Introduction
NEXT is a multinational British clothing, footwear and home products and the headquarters can be found in Leicestershire. NEXT clothes are styled by its in-house design team to offer great style, quality and value for money with a contemporary fashion edge, (NextPLC,2011).
Target audience
Originally Next intended to fill a gap in the market by selling fashionable clothes for people aged 24-35 years old and those starting on Careers and family life, (Verdict,2017). When going on NEXT you can find items that suit families and kids while finding professional clothing for the purpose of work.
While this is the main target age there is something for all ages whether that be teenagers or grandparents, NEXT provide a wide variety of fashionable clothing.
In 2018 there are various ways customers can use NEXT to purchase items from them. Customers can choose from their mobile app, mobile and desktop website and obviously in store. This is can be convenient to different types of customers which will be illustrated further on using two personas.
Personas:
Jake Thomas
Jake is a 28 year old male who lives in Central London and is from a middle class background. He’s aspiring to be a head chef but currently works as a personal trainer and lives with his son and girlfriend. Jake is very relaxed. Jake likes modern clothing but also buys some sportswear due to his current job. As he has a son Jake will often use a site such as next to purchase clothing for him.
Simran Patel
Simran is a 19 year old female who currently study’s law at the University of Sussex with intentions to pursue a career in the field. She comes from a lower class family from Norfolk. She likes buying casual clothing and also loves to buy the occasional dress for nights out or for social gatherings. She also uses social media often.
Competition
There are two competitors to NEXT that are very similar. They are Marks and Spencer along with Debenhams. Both provide modern fashionable clothing and Unlike a retailer such as H&M, Marks and Spencer both provide clothing at a slightly higher price like NEXT do. All three provide branded clothing. There a few differences between them. One being that Marks and Spencer also sell food and other things. With that being said all three are very similar to one another.
Customer Journey
A customer journey map is a visual representation of every experience your customers have with you. It helps to tell the story of a customer’s experience with your brand from original engagement and into hopefully a long-term relationship,(SalesForce,2018).The customer journey path to the left illustrates the experience Simran and Jake both went through when using NEXT. The key points are stated below for both Simran and Jake:
Simran
- She finds a dress on NEXT’s Facebook page.
- Goes on her phone to find alternatives to her dress on the mobile site.
- Revisits social media to get details on the dress and purchases the dress on NEXT’s mobile website.
- Agrees via email to receive any updates or notifications for anything in the future and emails NEXT about signing up for loyalty schemes.
Jake
- Initially in person sees poster advertising sales.
- Looks in store for clothes but cant find anything he was looking for.
- Goes on laptop to look for the item of clothing and then purchases it.
- Writes a review on web forum and calls about joining loyalty scheme.
Overall Experience
While both Simran and Jake in the end both had positive experiences throughout their journey there were a couple of negatives. Jake wasn’t too pleased with the lack of stock in the stores. Simran also wasn’t given too much detail on Next’s social media page.
As shown in the photo to the right the NEXT app is very useful. It provides customer with a size option and provides a picture of the item. Also the website was found to be relatively straightforward
Word Count 653 words.
References
Nextplc.co.uk. (2018). At a glance. [online] Available at: https://www.nextplc.co.uk/about-next/at-a-glance
Limited, N. (2018). Next Official Site: Online Fashion, Kids Clothes & Homeware. [online] Next.co.uk. Available at: https://www.next.co.uk
Verdict. (2018). Next is in real danger of following M&S as its customer base ages | Verdict. [online] Available at: https://www.verdict.co.uk/next-real-danger-following-ms-customer-base-ages/
Salesforce UK Blog. (2018). What is Customer Journey Mapping & Why is it Important?. [online] Available at: https://www.salesforce.com/uk/blog/2016/03/customer-journey-mapping-explained