Contents
Overview of Sportsgirl
Mission
Vision
Values
Situation Analysis
Market Situation
3Current market
3Segment and geographic location
4Customer’s value perceptions and buying behaviour trends
Product Situation
Competitive Situation
5Identification of Competitors
5Competitor Analysis
SWOT Analysis
Key Findings of the Analysis
Key Issues from the SWOT Analysis
Objectives
Marketing Objectives
Financial Objectives
Innovation Objectives
Market Segmentation and Positioning
Market Segments
Segment to Target
Marketing Strategies
Product
Price
Promotion
10Communication objectives
11Internet / Interactive Media
Place
People
Action Plan
Budget
Control/ Measurement
Limitations
15References
18Appendices
19Appendix A. SWOT analysis
19Strengths
19Weaknesses
19Opportunities
19Threats
20Appendix B. Survey Questionnaires
21Appendix C. Survey Result
24Appendix D. Survey Analysis
26Appendix E. Advertising
27Appendix F. Public Relations
28Appendix G. Action Plan
29Appendix H. Budget
Overview of Sportsgirl
Mission
Sportsgirl, strives to establish department stores using design and lifestyle marketing for the emerging youth market by providing high quality and affordable total fashion product range from exclusive clothing, shoes, cosmetics and accessories. Sportsgirl fashion represents the hottest identity, encourages innovative design and offers our customer the goal to express their own style.
Vision
Sportsgirl has the most thoughtful leading brand image in fashion industry by consistently providing innovative online service to communicate with customers, extending size range to promote positive body image and diversity.
Values
Sportsgirl philosophy is all women are greater to deserve access to creative, fun, and enjoyable fashion. Accordingly, the practices are built on assisting employee in achieve their full ability in performance and equal opportunities to promoting open communication and teamwork.
Situation Analysis
Market Situation
Current market
Sportsgirl is a major Australian fashion brand which led the Australian fashion industry away from established department stores using design and innovation style for the emerging youth market. The current market served by Sportsgirl focuses on variety of fashion styles of women clothing and accessories and depend on customer shopping in store heavily. For leading cutting-edge, Sportsgirl fashion have been updating each month. Recently, it opened many concepts shops to upgrade their market environment.
Segment and geographic location
The basic market segment aims at young females aged fourteen to thirty who are interested in fashion and eager to develop their own distinctive identity. Due to its historical product line, it had entered the position of market penetration with exist products and markets. Therefore, Sportsgirl invites creative young designer to enhance in store environment with updated fashion sensitivity to maintain habitual customers and convince potential clients who are non-buying in current segments in Australia. Likewise, based on successful experiences of education and tourism market, a significant number of potential customers brought tremendous profits into Australia. They may be new immigrants, students, and tourists who have consumption capability and are influenced by their friends owning Sportsgirl items already when they immersed into Australian fashion culture.
Customer’s value perceptions and buying behaviour trends
The target female members typically grew up with fewer siblings but with more affluent economic support may highly affect their value perceptions about Sportsgirl (Kotler et al., 2007). Customers do not buy on price even Sportsgirl products are affordable prices, they buy on value they perceive on Sportsgirl. The previous research shows that Sportsgirl customers generally have a favourable brand image towards the company, which has allowed Sportsgirl to build a long-term relationship with their customers. The young generations who are using the internet is increasingly by the minute and have significant influence on fashion market; therefore, Sportsgirl launched an online store in order to boost sales and meet customer new buying behaviour.
Product Situation
Currently, Sportsgirl offers products at a various price range. The price range of clothing line is between $ the cheapest to $ the most expensive. The average price for clothing is between $ and $, which is still considered competitive in the market. With the average income of target segment being between $10, and $ 15, annually, they responded that the price of the clothing is perceived reasonably affordable. Due to the lack of financial information available on Sportsgirl, the annual report, 2008 of the competitor, Country Roads has been analysed to see the common trend in the market. Country Roads’ revenue of goods was $237, in 2007 and it increased slightly to $289, in 2008. However, the cost of sales increased up from $104, in 2007 to $119, in 2008. Therefore, the assumption can be made that fashion retail industry including Country Roads and Sportsgirl is experiencing relatively good sales and revenue, however their cost of sale remains considerably high, which results small gross profit (Country Road Limited, 2008).
