Forces of Nature: Research

In todays day and age where sexuality and the need to be thin hasbecome prominent in both fashion and the advertising market, it is important to create product for everyone in mind. The purpose of Forces of Nature's research is to determine if there is a market in producing clothing that is made with the everyday girl in mind.

We do know that the teen market is a force all on its own, raking in over $1.76 billion dollars in the year 2001. As more and more children and teens are taking on the responsibility of choosing their clothes,shoes and cosmetics, they are looking for items that suit them in a more sophisticated manner at a price that fits their budget (Henson, 2002).

The company needs to make sure that we are not producing items that fit an adult lifestyle more than a teen one. While there is a Tendency to view them as little adults it does not work this way in their mind. They have their own likes and dislikes and definitely do not want a product that their mother thinks is cool. Just like with the cosmetic industry, Forcesof Nature wants to give teenage girls styles the fit their personalities and their pocketbook (Marchie, 2001).

One way of doing this is to go into the school setting, as FIM did for Brylcreem's hair gel. They brought the product to the children and were able to gather first-hand information on what the student's liked and disliked about the product. This information gives

the company the ability to correct any flaws in the packaging, scent, and consistency (FIM, 2000).

The testing that has been done for this research project has come in the form of questionnaires and surveys. This was to give us a general idea on what the girls wanted plus give them the ability to expand on their thoughts. Some of the questionnaire questions are as follows (questionnaire and results will be posted at the end of this paper):

1). Do you like bold, bright colors? Y or N

2). When shopping do you look for athletic oriented clothes? Y or N

3). Do you buy clothes because they fit some aspect of your personality? Y or N

For more elaborate answers, open-ended questions are used:

1). What colors do you like seeing on the clothing rack?

2). Describe the perfect top in your own words:

3). When you shop do you feel like you are being left out by the fashion industry? (Winer, 2004)

With the small number of students who are replying, the company has begun to learn that girls do know exactly what they want when they shop. Out of the 100 students who have replied so far to just the previous six questions, the company has learned that the following information demonstrated in the table below:

Clothing Choices

# Students who selected (out of 100)

Bright Colored Clothes

80

Athletic Clothes

45