What Is a Clothing Store Marketing Plan?

by Wanda Thibodeaux, Demand Media
A marketing plan shows different avenues available to reach new customers.

A marketing plan shows different avenues available to reach new customers.

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Clothing is an essential item people must have. On the surface, this gives the impression that opening a clothing store is a business no-brainer. In reality, fashion is complex, with different styles of clothing appealing to many different groups of people. As a clothing retailer, you must show potential customers something that sets you apart, and come up with a way to attract business. The typical method is through a formal clothing store marketing plan.


A clothing store marketing plan is a written document that outlines your promotional strategy. It's very similar to a business plan, but the marketing plan focuses only on how to find and retain customers.


The purpose of a clothing store marketing plan is threefold. First, the marketing plan tells others -- including potential investors -- that you understand your customers, as well as your strengths and weaknesses relative to competing stores. Secondly, it provides a concept of how reaching different customers can transform the store's image and increase its sales. This becomes extremely important for convincing investors and lenders to work with you, for setting the store's budget, and ultimately in deciding whether continuing business is a good financial idea. Lastly, because the marketing plan outlines everything you're going to do to reach customers and how you'll measure success, it provides a guide for you and other workers to follow. This ideally means everyone is organized, on the same page and working toward the same goals for the store.


A clothing store marketing plan contains the same basic elements as marketing plans for other stores. These include: the vision you have for the store; your tactical and strategic goals; what you want the store to provide, or how you want customers to view the store; and a description of both the store and its target and fringe customers. Your clothing store marketing plan also should explain who your competitors are, what they're doing in their marketing, the threats they pose and the advantages you have. Similar to any product, you'll also need to talk about your store brand, identifying the core strategy you have for producing a certain customer experience, and the branding elements -- for example, logos or specific color schemes -- that you'll use. Also include specific messages you want to convey and how you'll get those messages across. Identify the methods by which you'll make initial contact with customers and generate client leads. The plan also should detail your price rationale, items such as business cards you'll use to reach and entice customers, your customer service goals, numbers you'll use to measure success, training resources and the calendar or schedule for each element of the marketing plan.


Everything you include in your marketing plan must be founded on research and data. You must know what the clothing store currently is doing and what the market is like before you attempt to identify and reach particular clients. Your marketing plan contents also should be based on the vision you have for the store. For instance, if you want your clothing store to convey a sense of luxury, then you'll need to focus on showing customers that your clothes are better than average quality, that they look both comfortable and polished, and that the improvement in their appearance and feeling of pleasure are worth the price you set. Without a vision, you cannot set specific goals.

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