Proposal Project

MKT 232—Market Research

Maria Boulos

Illinois State University

May 6, 2021
 Introduction

The following proposal is in response to a request from corporation Brandy Melville, a

clothing and fashion accessories brand marketed to young women, to provide assistance in

deciding if the brand should expand their target market to include women of all sizes. The

company will begin to produce their best-selling clothing items with all sizes, rather than their

current offering of “one-size fits most” that only caters to petite women. They will then provide

these sizes for purchase on their website to see if there is enough demand from women who

typically cannot fit into the brand’s current selection, since most of their purchases are from

their online shop rather than their physical storefronts. If the demand is relevant, they will

expand their sizing of all of their clothing offerings and begin to sell all sizes at all of their retail

locations and at partnering retail locations. The main issue facing Brandy Melville is whether or

not there is enough demand for more inclusive sizing, and if this can help the brand’s image

following the backlash received due to the exclusivity of their sizing. In order to determine if the

extension of their sizes will be successful for the company, there will be a study conducted to

see if women of various sizes shop at Brandy Melville, and if they do not why they do not and

how many of those responses are related to their lack of sizes.

Background

Brandy Melville was founded in the early 1980’s by Silvio Marsan and his son Stefan in

Italy. Silvio Marsan first started his career by producing clothing for Italian designers. He was

inspired for the brand name and logo by a fictional story of 2 people- Brandy and Melville, an

American girl and an English man who met in Rome and fell in love. Their first store in the US

opened in 2009 in Los Angeles, California. There are currently 97 locations worldwide, with 36
of those locations being in the US. The store gained most of its popularity from young girls in

California, mostly teenagers, due to its Malibu teen aesthetic. Brandy Melville’s target market

and demographic consists of young teen girls who are attracted to trendy fast fashion and basic

styles.

Brandy Melville’s storefronts have basic, pretty decorations to maintain their laid-back

aesthetic. They are bleached wood themed with a muted color palette, and their website

follows the same simple theme. Most employees in the stores are teen girls, along with their

product research team in order to ensure the company’s styles stay on trend. Rather than using

traditional advertising techniques, Brandy Melville relies heavily on viral marketing and social

media marketing and partnerships. Brandy Melville is very popular on Instagram, with over 3.5

million followers. The majority of their popularity derived from social media influencers such as

Kylie Jenner being spotted in or posting in their clothes. The representatives of the company

have rarely spoken on record for the brand nor have they had any promotional press, so it is

rumored that employees are not allowed to discuss company history or the identity of their

CEO.

The Problem Statement

The key issue faced by the company is their lack of inclusive sizing. Reports gathered

from managers and associates of the company have shown that many women will browse their

website and storefronts without making a purchase. There has also been backlash on social

media due to inclusivity of sizing. The brand must decide if there is enough demand to provide

all sizes for all styles of clothing in order to calm the backlash on social media and increase

profits. Before proceeding with the changes, Brandy Melville must find if there are specific
types of clothing or styles that have a higher demand for more sizes than others, so they know

whether they should be expanding the sizes of all of their clothing or just certain items. They

must also survey people at their physical stores in order to find out if there is enough demand

to expand their sizes in stores along with online. Finally, they must test the changes online and

they will then see if their expansion of sizes will be successful before implementing these

changes brand-wide and in-stores as well.

Research Objectives

Issue #1: Determining the demographics of the demand of the potential customers

 Are the women who are having trouble finding their size shopping online or in-store?

 Is there greater demand for the brand in areas that lack physical storefronts?

 What are the average sizes of these women?

 What are the ages of these women?

 Is there as much demand for plus sizes as there is for all traditional sizes (XS-XL)?

Issue #2: Interest of potential customers

 Do women who cannot find their size at Brandy Melville take interest in the style of the

brand?

 Is there a demand for larger sizes for t-shirts?

 Is there a demand for larger sizes for outerwear?

 Is there a demand for larger sizes for bottoms (shorts, pants, skirts, jeans)?

 Do women who cannot find their size at Brandy Melville prefer the brand’s most

popular styles, or is it more varied?

 Why is it that some women will browse the store without making a purchase?
 Constructs

Brandy Melville only offers their products in one size that is meant to fit most. However,

this size is only tailored to fit women with around a 25 inch waist and a 32 inch bust, but the

average women’s waist size in the United states is 38.7 inches and the average bust is 36

inches. This leaves out the vast majority of women and can be discouraging for those who may

be average sized but still cannot fit into the brand’s items. The brand is targeted at young

teenage girls, so if they cannot fit into Brandy Melville’s clothes it can be very hard on their self-

worth, self-esteem, and their body image. Furthermore, since most of the brand’s advertising is

reliant on viral marketing and social media influencers, discourse surrounding how the lack of

sizes influences these women’s mental health is especially harmful to the brand.

By taking on this opportunity to expand the sizes of the brand’s clothing items, it will

allow women of all sizes to participate in fashion trends deriving from the brand. This will allow

Brandy Melville to not only increase the size of their market, but it will also likely develop

positive conversation online that will bring attention to the brand.

To begin this analyzation, in-store managers will report on how many people browse the

store without making a purchase, and they will follow up with the customer and ask them why

they did not make a purchase. If they did not make a purchase due to lack of sizes, the manager

will then ask for the size they were looking for and what styles they were looking at, and then

make note of all of the responses. They will also report on how the experience made them feel,

in order to find out the effects the inclusivity of sizing has on their mental health and if it would

be better if their sizes were available. For online shoppers, rather than an in-store manager

asking the questions, those who enter their email into the website will be sent a survey asking
the same questions. After implementing the changes online, the company will track how

consumers’ attitudes towards the brand have changed and if they are more willing to purchase

from them due to the expansion of sizes.

Proposed Research Method

The research method that would be most successful in Brandy Melville’s situation is

surveys. Surveys are considered quantitative research because they have structured questions

with predetermined response options. The surveys will be computer-administered because that

allows for a larger sample size and less error. The customers will also be incentivized to take the

surveys with a 15% off coupon for each survey. The target population for these surveys will be

women who browse the store for a long time without making a purchase and they will be

administered before and after the changes are implemented. Managers of storefronts will ask

the targeted customers for their email and inform them of the survey as they leave the store,

and they will explain how it is for research to determine if they should expand their sizes so

they can encourage those who may want more inclusive sizing to follow through. For online

shoppers, there will be a popup informing them about the survey and asking for their email to

participate. Both surveys will focus on their attitudes toward the brand, and in the first survey

shoppers will also be asked why they did not make a purchase in order to determine if sizing is

truly the problem. The sample size for these surveys will be large enough to be statistically

significant and it must be representative of the actual population of teenage girls in the US. The

company will look at the first survey’s responses to see if the demand for new sizes is there,

and they will also compare the responses of the in-person shoppers to the online shoppers

from the survey after the changes to see if there is significant enough of a difference between
their attitudes toward the brand to follow through with the sizing expansion. They will also

make note of which sizes and styles are being purchased online following the changes and see if

the demand for those sizes of those styles is the same as the demand for their original sizing

options. If the demand is significant, they will follow through with the changes permanently and

expand the new sizes to all of their clothing styles and retail locations.