Analyzing Retail Concept Store: Excelsior

The shopping experience it offers aims to be cross-genre, choosing less well known brands and always putting the focus on excellence. The ambition is for it to become a place to socialize, somewhere to meet people, to buy things that satisfy you, to choose a sophisticated take-away to take back to your office or home that evening – somewhere to do high-profile shopping. Excelsior is a place full of energy, a floating series of inspirations and ideas.
The influential boutique ANTONIA floors are surely a fashion lover’s playground, dedicating fashion womenswear, menswear and accessories to their customers. The most important thing at the moment is to have a real mix on the inside of all happy things, not just expensive things” said Antonia Giacinti, well – known to mix avant- garde and business. As a result, Excelsior Milano perfectly balances the concept boutique with a department store. The complex is an audacious injection of modernity in the city’s historical heart. The inner walls of the old movie theatre are coated with reflecting paints, while the exterior supports led screens all along the outer edge.
Each floor is connected to the next by an automated ramp that is kind of a cross between a people mover and an escalator. Unlike any other store in Milan, Excelsior is hipper than La Rinascente and brasher than Corso Como 10. Gruppo Coin spent more than 40 million dollars on its development and renovation over three years. Described by the shop owners as “ a journey through shopping of the future” Market Segmentation After the group did the deep research of the different types of consumer, it shows that there are three main groups of people who buy the products in Excelsior store.

The largest percentage group is contained by the people who come from the high classes level, another group invovled some middle classes level consumers who are educated well and they desire to buy the creative luxury goods, and the last group takes by the people who are the ‘new money’. 3 Market Segmentation Middle level class 13% Others 3% High level classes 84% Customer Target Five types of consumers emerge at each of the life cycle stages Since Excelsior is on its growth stage, the customers are mostly the opinion leaders.
Fashion opinion leaders (celebrities, fashion editors, journalists and early adopters) are the next most likely adopters of a fashion product. They copy the inspiration from fashion innovators and change the product into a popular style. 1 Most of them are very fashion-forward and updated. 1 https://instruct1. cit. cornell. edu/courses/cuttingedge/lifeCycle/03. htm 4 (From the questionaires) Demographic Target • Customers of Excelsior are mostly 20 – 45 years old women and men who have a medium economic capacity income between €1500 – 3000 per month. The targets can be students/managers/business men or ladies/marriage or single.
Tourists or tourist groups are 20-45 old women and men from Russia, USA and Asia. With middle income €1500 per month. It can be students/managers/business ladies/marriage or single. Sex Age Occupation Italy resident or tourist Status Income Frequency of shopping Married: 45% >17: 7. 6% Female: 60% 18-20: 19. 7% Male: 40% 21-29: 47. 1% 30-45: 25. 6% • Employed: 75% Unemployed: 25% Tourist: 65% Italy resident 35% Single: 28% In Relationship: 27% 2000 – 3000: 3. 4%; 3000 – 5000: 24. 1%; 5000 – 10000: 42. 2%; 10000 – 20000: 12. 7%; 20000 – 60000:10. 1%; ? 60000 >7. 4% Frequently: 62% Rarely: 10% Occasionally: 28%
Psychographic Target The types of clients that Excelsior Milan wants to attract are people with a clear sense of style, people who is well-informed and travelling internationally. Designed to target a cross for age, sex, social background but fashion enthusiast, curiousity, cosmopolitan. 5 Marketing Mix Product Excelsior provides clothes , footwear, accessories, beauty and food hall for women and men from high and middle level incom. The clothes include evening dresses, formal and casual wear. 4000 square meters in single volume, divided into 7 floors Each floor have their own names: -1 floor (Underground floor) 6 7
An exclusive food haven EATS – a real supermarket offering a wide variety of fresh meat, fish, vegetables, ready-to-eat gastronomic specialties and wines, here you can not only find the best quality products from Italy and abroad, but also find a corner dedicated to show-cooking and a wine cellar that offers 46 different top wines through a clever machine specifically designed for tasting wines by the glass. The restaurant offers three dimensions, “Now” for the elegant take-away, “Fast ” for the bistro characterized by seasonal specials, and “Slow” for the more traditional restaurant, regularly hosting renowned guest chefs like Davide Oldani. Between -1 and 0 – “M” floor There are bistro and wine shop. 9 0 floor – “G” This floor is always packed with young people, the ground floor presents accessories from keys of Tiffany to DJ headphones WESC, perfume Commes des Garson, inexpensive SWATCH watches, cuckoo iphone accessories and limited edition of sunglasses Ray Ban. 10 1 floor – ICON TEMPORARY Women’s floor offers concept brands – contemporary American designers such as Helmut Lang, Theory, Rag & Bone, Alice and Olivia, Vince, Globe Trotter, Swatch, Anta, Mario Portolano, Antipast with price range from about €200-400.
