Ch. 11 - Developing and Managing Products

Tory Burch has successfully used a number of methods in order to create innovations within her company and it's products. In 2004, Tory Burch started with general product lines of women's ready-to-wear clothing, shoes, handbags, jewelry and accessories. Over the years she has managed to create many more categories of new products including product lines such as eye-wear, travel socks and beauty products. In 2009, Tory decided to create a partnership with Luxottica and produced a new product line of Tory Burch eye-wear. It consisted of both sun and prescription eye-wear that contained common colors from Tory Burch's brand.

In 2010, Tory Burch tweeted her fans telling them about the experience of taking off your shoes when going through the scanners at the airports and how she would feel so disgusted walking barefoot. She suggested to create a new product line of a traveling sock. Minutes after posting, her fans quickly agreed and told her that it was a great idea. It was amazing how social media influenced product development within her company. In this case, the customer and social media was part of the company's new-product strategy. Since the fans were tweeting about how much of a great idea the traveling socks were, Tory Burch did what the marketing guru would tell her to do; she gave them what they wanted. The traveling sock came in one color and one style which was one size fit all. It was navy blue and orange. It came with a little cute pouch which had a clip that consumers was able to use to clip on to either their traveling bag or create a strap to carry-on. Tory Burch hasn't really mentioned anything about creating any new colors or styles for the product line, however it has been a huge success and a lot of the consumers love the cute fashionable travel socks.

In 2013, Tory Burch decided to find a way to expand her brand. She started to look into new product development for beauty products. The new idea was estimated to bring in about fifty million dollars in sales in only after the first year. The beauty products consisted in a fragrance which was created in partnership with Estée Lauder who was responsible for producing the scent, a color cosmetics collection and a bath& body line. The fragrance came in a gold and orange vintage bottle which was inspired by the perfume bottles that she had seen on her mom's dresser when she was a child. The color cosmetics included a pink nude lipstick, rosy pink lip and cheek tint, a bronzer-blush palette and a retractable all-purpose face brush. The bath& body products included body cream, body lotion, shower gel and a candle. The beauty line was inspired by Tory's memories of her mother, her desire to expand and grow and her goal of attempting to satisfy her consumers needs by creating all products possible. The beauty product line and travel socks are currently still in the introduction and growth stage in the market while the eyewear product line is in the maturity stage of the market.

Ch. 22 - Social Media And Marketing

Tory Burch currently has a number of owned media for her company, which has benefited her a whole lot. For instance, Tory Burch herself, the CEO of the company will often be active on the company's social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Even though Tory Burch is much more active on Twitter than Facebook, at least she is active. This actually influenced her customers to actually interact with her through social media, which made the customer feel much more important. Just to know that the CEO of a very popular company actually has the time to personally interact with the clients is something that is quite valuable.

There is also e-commerce that exist on Facebook, where consumers actually get a chance to shop through Facebook. She called it "social shopping". She seen it as the future of e-commerce. Consumers can also give comments, suggestions and etc. through the Facebook page. Tory Burch actually observes her consumers' comments and picture through social media sites in order to better serve them. It allows the company to find out what makes their consumers happy and what gets them upset. They try to figure out their consumers' taste and what improvements need to be made within the company. Consumers even inform the company of counterfeit sites. I actually came across an excellent video of Tory Burch explaining how the use of social media successfully helped the company grow dramatically.

Toryburch.com is another site where consumers can purchase the company's products. The website helps the company reach its international consumers around the globe. It's also very convenient for consumers who barely have time to shop in stores. The website provides a section where consumers can sign up for an email list, which saves all their information so then every time they do shop online, they won't have to re-enter their address and etc. It makes things much more convenient especially for the company's loyal consumers. The company's website also contains border colors and styles that are incorporated from the designs seen in Tory Burch products.

There is also a blog for the company which showcases similar styles and colors to the brand itself. It creates an atmosphere where the customer will feel as if they're in Tory Burch's living room. After all, one of Tory's goals was to incorporate her own sense of style not only into the products from the company but anything else that had to do with the company as well. This then gave a feeling of comfort and familiarity for her consumers. The blog would often show things such as "book of the week", "food recipes", "what's new in the company" and a lot of other interesting things that helped Tory Burch engage with her consumers.

Ch. 10 - Product Concept

Tory Burch's products are considered to be consumer products which have a purpose of satisfying the consumer's want of expressing their personalities through the products. The clothing isn't boring nor expensive therefore it creates an attraction for consumers to buy her products.

Tory Burch is also a specialty product which has a very exclusive yet luxurious image and counterfeits definitely can't compete with the quality and authenticity of her products. The logo is usually a gold "t" that has a specifically very distant and fashionable look. They are usually implanted on Tory Burch products such as belts, the famous Reva ballet shoes, bags, wallets, jewelry, cosmetics and almost every product that is created in the company.

Tory Burch products contain a product mix of products such as clothing, shoes, cosmetics and accessories. From these product mixes there are product lines which vary from dresses, tunics, blouses, tops, tees, sweaters, outerwear and pants in clothing; flats, pumps, slippers, sneakers, sandals and boots in shoes; fragrance, lotion, shower gel, body cream, candles, make-up and makeup brushes in cosmetics; belts, wallets, hats, sunglasses, gloves, phone cases and scarves in accessories; and many more. Tory Burch shoes are usually made in Brazil while the scarves are made in France. All other products of Tory Burch such as clothing, bags and accessories are mostly made in China.

Ch. 18 - Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

Sales Promotion

Tory Burch has actually made it possible for Facebook users who "like" the company's page are given the benefit to be able to shop on the Facebook page for Tory Burch products. Tory Burch has also decided to give consumers another benefit for being loyal and showing the company's Facebook page some support. In return, she gives consumers as opportunity to take advantage of exclusive discounts for certain products on the Facebook page. She claims that it has shown success in satisfying consumers and increasing sales.

During the year of 2011, Tory Burch stores were actually giving out "Summer Reward Cards" for shoppers who would shop during certain dates when the promotion was going on. 

Personal Selling

Tory Burch sales associates are told to always make sure that the customer is happy and satisfied with the products they purchase and especially the overall customer service experience that is given to them. When first time customers enter the store, sales associates would often try to "read" the consumer and ask questions in order to find out what kind of product would fit the customer's taste and personality. The first goal is to actually achieve the findings of the consumer's desires. Then the sales associate must give suggestions on what kind of products they think that the consumer would be interested in purchasing. Tips of taking care of the purchased product is also given to the customer before they leave the store. 

Sales associates would always ask for the customer's contact information and e-mail address in order to build a relationship with the consumer. Updates, sales and a lot of other promotions and important information would be sent out to the customer. This would then be considered a form of relationship selling which will help increase sales and customer loyalty for the company.