Vera Bradley Case

In addition, the company had independent focus groups to help understand their consumers better. They have other brand they are trying to improve like Bethany Mota Collection, Live Love Dream, Tokyo Darling, Brooklyn Calling and Free State.

Lululemon’s primary target customer is a sophisticated and educated woman who understands the importance of an

The definition of true beauty continues to evolve as generations pass and new ones emerge. Ulta Beauty, a popular cosmetic store, sells products with the aim to make women feel confident in their skin. Their use of advertisements helps spread the word about new, improved product lines and reach out to potential buyers. Selling makeup is the obvious goal of a cosmetic store, but the kind of consumers they attract and how varies between different franchises. When a company displays their products in one shot instead of in a commercial, the task of conveying the message becomes harder. Ulta Beauty persuades women to purchase their products by pointing out buyers’ insecurities while still appearing to promote empowering feminist values.

Recently American Eagle’s lingerie brand, Aerie, completely changed their advertising campaign to AerieReal. The AerieReal campaign consists of only un-retouched and no Photoshopped models. Before the AerieReal campaign, Aerie used models that were retouched and Photoshopped to make the models appear skinner and “more attractive”. The AerieReal campaign’s focus is to defy what other lingerie brands, such as Victoria’s Secret, sell in their advertisements. Aerie is trying to challenge the message of true beauty is only if you are skinny by saying that “The real you is sexy”. Aerie is accomplishing this by changing their advertisements in the hopes that girls will grow up to be socialized with a more positive and inclusive message, defy gender roles associated with women, and lastly, confront stereotypes of white and colored women.

BYS targets the tween and early teenage female market, tweens make up large proportion of the market and are highly sought by the cosmetic industry due to their beliefs, which as suggested by Hair, McDaniel and Lamb (2014, 144) includes a growing need to remain a kid with the inclusion of having the fun of a teenager correspondingly tweens aim to look more mature at a younger age. BYS would target the ages between 12-15, these females would have a low income; from either pocket money or a low paying causal job, they would still be living at home with their parents and attend school and have active social lifestyle. The consumer would have a pursuit to be fashion and appearance savvy, from circumstances such as maturation or peer/ social pressures or alternatively they may hold a keen interest in beauty and cosmetics. BYS would form a basis on usage segmentation as it focuses on consumer actions rather than that of intentions, opinions and attitudes (Sarel and Marmorstein 1996, 39)

The first, and seemingly most important issue that Vera Bradley currently has is that they do not offer products for men’s products. Companies like Coach and Michael Kors offer men’s products that have had great success, which Michael Kors has even won awards for. Currently, they are only appealing to half of the population by only offering products to women, and this issue makes it impossible to appeal to the other half. Their competition offers men’s products and they should

Bed, Bath and Beyond (BBBY) currently has $400 million more in cash than they need for ongoing growth and operations requirements. While the company is financially sound analysts and investors worry about the company’s capital structure decisions. Investors do not want to see that much cash on the books and worry that the current capital structure is not the most effective for the future. They prefer that BBBY change their capital structure by paying out excess cash and issuing debt. This could allow BBBY to improve their return on equity and raise earnings per share. Given the low interest rates available it seems like the perfect time for BBBY to add debt to its capital structure. Until now they

Additionally, as expressed by Rebecca Ratner, Hsieh’s commitment to merging the workplace with social lives could present risk to the company in the form of unprofessional or inappropriate conduct that is not addressed properly.

Written Case #1: Vera Bradley in 2014: Will the Company’s Strategy Reverse Its Downward Trend?

For baby boomer generation which is experiencing life changes brought by aging, they have shown increasing interests in cosmetics and toiletries, not only to enhance their appearance but also for other reasons. A simple example is that they use foundation with treatment ingredients to protect their skin against harmful UV rays, and to help a variety of skin problems.

women sees an advertisement that first makes her feel as though she is not good enough, she may be more likely to buy the product, in hopes of becoming what she is not.

Rosewood Hotels and Resorts is a private hotel management company established in 1979 by the Caroline Rose Hunt Trust Estate. It is a well known company in the luxury hotels market which owns 17 iconic properties in 7 different countries (http://www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/the_company/). The first hotel was The Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas; afterwards the company expanded its “collection of unique properties” all over the world by converting and repositioning existing sites and by building up brand new luxury hotels. The distinctive feature of this collection is the so called “A sense of Place”. In fact in a Rosewood hotel every single

The quest for beauty is an endless endeavour at all times. Despite the old saying cautioning us that beauty is only skin deep, billions of dollars is spent on skin care products every year for men and women, young and old alike. In this multi-million-dollar industry, every company tries hard to maximize their profit. One of the most common methods they apply is market segmentation.

Mary Kay products have been seen to sell in more than 35 markets expanding across 5 continents. Mary Kay’s sales force exceeds 2 million globally with potential markets such as the Indian and Asia- Pacific areas that represent extensive growth opportunities. Mary Kay is focused on expanding into the Indian Market, due to its large population and market size. With the large population of middle class growing to a total of 500 million individuals will give Mary Kay the opportunity to build their brand and attract this demographic of consumers. Amongst the population that is averaging at 26 years of age consists of a growing number of women seen as highly optimistic candidates who have contributed to an increase in consumption

The target market for Maybelline’s Great Lash Mascara is primarily women between the ages of 15 and 35. Because of this large age gap, Maybelline over the years has become a more contemporary brand for all women of all races. They have done this by providing foundation shades in a wider range of colors and introducing products that women of any age can use. Maybelline also produces different products for each country that they distribute to. Each ad within an ad campaign is altered slightly or tremendously to better suit the culture it is marketing to. In the U.S., a large percent of females begin to use makeup before the age of 16. As a girl uses Maybelline Great Lash Mascara, a well-known product, it could have possibly been bought for her or given to her by her mother. With this specific product being around for many years, many women have grown to be brand loyal to it. As a young woman grows into adulthood, the cheaper mascara option of Maybelline Great Lash can be compared to other brands of higher price. Other competitors can provide a product that a consumer can reach for as they grow and can begin to afford to spend more on a better quality or different formula of mascara. This can relate to income or social class within demographics as well. Some women choose this specific SBU because of the affordable price and what they expect out of the product. This specific product is a simple mascara that lengthens and darkens lashes. As these consumers grow older, they may