marketing communication plan - suitsupply...marketing communication plan - suitsupply 3 introduction...
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Marketing Communication Plan - Suitsupply
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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)
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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.
Advertisement
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
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Social media
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.
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.
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,
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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!
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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
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Objective Start Weekly Monthly 6 months 1year
Awareness of casual
wear Brief
personal
sellers
Amsterda
m Fashion
Week
Survey
amongst
personal
sellers.
Attitude change Set baseline on
sales. Second
measurement
on sales
The last measurement
on sales
Advertisement in
magazines Set baseline
with google
analytics
Google analytics
measurement Google
analytics
measurement
and conclusion
Google analytics
measurement and
conclusion
One million YouTube
views Google analytics
measurement Google analytics
measurement and
recommendation
on PR
Five million
interactions on social
media
Set baseline
with google
analytics
analytics
measurem
ent
Social media
analytics
Press interviews and
articles about
Suitsupply
Google Alerts
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31
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.
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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.
“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.”
New Vision
The vision statement of Suitsupply has also been changed to involve their new focus:
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.
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.
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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
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