II. Introduction
Thrift Stores are defined by Parsons (2002) as stores that sell gently-used donated goods by the community; in essence where the profits are given for charity. Commodity that cannot be re-sold is given to the less fortunate. This collectively generates profit, helps those in need, and recycles waste, thereby helping the environment as it takes 700 gallons of water to make a t-shirt and 1,800 gallons of water to make a pair of jeans and ultimately we throw away more than 83 million tons of unnecessary apparel waste each year, it also means we’re throwing away the resources that went into making them. Nowadays, due to the positive benefits in addition to the growing trend of thrifting, Thrift Stores are becoming normalized, being deemed a cool place to shop at (Jyang 2009).
Mission Thrift Store falls under the niche of the second- hand goods market. This industry has been gaining an increased, and constant growing amount of recognition over the coming years. The stigma of second hand stores being considered “low-end” are gradually diminishing as they are being marketed as vintage boutique’s over the original category of inexpensive used clothing. A poll by Harris Interactive and Ebay found that 70% of adults said buying used merchandise is more socially acceptable than five or ten years ago (Petrecca, 2008). Social Media has heavily impacted this outlook in the more recent years, big social media names and stars document their thrift shopping ventures often to find unique ‘vintage’ pieces for low prices, a frame of mind many can relate too. Thereby, due to their influence their are many that visit thrift stores now more than ever before. Hein and Miller (2008) found that Thrift Shops saw an 85% increase in the number of customers. Due to the popularity in the niche of the second hand goods market there is more attraction but competition simultaneously.
Mission Thrift Store, a small local thrift store located on south side of Brampton has opened doors to the fast growing trend of thrifting. Their mission is to “place literacy and leadership training programs to transform the lives of men, women and children in over 40 countries”. Their primal focus is on positive impact of the environment when thrift shopping claiming on their website “Mission Thrift Store helps you save money and the planet by giving used goods a new life – redirecting them from landfills”. In addition they focus on the saving when purchasing at thrift stores and their mission claiming “Every purchase helps transform millions of lives in more than 40 countries by funding dozens of initiatives”.
With their focuses on the important aspects that incapture their store the significant problems with their marketing structure is their ability to market to the youth, a large demographic that is crucial to success in this market. Mission Thrift Store fails to answer the focal question that much of the youth base decisions on: what appeals to me? They continue to market the benefits and positive impact of shopping at their store yet bypass what the consumers could physically purchase that cater to their needs, causing demand to decrease, making their store equilibrium lower than potential revenue.
The significance of the problem is that there is tremendous potential in the store itself to make maximum revenue however due to its poor campaigning and overall marketing they fail to get the attention of the youth demographic. Many rival stores such as Plato’s Closet also located in Brampton and many other locations have strong marketing campaigns making them well known increasing foot traffic within the store thereby increasing revenues. They have marketed their store as a vintage boutique, appealing to a wider demographic. The difference between both stores is that Mission Thrift Store has an intent to improve and promote positive environmental and social responsibility, a great incentive that can target many more people as when they purchase something it helps other making them feel as they did good. This is a program not too many other companies have in the area. However due to the less foot traffic they are unable to get many people to purchase goods, thereby decreasing profits and have the inability to attain their mission.
As seen below in the compiled chart, Mission Thrift Store a very large component of the demographic whom purchase unique goods that are useful to them over the average person whom shops to save money and do good for the common good. Accordingly, with a new and improved marketing plan, it will target all demographics and reasoning for purchases with many initiatives, programs and incentives in addition to rebranding and remodeling the store and its brand. Therefore increasing foot traffic within the store and thus increasing revenue and commitments for the social and environmental good of the world.
Refer to appendix; picture
III. Procedures and Research Methods Used
For the secondary research gathered to formulate the new creative marketing plan was based upon trends and statistics over the years to see growth and change over time, a crucial attribute to examine in order to perceive whether any actions and incentives have a positive or negative impact for the commodity of second hand goods and its niche in the economy today had and the ability to leverage that when making marketing decisions . It was well recognized that the market portrays significant growth through various data performed and available online through credible sources such as statistica and research essays done by many Universities including Coastal Carolina. The following research collected portrays the increase in thrift shopping, a niche constantly growing that Mission Thrift Store can expand and be well recognized within.
Nicole Poole, writer and founder of Thrift Store Confidential, a website “dedicated to helping secondhand virgins navigate the world of thrift store shopping,” was recently named Goodwill Industries of New York and New Jersey’s 2011 Style Icon.
