Nancy Saab.

Strategic Plan for IHeart Fashion Boutique.

Presented on May 4, 2016.

1- Company Summary:
The business will be named "IHeart Fashion." This is to identify the store within
Downtown Beirut which will exclusively sell all products pertaining to the luxurious
british brand Burberry.
IHeart Fashion targets customers who seeks prestigious classic or trendy product
at a rather accessible pricing.
Customers will enjoy shopping in our boutique as customers have very high
interpersonal skills and the store is organized in such an amazing way with a
great ambiance.
Iheart Fashion is distinguished from others by having VIP service which manifests
itself in an on-premises tailor and a personal shopper for busy executives.
This store will open at first in downtown Beirut however it will soon open different
branches in different strategic areas around Lebanon to become reachable for all
customers.

Company Ownership
I (Nancy Saab) will hold 50 percent ownership and Richard Khalife will also hold 50
percent ownership. It will be set up as a partnership at start-up and then phase into a
Limited Liability Corporation by the second year.

IHeart Fashion Vision:

IHeart Fashion Boutqiue will retain a huge loyal customer base which will put us on
the right track to develop into the nations global leader in fashion by opening a new
branch on yearly basis.

IHeart Fashion Mision:

Our mission is to represent the most refined brand Burberry in Lebanon and to offer
captivating customer experience that drives long-term loyalty and deliver sustained
growth.

IHeart Fashion is committed to the following values:

PEOPLE
The most powerful asset in our company is our people.
Loyalty
We are committed to our family as in our supplier, customers, and employees.
INTEGRITY
We hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards.
PASSION
Our passion transforms stores into places of energy and customer satisfaction.
TEAMWORK
Working together as a team is a vital feature to achieve customer retention and
loyalty - listening to one another, reaching consensus and supporting group
decisions. We celebrate achievements

Start-up Summary
Total start-up expense (including fixtures, equipment, and grand opening) is $247,000. Startup assets required $100,000 in
inventory.

The details are included in the following table. It is planned to start the business in the month of December because this is the
Christmas seasonal month in which retail store are known to have high sales. Once established, business volume may be
somewhat cyclical for that reason.

Start-up Plan
Start-up Expenses
Franchise Cost/Year
Grand Opening
Rent Deposit
Salaries and Wages
Store Decoration
Advertising
Accounting/Legal
Start-Up Assets
Total Start-up Required

$100,000
$5,000
$5,000
$7,000
$20,000
$8,000
$2,000
$100,000
$247,000

Business Operations
While a clothing retail store is not unique in itself, this business will have one-of-akind items and provide personal one-on-one attention to customers when needed.
The store will open 7 days a week. Store hours will be from 10 A.M. to 10 P.M.,
Monday through Saturday, and 11:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. on Sundays.
We will have five full-time employees. The wages for these employees will be $6.00
an hour. We will not be offering benefits for the first year.
The following are our operation policies and will be posted throughout the store:

30-day exchange policy, no cash refunds (this will be written on our receipts)

2 items at a time in the dressing room

Accepting credit cards, Visa, Master card, Discover, and American Express

Products:
Burberry maintains a product line with great depth and width consisting of many
products. Their products fall into two main categories: fashion and continuity.
Fashion products changes according to latest fashion trends and are introduced on a
collection-by collection basis.
Whereas, continuity products have life cycles that are expected to last for years.
Therefore, Products offered by IHeart Fashion are categorized as following:

Womens apparel
Mens apparel
Scarves
Coats and Jackets
Shoes
Handbags
Beauty Products
Fragrances
Jewelry and accessories
Children Clothing
Pet accessories

With so many products offered at such a high quality and brand equity the product
mix is very great.

2- Market Analysis Summary:

Competitive Advantage:
From a simple raincoat to a global brand, Burberry has become one of the world's
most successful luxury brands today for men,women, and children, encompassing
not only outerwear, but clothing, fragrances, accessories and items for the home.
Today Burberry has become an icon.
It is a brand with a strong international recognition and differentiating brand values.
Therefore, our main competitive advantage is our distinctive luxury brand with
international recognition and broad appeal. However, to complement this high quality
product and brand, we will offer valuable customer service and amazing shopping
experience to all our clients to gain loyalty and customer retention.
Market Positioning:
As representatives of Burberry in the Lebanese market we will position ourselves as
Functional Luxury. Burberrys products include continuity products which have a
product life cycle of a few years, and fashion products which are designed to
respond to a fashion trend. Therefore, the market positioning of IHeart Fashion
Boutique is unique. We will have everything that a customer expect whether luxury
products or functional and fashionable products.

