BUSINESS ANALYSIS

Business Analysis

Christina Hernandez, Ivan Kilhara, Marla Morales, Claudia Perez, Daniel Siller

University of Texas at El Paso

Business Analysis 2

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 3

Introduction 5

Background Analysis 5

Chuco Relic 6

Viva La Mocha 8

Big Frog - El Paso 10

References 13
Business Analysis 3

Executive Summary

Viva La Mocha, Chuco Relic and Big Frog are companies based in the El Paso, Texas area.

These businesses sell a variety of products, but what all three have in common is their focus on

custom prints, specifically t-shirts. This includes specialty design t-shirts most of which display

some symbols/icons that relate to local El Paso culture, or offer custom t-shirt design services.

Although they share the same customer base, they do not all gather them to the same degree.

This variability or difference in customer base can be attributed to how they manage to

build their own business. Some of the reasons these types of businesses grow to be big enterprises

are because they have great management in place, a person who is willing to work hard, set goals

and priorities, They know how to invest the excess cash flow, get a better return on every single

investment they make, and try to protect their moat. What is a business moat? A business moat

refers to a business' ability to maintain competitive advantages over its competitors in order to

protect its long-term profits and market share from competing firms.

This contributes to how they present themselves to the public (website). Considering their

shared industry of work, it is not unusual to see similar business practices across all three when

appealing to their target audience. A great example of this is a basic law of economics. Once

someone builds a small business per se and that business is making a profit of $100,000 a year but

with zero competitors, he/she will get all the profit. Once someone sees that the reproduction cost

of this business is not that much he/she can enter this new market and compete. Due to this, profits

will tend to go down until the business is not profitable anymore. The same happens with the

businesses we are analyzing; they won't have the same profits because of reasons we explained

above. Profits tend to get distributed among competitors as some might get more and some might
Business Analysis 4

get less, but the market share of every business depends on how well their management operates

the business.

With competing we mean, how do they attract more customers? How loyal are their

customers? How big is the difference in their intangibles? Do they have a strong brand recognition?

Yet, there is a presence of noticeable differences with techniques used, or lack thereof. This paper

will analyze how these three businesses, Viva La Mocha, Chuco Relic and Big Frog succeed or

fail to attract their customer base. This will be within the areas of their social media presence,

company website and availability to customers based on location(s) of business.

Business Analysis 5

Introduction

For this project we are analyzing three businesses from El Paso, Texas. The project will

address their basic needs, why it is important to address this issue, and some include findings and

solutions about the problems. The three different businesses we are analyzing are: Viva La Mocha,

Chuco Relic, and Big Frog. These businesses sell a variety of products but, there is one thing all

three have in common, which is their focus on custom prints, specifically t-shirts. This includes

design t-shirts, most of which display some local symbol/icon or offer custom t-shirt design

services. The project will be beneficial because it will give one a basic roadmap on how businesses

get more attention from their clients, and also the negative side of not getting enough of them. It

will help audiences to understand how competition and a good marketing strategy are essential for

a business to be successful. One key take away from this is that online marketing is the most

important element of a business development plan.

Background Analysis

Effective communication/writing is required to strengthen the relationship between a

company and all of its stakeholders. The pipelines and message effectiveness allows them to

become competitive in their market through strong decision making, problem solving, increased

productivity and stronger partnerships. It is important that companies are effective in relaying

accurate and reliable advertisements to win the trust of their consumers, and not only continue, but

expand their network of sales. Whatever method of advertising a company chooses to use,
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advertising can either be positive or negative. A company, in this case, the custom t-shirt business,

must be able to engage or motivate the customer to want to have their t-shirt or t-shirts printed for

them. Consumers are more likely to remember a “catchy” advertisement, whether it be on the

radio, TV, internet or any other means of advertisements. In this day and age, many consumers

rely on social media to hear about new businesses. Social media is also used as a tool for businesses

to interact with their customers and show off new merchandise that is available at the store. When

used correctly, social media can be an effective means to bring in new clientele.

Chuco Relic

The first business we analyzed was Chuco Relic, a “locally owned and operated souvenir

shop” that specializes in items that showcase the talents of local artists. As per Chuco Relic’s

website “90% of [their] products are locally made”. This business relies heavily on gaining

customers by their strong social media presence. On social media platforms, Instagram and

Facebook, they have amassed 21.4k followers and over 7k likes respectively. Their website

home page is formatted similar to that of Instagram, in fact they are the same exact images on

both. This choice of layout again suggests their heavy use of social media as a form of appealing

to clientele. This format also allowed the website to be easily accessed and navigated. Everything

is displayed clearly and organized. Making their website storefront user friendly while still

appearing original and creative. A nice touch to further entice their local customers is the live

banner on their homepage that rotates through images of the city of El Paso. This use of relatable

content is an effective way to gain native customers especially those wishing to own a piece of

their hometown.
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Another aspect we chose to analyze was that of locations and how this impacted their

clientele. The informational section of their website explicitly states they have two locations

