Retail strategy for Surface Company name: Surface brand Logo is fashion

yet affordable

Deal in: the surface is deal in the readymade garment of the womens Women s ready to wear

S.W.O.T analysis:
SWOT analysis consists of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. For analyzing a company SWOT analysis is very useful and important.

Strengths:

Surface is providing quality products to its customers due to which it is getting edge over other brands and attracting more customers. Surface Guarantee the colors and fabrics as it usually happens that after washing the clothes, its colors get fade. But the Surface is providing guarantee about the color fabrics. And if in any case the color of fabric gets fade then they can replace that article. Their outlets are spacious and the interior used in the outlet attracts the customers, And on weekends they able to manage more and more customers because of its outlet size.

There outlets has standby gas engine generators as customers avoid to shop in when the electricity is gone so they are overcoming this problem by installing generators and hence running their business without the interruption of electricity.

Surface also offers special discount to its customers which depends on the number of purchases and the amount of purchases that the customers made. The brand is providing job security to its employees so that they work with their full devotion, beside this they also give their employees bonus on Eid.

Surface has skilled professional workers which ensure the quality and standard of clothes at every level of production.

They use advance technology (machines) at every stage of manufacturing in order to produce fine and comfortable clothes for their customers.

They are making high quality products at the lowest possible price so that more people can afford it. And due to this they are fulfilling the exception of the customers and making their customer loyal to the brand. Their outlets are easy to approach through every area of Lahore. Every outlet has a parking place so that their customers do not face any problems relating to parking.

Weaknesses:

Limited target market; as it caters to only elite and upper middle class, and middle class so this is a weak point of the brand as it is not catering to a large audience (lower class). Furthermore they are not offering male clothing line. Raising finances is a big problem for a new brand like Surface as for expansion and for improving the interior of outlets.

Surface brand has little market presence or reputation as it is present only in Lahore and only one branch in Islamabad and in Faisalabad so the brand is not familiar to a huge audience.
Surface is not running strong advertising campaign for its product (clothes) and hence large audience is unaware about the styles and designs of the brand.

Opportunities:

There is an opportunity to develop products which customers think is suitable for them and such products will have more value to customers. And such offering tend to increase customer loyalty associated with brand. The chances of success for the brand are higher as it fully focuses to satisfy customer needs and wants by providing them better quality product at lower price. And if they continue with this strategy then their chances of success will be high. The opportunity exists for Surface in creating competitive advantage in different business segments. There are various segments in which surface can venture to expand its product line like men wares and kid wares.

It is difficult to cater those customers which are loyal to some other brand like Gul Ahmad, Nishat etc. so Surface should come up with some strategies to attract these customers and increase its market share.

Threats:

Competitors are a big threat to surface so they should be aware about the competitors strategies (like prices and other marketing tools) and should formulate their plans and strategies by considering the market norms. Electricity crises is another threat to the brand as load shedding has increased and it is affecting every business and due to this crisis prices of every things are increasing and this might make Surface to increase its prices which is a negative thing as it is not appreciated by the their customers. Current law and order situation in Pakistan is not good and it is a great threat for running a business in such conditions. Some brands invest huge money in brand promotions in order to maintain their image. In this way these brands position their product in customers mind better than Surface. In this industry, the barriers to entry are relatively high and the barriers to exit are low, therefore only few brands can maintain their position in the market, while others could give up altogether or are bought by bigger firms. So surface should run its business by considering the market norms in order to remain in the business.

2. Objectives: Marketing objectives:

Surfaces marketing objective is to capture the most share of market on basis of product quality. Surface ensures the consumer satisfaction and pleasure in wearing the garments by providing the clothes of good quality at a low price. However Surface is not spending a lot on major advertisement tools such as bill boards, newspaper, commercials ads etc. There objective is to develop loyal customers who have developed their trust in the product quality and believe that Surface are providing them what they want to wear, the quality will stand the test of time and that they are being served by reliable people. They aim to manufacture and market their products in such a way as to capture the audience & create value and strong perception that can be sustained over the long term for the consumers, employees, business partners and make customers pay for the perceived value.

