This is where Shadi will post his final pitch.

Team Shadi

Good evening, my team and I are very proud to present to you our product, and we are looking forward to answering your questions!

Introduction

Store name: That 90's Shop

"Strumming my pain with his fingers, singing my life with his words. Killing me softly with his song, killing me softly, with his song."

The Law of retro states that anything twenty years old comes back into style, and this is the era of reminiscing over the 90's. Trends are generally set by people in their mid-20s or early 30s, and those people almost always try to reclaim their youth, and by doing that, the 90s are back in style. For most of the generation coming of age in our time, the 90s were their childhood, and they will find themselves very nostalgic about the past days. People can't go back in time, but they find comfort in the things that remind them of the good old days. We tend to remember our childhood years fondly, and the first cultural experiences of the society's trendsetters (the teens & young adults) started in that decade.

"Upside, inside out she's livin la vida loca. She'll push and pull you down, livin la vida loca."

We're bringing back the 90s!

"That's my in the corner, that's me in the spotlight. Losing my religion, trying to keep up with you."

Our shop is not merely shop, it is a cocoon of isolation from the current era. You enter it, and you will be be transported into the 90s, or as people would refer to, the new classic. It's always the period of nostalgia that has the biggest market, and we plan on using that to get our store up and running. The '90s were a time of innovation, growth and peace. Its cultural products of the time tend to heavily show that. The retro appeal of the '90s is bound to outlive us. People have a tendency, or a desire, to experience, or re-experience what has come and gone, ad the 90s were the latest time that was even different at all from the present in a substantial way.

"Don't go chasing waterfalls, please stick to the rivers and lakes that you're used to. I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all, but I think you're moving too fast."

Hence, we found that this opportunity to recreate an entire era, even within the limited walls of our shop, would appeal to a large number of people. Those who miss that decade will want to relive it, and those who are curious about what makes it so special will want to find out for themselves. It is a vintage world that is nothing like you've ever seen, and this uniqueness will make it stand out amid this era of cut-throat marketing that we live in. It's important to note that whereas you will find stores that sell vintage clothes, and that you might find some vintage music in a music shop, and you will find some old classic movies in a DVD place, our shop is unique because it is strictly vintage 90s and it covers all areas. So, in order to find a combination of our 5 categorical offerings, you will have to search in 5 stores and more, whereas you will find everything you need from the 90s in our one shop. We also like to stress that our collection of music, movies, TV shows, books, magazines, posters, clothes and items far exceeds anything you will find in the market because whereas 90s products could be a small area in other stores, it is our whole concept in our shop, and that is what makes us special, and market leaders in that regard.

"Don't speak, I know just what you're saying. So please stop explaining, don't tell me cause it hurts."

We are very proud to run a shop that represents a tiny globe, storing the many things that gave the 90s its identity, a time capsule, that allows our customers to travel back to that golden decade, and a buffer between two very different, but very relatable eras.

"My loneliness, is killing me, and I, I must confess, I still believe, still believe, when I'm not with you I lose my mind. Give me a sign, hit me baby one more time!"

Location, Size & Target Market

Our shop will be located in Manchester, 'the Capital of the North'. Other ideas that we had included London and Brighton, but we felt that London was too obvious and a bit of a cliché, and Brighton, whilst it is a forward-thinking, up-and-coming town, is still possibly a little bit too niche. We feel that Manchester is the natural home for That 90s Shop as it is a large, vibrant city, has had a lot of influence on industry and music and is often considered to be the 'second city' of the United Kingdom. Aside from London, Manchester is the most visited city in England by overseas visitors, and it is home to the UK's largest airport outside London.

Manchester is very welcoming to the student lifestyle, and has often been considered 'the best student city'. As many students today are the target age for That 90s Shop (more on that in a moment) Manchester's student crowd could be a major coup for us. It is also extremely multi-ethnic, liberal-minded and gay-friendly, which encompasses the attitudes that were up-and-coming in the 1990s, and is another reason why Manchester stood out to us as being the perfect location.

