Revitalize the Feelin' good-factor

Abstract

Introduction Brunotti is searching for growth opportunities, and is therefore developing a new brand strategy with a broader scope. The ‘right’ brand strategy will ultimately lead to an increase of the brands’ equity and increase the brands competitive position. However there is little knowledge about the perception of the brand and therefore the brands’ image is unclear. Knowledge about the brands’ perception is vital for the development of the new brand strategy. Moreover, a strategy in which the differentiation of the brand is unclear can lead to a decrease of Brunotti’s competitive position, since there is no clear reason for consumer to choose Brunotti over other brands. The challenge of Brunotti of developing a new brand strategy and the need to obtain insights in their brand image created the opportunity for this graduation project. This graduation report describes a proposal for the new brand strategy for Brunotti based on internal and external research. Brunotti Brunotti as a company was internally analysed. The analysis pointed out several important aspects for improvements. Firstly, Brunotti’s current brand strategy is aimed at serving a broad target in different industries, and is therefore moving to a strategy with less differentiation. This combined with the shift towards premium pricing; Brunotti has placed itself in the situation where the brand is positioned to be neither being different nor lower in cost than competitors. This strategy, also referred as the “stuck in the middle”, is classified as the worst strategy to be in to stay competitive. Secondly, the portfolio decision-making effectiveness was found to be low, leading to an unbalanced portfolio, with no balance between more or less risky projects. This has a negative effect on achieving the highest return for the development dollar investment. As an example, several brand extensions were only expected to deliver short-term sales growth, and are not leading to structural growth. Third, current brand management is divided over several people, resulting in no objective management of the brand. Herewith there is no structural and objective protection of the brand image. Competitive position The analysis of Brunotti’s external context indicated that Brunotti’s competitive scope is too broad. Brunotti is facing large and strong competitors in different industries, resulting in high competitive rivalry. Moreover the low differentiation strategy makes Brunotti vulnerable for the threat of substitutes, which is therefore regarded to be high. Furthermore Brunotti is a small player in the sports and fashion industry and therefore faces a big challenge to obtain a strong competitive position in both markets, since it has to divide its resources over both industries. Brand image Via qualitative consumer research insights were acquired about the perception of the brand Brunotti. The consumer research was focused on determining the brands’ image and to obtain insights in the level of brand awareness of the brand. From the results it could be concluded that Brunotti is perceived as (board)sports brand for young adults that also delivers clothing for daily life. However Brunotti is not perceived as a fashion brand. Brunotti is furthermore perceived as a colourful and tough brand that evokes a positive feeling in the consumer mind. Brunotti is also expected to deliver good value for money. Moreover it could be concluded that Brunotti’s brand awareness is high, whereas the brands visibility is low. New brand strategy The new brand strategy is designed to overcome the challenges addressed during the internal and external analysis in order to increase the brands competitive position. The new brand strategy consists of four elements: Positioning The new positioning for Brunotti is focused on differentiating the brand based on the brands’ strengths (brand image) and focuses on the sports and boardsports industry, by excluding fashion. Furthermore the positioning uses the brands’ faded feelin’ good-factor to create a unique selling point, which will be implemented via the marketing. The new positioning also provides new core and brand values, to respectively guide Brunotti’s employees and what it delivers to its customers. With the new positioning Brunotti can differentiate itself from its competitors in the sports and lifestyle industry. The new positioning statement: “To our sport enthusiasts and fanatics who enjoy the fresh air a little challenge and excitement, Brunotti brings you sports-lifestyle apparel and products with distinctive design, functionality, and above all a smile.” Portfolio management To create a balanced product portfolio and to focus the allocation of resources on the successful collections and collections that have high growth opportunities, the fashion collection and the footwear collection are recommended to be liquidated. These collections have a low relative market share, show a low growth rate and are in industries where the competition is strongest. Next to the liquidation of these collections a new concept of a signature collection is recommended. This new signature collection combines different products from different collections in one design style, to counter the fragmented brand manifestation. Marketing management Via marketing the new positioning can be translated in to marketing tools. To differentiate the brand ‘on the spot’ within the retail environment and to increase the brands visibility in the store the concept of Active Shopping POS material was developed. The basic idea of active shopping is that consumers are triggered to perform an activity during their shopping, via POS material. The size of the POS material is ranging from fitting on a pay desk to the size of a promotion stand. Herewith Brunotti can stand out at retailers and at for example events. Next to the active shopping concept, concepts for packaging design are presented with the focus on humour, to also be notable on the streets. Brand management The recommendation for brand management describes the proposal to create a brand manager function. The brand manager is the brands’ advocate and controls the brands’ manifestation in order to protect the brands image to be able to increase the brands’ equity.