Financial Objectives:
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Financial objectives mean a company's financial needs or goals for the future. Surface main financial objective is to increase revenue growth of 10% per year and earnings by 15% annually. They hope to achieve increase in net profits margins annually. Every firm/company when going in a good pace determines some analysis to meet their requirements and cover the overall financial issues within the firm/company.
Budget shows the need of borrowing in future to meet its target. So borrowing requires from two types whether they use external borrowing or internal financing. External borrowing is in terms of debt/loans and internal financing is in terms of investing within the company like personal investment from the side of partners but to meet the targeted budget, every firm/company have some contribution margin in form of some portion of debt(external borrowing) and investments(internal financing). Due to which the riskiness of the firm/company has been decreased. Firms/companies make their financial statements and update them to see whether they generate more profits or their investment results in a huge loss. These financial statements show the inflows and outflows of cash within the firm/company which help to understand that whether the firm/company needs more borrowing and if they need then which kind of borrowing they need like debt financing or more investment etc.

Now coming towards the financial statements of the boutique which shows how it works in the competitive market.
1) Budget:

Cash (in hand)

Fixtures Machinery Inventory& raw material

1000000
2500000 2500000 3000000

As mentioned above that every Budget shows the need of borrowing in future to meet its target. By analyzing the above budgeted table, they need approximate budget 90 lacs in order to meet their targets which they want to use in different activities. They need approximate cash in hand is about 10 lac. In order to renovate or expand their boutiques, the budget is about up to 25 lacs. They need to add more efficient and updated machinery in their factory therefore, for this reason the budgeted amount for machinery is 25 lacs. Furthermore, they need raw material and inventory in their boutique worth approximately 30 lacs. This budget shows that they should use internal financing in order to meet their target and therefore, there should be some contribution margin to use this budget more efficiently.

2) Monthly sales (of one outlet located in cantt):

DATE OPENING CLOSING April BALANCE BALANCE 161 1april 175 2166 3194 4211 5197 6217 7205 8200 9212 10203 11221 12204 13188 14173 15169 16162 17162 18162 19162 20161 21155 22150 23141 24135 25137 26133 27128 28124 29134 30133

TOTAL AMOUNT DISCOUNTS ( 00' rs) ( 00' rs) 175 17210 166 194 211 197 217 205 200 212 203 221 204 188 173 169 162 162 162 162 161 155 150 141 135 137 133 128 124 134 133 21910 21700 15440 40710 24150 32605 30400 36440 21800 36100 35240 75560 38600 75850 81195

-860 -1095 -1085 -772 -2035 -1207 -1630 -1520 -960 -1800 -1000 -960 -690 -2702 -900 -1740

4500 22150 14600 20750 19405 13750 2700 18000 11100 10450 2500 744815

-225 -1107 -730 -1037 -970 -900 -135 -900 -555 -522 -125 -28162

Through analyzing the sales and purchase ledgers(above table) of the boutique, they conclude that the sales are increasing day by day with the increase in the manufacturing expense and that the inventory they took every day also increased with the increase in sales. This is because of the fact that customers attraction towards their boutique increased which determines the positive sign for the boutique although they are just advertising their boutique through leaflets, and brouchures and cable advertisement but the response shows that they are increasing day by day and the other thing is that which increase their sales is, they have great discount strategies for their customer which also attract them like they offer off season sales, For making purchases up to rs.10000/- , they offer a special discount to its customers etc. This discount strategy risen their sales with a great pace where many other garments brands are also functioning and therefore, these discount policies give Surface benefit.

Current and projected financials:

3) Income statement: Sales Less: COGS Gross Profit Less: Discounts Rent Utilities Maintenance Salaries Insurance Forecasted 38490500 23094300 15396200 192452 1920000 2880500 162580 2400500 800000

Advertising Other expenses Net profit

695000 375000 5970168

In the current month of april, the sales and other expenses of one outlet (situated in cantt) are given in the table above income statement and from this data and we make a budgeted income statement of one year for the brand as a whole (8 outlets).

