Eat Sleep Love

Market

Target market

Our target customer is a female, most likely in her 30s, social classification AB, and has a successful career. She is most likely to be in a long-term relationship and 3-7 months pregnant with her first child, almost certainly classified as a 'DINKY' (Double Income No Kids Yet).

As a couple, they lead busy lives and are therefore used to paying for convenience. The goods and the services they normally buy would be classified as 'premium', due to their relatively high level of disposable income with a combined salary of £100,000 (‘AB’ demographic).

In their personal and professional lives, they will be very used to seeking advice and trusting it. They will take their time with important first baby essentials.

A study completed by Debenhams in 2012 revealed that parents are spending on average £2,538 preparing for their new baby, a 13% increase since 2009. Their spokeswoman, Lizzie Singleton, said: 'Our research shows that expecting a baby turns usually savvy shoppers into spendthrifts, with 64% of customers who said that they spared no expense when it came to baby preparation. One of the reasons given for this large increase is that couples are copying celebrity mothers-to-be who go on spending sprees in the weeks before their child’s birth.’.

In addition, our target customer is likely to have a supportive, involved family network, with similar demographic and disposable income traits. This close network of family and friends are more likely to participate in gift-buying and respond well to using technology and the provision of tools like our 'Wishlists', further adding to incremental sales.

Our customer is likely to be well-researched and interested in alternative and complementary therapies and classes connected to pregnancy, both pre-natal and post-natal. Our target customer is an active participant in classes such as pregnancy pilates, baby massage, doola, mindfulness and sleep improvement.

Characteristics of target market

We believe that we'll be able to achieve growth of sales in our boutique over the next few years with strong and focused marketing campaigns. Whilst we delivered over £100,000 of revenue* last year from our 140 individual customers, independent research indicates that last year there were c.10,400 births to families living within a 20-minute drive time of our boutique. Based on £2,500 being spent per baby, this alone represents an addressable market of over £25million!

Mintel’s nursery and baby equipment report published in February 2014, puts the size of the UK market at £782m in 2013, and forecasts it to grow to £844m by 2018. The average age of becoming a mother increased to 30 years in 2013, whilst the birth rate is expected to stabilise.

The 2011 census shows that the population of the Borough of Greenwich, where our first existing boutique is situated, was over 250,000 and the majority of people were between the age of 20-44. We believe that these statistics give further justification to our business plan, especially with baby and family orientated retail and leisure outlets.

*Source: Unaudited management accounts.

Marketing strategy

Over the coming months, we plan to build on our existing business with a number of marketing activities:

- Show Events: we intend to stage the first ever Eat Sleep Love Baby event, during the summer of 2017 and located on/near Blackheath Heath, showcasing our product and service in a summer fete style surrounding. We also expect to attend a number of trade events throughout the year.

- Monthly Events: we aim to host a number of supplier demonstration events to entice customers, bloggers and influencers to generate additional PR for the business in our Boutique.The first of these happened in October, with one of the leading suppliers of prams in the UK (Joolz)

- Social Media and Facebook Advertising: using existing databases and data supplied through 'Facebook Lookalikes', we will target a local audience with online advertising.

- Web CRM and Aftercare Developments: by rebuilding our web store, refreshing our content and crucially following up with customers after their consultation, we will extend our marketing reach to capture additional sales from parents beyond the birth of their baby.

- We plan to host and manage a number of complimentary therapy events in conjunction with local practitioners such as pregnancy pilates, doola, baby massages and mindfulness.We have already planned a marketing strategy for the next 12 months and have secured a partner agency to work with us to bring Eat Sleep Love to a bigger audience.

Competition strategy

We believe that one of the key strengths of our business is the comparative lack of direct competition in our local area; the same is true of a number of areas we have also tentatively explored for our future sites.

Whilst there are a number of baby shops and outlets, we believe that there are relatively few who cater for the demands of our ‘AB’ customer and none within the immediate local area.

Our key national competitors are:

- John Lewis (locally, Oxford Street, Westfield Stratford & Bluewater. Not local). Nursery appointments are available during normal trading hours, which is a free service and requires no minimum spend.

- Mamas and Papas (locally Oxford Street, Westfield Stratford & Bluewater. Not local). One-on-one advice service is offered free of charge and requires no minimum spend.

Small independent competition:

- Anita’s House (Chelsea). An appointment only personalised shopping experience, based in the west of London (and thus a long way from us), with a predominantly high net worth individual customer base.
Products are sold at RRP with a £95 consultation fee.

- We have identified two other independent baby stores (Baby Nest in Croydon and Tommy’s in Peckham) who also compete with us. However, we understand that both of these independents are retailers with products on sale, not boutiques, and with no consultation service. The offer in both stores is not aimed at the AB consumer that we have targeted.

We consider ourselves to have a number of key differences in our offer to the above key competitors. With regards to national chains (John Lewis and Mamas and Papas), the key difference is our boutique experience and individual, consultative approach – whilst delivering goods at the same price – allowing our customer to feel relaxed and welcome, and advised by someone with first hand experience of what is needed, as opposed to a ‘salesperson’ or indeed no one at all.