Ralph Lauren Rugby 's Fail Reasons and Re-Launch Marketing Strategy - Essay Example

Ralph Lauren Rugbys fail reasons and re-launch marketing strategy. Contents Summary 3 Part A 3 Introduction 3 Discussion 4 Core Competencies 6 STP (Segmentation, Targeting and positioning) strategy 7 Marketing Mix- 4P’s 8 Conclusion 10 Part B- Proposal 12 References 15 Summary Person across the different country have different lifestyle based on the type of culture and the preference they have. All the apparel company should understand this difference very well. Rugby being a part of the parent company Ralph Lauren, it provides trendy and preppy clothes for the youngsters including both men and women. Rugby being a part of Ralph Lauren, it has a lot of advantage over its competitors and allows Rugby to push its brand in the brand successfully creating a good brand image in the mind of the target customers. The purpose of coming up with a new market strategy for the company is to give the company a chance to re-launch and come in the market again growing at a good pace and capturing the maximum market across the globe. This will help the company to revamp and also grow in the Competitive market environment. Part A Introduction Polo Ralph Lauren been the parent company launched Rugby Ralph Lauren in 2004 in America as a clothing brand. The brand was launched getting inspired from the Rugby lifestyle for both male and females of age group in between 16 to 25. Rugby brand was available at 12 stores in whole of US and one in London. The brand also started its online marketing from 2008 and started its own website Rugby.com. This brand was a concept which was developed by designer Ralph Lauren. The first store location of the brand was in Boston which was opened in 2004. The biggest advantage that the brand had was its low price and attractive designs which attracted the young generation a lot from their parent brand products which were much more luxury and costlier than the brand Rugby. The company did launch the dress materials and bags in the designs with logos and photos of rugby players and also in the colours of the uniforms of the rugby teams. This brand had a line of products under its name like the polo’s, jackets, outerwear, dresses, shirts and also many other accessories for the young generation mainly. The brand also gave the option of making personalized shirts for the customers based on the patches of various designs that the company had under its list of designs. In this report the reasons for the failure of this brand in the market is been studied based on which the marketing strategy that can be utilised for the re-launching of the brand and make it successful is been understood and analysed using various marketing theories and concepts. Discussion The parent brand Ralph Lauren has many sub brands under its umbrella like the Polo brand, Club Monaco, Chaps, RRL and RLX brands, Black Label, Pink Pony, Purple Label, Rugby and American Living. Every brand is well known for its commitment to provide good quality and latest style of dress materials and also other accessories. In spite of giving quality materials with latest design the company faced he loss especially in the brand of Rugby (Belk, 2007, Pp. 24-26). Even after providing 15% discounts to the customers through the online website for attracting youngster the brand was not able to get much liking as a result the revenue generated from it was very low and the parent company incurred huge loss from this line (Wright, 2006, pp. 78-98). In 2012, November Ralph Lauren announced its view towards shutting down the brand of Rugby by 2013 February. As a result of which all the 12 stores in US and also the one store in UK was shut down and also the website was been closed to stop the company for incurring the continuous loss from the brand (Belch and Michael, 2005, pp. 34-37). There are various reasons because of which the brand failed and had to be shut down. The various reasons because of which the brand failed are been listed below. The availability of the Rugby brand was very less as it had only 12 stores in the whole of US and one store in UK. Thus for customers to buy a particular product of brand Rugby it was very difficult. Thus only some particular customers who had high level of brand preference towards the brand Rugby looked to buy those products from their stores (Haig, 2011, pp. 234-245). Because of the high competitive market from other competitors like Jack wills and A and F, Rugby failed to gain the market share and incurred huge loss The foot falls in the stores and also the website visit is very low as a result of which even the chances of mystery shopping is very less so the sales are also less which has highly affected the revenue of the company and also forced them to close down . Rugby’s preppy style was very fashionable but it was not made out of the requirements that the customers need and not based on the liking of the customers or the trend that the people of a particular country follow based on their cultures and likings The brand didn’t have much of promotion through various platforms because of which it was not able to reach the customers and also put the message across in a good way because of which majority of customers were unaware about the brand existence (Churchill, 2009, pp. 98-102). The brand had wrong strategy of giving the discounts in the website in the wrong season because of which the sales volume was been affected by huge numbers. To overcome this situation and issue of failure of the brand a new market strategy for the revamp of the company’s brand and the process in which they can become a good brand gaining huge brand image and liking among the customers is been suggested. This market strategy will help the company to overcome the loss and also gain huge profits from the brand as a whole (Handy, 1996, pp. 78-82). Core Competencies In the fashion industry the company Ralph Lauren has a huge impact and also sets trends for other competitors having a strong core competency. The brand is highly versatile and also valuable (Wong, 2001, Pp. 45-47). The parents brand needs to have its own brand recognition along with also taking care of the brand recognition for its other line brands as well. One more core competency that company has its stores