Down the Aisle Wedding Planning - Example

1.0 Executive Summary

Down the Aisle is a wedding planning business with an emphasis on facilitating excellence in services related to wedding-related activities in the London region. Down the Aisle is a service-centric model, offering a variety of services that cater to both the high-resource customer and the more budget-oriented customer segment. The primary characteristics of Down the Aisle is assisting in planning wedding activities, designing the tangible environments where weddings and receptions are to occur, and managing aspects of operations of conducting the wedding. Because weddings are substantial life events for individuals, many markets are willing to make sizeable expenditures to ensure proper organisation and competent facilitation of wedding festivities.

Wedding planning is a business that has seen growth over the last decade and there is no evidence that this growth will continue to decline as consumers are becoming reliant on capable and experience planners to manage the complex and multi-faceted aspects of wedding preparation and tangible management of events (Daniels and Loveless 2007). It is an industry that is favourable for achieving revenue growth and ensuring stable client contracting as consumers in the UK pay upward of £90,000 for premium services for the more affluent buyer. The less affluent buyer still spends between £25,000 and £35,000 on wedding services to ensure the entire event maintains memories that last a lifetime.

This business plan identifies opportunities for profitability in the first year of £77,100 with the ability to procure at least six clients each month, paying on average 15 to 20 percent of their entire wedding budget to the wedding planner. For more complex and luxurious wedding planning contracts, this profit could increase as this business model has low overhead and is managed by a single individual for Year 1. Coupled with inferior competition in the region in a highly-fragmented market, the expert marketing talents of Down the Aisle’s founding entrepreneur can rather simplistically outperform these competitive deficiencies in areas of marketing and promotion.

2.0 The Business

Down the Aisle offers the following services which illustrate how the company goes about facilitating successful customer wedding events:

• The Celebration Package – This package provides customers with important decor for a wedding event, including party streamers and decorations, tablecloths, invitations, disposable cameras, plates and cutlery for dinner service, and various musical selections to be played during the wedding; supplemented with management organisation of events occurring at the reception.
• Basic Planning Package – In this role, Down the Aisle does not provide any products, only planning of all operational concerns for a customers’ wedding with emphasis on third-party contracting and using internal management talent to coordinate all third party obligations during the wedding and reception.

These three packages cater to the budget-minded customer and the higher-resource buyer and are customised according to the specific needs and budget capability of the customer. To remove the stress and burden of planning small-scale or large-scale wedding events, Down the Aisle’s expertise in organisation will facilitate effective communications, contracting and control of different industry professionals including florists, caterers, musical groups, disc jockeys, photographers, bakers and other specialist experts. To ensure a low overhead and maintain control over costs, the business will follow an outsourcing model for all of these related industry professionals rather than employing them directly in the start-up model.

In this industry, consumer values, beliefs and emotions are considerable influences in how Down the Aisle should approach the planning process. As experts at the business will be working intimately with customers of varying demographics, ethnicities, lifestyles and socio-psychological profiles, it is the intangibles of service that will have the most impact with customers. Intangibles are significant factors of a service delivery model that can determine whether a company receives customer referrals or whether customers are fully satisfied. This is where the business excels is in having advanced knowledge of sociological and psychological theory, as well as consumer behaviour theory, in order to facilitate more empathetic and emotions-based expert services.

2.1 Objectives

The business has three objectives spanning 2016 through 2021.

• Become the foremost, esteemed wedding planner in the London region by 2019.
• Gain 25 percent of the wedding planning industry market share in London by 2021.
• Establish brand preference in London by 2019.

3.0 The Industry and markets

The outlook for growth and profitability for wedding planning services is quite positive. A study conducted which maintained a sample of 18,000 different brides found many factors conducive to the future of Down the Aisle. The average expenditure on wedding events for these brides was over £27,000, which included spending on catering, high quality facilities for receptions, photographers and other expert service professionals (Jaeger 2012). The average cost paid directly to wedding planners was £1,753 (Jaeger 2012). Gaining potential clients is also favourable for Down the Aisle, as it is estimated that in the UK, each year, the industry is valued at over £10 billion. The industry, in terms of career growth potential, has historically been positive.

