Silk Traveler Boutique

Olivia Rhoades, Whitney Scheele, Kylie Bollwitt

TMFD 413-001

Company and Market

Target Market
Silk Traveler is targeting a specific market. A potential customer would be a 25-30 year
old woman of any diversity. She would be single or married, a college graduate, and now a
young professional. Due to her steady career, she would shop at a contemporary price point in
the area of East Nashville, where she lives. She would be an independent woman and would be
in control of her purchasing decisions. She would use social media and might read reviews of
clothing stores and restaurants before going to them. According to a report by Pew Research
Center's Internet & American Life Project, nearly three quarters of all online adults 18 and older
(72 percent) are using social networking sites, (Ross, 2013). Once she finds a brand or product
that she loves, she will remain loyal for many years. She prefers to shop at unique boutiques and
pop up shops so that her style can remain her own. According to an Analytic Partners survey,
gender and location do play a role in brand loyalty. Of those surveyed, female consumers (68%)
are generally more loyal to brands than males (55%). Results also indicated that consumers
living in the south are the most loyal to the brands they buy (67%), while those living on the west
coast are the least loyal (56%), (Analytic Partners, 2013).
Luna, an aspiring young and creative woman poses as the ideal shopper for the Silk
Traveler Boutique. She has an outgoing and artsy personality. She finds her creative juices flow
in the area of East Nashville, because of its eclectic and energetic aesthetic. She is both careerdriven and environmentally conscious. She enjoys traveling and purchasing unique clothing to
add to her personal collection. Luna enjoys her career, going out, volunteering, shopping, and
working out. She also greatly values her friends and family.
On an average day Luna would wake up and go for a run with her dog. She would then come
home and get ready for her day. She would choose an outfit that reflects her mood and head to

work. On her lunch break she would meet up with her fianc at a local food truck at 5 Points. She
would then return to work for the rest of the day. After work Luna would catch up on her blogs
and social media. She would then go to her favorite boutique, Silk Traveler, with a close
girlfriend. Finally, she would end the night with dinner, wine, and a movie at her house before
going to bed.

Name and Logo

We decided to name our boutique Silk Traveler. We chose this name for a few reasons.
First of all, our store is striving to be environmentally friendly. We chose the Silk portion of
our company name because silk is an all-natural material. We plan on using novelty fabrics with
the conscious mindset of being produced in the states and under the Go Green Act. Next, our
store is located in eclectic region known as 5 Points, which is in East Nashville. With this
location we knew our boutique would be in the midst of a lot of tourist action. When people
travel and are in search of homegrown businesses we know that our boutique can fulfill their
fashion needs. Therefore, Traveler, seemed like the perfect word to use to finish off the name

of our store. Silk Traveler represents what we want the mission of our boutique to be and what
image we are trying to portray.
Location
Silk Traveler will be in the form of a stand-alone boutique and will be located in the 5
Points area of East Nashville. This area has a population of 648,295 with 51.6% being female.
The median consumer age is 33, 34% have a bachelors degree and 75.3% of individuals in the
area have white collar jobs. The median income for the age category of 25-34 is $45,982 (US
Census Bureau, 2014).
There are many other boutiques in the 5 Points area of East Nashville. These stores sell
clothing, accessories, and/or vintage home dcor. Some of Silk Travelers competitors will be
Two Feathers, The Green Wagon, Moss, Goodbuy Girls, Old Made Good (OMG), Hip Zipper,
and Alegria (Nashville Guru, 2014). The average sales in the East Nashville area in 2007 were
$10,272,149 (US Census Bureau, 2014).
Product Classification
We chose nine different styles of pants to sell at our boutique. Each of these garments
were purchased from our vendor Free People. We also chose to give our products names that
dealt with traveling to carry out our brand image. Our first garment is the Traveler Pant which is
the staple item of our boutique for Fall 2014. These pants come in antique white and are
covered in a soft floral pattern. They are 100% silk. The next garment is the Lennon Skinny
Flare. It comes in a pacey blue, or raindrop blue, and are 73% Cotton, 25% Polyester, 2%
Spandex. Our third item is the Patch Me Up Legging. These come in the martini color and are
92% Polyester and 18% Spandex. The fourth item is the Lakynn Boyfriend Jean. It comes in the
kura or dark harlan color and is 100% cotton. Our fifth item is the Re-cord Flare. This pant

comes in the ochre, mulberry, or midnight colors and is 98% cotton and 2% spandex. Our
next garment is the Groupie Twill Pant. It comes in the vintage military color and is made of
97% cotton and 3%spandex. Our seventh item is the Vegan Vagabond Skinny. It comes in
cranberry or black and is made of 100% Polyurethane. The next style of pant we carry is the
Luna Straight Leg Jean. It comes in Egret or Baja Wash color and is made of 100% cotton.
Our final pant is the Gypsy Jet Setter Pant. It comes in a wine or black color and is made of
60% polyester, 30% nylon, and 10% spandex.

