Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

Table of contents Introduction...... 2 Executive Summary ...... 4 Introduction...... 4 1. About Suitsupply ...... 6 2. About the market ...... 8 3. Present situation of the communication ...... 9 4. Competitive position Suitsupply ...... 11 5. Current target group ...... 14 6. Current marketing communication strategy ...... 15 8. The new marketing communication strategy ...... 19 9. Creative development ...... 25 10. Timeline ...... 28 11. Communication level evaluation Increase awareness of the casual wear ...... 29 12. Conclusion and recommendation ...... 31 Recommendations ...... 32 References...... 34

Debby, Marcel, Mark, Mike, Patrick & Sven

Introduction

Suitsupply, the name of the organization is self-explanatory, it is an organization that sells suits. Although this might be true, the organization has recently expanded their portfolio by also supplying men with a new line of casual wear. This line extension pushes Suitsupply into a different area of the market and now has to compete with other major long established retailers. In order to guarantee success, Suitsupply requires their current customers and potential customers to be aware of their widened scope. Hence, this communication plan has been created in order to ensure awareness and most importantly an attitude change towards Suitsupply as a brand.

Within this plan you will find the essential analyses of both organization and market, with the latter focusing on customers and competition. The organizational analysis will mainly focus on Suitsupply’s current strategy and what instruments and media have been used in the past. The analysis will create a clear picture of what Suitsupply has done in terms of communicational activities with- and without success.

Accordingly, the necessary funded decisions can be made in terms of a new strategic path, the objectives and what instruments and media to use in order to accomplish the strategic goals. In order to ensure feasibility of the set goals and objectives, a clear evaluation and time line have been incorporated in this plan.

All and all, these key aspects will all contribute to enable Suitsupply to reach its goal to become a serious player in the retail market with their expanded portfolio, whilst allowing the organization to further expand its brand.

Posed problem

Suitsupply has recently introduced the line extension of casual wear, but is still positioned as a supplier of suits, not as a retailer that dresses the successful man in both formal and leisure time.

As a group we will ensure to resolve the posed problem by temporarily focusing on communicating the casual wear, but always keeping Suitsupply’s core business in mind.

F##K CASUAL FRIDAY! MEET THE UNSUITABLES…

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

Executive Summary

Introduction

Suitsupply was founded in 1999 by Fokke de Jong. He opened the first store above highway A4 in the Netherlands, as the name might suggest it offers suits & accessories. Since then Suitsupply transformed to a retailer with stores across the world and is still growing in size. Its financial health, 200 million euros in revenue expected in 2016, can be clarified by their ability to differentiate themselves by offering high quality whilst keeping price down. This is also an important part of Suitsupply's mission statement, with their vision emphasizing more on the importance of putting their customers in the center of attention.

The retailer had recently introduced casual wear as a line extension and is now looking to find ways to change the attitude towards the brand, drive product awareness and further boost Suitsupply’s growth in a very competitive global market.

How can Suitsupply achieve their main objectives by applying the right communicative tools?

Target group

Young Urban Professional - This target group is between 20 and 30 years, graduated and just started their first job and are at the start of their career. The Young Urban Professionals mostly lives in and around the suburbs and highly values luxurious products. This target group values status and prestige and is very brand loyal to luxury brands.

Business Casual Comfort - This target group is indistinguishable in age but more in lifestyle. This consumer is often in a second phase of his career and attaches less importance to status and prestige.

The new target group where the organization is going to focus on by making key strategic decisions, wants to look successful in work life as well as private life.

Competitive position

Suitsupply has found a good way of marketing themselves, not only by communicative efforts like online and offline advertising, but also as an organization as a whole. Like mentioned in their mission and vision statement they highly value their customers by offering them great service and a strong price-quality ratio. Their no-nonsense approach, strong focus on several media with consistent communication and Omni channel excellence has made them one of markets strongest players. Hence, this can be a solid foundation to change the attitude of the target group towards Suitsupply.

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

New strategy

A global integrated marketing campaign could be the key to Suitsupply’s success in the casual wear market. It is imperative that the company’s communication to the international market is standardized, whilst applying minor communicative adaption to specific countries. Not only should there be a shift and change to the external communication, but most importantly the communication within and their culture has to change. To amend the outdated and incomplete mission- and vision statement can be a great start in realizing a shift in attitude towards the brand from within, which will eventually harvest externally as well.

Actions

In order to successfully flow down the new strategy organization wide and to achieve its associated objectives, certain communicative actions need to be undertaken. Over a 3 month period the GIMC will be rolled out. Within these three months the following instruments and media will be used for its actions, whilst constantly evaluating, in order to make Suitsupply’s new campaign a success:

F##K CASUAL FRIDAY! #FCF

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

1. About Suitsupply Company profile The company was founded in 1999 by Fokke de Jong. He opened the first store above highway A4 in the Netherlands, as the name might suggest it offers suits & accessories. Since then Suitsupply transformed to a retailer with stores across the world. According to Suitsupply’s website their formula is ‘straight, to the point and still personal. Fast and effective. Combining craftsmanship with flair.’ (Suitsupply site, 2016).

Organization & culture Suitsupply has a flat organization with a no-nonsense culture (de Jong, Suitsupply, 2016). The company is known for its provocative and outstanding commercials. Suitsupply was in the news multiple times for their advertisements. A few examples:

“Suitsupply asks consumer to start smoking.” (Amsterdam Ad Blog, 2009).

“Dutch fashion firm under fire over window display. Images of sex scene in car at Suit Supply's Westfield store provoke complaints to ad watchdog and Twitter protests” (Davies, the Guardian, 2010).

“Suit Supply 'Toy Boys' campaign accused of being sexist towards women, founder argues the opposite” (McCarthy, the Drum, 2016).

Figure 1 Banned Suitsupply photo which was on a window display at a shopping mall.