The target market for That 90s Shop is people who were born from around the early 1980s to the mid-1990s - i.e. those people who grew up in the 1990s and who will have the best memories of it. As stated in the introduction, the laws of style and retro generally mean that old fashions will generally come back around 20-30 years later. Therefore, just as vinyl records and AppleMac computers have gradually reclaimed success over the last decade, over the next so too can the items and product lines that That 90s Shop will specialize in. The generation who enjoyed the products of that decade are now in their late teens and twenties, and this is the age range that we are aiming this at. We believe that a lot of young adults today will be excited to reclaim the old trends that they grew up with, just as our parents did with 1970s-themed paraphernalia.

It's important to note that the since our target is those who were born in the 90s, the age we're mostly attracting is those between 15 and 24, and as of December 2012, they make up 13.1% of the population in the UK, which is a very decent percentage. With that being said, they are not the only demographic that we're attracting, as those who are older than that were living their teenage years in the 90s, which means that they too will have a nostalgic longing to this era. So, if we want to include those who have lived their childhood and teenage years in the 90s, we would have to include those of ages 15 to 39, and they account for 33% of the population, which means that we have potential to attract one third of the population, a great number that we seek to expand down the the line.

Our market research will develop with time. Depending on our shop's success, we may in the future continue to aim at the same generation with the awareness that are customers are growing older, or gradually start to move into a 2000s theme, continuing to approach the same age range - or possibly a little of both. These decisions will be based very much upon our market research in around 10-15 years' time, as well as our success rate up to that point and our projected success in the future.

Products

That 90s Shop is a very inclusive store that sells a variety of products, and even considering our rich collection of items, we plan on expanding and scoping an even greater range of products. Our goods can be divided into 5 broad categories:

1) Audio: This category includes all the noticeable 90s music. If you were a fan of the songs coming from that era, then you will definitely find many albums to please your ears. Our collections of music covers a wide range of artists who come from very different genres. Whether you jam to Monica and Brandi's R&B hits, rave to Nirvana's glass shattering music, dance with Madonna, express all the pain inside you through Alanis Morisette's gut-wrenching solos, or lose your religion with REM, we have something for everything. Our music sections is bound to leave you as nostalgic as one can be! Also, old school headphones, earphones, cassette players etc.. are available at hand, for you to collect.

Sample of our music: (All sold as CD Albums)

Gangasta's Paradise - Coolio
Left of the Middle - Natalie Imbruglia
One Hot Minute - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Butterfly - Mariah Carey
Zooropa - U2
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill - Lauryn Hill
The Score - The Fugees
Backstreet's Back - Backstreet Boys
The Chronic - Dr. Dre
CrazySexyCool - TLC
Tragic Kingdom - No Doubt
Spice - Spicegirls

Among many, many more.

2) Visuals: This category includes the many movies and TV shows that were popular during that era, many which developed cult-followings, and some that became cultural phenomena. That decade was very rich in that area and our collection will reflect that, with diversity that will, similar to the audio section, please everyone. Who can forget quotes such as "She's a man, man (Austin Powers)", "Houston, we have a problem (Apollo 13)", "...That they may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom. (Braveheart)", "To the moon (Titanic)" etc..

Some of our movies: (All sold as DVDs)

Clueless
Jurassic Park
Silence of the Lambs
Forrest Gump
10 Things I Hate About You
Pulp Fiction
Scream
The Lion King
The Matrix
Kids
Good Will Hunting
The Shawshank Redemption
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles II
Aladdin
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Spiceworld
The Parent Trap

And many, many more.

Some of our TV shows: (All sold as DVDs)

F.r.i.e.n.d.s.
Seinfeld
Sex and the City
Beverly Hills 90210
Dawson Creek
Popular
Melrose Place
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
My So Called Life
Daria
The Late Show
Ellen
Powerpuff Girls
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air
Saved by the Bell
Charmed

And many, many more.

3) Print: This department in our store includes all the books, magazines, and posters were birthed in the 90s. You will find some of the best literature work created in that era, as well as the most entertaining editions of different genre magazines. Before the internet became mainstream, reading anything had to be done through papers, which is the 90s was the last decade that used print extensively, which, luckily for us, provides us with a great collection of print items that were read by millions of people back in days.

Some of our books include:

Goosebumps (book series)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Harry Potter (book series)
The Giver
High Fidelity
Bridget Jones's Diary
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Prozac Nation
Fight Club
American Psycho
Infinite Jest
Memoirs of a Geisha
Ghost World

And many, many more.

