Jewellery Marketing Plan.doc

Jewellery Marketing PlanExecutive SummaryContemporary Ti Design is a designer and manufacturer of unique titanium jewelry. Contemporary Ti Design makes many designs in the form of earrings, pins, and pendants. All of the products are designed and manufactured by Steve Artificer.Each piece of jewelry is a work of art in itself, very special and unique. Most people will feel that Steves pieces are like nothing else they have ever seen. Steve will be selling directly to end consumers through his website as well as at exhibitions/shows. Steve will also use galleries, museum shops, and specialty jewelry retailers as a distribution channel as well.Steve will be operating Contemporary Ti Design out of his Hood River home. For the first eight months Steve will be a one-man show. Steve will welcome an independent sales representative on month eight to allow Steve to spend more time at home designing and constructing.Situation AnalysisContemporary Ti Design is a start-up company operating out of the owners home. Marketing will be key to raise visibility and awareness of Contemporary Ti Design and their products. The basic market need is forunusual pieces of art jewelry crafted out of titanium. Titanium is used because of its hypoallergenic qualities (ideal for necklaces and earrings that touch the skin), its incredible strength, and light weight.Market SummaryContemporary Ti Design has a lot of information regarding the market and attributes concerning their target customers. This information will be leveraged to continually determine who the customer is, their specific needs, and how Contemporary Ti Design can best communicate with them.Market NeedsContemporary Ti Design is providing its customers with innovative, creative, handmade jewelry. It will provide the following benefits to their customers: Selection:A wide range ofjewelry styles, creations, and anodizing schemes. Accessibility:Ti design sells direct to the consumer, through a network of art/jewelry galleries, and at art fairs and shows. Customer service:The patron will be impressed with the level of attention and service that they receive. This level of service occurs during all transactions with Ti designs from answering questions, to order taking, to warranty repairs. Competitive pricing:The pricing structure provides the consumer with a good value for handmade jewelry and the craftsmen with a fair profit.Market TrendsThe market trend within the jewelry industry is a movement toward custom,unique pieces as well as limited production items. This trend is in response to the climate of the industry in the mid-nineties where the jewelry market was flooded with thousands of identical pieces of jewelry. Within a few years, people were running into others who had the same piece of jewelry. This element of commonality or run of the mill-ness fueled demand for artistic jewelry that was in low production and unique, not something that you would see very often.Customers are using similar pieces of jewelry as a way of creating distinction from the common population, a way to stand out. This desire is part of a broader desire to be different. Contemporary Ti Design has leveraged this trend by creating unique pieces that are distinct.Market GrowthThe artistic jewelry segment of the larger jewelry industry is growing at a healthy 9%. This growth can be attributed to the value that people place on having distinctive, unique pieces of jewelry.Another factor that is supporting the growth is the blending of art and jewelry. Traditionally jewelry was ornate pieces made out of precious metals. The nice pieces were a symbol of wealth or status. As long as the piece was made out of a precious metal, there was value attributed to the piece just by virtue of what it was made out of, regardless of the creativity of the actual piece. The younger population that recognizes the aesthetic value of art work is now demanding jewelry to have artistic elements. In essence it is art that you wear. These trends are helping the industry grow.SWOT AnalysisThe following SWOT analysis captures the key strengths and weaknesses within the company, and describes the opportunities and threats facing Contemporary Ti Design.Strengths Unique designs and construction methods. Strong relationships with suppliers as well as galleries. The flexibility to provide custom pieces. A comprehensive distribution network from a robust website and a network of galleries.Weaknesses A large portion of the target market that is unaware of Contemporary Ti Designs products. Limited time and budget to market the company to the segmented target population. The struggle to constantly create new designs. The possible inability to meet demand due to the small size of the company.Opportunities A growing market that, to a large degree, is unaware of Contemporary Ti Design. The possibility to grow the size of the company so Steve is spending his time creating and allowing others to deal with the administrative details. The injection of fresh, creative designs in a somewhat stagnant industry.Threats A decrease of availability of raw materials due to demand from other industries. Artistic copycats that enter the market andmimic Steves designs. A slowdown of the economy that will have a reduction on individuals discretionary income.Competition and Buying PatternsAs previously stated the jewelry industryis composed of thousand upon thousands of people. Some work and distribute locally, others have national distribution systems set up. Some artists will design products for larger companies to manufacture, others will design and make the pieces themselves. This plan will have an abridged competition section. This is because of the very large and distributed nature of artisan jewelry design, the market is entirely too dispersed to have a complete catalog of the