EXAM INSTRUCTIONS Please read the MM.LaFleur case (belo

EXAM INSTRUCTIONS: Please read the MM.LaFleur case
(below) and
then answer the exam questions (also below). Send your
answers to
Professor Robson via email in a MS word .docx file. Your
answers
must be received by 5pm on April 18, 2020.
EXAM QUESTIONS:
1. Explain how needs, wants, and demands relate to the article
about MM.LaFleur? (3
marks)
2. What is positioning and why is it important? What are four
variables that are relevant to
the MM.LaFleur positioning, and how is MM.LaFleur
positioned based on these
variables? (5 marks)
3. Based on what you learned in the article, explain the
‘product’ for MM.LaFleur in detail.

What are the levels of the product provided by MM.LaFleur? (3
marks)
4. What are the three main pricing strategies, and which of these
three main pricing
strategies is MM.LaFleur is most likely to use? Why? (3 marks)
5. What type of an industry structure does MM.LaFleur operate
in? Why do you think the
market is structured this way? (2 marks)
6. Explain what type or types of marketing channels
MM.LaFleur uses in order to serve
their customers? Describe the channel structure for
MM.LaFleur. (4 marks)
Page 2 *
THE CASE:
MM.LAFLEUR: MARKET SEGMENTATION AND
TARGETING

MM.LaFleur was a New York based clothing company that sold
office wear to professional women – but
it targeted a seemingly difficult-to-serve group of working
women: those who didn’t want to go shopping.
Yet, in June of 2019 – in just over five years since the company
was founded – MM.LaFleur had grown
from a small startup company into a thriving business with a
loyal customer base. What could the company
do to continue its strong growth and momentum?
MM.LAFLEUR
Sarah LaFleur founded MM.LaFleur in 2013 with the goal of
rethinking the process by which professional
women shop for work clothing. Her goal – and the company
mission – was to take the work out of dressing
for work.1
LaFleur recruited Mikako Nakamura, a designer who had
experience working with big name fashion labels
such as Zac Posen, to lead the creation of the MM.LaFleur
collection. Shortly thereafter LaFleur recruited
Narie Foster to serve as Chief Operations Officer, saying of the
hire that “Narie came on a week before our
first trunk show because at that point I felt that I didn't have
enough time in the day. Because we had worked
together before at Bain consulting, I knew that Narie could do
everything that I could do and vice versa so
we could basically replicate each other”.2 These three women –
LaFleur, Nakamura, and Foster – had worked
as the company leadership ever since. They described the
company as a styling service for professional
women.3

THE MM.LAFLEUR CUSTOMER
I am so sick of the stereotype that all women are shopping-
obsessed.4
Sarah LaFleur
Prior to founding MM.LaFleur, LaFleur herself experienced the
desire to have a sharp, work appropriate
wardrobe, but found that she had no interest in spending her
limited free time shopping.5 Recognizing that
she was not the only woman who felt this way, she decided to
try to provide clothing to women like her –
or professional women who did not have an interest in
shopping. She said:
Our customer is too busy to shop. A typical e-commerce website
is overwhelming to her.
She comes home after a long day of decision-making at work,
and the last thing she
wants to do after putting the kids to bed is think about whether
she’s a size 8 or a size 10,
or whether gray will look better on her than brown. She wants
to outsource that decision-
making to someone else.6
With this in mind, MM.LaFleur catered to busy, professional
women who simply didn’t have the time or
interest in shopping for work clothing. This led to a customer
base that was primarily between the ages of
30 and 557 and who earned between $100,000 and $250,000 a
year.8 When MM.LaFleur first began
operating, their customers were largely employed in finance or

in law; however, over the years their
Page 3 *
customer base had expanded to include women working in more
fields, including creative fields and
technology.9 These customers were highly loyal; 70 per cent of
MM.LaFleur customers were repeat
purchasers.10
To reach its target market of busy, professional women, the
company launched an outdoor advertising campaign
in some major US cities in 2017. Specifically, MM.LaFleur
started advertising on billboards, signs, and posters
along bus, subway, and other busy commuter routes in Boston,
New York City, and Chicago.11 MM.LaFle ur’s
vice president of brand marketing, Jen Braunschweiger, said of
the decisions that “We’re a fashion company
that designs clothes for professional working women who are
busy and overcommitted. We’re interested in
meeting her with our brand message wherever she is. One place
we can communicate with her is on her
commute.”12 In addition, MM.LaFleur published a digital
magazine known as The M Dash. This magazine
focused on portrayals of modern, purposeful women.13 The
company also had a number of social media
accounts, including Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and
LinkedIn accounts.
THE MM.LAFLEUR COLLECTION
As the head of design, Nakamura led the MM.LaFleur design