Some of our magazine issues include:

Harper's Bazaar, September, 1994
W, July, 1997
Interview, July, 1992
George, July, 1997
People, May, 1993
Rolling Stone, May, 1994
Vogue, May, 1992
Time, June, 1994
ELLE, May, 1993
New York, November, 1994
Detour, November, 1996
Cosmopolitan, October, 1996
Allure, August, 1993

And many, many more.

4) Replicas of Misc. items and collections from the 90s: I remember that I would never leave my house without my "zazu", which is a formally known as a nano baby that you feed and pet till it grows (mine almost always died..). This is one of many souvenirs and items that might have become obsolete after the 90s, but really were part of our everyday lives that we miss and remember fondly. We have arranged a section that includes many of those items that you can buy and collect if you miss them, and we're sure you do!

Some of these items include:

Nano baby (Tamagotchi pet)
Walkman
Boombox
Lisa Frank school supplies
Vast collection of Beanie Babies
Inflatable furniture
Sky Dancers
Trapper Keepers
Slap-bracelets
Roller-skates
Yo-Yos

And many, many more.

5) Clothes: Finally, we approach the fashion section of our store. We have compiled a huge collection of 90s clothes that will sure make everyone around you think that you just landed off the time traveling machine! An important feature in the 90s fashion is the popularization of the casual chic look, including T-shirts, jeans, hoodies, and trainers, a trend which continued into the 2000s. Also, the 1990s saw a return to the minimalist fashion of the 1950s and 1970s, opposing the flashier trends of the 1980s. Some of the items that we include, and have predominantly surfaced in the 90s, are baseball jackets, crop tops, grunge clothing, bandannas, thick heeled shoes, bomber jackets, converse All Stars, choker necklaces, skeleton jewelry, among many others.

Here is a catalog that would showcase some of what we're offering:

Female: (THERE ARE 7 PICTURES, PLEASE FLIP THROUGH THE PAGES BY PRESSING THE NUMBERS ABOVE EACH PICTURE)

http://imgur.com/P8eS2fg,ZGvarXd,G8g...68g4Mj,ud8d11u

Male: (THERE ARE 11 PICTURES, PLEASE FLIP THROUGH THE PAGES BY PRESSING THE NUMBERS ABOVE EACH PICTURE)

http://imgur.com/NXU9FfQ,DMn9R2Z,KNK...u5hUvO,GoYGdDM

Prices

1) Movies & TV shows: We have decided to price our movies and TV shows in uniform fashion. So, every CD will cost £5.00**, so each movie will cost £5.00 and the price of season of any TV show will be equal to the price of the number of CDs needed to cover all episodes. For example, a season that would need 4 CDs to include all episodes will cost 4 x £5.00 = £20

** Seeing how preparing a CD is very low cost, we will realize a decent profit margin from this price, and the same can be said about the music CDs.


2) Music: Music, in the 90s is a very important aspect. We have decided to impliment this into our store. To make a fair pricing scheme, we've conducted a two tiered price list. Below are two categories that have been decided by a midst of the following: sales, critical acclaim, pop culture impact, and the test of time. These aren't decided upon personal opinion, but what we believe to be a realistic show of a tiered price list.

Tier One - £5: (EXAMPLE)
Alanis Morissette - "Jagged Little Pill"
Lauryn Hill - "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill"
Nirvana - "Nevermind"
Shania Twain - "Come On Over"
TLC - "CrazySexyCool"

Tier Two - £3: (EXAMPLE)
Aaliyah: "One in a Million"
Destiny's Child - "The Writings on the Wall"
N'SYNC - "*NSYNC"
No Doubt - "Tragic Kingdom"
Notorous B.I.G. - "Life After Death"

3) Books: Books will simply be in the range of two prices. The prices will be £1.99 and £10.49 depending on the book size, and scarcity**.

** We have done a great effort collecting these books, some which are harder to find than others, so we priced them accordingly. The ones that we will have to search for extensively when we run out of them, will cost more. Same can be said about magazines.

4) Magazines: Our magazines will be £1.50 and £5 in price, also depending on size and scarcity.

5) Our posters will be priced at £2.00 for medium sizes and £3.00 for large sizes.