figure 1. Top (Left to Right): Traveler Pant, Lennon Skinny Flare, Patch Me Up Legging,
Lakynn Boyfriend Jean, Re-cord Flare. Bottom (Left to Right): Groupie Twill Pant,
Vegan Vagabond Skinny, Luna Straight Leg, Gypsy Jet-Setter Pant
Assortment Planning
We have attached the excel worksheet for our total assortment plan for the Fall 2014
season at Silk Traveler Boutique in Appendix 1.

We chose to use xs, s, m, and l sizing for our Traveler Pant and Patch Me Up Leggings.
This choice was simply due to the fact that these garments have some stretch to them and arent
as structured as a typical pant. As far as quantity, we chose to carry 40 of each size of the Patch
Me Up Leggings and 50 of each size of the Traveler Pant. The reason we are carrying a few
more of each Traveler Pant is because it is our stores staple item for Fall and is named after our
store.
The remainder of our garments are either jeans, leather, or twill pants. For these styles we
chose to use waist measurement sizing of 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30. We felt that this range of sizes
would work for the majority of our customer base, no matter what shape or size. We chose to
carry 100 of each color and style of jean, 40 of each color of each Re-cord flare, Groupie Twill
Pant, Vegan Vagabond Skinny, and Gypsy Jet-Setter Pant. Denim is always a staple, which is
why we have more of these and they can be carried over into the next season if need be. The
other pants are trendier, so we chose a smaller number of inventory to carry so that we could sell
out before the next season. We realize that these numbers seem extremely high, but they would
be spread out between a few of our boutiques in different locations. We had to use these numbers
in order to fulfill the planned budget we were given.
Prices and Markup
We chose prices similar to retail stores that serve a target market that is close to Silk
Travelers customers. These retailers include Free People, Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie,
which are similar to our product in quality and style. We also felt that our customers in the East
Nashville area could easily afford these high quality pieces.

We decided to do a keystone markup meaning our retail price is twice the wholesale
price. Our total plan then came out to be $192,000 which was $3,000 under our allowed budget
of $195,000.
Colors and Styles
Due to the fact that our pants will be sold during the Fall, we chose colors that we
believed were on trend for this season. The colors of our denim are of classic washes. We have a
light and dark variation for each of the three different styles of denim jeans that we are going to
carry.
For our pants and leggings we drew inspiration from the top 10 Pantone colors of 2014.
Some of these colors include royal blue, misted yellow, mauve mist, cypress, and sangria
(Feldman, 2014). We included versions of mauve mist in the floral print of our Traveler Pant,
royal blue and misted yellow in our Re-cord Flare, cypress in our Patch Me Up leggings and
sangria in our Vegan Vagabond Skinny and Gypsy Jet-Setter Pant. The remainder of our colors
are fall colors that have been around for years, such as black and navy blue.
Many of our pants were inspired by NYFW Fall 2014 runway shows. According to
Vogue, There was a distinct cut-and-paste mood going on for patchwork from Phillip Lim,
Jonathan Saunders, Lucas Nascimento, Missoni, Bottega Veneta, Valentino and Helen
Lawrence, (Vogue, 2014). This patch work theme is reflected in our Patch Me Up Leggings and
our Groupie Twill pant which has patches over the knees. Another trend was velvet. A
multitude of designers rediscovered this most tactile of fabrics for next season: Emilio de la
Morena, House of Holland, John Rocha, Vivienne Westwood, Michael Van Der Ham, Emilio
Pucci and Nina Ricci all got touchy feely, (Vogue, 2014). Our Gypsy Jet-Setter Pant is made to
look like velvet.