Also here presents hats, which are made specially for the store. 11 2 floor – ANTONIA UOMO 12 The second floor displays only men’s collections, Such as Maison Martin Margiela, Dries Van Noten, Marni, Balmain, Marc Jacobs, Neil Barrett, Band of Outsiders, Golden Goose, RRL Ralph Lauren; Visvim, Haversack, Nigel Cabourn, Mackintosh, Piombo, Edwin, Gilded Age, Levi’s limited Edition, Prps, Porter, Moscot, NIKE e. t c (Advanced designers: Very select pieces from Balmain and Proenza Schouler) 13 3 floor – ANTONIA 14
The third floor presents famous first-line brands from all around the world such as Balmain, Valentino, Chloe, Maison Martin Margiela, Dries Van Noten, Proenza Schouler, Marni, Joseph with a higher price range than the womenswear in the first floor. 15 4 floor – ANTONIA ACCESSORIES This floor presents accessories from Christian Louboutin, Giuseppe Zanotti, Jimmy Choo, Sergio Rossi, Pierre Hardy, Repetto; borse di Givenchy, Proenza Schouler, Zagliani, Marni, Chloe, Manolo Blahnik   16 Price The collections of Excelsior store sells for the prestige class so the clients can expect to pay more for the original design, and good quality pieces.
The prices range from € 50 – 1500 Womenswear € 90 – 3530 Menswear € 120 – 3620 Accessories (both Men and Women) €90 – 4700 The majority of sales are fashion forward jeans, tops and shoes, as these garments have middle price and more affordable for customers. Place Fashion, beauty, accessories, food and design are mingled in this historical building, located in Galleria del Corso 4, the heart of Milan, just behind Duomo. It is a very strategic area which is one of the ‘most-visit’ area in Milan. It has been completely refurbished by French starchitect Jean Nouvel. Promotion Advertising 1. Campaign 1
Advertising campaign by Giampaolo Sgura 17 This advertising campaign was made to show to customers that the concept of Excelsior is where fashion, beauty and food meet in one place. It was put in a digital signage video wall in Piazza Cinque Giornate 2. Campaign 2 Illustration for Excelsior’s Video Wall These pictures above are the graphic illustrations created for Excelsior by the author of SNIPPET, Luca Mainini. It is projected on the video wall of the department store in Galleria del Corso among the scraps of paper, photographic research and the nostalgic memory of the divas of the past.
He said, “The diva embodies the maximum visual potential on the female figure. The Hollywood stardom is the seed of all my work: the fallacy of success, the technicolor of the character, the black and white of privacy. ”2 2 http://www. excelsiormilano. com/#/it/category/events/news/322/luca-­? mainini 18 Events One-Year Celebration To celebrate Excelsior’s first year anniversary, they held an event with a title “We’re Waiting For Something” which were held in the 14th of September 2012 in Cafe Excelsior. It was a public event, o basically everybody can attend the party. This event was posted on Facebook, so everybody who ‘like’ Excelsior’s page can get the invitation on Facebook. Photos From The Event Sales Promotion 1. Discounts Discounted Products 19 To clean up all excessive stocks and to attract more powerful customer purchase, Excelsior sometimes do the sales in some special period of the year, such as in Summer or Christmas. By this way, they are able to have more spaces to display and or to keep the stock of new products while generating more sales and attracting more customers. 2.
Extraordinary Gift Card The Extraordinary Gift Card by Excelsior allows customers to give a budget of their choice to someone special and also customers can customize their gift according to their taste. The other advantages of this gift card for Excelsior is that the receivers of the card can only shop their goods in Excelsior. There are more chances which lead the receiver to spend much more money on the goods than the value of the card. Social Media • Facebook Excelsior’s Facebook Front Page Excelsior’s facebook page are used to put any kind of information related to their activity.