Competitive Situation
Identification of Competitors
The consistent element of competitor identification and analysis are to judge competitors on the basis of the extent to which their value offering to the market can be used as a substitute for the Sportsgirl’s value offering. After researching the fashion industry in Australia through public (advertising, its price, websites) and internet (Google, other search engines) information, the following direct competitors have been identified which already operating in the segments.
Forever New
Dotti
Bardot
Wish
Supre (online)
Valley girl
Witchery (online & recently launched menswear)
Billabong (Roxy)
Competitor Analysis
Direct competitors of Sportsgirl produce similar products aiming for almost identical target segment as Sportsgirl. It needs to be noted that some of competitors like Supre and Witchery have also launched their online stores recently, which has created more competition for Sportsgirl in the online shopping market. Furthermore, a label like Billabong, which is one of the most popular youth labels in Australia with high market share has a well-known menswear range called Quicksilver. This has allowed Billabong to create a large market share with a competitive advantage by targeting broader range of market.
Sportsgirl has been contending against its main competitors in the following ways:
Innovative, creative and accessible outlets (over 100 stores nationwide)
Collaboration fashion items with leading Australian designers
Maintain its high quality in a cost effective way – one of Sportsgirl’s competitor Supre has been creating its value by offering the lowest price in the market, however, its quality is perceived as low accordingly.
Full utilisation of its online store to generate more sales
SWOT Analysis
Key Findings of the Analysis
(See Appendix. A: SWOT Analysis) As it is mentioned earlier, Sportsgirl has a historical leadership reputation of fashion design of textile and clothing for young females in Australia. In fact, Sportsgirl has been in the market from 1960’s. It is expected that its long history will be recognised as the comparative advantage in the market to give customers a strong brand image. SWOT analysis has also revealed that Sportsgirl has a positive brand reputation as representing vivid, healthy, smart and fun images. This is reflected well in their store layout that is innovative and creative to grab customer’s attention, providing an enjoyable atmosphere. In fact, it has more than one hundred stores nationwide so far, we can easily access Sportsgirl in many populated locations. Furthermore, it has established a multifunctional website to let the consumers can not only shop online but also exchange their ideas and experiences through the platform.
In contrast, in terms of the weaknesses, Sportsgirl only focuses on the female market, which creates a possibility to lose the opportunity of menswear or kids market. Moreover, as it is mentioned earlier in the competitive situation analysis, there is great number of competitors who produce similar products. In fact with a broader range of products including menswear and kids wear; it is difficult to keep the design innovative and fashion-forward in a cost effective way. Despite its long history in the market, lack of loyalty to the brand has been the biggest challenge for Sportsgirl. The major driver of lack of loyalty is that there is no loyalty program in place to retain the existing customers or there has been a limitation for Sportsgirl to interact with the customers due to a particular store environment being relatively large in size with a high level of cluster.
Key Issues from the SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis has raised several opportunities and threats in the market for Sportsgirl. The sales can be improved through a full utilisation of its online store to interactively communicate with the customers. Introducing the innovative approaches to the market such as customised service/products and membership program can differentiate itself from other competitors in the market; furthermore it will provide Sportsgirl an opportunity to create a strong loyalty towards the brand.
However, some external challenges still remain for Sportsgirl such as counterfeit products from other competitors. And the buying behaviour of the customer might be affected by financial downturn. These issues are changeable based on different government policies or the economic situations from time to time.
Objectives
Marketing Objectives
The Speak-up online community campaign aims to achieve the constant increase in sales on the online store based on the following areas:
Customer retention: To increasing volume, frequency of value of online sales to the existing customers
Sales to existing new customers: To increase size of the share of the existing market by recruiting new customers online from within the target market
Increasing the share of the existing/new market (Interest generation): To support an in-store and external marketing push attempting to drive customers online aiming for increasing customer retention, improving relationship marketing and increasing the lifetime value of the customer
Use innovation to create a strong brand and image: To initiate and represent the merging of online and retail.