6) CLOTHING:
T-Shirt: £6.99-11.99
Top: £5.99-£10.99
Shirt: £7.99-£12.99
Jeans: £9.99-£15.99
Pants: £5.99-£10.99
Shoes: £10.99-£16.99

7) Memorabilia will vary in prices obviously, but we will price the sample list that we compiled in the product listing segment:

Tamagotchi: £0.99
Walkman: £3.99
Ring pops:£0.99
Lisa Frank School Supplies: £6.99
Beanie Babies: £2.99
Inflatable Baseball Chair: £21.99
Sky Dancers: £14.99
Trapper Keepers: £7.99
Slap Bracelets: £0.99
Rollerskates: £17.99
YoYos:£0.99

Logo

Logo: http://imgur.com/LTrEBvR

I have personally done this logo although I have never done a logo before, be it on here or anywhere else. This logo is simple but very attractive in my opinion. The 90s is placed inside a star, to resemble that the 90s decade really was a glorious era, and I have done my research about which colors were really popular in that era, and the answers were Blue and Yellow, so I tried to incorporate that in the title as well as the trademark. The pun worked perfectly as I used golden yellow to state that it was a "golden era". I am very fond of that logo and I feel that its simplicity and elegance adds to its value.

Interior Design

As far as our interior design goes, we wanted our shop to be reflective of the 90s with a very modern twist to it. So we tried to establish a buffer between our today world, and the 90s decade, making our shop look like a new classic.

The first thing you need to know about our store is that it is a two-story shop, where there's a ground floor and an upper floor. The first floor includes the music, movies/tv shows, print, as well as the misc. items sections, whereas the upper floor is strictly clothing.

Our ground floor is divided into 4 equal sections, each one placed on four different areas. Once you make your entry into our store, the near right section represents the DVDs section, whereas the near left section represents the print section. As you move forward into our shop, the far right area includes all the music, whereas the far left area includes the misc. vintage items. At the very back of the ground floor, there is a glass elevator ready to take you to the first floor. (We placed the elevator in the back end of the ground floor so that people on their way up to the clothes section will be forced to pass through the whole ground floor, and they might make purchases that they didn't plan for when they pass through that). We also built two staircases, one to the right of the elevator and one to the left of it, both leading to the same floor (the upper floor), and we design them to be brown and white, half-cylinder stairs. (EXAMPLE: http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/201...a-Gomes-25.jpg)

In the first floor, you will also find a division, the near half of the first floor is designed for women's clothing whereas the far half is for the men's clothing. It's interesting to note that we didn't separate any of our sections with walls and we preferred to keep it an open space.

To keep in line with the 90s styles, we have built our store using whitewashed brick walls and wooden floors in both floors (EXAMPLE OF A HOUSE WITH WHITEWASHED BRICKWALLS AND WOODENFLOORS: http://blogimages.purehome.com/blog/...t-wall.jpg.jpg )

We feel that this mixture gives a very vintage allure that can be carried out in a very modern approach. Our furniture is dominated by Beige and White colors also to reflect the color scheme that was predominant in the 90s.

As for the size of our shop, each floor is 16 meters wide, 21 meters long, and 3 meters high.

The 90s also stressed on minimalism in interior design, which is a style that uses pared down design elements, and we tried to integrate this style in our shop by building our shop in a rectangular fashion (simple geometry). We also only use the primary colors of black/white/beige/gray, but in order to add some a modern touch, splashes of dark blue and yellow can be noticed around our shop. Our furniture also uses only the basic materials such as glass, Plexiglas, plastic, leather, wood, high-tech composites and other metals, such as stainless steel, chrome, nickel and brass .

Our walls are also decorated with pastel paintings, and also, in each department, we hung relevant glass covered posters. So in the movies section, we hung a poster for Clueless, for example, as well as other movies. In the music section, we hung posters for Aaliya, for example, as well as other artists etc.

In the changing rooms, we have placed Hollywood lighting next to the mirrors, to give that 90s vibe. The clothes in the upper floor are also placed inside closets or on shelves both which are part of the pine furniture collection that we have used in that floor, an homage to another very important style used in the 90s. (EXAMPLE: http://www.trade2cn.com/upload/2013/...32C0S_logo.jpg)

Finally, we have also used vintage lighting with a modern twist, resorting to hanging lights, which were huge in the 90s, in a vintage yet elegant form. We used those in our upper floor, in the clothes sections, because the light needed to be close to the clothes to give the customers a better look at the products. EXAMPLE: http://winlights.com/hanging-lights/lighting-22.jpg As for our lower ground floor, we used vintage crystal ceiling lights to illuminate the floor.

