Home Stretch...

Sarah has prepared a thorough and extensive SWOT analysis...take a look and let us know what you think!

Strengths

·     More affordable means it reaches a wider audience

·     Pop-up shop grabs attention

·     Fresh-on trend offering

·     Not available in mass retailers, making it more unique for the customer

·     Knowledgeable and talented team- designer, merchandiser, and project coordinator

·     Network connections- in the process of building relationship with House of Lolo, introduced ourselves to owner of Parallel

Weaknesses

·     Lack of brand recognition/lack of loyal following

·     New designer

·     No special return policy

·     Since we are first starting out, we won’t have as great of a presence on the East coast as we do on the west coast.

·     We only serve one market segment

·     Fairly large number of competitors

Opportunities

·     As we grow and build brand recognition we can do collaborations with other well-known brands

·     May be carried in more and more boutiques

·     Sell merchandise at online retail store

·     Can expand product offering as time goes on

·     Could gain more financial backing

·     Use social media to increase sales

·     Offer gift-with-purchase or do sample sales to encourage brand loyalty

·     Could eventually open our own free-standing store

Threats

·     The sluggish economy could affect the sales of our line

·     Possible trade embargoes, or political unrest in regions where we source our materials

·     Possible increasing minimum wage

·     Customer needs could change

·     Could be criticized for not manufacturing our line in the US

·     Natural disasters/climate change could affect crops like cotton, making prices increase, or could delay crucial transportation timelines

Crunch Time!

We will be presenting our collection to the owner of House of Lolo in just 5 days! Tiffany created some really cute hue cards...take a look!

We will be making little press kits to give our judges complete with hue cards, business cards, hang tags, mini look books, and possibly a little treat!

Progress!

It's half way through the term here at the Art Institute of Portland and we are making some good progress on our product development. Tiffany is working really hard on her designs and has created some adorable flats...

I am still working on the hang tags but this is sort of what we want them to look like...

I wanted them to look urban, hand made, and earth-y... I am thinking of using teal ribbon and a gold safety pin to tie them to the merchandise...but we will see!

Group Progress...

Tiffany has finally developed our collection and it is really adorable! The collection consists of shorts, maxi skirts, military inspired jackets, slinky crop tops, and super cute ensembles that are easy and ready to wear. I can see this line being sold in boutiques all over Portland. Check it out...

Our brand logo and business cards are done as well! Bell Jar...

Our fabrics are deep mahogany's, golds, and green inspired by nature with military influences. Let us know what you think and stay tuned for our final garments to be posted!

Branding...

It's always way easier to brand something other than yourself! But we are working on it and have come up with a few possible names and ideas for our brand...

Bell Jar
J St.
JST us
Bay Way

(We're obviously still brainstorming....)

And another 'lil snafoo we ran into is the own of Frances May is going to be out of town week 8 when we are pitching our brand and line SO! We went out on an adventure to find another store we could sell out collection to. The owner of House of Lolo was kind enough to be our judge so that is our new store!

Tiffany has been working really hard coming up with designs and Sarah also has been plugging away at the business plan and line sheets...pics to come soon! xox

Competition

The store we are wanting to pitch our line to is

So we researched our competition...

House of Lolo

and

Parallel


We each picked out 5 skirts, dresses and tops to see what the average price and fabric we were dealing with to help us develop our line.

Average cost of top was $65, skirts were averaging about $90 and dresses were a little higher at $140. Lots of fabrics used were 100% silk, 100% wool, and 100% cotton with a few blends.

We met up Monday evening in the Art Institute of Portland's library to combine our information and get on the same page.

Tiffany, Sarah and I each made a concept board on the store we choose.