Financial Objectives
The main financial objective of Speak-up online community is to increase its online sale growth by 30% each year, so that the total sales revenue can almost be doubled within 3 years. It is hoped that the increase in online sales will have a positive impact on the retail sales as well by increasing its sales by 20%, each year. This will be achieved by updating and introducing the latest products online with a detail description and pre-purchase reviews of the product on the online community site and drive those to the retail for those who still prefer to physically visit the store to purchase.
Innovation Objectives
The online community will be a great platform for experiencing the brand to ensure that Sportsgirl remain relevant with the customers through communication. It also has been designed with a low barrier to entry in mind, allowing users to share content across other social media platforms.
Market Segmentation and Positioning
Market Segments
Buyers are different in one or more ways. However, Wedel (2003) emphasises that marketing segments are directly derived from consumers needs (). Therefore, market segmentation is strongly acquired since the understanding of the market structure and preference of consumers can be learnt from it. Based on the research on marketing segment, the major variables which segment consumer markets are geographic, demographic, psychotropic and behavioural variables (Kotler, 2007, ). The survey was designed and conducted to implement those characteristics of market segmentation so that Sportsgirl can benefit in terms of developing more accurate target customer profile and tailored marketing strategies for them. For instance, the questions asking for customer’s buying behaviour in the survey were based on the most 5 preferences ways of young females spending their spare time have been chosen to be the options according to the research which done by Lee (Lee,1995, -534).
This survey was achieved through distributing the questionnaires to 60 female students of the University of Queensland. The reason for choosing this particular segment is that female university students are one of the largest populations out of the entire target market of Sportsgirl. This will allow increasing validity and reliability of the result. With regards to the geographic aspect of segmentation, as Sportsgirl is a company which produced fashion clothes without international market; therefore, the geographic variables will not be measured in the survey. (See Appendix. B, C & D: Survey Questionnaires, Result and Analysis)
Segment to Target
Based on the analysis on target market in prior, the segment to target is determined to be young females aged from 20 to 30 year old with a relatively higher income than the other segments in the market. The survey result has become evident that this particular segment has a higher purchasing power due to their higher income than other segments like teenagers. Moreover, they appear to have greater potential to generate sales more frequently in comparison to a younger segment due to their active social involvement than the younger ones. Hence, it is importance to acknowledge and understand this particular segment in order to embrace long-term objectives and goals of the company.
Marketing Strategies
Product
The clothing range is selected as the product that attracts the majority of target segment, marketing strategies will be focused on Sportsgirl’s clothing line rather than its other products. This is also aligned strategically well with the objectives and goals of Sportsgirl being working with a team of designers and innovators to offer a fresh and innovative fashion range for young female every month by introducing new design of clothes almost every month. From tops to shoes, dresses to pants, Sportsgirl fashion and accessories represent the hottest finds from around Australia, and offer their customer the scope to express their own style. Support for up and coming Australian design talents will also be continued as a major focus of Sportsgirl, with exclusive ranges designed by leading Australian designers including Arabella Ramsay, Filli & Grane, LifeWithBird, Mogil and State of Georgia.
Price
Sportsgirl products are perceived as reasonably affordable in the market despite the fact that there still are a number of competitors who sell the similar product at a lower price. However, the quality of Sportsgirl product is perceived as relatively higher compared to the most of competitor’s product in the market, which allows Sportsgirl to charge premium to their consumers, yet the pricing is still aligned with company’s objective being providing a quality product with a price leading strategy.
According to the product situation, it is found that existing customers are satisfied with the current pricing strategy, thus there will not be any changes in Sportsgirl’s pricing strategy, however, in order to accommodate the demand of older target segment, mature females aged between 30 to 40 year old who with higher purchase ability and intention, Sportsgirl will offer an exclusive collection collaborated with the leading Australian fashion designer with a little extra premium. So that it enables Sportsgirl to meet the diversity of demand in target market.
