Rohl Marketing Report

BRANDING COMMUNICATIONS REPORT

ABIGAIL DOUGHTY BLATHNAID LEAHY ANA ZURAVLIOVA

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report will cover the campaign created for the launch of Röhl in AW 2015 with the brand opening on 2nd of August 2015.

It covers marketing techniques for Röhl from July until August 15th 2015.

(Appendix 1) The concept of this launch campaign is called ‘time lapse’, the idea of owning a garment that is wearable for day or night, a piece that is to be treasured forever and a time staple in your wardrobe.

CONTENTS

1 - INTRODUCTION

2 - BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE

3 - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

4 -5 - TARGET CONSUMER

6 - STRATEGIC APPROACH 7 - 11 - EVENT

12 - STORE OPENING

13 -14 - ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

15 - 17 - DIGITAL CAMPAIGN

18 - CONCLUSION

19 - APPENDICES

INTRODUCTION

The report will feature an advertising campaign, launch event, store opening and full digital campaign, these will all be combined with a strong PR strategy that will promote and lift the overall campaign.

Rรถhl, a Norwegian based high-end fashion brand will be entering the English apparel market before AW 2015. Rรถhls intentions are to promote to their targeted consumer the high-quality and sustainable fabrics of their garments. The following report demonstrates how Rรถhl will build strong brand recognition through each tactic employed.

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BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE

In 2002, Solveig Bjornstad and her husband, Gjøvik Bjornstad created Röhl in their small apartment on Amagervein Street in Oslo.

Three years later they opened their first shop in the capital and encountered an immediate success with the Norwegian consumers.

After conquering a strong Scandinavian market, Röhl was ready to launch in the United-Kingdom, starting with London.

Röhl is a sustainable high-end fashion brand that uses the best natural fibres to produce unique piece of clothing.

Röhl is specialised in street wear and possess a leathery accessory collection. The Scandinavian brand has an arty side where a lot of illustrations are used to promote their campaign.

Röhl supports the Forest People Program (FPP), a non-profit organisation that had an alternative vision on how forests should be managed and protected by the people that know them the best. FPP was created in 1999 and Röhl have been supporting the program since 2009.

In Norway, Röhl get a strong media coverage from HENNE Magazine, Elle Norway and Costume.

A lot of Röhl’s PR is done through their social media pages and with the help of Nordic bloggers that have developed a strong taste for sustainable fashion over the last five years.

Main competitors: see appendix

2

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

Create a successful advertising campaign for Röhl’s AW 2015 collection, to achieve a sale turnover of 25% during the period of August until December 2015.

Launch a digital campaign for Röhl to raise the brand’s recognition by 15% amongst the AB1 consumer from August until December 2015.

Organize a social event followed by effective press coverage to install a strong brand status amongst the 23-34 years old AB1 female consumer.

Launch a store opening in London to effectuate a sale turnover of 30% to begin from the store opening on the 2nd of August 2015.

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TARGET CONSUMER

The Olivia’s are a group of single female middle-upper class consumer aged between 26 and 35 years old and belong to the socio-economic group A and B. They are a group of fashion consumers living in the traditional high status suburbia or part of modern families housing higher incomes and are very independent with strong opinions; backed up by knowledge from experience. They have built their careers through their interests and passion and are motivated to experience new journeys in life. They have a pleasure-orientated female consumer. Their parents initiated them to take an interest in art and culture from a young age and encouraged them to take part in outdoor activates and hobbies, this has then led them to appreciate the raw and rustic nature of the countryside and develop an understanding as to how it should be looked after.

They are a regular fashion consumer and make purchases at least once every two weeks, however they do not only consume fast-fashion. Quality will always come before price so they are willing to spend an extra £60 when they know that they are going to keep and wear the garment for a long period of time.

The Olivia’s purchase fashion brands like Zadig & Voltaire, All Saints or The Kooples. These all have a timeless style and opt for a casual layered fashion. When making a purchase, comfort is always key.

They wear a lot of trainers so they can cycle their way around their city centre based work.

