Examining the Bridal Experience for Net Profit Control by Andrew Star A Dissertation Submitted to School of Business and Management at California Southern University in Partial Fulfillment of the...

Running Head: MANAGEMENT DISSERTATION                        1
MANAGEMENT DISSERTATION                                 10
MANAGEMENT DISSERTATION
TOPIC: EXAMINING THE BRIDAL EXPERIENCE FOR NET PROFIT CONTROL
By
Andrew Star
A Dissertation Submitted to
School of Business and Management
at California Southern University
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Doctor of Business Administration
California Southern University
2021
Date of Defense:
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    Andrew Star
    Date
© 2021
Andrew Star
Approval Page
This applied dissertation was constructed and submitted by Andrew Star under the direction of the committee listed below. It was submitted to the School of Business and Management at California Southern University and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Business Administration at California Southern University.
    
    
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    Steven Hess, PhD
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Dedication
No one knows of my journey more than my wife Lisa and my son and daughter, Zach and Daniella. Thank you for supporting me and getting me through the rough spots with such love.
Finally, to my mother, Gail Star, to whom I foretold this journey before her passing. She was an educator for forty years, and every day of this journey, I thought of her. Due to the people above, I will accomplish my journey in completing my doctoral degree and give my knowledge back to future students.
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my utmost gratitude to the individuals who spent countless hours guiding me throughout my doctoral journey, my chairperson Dr. Steven Hess and my committee members, Dr. Catherine Cameron and Dr. Donna Dimatteo-Gibson. With their guidance, patience, and advice, I refined my paper, and further advanced my writing skills.
I am so grateful to my best friend, Dr. Karen Levitt of Duquesne University, for her guidance and support. Thank you also to the employees of Bridal and Formal Inc in Cincinnati, Ohio, who stuck by me through this process.
Abstract
The present dissertation is a research that has been undertaken for the fulfillment of the Doctor of Business Administration, being pursued from California Southern University. The topic aims in examining the bridal experience for net profit control, which is a very trending topic in the current context of fashion upgradation. Women, who are going to be brides are more interested in their outfits and fashion requirements, which have elevated the fashion and retail industry to a very high level. In order to understand their sentiments and experiences, this paper has conducted both qualitative as well as the quantitative researches, both involving the brides as the participants. Based on the findings, conclusions will be derived, which are hopeful to throw light in this sector of analysis.
Table of Contents
Copyright Declaration    2
Approval Page    3
Dedication    4
Acknowledgments    5
Abstract    6
Chapter 1: Introduction    11
Introduction    11
Background of the Problem    11
Problem Statement    13
Purpose Statement    14
Research Questions    14
Hypotheses    14
Conceptual Framework    15
Operational Definitions    16
Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations    17
Contribution to Practice or Stakeholder Groups    19
Summary    20
Chapter 2: Literature Review    21
Weddings and Marriage Trends in the United States    22
The Bridal Industry    25
Atmospheric Changes in a Retail Environment    28
The Influence of Capitalism, Consumerism, and Class on the Bridal Industry    29
Consumer Consumption    32
Paying for the Wedding    34
The Role of Marketing and Media in the Wedding Industry    37
Event Marketing and Experiential Marketing Strategies    41
Shopping for the Dream Dress    42
Impact of the Bridal Experience on Brick-and-Mortar Bridal Stores    45
Impact of the Bridal Experience on Changes to Gross and Net Profits    48
Summary of the Literature Review    50
Chapter 3: Methodology    51
Research Design    51
Research Questions    53
Hypotheses    53
Population and Sample    54
Role of the Researcher    55
Geographical or Virtual Location    55
Procedure    55
Instrumentation    56
Pilot Testing    58
Data Collection    59
Data Analysis    62
Descriptive Statistics    62
Coding    63
Hypothesis Tests    64
Triangulation    66
Informed Consent Process and Ethical Concerns    66
Ethical Considerations    67
Trustworthiness of the Study    68
Summary    69
Chapter 4: Findings    70
General Description of Participants    70
Unit of Analysis and Measurement    71
Sample Size    72
Pilot Testing    72
Data Collection    72
Codebook Creation    72
Qualitative Results    73
Results of Hypothesis Tests    74
Outliers    76
Summary    76
Chapter 5: Concluding the Study    77
Summary of the Study    77
Ethical Dimensions    77
Overview of the Population and Sampling Method    77
Limitations    77
Findings    77
Research Question 1    79
Research Question 2    79
Research Question 3    79
Research Question 4    79
Reflection    79
Recommendations    79
Suggestions for Future Research    80
Concluding the Study    80
References    82
Appendices    106
Appendix A: Tables    106
Appendix B: Figures    107
Appendix C: Instruments    108
Appendix D: Letter of Permission    112
Appendix E: Consent Form    113
Appendix E: Pilot Study    115
Appendix F: IRB Approvals    120
Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduction
Bridal salons are unlike any other brick-and-mortar retail store throughout the world. They need to provide the customers with not only the right product but also the ultimate customer service experience. Brides have been entranced with being treated like a VIP to secure the sale of a bridal gown. Buying the bridal gown is one of the most important purchases a person will make in their lifetime, and trying to sell them without providing everything from refreshments to particular VIP areas for their guests to be taken care of for hours at a time has become at the least expensive. Brick and Mortar bridal salons find themselves caught in losing company profits providing these services. However, how much they are losing is moving toward below the break-even point.