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

Focus of the company The focus of Suitsupply lies on suits and casual comfort clothing as seen in the Abell model below. The Abbel model illustrates the needs, segments and the technologies used to possess clothes from Suitsupply (Robbins & Coulter, 2004.). The square below shows the domain in which Suitsupply is active. Analyzing the Abell model it is clear that Suitsupply is moving its focus towards non-suit wearers & other male consumers using their casual clothing line.

Figure 2 Domain of Suitsupply illustrated using the Abell model.

Financial health About 30% of the total turnover, 170 million euro for 2015, comes from the web shop. In 2014 Suitsupply CEO Fokke de Jong bought all the shares, giving him and the management of the company 100% of the control (Toet, Financieel Dagblad, 2015).

To further improve the web shop Suitsupply is busy with an investment round for a 130-million- euro cash injection. One of the possible investors is the ABN Amro Participaties, with 25 million euro. The other 105 million euros will be collected through a unitranche, a single lending deal with one pack of terms & conditions and one rate of interest in which multiple companies participate (Bosteels, Retaildetail, 2015).

For 2016 Fokke de Jong expects a turnover of over 200 million euros, compared to 170 million in 2015 and 160 million in 2014 (Toet, Financieel Dagblad, 2015).

But will he achieve this in this competitive market?

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

2. About the market

The market we are dealing with is of men’s fashion and can be split up into a business and consumer focus. There are also several segments that can be distinguished within this market; i.e. sport, formal and comfort. When looking at the market in which Suitsupply operates, we can clearly point out two focus areas; respectively formal clothing and comfort, or casual clothing. Ever since Suitsupply entered this market it knew competition was fierce, with well-known and long established couturiers controlling and dictating the high-end of this market. Secondly, the large retailers have been using economies of scale for a longer period of time, making the low- end of the market impossible to penetrate. The consumers market had to be penetrated with a different focus; the middle- to high end segment, whilst always watching out for the phenomenon to become “stuck in the middle”, which basically is an organization which is unable to make the right decisions regarding a focus on a specific segment.

Besides the market being controlled by fierce competition it is also controlled by its consumers. Especially in times of economic uncertainty or rampant times, the consumer makes well over thought decisions as on where they will buy clothing. It is a market where trends need to be consistently monitored and adjusted in order to avoid “missing the boat”. With consumers becoming more selective and demanding in regards to a good quality-price ratio, it is becoming less and less attractive to enter a market as such. Due to this expectation from a consumer perspective the demand from companies like Suitsupply has also shifted, simply by virtue of the fact that higher quality fabrics against a lower price are sometimes impossible. Hence, other options like moving over production to China had to be explored by the market in order to ensure profitability.

Because of the competitive atmosphere with some major players all fighting for the biggest piece of the pie, it has become a market where you will have to be a pioneer with a differentiated focus to survive. Suitsupply has done well doing so.

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

The communication of Suitsupply has played an important role to this success. Like mentioned in the introduction to Suitsupply, the provocative communication and brilliant choice of instruments and channels helped achieve its success. Will this be enough for a change in attitude, or do they have to make some changes? First of all, let us take a look at the present situation.

3. Present situation of the communication

 Increase knowledge about Suitsupply’s casual wear amongst the target group is done by using the same instruments and channels as they did with their formal wear. Except for some minor changes to the content, nothing really changed.  Change the attitude of the target group towards Suitsupply; being more than just a shop for suits. The question remains if this actually was achieved.

Organizational Mission Suitsupply’s mission statement is being a supplier of quality suits with affordable prices. The high level of service and knowledge of employees is key. The founder of the company once said “We want men to buy a suit within the hour.”

Vision The vision statement lies in the strength of their formula. Straight, to the point and still personal. Combining craftsmanship with flair and making their customers feel that every staff member only has eyes for them. Suitsupply is there for people who want to be seen.

Marketing Products Suitsupply wants to offer products for businessmen who want to look successful and are non- conformists. The name of the company and the way they work is straight forward with a no nonsense attitude. Price The products are affordable whilst having a luxury appearance and high level of quality. Promotion The promotion of Suitsupply is also not conformism. Men being photographed as toy boys with woman in a sensual / sexual pose. A “boys will be boys” attitude which suits the company profile and product.

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

Place Suitsupply is there where their customers are. “Sell it where they can buy it”. They open shops in cities based on where online sales are coming from. Tailors will visit the customers if necessary to make the buy as easy as possible. The customers are offered a timely and high level service. People Suitsupply’s staff members have service and sales imbedded in their DNA. It is their responsibility to communicate what Suitsupply stands for. They have a large impact on the customer experience, and simultaneously the organization’s prosperity.

Public opinion The public opinion is very diverse, most women judge Suitsupply for being woman unfriendly. Suitsupply is aware of this opinion, but they will not change their somewhat provocative communication as it suits the brand and the free publicity creates awareness.

The content which was used for the casual wear was not that provocative. Is it not common do so for casual wear? It almost looks like Suitsupply is doing what everybody else is doing in regards to casual wear. But who are these competitors and what is Suitsupply’s position in the market?

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

4. Competitive position Suitsupply

The market today contains many players. This means you will need to differentiate in order to stand out. Suitsupply tries doing so by keeping it straight to the point (but still personal), fast and effective. As they like to put it, combining craftsmanship with flair. One part of this strategy is how they communicate with their customers. Suitsupply is utilizing a lot of different media channels where people can connect.

Another way how Suitsupply tries to differentiate is the way their customers buy suits. The sales person in the store is not working towards his retirement. He is dressed like how you want to be dressed. Buying a first suit at Suitsupply is not an awkward and expensive experience. The stores are laid-back, as are the sales people. Once you enter it is not like any other suit store. It feels like entering a man-cave with suits, and maybe a drink. Today it is also possible to connect with Suitsupply through WhatsApp. A customer can send a photo of a suit, and request advice about a shirt that could fit with it.