Marketing

In order to publicize That 90s Shop, we have a number of plans concerning promotion. Our website will be launched very early on (people can carry out online purchases through our website), which will have links on it to our pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Flickr. Social media is a very powerful tool in today's world, and new businesses would be foolish not to make use of it. Unlike some businesses, we will make sure that our social footprint is regularly updated. There will be promotions and competitions that people will be able to join in with, images and videos regularly uploaded to show any new stock that we have in, and regular discussions with customers to check that they are happy with our service, and whether we could be doing anything differently. We aim to have the personal touch; we want to make the users of our service feel valued, to feel as though they are not just shoppers, they are our clientele whose opinions we value. After all, That 90s Shop really is a shop for them. Moreover, we will scout these social network websites for popular pages that are related to the 90s (90s artists fanpages, 90s movies fanpages etc), and we will try to strike a deal with the owners of these pages where they promote our shop on their pages.

In addition, we aim to work with the University of Manchester to see if we can involve ourselves with any University projects. As stated earlier, Manchester is a very friendly city for students, and we feel that it could be a major strength to utilize the city's students, given that many of them will be the target age for That 90s Shop anyway. We hope to organize 90s events on campus and distribute fliers introducing them to our shop. It may also be possible to advertise ourselves on student television and radio channels, but that is again something that would have to be arranged with the University.

It's also important to cultivate loyal, high value customers, who are more important than butterfly customers that flock to a shop during sales only. Thus, our main target has to be those profitable value customers who will always make purchases from our store. We reward the people who make continuous purchases with loyalty cards that grant them discounts on their future purchases, as well as emailing them first every time we're bringing in new items.

We plan on organizing an opening event, which includes a mini 90s party, in line with the theme of our store, and we'll have an in store raffle. We will promote the event via social media, fliers, as well as on the radios and through word of mouth, meaning we will use every promotional tool that our budget allows us to. We will provide food, offer door prizes, and we'll keep the crowd entertained.

We also aim at making our business newsworthy, as we will try to use the media whenever we can. Whether it's a nice charitable gesture that lands us a newspaper articles, or if we could land an interview on any channel, be it radio or TV, we will use those opportunities to promote our shop extensively.

Sales are an obvious marketing strategy that we will also utilize. It might be cliche, but it's still an effective tool because people can't resist the idea that something is being sold at a lower price. So, we will carry out sales every now and then, especially during summer and holiday seasons, to attract more customers.

Our emphasis on customer service is crucial. We will always follow up with our customers and make sure to contact them whenever something that might spark their interest happens. We plan on getting to know our customers and building a close personal relationship with them where they feel that they are a valuable member of our team. We make sure to ask for every customer's cellphone and emai, as well as give them a card with our Website, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube Twitter, and Flickr links for them to follow us!

Besides social media, we will also resort to online advertising and search engine superiority where our ads will be placed on websites of interest that are relevant to our shop, and our website will be one of the first that pop up during search processes.

Finally, we're looking to develop a phone application that shows all our products, as well as inform the users of any new additions to our shop. We also would like to add some quizzes and games that would relate to the 90s to keep them entertained with our app.

Future Plans & Business Strategies

According to Dun & Bradstreet and INC. magazine, 33% of all new businesses fail within the first six months. Also, 50% of new businesses fail within their first two years of operation and 75% fail within the first three years. Keeping that in mind, our aim is to build a business that will last a long time, and become an internationl brand in the not so distant future. The concept of our shop is very appealing and the opportunities for expansion are endless. Some of the expansionary policies that we are looking to adopt somewhere down the line include but are not limited to the following:

1) Tackling different decades: As per the rule of retro, in about 10 years, the 2000's will start to be considered vintage, which is why we don't plan on sticking with the 90s only. We will conduct extensive market research to discover whether it would be profitable to enter this domain, and if so, we will open a new shop, replicating That 90's Shop, named That 2000's Shop. We are also not against opening stores that reflect the 80s, 70s, and 60s, whichever comes back in style and with a vengeance. This will grant us longevity because whenever we move forward, we will have a new era to tackle, and so on and so forth.