in huge numbers in present across the global market like in Canada, Hong Kong, South Korea, Italy, Argentina, Uruguay and Japan(Corbin and Strauss, 2008, pp. 187-196). All these distribution centres are monitored by rigorous management information system and the performance off each of the distribution centre is been calculated based on which the improvements are been made (Cowan, 2005, pp. 34-36). Ralph Lauren must look to open a wide distribution chain even for its brand Rugby which will help in increasing the visibility of the brand and create a good brand citing in the market as a result of which the foot falls will increase. With the increase in foot falls the chances of mystery shopping also increases and it leads to higher sales volume and more revenue generation from the market (Cooper, 2003, pp. 23-34). STP (Segmentation, Targeting and positioning) strategy In the fashion industry where the market is highly fluctuating with the trends, styles and new designs and along with many companies trying to acquire the market share it’s very important to segment, target and also position the particular brand in the best way. Segmentation The segmentation of a particular product is done based on various factors like geographic, demographic, Behavioural and lifestyle. Rugby being a preppy and trendy wear brand that to in the luxury section needs to find the customers based on the value that its product can create over its customers (Cheverton, 2006, pp. 134-137). It needs to find out the geographical location where people like to wear trendy clothes and study people’s behaviour at various locations based on which it needs to set up its stores to get the maximum number of customers buying its products (Henry, 2008, pp. 123-127). Targeting The brand needs to target the young generation across the global market that tends to look for trendy clothes to maintain a style statement. The age group to be targeted should be in the range of 20-29 yrs (Jobber, 2012, Pp. 87-96). Positioning Rugby needs to continue to posses the high quality and high status image in the fashion industry, along with being a unique, and professional in designs (Burrow, 2011, Pp. 34-43). By adding more casuals to the brand will help the company to attract more customers who are price conscious and look to get products at low price and also give more options to the exiting customers with wide range of products available in the stores (Aaker, 2004, pp. 125-129). Marketing Mix- 4P’s The new marketing strategy for the brand is done based on the 4P’s of marketing mix which are been listed one after the other. Product The product of this brand is the luxurious and quality trendy and preppy apparels. For the target customer of the company being in the age group of 20-29 yrs, who are generally the young generation they look to have a stylish and fashionable lifestyle because of which they look to take trendy dress apparels. Thus the brand needs to look to put its product in the market very carefully by showing the exact value that the product can create to the customers (Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2000, pp. 211-223). Price The pricing strategy of the company should be very specific as the product price must be set based on the market position and also the competitors present in the market so that the price is not very high compared to the other competitors present in the market (Arnold, 1992, pp. 89-97). The price of the articles can be set in different ranges for different products like given below. Cotton T-shirts with a tiny Rugby logo: $23-$26 Graphic T-shirts: $28-$36 Basic Pants: $48-$56 Jeans: $62-$78 Coats: $120-$230 Accessories $22-$54 Pricing is been done based on the price of the competitors just like a single T-shirt of Jack wills is around $24 and that of the single graphic t-shirt of A and F is around $30-$40. Place Rugby needs to locate its stores across globally understanding the market situation at different place and also increase the number of stores to increase its visibility (Brown, 2009, Pp. 76-82). The Stores need to be opened in Market Street, King Street, high end street, King’s Road, Fore street in UK which are the major locations of market place in UK and is also a busy place so people visiting these place is very high, thus the stores in these locations will help the brand get a high visibility and also increase the overall footfalls as a result the sales and also mystery shopping will go up (Rogers, 2001, Pp. 98-103). Promotion Rugby needs to have an extensive range to promotional activities sing various platforms like social media, print media and also television media so that it can communicate its message in the right way to the customers (Bryman and Bell, 2003, pp. 98-106). The company needs to adopt social media in a high manner so that it can conduct events and also increase its popularity by reaching more customers by a small cost. The social networking sites uses have increased among the young generation and people are accessing to these sites in huge numbers. Company allowing people to buy products from the social networking sites will help people to buy products easily without many problems (Friedman, 2012, Pp. 76-82). Conclusion Thus Rugby being a part of Ralph Lauren has many strong points in its favour but also has huge negative points which has affected towards its success and has compelled Ralph Lauren to close the brand Rugby. This will help in increasing the sales and give a huge competitive advantage in the fashion market over various countries This strategy of using the STP analysis will help the brand to be consistent and create more value to its parent brand company creating better lifestyle with luxury segments of stylish apparels at lower prices. Rugby’s new positioning strategy will create lot of value to the target customers of age 20-29 as it will help them in having luxurious and branded fashionable apparels at an affordable price every week. Thus the brand needs to make the new strategy based on the 4P’s of the market so that it can create a good value and also attract more customers. This strategy will not only help the company to re-launch the brand Rugby but also to create a good brand image and also grow in the existing competitive market. Part B- Proposal Looking at the above