Category: Brand

Impact of Consumer Behavior & Customer Commitment on Brand Loyalty

Background

Consumer behavior & customer commitment both are the most discussed topic in the market from past few years. The purpose of this research is to seek out how consumer behavior & consumer commitment affects the brand loyalty of any product or service. The value the customer provides to the firm is the conclusion of his commitment and loyalty to the product and service. This study also helps in the concluding methodology, design, approach to describe the relationship between the customer loyalty and customer commitment. There is a little research on commitment and loyalty with respect to brand seeking behavior. Although the commitment and particular behavior of the consumer contract an experience due to growing competition in the market producer might face some of the advantages and disadvantages on the other end the marketer keeps on looking for the different ways to gain customers attention. Market tells us that sustaining the customer for the longer terms gives the advantage in competing in the market place. Loyal customer is created by opting different marketing techniques which does not only gains customers’ attention on the other end the customer also becomes loyal to the brand for longer term. Customer becomes loyal when the company gives the positive intention toward the customer and that is how the trust is gained which helps them competing in the market.

Recent researchers focus on brand experience, brand personality brand trust and brand attachment. The brand image and customer satisfaction are very powerful weapons in the field of marketing. Customer becomes loyal to the brand when the customers realize that they are given attention for example if the customer gets good attention from the salespersons than they become loyal to them. On the other end the customer’s satisfaction is another indicator of brand loyalty i.e. if a customer is satisfied the customer becomes loyal to the brand if the customers doesn’t gets the desired satisfaction the customer may never become loyal and may never visit the brand again which becomes the issue for the brand which in un-ignorable. The customer is committed towards the brand when the desire is completely fulfilled which puts a positive effect on the brand loyalty.

Objectives/hypothesis

The objective of the study is how to further the understanding of consumer behavior & consumer commitment with respect to the experience provided to the customer on the brand loyalty of any product or service.

• To check the relationship of commitment and behavior of consumer.
• To check and relate the relationship of commitment and behavior in seeking experience of brands.
• To check the direct effect of experience on brand loyalty.

Organization of Study

At first the introduction & Background of the study is discussed which tells us about how consumer behavior and consumer commitment affects the brand loyalty. At Second point the objectives of the study & hypotheses are described i.e. how to further the understanding. At third the literature view is described briefly, after that the theoretical trends, methods & materials, Data Analysis and Interpretation is done and at last the conclusion is made.

Literature Review

The examination inspected the connections among different develops identifying with the administration of an association’s clients. Specifically, the examination explored the multidimensional builds of duty and devotion and the impact of an unwaveringness program on these measurements and utilize the clear research plan Marshall, N. W. (2010). Measurably noteworthy contrasts were found in Income level by the diverse brand measurements like social, culture and there is no factually critical distinction in measurement of Personal and mental. Toward the finish of the investigation suggestions and end were given and utilized the factual Descriptive Statistics. Kumar, A. H., John, S. F., and Senith, S. (2014).

The existing exploration and writing encompassing the brand experience build is broad. Be that as it may, it isn’t completely clear in regards to this present build’s relationship to mark reliability. While a few creators guarantee that it influences brand dependability legitimately, others have discovered that it is a reliant variable, which alone does not have any quick impact on brand unwaveringness Maheshwari, V., Lodorfos, G., and Jacobsen, S. (2014). Client steadfastness is a theme of incredible enthusiasm for showcasing researchers because of its significance in increasing maintainable upper hands and financial results. Writing is prolific of works with respect to client steadfastness and brand the board. So as to improve the amount and nature of research productions, look into subjects mapping of distributed examinations is required Tartaglione, A. M., Cavacece, Y., Russo, G., and Granata, G. (2019).

The present article utilizes a hypothetical model from research on relational connections, the speculation display, to anticipate brand responsibility. The venture display utilizes three factors – fulfillment, options and speculation – to dimension of relationship responsibility Sung, Y., and Campbell, W. K. (2009). The target of this examination is to investigate the immediate and circuitous impact of brand involvement on brand reliability and brand frame of mind. The examination includes in choosing quick moving customer merchandise classification as the example item. The examination utilized advantageous testing strategies to gather the information Rajumesh, S. (2014). This examination exactly endeavors to talk about this specific issue by looking at the connection between brand mindfulness and brand faithfulness. Likewise, it tries to research the intervention job of brand duty in beginning relationship to handle the blended outcomes in the earlier endeavors. The information were gathered from clients of Islamic bank brand in Mafraq Governorate in Jordan. PLS-SEM systems were connected to an example of 90 clients to test speculated connections. The outcomes uncovered that brand mindfulness and brand duty have a huge and positive association with brand steadfastness Alkhawaldeh, An., Al-Salaymeh, M., Alshare, F., and Eneizan, B. M. (2017). The paper investigates the surviving writing on client unwaveringness and brings out seven factors which are in charge of arrangement of client dedication.

Further, the overall significance of these factors has been learned through Multiple Regression Analysis which uncovered that administration quality and responsibility are the most grounded indicators of client faithfulness in the Indian extra security industry Rai, A. K., and Medha, S. (2013). The Findings uncovered that brand experience legitimately and emphatically influenced buyer fulfillment, brand trust and brand unwaveringness. What’s more, it was discovered that brand experience indirectly affected brand reliability through both buyer fulfillment and brand trust. All the more explicitly, it was discovered that the impact of brand understanding on customer fulfillment and brand trust was considerably more dominant than its immediate impact on brand reliability BAŞER, I. U., CİNTAMÜR, I. G., and ARSLAN, F. M. (2015). Should mark faithfulness be considered as measurement of brand equity Oran result of brand value or as a directing element that goes about as a middle person between attitudinal steadfastness and social dependability should be affirmed? The present research is sought after to affirm such connections. A ‘complete example of300 respondents were chosen from Jammu city in India to accumulate information on brand dependability and brand value from the clients of Jammu human services administrations. Scale thing investigation, both EFA and CFA examination were connected for conclusion of scale and model testing separately. Chahal, H., and Bala, M. (2010). Consumer loyalty and brand dependability have been tended to as showcasing objectives for some organizations. Showcasing experts believe dependability to be a multidimensional marvel. Notwithstanding the discoveries of numerous inquiries about that fulfillment has a critical great effect on brand devotion and a genuine re-buy conduct of same brand prompts long haul business benefits Awan, A. G., and Rehman, A. U. (2014).

The consequences of SEM show that there is a solid connection between consumer loyalty and brand picture. The consequence of SEM likewise shows that there is a solid connection between Brand Image and Loyalty expectation and the connection between Customer fulfillment and Loyalty goal was discovered minimal feeble. While the roundabout connection between consumer loyalty and devotion goal by means of brand picture was observed to be extremely solid. The proportion of advantage of brand picture was comprised of Functional, Social, Symbolic, experiential and appearances improve. Auxiliary Equation Modeling was utilized in the present examination through AMOS 16 Upamannyu, N. K., and Bhakar, S. S. (2014). The paper manages the consequences of the essential research which design was to analyze the effect of brand on affecting shoppers to buy an item. The objective of the paper is to stretch the way that the brand affects client decision making process. Unique essential information inside the essential research were gathered by utilizing a quantitative technique for poll Chovanová, H. H., Korshunov, A. I., and Babčanová, D. (2015). The makeup goliaths have been enchanted by India in a hypnotizing way. Because of which the Indian Cosmetic Industry has seen fast development in the recent years. According to the reports of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), the magnificence and restorative industry which is as of now esteemed at around $ 4.6 billion, is assessed to develop between 18-20 percent for each annum in the following couple of years (Dwarakanath, 2015), The present research goes for investigating how brand steadfastness impacts the purchasing conduct of female shoppers with reference to make-up makeup Srivastava, M. (2015). Brand learning is a critical factor. As the buyer is progressively mindful of the brand and he has all the information about its value, quality and so on, the more he will be pulled in towards that brand. The faithfulness level increments with the age. Family is the most powerful reference gathering. The buyers, who are increasingly social, are influenced by their companions like on Facebook. The customers who are more status cognizant are more status obvious than the individuals who are not status cognizant Sarwar, F., Aftab,M.,andIqbal,M.T.(2014).

Theoretical Trends

This study aims to find the direct impact of customer commitment & customer behavior on brand loyalty. The framework of the study is shown in the model. Strong competition and rapid technological developments in various sectors made the firms aiming to increase their market shares by gaining more customers protect their market shares. The way to protect their market shares is to create customer loyalty. The firms with loyal customer portfolios protect their existence for a long time by making their customers repeat purchases. Therefore, there are several studies in the literature about the investigation of variables affecting brand loyalty.

Determinants of Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty is the tendency of consumers to continuously purchase one brand’s products over another. Consumer behavior patterns demonstrate that consumers will continue to buy products from a company that has fostered a trusting relationship. Loyalty is extremely beneficial to businesses as it leads to repeat purchases by consumers, higher revenues, and customer referrals.

Customer Lifetime Value

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is a marketing metric used to see how valuable repeat customers are to your business. In this lesson, we’ll define CLV, learn how to calculate it, and discuss how it could influence your customer loyalty program.

Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction indicates the fulfillment that customers derive from doing business with a firm. In other words, it’s how happy the customers are with their transaction and overall experience with the company.

Consumer Behavior

Consumer behavior is the study of how individual customers, groups or organizations select, buy, use, and dispose ideas, goods, and services to satisfy their needs and wants. It refers to the actions of the consumers in the marketplace and the underlying motives for those actions.

Brand loyalty

Brand loyalty is the tendency of consumers to continuously purchase one brand’s products over another. Consumer behavior patterns demonstrate that consumers will continue to buy products from a company that has fostered a trusting relationship.

References

1. Marshall, N. W. (2010). Commitment, loyalty and customer lifetime value: investigating the relationships among key determinants. Journal of Business & Economics Research, 8(8), 67-84.
2. Kumar, A. H., John, S. F., & Senith, S. (2014). A Study on factors influencing consumer buying behavior in cosmetic Products. International journal of scientific and research publications, 4(9), 1-6.
3. Maheshwari, V., Lodorfos, G., & Jacobsen, S. (2014). Determinants of brand loyalty: A study of the experience-commitment-loyalty constructs.
4. Tartaglione, A. M., Cavacece, Y., Russo, G., & Granata, G. (2019). A Systematic Mapping Study on Customer Loyalty and Brand Management. Administrative Sciences, 9(1), 1-21.
5. Sung, Y., & Campbell, W. K. (2009). Brand commitment in consumer–brand relationships: An investment model approach. Journal of Brand Management, 17(2), 97-113.
6. Rajumesh, S. (2014). The impact of consumer experience on brand loyalty: The mediating role of brand attitude. International Journal of Management and Social Sciences Research (IJMSSR), 3(1), 73-79.
7. Alkhawaldeh, A., Al-Salaymeh, M., Alshare, F., & Eneizan, B. M. (2017). The Effect of Brand Awareness on Brand Loyalty: Mediating Role of Brand Commitment. European Journal of Business and Management, 9(36).
8. Rai, A. K., & Medha, S. (2013). The antecedents of customer loyalty: An empirical investigation in life insurance context. Journal of Competitiveness, 5(2), 139-163.
9. BAŞER, İ. U., CİNTAMÜR, İ. G., & ARSLAN, F. M. (2015). EXAMINING THE EFFECT OF BRAND EXPERIENCE ON CONSUMER SATISFACTION, BRAND TRUST AND BRAND LOYALTY. Marmara University Journal of Economic & Administrative Sciences, 37(2).
10. Chahal, H., & Bala, M. (2010). Confirmatory study on brand equity and brand loyalty: a special look at the impact of attitudinal and behavioural

Samsung: Strategic Brand Management

INTRODUCTION

Samsung group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate founded by Lee Byung-Chul in 1938. During the beginnings the group was already very diversified with areas like food processing, textiles, insurance, securities, and retail. In the late 1960s they integrated to the group the electronics area which increased the group’s growth a lot. After the founder’s death in 1987, Samsung was separated into four business groups: Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and Hansol Group. Today Samsung Group employs less than 500.000 people (2014) and has a revenue of $305 billion (2014) with a net income of $22.1 billion (2014).

