1. Fashion Merchandising & Promotion

2. What is Merchandising?
Fashion Merchandising involves the activities of planning, buying and selling apparel and accessories.
It is the central function of Apparel Retailing
Includes the following areas:
Retail Positioning
Merchandise Buying
Merchandise Promotion
Visual Merchandising

3. The Retail Segment General Merchandisers Specialized Merchandisers
Market all types of goods in multiple price ranges and try to satisfy as many needs of broad range customers.
Examples: Sear, J.C. Penney, Macy’s
Specialized Merchandisers
Offer limited lines of related products targeted to more defined customers
Examples: Aéropostale, Forever 21, Victoria's Secret

4. Types of Retail Merchandisers
Department Stores
Large scale general merchandisers that offer many varieties of merchandise grouped into separate departments.
Chain Stores
A group of stores that is owned managed, merchandised and controlled by a central office and have similar goods and prices
Can be general or specialized merchandisers

5. Types of Retail Merchandisers
Discount Stores
Retail establishments that sell merchandise at lower than recognized market-level prices
Specialty Stores
Carry large selections of limited classifications of merchandise. Usually have lower volume and higher prices
Non-Store Retailers
Selling without a conventional facility

6. Types of Retail Merchandisers
Match the Following Store with its Retail Type
Department Store
Chain Store
Discount Store
Specialty Store
Non-Store
A. Coach
B. Amazon
C. Macy’s
D. T.J. Max
E. Forever 21
Check your answers with Mrs. Wendt

7. Retail Positioning
Retail Positioning refers to where a retailers situates itself in the market.
General Retail Positioning Price Categories
Designer: (couture) original high priced-fashion for the tiny “class” market; distinctive style and emphasize top quality
Bridge: “secondary” lines of high priced designers; made with expensive fabrics, fine details & produced in small quantities

8. Retail Positioning General Retail Positioning Price Categories
Better: high quality, but more reasonable prices; they are ready to wear garments that are more available to consumers than high fashion designs
Moderate: medium priced merchandise with well known brand names; sold through department & chain stores as well as specialty stores
Budget: lowest price category of apparel; sold on retail racks and shelves; no original designs resulting in knock-offs

9. Retail Positioning Match the Brand with its Price Category Designer
Bridge
Better
Moderate
Budget
A. Liz Claiborne
B. Valentino for Angelina Jolie
C. Gap
D. Michael Kors for Macy’s
E. No Boundaries
Check you answers with Mrs. Wendt

10. Target Markets Retail Positioning includes choosing a Target Market
Target Market: specific segment of a total market that a company wants as customers and toward whom it directs its marketing efforts.
Based on
Demographics: Age, Gender, Race, Education, Religion, Income, Occupation, and Geographic Location
Psychographics: statistics that try to explain consumer behavior such as: Lifestyle, Values, Attitudes & Self-Concept

11. Target Markets Match the Store with its Target Market Forever 21
2. Banana Republic
3. Nike
A. Various age groups with athletic lifestyles
B. Teen to Twenties, with little to medium income
C. 30 – 40 year old working women; with middle to upper middle income
Check you answers with Mrs. Wendt

12. Retail Positioning Strategies
Product Strategy: the assortment breadth & depth a retailer offers
Breadth: the number of different item categories
Depth: the quantity of each item available
Three main approaches
Broad & Shallow: many categories, small quantity
Narrow & Deep: few categories, large quantity
Moderate breadth & depth: balance between categories & quantity

13. Retail Positioning Strategies
Price Strategy: pricing strategy should correlate with a retailer’s image, target market and competition.
Quality & price usually, but not always correlate
High price = high quality
Low price = low quality

14. Retail Positioning Strategies
Price Strategy Continued
Pricing Approaches
Prestige Pricing: setting high prices on items to attract customers who want quality goods or the status of owning expensive & exclusive merchandise
Price Promoting: advertising special price reductions of goods to bring in customers
Value Pricing: selling items below the suggested retail price
Everyday low pricing: promotes the idea that shoppers can shop anytime in the store and receive a fair price

15. Retail Positioning Strategies
Place Strategy: relates to the site location and physical design of the site.
Locations
Central business district: stores in cities or towns
Neighborhood shopping centers: stores
Community shopping centers: 15 – 30 stores
Regional shopping centers: Enclosed malls
Super regional centers: Mega-malls

16. Retail Positioning Strategies
Place Strategy Continued:
Facilities Design
Store exterior
Visible to traffic
Compatible with surroundings
Convenient for consumers
Store Interior
Selling areas: merchandise is displayed
Support areas: dressing rooms, bathrooms, checkout, etc.