And also to keep the person who ‘like’ their page keep informed if they held any events, new arrival products, products reviews, or special offer. 20 • Twitter Excelsior’s Twitter Page Excelsior’s twitter page is well managed as they update their status on twitter frequently. The content of their ‘tweet’ is mostly about their products information. For example if there are some new arrival products in their store or simply just to invite people to have lunch on their “Eat’s” restaurant. Foursquare • Excelsior’s Foursquare Page 21
As it is shown to us, Excelsior did not manage it in the right way since the Foursquare page seems not really popular. Competitors Direct Competitor 1. La Rinascente The first department store la Rinascente was opened in 1865 by brothers Bocconi. The department has 7 floors, which is selling majority kinds product like clothing ,interior, daily needs and kitchen cookers. They also have a restaurant , a beauty salon and an art gallery. By 2011, the network has eleven la Rinascente department stores in Italy: two are located in Rome, one, the largest, in Milan and one at la Rinascente in other cities – Palermo, Florence, Genoa, Turin.
Strengths • • Has a wide range A long time Italian market background • Succesful Brand Awareness • Located in more significant area • • High turnover Well–known luxury brands • 100 euro+ • • • • Weaknesses On-line shop No parking area Lack of the new creative fashion design brand Too crowded in peak time 22 Indirect Competitor Monobrand stores around Duomo Near the Duomo Area there are so many monobrand stores, they could be Excelsior’s competitors too. For example, boutiques in Via Montenapoleone. Almost all of the luxury brands are located there.
And even those brands which are sold in Excelsior. So the customers can choose wether to buy the goods in Excelsior or in its own monobrand store . Strengths • Successful Brand Awareness • Located in the central (near Duomo area) • • Well-known for tourist Much more selection to choose from • • • • Weaknesses Going in to every each stores might be tiring Scattered shops location Not convenient for shopping all the brands at the same time Doesn’t provide limited items SWOT- Analysis Strengths I. The Excelsior Milano located in the most center place in Milan, just behind the Duomo church.
Thousands of visitor and located people need to cross the street by everyday. II. III. The Excelsior marketing department has been managed very well for their brand website. There are mix branding which contain all types of fashionable clothes and accessories around the world. 23 IV. The advertising in the shopping mall is the video that display in the monitor. It is very creative and vivid to display the products and trend of the Excelsior. Weaknesses I. II. The excelsior did not own the online shopping which may lead to lose some consumers by many reasons. There is no obvious advertising r big Logo around the area in results that some people cannot find the shopping center especially the tourist. Opportunities I. II. Since the range of consumers is becoming much younger, the people now are caring about the product’s personalities and designable. Milan prepares to host the next universal Exposition in 2015 (Apple, Nike and Prada are looking to expand within the neighborhood of the Duomo) in anticipation of a tourist boom. Threats I. The Excelsior Milano seldom uses the communication tools which may lead to become less popular or may loose the brand images of the worldwide costumers.
II. III. There are some Indirect and direct competitors just located beside the Excelsior Milano. In the Excelsior Milano, the trend of the fashion is much younger, colorful and street style. The local consumers may not accept this American causal style. 24 Merchandising Mix Fashion Product Life Cycle Fashion Product Life Cycle Fashion product life cycles last a shorter time than basic product life cycles. By definition, fashion is a style of the time. A large number of people adopt a style at a particular time. When many no longer adopt it, a fashion product life cycle ends. After more than one year from its opening, Excelsior now is on its early growth stage. As it is shown from the graph, on the growth stage, they sell most on fashion products and also basic products. From our perspective, this is exactly how Excelsior buys its merchandises. The exact percentage will be explained below. Pricing strategy In the retail market, there are two popular pricing strategies, one is called everyday low pricing, EDLP, another is called high/low pricing strategy. 4In the excelsior, they chose the “high/low pricing strategy”, which means retailer set the price would be higher than he others competitor’s daily low prices, but they will recurring the reduction by using the advertising promotion. In fact, this is a very effective method since the main features of the strategy grabs the consumer’s psychology. Many customers usually purchase the products, which are in lower prices only. In this way, 3 https://instruct1. cit. cornell. edu/courses/cuttingedge/lifeCycle/03. htm   4 http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Pricing_strategies 25 it will beat the other competitors because once the customer realize that the goods are in the reasonable price, they will purchase much more than they usually bought.
Product Categories 2% 9% 8% 23% 10% 48% Man Woman Accessories Beauty Food Design Breadth vs Depth The product breadth means the variety of product lines offered. 5 The shop usually need to identity the breadth vs. depth. Breadth means being broad in scope. Carrying items in many different product categories. Offering several different types of service under one roof. For example, if you are a remodeling company you might do everything from adding a closet, to trimming out some cabinetry, to building the patio, up to a complete kitchen remodel.