Within Samsung Group, there is Samsung Electronics (1969) which is a subsidiary where Samsung phones are developed. Samsung Electronics is also the most important source of income and the world’s 2nd largest information technology company measured by 2015 revenues. It employs about 300.000 people (2016) with $180 billion revenue and $25 billion net income (2016)

In October 2016, Samsung, the South Korean giant electronic giant has known a huge worldwide scandal. After the release of its Samsung Galaxy Note 7 in mid-August 2016, the brand stopped selling it because several reports told that some devices caught fire and even exploded. The scandal spread on the social media with pictures and photos of damaged phones and mostly the case of a phone which started to catch fire mid-air on a Jet Airways Delhi-Indore Flight.

Samsung really struggled from the Note 7 scandal and back then many thought this was the end of the Samsung Galaxy Note phones. But this helped the company to focus on reinforce their security and improve the way they communicate with their customers. Samsung have learned from its situation and they demonstrate it with the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Note 8 which are two great success for the brand. They still had good financial results which a gradually increase of phone sales. The brand was able to compensate this scandal with their other phones. They get back the customers trust.

BRAND STRATEGY, PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY AND TARGET CUSTOMERS, AND COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

As a multinational company, Samsung needs to build up a strong, durable and reliable strategy to sustain in a very competitive market.

BRAND STRATEGY

Samsung adopt a special strategy, they observe its competitors and their new products, to launch lately with eventually new features. This makes Samsung’s products in maturity phase while the others became dead weights. It is known that Samsung never the first to launch a new kind of product.

In Telecommunication sector it is true that Samsung takes a little their competitor’s idea for their phones, and mainly Apple ideas. However, their choice of creating their own OS and keep reasonable costs allow a new vision for the brand. This renewal of image allowed Samsung to overcome many competitors since the beginning and still today. It is not certain that it stays like that, considering the multiplication of competitors and new technologies concerning telephony and networks. (Analyse stratégique de Samsung, 2011)

With the recent failures, Samsung had to polish its image. They made some choices to improve safety with new productions policies and deeper control with their partners, especially suppliers.

This safety process would ensure a new quality security which had not obviously existed before. This process is also way more complete than the industry standard safety check. Samsung has thus acquired the means to control its product safety and develop it as a force. “It also used the opportunity to find a bigger brand purpose for itself and creating an internal culture of change that encourages and prides itself on taking risks.” (Businessinsider.fr, 2017)

The Galaxy Note 7 recall influenced Samsung to put safety in the heart of their promotion. To get the customers faith back, they had to speak publicly about this issue and to show that they solved it. With social medias and classic medias such as TV, they could spread a new message of transparency toward their solutions. In a Youtube video from their official channel, Tim Baxter Samsung’s COO, speaks directly with the customers with this message: ‘At Samsung our highest priority is our customers, their aspirations, their needs, their safety. And with battery cell defects in some of our note 7 phones, we did not meet the standard of excellence that you expect and deserve. For that we apologize. Especially to those of you who are personally affected by this to those of you who love the note, the most loyal customers in our Samsung family. We appreciate your passion and your patience, and we take seriously our responsibility to address your concerns about safety.’(Youtube.com)

With this message, Samsung grapple the scandal and by apologizing and assuring that they will do everything they can to get back their customers trust.

Pio Schunker, SVP of integrated marketing communications at Samsung Mobile Communication, speaking for the Association of National Advertisers’ Masters of Marketing Conference said: ‘We knew we couldn’t afford the luxury of a fetal position and just lie there, so the first thing that we did to make things right was to take accountability,’ he said. ‘For Samsung, it wasn’t just the right thing to do, it was the only thing to do.’ They did a video advertisement on TV and YouTube where the viewer could see the different tests they did on the new Galaxy range phone. They spoke about the Galaxy Note 7 with honesty by saying that they figured out the problems but now they ensure that they do all the tests needed and even farther. As Russel Feldman said: “In anticipation of the Galaxy S8’s arrival, Samsung’s January global TV advertising campaign focused on quality and the thorough nature of its testing process comprising a new 8-point battery check in an attempt to reassure consumers that it has taken extensive measures to ensure there isn’t a repeat performance.” (thedrum.com, 2017)

Samsun has also a strong CSR policy with a dedicated Youtube Channel about their CSR actions and also a section on their website where the brand explains their approach in the different subjects.

From the beginning, Samsung had to fight hard to change customers’ perceptions of it as a manufacturer of cheap electronic goods. Starting in 1993, Samsung has adopted an aggressive branding and advertising strategy. (https://martinroll.com/resources/articles/marketing/samsung-global-asian-brand/)

Samsung’s branding philosophy is built on five main pillars: innovation, cutting-edge Samsung was known as a thigh-lipped nature for answering questions and giving interviews, which was perceived as arrogant by the press. Their communication is now clearly more open because this Galaxy Note had definitely impacted their profits but especially the image and marketing for their products. The brand wanted to build “brand love”, Pio Schunker said “We needed to reclaim our leadership”. Indeed, the brand identity was “immensely fragmented which lacked warmth and humanity” and that is why they create the tagline “Do What You Can’t”. (Business Insider, 2017)

PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY AND TARGET

Samsung has used all possible communication channels to convey its brand’s positioning and personality. Mass media advertising, public relations, event sponsorship, sports sponsorships, product placements, the Samsung experience gallery and Samsung experience retail stores have been its major brand communication channels. (Martin Roll)

The brand communication had two main objectives. Firstly, to reposition Samsung as a premium, world-class brand offering quality, credibility and design and, secondly, initially to be seen and accepted on a par with the likes of Sony and more recently to be the top consumer electronics brand globally. After Sony’s decline and Samsung’s aggressive entry in the premium smartphone’s category, Apple is now Samsung’s biggest competitor in the high growth categories of smartphones, tablets and smart wearables. (Le Monde, 2017)

SAMSUNG’S TARGET

Samsung’s targets is very large. Indeed, they provide a large range of phones that fit with all generations. Their retail prices are also large from 149 to 1,100 pounds (shop.samsung.com). This means that they don’t target a specific and unique target but several. Samsun phones are suitable for a teenager, business man, elder and so on.

PORTER FIVE FORCES

Porter’s Five Forces analysis model helps to see if a company is able to sustain on a specific market/industry. These five forces are:

• Threat of new entry
• Buyer Power
• Threat of substitution
• Supplier Power
• Competitive Rivalry

For Samsung this model allows to understand if the place of the brand in the smartphone industry is a threat or an opportunity.

As the Porter’s Five Forces analysis shows every aspect are fragile except for Supplier Power which could be the only aspect which is quite strong.

New competitors are gaining market shares (Huawei, OPPO, Xiaomi) which affect Samsung because they propose similar phones like Samsung’s. Buyers have also the capacity to choose a brand whenever they want. In fact, the price of a phone is an important part of the buyer’s budget so it is an important choice for them.

Buyers want a reliable product for the best price possible and a lot of brands propose good phones such as Samsung’s phones for a decent price. The threat of substitution is thus high for Samsung. Supplier Power is quite low because lots of them are willing to work for Samsung and they do not really have bargaining power.

However, if issues such as the battery of the Samsung Galaxy note 7 could affect the image of these suppliers an Samsung has a lot of suppliers. Concerning the rivalry, its high because of the well-established companies on the phone industry such as Apple, the main competitor of Samsung and also Sony, LG, Motorola. The strong rivalry with Apple affects the brand image of Samsung because both brands have a strong community which spreads lots of messages denigrating the “enemy” devices.

Local and international competition

Samsung has four critical areas in its branding strategy that it needs to address to remain competitive in the future:

• Strengthen its value brands in the categories they compete in
• Maintain the differentiated image of its premium brands, which have been built up over the years through sizeable financial and manpower commitment
• Define and maintain an image of the corporate brand, which encompasses the company’s offerings across the value and premium ends of the categories it plays in
• Put in place a brand architecture in the organization, which emphasizes the relationships between the corporate brand and the product brands and how the identity and image of each can help strengthen the others

Samsung has invested heavily in R&D to churn out new technologies. In 2016, the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard ranked Samsung as the top technology spender and second highest global spender with USD 13 billion in R&D spends. In 2013, the company also announced an additional R&D spend of USD 4.5 billion with five new R&D centers in its home country. Today, the company has over 50,000 people working in R&D globally, spreading out across its 42 global research facilities, including R&D centers and design centers. The company is committed to invest at least 9% of its sales revenue into R&D activities.

CONCLUSION

In today’s fast changing consumer culture, huge companies like Samsung has to develop a strong and reliable strategy. Even though it is a big company, consumer from the phone market are very versatile. This versatile consumption is known by Samsung because of the Galaxy Note 7 which had a profound effect on everything. They faced a big loss economically, consumer faith and image.

As they faced a scandal, it is interesting to see how they react and how it affected the whole market. Now, Samsung reinstated to their before scandal level and even higher cause they improved a lot in several domain such as safety and communication.

REFERENCES

1. Martin Roll, 2017: Samsung – The Global Asian Brand https://martinroll.com/resources/articles/marketing/samsung-global-asian-brand/
2. Samsung, CSR Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/SamsungCSR/videos
3. C.Boyles, 2015: Samsung Mobile Brand Guideline https://fr.slideshare.net/chrisboyles/samsung-mobile-brand-guideline
4. R.Dissanayake, T. Amarasuriya, 2015: Role of brand identity in developing global brands: a literature based review on case comparison between Apple Iphone vs Samsung smartphone brands https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282323997_Role_of_brand_identity_in_developing_global_brands_a_literature_based_review_on_case_comparison_between_Apple_Iphone_vs_Samsung_smartphone_brands
5. P.Juneja, No date: PESTLE Analysis of Samsung https://www.managementstudyguide.com/pestle-analysis-of-samsung.htm
6. N.Mortimer, 2017: Can Samsung’s Galaxy S8 marketing strategy help repair its Note 7 wounds? https://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/03/30/can-samsung-s-galaxy-s8-marketing-strategy-help-repair-its-note-7-wounds
7. Business Insider, 2017 https://www.businessinsider.com/sites/maribellopez/2017/01/22/samsung-reveals-cause-of-note-7-issue-turns-crisis-into-opportunity/
8. Samsung Website, No date: The values that define Samsung’s spirit https://www.samsung.com/latin_en/aboutsamsung/vision/philosophy/samsung-spirit/
9. Burton.J (2016) Samsung’s communication stratgy koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2016/10/197_216407.html
10. L’express, (2016) : L’affaire du Samsung Galaxy Note 7 et ses batteries explosives expansion.lexpress.fr/high-tech/l-affaire-du-samsung-galaxy-note-7-et-ses-batteries-explosives_1838245.html
11. Burton.J (2016) Samsung’s communication strategy koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2016/10/197_216407.html
12. Androidpirdpit France (2016) Galaxy Note 7 : Samsung peut-il survivre au scandale ? youtube.com/watch?v=ZbllbavW1_8

The Luxury Industry during and after the Coronavirus Pandemic

The break-out of coronavirus pandemic has greatly impacted the whole world. People stayed at home during lockdown, or wearing masks all day during their work after the slightly alleviation. Not only the daily life has been changed dramatically, but also the business world. The most impacted business should be those who rely highly on world trade. The world trade in 2020 is expected to plummet by between 13% and 32% due to the disruption of the normal cross-border economic activities. The transportation and travel restriction rendered the sectors with global and complex supply chain more vulnerable compared to local business. This essay will highlight the impact of coronavirus on the luxury industry which both relies largely on the world trade with its complex supply chain and which turned out to be one of the industries most damaged during the pandemic.

