Marketing Plan: Power Shirts

Marketing Plan

Powershirts

CASE OVERVIEW

Powershirts is a potential e-tailing partner for a clothing manufacturer located in Guadalajara, Mexico. The information we were given about Powershirts and the manufacturer is very limited, and we had no direct contact with management. The manufacturer has sold shirts in the Mexican market and has also sold men's slacks in the United States under a label undisclosed to us. They can produce shirts in any color; sleeve length, weight, and can add a logo to their products. While we do not have specifics regarding plant capacity, financial resources, or cost information, we have been told they have sufficient capacity and financial reserves to expand. Our goal has been to consider potential markets Powershirts may enter, and to prepare a general marketing plan, including web site design and content.

WHAT IS THEIR MARKET?

Considering the information we have about Powershirts, the markets we have focused on are the advertising specialty market and e-commerce. These markets include many different popular products such as mouse pads, mugs, glasses, hats pens, and basically any product a logo or emblem can be printed or embroidered on. Shirts are also included in this market. Businesses need shirts with logos not only as uniforms, but to advertise for their company or to inspire employee loyalty. Sports teams, schools, and hospitals also purchase shirts with logos on then and could be potential clients. Also, non-profit organizations purchase shirts with emblems to advertise about their group or their goals. Powershirts' ability to produce quality shirts with embroidery or printing gives them the ability to enter this market. Also, buyers do not have strong brand loyalty in this market but rather focus on the quality of the product and the quality of the customer service. Thus, although there are many competitors in this market, it seems Powershirts may easily enter it. This is also an area that may provide Powershirts profitable e tailing. Since they operate in Mexico but wish to sell abroad, entering this market could add to their profit.

WHO ARE THEIR CUSTOMERS?

Their clients will include both business to business as well as business to customers. The B-to-B clients would include any company in the business of ordering customized products. These companies include screen-printers, sporting goods related stores, or award stores. They would act as intermediaries between Powershirts and the final customer, but may cut into some of the profit that Powershirts hopes to make. The B-to-C customers would include the clients mentioned above: businesses, schools, hospitals, sports teams, and non-profit organizations. These customers could be reached by catalog or by the web site that Powershirts would develop. Individuals searching out this type of product or simply surfing the web would also be potential clients.

HOW DO THEY ENTER THIS MARKET?

There is one action Powershirts must take to enter this market, which is to attend trade shows related to the ad specialty/clothing market. As students, we have been unable

To obtain much of the key information that would available to a business at a show, such as competitors wholesale pricing. There are many trade shows that Powershirts can attend and an easy way to find out about them. TSCentral.com is an excellent source on the web, which allows the user to search for trade shows by their specific industry. It lists trade shows by region and shows many events in Mexico. Also, Powershirts could attend trade shows in the Southwest of the United States. To register for these shows or find out any detailed information, the user must enter a business license and give Business contact information.

There could be many benefits to entering this market through attending trade shows. Powershirts would be able to become familiar with their competitions, and find out their competitor's wholesale pricing. This would let them know if they can profitably compete in the B-to-B market with similar businesses. They would get a better idea of what level of quality is expected in the market and what types of shirts and materials are most common. It would introduce them to many potential buyers and get their name out into the market. They could make important connections and perhaps find a representative to carry their products at trade shows. Hiring a representative would minimize their cost of traveling to shows, since there are numerous events they may wish to attend.

HOW LARGE IS THE MARKET FOR POWERSHIRTS?

We feel that the e-commerce and catalog markets in the United States are Powershirts best opportunity to sell their logo shirts. Everyone has the potential to become a customer for Powershirts. Their best opportunity is to sell their products to large companies, such as Intel, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, and small local businesses throughout the country. There is also a large market for logo shirts within club sports and individuals who want custom shirts. The best way for Powershirts to reach these markets is through a web site.

We looked on various search engines like Yahoo and Lycos to see how many other companies are currently providing the same business as Powershirts. By typing in logo shirts and custom embroidery shirts into these search engines you can see just how many competitors are out there. Each search we did gave us thousands of hits to competitors' sites. This shows that there is a lot of competition out there but there are also lots of customers that need this type of product. The positives side to this type of market is that most of the customers are not brand loyal. Many of these companies only purchase logo shirts every couple of years. These same buyers put a great deal of focus on price. They want to pay a reasonable price for a quality product. This is why we feel that Powershirts should focus on providing a high quality product with a reasonable price and excellent customer service. If Powershirts is able to create this type of image they should have no problem getting business and taking business away from their competitors.

BRINGING GOODS INTO THE U.S. MARKET

We researched two different ways for Powershirts to ship their shirts into the United States. The first was trans-shipping the shirts into a warehouse located somewhere in Texas. This process is only good if they are going to be bulk shipping to one single location. Since most of Powershirts' orders are custom made to what the buyer wants this bulk shipping of the same goods is not a good idea. The