Luxury Brands Marketing Concept with Cartier Successful Story - Report Example

Luxury brands marketing concept with Cartier successful story This report has analyzed and evaluated the marketing strategies adopted by Cartier. The organization is one of the leading and popular among the consumers around the globe due to its offering of high quality, attractive and luxurious apparel products, such as jewellery sets and watches. This report will analyze about the adopted and implemented premium pricing strategy of the products, and high price high quality positioning strategy. In addition to this, the report will also discuss about the adopted marketing strategy through the implementation of marketing mix framework. Finally, a finding of the analysis has been carried out in order to determine the reason behind such adoptions and implementation. The nature of global luxury business environment is changing constantly. Therefore, it is important for the marketing professionals and students to know how Cartier is successful through its marketing activities. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Introduction 4 Methods and data 4 Data Analysis 5 Primary Data Analysis 5 Secondary Data Analysis 7 STP Analysis 7 4Ps of Marketing Mix Framework 9 Findings 11 Conclusion 12 References 13 Appendix: Interview Questions 14 Introduction Cartier can be considered as one of the leading Paris based multinational organizations that designs, produces, distributes and sell luxurious and attractive watches and jewelleries. Global luxury brand market has become highly competitive as well as saturated as different organizations are trying to capitalize on the potential business operation opportunities that have been developed due to globalization and technological advancement. Cartier also has developed and implemented unique marketing and business operation strategies in order to maintain its competitive advantages over competitors. As the demand for high quality and differentiated luxury product has increased among the global consumers, the luxurious brand are focusing on unique marketing concepts in order to secure their existing market share and potential customer base. This particular topic is interesting because each and every organization in the global luxury market is focusing on unique marketing strategy development and implementation process. Therefore, it is highly important to analyze the marketing concept adopted and implemented by the luxurious brands as it will help the readers to understand that the organizations have adopted different unique strategies to gain competitive advantages. This report will determine the marketing concept of luxury brands considering the example of Cartier through conducted research methodology and data analysis. Methods and data Research methodology and data collection can be considered as two most important aspects in any research work. Research methodology can be divided into two parts, such as qualitative research methodology and quantitative research methodology. Qualitative research methodology has been adopted and implemented in this study based on the interpretative nature of the study in which thoughts and observation of people will be effective to gain positive research output. In addition to this, both primary and secondary data collection process have been adopted in this research work in order to gain fresh data as well as bunch of data in limited time period. Semi structured open ended questionnaire has been developed for the primary data collection process. On the other hand, academic text books have been considered to gather secondary data and information. I have developed the questionnaire for six respondents and the questionnaire contains 5 open ended questions. In terms of secondary data, 10 academic text books have been considered to complete the research. The primary data will be analyzed based on the evaluation and findings of the response of the respondents. On the other hand, the concepts and observations of the authors will be evaluated in order to analyze the secondary data and information sources. Data Analysis Data analysis can be considered as an important part in any research work. This part of the report will analyze both the primary and secondary data sources. Primary Data Analysis All the respondents are young college goers and all of them have replied that the organization uses different marketing channels in order to create brand awareness among each and every target customer. According to them, the organization effectively uses advanced technological applications to promote the products. On the other hand, effective traditional offline and print media promotional strategy has helped the organization to create significant brand awareness among the target customers. Each and every respondent have agreed that marketing and promotional strategy has helped them to become loyal to the brand. According to them, it is true that global business environment is becoming highly competitive as well as saturated. On the other hand, different organizations are offering high quality and differentiated luxurious jewelleries and watches at competitive price. Therefore, attractive marketing activities are required to win customer loyalty. All of the respondents have replied that the products of Cartier are superior in quality. It is true that several business organizations only focus on the marketing activities. But, the respondents have replied that the organization always mentions about the features and quality of the products in marketing activities or different promotional activities. It actually helps them to be loyal to the brand. According to the respondents, market segmentation and target marketing are two important things of the marketing concept adopted by any organization. The respondents have replied that each and every product is effectively segmented by the marketing department of Cartier. In addition to this, they also have replied that the products are targeted towards the people of higher income group