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Case study 1

sew what ?inc

question1

Search the internet to help you evaluate the business performance of

sew what? Inc and its competitors at the present time what conclusion

can you draw from your research about sew what?

Prospectus for future? Reports your findings and recommendations for

sew whats continued business success to the class.

Sew what? Was founded by Megan duckettinn1992 initially duckeet

was the only woman to start the business s and that too in her kitchen

with the passage of the few year with her dedication and creativity and

a hard work she uplifted the business to the evolve and grow into a

multimillion dollar company with 85 employees sew what? Inc provides

custom theatrical draperies and fabrics for stage concerts fashion shoes

and special event world wide

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Company profile

Headquarters Greater Los Angeles Area

Industry Entertainment

Type Privately Held

Company Size 35 employees

Website http://www.sewwhatinc.com

Sew What? Inc. is a respected Theatrical Drapery Manufacturer and

Custom Sewing Service working specifically with the entertainment

industry, special events, and trade show exhibit circuits. We've

manufactured stage curtains for elementary, middle and high schools,

community theaters and auditoriums, colleges and professional

theaters. Our drapery and fabric projects have also been used across

the country and internationally at rock concert venues, fashion shows,

conference halls and even at governor inaugurations

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Sew what? company Marketing philosophy

According to sew what?inc, You can be in business for years, and still

be one of your industrys best-kept secrets. (Thats not a good thing.)

But good branding and the right marketing strategies can make you an

overnight sensation. When Sew What? Inc. approached us, they had

been providing custom draperies to the entertainment industry for over

a decade, yet they were still struggling to gain awareness. Added to

that, the long-established category leader with whom Sew What?

Competed eclipsed just about every other player in their industry,

meaning it would be a very tough uphill battle for Sew What? Inc.

But we love a good challenge and this one was it We saw Sew What? as

little David going up against Goliath. The management was young and

a bit cocky. They werent willing to conform to others rules. They

spent a number of years in the Rock and Roll touring business. To us,

they were the rebels, the pirates, the iconoclasts who could pave their

own path to success. That was all we needed to craft a new branding

strategy that bucked convention and set them apart.

Our creative team developed a ballsy slogan: Sew What? Its not a

question. Its the answer. We designed a new logo featuring an

enigmatic Riddler-style question mark that was graphically simple and

striking at the same time. The bold yellow and black color palate we

created jumped off the page, the computer screen, collateral and

product labels. Just as important, we drafted a new branding

statement that the company adapted as the manifesto of theircorporate culture.

New print ads and an entirely re-engineered website (with significant

emphasis on search engine optimization) completed the opening salvo.

In concert with an aggressive PR program and ongoing marketing

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counsel, Sew What? celebrated a 25% increase in sales by the close of

the first year of its new branding. By the end of the third year, the

company had a quadrupled its business.

Additional marketing initiatives led to exposure far beyond theentertainment industry, and the company president received numerous

national awards and accolades as a business innovator.

The ultimate proof of success however comes from recent marketing

research that shows that not only are the companys customers thrilled

with the products and service Sew What? provides compared with the

competition, but they specifically indicated their belief in the brand

promise, meaning a solid connection between our clients marketingefforts and their customers values.

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IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTES OF THE COMPANY

y Creativityy Against all oddy Must do approachy Passiony Flexibilityy Respecting business they receive from both big and small

customers

y Never say No approach

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Sew What? Inc. Its not a question, its

the answer."

Sew What? Was destined to be the answer from the moment it was

conceived. The early 1990s left no question in any production

managers mind that there was a desperate need for a soft goods

supplier with firsthand knowledge of the theatre, experience with the

tour ability of fabrics and the willingness to deliver the goods

yesterday.

Established in 1992, Sew What? Began by designing, manufacturing and

installing theatrical drapery and stage curtains. Strong company values

and a clear mission statement combined with unwavering

determination to provide a customer-centric service have helped

establish a loyal customer base and the reputation as the Theatrical

Drapery Manufacturer and Custom Sewing Service for the touringindustry.

Sew What? has manufactured soft goods for numerous artists,

including Maroon 5, Slip Knot, Green Day, Avril Laving, Sting, Dave

Matthews Band, Rod Stewart and Don Henley. Prestigious drapery

installations for theatres such as the historic "Victoria Theatre" in

Santa Barbara, CA are the result of competitive pricing and

manufacturing excellence.