Background of the Problem
With the cost of the bridal experience rising over the last few years, net profits have been declining, as have the number of retail stores in the bridal business. With the industry growth from 2015-2020 at -2.2%, brick and mortar bridal stores have declined at an even greater rate (IBIS, 2020). Between 2010 and 2018, the number of bridal shops nationwide declined by 753, or 10.5 percent, to 6,435, according to IBIS World Inc., a market research firm in Los Angeles (IBIS, 2020). Hidden costs have driven storeowners to bankruptcy while looking for answers on their default: “I knew our costs were adding up on servicing each customer, and I could never get a grasp on how much until it was too late” (European Bridal, 2020). Research and data analysis will improve the financial outlook for brick-and-mortar bridal stores while still providing a quality bridal experience for the bride, resulting in a positive profit margin on each sale.
Several research studies have focused on wedding rituals and consumption patterns (Boden, 2001; Carter & Duncan, 2017). These studies provided a valuable guideline for overall bridal consumer trends, but what is missing is the buying pattern when the bridal experience is offered to the customer. The bridal experience is different from any other form of retail sales. The outcome of the expanded approach to sales is to sell the customer at least one item, a bridal gown, which can cost at retail from $500 to $20,000 depending on the designer and the materials and fabrics used, that the purchaser will use only one time. The cost associated with such bridal experiences can affect the profit margin, hiding the actual margin of that sale.
The question is, how far can the margin decrease before the bridal salon starts losing money? Sales at Bridal and Formal, a boutique bridal store, have become a multitude of labour-intensive sessions involving the entertainment of several guests who come along with the customer for the entire bridal experience. Published theories on this trend are nonexistent because of the short time frame in which these extended costs materialized. Therefore, quantitative data and qualitative data will be used to find the bridal experience's culpability to find a solution to selling a bridal gown and accessories to the customer without losing the margin of gross profit falling to the break-even point.
As new demands are made on bridal salons to meet the customers' experience, gross margins have fallen to between four and thirteen percent (FreshBooks, 2020). When margins drop, there are two options to increase the margins. Either decrease the costs associated with the sale or increase the volume of sales. In bridal sales, the book comes one customer at a time, with brides who are one-time customers, who typically spend one visit that lasts several hours to make the sale.
To increase volume, the number of brides must increase, mainly because they tell their friends about the bridal experience they had at the brick-and-mortar store. On the other side, decreasing costs means examining the multiple aspects of the bridal experience. One part ensures that the store has an ample selection of gowns in a wide variety of sizes and price points that the bride can try on before finding their dream dress. Another aspect of the bridal experience is employing staff that is knowledgeable about the dresses and the processes for making sure the dress arrives on time.
Furthermore, the bridal consultant must be personable as she is now considered a host who not only knows the merchandise but can also gush over the dress, laugh and cry with the bride, provide tissues for the bridal party, offer refreshments and celebratory mementos – all of which cost money in terms of time and substantial resources. As the cost of the bridal experience rises, net profits continue to erode. Therefore, research and data analysis could improve the financial outlook for brick-and-mortar bridal stores while still providing a quality bridal experience for the bride, resulting in a positive profit margin on each sale.
Problem Statement
A problem exists in brick-and-mortar bridal salons, compelled by mass media, to meet a bridal customer's expectations with their customer experience, such that they potentially reduce a store's profit margin. Despite Changing the design of the Bridal Salon, offering the customers beverages and snacks, or giving the customer discounts, the problem continues (Baltazar, 2017; Bridal Times, 2020; Larkin, 2020).
Because this problem has erupted in the last ten years, no studies have been conducted on why so many brick and mortar bridal salons are closing. In the last few years, the bridal industry has lost big chains such as Alfred Angelo Inc.'s 60 stores (Horowitz, 2017). According to IBIS (2020) reports, over 680 bridal stores have closed their doors in the last five years, and the industry is down 2.2%.
The main reason for the closures is the influx of internet sales, but with the demand for better customer experiences, the Bridal salon's expenditures increase (Parrish, 2019). This problem negatively affects brick-and-mortar bridal salons because providing such experiences may reduce profit margins while failing to meet customers’ expectations. A possible cause of the problem is that brides want to recreate experiences portrayed in Say Yes to the Dress—ultimately eroding profit margins.
This study will investigate the effects of providing a bridal experience on profit margins using an experimental method of a design study to offer potential solutions. This mixed-method Qualitative will support the quantitative data sets' findings to show the differences in net profit gains or losses on a bridal gown sale after a bride is given the entire bridal experience.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this convergent design study is to analyze the effects of providing a bridal experience on profit margins involving brick-and-mortar bridal salons. Data will be obtained via a survey involving at least 220 customers who bought their bridal gowns at brick-and-mortar bridal salons, and income and balance reports from brick-and-mortar bridal stores be managed using IBM SPSS 27.
Research Questions
This study will address the following research questions:
Research Question 1. What does the bridal store do to enhance the bridal experience from contact to point-of-sale?
Research Question 2. What are the overall profit, loss, gross and net margins on a given bridal experience?
Research Question 3. What is the break-even point of the bridal experience?
Hypotheses
The study will test the following hypotheses:
H01: The store provides a customer experience selling a bridal gown with less than a 53% profit margin.