Financial survival

As the dramatic decrease in sales, luxury brand had to take some financial measures to make sure the survival of brands. One essential way is to manage the cash by cutting cost of unnecessary market activities such as postponed fashion shows. Cash could help mitigate the high risk derived from debt leverage. Companies with low free cash flow, which relied highly on revenue to pay interest would have inflated leverage risk during pandemic. For example, Fauchon, a luxury dessert companies with 134 years history went bankruptcy during the pandemic due to the interest problem.

Besides, brands need to reconsider all the necessary marketing expense so that to adapt to the pandemic situation. Advertising expenses should privilege mobile and TV. Reallocation would make expenses more suitable and realistic.

Moreover, many companies expected to survive through M&A strategy. Crises created new avenues for luxury brands to develop. The vertical M&A helped brands with the suppliers issue and helped manufacturers with distribution issue may reshape the ecosystem and provide survival and developing opportunities for existing companies.

Last but not least, brands need to pay attention to the investors’ point of view. It is reported that investors foresee a significant Covid impact with Cars, Hotels, Restaurants, Cruises, and Retailing as most negatively affected sectors. Apparel, Watches Yacht and Private jets may remain stable. And Costmetics & Fragrances and Furniture are expected to experience an slightly growth while digital luxury would benefit greatly from this pandemic. For the geological segment, Asian and Middle Eastern markets are expected to recover soon from the pandemic while Europe and Latin America may suffer for longer period during the next several years. From the perspective of investors, brands could adjust suitable fund raising strategy for both its survival and potential growth opportunities.

Customer and employee protection

When the pandemic first break out, the priority of every company would be to protect the health and safety of all people involved in their business, for example, their employees, their customers and their business partners. Before the lockdown, several brands began to communicate with employees on infection risk concerns and provided work from home options. During the lockdown period, almost all the physical business stopped and companies’ technical department need to quickly deal with the online working platform problems so that to ensure that the working communication between all employees continue smoothly. However, there are millions of people who rely on the luxury industries to make a living and their work are almost in-place work, for example, factory worker, retail-store employees and artisans and craftsmen. The luxury industry need to develop a long-term strategy to ensure its social responsibilities on these stakeholders, even if the cost of this responsibility would worsen its operating condition under low demand period. Therefore, to keep facilities operating, and to maintain its ability to afford workforce, with the chemical production line of perfume and manufacturing line of clothes, many companies transferred its products to hand sanitizer and masks. For example, by repurposing its production facilities, LVMH not only mitigated the risk from coronavirus but also generated rewarding revenues. This action also improved the brand reputation for customer centric and high social responsibility.

When the Covid-19 condition alleviated and business restarted, the highly demand for social distance urged the companies pay as much attention as they could to the in-store sanitation condition during purchases by in-store social distance indicators, posters, sanitizer in front of stores and compulsory limitation for in-store people number. With these actions, although business recovery slowed down, the stakeholders’ safety is protected.

However, all these strategical measures above require high resilience and adaptability of luxury brands. The coronavirus breakout began a Darwinism competition condition for all luxury brands. Those companies with lower risk, economies of scale, or vertical integration could regain its vitality after this pandemic while others may run out of business.

Supply chain

A) Suppliers

More than 40 percent of global luxury-goods come from Italy. Although there’s a trend of vertical integration in the luxury industry. The Italian suppliers still played an important role at the beginning part of the supply chain. The Italian factories or craftsmen-based small studios have temporarily shut down. Considering the lack of stable supply due to the pandemic, luxury companies had to reallocate the existing inventories across regions and channel, giving priority to markets that are less affected, quickly recovered and fulfilling online channel first.

For those companies with internal factories, producing luxury personal protection goods would be a possible measure to cover the loss and maintain revenue.

B) Merchandizing

Luxury brands need to not only adjust merchandise during the pandemic, but also make long-term plans to deal with the coming “revenge spending” after the lockdown period. “Revenge spending” is the term used to describe the floating demand after several months of indoor and mostly low-consumption life. According to the report, in terms of price, high-end and low-end luxury items are more attractive during “revenge spending” compared with other products of the middle price. Besides, it is reported that handbags and small leather goods sold better than ready-to-wear apparel during the crisis. The reason behind it could include the size-difference between brands and the less developed virtual showroom. Although the analysis of profitability condition and the shifts of segments highlighted would increase non-operating cost, these shifts could turn out to be increasingly profitable during the “revenge spending” period and might cover part of the loss incurred during the lockdown.

C) Distribution: online

The e-commerce of luxury industry has never been crucial before. In the luxury industry, the products represent only part of value while the rest rely on the meticulous service in-store. Before coronavirus, in-store services can never be over-emphasized by luxury brands themselves. Therefore, the online shopping is viewed as a lack of significant value for customers. However, during the pandemic, the priority of luxury companies is to improve its online pages and to cooperate with e-commerce platforms to increase the available distribution channel. Through these channel, luxury brands still need to provide high-quality service and shopping experience for customers, maintaining the service value, so as to attract customers.

D) Logistics: alternative and supplemental delivery options

Due to the lack of workforce during pandemic, goods delivery became an urgent problem for all the business world. For luxury industry, the primary concern would be the safety and punctuality of delivery. Luxury goods need to be protected carefully because the delivery service is a determinant issue of the service value. Not only should the products be undamaged but also aesthetical (even for the delivery box), so that to guarantee the superior quality and customer impression on items. Although the quality-demanding delivery would result in high operating expenses, the low-quality delivery would be the last choice of brands since it would hurt long-term brand image which determine the value and the survival of brands in the future.

Digital shows of haute-couture luxury brands

The spring and fall fashion weeks as the most important marketing activities of the haute-couture luxury brands, remains an essential way to maintain vibrant relationship with customers and business partners. As the pandemic swept across western Europe in February and March, the Spring 2020 fashion shows were either cancelled or moved entirely online thanks to the digital livestream platforms. For example, as a significant market which contributed almost two third of global growth in luxury spending, Chinese market of luxury has been benefit from fast growing APPs like Tiktok. Despite these possible solutions as a result of highly developed technology, the change from physical fashion shows to online ones has both decreased the influential ability of the fashion shows and denied the collateral influence of celebrities. Celebrities attending a fashion week usually has collateral effect on the fashion show itself and also on the all the luxury brands. The absent of one important influential factor will result in the potential loss of customers’ attention and the loss of revenue.

There has been a lively discussion about what would the future of the fashion show be like. On one side, people are arguing that during the coronavirus pandemic, the digital fashion show on live stream platform give this industry the opportunity to make a change, from the costly show which presenting a collection outdated, because of the fast developing fashion trend and long preparation period for a stage show, to an immediate information through social media. According to them, the fashion week, as an once-needed intermediaries of the fashion press is now losing its important role with the developed technology. On the other side, people still regard fashion week as an tradition in this industry. For example, according to the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (FHCM), the governing body of French fashion, the Paris Fashion Week women’s shows will take place as usual in real life from Sep. 28 to Oct. 6. They expect that there would have at least some audience, if not a full room. Whether physical fashion show will continue to exist will still remain a question.

Customer loss

The worldwide outbreak is particularly harmful for luxury industry, one of the most globalized industries overall. It has shut down several growth engine that had supported luxury brands over the last two decades, especially Chinese consumption (both in China and at tourist destinations throughout the world). The outbreak of coronavirus and the strict lockdown regulation in China harmed the one of the biggest market for all luxury brands. However, luxury shopping would likely restart first in China if the virus remains under control. And the travelling restriction would make luxury goods need in tourist destination move to local luxury stores. Luxury brands need to reallocated the supply to capture the coming opportunities.

Customer behavior change

During this pandemic, customers made purchases through online channel. If the online shopping experience could reach the expectation of customers, the convenient e-commerce channel might be an important distribution channel from now on, even after the influence of coronavirus.

Besides, consumers’ behavior may change because of this pandemic. As we know, this virus came from animals driven out of forest for the deforestation. People may put more attention on the environmental sustainability. Customer central luxury brands need to pay attention to the behavior change and make adaptive plans.

Conclusion

The pandemic has swept over all segments of luxury industry. For the survival and for the potential future growth, luxury brands need to pay attention to stakeholders, analyze all the activities it included and make adaptive plan for the future change.

Bibliography

1. LUXUS+ , “France: Affected by Strikes And the Covid-19 Crisis, Fauchon Files for Bankruptcy in Paris”, June 24, 2020. https://luxus-plus.com/en/affected-by-strikes-and-the-covid-19-crisis-fauchon-files-for-bankruptcy-in-paris/
2. Deloitte, “Fashion & Luxury Private Equity and Investors Survey 2020”. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/pt/Documents/consumer-business/deloitte-ch-en-2020-global-fashion-luxury-private-equity-survey.pdf
3. McKinsey & Company, “China Luxury Report 2019”. https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/featured%20insights/china/how%20young%20chinese%20consumers%20are%20reshaping%20global%20luxury/mckinsey-china-luxury-report-2019-how-young-chinese-consumers-are-reshaping-global-luxury.ashx
4. Marc Bain, “Paris fashion shows will sashay on, despite all the reasons to cancel”, Quartz, June 24, 2020. https://qz.com/1872789/despite-coronavirus-paris-fashion-week-is-happening/
5. Christina Binkley, “The fashion show, as we know it, is over”, Vogue Business, May 18, 2020. https://www.voguebusiness.com/fashion/the-fashion-show-as-we-know-it-is-over-covid-19
6. Claudia D’Arpizio, Federica Levato, Stefano Fenili, Fabio Colacchio, Filippo Prete, “Luxury after Covid-19: Changed for (the) Good?”, Bain, March 26, 2020, https://www.bain.com/insights/luxury-after-coronavirus/
7. Antonio Achillie, Daniel Zipser, “A perspective for the luxury goods industry during—and after—coronavirus”, April 1, 2020, https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/a-perspective-for-the-luxury-goods-industry-during-and-after-coronavirus#

Using Typography to Brand Films

In this written piece I will be investigating how typography is used to brand films. Films more often than not use word marks for branding purposes rather than using iconography; as the word-mark spells out the name of the film and is often stylized towards the specific genre or direction of the film. Due to the heavy saturation of word-marks used in the branding of films can this element alone alter the image of a film before a minute of content is seen and how is this typography used, altered and applied to expose the films genre further. The branding for films appears to be on the nose and very obvious in terms of reflecting the films content and genre to appeal to fans but is this actually true and is there anything involved in the branding that’s more than meets the eye?

