The case study guide for "Fashion and Quality" at Nicole Miller with Nicole Miller and Bud Konheim in NYC as seen on Small Business School, the series on PBS member stations.

The Case Study Guide

last update: September 2006

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New York City as a village

There is No Place Like Home

Nicole and Bud enjoy doing business close to home because they are veteran New Yorkers. They know its Fashion District and the people who run the businesses that support the making of clothing in New York City. On top of that, they know their customers.

Topic for discussion: Why do Bud and Nicole refuse to send their sewing off shore?

Answer: The answer is more than pride in their "Made in New York City" labels. About one-third of Nicole Miller's clothing revenues come from its bridal collections. When a bride selects a Nicole Miller gown and bridesmaid dresses, each is custom sewn. The shops take measurements and send those in to New York where the gowns are sewn when the orders are received. This type of business would be very difficult to do if the sewing was being done in another country.

WATCH TELEVISION THAT TEACHES

Key Ideas of this episode


1.		Sell Happiness
2.		Pricing is Art
3.		Feed and Trust Your Instincts
4.		There is No Place Like Home
5.		Create a Win-Win
6.		You Can Stumble into Millions
7.		Staying Small is a Strong Position
8.		There's Power in Partnerships
9.		Multiple Sales Channels Work
10.		Internship Programs Work
11.		Make Organization Charts circular
12.		It Never Gets Easy

The turn-around time can be less than one week! This promise and the delivery on it helps pile up sales.

Also, Nicole Miller does not sell a lot of any one item. Its strategy is one that depends upon Nicole to design something fresh every month and those items are made up in small quantities, sent to the stores and sold. Once those items are sold, that is it. Nicole is on to the next new thing.

This company is not interested in competing with the big chains. It is interested only in its niche of loyal customers who buy over and over. Those customers do not want to see what they are wearing on someone else. By controlling quantity, Nicole Miller keeps customers happy. And we all know that Nicole Miller's core product is happiness.

What do you think? Are suppliers a problem? What could you do to improve your supply chain? Would your sales increase if a new supplier was found who could do things faster? Are your own processes restricting your ability to stand out among your competitors?

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