HA1: The store provides a customer experience selling with at least a 53% profit margin.
H02: The net margin is not influenced by the costs of providing a bridal experience.
HA2: The net margin is influenced by the costs of providing a bridal experience.
H03: The net margin is zero or positive when providing a bridal experience.
HA3: The net margin is negative when providing a bridal experience.
H04: The execution of a sale does not depend on the perceived customer experience.
HA4: The execution of a sale depends on the perceived customer experience.
Conceptual Framework
The theory is that the bridal experience used to accelerate a wedding dress sale includes hidden costs that drive down the retailer's margins. By defining expenses involved in the bridal experience, a unique profile of models can be established to develop a formula that identifies the margin on a bridal sale—knowing how net profit measures operational efficiency and its relation to a business's profits can improve store management (Avenir, 2016).
Customers purchasing bridal gowns have been pre-ordained in the rituals of shopping for a bridal gown. Today's bridal customers expect a shopping experience to be a celebration with friends and family gathering to watch the bride search for her dress and comment on how she looks in each one. Brick and mortar bridal stores now have to entertain the bride and her entourage by providing this shopping experience that resembles a party in a semi-private or private area. The party is a façade, creating the fantasy that the customer had in her head before she even came into the store for her bridal gown shopping experience.
Providing this experience directly affects the net profit margin of each bridal gown sold. According to Beers (2020), “Profit margin is not a particularly complex ratio but is considered to be one of the most important indications of the efficiency of a business” (p. 1). Multiple factors influence profit margins, but not all are quantitative and are not reflected in the profit margin calculation variables. To find net profit using quantitative data, this research will use the standard formula to find the net profit margin (Carlson, 2019):
To understand other expenses that may be quantitative in value, each sale will have to include an operating income value to understand the operational and administrative costs necessary to run the day-to-day operations. Using the following formula, a percentage figure will represent operating income (Carlson, 2019):
Results would include variables needed to make the net profit margin rise. Expanding the net profit margin even one percentage point can create genuine profit toward growth.
Future sales are formulated with a top end and a low-end price based on net profit gains and losses. There is a need to build a deeper understanding of why people seek and participate in shopping events such as the bridal experience and to uncover the benefits they offer consumers, resulting in net profits to the retailer (Nichols & Flint, 2018). Quantitative and qualitative data will begin to provide an answer to increasing the net profit margin.
Operational Definitions
Analytical studies. A comparative study was designed to reach causal inferences about hypothesized relationships between risk factors and outcomes (Deshmukh, 2018).
Brick and mortar retail store. A brick-and-mortar retail establishment operates from a physical storefront instead of other standard retailing methods such as mail-order catalogues or online shopping (Joseph, 2016).
Bridal consultant. A wedding shop bridal consultant is employed by the bridal store and works within a bride's budget to help her choose a dress that suits her tastes and flatters the bride's body (Finn, 2016).
Bridal experience. A one-on-one sales session with the bridal consultant to find the customer’s bridal gown. The bridal experience can last as long as two to three hours, with refreshments and other niceties provided (Rothstein, 2020).
Gross profit margin. A ratio that indicates the performance of a company's sales and production (Carlson, 2019).
Mixed method. An emergent research methodology advances the systematic integration, or mixing, of quantitative and qualitative data within a single investigation or sustained inquiry program (Wisdom, 2013).
Net profit margin. A financial ratio is used to calculate the percentage of profit a company produces from its total revenue, measuring the net profit a company obtains per dollar of income gained (Kennon, n.d.).
Profit margin. Shows the percentage of the revenue that comprises profit after calculating business costs and expenses. In other words, profit margin tells the business how much is made on the sale of each product or service (Wood, 2020).
Say Yes to The Dress. A television show on the TLC Network, each episode shows the bridal experience at Kleinfeld’s Bridal Store (Brooklyn, NY) for several brides and their respective entourage while examining the extreme lengths bridal consultants go to realize each bride’s dream gown (Mitrokostas, 2018).
Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations
Assumptions
Dr. Steven Walker suggests management may be tempted, especially when a new company is overly optimistic about sales growth assumptions (Campbell & Walker, n.d.) .Net revenue subtracts the cost of goods sold from gross income. Fees for production, shipping, storage, and any discounts, allowances, and returns can potentially contribute to this cost. (Campbell & Walker, n.d.).
In retail, the human factor is assumed to carry the decision-making process to purchase. To think this is to understand the techniques used to create the sales consultant's experience to guide the purchase. Taking the hypothesis proves correct. The amount of money spent on the experience lowers the net profit margin below profitability. It does not mean that the formula of assumed loss, meaning no profit, may only be applicable in the bridal sale bridal experience is provided as expected.
As an overall assumption, Slingluff suggests that "while the combined dataset may appear to represent a wide variety of information related to customer attitudes and behaviors, the variables may not adequately capture the full essence of the human experience" (Slingluff, 2018, p.12 #). In addition, the assumption is that intention is fundamental as a supporting factor for attitudes to influence behavior.
Limitations
Using a mixed methodology provides limitations to this study, especially when using quantitative formulas to find net profit gains or losses. Integrating qualitative and quantitative data during analysis can be a challenge for many researchers. Given that each method must adhere to its rigor standards, ensuring the appropriate quality of each component of a mixed-methods study can be challenging (Wisdom, 2013).
