University of The District of Columbia Madewell vs. J.Crew Stores Research Madewell vs J.Crew II. “Field” Research Since it’s Covid-time, use your knowle

University of The District of Columbia Madewell vs. J.Crew Stores Research Madewell vs J.Crew

II. “Field” Research

Since it’s Covid-time, use your knowledge of the stores (do not visit!), web research, and careful usage and dissection of the firm’s website to do your core analysis. You should mimic the experience of visiting the stores in person so that you can talk through branding, product, initial strategy hypotheses, etc.

Observe and measure characteristics of the companies that you think could illuminate the firm’s strategy within the big-box retail space. Measure the same characteristic at its competitor’s store and compare the two. Pick at least 10 metrics (but fewer than 20) that you find relevant.

-Metrics:

The goal of the field-research and measurements is to see how the physical, product, and brand decisions contribute to the firm’s overall strategy.

*While you are welcome to pick your metrics (as defined in the metrics section below), I encourage you to consider unique metrics that reflect the overall shopping experience such as specifics of website utility, shopping experience, degree of marketing, elements of branding, how the products are portrayed, and your own creative, unique observations.*

A metric is anything that can be objectively measured and verified. For example, in the past students have used tape measures or laser measures to measure seat width at 5 Guys. Let’s imagine you were doing an alternative case on Target vs. Walmart–not an option for this project–you could have metrics for:

Cleanliness of the bathrooms
Friendliness of staff (were you greeted with a positive attitude?)
Size of shopping carts (Bring a measuring tape!)
Width of the aisles
Wait time in checkout aisles

Do not only use my suggestions. Be creative!

-Instructions:

(Up to 2-pages writing and 1-2 page table-format appendix) Single spacing is okay here if needed in order to fit within the table format. As noted in the metrics section above, it is necessary for your team to do field research where you actively use the products & services of the companies you are examining. Before you do your field research, define what measurements might be useful for understanding the business in question. You can be flexible and add measurements after you get to your store/restaurant. Your job is to create and measure 10 – 20 metrics. Please be creative. I recommend using a table format as in the metrics appendix below. Appendix 2: Metrics Results Table
Here is a Sample Metrics Results Template – You can stick to this format or alter
it to suit your team’s needs, based on what data you collected. This sample comes
from a Target/Walmart pairing, which is not an option for your class:
Metric Name Results for Target (the Initial Conclusion Results for Initial Conclusion
store)
for Target
Walmart for Walmart
Aisle Width
These should be
specific and
quantitative where
necessary:
4 feet in pharmacy
section, 8 feet in main
store
Promotes visibility 4 feet in
in main section, pharmacy
efficiency in each section, 6 feet
department in main store
Efficiency
throughout store
Ease of
navigation: 3/5
Here you can include a
ranking if it makes
sense for the metric
such as:
Ease of navigation: 5/5
6
Checkout
Length
3 carts per checker
6 carts per
checker
Wait Time: 3 minutes
Reasonable focus
on customer
service (Note our
team only has 2
observations, thus
the conclusions are
tentative given the
small sample size)
Wait Time: 7
minutes
Higher wait times
for customers
means tradeoff
customer service
for cheaper prices
(tentative due to
small sample
size)

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