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Ben Sherman designs, manufactures, and distributes apparels and shoes for men, women and kids. The company’s brand reflects British lifestyle and culture. Its target audience Is the youth who Like music, Like fashion and are prepared to spend on top brands; therefore that makes Ben Sherman a niche market which has always been the company’s strategy from the onset. And quite a lot of celebrities too purchase Ben Sherman products which are produced under license by top specialists. Ben Sherman is closely linked to the British music and fashion.
Its success has come about the compass ability to balance its marketing mix of producing the right product, selling It at the price, at the right place and enticing its customers to buy using the most suitable form of promotion. Ben Sherman products are individually styled and quality to appeal to Its target group. The company uses both market-led and product-led in its approach to market its products. Market-orientation is finding out what its customers want and satisfying their needs and product-orientation is producing the product first and then look for a market for It.
The company produces a wide range of products aimed at target market segments such as formal and casual wear, belts, leatherier, footwear, watches and fragrances. All these products are tied together by its strong bond image. Ben Sherman stays in competition by re-launching and refreshing some of its range products frequently because of the nature of the fashion industry which changes rapidly hence products have a short life cycle.
Ben Sherman needs to set up prices aimed at certain target market segments for certain range products and therefore it can adopt from a number of price strategies; * Penetration pricing: where a low price Is set to increase sales and market share. * Skimming pricing: where the price Is Initially high then gradually lowered to make the product available o a wider market. * Competition pricing: setting a price in comparison with competitors. * Psychological pricing: It is a customer-based pricing method, relying on consumer’s emotive responses, subjective views and feelings towards specific purchases. Product line pricing: pricing deferent products within the same product range points. * Bundle pricing: the organization bundles a group of products at a reduced price. * Premium pricing: the price is high to reflect the exclusiveness of the product. Ben Sherman must also take into account its competitors’ costs and prices before setting Its prices. The majority of Ben Sherman products are medium price because of its strong brand Image and quality.
Place In the marketing mix refers to where the product is purchased from and how is limits where its products are sold and tightly controls its distribution channels and as a result it distributes and sell its products in its own stores because it is a premium brand so does not want its products to lose value. The company also has shop-in shops (a Ben Sherman shop in a store). Ben Sherman also distributes limited amount of its stoke to independent stores. It distributes its products to department stores.
Promotion consists of the various methods of communicating with a business’s target audience. There is the above the above the line approach and below the line. The former (above the line) is spending direct using the TV, media or the press and magazines to advertise. And the latter (below the line) is other forms of promotion using direct mail and public relations. Ben Sherman uses both approaches. It also gives its clothes to famous people like music stars and actors to wear as a publicity stunt. Ben Sherman also sponsors music events and support causes.
The company Roth has been mainly through organic growth ( which is a company expanding its business through use of its own resources and assets) until when it started operating as a subsidiary of an American company, Oxford Industries Inc therefore making its growth inorganic as well ( is how a business grows by Joining one or more companies together). Ben Sherman has also been growing using one of the best- known growth strategies; market penetration, market development, product development and diversification. NAIVE Naive is a skin and body care range, owned by a Germany company called Beresford which was founded in 1882.
Naive launched its first line of body care products in 1911 and Beresford has grown to be a global company specializing in skin and beauty care. Naive’s global platform is based on the idea that beauty is about how consumers feel and as well how they look and it is a mass market and with a wide audience with different needs. The company has to balance its marketing mix of providing the right product, at the right place, at a right price and suitable promotion methods. The product is the most crucial element in the marketing mix because all three mixes revolve around it and without it they would not be able to exist.