as these are the premium priced luxury products. In terms of future recommendation, four out of six respondents have replied that the organization should effectively focus on online promotional strategies and activities. According to these respondents, number of social media users is increasing significantly and these social media users are habituated with the online marketing and online consumption activities. It actually eases the efforts of the consumers that are required in the consumption practices. In addition to this, they also have replied that the organization should go for effective price mix strategy to meet the satisfaction and expectation level of the customers. Several organizations are going for seasonal discounted pricing strategy during the festive seasons. It actually penetrated the buying decision of the consumers. Rest of the two respondents have replied that, the organization should use celebrity endorsement of the luxurious premium priced products more aggressively and effectively as it will help them to attract more towards the brand. Effective pricing and promotional strategy should be considered by the organizations in order to maintain core competencies and gain competitive advantages over the target customers. Last but not the least; all the respondents have suggested that the organization should strengthen its after sales service practices in order to gain high customer loyalty towards the brand. Secondary Data Analysis Global luxury product market has become highly competitive as well as saturated. The organizations within this industry are trying to implement unique strategies in business operation process in order to gain potential competitive advantages over the competitors. Cartier has effectively implemented differentiated marketing strategy (Armstrong, 2002, p.22). This specific differentiation in the marketing concept helped the organization to gain huge success in its business operation practices. The adopted and implemented marketing strategy of Cartier will be explained through the help of STP analysis and marketing mix strategic framework. STP Analysis STP analysis can be considered as an effective marketing analytical tool, which will evaluate the segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy of Cartier. In terms of market segmentation, the organization has successfully done demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioural segmentation. In terms of demographic segmentation, the management of the organization segmented its products for the people of higher income group. The people of this higher income group are aged between 20 and 60. In addition to this, both male and female are the major target customers (Basu, 2012, p.63). The organization demographically segmented its products for young adults, college goers, office executives, corporate officials and high income households. In terms of Geographic segmentation, the organization has targeted people of towns and metro cities (Kotler, 2008, p.87). In terms of psychographic segmentation, the organization has targeted those people who perceive the luxurious premium priced watches and jewelleries are of high quality and attractive. In terms of behavioural segmentation, the organization has targeted people of loyal customer towards the brand who think that the products of Cartier are of high quality. People of this segment think that the available economic priced products in the market are of low quality and it will affect their image, status and standard of the lifestyle. Target marketing can be considered as one of the important aspects in the marketing activities. The management of Cartier always targets people according to the adopted market segmentation process. Both men and women are the major target customers. It is true that the recent financial crisis and global economic recession affected the economic environment of Europe. Therefore, it is affecting the purchasing power and disposable income of the people of middle class income group (Keegan, 2002, p.28). Due to this reason, the management of Cartier is only targeting the people of high class income group, who perceive that luxurious premium priced products are superior in quality and attractive in looks. Luxurious watches and jewelleries, and apparels are considered as symbol of status and higher lifestyle icon for the people. Therefore, the management of the organization is mainly targeting the people of higher social status and personality. Office executives, corporate professionals and successful businessmen are considered as the major target customers of Cartier (Havaldar, 2005, p.59). Positioning of products and brands can be considered as major marketing activity after the completion of segmentation and target marketing activities. The management of Cartier has never compromised with the quality of the products and always implemented cost based pricing strategy (Hamilton and Webster, 2012, p.31). The organization has effectively developed positioning strategy based on the characteristics of market segmentation and nature of the target market. High quality of the products and premium pricing of the each and every luxurious product forced the management of the organization to market its products as high price and high quality products. 