Saturday 30 March 2013

Tuesday 19 March 2013

Capital Idea

A day in London is just not enough, I'm feeling completely inspired and ready to start the next season.

I could've spent a long weekend in Selfridges alone- they've revamped the men's shoe department and now stock over 72,000 pairs- the largest array in The world I'm told! Check out their shoe carnival this month- it looks a riot!

It was great to speak to the sales staff for the brand I work on, they were more critical than expected but I've now got a notebook full of ideas for next season and enquiries to make with other departments including visual merchandising.

Starting Blocks

Today is the day I start the SS14 range for shirts, ties and accessories. I've just placed the fabric orders for AW13 14 and negotiated delivery dates with all the factories. As my placement comes to an end shortly I've been asked to get the next range finished ahead of time - I'm actually excited at the prospect of everything, not only being on time for once, but early as well!

I'm currently on the train to London to start the process, I'll be visiting the current range and assessing its success by talking with the sales staff and asking what they'd like to see for spring summer. I'll then visit our competitors and see what they're doing (a bit cheeky but everyone has to do it - you don't want to miss out on a major trend).

If I've got time I will also try to visit the V&A, they've got a David Bowie exhibition starting this week, his flamboyant and eccentric style has influenced many a designer over the decades including the great Paul Smith (see this weeks Mr Porter Journal).

On the train back tonight I'll write up my conclusions and ideas for SS14 and when I'm back in the office I'll look at the fabrics from Premiere Vision (see my previous post). I'll then choose the range, creating initial design boards.

I also like to look at trend forecasting site Mudpie, partly because I'm passionate about this aspect of the industry but also for inspiration with colours, vision and accessories.

Once the fabrics are finalised I'll create the design sheets, choosing the fit, collar, cuffs, trims and design details. I also have to take in to account the suits which are overlooked by a separate buying team we try to make the range cohesive so they sit well in stores and encourage add on sales.

When we have the finished shirt range; prices have been negotiated, deliveries agreed and all elements (branding, trim, fabrics etc) have been synchronised we meet with merchandise who tell us how much of each shirt we can buy and asses our margins (being a small but luxury brand means margins are tight). Quantities may then affect prices- if we don't meet minimums on fabrics we can be charged extra which is why it's important to form good relationships with suppliers- they can sometimes let you off the surcharges!

From the shirts, the ties and accessories fall in to place and colours are developed. Since starting on this brand I've been pushing for tie bars - perhaps an obvious thing but with tight margins any risk can be detrimental. At the conference earlier in the month (see my previous blog) store managers asked to see them along with a whole new range of accessories which I'm now going to develop.

Monday 18 March 2013

Consumer Profiling

When I took over this brand I had little idea of who our customer was, the brand seemed to lack vision and I couldn't work out who would buy our product.

I looked over an archive of past ranges, did my research on the internet (which was pretty fruitless - we're only a little fish in a big pond) and asked around the company, anyone who'd ever worked on the brand had left and no one seemed to have a clear idea.

As I've mentioned before we had little time to pull the range together and so I relied mainly on looking at who I felt were our competitors in the market and looked at who their consumers were; a quirky, luxury shirt brand for a mans man with a rich history and a high end price tag to me meant brands such as Paul Smith, Duchamp and Tiger of Sweden, to name a few, but for this season I've set myself a project of creating an in depth and comprehensive consumer profile of our own (something I think every brand should have regardless)

I've sent our a document to our store managers to fill in, after all they know our customers the best, including the basics; age, job, marital status, reason for buying, style icon etc. I'm also going to look in to more in depth socio and geo demographics and use statistical information from Mintel and the National Readership Survey. 

Once I complete this we'll have a much better idea of who our man is and i'll have a great piece of work to add to my portfolio (which I am constantly adding to as and when I find the time!)

Tomorrow I'm going to London to visit our stores and check out the customers myself, I've also been reading magazines such as GQ & Esquire to get in to our consumer's head and I'm finding it really interesting, I'm intrigued by brand development and what motivates customers to buy, as a buyer you get to be involved in all aspects of the product which is great at getting an insight in to different job roles I'd like to explore when I graduate.




Present, Past, Future

Recently, I had the chance to present our new range, my first as Assistant Buyer, to the store and area managers of our House of Fraser and Harvey Nichols concessions.

It was great to get feedback from the stores and I'm so passionate about the changes we've made since taking over the range it was an opportunity to explain these changes and inspire the staff, and ultimately the customers.

Some of these changes include using a more skilled factory to make the shirts, sourcing luxury fabrics from the best mills in Italy, using real mother of pearl buttons, and making the ties in England as opposed to China.

I also wrote the new copy for the branding which was well received and I have been involved in every tiny detail of the whole range including overhauling the brand and I will forever love this range as it was my first (I've already bought one of the shirts and plan to frame it later down the line!)

The stores also had feedback for us which is not surprising as we took over the brand at a very late date and had to get the range together in double quick time, these included comments such as more pocket square colours and visual merchandising which I have since looked at and taken in to account for AW 13 14 which I am finalising now.

I produced a booklet documenting all of the shirts, ties and accessories and their unique selling points to send back to the store staff so they can be as inspired and passionate about the new range as I am - we just have to wait for sales figures now! 

I plan to make a similar booklet for the next season and I am in talks with our visual merchandiser to include new display ideas. Visual merchandising is one of the areas I want to do more work in so I'm trying to make the most of the influence I have whilst I'm here!