Rebranding Miss Selfridges Brand - Essay Example

REBRANDING MISS SELFRIDGES BRAND Part A Introduction (about your brand reinvention) Selfridges is located in the middle of London city the capital city of Great Britain. The founder of the company is known as Harry Gordon Selfridge hence the store was named after him. The store deals in diverse products ranging from perfumes, clothing, home appliances and jewelry. The company has moved to the status of a public limited company as the public are currently allowed to buy shares of the company. Selfridges is being considered as the one of the best departments in the world. Branding has played an immense role in making the Selfridges what is it today. This is because the various branding associated to the department store has the ability of attracting various customers who poses different taste and preferences. Therefore, it is of very key importance to rebrand various brands of products offered by the department store in order to increase sales and profits by attracting more customers. This essay will focus on rebranding Selfridges brand known as Miss Selfridges (Honeycombe, 1984). Background and Industry Context of Brand Chosen Today, there are many cases focusing on women who are abused or have been abused both within the country and globally. The healing process for these abused women is always a difficult journey as most of them always end up loosing their self esteem hence failing in all major sectors in life. To address this, Selfridges started a brand known as Miss Selfridges which was aimed giving these abused self esteem in the society through their dressing. The brand focuses on delivering various clothe wear for women ranging from wedding dresses, Selfridges loves or such dressings like summer denim amongst other types of clothing. These clothe wears are always designed to cheer mood of make women feel young, beautiful and sexy again hence allowing them to continue with life normally accomplishing their different task while enjoying a strong self esteem brought about by the different women’s wear (Our heritage. 2015). Competitors However, in spite of the brand doing good in the market, it has faced some stiff competition form such companies or designers in the region who also produce similar products like the Marks and Spencer. This store in spite of having a strong brand and enjoying a strong customer loyalty in the market, it also produces women wears which helps in raising and building confidence of women in different situations. A good example of the products that are being produced and sold by this store is ladies underwear. Moreover, the kind of advertising being used by this company has really yielded positive fruits for the sale s and revenues as an increase in this recorded in yearly basis (Honeycombe, 1984). In addition, the Selfridges also face stiff competition from a Harrods which is a department store within the UK and deals in also in different wears. The store also apart from enjoying a strong brand also enjoys a stable customer loyalty in the region. Lastly, Selfridges also faces competition from Harvey Nichols which is a company focusing in the production fashionable women’s wear. In light of the competition posed by various competitors, Selfridges therefore has to count its survival on the different brands they offer customers to ensure that they offer a unique experience to their customers to ensure that their customers experience is different from those offered by other competitors ((Honeycombe, 1984). Rationale for Why the Brand Needs To Evolve In order to beat the competition posed by their different competitors, it is mandatory for Selfridges to evolve their Miss Selfridges brand. Globalization of the world has been opening up different opportunities where different businesses and companies are finding new opportunities through such things like invention of new technologies and creation of new market. Due the different product and service substitute available in the market, consumers have shifted towards quality for them money and branding as a whole plays an important aspect in either influencing their behavior to either purchasing a product or not purchasing a product of a specific brand. Therefore, Selfridges has to evolve on its Miss Selfridges brand to attract more customers towards the brand hence increasing their revenues and profits collected from the sales of products under the brand. Likewise, an increase in the levels of profits will also mean that the departmental store has developed a strong strategy of beating the existing competition in the market. Most customers are always tied or develop a loyalty towards a brand because of the shopping experience they receive from associating themselves to the brand in question, therefore, when they rebrand their Miss Selfridges brand top make it identify with all women who are either being faced with difficult situations than those women who have suffered from abuse, an increase in the total number of sales and revenue will be recorded by the department store as the products will cater not only for women who have suffered from abuse, but also men who have been through difficult or sorrowful situations (Our heritage. 2015). Challenges and Opportunities However, the process of rebranding the Miss Selfridges may not just a walk in the path task. This is because change as a process always has its advantages and disadvantages. A good example is that while rebranding the Miss Selfridge brand, the department store may me forced to close up the brand for a specified time period while implementing different changes on the brand to meet the expectations of the desired new brand. This will mean that the total number of sales recognized from the sales of products under the brand will significantly decrease leading to such eventualities like shift of customer loyalties or experience to other competitors offering similar brands. Moreover, since the desired brand has not be tested on the market, it may lead to negative results in the market as customers perception about the brand may change or be influenced negatively. However, in rebranding the new Miss Selfridges brand, the departmental store may use certain opportunities which may positively work for them in the end. They may place the products under Miss Selfridges under other brands instead of shutting down the entire brand while creating for various changes to accommodate the new brand. This will be resourceful to them because they will still be able to profit from the sales of the products of the brand under different brands hence maintaining their customer loyalty and drawing them towards their other brands available in the market. Secondly, they may take the opportunity of attracting other groups or section of customers who are males as Miss Selfridge brand currently lays focus in producing products for women who have suffered from various kinds of abuse. This may mean an increase in the total number of clients loyal to the newly rebranded brand, Miss Selfridge. The Process for Selecting a Suitable Branding Agency In selecting a suitable branding agency to rebrand Miss Selfridges Brand I would follow keenly follow the following steps. In the first step, I will start my search for a suitable branding agency by interviewing different agencies and narrowing down to the one which I believe suits the task of rebranding the Miss Selfridges brand. In the second step, I will try to examine their level of commitment by looking at different things which drew me to select them over other remaining agencies. Likewise, the process involve analyzing their level of interactions with me and the amount of time they take while responding to such things like email exchanges. Moreover, I will also analyze the level of smoothness of our interactions before giving them the tender