Ty Vinyl Cottage Case Study

A worthy rebrand

VINYL COTTAGE Your ideal dream business

TYNESHA SPEIGHTS THE UNIVERSITY OF WEST ALABAMA

Table of Contents Overview: ..................................................................................................................................................... 2 Brand Personality: WHO AM I? ................................................................................................................ 2 WHAT DO I WANT TO SAY? ............................................................................................................... 3 The Problem: ............................................................................................................................................... 4 The Solution: ............................................................................................................................................... 5 Results: ......................................................................................................................................................... 6 Conclusion: .................................................................................................................................................. 7 Assets: .......................................................................................................................................................... 9 References .................................................................................................................................................... 9

Overview: For this case study I choose to evaluate a small craft business in Northport, Alabama.

Vinyl Cottage is a small business that opened in hopes to help the community. “After talking with my husband about the need for a vinyl supply store in our town, I decided to find out what it would take to open my own business”, said Mrs. April.

The owner April is a crafter and she took her hobby of crafting and expanded a brand.

This business sales an assortment of products such as heat transfer vinyl, adhesive vinyl, blanks, and all your t – shirt shop needs.

I chose this business as a client because I see the potential that this business could have.

With this being one of the two businesses in the area that offers HTV other than Michael’s, I know that they have the customer support. Nevertheless, the business could be producing more effectively than ever if they were to advance in a few areas. One thing that could be brought up to date is a website that is customer friendly and offers what the store offers. It is one thing to limit online sales because somethings cannot be sold online, but from what I see everything they offer could be boosted online.

This company has a lack of consistent YouTube presence, valuable promotional sales, and a horrible e-commerce presence. Something has to be done to fix this problem in order to get the company running 15x better than they currently are. To solve these problems I plan to aid Vinyl Cottage by providing a mapped out social media and multi-media plan, promotional calendar and graphics, and an updated inventory to supply all in store items online.

Brand Personality: WHO AM I? Brand Name: Vinyl Cottage

If your brand was a person, who would it be? Her name is Susan Hanks. Hanks is an energetic and outgoing person, yet is compassionate. She makes you feel like you can take on the world regardless of how many obstacles a person may face. She is a former school teacher who recently became a stay at home mom to a beautiful baby girl Rebecca Grace who is 8 months old. Susan has been married to Jacob Hanks a welder for 7 years. When Mrs. Hanks is not taking care of her family she is hidden away in her “woman-cave� crafting and creating apparel and memorabilias.

Brand Traits List 5-7 traits that best describe your brand: spirited, wholesome, reliable, exclusive, compassionate, and profound List 1-2 traits that your brand is NOT: masculine and barbaric Personality Description What does your brand look like? Act like? Do for fun? Describe your brand person in a little more depth here. Being honest and taking responsibility for our actions.

This brand is an extravert who is chatty, sociable and draw energy from crowds. We tend to be assertive and cheerful in their social interactions. My brand reminds you of a stay at home mom, mom with a work from home job, or a woman with a lot of time on her hands. For fun we hang out with the family and create different craft projects when we are not watching crafters on YouTube.

WHAT DO I WANT TO SAY? What does your brand want to share with the world?: No matter your distance from the main store we are here to help and satisfy your needs.

What is your brand saying that no one else is saying?: We are crafters too; we do not sell you materials and supplies we experiment and create just as you do so you are not alone. Your problems were once my problems and together we can get through this.

Brand Voice How does your brand speak? Describe its voice in 2-4 words: Kelly Clarkson + Angela Bassett + Zendaya. In other words, southern hospitality and cheerful + compassionate, nurturing and confident + stylish and trendy.

Situational Voice Brainstorm 2-4 different situations or contexts in which your brand will speak. How does its voice change in each context?: Being a craft store we have those customers that come in with no experience. We have to talk with them a bit different compared to those who know what to do, how to do it, and what terminology to use. The customer that knows little to nothing is the baby to the company. We have to talk to them like a teacher would in a kindergarten class simply because it is a learning process for them. They have to obtain a lot. No we are not a learning center that taches how to use vinyl, but we do take precaution when it comes to helping our customers.

Colors: Main color is yellow which represents happiness and positivity throughout this company. The main color is Kelly Clarkson. The primary color would be white and light baby pink which in regards brings out the Angela Bassett of the company (caring, compassion and love).

Typography: A brush font with a condensed type.

Visual Style: Modern, Feminine, & playful The Problem: According to the Vinyl Cottage about statement, the local business quickly grew and in order to keep up, they opened themselves up to places beyond the small town through their website. Expanding the business and showing the customers they are appreciated are two important aspect of Vinyl Cottage’s shopping environment. With this shop being one of the two

primary vinyl craft shops in Northport, Alabama and the surrounding area this shop lacks promotional offers, advance online e-commerce, and consistency with YouTube videos.

