Design Print Studio

Problem
Imagine the ability to create a totally custom shirt. You choose the material and style of the shirt, and then the image or graphic you want on the front and/or back. This is the ultimate form of expression. There are no limits to what you can communicate. Some people might show their fanaticism for a particular sports team, others a musician. Or you might have a social message or cause on your shirt. Whatever you may decide, you can print any image on your shirt.
Solution
The Shirt Factory is an exciting new business that allows people to custom design a shirt (specifically the design on the front or back) any way that they would like. By intelligently leveraging cutting edge technology, The Shirt Factory will harness the power of computer sublimation to allow custom shirt printing in production runs as small as one unit.
Market
The Shirt Factory has segmented the market into two groups, organized by the type of product that they purchase. The first group is customers that desire an already created graphic image to be placed on the their shirt. The second group are those that prefer custom artwork to be placed on their shirt. The Shirt Factory has decided to divide the market by the products that they purchase because it offers an intuitive, easy method of targeting the two different groups. An additional reason for segmenting the market based on the two products is because the demographics for the buyers of the two products are distinct enough to group them separately.
Market Segmentation
The Shirt Factory has segmented their market into two distinct groups. As mentioned previously, the two segments are grouped by the type of product they chose. Although The Shirt Factory is dividing the market by product type, it is effectively dividing the market by age as well since the customers who purchase the custom artwork shirts tend to be older than the group preferring the ready-made graphics. While this is not a hard and fast rule, it is a fairly accurate generalization.
Graphics — This is group purchases a shirt and has an existing graphic placed on the shirt. This is the less expensive option and lends itself to low production numbers, as low as one, since there is not the inherent expense of artwork creation.
• Ages 14-25
• 69% are students
• Median individual income is $26,000
• Go out to eat 3.4 times a week
• Listen to 3.6 hours of music a week
Artwork — This segment prefers having custom artwork created and placed on their shirt. They generally have the image or style in mind and will direct the artist to create it. Occassionally when the customer will not have an exact image in mind but will rely on the artist’s skills to help shape the work. Some of these customers will use The Shirt Factory’s partner artist, others will have a friend or other service provider develop the art.
• Ages 24-43
• Median individual income is $42,000
• Go out to eat 2.7 times a week
• Listen to 3.3 hours of music a week
• 18% are using the shirt as a form of communication for a cause or a message

Competition
The Shirt Factory has identified three competitors, two are local companies, the third is an Internet-based shirt designer.
• Pro Design — This local competitor specializes in silk-screening. 70% of their business is silk-screening with the remaining 30% sublimation. They require a minimum order of 10 with a 2-3 week lead time. This company only uses pre-existing designs for their silk-screening and for sublimations you must use their artist.
• Conture — This local retailer is geared toward organizations or teams with production runs of 20 or more. They do fairly good work but are rigid regarding custom work.
• MK3D Printing — This is an Internet-based retailer that primarily offers computer sublimations. Design House has a catalog of approximately 200 images for the customer to choose from. They do allow customers to use their own graphic. The quality of the sublimations is mediocre at best because they can only use off the shelf technology.
Why Us?
Our mission is to offer the finest in custom shirt sublimation production. We will offer customers the best product at the best price. Customer’s expectations will always be exceeded.
Expectations
Forecast
We are going to grow our business to start making a modest profit in year 3. Our name will become synonymous with high quality fashion forward T-Shirts. Everyone will come to us when they want to wear something custom made. We will be able to pay off friends and family by year 5.