Fashion Marketing Management - Hugo Boss - Essay Example

Fashion Marketing Management: Hugo Boss Introduction: The HUGO BOSS Group is one of the leading fashion companies in the world offering its customers with premium fashion and luxury clothing. The objective of the group is to focus on the development of high end fashion clothes for both men and women. The company is based in Metzingen in Germany, having around 10,000 employees working for the company. The annual sales generated by the company has been recorded at EUR 1.7 billion in fiscal year 2010 and has taken a position among the most popular clothing manufacturers across the world. The brand of the company includes BOSS which is the core brand of the company and HUGO that is the trendy brand associated with BOSS. Consumer groups from different cultures and backgrounds are targeted by the company, where the customers are offered wide-ranging products including classic-modern business wear, elegant evening and relaxed casual fashion, shoes and leather accessories, licensed fragrances, eyewear, watches, children’s fashion and motorcycle helmets (Group Profile 2013). The recognition of the company as one of the leading fashion houses in the world has been supported by the company’s exhaustive marketing activities and participation in funding of sport and other cultural events. The company has its focus not only on traditional practices of advertising and promotion, but it also experiments new marketing activities that are targeted towards its customer groups. The products of the company are made available in around 124 countries across the world. There are more than 6,100 selling points for the products of the company from where customers can avail them. The stores are maintained both by the group itself as well as by franchise partners (Group Profile 2013). The success of the company can be reflected from the sales and performance of the company in the year 2012 that present positive results for the company supported by increasing sales figures. The increase in sales has been reported in all the regions of retailing of the company. The CEO of the company is thus confident about the company’s achievement of the medium term targets with the ongoing performance of the company (‘2012 most successful year in our history’ – Hugo Boss 2013). The present study focuses on an overview of Hugo Boss Fashion Company, studying about their marketing strategies, the marketing activities that the company has considered for its success, and the strengths and weaknesses of the company in regard to these activities. Hugo Boss: An Overview of the Brand: The brands of BOSS and HUGO represent the Hugo Boss Fashion Company in the world. The collections of apparels and the lines of fashions as offered by these brands are targeted towards different groups of customers. The main aim of the company is to provide its customers with high quality clothing with fashion being astonishing and varied. BOSS Black, BOSS Selection, BOSS Orange and BOSS Green lines are parts of the core brand of the company (Brand Overview 2010). The core brand of the company is the BOSS. BOSS offers clothing products for men as well as women including business apparel, sportswear and fascinating fashions for particular events. Other products like shoes, accessories, watches, eyewear, fragrances, and even fashion for children are offered by this brand (HUGO BOSS Brand World 2013). BOSS Selection represents the fashionable apex of the brand world of HUGO BOSS. It involves an exclusive blend of beautiful design, the most excellent materials and skillful employees working for the brand. The brand offers its customers with outstanding apparel, shoes and accessories, mostly catering to the taste and preferences of men following the fashion and trends. BOSS Green provides its customer groups with quality sportswear that rises above the periphery connecting fashionable sports clothing and performance golf-wear. The apparels are offered for both men and women, with the brand focusing on combining fashion and trendy lifestyles with golf, thus spreading colors on the customers (HUGO BOSS Brand World 2013). BOSS Orange represents the casual-wear brand mailing an entertaining, relaxed communication. The brand is fashioned by the trends of the urban cities across the world, and the collections are attractive to both men and women who develop and build their own particular fashion statements. Products like shoes, accessories, watches, eyewear and fragrances are licensed products offered by this brand. HUGO represents the trend brand of the company, focusing on ultramodern designs of clothing for men and women. The looks of the apparel offered by this brand are innovative in designs and lines of fashion. Other products offered by the brand include shoes, accessories, eyewear and fragrances that are licensed products of the brand and complete the outfit of the customer (HUGO BOSS Brand World 2013). Marketing Strategy and Activities of Hugo Boss: The aim of the company as already mentioned is to offer to its customers, high quality clothing products targeted towards different groups of customers. Thus the marketing of these products are accordingly planned by the company. Some of the activities of the company may be discussed in this regard. Record Marketing Plans: For instance in the year 2011, the company planned for record marketing of its products in order to introduce products from its brand BOSS Selection. This was followed by positive responses that the company had received from the retailers. Thus the company increased their spending on advertising and sponsorship to 6 percent from the previous year’s 5 percent. The expenditure of the marketing had reflected an increase to 23 percent to 90.9 million Euros in the year 2010. The success of the company had also been reflected in the manner analysts advised clients to buy stocks of this company after Hugo Boss outperformed the broader market in Germany. The company also has plans to spread their products across China which they consider to be their third largest market (Elfes 2011). Connecting Sponsorships with Points of Sale: Hugo Boss Company proved to be an excellent example for associating their sponsorships with selling points of the brand. The company’s efforts and effectiveness in