GB601 Unit 4 Competitive Positioning Evidence Example

The Groomsmen in Other Cities: A Unit 4 Competitive Positioning Evidence Report for Brightwater Formalwear

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

GB601: MBA Capstone

Unit 4 Competitive Positioning Evidence

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

Brightwater Formalwear, its customers, partners and rivals and every figure are composite and illustrative; the methods and sources cited are real.

Summary of Findings

Finding 1: Wedding parties split when members live in different cities. The survey shows that the most common reason former customers went elsewhere was that groomsmen outside central Ohio found it easier to order online. The interviews confirm it: planners describe wedding parties in which the groom and two local friends rent from Brightwater while out-of-town groomsmen order online, and the groom then moves the whole party to the online renter the next time.

Finding 2: Fit on the day matters more than price. Price ranked third among reasons for leaving in the survey, and ten of twelve interviewees named day-of fixes as what they value most in a formalwear provider. The competitor audit shows Brightwater's prices are within the range of every rival.

Finding 3: No provider combines local fit assurance with ease for dispersed parties. The audit shows national online renters lead on ease for groomsmen in other cities but offer little help when a suit does not fit the day before an event, while Brightwater leads on fit but offers nothing for members who cannot visit a store.

Brightwater is not losing on price; it is losing the groomsmen who cannot come in for a fitting, and then the whole party.

Customer Evidence

For eight spring weeks, customers at every store's fittings answered the survey on a tablet, while about 2,400 lapsed customers received it by email, following the mixed-mode approach Dillman et al. (2014) recommend for reaching people who no longer visit. It drew 452 responses: 281 from current customers at fittings and 171 from former customers who had rented elsewhere or bought a suit.

Among the 171 former customers, 41 percent said the main reason was that members of their wedding party lived in other cities and found online ordering easier. Twenty-three percent said they had wanted to buy a suit to keep. Sixteen percent cited price. Nine percent described a fit or service problem at Brightwater, and the remaining 11 percent gave other reasons, such as a venue's recommendation.

Among the 281 current customers, the most frequently chosen reason for renting from Brightwater was confidence that the suit would fit on the day, chosen by 62 percent, followed by having the whole party served in one place, 44 percent, and the stores' locations, 31 percent. Respondents could choose up to two reasons.

The email responses may overrepresent dissatisfied customers, as Unit 2 anticipated. Even so, if every former customer who cited price had been undercounted by half, price would still rank below dispersed wedding parties.

Partner Interviews

The twelve interviews ran about half an hour each, split evenly between wedding professionals and the school staff who run proms. Transcripts were coded for recurring themes using the six-phase method Braun and Clarke (2006) describe. Ten of the twelve named day-of fixes, replacing a wrong size or a missing piece on the morning of the event, as what they value most. Seven of the twelve said out-of-town groomsmen were the most common source of wedding-day problems, usually because a suit ordered online arrived in the wrong size. All six activity directors valued group fittings held at the school before prom, which Brightwater has offered at fourteen schools for several years.

One planner described the pattern this way: the online renters win the booking because they are easier for the groomsmen, and then the planner spends the wedding morning finding a tailor. That comment summarizes the opening for Brightwater.

Competitor Audit

Seven rivals were audited between February and April using their websites, published policies and test inquiries.

Three national online renters. Packages from $179 to $229. Customers measure themselves or visit a partner tailor. Free home try-on is offered by two of the three. Replacement for a wrong size requires shipping and is not guaranteed for the day before the event.

One national menswear chain. Packages around $199. In-person fitting at its stores, with fitting for out-of-town members at its stores in other cities. Day-of replacement is possible only at the store where the order was placed.

Two local independent shops. Packages from $169 to $189. In-person fitting, limited inventory, no support for out-of-town members.

One discount suit retailer. Suits sold from about $140 to $220, with basic alterations for a fee.

Brightwater's packages average about $189, within the range of every rental competitor. It offers in-person fitting at nine stores, school fittings for proms and same-day replacement from any store, but no service for party members who cannot visit.

An Empty Corner on the Map

Plotting the providers on two dimensions, fit assurance on the day and ease for a wedding party whose members are dispersed, shows four occupied positions. The online renters sit high on ease and low on fit assurance. Brightwater and the local independents sit high on fit assurance and low on ease. The menswear chain sits in the middle on both. The corner combining high fit assurance with high ease is empty.

Kim and Mauborgne (2005) describe strategy as finding uncontested market space by combining attributes that rivals treat as trade-offs. The empty corner is such a space. A provider that measured out-of-town groomsmen remotely, shipped their suits to them, and kept backup sizes ready at a local store on the wedding day would offer both. Christensen et al. (2016) would describe the job customers are hiring for as making sure the whole party looks right in the photographs, and the empty corner is where that job is best done.

How Much the Corner Is Worth

The survey offers a rough sense of the opening's size. If the 41 percent of former customers who left because of dispersed wedding parties reflect the company's whole loss of wedding share, then about 1,800 of the 4,470 rentals Brightwater lost to other providers between FY2022 and FY2026 came from parties that split. Many of those parties were not lost entirely: the groom and local members often still rented from Brightwater once, then moved the whole party online for the next wedding in the same circle of friends. Winning back dispersed parties therefore matters twice, for the rentals in the current wedding and for the referrals that follow it.

What the Evidence Means for the Alternatives

The evidence favors a response that brings out-of-town party members into Brightwater's service rather than one that competes with online renters on their own terms. It also explains why the national renter's offer of a partnership is attractive to that renter: Brightwater's stores would supply the fit assurance the renter lacks. Unit 5 will price all three responses against these findings.

References

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Christensen, C. M., Hall, T., Dillon, K., & Duncan, D. S. (2016). Know your customers' "jobs to be done." Harvard Business Review, 94(9), 54-62.

Dillman, D. A., Smyth, J. D., & Christian, L. M. (2014). Internet, phone, mail, and mixed-mode surveys: The tailored design method (4th ed.). Wiley.

Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. (2005). Blue ocean strategy: How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. Harvard Business School Press.