The suits from Suitsupply might be around €500, but is still nothing compared what you would have to pay in any other store that is promising to offer slightly better quality. This can easily mean a €3,000 price tag. It is safe to say that is a huge price difference, and not really justifiable. The price difference does however strengthen the competitive position of Suitsupply.

Suitsupply has found a good way to combine Treacy & Wiersema’s different value strategies. A minor focus on operational excellence as Suitsupply is not the cheapest in this market, with mid- level pricing. Product leadership because Suitsupply’s products have a high quality standard compared to competitors in the same price segment. Customer intimacy is their strongest value, Suitsupply really cares about the customer experience and knows them well. The suits can be easily tailored on the spot and the stores, as well as the staff, are not the same in any other store.

They genuinely like to provide the highest level of service to their current target group. In the following chapter we will introduce this target group. Let’s meet them and learn something about them after having a closer look at Suitsupply’s competitive position.

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

Communication matrix competitors In figure 1.1 below, you can see how the biggest competitors of Suitsupply have scored on grounds of communication use and level of service towards to consumers.

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

5. Current target group

As described in the first part of this plan; Suitsupply differentiates itself by focusing on high- quality clothing for relatively low pricing whilst offering a high service level.

Through this strategy they are immediately close to their target; Suitsupply focuses on professionals. Although this might be the case, a focus on professionals is too vague. The core target group are best known as young professionals who are at the start of their careers.

Within the group of professionals Suitsupply is known as a luxurious, high quality and strong retailer with excellent pricing. Although Suitsupply is well known for their primary focus, the market that Suitsupply is in can be split up into two main product lines; respectively formal- and casual wear, just like the professionals have been split up into two target groups:

Young Urban Professional The core (formal) product line is and has always been known by the Young Urban Professional. This target group is between 20 and 30 years old, graduated and just started their first job and are at the start of their careers. The Young Urban Professionals mostly lives in and around the suburbs and highly values luxurious products. The major part of their purchases will be done online where convenience and simplicity are key. This target group attaches great value to status and prestige and is very brand loyal to luxury brands.

The Midlife Professional This target group contains men who also like business casual comfort and are indistinguishable in age as well as lifestyle. The business casual comfort consumer is often in the second phase of his career and values less importance to status, the status quo and prestige. This consumer also values less importance to his career and focuses more on his family, friends and health. This target group knows where to find balance between work and private life. This target group dresses less formally for work and more often chooses to combine jeans with a blouse and a blazer.

Suitsupply has a focus on both of these groups. The purchases of the business casual consumer are generally done physically in store and less online and wants to actually see and feel products before deciding to buy. The young urban professional predominantly buys their product online. So regarding both target groups, the current communication strategy should be ideal. Right?

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

6. Current marketing communication strategy

Communication In a recent interview, Fokke de Jong says: ‘’I want doers, I am not going to coach you. And I also do not want to talk to you about ‘communication’. In this company we strive for a small amount of structure.’’ (Oosterhout,2009). This says a lot about the current communication strategy of Suitsupply.

There are a lot of people that have a strong opinion about Suitsupply. Terms like provocative, transboundary are being used a lot. Managers of publicity agencies, sexologists, everybody seems to have an opinion about Suitsupply. It seems that Fokke de Jong doesn’t get bothered by all of it. He said: ‘’we are sending this message out to a very wide public. Especially these days, mainly because of social media, there will always be a group of people that does not like it, finds it provocative. At the start of your campaign, keeping these criticasters in mind, you are going to get boring, general campaigns. This is something that happens a lot lately.’’

Strong consistent communication Suitsupply has always said that they make high quality tailor made suits and clothing for affordable pricing. The strength of their communication lies in the fact that they were already communicating this from the start, 16 years ago, and they are currently still communicating this. This has led to increasing turnover each year. What makes Suitsupply even stronger is the fact that the ‘Wall Street Journal’ and ‘New York Times’ as established organizations, are reviewing and publishing comments that support the claim of Suitsupply. ‘’High quality fabric, clean soft construction for comfort. 'Lots of attention to detail' [...] the $614 [Sienna] Suitsupply suit matched the $3.625 Armani in quality."

Evaluation of employees

In Suitsupply’s current communication strategy they highly value contact with their customers. This is shown in various ways, like for example the employee evaluation process. They do not get their evaluations based on sales, but the level of service they had offered to the customer. They do so by sending a quick e-mail after buying a suit. The customer gets asked if they were satisfied with the service offered by filling out an survey: bad, moderate, good and very good are the options to choose from.

Omnichannel In 2015 Suitsupply won a prestigious Omni channel award. When Martijn van der Zee, director of marketing, was asked how they had accomplished it, he answered: “We sell suits that in most cases needs some adjustments, because we want our customer to look really good”. The service that we offer offline in order to achieve this, is the same type of service we strive to offer online. That is our starting point. Additionally, we also have the online world within our stores by letting our staff work with their personal iPads linked to the web shop. We cannot have everything in store all the time. So customers are able to order a suit in a different size from inside the store. (twinklemagazine,2015)

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

Current instruments Website and -shop One of the best things about Suitsupply is their website. At this point in time they have over 60 stores around the globe, about a quarter of them in the United States. The goal of the company is to eventually extend to 500 stores to reach more people. They are working on it, but it seems still long way. Therefore, the website is still an very important aspect. It is beautifully designed, there is a nice overview and they have video’s about how the suits looks and what makes it so special.

Personal selling by WhatsApp

One of the innovative instruments that Suitsupply currently uses is WhatsApp. Well actually, WhatsApp as a platform is not even that innovative but the approach that Suitsupply uses is.