Industry growth 2001-2007

Source: Daniels, M. and Loveless, C. (2007). Wedding planning and management: consultancy for diverse clients. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

A 2012 survey also illustrated that expenditures on premium wedding services increased two percent from 2011, with budgets between £31,000 and £95,000, which no encompass 18 percent of all weddings in the UK. A full scale wedding planner customarily charges between 10 and 20 percent of the entire wedding budget for full-scale premium weddings, hence this represents an opportunity to procure between £3,100 and £19,000, per wedding event, for premium events. Full scale coordination and consulting services which include assistance with budgeting and scheduling typically add a five percent increase, especially when working with couture events and when providing this substantially-intimate relationship with customers.

3.1 Target market

The main target market is the parents of engaged couples market which represents the most significant opportunities for building revenues for Down the Aisle. This market what maintains grown children and typically have higher economic resources, believe that flashy and opulent wedding events are important to mark their children’s most important day. In the UK, 53 percent of weddings are paid for by the parents of the bride and groom. Daniels and Loveless (2007) assert that building potent relationships with the parents of adults being married has many opportunities for increasing the planning budget and gaining word-of-mouth for the planning service business. A survey conducted by Saga Home Insurance in the UK and found that 25 percent of parents will be paying the entire wedding bill for their sons and most contributing something to the wedding budget. Another survey conducted by WeddingChannel.com and TheKnot.com found that 57 percent of all weddings were paid for by the parents of the bride or groom.

The parents of engaged couples represents the primary target market as they represent the most potentially lucrative opportunity for Down the Aisle and maintain characteristics favourable for increasing budgeted expenditures. The older consumer demographic maintains decision-making in consumption which aligns a brand’s products or services directly with their personal values and ethical makeup (Myron 2012). Hence, this market represents an ideal opportunity for Down the Aisle to use its knowledge in motivational and psychological theory to develop integrated communications which are underpinned by the specific values and attitudes of the older parental market. Down the Aisle also recognises that most markets do not maintain awareness that they are driven toward making specific product decisions based on their personal motives. As long as Down the Aisle aligns its mission and inherent values to create a brand personality aligned with the older demographics’ values, gaining their attention and interest should be feasible from a relationship marketing perspective.

Additional markets available to the business are illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Main target demographics

The 25-34 year old markets are known to gravitate toward products in the premium category as it serves as a type of conspicuous consumption that justifies their social identifies and economic accomplishments. This particular market segment often considers the influence and importance of important peer reference groups when making consumption decisions. As weddings, as a nature of their design, are rather flashy and luxurious, engaged couples in this particular age demographic represent ideal target markets. Eighteen percent of this demographic will be paying the entire wedding bill in the UK, especially higher for those who marry in their 30s and have opportunity to stash away savings. Coupled with understanding that the 35-50 year old markets have higher resources, this represents a niche market opportunity encompassing a projected 12 percent of the industry.

4.0 Competitor analysis

This industry in the UK is a highly-fragmented market, consisting primarily of small-time entrepreneurs attempting to sustain a wedding planning business model. No large-scale organisation currently dominates the UK market. The tenacity and style of small-scale competitors scattered throughout the UK is deficient in using contemporary marketing theory to attract consumers. The competitive communications describe little about the brand values and attitude of the wedding planning professional or organisation. Fragmented competition without sufficient knowledge of contemporary marketing theory and communications strategy pose limited risks to building a respected and preferred brand personality for Down the Aisle.

5.0 Marketing and advertising plan

In a market where intimate relationship development is emotional brand connection is imperative in gaining current and future business, marketing and advertising are the most fundamental aspects of gaining brand recognition and, ultimately, brand preference by 2019. Coupled with limited competitive rivalry in terms of advertising their businesses, there are excellent opportunities for Down the Aisle to rapidly gain trust of consumers and market share.

