Marketing Consulting for SME
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The report outlines a comprehensive sales strategy for 'Greeks and More', a custom embroidery store targeting college students and Greek life members at the University of Central Florida. It discusses the consumer buying process and offers tactics for attracting new customers and retaining loyal ones, emphasizing the importance of online presence, simplified purchasing, and consistent communication. Key recommendations include utilizing social media, creating engaging promotions, and implementing a loyalty program to enhance customer relationships and business growth.
Marketing Consulting for SME
- 1. Team 4WESOME: Maximilian Mirra Alex Malave Andrew Gomes Brandon Carr Elizabeth Dunker Hannah Eisenband Final Project At the final of our Contemporary Selling, we have comprised the following report. Within the report contains the following information, our client description, the description of the target market, an explanation of the consumer buying process, a sales plan to bring new customers in, and the sales plan to retain and develop new customers and retain and develop loyal customers. We have also included an overview of the actions to take before, during, and after the sale process. Client Description: Our client is Greeks and More. Greeks and more is a custom embroidery apparel and accessory store located near the University of Central Florida Area. The store is run by two business owners Don and Ellen, who have been in the clothing manufacturing business for over 20 years. Greeks and More represents high quality products and services, and tailors them to the Greek community at the University. Fraternities and Sororities are able to come into the store and customize their clothing and accessories to fit their specifications. Customers are able to create any idea and have Greeks and More bring that idea to life with their special embroidery service. Our client Greeks and More can essentially design any wearable item and ensure a fast and reliable delivery to the Greek Community. Description of the Target Market: Our target market consists of college students, students involved in Greek Life, students involved with student organizations, and college athletes. Specifically, because our client creates high quality embroidered products, our target market consists of connoisseurs of these types of products. Most of our target market consists of students who are involved in activities while studying at the University of Central Florida. Our client provides more than an athletic jersey or a fraternity paddle, they provide their customers memorability with an emphasis on getting the client what they really want.
- 2. Description of consumer buying process: As Greeks and More aims to hit their target market, it is important to remember the buying process and how it will better the customer experience. There are three different consumer buying processes to consider including in-store purchases, online purchases, and over-the-phone buying. The most traditional way of buying for Greeks and More is in-store purchases. This means the consumer will go to the store and buy directly from the workers. This is the most personal way and creates loyal customers for the company. Online purchases are not as prevalent for the company, but can be when Greeks and More updates their technologies. By taking advantage of different technologies, Greeks and More will be able to have personalized services with customer services online that will allow consumers to have a good experience even if they are not physically there. Finally, a consumer can buy over-the-phone. In this buying process, a consumer still gets the personal touch of customer service, but can work from any location. It is important to recognize the different ways consumers buy from Greeks and More, so Greeks and More can improve these methods in the future. Sales plan to bring new customers (before, during, and after): Our plan to help Greeks & More to bring new customers in will look like the following. For the before actions of the sale we advise Greeks & More we told them to not rely on word of mouth. We mean that they should not only rely on people coming to them through a reference. Up and till this point, they have be very successful through word of mouth recommendations, but they can substantially grow their business if they put in the effort to push their business to the leads and prospects. We suggest that they should have sales representatives go to the Greek and Club community at UCF. With this, even before leads and prospects buy from them, they will be provided with information on new products, and even have demonstrations as to how the product will look. This is necessary so that the leads and prospects will have the information they need to answer any questions they had. We also suggest that Greeks & More should upload video tutorials on their website to walkthrough the customization process. At the moment we have learned that it is confusing at times to do this, and if Greeks & More simplified the process, they could legitimize more prospects into customers. And most importantly, we have suggested that they enhance their online presence because not all customers are only on one channel. They should create a Facebook page along with another social media platform so that Omni-channel customers can do their research before buying. The next step in the sales process to bring new customers in, is to focus on the “during” the sale. Within this step we have suggested that our client keep the buying process simple. There is no need to complicate things, because it only leads to more confusion and less conversions. We also suggested that they could offer an incentive for new customers to purchase by using a customer promotion. Some ideas would be X% off their first purchase, or for new customers to enter a contest for a chance to win a customize item. We also emphasize that Greeks & More should have their online platform have all the information a prospect or customer shall need to answer any of their questions.
- 3. The last step to bring in new customers in the sales process is “after” the sale. This last step is crucial and could make or break the customer’s experience. Greeks & More should implement an Email Marketing strategy. This would be used to keep the relationship going that they established with these new customers. They would thank the customer for their service, and keep them up to date with new product releases and any events that they plan on doing. Greeks & More should also have their communication channels open for customers to ask questions about the products they bought. We also recommended that they create a loyalty program which entices new customers to repeat their buying. And lastly, when they establish their online presence, they should share what their loyal customers liked about their experience from Greeks & More to promote to other new customers. They could ask new customers to fill out a simple survey to ask how the experience was and how they can improve in their service. Sales plan to retain and develop loyal customers (before, during, and after): In order to retain and develop loyal customers it is vital to have consistent communication. Greeks and More is a very old-fashioned company so when it comes to social media they are not well educated. Email campaigns were introduced to Greeks and More in order to establish this consistent communication of bringing in the customers as well as follow ups after that consist of surveys on their shopping experience. Another idea of retaining and developing loyal customers that was brought to Greeks and More’s attention was to implement a Brand Ambassador program with one or two of their loyal customers that they feel would be a good representation of the brand as well as someone who could thoroughly explain their business. The job of the Brand Ambassador would be to create potential leads, following up with them before their purchase as well as reaching out after to see how their experience was. The Brand Ambassador would travel to every Greek affiliated house on campus as well as the sports teams and non-Greek life fraternities to educated students on the opportunities with Greeks and More. Another recommendation made to Greeks and More was a loyalty card where customers have to attain a certain amount of punches, representing purchases at a certain price, resulting in some sort of reward, such as a discount or free item. Along with a punch card, a recommend a friend discount code with the Brand Ambassador’s name on a Greeks and More business card in order to spread the company’s name as well as getting those loyal customers to the actual store location. Conclusion:
- 4. To bring things back, the first step to developing a successful business is understanding the target market. The target market being the Greek life, UCF athletics and clubs on campus. By understanding these target markets, it will be much easier to increase profits dramatically. By understanding the target market, establishing an online presence will be easier because all the website and content will be tailored specifically towards the target demographic, ensuring college students are able to notice the company and what it has to offer. By examining the current buying process, weaknesses can be identified in order to improve the business with future improvements. These two components will help ensure the buying process is not only easier, but will increase profits due to the accessibility, how tailored the buying process is to college students and the one-on-one buying process.