The Olivia’s choose a healthy life style, and like to know where and what ingredients their products may contain. In terms of food, buying fresh is also important so they usually choose to buy from small markets and independent health food stores.

The Olivia’s are often in and out of their city centre based work and home life to travel around Europe. Germany, France or Norway are common countries that they like visiting and exploring for new experiences and ideas.

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The choice of phone for the Olivia’s is an I-phone 5s; they are very aware of social media and take advantage of a variety of social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. They see themselves as amateur photographers and like to post their discoveries and experiences images on social media to show off to others.

The Olivia’s are up-to-date with the fashion press, they regularly purchase ELLE magazine, Vogue, Wonderland or Dazed and Confused. They always have in hand the latest issue of Time Out London and follow the international news through their I-Phone, meaning they rarely feel the need to purchase any other newspaper.

The Olivia’s are loyal consumers that were brought up with the values of intellectual and affective autonomy. Once they find a brand that corresponds to their personality and one in which they can trust, they will make regular purchases and inform their entourage about the company by word-of-mouth and through social media.

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STRATEGIC APPROACH

Röhl will enter the UK market through a global strategic approach.

Röhl is a strong and independent retailer; they have sufficient funds to do a faithful reproduction of their trading concept in Norway. The company will own it’s first store based in London and opening from the 2nd of August 2015. It is important that the brand image stays global to keep the Scandinavian heritage of Röhl alive.

The AW 15 garments will be similar to the Norwegian collection, however, some changes will occur due to the climate change between Norway and England.

See appendix for diagram and timeline of strategy.

6

EVENT

URBAN OUTSIDERS Audience Among the 180 guests invited, 18 respected figures have been conveyed. Their personalities and life occupations are a key aspect for Röhl. Röhl wants to be represented by persons that suits best their brand’s image. The guest list is a mixture between British and Nordic personalities.

Celebrities British model Agyness Deyn will be present; her grungy and effortless style is in total accordance with Röhl. She is a potential face for Röhl’ s A/W 16 advertising collection. The Icelandic singer Björk has been invited, she will be performing with a Norwegian DJ at the end of the night.

Röhl supports gender equality and represents each independent woman; the American actress Ellen Page will be joining the Urban Outsiders night. Alexa Chung, the British fashion guru that never misses a fashion event will be part of the evening too. Alexa and Ellen will be dressed in Röhl S/S 15 collection in order to promote it and gain a maximum of brand awareness in the United Kingdom and internationally. Finally, Nordic model Freja Beha Erichse will be coming along. She is a huge fan of Röhl and will also be wearing garments for the S/S collection. Röhl has chosen Freja because of her androgyny personality and her activeness on social media.

University Solveig Bjornstad wants to give upcoming designers a chance to perceive their talent in the fashion industry. Röhl is in contact with Central Saint Martins and the Norwegian Fashion Institute; the best five undergraduates fashion designers from both universities will have the opportunity to be part of the event.

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PR / MEDIA COVERAGE To generate effective PR coverage, London’s and Norway’s most notorious fashion blogger will be part of the night: Kavita Donkersley, Sandra Hagelstam, Shini Park and Cathrine Heienberg.

All together, they have an estimated 500k followers on Instagram. The British fashion press will be represented by Grace Cobb, Lorraine Candy and Isabella Burley, editors of Wonderland magazine, Elle UK magazine and Dazed and Confused. The Norwegian fashion press will also be involved in order to maintain Röhl’s influence in Norway.

Elle Norway editor Petra Middelthon and Henne chief editor Laila Maso will be flying over especially for the event.

Concept Overview Urban Outsiders is a charitable sponsored fashion event that will take place on the 30th of July at Queen of Hoxton in London. The rooftop bar will be divided into a tent and an outside bar. Therefore, two DJ will be playing live sets. The overall approach of the night is to introduce Röhl to the guests and create a social atmosphere. With the help of sponsors and artists, Urban Outsiders will be a night remembered by everyone and generating important media coverage in the days following the event.