Target Market:
As our product mix is very wide and varies, our products can appeal to the 25 year
old trendy woman or the 60 year old conservative lady. Thus, we are targeted
towards many different segments of the population. We have the trendy customers
and the classic customers.
Our target customer is someone who wants luxury at an accessible price. However
the common feature between our customers is that they seek a branded product with
high quality. So, our customers are mainly from the high middle to the high end class.

SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis for IHeart Fashion
Strengths:
Personalized Customer
Service.
Constant rotation of new
collection
Variety of collections and
styles
Variety of product categories
Accessibility
Stylish retail store.
Burberry is an established
brand name worldwide.
Trained staf
Location in downtown Beirut
Opportunities:
Online marketing and E-Retail
Changing Lifestyle
Expanding in new cities.

Weaknesses:
Limited Accessibility
The prices are considered
relatively high.
The inability to provide
instantly every product
request
Target segment might go for
diferent branded collections.
Lower significance given to
brands

Threats:
Intense Competition from the
other players
Threats from fake products.
Bad economic and political
situation.

Strengths:
-

A lot of services that makes the customers life easy such as

personal shopper, membership card, in store tailor.
First of all with a personal shopper a customer is introduced to more
products that they would otherwise consider. If a client is looking for
a dress, the personal shopper may also attempt to sell them shoes,
bag and jewelry to match. Personal shoppers do their best to find
the best fitted product based on the customers budget, tastes and
the occasion for which they may be shopping. In addition to that the
in store tailor will have the customer trust the store knowing that
even if the product does not fit there will always be an immediate
solution.
Membership card is a form of loyalty and reward from our side to our
loyal customers.

Constant Rotation of new collection. What I mean by that is that

there are always new products in the store. Customers should not
get bored of our store therefore new products are introduced every
specific time frame.

Variety of collections and styles to appeal to a wide range of

customers and to men, women, and kids. This is important as this
will increase the market that we will be able to target.

Variety of product categories. It is important to have a variety of

categories so a woman could come buy clothes for herself, a couple
of accessories, fragrance and shoes then she could buy something
for her husband and for her children. Its an all in one store.

Stylish retail store. The retail store design has a direct impact on
customers shopping.In todays highly competitive market,
customers demand a truly enjoyable shopping experience from
beginning to end. Store design is one of the key elements that
contribute to our customers having a memorable journey at IHeart
Fashion. Retail store design can help draw customers into our stores
and create an engaging environment that keeps them coming back.

Have a well established brand name worldwide. Burberry has always

been known for providing high quality & long lasting garments for
the customers. The name by itself along with our advantages such
as our exceptional service is considered as a strengths for our store.

Trained staff. The bottom line will be affected tremendously by

training employees as most of the staff is in direct contact with the
customers hence how employees interact with customers directly
affects our sales and our customer loyalty.

Location in downtown Beirut. The location highly affects the sales as

being a luxurious brand the best location to be is downtown where
our target market usually performs most of their shopping activities.

Weaknesses:
-

Limited Accessibility store is found currently only in downtown

Beirut. It may be harder to get to our store for people living in Jbeil
or in the North so they might think twice before coming.

The prices are considered relatively high. Although pricing suggests

quality but high price range has made it reachable within the pocket
of few customers only. The young age population who aspire to lead
their lifestyle cant afford for high priced products. Even the current
economical status may lead some people into preferring to spend
their money on different things or even to save their money rather
than buying branded items.

The inability to provide instant gratification by having all sizes in

stock. Some of the items will have to be ordered upon customer
requests. Of course people will go online and will have access to
international Burberry items therefore they will request items that
we may be out of stock of or that we may not have all sizes and
colors. This may be considered as a weakness as we will not be able
to provide the item immediately however we never dismiss a
customers request so we will order the item from our supplier as
fast as possible.

Target segment might go for different branded collections. With lots

of competitors in the market such as Gucci, Prada, louis vuitton, and
more our target market may not be affected by our exceptional
service or amazing store design and may go and buy from other
competitors.

