retweeting or favoriting. The majority of the highest influencers retweeted Asha’s post, so that would have
been a good opportunity to favorite her tweet, retweet, or mention her in a tweet.
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Our primary research indicated
that of those who ranked DownEast in
their top three stores to shop at received
inspiration from Pinterest, Instagram, and
online magazines. Those who did not rank
DownEast in their top three stores did not
differ in where they sought fashion
inspiration excepting Facebook and
catalogues. Those who ranked DownEast
in their top three looked more to Facebook
and catalogues for fashion inspiration
than those who did not rank it in their top
three.
The target market of 18-24 lives on social media. They post selfies, they tweet, they “like”
things on Facebook, and they are avid Pinterest pinners. In order to reach them, DownEast
needs to speak their language. The fact that they do tweet and post things to Instagram and
Facebook is a good start. One of the ways DownEast can improve is by acknowledging the target market’s tweets and posts.
The other major way that DownEast can improve their social media presence is by possibly changing up the handles they use. Downeast Magazine currently has more followers using
#downeast, which is one of the most common hashtags that your customers use. Making the
hashtag unique will definitely help you sort through the tweets so that you can see what customers are saying about you.
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Price Discrepancy.
Using a four-point scale from “extremely unimportant” to “extremely important,” we asked
subjects how important price was to them. 67% percent indicated that price was “extremely
important” in deciding where to shop. When asking them about their top 3 clothing brands, we
followed up with, “DownEast was not in your top 3. What improvements would DownEast Basics
need to make to get into your top three?” Roughly 40% of respondents mentioned lowering the price
or implementing more discounts. This suggests uneven ground between the target market’s budget and
DownEast’s price points.
Secondary research drawn from Mintel showed that our shopper is very often a student, and therefore
low on money. She looks for coupons online more often than does a non-student because she knows
she’ll need the money in her limited budget for important things such as tuition, rent, books, and the
like.
We asked subjects how they felt
DownEast was doing in regards to
price. On a five point scale from “very
poor” to “very good” the mean score
was 3.17 meaning 27% of respondents
said DownEast price was “poor,” or
“very poor,” and another 36% rated the
price only as “fair.” “Fair” may seem
to be the magic word crossing supply
with demand, but the fact that they
responded “fair” suggests they do not
feel like they’re getting more than what
they’re paying for--an important factor
in the eyes of a discount shopper. From
the open-ended responses, we can infer
that a substantial amount of the respondents choose to shop at DownEast
less because their prices are too high
for their budget. How then can this be
reconciled? Through a greater focus on
discount opportunities.
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64% of respondents, when asked
“What do you like about outside
brands sold at DownEast
Outfitters?” said “discounts.”
Similarly, on a seven-point scale, one
being “very unlikely” and seven being
“very likely,” we asked,
“How likely would you be to shop at
DownEast if they were to [offer discounts]?”
The mean score was 5.75, meaning 213
of 247 respondents indicated that they
were at least somewhat likely to shop
at DownEast if there were a discount,
and the majority of respondents said
they’d be “very likely” to shop there if
there were discounts.
On the same scale, we asked how
likely they’d be to shop there if
DownEast were to offer free shipping
online. Here, the mean was 5.26,
meaning 180 respondents out of 247,
or 72% said they’d be at least somewhat likely to shop there.
The target market is less interested in a store that doesn’t fit their budget. They are only willing to
pay higher prices for something unique that fits their personal style. In our research we found that this
market is pleading for lower prices from DownEast.
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Price versus Style.
We ran statistics on those who placed DownEast in the top three favorite brands versus those who
did not rank DownEast in their top three. We found the following:
Those who ranked DownEast in their top three also thought DownEast was doing well in the
category of “variety of clothing in the store” with a mean of 3.82 on a 5 point scale from “very poor” to
“very good.” They thought DownEast did well matching their personal style with a mean of 4.01.
Regarding added discounts, this group is very likely to shop more at DownEast with a mean of 6.34 on a
seven-point scale from “very unlikely” to “very likely.”
They also indicated they’d be more likely to shop if DownEast offered free online shipping, with a mean of
5.83 on a seven-point scale.
Those who did not rank DownEast in their top three
stores marked DownEast as “poor” or “fair” in regards
to fitting their personal style, with a mean of 2.74 on
the five-point scale from “very poor” to “very good.”
This is a large gap from the mean of 4.01 given by the
group that put DownEast into their top three. When
asked how likely the group that didn’t put DownEast
in their top three would be to shop at DownEast if
discounts or free online shipping were offered, this
group indicated that they’d be statistically less likely to
shop there than the group who ranked DownEast in
their top three stores. Taking the difference in means
from the “top three” group and the “not top three”
group, we see that price is less important to those
without DownEast in their top three stores, and they
need more incentive to shop there than price alone. A
tailored personal style is extremely important to those
who do not rank DownEast in their top three stores
and they are willing to pay more for it.
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Other Insights From Primary Research:
-Your target market does
consider DownEast to be modest,
colorful, practical, fashionable,
conservative, and modern.
-They are interested in
shopping at DE for the Basics
brand more than the brand
names, but mostly come for
both.
-They come to DE with the intention to buy both the basics line and outside brands
-They come to DownEast principally for the apparel, followed by accessories. They don’t often come
to shop for Home Goods or Furniture, but don’t mind those options while browsing.
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-The most popular product sold are tops and t-shirts. In the open response section many
women mentioned that they come for the basic t-shirts but rarely if ever buy anything else.
-They see DownEast as an average store, unexceptional as far as expectation of improvements on things
their competitors do. They give it a B letter grade, which suggests a positive opinion of the store, but
DownEast remains to stand out as the best or their first choice. It ranks #2 in their “favorite brands.” When
asked why they didn’t give DownEast a higher grade, or why they didn’t put DownEast as their top brand,
the main problems they gave were price and personal style issues.
-Over half of the respondents were from Utah, and more than a third were from Arizona. These areas are
where the brand supporters for DownEast seem to be. These locations also mentioned DownEast most
often on social media.
-The main problems people list within the free response portion was that the clothing at DownEast needed to fit their personal style, with a lower price, higher quality, and more variety. These changes included a
less typical-mormon/Utah style and fewer outdated prints.
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-They choose the stores they do based on how they fit their style and price range, as well as variety of
clothing offered there. While this is what is most important to them, DownEast customers feel that they
do very well in cleanliness/order and customer service. These factors, however, don’t seem to matter as
much to the market. In fact, these are two of the lowest reasons that they go to a store to shop.
-Modesty. Although modesty is extremely important to this market, and they recognize that DownEast is
great for this need, they do not feel unique in their modest choices at DownEast. When talking about the
options at DownEast, many surveyed said that they don’t want to “look like everyone else” or see “10 other
people wearing the same DownEast skirt to church.” They like the modesty aspect, it’s a good thing, but
demand more individual expression. They don’t want their modest clothing to feel restrictive, or look like
everyone else. Our suggestion is to keep the modest edge, but make it more varied, casual, and classic.
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APPENDIX
-A copy of the survey and outputs from the results, including the report
from NUVI will be attached via email.
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