Venue The party will take place at Queen of Hoxton in London. The rooftop bar has the capacity to welcome 200 guests and will be divided into two parts: a tent will be dressed as well as a bar that will be at the guests disposition. The rooftop will be giving the guests a full view of London by night. On another hand, the tent will be dressed and designed in a rustic and backwoods theme. A fireplace will be placed at the centre of the tent and the guests will have the possibility to dance in this earthy environment. The dual personality of the location has been chosen to correspond with Röhl’s brand image. The guests will therefore be aware of the urban and outdoor side of Röhl.

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Parking The guests will have the possibility to park at Leonard Street Car Park where 150 spaces has been reserved for the night.

The event will involves surprises and activities throughout the night They will be organized by Solveig Bjornstad, sponsorships, DJ artists and a charitable auction.

Solveig Bjornstad will welcome the guests and introduce herself and Röhl with a small speech. A short introductory film on Röhl will also be displayed on the rooftop screen of Queen of Hoxton.

Sponsors The event will be sponsored by two different brands: Polaroid ltd will be arranging 40 Polaroids for the guests to immortalise the evening and bring back home special souvenirs.

Some of the Polaroids pictures will be kept for them to feature in Dazed and Confused and Wonderland magazine.

The guests will be able to photograph their own pictures and upload them on their Instagram account. With the use of different hashtags created during the night, Polaroid’s and Röhl will both gain brand recognition among cyber influential consumer.

Brennevin, typical Nordic liquor, will be served throughout the night to give the guests a taste of the Norwegian culture. The liquor will be poured in wooden shots class in the tent. More drinks will be served at the bar, after all Hoxton is renown for their excellent cocktail selection.

Abel & Co, an organic farming food delivery company, will be part of the sponsors. They will deliver enough provision to dress a fresh sophisticated buffet for the guests. It will be located on the outdoor area of the rooftop.

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Music Deep house and minimalistic electro will be played through the night. Röhl will be welcoming the Norwegian DJ Jan Blomqvist who will be mixing in the outdoor area of the rooftop. London based DJ Gilles Peterson will be in charge of the music inside the tent. At 10pm, the two artists will join their talents to give the guests an exclusive mix in the outdoor area. The hour mix will then be available on Soundclound and YouTube. Finally, Röhl have the privilege of receiving Björk. Herself and Jan Blomqvist will be doing a live collaboration mix at 11pm for the closing of the event. The pair will be working together for the first time; Björk will be performing her album ‘’Stick Around for Joy’’ remixed by Jan Blomqvist. Röhl is expecting the live event to generate great success after being revealed on social media.

Charitable Auction Röhl have been supporting the Forest Peoples Programmes (FPP) since 2009.

The charity funds raised throughout the night will be given to the environmental association which will be celebrating their 25 years old anniversary this year.

Röhl have conveyed an innovative and creative idea to raise funds for FPP this year: Londoner graphic artist Dexter Spandex will be at the event drawing illustrations of the celebrities invited, the illustrations will then be sold at the end of the evening through a live auction. All the money collected will be given to FPP.

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Promotion The event will be promoted on the 1st of July through social media platforms Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

The day following the event, Polaroid pictures will be sent to the targeted media list in the hopes of appearing in their publications. Pictures of celebrities are really necessary to feature in fashion publications. The pictures of the overall night will feature on social media and some will be printed to feature in Röhl’s first store.

The pictures taking by Röhl’s professional photographers will be uploaded on the brand’s Facebook two days after Urban Outsiders. The guests will have the possibility to tag themselves on the pictures and share the album.

The PR on Facebook will work effectively.

Röhl’s Twitter account will be sharing a few pictures and the Facebook link to the Urban Outsiders album.

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STORE OPENING

Store opening – 2nd of August 2015 Address Rohl 51, Margaret Street London SA18 2PJ Time Röhl’s store opening will occur on Saturday the 2nd of August 2015 from 10am to 5pm.

Aim The store opening will be an opportunity for Röhl to familiarise with their customers, to link them to Röhl’s newsletter and to make sure that they follow Röhl on social media.

