Company’s Outline
Quadrupedal Apparel, Inc. is an American dog’s clothing manufacturing brand. The company specializes in producing customized dog apparel tailored to the specific measurements provided by the customer. This proposal will present analysis of the industry along with the business’ description and mission statement.
Industry Analysis
Competition in the Industry
To begin with, Quadrupedal Apparel’s main advantage over its competitors is the tailoring service ensuring that the apparel is produced according to specific dog measurements and body type. The largest segment of competition in the dog apparel market consists of fairly large businesses that provide customers with designer dog clothing with custom prints and color pallets (PupRwear, 2022). However, the majority of the apparel is only presented in a number of different sizes with fixed parameters and, hence, the companies potentially miss out on a portion of consumers with dogs of irregular sizes and forms. The other segment of the competition is a relatively minor one and consists of small businesses and freelancers that do provide customers with custom-tailored dog apparel (Etsy, 2022; Made by De, 2022). Nevertheless, the combined production and turnover of such enterprises are too small to satisfy the potential demand in full.
Potential of New Entrants into the Industry
The custom dog apparel market’s barrier to entry is relatively weak as all a company needs to start such a business is workforce, raw materials and distribution means. However, one of the significant barriers to market entry is the economies of scale – the problem that most of the existing competitors struggle with. Although there is a high demand for custom-tailored dog apparel, it takes a lot of planning and effort to expand and produce clothing on scales similar to large businesses which only deal with fixed size parameters. Another barrier to entry that new entrants may struggle with is establishing a clientele base. It becomes easier with a portfolio of completed orders and satisfied customers’ reviews, though the initial steps can be hard to follow through.
Power of Suppliers
Owing to the relatively common and affordable nature of raw materials required for dog apparel production, suppliers are not expected to have a significant impact on the cost of inputs. Despite the recent surge in prices of basic clothing materials such as cotton and polyester following the COVID-19 pandemic and the shipping containers crisis, the market is full with supply (Hall, 2021). Therefore, switching from old and looking for new suppliers would not be a problem.
Power of Customers
Due to the make-to-order nature of the custom dog apparel business, the specific products’ pricing will vary from case to case. Apart from being dependent on the price of raw materials and overhead costs, the final product’s price will depend on the customers’ budget as well as specific wishes and requirements. Hence, the customers do hold power to drive down the price of output, although this will have a negligible effect on the business’ turnover as long as the company has a solid base of customers.
Threat of Substitute Products
The company will provide unique products and, thus, the threat of substitutes will be largely eliminated. The customer will always have the choice to go for a cheaper option provided by the company’s competitors, however, the quality and design of all products will be unique to Quadrupedal Apparel. Furthermore, after gathering a loyal customer base and a solid portfolio, the consumers who have never previously purchased custom-tailored apparel for their dogs will likely choose Quadrupedal Apparel over other more cheap and less quality substitute products from the company’s competitors.
Mission Statement
Quadrupedal Apparel wants to ensure that dog owners can purchase affordable, fashionable and reliable apparels for their pets. The company’s mission statement can be described as “to provide tailored apparel to dogs of all shapes and sizes”.
Business Description
Products, Services and Location
As previously mentioned, Quadrupedal Apparel, Inc. is a business-to-consumer company that will be providing its clients with the tailoring service for their dogs and unique custom-tailored apparel items products. As the business will be operating exclusively online and will not have a physical store, the company’s offices along with the tailoring workshops will be located in a relatively small town in the deep south (Alabama/Louisiana/Mississippi). This way, the overhead costs can be significantly decreased due to cheap rent, electricity and heating.
Sources of Revenue and Product Distribution
The company’s primary source of revenue will come from selling custom-tailored dog apparel to dog owners. However, at some point the company may consider taking side jobs for tailoring already existing products by the company’s competitors to the specific dog measurements provided by the client. The main instrument for selling the Quadrupedal Apparel’s products and services will be the company’s website, the URL of which is attached on the front page of this proposal. After a client contacts the company, submits their dog measurements and agrees on the apparel and price, the order is taken by the workshop’s tailors. The company will have a limited stock of the basic raw materials such as cotton and polyester, however, if the job requires specific clothing materials, it will first be purchased from the current supplier or on the market. After the job is done, the apparel item will be packaged and sent to the customer via existing courier-based distribution chains such as UPS or DHL for premium deliveries and United States Postal Service (USPS) for general deliveries. Furthermore, due to the online nature of the business, the market does not have to be constrained by the U.S. borders. Using same delivery services, the company’s products can be sent abroad to foreign customers in Canada, Central and South America and even shipped to Europe, Australia, Africa and Asia.
Marketing Strategy
To ensure the local and global reach of the business, several marketing tools will be employed. First of all, some of the marketing budget will be spent on traditional forms of marketing such as TV and radio ads, billboards and advertisements in magazines oriented towards dog owners. Moreover, a large portion of the budget will be spent on target ads on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram as their algorithms allow for precise selection of target audience. Finally, the adverts for custom-tailored dog apparel can be set on various e-commerce platforms such as Etsy, Amazon marketplace and eBay (Amazon.com, 2022; Ebay, 2022).
Competitive Advantage
Quadrupedal Apparel’s competitive advantage comes from the combined approaches borrowed from small enterprises, which make custom-tailored apparel based on specific dog measurements, and large businesses, which bring fashion trends and styles to the dog apparel market. The company will minimise the overhead costs owing to the carefully chosen location and, thus, will be spending most of the money on quality raw materials. Furthermore, owing to the unique marketing strategy, the company is expected to gain a sufficient clientele base and have an option to expand when the turnover reaches a certain value. Finally, when the company reaches self-sufficiency, some of the marginal profit will be invested to further increase and diversify the company’s income.
References
Amazon.com. (2022). How to Sell on Amazon | Become an Amazon Seller – Amazon. Web.
Ebay. (2022). Selling on Ebay | Electronics, Fashion, Home & Garden | Ebay. Web.
Etsy. (2022). Custom Dog Clothes | Etsy. Web.
Hall, C. (2021). Fashion’s Raw Material Price Rises Felt From New York to Karachi. Business of Fashion. Web.
Made by De. (2022). Custom Dog Clothes – Made by De. Web.
PupRwear. (2022). PupRwear Designer & Custom Dog Clothing, Doggie Couture. Web.