Research Presentation

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Prepared for Dapper

Summary

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The exercise of building a brand for a new entrant into an established market is fraught with difficulty, but never impossible. In fact, it's exactly what we love doing.

We've spent the past month digging deep into Dapper and the broader market (for premium men's clothing and accessories) in which it operates.

We've unearthed some very interesting insights and relied on them to identify a series of opportunities Dapper can use to dominate the most lucrative segment of that premium market within 12 months.

Research

We used a Facebook Sponsored Posts campaign to distribute an email-based survey to individuals meeting certain demographic criteria that make them likely to be consumers within the market for premium men's clothing and accessories — in particular:

• Men
• Ages 25–44
• Annual Income in excess of USD100,000
• Educational level of Bachelor's Degree or above
• Occupation in professional services.

In fact, the above demographic factors formed our hypothesized ideal/target customer.

You can see a copy of the survey below (simply hit the "See Survey" button to make the survey magically appear).

Findings

Dapper's ideal customer is a 25–44 year old male or 30–39 year old female with high levels of disposable income, working in professional services and at least moderately (if not highly) active on social media. These consumers are not highly price sensitive and value not only quality but also convenience.

We propose to build Dapper's brand to align with these demographic factors through a careful rebranding, the building of an active social network following through partnerships with influencers, a website redesign and referral program, and the opening of a showroom.

Audience

Target demographic

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Based on the results of (individuals' responses to) our survey, we've arrived at the following conclusions regarding Dapper's Ideal Customer Profile, and therefore its target audience. The ideal customer's demographic qualities are listed below:

Notably, Dapper's ideal customer is not just males: women tend to spend big on gifts for their male family members (particularly their partners), and so they form a demographic segment that should not be ignored. Although this wasn't inferred from the results of our survey, we know this to be true based on our past experience with premium men's fashion brands.

We were able to analyse the specific interests of survey respondents, and identified a concentration of interests among the target demographic in the following:

TV Shows

• Mad Men
• Suits
• Billions

Movies

• Wolf of Wall Street
• The Big Short
• Margin Call

Books

• The Black Swan
• How the Economy Works
• Value Investing

These insights will be important in allowing us to target specific people defined by specific demographic qualities and interests through social media advertising platforms.

Brand awareness

We found, unsurprisingly, that Dapper is not yet well known among consumers in the market. However, although a small number of competitors very much dominate share of voice, few of these competitors are viewed as satisfactory vendors. This is a good thing, offering Dapper an opportunity to capture significant market share from the get-go among quality-conscious consumers.

The following responses were received for the question "Which of the following brands do you think of when someone refers to premium men's fashion?"

Brand sentiment

As mentioned above, few of Dapper's competitors enjoy solid customer satisfaction levels. In fact, all of the top 5 competitors have NPS scores below 50.

An in-depth analysis of customer feedback gathered from reviews of these competitors' businesses across the web indicate that consumers are frustrated by the difficulty of getting premium, made-to-measure men's clothing.

It's clear that the most lucrative segment of the market today values customizability and personalization but lacks the time to find and work closely with a skilled craftsman (or craftswoman!) to get the quality product they're looking for.

This represents an excellent opportunity for Dapper's brand to leverage its clear operational focus on and advantage in the customization/personalization of menswear and accessories.  

Price sensitivity

This almost goes without saying, but Dapper's target market includes the highest-income earners — consumers typically willing to spend big on quality clothing and accessories.

Dapper's branding should reflect this through premium pricing and the absence of any material discounting.

Brand touchpoints

Branding

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Based on the findings outlined above, we've developed a branding plan that revolves around a number of touchpoints — each of which is covered below. We've drafted a new logo for Dapper — one that represents its premium brand and appeals to its target demographic of individuals in professional services.

We'd love to hear your feedback — by email, before we meet next, if possible. This feedback will inform our future work on Dapper's brand.

Social Networking & Influencers

We're proposing to focus on Instagram, the most visual of the popular social network frequently used by fashion-conscious consumers with relatively high levels of disposable income.

In particular, we will work closely with the following influencers (all of whom are a few of Instagram's most popular men's fashion trendsetters) to generate initial traction before ramping up our own photography / content production and thus building our own pool of followers:

• The Dapper Gentleman — 1,300,000 followers.
• Marcelle Nam — 1,050,000 followers.
• Cecile Lambert — 900,000 followers.

Website

We're proposing to redesign Dapper's new website. Although significant investment has been made in its production, we believe its design needs to be reconsidered to align with the new brand focus.

In particular, the website should place a greater emphasis on not only the quality of Dapper's products but also:

1. Customization/personalization options.
2. Convenience offered by Dapper's online self-measurement facility and free shipping services to the customer's door.

Referral Program

We envisage word of mouth being the principal driver of Dapper's growth over the medium-to-longer term. Survey results also suggested that consumers in this market are ready and willing to recommend to friends and colleagues fashion brands with which they have extraordinarily positive experiences.

Accordingly, we're proposing to have in place a referral program that will incentivise and reward customers for referrals. The exact terms of this program are yet to be settled but will likely involve an x% discount per successful referral. 

Showroom

Survey results indicated that, although consumers within this market value referrals and the convenience of a fully online made-to-measure menswear and accessories service, many see great value in being able to stop by a showroom and get a feel for the products through their own eyes.

A well-fitted showroom that reflects the quality of Dapper's products and brand would address this need as well as allow Dapper to establish personal connections with individual customers — something we have found to be quite difficult to achieve through purely online B2C (or Business to Consumer) channels.

Opportunities

Next steps

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In line with brand touchpoints outlined above, we propose to start work as soon as possible on the following:

• A broader branding redesign.
• Approaching and negotiating agreements with influencers.
• Redesigning Dapper's website.
• Developing a referral program.
• Working with commercial property agents, shop fitters and interior designers to scope out opportunities for and the work involved in opening Dapper's first showroom.

Expected investment

We expect to have a much better sense of the required investment within about 4-weeks of our meeting to discuss our plan with you. We currently estimate that a total investment of ~$225,000 would be required to give effect to our plan, as currently formulated. You can see this breakdown below.

Expected Investment

We would confirm these estimates with you before proceeding. Note that you can change some of the unit quantities to get a better sense of the costs involved if adjustments are made.

Time to Chat

We'd love to talk through the above with you at Dapper's offices. Please book a time below, and we'll arrange everything for the meet — including strong coffees and delicious pastries.

EMAIL HELLO@ABACUS.COM WEB ABACUS.COM