associating the sponsorships with points of sale of the brand, and connection of the marketing of their brands with the retail chain as a whole, was reflected by the design competition conducted by the company named ‘Dress me for the finale’ presenting the 30th anniversary of its business partnership with Formula One team Mclaren. As a consequence of this, the company could achieve an integrated technique of marketing that include “online and social media channels (www.hugoboss.com/mclaren; www.facebook.com/hugoboss), guerilla marketing, store events, dealer promotions, specially designed show windows and a season-concluding charity event in support of Save the Children” (Kreye 2011). Use of Social Media: The use of social media for the purpose of marketing could be considered as one of the most effective marketing activities of Hugo Boss. The use of the social media combined with the other marketing activities of the company proved to be significantly effective for the success of the company, reflected by increases in its return of income. With the use of the social media, the company has made it possible to reach out to the customers at mass. The social media is used by the company to conduct different contests, share general or new information on the brand, and promote their products and marketing efforts. The use of the social media has allowed the company to have direct communications with the consumers, thereby allowing understanding the feedback of the consumers more effectively, along with knowing their choices and preferences as well. Facebook, twitter, foursquare are some of the social media that have been used by Hugo Boss for the purpose of their marketing (Lamb 2011). Use of Integrated 3D Social Media Campaign: As part of its marketing activities, Hugo Boss has also been found to be making use of an integrated 3D social media campaign. Such a technology makes use of the 3D technology in order to promote their products to the customers making use of the social media. This allows the launch of the products, videos, images, and texts in 3D. Facebook has been effectively used by the company for this purpose. “Hugo Boss has made the Boss Black 3D campaign social-oriented with tie-ins across multiple social media channels. On Facebook, Hugo Boss takes advantage of the new Facebook Timeline to inform visitors about the live stream fashion show. Images on the Hugo Boss Facebook page are in 3D, helping to add additional fun and excitement to the campaign” (Nagy 2012). Marketing in a Different Environment: UK: Hugo Boss presented success with is marketing strategies even in other countries like the UK achieving success even when the marketing environment was different. The use of their international retail strategy and its implementation in the UK proved to be effective for the promotion of its products in the country. The marketing tools used by the company and their effects on the image of the brand can be studied from the following table (Hake 2012): Marketing Tools Effects on Brand Image Fashion Shows Fashion Competence Monobrand Stores / Shops Brand Showcase Formula 1 Dynamics Tennis, Golf, Sailing Sportiness Arts Glamour Celebrities Art Of Living Events Fun Press Coverage Desirability Table 1: Marketing tools of Hugo Boss and the effects on the image of the brand (Hake 2012). The company has its focus on developing a retail transformation strategy making use of the strength of the traditional wholesale business to comprehend unexploited market prospective by intensifying by means of retail channel. The company has also focused on putting the transformational strategy into practice, concentrating on outstanding sales force and investing effectively in future success. Also the transformational strategy has been translated into sustainable performance by the company prioritizing the enhancement of their product quality. Moreover, as parts of the marketing strategies of the company, Hugo Boss has improved the organizational culture making it more customer-centric; targeting customer segments that are clearly defined; making better use of the capabilities of the company; and use “enhanced model store to deliver cohesive brand statement across all distribution channels” (Hake 2012). Luxury Brand Management: Model Segment Competitors Mission Affordable Fashion Woman, Apparel, Accessories There is no competitors’ predominance Codification of fashion tendencies Premium Brand Man, Casual & Jeans, Accessories American & Northern Europe brands Value for money Exclusive Luxury Man, Elegant Woman, Accessories French luxury brands Affirmation of Brand Heritage High Fashion Woman, PAP, Accessories International Designer Imposition of new tendencies Table 2: Competitive Models in the Luxury Fashion Industry (Rocca 2010). As far as the products and marketing of Hugo Boss are concerned, the company would best be placed under the “Premium Brand”. Products for men are mostly making the brand more popular among its customers, whose quality is emulated in the premium price. “However, as time passes, Hugo Boss tends to show some features typically owned by “Exclusive luxury and High fashion” brands. Its mission is spreading and growing toward these last two models in order to enlarge the customer base and evolve into the next level of the luxury scale” (Rocca 2010). The policies of product distribution of Hugo Boss are dependent on two points. One of these selects in a straight line, stores that are operated in order to expand a worldwide steady image of its brand. Another policy is referred as the “Transnational” that includes the expansion of distribution by means of Internet and travel retail (Rocca 2010). Strengths and Weaknesses of the Marketing Activities of Hugo Boss: The most significant strength of the company lies in its worldwide presence with its diverse products in fashion and apparel. Hugo Boss has its focus on the trendy fashions that are preferred by their targeted groups of customers and hence proves to achieve the customer satisfaction through offering of such products. Customized tailoring proves to be another efficient measure of the company dragging huge number of customers for the products of the company. The materials chosen for the suits are special and supported by hand-crafted designs that are the specialty of the