First and foremost, place is often one of the most important aspects for gaining consumer attention. Many small-scale competitors in London operate their businesses from their homes, meeting with clients that have contacted them according to their websites or other promotional literature. The business will be establishing a headquarters in London with moderate rental rates. A typical rental rate of £1200 monthly for an 800 sq foot office is feasible in busy commercial regions of London which can be developed to maintain substantial aesthetic value and a servicescape appealing to a wedding industry customer. This headquarters will allow for walk-in businesses and also provide opportunities for intimate engagement with potential or existing clients. The office will utilise premium end curtains, furnishings and draperies to improve the service encounter and create a wedding-focused interior that will build respect for Down the Aisle and also enhance making a purchase decision.

Communications must be targeted around values and beliefs of the primary target markets. When a brand’s personality is directly aligned with aspects related to the consumer self, it builds stronger brand attachments and more emotional loyalty toward the product. Especially for the female market seeking wedding planning service, they are usually highly-anxious and concerned about failure of the event and demand high levels of competency when deciding which planner to choose to manage their event (Daniels and Loveless 2007). Hence, this concern underpins the value proposition of Down the Aisle to gain consumer attention:

“Down the Aisle provides unique opportunities for engaged couples to share exceptional experiences during their most important life event. Down the Aisle understands that weddings can be an arduous process requiring intricate and competent planning to facilitate an amazing event. Our experts in wedding planning and third party management and control will work painstakingly to make all of your guests light up and illustrate how much Down the Aisle cares about your special event. Through this dedicated service, our business guarantees a fun and well-coordinated wedding event that will take your breath away.”

The company will be building a website which will be marketed using appropriate Search Engine Optimisation strategies in order to ensure the site shows up in top ranked listings of the UK’s most predominant search engines. This value proposition will be placed on the home page with appropriate wedding-related imagery and discourse attractive to the parental market. There are certain characteristics of the 50+ market which include having a focus on finding services that provide rapid fixes to a problem, are capable of saving them time, and will not in any way overcharge them or fraud them. Communications illustrating scheduling and organisational competency, coupled with discourse on economic value should underpin how best to communicate with the older parental target segment; which will be incorporated into content on the company’s website.

A survey of brides and grooms identified that when hiring parties to manage aspects of their wedding, electronic communications was a critical demand. The business will be promoting its instant update ideology, providing clients with text messages illustrating progress made along obligations secured under the contract. This enhances more personalised service which is a requirement of being a successful wedding planner (Daniels and Loveless 2007).

There is also a growing trend for engaged couples and female peers to attend various wedding expositions in London, such as The National Wedding Show in September, The London Wedding Expo taking place in February and the London Winter Bridal Show in January. Throughout the year, these and other events provide opportunities for service providers and vendors to meet with participants considering planning upcoming weddings. Throughout the year, Down the Aisle will be booking vendor space at these expos where intimate engagement can occur and promotional merchandise handed out. Attending these shows in the service industry are known to have considerable ROI in gaining future clients. This person-to-person engagement with potential clients can better illustrate the firm’s values and beliefs, whilst providing valuable information about contacting the business, scheduling appointments and viewing photo galleries of previous work and client events.

The company will also be printing pamphlets which describe the values of Down the Aisle and what differentiates it in terms of superior and intimate customer service. These pamphlets will be sent via direct mail to individuals who have signed up on the website, using directories from banquet halls that have booked future weddings and similar mailing ideology. They will also be placed in locations catering to the older market, including golf courses, fine restaurants and country clubs (to appeal to the higher resource consumer). These pamphlets will spotlight higher-profile clients’ events, appealing to aspirational social consumption patterns of the target markets.