95% of graphic design is typography (digital synopsis) and there are six main categories of typeface: serif, slab serif, sans serif, script, modern and display. Each typeface can communicate a different message and offer a different aesthetic, they all offer contrasting elements and can be used in many different ways. Psychologically a typeface can lead you to preconceived ideas depending on how it is presented and specifically which style of typeface is chosen. Serif typeface is often used to expose the aesthetic of class and heritage, making them perfect to when attempting to create something with an established feel. They also denote feelings of trust and respectability to a consumer adding to an identity that revolves around authority command. Slab serif typefaces are usually associated with confidence, solidity and strength. They often lend themselves to be used alongside bold new ideas or to create a strong confident aesthetic. Sans serif typefaces are clean and modern in appearance more often than not they are used to demonstrate a no-nonsense, straight forward attitude resembled in the aesthetic of the type. There are no added decorative elements which reinforces this message and can be valuable for a simplified approach to type. Script typefaces appear a lot fancier to the serif typefaces they derive from due to their often decorative appearance. The use of these typefaces is usually to provoke ideas of femininity and elegance due to their hand written presentation. To give a more personal feel to something they are very useful as well as adding a touch of creativity as an aesthetic. Modern typefaces are often used to communicate intelligence and style along with a modern spin. They are used to reach a younger audience with broad style connections to social media and network. Display typefaces are unique and or frequently customized type offering a unique decorative appeal. They can be used to convey any type of personality or feeling and subsequently have no boundaries the limit of a display typeface is endless and is used to create a very personalized look and feel.

Typefaces are a lot more complex than what you can physically see; they have been used since the 1400’s when Guttenberg invented movable typefaces and throughout this time the specific use of typefaces has labelled them with preconceived ideas about what they stand for. For example, the typeface Fraktur was used heavily for Nazi propaganda and therefore has negative connotations attached to it due to its use during this period in time. However, this doesn’t label the typeface as unusable as it comes down to the context it is used in because if it was used to brand a film about Nazi Germany during that time there wouldn’t be an issue whereas if it was being used for a kid’s film then there might be a problem it all comes down to context.

Typography can also hold notions of gender as throughout the years heavy, bold, jagged typefaces are usually associated with men and playful, lighter, curly typefaces are often associated women. This notion is conditioned from being a child the same as, if a baby were to be dressed in blue it would see as a boy, and pink for a girl, although a lot less prevalent now compared to years ago this still stands as a formula for differentiation. There are also physical attributes applied to type based on how they look which can relate to how they are perceived. To illustrate the point, an example of six traits: heavy, thin, small, large, loose and tight all being adjectives that can describe type forms as well as anything outside of design and typefaces showing typefaces share visual characteristics with things from the real world, offering the specified use of typefaces for this reason alone. If a bold, condensed typeface was used to brand a film whose spotlight was focused on a big, strong protagonist in an action style film this pairing would fit perfect as bold meaning heavy and condensed meaning dense both relate directly to the main character in this film and would offer the audience a glimpse at the film by just reading the title of it. Whereas, if the film was branded using a tall, thin typeface it wouldn’t have the same effect or feel as these characteristics are usually associated with beauty and would be more suited to a chick flick style of film over an action based one.

Striking that balance between the functionality and basics of type versus expressive type and grabbing someone’s attention, especially when relating that to the branding of a film it is an important balance to get right. Upper and lower case can have a large bearing on how typography is perceived, “the term comes from the position of loose metal or wooden letters laid out in front of the traditional compositors’ hands before they were used to form a word – the commonly used ones on an accessible lower level the capitals above them”. Using road signs as an example, in the 1960’s Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert designed and applied the road side system in Britain that is still being used to this day. During this process both Kinneir and Calvert established that upper and lowercase words are more legible than words all in uppercase as the words and letterforms create silhouettes making them more distinguishable from a distance. To relate this back to the branding of films it is an element that needs to be considered, that being legibility, especially from a distance with the logo being small on a poster from far away a more legible poster will stick in a consumers mind a lot more than one that is not. To add to the case for the functionality of type; a quote from the famous graphic designer Massimo Vingelli “I don’t think that type should be expressive at all. I can write the word ‘dog’ with any typeface and it doesn’t have to look like a dog. But there are people that think that when they write ‘dog’ it should bark”. The famous advocate for Helvetica insists that type should not have to show what it says and if the basics and functions of the type are addressed correctly and it is presented well then this should be good enough to portray what you are trying to say no matter what it is. Alternatively, from the beginning of typography titling fonts have been used they were fonts made of metal specifically designed to be used at larger point sizes mainly aimed towards headlines and titles. Titling fonts differ from normal display fonts in this way as they were a lot bigger than their counterparts and have been modified to look better at these larger sizes. Newspapers usually use titling fonts for headlines to grab the attention of the reader but have since been emphasized further to create more of a dramatic look especially for things like books, magazines and films really stylizing the type and to use Massimo Vignelli’s quote making the type bark. This opposes the functionality of type more than aligning with it as the function of a titling font now has been extended from its original use of a simple large title to being as big and as bold as possible attempting to grab a consumer’s attention in any way possible.

And in conclusion, I want to summarize everything described above with examples of the use of typography in branding famous films.

‘Aliens’ is a film from 1986, they used a sans serif typeface this gives the film a modern more futuristic look and by just reading the name of the film it would more than likely come under the science fiction genre which this sans serif typeface would display given its sleek, straight appearance. The large tracking of the word adds to the science fiction feel by literally and figuratively adding space between the letters it also gives more of an importance to each letter making the syllables more prevalent when reading the word aloud making it slightly more memorable. The physical relation to this type is tall and thin which often relates to beauty, but from the name alone this film is quite the contrast to beauty however the type does relate itself to a futuristic science driven film with it being slim and compact in appearance mirroring the evolution of technology. There is a glow that surrounds each single letterform which give the type a more mysterious feel as well as the letter ‘I’ being altered to make it look different to the other letterforms or to use another word alien referencing the use of extraterrestrials in the film.

‘Finding Nemo’ is a film from 2003, they used a mix of sans serif and a display typeface with sans serif giving it a simple look but with a touch of playfulness judging by the weight and construction of the letterforms. With the name ‘Nemo’ larger than anything else this puts emphasis on what the film is about and already who the main character is coupled with the heavy, condensed, square physical appearance of the typeface would insinuate that it would be a struggle to find Nemo in the film as everything is so tight and condensed that there no space and so many places to look. With the addition on the wave underneath all the type as well as the fish in the ‘O’ gives the impression that this film is set under water and that Nemo is in fact a fish with the image of a fish replacing the counter of the ‘O’ and that being the last letter from the title of the movie it would imply that Nemo does not get found until the end of the film with the logo giving a few clues about the film itself.

‘The Godfather’ is a film from 1972, they used a serif typeface which is often associated with trust and respectability and comparing this to the name of the film they go hand in hand as the name portrays a powerful figure by combining ‘god’ and ‘father’ together. Using a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters and measuring this up against the name of the film and that portraying a powerful figurehead this could imply a power structure in the film with the capitals representing the people at the top and lower case the people at the bottom which exactly references where uppercase and lowercase letters got their name from. The added illustration of a hand controlling the letters like puppets would give an indication that the godfather is controlling all the people working for him or under his power like puppets giving reference to film and the name directly also using the word ‘the’ implies there is only one and the reason being there is only one hand controlling all of those letters at the same time.

Building a Strong Company Culture with Branded Apparel

When it comes to earning the loyalty of repeat customers, strong branding is essential. The visual element of your brand identity plays a critical role in driving consumers to your door. This is not, however, where the power of branding stops. Branded items, including customized apparel, can go a long way in building a strong company culture amongst employees and customers alike.

Setting Branded Apparel Apart

What sets branded apparel apart from other forms of branding is that when employees sport your custom threads, they’re proudly taking their stand as a brand representative. No matter where they go, employees and fans alike who show off your branded apparel essentially become walking billboards for your business. This makes the visual element of your brand a critical part of your business identity as a whole.

Better Morale Through Branding

Few things tie your team together like common apparel can. Employees who share common designs will feel an increased sense of connection and team spirit. On top of that, customers will know just who to turn to for help when they walk through your doors and notice the branded professional attire. They’ll be on a first name basis with your employees, right from the start.

Sharing Cultural Values

The values of your brand may include attention-to-detail, customer dedication and style. These values can be conveyed through clothing that represents the passion that you put into your day-to-day. It may not seem like much, but a custom t-shirt design can be the first impression a consumer has of your business, and it’s important to make that first impression count.

Branded Apparel Options

There are various ways to give your logo legs with branded apparel and strengthen brand culture. Here are just a few ideas to give you an idea of what some of the promotional possibilities are.

Custom T-shirts are one of the most popular promotional items out there. Virtually every major brand has a custom T-shirt design of their own for a simple reason: customers love them. Comfortable and stylish, custom tees are globally recognized as a staple of business brand culture. In addition, they serve as a decent sized canvas for logo designs. Consider using your T-shirts to share bits of wisdom from your brand vision.

If you’re looking for another level of sophistication and class, custom embroidery is a great option. Virtually any type of garment or hat can be decorated with your logo or a teammate’s personalized design in a way that is sure to make your customization ‘pop’. Your embroidered designs can even extend beyond wearables, into items like towels, duffel bags and totes. Keep in mind that more complex designs, such as those that use shading, may not be best suited for embroidery.

Hoodies, polos and custom jackets are also great options for branded designs. Businesses that use a variety of custom apparel options earn the valuable repeat impressions which drive brand loyalty. Business culture is built one impression at a time, among prospective customers and employees alike.

Quality and Quantity

No matter how many custom t-shirts you print, if your quality isn’t up to par, it’s unlikely they’ll end up on the backs of your customers. Cost isn’t the only factor when it comes to the materials, colors, logos and other design elements which make up your branded apparel. The quality of your promotional goods reflects the quality of your brand as a whole, so take the time to design a product which your fans would be proud to show off.

Once you’ve got a design worth wearing and which accurately reflects your brand values, you can focus on getting them into the hands of consumers and employees. Utilize the following strategies to optimize your custom apparel — and therefore your brand culture’s — impact on the public.

Effective Custom Apparel Strategies

There are many ways to effectively use branded apparel to strengthen company culture. In the workplace, give your employees personalization options so they can represent your brand in their own unique way. Reward your employees with embroidered gear, or welcome new teammates with some fresh company merch. While your promotional items should be consistent with your brand values and visuals, your team can still personally express themselves with company attire.

You can use your custom apparel in giveaways to spread your message to new prospects, or put them up for sale as a way for your most loyal fans to show their support. Every time one of your branded items enters circulation, awareness of your business culture grows. Send a message along with your branded gear that says you care about customer satisfaction and welcome any feedback they may have.

Weaving It All Together

Within your company, branded apparel helps to tie teammates together and build a unified sense of company culture. For customers, your custom threads can make the difference between an average logo and an iconic one. All of these elements contribute to overall company perception, as well as a stronger brand culture.

Case Study of Gucci: Analysis of Luxury Brand Management

Luxury Market in India

Overview

Luxury adds to pleasure and comfort which is more than just necessity. Luxury provides satisfaction at two levels i.e. product and experiential. The products satisfy the functional aspects like craftsmanship, design, exceptional product capabilities, technology, etc while, experiential brings a reward of possessing a coveted item, association with hierarchical brand and status.

