Market Research: Cal Poly Pomona Students

Summary of Market Research:

Our class groups into five different groups using different research methods to obtain information helping to design and produce the AM2 product line, which fits our targeted market which is Cal Poly Pomona students. In our research, we use methods including interview, observation study, and survey. Through these different research methods, we obtain information from different point of view. When team A interviews with bookstore staffs, bookstore buyer gives us an overall idea of what products the bookstore is looking for and what they are currently selling well. Therefore, we notice that 75% of the students who go to bookstore are female, but unisex apparel is the most popular especially hooded sweatshirt. Even

there are more female students than male students but they give advice such as pastels colors should be avoided and black color are the color that always sold well, while maroon is the color that currently sells excellently. Also, we should produce more products with medium size than other sizes because it is the most common size.

In the survey, we obtain information for design details from our targeted market. Our team B receives 261 responses but the problem is that most responses are from women; as much as 182 female responses comparing to 77 male responses, and the other 2 are unknowns. Also more often the information that respondents provide to us about what they need may not correspond to their purchase decision, so we need to take all of these factors into considerations for our decision making. However, this survey helps us have a much better understanding of what apparel that our target customers are looking for, especially female students. Therefore, we have found that students prefer top with high round neckline, left chest or full front screen print logo, high hip length, and short sleeve. a. Team B also surveys for pants but as Team A has mentioned, pants do not sell well so I do not recommend to include pants in AM2 product line, as we should focus more on hot selling items. Also, students think the most important factors which affect their decision making in bookstore are style, price and comfort, therefore we should keep

that in mind for our design. Both team D and E are using observation study, with this method we can know what apparel our students are currently wearing, but due to the recent rainy days, the information we gain could be bias and limited as students wear multiple layers, so our observations are more focus on outer wear. By combining two observation studies, we discover that the most popular colors are black, grey, navy, dark green, and marron.

This also coincide with our survey result that the most popular colors are black, marron, and gray. Therefore, we can conclude that the most profitable colors will be black, grey, navy, dark green, and marron. Furthermore, students are trending to wear comfortable clothing to school, therefore the most common top are zip up hoodies, pullover hoodies, sweatshirts, and cardigans. Also, as our researches have shown that students prefer semi-fitted and traditional clothing, so we should design product that are comfortable and easy to mix and match. Therefore, more trended clothing properly is not a good choice. Moreover, in the interview with our AMM professors, we obtain some suggestions such as the units and wholesale price for each style, and the idea that basic styles sell better than fashion forwarded styles. However, there is one conflict. Dr. Sen told us hoodies do not sell well recently, which is opposite to our other interview, survey, and observations results. Therefore, we should find out what is the cause of this problem. Due to the fact that our targeted market are students, who usually have tight budget, our products should be affordable. As team B has found that more students accept T- shirt with a retail price between $15-$25, and

sweater, which is between $36-$45. In conclusion, we should design top that are comfort and simple, slimily for hooded sweatshirt, and as our collection is for Fall/Summer, items such as light weight unisex half zip pullover may be good as it can bring some freshness to the AM2 product line.