team in creating and improving the collection.
She approached the MM.LaFleur collection with an eye to the
unique needs of MM.LaFleur customers. For
example, as the brand provides clothing for women who likely
work long hours and have to travel for work,
the fabrics, which were sourced from Japan and Italy14, were
carefully checked for a number of qualities.
These included whether the fabrics were wrinkle resistant,
breathable, would hide sweat, would retain their
shape, would hide undergarments, and whether they could be
laundered using a washing machine rather
than require dry cleaning.15
The design of the garments also took the unique needs of
customers into consideration. For example, many
garments had snaps to hold bra straps in place, underarm pads
to absorb sweat, or pant legs with hidden
buttons that allowed the pants to be easily adjusted to different
lengths.16 Garments were also tested for a
range of activities that women may have to engage in
throughout their working days – such as whether
women could bend over, raise their arms, or get in and out of
taxis without flashing people.17
In addition, and although most clothing manufacturers
developed clothing by creating a garment that fit a
size 2 model and then scaled the garment up for larger sizes,
Nakamura used a wide range of models from
the outset. She said that the clothing was designed to be worn
by “three-dimensional beings with hips,
shoulders, butts, and boobs of varying sizes.”18 Ultimately, the
MM.LaFleur collection included sizes 0-
22W.
Once the fabric and design were determined, garments were
produced in a variety of locations. Roughly

40% of the garments were produced in factories in New York
and New Jersey, while the remaining
garments were produces overseas in factories in Italy, China,
and Vietnam which were chosen based on
their experience and ethical standards.19 The decision as to
whether to produce garments in international
locations or domestic locations was made based on demand.
Specifically, garments were initially produced
in family run factories based in the United States; subsequently,
if a particular garment was found to have
very high demand for which the local family run factories could
not keep up with, production was moved
to a location abroad that could accommodate large scale
production20. Prices of pieces in the MM.LaFleur
collection, all in USD, ranged from about $30-$50 for smaller
accessories to about $100-$300 for a dress
to up to $500 for outerwear.
Page 4 *
Many of the garments in the MM.LaFleur collection were
extremely popular. For example, the brands
Etsuko dress was first introduced to the collection in 2014. By
2017, this dress, which sold for $195, had
been developed in 21 colors, restocked over 20 times, and had
generated over $3 million in revenues21; the
Etsuko dress in black was responsible for over $1 million of
these revenues. Nakamura said of the dress
that “When we designed this dress, we took into account all the
things that our customers asked for:
machine-washable fabric, long sleeves, wrinkle resistance,
pockets, and lots of stretch and comfort. It also

comes with a thin leather belt, so you don't have to worry too
much about styling this dress. You just put it
on and go”.22 Other high selling dresses were the Tory and
Casey dresses – both of which was so popular
that they required waitlists of over a thousand customers
each.23
SHOPPING AT MM.LAFLEUR
The concept of personal styling for women with better things to
do than shop, has found a following:
Sales are 50 times what they were five years ago. 24
Sarah LaFleur
MM.LaFleur had both e-commerce and retail operations. As
such, clients could purchase MM.LaFleur
offerings online by requesting a ‘Bento Box’, online by
purchasing pieces a la carte from the MM.LaFleur
website, or by visiting retail outlets including showrooms or
pop-up stores.
E-Commerce
Customers could view, select, and purchase items directly from
the company website. In addition to a la carte
sales of garments from the website, customers could opt to
order a ‘Bento Box’. The MM.LaFleur Bento Box
was a personally curated assortment of garments and accessories
which was sent to a customer. When a Bento
Box arrived, customers could try on each of the pieces, decide
which ones to keep, and send the rest back;
shipping was free both ways. Prices of the four to six items in

