Brand Analysis of Victor and Rolf - Essay Example

? Viktor & Rolf Brand Analysis Introduction: If we talk about fashion industry then there are many famous companies or brands which at oncecome in our mind. This list may include Dolce & Gabbana, Victoria’s Secret, Givenchy, Levi’s, Burberry, Gucci, H&M, Zara, Adidas, Nike and many others. All of these brands are ruling over the fashion industry through their eye catching clothing for both men and women and involving in many other product lines also. Victor & Rolf is one of the leading brands of the fashion industry. Viktor & Rolf is a company, headquartered in Netherland and well operating in Fashion industry. Two Dutch Designers Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren (amazingly identical to each other in some styles) mutually started this company in 1993, after their Graduation from the same academy, Arnhem Academy of Arts and Design. They said that they got inspiration from a German TV Program and thus decided to come in the fashion world and show their creativity (Menkes 2003). During the whole journey of their Business Viktor & Rolf have made collaboration with many other brands which include Samsonite, Shu Umeura, H&M and Piper Hiedsiek and this list include many others at small scale. Viktor & Rolf had also won certain prizes for their contribution in the fashion industry. They also presented their creations in certain exhibitions, art galleries and festivals and also got appreciation. Both the Founders of Viktor and Rolf are very much famous for their unique and surreal style of presenting their clothing lines. They actually try to twirl mind's eye in to veracity. About the Brand: The brand Viktor & Rolf was launched in Paris in 1993 at first. At the start both the founders of Viktor & Rolf assist some other designers and tried on their own ideas in the evening spare time (Viktor & Rolf: A Biography, 2012). Viktor & Rolf offered men’s and women’s wear and also include Haute Couture. Haute Couture is a special kind of hand-made clothing which is a little bit fancier then usual dressing styles. The first collection of Viktor & Rolf got three different prizes. During their whole journey the brand Viktor & Rolf also took steps for their business Extensions. They have also participated in various popular fashion weeks. Viktor & Rolf also gave their costumes for certain Opera. In the mid of 2000’s, Viktor & Rolf entered in to the new voyage and offered a fragrance for women, in collaboration with L’Oreal, naming the Flowerbomb. Later they themselves progressed in this perfume industry. The Dutch Designers Viktor & Rolf are popular for their claims to change the imaginations in to the real world. The news has been roaming around from the start of 2013 that this year Victor & Rolf are again presenting their old Haute Couture fashion back and thus celebrating the 20 years of success in this way (Diderich 2013). Products: The company under the brand name of Viktor & Rolf is providing apparels, Clothing, shoes, perfumes, eye-wares and other accessories. Viktor & Rolf are working on men and women wear, ready to wear clothes, Haute Couture (special kind of fancy but hand-made clothing) and a perfume line also. Initially these clothing lines were introduced only for females only later on the lines for men were also introduced. Within all these product lines, the prominent and appealing feature is the creativity and innovativeness among the offers. Flowerbomb was the First ever perfume launched by Viktor & Rolf. This product was launched in Paris in the mid of 2000’s. The ladies perfume launched by the fashion brand, Viktor and Rolf, is so much popular that everyone wants to have it in her perfume collection. They are also working on the fragrances which can be offered for males. The bottle of the perfume Flowerbomb is like hand grenade. Its unique shape and sweet fragrance also adds points to the offered product. It is also included in the list of top ranking women perfumes (Smith 2005). The perfume Flowerbomb after gaining much success, launched in US, hoping to catch the huge market as targeted. The owner of Viktor & Rolf, Victor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren tried to analyze the capacity of target market of clothing lines in US by offering perfume first (Smith 2005). Actually Viktor & Rolf used their perfume line as marketing or we can say advertising tool for their actual product of clothing. They wanted to know whether the huge and attractive market of the United States of America will respond to their brand or not? If yes then this would definitely be a good opportunity for the growth and progress of their business (Smith 2005). The US market actually welcomed the brand whole heartedly. Later on the perfume named Antidote was launched for men in the US market. Initially the single shade and print clothing was their symbol but at later seasons they also offered many colored and floral printed wears for both of the clothing lines i.e. for men and women also. The new collection from the brand Viktor & Rolf includes a new range of T-shirts which are also very much appealing for the customers. Haute Couture is a