4Ps of Marketing Mix Framework Marketing Mix can be considered as one of the important strategic marketing tool that helps an organization to evaluate its adopted pricing, product development, and distribution and promotion strategy. Following is the marketing mix of Cartier. Product The management of Cartier has adopted and implemented product differentiation strategy by considering the high quality resources in the manufacturing process. Effective, strong and high quality research and development team always ensures high quality of the products. In addition to this, the organization had made sure that the products of the organization will be of attractive in looks (Fyall and Garrod, 2005, p.56). Effective differentiation and diversification strategy has helped the organization gain huge success. Price The management of the Cartier has adopted and implemented cost based pricing strategy. It has been discussed earlier that the organization has never compromised with the quality of the products. In addition to this, the organization always uses high quality resources in the manufacturing activities (Dibb and Simkin, 2013, p.41). It is highly important for the organization to rethink about the pricing strategy as the inadequate economic environment can affect the purchasing power of people. In addition to this, too much premium pricing strategy can also affect the sales growth rate and customer loyalty of the organization. Place or Distribution Distribution can be considered as an important business operation process of an organization. Cartier has developed centralized supply chain and distribution channel. This centralization has helped the management of the organization to take entire control of its supply chain and distribution activities (Blythe, 2012, p.12). It is true that too much centralization can increase overall supply chain lead time. Promotion The management of Cartier has used different promotional channels to market its luxurious products for the target customers. The organization has used online social media promotional strategies as the number of social media users is increasing significantly. On the other hand, the organization also has used traditional promotional strategies, such as print media, word of mouth and digital media promotional strategies to create significant brand awareness among the target customers (CIA, 2011, p.19). Findings It is clear from the above analysis that the demand for high quality and effective luxury products, such as watches and jewelleries has effectively increase among the people in Europe. Therefore, it has become essential for the organizations within the industry to develop and implement effective strategies in order to gain potential competitive advantages over the target customers. Marketing can be considered as one of the important business operation activities that help an organization to push the products to the target customers or pull the target customers towards the products. The management of Cartier has effectively adopted and implemented differentiated business level strategy to offer high quality and differentiated products to the target customers. Day-by-day, the market competition is increasing significantly. Therefore, the organization has used different types of marketing strategies and activities to ensure business success. Effective product and brand positioning has helped the organization to offer products according to the needs of target customers and characteristics of the market segment. The management of the organization always used highly advanced technological applications in watches to redefine the concept of luxury and standard. Use of high quality and limited edition costly gems and pearls in the jewellery sets has also increased the attractiveness of these products. Therefore, it can be stated that these specific activities have brought success to the organization. Apart from these, effective promotional and distribution process of these high quality and differentiated products increased the customer loyalty of the brand. Conclusion This report will help each and every management student to develop their knowledge regarding the marketing concepts that are adopted and implemented by several organizations. The luxury product market in Europe, especially the apparel market is becoming competitive. On the other hand, the demand for these luxurious apparel products, such as luxurious and premium priced watches and jewellery sets is increasing constantly. The analysis and evaluation of the marketing strategy adopted and implemented by Cartier can help each and every student to understand how a successful organization can adopt and implement differentiated marketing strategy in its business operation process. This report will help each and every individual to gain theoretical knowledge about the differentiated marketing as well as business level strategy. All the individuals will try to get employment opportunity in respective firms and organizations. Then this knowledge and theoretical aspect will help each and every individual to enhance strategy development and decision making process. Only thing has to consider by the readers that the cost leadership pricing strategy can be considered by the organization in order to avoid intensive market competition and high market saturation. All the students will be benefited in academic as well as future professional life through the understanding of the above analysis and theoretical considerations. References Armstrong, G., 2002. Global Marketing Management. New Jersey: Pearson. Basu, P., 2012. Marketing management. London: Routledge. Blythe, J., 2012. Strategic Marketing. London: Kogan page. CIA., 2011. The World Factbook 2011. Virginia: CIA Publications. Dibb, S., and Simkin, L., 2013. Market Segmentation Success. London: Routledge. Fyall, A., and Garrod, B., 2005. Marketing: A Collaborative Approach. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Hamilton, L., and Webster, P., 2012. The International Business Environment. London: Oxford University Press. Havaldar, K., 2005. Industrial Marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill. Keegan, J., 2002. Global Marketing Management. New Jersey: Pearson. Kotler, P., 2008. Principles of Marketing. New Jersey: Pearson. Appendix: Interview Questions Name: Occupation: Age: Nationality: 1. What specific marketing activity of Cartier attracts you? 2. Will you be loyal to the brand if the organization stops doing innovative marketing activities? 3. Does the organization assure you about the quality of the products through marketing activities? 4. Are the marketing and products of the organization effectively segmented among target customers? 5. Can you provide some suggestions to the brand in terms of marketing activities? Read More