competition.Competitiontakes the following forms: Artists creating designs that are manufactured on a large scale and distributed nationally. The artists might be famous enough to have their own one-name studio that creates designs and the product is made and sold under the larger companies name. If the artist is not famous enough to have national name recognition, the designers might belong to a firm that is hired to develop designs for a company who will manufacture and sell the product. A company that has their own designers in-house. In this case everything is done internally, design, marketing and wholesaling. Another variation would be in-house designers, marketers and wholesalers with the manufacturing contracted out. Artists such as Steve who design and make all of the pieces themselves, and then do the wholesaling or retailing themselves. In essence, one-man shows.The buying patterns of consumers falltypically intotwo types. Gifts and impulse purchases. A gift purchase occurs when the buyer is looking for a gift for someone, sees the art piece, and then purchases it. In this case the plan is to make a purchase, it is just not known what or where that purchase will be made. The other buying pattern is an impulse purchase. Someone will be shopping, they are not in need of anything, will see the item and have to have it, buying it on the spot. One last pattern, that occurs less frequently is if someone was looking for an accessory that would match an outfit and happens to come across the piece of jewelry and buys it.Product OfferingContemporary Ti Design manufactures titanium jewelry. The jewelry takes the form of pendants, earrings, and pins. All of the jewelry is made out of titanium. All of the products are designed and made by Steve.Steve has chosen titanium because of its unique characteristics. It is stronger than steel, yet similar in weight to aluminum. It is inert and hypoallergenic.Most of the jewelry is left unfinished. The gray of the titanium by itself looks quite nice. Some of the pieces are anodized. Anodizing adds a broad range colors to the titanium. Anodizing occurs by immersing the titanium in electrically charged water or hooking up the titanium to a electrical power source. When charged with electricity, a light film or oxide will form on the surface of the titanium and this produces color.Contemporary Ti Designs pieces are constructed out of titanium sheets. The material is cut using a saw blade. The interior of the pieces are cut by piercing a small hole through the interior and inserting a saw blade. All pieces are made form several pieces of titanium. The pieces are held together by rivets. Small holes are drilled through the different pieces and a small wire (rivet) is inserted through. The head and end of the rivet is tapped with a hammer and that enlarges the end holding the pieces together. In addition to the utility of the rivet, it is aesthetically pleasing in terms of the overall look of the piece.Keys to Success Customer service. Unique designs. Creativeness. Professionalism.Critical IssuesContemporary Ti Design is still in the speculative stage as a start-up venture. Its critical issues includecontinuing to take a modest fiscal approach, expanding at a reasonable rate, not for the sake of expansion in itself, but because it is economically wise to. Contemporary Ti Design will continue to build brand awareness to assure growth in the customer and gallery base.Marketing StrategyContemporary Ti Design will rely on three forms of marketing activities. The first will be attendance (including promotion with a booth) at the various art shows and festivals through out the country. This form of marketing/promotion is an efficient way to reach target customers as well as generate sales at these events.A second form of marketing is the use of the website which will be a source to disseminate information, increase visibility,and process orders. The website will be submitted to various search engines so people that are not even looking specifically for Contemporary Ti Design will come across the site.A third source of marketing will be networking and promotion through the network of art/jewelry galleries. Initially Steve will be generating relationships with galleries. Contemporary Ti Design will visit numerous galleries in many major cities and recruit them to sell Steves product. While the margins are smaller than if Contemporary Ti Design sells the piece direct, the galleries will help significantly increase the volume of sales.MissionContemporary Ti Designs mission is to make innovative pieces of art in jewelry using titanium. We exist to attract and maintain customers through creative designs and customer attention. When we adhere to this maxim, everything else will fall into place. Our services will exceed the expectations of our customers.Marketing Objectives Increase the number of participating galleries by 8% a quarter after year one. Increase Web traffic and sales by 5% each month. Increase the amount of sales relative to marketing expenses steadily every quarter.Financial Objectives A 15% increase in productivity. A decrease in variable costs through operating efficiencies. An increase in sales, enough to warrant the hiring of additional people to take on administrative details, allowing Steve to concentrate on his art work.Target MarketsContemporary Ti Design will be focusing on two distinct groups of customers:the end consumer, and galleries (galleries to be used as a distribution channel). The end consumer will be interacting with Steve via his website as well as through personal contact at exhibitions/shows. The galleries (also museum shops, jewelry stores) will also be met through the exhibitions and shows. At these events a long-term relationship will be entered into so that the shops become a retail distribution channel for Contemporary Ti