In the early 1990’s, outdoor apparel brand, Timberland received an unexpected growth in its consumer base and its sales. The brand’s popular waterproof leather boots, generally used for outdoor activities and moving through rugged terrain, were being worn by inner-city youth as a fashion statement. These new consumers wanted to keep their boots as clean as possible and some even wore the boots in the heat of summer, an incongruous contrast to how the target market used the boots in rough, messy weather conditions. While Timberland enjoyed the unexpected sales, they were faced with a decision. Should they try to further exploit this unintentional market; if so how would Timberland’s outdoorsmen target market respond? In this case, it seemed that these non-target consumers had no affect on the brand’s intended target market. So in response Timberland kept its advertising focused on the brand’s traditional target, while urban consumers continued to buy Timberland products. The brand continued to grow, achieving global sales of over $1 billion by 2007 (Fitch 2009).
The adoption of a brand by a non-target market does not always have such positive results. Since the 1990s, luxury brand Burberry has been dealing with its association with “chavs,” in Great Britain. The chavs are a lower class group associated with rowdiness, hooliganism, and crime. They adopted the famous Burberry checkered pattern as part of their uniform. This resulted in a decrease in brand loyalty of Burberry’s upper-class English customers. In response, the company discontinued production of the checkered caps and reduced reliance on their famous trademark plaid design (Fitch 2009).
In both the cases of Timberland and Burberry, a non-target market adopted a bra...
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...onstruct their self-identity and present themselves to others through their brand choices based on the congruency between brand-user associations and self-image associations (Escalas and Bettman 2003). But from recent reference group literature consumers show a greater tendency to avoid products associated with dissociative reference groups. This creates an interesting theoretical tension for circumstances when brand remixing occurs. At what point of disassociation does the congruency between brand-user and self-image associations, become so affected by a need for group disassociation that it discourages consumer choice? Through the following theoretical model, we consider not only the changing of associations, but also who is changing the associations. Additionally we consider characteristics of the target market and how that may affect the disassociation effect.
How naive are product consumers today? People assume things are factual without questioning the credibility of a person or product. An article in “The Onion” mocks advertisers in a satirical tone to show the bizarre tactics companies use to market their products to customers. The author writes on the topic of “MagnaSoles” shoe inserts, a fictional brand used for his demonstration. He uses devices such as humor, false authority/science, and irony to display the outlandish strategies of advertisers.
For example, lifestyle is one the major psychological factors that pushes the organization’s strategy. Lululemon wanted to create a “community hub where people could learn and discuss the physical aspects of healthy living, mindfulness and living a life of possibility”. Customers buy high end ‘lulu’ leggings to be part of the self-transformation movement lifestyle. The clienteles who purchase Lululemon’s leggings also perceive them to be of higher quality, thus don’t mind spending more if they receive better quality in return. Overall these psychological factors make Lululemon a popular exclusive brand that promotes the idea of a better lifestyle, this consumer behavior has helped Lululemon become more known with many sociocultural influences. With the increase of yoga and social media throughout the years, Lululemon is presented as a staple for yogi’s and athletes online and in person. Yoga instructors teach classes, pose in Instagram photos, and participate in self-exploration experiences all while wearing Lululemon leggings. This sparks the interest of consumers new to the lifestyle who view this as an influence to buy a pair. Lululemon also have a loyal clientele base that rave about the quality and comfort that come with buying a pair of Lululemon leggings. With the popularity, and the higher cost, many see buying a pair of leggings as
Abstract Patagonia's mission statement is, to use business to inspire and implement solutions to environmental crisis? Patagonia is a clothing company that focus is on selling environmentally safe outdoor apparel. This papers focus is on the history of Patagonia their environmental marketing strategies and their competition. There has also been some outside research done to see what the public perception of Patagonia is. Introduction Patagonia's History In 1957 a young climber named Yvon Chouinard could not find pitons (a form of climbing protection) that he liked.
Footlocker’s marketing plan entails selecting the target market, integrating the best marketing tactic to reach as many customers as possible, and customer retention initiatives. Essentially, this customer-driven marketing blueprint is classified as the marketing concept, which does not rely heavily on promotions to procure sales. Instead, the company learns to pinpoint what the customer wants before he or she does, to accommodate existing and future needs. Moreover, within the past five years, a new store entitled House of Hoops has made its debut in the same mall as Footlocker, which has caused the veteran shoe store to experience a decline in sales. This suggests that Footlocker may need to modify its sales strategy to help the company attract more customers to the store. “House of Hoops has a variety of shoes, and a large store front,” stated the interviewee, “customers are drawn to the store because it is new and possesses a
People are often deceived by some famous brands, which they will buy as useless commodities to feel they are distinctive. People require brands to experience the feeling of being special. People spend their money to have something from famous brands, like a bag from Coach or Louis Vuitton which they think they need, yet all that is just people’s wants. Steve McKevitt claims that people give more thought on features or brands when they need to buy a product, “It might even be the case that you do need a phone to carry out your work and a car to get around in, but what brand it is and, to a large extent, what features it has are really just want” (McKevitt, 145), which that means people care about brands more than their needs. Having shoes from Louis Vuitton or shoes that cost $30 it is designed for the same use.