“Chuco Relic is proud to produce and sell out of two locations; one is nestled in the heart of the

westside at TIME. The other placed perfectly in Central El Paso.” Yet further down and on their

social media pages, it has three locations listed. This may not cause any problems as they display

the addresses, but the mentioning of only two may create some confusion as to which locations

are actually open for business. On a positive note, this business demonstrated the importance of

choosing the right location. Location is a big variable on the customer demographics of a

business. The first two locations are prime examples of this. People often shop in these areas

because of the authentic, one of a kind feel they bring. This supports the idea that Chuco Relic

believes in the power of originality much like the products they offer. The communities these

stores are located in thrive on such businesses, small locally owned businesses. These areas are

often related to influential crowds. These people will more than likely bring in a large portion of

Chuco Relics customer base solely by word of mouth.

The hours of operation for each Chuco Relic location are vastly different from each

other, posing another issue as clients may have to go to a specific location depending on the time

they are planning on going. The reason for this may be because they are family owned, meaning

there is no big corporation making the rules with a rigid work schedule that must be followed as

with big box stores. This business is connected to that of another we analyzed within this paper.

Chuco Relic sells t-shirts that are made by Viva La Mocha. This demonstrates that although they

may appear as competitors, being in the same industry, they have chosen instead to work

together. This is beneficial to both as they not only advertise within themselves but alongside
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each other. This partnership increases their exposure and audience, supporting the idea that even

competitors can find it beneficial to work with one another.

Viva La Mocha

Viva la Mocha is a retail shop locally owned and operated in the El Paso area. This store

is by no means small. It has a well-established clientele and a strong presence on their social media

platforms. This store focuses on selling a variety of merchandise such as their locally designed

stickers, shirts, and hand drawn coloring pages. The main selling point of this business is that all

their items are handcrafted locally. The targeted audience Viva La Mocha is trying to sell to are

customers who like to support local chicano/latinx businesses. Most of the designs and art that is

being sold is based on local iconography in El Paso such as popular local scenery, local

colloquialisms, and El Paso pride. However, even though this is a well-established retail store,

there is always room to grow and room for improvement. On Viva La Mocha’s website, this

business mainly advertises itself as a front for you to get custom designed shirts. There are also a

small number of other items that are listed for sale on their website which include an El Paso

hoodie, a local sports team shirt, a Whataburger inspired shirt, and a Selena Quintanilla shirt as

well as a couple of free downloadable coloring pages.

While we feel that the free coloring pages are a nice touch, there could certainly be more

locally designed merchandise added to the online store. Online retail is at the forefront of all

commerce at the moment. More and more people are looking to shop online rather than in-store.

Whether it be having a busy schedule, or just simply not wanting to leave your house and suffer

the scorching Texas weather, consumers just want a way to shop for what they want online. In this

day and age, it is absolutely vital to not only pay attention to your in-person storefront, but your
Business Analysis 9

online storefront too. This means having a good amount of merchandise options in your online

shop. Viva la Mocha could certainly benefit from adding not only more special-designed shirts to

its online store, but perhaps branching out into other types of merchandise such as specially

designed cups, magnets, wall art, throw blankets and pillows, and hats. It is important to always

continue product development for your customers; this leaves them wanting to come back to see

what new kinds of products you have to offer them.

To add to that, this business could also try making seasonal items available throughout the

year. Adding seasonal products is a great way to get customers to want to come back to the store

because they will want to collect these limited-edition items. A quick example of this would be

Cherry Blossom season in Japan; stores all over Japan sell Cherry Blossom themed merchandise

and food that makes customers want to stock up on these items before Cherry Blossom season is

over. Seasonal items at Viva la Mocha could possibly have the same benefit.

Moreover, this business could certainly use more advertising. They already have a large

local following on their Instagram page with 7,829 followers. We feel that although they are

popular with the local people in the surrounding community, they could certainly benefit by

advertising to tourists. For this we would suggest perhaps using geo-fencing to push

advertisements on all social media platforms. Geo-fencing works by setting a virtual perimeter

around a certain area, and when someone is in that set perimeter, scrolling through their social

media, the geo-fence will sense them and send a sponsored advertisement to their feed. Geo-

fencing is a really simple and effective way to get the word out about your business to people who

perhaps would have not heard about it. Another advertising suggestion would be to put billboards

on busy highways and intersections in El Paso, maybe even a few before you actually enter the

city itself. It is important to not make billboards look so cluttered as you have to remember that
Business Analysis 10

people are driving by when seeing them. You want to impress them in the blink of an eye, and

have it be memorable enough for them to think about making a visit to your business while

continuing on with their driving. A good old-fashioned way to advertise your business would be

to implement radio commercials. There are so many people listening to local radio every day.

