Marketing Plan For T Shirt Company Marketing Essay

Selling T-Shirts has developed into big business and it’s a growing industry where there are already thousands of shops and websites where you can purchase almost any design or T-Shirt style imaginable. Thanks to the many T-Shirt companies that now print and create the T-Shirts for you, with no risk involved, many people have been able to start their own T-Shirt business without having to invest any money. This however, has turned the T-Shirt business online into a fierce, competitive battle against all T-Shirt shop/website owners.

There are many things you need to consider when starting your own T-Shirt business. Simply creating a design, putting it on a blank T-Shirt, and expecting it to be a big seller isn’t going to do the trick and bring you many sales, unless of course, you are a very lucky person, whom I can assure you, there aren’t very many of them around. If you want to start a T-Shirt business just to make easy money fast like many other schemes on the internet claim, then you’re looking at the wrong business. There is no such thing as easily making money fast and you’re always going to have to put in the effort to get the results you are looking for, especially for a T-Shirt business.

Now, I’m not trying to scare you from owning your own T-Shirt business, as there are many successful individuals who have started their business in the T-Shirt industry and are doing very well. I just want to give you the facts of reality so that you’re not disappointed when your business isn’t doing as well as you thought it would. You may succeed at one aspect of the business, but fail in another, or you just might be that person who is successful at all the aspects of the business, which will obviously make your business a success. Either way, you’re still going to have to spend the time and work very hard to achieve success.

Service will enable consumers to be able to produce the customise their own t-shirts, the service will also include a t-shirt and a range of design and the company will also give 6 months of warranty on all the products to satisfy their customers. The Heat printing process involves taking a high resolution image and printing the image onto commercial quality transfer paper or vinyl. Images will be printed in most formats including the following BMP, TIF, GIF, and Jpeg. The quality of the image produced will be based on the quality of the image supplied so it will be important to supply quality images. Once the image is on the transfer it will be applied to the garment using a heat press machine. I will be using the best method to produce the t-shirt, which will produce t-shirts fast. Printing is a modern clothing printing method which works very much like an inkjet printer. This results in a fantastically high quality print and maximum detail, even on complex full colour designs and on any coloured garment.

I can access information and over the internet this can be done by between general research such as Google or yahoo, on how to print t-shirts, secondly i can interview and ask questions to shop owners and staff who manufacture and make custom made t-shirt, these questions and interviews will ask the shop owners about the cost resources of manufacturing custom made t-shirts. Once i have got this information i can then therefore build a business case to try and identify cost and resources that i will require to make custom made t-shirt.

T-shirt Company started as a family business; therefore members of the family control the top management. Due to this circumstance, the organisation structure became very tall and breakdown in communication occurred frequently. Besides, the old traditional style of management does not practise empowerment; all the decision must go back to the top management. This has slow down the process of decision making too.

The staffs in T-shirt Company are very loyal; they have been with the company for more than 20 years. I strongly feel that the company needs to recruit new staffs to obtain new ideas in management style and other functional operations. Besides, the new blood might as well provide new ideas for improvement.

Although T-shirt Company is a cash rich company, the company does not know how to utilise the cash flow efficiently. The company does not see the danger of keeping too much cash in the company. Normally a cash rich company is more likely to face hostile takeover because the other company can utilise the cash flow to their advantage. On top of that, letting the fund idle has caused T-shirt Company to lose a lot of investment opportunities.

The old style of management has caused the company to react very slowly to environmental changes. This weakness has vital effect on the future performance of T-shirt Company because the advancement of information technology will speed up a lot of operations and speed up the pace of change.

On the other hand, T-shirt Company must capture the opportunity to improve the company. The AFTA 2005 is either an opportunity or threat for T-shirt Company because T-shirt Company can export the goods to neighbouring countries without tax but at the same time these neighbouring countries can do the same thing too. However, if T-shirt Company can penetrate successfully into these markets, the company can achieve higher level of economic of scale and economic of scope too. In such a way, the company will be more competitive.

Besides, the strong financial position of T-shirt Company can enable the company to reinvest in various aspects. For instances, the company can practise upstream integration, develop an investment portfolio, acquiring small and potential firms or even diversify into different field to spread out the risk.