Hugo Selection lines and reflect strengths for the marketing of these products. Moreover, with the spread of the marketing of the products of the company across the world, the company has effectively focused on its infrastructure and logistic hubs. New processes have been introduced by the company thereby allocating products to markets maintaining the actual level of the orders. This has made the delivery process of the products to retailers quicker and elastic for the channels of distribution. Thus the company has become able to optimize the management of its wide range of products in its own stores providing the promising services to its retail partners (Hugo Boss Annual Report 2011). The expansion of the stores of the company is a continuous process for the brand thus allowing its customers to get connected with the brand more than before. The use of the social media can be considered to have significant benefits for the company as well since new customers can be easily contacted by the company. Potential customers have been able to be reached through the use of this media increasing the customer strength of the company. The strength of the company also lies in its advertising and promotion practices that have dragged large number of customers towards the Hugo Boss product lines and brands. The partnerships of the company with other brands also prove to be strengths for the company (Hugo Boss Annual Report 2011). Considering the marketing activities of the company, it can be said that the strength of these activities lies with the company’s efforts in making use of the effective strategies to gain new customers and sustain them as well. The company has the ability to make investments for advertising and promotion that have positive influences on the minds of the customers and hence can be said to be a significant strength for the company. Connecting the sponsorships of the company with the points of sale of the products has been found to be highly effective for the purpose of marketing. Also, the use of the social media and the integrated 3D social media campaign prove the company’s strengths in making use of the new technologies in attracting customers towards their products. Moreover, marketing activities like fashion shows, use of celebrities and arts for the purpose of marketing can be realized to have significant effects on the minds of the customers thus proving to be strong activities as far as marketing of the company is concerned. However there are certain weaknesses of the company as well that need to be considered in this regard. Although the company has been able to present its products effectively in the minds of the consumers, and has proved to be one of the leading fashion companies in the world by now, yet, with the increasing globalization and competition in the world of business, the company still “strives to strengthen and expand its position as one of the global market leaders in the premium and luxury segment of the global apparel market” (Group Profile: Business Activities and Group Structure 2011). With different market environments in different countries in particular, the changing environment created several marketing challenges for the company as well. The 4Ps reflected by Price, Product, Promotion and Place can be understood to have significant differences depending on different places, demanding for different marketing plans that may prove to be difficult for the company’s strengths to be sustained (Special Report 2007). Moreover the use of the new technologies may not be feasible in all countries, which is a weakness of such marketing activities particularly when the company depends on the social media greatly. Conclusions and Recommendations: From the above study, it could be concluded that Hugo Boss over the years has been successful in creating its position in the minds of the consumers. The brand is mostly popular for the clothing and fashion apparels for men, although it products other accessories and products for women as well. The brands of the company have their own lines of products that are targeted to the different groups of customers are the marketing policies and activities of the company are focused towards reaching out to the customers effectively. As far as the marketing strategies and activities of the company are concerned, it could be obtained from the study that the company has considered some effective strategies for the marketing of its products. Most importantly, the company makes use of the latest technologies and trends of communication like the social media that makes it easy for the company to connect with its customers. Moreover, the company’s efforts on the marketing with thorough investments on advertising and promotion also proves to be highly effective since the activities they consider can be said to have positive influences on the minds of the customers. However, considering the weaknesses of the company in terms of its struggles even in the present times as a result of the rising competition in the business world, it can be recommended that while the company focuses on the different activities of marketing, at the same time the company needs to focus on strategies to remain prepared for any negative impact of the different marketing environment that they target and work with. Remaining prepared would enable to struggle back any negative effects of the marketing policies and environment such that they can successfully continue with their varied activities. Also, with the variety in the different countries, their people and preferences, the marketing activities need to be more focused depending on the particular countries or regions that the company targets. The company can then be expected to continue with its achieving success in the world of fashion. References ‘2012 most successful year in our history’ – Hugo Boss (2013) fibre2fashion. [Online]. Available at: http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/fashion-news/germany/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=120929 [Accessed: 1 March 2013]. Brand Overview (2010) Hugoboss. [Online]. Available at: http://group.hugoboss.com/en/brand_overview.htm [Accessed: 1 March 2013]. Elfes, H. (2011) Hugo Boss Plans Record Marketing. [Online]. 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