the box ranged from $35 for accessories to up to
$325 for a dress.25
To determine what items were curated for any particular Bento
Box, customers had to complete a short
questionnaire. This survey – which LaFleur knew needed to be
short and easy to complete – asked customers
practical questions about their office dress code, their size and
body shape, women whose style they admired,
and what types of clothing or accessories they were interested
in receiving. “We actually know our clothes
best,” LaFleur said. “If the customer shares a few details about
herself, we think we can identify what
will best work for her.”26
A personal stylist would then select a few pieces from the
MM.LaFleur collection and carefully arrange them in
in different compartments and layers within the Bento Box –
much like how Japanese food is arranged in a bento
box. This design helped the clothes to arrive unwrinkled, with
garments packed in reusable, zippered plastic
bags; many customers repurposed these bags to transport their
gym clothes or to compartmentalize items in
suitcases.27
The Bento Box was not a subscription service. Rather, it was
simply a way for women to try out clothing or
accessories to decide if they wanted to purchase them. The
Bento Boxes were a hit: by 2017 they accounted for
80% of the company’s new sales and 40% of customers placed
an order for a second Bento Box within 12 weeks
of their first purchase.28

*
Retail Outlets
Retail options for purchasing MM.LaFleur offerings included
trunk shows, showrooms, and pop-up stores.
Trunk shows were short term events in which sellers showcased
their merchandise to customers in small
venues, such as small sections of department stores, hotel
rooms, or other suitable areas. In the early days
of MM.LaFleur, the company hosted many trunk shows out of
hotel rooms, as well as one out of a friend’s
apartment in New York.29 Clients could not walk-away with
clothing purchased from a trunk show. Rather,
they were able to see or try on some items, and could then order
what they wanted.
Showrooms were typically held in larger spaces than trunk
shows, and included samples of a wider range
of garments. At first, MM.LaFleur began by testing a brick-and-
mortar showroom in New York City30. Since
then, they decided to set up a few permanent showrooms –
including the one in New York City. By 2019, there
were permanent or long term showrooms in New York City,
Washington, D.C., Boston, Philadelphia, Houston,
Atlanta, San Francisco, and Chicago.31 Like with trunk shows,
showrooms carried samples of garments for trial
only; customers had to order merchandise through sales
associates in the showroom or via the company website.
Although anyone could come into a showroom, the company
encouraged customers to make an appointment in
order to maximize the experience. With a showroom
appointment, customers were given a one hour session with

a personal stylist who would pre-select a number of styles to try
out during the appointment. During this
appointment customers were given a bottomless glass of
Prosecco.32 This experience was highly effective in
generating sales: women who booked appointments at
showrooms often spent up to three times more than
online-only shoppers.33
Finally, MM.LaFleur also opened up pop-up stores from time to
time. Pop-up stores were an increasingly
popular phenomenon in which a retail outlet ‘popped up’ for
anywhere between a day and a few weeks. In
2019, MM.LaFleur had pop up stores in Palo Alto, CA in
December, in Phoenix, AZ in February, in
Minneapolis, MN in April, and in Los Angeles, CA in May.34
Page 6 *
ENDNOTES
1 Julie Sygiel, "MM.LaFleur's Cofounders Share Their Secrets
To A Successful Business Relationship", Forbes, September
28, 2016, Accessed May 10, 2019 from:
www.forbes.com/sites/juliesygiel/2016/09/28/mm-lafleurs-
cofounders-on-the-keys-to-
successful-cofounder-relationships/#221fbb5b2166
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Segran, Elizabeth. "This Women’s Clothing Brand Is Made
For Professional Women Who Hate To Shop", Fast Company,

