The report focuses on the branding problems that are currently faced by Worker Jeans. The first section highlights on the evolution of branding, brand management, advantages of effective branding and brand components. Branding has huge significance in the organization as it has been used as marketing strategy on the behavior of consumer (Aaker and Joachimsthaler 2012). The second section discusses about present market trends in the jeans industry that includes market size and growth, key industry players and segmentation approach. The last section of this report elucidates on the key branding issues faced by workers jeans and recommendations to rebuild workers Jeans brand. This report will help the Marketing Director in supporting the business for re-launching the Workers Jeans brand.
The historical evolution of branding mainly comes from the perspectives of consumers, practitioner and the scholar. These three actors play vital roles in branding evolution in the market. In the year 1970 and 1980, the branding was firmly established and developed. Until the year 1970, the branding field was basically related to mass communication as well as mass production. The organizations used the brand commercials for differentiating their goods in terms of quality as well as functionality. In addition, positioning concept is another vital milestone that led to evolution of branding. The positioning strategy outlayed by the organizations concentrated mainly on surrounding elements of commodities (Aaker 2012). However, the companieschose in making external changes regarding pricing strategy, packaging of product etc. that helped in ensuring preferred position in the mind of customers.
Choi (2014) opines that positioning has become the marketing strategy, which gained popularity mainly among the advertising agencies. The huge development affecting modern branding has been derived from research and its function in business. Recent brand evolution takes into account –
In the 21st century, the concept of branding expanded in account of application as well as thinking. The current brand thinking has been reshaped on the ideas of brand equity as well as strategy management of the brand. For the last few years, the thoughts of branding usually evolved from reputation to the symbolic values, relationship partner and brand image. Brand image signifies as the insight of brand in the customers mind. Over the years, the companies developed brand image through their advertising campaigns and authenticated through direct experience of customers.
The advantages of effective branding are given below:
Brand refers to the distinguishing symbol, logo, design or combination of these used for creating image, which helps in identifying the product as well as differentiate it from rivalries (Wheeler 2017). The legal protection provided to the brand name is also termed as trademark. A successful brand depicts the organization message to the customers, which in turn outcomes in brand awareness. The components of brand are illustrated below:
Customers take active part to develop brands throughout lifecycle of product. Brand satisfaction of the customer is basically a factor that impacts on the brand loyalty. In fact, the relation between brand trust and brand loyalty is vital for the consumers in feeling confident, which the brand might deliver the promise.
The evolution of brand management in line with culture helps in connecting with the people. Branding in the cross cultural context might discover vital differences in meanings of brands that customers from various cultures attribute in same brand. The brand usage as well as brand affection are the basic determinants of meanings of brand. A strong culture of the company is mainly used for strengthening their brand (Kremer and Viot 2012). It also helps in attracting best staff who shares same aim for the brand. Differentiated culture in organization contributes to differentiated brand. Integration between brand and culture facilitates the company in increasing their operational efficiency, quality and accuracy.
The jeans industry in market in UK is worth near about 1.4 billion pound per year as more than 50% of the adults in this nation wear jeans. The market mainly includes wide style range that includes- workers jeans,flared, ripped, distressed etc. Over the last few years, the total sales in this industry increased to near about 60%. Moreover, the total sales of workers jeans in this nation have increased but the domestic manufacturing continued to decrease. This country produces around 8 million each year while remainder are given by overseas manufactures. Low cost manufacturing of jeans abroad made impossible for the producers manufacturing in this country to compete with them (Vigneron and Johnson 2017). The sales of jeans increased with the rise in total population. In addition, increased customer confidence, disposable income growth increased the sales volume. The sale volume was even boosted by rise in prices by several consumers those who opt for higher quality jeans.
Some of the jeans stores in UK differentiate their product from that of supermarkets in order to attract larger number of customers (Kapferer 2012). This industry in UK captures mainly the youth market in which the key consumers are basically aged between 15 to 24 years. The market for this product is segmented into three groups that includes – value, Mass and Premium. Recent statistics reflects that the mass market for this product increased by 29 % over the last few years. Workers jeans have become so much acceptable that both the customers wear this for the sociable occasions. Even the stores adopted new technology, which is the sizing system for this jeans measuring bottom size.