Décor The store will have the Polaroid’s of the ‘’Urban Outsider’’ event placed on the walls.

Music For the atmosphere of the store, the playlist that Jan Blonqvist mixed for ‘’Urban Outsider’’ will be played throughout the day.

Entertainment Interactive screens will be available for customers to look through the collection and the store plan. They will also have outfits from the Röhl AW 15 collection put together, to give every customer a great styling sense.

To give a Scandinavian feeling to Röhl’s customer, the staff will distribute a personalised bag to each person entering the store. The bag will have inside a Neutrogena hand cream, Kokosprickar sweets (coconuts marshmallows) and a leaflet representing Röhl and their engagements with current charities and events.

A limited edition illustrative journal by Dexter Spandex will be given to every customer spending over £500 in the store.

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ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

The print advertising campaign for Röhl will be shown in a range of publications that will not only focus on fashion, but art and culture as well as this ties in with the theme of the illustrations. There will also be a digital aspect to the campaign, which will feature a short one-minute advert, which will appear on websites and social media platforms.

For the print advertising a selection of magazines will be chosen to feature the advert such as Dazed & Confused, Wonderland and i-D magazine, the readers of these are affluent, creative and confident individuals with an interest in a range of topics, not just fashion. This strongly links to Röhl as a key concept of the brand is the illustrative works and the creative aspect that is consistency portrayed throughout each season.

The print advertisements will show either the model wearing the full garment poised in a location, or just a section of the model showing up to three pieces of Röhl products, again in a location background.

The logo will always appear in the bottom left and will feature the website link as well underneath so as to link the digital consumer directly to the brand.

The video advertisement will represent the transition of day to night; ‘time lapse’ and will be themed with images of the model throughout the day to the evening, representing that the brand can be worn anytime for any event. The logo will appear in the middle of the video for three seconds where it gradually zooms in and then back out again so the main focus for the viewer is on the logo.

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The model used in each campaign will follow a similar style, age and look as to maintain a strong brand image and relate to the targeted consumer, Rรถhl as a growing brand will only use models as the brand grows instead of models to retain exclusivity for the brand and so as not to commercialize it. If possible, the same photographers, styling team and makeup/hair artists will be used for each photo-shoot to maintain a consistent look through each season.

The location of the adverts will always be based in city centres and will always try to include structural aspects in the background to highlight the city-life side of the brand. The natural fibres and materials of the garments will be the contrast brought through within the image to represent the natural purity of the countryside.

Styling, in regards to the outfits are always fairly simple, with minimal accessories so that the main focus is on the garment and textures displayed.

The advertising campaign will be successful in targeting the appropriate consumer by appealing to their desires and what they expect and want from a brand, each advertising campaign is slightly different which will catch the consumers attention and increase brand recognition over the course of the campaign.

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DIGITAL CAMPAIGN

The digital aspect of the campaign will run alongside the launch event and will be successful by being consistent throughout. In order for the digital marketing to take complete effect it is important that the strategy is implemented correctly in store as well as online.

Social media will be used to increase brand awareness and grow brand recognition and will be the main promotional platform, the target age range is between 25-35, so the main platforms used will be Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. As well as this a website with be launched, accompanied by an app which will feature adverts, behind the scenes videos and will be somewhere where consumers can interact directly with the brand and share through social media.

The Twitter for Röhl will be one of the main promotional platforms used and will feature illustrative artists associated with the brand, promote awareness for global issues and develop brand recognition through the use of celebrities. These hash-tags will be used for #RohlLife – As the brand is primarily a lifestyle brand it is important that this is linked via social media, customers can tag #RohlLife which can relate to anything from products to landscape or garments and emotions – as these are a part of everyday life and as the customer understands the brand more and what it stands for they can communicate directly with the brand. Behind the scenes photo-shoot images will also be featured on here making the consumer feel more linked to the brand involved. #WhoWhatWear – This features celebrities and key icons related with our brand such as Aygness Deyn, Alexa Chung, Ellen Page and Freja Beha spotted wearing Röhl clothing, this is successful in creating brand recognition as customers associate themselves with the celebrity and creates desire for what they are wearing. #BackToNature – Röhl supports a number of charities and organizations that raise global awareness and raises funds for tree planting foundations, save our forests and deer sanctuaries. This strengthens the brand values and loyalty of our consumers. #RohlLoves - This is used to promote the illustrative artists that are used to cover our store items such as journals, iPad covers etc these will change every few months but will promoted as exclusive limited designs to increase customers desire. This will also help in promoting up and coming artists and new talent but raise awareness to raise the brands profile and loyalty in caring for art and culture.