Currently, the luxury market in India is valued at $18.5 billion which is expected to grow to $100 billion in next the 7-8 years. As per reports, the economic growth leads to urbanization and high disposable income which has helped drive the growth of the luxury market.

The Tier I and Tier II cities account for 45% of the luxury market in India. The market which was earlier restricted to the top of the pyramid is witnessing a change in its consumer base – traveled and most informed middle class. The penetration of luxury brands in these markets is also because of the growing usage of internet and easy access to information with increasing Smartphone users.

The biggest change in the consumer trend is that because of travel and penetration of media, the people are becoming more aware and conscious and they want to consume the best of global brands. Also, there has been a significant increase in the aspirational class which adds to the number of consumers in the city.

Challenges faced by luxury brands

1. Lack of infrastructure
2. Counterfeit products
3. High tax rates
4. Rental costs

Top five trends in Luxury Market

1. Growth of Luxury in Non-Metro cities. While Mumbai and Delhi have the highest numbers of UHNWI, there are specific super rich segments such as diamond merchants in Surat, machine tool exporter in Punjab, etc that are the key growth drivers of the luxury market in India.
2. Growth of Affordable Luxury segment in India. With increasing internet penetration there has been an emergence of a new segment of first-time luxury buyers which has been exploited by the luxury car makers at the fullest by launching the entry-level models backed with attractive financial schemes. This segment has a taste and uses luxury goods to flaunt their success.
3. Innovation in premium Electronics gadgets & appliances. There has been an increase in the usage of wearable tech gadgets for leisure and health such as smartwatches, fitness bands, etc. Also, there has been an increase in the demand of high-end panel TV’s, multi-door refrigerator, etc
4. New age luxury Indian consumer. In additional to the traditional luxury buyers, there is an increase in the younger HNIs with high disposable income and high spenders in non-traditional avenues. Today luxury is shifting from ‘having’ to ‘being’ – from owning a luxury to experiencing a luxury. Today the young HNIs are looking for novel experience instead of owning a product.
5. Regulatory Mechanism. The opening of FDI in single brand retail and roll out of GST has minimized the traditional deterrents to certain extent

Consumer Trends

1. The consumer is more traveled hence more informed and aware of the brands
2. Demand for experience is more
3. Pertaining to the Indian culture, brands are launching tailor-made designs
4. Demand for customization is increasing
5. Consumers are moving towards self-indulgence
6. Today consumers are not logo driven, they give more preference to experiential value and product authenticity
7. Digitalization has brought a big change in the way consumers shop. Now, consumers explore products online hence it has become important for brands to provide experience value at online platforms also
8. Earlier consumers were influenced by what bollywood or Hollywood celebrities are wearing, but today they are more influenced by the social influencer. They follow the fashion bloggers to see new trends.
9. Mumbai and Delhi has the highest HNWI but tier 2 and tier costumers are outpacing their counterparts

Bags Luxury Market in India

The Brand Story

Customer Profile

Gucci’s target market has primarily included celebrities, fashionistas, the wealthy, and the upper class. The target audience has now been expanded to include upper-middle-class women. Their current customers are both male and female having age in 25-50. They have added a new target market with children’s collection. It distributes its products through owned stores, websites, distributors, and retailers. As of December 2016, it has 520 company-owned stores globally which is helping the company in generating 34% revenue from Asia Pacific and 21 % revenue from Western Europe. In the first three quarters of 2017, around 55 percent of Gucci’s sales were made to consumers younger than 35, according to a report by consultancy firm Bain & Company last October indicating that the wabi-sabi is obsessed with Gucci. Reflecting on their clothing choices it is believed that a typical Gucci customer is fond of bright colours and prints, with a retro/vintage feel

Brand Story and Inception

The first Gucci shop was founded in Florence in 1921, and it is from here that the legendary history of its founder Guccio Gucci and his company earned fame. Their designs were inspired by horseracing, and his company swiftly became known for its incredible level of craftsmanship. In 1932 Guccio created the first loafer shoe with a gilded snaffle, as well as a wonderful selection of luggage and the famous handbags with a bamboo handle, was seen mostly in the arms of high profile people. Boutiques started to gain attention everywhere, and the glamorous ‘GG’ symbol which is still being used, was created in the 1960

Business Strategy

Business Level strategy is an integrated and coordinated set of commitments, actions, used to gain a competitive advantage by exploiting core competencies in specific product markets. When the firm is able to satisfy a group of customers by using its competitive advantages to compete in markets we can say that Strategic competitiveness has given results. Therefore, Gucci’s management creates an effective relationship with customers by answering questions related to the issues of ‘who’, ‘what’, and ‘how’.

By considering the factors such as demographic factors (age and income), social economy (high- income), psychological (lifestyle, personality), and consumption pattern (heavy, moderate), Gucci tends to identify “who” the target customer is that it will be serving.

After deciding who it will serve, Gucci identifies the needs (“what”) of the targeted customer that is luxury goods. Gucci determines which of its products will have benefit on prestige and esteem of the consumers with the very best product features from the raw materials. That’s why; people who are Gucci’s loyal customers are willing to pay premium prices to get the value of Gucci’s products.

Gucci also uses its core competencies (“how”) to implement value-creating strategies and thereby satisfy customers’ needs. Gucci created sophisticated store consumption experience that was dramatic and highly recognizable and they ensured that all the products are presented to customers in a way that it capitalizes on the exclusivity and ultimate allure of the brand.

Focused differentiation strategy is chosen by Gucci group which helps them in differentiating their products in many ways. Gucci is also able to complete various primary and support activities of each brand consolidated in a competitively superior manner to develop and sustain a competitive advantage also to earn premium returns. The activities required used by Gucci are the six key dimensions that defined their brand stabilization strategy, which are:

• Re-established control of Gucci product design and manufacture
• Re-established control over Gucci product distribution
• Create a balanced product portfolio for a luxury brand
• Establish a luxury marketing communications platform
• Create a luxury brand consumption experience
• Hiring Tom Ford as a creative director – to design direction and control

Furthermore, this strategy also has the purpose of creating difference between the firm’s position and those of its competitors, by performing activity differently or performing different activities.

Brand Strategy

Gucci has been linked to ‘Made in Italy’ by customers which is a synonym of art & fashion and has for performance Gucci was high-quality craftsmanship with a unique design.

1. Expand Target Audience. To appeal to the younger audience and be regarded as a brand that has matured with aristocratic lines, in early 90’s Gucci incorporated a trendy brand in addition to its mature line. This strategy helped Gucci to accelerate its international appeal and reach out to wider audience.
2. Care about customers. The brand tailored its lines of products to ensure that it perfectly matches the taste and preferences of the customer. To achieve it, they performed in-depth market research about the client base to establish their ambitions, taste, and needs.
3. Adopt a range of marketing technique. Unlike other brands, Gucci has embraced all the technological changes and has been seen across a wide range of marketing platforms like social media, online ads, offline promotions, etc. While adopting all the techniques, Gucci ensured that traditional approaches remain effective.
4. Focus on brand positioning and strategic orientation. Focusing on the message and image the brand is creating in front of its customer, the brand has strategically oriented itself to appeal to its customers’ self-worth, prestige, status, and image.

In addition to the above, Marco Bizzarri, CEO and Alessandro Michele, the creative director decided that talking to millennial’ is important while preserving its loyal customer base. They created strong communities that indirectly and strongly promote the brand (Brand Resonance). They used influencers and celebrities to promote the renewal of the brand and its iconic logo (Brand Imagery and Salience).

Technology has been efficiently used by Gucci to make e-shop better which includes fastening the delivery and creating affordable products adorned with newly launched logo.

Brand Communication

Retail Strategy

Worldwide Boutique Network

Online Strategy

For Gucci, its digital strategy reflects:

• Gucci has a Brand First channel second mentality with a visually engaging, fully functioning e-commerce store with full product offerings on sale. Their social media strategy is to do what it needs to do without overreaching. The e-commerce store aims to put its most recent ready-to-wear collections on sale alongside its lower-priced items.
• Shopping Gucci online is an experience that reflects its runways: the ready-to-wear look is sold as pieces of the outfit that appeared on the catwalk. The site manages to sell the Gucci brand — through visually rich imagery, some video and its content page ‘The Agenda’ — where it doesn’t sacrifice its functionality while respecting quality.
• The site is designed to represent the life of a Gucci woman in a smart and subtle way.
• The website offers different benefits like free returns, find-in-store options, product information and gift wrapping. Gucci also places customer services options on each product page, so that customers can easily get in touch with salespersons- thus increasing customer convenience online.
• The visually rich imagery of Gucci has always projected an aura of elitism and luxury. The website features a plethora of high quality visual content which features the collection and campaigns of the brand. This is combined with features like viewing in multiple angles, zooming photos for further convenience.
• Gucci’s media include their website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Google+ and Pinterest. Their website allows customers to shop the latest seasons and also has a feature called ‘stories’. This is essentially an online magazine entirely for Gucci; it is updated every few days with Gucci news such as new fragrance launches, new collection shoots or products and celebrities wearing Gucci. Gucci shoots its different bag products are taken fairly frequently so there are lots of different campaigns that are uploaded very often.

Gucci promotes its products exhaustively online while focusing on providing the information and lineage that the product carries with it.

Competition

Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton established in 1984, headquartered in Paris, France is considered one of the most luxury brands in the world and has a brand value of $28.4 billion. Their products are majorly into the category of handbags, accessories, leather goods, ready to wear and fragrances. They operate in approximately 50 countries and products are sold through main chains of stores, retailers and online stores. Customers are fond of the luggage of LV as it has a great brand image. The design teams involved in the production of Louis Vuitton products are the top class in the world. Due to their strong connection with quality and their brand value, Louis Vuitton is one of the most liked brands in the world.

Prada

Prada is a luxury fashion company that is based out of Italy. This company produces various products that fall into categories like cosmetics, clothing, fashion, jewellery, leather handbags and many more. Their products are available both through various retail stores and online. It has about 620 stores worldwide so that they are easily available to their customers. It is a brand which lays great attention on luxury and is considered one of the most recognized brands worldwide. Each of their products is unique and produced with great quality. Prada is actively involved in various shows to market their products to widen the scope of the audience.

Versace

Versace is an Italian fashion company established in the year 1978 and headquartered in Milan, Italy. Their main collection of products is leather accessories and ready to wear. The logo of Versace is the head of a Greek mythological figure, Medusa which symbolises elegance. Versace sells their products through 200 retail outlets. The brand has great loyal customers as it provides great quality and designs

Chanel

Chanel is a private fashion company headquartered in France, established in the year 1909 by Coco Chanel. Its main production includes manufacturing of luxury goods, fashion accessories and ready to wear. This brand is majorly famous in countries like America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Their products are sold in about 120 boutiques, both through department stores and through online. The company’s brand value is approximately estimated $7 billion. They try to achieve customer satisfaction through their unique designs and quality

Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL), founded in Paris in 1961, is known as an incredibly popular luxury fashion brand. They are known for timeless handbag designs that spell luxury as no other brand would do. Some of their most beloved pieces include the Muse Bag, costing $18,990 and is available in two sizes; the Classic Duffle 24 retailing for $2,990; and the Monogram SL Chain Wallet sold for $1,490. In their recent transformation, they gave up their first name “Yves”. YSL symbolises the confidence and elegance for feminine, self-assured and strong-minded woman.