Promotion
With the main target segment being young females aged between 20 and 30, we suggest utilising various integrated marketing communication (IMC) below in order to maximise and embrace the effectiveness of promotion strategies based on the findings from target segmentation. Many experts in marketing field have placed emphasis on the IMC’s role in marketing and promotion strategies. Fill (2002, p. 15), for example, in the United Kingdom, reaffirmed the idea of consistent communication and strategic development when he considered that IMC “was a management process that would reinforce brand propositions.” Notice though that by 2002, IMC was no longer just a communication process, but one associated with management and with brands (Kitchen, 2004, – 22).
It is proposed to Sportsgirl to coordinate multiple marketing tools including interactive media (Internet), TV and print advertising and public relations to produce this synergistic effect by employing a broad perspective in order to provide Sportsgirl with a way to coordinate and manage its promotional efforts to ensure that customers receive consistent messages. This approach fosters not only long-term customer relationships but also the efficient use of promotional resources (Pride et al., 2006). This proposal focuses on the main promotion strategy, Internet. The advertising and public relations strategies will be included in the appendices (See Appendix. E & F: Advertising and Public Relations)
Communication objectives
Based on Lavidge and Steiner (Beich and Beich, 2007) hierarchy of effects model, the following are identified to address the key objectives of promotion strategy so that it provides a clear guideline for Sportsgirl to maximise of persuasive impact on customers.
Awareness: Create awareness for our target audience of Sportsgirl online shopping for clothing line.
Knowledge: Inform our target audience that we offer new products online constantly.
Liking: Build positive feelings about Sportsgirl.
Preference: Reinforce the attitude through our fun and active images of website.
Conviction: Persuade the target audience to purchase the clothes of Sportsgirl, and then remind them to repeat purchasing.
Internet / Interactive Media
The major promotion tool that Sportsgirl is suggested to implement is interactive media mainly through Internet. With the advent of the internet, many marketing communication researchers realised that this new medium would bring new opportunities for the marketing communication process (Heinen, 1996). Some scholars even predict the death of the traditional marketing function (Holbrook and Hulbert, 2002). Recently, many marketing scholars have highlighted the value of relations in marketing, stressing those traditional transactional marketing needs to be replaced or complemented with new frameworks that focus on the value of relations and interaction (Lagrosen, 2005). The online community will be developed for Sportsgirl to stimulate a back-and-forth flow of information whereby users can participate in and modify the form and content of the information they received in real time. Unlike traditional forms of marketing communications such as advertising, which are on-way in nature, the online community will allow users to perform a variety of functions such as receive and alter information and images, make inquiries, respond to questions, and, of course make purchases online.
The online community also aims to socialise the ecommerce experience by providing customers with a voice. It is discovered that the target segment of Sportsgirl to likely be Internet savvy who respond sensitively on the information online in everyday basis. Thus, the interactive media approach will foster interactive communication between Sportsgirl and customers in a way that allows for Sportsgirl to build a relationship with customers and naturally drive them to the online store to make purchases.
The online community does not only end at the official website, but it is proposed that Sportsgirl also introduce other online interaction by creating its pages on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. There is no doubt that these communications channels are increasingly recognised as the most effective way to reach the target market with a little cost, due to the fact that those online communication channels and Sportsgirl share a similar target segment. It is expected for the online community of Sportsgirl to be a destination for discussion on fashion, style and culture for young females.
Place
Sportsgirl is more than a fashion store. The Sportsgirl experience includes live music performances, celebrity events and shopping sprees and stylist events. With over 100 stores nationwide, Sportsgirl is helping young female to make their own way of expressing themselves. 2007 Sportsgirl also take on new challenges, with the opening of its first ever accessory concept store at Chermside in Queensland, adding to the family of 106 stores. Within its Collins Street, Melbourne, flagship store and later in a chain of boutiques throughout Australia, Sportsgirl presented rapidly changing design ‘looks’ that linked its clothing lines into a supporting set of lifestyle values and accessories.