2) Cafes/Restaurants: One of our plans also includes expanding and opening a related 90s restaurant/cafe. This would add a fun element into the experience, where people can come in and enjoy an ambiance and an environment that is very similar to those of the 90s days, whether it's the jukebox machines, the 90s karaoke, and many, many more. We plan on naming it That 90s Cafe, to keep in line with our trademark name, and make sure people know that the two are related.

3) Franchising: In order to achieve international recognition, we hope that our local success sparks interest in our shop, which would allow for franchising in other countries, be it in Europe or outside Europe. We hope that the uniqueness of our concept, which is an all 90s shop, becomes a hit and invades foreign markets.

4) Geographical expansion within UK: We also plan on opening That 90s Shops in local cities other than the one we're in right now, Manchester, especially in the capital, London. We hope that the profits we make allow us to expand into some other attractive zones for our brand to keep growing and expanding.

Also, we have some business guidelines that we follow to make sure that we remain on the right track of making profits. Those include:

1) Business plan: “If you don’t know where you are going, how will you get there?” We know where we're going, and we have so many plans, ideas, and future aspirations that we would like to accomplish. We aren't improvising along the way, and opening doors for business and seeing how it goes. That would probably lead to failure, we will have goals, strategies, and tools set in place to carry out our missions.

2) Funds: We have developed open lines of credits with financial institutions, and we have accumulated a very good deal of money to help us run our store smoothly until we start realizing positive cashflow. We are not foolish to believe that any store that cover all expenditures and achieve profits within the first few months, as patience is a virtue, but we have done everything we can to get to that point, including having our funds ready in case.

3) Paying Attention to Cash Flow: In the first periods of our new store, monitoring cash flow is crucial. If we continue to spend more money than we collect, we know that we need to change some of our strategies. P.S. Cash flow is all of the money we take in subtracted by the expenditures per a period of time.

4) Understanding the Industry and the Target Customer: The reason we went with this 90s concept for our shop is because we noticed a trend in the market, which is a return to vintage, particularly the 90s, and this is why we decided to invest in this domain. We will continue to notice trends and patterns in the market, as well as attracting and maintaining our customers, as well as working to expand our target market. We make an effort to understand purchasing behavior (buyer demographics and psycho-graphics, how they buy, what they buy, when they buy, what motivates them to buy and where they buy) in order to fully be in sync with what our customers want and how they will go about getting it.

5) Differentiation Strategy: Many businesses crash and burn because they're "me too" businesses, meaning they imitate other businesses and expect to succeed. Customers need a reason to come to a new shop, and we have given them that through our differeniation strategy, mentioned in the introduction. We're the first 90s shop that is all inclusive of every popular culture aspect that was found back in the time, and that makes us market leaders in our domain.

6) Cost Efficiency: Before starting our business, we collected information about the cost structures and selling prices of our competitors. We have done that to ensure that our profit margin remains aligned with our preliminary targets, and to also make sure that we are pricing our products appropriately. The lower cost producer always wins a pricing war.

7) Management skills: We are very familiar with the leadership and motivation tools necessary to prepare, train, and maintain an effective and efficient work force that is loyal to us. We treat our employees as the most important part of our organization, and provide them with a very fair compensation, and many rights that make their stay at our business a very satisfying one.

To conclude, our store, "That 90s Shop", is a trip back to a decade that most people fell in love with. We have done our best to bring back all the elements that made this decade a golden one, hoping to bring back some warm memories and feelings of nostalgia to those who miss it. We are committed to making a trip to our shop a great experience for all our customers, and we ensure that the products they leave with are ones of value. We have great plans for the future and we have some many different decades and eras to explore as part of our expansionary strategy. For now, however, we are bringing back the 90s, a unique decade that we have warmly contained inside our unique store!

Ice Ice Baby Vanilla, Ice Ice Baby Vanilla!

Thank you for reading, we welcome all your questions and we hope that you liked our product!