Perceptual Mapping

Brand Prism

Gucci has a very strong brand identity and they communicate a perception of high-quality craftsmanship along with innovative and bold design. The brand’s personality is reflected in their customers who are eclectic, contemporary and romantic. Gucci through every communication portrays that its users get a feeling of confidence and internal pride while the brand also focuses on high quality, comfort and support. The Gucci brand of today is eclectic, romantic and above all contemporary.

They also very clearly depict their country of origin i.e. Italy in their identity, by evoking the feelings amongst customers that Gucci products represent the pinnacle of Italian craftsmanship. Today more than ever, Gucci’s brand value is reflected in the perfect balance between its Florentine and Italian heritage and its reputation as a fashion leader.

This strong identity is the reason why their relationship with their customers is highly personal. When a customer looks in the mirror and sees Gucci they see that the brand is reflected back in them because of which the stereotypical consumer will feel influential, innovative and progressive- much like the brand itself.

The brand identity of prism can be analysed as:

Thus we can see that Gucci as a brand has reinvented itself by disrupting the fashion industry with its bold, eccentric, printed and embroidered collection of bags. The brand image shows the receiver to be a fashionable, modern, glamorous one only belonging to the ‘privileged’ few. The consumers get an image of being confident and successful while belonging to the modern world when they purchase the product of the brand.

Brand Report Card

Traditionally luxury has been associated with exclusivity, status and quality. But in present times, this definition of luxury has changed with ‘New Luxury’ been defined as products/services that possess high levels of quality, taste, and aspirations. They are not as out of reach to the new age consumer segments. Luxury today is the experience gathered from the ‘Intangibles’ rather than possessing a set of tangibles. The brand identity of Gucci bags is about: Hype, luxury, essence, Youth, ethics.

On analysis of Gucci on the different elements that a luxury brand must possess the following observations were noticed:

• Brand Values: Gucci values are deeply embedded in ethics. Quality remains the main priority but they try to elaborate upon this in lines of Sustainability: People and environment are a part of their Quality concept. The brand operates in a transparent, ethical manner and encourages its supply chain to adopt similar responsible business patterns.
• Brand Personality: Gucci through its bags has always focused to provide individualistic experience that empowers its users. They talk about how their customers are ‘fiery’ and successful just like their products. They have brought different range of products in their bag category and attached specific ‘empowering’ adjectives to each one that defines the user uniquely.
• Brand Image: On a survey conducted, Gucci bags were perceived by the users as products for the ‘exclusive young adults’. Gucci gives high importance to maintain its aura of exclusivity which is well embedded within the public. Gucci bags are known to represent the luxury, trendy, young and hype. It is perceived that Gucci is the brand celebrities use for their bags and hence is the ‘trend to follow’
• Brand Positioning: Gucci competes with LV, Prada, Versace, and Chanel with similar products and more or less similar target market. Gucci gives high focus on premium pricing as well as prominently displaying its brand logo and promote exclusivity.
• Brand Lineage: Gucci gives high importance to its brand story, where the consumers are given a feel of belonging to an age old lineage while at the same time consuming something ‘modern’. They have a well woven brand story and continue to take their legacy forward with every product in their bag category
• Use of technology: Gucci’s media include their website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google+ and Pinterest. Their website allows customers to shop the latest seasons and also has a feature called ‘stories’. This is essentially an online magazine entirely for Gucci; it is updated every few days with Gucci news such as new fragrance launches, new collection shoots or products and celebrities wearing Gucci. Gucci shoots its different bag products are taken fairly frequently so there are lots of different campaigns that are uploaded very often.
• Brand Relevance and Consistency: Gucci has kept their famous GG logo and font for a long time marking consistency. However, the creative directors have used their personal ideas to structure the product design and ad campaigns to reflect the consumers at that time.

Road Map

References:

1. South China Morning Post. (2019). Teens and millennials are obsessed with Gucci – we find out why they love it. [online] Available at: https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/fashion-beauty/article/2146535/teens-and-millennials-are-obsessed-gucci-we-find-out
2. E. (2019). Gucci Customer Profile. [online] Available at: https://emilycramp.wordpress.com/2016/03/17/gucci-customer-profile
3. Top 10 Luxury Handbag Brands You Should Invest In | Biltmore Loan & Jewellery. [online] Biltmore Loan and Jewellery. Available at: https://www.biltmoreloanandjewelry.com/blog/top-10-luxury-handbag-brands-invest
4. Afaqs.com. (2019). Top five trends in luxury market. [online] Available at: https://www.afaqs.com/all/cafaqs/lg/ [Accessed 27 Jan. 2019]
5. Indianretailer.com. (2017). How luxury market is growing in India? [online] Available at: https://www.indianretailer.com/article/sector-watch/luxury/How-luxury-market-is-growing-in-India.a5860/ [Accessed 27 Jan. 2019].
6. Indianretailer.com. (2018). How Indian Luxury Market is Growing? [online] Available at: https://www.indianretailer.com/article/sector-watch/luxury/How-Indian-Luxury-Market-is-Growing.a6001/ [Accessed 27 Jan. 2019].
7. 8ways.ch. (2015). 5 Branding Lessons from Gucci. [online] Available at: https://www.8ways.ch/en/digital-news/5-branding-lessons-gucci [Accessed 27 Jan. 2019].
8. Modern Buyer Behaviour. (2018). The rebirth of Gucci: a brand new strategy towards Millennials. [online] Available at:
9. https://modernbuyerbehaviour.wordpress.com/2018/03/02/the-rebirth-of-gucci-a-brand-new-strategy-towards-millennials/ [Accessed 27 Jan. 2019].
10. Luxuryheterotopia.wordpress.com. (2019). Gucci Brand Identity. [online] Available at: https://luxuryheterotopia.wordpress.com/2017/02/02/featured-content/
11. Burzynski, I. (2019). Gucci brand report 4. [online] Issuu. Available at: https://issuu.com/isabellaburzynski/docs/gucci_brand_report_4

Costa Rica: Country Branding

Costa Rica, a country situated in central America with its main source of income through tourism. The country is one of the most visited destinations and has no army from a long time. Costa Rica is also an enticing investment country and provides tremendous opportunities for the establishment of major multinational corporations, due to the high academic level of its workforce as well as the high quality of modern facilities and social and political stability. Many misconceptions that people have about Costa Rica has affected its image as a country. Whether it might be about official language or confusion about the culture. Tourist visiting misunderstand about the country as only a tourist place and an agricultural nation.

Anholt coined the word ‘Country Brand’ as the summary of a nation’s perceptions in the six realms of national authority: exports, government, tourism, investment and immigration, culture and the heritage and human beings. The strengths and weaknesses of a country depend on every point of the ‘hexagon’ (consisted of the six respective angles named after the key-components of the nation brand notion). Tourism may play an important role in the research arena of nation branding among the six components (Giannopoulos, Avlonitisa and Piha, 3).

The usage and marketing of a country’s logo is an example of a nation branding technique. A country’s picture is the people’s opinion and beliefs about a nation, and it can be shaped by a number of factors, including its geography, culture, proclamations, art and music, prominent residents, and other features (Kotler and Gertner 2004, 42). People were able to say there are Costa Rican only after the nation became its own country. Nationality, however, is not the same as national identity. Costa Rica’s rich class has shaped the country’s identity (Sebel 2020, 20). They presented an impression (perhaps more imaginary than real) of colonial Costa Rica as being without a caste system, class distinctions, almost no slaves, no nobility, and democratic and with standardized customs. Costa Ricans consider their country peaceful, as well. Not only has the army been disbanded, but Costa Rica sought to prevent confrontation and war since independence, which other countries in Central America witnessed (Sandoval-García 2004, 68). The images of Ticos, who would usually want to avoid confrontation, represent this too. But independence is perhaps the highest characteristic of the Costa Ricans’ national identity. Once again, they are proud that they have taken another direction than their Central American neighbors, who all have been dealing with military dictatorships.

In just 0.035 percent of the world’s land, the nation contains up to 6% of the world’s biodiversity. It is home to wildlife, volcanoes, beaches, and rain forests despite being one of Central America’s smallest nations. Nature did not necessarily take precedence in Costa Rica. At the end of the last century, almost 80% of Costa Rica’s forests had been cleared for a wide range of reasons. The number of tourists visiting the nation also increased in Costa Rica (Miller 2012, 59-60). Costa Rica tried to develop its infrastructure and transport during this period. The country has constructed railways, widened the Pan-American Highway and developed an international airport in the area of San Jose. However, by the end of the 1980s Costa Rica had cleared nearly 80% of its initial forest cover. Forests were useless in Costa Ricans’ eyes, and only land clearance demonstrated a person’s reputation for hard labor (Miller 2012, 61).

The Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT), also known as the Costa Rican Tourism Board, is the leading force behind the branding and communication efforts of Costa Rica. Created in 1955, the Institute has the responsibility to regulate tourism activities in Costa Rica and to promote tourism attractions and destinations in Costa Rica both at the national and international levels. The institution is the independent State (government) institution. 342 grants the tourist declaration to hotels, travel agents, charters and other Costa Rican tourism agencies and service providers and establishes tourism standards, rules, incentives.

A separate state governments committee, responsible for managing the Essential Costa Rica Country Brand, has been set up to work with public, private partners as well as the people themselves in cooperation and participation. This organization is independent from the executive governments which replace one another to rule the country which, while it works with the administrations in the office in a natural way, guarantees it a non-party status and is excluded from political outcomes.

The environmental engagement of tourism policy has made a good contribution to Costa Rica’s perception along with other key policies: education promotion (a 96% literacy rates), culture, peace (the head office of the United Nations Peace University), access to healthcare (free nation-wide service) and industry growth (export of technology and food products to 157 countries).

In 1996 it launched its global non-artificial ingredient tourism branding campaign, which aims to promote the country as an exotic destination closer and cheaper than other similarly marketable destinations like Thailand and other Asian countries. The global marketing agency McCann Erickson has created a campaign to make Costa Rica a successful ecotourism destination by sending messages such as ‘Take the largest volcano in Central America, add to national parks, blend into miles of pristine beaches’ (Jain and De Moya 2011, 342).

Costa Rica’s country brand’s success was increasing, providing evidence of how well designed and applied nation-branded systems function effectively. In November 2019, the Essential Costa Rica Country Brand won the ‘Place Brand of the Year Award’ for its ‘commitment for a sustainable, comprehensive strategy and its belief in the potential of the brand to unite a whole nation’ at the City Nation Place Global, event in London. For other country brands it is a very critical acknowledgement of the ideals of preservation, sustainability and citizens’ inclusion.

TikTok Essay

Introduction

Once a fruit is purchased, it is delicious and easy to consume. But over time, the delightful fruit becomes rotten. When rotten, it tends to be discarded. Throughout the engrossing history of social media, numerous apps have died down or been removed. But one app has transformed millions all over the world. TikTok is simply a fruit that cannot be repudiated. The concept of the famous social media app is derived from Zhang Yiming, who created the app for local Chinese citizens to show off their quirky lip-singing videos. Sooner than later, the app bounced like a bouncy ball to every country around the world, including the United States. With short and silly videos to binge-watch all night, TikTok has definitely stolen the attention of millions of people. But a recent controversy has sprouted over whether the famous social media app should be banned in the United States. TikTok should remain in the United States of America because it spreads and promotes brands, reduces stress, and allows people to have a voice in their community to speak up.