Another website yourbusiness-azcentral outlines the measures needed in order to increase profits for a thrift store business; the main points are new customer attitudes and social networking, key aspects in marketing that directly affects the overall business’ success and thrival. This directly aids in creating a new and improved marketing plan that touches base with both key aspects in order to rebrand and get maximum potential success.
For primary research that was conducted, the method used was surveys. This was because it was cost effective and relatively easy to administer as it came in paper and electronic form giving a broad range of data which were relatively free of error. The surveys were conducted and collected within all demographics to see the intent of thrift shopping. They were distributed via google forms using methods such as copy links and QR codes for easy accessibility. The following survey is listed to below.
https://goo.gl/forms/iM0owWIUZhq7T7ZE3
IV. Findings and Conclusions
Through our findings within the primary research conducted and secondary research collected, it is clear that the amount of people thrift shopping has widely grown making it a great market to be within and increasing potential as the number of shoppers and positive consumer interests expands. The reasons stem from many aspects such as maintaining the environment to helping those in need or even saving money.
Nicole Poole, writer and founder of Thrift Store Confidential claims there’s been a 500 percent increase in thrifters since she began, currently with more than 15,000 readers per month on her website.
With the primary research conducted, it can be collectively noticed that rebranding the store from the normal terms of a cheap thrift store to an alternative vintage boutique can be beneficial when attracting more consumers of different demographics as it merges aspects of money saving, purchasing unique pieces while helping the common good. Up to 73% of people surveyed claimed they would go to a vintage boutique-thrift store over a regular thrift store. With Rebranding comes new social medias and websites, improving the physical look of the store in an online presence, much of which is very important in the deciding factor to visit in this modern day and age. As noted by Forbes, brand image exemplifies the overall aspect of your business, giving onlookers a physical image to correlate the business to. Brand image is what makes the first and most important impression that creates recognition essentially showing how to put together the business itself is. The addition of many campaigns will increase foot traffic within the store as noted by the survey conducted as over 82% of people surveyed illustrated an interest to the many community involvement activities and campaigns to improve overall wellbeing and sustainability.
In conclusion, when testing out the campaigns and promotions on customers after the entire rebranding, there was proven to be an increase in the amount of people within the store, this thereby allowed them to learn about the company and the benefits of thrifting. As a result, it left a positive lasting impression on the customers, changing consumer tastes and preferences, increasing the demand within the store, this allowed for a higher market equilibrium, increasing the overall profits of the store. In addition, it was observed that there was an increasing return of customers as well as new customers due to increased social media presence, community involvement, campaigns, promotions and the best method of marketing, word of mouth.
V. Recommendations
From our research and prior marketing knowledge, there are plenty of suggestions to improve Mission Thrift Store marketing and create the publicity and attention it needs to become a successful and prospering thrift store. The main areas that are in need of improvement within their marketing structure is their social media presence, community involvement, and creating an app. These techniques will help Mission Thrift Store reach the intended audience and maintain a profitable business that helps give back to the people who are in need.
Social media is an area where the vast population find out about new trends and see the most amount of advertisements. This is the perfect way to get the target market’s attention by posting advertisements online and creating clean and aesthetically pleasing content to attract followers and attention. The main social media source should be Instagram, and this is due to mainly sharing photos, which is preferable in a heavily clothing-based industry. This can help followers and anyone viewing their profile discover some of the clothing and other products they provide. It can also be noticed that they were not utilizing Instagram’s business tools and a new account has been created which significantly impacted the follower count and profile interactions. There was also plenty of follower engagement with the account which ultimately creates a more positive company image. Another important social media platform that Mission Thrift Store should definitely invest their time in is Twitter. Twitter is a great way to give consumers and those interested about the company a great platform for important updates on new products in, events coming up, and a way for consumers to quickly ask questions and have a detailed response as quick as possible. Another older but still important platform is Facebook. This helps advertise both pictures and updates on their wall and can also make group conversations and events that community members can reply to and engage in. Social media is definitely a necessity in today’s day and age where almost everyone has a social media of some kind and it is crucial to ensure people are updated and knowledgeable of organizations. Although social media is important it should not be the only form of promotion as people seem to heavily focus on their online presence and forget about the importance of their other promoting methods. There should always be a healthy balance to maintain the best advertising results. To demonstrate the social media impact, new social media pages were created in order to demonstrate the positive impact and how posting the right things and having an aesthetically pleasing feed will achieve the best results and best feedback from the target market. As shown, the new and improved pages have increased interaction and following which will be extremely important to have a properly marketed organization.