Market share that puts real importance on brand is less. Although

the market share for people who buys branded products is

increasing tremendously and will keep on increasing, the fact is, this
share is still lower than people who only care about the usual
clothing.

Opportunities:
-

Online marketing and E-Retail constitutes a big opportunity to start

selling online or at least have an online catalogue so that people will
be attracted. E-retail nowadays accounts for 8 percent of total retail
sales. The benefits of e-commerce include its constant availability,
the speed of access, accessibility, and global reach.

Changing Lifestyle: our market is demanding more and more

premium branded products. The market is expected to double by
2017.

Expanding in new cities. It is important to have more than one store

in each district to facilitate accessibility for customers. So this is a
huge opportunity where we will have a new branch each year and
our chain will expand to have a branch in every strategic area or
location.

Threats:
-

Competition from the other players: Intense competition from other

players and from new entrants. The thing is that competition could
be from another retail store that may not be a brand but offers a
high quality product with unique designs or with a new creative
idea. Competition could be also from new entrants to the market
who bought the exclusivity of a certain luxury brand and might
attract our market share.

Threats from imitation/fake products: One of the major issues that

we will face is imitation/fake products which can affect our brand
equity and our sales. In Lebanon, it is quiet difficult to protect our
rights and to ensure that no other store will sell an imitation product
(fake). We will try our best to follow this issue and always resolve it
but this constitutes a big threat in case things were unmanageable.

Bad economic and political situation in the Middle East. Especially in

Lebanon we are always affected by the political situation of other
nearby countries therefore this may be considered as a threat.

3- Long-Term Objectives:

The following long-term objectives are formulated on a

3 year basis:
A. Financial Objectives:

Our financial objective for the first year will be to breakeven. As we

will have too much expenses (stock inventory , train employees,
advertise our launch and hold a big opening ceremony). Therefore
our objective for the first year will be neither to gain nor to lose.

For the second and third year our objective is to increase revenue by
20% annually.

B. Customer based Objectives:

Build a strong customer base with a big market share that accounts
for 35% of the market for the first three years.

Higher levels of customer satisfaction than rivals. To receive at least

75 percent positive customer feedback regarding the service we
provide. This will be assessed by customer service follow up and
handed questionnaires.

C. Employees Based Objectives:

-

To have a trained professional staff with exceptional interpersonal

and social skills.

Implement an employee of the year award to the employee who

provides the most creative input during the year in terms of
practical ideas to improve the company.

D. Market Based Objectives:

-

Open a new branch in Keserwan area at the beginning of the second

year.

Establish an online customer base which will constitute for the first 3
years about 20% of our customer base. Establish an online social
presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Attract 150 new customers per month to the store thus (150*12)
1800 customer per year.

4- Strategy:
The Company will follow the Market Penetration strategy in order to
reach its long term objectives. This will be monitored and implemented
by myself, my assistant and staff.
1- We will use new concept named Big Data which is based on
e-commerce and a new program called Customer 360.
2- Geographical expansion.
3- For positive financial returns and high customer base we will
build strong brand recognition and brand loyalty.
4- Digital Presence.
5- We will follow the strategy of stocking limited quantity and
updating collections very often.
6- Create and Implement a training program for all the staff.
7- Use different sales strategies and promotions

5- Strategy Implementation:
1- We will use new concept named Big Data.
We will ask a company to develop a program called Customer 360, a data-driven
shopping experience which invites customers to digitally share their buying history,
shopping preferences and fashion style.
The program can analyze huge amounts of data quickly (study customer likes and
tastes) and all of that information is delivered to my employees available on the sales
floor via their tablet devices.
Personal shoppers who are assisting customers can also access information about
their past purchases on a tablet computer.
For example a customer who is very busy and needs to buy an item urgently, could
browse through our store online. The personal shopper can greet her by name (using
his tablet device) and he could help her as if she was in the store by making
recommendations using predictive analytics fueled by her own buying history,
Twitter posts, Facebook likes and fashion industry trend data. The customer will
examine the items chosen by the personal shopper and then view videos of this item .
If she decides on one, the personal shopper can use the device to instantly determine
if the item is available in store and arrange for delivery to the customer or reserve it
for in-store pickup.

