Republic of the Philippines
POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES
CERT IFIED
Taguig Branch CERTIFICATENUMBER
Gen. Santos Ave., Lower BicutanTaguig City , Philippines AJA18-0190
PUPCTS No. 2019-000000
“FOREVER 21: ISN’T FOREVER AFTER ALL.
OR IS IT?”: A CASE STUDY
By:
Briñas, Joana Marie A.
Caburnay, Marjhorie L.
Cortes, Mark Kevin L.
Dela Cruz, Kimberly O.
Gurimabao, Jennifer
Tesiorna, Jonabeth A.
(BBA- MM 4-1)
To:
Dr. Danilo A. Valenzuela
OCTOBER 2019
PUP Taguig Branch, Gen. Santos Ave., Lower BicutanTaguig City , Philippines
Direct Line: 335-1752 | Trunk Line: 335-1787 or 335-1777 local 236 or 302
Website: www.pup.edu.ph | Email: taguig@pup.edu.ph
THE COUNTRY’S 1st POLYTECHNICU
THE PROTAGONIST OF THE CASE
The protagonists of the case involves the owners of F21, Jin Sook and Do Won
“Don” Chang. As the owners of the once famous fashion retailer, they act as the head
implementors of any changes to be applied to the company. They have the final say to
any proposals presented to them.
CENTRAL CHALLENGE
The Company, in general, had a myopic approach to their branding and retailing
strategy despite boasting robust sales performance including a whopping $4.4 billion
in global sales in 2015 with 480 locations nationwide. They believed that they can
continue the same strategy for expansion which forecasted F21 to become an $8
billion company by 2017 and open 600 new stores in three years without facing any
threats and troubles.
CENTRAL ORGANIZATION CONTEXT
The main cause of their downfall was their aggressive expansion which caused
them to lose their identity as a brand. Part of what made Forever 21 popular in the first
place was its fast-fashion model. Even though its products were always mass-
produced, they still felt unique because its stores only sold select styles for a limited
time. However, as the company focused on growing bigger, its styles became more
"cookie-cutter." As a result, Forever 21 started to lose touch with its core customers,
while competitors like H&M and Zara rose. The protagonists failed to properly adapt
to the trend and to the ever-dynamic consumer behavior.
STORY TIMELINE AND NARRATIVE
Figure 1. Story Timeline and Narrative
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FOREVER 21 SWOT ANALYSIS
Figure 2. SWOT ANALYSIS OF FOREVER 21
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
Strong brand Cookie- cutter Emerging Quick Rising
name styles internet Fashion StoresL
Lots of location Private Advancing H&M, Zara
stores world wide ownership technology Trend in second
Reasonable Sometimes Rewards hand clothing
prices understaffed system Diminishing
Customer Savvy; Doesn’t have likeliness to
kind and rewards system shop to
accommodating Flaws in online physical stores
Organization of shopping Lawsuits with
store is consumer system unauthorized
friendly Low quality for use of
Association with some products proprietary
celebrities; loud Widen variations data from other
promotion fashion retailers
Forever 21 TOWS Analysis
Figure 3. TOWS ANALYSIS OF FOREVER 21
TOWS ANALYSIS STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
OPPORTUNITIES SO Strategy (Maxi- Maxi Strategy) ST Strategy (Maxi-Mini Strategy)
1. Use of Internet to at least 1. Showcasing advantages of a first hand
get an idea about the latest clothing (maybe thru an ad) in social
designs that are in with the medias or through commercials.
target market and also to
analyze the trend of the
target market’s perception.
THREATS WO Strategy (Mini-Maxi Strategy) WT Strategy (Mini- Mini Strategy)
1. Use of Rewarding system 1. Showing off advantages of having Not on
trend first hand clothes, way better than
those on trend second hand clothes
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STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The main cause of their downfall was their aggressive expansion which caused
them to lose their identity as a brand. As the company focused on growing bigger, its
styles became more "cookie-cutter." As a result, Forever 21 started to lose touch with
its core customers, while competitors like H&M and Zara rose. The protagonists failed
to properly adapt to the trend and to the ever-dynamic consumer behavior.
PROPOSED ALTERNATIVE COURSES OF ACTIONS
ALTERNATIVE COURSE OF ACTION #1: Rebrand and reposition and develop a
differentiated marketing strategy to enable brand activation.
o Projected Plan of Action: This aims to rebuild, rebrand and resposition
Forever 21 to appropriately re-establish its dominance in the fashion
industry. Develop a new logo that will be appropriate for the target
market identified through STP strategies. From this, the company will
focus all its efforts on building customer relationship with its strong
customer base.