In the 1997 article Listening to Khakis, published in the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell effectively paints a vivid picture of the thought and science that goes into advertising campaigns. Gladwell begins his paper by focusing on the Dockers’ advertising campaign for their line of adult male khaki pants, which he labels as extremely successful. This campaign was the first line of successful fashion advertisements aimed directly toward adult males (Gladwell, 1997). This campaign was cunningly simple and showed only males wearing the pants being advertised with the background noise filled with men having a casual conversation (Gladwell, 1997). This tactic was used because studies showed that Dockers’ target market felt an absence in adult male friendships. (Gladwell, 1997). The simplicity of the advertisements was accentuated as to not to deter possible customers by creating a fashion based ad because, based on Gladwell’s multiple interviews of advertising experts, males shy away from being viewed as fashion forward or “trying to hard” (Gladwell, 1997).
It is interesting to consider Veblen’s theory of conspicuous consumption as it pertains to the modern day fashion industry, specifically the luxury fashion sector. In The Theory of the Leisure Class, Veblen said “we all find a costly hand-wrought articles of apparel much preferable to a less expensive imitation of it;” however, at the beginning of the 20th century, couture clothing was exclusively available to those who were very wealthy, simply because of how much the garments cost. By the mid-1930’s, businesses were beginning to change their ways of thinking after seeing the enormous profit that the Walt Disney Company received once they licensed the making of Mickey Mouse novelty items. Christian Dior was the first of many fashion designers to foll...
What started as a trend that could supposedly “make” any outfit or “add a touch of sophistication” now does nothing more than scream out to the world “look at me, I’m cheap.”
A single outdoor company has nearly revolutionized the way some camp, hike, fish, tailgate, or just hang around with friends. Raw sales of top of the line, durable coolers, cups, tumblers, and bags have had a 3 year growth rate of 748%, and now sits on over 450 million dollars in revenue (Saporito, 2016). How did two brothers from Austin, Texas manage to grow a small startup into one of the top retail suppliers of durable outdoor accessories? More surprisingly, how did this company manage to market this product, create a “cult” like following, and create a whole new niche in the marketplace?
The unique heritage and Burberry’s Britishness are the significant resources that contribute to its success and premium price. Strong brand image as part of intangible assets contributes approximately 25% value to the organization in average (Keen 2003). To avoid discount or oversupply, Burberry needs to continue maintaining its long-term brand image (Berends 2004). Also, Burberry has a variety of product lines and attributes to high worth that makes it more competitive
Main drivers for US profitability has been within women shoes, broken down in sub categories of casual (17%), dress (13%), and athletic (10%) shoes, composing roughly a 40% demand of the market. However, domestically men’s athletic shoes represent 20% of the market and show signs of increase, globally men’s athletic shoes make up 30% of the market. This increase in sales within the athletic sub-category can be lead by the increase in demand for shoes that allow easy, fast movement. Studies show that ages within 18 and 45 in the U.S. have increased physical fitness by 17% since 2006. According to the Outdoor Industry Association, outdoor footwear grew...
Nike’s focus for fashion forward women is the following: lead the athleisure trend, increase advertising, and the introduce the #BetterForIt social media campaign. We need to focus on the athleisure trend by increasing our portfolio for the women target market. Athleisure is already 20% of the firm’s revenue and we need to recognize that women are leading this fashion movement. Under Armor and Lululemon are already making headways in this fashion focused market. We need to emphasize our athletic technologies, promoting lighter fabrics and better performance, while still maintaining a level of comfort and fashionability. Increasing the portfolio means nothing if women don’t know we’ve done just that. Nike will need to increase advertising specifically with this target market in mind. The #BetterForIt campaign is one important aspect of these advertising efforts. Similar campaigns should promote and help “normalize” athletic wear in everyday
-Status symbols: Sophisticated customers who value the distinctive, exclusive collection seem to value the corporate-branded version of luxury. –Philip Martiz, chairman of the board
in this segment are often brand conscious and enjoy the latest fads and trends. They...