WhatsApp is being used more and more as a media for mobile and online customer service. They also use for giving style advice. A customer can send a picture of the suit they are wearing and ask for a shirt which will fit nice with it. Suitsupply linked WhatsApp to their CRM system so they instantly get key intelligence about things like: who the customer is, if it is a recurring customer and what they had previously ordered? This way, Suitsupply can instantly custom tailor its communication to the customer. (Duursma, 2015)

Direct marketing Suitsupply sends out a newsletter every 2 to 4 days. Most of the times these e-mails contain information about new releases like: the new season’s eveningwear, laid-back luxury or knitwear. In all cases their end in mind is to redirect the customers to the website.

Public Relations One of the instruments that Suitsupply uses on a regular basis is public relations. As described before, the provocative marketing campaigns they use were picked up a lot by numerous media. This resulted in free publicity, which could potentially help bring down marketing expense.

Although there is very little to find about the outdoor offline media, Suitsupply definitely uses it. As matter of fact, it is one of the main reasons why free publicity was achieved as it was said to be woman unfriendly. They used big posters at buss stations and billboards to advertise their seasonal lines.

Current channels

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

Social media

Facebook 2 Facebook post per day 431.634 likes Suitsupply adds 2 post a day on Facebook. One of them always being ‘daily picked’, you can see a different suit combination every day. And the other post is always random Suitsupply news.

Twitter Same posts as on Facebook 21.040 followers If compared to the Facebook, a Twitter post does not reach the same amount of people, with only 21.040 followers.

Instagram Same posts as on Facebook 264.000 followers The same posts are used as on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

YouTube 6941 subscribers Suitsupply has 4 different playlists on YouTube:

 Suitsupply  General (18 videos, 8649 views)  Determine your Suitsupply Size (4 videos, 6629 views)  Discover our fits, our new cuts and find your perfect suit (15 videos, 105.103 views)  Style tips (10 videos, 29.124 views)

Most popular are the ‘’Discover our fits, our new cuts and find your perfect suit’’ video’s.

Snapchat A large number of companies do not know exactly know how to use a channel like Snapchat. What is vital to know, is that you can focus on a very specific target group. Only 1% of people above 40 use Snapchat. The other 99% is younger. With the biggest group of people between 15 and 30 years old. (Gosse, 2016)

In a way, Snapchat is similar to WhatsApp. Both platforms already have huge amounts of users. Suitsupply is currently using Snapchat to show the historic mills that produce the Italian fabrics, or to give you a front row seat at the New York Fashion week.

The part up to this point, is Suitsupply before the new campaign. Who they are, why and how did they achieved this much in a relatively short period of time. An analysis of the competitors,

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply the current target group, what kind of communication they had used and if they are successful in their communication efforts. The new line, the casual wear, almost seems accidently and appeared suddenly without a grand entrance. Suitsupply is for suits. Their communication efforts are strong and effective, and a lot of instruments and most of the online channels are used successfully.

It has contributed to their success, why change? Maybe the new target group will commence a new way of thinking out the use of instruments and channels. First of all, who is the new target group for the casual wear? Is it still the midlife professional who accidently came to encounter with casual wear? Let’s meet…

7. New target group

Suitsupply has clearly focused on the business consumer, they will not focus on the entire men’s fashion industry, but on a specified target group. We now know that Suitsupply is well known for their high quality suits against affordable pricing. In the new strategy Suitsupply has extended their product line and moved their focus more towards casual wear, whilst always keeping their core business in mind.

To create awareness towards the casual wear Suitsupply needs to redefine their target group and change their focus as part of the communication strategy on changing the attitude towards Suitsupply. With the new casual wear Suitsupply can emphasize more on the way of living and self-confidence, and less on the association with suits.

In their communication to the customer Suitsupply will still need to focus on the business consumers, since this target group is already known with the brand and unknown with the casual wear of Suitsupply. By communicating the casual wear to the existing target group Suitsupply can expand their target group with new ‘casual’ customers.

The new potential consumers can be reached within the business consumers market, as they are men who don’t wear suits on a daily basis, resulting that they are unaware with the other product line of Suitsupply.

The new target group is the business consumer in the age range of 25 – 60 years with a mid- to high income. This consumer is successful and extremely professional. He looks elegant, manly and is always searching for high quality but yet affordable clothing to fit his personality. This new target group can be named the Casual Professional. The Casual Professional is being characterized as a specialist within his business. He highly values material possessions, prestige and semi luxury brands. To conclude, he wants to look successful in his work as well as private life.

Suitsupply’s casual wear suits the needs of the target group well and with the right strategic decisions, product- and brand awareness as well as a change of attitude can be realized.

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

For this new target group, the strategy has to be revised, not 360 degrees, as Suitsupply already has a very strong communication strategy. With some minor adaptations the market can be waken up again for Suitsupply’s casual wear. F#ck casual Friday!

Meet the un-suitables for un-casual Fridays and casual weekdays.

8. The new marketing communication strategy

Key points of current Strategy - Adopted a no nonsense approach - Strong focus on all social media - Consistent communication - Omni channel excellence - Highly valued contact with their customers, shown and proven through staff members

Current mission

Suitsupply's mission is to offer high quality suits at competitive prices. The service to the customer is essential in doing so.

New Strategy GIMC – A global integrated marketing campaign could be the key to Suitsupply’s success in the casual wear market. With Suitsupply’s strong international emphasis of late, it is imperative that the company’s communication to the international market is standardized in such a way that global brand awareness can be realized, whilst applying minor communicative adaption to specific countries. Suitsupply does not only supply suits to its customers any longer, it offers a complete set of clothing. Both formal and business casual! This standardization does not only focus on promotion through several media, but also on the rest of the omni-channel, which Suitsupply has so successfully focused on in the past years. This is why Suitsupply received the European E-Commerce Award last year. (Suitsupply receives the European E-commerce Awards' 2015 Golden Omnichannel Award, 2015)

Besides creating a standardized message through media communication, Suitsupply must also focus its organizational culture by changing its right to exist, values and identity. This change is all in service to ensure that the attitude change is not only externally, but also internally within the company. The importance of a shift in beliefs is of utmost importance, as both employees as well as customers need to be aware of Suitsupply’s widened focus.