Hi Shadi, congratulations on the pitch, I have a question about the audio and visual side of the market. You have clearly thought about the music and programs that were popular in the 90's but you seem to miss out those who might want to listen or watch these things on the mediums available in the early 90s (ie cassettes and VHS). I understand that you need to keep the formats current as many people no longer have VHS and cassette players but there are some who do still have such equipment and would want to make use of them. Would you cater for this niche and if so how would you go about profiding this?

Thank you, Iain!

Yes, the idea of using VHS and cassette did occur to us, and we actually are selling cassette players. With that being said, the vast majority of the people would rather buy CDs than Cassettes because it's pretty obvious that CDs are not only of higher quality, but also provide more features (burning the CD, adjusting bass and tempo, playing it on computer/dvd player/cd player/ laptops etc). So, anyone who has both cassettes and a cd player (or any of the above mediums that play CDs), would rather buy a CD because of its additional conveniences. However, if we're faced with an increasing demand for cassettes, we will definitely take it into consideration and sell cassettes. But for now, we have to appeal to what is popular in order to realize profits, and that would be CDs.

Thanks for your answer, I do still have some concerns. For one from a sound perspective cassettes provide a higher quality due to being an analogue signal rather than a digital one which brings up concerns about your awareness of this particular side of the market. Also do you think that your store might be too busy and customers will have a hard time pinpointing what the store is about?

I think if you randomly ask a 100 people about whether they'd rather own a CD or a Cassette, about 95+ would go with the CD. I am not audio expert, but a CD is easier to play on a number of different modern mediums, it's also easier to copy files from, and when playing music from a CD, fastforwarding is easier, as is adjusting the tempo, bass, and other sound properties. So I wouldn't risk selling my audio in cassettes knowing that the vast majority of people don't own a cassette player to play the music on, and then we'll have a stock of unsold inventory which we have caused because we wanted to appeal to a very, very, very niche market. When a demand arises, however, we would make it a feature. Until then, we're sticking with CDs.

As for your second question, our shop is large enough to accommodate large numbers of people, so there wouldn't be confusion or slacking even during busy times. Also, we're very clear about what our store is all about: it's a trip back to the 90s that includes all aspects that made the 90s so culturally significant, and our store is divided very neatly and clearly into five departments that contain those aspects. Once a person enters our shop, he will know what its all about, and our promoting mechanisms would already sufficiently informed the customers about our shop, and if anyone has any inquiries, our employees would be more than glad to help.

Hi Shadi. Congratulations on your pitch. A few questions from me.

How sustainable do you think this store is since it seems to be suited to a gift shop and not one which people regularly visit?

How will you ensure that this is a repeat business, whereby customers return to the shop after a visit?

Do you not think the target market is too niche and not have a wide appeal?

Would you not need to purchase rights to be able to distribute music and films? Have you not considered this cost?

Ok, I can accept that, however I do think you underestimate how popular cassettes/VHS would be, it would be a small portion of your business but I think you'd be surprised how many of the older end of the generation would still be interested in such things not dissimilar to the popularity of vinyls.

I wouldn't consider a boutique, DVD, Music, Print and Memorabilia to be merely a gifts shop. It includes everything you need for people to make continuous purchases. Also, if you would glance over the last bit of my pitch, I discussed our plan for the future, which is to expand into a resto/cafe, as well as exploring different eras, to keep our product fresh and trendy.

Well I don't think one business can adopt a differentiation strategy and satisfy the entire population. If our plan was to reach out to a 100% of the population, we would've run a water manufacturing company. But, we chose a business that has wide appeal, and our numbers state that at least 33% of the population would be interested in our product going off on demographics alone. The 90s are making a surge, and we want to capitalize on that.

As for your final question, we buy our products from distributors who have acquired the rights to distribute these products. We also don't duplicate the products, we buy them in the quantity we need as they are, and once they become our personal property, we have the right to sell them as we wish.

Thank you

Our target market, however, is not the older generation, but those who are between 15 and maximum 39 (but mainly 15-24), and VHS/Cassettes have become obsolete within this age group. With that being said, we are not against selling cassettes IF the demand is there from our customers.

Well I can tell you I fall into the upper end of that category (at 24) and I would still be interested in buying cassettes if I still had a cassette player with me. I suspect that though I'd be in a minority the majority of your target demograph you have completely overlooked.

Shadi will take your opinions on board for future reference, just as That 90s Shop does with all our customers. Thanks for the input.