Depth means being intense in scope by immersing your business into an industry or product category. Stocking is focused product mix, a specialized service offering. 6 There usually have 3 models, which are Narrow and deep, Square, Broad and shallow. In the 3 models, there are some different types of depth. In excelsior, they chose the “broad and shallow”. The products include men’s wear, women’s wear, accessories, beauty, food and design. They aim to buy the right product for customers and not to buy so many.
The group has the fortunate for interviewing the sales manager of the excelsior, and the lady told us that they choose in different style or lots of color but purchase in small amount of 5 http://retail. about. com/od/glossary/g/breadth. htm 6 http://themarketingspot. com/2009/08/breadth-­? vs-­? depth. html 26 sizes. Like a silk top, they may only purchase 2 pieces of each sizes (from XS to M) and 1 pieces of the Large size. Men’s Product Men’s Product Breadth T-shirt, Shirts, Jackets, Coats, Sports Wear, Jeans, Trousers, shorts and Accessories.
Men’s Product Breadth T-­? shirts 2% 6% 7% 8% 12% 14% 25% 11% 15% Shirts Jackets Coats Sports Wear Jeans Trousers Shorts T-shirts: V- neck, Designing neck, Collared T- shirts, Sleeveless T- Shirts, Sweat T Shirts Shirts: Casual wear, Formal & Office wear, Evening & Club Wear Sports Wear: Nylon and Cotton Tracks Jeans: Boot cut, Skinny fit, Regular& Loose fit Trousers: Wrinkle Free, Cotton Chinos, Italian Fit Shorts: Regular in cotton and waterproof material Accessories: Ties, Belts, Scarves Shoes: Boots, Lace-up shoes, Loafers, Sandals, Sneakers 7 Men’s Product Depth and Price Range CATEGORIES T-shirts Shirts Jackets Sports Wear Jeans Trousers Shorts Sweaters Accessories PRICE RANGE 120 – 350 200 – 630 450 – 3620 130 – 380 150 – 350 245 – 545 120 – 255 245 – 515 100 – 3500 SIZES S – XXL S – XXL S – XL S – XXL S – XL S – XL S – XL S – XL Single size Sizes offered at the stores range from S to XL. But there are a few pieces having large sizes. Colors The different shades of White, Black, Blue, green, yellow, red and orange, etc.
Mens Shoes Sizes 41 – 44 (Italian size) Designers Antonia Uomo • • • • • • • • • • WESC BALMAIN CHURCH’S DRIES VAN NOTEN MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA MARC JACOBS MARNI CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN HTC INCASE 28 • • • • • MAISON KISTUNE RICK OWENS KENZO MISSONI GIVENCHY Women’s Product Women’s Product Breadth Women’s Product Breadth 20% 16% 10% 15% 4% 35% Formal Wear Ethnic Wear Casual Wear Club Wear Sportswear Accessorries Casual wear: T-shirt, Shirts, Jackets, Sweaters, Coats, Jeans, Capris, Cargos, Shorts, Skirts and Dresses.
Formal wear: Formal Shirts, Blazers, Pants and Evening wear dresses Club Wear: Stylish Tops, Skirts, Hot Shorts, Party dresses Sports Wear: Jackets, Track Pants and Shorts, Sweat T- shirt Ethnic Wear Accessories: Belts, Stoles and Bags Shoes: Boots, Flats, Lace-up shoes, Loafers, Pumps, Sandals, Sneakers, Wedges 29 Women’s Product Depth and Price Range CATEGORIES Formal Wear Casual Wear Club Wear Sportswear Ethnic Wear Accessories PRICE RANGE 150 – 3530 100 – 2300 300 – 1500 90 – 800 110 – 1500 70 – 4700 SIZES XS – L XS – L XS – L XS – L XS – L Single size
Colors Various shades of Red, Green, Orange, Purple, Black, White, Blue, Yellow and Pink Shoes Sizes 36 – 40 (Italian Size) Antonia brands • • • • • • • • • • • • • • BALMAIN CHLOE ETOILE ISABEL MARANT JOSEPH GIVENCHY VANESSA BRUNO VALENTINO REPETTO PROENZA SCHOULER MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA ISABEL MARANT THEYSKENS’ THEORY M MISSONI CAMILLA & MARC 30 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • JAMES PERSE DRIES VAN NOTEN AURELIE BIDERMANN HAIDER ACKERMANN 3. 1 PHILLIP LIM THAKOON JOE’S JEANS MARNI ERDEM MAISON MICHEL BILITIS CURRENT/ELLIOT T BEX ROX HUDSON JEANS RICK OWENS
Excelsior focuses on the clients who do not want to be copied but rather want to create their own look and to plan a new way of being yourself every day. That is why store chose brands such as Martin Maison Margiela, Dries Van Noten. Their collections are a complete, intelligible. The designers are feeling very well about what girls want to dress. A pair of high but stable heels, skinny jeans and leggings, stretched T-shirts and sweaters, jackets, leather jackets, coats, who immediately snatched ladies of Milan and its isitors, and then combining them together in freestyle, rock ‘n’ roll style. A little aggressive, sharp and tough image of brands will add uniquenesses to our new boutiques. Here presents collection of Balmain. The simplicity and luxury wonderfully combine the practicality, sexy and glamour. Clothing from this brand is designed for energetic, confident and self-sufficient women. The main advantage of models is that they make dresses comfortably while remaining consistently elegant and stylish. Excelsior includes high quality and fashion brands.