Beresford decided to extend the brand from being a one-product range to a range of different product categories. And in order to achieve this; the company had to choose from market orientation or product orientation strategy and it chose a consumer led approach and that has made the brand to be closely linked with consumers. Through heavy market research, it identified a gap in the market and launched different new brand products aimed at key market segments such as Naive Visage Young which is aimed at teenagers ( 13-rays), Naive For Men which targets man, Naive Visage
Deane with a target group of older women (above rays), Pearl and Beauty deodorant targeting young females ( 18-rays). Marketing research has again helped Naive to improve its products. Naive now produces high quality products. Most of its products are now more effective and more consumer-friendly. And the formula of some of its products has been changed; by using natural sea salts and minerals in some blue color to more soft colors such as white for its cream tins. It has also changed the design of its packages which are now bigger and attractive with different ascriptions and neat patterns to appeal to core targets.
Of all the aspects of the marketing mix, the price is the one, which creates sales revenue; all the other aspects are costs, so pricing is an important strategic issue because it is related to product positioning. Naive can also choose from several different pricing strategies which include; * penetration pricing, * price skimming, * economy pricing, * premium pricing Naive also has to make decisions on pricing such as; * suggested retail price * volume discounts and wholesale pricing * seasonal early pricing * price discrimination * price flexibility
Naive’s prices for re-launched products are marginally higher than before reflecting new formulations and packaging. Since most Naive range products are leading products in different market segments of the skin and body care, it is in essence the price leader, hence it sets price level that its competitors are able to follow pursue. Naive sells its products at one price to retailers who in turn can set up prices at their discretion. It also regularly reviews its prices.
Getting the right product to the right place at the right time involves distribution system. Naive prefers to distribute its reduces through high street shops like Supersede and Boots and large grocery chain supermarkets like Tests, Sad and Kingsbury and it does not distribute directly to small retailers. It does not distribute through its website either. Naive uses contract vehicles to distribute its products and has central distribution points in different markets.
Naive uses two strategies to promote and entice different market segments for its different range products: Above the line which it spends direct advertising on TV ,internet and the media and below the line where the business uses other rumination methods to get the message across which include; PR activities like sponsoring the World Cup. Sales promotion is another strategy that is employed by Naive which incorporates sampling. It also uses direct mail, events, and models.
The company also employs Umbrella Branding (which is a brand that covers various kinds of products which are more or less related) as another strategy of growing. It also applies to any company that is identified only by its brand and history. Naive uses ATM cash machines to launch some of its products. Different, encouraging and recursive messages were displayed for male and female users on the screen and those who asked for a receipt were given a further brand message highlighting the benefits of using the new product.
For the company to be the one of the world’s leaders in skin care products it has had to grow through employing certain strategies like organic growth and from outside, by taking over other businesses with potentials of growing. With the former being the ability for the business to grow from inside. Naive has also managed to grow using four major growth categories that a products in its existing current market e. G. Ewe variety of Naive Lip care products soared in its current market. Market development is when a company markets its existing product to a new market e. G. Naive deodorant used the strong brand image to promote itself into competitive market and it gained the top spot in that segment. * Product development is when a business develops a new product to sell to existing customers e. G. Naive Visage Soft Facial Cleansing Wipes, with the business selling this product in their present to women who were looking for new ways to clean and care for their skin. * Diversification is where a business markets new products to new customers e. A gap found through market research revealed that men were also keen on facial products hence Naive For Men, a new product was created and introduced to a new market. The company has now expanded worldwide targeting emerging markets like China, India and Brazil. Naive understands its customers and it has managed to balance its marketing mix in order for it to grow as global brand hence Beresford has prospered. M 1 Comparing marketing techniques for two organizations ( Ben Sherman and Naive) * Ben Sherman has always manufactured are high quality products and Naive strives to produce quality products to its customers.
