Ch. 15 - Retailing

Customer Service:

Tory Burch provides gift wrapping service which includes a personalized message and gift receipt with items that are purchased in stores and as well as orders that are made online. Full price merchandise can be refunded and/or exchanged within 30 days of purchase while sale price merchandise can be refunded and/or exchanged within 14 days of purchase. If any item passes these specific timespans, then the item may be exchanged for a Tory Burch gift card. The brand also provides customers with services such as consultation, alteration, return policies, gift wrapping, delivery and personal shoppers.

Product Placement:

Tory Burch has successfully opened a number of chain stores worldwide ever since 2004, when she had first launched her clothing line. There are currently 83 Tory Burch boutiques that exist worldwide. Tory Burch products are also sold in 1,000 specialty stores and department stores worldwide. Tory Burch provides a wide selection of items such as women’s clothing, handbags, shoes and accessories. Tory Burch products can be found either in Tory Burch boutiques, Tory Burch outlet stores, online at toryburch.com, select authorized department stores and specialty stores as well.   

Presentation:

The layouts of Tory Burch boutiques are very organized, colorful and creative. The design can be very attractive and eye-catching for shoppers that walk into these boutiques. Tory Burch claims that she wanted to create a comfortable atmosphere where if shoppers were to walk into these boutiques, it would be similar to walking into Tory Burch’s own living room. She successfully incorporated her own sense of style and personality into the layout of the store. The selection of items are usually very nice and well laid out. It isn’t only a comfortable design that is displayed throughout the boutiques but you can also see the classy and luxurious setting.                 

Price:

When Tory Burch first created this brand, she wanted to make sure that it wasn’t only luxurious but also affordable for her target market which was the middle-aged hard working mothers. The prices of her products usually range from $100-$500. There were various luxury brands that sold their products at prices that were way higher than of Tory Burch products. Lowering the prices a bit definitely helped Tory Burch’s product to easily sell and become one of the most popular luxurious brands today worldwide.

Promotion:

Department stores that sell Tory Burch products would often run promotions for specific products. Customers who sign up for the e-mail list will be able to receive promotion codes and discounts for a limited time on only specific items. Customers can sign up to be on these e-mail lists either online or in Tory Burch boutiques as well.

E-Commerce:

Tory Burch’s company also provides shopping online where customers can shop comfortably in their own living room by going to toryburch.com. They also provide free shipping for orders that are over 300$ which can be very convenient for customers. When there is a shipping error or damaged product coming from Tory Burch, they promise to give customers two options. The customer could either allow the company to replace the order or give the customer a full refund at the company’s expense in order to provide customers with excellent customer satisfaction. The Tory Burch website also provides international shipping so then customers around the world could also shop conveniently. Customers can also create an online account on the website which will benefit the customer as well. After creating an online account, consumers can easily check out quicker because all their shipping and billing information will automatically be saved and they can also track their orders.

Ch. 6 - Consumer Decision Making

Today Tory Burch is a successful billionaire who accurately attracted her target market in such a phenomenal way. The target market of baby boomers (women aged 35 and up) has been the most difficult target market to satisfy and attract. Consumers in this age group were tired of seeing boring clothing and products in 

the market that didn't exactly help these women express themselves. The baby boomers had a strong desire to find a brand that would satisfy the wants and needs of these women which was clothing that reflected the variety of each individual's unique attitudes, tastes, lifestyles and body types. 

Instead of focusing on trying to beat the competition, Tory Burch decided to focus on what was missing in her specific target market and how can she win over the consumer. She successfully achieved this goal by creating a brand that served women of all ages, all body types, contained a variety of designs and attainable price points. Attainable luxury clothing was something that other brands did not have. Tory Burch basically recognized an unfulfilled need for her specific target market and created a brand that satisfied it. 

When Tory Burch created the brand, she incorporated her personality and style into the brand which helped her build a connection with her consumers. The brand was seen as personable and approachable. She wanted to make women feel as if they could have it all. She succeeded in fulfilling this goal because the brand had a luxurious style and an attainable price. Another need that Tory Burch fulfilled was the need of making the consumer feel comfortable and important. She did so by becoming active on social networks that were created for the company and interacting with customers on twitter. Her team was also active on the company's Facebook page and other social network pages. She showed her customers how important their comments, concerns and etc. were to her.

Ch. 5 - Developing A Global Vision

Tory Burch found her brand in February 2004. In 2010, Tory Burch opened about 20 new shops globally in numerous international cities which include Osaka, Seoul, Hong Kong, Kobe and Taipai. Today she has successfully expanded throughout the global market and is making millions of dollars from a total of 73 boutiques that has expanded globally in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Tory Burch's brand successfully went global after she applied a couple of digital marketing strategies in her marketing plan.