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Facebook will be the main platform for promoting other social media sites and interacting with the consumer. Here they will receive replies and ‘likes’ from the brand.

It also features more about bloggers related to the brand, and artist interviews which again link back to the website so consumers are interacting with the brand directly.

The website will have simple layout consisting of main images that represent the brand well so for the home page there will be three images, the fabrics and a sculptural image which shows the contrast between the two, the lightness of the wool leading to dark leather always portrays the effect of day and night. Also on the home page a behind the scenes video will be featured, approximately four minutes long; this will change each season and keep consumers eager to visit the web page for the next updated video.

A ‘contact’ section will be provided where customers are positively encouraged to email Röhl with any feedback they may have about the brand, links to the Facebook, Twitter and Email will also be featured as well as a map showing store location accompanied by the addresses. Alongside this a page will also explain ‘our history’ as a brand and ‘our promise’ with short snappy paragraphs to highlight the high quality and exceptional service that we provide, highlighting our sustainable and eco ethos.

The ‘press room’ will feature interviews with the illustrative designers and campaigns and charities that Röhl will be involved in supporting. This section of the website will be promoted through social media platforms Facebook and Twitter to strengthen the brand values and identity.

The ‘creative escape’ page on the website will just feature past and current images of the illustrations created for Röhl that appears on the limited edition iPad covers and journals sold in-store. It is important to the brand that this page is protected from consumers copying the image and distributing them on social media sites so security for this page will be high, the aim of this is to retain exclusivity and copyright of the original image for further use.

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Finally a ‘care and cleaning’ page will be added featuring basic information on how to care for wool, leather and suede products and the appropriate way to clean them, this will be an important part of the Röhl website as consumers are paying for high quality products so will need to experience the after care that comes with it.

Instagram will be updated daily and as it is a visual platform it is important that the content is appropriate to the brand so images such as illustrations, behind the scenes photo’s, landscape and architecture and products will be displayed as well as mood boards with colour palettes.

The App will be available on Apple and Android, allowing customers to access the brand no matter where they are, browse current collections, purchase, share their favourite products and garments to social media pages, and there will also be short videos to help the customers feel involved with backstage interviews with artists and models and a short advert which will be available on the opening of the app. The app will benefit from a daily feed filled with Röhl news, up and coming events, history and quotes from illustration artists, understanding nature and history of the brand.

The Northern spirits are very influential in the current fashion apparel market, consumers are looking for a creative and inspirational fashion style that stays classic and can be suitable at any time. Röhl will be offering their talent and high-quality garments to the British consumers. With their communication covered in every life spheres of their potential customers, Röhl is assuring immediate and repetitive success for the future.

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CONCLUSION

The Northern spirits of the marketing campaign ‘time lapse’ are very influential in the current fashion apparel market, consumers are looking for a creative and inspirational fashion style that stays classic and can be suitable at any time.

Röhl will be offering their talent and high-quality garments to the British consumers. With their communication covered in every life spheres of their potential customers, Röhl is assuring immediate and repetitive success for the future.

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APPENDICES FUTURE PLAN

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BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE

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TARGET CONSUMER

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STRATEGIC APPROACH

22

EVENT

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QUEEN OF HOXTON MAP

Address Queen of Hoxton, 1-5 Curtain Road EC2A 35X London Contact 020 74220958 QUEEN OF HOXTON LOCATION BUDGET

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STORE OPENING MAP

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STORE LAYOUT

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ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

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DIGITAL CAMPAIGN

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2015