People
At present time, fashion retailers are similar each other no matter which brand they are. Therefore, creating good relationship with customers and providing better service to retain customers are aiming goals for Sportsgirl. There are several HRM strategies for improving service quality. Salespersons are first front-line contact with clients, and they have to be trained as Sportsgirl professionals with product knowledge, efficiency communication ability because good employee will be able to monitor service quality. Moreover, HRM can invite focus groups that are in our target segment to discuss certain topic about brand of Sportsgirl, advertising, purchasing behavior, and service quality Sportsgirls provided. In this way, Sportsgirl may have opportunity to enhance quality.
Online service elevates market into new marketing scenario. It is necessary to focus on human resource management and training issues for providing better services to customers. Sportsgirl digital community is a web-based system that should be maintained by professional technicians in order to protect customer privacy such as personal information, credit card detail and transaction, and company database. Hence, information technology staff has to be put into recruitment. In addition, its community aims to grab young female attention, hiring young website designers and fashion designers to keep up with creative fashion trends should be taken into account when recruiting. Professional online consultants have responsibility to assist customers to solve questions if they are designed to Sportsgirl community. Due to online medium a transitional communication may result in different interpretations, the training of consultation and online communication skills are fundamental for each employee who has to secure information to maintain courtesy online services.
Action Plan
In order to execute this project effectively, the action plan from 2010 to 2012 has been developed to provide the outline for the following tasks and throughout the different time period to complete the actions step by step. The action plan consists of four main areas including the online community development, promotion through different tools, public relations development, and performance measurement. This process will allow marketers and Sportsgirl to have a clear vision of the process, performance and objectives of marketing activities. Thus, it enables them to make sure that all tasks and activities are planned and carried out accordingly in a most efficient way. (See Appendix. G: Action Plan)
Budget
Sportsgirl financial budgets divided into two categories: Income (revenue) and expenditure (expenses). Due to insufficient past detail financial report, annual selling quantity is an assumption being collected from other database. This budget list covers all cost of marketing strategies for different purposes. Both of budget data of advertising and public relations are drawn from online media advertisement budget. These average prices are coming from varieties of channels. The third section operating online community cost which data is from job standard payment. This budget sheet is an instrument to map Sportsgirl spending for marketers in order to understand how they utilize budget effectively and allocate money on each sections. (See Appendix. H: Budget)
Control/ Measurement
Assessing the effectiveness of marketing activities before and after implementation is vital in order to avoid costly mistakes, to evaluate alternative strategies, to increase the efficiency of marketing strategy in general and to determine if objectives are achieved (Beich and Beich, 2006). With regards to the major promotion strategy being Internet marketing, one of the perceived advantages is that it allows the company to measure commercial effectiveness, due to part to its ability to measure activity in real time (Schubert, 1999). To measure and evaluate the effectiveness of the online community of Sportsgirl, some of traditional measurement methods will be considered such as surveys, sales and tracking.
Surveys: Survey research, conducted both online and through traditional methods, is employed to determine everything from site usage to attitudes toward a site
Sales: For the Internet marketers, a prime indicator of effectiveness is the volume of sales generated. Adding information regarding demographics, user behaviours, and so on, can increase the effectiveness of this measure
Tracking: traditional tracking measures.
Limitations
The survey conducted to identify the market only asked sixty female university students at the University of Queensland. This means that there is a possibility of low validity and reliability due to a small sample size. Also, 11 questionnaires are insignificant indicators to make a statement due to lack of comprehensiveness. In terms of questionnaires design, the use of the research result on the most 5 preferences ways of young females spending their spare time by Lee is based on the African teenagers back in 1995. The significant difference between African and Australian teenagers may exist, moreover, due to the fact that the research was undertaken more than 10 years ago. Thus, it is concerned that the design of the questionnaires may be reluctant to represent the specific market of Sportsgirl in Australia.
References
Accossories, Asia's Fashion Jewellery. 2007. "Sportsgirl — On-trend apparel and accessories for the young and fashionable." ed. UMB. Hong Kong: A must-read trade.