Emphasis on customer service, consistent delivery of quality products

and timely deliveries has resulted in steady growth for the

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Corporation. Having recently expanded, Sew What? now occupies a

15,000 sq ft building in Rancho Dominguez, CA, and employs an

experienced staff of 33.

About Our Staff

With a strong and diverse team of sales staff, Sew What? designs and

manufactures for a broad range of entertainment related industries.

Our experienced sales team has expertise in the design and

manufacture of theatre draperies and concert soft goods, and each of

our sales staff has a unique understanding of the specific needs within

their field of study and experience.

Explanation Of Products

Sew What? Manufactures concert soft goods, as well as stage curtains

for schools, community theaters and auditoriums, colleges and

professional theaters. Our drapery and fabric projects have also been

used across the country and internationally at rock concert venues,

fashion shows, conference halls and even at governor inaugurations.

We offer a full catalog of products and services, including: soft gooddesign services, fabric sourcing, custom stage curtains and drapery,

tradeshow and exhibit supplies, traveler track and hamper distribution

as well as expendable production supplies.

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What Does The Future Have In Store?

Sew What? Inc. will continue to provide the highest quality draperies,

sewing services and related products in a timely manner to our

customers. We are committed to developing relationships built on

performance, trust, exceptional service and our ability to offer

appropriate solutions to an ever changing marketplace.

Q&A: Megan Duckett

Sep 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Lisa Murphy

LD: You left Australia at a young age to work as a theatre technician

with one of the largest stage manufacturers in the US, but then you

decided to move into the sewing aspect of the industry. How did you

make the transition from technician to founder of your own business,

Sew What? Inc., which specializes in creating custom theatrical

drapery?

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MD: The years I spent employed in the entertainment industry both in

Australia as a lighting technician and then in the States in various

capacities offered me a variety of confidence-building experiences. I am

fortunate to have worked for top-notch companies such as All Access

Staging, where I was given excellent training and many opportunities to

better myself.

Deciding to make a break and embrace the unknown challenges of a

small business is certainly not for the faint of heart. Had I not had

complete emotional support from my husband, Adam Duckett, and

good will from former employers, I might have hesitated. My strong

determination to succeed combined with my Capricornia drive

definitely seems to have been the right mix for success.

Like many areas of the entertainment industry, there is no school that

teaches Theatrical Drapery Manufacturing. (Have you ever heard of

How to build a 60' turntable that will fit into a semi truck class?) So it

was, and still is, the school of hard knocks. By continuously trying to

refine our procedures and systems, we have been able to build abusiness whose two key focuses are customer experience and

employee benefits. Every member of our team, now 35 strong, is

encouraged daily to embrace our culture and offer the best client

relations and a premier product. In turn, we offer this amazing team as

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many benefits as we can afford, including paid school opportunities,

health, retirement, and vacation plans.

LD: You were recently awarded the Dell/NFIB (National Federation of

Independent Business) 2006 Small Business Excellence Award, which

recognizes small businesses for their innovative use of technology.

What specific technologies have played a part in the growth of your

business?

MD: Our oldest customers and employees would hardly recognize Sew

What? Inc. if they fast-forwarded to today with our new networked

office system (utilizing a Dell PowerEdge Server) and the launch of our

sophisticated and optimized web site.

Thanks to our recently installed server, our customer service

managers can satisfy their customers' needs with blazing

performance. Now they can deliver near-instantaneous responses,

email product quotations (who needs fax?), send digital photos, or

even videos of work-in-progress all at the click of a button. In

addition, computerized integrated packing slips have streamlined our

processes and brought the shipping and receiving department up to

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speed, which also means detailed and accurate content lists for our

customers.

The implementation of a new user-friendly FTP site has taken days off

the process of ordering digitally-printed backdrops, which, until

recently, meant burning CDs and waiting for snail mail to deliver. It

also gives us an easy means of delivering electronic previews of our

work, assuring accurate and timely review and input from our

customers.