One aspect that illustrates this is TikTok makes promoting brands easier. When opening the app, tons of advertisements appear on the home page. This allows viewers to become more attracted to the item being endorsed. As reported by CNN Wire, “TikTok is attracting attention from brands, too. It recently teamed up with fashion brand Guess on a denim campaign to target Millennials and Generation Z on the platform in September” (Yurieff, 2018). Because the app is such a substantial part of users’ lives, people tend to become more attracted to items their favorite app promotes. Not to mention, bigger creators with a fanbase take part in advancing the brand’s business. That further pushes viewers to buy the item. Undoubtedly, while a person is scrolling on the app, they are presented with a creative promotional video. Due to this, they will be gravitated towards the product, making millions of dollars.

In addition, Tik Tok helps to release stress. Because the app is enormous, there is something for everyone. Users find comfort in various things and TikTok has a wide range of videos that can release tension. According to the article, Experts say TikTok Videos are Helping People Stay Happy in the Lockdown, “Oddly enough, the social media video-sharing platform, TikTok, which has been always in the news for the multitude of challenges users participated in was considered to be one of the best ways to engage users and promote good mental health”(Times of India, 2020). With this in mind, Tiktok provides videos that help users mentally. As mentioned, the app has been in the news for its engrossing challenges which permit users to engage. Because of the challenges of TikTok, users find it absorbing and diverting from their everyday lives. In other words, the app provides a broad spectrum of videos that can lift the weight off shoulders.

Furthermore, TikTok allows people to speak up in their community. On popular social media software, people can interrelate with others that share the same beliefs as them. By teaming up with someone that has similar thoughts, an impact can be made. Since TikTok’s main purpose is to create short videos, users can speak their thoughts and convey them to other people. As stated in the Detroit Writing Room, “An abundance of creators, more popularly known as “influencers,” has emerged from this internet forum. Many of these influencers have strayed from their typical content of shaking their hips to the latest hip-hop remix, or step-by-step recipe for their grandma’s vodka penne pasta and have made a conscious decision to promote important current events that permeate the news cycle, especially the Black Lives Matter movement” (Kiefer, 2020). Users on the app not only make silly videos that others can laugh at but also spread awareness for things they believe in. For example, the Black Lives Matter movement stimulated millions to make short videos on the topic. If there is an event or idea that a user wants to see being brought to light, then many creators have already posted a short video talking about it. Or they can make their own video. Ultimately realizing, how many voices have come together because of the ability to speak about any topic on the app.

However, they say privacy can be put at risk when using the app. Since TikTok is free to join and is familiar to millions of people, anyone can hop onto the app. There is also no restriction on who can and who cannot join. The social media app does not have extremely strict guidelines for being on the app. Not to mention, hacking is extremely common these days. Nevertheless, the settings on TikTok make it safer than other social media apps. Pocket-lint points out that,“ TikTok is giving parents new options to control how their kids use the app. Thanks to ‘Family Pairing’, parents and guardians can link their kids’ accounts to their own and then they’ll be free to disable direct messages, turn on restricted content mode, and set screen time limits” (Tillman, 2020). Anyone is open to direct texting on the app. But a feature on TikTok allows a limit on who can dm users. The app itself is building on parents being more in charge of their children’s accounts. With the “Family Pairing” option, numerous features are disabled which assists users to be more comfortable. Overall, by disabling distinctive features on TikTok, privacy can be more secure and not as jeopardizing.

Conclusion

The prominent social media app, TikTok should carry on being an app in the USA because it endorses brand merchandising, lifts the weight of shoulders, and permits users to raise one’s voices in society. The app assists brands in further enlarging their business. It also reduces the tension or pressure that a user is feeling. TikTok authorizes a platform that enables users to raise their voices in their district. The app is an engrossing social media platform.

Samsung Brand Philosophy and Product Placement: Analytical Essay

Samsung sells a greater number of smartphones than any other individual company in the world. Despite this fact, in terms of technological advancement and sleepless design to the iPhone, retails at a more unquestionable expense. Both Samsung and Apple’s iPhones can be seen as grounded brands. “Samsung started as Samsung General Stores in 1938 in the Northern Province of Kyungsang in South Korea as an exporter of dried fish and flour (Kovach, 2013).” In the 1970s the brand became revitalized with a new angle as it was locked in with associations going from products, wool, and assurance to compost gathering and broadcasting. Samsung was better known for conveying unassuming copies of Japanese electronic products. The current director Lee Kun-Hee established the frameworks for the present Samsung when he took over administration in 1993. His decla­ration of new administration standards stressed scholarly capital, hierarchical inventiveness, mechanical development, and worker strengthening. Samsung Electronics is one such key specialty unit that produces a-list versatile handsets, wide-screen plasma TV screens, advanced camcorders and other family appli­ances. “Set up in 1969, it was producing a working pro?t of USD 27.2 billion by 2012 (Samsung – the GLOBAL ASIAN BRAND 2017).”

This has been the lead division inside the Samsung Group. Bloomberg Businessweek positioned Samsung Electronics first in the data innovation worldwide positioning in 2002.” In 2003, Samsung Electronics was positioned fifth in Fortune magazine’s Most Admired Electronics Company list. With USD 216.7 billion deals incomes in 2013, Samsung Electronics is the world’s biggest gadgets organization by income (Samsung – the GLOBAL ASIAN BRAND 2017).” Samsung’s prosperity is to a great extent dependent on the image the board measures. From its beginning of repositioning the brand from a modest maker to a brand of class and quality, Samsung has had a reliable arrangement of basing all exercises in accordance with its image system. The organization has set a model for the entire business in brand stewardship, with the executive himself continually overseeing and sustaining the brand. Samsung as an organization had to restructure it’s brand going from a business that mainly focused on exporting goods and textiles to a more innovative business that focuses more on technological advancements to help improve society. “Every company would like to have a strong workplace culture supported by inspiring values. With great brands, however, the culture and the values don’t play supporting roles in business operations—culture and values are the brands, and they’re used to inform business decisions and employee actions (Yohn, Denise Lee p. 30).”

Samsung Brand Philosophy:

In the beginning of Samsung’s career, they had to fight hard to adjust to consumer perceptions because at the time Samsung was known as a “cheap” manufacturer of electronic goods. In 1993 Samsung fostered aggressive branding and advertising strategies. Samsung has built its brand philosophy on five targeted pillars: innovation, cutting-edge technology, world-class designs, recruiting the world’s best talents, and internal branding. Samsung Electronics is expected to put its development into building new features and making new machine classes and use. Samsung under­stood early that gainful and beneficial development should be indefatigably kept up by unmatched unforeseen development and the best plans.

Samsung is the top investor when it comes to research and development. The levels of assessment and progression utilization at Samsung Electronics placed in the scope of 2009 and 2020 has been growing. The position figures were disseminated in South Korean won. The sums in U.S. dollars have only been given to help in the appreciation of the estimation and are not position figures from the Samsung venture. “In 2020, hard and fast spending on imaginative work at Samsung Electronics amounted to generally 21.2 trillion South Korean won (Vailshery, 2021).” These figures epitomize Samsung’s complete obligation to create bleeding-edge innovation to guarantee an upper hand (taking note of that it is rivaling Apple in numerous classes). Another obligation to innovation was that Samsung had the second most noteworthy number of licenses in 2014 (4936) granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a position reliably kept up since 2006.

Samsung persistently grasped a handle on trying to become the best in product design. Upheld by movement and forefront progression, the most recent, trendiest and coolest plans have particularly organized Samsung in both the market and consumer’s psyches. With merciless conflict, the visual treat of Samsung’s brand has been a ventured differentiator from its competitors. Samsung created an Innovative Design Lab academy to teach employees how to teach and design new products for upcoming lines. Samsung began to put their employees at the forefront with complete instructional classes to get comfortable with the latest examples in architecture, and close-by workshops on ergonomics and mechanical planning. experiences. “Great brands use culture building to educate—to help employees understand what a brand is and why it’s important (Yohn, Denise Lee p. 31).” By seeing the craftsmanship, culture and figures of various countries, the engineers taught their designers how to become the best of the best. IDS transcended into Samsung’s presence of global design centers.

In 2013, Samsung focused on a newer slogan as the 3.0 design was introduced highlighting “Make it Meaningful”. This can be referred to as a shift in Samsung’s culture to aim at creating a new and meaningful product-service experiential value and lifestyles for users that go beyond exterior styling and convenient use. Samsung was drawn more to a global focus than a local focus being that their global design centers were placed in seven major cities across the globe. This shift introduced a new body of talent for Samsung as they focused on recruiting from top-tier global business schools across the country. “This was evident when Hak Soo, former COO and vice president of Samsung once said: “People are Samsung’s biggest challenge, we need to hire and train the best global talents because we are a global company, not just a Korean company (Samsung – the GLOBAL ASIAN BRAND 2017). ” With the use of the five brand pillared strategy, it has allowed for Samsung to position itself on a global aspect. Samsung items like the Galaxy cell phone arrangement and the Smart and Curved TVs are seen to be mechanically modern and creative. Despite the fact that the repositioning procedure has been fruitful, it moved to concentrate away from making an unmistakable character. The organization’s greatest rival presently is Apple, whose corporate and item marks appreciate the compelling enthusiastic association with its purchasers, other than being creative and innovatively progressed.

Samsung Brand Communication:

To communicate effectively Samsung has used a diversified approach of communication channels to convey its message about its brand positioning and brand personality. Modes of mass communication such as advertisements, public relations, sports sponsorships, product placement and “Samsung Experience” have been the brand’s major communication channels.

The focal point of Samsung’s objective has been to reinstall the image of the brand as a world-class premium brand that offers quality products, credibility, and a unique design. The second focal point of Samsung’s objective was to gain acceptance from other top-tier brands such as Sony and the top electronics brands across the world. With Sony’s decline in the market, it allowed a great entry point for Samsung’s aggressive entry into the smartphone market, with Apple being Samsung’s top competitor.

Samsung used its technology, design, and innovation to stay ahead of its competitors by grabbing the consumer’s attention. Samsung has power in being the “first” to release things such as having the first wristwatch, rotating camera, largest of LCD TVs, and curved smartphones. “The brand’s “value proposition” is the unique value it provides customers over competing brands (Johansson, Johny K. Kjell, Carlson, Kurt A.( p. 51).” its System telephone arrangement attempted to push plan limits and client experience. They additionally gave Samsung a great deal of media inclusion in worldwide busi­ness magazines like Bloomberg Businessweek, Money Road Diary, The Monetary Occasions, Forbes, Fortune, and Showcasing Week to innovation magazines and sites like CNET.com and others. These, alongside various honors Samsung won for its plan and utilization of innovation to make better items, went about as believable outsider support. Samsung needed to exploit the innovative forward leaps of the 1990s, primarily computerized assembly. With its driving innovation in the fields of remote correspondence, memory chips, and plasma screens, Samsung needed to situate itself as a pioneer in advanced combination-making items that consolidated remote commu­nication with photography, music and video.

