UK is a foremost issuer of magazines and owns the most developing customer publishing business worldwide worth more than £1bn annually. UK has an exclusive spirit and liveliness in fashion and is among the most powerful fashion hubs around the globe (Thecreativeindustries.co.uk, 2015). It is a quality product with glossy and vibrant color scheme and having great articles and stories on fashion. 

‘La Moda’ is the name of designed magazine which is an Italian word meaning fashion.  The target market of the magazine is young girls and women of age ranging from 17 to 35 years old. The main theme is to increase and enhance fashion awareness and dressing sense among females who are willing to gain knowledge on fashion and it current trends. Main competitors of ‘La Moda” isVogue, ELLE,Harper's Bazaar etc.‘La Moda’ will reach customers through multi- distribution channels such as outdoor advertising. It will be displayed on shelves of famous shops in big shopping mallsand female saloons will be its main selling areas to attract target customers all across the UK.

UPS of ‘La Moda’: “Enhancing your fashion skills with upcoming novelties”

The targeted audience holds diverse professions, lifestyles, hobbies and interests but fashion and clothing is their mutual interest. The chief aim of ‘La Moda’ is to deliver information about latest trends and stories about fashion and clothing to its target audience. Magazine have a range of stories and articles comprising of latest fashion trends, news on latest fashion shows, models, designer world and festivals

Fashion magazine is selected becauseI have the ability to write stories and articles to convey and communicate my ideas to readers about fashion but beyond having great writing competencies writing ability, I have an interest in fashion industry as well as publishing magazines. I have critical and innovative thinking skills and can put my ideas in to words nicely.

Vogue and ELLE are the two fashion magazines among the major competitors of ‘La Moda’ and these are published once-a-month. Vogue is famous for presenting images of high society and fashion.It is operating in 16 countries with the strongest brand loyalty and market positioning whereas Elleis another famous name in the world of fashion magazines, besides fashion it also emphaseson women’s entertainment.  It is excelling in fashion magazines for womenhaving 42 editions being operated in 60 countries globally. According to Lindner (2004) any magazine looking to attract its target audience should symbolize the cultural values and social norms of the particular society. According to Moeran (2006) fashion magazines happen to be both commodities and cultural products and should link cultural with treatment of fashion. The publishing houses of Vogue and Elle are located in Asian countries yet their employees are getting trained in west.  It can be seen over last ten years that marketing strategy of vogue is very aggressive hence presenting its stereotypical image (Fashion united, 2015). ‘La Moda’ can gain the competitive edge over its competitors by strongly inculcating social and cultural norms in its working and theme.

The expiry of print media is normally ascribed to the triumph of open, easily reachable digital media. However Gotthilf (2011) have taken it as a way of enhancing content of magazines and gaining more revenue. Banners and ads are commonest type of digital marketing for online magazines (Mequoda Daily, 2015). It is investigated that youngsters tend prefer to read their desired magazine on line so providing two different forms of ‘La Moda’ is planned i.e. printed and electronic. ‘La Moda’ will be published on the online resources such as official websites on weekly basis whereas its printed edition will be published monthly. Social media will be used to communicate with the audience and in promotion of magazine. Readers will be continuously kept engaged and attracted through productive use of social media and it will help in marketing magazine and spreading a word about it. Feedback will be taken in the form of asking questions on social profiles and by observing comments. It will help in crafting upcoming issues relating customer demand of magazine. With the help of social media, stories will be improved with videos, poll, games and answers to reader’s queries on the spot.

There is a clear decline in circulation of fashion magazines of UK in previous years (Favourites et al., 2014). So initially around 50,000 copies of ‘La Moda’ will be printed and after a year, circulation will be increased based upon the revenue generated by the readers.

Target audience will be girls because they read more magazines as compared to boys or kids. It is expected that ‘LaModa’ being a new brand will hold virtuous potential and prospective in the magazine market of in the UK magazine market and willenhance the total sales and growth of magazine industry of UK.

‘La Moda’ is much like a bargain brand and not a premium brand as the cover price charged by the reader will be £200. However, price can grow if the quantity of pages will increase in near future depending upon the demand of readers and revenue generated.