Immediately after Tory Burch opened her first boutique in downtown Manhattan, the brand decided to launch eCommerce. Toryburch.com was created and shoppers were now able to not only purchase items in store but online as well. The brand had also created a Twitter account, Facebook account, a blog for the brand and many other social networks for the brand. This helped Tory Burch expand throughout the media to numerous types of people. Social networks exist all over the world so this also helped the brand gain exposure to the other countries through the web. They focused a lot on digital marketing and continued to develop relationships with editors for the blog. Tory Burch also continued to develop the social media profiles for the brand and still continues to do the same today.
After Tory Burch successfully went global with the brand, she decided to find a way to go even deeper and understand different types of cultures. She started visiting other countries and observing their sense of style and values in fashion. After doing so, she started coming up with ideas for each specific country's market and used the application of the multidomestic strategy. For example, Tory Burch made sure that clothing that was sold in the Middle East would be created to be longer while Tory Burch bikinis sold in Brazil were made skimpy. She knew that people who lived in the Middle East had a culture where they would always have to be covered throughout their bodies while people who lived in Brazil had a culture where they didn't mind showing off too much skin. One of the most popular products of Tory Burch was the signature logo ballet flats which helped Tory Burch become the global brand. This product was an example of global marketing standardization.

Ch. 4 - The Marketing Environment

Tory Burch is a brand that has a target market mainly for middle-aged mothers. However, the brand also caters to all ages of women and has been very successful with targeting the soccer mom market. Tory Burch also focuses on targeting the baby boomer generation of women but also the children and grandchildren of their generation. 

The most popular Tory Burch item is actually the Brazil-made Reva ballerina shoe. It has became a new trend and is seen on at least one out of every five women walking down the streets of Manhattan. This specific product of Tory Burch and many other footwear products have helped the company attract younger consumers into their market When the company first started, Tory Burch decided that her brand was going to become a luxury brand that would fit a successful women's typical lifestyle. The brand is very affordable as well and the patterns actually come from Tory Burch's own sense of style.     

Ch. 3 - Ethics & Social Responsibility

Code Of Conduct/Rule Of Ethics:

Tory Burch and it's affiliates have a rule of conduct that all associates, vendors and business partners must follow. When it comes to diversity, Tory Burch's company promises to treat all it's associates, customers and community equally. They will recruit, employ, promote and compensate all individuals of Tory Burch no matter what the individual's race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability or anything else that is protected by law may be. Tory Burch strongly values fairness, honesty, integrity, authenticity, and respect among all associates, customers and it's community. The company believes that all associates that will be involved in the workplace of Tory Burch's stores worldwide are to be treated with respect, decency and dignity. Child labor, human trafficking, and slavery will not be tolerated by its vendors, business partners or any partners that are or will be affiliated with Tory Burch. This code of conduct and rules of ethics will help prevent negative atmospheres in the workplace and create a comfortable work environment for Tory Burch's employees, customers and community. 

Ch. 2 - Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

Tory Burch's goal is to provide women of all ages with a luxury lifestyle brand that was accessible to purchase, not too pricey. Lifestyle brands usually have an advantage over other brands especially when it is created from the authenticity and personal style of the designer. 

A large percentage of consumers that purchase Tory Burch clothing are mothers just like the designer of the brand and this is one of the reasons why her brand became so popular. So far Tory Burch has succeeded in expanding the brand with items such as tunics, ready-to-wear collections, eye-wear, footwear, accessories, and a new fragrance deal with Estee Lauder.There will possibly also be a future creation of a sportswear line for yoga, tennis and golf enthusiasts.

Competitive Advantage
Tory Burch has participated in using the product development strategy in order to bring more consumers into buying the brand and it has made a huge impact on the expansion of the brand itself. She did this by starting with the creation of tunics, ready-to-wear collections, accessories and footwear. Then she started selling eye-wear, home items and now fragrances. This helped her reach out to new potential loyal consumers. 

Tory Burch has also used the promotion strategy as well in order to get her company to expand. She was actually on the Oprah Show one day and when the next day came along, she ended up having about eight million hits on her website. This was when her brand started to grow and expand into a huge company. Another thing that Tory Burch did was use social media to be in contact with her consumers and obtain feedback from them. This definitely helped her produce better products that the public wanted.  

S.W.O.T. Analysis

Strength- The brand is very affordable and it fits the taste and style of a lot of women.

Weakness- She hasn't created clothing for men or kids. 

Opportunity- Expanding to other parts of the world besides America.

Threat- Michael Kors is another brand that is similar to Tory Burch. Therefore, this becomes competition for Tory Burch and it can definitely be a threat.

Target Market 
Women of all ages but mostly mothers that had full time jobs.

Ch. 1 - Overview of Marketing (Brief History and Mission Statement)

Brief History:
Tory Burch was the CEO and designer of her own fashion line when it first launched in February 2004. She decided to open the first Tory Burch Boutique in New York on Elizabeth Street. The type of fashion that she created was based upon her own personal style and spirit. The brand was mostly known for it's T-logo medallion.

Tory Burch was designed among multiple product categories which included : ready-to-wear, handbags, shoes and accessories. By April 2005, Oprah had endorsed Tory's fashion line while she appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show". In October 2009, Tory Burch eye-wear was launched with Luxottica Group in partnership. As of January 2013, there are 83 Tory Burch stores that have been created worldwide.


Mission Statement:
"Tory Burch is an attainable, luxury, lifestyle brand defined by classic American sportswear with an diverse sensibility."

Tory Burch's mission was to create clothing and accessories that were affordable yet stylish and wearable for women of any age.