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Name: Pacheco Prieto Alexandra, Dates: 27/09/2018, Case name: Mi Tiendecita de

Moda, Word Count: 1128

1. Maria Alva had a clear passion for the business. Despite the fact MTM’s (Mi Tiendecita
de Moda) profits were still slightly lower than the salary she could have earned at a
multinational company, she genuinely enjoyed her job. Not only did she get to travel
and buy a lot but also met new people and influenced their lives positively thanks to
the products and responsive service she provided. What really pleased her about her
business was that she was able to work whenever she wanted and that worthen more
than the money.

She was entirely focus on customers and products since she offered branded U.S.
apparel to Peruvian women who were quite interested in fashion. Her keen focus on
customers became evident in the way she approached them. Maria used Facebook to
post pictures of her products and keep in contact with her customers by exchanging
messages and responding as fast as possible which ensured her credibility. She also
provided customers with unique apparel products as she did not offer the same item
twice.

Maria had to overcome some issues that threatened her business which showed her
tenacity despite failure. For instance, many online sellers offered fakes so she came
up with an idea to differentiate from them. She decided that her business foundations
would be quick replies in online exchanging and the allow her clients to meet and
inspect the product physically. Nevertheless, the track record of content customers,
who left positive comments on product quality and service, was what actually helped
her to set herself apart from those sellers.

Maria had the ability to turn her business idea into viable business which is the key
characteristic know as execution intelligence. Her educational and employment
background as well as her personal interest in fashion and travelling gave her the tools
to work out the best way to reach her target market and make a profit too.
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2. Modern Peruvian women often follow foreign fashion trends with a special interest in
branded U.S apparel. However, most businesses of the retail fashion industry didn’t
offer their products or the apparel that could be found in Lima was often far more
expensive than in the U.S., which represented a big trouble for those women who were
eager to buy fashionable clothes and accessories. Therefore, Maria realized that she
was able to address this issue in a meaningful and creative way. She combined her
passion for fashion and business and came up with the idea of bringing fashion
products and accessories from U.S. Her plan was quite straightforward: on trips to
North America she would seek out the most desired and unique products from brands
like Victoria’s Secret, Bath and Body Works, Guess, Nine West or Forever 21 and bring
them home. She had to pay attention to suitcase management to complete her plan
successfully. After returning to Lima, she opened her Mi Tiendecita de Moda Facebook
page in which she would upload photos of the products. Within a matter of time, she
received several positive comments on her pictures and customers were really keen
on progressing with their purchases. Maria clients gradually started to build solid
relationships with her clients as a result of message exchanging and the great level of
response speed. She had four ways to approach her customers from a personal
perspective:
 Specific meeting with her clients, at a popular café or shopping mall, were arranged
via Facebook so that they were able to see what they liked and buy directly.
 Company/home visits were a service provided to the best clients.
 Peruvian postal service or other carrier services in Peru were used to reach clients
from all provinces of Lima.
 Guerrilla stores were set up at weekends so that Maria could showcase her apparel
collection.

3. Maria used the approach of solving a problem to identify an opportunity. Peruvian

women were certainly keen on buying branded U.S. apparel since it was considered
as unique, exclusive and desirable. However, many U.S. retail businesses did not have
franchise or their own stores Peru. For this reason, branded fashion products sold in
Peru were not widely available. What’s more, as they were expensive imports, pricing
between the apparel sold in Peru and U.S differ considerably. Regarding the trends,
economic forces have contributed to the development of Maria’s business model. The
level of average monthly income from Peruvian women in the workforce has been
gradually increasing since 2004 which means that they have much more money to
spend on (see figure 1). Maria’s business is benefited from this as more women will be
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willing to spend money on clothes. As for social forces, social networks have helped
Maria to reach her target market easily as most Peruvian Facebook users, typically
between 18 and 35 years old, are increasingly navigating more through this social
network and thus they are exposed to a wide variety of content related to lifestyle.
Maria took advantage of this and started uploading photos from clothes and
accessories so that people get to know her business. This type of communication also
allowed her to keep in contact with their customers in a very responsive manner as
she really cared about giving prompt replies to them by using online messaging which
eventually contributed to the development of solid and strong relationships with her
customers.

Table 1
Average monthly income in peruvian nuevos soles (PEN)

Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática – Encuesta Nacional de Hogares.

4. To build a profile for Maria’s customers, and empathy map will be used (see table 1).
Her target customers are Peruvian women around 20 to 39 years old from the upper
middle class. Firstly, it is important to know what her customers see in their
environment. Her customers are Peruvian women of the upper middle class who are
constantly exposed to U.S apparel and therefore they are interested in original
merchandise from the United States. Nevertheless, most of those branded fashion
products are far more expensive in Peru which make it difficult for customers to afford
them. Customers are also influenced by media channels. For instance, they actively
use social media networks and through them they keep up to date with the latest
fashion trends in the U.S. It is also important to figure out what her customers think
and feel. They feel that wearing unique clothing will clearly help them to stand out from
the crowd. Maria’s customers attitude in public is that one from women who pay great
attention to their appearance. Regarding her customers’ pains, one frustration could
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be related to the clothing price since most U.S. apparel sold in Peru is much more
expensive. Another risk customers could be taking is the fact that U.S. novel clothing
scarce in Peruvian stores and thus they fear they won’t find the products they want.
Finally, what her customers really want to achieve is their desired look, which often
follow U.S. trends, at a modest price.
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Figure 1. Mi Tiendecita de Moda’s empathy map.