It doesn't stop with our customers. Our vendors, too, are benefiting

from our newly improved ways of operating. Our computerized

purchase order system has checks and double checks in place to ensure

accuracy of orders placed, as well as timely payment of received and

approved invoices for goods and services provided.

Having redesigned our website to truly speak for us our virtual

receptionist we are now able to reach more potential customers

than ever. Heavy search engine optimization of the site delivers

targeted customers to us each and every day, our specialized fabric

sub-navigation system helps us share fabric color palettes with our

customers, and the design of the pages lets us share portfolio images

to each and every viewer.

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These changes and more have allowed us to provide world-class service

to a world-wide clientele from New York to Athens to Sydney, all at

Internet speed. Our customers now regard us as their creative equal in

the world of theatrical drapery and performance and have come to

depend on us to deliver when others can't. All this has been made

possible by combining traditional business values with today's newest

technologies.

LD: How has your business grown in the last 18 months?

MD: Our revenue has grown 45% since our website redesign, and

looking at the change of demographic for our customers is fascinating.

Just 18 months ago, 80% of our customers were in California, our

home state. Thanks to the redesign and our aggressive optimization,

we now have a customer base that is 33% in California and a

tremendous 66% out of state. In fact, we have sold to each and every

US state except for Vermont. Embracing the World Wide Web has

certainly allowed us to reach cities and communities that we might

never have dreamt of reaching via other conventional methods.

Beyond our borders, we have also had over 55 successful

international transactions in the last 18 months. Targeting

international clients would be virtually impossible without the

website.

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To keep up with the growth, we have incrementally added technology

into the company infrastructure. Our server allows us to save data in a

safe and centralized area; networking of all our staff likewise allows

for faster and more efficient access to customer files. We have

developed our own proprietary software to convert drapery orders

into sewing plans which sets us apart, as we are now able to store

sewing plans indefinitely for customers, allowing us to reproduce pieces

again, months after the original order.

With the generous award from Dell, we plan to automate the

warehouse.

LD: What high profile projects have you worked on? In what capacity?

MD: We've done sets for Sting, Fleetwood Mac, Dave Matthews Band,

Stevie Nicks, and in May, our drapes were on the cover of Rolling Stone

magazine. (That was the celebrated 1,000th edition.)

We are currently involved in the manufacture of complex and unique

stage draperies for the Toni Braxton show, which will be in Las Vegas.

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Just last month, we stitched up over 1,200 yards of terry cloth into the

world's largest beach towel (131' 77') for Nabisco, which was

recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records on June 28, 2006.

We recently manufactured Ricky Martin's Kabuki drapes for his current

tour and have been involved in several of his previous tours over the

years, in differing capacities.

And at this time, we are in the process of manufacturing a complete setof stage draperies to replace those damaged by hurricane Katrina in the

historic Rosa Hart Theatre in New Orleans, as part of the city's relief

project to rebuild the devastated district. We are honored to have been

chosen for this project.

LD: Can you tell us about one project that was particularly challengingand/or rewarding?

MD: Sew What? Inc. has leapt headlong into the international

marketplace with our web redesign and a determination to understand

the needs of such international customers. We had a specific customer

scenario that, despite its inherent challenges, was a very rewardingproject:

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From the moment that we began redesigning our website, we knew

that we needed to reach customers in the far corners of the world. This

meant a much broader understanding of the international search

market online.

By optimizing for common terms in multiple countries, Greek

artist/producer Peter Young was able to find us on the web. Up until

then, he had difficulty finding a US vendor of customized theatrical

drapery services due to his limited technical vocabulary in English.

Thanks to our fabric sub-navigation system that allows customers to

browse within a fabric category much like flipping through actual

fabric swatch samples while in a retail store Young was able to look

at each and every fabric available to him and see the entire color

palette, even though he was 6,900 miles away. He was able to choose

all the fabrics and linings necessary without needing to see a physicalswatch.

Despite the great distances, we corresponded with Young daily in real-

time. Detailed contracts were shared via email, and daily reporting

was done by way of live video feeds, progress photographs, and

installation diagrams.

In the end, Young's final product was exactly what he wanted, delivered

when he needed it, as if he was in our shop to check on progress daily.

