Samenvatting

This marketing plan is written for Big in Japan. Big in Japan is a clothing store based in the eastside of Amsterdam. Big in Japan brings a carefully selected range of fashion and lifestyle brands to an accessible level, not only focusing online but also with a unique store concept, outside the city center.
The objective of this plan was to deliver a strategy on how to gain more revenue. This plan includes an advice in the form of an implementation, which explains multiple strategies on how to gain this objective. The central question in this plan was as followed: ‘through which marketing activities, either in the physical store or the online store, will Big in Japan gain more revenue?’’
There has been conducted research on the internal and –external environment, which consists of the consumers, the fashion industry, the competitors and the most important strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
The results of the internal research showed that Big in Japan’s target group consists of, mainly, males between 16-25 years old. Exclusivity and quality are the most important factors of its assortment. Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are being used primarily to highlight the products. The online store is the core business of the company. Google Analytics results showed that the average conversion is 0,41%. Most of the sales are being generated from organic and direct traffic.
The depth research consisted of qualitative research and has been carried out for three specific target groups: customers in store, customers online and potential customers. The most important results have showed that outerwear and tops are being sold the most. One of the motives of the respondents to shop at Big in Japan was the exclusiveness of the products. Five of the six online customers even indicated that exclusiveness is so important that they are willing to pay a higher price for it. When it comes to the products of Big in Japan customers are pleased with the assortment but would like to see an addition of exclusive sneakers. It would even stimulate the respondents to shop more at Big in Japan. This goes for the online customers as well for the in store customers. Despite the location of the physical store respondents did not experienced this as a negative factor. Customers of the online store suggested that it would be user-friendlier when there would be a Facebook login and a story inventory.
Research of the external environment has showed that consumers, primarily young people, are willing to spend more money on clothing and shoes. The future is looking bright for the fashion industry, as the prediction is that sales will increase. This goes for online and physical stores. Social media and influencers are playing a big role when it comes to purchasing decisions. Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube are being used the most by the target group. Other upcoming trends are omnichannel marketing and personalized marketing.
The most important confrontations were elaborated into an implementation plan. Those confrontation were to hire someone for the marketing, collaborate with fashion influencers, extend the social media channels to Whatsapp and Snapchat to improve and stimulate the customer service and branding, and the most important recommendation, to make the transition from cross channel to omnichannel marketing, which will have a positive affect on the customer experience and gives Big in Japan an competitive advantage.
The implementation advises to hire a marketing employee who can push the marketing in the right direction. The second recommendation is to connect with influencers, because of their influence on the purchase decisions of the target group. A possible collaboration should contribute to more followers for Big in Japan, more traffic on the website, more exposure and possible more sales.
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The third recommendation to extend the social media channels and can contribute to more customer experience, more customer engagement and more loyal customers, which should cause more spendings from the customers.
The last recommendation is to improve the overall customer experience by offering them an omnichannel experience. This can be achieved by mapping the customer journey, integrate offline and online channels so that the customer will experience this as one channel and a link between all internal programs, which strongly contributes to improving the customer journey and eventually will give the customer that ‘’WOW-feeling’’.
A proper implementation of these recommendations should help the organization to achieve the formulated objective.