3. Consumer identification
Target Audience:
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Surface is providing ready to wear garments to the people who are quality conscious and have the taste and distinct sense of dressing. The classes which Surface caters to are upper, and middle class, belonging to the income group ranging 35,000/- and above. Surface is meant to cater to the housewives, young ladies and girls who belong to different fields of life. The brand provide services to the people working in banks, teachers, lecturers or others at any other job .College and university girls are also among their target audience. Surface caters to the people from upper, and middle class that have the exceptional style and the eye for details. For females it includes casual, formal and party wear dresses. Surface is currently catering to people of Lahore, Islamabad and Faisalabad but they are planning for expansion of chain in future. And there Cantt branch is mainly focusing to catch the attention of potential customers of Askari9, Askari 10 and Cantt. Till now Surface has succeeded to influence large group of customers to visit their outlet quite regularly.

4. Overall strategy
Control over factor Products:
Surface should offer its customer highest level of satisfaction by providing excellence in quality of fabric, its vibrant colors, exclusive designs and variety; therefore, in return of providing more value to the customers Surface can make its customer loyal. Surface offer its products at a reasonable price. Surface tend to provide its customers with clothes of better quality, wider range of colors and designs. Furthermore Surface should also make clothes for men like kurtas and sherwani in order to increase its target audience.

PRODUCT POSITIONING:
Surface should use Differentiation strategy that should be based on quality, innovative design and variety, and reasonable prices that they will offer to the customers. So they can strongly position the brand in customers minds.

PROMOTION STRATEGY:

Surface is doing its business in a very competitive market where many other garments brands are functioning well. Therefore for communicating the value to its target audience, Surface needs to develop effective communication strategies. As their target audience is upper class, and middle class people, so Surface should use those medium for communication which are frequently used by their target audience like TV, fashion magazines, catalogs, newspaper etc

PRICING APPROACH VALUE BASED APPROACH

The market for Surface is competitive market where the brand faced a numbers of competitors; keeping this market condition in mind Surface should adopt value based pricing approach. Using this approach, Surface should provide value to their customers according to their demand, as the focus is on elite and upper middle class, and middle class who is willing to pay relatively more price for designs, quality and brand name. Prices of our products should be set at the level, which will cover the cost and earn the profit margin to the brand. Furthermore we suggest Value added pricing which means charging more prices for providing more upscale product, excellence in quality of fabric, its vibrant colors, exclusive designs and variety. It is important to note that GOOD VALUE DOESNT MEAN THE LOW PRICE.

Uncontrolled factor Competitive situations:

In this world, everyone wants to wear clothes which have nice cool colours, according seasons, customers choice and are also in trend. Here designers play a great role in order to improve the fashion industry, bring new taste to their customers and to cover each and every class customer whether upper class or elite class and middle class as well. So here we are reviewing the competitors of the SURFACE which are working in the same field. So the following are the one of the competitive brands of SURFACE:

Nishat Linen Khaadi Irum Imran Bareeze

These competitors are in the market since years. They are mainly trying to catch more customers by providing wide range of products different price ranges but keeping the quality on the standards which they have kept since they arrives in the market. They are putting a lot of efforts to effectively place their product in consumers mind. One common way to attract the customers which all of these brands are using including SURFACE is that they are offering a different types of discount rates because they value all of their customers a lot.

Technological forces: As surface is a brand of garments so advancement in technology will affect them. Advancement in stitching machines will increase improved stitch leading to good quality garments. Secondly, if new machines are introduced for weaving and knitting, obviously it will produce a good quality fabric and a good quality garment leading to satisfaction of customer. Currently the machines used by surface are latest. Economic forces: Economic forces plays a great role. Increase in inflation, prices of fabric etc will affect the final prices of garments. It might affect the buying behavior of customers but if quality of the product is according to the level of the customers, then their buying behavior will not be affected. Increased inflation also increases other expenses such as electricity; gas etc. and this eventually lead to increase in the price of final product (clothes).

Specific activity. Online shopping:

The surface should offer online shopping to its customer because their competitors are not doing online shopping .This will be competitive edge for the Surface. For the online shopping they made their website and fan page on the face book etc.

Procedure for online shopping

For online shopping they will made website and they will put their all collection of dresses on the website and the customer will visited their website and select her dress and she /he can placed order thought website or fan page on face book. The company will deliver the order to the customer within 1 day and collect bill on the delivery. Order place invoice
Name Address.contact no.serial no of order..product sizeproduct number .price.. Date .. Customer order number.. Price strategy for online and delivery The surface should charge 300/. For the delivery charges Order Delivery period The surface should delivered order to the customer within 6 hours or with max time will be 1 day no more than 1 day.

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