Maternity Clothing Business Plan

Malone’s Maternity will leverage their competitive edge of product selection for both women and children to gain market share. Malone’s Maternity is the only store offering clothing and accessories for expectant and new mothers, as well as for infants and children. This will create unmatched convenience and lead to higher customer tickets.

The marketing strategy will be two-pronged in its attempt to increase the target customer’s awareness of Malone’s Maternity; a focused advertising campaign and the location of the retail space.

The sales strategy will be to offer the highest level of customer service. The ideal customer is accustomed to excellent service and Malone’s Maternity has the goal of impressing every customer with their benchmarked level of customer attention.

5.1 Competitive Edge

Malone’s Maternity’s competitive edge of product offerings for both mother and child offers two distinct advantages:

• Convenience – Having items for both mother and child makes a trip to Malone’s Maternity convenient. Gifts for both groups can be purchased at once.
• Higher tickets per customer – Because there are products for mothers and children, the ticket prices per customer will be higher as customers buy gifts for both as instead of only one. These customers typically buy gifts for both, but ordinarily have to travel to different stores to satisfy both needs.

5.2 Marketing Strategy

The marketing strategy has several approaches to develop awareness of this new boutique.

• Advertising – Ads will be placed in several different media, but primarily in the fashion section of Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer, the region’s largest newspaper. The Plain Dealer also has a child birth/care section each week and advertisements will be placed there as well.
• Location – Malone’s Maternity is located the store in an upscale mall that attracts a large amount of foot traffic. The additional money spent on rent will assist the marketing effort. By strategically locating the store in a posh, busy center Malone’s Maternity will increase awareness and traffic within the store.

5.3 Sales Strategy

The sales strategy will rely on customer service. All employees will receive training on customer attention. The overriding maxim is that all customers be given as much attention as they need, and, no customers should leave the store unsatisfied, even if they do not make a purchase. Employees will be taught how to handle any type of problem that may arise. All employees are empowered to remedy most problems. If something occurs that the employee is unable to fix, they will pass the issue on to the manager. The net effect of this approach is that customers are immediately greeted upon entering the store and in a subtle but helpful way their needs are met. Ensuring all customers are both satisfied and impressed with the service that they received, will ensure a steady increase in sales.

5.3.1 Sales Forecast

Malone’s Maternity has developed a sales forecast that is fairly conservative in its projections. This approach was chosen to increase the likelihood of achieving the sales goals. The following chart indicates that sales are expected to increase slowly. These forecasts will be monitored monthly to verify that the sales are rising as expected. The personnel needs, specifically for employees to help customers on the sales floor will be monitored to ensure that there are sufficient numbers of employees to serve the customers.

5.4 Milestones

Malone’s Maternity has identified four quantifiable milestones for the organization. By identifying four performance goals and setting the goals to be ambitious but obtainable, Malone’s Maternity will have developed a target for everyone to shoot for. The following table details the milestones.