| Company name: |
Mrs Moore’s Vintage Store |
| Company description: |
Mrs Moore seeks out exquisite vintage bone china for her beautifully packaged tea sets |
| Industry sector: |
Homeware (vintage) |
Objectives
Mrs Moore’s Vintage Store is a niche business which seeks out vintage china and sells it as tea seats, tapping into the current trend for retro and vintage homeware.
In the next year, Mrs Moore’s Vintage Store aims to become a well-known brand, both within vintage and mainstream circles, with increased press and magazine coverage, a new website to push towards online sales, and also to develop and expand their own series of vintage fairs.
2012 is the company’s first main year of expansion, with focus broadening from sales via the ebay store currently being used, to being a fully self-sufficient business with e-commerce. Steps towards this include an upcoming feature on Ana Moore, the owner, in Vintage Life magazine, the launch of a company website and online store with full e-commerce capabilities in the coming weeks, and the first 4 Moore Vintage! Fairs taking place in March, May, September and November 2012.
The main development regarding products in 2012 will be the introduction of a personalisation service, where vintage tea sets can be personalised with details such as names, dates etc.
Event Roll Out
Mrs Moore’s Vintage Store uses events primarily for retail, and took part in 3 large events including Taste of Christmas in 2011. A large number of vintage fairs were also attended in 2011. Taking part in events also feeds into:
- Market research: as it’s important to see what sells well
- Sales: sales always improve following an event
- Brand awareness: spreading the word to a high footfall of targeted visitors
- Customer relations: it’s a rare opportunity for the real Mrs Moore to meet lots of existing and new customers face to face
Event Strategy
Mrs Moore takes part in a number of events throughout the year, but only very targeted ones. For this reason, a small number of large events including Taste of Christmas sit alongside a larger number of smaller but more niche vintage fairs.
Events are chosen for their target audience, as it is crucial Mrs Moore’s Vintage Store is visible to the right audience. Taste of Christmas has been a successful show for the company as the visitors are not just looking for free samples – they are interested in the products, always give great feedback, and sales both during and after the show are strong.
Taking a 3m x 2m stand, planning started 1 month prior to the show. 2 staff – Mrs and Mr Moore – worked on the stand throughout the show, and dressing the stand was taken care of in house. The only cost to the company was the cost of the stand as Mrs Moore already owned everything else required.
Prior to the show, the company promoted their attendance at the event through social media. This activity may be expanded upon in future with the introduction of the new website.
Taking part in events comprises a very large proportion – around 80% – of Mrs Moore’s marketing budget, with direct mail and social media being the other mediums used.
Targets and Results
The main target for Taste of Christmas was to cover costs, and the company performed very well against this target.
There were also bonus benefits including:
- Additional marketing coverage received from the Taste – Mrs Moore’s Vintage Store was featured in the “Gifts for her...” section of a Taste newsletter
- Additional visitors to the company Facebook page.
Mrs Moore’s Vintage Store said of the event,
“Christmas 2011 was our first time with Taste of Christmas and the response we had from the visitors was amazing. We immediately booked for 2012. Really looking forward to it!”