Aldo Group

Planning Proposal

Brittney Warner

March 6, 2009
I request permission to spend one month testing, interviewing, and implementing the
introduction of a new organic tee-shirt line. This tee-shirt line will be integrated into the
current product mix in order to increase sales. This integration will promote increased
profitability, create consistent repeat customers, decrease new product introduction
backlash, and promote brand awareness of the new line to customer market.

Present System

At present, Aldo Group consists of men and women’s shoes, accessories, and shoe care.
These categories have produced a maximum profit value, but due to the economic
recession, sales have decreased. The new tee-shirt line will be a remedial approach to
solve the decrease in sales.

Problems with the Present System

The present system worked adequately until the current economic recession. The present
system must be revised in order to spark an increase in sales, customer recognition, and
repeat customers.

Objectives

To solve the decrease in sales for Aldo Group, the company needs to implement this new
organic tee-shirt line into their product mix. This will do the following:
• Provide a new product category that customers will purchase
• Create customer loyalty to the Aldo brand
• Promote consistent repeat customers
• Increase awareness of sustainable materials in clothing and the beneficial
environmental impact.

Proposed Solution

I propose to solve Aldo Group’s decrease in sales by developing and integrating a new
product line into their existing product categories. The new product line will be an
organic casual tee- shirt line, which will be the beginning of Aldo offering casual, staple
clothing items. I will research two other similar companies who have successfully
integrated a new product line and one who failed to do so. Furthermore, I will interview
two Aldo store managers and the district manager in the Midwest. This will allow me to
gather their insights of the new product line and if they believe it will be successful to
increase profits as well as promote customer acceptance. Another research method I will
use is a survey completed by the customers in order to find out how they interpret the
new line.
Method for Developing the Program

I propose to create and implement the new product line in three steps: testing it,
interviewing and research, and implementing the new product line into the existing lines.

Testing the Program

Testing the new line will occur by using the survey to gather information from Aldo
customers. By conducting this survey, I can eliminate reasons why the new line with be
successful or fail. I can gather recommendations from customers as well as their true
feelings towards the new line of tee-shirts.

An example of the survey is as follows:

Which of the following Aldo products do you tend to buy once a month?
(Please check the boxes)

Jewelry Shoe care

Handbags

Men’s shoes

Women’s Shoes

Please indicate your feelings on Aldo products by scoring them on a scale of 5 down to 1
(i.e. 5= excellent, 1= poor) on the criteria listing below. Circle the appropriate score on
each line.

Aldo Products make me feel:

Trendy 5 4 3 2 1
Attractive 5 4 3 2 1
Important 5 4 3 2 1
Affluent 5 4 3 2 1
Confident 5 4 3 2 1

Please indicate your views on Aldo Products by checking the appropriate responses
below:
 Excellent Very Good Fair Poor
Good
Secure

Attractive
Less Concerned about
Appearance
Trendy

Confident

Please indicate below how aware you are of Aldo Products by scoring below.

______ Very Aware ______ Aware ______ Somewhat Aware _____Not Aware

If Aldo introduced an organic tee-shirt line into their existing market, would you buy the
tee-shirts? Why or why not?

What is the chance of your purchasing the new organic tee-shirt product if the price was
less than $20?

Definitely Buy Probably buy Might buy Probably not buy Definitely not buy
______ ______ ______ _______ ______

Do you think that Aldo would benefit from this tee-shirt line?
_________YES or ___________ NO

Even if you did not begin to buy the tee-shirts, would you continue to shop at Aldo?

_____________ YES or _______________ NO

Thank you for participating.

Interviewing and Research

Interviewing of two Aldo store managers and a Midwest district manager will allow me
to gather their insights about the new product line as well as their recommendations to the
proposal. The interviews will be with the store manager of Aldo at Rosedale Mall, the
store manager of Aldo at Mall of America, and the district manager of Aldo in Minnesota
and Wisconsin. I will be interviewing both store managers and comparing their answers
to the new tee-shirt line. Since Rosedale Mall conducts a smaller sales volume than Mall
of America, I can access if the new line will be more accepted at the high volume store or
the low volume store. This will allow me to assess if the new line will be successful or
not. The interview with the district manager will provide me with insight about if the new
line addition is a good idea for Aldo and if the addition will be successful in the Midwest
region versus other areas. Further research that I will conduct will be comparing two
companies; one that has been successful in integrating a new product line into their
existing product categories and one that has failed. I will develop recommendations from
this research.

Implementing the Program

Implementing the program will come from the recommendations I gathered from my
interviews, survey, and comparison of companies. These recommendations will allow me
to implement the new product line into Aldo existing market or make some changes in
order to implement.

Schedule

Task:

Designing Program Approach: Week 1

Distributing Survey to Customers: Week 2-4
Interviewing: Week 2-3
Research from comparison of companies: Week 2
Write recommendations: Week 3
Final results: Week 4

Qualifications

My degree is in retail merchandising and management, which makes me qualified to

analyze the areas where retail businesses can improve their products and increase sales
from minor changes. All of my undergraduate courses have taught me how to implement
new product lines as well as the ways to integrate these lines while maintaining the
customer base.

Conclusion
I am optimistic about the possibilities that I can improve Aldo’s sales. I believe that by
conducting this project, I can evaluate what will help Aldo improve their sales and
customer loyalty.