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

This widened focus can be described as line extension, due to Suitsupply having already proven itself as one of world’s best by providing their customers with high quality suits, Suitsupply now has to create similar success to its new business casual line. In order to cultivate and eventually capitalize on this new opportunity, Suitsupply can potentially make use of similar channels and instruments as it has done so in the past to ensure brand and product awareness.

Mission

As stated before, the importance of changing Suitsupply’s brand positioning, especially the attitude towards the new business casual line, is Suitsupply’s new goal. To do so, a shift in culture is necessary. Not only communicated through promotion, but also at its base. Hence, the company’s mission had to be changed to reflect its widened focus on men’s clothing in general:

“To empower men to look and feel successful in quality suits by providing them with custom tailored service, and to ensure they look and feel just as successful whilst comfortable in leisure time.”

Vision

Besides the company’s mission, Suitsupply had only formed and communicated their philosophy. Although this philosophy fundamentally captures their promise to themselves, the market and their customers, it did not succeed to clarify how the mission can be achieved. The importance of focusing on the ‘how’ has therefore been underestimated.

Hence, the new vision has been formed and incorporated into the organization’s communication as part of the GIMC:

 People: Ensuring employees to feel comfortable in a fun and motivating work environment, whilst allowing them to achieve personal goals.  Product: Being a world class retailer by supplying men with high quality casual and formal clothing covered by several product lines.  Partners: Well-known and established fabric providers allow us to consistently offer high quality clothing to our customers.  Planet: We believe that quality is not only limited to the actual garment, but also includes the manner in which it was produced.  Growth: Maximize further expansion to empower more men to feel and become successful.  Productivity: Our strength lies in our formula: straight, to the point and still personal. Fast and effective.

The promising philosophy that Suitsupply created will remain part of the communication as it clearly outlines what is being done to enable its success:

“Suitsupply is a market defining brand showing strong international growth. We are pioneers at everything we do, and we work hard to keep it that way. Our pioneering spirit generates a contagious energy, which is what enables us to keep putting new ideas into practice. Our strength lies in our formula: straight, to the point and still personal. Fast and effective. Combining craftsmanship with flair. There are few things that distract us. This approach 20

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply enables us to create an environment in which our customers feel that we only have eyes for them. We are there for people who want to be seen.”

Objectives

By setting the following objectives the company enables to measure its progress in achieving the new strategic focus of integrating its marketing communication globally. These objectives were split up into four variables moving down from a narrow- to wide focus. First of all, what kind of actions do we need to take to ensuring more people buying the casual collection?

Suitsupply has the reputation of being a tailor for affordable suits with a luxury appearance. The casual wear is not their core business. It is a large collection which is suitable for their customer’s leisure time. Customers who wants to have a successful, elegant and manly appearance. The company needs to create more awareness for the brand, but predominantly for this specific product line.

The company has to ascertain a 24-hour image; for business and leisure. Always providing quality, a high level service and elegancy. Suitsupply offers more than suits. The customer is more than just a businessman who typically follows the status quo.

There is a good opportunity to cross sell amongst the current customers / target group. The potential customers, the new target group for the casual wear, can also become interested in their suits. So, if the company can change the attitude towards Suitsupply it can accomplish increased sales and amount of customers.

Advertising - Launch a wide scaled advertising campaign in at least 10 countries - Realize at least one million views on YouTube with new casual focused video advertisement - Reach 5 million interactions on several social media

The new advertising campaign will be created with the main purpose of changing the consumer’s attitude towards the Suitsupply brand; from a suit supplier, to a class retailer for men. Both the casual- as well as formal segment will be targeted in several countries to ensure AIDA will be achieved.

Due to the new target group mainly using social media, Suitsupply must advertise their new line of product by using these type of media. This is in service of reaching the increased percentage of product knowledge.

Communication - Ensure change of attitude towards the organization to a high quality retailer, instead of only a supplier of suits - Increased product knowledge amongst target group of casual wear - Increase amount of repetitive purchases - Launch a global integrated marketing campaign through 2017 and 2018

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

Firstly, in order to achieve several quantitative marketing objectives which Suitsupply is yet to publish, the global integrated marketing campaign of 2017 and 2018 is due to kick off. Additionally, the change of attitude towards the organization should also play part in capitalization of the brands renewed focus. This new organizational strategy is key to Suitsupply’s future success, as the organization has recently adopted a strong international focus. Standardized communication with a minor adaptation to individual countries shall be part of this new strategy.

Lastly, a larger group of ambassadors are needed to enable word of mouth promotion to do its work. Repetitive purchases are considered a necessity for the organization to further expand on its ambassadors, who can positively affect the revenue stream of the organization.

The actions Creating brand- and product awareness should be flowed down through the entire communication strategy. Focus on a way of living within the target group, not on product level. The service can be extended by tailors also visiting the customers at their offices. The web shop needs to include an advice button for casual wear. The communication can be similar. Men with women, but now also photographed in different environments. “Boys” also go on vacations, play golf, drink whisky with their friends.

Do not live by the status quo like Casual Friday! #FCF.. Now let us talk about the how in this communication plan.

Marketing / Company Because the marketing and organizational focused objectives have been incorporated in the company’s strategic plan, they have not been incorporated in this report. The marketing objectives mainly focus on quantitative results regarding increased revenue and profit and reduced operational costs. These objectives are in line with the end in mind, which is to become a serious player in a competitive landscape focusing on both formal as well as casual wear. Generally, Suitsupply needs to gain the reputation of market’s best retailer simply by virtue of the fact that men require Suitsupply in their life in order to ensure success!