B&T, September 2005, Case study: Australian Idol with Maybelline, view 14 October 2009, <
Carter, Nanette. 2002. "Sportsgirl Case Study ": RMIT Centre of Excellence.
Citrus. 2008. "Sportsgirl goes down the branded ecommerce path." Marketing Magazine.
Country Road, Country Road Limited. 2008. "The Country Road Annual Report." Richmond.
George E. Belch & Michael A. Belch, 2007, Advertising and Promotion: an integrated marketing communications perspective, 7th EDN, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York
Geldard, E. & Sinclair, L. (1996), The Sponsorship Manual: Sponsorship Made Easy, sponsorship Unit, Melbourne
Heinen, Joseph. 1996. "Internet marketing practices." Information Management & Computer Security 7(14):7 - 14.
Hollbrook, Morris B. and James M. Hulbert. 2002. "Elegy of the Death of Marketing." European Journal of Marketing 5(7):706 - 732.
Jane Johnston & Clara Zawawi, 2004, Public Relations: Theory and practice, 2nd EDN, Allen & Unwin, NSW
King, Agnes. 2008. "Clicking their heels up." CIO.
Kitchen, Philp J., Joanne Brignell, Tat Li and Graham Spickett Jones. 2004. "The Emergence of IMC: A Theoretical Perspective." Journal of Advertising Research 10(1017):19 - 30.
Kotler, P, Brown L, Adam, S, Burton, S & Armstrong, G 2007, Marketing (7th ed.). Sydney: Pearson Education Australia.
Lee, B.(1995). Television advertisement. Journal of Black Studies, 8, 527-534
Newspup. 2008. "Sportsgirl launches Australia's first retail community." Marketing Magazine.
Pride, William M 2006. Marketing : core concepts & applications. Asia-Pacific edition Edition.
Schroeder, Stan. 2009. "Facebook Users Are Getting Older. Much Older." Mashable: The social Media Guide.
Schubert, Petra and Dorian Selz. 1999. "Web Assessment -Measuring the Effectiveness of Electronic Commerce Sites Going Beyond Traditional Marketing Paradigms." Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 3(99):1 - 10.
Stefan Lagrosen, Växjö University, Växjö, Sweden. 2005. "Effects of the internet on the marketing communication of service companies." Journal of Services Marketing 19(2).
Wedel, Michel and Wagner Antonio Kamakura. 1999. "Market Segmentation: Conceptual and methodological Foundation." 2 Edition. Norwell: Kluwer Academic Publication.
Mastercard survey website:
Sportsgirl Official Website:
Appendices
Appendix A. SWOT analysis
Strengths
Weaknesses
High brand recognition around Australia
Positive brand image amongst its target market– Healthy, smart and fun female reputation
Affordable price
Innovative and attractive store layout
Excellent accessibility – Over 100 stores nationwide
Creative collaboration with Australian designers – Limited edition collection
Successful utilisation of the online store
Active promotion through various marketing channel – Magazine, website, outdoor, print ads, sponsorship etc.
The long history in fashion retail industry – Stable stage in the market
Limitation of target market - Products are limited to young female only
Competition in the market - Possibility of similar products from other competitors
Low quality due to cost cutting in mass production
Lack of personal interaction with customers in-store due to large size of stores
Lack of customer loyalty
Opportunities
Threats
Full utilisation of online store for better interaction with customers
Introduction of a high quality limited collection to re-position themselves
for potential customers – Male and kids collection
Provide customized products
Adaptation of membership service to create customer loyalty
Fraud products (counterfeits), trade mark right
Economic downturn : Financial crisis may cause buying decrease
Environmental issues with packaging
Appendix B. Survey Questionnaires
1. Age
10-20
20-30
30-40
Older than 40
Current resident country
Income
Under $ 10,000
10,000-15,000
15,000-20,000
20,000-30,000
Above $ 30,000
What do you do in your spare time?
Shopping
Watch a movie
Internet surfing (What do you look for on the net?)
Reading magazines or books
Sports
Games
Others
Do you prefer to shop:
Online
In-store
Others
When do you normally go shopping for fashion clothing/ accessories?