One of the main limitations of this design is that when you quantify qualitative data, it loses its flexibility and depth, which is one of the main advantages of using solely qualitative research (Bazeley, 2004). Another limitation of this study is creating a statistical formula that applies only to this study of the bridal experience impact in brick-and-mortar bridal stores. As retail has changed tremendously due to the pandemic, the study may reflect more than the influence solely of the bridal experience on the profit margin but may include other factors such as the general effect of consumer spending and retail services.
Additionally, weddings as events have changed in the time of COVID. Fewer weddings with lots of guests are being planned, so related purchases such as wedding gowns are being modified. Bridal stores are not alone in minimizing expenses and making changes to ensure their customers' safety, which also affects the extent of the bridal experience that they can offer their brides. When possible, limitations due to COVID-19 rules and regulations will have to be separated from and studied independently from past figures during non-pandemic times.
Delimitations
The scope of the research was restricted to the customer’s experience and the costs of that experience. This study's factors include those financial variables used to provide the customer with a quality experience in shopping for the bridal gown. With the delimitations in the study's control, it is limited to shopping for the bridal gown and does not include shopping for other items within the store, such as bridesmaids or accessories. The hypothesis defines the variables to selling one thing, the bridal gown, and all costs related to marketing and servicing that item.
The customer's specific characteristics were reduced to limit the study’s factors, including the customer’s age and background information such as sexual orientation or geographical location. Narrowing this study's focus and scope will ensure that the results compel the bridal retailer to look more deliberately at their net profit margin and figure out how to change the experience to gain more profit and increase each sale's margin.
Contribution to Practice or Stakeholder Groups
Establishing the hypothesis and the research questions in this study using the mixed methodology of quantitative data and the qualitative survey design, the research will provide a new statistical formula for finding the actual net value profit margin on a bridal gown sale brick-and-mortar bridal salon. Bridal salon owners will have a new tool to understand the costs of providing a bridal shopping experience and the expenditures involved.
The data will show the difference in what profit they make on each sale and give the storeowners a better idea of improving their costs or things to scale to make more of an actual profit margin on each bridal gown. Overall, the bridal industry is a small mom-and-pop-run operation with very little corporate structure to understand costs and create a better profit margin.
This tool will provide that answer with one formula. Breaking down the income statement and starting a new chart of accounts for the bridal experience, it will also give the storeowners the idea of looking at promotional costs or customer acquisition costs and the cost of t providing that experience.
Summary
The research study will utilize a mixed-methods approach, including a description of the influence of the bridal experience on purchase decisions based on qualitative surveys and interviews from the customer's perspectives, the sales consultant, and the storeowner’s statistical approach to calculating net profits. Customer experience encompasses every aspect of a company’s offerings (Meyer, 2018). Chapter 2 will include literature regarding traditional sales techniques generally and bridal sales specifically.
Recent amenities included in the bridal experience used to influence the buyer to purchase the gown from a brick-and-mortar store will be described. Documented historical changes will show a clear picture of return to a very personalized experience based on current social media and reality shows such as Say Yes to the Dress. Chapter 3 will describe the mixed methodology used for the data collection and data analysis for this study.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
In Chapter 2, the existing literature related to this dissertation topic, examining the bridal experience for net profit control is reviewed. Over the last two decades, significant changes have been experienced in the bridal industry, making profitability for bridal storeowners more challenging. Multiple factors that exist outside the control of any bridal store have caused a decrease in revenue including social media, reality television, changes to manufacturing, international manufacturing, international trade policies, internet sales, and increased competition levels.
However, the primary factors that affected bridal stores most directly are social media and reality television. As an outcome of what they see on social media and reality television shows, brides now expect to be pampered with special treatment during their shopping experience. The special treatment includes personal one-on-one, two-hour consultant appointments, beverages for the guests including a champagne toast, sample gowns to try on, and all bridal accessories including veils, headpieces, and jeweler. This is all included if it has become known as the bridal experience (Keller, 2016).
Immersing the customer in the bridal experience includes many exceptional customer service enticements including champagne, photos, personal attention, all of which encourage the bride to buy the dress and other accessories including the potential bridesmaid dresses. Costs associated with the bridal experience are expenditures that can be controlled by the storeowner and therefore, can be the key to improve the net profit margin. This chapter will present an overview of weddings and the bridal industry in the United States including the bridal industry's growth over time and recent changes that affect the net profit margin on a bridal gown sale.
Weddings and Marriage Trends in the United States
The bridal industry's primary objective is to provide commodities and services for weddings in the United States and the increasingly popular destination weddings. Presently, the number of weddings across the United States has risen significantly due, in large part, to a more robust economy and higher discretionary incomes; the U.S. wedding industry edged higher to hit $72 billion in revenue in 2016 (Schmidt, 2017). According to Montemayor (2020), approximately 2.5 to 3 million weddings occur across the U.S. annually.
The bridal industry attends to social, cultural, and economic movements that have helped the industry experienced significant growth over the last decade. For example, while traditional heterosexual marriage rates in the twenty-first century are generally lower than in the past (Carter and Duncan, 2017), with the legalization of gay marriage, overall numbers of weddings have increased and specific sectors of the bridal industry continue to profit.