Instruments and media

Suitsupply has always been strong in their communication / advertising campaigns. Hence, it is understandable that the organization continues to harvest their strengths, with some minor adjustments to ensure a change in attitude towards the organization. Because the organization only has to make minor adjustments to its use of instruments and media, only the ones where these adjustments are applied will be given:

 PR: Every organization is aware of the strength and effectiveness of public relations. If used well, it can easily accomplish a change of attitude, which is exactly what the purpose of Suitsupply’s GIMC is. Press release as a possible form could be a great tool for Suitsupply to reach a very wide audience making them aware of the brand with its offerings.

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

 Sales promotions: Going back to the communication objectives, there is a need of increased repetitive purchases and to ensure a higher sense of product awareness, especially towards the casual wear. Sales promotional activities suit these objectives well. To enable the organization to actually achieve these objectives Suitsupply could incentivize purchasing the casual wear line and offer discounts to other lines as well. In order to further promote the brand, customers would be drawn in by these promotional activities and convinced Suitsupply is a world class retailer.

 Advertising: An important part of Suitsupply’s integrated marketing communication campaign is advertising. Suitsupply is well known for its strong, sexy and provocative advertising campaigns. Especially the picture content has always been linked to Suitsupply as described on the current strategy. This type of advertisement will again be used in a similar way. The video content has historically been used to advertise the formal wear. This will be revised and also focused towards Suitsupply’s casual wear. To ensure awareness of the complete range of offerings, the advertisement campaign will play a huge role in communicating their line extension.

 Own magazine: Suitsupply publishes his own lifestyle magazine. Especially made for the Suitsupply men. (target group) In this magazine there is a real introduction of the casual wear. Articles about the lifestyle of this persona. How to wear items. Cooperate with other brands like a whisky, car or golf brand.

 Personal selling: This last instrument is pretty self-explanatory, personal selling is considered of utmost importance to ensure a satisfied customer. Suitsupply has always offered great custom tailored service and has successfully communicated this. The same type of service now needs to be translated into the casual wear. The person providing with in store assistance to the customer now needs to focus on providing excellent advice and service regarding the casual wear.

 Events: Amsterdam Fashion Week to introduce the new casual line. Create product awareness.

Media for the used instruments

 In store: Suitsupply needs to mirror the communication to the other channels. Both online and offline. Staff needs to be educated (and dressed) in selling methods and styling towards the man in his leisure time, the casual wear. Personal sellers become brand ambassadors. And instore can be used for the extension of the campaign with instore events and promotions as well.

 Website and App: Both platforms need to be “casual proof”. For example, a “which casual style suits you” option, which allows the customer to find his preferred style. Personal salesmen online (chat) do not only sell but have a stylist role like in store staff.

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

 Social media: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram focus on the casual wear with this GIMC campaign. The content used will be about lifestyle and the casual wear that suits his lifestyle in leisure time. Not just product related content like the photo content used in the past, but also video content which will be created for YouTube to generate the views and interactions as mentioned in the objectives. This video is about the “24-hour man”, business and his leisure time. Always provocative whilst playful and stylish. Creating a video where both suits and casual wear are incorporated to demonstrate the success of men by wearing Suitsupply’s clothing.

 Billboards, abri’s, magazines: Not only for advertising purposes, but also to create a lifestyle platform in a magazine which will have to be created. The magazine will be created to communicate the new casual wear and existing formal wear, but also to enable men to find their style and find their way to the offline and online store.

 Press release: Communicate that Suitsupply will be participating in the Amsterdam Fashion week to show off their brand new casual collection. Fokker de Jong will write the message himself to enable mass media spread.

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

9. Creative development

Meet the Unsuitables

Casual wear is about success, being the man you want to be.

Successful, strong and wearing what you want, not what they expect! It is about making statements!

F@#k casual Friday, from now on Suits Friday and casual weekdays! #fcf

(this hashtag will be used for social media during the campaign)

Amsterdam fashion week: Presenting the Casual Chicago collection

Joining the AFW with the signature of Suitsupply: Provocative, successful and strong appeal, surrounded with beautiful woman. Boys will be boys; boys will be toys.

Four man are trying to win the battle, and it will be a tough one. How can they lose Casual Friday? F@#k casual Friday, it will be casual weekdays and Suits Friday! The quest for Casual weekdays starts at the AFW.

1. Catwalk take over Twenties automobiles arrive with models in casual wear, wearing hats and bags. They are accompanied by beautiful woman in suits of Suitsupply wearing guns. Blazers very open, seeing just a bit of skin. Nothing less, nothing more. The fireworks begin when they arrive, it looks/sounds like there is a battle going on. The public acts shocked

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

and clear the way to the catwalk. It’s show time! Frank Sinatra blasts from the speakers. The story of the quest will be told by a show host. The story ends with the sentence: Meet the Unsuitables, let the quest begin!

2. Catwalk show starts Every weekday has a persona (model)introduced on the screen at the back of the catwalk. Meet Dave on Monday, meet Kevin at Tuesday…At the end of the week Friday shows up, a beautiful woman in the Suitsupply casual wear. Every man would like to make love to her, she’s so sexy! A man in a suit shows up. F@#k casual Friday (suggesting it’s the woman because she represents casual Friday!) and lights dim and music of the untouchables plays.

The hashtag #fcf appears on big screens at the back of the stage.

In Store activities

There will be a campaign to introduce the Casual Chicago Collection in stores. Invite customers to come to the stores. Meet The Unsuitables and get advised how to combine the casual wear. Drinks only available on Fridays. One personal seller in each store is dressed in casual wear, except on Fridays. This in store promotion starts directly after the AFW for about 2 months.

