Jessie Mou

[jessiemou]

Accessible luxury, functional fashion - Burberry

Recognizing the highly competitive luxury segment of the market, Bravo and her team have a clean positioning for the Burberry brand, that is to represent accessible luxury as a POD. 

Spotting the niche between Polo RalphLauren and Giorgio Armani in apparel, and between Coach and Gucci in accessories, the company. The team then worked towards building the product lines and product distribution.

Below is the positioning map for apparel and accessories respectively that I drew. In my opinion, it is still sustainable when more competitors come into the market. Brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein are positioned more similar to POLO and no brand so far has the elegance that Burberry exhibits in its designs.  But in my opinion, this niche market does not represent a large share of the market. In order to sustain its brand equity and market share in a long term, Burberry needs to further expand its target audience.

Although Burberry’s adjustments to encamps younger audience into its target audience failed in my opinion, it doesn’t resonate among younger generations as it is not cutting edge fashionable, nor is it positioned at a price point that can beat brands such as Zara, TopShop and etc.

As a brand that went through quite a number of changes under Bravo, I think further efforts need to be put in to sustain its long term growth.

[jessiemou]

The game changer - customer centric value

Differentiated positioning - customer centric services

In the old days when airlines saw themselves as prestigious, high-cost government sponsored outfits, Singapore airline differentiated its positioning from its competitors as an airline providing superior customer service including pioneering free food and beverage services for Economy Class passengers, more cabin staff per seat than most other airlines, and adjustable headrest. The differentiated offering from its competitors attracted many repeat customers for the airline and supported its growth since the start.

To sustain its customer centric value, SIA thrived to innovate in my aspects.

Increased service offering to serve customer needs

While a lot of passengers travel on Singapore Airlines for business, SIA formed a subsidiary carrier, SilkAir to better service the  passengers who are traveling to and from SEA countries for leisure purposes with a lower price offering, smaller air craft but serviced as well as SIA.

Loyalty program open to only first and business class passengers

SIA were one of the last airlines to launch its mileage program and it was only open to business and first class passengers which is then changed to PPS program today. Being a SIA member myself, the privileges including discount at Changi airport, access to lounge and etc. incentivizes customers to take the airline more often.

Innovative branding approach

The traditional Malay Sarong Kebaya air stewardess outfit has served as one of Singapore Airline’s icons. From advertisement at the airport or magazine, to the air stewardess greeting you on the air craft, the Singapore air stewardess has become the best branding element for Singapore airline. Building on its brand identity, SIA made its safety video featuring its air stewardess going around different places in Singapore while sharing safety instructions. The company leveraged the “Singapore girl” identity to differentiate itself from its competitors and incorporated this brand identity in its every single innovation. 

[jessiemou]

Brand Perception

Brand perception is what customers believe a product or service represents, not what the company owning the brand says it does. Brand perception comes from customer use, experience, functionality, reputation and word of mouth recommendation - on social media channels as well as face to face. 

In the North Dakota vs. California Wine experiment, same wine was used to test consumers’ feedback but it was proved that the same wine labeled as California wine, which were perceived as better wines, led to more consumption of the product and the companion food. We can see from this experiment and many other instances in life that brand perception plays an important role impacting consumer behaviors.

In addition to the purchase of the product and complements, positive brand perception creates WOM impact on the brand and product. In other words, it is more likely for existing customers to bring in new customers with a positive brand perception. In summary, it is crucial for brands to maintain a good brand perception, measure its brand perception and shift its brand perception is necessary.

[jessiemou]

Consumer Behavior Online - How Glossier is targeting its consumers online

[jessiemou]

Multi-segment Marketing and Brand Association

How to brand your multiple lines of product that target at different segments of the market remains a challenge for marketers. The dilemma of branding each line of product to speak to its targeted consumers vs. ensuring enough brand association across lines of product is the key issue that needs to be addressed. Different brands approach this challenge differently, FedEx ensures its brand name across its product lines while changing the color of the logo and name slightly, Apple introduced sub-brands for each of its product line that most of which starts with “i”, and P&G managing its house of brands given the vastly different audience that each of these brands target.

Source: Branding Strategy Insider

B&D faces the same challenge for their “Tradesmen” segment. The “Tradesmen” segment is a crucial segment to address given its annual growth rate of 9% despite its smaller current market share at $420MM (B&D: 9% market share) compared to $530MM for “Consumer” segment (B&D: 45% market share) and $550MM for “Industrial” segment (B&D: 20% market share). 

“WHY?”

In the “Tradesmen” segment, Makita held a strong position given its brand image as trustworthy while B&D products is perceived to be used at home rather than on the job given its large market share in the consumer segment and, conversely, there had been instances of a B&D product designed for at home use being subjected to the demands of the job site and failing. So the root cause of the low market share is a product and branding issue. Essentially, “Industrial” segment is more of a B2B segment and “Tradesmen” segment is more of a B2C segment so they are pretty different. B&D’s success in Industrial segment does not guarantee its success in Tradesmen segment.

“HOW?”

On branding, I would suggest B&D to go with the option  DeWalt–Manufactured, Serviced and Distributed by Black & Decker limiting the brand association given that B&D is recognized among tradesmen as a brand that offers outstanding services according to the market research. On product, I would suggest the team to work together with R&D to ensure the new line of product cater to tradesmen’s need and run A/B testing on impacts of changing the color to yellow as it yellow color symbolize safety and is a great differentiator in packaging. On pricing, I would suggest B&D to benchmark Makita but still adhere to its distribution standard in order not to harm its channel relationships. Lastly on promotion, I would suggest B&D to approach KOLs to offer free trials given tradesmen have their own community and the WOM effect is important in growing adoption of new brand and product.

With such, B&D should be able to win in its multi-segment marketing while ensuring brand association.