forever 21 - Marketing Mix Swot Analysis Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning

2.  FOREVER 21 - An American chain of fashion retail
brand.
 The chain, was originally known as Fashion 21.
 Founded in Los Angeles, California in 1984 by Do Won
Chang and his wife Jin Sook Chang.
 Firstly, intended mostly for middle-aged women.
 The store was targeted towards the Los Angeles Korean
American community with most of their designs popular
in the South Korean regions.

3.  Forever 21 has operations in around 68 countries
across the world and is the fifth largest specialty retailer
in the USA with an annual turnover of USD 4 billion and
over 28,566 employees worldwide.
 The company now sells clothing, accessories, and
beauty products for women, men and kids.
 And the average store size is 38,000 square feet.
 More than 60% of its apparel is manufactured in China
and is exported to other Asian countries, America, UK
and Middle East.

5.  Forever 21- fast fashion retailer selling the latest trends
and styles at economical prices.
 Products - Clothing, Bags, Shoes and Accessories for
men, women and kids.
 Enables teenagers to buy the latest fashion at
affordable prices.
 A Forever 21 Product i.e. Clothing can be divided into
three levels of product: Core Product, Actual Product,
Augmented product.

6. CORE PRODUCT
 A core product is the intangible value that you may
obtain from the product.
 The main element of the product is its Design.
 The essence of this Brand- Latest designs from high
end celebrities available to common people.
 Unique selling preposition is to imitate or create the
latest trends.
 Another very important aspect of its core product is the
Quality.
 The brand have average quality clothes.

7. ACTUAL PRODUCT
 Actual product is the tangible form of the core product.
 Most of the collection by Forever 21 caters to young
men and women as they offer more casual range of
products that may include Dresses, Tops, Jackets,
Jeans, Shorts, Skirts for women and Shirts, Graphic
Tees, Sweatshirts, Shorts for Men.
 Apart from Clothing, the actual Products include Make-
up, Shoes and Accessories like Bags, Belts,
Jewellery, Hair accessories.

8. AGUMENTED PRODUCT
 The Augmented products for Forever 21 includes the
sales assistance which is provided by the very
fashionable staff that is present in the store.
 Forever 21 engages in visual merchandising by
releasing photo shoots and mannequin styling that can
inspire its customers to try on various new and stylish
combinations.
 With the trial rooms facility in their stores, they allow
customers to try on various outfits before they have to
choose what they want to buy.
 Generally also have an exchange policy in case they
change their mind in a week or so.

9.  Forever 21 has a target audience of young men and
women between the ages of 13 to 30.
 Hence, it takes a huge advantage of Internet and
Social Media to introduce and popularize its Brand in
the global market.
 Forever 21’s website is a great example of content
marketing.
 http://newsroom.forever21.com/social-media
 https://www.facebook.com/Forever21/
 Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Forever 21
App - Examples

10.  They had indulged in the Promotion technique called
Marketing Public Relations by organizing a fashion
parade, photo shoot booths to engage the people.
 The brand also engages in Sales Promotion from time
to time that creates additional motivation for its
customer to buy the product.
 Regularly provides its app users with discount coupons
and promo codes that can be used during online
shopping.

11.  Price strategy of Forever 21 plays a very important role
in the Brand’s success. This is quite evident from the
Mission Statement of the company:
The company's mission is to provide shoppers with an
unprecedented selection of today's fashions with
affordable prices.
 Forever 21’s strategy is to make fashion affordable to
everyone.
 The various Pricing Strategies used by the Brand are as
follows:

12. 1. Product Bundle Pricing: Marketing ploy in which
several products are offered for sale in one combined
unit that is often marked at a reduced price compared
to the sum of their separate purchase prices. Example:
If you buy 1 Denim Jean at Forever 21, it will cost $15,
however, if you buy 3 different denim jeans, it will cost
$40 rather than $45.
2. Promotional Pricing: Marketing strategy where
products are temporarily priced very low in order to
increase short-term sales.
 Psychological pricing: Pricing/marketing strategy
based on the theory that certain prices have a
psychological impact on the customer’s behaviour.

13.  Forever 21 has always followed a One level distribution
channel, with most of their manufacturers being in India
and China, from where the merchandise is made
available to the customers through their retailers which
are available around the globe.
 They also have a Zero level channel by their mobile
app, where there is no need of a retailer and customers
can choose and buy the products directly from the
Mobile App.

15.  Staying in trend
 Something new every day
 Affordable
 Customer Savvy
 Association with young celebrities

16.  Private ownership
 Centralised decision making
 Excessive focus on teens

17.  Growing need for youngsters to stick to
trends
 Fashion changes
 Personalisation clothing

18.  Economic Crisis
 Focus on recycling

19.  Trendy and affordable pricing
 Limited Presence

20.  The Company uses the mix of
the psychographic, demographic and
geographic segment.
 The variables like age, expectations, gender,
income group, region, family size, loyalty,
social class, price sensitivity, personality
attributes, and lifestyle.

21.  Mass targeting strategy is used by the
company to be competitive in the fashion
industry and target the customer group with
the distinctive features and offerings.

22.  The speciality retail store has positioned
itself based on young, trendy and
fashionable offerings which create the image
of being young or ahead of fashion.
 The company has positioned itself based on
value-based positioning strategy.