Weekend
Holiday
When sale is on
Whenever I need
Where do you get fashion information/ inspiration from?
Magazines
Internet
Words of mouth/ friends
TV advertising
Others
Which fashion information source below do you trust most?
Words of Mouth/ friends
Magazines/ newspaper
Internet (review from customers, fashion label website )
Sales person at stores
Do you know Sportsgirl?
Yes
No
Do you own any Sportsgirl product?
None
1-2 items
More than 5 items
What is your image of Sportsgirl?
Leading fashion company
Affordable
High quality
Low quality
Fun and active
Appendix C. Survey Result
Appendix D. Survey Analysis
The key findings from the survey
The survey result revealed that the target market was the young female who aged from 20 to 30 year old with monthly income of $15,000 to$20,000 indicating that strong purchasing ability in comparison to the age group from 10 to 20 year old. The result also indicated that these young females are highly depending on the Internet in everyday basis such as online shopping and communication activities. A considerable population of this particular segment has a positive brand image towards Sportsgirl, moreover a majority of them having been purchasing a significant number of Sportsgirl products over the past. This segment also expressed a strong interest in clothing range that Sportsgirl offers the most. It can also be seen from the result that older consumers in an age bracket of 30 to 40 year old showed a little purchase intention with a lower interest in Sportsgirl. This is an indicator of the fact that they are in a phrase of exiting Sportgirl market and entering into more sophisticated and mature fashion brands such as Country Road or Sussan.
Geographic segments
Owning to "Sportsgirls" is a company which produced fashion clothes without international market, therefore, the geographic variables were not measured in the research.
Demographic segments
75 percentage of the participants are aged from 20 to 30 which is the most as compare to the twenty percentage are aged from10 to 20 and five percentage are aged from 30 to 40 year old. All the girls who are aged under 20 have a income below $50,000 per year.
Psychological segments
60 percentage of the participants prefer spending their spare time through internet surfing which is the most. However, the information which comes from internet is not be trust most although young females spend a lot of time on internet. Moreover, shopping and watching plays the second and third place which is % and %. In addition, percentage of the participants are prefer in-store shopping than shopping on-line as the products could be touched and tried on.
Behavioural segments
Since percentages of the girls who aged form ten to twenty believed Sportsgirl is a brand with active and fun, the girls in this age group could be identified have positive attitude toward the brand. However, light use group also might be identified them as they depend on the pocket money from their parents which lead to the price cannot be afford. For this reason, this group of people could be "no loyalty". Nevertheless, this group of people still play a significant role in the market due to they could be the potential consumers. Although the products of Sportsgirl cannot be afforded by them, they still have a great interest on this brand. All the girls in this age group are attracted by the Sportsgirl for it has a active and positive image. Hence it is reasonable to infer that they will become the regular users when they are elder.
percentage of the young females who aged from 20 to 30 believed Sportsgirl is an active brand with affordable price. Therefore, they are belong to the enthusiastic group after compare with the females who aged 30 to 40 claimed no differences could be realised among the Sportsgirl and other brands. All of them have one to two products of Sportsgirl which means they are regular users. Especially, base on the survey, nearly all the products were bought by this group of people which also infer they are heavy users.
Appendix E. Advertising
Sportsgirl has already been involving comprehensive advertising activities in their marketing including print ads (magazine) and TV. However, cinema advertising has never been considered to be implemented. It is recommended for Sportsgirl to introduce cinema advertising to take advantage of its various benefits and effectiveness. According to the Johnson (1981), the cinema advertising has a higher quality presentation than television since it is bigger, better resolution and more vivid. Furthermore, cinema advertising is an effective geographic tool due to most of the audiences travel less than 10 miles to the theatre (Nashville, 1977). In addition, the majority of theatre-goers attend with others. Thus, prime prospects will see an advertisement in the company of those likely to influence purchasing decisions. The relationship of these groups show a high degree of groups’ membership which means the people in this group will be influenced by reference group heavily. These could be the three major evidences to support that cinema advertisement could be considered by the Sportsgirl as a new promotion tool. Particularly, since the majority of cinema advertising has an excellent demographic breakdown, it will attract the consumers with high discretionary income, age, and education (Johnson, 1981, p12). It is certain that this will provide opportunities for Sportsgirl to target the suitable and directly relevant segmentation.