Not only is social media involvement crucial to the success of a new business, but so is having a strong community presence. One of the most important methods in having a successful business, especially in such a niche industry like thrift shopping, is to have a loyal consumer base. This is so imperative to have because if you have a group of customers who trust the company and continuously support and purchase from them, the company has a higher chance of having a long-term success for themselves. The best way to create this loyal consumer base is hosting events for community involvement and by creating a high school ambassador program. This not only will help the community stay engaged in their company but also help new generations, such as the high school students, continuously become engaged and excited about Mission Thrift Store and the message they represent. To gather this community involvement, the first step is to create events where consumers can come to to experience the Mission Thrift Store experience. They could create a monthly event called “Upcycling Night”. Upcycling is a popular process of turning old items into brand new items. They could apply this to the clothes they sell with this event. Consumers can come in and buy some of their clothes and turn them into whatever they want. Clothes could be a different styled top, a purse, a headband, or whatever the consumer wishes! Mission Thrift Store will provide scissors and fabric glue, and participants are welcome to bring in their own supplies from home as well. This will encourage people to not only buy from the thrift store but to interact and get to know the staff. This will create a human connection to the company and will leave more people connected to the store and encouraged to buy from them. Events such as these also encourage word-of-mouth marketing where consumers who have participated in the “Upcycling Night” can speak to their peers about the topic and spread positive words on the organization to others and help new people discover this thrift store. Not only does this help make a personal connection, it is also extremely eco-friendly and helps reduce our environmental footprint which is taking clothes that may originally have been deemed unattractive into brand new items that can be used or worn once again. This reduces the waste generated as well.
In addition, the Mission Thrift Store School Ambassador Program is an initiative that has been tested at St. Marcellinus Secondary School and has been seen as extremely successful. This Mission Thrift Store paired up with the school’s Eco Club to encourage students to reduce their environmental footprint by upcycling old clothes and turning them into new items. This program has also increased awareness and popularity of Mission Thrift Store throughout the school. They also give out certificates bimonthly to recognize the students who thrift, upcycle and give back to the community. These Certificates Of Achievement help encourage students to give back to their community and become more environmentally responsible. This initiative in St. Marcellinus Secondary School has definitely helped the marketing of this thrift store because. Due to the steady popularity growth of thrift shopping because of social media, many students are looking for places to donate old clothes to and find ‘new’ second-hand clothing to purchase. Now that the thrift store is marketing and creating a positive influence towards teenagers, their fastest growing target market, they are more likely to have teens support their company and their message. Also, because majority of their workers are volunteers this will encourage students to gain community service hours by volunteering at the different store locations. Continuing to expand this Mission Thrift Store School Ambassador Program to different schools in the area will help market within schools and create strong community relationships where consumers become loyal and trust the thrift store and their moral values.
In order to continue to improve their marketing techniques, there are promotions and campaigns which should be utilized to help get more people shopping at their stores. The first technique that will really encourage consumers to both donate clothes and to purchase clothes from Mission Thrift Store is the “Give One, Get One event. Before the winter season – the time many consumers tend to purchase from thrift stores the most – Mission Thrift Store should create this event so people with old clothes can donate their old clothes and if they choose to, they can exchange their older items for another item in the shop. This will be helpful for consumers in the target market with low income who rely on their cheaper prices of thrift stores to purchase clothing items. By doing this for maybe a few weeks, Mission Thrift Store will not only be helping out the community but they would also create a positive community for the company’s image and will encourage potential consumers to support their cause. “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”, a quote from
VI. Bibliography
VII. Appendix
https://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/articles/rise-of-the-thrift-store-shopper-provides-steady-growth-in-resale-industry/
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3ee1/32f853bc9c90a44965b128bb5c36552e754d.pdf
https://www.statista.com/topics/2838/second-hand-goods-in-canada/
http://www.mmaglobal.org/publications/MMJ/MMJ-Issues/2010-Fall/MMJ-2010-Fall-Vol20-Issue2-Mitchell-Montgomery-pp94-107.pdf
https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/increase-thrift-store-profits-21144.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2016/10/31/why-brand-image-matters-more-than-you-think/#4f9a73e710b8