Mondays: Meet Dave on casual shoe day

Dave is really about shoes, he loves to wear a suit, but always wants to combine this suit with the shoes he likes. Dave is a real sportive guy. Successful at work, a real player in the weekend. Don’t start a conversation about shoes when he is drinking his beer. You end up buying al the shoes Suitsupply sells, even as a woman. Let this be a warning! Wanna know how to combine casual with success? Wanna be like Dave? Join Daves quest! #FCF

Tuesdays: Meet Kevin on casual shirt day

Kevin is about shirts, he has more than hundred shirts, for his work and also for leisure time. In his leisure time Kevin is a hunter, a hunter for woman. He loves woman in suits, drinks whisky and always ends up taking one of his many shirts off. Wanna know how to combine casual with success? Wanna be like Kevin? Join Kevins quest! #FCF

Wednesdays: Meet John on casual pants day

Johnny is the most dangerous one of the Unsuitables. He loves casual pants and always talks you out of it, so watch out if you are a woman wearing trousers. He puts a spell on you with a good glass of wine and will surprise you with his unsuitable looks. Wanna know how to combine casual with success? Wanna be like John? Join Johns quest! #FCF

Thursdays: Meet Elliot on casual jacket day

Elliot is a man who loves being out in nature, playing golf, riding horses or climbing mountains in his leisure time. Elliot is a successful man, he owns his success and wears it like he has made

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply it true life with just a jacket in wildlife. He is a magnet to woman and is not aware of it. Too busy for his quest for casual weekdays. Wanna know how to combine casual with success? Wanna be like Elliot? Join Elliots quest! #FCF

Fridays: Meet all The Unsuitables on Friday suits day.

This day is all about suits! Success looks good on you, especially on Fridays. Join all the guys on the Friday afternoon after work drinks at your SuitSupply. Joint their quest! #FCF

The magazine:

It will be a unique magazine, only once to support the objective to change the attitude towards Suitsupply. In this magazine there will be a report of the AFW. The introduction of the Unsuitables: Dave, Elliot, John and Kevin. The tutorial will tell the story about the quest of the Unsuitables. Their quest to really introduce casual weekdays and the battle to kill casual Friday. The magazines layout will have a modern look from the outside and a mix of modern and early 20ties look on the inside.

There will be different topics in this unique issue:

 Meeting The Unsuitables and each one of them will be introduced and has items of how to combine different casual items (Shoes, shirts, etc.) with success or suits.  Leisure time articles (golf, cars, whiskies and beers)  How to seduce woman with your success  The history of casual Fridays  The history about Friday afternoon after work drinks  And many pictures of woman like Suitsupply is known for…

Photography for advertisement, social media content: Suitsupply has to keep up the good work by staying the provocative one in their photography. Boys will be boys, will be toys. The only change that is needed is the appearance of the models. Not just using suits, also use the casual wear with the same beautiful woman. The storytelling in all of the content is about The Unsuitables. The campaign has an atmosphere of the roaring twenties in a modern way. Sexy, strong and always fighting the status quo.

Fuck casual Friday!

It’s Suits Friday and casual weekdays from this day forward. Want to find out more? Meet the Unsuitables!

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

10. Timeline

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

11. Communication level evaluation Increase awareness of the casual wear Suitsupply has set an objective about increasing awareness on casual wear. The target group has to get familiar with the products by adding this line to the communication campaign. The personal sellers have to change their apparel in stores by wearing casual wear, next to wearing suits. The personal sellers in stores are one of the qualitative evaluators on the awareness of the casual wear. Every month there will be a survey amongst the sales force about the customer awareness on casual wear.

Attitude change of the target group The main objective is the change of attitude. This objective can be measured by the amount of sales.

Measure the amount of sales 1 week prior to the start of the campaign. (The percentage of casual wear sales in relation to the percentage of formal wear sales). Then measure sales after 6 months and a year after the starting the campaign. By using a similar timeframe regarding interviews and surveys for measuring the attitude towards Suitsupply, the essential results can be measured.

Advertising level evaluation Advertisement in magazines which also have an online channel:

These advertisements can be measured by analyzing the clicks on online ads. (clicks on the advertisement make the target group customers visit the webshop. How much more sales will this realize?) Measure the online visitors of Suitsupply when these magazines launch their monthly issues.

Realize at least one million views on YouTube with new casual wear focused advertisement

The objective of 1 million views on YouTube has to be measured every week for over a 6 month period. The main goal of this measurement is to ensure continuous growth. To reach this goal Suitsupply will have to measure the views on YouTube on a weekly basis. So if the desired growth is behind schedule, the PR department should take action.

Reach 5 million interactions on several social media:

This objective can be easily measured by the clicks, likes and shares on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Measurement instruments and tools:

 Google Analytics  Facebook Analytics  Twitter Analytics  CRM system  Financial tools to analyze the sales results

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

Objective Start Weekly Monthly 6 months 1year Awareness of casual  Brief  Survey wear personal amongst sellers personal  Amsterda sellers. m Fashion Week Attitude change Set baseline on Second The last measurement sales. measurement on sales on sales Advertisement in Set baseline Google analytics Google Google analytics magazines with google measurement analytics measurement and analytics measurement conclusion and conclusion One million YouTube Google analytics Google analytics views measurement measurement and recommendation on PR Five million Set baseline  Google interactions on social with google analytics media analytics measurem ent Social media analytics Press interviews and Google Alerts articles about Suitsupply

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

12. Conclusion and recommendation Conclusion To conclude, Suitsupply is already doing a very good job regarding their communication evorts. Their no-nonsense approach, strong focus on all social media, consistent communication, Omni channel excellence and highly valued contact with their customers has already brought them success. This is also going to be the foundation to change the attitude of the target group towards Suitsupply being more than just a shop for suits, which is the main objective.

