Lauren Miller

Table of Contents

Visual Retailing 4-5 Social Media 6-9 Internship 10-11 Social Responsibility 12-13 About Me 14 Resume 15

Champagne & Lace Visual Merchandising

   In order to successfully create a store understanding how a store is visually set up is very important. Visually appealing stores are more likely to draw in more customers. Proposed are ideas that will help create a unique and successful store.

   

Store Concept: Champagne and Lace is a special occasion boutique specifically selling bridal and prom attire.

Merchandise: The store will consist of wedding and prom attire. Champagne and Lace will consist of this market because there aren’t that many specialty boutiques so it’ll set the store apart from larger retailers. The prom dresses will be eye-catching with flirty lengths, the season’s in style styles, as well as some bejeweled detailing. The bridal line will be a vintage style in the most luxurious fabrics and will also include a contemporary style. The vintage look is very appealing to customers because it is classic.

Ambiance: Champagne and Lace will have eco-friendly and subtle lighting. The wall colors will be a subtle pink with black and white trim with wood flooring. Pink was a chosen

color because it is a more feminine color and since we’ll be selling towards girls and older women pink is an obvious choice. Throughout the store low volume pop genre will be played to insure quality customer care. Pop music is very popular and is quite often what is played at weddings and is a more popular genre. Sweet pea and vanilla will be the scent of the store because it is a very elegant and classic scent. These scents are also very feminine.

View from the back View from the front

Visual retailing software helps make a store come to life. The program helps to design the store layout and flow of the store. The view from the back is the point of view from the fitting rooms whereas the front view is when a customer would walk into the store. The layout created is an open and free flow layout so that wheelchairs, walkers, or strollers are easily able to shop around the store.

   

Social Media Marketing Plan

Boutique: A Perfect Pear Objective: create a social media plan for a small

business.

Step 1: Scope The scope of this social media plan is to gain a wider clientele to increase profit. Step 2: Business goals

New  Clientele  Trendy  and  

knowledgeable  Increase  pro7it  via  more  effective  marketing  

To create better knowledge of a brand or boutique the use of social media is essential. The usage of social media on today’s industry is used to gain new clientele, retain existing clientele, and to remain knowledgeable of current events. Social media has a very strong impact on customers and potential clients.

Services and products: Target Market: 18 – early 30s Sizes: 0 – 12 Prices: Average $50 - $300

Marketing Model

Loyal customers Word of mouth marketing Social media

Step four: Social Media goals Goal A: Post regularly to popular social media sites with links to create engagement. Goal B: Show that A Perfect Pear is a trendy and knowledgeable boutique. Goal C: Increase profit using new marketing techniques. Step Five: KPI’s for each goal Goal A: Social interaction

Goal B: Customer retention

Goal C: Goal completion rate

Step six: Tactics for each goal Goal A: Tactic 1: Create different posts on each social media platform. Tactic 2: Advertise and support community events. Tactic 3: Join new social media platforms. Goal B: Tactic 1: Follow industry leaders on social media platforms Tactic 2: Post, like, pin, share, and retweet important fashion news. Tactic 3: Read articles on a consistent basis, preferably daily. Goal C: Tactic 1: Track the conversion rate of people who come into the store to those who purchase items. Tactic 2: Get involved more with the community. Tactic 3: Watch competitor’s pricing and marketing tactics.

Step seven: Execution and delivery

    Social success metrics: Goal A: Membership increase and active network size Goal B: Conversion rates Goal C: Brand mentions in social media

Social media is very vital to any business in today’s society because everyone is actively participating in the usage of social media. When a business replies to their existing customers or potential customers it shows the company cares and then people are more inclined to visit the store. A Perfect Pear took time to answer their customers on Facebook and the boutique has been a success in Central Illinois. The boutique showed that responding helps maintain customers and helps the boutique.    

Cast Member Internship with The Walt Disney World Company

These were our costumes for when we worked at Chester and Hester’s.

I completed my internship at Walt Disney World in Florida. The goal going into my internship was to learn how merchandising works in a large company. I learned how Disney is able to successfully create an entire land through sticking to a theme and how they are able to remerchandise an entire store in a short amount of time. There was one morning where their merchandise team remerchandised our main gift store in less than two hours. The theme to dinoland was tacky and everything from our costumes to the decoration was tacky. The internship was five months long and I learned so much from the people I worked with. I was able to see first hand how each land received and handled all the merchandise. I worked several different roles there as an intern from stocking to learning about enhancing and selling the pictures taken on the rides.