ANALYSIS
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Sets a clear direction to focus all Inefficient rebranding and
marketing efforts to specific marketing strategies can
markets. snowball into legitimate risks of
Efficiency in terms of allocation of organization-ending errors and
resources further push them to the brink of
Company can solely focus on bankruptcy.
developing strong marketing Risky, Costly and requires long
campaigns amd rejuvenate their term commitments
plummeting brand.
Matches existing products to the
correct customers
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ALTERNATIVE COURSE OF ACTION #2: Creation of new designs that will serve
as the brand’s signature produicts based on marketing research and customer
feedbacks.
o Projected Plan of Action: Develop product that emphasizes on latest
trends and disregarding non-profiting ones. An example of an
opportunity that they can take advantage of is demand for plus size
clothing. In line with this, develop a new segment that focuses on Plus
Size Women group and be their ambassadors in educating the public on
appreciating beauty in all sizes.
ANALYSIS
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Shake up status quo since Requires huge resources for
genuine innovation in fashion product and development,
industry during this period is planning and other activities
missing. Though plus size women group at
If positioned properly, the this time were booming, this has
product development strategy a possibility to be considered a
can be considered as competitive fad. Fads within the Product Life
advantage and first-to-market Cycle represents quick popularity
advantage. and sudden decline.
RECOMMENDATION
Based on the analysis of advantages and disadvantages of proposed courses of
actions, the best course of action to undertake is ALTERNATIVE COURSE OF ACTION
#1: which aims to rebuild, rebrand and resposition Forever 21 to appropriately re-
establish its dominance in the fashion industry. This will help the owners to execute a
differentiated marketing strategy to target markets. Using this strategy, the
proponents also believes that these are necessary to meet objectives set in the
previous part of this paper. To discuss in full detail, you can proceed to the proposed
plan of action to enact this strategy.
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PLAN OF ACTION
Steps to Take:
DEVELOP A NEW BRAND LOGO AND IDENTITY
DEVELOPING HOLISTIC PLANS AND STRATEGIES
ANALYZE WHAT TO KEEP AND TO DISCARD
ANALYSE THE COMPETITION
PROJECT MANAGEMENT FROM BRAINSTORM TO RELEASE
PROPOSED NEW LOGO
Figure 4. BRAND LOGO PROPOSAL
The proposed logo is more sleek looking compared to original one. The bold
number 21 makes 21 stand out more and will help brand recall and recognition.
Correct Usage
The logo is always a single color, no matter the background.
The clothing is the main aspect of print ads. The logo should be set to a corner,
no less than 0.5 inches from the nearest edge, on covers and ads and not
surpass 5% in size.
The logo may be in any brand specified color or tint.
Logo may be in a tint of the background or black and white.
Primary Colors
Pale Pink (Hex Code: #ffc4e6 )provides a pop of color, but will not overpower
the design. This is Forever 21’s primary color, and it will often be found along
side black and white, or a tint of a secondary color.
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Black (Hex Code: #000000) can be found in nearly every design, and helps to
solidify the brand and high quality but minimal. Whether type or graphics, black
will be used frequently, and can work with any other color.
Seasonal Colors
Azure Green (Hex Code: #70BA60) will signify spring colors.
Muzli (Hex Code: #60AEB6) will signify summer colors
Strong Orange (Hex Code: #CD7328) will signify autumn colors.
Dark Moderate Red(Hex Code: #7B2733) will signify winter colors.
Figure 5. Specifications for Font Type and Font Colors
INITIAL MARKET SURVEY
Demographics of Users: Forever21 used to target only teen girls, but in recent
years, they have expanded their target market to men and also older women.
It is almost like a fashion department for all ages, genders, and races.
Heavy-User Profile: A very frequent shopper of Forever21 is mostly fashion-
oriented and/or on a budget. Forever21 offers good prices for stylish clothing.
Awareness and Attitude: Most shoppers know about Forever21 mainly because
of its popularity for good deals. The attitude that comes with this brand is that
of positivity and happiness.
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DEVELOPMENT OF PRODUCT POSITIONING STATEMENT
We want to position Forever 21 as the only fast fashion brand that offers
reasonably-priced, trending, easy-to-find merchandise uniquely associated with
feelings of freshness, trendiness and young in spirit.
SELECTION OF SEGMENTATION STRATEGY
The proponents intend to use the combined segmentation bases of product-
usage segmentation and user oriented segmentation to accurately depict the target
market of Forever 21
Based on the information gathered, these are Forever 21’s Target Market based
on:
Forever 21 Target Market
Demographics 25 and below, males & females
Middle-class
Couples
Young adults
Geography United States
Wants & Values Happiness
Simplicity
Love
Fun
Free Spirited
Motives and Benefits Making memories
Celebration
Surprising their loved ones
Where do they shop? Shopping Malls
Online Fashion Boutiques
Price Sensitivity Somewhat Neutral
Frequency/Quantity Because of the quality of the brand, most purchases are
only worn around 5-7 times before it’s worn out. Forever21
shoppers shop there about every time they go shopping.