17. Merchandise Planning & Buying
Merchandise Planning: involves estimating, as correctly as possible, consumer demand and how it can be best satisfied
Merchandise Buying: is done through vendors, such as apparel producers, to obtain the merchandise decided upon during the planning phase

18. Merchandise Planning & Buying
The Merchandise Cycle
Planning
Buying
Selling

19. Merchandise Planning & Buying
Gather Information from
past sales records
Sales people
Consumer opinions and behavior
Merchandising bureaus
Vendors
Trade information
Comparison shoppers

20. Merchandise Planning & Buying
2. Prepare Buying Plans
Buying plan
Describe the types and quantities of merchandise to purchase
Create a dollar merchandise plan
Estimated budget for stock, sales and profit
Assortment Plan
Variety and quantity of stock keeping units (SKU) to be carries

21. Merchandise Planning & Buying
3. Select Merchandise resources
Manufacturers
Wholesalers
Web sites & catalogs
Importers
Vendors

22. Merchandise Planning & Buying
Market Week: scheduled periods of time during which producers introduce their new collections or lines (fashion shows all week)
Collection: total number of garments in a designer’s or producers seasonal presentation, especially for high priced garments
Line: group of styles within a collection that are produced and sold as a set of new selections
Typically has one design element in common throughout all garments
Color, line, balance, silhouette, etc.

23. Merchandise Planning & Buying
Example of a Line

24. Merchandise Planning & Buying
Major Domestic Fashion Markets
New York
California: L.A. & San Francisco
Dallas
Chicago
Miami
Atlanta

25. Merchandise Planning & Buying
Major Foreign Markets
London, England
Paris, France
Milan, Italy

26. Merchandise Promotion
Purpose of Fashion Promotion
Inform
Create awareness and understanding of products
Persuade
Convince consumers of the benefits of using/buying products
Remind
Product availability, encourage purchases and stimulate additional purchases

27. Merchandise Promotion
Promotion Levels
Consumer: directly to consumers, usually done on a national scale by companies that do not sell directly to consumers
Trade: aimed within the industry
Fiber and fabric companies promote to manufacturers
Retail: promotion by a store to its customers
Promote merchandise chosen for their target market in hopes to create demand

28. Merchandise Promotion
Promotion Program: details of efforts for a period of time. It includes
Goals & objectives
Message or theme
Specific Promotion activities
Timing of activities
Media to be used
Assignments of responsibility
Budget
Evaluation Methods

29. Merchandise Promotion
Advertising: any paid form of non personal sales message made by a sponsor through a communication medium
Purpose:
Build a companies image
Promote a brand or product
Announce a sale
Retail Advertising Purpose
Bring customers to a sight
Promote an image

30. Merchandise Promotion
Types of Advertising
Product advertising: designed to sell specific, identifiable merchandise items, lines or services
Institutional advertising: designed to sell a reputation of an organization rather than a specific product
Cooperative advertising: sharing the cost with two or more organizations

31. Merchandise Promotion
Forms of Advertising
Merchandise Packaging:
Company names, logos, slogans on shopping bags, boxes, paper, etc.
Newspaper
Magazines
Outdoor: billboards, public transit ads, etc.
Direct Mail
Radio
Television
Websites

32. Visual Merchandising
VM: physical display of goods in the most attractive and appealing ways
VM Purpose:
Sell goods and promote store image
Educate about new items trends
Show how items can be worn
Grab customer attention
Provide information on price or special features

33. Visual Merchandising Store Décor & atmospherics
Décor: style and appearance of interior furnishings
Theme should be carried throughout the store to fit company’s image
Should coordinate with merchandise
Atmospherics: features intended to create a particular emotional mood or attitude through sound, smell and the décor
Uses psychology to induce buying
Examples: type of music or pleasant aromas

34. Visual Merchandising
Merchandise Presentation: includes the ways that goods are hung, placed on shelves, or made available for sale in retail stores
Shoulder-out presentation
Garments are hung with only one side showing from shoulder to bottom (like hung in your closet)
Face-forward presentation
Clothing is hung with the front fully facing the viewer
Always done at the entrances and aisles of a store

35. Visual Merchandising Merchandise Fixtures A-frames Base cabinets
Build-ups
Card holders
C-rack
Drapers
Dump or table bin
Four-way rack
Gondola
Grid units
Hangbars
Pedestal units
Pegboard
Quad rack
Rounders
Showcases
Slatwall units
Spiral costumer
Straight arm
Superquad
Tables
T-stand
Tier tables or racks
Two-way racks
Waterfalls

36. Visual Merchandising
Interior Store Display: individual and notable physical presentations of merchandise
Use unique equipment or fixtures to feature distinctive merchandise
Should be color-coordinated, accessorized, and self-explanatory
Window Display: seen from outside the store
Enclosed; semi-enclosed; open; island

37. Visual Merchandising Displays are intended to:
Stimulate product interest
Provide information
Suggest merchandise coordination
Generate traffic flow
Remind customers of planned purchases
Create additional sales of impulse items
Enhance the store’s visual image

38. Visual Merchandising Displays should include the following:
Merchandise
One-category groupings; related groupings; Themed groupings; variety
Lighting
Floodlighting; spotlighting; pinpointing
Props
Mannequins, bust forms; decorative props; structural props
Signage