Case: Mail Order in Canada

Essay by hellopiggyCollege, UndergraduateB-, February 2009

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Mail Order in Canada

Introduction

Linda King proposed the opening of a retail lingerie and leisure wear store in London, Ontario. The original proposal was to open a retail store that would offer an alternative to the traditional marketing of lingerie. Linda proposed to attract consumers through an elegant atmosphere, rather than drawing them into the store out of necessity. The company's focus would put emphasis on the store layout, front, fixtures and lightning to enhance customers' shopping experience. The sales at the retail store would be supplemented by a mail order catalogue. The products to be sold included ladies' sleep wear, hosiery, underwear, bras, robes, toiletries, accessories and men's wear. Linda also reconsidered to start the business with just the mail order division. She thought that would be the best since it would help to promote awareness of the products and store name, while keeping costs to a minimum.

The Operation Process

The first step of the process would be to mail the catalogue to the target consumer. The production of the catalogue would be contracted out to a printing company, while photography would be supplied free of charge from a friend. There would be two possible methods of catalogue distribution: Canada Post admail delivery service for national distribution and an independent agency called Star Mail-Ibax for any deliveries within London. In order to reach the "has shopped mail order" segment, Linda could call a list broker and purchase a list of all women from across Canada aged 18 to 30 who have subscribed to mail order catalogues before. For attract those who had never shopped mail order, Linda decided to use the cold-call strategy. She planned to use London as a test market. The company would also provide 24 hour per day service. Upon receiving the order,