I was able to talk to a few people from Disney’s visual

merchandising team because I like doing visual merchandising. Whenever I entered a land in any of the parks there was always a theme and a story behind that theme. The visuals team executes the story telling through the decorating the stores, rides, and even the outdoors. I learned a lot about how Disney creates a story in each land and can visually execute that theme. I was able to help with the remerchandising process. However, Disney is very particular about which people work on the visual merchandising. I learned that with the help of a team with years of visual experience and training you can achieve a huge visual change in fast amount time. The visual teams reinforced the idea of teamwork to all the other cast members. Personally I have been working with the visuals for two years at my current employer.

Benefits: While I interned my coordinators gave me recognition

cards for going above and beyond my basic duties. The recognition cards eventually let me close one of our gift stores, helping closing and opening registers, and watching over fellow new cast members. My internship taught me a lot about how a large company can successfully create displays to sell all of their merchandise.    

Social Responsibility. Remerchandising New to You.  

                                               Before                                                 After

  Prior to rearranging New to You when you walked in a customer wouldn’t have been able to fit a wheelchair or stroller through. It is very important that you accommodate all customers. Therefore during the rearrangement clothes were moved to rounders, t-stands, and a table. Before the merchandise was thrown wherever customers placed it. The next task was to make sure wheelchairs and strollers could fit through the aisles. The open flow would benefit and allow more customers to have an enjoyable experience.

New to You is a consignment store where profits go towards giving back to the schools in a low-income community. The store is a very important part of the community because of how much they give back and how it helps the families in that particular community.

Dominican is a very community based learning school and New to You teaches every student how fortunate we are and the owner thanks everyone for their time. The amount of product inside New to You through donations is very large meaning the aisles and rows are very compact. Through the help of visual retailing software we were able to create enough space for wheelchairs and strollers to fit through. The planogram was approved and the children’s section was rearranged to create a better and more open space for customers to shop in.

  Before After

                                                       

These before and after changes show a view from the cashwrap. This shows how we minimized the unnecessary racks that prevented customers from moving through the aisles.

A previous experience volunteering at New to You showed the class what an impact the store had and how grateful the community was for the shop. The impact they have created since the opening is very empowering and personally the merchandising and volunteering I’ve done has truly helped show how fortunate I am and it has taught me how to help customers better and understand their needs through a open floor plan and properly displaying their vast amount of donations.

Lauren Miller

 

I will be graduating this May with a Bachelors of Art, majoring in Apparel Merchandising and a minor in Business Administration. The first semester I took Introduction to the Fashion World and from that first class I realized this is the field I want to work in. After graduation, I hope to find a job in the industry in California but I am willing to move anywhere. The area I’m most interested in is Visual Merchandising.    My contact information is located on the next page on my resume.

Lauren Michelle Miller

7900 W. Division St. River Forest, IL 60305 millerlaur@my.dom.edu; 309-648-6054

Education Dominican University, River Forest, IL Bachelor of Arts Anticipated Graduation May 2015. Major: Apparel Merchandising; Minor: Business Administration GPA: 3.09/4.0 Illinois Central College, East Peoria, IL Certified Nurses Assistant Awards Dean’s List spring 2014 Internship Walt Disney World, Orlando, FL January 2014 – May 2014 Merchandise Intern

• Assisted customers with sizing, product information, and other needs • Stocked kiosks, stores, and game areas. • Helped open and close the cash registers. • Worked the games, kiosks, and stores.

Experience Gap, Inc., Peoria, IL June 2013 – Present Sales Associate

• Assist customers with fitting and styling. • Help set up the mannequins, window marketing posters, and window

displays. • Build rapport with customers.

Illinois Central College, East Peoria, IL Aug. 2010 - May 2012 Marketing Student Worker

• Set up and helped organize community events. • Helped with setting up advertising material on the College’s campus. • Trained new student workers and volunteers. • Disposed of confidential files that the college had for that year.

Community Service Jumpstart Program: Worked with children on Martin Luther King Day. Jan. 2013. Washington City Clean Up: Helped clean up the town with my class. May 2012. Operation Snowball: Led small groups of students in an anti-drug lock-in. March 2011. Computer Skills Adobe CS 6: Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Microsoft Office: Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

   

Thank you for your consideration.