It is vital that we as a small business address the needs of our customers in order to make a better shopping experience for them and increase revenue for us. Nevertheless, you have customers that have no other choice, but to shop here simply because of the convenience. The online e-commerce is nothing compared to their in-store products. When one has a goal to expand a company to online, it is best to offer the same items or at least 80 percent of the same items. Sometimes a company must give the customers what they are looking for. Any customer of any company can never say, “A promotional sale isn’t good for a loyal customer.” Although, this company does monthly giveaway drawings for those who make purchases of a certain price that does not justify for not having promotional sales. We have to up our game because if there was more completion in the area we could possibly lose our customers.

Even though, this business has an environment that is welcoming, friendly, and a southern feel that only a Southerner understands there are some aspects that could be improved.

Things that could be improves are the e-commerce, YouTube consistency, and promotional sales.

The Solution: In order to make this company more successful than they already are, I chose to pitch some fresh ideas that considers the customers in every way. I have been hired to come up with new ways to add to the online website, promotional sales throughout the year, and a more consistent YouTube channel. Everyone has an online shop now simply because people would rather shop from the convenience of their home. Eight in 10 Americans are now shopping online, according to a new study from Pew Research out this morning. That’s 79 percent of U.S.

consumers who shop on the web or their phones, up from just 22 percent back in 2000 (Perez, 2017). Shopping from home gives people time to do everything that needs to be done and run in the shop pick up their order and on their way they are. Also, an update to the website is required because several store items are not listed on the site, which cases the business to lose money via ecommerce.

As far as the promotional sales the business must have at least one good sale every other month. This business offers vinyl, blanks, and crafting materials. T-shirts are a number one sale when it comes to crafting of this sort. A sale on t-shirts would be a popular sale, nevertheless they would have to compete with a competitor, Michael’s, because their shirts are on sale often and are very cheap. A few sales for back to school, Christmas, and Thanksgiving would be excellent. A excellent. A buy one get one 50 percent off on vinyl sheets or a 25 percent off grand total would be a sale that customers could not pass up. Also, a promotional idea could be so much percent off for birthday rewards. Customers look forward to sales and rewards.

Results: With the promotional sales and graphics Vinyl Cottage customers have increased by 42.19%. The promotional sale graphics have received over 2K views across social and traditional outlets. Within the first few months the e-commerce website received 3.5K views, which was 883.15% above the brand's monthly average. Our Facebook page gained more followers as customers shared it to their newsfeeds.

The company recently did an Easter give away which resulted in 5 media placements.

Local outlets which featured the giveaway include: The Tuscaloosa News, The Northport Gazette, The Crimson White, The Birmingham News, and Moundville Times.

Vinyl Cottage recorded its strongest sales week ever, when the spring bling promotion sale was running.

The promotional sale is planned on being reran for the summer which will include more items, and daily giveaways to those local and national. During the summer sale we plan to draw in about 106% more customers. They are a small crafting business saving the crafting lives of many people simply because they chose to take an alternate rate and use strategic planning.

Conclusion: This company’s biggest challenge was keeping consistency in regards to their YouTube channel, lack of sales promotions, and the lack of an advance e-commerce. I was able to overcome this by creating a social media marketing plan, a promotion holiday calendar, and redesign the company’s website. By carrying out the research that was required in order to make this company a continued success, I learned that even though this company was operating smoothly, they can also improve in various areas that will benefit in bringing in more customers which brings in more revenue.

When you have multiple social media accounts it is vital that all accounts reach the customers. A way to solve that problem is to make a multimedia package for all things that need to be posted. When it comes to this company they lack posting to their YouTube channel. Once a YouTuber begins to post it is important that they keep it up. For instance, once you start something you have to keep it up. If you upload a tutorial the customers and subscribers would want to see more projects from Vinyl Cottage. To ensure that the customers get the videos they desire a social media plan has been created to stay on track of what to post and when to post it.

Vinyl cottage will continue to utilize the promotional and social media plan, but during the process they will keep track of how successful each sale and post was. We realize that everything that was planned out will not always work, but there is no harm in giving it a try.

Anything that fails will be crossed off as a discontinued promotion or failed social media post so that it can be taken by a different approach. As far as the company’s website as long as new products are added to the site as new products come to the store and a good inventory is kept there will not be any problems.

Assets:

References Perez, S. (2016, December 19). 79 percent of Americans now shop online, but it's cost more than convenience that sways them – TechCrunch. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/19/79-percent-of-americans-now-shop-online-but-itscost-more-than-convenience-that-sways-them