Campaigns:

Samsung’s first genuine, worldwide push to enter the cell phone market and challenge Apple occurred in 2009 when the Samsung i7500 was dispatched as the Samsung System. This was the start of the long arrangement of Cosmic system telephones, which has as of late tested the Apple iPhone’s ubiquity. “The advertising and promotional strategies used to create the now-established brand identity and image need to be continued— although not necessarily at the level used in the introductory campaign (Johansson, Johny K. Kjell Carlson, Kurt A. (p. 110). “

For its whole Galaxy range, Samsung has effectively used advanced and customary directs in the correspondence programs. In the 2012 US dispatch of the Cosmic system SIII, it purportedly spent more than USD 300 million through utilizing creative media stations like 3D games in cinemas, short 3D movies, free substance download from booths, and banners joined with conventional stations. This has proceeded in resulting in System arrangement dispatches. For Universe S4, it utilized imaginative strategies like publicly supporting, online media commitment, and substance partaking in the mix with television promotions to drive mindfulness. These missions connote Samsung’s craving to stay in the bleeding edge of accepting new channels, mediums and stages for correspondence and promotion. It has ceaselessly embraced and really made notable intelligent and vivid consumer encounters. It has likewise not minimized the significance and the range given by conventional media channels, seen by its amazingly undeniable degrees of promoting spending committed to television, print, film, and outside.

Product Placement:

Samsung is undeniably a genius when it comes to building relationships with its partners that strategically use its products to reach a global audience. Samsung has successfully managed to have its products placed in the “Matrix Movie” where it has a strong cult providing the opportunity to gain a strong following. Samsung has conveyed it’s messaging to a potential customer base through a product placement deal during the hit show X Factor in 2012. “Finally, the company can grow by getting into new products and new markets completely, a diversification strategy (Johansson, Johny K. (Kjell); Carlson, Kurt A. (p. 110).” Samsung has managed to gain sponsors in two realms of one being technology and the other being sports such as the Olympic games. With such commitment and focus on brand interchanges, Samsung in the end surpassed Sony as the world’s biggest TV brand. “In September 2014, Sony reported a deficiency of USD 2.1 billion in the current monetary year and cutbacks of 1000 specialists out of the 7100 utilized in its cell phone division (Samsung – the GLOBAL ASIAN BRAND 2017). ” Despite the fact that Samsung has been doing the appropriate things, it will be a test to look after consistency.

Samsung Brand Positioning Map:

Samsung encapsulates style and innovation for the youthful expert, with its forefront plan and predominant availability highlights. Samsung’s situating articulation is one that attests its separation from other cell phone suppliers. In the nearby market where horde decisions proliferate, Samsung’s smooth outside plan, joined by its determination of delicate and hard highlights, renders it an ideal buy for the youthful, innovatively refreshed proficient.

Samsung attempts to cover the entire versatile cell phone market and is presently one of the main portable organizations of the world. Today the organization’s item arrangement incorporates practically any conceivable cell phone or portable. In this way, the current situation of Samsung Mobile is to be a market chief in the entire portable and cell phone market. Samsung thought of groundbreaking plans to be more client engaged and imaginative to build up a solid brand picture in the worldwide market. “Their main focus is to make handsets with the most amazing and unique designs in order to meet their customers’ expectations (Brand positioning of Samsung Mobile 2015).”

References

1. Johansson, Johny K. (Kjell); Carlson, Kurt A.. Contemporary Brand Management (p. 51). SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.
2. Johansson, Johny K. (Kjell); Carlson, Kurt A.. Contemporary Brand Management (p. 110). SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.
3. Kovach, S. (2013, February 09). How Samsung went from a dried FISH exporter to one of the top names in tech. Retrieved April 26, 2021, from https:www.businessinsider.comhistory-of-Samsung-2013-2#samsung-was-founded-by-Byung-chull-lee-in-1938-in-taegu-korea-the-company-started-as-a-food-exporter-in-korea-and-shipped-items-like-dried-fish-and-flour-to-china-1
4. Samsung – the GLOBAL ASIAN BRAND. (2017, November 21). Retrieved April 26, 2021, from https: martin roll. comresourcesarticlesmarketingsamsung-global-Asian-brand
5. Unknown. (2015, June 12). Brand positioning of Samsung Mobile. Retrieved April 27, 2021, from http:sumaiyamahmud.blogspot.com
6. Vailshery, L. (2021, March 31). Samsung electronics: Research

Essay about Shoes

The consumer market includes all the individuals and households who buy or acquire goods and services for personal consumption. According to Kotler and Armstrong (2010), currently, the world consumer market consists of more than 6.6 billion people who annually consume an estimated $65 trillion worth of goods and services. Among these consumer goods shoes are one of the basics. Currently, different types of shoes are produced by different companies in different countries for different consumers around the world. These Consumers around the world vary tremendously in age, income, education level, tastes, and preferences even though they buy an incredible variety of goods and services. But these diverse customers relate with each other and with other elements of the world around them affecting their choice among various products, services, and companies.

Customers buying behavior is enormous and highlights the importance of the customer at the center of the marketer’s universe. Each customer is unique with different needs and wants and buying choices and habits are influenced by habit, and choices that are in turn tempered by psychological and social drivers that affect purchase decision processes. It is a complex multi-dimensional variable. Customer buying behavior is critical for influencing not only product purchase decisions but also important marketing decisions for commercial firms, nonprofit organizations, and regulatory agencies. Applications of customer buying behavior decisions lie in marketing strategies, regulatory policies, social marketing, and informed individuals. Buying Behavior is the decision processes and acts of people involved in buying and using products. Customer buying behavior is the sum total of a consumer’s attitudes, preferences, intentions, and decisions regarding the consumer’s behavior in the marketplace when purchasing a product or service. The study of customer behavior draws upon social science disciplines of anthropology, psychology, sociology, and economics

The study on consumer behavior in the footwear industry enables us to analyze one’s buying decisions. Footwear is a necessity and is therefore bought by the consumers of every income group whether at the top of the pyramid or at the bottom of the pyramid. The present project is an attempt to understand the differences in buying patterns of footwear of people belonging to different income groups; the difference in buying patterns of men and women. Category motivators identified are price, looks, purpose, brand name, style, variety, and durability.

Today, as a result of changing world business environment, global competition intensifying, foreign firms are expanding into new international markets, and home markets are no longer as rich in opportunity. Local companies that never thought about foreign competitors suddenly find this competition in their own backyards (Kotleret al., 2005).

According to UNIDO (2002), the African footwear sub-sector seems isolated from the fast pace of technological innovation taking place globally. Lack of design capabilities, operator, supervisory, and manager skills, and of knowledge of more appropriate material inputs and marketing techniques, all combine to cause poor productivity and a low level of competitiveness. Even in the local market, high operation costs and a lack of attention to what the market demands in shoes in terms of quality and price, allow cheap Asian products and second-hand shoes to penetrate the market.

There is insufficient production of non-footwear leather products, such as leather garments, in the Eastern and Southern Africa sub-region, although this situation has improved somewhat since the early 1990s. This is a major loss of opportunity to an industry capable of small-scale production that can offer the comparative advantages of cheap labor, low capital requirements, and relatively simple technology.

Concerning Human resources development issues training agencies and institutions have been established by donations received through co-operation programs and have been supported by regular investment programs. However, the training and technical assistance infrastructure in the leather supply chain has substantial shortfalls both in facilities and services.

Manufacturing industries in Sub-Saharan Africa have generally been stagnant or shrinking for the last three decades (Bigsten and Söderbom, 2006). As Collier and Gunning (1999) and Fafchamps (2004) and many others argue, industrial development in Africa has been hindered by my raid of problems ranging from high transportation costs, high transaction costs due to imperfect information, and imperfect contract enforcement tohighlyriskybusiness and political environments. Moreover, both the provision of public services and the development of grass-rootisinstitutionsandsocialcapitaare considered to be insufficient in Africa to cope with such problems.

The history of the leather industry in Ethiopia started 88 years ago, when the then-Asko Tannery, now known as TikurAbay Shoe Factory, was established. The production of leather shoes in Ethiopia dates back to the late 1930s when Armenian merchants founded two shoe factories in Addis Ababa. These factories nurtured a number of shoemakers, who opened their own factories across the country.

The leather-shoe industry in Addis Ababa is exceptionally successful in Africa. We believe that this is a case worth investigating since it is expected to provide insight into the key to successful industrial development. A major finding is that the growth of this industry was driven initially by the massive entry of new enterprises established by former employees of the existing shoe factories but more recently by the growth in enterprise sizes due to improvements in the quality of products, marketing, and management. Such improvements were first made by highly educated entrepreneurs and subsequently followed by other enterprises. While the followers have grown in size, the leading enterprises have grown faster. Such a development pattern appears similar to the experience of successful cluster-based industrial development in China, Taiwan, and Japan, as recently reported by Sonobe and Otsuka (2006 a).

Thus, a study on consumers’ shoes preference has immense value to shoe companies through providing actual information about shoe consumers, these in turn help them better understand their target consumers and design market offers according to the need and want of their target consumers.

Companies in this industry make footwear, including athletic, casual, and dress shoes as well as boots, sandals, and slippers. Major companies include NIKE, Sketchers USA, and Wolverine World Wide (all based in the US), along with Adidas (Germany), Asics (Japan), Salvatore Ferragamo (Italy), and Yue Yuen (China), a subsidiary of Pou Chen (Taiwan). Worldwide, about $180 billion worth of footwear is exported annually, according to the International Trade Centre. The top exporting nations are China, the US, Germany, Japan, and the Netherlands.

The US footwear manufacturing industry consists of about 200 companies with sales of about $2 billion. Many of the major shoe companies in the US are mainly owners of brand names that contract to have shoes made by independent manufacturers in other countries. Some large US producers, such as New Balance, make a portion of their shoes in the US; some smaller operations manufacture all their shoes in the US. About 98 percent of all footwear sold in the US is imported, according to the American Apparel and Footwear Association.

Ethiopian footwear sub-sector produces men’s casual shoes and children’s shoe-uppers made from pure leather. Leather factories sell these products to the domestic market and directly to overseas importers and wholesalers as well as direct buying offices (Embassy of Ethiopia in the United Kingdom, 2010). As it is obvious Ethiopia has the largest livestock population in Africa and the 10th largest in the world, the country had to be one of the major shoe producers and exporters in Africa as well as in the world having a comparative advantage of raw material and cheap human resource advantages. Despite this fact, many studies indicated that the shoe companies found in the country face strong competition from shoes and other leather products imported from abroad.

According to the World Bank Group (2006), the domestic market for footwear at present suffers from fierce price competition from synthetic footwear imported from China at much cheaper prices. Though low in durability, these low-quality Chinese shoes are considered somewhat stylish and fashionable in design and heel height and are available for men, women, and children in all local shops. Tegegne (2007) mentioned that the domestic shoes market has been flooded with cheap imports from Asia, particularly from China and this has inflicted heavy impacts on the sector, and threatened its competitiveness in the domestic market. Altenburg (2010) indicated leather and leather products industry is stuck in a low-quality trap in which problems at all levels of the value chain are mutually reinforcing. That is inappropriate techniques at the stages of livestock management, tanning, and transport undermine competitiveness in high-value leather product markets, and low quality of final products translates into low prices and under-investment at all stages of the value chain. Sutton and Kellow(2010) also pointed out that the leather footwear of Ethiopia faces strong competition from shoes and other leather products imported from China and elsewhere.

But, failure to do so may result in disaster for a company’s products. In this regard, Kotler et al. (2005) noted that firms that delay taking steps and stay at home to play it safe may not only lose their chances to enter other markets but also risk of losing their sales to companies from neighboring countries who have invaded their home markets.

However, the consumer’s buying decision of shoes has still remained as open that needs to be assessed. For this reason, this study was conducted to assess factors that affect consumer buying decisions in the selection of brand shoes. Understanding consumers’ choices and why they prefer is branded for shoe manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers, it will lead to a more accurate merchandise mix and marketing programs.