6.0 Risk Analysis

The business has identified many risks to its business model, the most significant being a trend in frugal and thrifty consumption for the post-2008 recession consumer. This risk is combined with growth in do-it-yourself wedding planning guides and programming illustrating how to throw a quality wedding on a limited budget and control all aspects of planning independently. In the UK, all of the identified target markets are Web-savvy and these guidelines and free planning tools are available all over the Internet in the UK. To combat this risk, on the company’s website, Down the Aisle will provide case study examples of what can go wrong by not using wedding planners to facilitate a moderate sense of fear about using these trivial self-help guidelines. Specific advantages of using experienced wedding planners will also be included in the pamphlets produced to instil less desire to coordinate the entire wedding alone in order to save economic resources.

There are also liability risks when outsourcing third party vendors who can experience accidents or injuries when working in a wedding event. Down the Aisle will be working directly with the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) and appropriate legal assistance to determine how to construct a relevant safety culture and also ensure client protection from injury whilst ensuring limitation of liability for Down the Aisle. The business will also examine different insurance policies to cover injury or liability for the client, vendors and staff to ensure adequate risk protection. Contracts will contain language for the third party outsourced vendors ensuring that issues of liability are not directed at Down the Aisle, but absorbed at will by agreeing to the vendor contract.

7.0 Market Entry and Start-up Needs

Because of the fragmentation of this competitive market and relatively low start-up costs to launch a business of this scope and interest, a sole proprietorship is most viable. As the business, at the time of start-up, will not sustain any internal employees (other than the founder), this is the most inexpensive and relevant method of entering the market. In the future, as the business grows and expands, it will consider potential business alliances or joint ventures to expand into other markets outside of London or even consider licensing once the brand has been established and built strong recognition and preference in London.

As indicated, the start-up requirements for this business are minimal. The following table illustrates the anticipated start-up costs to launch Down the Aisle.

Table 1: Start-up Requirements

Rent (inc. deposit)

£2600

Furnishings and Decor for Office

£4000

Office Supplies and Equipment

£2000

Website Development Costs

£500

Pre-Launch and Post-Launch Promotional Materials & Signage

£2000

Legal

£2000

Insurance

£700

Party Package Inventories

£5000

Utilities

£500

Cash on Hand

£2000

Total Start-Up Requirements

£21,300

Prior to the launch of the business, being able to distribute business cards, pamphlets and tangible promotional merchandise (i.e. key chains, etc.) will be critical in establishing the first portion of brand presence for Down the Aisle in London. The business will need to work directly with legal representation to construct different contractual agreement templates for certain vendors (ranging from photographers to caterers). These contracts will serve as the basis for language in what constitutes legal liability for the vendor and the firm and are critical for the dynamics of this business’ outsourcing model.

The company will require furnishings, computers, and appropriate software prior to launch to facilitate e-communications with customers, conduct accounting activities, manage inventories, invoices and other important business information. The company will also require an in-house inventory of designer napkins, cutlery, decor items, etc. that can be shown to clients during an in-house consultation or at appointment scheduled at their convenience. This inventory is critical for taking on the first clients’ events planning and can be used as a promotional tool to illustrate the firm’s professionalism and sophistication.

After start-up, in year 2017, the business will pursue designing a branded vehicle featuring the Down the Aisle name (or fleet thereof) to facilitate more brand recognition in the local London region with contact information clearly displayed on such transportation. As the business grows, it will require better inventorying software and ERP programs to manage the complex dynamics of inventorying, accounting, operations management and replenishment planning (however, these are not start-up requirements).

8.0 Comprehensive SWOT Analysis

To fully understand what encompasses Down the Aisle’s main strengths and limitations, it is necessary to conduct a fair evaluation of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats toward the business.

Figure 4: SWOT Analysis

Strengths

• Strong competency in human behavioural and marketing theory.
• Strong understanding of contemporary events planning and events marketing theories.
• Strong aptitude for conducting both qualitative and quantitative market research critical to understanding trends in the consumer marketplace.
• Internal talent at identifying competitive weaknesses and capitalising on these limitations through promotion.