2- Geographical Expansion:
According to different market studies conduction, the Middle
Eastern market for luxury brands is expected to double by 2017;
therefore we have to expand our presence in Lebanon.
We could start from now to choose the location of the next
premises which will be in Keserwan area. 20% of the profit will be
allocated as an investment in the opening of the new branch by
the end of 2017.
3- For positive financial returns and high customer base we
will build strong brand recognition and brand loyalty by:
- IHeart Fashion will be heavily promoted throughout the Internet and
the world. The Companys strategy is to promote, advertise, and
increase its brand visibility through a variety of marketing
techniques including online advertising and promotions, listings with
all key search engines, on-going public relations.

Strengthen brand image and equity by choosing a very well know

brand representative (celebrity). The celebrity I have chosen is
Daniella Rahme a Lebanese TV presenter, actress and model. She
is the winner of Miss Lebanon Emigrant 2010 and winner of Dancing
with the Stars Middle East Season 2. Daniella will show in all
advertisements for IHeart Fashion (Burberry products). She will
represent the brand in all formal occasions by wearing its designs,
accessories and perfume. This will create a good image for IHeart
Fashion and will keep our brand in the thoughts of potential
customers.

Attract new customers with great windows, a great website, a

blog and social media. IHeart fashion wants to give its
customers a high quality experience.
Provide a compelling store design and product presentation to
encourage repeat visits. Our layout and design will be user-friendly
and cutting edge in the eyes of our audience to attract repeat visits.
Provide a high level of personalized service, IHeart fashion will have
an on premises tailor to serve the customers based on their
personalized body. We will also have personal shoppers.

Provide a high level of personalized service especially with the

personal shoppers and trained staff.

4- Digital Presence/ Internet Strategy: As the internet today

and e-commerce has become a vital part in marketing and

selling all products, Iheart Fashion will follow a rigorous

plan to have a strong base of internet shoppers:
- 80% of our target customers spend about 13 hours online
doing research before purchasing.
-

Building a website that mirrors the high quality experience

customers get when visiting the stores. The Web site will be rich
providing customization features such as the capability to sign up
for email notification on items of interest when listed or on sale and
access individual histories to see complete reports on all past and
present purchasing activity.

Iheart Fashion will be heavily promoted throughout the Internet and

the media. The Companys strategy is to promote, advertise, and
increase its brand equity/visibility through a variety of marketing
techniques including online advertising and promotions.
Maximize Search engine visibility.

Hiring a company to handle all social media sites (Facebook,

Instagram, youtube and the blog) and to make them interesting and
compelling.

5- Stocking limited quantity and updating collections often:

-

Unlike other brands and retail stores we will stock a limited quanitity
of the inventory; however instead of updating our stock once in a
season we will be updating our stock once every month. That
strategy will encourage our customers to come back to the store
often to see the new collection and to buy new designs. It also
means that if the shopper wants to buy something, he or she will
buy it to guarantee it won't sell out.

6- Create and Implement a training program for all the staf.

-

Training the employees will take place on quarterly basis to achieve

customer satisfaction and customer retention. The employees will
develop their leadership and interpersonal skills.

To compensate the employees for their effort and hard work and to
encourage them to use their knowledge with customers, an award
program will be set as well. Award employee of the month
designations each month throughout the year to mark the
progression of creative input, and to include more employees in the
reward process than is possible with a single annual award.

7- Use diferent sales strategies and promotions to attract

customers. Our promotions will always stay in tune with

our company objectives and mission statement.

Create the IHeart Fashion Shopping Card which allows the customer a
15% discount after ten purchases.

A press release kit will be sent to all major media outlets in Lebanon
highlighting the grand opening. This kit will include a press release,
pictures of the interior space, color postcard/flyer, and a business card.

Messages will be sent announcing the opening and the date of the
Grand opening celebration of IHeart. The sms will be targeted to middle
and upper class segments.

Spot radio advertisements on two local FM radio stations, Radio Sawt el

Ghad and Radio Al Jarass.

We will utilize the Retail ICE POS software with every sales transaction.
With each purchase the software will record and maintain in its
database the customer's name, address and purchases. This
information will be used for the same customers next visit to figure out
his preferences and it will be used as a direct mailing program to send
messages and e-mails when new collection or promotions are available.

Develop strong relationships with customers by utilizing Style

Assessment and offering services to help each customer determine the
right product for him.

We will offer a 30 day return/exchange policy to build trust with our

customers and maintain retention and loyalty.

Start participating in trade shows