In addition, as domestic partnerships become legally recognized, the couple may have a legal marriage ceremony and, in the case of a wedding of two females, need at least one bridal gown (Nir, 2012). Marriage itself has moved away from both its official and cultural norms. However, commitment through long-term relationships is often celebrated in a commitment ceremony, which can be similar in scale and detail to a wedding ceremony.
At the same time weddings have become more intensive, more creative, more individualistic and therefore, more costly. In a study investigating weddings, which are such intensely personal events, the researchers found that weddings represent individualized conformity meaning that the bride is in charge of the wedding and things she wants as a vision, including the dress (Carter and Duncan, 2017).
Every bride wants the whole experience of the marriage, from being engaged to choosing her dress and considers the entire experience to be a statement of her identity (Wexler and Donovan, 2020). Furthermore, participants posited that weddings are manipulation by a robust wedding industry, emphasizing distinctive ceremonies and social display of success, arguing that weddings involve celebrations necessarily adapting from, and re-serving, tradition as a process of Bricolage (Carter and Duncan, 2017).
The overall growth in the bridal industry has enabled the amassing of enormous profits. For instance, in 2013, the bridal industry experienced an unprecedented year, resulting in sales of $53.4 billion (Montamayor, 2020) and growing to over $57 billion in 2019 (Ibis World, 2019). When a couple is engaged to the bachelor and bachelorette parties to the time the couple leaves on their honeymoon, various wedding industry sectors realize profits.
The wedding itself includes venues, food, flowers, photos, entertainment, music, and relevant apparel. This list is not exhaustive; many other support businesses contribute to generating revenue for the bridal industry. To the groom, the most significant purchase in his relationship is the engagement ring. Once the groom gives a ring to the future bride, the bride’s first quest is the bridal gown (Kelligrant, 2017).
An exploratory study by Buckley (2014) looked at how brides plan for their wedding purchases and financing. Using surveys of over two hundred brides, the conclusions on a bride's buying habits indicate the dress as an essential purchase for her wedding (Buckley, 2014). The study also concluded that the search for that dress is the first action taken after the engagement is announced.
While marriage and marriage ceremonies are certainly not new, the bridal industry is far more of a modern phenomenon. As Koolhof (1999) points out, the wedding sector took years to grow from the more traditional practices to the new capitalist industry known today. Adler and Chienm (2005) highlight that cultural norms changed in America between the 1920s and 1950s, considerably altering the wedding sector. The authors outline that industry practices associated with critical improvements began during this period. For example, the bridal industry's promotion and advertisement practices were undertaken by jewellers, caterers, and essential retailers leading to a growth in the overall bridal sector (LeFebvre, 2015).
The growth trend continued into the 1960s and 1970s as many Americans started conducting their own less traditional, less religious wedding ceremonies (LeFebvre, 2015). New ideas for ceremonies opened up a range of possibilities for wedding themes and venues rather than the typical church and backyard reception. The more creative couples get with their weddings, the more products and services need to change.
For example, a rustic wedding in a barn requires different décor and apparel than a wedding in a fancy hotel or an art museum. With the venue, gown choices changed from traditional styles to new styling trends, including bridal salons and designers (Shin, 1970). In the early 1980s, there were an aggregate of fifteen designers dedicated to the making of bridal gowns (Nova, 2020). Today, there are over one thousand designers, whose sole business is making bridal gowns (Kelly, 2019). As stated by Howland (2019), it is a new era for wedding apparel.
Contrasted with a wedding in a church or religious venue, the destination wedding brought a considerable change in a couple’s needs from the bridal industry. Amato et al. (2007) argue that wedding dresses, for example, changed design and price with the lightness of the beach wedding and created a fashion trend of a light fabric dress with tiny beading or embellishment. They summarize that because of the rising popularity of destination weddings, bridal stores changed their inventory to incorporate this trend and move away from the traditional bulky, pricier gowns.
The application of this concept of a destination wedding in American society has significantly affected spending for wedding ceremonies (Ritter, Boger and Draper, 2020). Most of the couples who hold this form of wedding across the United States often accompany it with a subsequent honeymoon, which in most cases occurs in the exact location where the destination wedding is held (Del Chiappa and Fortezza, 2013). Although destination weddings tend to include a smaller number of guests, critical aspects associated with destination weddings are similar to any other wedding. Destination weddings have a ceremony, food and music, which increases the overall spending in the bridal industry. Couples still need to purchase wedding apparel, including a bridal gown.
While preparing for the destination wedding, the wedding dress's choice is still the most significant decision for the bride, but because the guest list may be smaller, a couple can budget a little more for a bride’s dream dress (White, 2018). What differs most significantly in a destination wedding is the travel for both the bridal couple and family as well as friends (Breg, 2013). While the costs of a destination wedding vary greatly, each time a couple decides on this type of marriage, it still contributes to the bridal industry profits.
The Bridal Industry
The cost of weddings has been constantly on the rise. In 2012, the median wedding cost in the United States was $18000, including the ceremony and reception (this cost did not incorporate other related aspects such as the honeymoon). In 2020, a wedding's median cost was over $30,000, increasing $12,000 on average over the last eight years. Not surprisingly, the cost of a wedding varies by state. For example, the average cost of a wedding in Georgia, Florida, and the District of Columbia are $21,666, $20,933, and $36,082 respectively (Moon and Miller, 2020).
