Scenario:

You are a small business consultant who has been hired by Jennifer to advise her on a business opportunity. Please provide Jennifer a written assessment of the opportunity, plus recommendations that can help her be successful. This is the second of two meetings that you have scheduled. In this meeting, you will focus on marketing and human resources.

Your role:

You are a consultant newly hired by Jennifer to help her understand and provide expertise and research for her clothing store. As the consultant, you are being paid to provide specific and unbiased advice to Jennifer and her business partners. This is part two of a two-part You Decide. In part two, your consulting efforts will focus on marketing and human resources operations. Note that all of these topics have been covered in Weeks 4 through 6 of this course. Be sure to utilize the textbook and other research as necessary.

Key players:

Jennifer - store owner

Hello, thank you so much for coming to our second meeting. I really enjoyed your previous report. Understanding the social and ethical responsibility of running a business in the 21st century is critical to our success. Also your report on the business environment, types of business forms, and sources of funding was helpful. In this meeting we want to focus on marketing and human resources; as such, we have two others present at this meeting who would like to talk with you. David Green, you met him last meeting, is our principal investor, and Steve Mura is our marketing director.

David Green - Co-Founder

Thanks, Jennifer. I too enjoyed your report. I do not have much to talk about today, but what I am concerned with is critical for us both. Jennifer and I have talked about this company and know the clothing business, but we have little experience hiring and managing employees. We are interested in recommendations you have on good management and leadership of employees that will create a loyal and happy staff. As I said, I have little to talk about, so I will turn it over to Steve to discuss the marketing issues.

Steve Mura - Marketing Director

Thanks David. Let's talk about our marketing needs. First a little background: Jennifer has 20 years of experience selling clothing for large retailers, but now feels ready to take some risk, and venture out on her own. Her target market is female baby boomers. The only stores in her area that sell similar clothing are the major department stores at the mallbut those are 30 miles away. However, Jennifer is unsure what new competition she will face in the future. Do you think there are competitors we are not thinking about? What type of competitive differentiation could Jennifer build? Do you think this target market of female baby boomers is big enough to have decent sales? From a supply chain standpoint, Jennifer has great connections with potential U.S. suppliers. She can acquire a variety of name-brand clothes for her store that her target group would likely find attractive. However, she has no official business relationships with these suppliers yet and would need to either apply for trade credit or pay for inventory up front. She also has been introduced to a broker who can help her find clothing suppliers in China that produce clothes just like the name brands, but at half the cost. With all this in mind, remember that we want to be good corporate citizens, so when picking a partner, do we need to evaluate its business model? In your report that you are preparing, please be sure to focus on our marketing efforts and what you recommend in all parts of the marketing mix, product, price, place, and promotion. I look forward to your report and thank you for your time.

• How could Jennifer further define her target audience?
• What are some cost-effective marketing strategies that Jennifer could use? Discuss the basic marketing plan she should follow. In other words, discuss the fourPs of marketing (product, price, place, and promotion) and how they should be managed for her clothing store.
• What issues should Jennifer consider in terms of managing her employees and keeping them motivated? What HR issues should Jennifer consider? What leadership strategy should Jennifer use?
• What competitive factors must be considered? How can Jennifer develop a competitive advantage?
• What should Jennifer consider in choosing supply chain partners?