The Clifton Review 

The Clifton Review is a tri-weekly column that examines the question of the Clifton project along with the evolution of the war between two billionaires. We covered the start of this war with articles describing the battle over easement rights, the mysterious burning of a home, the blocks to rebuilding, and countless questionable court filings.

While the 2018 series salutes fashion mogul Peter Nygård’s Golden Jubilee detailing his rags to riches story, his incredible business success over these past fifty years and an inside look at how he did it, The Clifton Review will also continue to address current affairs as they relate to the good of The Bahamas.

Nygard’s Winning Business Strategy Examples

By P.J. Malone

What’s a surefire path to the decline of your business? To bury your head in the sand when a new competitor—who poses a threat to your business—arrives on the scene. 

If you want to counteract the negative impact of new competition to your business, it is important to first decide on a specific goal and then on strategies that will help you achieve it.

The goal and strategy you identify have to be geared towards what you are trying to achieve. In this case, we are trying to avoid the threat to the business of losing customers to a new competitor.

Previously, we identified the specific goals (and SMART—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound—goals) that would help to address the threat of new competition. Here are the two SMART goals we identified.

• Maintain business customer base of 150 current customers throughout the current fiscal year. Or, increase the business income by 20% for the upcoming fiscal year.

Next, we have to identify strategies for achieving these business goals.

Beginning with the first one of maintaining your existing customer base of 150 customers, you have to ask yourself, ‘what can I do to ensure this?’ Let’s review the following illustration:

One of the things fashion mogul Peter Nygard appears to be really good at is strategizing to not just address any threats to his business but to also take advantage of opportunities to be number one in his industry. Looking at examples from Nygard’s business, here are some strategies he employs for ensuring customer loyalty:

• He conducts 360 degree surveys—conducts actual customer surveys, conducts regular meetings with sales people, and reviews fashion trends as well as best sellers and worst sellers—all in an effort to determine what his customers’ desires and needs are.
• He ensures that the products he designs and produces don’t just meet the customers’ needs but exceed their expectations and addresses things that the competition doesn’t pay attention to. 

One of the reasons Nygard became ‘king of polyester’ back in the ‘70s, was because he focused on ensuring his product exceeded expectations. For example, he made it easily washable and with no need for ironing. He also focuses on making his products feel good to a woman’s touch and making the woman look and feel good in them.

• Nygard also ensures a great customer experience in shopping by providing comfortable waiting areas for husbands so customers don’t feel pressured to leave the store quickly;
• He has several annual VIP events for customers that reward them for loyalty with special gifts and discounts and other benefits. Loyal customers also get advanced notice of new arrivals.
• Nygard was also the first in his industry to make shopping more convenient for customers by providing a kiosk in his stores for ordering different sizes and colours not available in the specific store.
• Additionally, he created a program of home parties for friends to get together to try on his clothing—with support and encouragement from each other, it would result in sales.

Nygard would continually surpass the competition with new ideas for achieving his goals.

We’ll continue with looking at strategies you can employ to address the threat of new competition.