I. The Summary
Meerza’s Tailoring Fashion house has been in the marketplace for more than 10 years. She started in Paris from “bricks and mortar” studio and has grown her business to gain an award for Best Female Entrepreneur in France. She offers specially made suits, mostly for senior executives, at €750 per suit, which is considered a fair price in Paris. As the business was growing, she employed staff in London, Paris and Brussels to facilitate fabrication and delivery. The online-service she’s providing should simplify and fasten the process of taking measures and making orders, however it often does not. The customers unsatisfied with the service and thinking their clothes are neither specially-made, nor made properly so they fit well, post complaints which hurt the image and the reputation of the retailer.
II. The problem
An online tailored-clothing retailer wants to improve its business and brand reputation.
III. The Cast of characters
* The Meerza Tailoring Fashions
* Complaining consumers
* Different organizations
V. The Issues
* Consumer trust is radically declining (more complaints) * Poor connection with labor union (some of the customers assume the clothes are being made in sweatshops) * Problems with online measuring system (the clothes still do not fit well) * Problems with uniqueness (the clothes are no longer considered to be specially-made)
The Essay on Down And Out In Paris And London
Down And Out In Paris And London Summary Down and Out in Paris and London is a documentary of the life of lower class people in Paris and London. Orwell shows the social conditions of the so-called plongeurs (they are cheap and unqualified workers in restaurants, hotels etc.) in Paris, and of the tramps in London. By joining these people, and living amongst them, Orwell generates a very realistic ...
VI. The Options
There are several options to overtake the issues:
1) Partial repositioning with strong PR and social media support (Go a bit more mass-market, but with strong quality control and still holding balance with clothes specially made, which means that you can still order the clothes through online-service, but now some of the parameters are more standardized, but yet the quality is one of the highest + smartly dealing with complaints and making the customer understand that he or she is taken care of at the best rate. Giving more information to the public about production in other countries but positioning it as an additional benefit for the customer, as he gets his clothes faster etc.)
Pros:
* Creating a new and better image in the eyes of the customer
* Gaining new clients and entering new markets
* Positive word of mouth
* Bigger profits, larger perspectives
Cons:
* Could lose some customers that really care about wearing unique peace of garment
2) Employment of a social media manager
Pros:
* Better working with objections
* Better brand reputation
Cons:
* Does not solve the problem of bad-fitting and uniqueness
3) Website services improvement:
Pros:
* Solves the problem of bad-fitting
Cons:
* The customer still feels fooled
* The brand image is still low
* Quality of the product is still considered low
VII. Recommendation
My recommendation is Option #1 for the benefits listed previously. The situation is that Meerza Fashion cannot remain as unique as it used to. It should become more global and a bit less unique. Sure, it could lose some of the customers, but it will gain much more if the right PR and social media approach is chosen. A repositioning is needed to save the good name of the company and gain new title as a company which is global, but still pays attention to every single customer it deals with. It sure is a challenge, but it is worth taking this risk.
VIII. The Plan of Actions
1-Work out new methods of measuring, think over every little step in this process. Organize results in better-working online service 2-Before online-publication, make a trial project. Ask a few street walkers to do a self-measurement. Compare results. Choose the best one, that is easy to follow and have greater accuracy. 3-Hire PR manager and social media manager 4-Work out a repositioning plan and implement it 5-Plan and open stores in other cities/countries and deliver the news to the public 6-Build brand loyalty through constant quality control and smart media strategy 7-Get bigger profits
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The pros of social media Social media has become massively popular in recent years and for good reason. There are a lot of benefits to using social media. While not everybody will agree that it is a good thing and there are certainly some disadvantages to it on the whole it would be fair to say that the benefits outweigh the negatives. This is a big part of why social media has become so popular. ...
IX. Conclusion
Having taken the steps described above, Meerza Fashion can change its path in the market and go in slightly other direction, which opens new perspectives for the retailer to go global.
