Marketing strategy and product offering for Nine West shoes

Shaping the Marketing Offering for Nine West Shoe Company

Nine West Marketing Offering

The Nine West shoe company is a branch of the internationally acknowledged Jones Apparel Group and it is focused on selling products designed for women. However it was initially destined to sell mainly shoes, the store is currently presenting their female clients with clothes, handbags, shoes and a multitude of accessories. Even so, their main products remain the shoes.

The wide variety of shoes, fit for all sizes, weathers and occasions, are being sold under the Nine West brand. The brand is a guarantee of high quality due to its prior expertise in the shoes area and the multitude of satisfied customers who have become extremely faithful to the Nine West Company. The brand is even more trusted due to its association with the renowned Jones Apparel Group.

The shoes are being packed in resistant cart boxes or bags, depending on the product and on the customer's desires. All packages have inscribed on them the company's name. Clients have the possibility of resolving their complaints or any other customer service inquiries within all Nine West stores, with the assistance of trained personnel who is eager to solve whatever problems customers might have. Also, Nine West has recently implemented an emailing strategy to aid their customers.

Similar to other companies, Nine West applies a different treatment to faithful customers as compared to new customers, to the advantage of the first. As such, the older a customer you are, or the more products you buy, you stand increased chances of being among the firsts to view the new, promotional or on sale products. The special offers are generated by the larger number of items purchased. For instance, if you buy two pairs of shoes, you get a 20% discount. Aside from this, a customer who purchases an increased number of items at one time can benefit of other numerous special offers and discounts.

Nine West uses the latest technologies in producing, distributing, selling and delivering the best products. The company also possesses highly skilled, capable and trained personnel to assist the clients. A combination of the technologies, standards and the people generates the high quality of the Nine West products and customer services. By being presented with high quality products and services, the clients declare themselves satisfied and as such increase the company's value. Furthermore, a company with an increased market value is prone to register significant profits.

Product innovation is directly dependent on strategic marketing. To better understand how the two elements are interconnected, take the example of fashion trends. The late '90s were characterized by a return in fashion of the platform shoes, commonly worn throughout the '70s and early '80s. At that time, the company's marketing team conducted a field research to estimate the demand for this kind of shoes. Once they identified the features customers were looking for, the company began producing the new shoes. Had they not sent the marketing team to research, they might have failed with delivering the customers the products they desired. Ergo, the direct link between product innovation and marketing.

When developing a new product, Nine West might encounter difficulties at any one of the following eight stages: idea generation, idea screening, concept development and testing, marketing strategy development, business analysis, product development, market testing and commercialization. The main challenge occurs at the sixth level, when Nine West has to invest considerable amounts of money into producing the new shoes or accessories. If any mistakes have occurred within the previous levels, the company will be faced with the possibility of losing their investment or producing an unsatisfactory product, and consequently losing clients.

In regard to product planning, the management at Nine West has to decide upon the design of the products, the sizes of the new shoes, the quantity produced, the materials they need to use and the quality standards they have to implement. The management makes their final decisions after having consulted with all departments within the company. The sales and marketing department informs the managers in regard to the customers' demands; the finance and accounting department communicates the available budget and the production department informs the management in regard to the quantity and quality of the necessary materials. Once the decisions are made, managers will develop and implement strategies on both product line and product mix levels.