Figure 6. Selection of Segmentation Strategy
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DESIGNING APPROPRIATE MARKETING MIX
Our marketing mix will be derived from this strategy:
Revamped Physical and
Core Product
Brand Logo Online Store Pricing
Velocity Innovation
and Identity Transformation
Figure 7: Maximizing Positioning Strategies through Balanced Activation
The Place Mix
Due to some paradigm shifts in where customers get their clothing,
existing physical stores that doesn’t perform well in terms of sales shall be shut
down. This will help Forever 21 to recover financially through cutting costs. As
a more effective strategy, we are going to build networks with distribution
giants such as C.H Robinson, XPO Logistics and UPS to increase efficiency of
distribution for our e-commerce customers. This way, it will help increase our
share of distribution and obtain market coverage. This strategy overcomes
discrepancies in quantity, place, time, assortment and possession utilities.
Furthermore, a new look in the stores will make it more enticing to customers
to shop inside.
Figure 8: New Look of Forever 21 Logo on Physical Stores
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The Product Mix
Our product portfolio exhibits hundreds of products a huge number are
available in stores and needs to be repositioned. To cater this dilemma, we are
going to re-launch some of our existing product lines which includes Plus Size
Women product lines to cater fads with Plus Size Women markets to improve
sales performance, sustained or not. This is based from the market researches
that indicates increased demand to this type of segments.
The Packaging Mix
Packging improvements have been non existent with Forever 21. They
continue to provide the same old yellow plastic shopping bag with
“FOREVER21” at the bottom. So we propose the following designs for the
newly revamped brand of Forever 21. This highlights the use of paper and cloth
based bags for a more environmentally friendly packaging.
Figure 9: Newly Revamped Packaging Ideas
Promotion
Forever 21’s strong points are their huge customer base that is why we recommend
to take advantage of this factors through implementing integrated marketing
communications plan on multiple promotional platforms that will help position
Forever 21 as the only fast fashion brand that offers reasonably-priced, trending, easy-
to-find merchandise uniquely associated with feelings of freshness, trendiness and
young in spirit.
Forever 21 would also like to be positioned as a the number one fast
fasion option by launching the following campaigns:
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1. Develop a rewards and incentives system that will incentivize loyal
customers. This will help repeat purchase and bulk purchases to our
loyal customers. This promotional activity shall be released every peak
of the season.
2. Once the rebranding has succeeded, we will have our Midnight Madness
Campaign which aims to provide 21% discount from 9 pm to 12 mn every
21st of the month. Every order placed within 9 pm to 12 mn on every 21st
using our online portal shall take advantage of this discount.
Figure 10: Forever 21 Online Portal and Application
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Figure 11: 21% Off Seasonal Discounts Price Tag
Promotional Activities Using Innovative Channels
POTENTIAL PROBLEM ANALYSIS
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POTENTIAL PROBLEM
o Investment on resources, time and effort might be rendered useless if
the following strategies doesn’t achieve quantitative and qualitative
goals set.
CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM
o There were lapses in the marketing research (like possibilities that other
characteristics of the segment might’ve already changed during the
timeline of execution of marketing research/ wrong forecasting of
target market.) which makes the marketing research inaccurate.
EFFECT OF THE PROBLEM
o This may cause the whole Rebranding and Repositioning protocols to
fail.
o Failing the Rebranding and Repositioning Protocols will affect sales
performance and even brand image.
FALLBACK ANALYSIS
Forever 21 should carefully monitor KPI’s which would reflect the performance
of the processes in action executed by Forever 21. If KPI’s doesn’t show any positive
results, in addition, doesn’t meet the standards for a successful campaign. The Top
Management has the power to pull out marketing campaigns executed to further
avoid additional expenditures. The following KPI’s can be monitored which includes:
1. Return on Investment- measures the sales revenue a campaign brings on every
dollar spent.
2. Cost per win- measures the expense of each sale.
3. Conversion Rate- the percentage of visitors who have converted into leads or
customers.
Give it an allowance of three months to perform its projected goals. Forever 21
can take advantage of its resources to identify, prevent and avoid mistakes during
implementation before it reaches their customers through the use of prevention cost.
Results shall be evaluated every month to try and shake up the strategy to meet its
goals. Efficient Enterprise Resource Planning Software is also recommended for
efficiency of processes performed in the supply chain.
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