March 31, 2016. Accessed May 10, 2019 from:
www.fastcompany.com/3058412/this-womens-clothing-brand-is-
made-for-
professional-women-who-hate-to-shop
5 Ibid.
6 LaFleur, Sarah. "7 Lessons I Learned While Building a
Fashion Company". The M Dash, October 19, 2017. Accessed
May
10, 2019 from: https://mmlafleur.com/mdash/sarah-lafleur-
interview-building-a-fashion-company
7 Halzack, Sarah. "MM.LaFleur: The startup that wants to dress
you for the office". The Washington Post, March 24, 2017.
Accessed May 10, 2019 from:
www.washingtonpost.com/business/mmlafleur-the-startup-that-
wants-to-dress-you-for-the-
office/2017/03/24/86fb8af8-0dd6-11e7-9d5a-
a83e627dc120_story.html?nore direct=on&utm_term=.78d8ac38
17bd
8 Segran, op. cit.
9 Pasquarelli, Adrianne. "Must-have dress boosts sales 550% at
this SoHo startup", Crain's New York Business, November
23, 2015. Accessed May 10, 2019 from:
www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20151124/RETAIL_APPAREL/
151129960/sara-
lafleur-s-womenswear-label-mm-lafleur-is-helping-to-style-
those-too-busy-to-style-themselves
10 Leighton, Mara (a). "This new women’s clothing brand takes
all the guesswork out of shopping for work", Business Insider,
June 11, 2018. Accessed May 10, 2019 from:
www.businessinsider.com/mm-lafleur-bento-box-womens-work-
clothes-review-
2017-4
11 Stambor, Zak. "Why MM.LaFleur embraces outdoor
advertising". Digital Commerce, October 15, 2018. Accessed
May 10,
2019 from: www.digitalcommerce360.com/2018/10/15/why-

mm-lafleur-embraces-outdoor-advertising/
12 Ibid.
13 The M Dash. (n.d.) Accessed June 19, 2019 from:
https://mmlafleur.com/mdash
14 MM.LaFleur. “Contact and FAQ” (n.d.). Accessed May 10,
2019 from: https://mmlafleur.com/help
15 Cowles, Charlotte. "The MM.LaFleur Design Philosophy:
How We’re Revolutionizing Workwear", The M Dash, July 26,
2016. Accessed May 10, 2019 from:
https://mmlafleur.com/mdash/mm-lafleur-design-philosophy-
miyako-nakamura
16 Blakely, Lindsay. "How This $70 Million Startup
Transformed the Way Women Shop for Work", Inc. Magazine,
June 2017.
Accessed May 10, 2019 from:
www.inc.com/magazine/201706/lindsay-blakely/mm-lafleur-
bento-box-design-awards-
2017.html
17 Morris, Alison. "Women's work wear label MM.LaFleur
expanding", Fox 5 News, February 29, 2016, Accessed May 10,
2019 from: www.fox5ny.com/news/womens-work-wear-label-
mmlafleur-expanding
18 Leighton (a), op. cit.
20 ibid
21 Leighton, Mara (b). "Sold out and restocked 22 times, this is
the machine-washable work dress thousands of women are
buying". Business Insider, April 16, 2018. Accessed May 10,
2019 from: www.businessinsider.com/mm-lafleur-best-selling-
black-work-dress-etsuko-review-2017-6
22 Leighton (b), op. cit.
23 Greenberg, Rachel. "Here's why there are 1,400 people on a
waitlist for this little black dress". Today, December 4, 2016.
Accessed May 10, 2019 from: www.today.com/style/mm-
lafleur-s-black-casey-dress-has-1-429-person-t105542

24 Thau, Barbara. "MM.LaFleur CEO Unpacks its Strategy to
Take the ‘Angst’ Out of Dressing for Work". United States
Chamber of Commerce, February 26, 2019. Accessed May 10,
2019 from: www.uschamber.com/co/good-company/the-
leap/mmlafleur-sarah-lafleur
25 Sygiel, op. cit.
26 Segran, op. cit.
27 Blakely, op. cit.
29 Halzack, op. cit.
30 Keller, Hadley. “How MM.LaFleur designed a retail concept
based on female empowerment”. Architectural Digest, June 22,
2018. Accessed June 19, 2019 from:
www.architecturaldigest.com/story/mm-lafleur-designed-a-
retail-concept-based-on-
female-empowerment
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References
George, D., & Mallery, P. (2016). IBM SPSS statistics 23 step
by step: A simple guide and reference. New York, NY:
Routledge.
Heeringa, S. G., West, B. T., & Berglund, P. A. (2017). Applied
survey data analysis (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Chapman &
Hall/CRC Press.
Smith, P. D., Martin, B., Chewning, B., Hafez, S., Leege, E.,
Renken, J., & Smedley Ramos, R. (2018). Improving health care
communication for caregivers: A pilot study. Gerontology &
Geriatrics Education, 39(4), 433-444.
USA swimming. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.usaswimming.org/
Yu, M., Johnson, H., Deutsch, N., & Varga, S. (2018). “She
calls me by my last name”: Exploring adolescent perceptions of
positive teacher-student relationships. Journal of Adolescent
Research, 33(3), 332-362.

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