'Life after acquisition': Providing brand experience in a highly functional market

'Life after acquisition': Providing brand experience in a highly functional market

Passenier, R.

Van Heur, R.J.H.G. (mentor)
Person, F.E.O.K. (mentor)
Van Ittersum, B. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Industrial Design

Master of Science Strategic Product Design

2011-07-15

In 2006 the Thule Group acquired the Dutch company Brink Bv. A leading player in the European towing industry. In 2008 the brand Brink was replaced by the Thule Group's core brand; Thule. Since then several incremental changes have been implemented to align products and communication with the Thule brand. Since, many entities are left unchanged there is a need to properly aling corporate brand with sub-brand. A Thule Towing Systems brand strategy is developed that focuses on the connection with the consumers. This is an approach that is unique in the product and technology driven industry. Nowadays the product category is of fairly low interest and brand or product differences hardly exist. Therefore, to implement the brand strategy, an audience has to be generated first. This is done by providing a value proposition to the two consumer levels that directly targets their primary needs and desires. To illustrate this, a Thule fitting concept is developed. This concept provides a healthy business model for the fitter and a superior fitter experience for the end-consumer.

branding
brand acquisition
towing
Thule
brand strategy

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:bc55a9ce-963a-414e-ab76-ed8a10d05fbb

2012-07-15

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2011 Passenier, R.