to rebrand the brand in question. This will be essential as towards choosing agencies which are dedicated towards their task hence avoiding further time loss in the project. Thirdly, I will examine whether they have the potential to see what makes the Miss Selfridges brand unique of whether they posses what it takes to rebrand the brand to be unique. This is because branding is all about creating differentiation hence giving the customers the look and feel of different products. Likewise, in this stage I will also determine whether they are capable of solving the current brand problems in the newly branded brand. In the fourth step, I will determine or check whether they have the needed skills and expertise for the implementation of the new brand experience. This will be useful in determining and knowing whether the newly rebranded brand will be well versed across channels and mediums which will be used for its promotional purposes and its ability to ideate on different touch points to attract more customers. Lastly, I will determine whether they are capable of articulating the rebranding process effectively. This is because good agencies are easily identified by their ability to create a strategic channel through which they will use to attain the desired goals or objectives of the rebranded brand. Moreover, if they succeed in this, I will be sure that the end results of the rebranded brand will be more appealing than the former. Chosen Agency and Justification for This Decision For the case of rebranding of the Miss Selfridges brand, Heavenly Branding Agency will be the best agency to do the task. This is because the branding agency meets my criteria for selecting a branding agency as they pride themselves of being able to ideate ideas while also capturing the imaginations by using their created brands to communicate in a simple yet compelling manner. In addition, for previous research various brands which have been created by the agency have succeeded for the different purposes in which they were intended therefore displaying their ability to the rebranding process effectively. The success of their rebranded brands points at their skills and expertise in the areas. This is so because brands which are rebranded by non-effective agencies always fails as such things like intended message is not properly addressed through the newly created brand. Moreover, the agency’s success in creating effective brands also points at the high level of commitment directed towards a given task because products which are carefully and keenly designed always fail in most markets and same for the opposite scenario. Part B Branding Brief (I.E., Problem Statement, Objectives, Strategy, Etc) Miss Selfridges brand has in the past been faced with problems of low sales turnover in spite of it trying to evolve by including numerous lines of products under their brand. In light of this, rebranding of the old brand has been ordered to help in restoring sales turn over and beat the competition posed by other competitors in the market. The objective towards rebranding of the old brand is to create and increase customer awareness and demand of the products which are availed under the brand. The consumer message which will pass through the newly rebranded brand is that products will be designed as per their designs and that men’s products will also be availed under the brand. The strategy that will be used in the rebranded brand is that the advertising tone will be made to be more trustworthy, comfortable and durable while the mediums to be used will include in-store &outdoor, magazines and social networks. In addition, the mandatory elements for the rebranded branded will entail certain things like the Selfridges logo, products images attention drawing text amongst other elements (Hines, 2001). Launching Plan for Brand Reinvention, With a Gantt chart Indicating Timeline and Phases, Plus a Proposed Budget In the plan for the brand reinvention process I will first of all start by pointing out the challenge which exists in the current brand. In the case Selfridges departmental store the challenges for the brand are that the sales have been slowly decreasing over the years leading to a decrease in the profit margins and revenue collected by the management (Bell, 2014). Secondly, I will look at insights from different channels and strategies to determine how the brand can be successfully reinvented to serve its purpose. This involves looking at some of the successful brands and the steps they took to create their different brands. The insights for Selfridges is that a change in the colors and involving men’s ware under the new brand may give the reinvented brand success because it will attract a different group of customers while retaining the existing customers towards the brand (Hines, 2001). The third step is that I will work to find solution for the reinvented brand. This will involve adding men’s clothing under the brand and using such things like more colors to increase the number of sales experienced or achieved by the brand. The final step will involve the work of reinventing the Miss Selfridges brand through the use of an effective branding agency which has a long and strong reputation. Moreover, the reinvented brand will be broadcasted in the television, newspaper, advertising, merchandising stores amongst to other channels to give in popularity and to attract more and new customers into purchasing the products falling under the brand hence an increase in profits and revenues collected by the brand (Hines, 2001). The four steps which will be achieved will be parallel to the four subcategories and the colors represent the amount of weeks needed for the brand reinvention Proposed Budget for each section Category 1 $10,000 Category 2 $10500 Category 3 $9000 Category 4 $10,000 Total $39,500 Plan of Measurement for Brand Reinvention To measure the success of the brand reinvention I will take the following steps. I will use the strategic brand equity solution through such methods like brand dynamics to access the differences and opportunities for growth of the reinvented brand hence accurately and effectively determining whether the reinvented brand will be a success of fail when presented to the market. Secondly, I will involve performance measurement and management solutions which will be very essential in providing insights for different advertisers and marketers in the market. The method will also assist the diagnosis of market performance hence pushing the reinvented brand to achieve more success through such channels like advertising and media channels. Lastly, I will measure objectives of the reinvented brands to determine whether they are achieved or not. This will involve the use of such methods like the brand dynamics which is solution commonly use for most performance program suites and through it three different metrics will be applied. The first element will be the power which will also be referred to as prediction of the shares collected or gathered by a brand whereas the second element will be premium which will be measured by the reinvented brand’s ability to control various prices for products which will be relative to the category average. Lastly, the third element will be potential which will be used to measure whether the reinvented will grow additional shares in a time period of not more than one year (Bell, 2014). References HONEYCOMBE, G. (1984). Selfridges: Seventy-five years : The story of the store, 1909-1984. London: Park Lane Press. HINES, T. (2001). Fashion marketing: Contemporary issues. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. BELL, A. (2014). Retail rebranded: 27 secrets of market leaders. Bloomington, IN: Balboa Press. Our heritage. (n.d.). Retrieved May 7, 2015, from http://www.selfridges.com/content/our- heritage Read More