The average cost per guest has risen accordingly. The average cost per wedding guest in Georgia, Florida, and the District of Columbia are $159, $154, and $265 respectively (Moon and Miller, 2020). According to the research, states with smaller populations had lower average wedding costs than the states with larger populations. For instance, the average wedding costs for the states of Arkansas, Arizona, Alaska, and Alabama were $21,605, $34,298, $17,216 and $26,418, respectively (Moon and Miller, 2020). On the other hand, states with larger populations, such as New York and California, had average wedding costs of $38,721 and $34,698 respectively. Large cities in these states also represent a significant percentage of the total number of weddings, with New York City and Los Angeles accounting for 6.1% and 3.9% percent of weddings across the United States (Moon and Miller, 2020).
Another crucial statistical finding from Miller and Moon's (2020) research was the average wedding cost. According to their study, the average price of a wedding in 2019 was approximately $29,000 (Miller and Moon, 2020). This statistic includes the event center, the cost per guest for all food and drink, the wedding dress, the bridesmaid dresses, the tuxedos for the men, the flower girl dresses, the marriage license, and the honeymoon after the wedding.
The deviation between the mean and median of the wedding spending, as previously mentioned, could have resulted from the higher spending of couples from wealthy backgrounds compared to the relatively low expenditure of teams from lower-income backgrounds. Computing the mean of all the wedding costs is vital for the bridal industry. These statistics allow bridal businesses to understand the difference in spending by region and identify specific areas within a state where they should invest more resources (Kim and Agrusa, 2005).
Another aspect of modern-day weddings that contributes to the overall spending in the wedding industry is wedding insurance. Wedding insurance can pay for unanticipated events such as extreme weather conditions, military service, injury or illness and vendor bankruptcy that would cause a couple to cancel their wedding and lose money they had deposited or paid for their wedding (Schwalbe and Schwalbe, 2009). Schwalbe and Schwalbe (2009) point out that the bride and the groom might take insurance to cover the caterer's costs. For example, in the case of unexpected financial losses associated with their wedding ceremony.
The liability claims must be directly proportional to the premiums they pay for their coverage. Hence, the higher the premiums the couple pays the more money that insurance companies pay as benefits. With the amount of money that couples are spending on their wedding, paying for wedding insurance provides absolute peace of mind should anything unforeseen occur, even a pandemic. As Weiss and Levine (2008) affirm, the use of wedding insurance across the United States has shown high levels of success in adding to the bridal industry's bottom line.
Unfortunately, after a long period of healthy growth, the bridal industry's considerable net profits are slowly eroding, hitting brick and mortar bridal retail stores most directly. With the industry growth from 2015-2020 at -2.2% (IBIS, 2020), the number of brick-and-mortar bridal stores has also declined. Between 2010 and 2018, well before the pandemic, the number of bridal shops nationwide declined by 753, or 10.5%, to 6,435 (IBIS, 2020). Hidden costs are primarily responsible for driving storeowners to bankruptcy: "I knew our costs were adding up on servicing each customer, and I could never get a grasp on how much until it was too late" (European Bridal, 2020).
The cost of making an individual scale has increased, due in part to the expectations of brides who want to be celebrated and pampered as they see on television. The bridal sales consultant spends far more time with each customer, which means they help fewer new brides in the hours the sales consultant works. As a result, the sales consultant averages fewer sales per hour worked. Stores may also need to hire more sales consultants costing the store more money, again taking away from the profits. The high demand for labour on each customer has created a substantial drop in net gains on each bridal sale (Howell, 2019).
It is critical to investigate factors that affect net profits, including the costs and margins of a deal. The factors that seem to have affected bridal stores most directly are social media and reality television that changed the bride's expectations about planning for a wedding, specifically shopping for a wedding dress. The bridal experience is different from other retail sales and affects the purchase of wedding attire. Bridal retail is a unique niche market as it is built around the experience. As Hartjen, marketing director of Retail Next states:
“How many other segments [in the bridal industry] entertain parties between 3 and 20, all expecting to be served a mimosa, while only one person is converting [to a sale], and with luck, you get some add-on dresses in the party?” (Danziger, 2020, p.254)
The outcome of the bridal experience, described in more detail later in this chapter, is to sell the customer at least one item that the purchaser will use only one time. The cost associated with such bridal experiences can affect the profit margin, hiding the actual margin of that sale. The question is, how far can the margin decrease before the bridal salon starts losing money?
Atmospheric Changes in a Retail Environment
Bridal storeowners acknowledge the importance of pleasing and creative aesthetics in the bridal salon's surroundings (Garaus, 2016). Retailers must pay particular attention to all in-store elements (Babin, Chebat and Michon, 2004). Inclusive in those elements is the perception of an experience and a harmonious store environment (Kaplan and Kaplan, 1982). The background and the knowledge that the store provides serve as motivation for the bridal customer on an ongoing basis.
Each visit for the customer is as important as the first visit (Goldberg and Hall, 2020). According to Hekkert et al. (2003), customer acquisition costs include providing an environmental aesthetic that will stimulate the customer's behaviour to buy. According to an ecological theorist, "Gestalt's theory explains that individuals tend to react to stimuli as a whole.” The theory goes on to suggest that "good organization and visual elements produce a pleasant environment” (Holmqvist and Lunardo, 2015, p. 1546). Lighting is a visual element that is essential to creating a specific look in a bridal salon.