However, it would be wise to keep your radio commercial to a minimum of fifteen to twenty

seconds; any longer than that and you could potentially lose your audience.

Big Frog - El Paso

The last business we analyzed was that of Big Frog. Of all three, their website seemed the

most professional in the sense that it was formatted in a more traditional way unlike the other

two, who are more mobile user-friendly. This demonstrates that unlike the other two businesses,

this one relies on a more formal/traditional form of appealing to customers. This is further

strengthened by the smaller following they have on social media as compared to the previously

mentioned companies. They rely on big corporation type advertising rather than word of mouth

and similar tactics.

Their social media presence comes short when compared to the others with only 930

followers on Instagram, and almost 3K likes on Facebook and that is the actual company’s

pages, not this particular franchise. The El Paso franchise page has a small following of 387

followers on Instagram and there is no designated Facebook page for the El Paso location. The

reason for this may be because unlike the other two shops we covered, this one is not a small

business. However, we believe that it is very important for businesses to be active on social

media in order to interact with their existing customers and potential new customers alike. More
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and more people nowadays rely on social media to get a feel of the businesses they want to visit.

Your social media feed should be a reflection of what you want your business to represent.

Although located in the El Paso area, Big Frog is not solely located within our city. This

has advantages in that it reaches a greater number of customers, but it lacks a dedicated customer

base. With one location in the El Paso area, they give customers the ability to come to recognize

this franchise as the only of its kind. This allows for customers to become returning customers

because they come to know that the services given will be consistent.

Our take on this business is that it takes a vastly different approach to the other

businesses because it does give off a more corporate feel than the others. This helps the audience

feel as if they will be doing business with an established and trustworthy company, but again

lacks a strong support system of loyal customers. As a well established company, they have done

a good job of creating advertising content to appeal to their target customers, but the local

franchise can see an increase of following by becoming more community oriented and active on

social media. Consumers like to feel like they are interacting with actual humans and not some

big corporation. This is why we highly encourage all businesses, big and small, to take the time

and focus on their social media pages. This could also serve as a means to get feedback from

their clientele on what they can improve on and what they would like to see from this business.

Overall, we feel that Big Frog is a great franchise, but could use some help interacting with its

customers.

Conclusion

From the review of our research on these locally owned businesses through the use of social

media, location of the businesses, and the use of their websites to attract customers we became
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informed and familiar with the businesses and what they are all about. We also looked at how

each of these businesses give back to the community as a way of appreciation. Not only did we

analyze the three businesses on the use of media, location of business and website to attract

customers, we also analyzed the willingness to help schools and organizations to help with

fundraising. All three have proven to be successful in the El Paso region as evident by their

exposure on social media and local websites. Big Frog Custom T-Shirt was the only business out

of the three analyzed that offered the ideal way to earn money for an organization or school. In

fact, Big Frog Custom T-Shirt made news on USA TODAY magazine for their cooperation during

the August 4, 2019 El Paso Walmart Shooting. All proceeds of t-shirts sold went towards

Operation Hope, a local non-profit agency supporting the shooting victims and families with

emotional and financial costs. This type of media coverage has boosted Big Frog Custom T-Shirt

sales.

All three t-shirt businesses have proven to have efficiency in making t-shirts or whatever

else they offer to make, all while having the cost effectiveness of the items be reasonable to the

customer. They all have good customer relations based on their likes on Facebook and Instagram.

Chuco Relic and Viva La Mocha do share a great use of effective social media and marketing but

would highly benefit from suggestions we made to increase business. We believe that although

Big Frog is already a well-established business, they could certainly benefit by being more

interactive with their customers on their social media accounts. All in all, we are very happy to

have been given a chance to give our input on these businesses and look forward to seeing them

flourish.
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References

Chuco Relic. (n.d.). Chuco Relic. Retrieved April 30, 2020, from https://chucorelic.com/

Duenas, S. El Paso Times. El Paso Strong: Community sells T-shirts to support shooting victims,
families. USA Today.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/08/06/el-paso-strong-t-shirts-merchan
dise-raise-funds-shooting-victims/1931054001/

Hatch, B., Villegas, G., James, P., Elguea, L., Ackerman, J., Pierre, F., & Armendariz, J. Big
Frog Custom T-Shirts of East El Paso: Screen Print: Embroidery. Retrieved April 30,
2020, from https://www.bigfrog.com/stores/east-el-paso-tx/

Viva La Mocha. (n.d.). Viva La Mocha. Retrieved April 30, 2020, from
https://vivalamocha.com/shop/ols/categories/stickers