Customer segments

Customer segments

We have divided potential customers to four different segments, who will need to be approached differently in marketing. Next we have to decide the key message NOMO wants to send to each customer group.

    1.     Young women (20+)

    2.     Urban women (30+)

                       

    3.     Modern “mature” women

    4.     Trendy men

living in Stockholm (or elsewhere in Sweden), appreciates good fit in jeans, not necessarily with “standard” figure, modern, appreciates quality, into fashion? > ready to invest, middle-class or upper middle-class?

The Swedish customer in general:

“Having gotten used to making the most out of dressing for the Swedish weather and paired this knowledge with the practicality of Sweden’s fashion consumers (everything needs to be able to be washed in the washing machine, it shouldn’t cost too much, it should last a few seasons), Swedish fashion designers are well equipped for this new brave fashion world where we want to look fashionable all the time – yet still be presentable, professional and practical.”

-Daniel Björk, http://blogs.sweden.se/fashion/

“For all the talk about “Scandinavian cool” in the fashion circles (and of course, on this blog, too) – minimalist, utilitarian, limited colour palette, not-trying-too-hard – and the international success of labels that champion said looks, such as Acne, Cheap Monday and COS...”

-Sabrina Shim, http://blogs.sweden.se/fashion/

Location

Potential locations for NOMO’s store in Stockholm

Shopping centers

·      Gallerian

·      Sture Gallerian

Areas

·      Östermalm

·      SoFo (the blocks south of Folkungagatan, Södermalm)

·      Biblioteksgatan

Implications of the cultural dimensions analysis:

When opening the store the Swedish employees should be able to participate in planning and decision making. They should always be treated in an equal manner. Giving strict orders is not the right way to manage Swedish employees. The vendors are in an extremely important place in conveying the brand image. Therefore it’s important that they are happy in their job and feel positively about the company they work for. Because the current staff of NOMO are young, relaxed and informal the interaction should be easy. Finland’s scores in Power distance are close to Sweden’s too. The suitability of low hierarchy is also supported by the low score on the masculinity-femininity index.

Sweden is an individualistic society, which suits perfectly for NOMO. The customer can tune her own jeans just the way she likes them and they are made to fit her alone. With NOMO jeans the customer can highlight the unique me. NOMO is a celebration for individuality.

Although Swedes are individualistic they are also a highly feminist nation. This means that a person shouldn’t try to lift oneself above the others and one shouldn’t be too noticeable. This is also convenient for NOMO as the brand is stylish, but still down to earth, not luxurious. The product as such, jeans, is something for (almost) everybody.  In a feminist society “caring for others” is one of the dominant values. NOMO doesn't discriminate, it makes you perfect jeans no matter shape or size you are. NOMO treats people equally (contrary to some fashion brands who only manufacture to skinny people), which is important in a feminine society.

Sweden has quite low score for uncertainty avoidance. This might be good, because when buying NOMO jeans the final outcome is not visible at the moment of purchase, and therefore there is a little excitement involved. In a country with low preference of uncertainty avoidance innovation is not seen as threatening. This is a good thing, as buying jeans at a NOMO store will be a new kind of experience.

Sweden is a short-term orientation culture meaning that they may have “strong social pressure for keep up with the Joneses” and they have “relatively small propensity to save”. If NOMO manages to catch the attention of some, soon the rest will follow. They have to launch the custom-made jeans as “the next new thing”. Swedes are maybe also not too stingy to invest in quality jeans the 136 €.

The meaning of our survey is to get information about who are our potential customers and what are they like. In order to get reliable results the sample size should be over 1000. I got three answers from six of my friends living in Sweden. So this is more a hypothetical research method.

The survey was trying to confirm or reject the following assumptions:

• Also younger people are interested in custom-made jeans (NOMO's current target group is urban women 35-45 years old)
• The price is perceived reasonable
• Social media is an effective channel to target the potential customers
• Also people outside of Stockholm go to the city regularly for shopping (they should not be forgotten in marketing)

We also wanted to know 

• Is fit one of the most important criteria for buying jeans for the Swedish customers? To whom it matters the most? (fit is NOMO's strongest competitive advantage)
• What kind of brands attract those who also claim to be interested in custom-made jeans? (Which direction NOMO should take in its brand building?)
• Where people really buy their jeans? For example someone said Tiger of Sweden is her favorite brand, but she buys her jeans from H&M or Carlings. Liking something doesn't mean the person would actually buy it. This must be remembered also when looking at the answers to the question "are you interested in custom-made jeans". The survey only gives some idea what are consumers' attitudes towards NOMO's product, who might be potential customers and what kind of marketing NOMO could use.

In order to get big enough sample, personal interviews should perhaps be conducted in addition to the web questionare. This way also potentially not-so-active web-users could be included into the sample.

Survey

1.     Female/male

2.     Age

a.     20-25       e.     41-45

b.     26-30       f.      46-50

c.     31-35       g.     51-55

d.     36-40       h.    56-60

3.     Which of the following media you use or follow?

a.     Facebook

b.     Twitter

c.      Blogs

4.     Do you live in Stockholm?

            Yes/no

           

If you answered no, how often do you visit Stockholm?­­­­­

a.     Weeekly

b.     Monthly

c.      Yearly

d.     Less than once a year

           

When you go to Stockholm, do you normally do some shopping (clothes etc.)?

            Yes/no

5.     What is your favourite jeans brand?                                                   

6.     Where do you buy your jeans?                                                   ____

7.     What is the most important criteria when buying jeans?

a.     Fit

b.     Style

c.      Price

d.     Brand

e.     Quality

f.      Durability

8.     Would you be interested in custom-made jeans?

            Yes/no

9.     Do you think 136 € is a reasonable price for custom-made jeans?

            Yes/no

Info about Stockholm

Sweden

• GDP per capita is 352 400 SEK (39 916 €) (2010)
• Inflation rate 1.9% (January 2012 compared to January 2011)
• The unemployment rate is currently 7,1%

Stockholm

• With 861 010 inhabitants (2011) Stockholm is the largest city of Scandinavia
• The Stockholm metropolitan area of has over 2 million inhabitants
• The average income per year is  SEK 361 700 (40 969 €) for men 20-64 years old and SEK 281 600 (31 896 €) for women (2009)
• The percentage of 20-64-year-olds of the whole population is 64,5 %
• Measured by regional GDP per inhabitant Stockholm is the 8th welthiest city of 271 European regions (Eurostatt 2011)
• fDi Magazine and Financial Times have ranked Stockholm on the 4th place on the list of European Cities & Regions of the Future
• Stockholm was the first city to be named European Green Capital
•  In 2010 Stockholm had over 10 million overnight stays, from which 3,2 million were by foreign visitors

Sources:

www.stockholm.se/OmStockholm/Fakta-och-kartor/

www.scb.se/

http://www.investstockholm.com/Global/Investment%20promotion/Dokument/SBR_Arsberattelse_2010_REFERENCE.pdf

Cultural dimensions: Sweden

Our first market to look at in terms of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions is Sweden. The picture shows Sweden’s scores for each of the five dimensions together with Finland’s results.

In words this is what the Swedish culture is like according to Hofstede’s research:

Source: http://geert-hofstede.com/sweden.html