Design. Additionally, Contemporary Ti Design will be traveling the country meeting with different galleries and setting up retailing relationships with them.PositioningContemporary Ti Design will position itself as a creative constructor of artistic titanium jewelry. Collectors of artistic jewelry will appreciate Contemporary Ti Designs unique approach to wearable art.Contemporary Ti Design will leverageits competitive edge: It is based on creative, unusual designs. While this strategy can be replicated, it is not easy. Creative, unusual designs require skill. Steve is very skilled in what he does, and every piece that he manufactures incorporates an element of creative, unusual, eye-catching design that stands out from most jewelry.StrategiesThe single objective is to position Contemporary Ti Design asan innovative, unique artistic jeweler. This positioning is for the entire United States, the geographic region that Contemporary Ti Design seeks to serve. The marketing strategy will seek to create customer awareness regarding unique products offered, develop the customer base, and work toward building a network of galleries as distributors.The message that Contemporary Ti Design will communicate is that Ti Designs is a unique, custom craftsmen of artistic jewelry. This message will be communicated through a variety of methods. The first is through promotion and sales at various art shows and festivals throughout the country. This method will be useful as it carefully targets one segmented target population.Another method will be the building of a gallery network that will serve as a distributor for Tis designs. Once this is established, this will be an effective sales outlet. The last method for communicating Ti Designs positioning message is through their website. This website will provide unlimited geographic coverage and is a wealth of information regarding all of Steves products. Additionally, it will serve as a mechanism for order placement.Marketing MixContemporary Ti Designs marketing mix is comprised of the following approaches to pricing, distribution, advertising and promotion, and customer service. Pricing:The pricing scheme will be based on the cost of the raw materials and the amount of time required to construct the piece. Distribution:The products will be distributed via the website, at the booth that Ti Designs mans, and through a network of galleries. Advertising and Promotion:The avenues of distribution will also serve as the methods for advertising and promotion. Customer Service:Obsessive customer attention is the mantra. Tis philosophy is complete customer satisfaction. This will occur at whatever cost. Even if this does not make sense relative to short-term profits it will be done, recognizing that this attitude will only bolster long-term business health.Marketing ResearchDuring the initial phases of the marketing plan development, several focus groups were held for both consumers of artistic jewelry as well as buyers from galleries. These focus groups provided useful insight into the decision making process of these target customers.Steve also spent two months on the road participating in various art shows and festivals with many different prototype pieces. This road show occurred to determine customer acceptance of the product as well as to gauge demand. This information was then analyzed to determine business feasibility.The last source of marketing research involves road show and surveys that were handed out at the fairs and shows. The purpose of the survey was to collect information regarding buyers preferences, likes and dislikes regarding the designs, and price preferences of the products.Marketing StrategyContemporary Ti Design will rely on three forms of marketing activities. The first will be attendance (including promotion with a booth) at the various art shows and festivals through out the country. This form of marketing/promotion is an efficient way to reach target customers as well as generate sales at these events.A second form of marketing is the use of the website which will be a source to disseminate information, increase visibility,and process orders. The website will be submitted to various search engines so people that are not even looking specifically for Contemporary Ti Design will come across the site.A third source of marketing will be networking and promotion through the network of art/jewelry galleries. Initially Steve will be generating relationships with galleries. Contemporary Ti Design will visit numerous galleries in many major cities and recruit them to sell Steves product. While the margins are smaller than if Contemporary Ti Design sells the piece direct, the galleries will help significantly increase the volume of sales.MissionContemporary Ti Designs mission is to make innovative pieces of art in jewelry using titanium. We exist to attract and maintain customers through creative designs and customer attention. When we adhere to this maxim, everything else will fall into place. Our services will exceed the expectations of our customers.Marketing Objectives Increase the number of participating galleries by 8% a quarter after year one. Increase Web traffic and sales by 5% each month. Increase the amount of sales relative to marketing expenses steadily every quarter.Financial Objectives A 15% increase in productivity. A decrease in variable costs through operating efficiencies. An increase in sales, enough to warrant the hiring of additional people to take on administrative details, allowing Steve to concentrate on his art work.Target MarketsContemporary Ti Design will be focusing on two distinct groups of customers:the end consumer, and galleries (galleries to be used as a distribution channel). The end consumer will be interacting with Steve via his website as well as through personal contact at exhibitions/shows. The gall