Six Month Plan

Please see the attached six month plan document within the Appendix 2 for further
documentation. The six month plan for Silk Traveler boutique looks quite promising. Our TY
Planned Sales are: TY Plan $243,800. Markdowns will total to: $19,504 and Retail Purchases
will equate to: $103,284. With these numbers it is clear to see that there is an increase in sales
projected from last year as well as an increase in retail stock and ending stock. Because of these
calculations there is also a decrease in projected markdown behavior and retail purchasing.
Sourcing and Labeling
Traveler Pant
100% Silk
Country of Origin: China
Lennon Skinny Flare
92% Modal, 18% Spandex
Country of Origin: United States
Patch Me Up Legging
92% Polyester, 18% Spandex
Country of Origin: United States
Lakynn Boyfriend Jean
100% Cotton
Country of Origin: United States
Re-cord Flare
98% Cotton, 2% Spandex
Country of Origin: United States
Groupie Twill Pant
97% Cotton, 3% Spandex
Country of Origin: United States
Vegan Vagabond Skinny
100% Polyurethane
Country of Origin: China
Luna Straight Leg
100% Cotton
Country of Origin: United States
Gypsy Jet-Setter Pant
60% Polyester, 30% Nylon, 10% Spandex
Country of Origin: United States

Sample Product Label

Front of Label

Back of Label

100% Silk

SilkTraveler
Size S
Made in China

Dry Clean Only

RN00001

figure 2. Front and back of tag labeling

Promotion
Short Term Goals
We came up with a couple short term goals for Silk Traveler. We want to bring at least
500 customers to the grand opening of Silk Traveler. We also want to always have at least 500
customers attend our special events. We will advertise for these events through social media,
radio, and fliers. Finally, we would want to increase visibility of Silk Traveler by 75% in the first
year.
One of our short term goals is to bring in at least 500 customers to the grand opening of
Silk Traveler. We are hoping to accomplish this in a couple of ways. First of all, we are going to
advertising the event through flyers. These will be dispersed all throughout the 5 Points area at
healthy, local restaurants including food trucks, flea markets, farmers markets, and other events.
Theses flyers would include the name and address of our boutique, the date and time of the grand
opening, and information about gift bags, the raffle, and the local bands performing that day. A
rough draft of the flyer is shown below in figure 3. We would give away free gift bags to the first
50 guests at the grand opening. These gift bags would include: a necklace, a silk traveler pen, a

silk traveler recyclable bag, and a water bottle. At the actual event we would supply desserts and
refreshments for all of our customers, while they are being entertained by local musicians of the
area. Coupons will be placed in each guests bag when they purchase from the store that day.
This will grant them 20% off their next purchase. A raffle will be held for a few items that would
be donated by local entrepreneurs and business owners in the community to advance common
ground and promote their establishments as well. We would specifically choose businesses with
similar economically conscious business practices, who tend to focus more on directly building
relationships with their customers rather than being geared wholly towards gathering sales. We
would encourage the donation of these items through continued networking within their
promotional department and would be successful, due to the fact that we will focus on ethically
sound relational- building, entrepreneurial get-togethers as well as consumer geared marketing
events. Working together and joining forces will be sure to bring a continued success and be able
to support continued growth for all financial endeavors in the future. The raffle items will
include: a new vintage bike, a one month pass to a local yoga studio and a week of free classes at
a local art gallery.

figure 3. Grand Opening flyer

Long Term Goals
We also came up with a few long term goals for Silk Traveler. One of these goals is to
build a strong brand image by partnering with a local radio and television news affiliate to
feature our store looks in a monthly style segment. We chose these two mediums because we felt
that they would encompass a large portion of our target market. According to an IPOS survey
given by Open Thinking Exchange, 72% of females aged 18-34 watch live television,
(Marketing Charts Staff, 2014). Also, according to study entitled State of the Media: Audio
Today 2014, Among 18-34-year-olds, though, the afternoon drive hours of 3-7PM garner the
highest ratings (11.2%), slightly ahead of the mid-day hours, (Marketing Charts Staff, 2014).

Due to these findings, we would schedule our radio show during the drive home hours. We are
hoping that both of these mediums will not only draw brand awareness and create customer
loyalty, but will also aid in maintaining our social and environmental obligations to our
community and aid in expanding the Silk Traveler audience and client base. By entering into this
media partnership we hope to increase not only a strong brand image, but to also enhance
customer loyalty by 75%. To further our customer loyalty, we will staff our boutique with
friendly salespeople that are helpful and will build relationships with our customer base, keeping
them coming back.
In these style segments, we will feature different looks for different upcoming events in
the area such as festivals, concerts, farmers markets, restaurant opening parties, etc. We will also
feature local talent such as: writers, young entrepreneurs and business owners,
singer/songwriters, and musicians alongside our designs. Each ensemble will be described in
detail during the radio segment, listing the specific names of products that we are using. Photos
will also be taken of the models wearing these different looks, which will then be posted to all of
our social media accounts, as well as the radio stations website. The ultimate goal of the media
contract would be to enhance the public's knowledge of the strong entrepreneurial community in
which they live and to begin to change buying processes from commercial and corporate to
homegrown and local. It will also help to create a network of successful and lead-worthy
individuals who take a stand for environmental and socially sound business practices.
Store Presentation
We chose to design our boutique with many different colors and textures on the walls and
on the rugs on the floor. We thought that this would match the eclectic vibe of our target
customers and location. We then chose hardwood flooring to give the space a more sophisticated