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Not only was it challenging, this project was also very rewarding. We

came to realize that we are able to offer the same services to other

nations, and with careful planning and some caution, such transactions

can be very successful. When Young emailed us pictures of thedraperies installed on the stage in Athens, it was an incredible thrill. To

see our work hanging on the other side of the world was just amazing.

It took establishing a creative, information-driven Web presence to

help us reach customers beyond our local community and provide

customer service that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. And theicing on the cake? Young has just contracted us for another complete

design and manufacture of a second theatre club in Athens.

LD: How do you see Sew What? Inc. growing in the next five to 10

years?

MD: It must be said that we definitely think big at Sew What? Inc. From

the get go, our goals for the future have always been aggressive.

On that note, it is our plan to continue to pursue perfection in all areas

of our business. We plan to increase the number of products available

via e-commerce as well as introduce more targeted and unique

products into the theatrical marketplace. Our goal to go global with a

satellite location will undoubtedly come to fruition. Already registered

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as a foreign business in Melbourne, Australia, we hope to reach out to

other locations as the opportunities present themselves.

As artists whose palette is fabric we plan to be the top-of-mind

company for top-of-the-line artists. How will we achieve this? By

combining today's technologies with some good old fashioned

customer service.

Strategies followed by sew what?inc To survive in the market

Sew What? Inc. is a respected Theatrical Drapery Manufacturer and

Custom Sewing Service working specifically with the entertainment

industry, special events, and trade show exhibit circuits. We've

manufactured stage curtains for elementary, middle and high schools,

community theaters and auditoriums, colleges and professional

theaters. Our drapery and fabric projects have also been used across

the country and internationally at rock concert venues, fashion shows,

conference halls and even at governor inaugurations. Today, Sew

What? celebrated an incredible feat two years (730 days) injury free!

What do I mean by injury free? I mean that there have been no

workplace injuries at Sew What? in two years. This really is an amazing

accomplishment. Most traditional offices dont think too much about

workplace injury there just isnt very much likelihood for injury. Its

different at a manufacturing company like Sew What? Our sewing and

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warehouse staff work with a variety of machines (sewing machines,

grommet machines, forklifts, large format digital printers, etc.), and

even the slightest distraction on the part of the staff member could

result in an injury. Many of our custom stage drapes are large andheavy and unwieldy. So to go two years without an injury is a

tremendous accomplishment. We are so proud of our staff for their

diligence in working safely. Every 90 days, we celebrate by providing a

catered lunch to all of our staff, and on the large milestones, we take

the celebration up a notch. This time, in addition to a delicious catered

lunch, we brought in a mariachi band to entertain. The mariachi band

was a hit! Many of our staff are Latino/Latina, and so they had a greattime singing along. The rest of us simply enjoyed the music (and even

some dancing!).

Role of it in the growth of business

Sew what? Were recently awarded the dell/NFIB (national federation

of independent business) 2006 business excellence award which

responses small business of innovative use of technology. let us see

what specific technology has played a part to the growth of their

business.

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Conclusions

This case reveals the importance of being brave and accepting the

challenges which are brought up by the market and finding new ways

to position the product services or the brand in the minds of the

customers learning from mistakes and after that fully dedicating

oneself to overcome that and also to cope up with the changing trend

of the market duckett says:

When I see a problem I just dont get back down I find a way to

overcome it and I use everybody I know to help me

Findings

Sew what?Inc become a premier provider of custom sewn theatrical drops and

fabrics created records by sewing worlds largest beach blanket and has

become an industry leader in rock and roll staging we also find the

company is growing as per the requirement of the how it is adopting

new technology and new method to attract and provide maximum

customers satisfaction likewise at present time duckeet is planning

To introduce bar code in her business this would help her to evaluate

the business performance and short her useless cost this wouldincrease her effectiveness and efficiency

Rent what?

A contract has developed a new idea of durable portable pop up frame

which provides instant 8*8dressing rooms in 2 minutes itself on stage

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Recommendations:

Though the company itself doing a lot of innovation here are a

few more recommendation for her future growth:

y Brining stage Curtin in action giving it a moving or alive viewWorking on argental base those customers who cannot afford use

her creativity on rental basis.

y To find and alternative with same characteristic for sharkstothscrim since there is a storage of this fabrics.

y Collecting the scraps from the other fabrics industries collectingthem showing her creativity in it.