The attitude of the consumers purchasing as well as wearing jeans has changed over the years. Majority of the customers spends large amount of money on purchasing this jeans, which in turn increases its price. The market of jeans in UK has expanded over the last few decades owing to increase in its demand (Sasmitaand Mohd Suki 2015). According to the data generated by the market research organization Euromonitor International, the jeans market in this country that was worth of 1.9 billion pound in the year 2016 has grown to near about 20% in the year 2017. The growth in this sector has occurred mainly from two ends of market, which is the economy end including sellers in supermarkets and higher priced labels. The proportion of people purchasing jeans has remained stable during the last four years.
Recent statistics displays that the jeans industry in this nation in the year 2016 had been the most popular around the globe. A total estimate of 3.06 million people in this country purchased jeans in the year 2016. The fashion trends of jeans have improved in the industry in faster way and hence the company might face little difficulty in manufacturing it. Meanwhile, the customers have continued to purchase in response to the current trends in the market (Aaker 2012). Even The total number of stores increased owing to increase in demand of jeans.
The key industry players that operates in the jeans industry in UK are Levi’s, Marks and Spencer, Wrangler, Pepe, Primark, Diesel, CK jeans , Lee cooper etc. Among these players, the long reputable brand Levi remains the leading brand in the nation. They have also maintained its highest share in the marketplace through development of new product as well as high publicity level. In fact, Primark has been ranked second and Marks and Spencer has been ranked third in the industry. Diesel also has good performance in the market due to its youthful appeal as well as innovative design (Wheeler 2017). One of the most popular jeans that were produced by these industries players was the workers jeans. These jeans were mainly made for the workers working in the factory.
Levi being one of the biggest players in the jeans industry adopts few strategies in order to retain their customers. They implements differentiation strategy along with price premium. Differentiation relates to the charging premium price, which covers additional manufacturing cost. Apart from this, they create value to all types of consumers by offering them with the customized jeans and hence accustomed its price based on quality as well as brand. In addition, there are few players in the industry who tries to avoid price based competition in order to increase brand loyalty to the consumers (Malik et al. 2013). The cost framework of some of the players in the industry reflects that they are selling their goods via wholesale channels that were distributed by the sellers. Few of them also strategize not to mess with their customers for getting closer to them.
The widely used segmentation approach within the jeans industry is geographic, demographic and psychographic segmentation (Kapferer 2012). Another vital approach used for identifying potential market segmentation is behavioral considerations including consumer responses, using brands etc. Application of this segmentation bases helps the organization in identifying potential segments of jeans brands in the UK market.
Demographic segmentation refers to segmentation of potential market based on age, income and gender. Various age groups in the jeans industry in UK is determined by their likeliness in wearing jeans. As needs and preferences changes with consumer’s age, the stags of their lifecycle are vital variables in identifying segments. Another vital basis used for segmenting the market is behavioral segmentation in which the entity targets the customers based on benefits like comfortable, fashion, style etc. Apart from this, the organization targets potential groups with new jeans brand based on teenagers, high end and old age customers (Lewi and Lacoeuilhe 2017). Additionally, another important segmentation basis is different usage rate of the customers. The company segments the jeans market in term of light, heavy and medium commodity users. In fact, the players in this industry provide special schemes as well as offer heavy jeans users for earning higher profit.
Some of the key branding issues faced by the workers jeans are fitting, comfortless, detailing and finishing. Fitting as well as comfort are the most important feature of the jeans. The stores developing this product did not focus on the detailing as well finishing of the product and hence it led to comforting issues among the workers (Aaker and Biel 2013). The promotional campaign for this type of jeans also led to adverse impact on this brand. Owing to these branding issues, the sales growth of this brand decreased over the years. As a result, the financial performance of the organization declined during the years.
There are certain recommendations that will help the company to rebuild the workers Jeans brand, which includes-
Conclusion
The jeans market is one of the fascinating market as there is growth in own label items and branding. In this industry, branding plays a critical role in the marketplace. The Aaker’s brand equity framework identifies five components of brand equity including- brand loyalty, perceived quality, brand awareness, brand associations and other assets. This model defines that brand equity is the set of brand assets associated with brand. Apart from these components, this framework also indicates the company’s branding policy. It has been seen from the above report that, certain branding problems lowered the sales growth of Workers Jeans. However, comfort, design and promotional issues lowered the reputation of the brand in the marketplace.
References
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