For example, track lighting has a sleeker contemporary feel compared to a colossal crystal chandelier (Hudson et al., 2020). Aesthetically, lighting highlights merchandise, emphasizing the features and details of the bridal gowns. The atmosphere or vibe, of business influences where buyers choose to shop as well as make their decisions about purchases (Savoy and Salvendy, 2016). A retail store must engage the customer’s senses to entice the customer to feel comfortable making a purchase (Waters, 2018).
According to Cox and Brittain (2007), store atmosphere is defined as “the dominant sensory effect created by the store’s design, physical characteristics, and merchandise activities” (p. 46#). Berman and Evans (1996) further noted that; a retailer’s image depends heavily on its atmosphere or the psychological feeling a customer gets when visiting that retailer. Therefore, changes to the bridal store’s retail environment can affect a bridal gown's net profit (Waters, 2018).
The Influence of Capitalism, Consumerism, and Class on the Bridal Industry
Capitalism and consumerism significantly affect wedding practices. Capitalism and consumerism are related concepts. Capitalism can be described as a system in which organizations and private individuals maintain commodities and purchases and the means of consumption (Frydmnan, 1999). Like the United States, consumerism in a free-market society is the idea of spending time for the behavioural purpose of shopping and purchasing goods (Șerban-Comănescu, 2019).
From a modern and contemporary capitalist perspective, wedding couples may feel pressure to impersonate the behaviours of the well-to-do upper-class individuals in the community. Consumerism entails encouraging and inspiring teams to spend money on wedding practices through media platforms no matter their stratified social class (Arnold, 2018). As part of consumerism, brides project the appearance of spending a considerable amount of money for their wedding. The concepts of capitalism, consumerism and class play a vital role in influencing wedding trends among about-to-be-wed couples (Garaus, 2016).
Over an extended period, capitalism has long been associated with weddings (Howard, 2003). Whenever a couple realized that they were ready to be engaged, first, a ring was purchased. In the early and mid-nineteenth centuries, consumer capitalism played a crucial role in traditional wedding ceremonies, with rings and bands representing a social symbol (Howard, 2003). Different economic classes had different opinions and perceptions of wedding bands. For example, middle-class individuals believed that a wedding band was vital for the ceremony.
In contrast, people from the working class perceived wedding bands to be subjects for humour in wedding ceremonies (Howard, 2003). Women also had different perceptions of rings than men, as they believe that crews publicly showed the increased social gains made by marrying (Howard, 2006). Such practices indicate that similar to American society in the 21st century, social class differences dramatically affect wedding perceptions and practices. Once the engagement took place, the bride approached the wedding industry to select the products that she felt would help create a perfect wedding that differed by social class.
Like capitalism, consumerism plays a vital role in weddings, both traditional and modern. According to Howard (2006), women involved in conventional weddings in American society perceived their wedding as an achievement in their personal and, often, professional lives. A bride looks at the wedding as the highlight of her marriage experience several years into the marriage (Howard, 2006). Her recollections of the wedding extend to her experience inside the bridal salon while buying her dress. That influence bares a large proportion of the word-of-mouth customer acquisition that brings her acquaintances back to the same bridal shop to purchase their gowns. Her experience is important for customer growth for the next several years into the future (Schweiger and Meter, 2018).
Producers of wedding provisions and those who market those products apply obvious techniques to alter the consumption of their products and services to their benefit. As Howard (2006) points out, these individuals tend to overstate some products' costs, making it hard for some people to acquire them (Howard, 2006). One of the standard wedding products whose price has been overestimated continuously is the wedding gown. As Mead (2007) postulates, wedding gowns were used in traditional weddings as social status markers of affluence. Despite the inflated prices, wedding gowns were a must-have wedding product at formal weddings regardless of the couples' social class (Howard, 2003).
Consumerism is associated with the purchasing power of women, who were the ones who primarily bought wedding products in traditional American society (Bloomberg and Volpe, 2008). For example, a bride’s social class could be inferred from the wedding portrait. Researchers gathered wedding portraits for a study and then sorted them into two distinct categories; those they felt represented the lower socio-economic class and one that they felt described the upper socio-economic class (Bloomberg and Volpe, 2008).
The study findings indicated that the dress identified the couples' purchasing power in the wedding portrait, including the gown's quality (Bloomberg and Volpe, 2008). As Bloomberg and Volpe (2008) point out, a bride’s purchasing power determines the dress she purchased for her wedding and how she defined looking good at her wedding and celebration. The wealthy could afford to buy their classic, opulent attire in expensive boutiques and hire the most skilled beauticians, which was evident in their wedding portraits.
On the other hand, couples with few resources did not have much money to spend on their wedding, including their attire. As a result, they depended more on less expensive, trending fashions, which brought about a considerable difference in looks between the wealthy couples and less wealthy couples in their portraits (Bloomberg and Volpe, 2008).
Nonetheless, the marketers of wedding products ensured that they advertised their products and services, irrespective of class, educational levels, or occupational levels within different geographic regions (Bloomberg and Volpe, 2008). According to Mead (2007), society's social class differences significantly influence how the wedding product marketers advertised their products and services on different media platforms, including magazines. In Longbottom's (2013) research, three hundred brides confirmed their belief that a bigger budget created a wedding with higher-grade food, a classier venue and a more expensive dress.