Each collection includes cult, unmistakably recognizable elements. 3. 1 Phillip Lim brand creates sensual, confident, intelligent and beautiful collections. The uniqueness of this brand is that the designer uses a very thin, almost weightless cashmere, cotton, semi-treated soft pure silk and   31 wool. Rochas – described as a quiet, discreet nod to the retro. These commercial brands, which can bring financial   perspectives, because they are already quite wellknown among the people like good quality and fashion brands, and on them have a certain buyer. Antonia Accessories • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • CHLOE CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN CHURCH’S GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI JIMMY CHOO PIERRE HARDY PROENZA SCHOULER REPETTO VALENTINO GARAVANI MANOLO BLAHNIK MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA HTC RENE CAOVILLA MARC BY MARC JACOBS MARNI 3. 1 PHILLIP LIM RICK OWENS GIVENCHY M MISSONI UGG DR. MARTENS 32 Fabrics Their fabrics selection depends on the season. In this case we observe during the Fall/ Winter Season, therefore the selection are dominated by a thick and warm fabrics such as: • • • • • Wool Knitwear Nylon/ Synthetic (used for windbreaker) Fur Leather
Besides, there are also some light fabrics to provide the current trend, such as: • • • • Velvet Silk Brocade Cotton Display After the group talked to the sales manager of excelsior, we have noticed that each season, the excelsior will hire 2 shelf merchandiser to display the products on the shelf in a way that will attract customers (one is for the men’s floor and anther is for the women’s wear and shoes and accessories). They usually display 2 pieces of clothes in the both womenswear, however in the men’s floor, they only display 1 piece of clothes.
We can also see it from the pictures. 33 Excelsior Shelving At first, the group thought it may be because the womenswear have 2 floors that they have more space to display the dresses and the men’s only have one floor so they need to use every place they can since the excelsior have lots of brand and style for male. But after the sales manager of excelsior told us it’s only because of shelf merchandiser’s willing. In this way, the shelf merchandiser plays a very important role in attracting the customer to purchase the products. 34
Conclusion In conclusion, Excelsior is a place full of energy, a floating series of inspirations and ideas. It not only sells the clothes of women and men, but also spread the sprit of fashion. The customer target is not only focus on single group and the product breath is very wide from food, dress to technology. Although we are in the financial crisis now, the excelsior will not be influenced since it has its distinctive strategy. 35 Questionnaire NO. xxx Date: xx/xx Sexual: o Female o Male Nationality: o Italy resident o Tourist Ages: o o o Under 17 18 ––30 30 ––45 Above 50 Status: o Married o Single o In relationship Occupation: o Employed o Unemployed Income: o o o o o o Under 2000 2000–– 3000 3000––5000 5000––10000 10000––20000 Above 20000 How many times will you shop in the Excelsior : o Frequently o Rarely o Occasionally The main reason that lead you to shop in this store: 36 References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. NYTimes. com Vogue. it http://www. vogue. it/en/magazine/daily-news/2011/09/opening-coin-excelsiormilan http://www. excelsiormilano. com http://www. odemonline. com/fashion/mini-web-sites/multilabelstores/references/5729-excelsiormilano http://www. modemonline. com/fashion/mini-web-sites/multilabelstores/references/5729-excelsiormilano http://www. vogue. it/en/shopping/where-to-shop/2012/06/sales-at-excelsior https://instruct1. cit. cornell. edu/courses/cuttingedge/lifeCycle/03. htm http://www. vogue. it/en/shopping/where-to-shop/2012/06/sales-at-excelsior 10. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Pricing_strategies 11. http://themarketingspot. com/2009/08/breadth-vs-depth. html 37