Solace Marketing Plan –
Need to answer how to
1)TargetCustomers
2)DistributionStrategy
for the below introduction.
3 pages each with APi Format.
Introduction
Solace (a fictional small business) manufactures, distributes and sells athleisure wear targeted towards adolescents and young adults. The mission of the brand is to allow adolescents and young adults to carry out their daily activities with unparalleled ease and comfort by offering them best-in-class athleisure wear at affordable prices. The marketing plan for the launch of the brand will focus on utilizing the optimal combination of marketing mix to reach prospective consumers and convert them into customers. The product portfolio during the launch will consist of women’s sweatpants, women’s sweatshirts, men’s sweatpants, men’s sweatshirts, and lounge accessories for both men and women. The target market for Solace’s brand are high school and college students. These prospective consumers are in the age range 16-24, targeting both male and female. These students are constantly involved in multiple athletic and college activities, from high intensity sporting activities to group discussions in the lounges. This market is price sensitive since a majority of them are either dependent on their parents for allowance or are working low paying student jobs. To appeal to this market, it is essential that Solace prices it’s products below the industry average price. The purchase behavior of the target market is heavily influenced by pop culture, with most of the content being consumed from social media and campus resources. The most common challenges faced by this market regarding the athleisure wear is related to the maintenance of their wearable and the costs associated with it. Solace intends to provide them with a one stop solution with its products.
The worldwide demand in athletics is worth 83 billion dollars. The size of the industry in the USA is 44 billion dollars. According to Grant Anthony O’Sullivan et al. (2017), the market size in the next two years is projected to rise by 30% with a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 6.5 per cent from 2018 to 2024. Even though there were losses for the other product segments, the athletic wear numbers only improved. North America (6.3% CAGR) along with Asia-Pacific (8% CAGR) is stated to be the leading market (Zhiwei Li & Yong Wang, 2018). Polyester is projected to dominate the worldwide athletic wear industry in terms of fabric, as the results of the study indicate. Looking at other global markets, China is the world’s second-largest market for sportswear (after the US) and in 2017 expanded by 12% (Zhiwei Li & Yong Wang, 2018). ‘versatility’ is the main contributor to the success of athletics. It provides a wide variety of comforts, designs, longevity, scale, health and utilities. It is also not shocking that a host of great names and brands are flooding this category ‘s competitive arena. In addition to Ivy Park of Beyonce, many A-listers have their own athleisure wear chains. The popular fitness brand of Kanye West owned Yeezy, Fabletics by Kate Hudson’s, Adidas line of Rita Ora, Calia Carrie Underwood, Juicy Couture line of Behati Prinsloo’s and Adidas Neo line of Selena Gomez are just a handful of the renowned brands. And popular fashion labels such as Gap, J. Crew and Forever 21 hopped on the ride. Although celebrity and designer collections are sold at high rates, fast-mode brands satisfy the mass of customers looking for inexpensive garments. For instance, Virgil Abloh ‘s Tech-jersey off-white pants retail for $655. Gap ‘s Tech Jersey Joggers, on the other side, are priced at $55. There are many players in the leisure and socioeconomic classes of athletics. With the launch of Solace our mission is to make athleisure ware available to the youth market at even affordable prices than the current competition.
Solace brand marketing team uses social media and on campus events to market the products. Social media marketing will be conducted by setting up the goals of marketing, researching more about the interest of the target markets, increasing the brand awareness and visibility, reviewing and finalizing what social media platforms to use, What type of content needs to be designed and shared, researching about social media platform advertisement pricing plans for small businesses, timing of the advertisements, tracking the performance of advertisements using the analytics tools and design marketing plan to find ways to reach wide range of target customers online. One of the key strategies as part of social media marketing is to speak to the accounts department and advertise using campus media network along with public social media platforms. On-campus marketing is the other marketing strategy where the marketing teams of Solace brand will reach out to the schools and university administration and participate in their on-campus events. Marketing team plans to either advertise the products by distributing samples to selected individuals such as athletes or based on first come first serve basis. Along with the free sample distribution marketing team plans to distribute discount coupons and promotion codes with those who attend the product expo on-campus. Selecting the type of event is also a crucial thing, so the marketing team will consider all the events such as game nights, football games, plays, graduation and proms to market the products. Solace company marketing team should work on designing innovative strategies to communicate the benefits of Solace products to students in person at on-campus events and creating visibility online using social media.