Consumer Consumption
Consumer consumption also plays a significant role in sales in the bridal industry. While Miller (1995) asserts that consumption as a topic cannot be usefully defined, further exploration described consumption as more than a purchase and use of that purchase, it is a process or a search. Tomlinson (1991) agrees that consumer culture and trends remain a search to fulfill one’s satisfaction. Nava (1992) further claims consumption to be a powerful and evocative symbol of capitalism as it pertains to the experience of a bridal purchase.
Consumption, regardless of a specific definition, describes human activity in the background of shopping for a bridal gown. As Campbell (1987) acknowledged, shopping for a bridal gown is a profound and significant socio-cultural experience. Bridal customers perceive consumption as a stress temptation, indicating that a bride has a combination of stress and temptation superimposed by the advertising and the control of an individual's buying habits (Ewen, 1976; Packard, 1957).
The romantic views of consumption play into a bride's experience during the shopping for her bridal gown, as her thoughts of consumption, have been set in a framework of influenced content and social structure (Campbell, 1987). In the late 2000s, beginning in 2007 and ending in 2009, the United States endured a significant recession, which dramatically affected consumerism. Couples tried hard not to alter their wedding plans, as they struggled to maintain their appearances and status regardless of the economic conditions affecting society during this period (Harris, 2008).
Harris (2008) investigated the situation further by interviewing Rebecca Dogin, a chief executive editor of The Knot, one of the most viewed websites at the time. Upon a comprehensive investigation, Harris (2008) found out that while most couples during this period stopped planning for over-the-top wedding ceremonies, teams focused more on minimizing the level of wedding expenses by cutting the costs that they perceived as less necessary for their wedding.
Since couples wanted to maintain their appearance that things were fine during their wedding events, they selected classy and affordable wedding necessities from the wide range of available products. For example, Harris (2008) highlighted that some couples purchased fake Styrofoam cakes, whereby only the top layer of these cakes was natural, and then they served their guests less expensive sheet cakes, which was one way they could cut their wedding expenses. As another example, couples who could barely afford new designer gowns and other bridal attire purchased second-hand wedding commodities that were significantly less expensive (Harris, 2008).
Once the recession ended, American couples have been increasing wedding spending. Producers and marketers of wedding products have devised effective strategies to increase customer spending. For bridal gowns, this would include methods like bridal salons cooperating with designers to have what is called a trunk show. These are events at the bridal salon, which allow the bride to meet the designer in person and see all the new dresses for that season (Christy, 2018). Strategies like trunk shows ensure that even though severe economic conditions may prevail in the market, they can promote wedding products effectively to attract consumers. According to research conducted by Nestoras (2010), both small-scale and large-scale businesses exist that are still highly profitable in the wedding industry.
Some wedding business ventures make considerable gross profits but overhead has flattened net profits including bridal gown retailers, tuxedo rentals, travel agents, photographers, catering, florists, wedding cake bakers’ videographers, and wedding consultants (Nestoras, 2010). Big-box retailers such as Target and Macy’s offer some of the most profitable wedding services whereby couples register and they request the presents they want from their guests. Such businesses record high levels of wedding-related sales. As Nestora (2010) affirms, these sectors presented one of the most profitable wedding industry areas worth more than twenty million dollars.
Paying for the Wedding
As outlined previously, consumerism played a vital role in traditional weddings and played a critical role in the modern wedding industry. Consumerism maintains the strength and resiliency of the wedding industry in modern times. One of the primary sources compelling consumerism and putting pressure on the wedding couple is the media. Media plays a vital role in shaping consumers' choices and influencing consumers to reconsider their cultural values in planning a wedding.
The strategy of advertising wedding products and services through various media platforms, including television shows, magazines, social media, and radio, ensures that wedding couples are subjected to pressures to appear wealthier than they are. Wedding couples feel subjected to forces that compel them to purchase various wedding products, often spending beyond their means and making choices inconsistent with their social beliefs (Ritzer, 2010).
When investigating consumerism in the wedding industry, it is essential to consider who pays for the wedding products and services (Ritzer, 2010). Whether the parents, the couple or another family member, the people who are the actual buyers are essential because a diverse range of media influences different generations. In traditional weddings in America, families treated the wedding day as the bride's special day, an once-in-a-lifetime occasion and thus they typically incurred the entire cost for wedding-related events (Scott, 2010).
Traditionally, the bridegroom’s family used to pay for the honeymoon and rehearsal dinner. While customs surrounding payment for the wedding have changed, many families still observe these traditional splits in paying for the wedding. However, with people getting married at older ages, these traditional customs of paying for the wedding have changed somewhat after the couple has established themselves in careers (Rabin, 2018).
Changes in modern American society have led to three major approaches to paying for wedding costs (Scott, 2010). The first approach employed by a significant portion of wedding couples is the traditional form where the bride’s family covers all of the wedding costs and the groom’s family pays for specific items, such as the tuxedos, any alcohol for the reception, the rehearsal dinner. In this case, the amount paid by each family may not necessarily be equal (Scott, 2010).
A second approach is for the bride and groom’s families to share the costs equally between them. However, if one of the families is wealthier, they might contribute more to the wedding is worth based on their desire to give the couple a more prestigious ceremony. Today, paying for the costs of a wedding has become a negotiation between the two families. The third approach, which is more commonly applied in modern American society involves the couple themselves covering all the expenses incurred using their funds.
The couple's social class is another crucial aspect that can be examined to understand...