SUCCESS STORY: DAVID’S BRIDAL

Company Profile:  David’s Bridal is the largest specialty bridal retailer in the U.S. Founded in 1950, the company has evolved from selling overstocks and samples to creating and selling its own merchandise in over 250 company-owned locations nationwide. At the time, the company also owned After Hours Formal Wear and Priscilla of Boston.

Situation:  It’s always a challenge to remain on top and David’s Bridal found itself in a precarious situation. Faced with an influx of competition seeking to directly copy David’s successful business model, the company faced the prospect of not making its sales plan. While the organization was full of many talented people, its teams were fragmented. As a result, it was difficult to achieve alignment around corporate goals.

Solution:  Patricia worked with David’s Bridal to develop a three-year growth plan. Together, they developed new growth strategies and led an internally aligned, cross-functional team to generate over $130 million annual sales. This was accomplished by:

1.

Development of brand-building workshops, resulting in internal alignment of key stakeholders. For the first time, the company had definition and agreement of what the brand represented, how it wanted to evolve, its core strengths, the competition, and how David’s Bridal compared to its defined competitive set. These hypotheses were evaluated and proven against qualitative and quantitative customer feedback.

2.

Successful evaluation and leveraging of existing business, resulting in the creation, development and implementation of the following strategies:

• Contribution of $60 million dollars towards the plus size gown sector, resulting in +10% increased sales
• Increased focus and investment on in-store designer-label bridal gowns - sales of Oleg Cassini gowns doubled, and a new in-store designer-label, Monique Luo, was launched. Sales of Monique Luo gowns exceeded forecast expectations.

3.

Identification of new markets for growth; subsequent development of multiple plans to pursue this potential growth:

• Assessed After Hours growth potential and identified a $100 million dollar pricing opportunity; created and optimized the messaging and promotional mix to exploit this opportunity
• Developed a bridal accessories growth plan to double sales by encouraging multiple add-on purchases
•Created a comprehensive strategic plan to increase Latina bridal gown sales by $70 million


Results:  David’s Bridal exceeded its 2005 sales plan and experienced continued growth in 2006. “The business is on fire,” enthused Scott Rogers, Director of Strategic Planning. “We are well underway to achieve our 2006 plan and in fact, have increased the plan.” Bob Huth, CEO, elaborated on these sentiments, stating, “Patti is a creative thinker. She is a true out-of-the-box thinker who is able to translate her thinking into an action plan and work collaboratively with our internal team to flawlessly implement. This makes her unique.”.

 

Copyright 2011