French term which means having highly elegance. This type of product line includes a very high quality; hand-made fancy apparels. These apparels need very much attention while sewing them. A very unusual type of fabric is used in them. They are a little bit expensive too because of the resources (time and cost) spent on it. Viktor & Rolf are also famous for their couture collection. The first couture collection was launched in 1998 and its name was Atomic Bomb. This couture collection straight away grabs the press and media attention towards itself (Viktor & Rolf: avant garde fashion, year unknown). Competitors: Fashion industry is facing so much competition all over the world. Every fashion brand tries to lag behind others in order to catch customers’ attention. Quality of products, Price offered, advertising campaigns, proper allocation of resources and also the performance of the brand are some of the major factors contributing to create competition among industry or market. At this time Victor & Rolf are competing behind many famous brands. The competitive brands for Viktor & Rolf may include Zara, Gucci, D&G, Armani, Nike, and Adidas in the clothing product line. All of these brands are enjoying a huge market share in the industry and also have a neck-to-neck competition. They have to struggle very hard to remain progressive in the market. New entrants in the industry can learn certain things many ideas from Viktor & Rolf. They always tried to break the conventional rules of advertising of fashion industry. Competitive advantage over other brands in the industry can also be achieved through brining new, creative and innovative ideas to launch the product so that it may catch the audience’s attention at once. Victor & Rolf gave many innovative ideas to the industry by launching their models in new ways like the use of Blue screen technology and also separate sound systems harnessed by the models themselves (Davies, year unknown). In some fashion parades they dressed their models just like Dolls like wearing one dress over another and thus displaying them on the ramp stage. Viktor & Rolf also called famous actresses as their models for women clothing line. Target: When offering any new product in the market it is very much necessary to first identify the target market. If target market is properly identified then it will be very much easy for the business persons to serve them properly. In this way they can allocate their resources in a best suitable direction and also promote the product effectively. The targeted customers will also feel good and honored. The brand about which we are talking, Viktor & Rolf have also targeted certain segments of the market so that they can serve them properly. They have identified these segments on the basis of their different product lines offered. If considering men clothing line offered by Viktor & Rolf then the target market would not be a relatively high class, because they include both high as well as low class people in their targeted market. The prices are not so much high but the offered quality is yet appreciable. When we talk about the women clothing line, then surely we can say that target market is that of relating to upper or high class. Viktor & Rolf are designing women apparels for a luxurious market. Their target women would be age of 20’s to 30’s and wanting to remain updated regarding current fashions. The target women include those who like to wear unique and appealing dresses (Viktor & Rolf: avant garde fashion, year unknown). SWOT Analysis: SWOT is acronym used for Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and threats. Strengths are those capabilities of a business on the basis of which it can gain competitive advantage or we can say at least can perform better than others in the market. Weaknesses are those shortcomings which can become a hurdle in the growth or success of a business. Opportunities can be present outside the business boundaries in the market. Business should avail such existing opportunities. And at last threats are those hurdles existing outside the firm’s boundary in the market which can cease the growth of the business. The best practice for a firm should be to take advantage of strengths, overcome weaknesses, avail feasible opportunities and handle the threats and thus gaining a competitive advantage in the market. Now there is a SWOT analysis of Victor & Rolf brand. The most important strength or we can say the interest catching point for the Viktor & Rolf is their strong innovativeness not only in the product lines but also in the ways to present them. Once they used dolls to show their clothing line in an exhibition. All the dolls were dressed according to the season and looking much presentable. That idea was much successful in the exhibition. Another strong point is their simplicity in the clothing lines. Their products are for every type of customers. The collection always includes formal and informal dresses. The price is always remain affordable and also having high quality. Their first ladies perfume Flowerbomb is also called as their signature strength. Now every fashion brand either new or old is trying