Weaknesses

• A single manager handling all aspects of the value chain during start-up year.
• Lack of available financial capital to expand the business quickly without reliance on revenues.
• Lack of brand recognition in the London market.
• High cost of technology limiting capability to automate the majority of office-related activities.
• Little knowledge in contemporary legal training.

Opportunities

• Partnering with other entrepreneurs to create an alliance to facilitate faster expansion.
• Hedging in the securities market to ensure stability in investments.
• Growing the business in markets outside of London.
• Hiring employees to manage internal office activities to lessen burden on entrepreneur.
• Networking with vendors with experience in wedding service provision to reduce costs and improve referral frequency.

Threats

• Low costs for competitors to enter this market that might be equipped with advanced marketing and customer relationship development theory.
• Economic conditions causing consumers to tighten spending.
• Rising costs along the wedding-related supply chain – which has implications for customer budget-setting.
• Growth in domestic partnership contracts rather than formalising a wedding contract.

9.0 The Business’ Financial Structure

Revenues will be gleaned through client contracts for various varieties of wedding planning or tangible events management during the wedding and its subsequent reception. The company has created an estimated monthly revenue structure associated with the likelihood of gaining a particular volume of customers.

It is likely that in the first six months of operations, the business will be capable of procuring six clients per month. (This will improve with better brand recognition, word-of-mouth and expanding to include potential business alliances or hiring staff). For revenue purposes, the business determined that the average planning contract, taking into consideration average spending by wedding parties and the cost of the planning contract, an average contract earning was calculated at $15,000 per month in revenues. (Capturing the premium market would greatly increase these average projected earnings).

Supplementary earnings will be gleaned through various contractual agreements with vendors when the client contract indicates that the planner will be responsible for identifying, contracting and managing vendor activities. A surcharge will be added to the contract to ensure profit associated with seeking out and coordinating vendor services (i.e. caterers, photographers, entertainment, etc.) This surcharge, on average, will equate to an additional $100-$500 per contract. At an average supplementary revenue, per contract, of $250, this will potentially earn the business an additional £3,700 monthly; totalling an average of $18,700 in revenues per month (first-year only projections). Appendix A contains a projected cash flow for 2016-2017 based on these figures.

The firm’s budget is currently set at £20,000. This budget is allocated toward all operational expenses across the value chain, including customer service technologies, software procurement, transportation costs, advertising, legal, utilities and rent, and various procurement costs. The cash flow forecast in Appendix A illustrates the monthly expenses that will be paid out by Down the Aisle, less cost of goods sold at approximately £4,000 monthly which is salary paid to the entrepreneur, billable hours to third party actors working as temporary assistance to the business model, and reusable inventories (i.e. china, silverware, etc.).

Breakeven Analysis

Average per unit revenue: £2300

Average Per-Unit Cost: £845

Estimated monthly fixed costs: £5400

The breakeven is £7,839 in which 3 units of sales are required per month, at an average of £2300 on contract.

Five Year Financial Plan

This five year forecast assumes a growth rate of approximately seven percent annually.

9.1 Profit and Loss Statements

This section provides projected financial statements for the first five years of operations.

9.1.1 Profit and Loss for 2016

9.1.2 Profit and Loss for 2017

9.1.3 Profit and Loss for 2018

9.1.4 Profit and Loss for 2019

9.1.5 Profit and Loss for 2020

As illustrated, it is anticipated that as brand awareness and preference increases as a result of word-of-mouth and reputation in London, travel expenses will reduce by 2019 (as there will be less need for networking). Advertising costs rise into 2018, but decline by 2019 as a result of this brand establishment. Additionally, interest payments will decrease after 2016 as the company will have to rely less on credit and make more cash purchases for much of its office supplies, utility payments and other procurement items. As shown, cost of goods sold increases after 2016 taking into account potential salaries for part-time labour assistance required as the business grows.