study report where it is seen that even a good brand like Ralph Lauren has to close down its sub brands because of the failure it faces across the market because of various reasons. Mr Ralph Lauren, the basic reason for the failure of the company is many. The number of stores for the brand is only 12 in US and only one store in UK thus the brand looses a lot on the point of visibility and also unable to create a good brand image in the mind of the customers. To get a good brand image and visibility it needs to open many other stores at various locations so that the number of footfalls in the stores can increase as a result the sales will increase and also the chances for the mystery shopping which will increase the revenue of the company and also help the brand top revive and grow in the market. The competitive market is very high in this industry as a result of which Rugby faces a lot of problem thus the company needs to have a strong competitive strategy to get a good competitive advantage over its competitors and also create good value to its customers so that the customers would start to like the brand Rugby over other brands and prefer buying it more for their trendy and stylish looks. The fashionable items of Rugby where very stylish and well designed but they were not made based on the liking of the customers or the trend that the customers are looking to follow, thus Mr Ralph Lauren, I would sggest6 you to adopt a market strategy where the company understands the exact requirement of the customers, the trend and style they are looking to follow based on the environment and cultural difference and also geographical difference so that the customers can find the highest satisfaction and good value for money from the products under the brand Rugby. This will help the company to create a good brand image and also high liking among the customers at a wide range across the different places in the global market. The brand must look to position its products properly based on the age group, economic condition of the people, geographical conditions and also come up with unique designs to create a competitive edge in the market over its competitors and give lots of options to the customers to choose among the variety of products available in the stores. Along with the parent brand Ralph Lauren the brand Rugby needs to have an extensive promotion strategy using a huge range of promotional activities through various platforms to reach the customers in the proper way and communicate to the customers the right message so that they can understand what additional value they can get from the products of the brand Rugby. It needs to target its customers very specifically so that it can concentrate over them and look to come up with new offers attracting the target customer in the best possible way. The pricing of the product is generally been kept very high compared to the price of the competitors thus Mr Ralph Lauren, I would like you to suggest that the price of the products should be made based on the competitors price so that the competitors don’t get the advantage of less price as people are more price conscious while buying a particular product. Along with this the price of the products must be set based on the various geographical locations and the economical condition and the amount the people can send over buying a product from the market. The discounts been given to the customers should be based on the various occasions or time when people of a particular country look to buy more than other time. This will help to increase the sale of the products under the brand Rugby and enhance more revenue generation for the company. Mr Ralph Lauren, the target customer for the brand Rugby are the young men and women in the age group of 20-29, thus the brand can look to conduct fashion shows showing the latest trends and styles launched in the market and also which can create a good style statement and also status statement for the young generation people. The brand line of Rugby needs to focus on the target customers in the age group of 20-29 which will need the brand to have a good marketing strategy to make it versatile and luxury brand in the market. Rugby needs to study the lifestyle of people, their cultures, and likings to understand the correct segment of people who can afford to take their products. This will enhance better value for the company as more customers will come to know about the existence of the brand and look to avail the particular brand because of it being under the parent brand of well known Ralph Lauren. The company needs to promote its brand especially using social media conducting various activities and also events in facebook, twitter, LinkedIn etc. because its target customers being the young generation are more addicted to the social networking sites, the company can provide the facility of buying products directly from the social networking sites without going out of them. Conduct fashion shows on online website and post the videos and make them popular coming up with offers through it which will encourage the customers to take the products and also get the offers. This will help in increasing the sales and give a huge competitive advantage in the fashion market over various countries. Thus as per me Mr Ralph Lauren, to revamp the brand Rugby from its shrink it needs to start again from the scratch understanding the customer’s needs, setting up more stores in various locations and also come up with huge promotional activities so that it can create a good brand image in their mind which will help the company to increase its revenue and also have profit. References Aaker, D. A. 2004. Brand Portfolio Strategy. New York: Free Press. Aaker, D. and Joachimsthaler, E. 2000. Brand Leadership. New York: Free Press. Arnold, D. 1992. The Handbook of Brand Management. London: Century Business. Belch, G and Michael, G. 2005. Advertising &Promotion-An Integrated marketing Communications Perspective. London: McGraw-Hill. Belk, R. 2007. Handbook of Qualitative research Methods in Marketing. New York: Edward Elgar Publishing. Brown, L. 2009. Marketing and Distribution Research. New York: Ronald Press Company. Bryman, A and Bell, E. 2003. Business Research Methods. 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