to enter in cosmetic industry also. This may create threats for the Viktor & Rolf so it should be a working strategy for the brand to take care of new entrants also. The best available opportunity for the brands can be lowering of operational cost by taking cheap labor from any-where in the world. Due to borderless communication it is easy for the firms to have resources at a lower cost from any other economy which is feasible for them. This lowering of cost will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the operations of the brand. Distribution: There can be variety of different ways or we can say channels which can be used by a business to distribute its product. These distribution or promotion methods surely increase the value of the product. Any fashion brand should adopt those channels which can be creative as well as eye catching because in this era of globalization, there is so much competition between different brands. Now days there is no as such restriction regarding boundaries of any country, every brand is working on the whole population in general and for a target market in specific. So one should try hard to remain competitive even in the selection of a distribution channel. Before the launch of their ladies famous perfume Flowerbomb, the founders of Victor & Rolf, Victor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren did a launch of a fake perfume whose bottle did not open. They wanted to show their desire to enter in the cosmetic industry after ruling over fashion industry through their innovative and creative ideas. Victor & Rolf used many different ways to communicate with their audiences regarding their product lines. They also arranged some unauthorized exhibitions in order to attract press related people. One of the distribution centers of Viktor & Rolf includes The House of Viktor and Rolf, an art gallery having retrospective style of presenting the clothing lines using porcelain dolls. This was a very much unique idea of showing the beautiful dresses by any famous brand. This retro style art gallery was established in 2008 (Viktor & Rolf: avant garde fashion, year unknown). Communication: In the competitive age of modern technologies, each and every brand is trying to capture more and more attention of its existing customers to gain their loyalty and also to attract new customers too. Now there are many media ways through which any firm can properly convey its message to the customers and also can get their feedback and suggestions. With the help of this feedback they can improve their relationships also. Internet is very much easy and approaching channel to gather feedback. Viktor and Rolf also used this internet technology to have better relationships with the customer base. In the mid of 2011, Viktor & Rolf introduced their first ever customer program regarding CRM. The basic aim of this Customer Relationship Management Program was to cover the largest part of European market share. This CRM program was titled as Viktor & Rolf Secret Service. This online program was launched not only to attract new customers but also to gain the further loyalty of existing customers. The customers can log on to this online program with the help of a number which was printed on the packaging of Flowerbomb. This may create curiosity in the customers. In this way the sales may also increased. This CRM online program helps Viktor & Rolf in boosting the long term relationships with their potential customers (Viktor & Rolf Secret Service 2011). This Customer Relationship Management Program was also awarded for its working in 2010. The launch of this website or we can say the online customer relationship management program is truly a success for the brand Victor & Rolf because this activity or innovative idea adds points to its share in the market and thus increasing its strength and also competitive advantage (Viktor & Rolf Secret Service 2011). References: Diderich, J. (2013) Viktor & Rolf Returning to Couture. (Published on 22nd April, 2013) Accessed on 7th Dec, 2013 from http://www.wwd.com/fashion-news/couture/viktor-rolf-to-return-to-couture-6902578?module=hp-topstories Menkes, S. (2003) Viktor & Rolf: concept to concrete. (published on 8th Oct, 2008) Accessed on 7th Dec, 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/08/news/08iht-rolf_ed3_.html?pagewanted=all Davies, N. (year unknown) What Brands can Learn from Dutch Fashion Royalty Viktor & Rolf? Accessed on 7th Dec, 2013 from http://nicspic2608.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/what-brands-can-learn-from-dutch-fashion-royalty-viktor-rolf/ Viktor & Rolf: A Biography (2012). Accesses on 7th Dec, 2013 fromhttp://thoughtsofemmylou.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/viktor-rolf-a-biography/ Smith, S. (2005) Flower Bomb. Accessed on 7th Dec, 2013 from http://www.perfumeprojects.com/museum/bottles/FlowerBomb.shtml Viktor & Rolf Secret Service. (Published on 13th July, 2011). Accessed on 8th Dec, 2013 from http://www.brand-advocate.co.uk/news/2011 Viktor & Rolf: avant-garde fashion, Ariel Betancourt. (Year unknown). Accessed on 8th Dec, 2013 from http://arielfairy.tumblr.com/ Read More