[SOLVED] Principles of Retailing 

Required: Assess Joules’s application of the service marketing mix and discuss the importance of the brand and segmentation when it comes to international markets such as Germany and the US. Joules Joules British fashion company Joules is a notable example of a brand succeeding in the fashion sector as rivals continue to crumble. Last year the company’s retail sales rose by 11.7% across all product categories. Now in its 30th year, the brand describes itself as operating a ‘total retail marketing model’, spanning stores, online and wholesale across womenswear, menswear, childrenswear, footwear and home. In addition to more than 120 stores across the UK and Ireland, and over 2,000 stockists worldwide, the brand also boasts a growing online business which contributed almost half of sales during the period. CEO Colin Porter attributes this success to the strength of the Joules brand, a growing loyal customer base and the flexibility of its model to adapt to changing customer behaviours. He explains that Joules is genuinely agnostic about where its customers decide to shop. The wholesale strategy has, however, helped Joules expand to 1,000 stockists in the US, a market that buys into the brand’s family-focused values with a British twist. The same is true in Germany. Joules has also maintained a carefully managed approach to discounting, using a rich database of consumer data to provide targeted offers. From a promotional point of view the approach is digital-first, mixing email, PPC and affiliate, alongside Facebook and Instagram. However, the stores play a crucial role in raising brand awareness and acquiring the majority of Joules’s new customers. This is down to the Joules people, says Porter. Each and every one of them is ‘brilliant’. They are hired based on the company’s ‘brilliance’ brand value: ‘We’re talking about making someone smile and making the ordinary extraordinary.’ Furthermore, it is the brand’s signature design style, tapping into the label’s outdoor roots, that helps Joules continue to attract a growing cohort of customers. ‘We don’t chase fashion. Joules isn’t about being the fashion leader in the branded retail market, we’re about offering our customers products for their lifestyle, so an element of practicality done with a twist,’ Porter explains.

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