feeling to reflect our higher pricing. We chose to utilize three dressing rooms in order to best
accommodate our customers, as well as work with the space provided in our boutique. We hope
that this will make each customer feel like they are extremely important to us. There are also a
couple of chairs for customers shopping companions to relax in and offer advice. We believe
that the design of our entire store will please our target market and make them feel comfortable
and happy. Refer to Figure 4 for an overhead view of our boutique layout.

figure 4. Overhead view

When designing Silk Traveler boutique, we focused on using our store layout to increase
our chances of profitability. We specifically set up our fixtures and spacing in a certain way. We
looked at some thoughts on consumer behavior by Paco Underhill, who wrote the book, Why
We Buy: The Science of Shopping, which was published in 1999. According to this research
done by Underhill, There should be an area inside the front door that is void of product display.
This area should be approximately 12-14 square feet and is called a decompression zone,
(Discovery-Based Retail, 2013). This area provides customers with some space to enter the store
and adjust to the new environment before being bombarded by displays. The decompression
zone can be seen in Figure 5 which shows the front entrance of our store. This area also lets
customers look around and make their initial judgments of the store which will be a deciding
factor on whether or not they will purchase.

figure 5. Decompression zone view

Another observation made by Underhill was the invariant right. This theory states that,
when given the opportunity, people prefer to, and most often do, move to the right after entering
a store. (Discovery-Based Retail, 2013). Therefore, we chose to place our most expensive item
at about a 45 degree angle to the right from our entry doors. We have shown this tactic in Figure
6 with a 45 degree angle of our front of store entrance. This is the main fixture that we want

everyone to see. We felt that this would draw customers in to this product because traveling to
the right the most natural route for customers to take. After looking at it, we hope that they
would at least try on this item which would cause them to be more likely to purchase.

figure 6. Invariant right view

figure 7. Cash-wrap/fitting room view

figure 8. Store front view

Along with the decompression zone and invariant right, we also wanted to keep our store
displays very evenly spaced for easy access. According to Discovery-Based Retail, most people
react positively to both balance and symmetry (Discovery-Based Retail, 2013).We hope that this
layout would feel more airy and give customers plenty of room to move in between displays.
Refer to figures 7 and 8 for additional views of the store layout.

References
Analytic Partners. (2013, April 16). U.S. Consumers Love the Brands that Love The
According to Analytic Partners Survey. Retrieved from: The Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130416-907778.html
Discovery-Based Retail. (2013). Layout Basics. Retrieved from Discovery-Based Retail:
www.discoverdbr.com
Feldman, J. (2014). Pantone's Top 10 Colors For Fall 2014 Are the Most Fun Ever. The
Huffington Post.
Marketing Charts Staff. (2014, February 13). When America Listens to the Radio.
Retrieved from Marketing Charts: www.marketingcharts.com
Marketing Charts Staff. (2014, April 17). Who's Still Watching Live TV? (Most
People).
Retrieved from Marketing Charts: www.marketingcharts.com
Nashville Guru. (2014). East Nashville Shop. Retrieved January 2014, from Nashville Guru:
www.nashvilleguru.com
Ross, A. t. (2013). Social medias tipping point is already here. Nashville Business Journal.
The Idea Hatchery. (2013). Retrieved from: http://theideahatchery.net/
The Style Mogul. (2013, August 19). BTV Segment: 3 Styles of Denim 6 Ways. Retrieved
from:
http://www.thestylemogul.com/2013/08/btv-segment-3-styles-of-denim-6-ways/
US Department of Commerce. (2014, January 7). State and Country Quick Facts. Retrieved
from United States Census Bureau: www.census.gov
Visual Photos. (2014). Woman having a drink at coffee shop. Retrieved from:
http://www.visualphotos.com/image/2x4743327/woman_having_a_drink_at_coffee_shop
Vogue. (2014). The Trend Report. Vogue.

Appendices
Appendix 1: Assortment Plan

Appendix 2: Six Month Plan