As mentioned above, one of Suitsupply’s strenghts is their strong consistent communication. They communicate that they offer high quality tailor made clothing and suits for a good pricing. The aspect of high quality tailor made solutions for reasonable pricing, needs to continue to be communicated by Suitsupply, as this is their differentiating factor. This will only have to applied to the casual wear as well.

Online and offline communication Suitsupply is a strong brand with good online and offline communication. Through (slightly) provocative campaigns which are communicated via several social media platforms and different sorts of offline communication, they enable to reach a great amount of people.

The market The market is of men’ s fashion and can be split up into a business and consumer focus. The large retailers have been using economies of scale for a longer period of time, making the low- end of the market impossible to penetrate. It is a market where trends need to be consistently monitored and adjusted in order to avoid “missing the boat”. With consumers becoming more selective and demanding in regards to a good quality-price ratio, it is becoming less and less attractive to enter a market as such. This is why Suitsupply has to be very careful with their casual line to position it more as high-end clothing. The market today contains many players. This means you will need to be unique to stand out amongst the rest. Suitsupply tries to stand out by keeping it straight to the point (but still personal), fast and effective.

Mission & vision The current mission and vision statement of Suitsupply has been strong. However, after 7 years and entering new crossroads by adding the casual line, it’s a little outdated but most importantly; incomplete:

Mission - Suitsupply is a supplier of quality suits for affordable prices. The high level of service and knowledge of the employees is key. The founder of the company once said, “We want men to buy a suit within the hour.”

Vision - Straight, to the point and still personal. Combining craftsmanship with flair and making their customers feel that every staff member only has eyes for them. Craftsmanship with a high level of service. Suitsupply being there for people who want to be seen.

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

Different value strategies Suitsupply has found a good way to combine Treacy & Wiersema’s different value strategies. A minor focus on operational excellence as Suitsupply is not the cheapest in this market, with mid- level pricing. Product leadership because Suitsupply’s products have a high quality standard compared to competitors in the same price segment. Customer intimacy is their strongest value, Suitsupply really cares about the customer experience and knows them well. Recommendations New Mission

Suitsupply needs to change their brand positioning, by also changing their mission statement, not only the promotional activities. Especially the attitude towards the new business casual product line.

New Vision The vision statement of Suitsupply has also been changed to involve their new focus:

With the new mission and vision statement a shift in culture can be realized, besides changing the attitude of its (potential) customers.

Online and offline communication

It is recommended to use the same slightly provocative approach for the casual wear. Besides showing suits also include casual clothing on online and offline communication.

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

This also means using the similar instruments and the following media: social media, billboards, magazines, website and WhatsApp. Keep building on the Omni channel experience, which is going to be increasingly important in the future. It is also imperative that in order to change the attitude of the consumer, to equally divide the communication in regards to suits and the casual line of Suitsupply. If there is too much attention towards the casual wear, then there is a big chance it will disadvantage the suits of Suitsupply. Vice versa, if there is too much attention for the suits only, then they will not change the attitude of the consumer and the casual line will be most likely end up in failure.

Different value strategies

Suitsupply over the few last years, focused on a combination of customer intimacy, operational excellence and product leadership. As the company continues to expand it needs to make a choice, because trying to excel in all three areas is near to impossible. It is recommended to focus on ‘product leadership’ and ‘customer intimacy'. ‘Product leadership’ because the large retailers have been using economies of scale for a longer period of time, making the low-end of the market impossible to penetrate. Suitsupply needs to offer product of high quality for a relatively low price because that is the company’s differentiating factor. This is very important for the casual line because there are very strong players that otherwise will win market share.

‘Customer intimacy’ because this has always been one of Suittsupply’s strengths, which they should also use to ensure success regarding their casual clothing line.

#FCF

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

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Bosteels, K. (2015). SuitSupply to get a 130 million euro cash injection. Retaildetail. Retrieved on 12-10-2016 from: https://www.retaildetail.eu/en/news/suitsupply-get-130-million-euro-cash- injection

Davies, C. (2016). Dutch fashion firm racy window display. The Guardian. Retrieved on 12-10-16 from: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/nov/17/dutch-fashion-firm-racy-window- display

De Jong, F. (2016). Fokke de Jong je doelen bereik je zijwegen. Intermediar. Retrieved on 10-10- 16 from: http://www.intermediair.nl/carriere/een-baan-vinden/beroepen-functies/fokke-de- jong-je-doelen-bereik-je-zijwegen

(Gosse, 2016) http://www.marketingfacts.nl/berichten/alles-wat-een-marketeer-moet-weten- over-snapchat

McCarthy, J. (2016). Suit Supply toy boys campaign accused being sexist towards woman founder argues. The Drum. Retrieved on 12-10-16 from: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/02/25/suit-supply-toy-boys-campaign-accused-being- sexist-towards-women-founder-argues

S.P. Robbins & M. Coulter. 2004. Management 7e editie. Pearson Prentice Hall. New Jersey.

Suitsupply site (2016). Company profile. Retrieved on 10-10-16 from: http://eu.suitsupply.com/en/content-page-suitsupply-company-profile.html

Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply

Toet, D. (2015). Suitsupply haalt €130 mln financiering op. Financieel Dagblad. Retrieved on 12- 10-16 from: https://fd.nl/ondernemen/1128141/suitsupply-beoogt-130-mln-extra-financiering

(Duursma, 2015) https://www.frankwatching.com/archive/2015/10/05/whatsapp-als- servicekanaal-suitsupply-pakt-het-innovatief-aan-case/

(Twinklemagazine,2015) http://twinklemagazine.nl/nieuws/2015/06/5-vragen-aan-martijn-van- der-zee-over-awardwinnaar-suitsupply/

(Oosterhout,2009) http://www.intermediair.nl/carriere/een-baan-vinden/beroepen- functies/fokke-de-jong-je-doelen-bereik-je- zijwegen?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.nl%2F