Business Make-Over
Customer Data Can Help Designer's Sales Strategy
Keeping
in touch with her clients is crucial. Brochures should promote
the perfect fit of her custom-made leather garments.
By: KAREN E. KLEIN
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Sitting in her cozy sewing nook surrounded by fragrant bolts of leather and
suede, with her custom clothing draped festively around the room, Jackie
Robbins looks the picture of a successful clothing designer.
For
25 years, Robbins has used her creativity with natural textiles
to make and sell jackets, pants, skirts and purses to the Malibu
glitterati. Her attractive shop Leather Waves is lined with photos
of celebrities like Paul Newman, Neil Diamond, Goldie Hawn and
Celine Dion sporting her tailored motorcycle jackets and kicky
suede pants.
Robbins
applied for a small-business make-over from the Los Angeles Times
with the goal of transforming Leather Waves from an artistic endeavor
and supplemental income source into the primary means of support.
"I
never called clients to solicit business because I didn't think
it was cool to do that," she said. "Maybe it's my personality,
or maybe it's because of the whole artist-sensitivity thing. I
want people to come to me and seek me out, because they like my
art."
A
noble proposition, but no way to run a business, says Bob Phibbs,
a Long Beach-based consultant who conducts seminars and advises
companies as the Retail Doctor.
To
be successful, Phibbs said, Robbins must define herself, her business
and her target customers, then use that information to fuel all
her strategic planning and marketing decisions. Because of the
lack of client data, she could not easily define her target customer.
After
some brainstorming, the two settled on the idea that Robbins is
an artist who makes personal custom leather garments for clients
who are generally middle- to upper-income, fashion-conscious, imaginative
men and women with disposable income who can't find satisfactory
garments off-the-rack.
*
* *
Because
she did not have this definition firmly in the front of her mind,
many of Robbins' recent efforts to enhance sales have gone off
track, Phibbs said. For instance, in the last two years, she has
developed a brochure, started Leather Waves Babe--a children's
clothing line--and explored wholesaling, but results have been
decidedly mixed.
"It's
easy to throw money at stuff, but you can't just do something to
help your business, you have to do the right thing," Phibbs
said.
He
designed a sample brochure that walks would-be clients through
Robbins' unique process of garment selection, design sketches,
fittings and completion, stressing the perfect fit of custom-made
clothing, and says it would be a much more effective marketing
tool, especially if she includes pictures of her customers in their
finished garments.
*
* *
"Don't
cut your prices for anyone, and don't coupon your services or discount
your products to try to win new customers. If they are price-shopping,
they aren't your customers," he said.
Instead
of luring customers with lower prices, Phibbs recommended that
she network with other businesses and solicit referrals from retailers
in other niches that cater to the same clientele.
Motorcycle
shops whose customers do not want off-the-rack leather jackets,
custom jewelers and other high-end clothing boutiques might allow
her to leave brochures in return for an incentive if they generate
referrals, he said.
Even
more important than bringing in new customers, Robbins' top priority
should be holding onto existing customers and reconnecting with
old customers, Phibbs said.
She
needs to build a database from her backlog of client order slips,
inputting information about each client's wants and purchases,
and when she last contacted them.
Developing
a set of written notes that she can send to these customers during
the time they're working with her and afterward is a must, Phibbs
said.
And
he recommended that she also send out notes to all her previous
customers, just to let them know she's moved and jog their memory
about her designs. Although the task sounds mammoth, if Robbins
mails out two notes each business day for a year, she'll reach
a good portion of her clientele. Ongoing mailings will be reasonably
simple once her database is complete, Phibbs said.
He
suggested that she heavily market her top four best-selling items:
a large purse/carrying bag that sells for $350; men's suede shirts
and cargo pants for $750; a custom leather outfit of a jacket and
skirt or top with pants for $2,500; and her lightweight shearling
coats in a variety of colors that range from $1,000 to $4,000.
"People
obviously like the products, and you have a history of making them
well," Phibbs said.
*
* *
Robbins
is eager to get a Web site up and running, but Phibbs said he sees
the Internet as primarily a marketing tool for Leather Waves, because
offering custom leather designs on the Internet is impractical.
The reason her clients pay a premium, he said, is that Robbins
can give them a custom-fit, one-of-a-kind garment that requires
a personal relationship.
Putting
up pictures of finished garments and customer testimonials, making
sure she has an easily recognizable "dot-com" and getting
listed in search engines will help her Web site become an effective
adjunct to Robbins' other marketing efforts, he said.
Phibbs
also encouraged Robbins to raise her prices, something that she--like
most entrepreneurs--was reluctant to do.
So
far, the results have been positive. She sent out a dozen letters
advertising the deal, and seven called to take advantage of it.
She also plans to send out the note cards that Phibbs suggested,
and though she said she feels awkward about asking for customers'
pictures and testimonials for her Web site and advertising, she
has worked out a photo request and release form and plans to use
it.
*
* *
Calling
recent customers and touching base with them has also been successful.
"It
works wonderfully. People are thrilled that I'm calling, and I'm
going to do more of it," Robbins said.
But
another of Phibbs' ideas, contacting some of the celebrities she
has recently designed for, makes Robbins uneasy. First, you have
to be prepared to pay for a celebrity endorsement with money or
merchandise, she said, and second, she considers herself a personal
friend of several of her well-known clients and hates to strain
the relationship by asking for a favor.
"I
don't want to abuse my relationship with these people--getting
to know them is a nice bonus I have from this job," Robbins
said.
Overall,
however, Robbins was thrilled with Phibbs' advice and with other
consulting help she has gotten recently, all of which has stimulated
her business instincts and gotten her hopes up about Leather Waves'
prospects.
"I'm
coming up with new ideas, and there's excitement generated about
my business," she said. "When you're at a low creatively
and personally, that gets reflected in your business. When your
mind is moving creatively in a healthy business direction, then
you think creatively, too."