The threat of T-shirt Company is that the competitors can easily imitate the company design. Country like Thailand has been copying the original design and they can sell the product at a cheaper rate because they do not need to pay loyalties. Thus it really affects the company a lot.

The other threat for T-shirt Company is that the consumers’ taste changes very rapidly. For example, last year the children still fond of Dragon Ball but this year they are fond of Pokemon and Digimon. However, if the company do not have the license for Pokemon and Digimon, the company sales might fall.

The abolishment of MFA and execution of AFTA will cause more new companies to set up their plants in Malaysia. This new international firms might recruit more specialists in this industry and T-shirt Company may find it more difficult to recruit suitable candidates. Besides, job pitching may even cause the company to lose valuable staffs.

Often a brand new t-shirt leaves the washer and dryer in a disappointing condition. Shrinking and colour fading are the two most popular complaints. Hanes offers a spectrum of colours that won’t fade in the wash and other companies have garments that have minimal shrinkage. All t-shirts will shrink to some extent when they are first washed. Cotton polyester blend t-shirts will shrink less than 100% cotton t-shirts and heavyweight t-shirts shrink less than lightweight t-shirts. You may want to call the manufacturer to ask the shrinkage percentages and purchase accordingly. Keep in mind that shrinkage is measured both horizontally and vertically because t-shirts often shrink more in one direction than another. To minimize fading, turn garments inside out while washing and drying.

These are the dozens of technical reasons that make my t-shirt company better than another. Yet, the most important reason is a matter of your personal style. You could purchase the highest quality t-shirt but if it doesn’t fit you right, isn’t the right fabric, the right colour, and hangs in the back of your closet, then you did not get a good deal.

During the operation process, the company may add value by improving the layout of the factory, eliminated unnecessary processes and provide better training for workers. The outbound logistic must be accurate in term of quantities, location and delivery time. Making mistakes in these areas may cause duplication of resources. The marketing and sales department must maintain a small and effective sales force to follow up the sales. Besides, this department can conduct market survey to identify the consumers’ taste. Marketing department must react upon the advertising campaign done by the competitors. They should take action to counter the advertising effect of the competitors. The sales promoters at the retail outlets of T-shirt Company should be given training in order to provide better service.

T-shirt Company must understand that quality of work life can affect the productivity of T-shirt Company. Therefore the management must place the right person for the right job. Besides, the company should have clear job description and job specification and reward those that done better than what are expected from them. The management should lend their ears for good suggestions. Since T-shirt Company does not practise upstream integration, the procurement process is vital. Value can be added if the company is able to purchase the lowest price input. However, the input must have an acceptable level of quality.

T-shirt Company must continuously improve the technology level of the company so that it can compete with other competitors. The latest technology might be expensive but it can reduce defect and speed up the processes. In the long run, the company can save tremendous cost and obtain higher profit margin.

Currently, the organisation structure of T-shirt Company is quite tall. It is recommended that T-shirt Company limit the organisation structure to three levels only. By doing so, the company will have better communication and speed up a lot of processes. Besides, the company must establish a management information system. This MIS can reduce a lot of paper work and provide on-time information to facilitate decision-making.

T-shirt Company cannot implement market segmentation in the export division because they must follow the requirement pre-set by the contractual customers. However, the retail outlets must have better market segmentation in order to fulfil the needs of different customers. The management must study the demographic pattern and target those segments that are profitable. Sometimes, serving such niche market may turn out more profitable than serving the mass market.

Presently the cost driver in T-shirt Company is the packaging department. This department is the only department that require the most workers. If the company can outsource this department, the company not only save cost but also can have better focus. Besides, T-shirt Company can franchise its retail chain to those who are interested in starting a new business. By doing so, T-shirt Company can spread its operation rapidly and obtain recognition at the same time.

The implementation of all the above-mentioned strategies involves changes in T-shirt Company. As we know, people will resist changing because they are used to their habitual working methods. Radical changes will create chaos in organisation and destroy the strategy plan. Thus Kaizen will be useful because it emphasises on incremental changes. By doing so, the working style will eventually be turn around.

According to Ansoff Matrix, T-shirt Company should have market development strategy? The company should explore different segment to increase market size and sales. The company not only can develop local market, the company can also explore foreign market as well. In such a way, the reputation of T-shirt Company can be fortified.