Currently there are a number of movies showing at the cinema, however, ‘July and Julia’ is selected to be most appropriate movie to place an advertisement prior to, due to the context of the movie that is about a ordinary female who gets inspired by another women in the history. There is no doubt that this will allow Sportsgirl to meet its target market in a cost effective way, yet, the easiest way to approach a large number of target customers at once.
Appendix F. Public Relations
Public relations is aimed to establish publications, participation in community activities, fund-raising, sponsorship of special events, and various public affairs activities – to enhance an organisation’s image. Sponsorship is an efficient way to create goodwill and opportunities to enhance the image and reputation of the organisation by association. It also provides a point for sales and marketing profit by offering products and brands visibility to the potential customers.
Marketing sponsorship is the most popular form of sponsorship as a cost-effective sales and marketing strategy. Geldard and Sinclair (1996) claim that this form is used to focus on promoting products to target market segments and reinforce the images. We suggest Sportsgirl can offer clothes for young popular female celebrities by showing up with its products which displays the logos. As the same form with different platform, Sportsgirl can sponsor popular TV programs such as “Australian Idol” which is the most successful TV shows of the past few years by providing their clothes for the participants. In this way, the receiver might change their attitude or perception toward wanting to be identified with these groups. Thus they will be emulated to get involved with Sportsgirl, and surf its online store or purchase the products. As a result, it can achieve higher sales and get more potential customers involve at the same time.
Appendix G. Action Plan
Task
Action
By when
By whom
The online community development
Find out web design company and consult about the functions of platform
01/2010
Project manager
Project team
Web-consultant
Finalize the online community function of website
02/2010
Project team
IT-Technique
Open the website to public and check out customers response
03/2010
Project team
IT-Technique
Website performance review and maintain monthly
04/2010-12/2012
Project team
IT-Technique
Promotion in different tools
TV Advertising for new season clothes
05/2010-12/2012
Project manager
Advertising executive
Project team
Print Media- Magazine & Newspapers
06/2010-12/2012
Project manager
Advertising executive
Project team
Link Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter to Sportsgirl website
08/2010
Web-consultant
Project team
IT-Technique
Outdoor advertising- Billboard, and transit
06/2010-12/2012
Project manager
Advertising executive
Project team
Public relations development
Sponsorship- TV program, celebrity
10/2010
Project manager
PR manager
Project team
Look for the opportunity of sponsorship
02/2011-12/2012
Project team
Sponsor fashion event
05/2011
Project manager
PR manager
Project team
Performance measurement
Promotion performance review annually
03/2011-03/2012
Project manager
Project team
Website performance review annually
03/2011-03/2012
Project manager
Project team
Product sales performance review annually
03/2011-03/2012
Project manager
Project team
Appendix H. Budget
Income
Revenue
Average Price
Selling Quantity
Annual
Clothing
$40 - $100
55,000
$ 2200,000- 5500,000
*all publications are inclusive GST.
Total annual revenue $ 2200, - $ 5500,
Expenditures
Advertising
Basic cost
Annual
TV commercial
$ 200 / 30 seconds
$ 43,400 / month
$ 520,800
Magazines (Full Page)
$9910
Newspapers (Fashion Column)
$ (per day)
$
Printing advertisement
$ (one colour copy)
$ 42,000
Outdoor advertising
$ 20,000
*all publications are inclusive GST.
Public Relations
Base Price
Annual
Sponsor TV programs ‘Australian Idol’
$ 35,000
$ 35,000
*all publications are inclusive GST.
Operating section
Annual
Wages of IT technique - Website maintainer
$ 180,000
Wage of Website consultant
$ 75,000
Professional fee- Instructor
$ 140,000
*all publications are inclusive GST.
Total cost for the first year $ 952,
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