Magazines do not only rely on subscriptions or sales figure instead they are more dependent upon advertisers to let them stay in business. When famous brand names advertise in magazines than it is likely to believe that business is flourishing. It is safe to assume that business is booming. Few brands that typically advertise in fashion magazines like ‘LA Moda’ are YSL, Gucci, Estee Lauder, Chanel, Christian Dior, Giorgio Armani, Prada etc.

Magazines cangenerate far better revenue from subscriptions by delivering product to customer directly and cutting an intermediate (The Business of Fashion, 2015). “La Moda’ will generate revenue from classified advertising, subscription and circulation, print advertising and through arranging unique events in order to attract a large number of audience as well as sponsors. According to Moeran (2003) in order to attract potential advertisers, content of magazine should support notion of consuming fashion.

References

Moeran, B. (2003), International fashion magazines. In 6th ESA Conference, Murcia.

Lindner, K. (2004). Images of Women in General Interest and Fashion Magazine. 51(7), pp. 409-421

Moeran, B. (2006). More than just a fashion magazine. Current sociology, 54(5), pp.725-744.

Gotthilf, G. (2011). 7 Ways Print Magazines Are Using Social Media to Engage Readers. [Online] Mashable. Available at: http://mashable.com/2011/02/09/social-media-magazines/#EUCpPRrWOkqS [Accessed 9 Dec. 2015].

Thecreativeindustries.co.uk, (2015). Publishing: Facts and Figures. [Online] Available at: http://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk/industries/publishing/publishing-facts-and-figures [Accessed 9 Dec. 2015].

Fashionunited.co.uk, (2015). Facts and Figures in the UK fashion industry - statistics about the fashion business in England - size of economic activities. [Online] Available at: https://www.fashionunited.co.uk/facts-and-figures-in-the-uk-fashion-industry [Accessed 9 Dec. 2015].

Favourites. (2014). Want to be a fashion journalist? It won’t be a job role in five years. [Online] Hannahgale.co.uk. Available at: http://hannahgale.co.uk/2014/09/01/want-to-be-a-fashion-journalist-it-wont-be-a-job-role-in-five-years/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2015].

The Business of Fashion, (2015). How Do Independent Magazines Make Money? [Online] Available at: http://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/intelligence/how-independent-magazines-make-money [Accessed 10 Dec. 2015].

Mequoda Daily, (2015). Digital Magazine Marketing: 6 Ways to Promote your Digital Magazine. [Online] Available at: http://www.mequoda.com/articles/digital-magazine-publishing/digital-magazine-marketing-6-ways-to-promote-your-digital-magazine/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2015].

4.Explain the HR Strategy for the proposed new business venture

This business provides it services on a low cost. Though, the price of luxury fashion products is always high, but this business is mainly offering the services of fashion consultation where the final product is delivered to customer as per their need of design, style and size doing the all alterations within 5 days. The service charges for this business idea are set initially low.  Customers are provided this service on quite low prices. The following HR strategy will be followed for this business.

• Recruitment will be done though online media where LinkedIn and Facebook will be used for posting advertisements. Their resumes will be used for shortlisting. After conducting the detailed interview, those accountants, fashion consultants, designers and tailors will be hired which could work on this business idea in an effective manner (Armstrongand Taylor, 2014).
• The selected employees will go through the orientation program of 2 days. In this program, they will be trained that how they have to work on this novel idea. Their job descriptions will be provided to them. The selected employees will get bi-annually training where the fashion consultants will get training from professional trainers. Moreover, the continuous mentoring will be provided to designers and fashion consultants from the entrepreneur of this business (Gatewood, Feild and Barrick, 2015).
• The structure of Style Addiction will be team based where entrepreneur will be the leader while all other employees will be the team members. As this will work on the team based structure, hence the performance appraisal of 360 will be used in this organisation (Mello, 2014). Other than the supervisor, the peers, customers and subordinates will also review the performance of all employees. This strategy is implemented as this will help in a better manner to monitor the performance (Berman et al., 2015).

5.Conclusion

In this business plan, the idea for Style Addiction has been presented. This is a service business concept where it is offering the fashion consultation to its clients. The ladies and professional working women who cannot take out time for searching the best fashion apparel and accessories for them will be provided to the women as per their demands. It is analysed that fashion luxury market is quite growing and customers are willing to pay for it. However, due to the busy life routines, many could not get time to get the best fashion product for them. This service business will help women in this problem. through the market and industry analysis, it is proved that this could become a successful business venture.

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