Branding

Branding

• 1.
  FCFM 369 MerchandisingInternship 65 pts. ASSIGNMENT 3 Branding A. Background Fashion is a form of communication. Branding is important in order for a company to clearly communicate its personality to the public. Branding influences every component of the company from the product, promotion, to employees. Define branding. Branding is a section of marketing in which a business creates a name and a symbol that correlates with a particular product or set of products. The purpose of branding is to not only place a name and image for a product but to use this name and image to drive consumers to be loyal to the company/product. The purpose is to build a positive association between the name/symbol of a product or line and the perception of consumers. Branding through the product. Discuss in detail the relationship of the product to the brand, such as the product assortment, selection, price points, basic versus fashion products, aesthetics, and quality. The type are product impacts the branding strategy. For instance if the brand is meant to be more exclusive, then there product selection will be scarce and the distribution will be minimal to maintain the “exclusive” association. Exclusivity is generally also coupled with price points; products that you can only get in certain areas generally can sell at higher price points. This, however, is not the only factor that influences price points. Also brand strategy varies depending on the type of products. Branding for basic products like paper towels would be different than that of clothing. The bulk of the branding for paper towels is about differentiation because most of the products are perceived as similar. For fashion products, brand personality is key. Creating a brand personality the echoes the target market is important because consumer behavior in fashion is generally based on expression more so than utilitarian purposes (even though this is not always the case). The brand, however, cannot work alone because creating a product with a brand centered around quality when the product is not perceived as such can have a negative effect on product positioning. Branding through visual merchandising. The visual merchandising aesthetic at my internship site is definitely minimal. The look is supposed to be simple, modern and industrial and it definitely executes that through the use of display furniture. The store has less signage than other stores, with the only signs being around the sales section and the beauty products. Most of the racks in the store are side facing piping. There are tables where product is folded
• 2.
  and displayed inboth the women’s and the men’s sections but the bulk of the product is hanging on the side-facing piping. In the sales section there is a rounder and couple of t-stands sprinkled around the store to mix up the product views. The major differences between the Pattern store and say a store like Urban Outfitters is the lack of forward-facing product. This is a problem because consumers are often overwhelmed by the product they have to sort through to find something they are looking for. Having a wall displays with protruding piping would serve the store well. Both Urban Outfitters and Pattern are mainly DIY-based so they have similarities as far as moveable furniture and neutral colors. The Pattern store, as aforementioned, is a lot simpler and less hectic but does not showcase the product that well. Branding through promotion campaign. Pattern, because of its non-profit status has a basically non-existent marketing budget. Most of the promotion is done via social media as well as partnering with other local businesses and small designers. Other promotion of the store aspect of Pattern comes the magazine and event component of the company. This is more of a word-of-mouth style of promotion and thus would fall under direct marketing. Other direct marketing tactics used to retain a customer base is through newsletters sent biweekly outlining different promotions at the store and new product that is being received at the store. Since it’s in the start-up stages, everything (like the marketing) is not planned out super professionally but the general process of creating a newsletter/forming a social media post is as follows: a. b. The above flowchart is the process of promoting new product but it can also be used when re- promoting old product in sale campaigns. The only difference is that, the sale product is identified, styled and then placed on social media or in the newsletter with the corresponding markdown. Because the budget for marketing is so small, the reach of the company through these campaigns isn’t great. Many people in the Indianapolis associate Pattern with the magazine and the events but not the store; so Buy new product for the store. Identify and receive new product. Style outfits using the new product. Photograph new product and create newsletter/social media post.
• 3.
  the brand familiarityis there, but the right connections to the retail space are not being made. The traffic is slow at the store because of many factors, but the promotional campaigning plays a roll. Pattern plays up the magazine and event aspect but has little focus on what is actually happening in the store. Though I believe the system needs to be updated, there isn’t much that can be changed within the budget. What needs to be done is more emphasis on social media about the store. Much of the store information goes into the newsletter which is only sent to people that have come into the store and signed up for it. This means that the newsletter only reaches current customers instead of drawing in new traffic. And because it is a non-profit, there isn’t always a lot of new product in so returning customers can get bored of it very easily. Other retail spaces in the Indianapolis area have gained recognition and success beyond Indianapolis through the use of Instagram and various other social media to curate a likeable brand image. Pattern has that association but has failed to narrate the start-up store to a new consumer which has led to problems. As aforementioned, social media is one the two main components of marketing and promotion. Though most of the social media is directed on different aspects of the Pattern brand, it is still used to create a brand personality that generally has a pretty positive association locally. Pattern uses just about all social media platforms but the emphasis is on Instagram and Facebook with a bit of Twitter mixed in. Instagram is heavily used to promote the magazine and events and has little focus on the store. Pattern has two separate Facebooks; one for the store and one for the basic Pattern name. Not combining and promoting the different aspects equally has created disconnect from the retail space. As of late the retail space is being renovated to following more of the Pattern image of being a “community-driven” company by making the store more of a local maker space as well as for retail. The success of social media is monitored by Facebook’s widget that allows the administrator of the page to view the reach of the post. Instagram and Twitter success is based on likes as well as new traffic coming into the store after the post. Pattern has prided itself on being a locally-driven company and the employees and volunteers are a reflection of that. Most are local creators/artists/photographers that share their time between normal jobs and the company because they believe in the company persona. Indianapolis has a range of people and the volunteers and employees of Pattern reflect the eclectic and diverse crowd (for the Midwest). The company is locally focused, so attracts and keeps others that are locally focused as well. Pattern has opened my eyes to my personal brand and has encouraged to really reflecting upon who I am and what I want to do. Through going to events and meeting other creators, I have often been caught in situations where I can’t exactly explain what it is I do. I didn’t have any sort of online portfolio or curated social media presence so my responses were limited. This experience has basically showed me that an online presence is necessary, I too often feel like myself in-person will give me opportunities; but many opportunities are created online. I have my professional brand all mapped out, the next step is just to make it happen.