Naive is a mass market while Ben Sherman is niche market thus Naive has to maximize exposure to its product. * Ben Sherman heavily relies on below the line strategy to capitalist on its target market whereas Naive has a wide audience and relies on both I. E. Below the line and above the line strategies. * Naive uses its strong brand image to extend the brand to different product categories and Ben Sherman does the same to tie its products together. Ben Sherman refreshes its products frequently during the maturity stage of their life cycle in response to competition while Naive reviews it prices for its reduces during the growth point of their life cycle when a new competitor enters the market. * Ben Sherman products reflect the British culture and style while Naive carefully adjusts its marketing mix to cater to local cultures and preferences. * Ben Sherman does not want its products to lose value, so it limits its distribution while Naive wants its products to reach a wide audience; it distributes its products to busy stores were the majority of consumers shop. Naive sponsors events like World Cup to promote its products while Ben Sherman sponsors music events. * Whilst Naive gives samples of its products, Ben Sherman gives clothes to celebrities to wear * Both companies use Umbrella branding to promote its products. * Naive sells its products to retailers at one price as this is convenient to them while Ben Sherman can demand premium prices for department stores for its products and it sells its products at medium prices in its own stores. Ben Sherman started with one product range (shirts for man) and has since expanded the brand to many product ranges while Naive started to with one product range (Naive cream) and has also expanded to fourteen product categories. Naive brand has always been closely linked with consumer and Ben Sherman brand is closely linked to music and fashion. Evaluating Naive’s marketing strategy The brands physical presence made Naive to be aware of customer needs and they have produced products that satisfy them.
Naive’s improved formulations put emphasis on the clear benefits to consumers reinforcing the brand trust- bond which it has developed over the years with its customers and the financial results underline the success of these formulas which have seen an increase in the company’s global sales which are ahead of the average market growth. However Naive is a global brand, it markets its products differently in different countries by consistently and carefully adjusting its marketing mix to cater to local cultures and preference.
This strategy has seen a significant sales increase in its products and as result the brand has a large market share in the global skin care products. Naive is the global leading brand in the entire skin and beauty care segments I. E. Market leader in skin creams and lotions, facial cleansing, facial skin care and suntan products worldwide because of its strategy to engage direct with key target market segments through its sampling programmed to encourage them to feel, touch, smell and use the products and again because of this strategy that it employed, many of its consumers around the world tend to think of its products as a homegrown brand.
Again, refraining from distributing to small retailers, Naive has expanded support from large grocery chain stores like Tests and Kingsbury and high street shops like Boots and Supersede has proved to be cost effective because this is where the majority of its target market segments shop and it has also aided new products to be rated as number one selling products in the skin and beauty category as sales surged. Changing its distinctive blue tins to more soft colors like white and adding flower patterns and bigger attractive plastic packages has helped Naive to appeal to its young market and retain them.
Blue has always been associated with men yet white symbolisms purity. Women and young teenagers like flowers. Using this strategy, Naive has managed to keep its target group of young consumers at a time when the market is so competitive. Plastic packages are environmental friendly and give the consumers the opportunity to recycle. Naive’s strategy of using ATM cash machines to launch some of its products have also been a success as it managed to secure a millions contacts from consumers withdrawing cash from the machines.
Brand extension is one of the new product development strategies, which can reduce financial risk by using the parent brand name, so Naive decided to extend its product categories to tap new set of consumers, both male and female. As the competition increased in the skin care market it was crucial for Naive to extend its brand to be a step ahead of the competition. The company decided to extend the brand to different product categories because it wanted to go universally tit brand and also geographical conditions of different countries gave the company a window of opportunity to extend the brand Naive.
The company also wanted to increase brand equity of Naive brand, that’s why they adopted the strategy of product category extension. Using umbrella branding strategy is an advantage for Naive because the brand supports several products in a brand plus the company can capitalist one single name. It also helps new products to penetrate the market. The strategy also helps in brand awareness and brand recall.
Umbrella branding also alps the company to reduce promotional and advertisement costs; however, the strategy has its disadvantages because there always a threat if the brand is not core brand is not stronger than its extension. The company also managed to negotiate the tricky transition into the male grooming sector without undermining its long standing relationship with women and its products meet consumer needs. Naive is truly a global brand, and its products are the same everywhere It seems that the company has managed to shift Naive’s shift into styling and grooming without adversely affecting its core business.