Marketing Plan 1 - The Kooples

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MARKETING PLAN REPORT

short leather jacket - Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur

Jandira Torquato 8309608 INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORANY FASHION MARKETING - 114LON CW2 ASSESSMENT, submission date: 28/12/2018 Tutor: Fabien Hirose

Table of contents Executive summary.......................................................................................3 Introduction....................................................................................................4 The brand.......................................................................................................5 The product....................................................................................................6 STP analysis...................................................................................................7 Core target customer......................................................................................8 Market segmentation......................................................................................9 Competitors...................................................................................................10 SWOT analysis..............................................................................................11 Advertisement page......................................................................................12 Marketing communication.............................................................................13 References....................................................................................................14 Table of illustration........................................................................................16

Executive Summary The aim of this report is to create a global marketing plan for a product of a fashion company chose by ourselves, in a new country. The product chosen was a short leather jacket from The Kooples Paris brand.

Is a modern trendy French fashion retailer that operates in more than 36 countries, which headquarters are in Paris and the goal is to open a new store in Malaysia, in the capital, Kuala Lumpur city.

This report will include the STP of the brand to identify the target costumer and the competitors in the new country; the SWOT analysis to identify and explain the strengths, weakness, opportunities and the threats of this fashion brand and an explanation of a marketing promotional strategy for the new jacket and further enlarge overseas success figure 2

Introduction It''s undeniable how much the effortless cool and chic french style can appeal most of the people. and that for reason I've choose one of the contemporary french fashion brand to expose in this essay. French brands such as Zadige & Voltaire, Maje, Sandro, and even The Kooples have invaded different countries around the world and been successful in attracting the right target for their business, so i thought that Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia with the right strategies it could be also a successful case because is an emerging market and local people have enough money to buy.

As a middle level developing country, Malaysia is 73% urban meaning that population migrant from countryside incite the economic development, according to China Business Review (Johnson, 2014) As reported by the website marketresearch.com, the Malaysian apparel retail industry had total revenues of $7.5bn in 2017, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.9% between 2013 and 2017. The apparel retail market includes baby clothing, toddler clothing and casual wear, essentials, formal wear, occasion wear, and outerwear for men, women, boys and girls; excludes sports-specific clothing. The women's wear segment was the industry's most lucrative in 2017, with total revenues of $3.9bn, equivalent to 52.2% of the industry's overall value. The market's recent strong growth, fueled by increased fashion consciousness among consumers, has attracted some of the world's biggest fast fashion retailers (Marketresearch.com, 2018).

Kuala Lumpur made the list of the top 10 cities to open luxury stores last year, according to the Savills Global Luxury Retail Outlook 2018 report.

Malaysia and its 13 states have so many travelers offers, from beautiful islands to rain forests, is visiting by almost 26 millions tourists mostly travelling to Kuala Lumpur. This skyscraper city sheltes the world famous Petrona Twin Towers where is one of the best shopping mall of the country: Suria KLCC Asian shopping mall culture is strong and Suria KLCC is also a key tourist atraction, housing over 320 high-end retailers. That's the reason i decided to open the new The Kooples store in there (Bedford, 2018) (Wong, 2018)

The brand Founded in 2008, The Kooples is a young family ready-towear French brand. Created by three brothers, Alexandre, Laurent and Raphael Elicha, the sons of the founders of the French ready-to-wear Comptoir des Cotonniers brand.

The capital of the company is shared between the Elicha family, which owns most of it, and the LBO France investment fund. In 2012 was launched The Kooples Sport.

The brand had a strong start and a meteoric rise with a mysterious successful advertisement about real couples, love and music. The clothes for women and men are mixed and androgynous presented itself as a high street brand dressing up the couple, therefore its name koople is an English form of the French word: couples. The store fitting room is mixed, the clothe's cut are similar and compatible for both genres, and the inspiration is found in rock music, vintage mindset and easygoing attitude (Drapers, 2011)

The Brand Identity The kooples illustrate a cool, stylist and cosmopolita attitude.

The brand core relies on authenticity, wearing women and men who are chic and have a love for vintage, consumer can express themselves trough the personality of subcultures. Has a dominant relationship with music try to maintain the link between the edgy and trendy mindset with the youthful sophisticated professional look.

In consonance with Kapferer's Brand Identity Prism, first introduced in 1992, i could analyse the identity of the brand by attempting to carachterize the internal and external aspects of the brand as we can see in the figure 4, the diagram below (Posner, 2017)

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The product The leather jacket is constantly reinvented by the brand in their new collections season by season.

This last leather version is a lightweight supple and smooth lambskin with patch pockets, in a short size for a casual rock effect and functional, it dresses not only if you have a well-defined style as it fits perfectly with each piece of any wardrobe. A good quality and high affordable price, this jacket will become a timeless model that will bring a rock touch into your style (TheKooples, 2018).

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STP

analysis

According to Posner its extremely helpful to business to concentrate its resources and activities to a specific area to appeal directly to a well-defined target audience (Posner, 2017)

SEGMENTATION

TARGETING

POSITIONING

Marketing segmentation focus in divide the market into smaller, more condensed areas, by product type or market level or can be also used to segmentate consumer into groups who share similar characteristics (Posner, 2017).

Consumer targeting focuses in categorize the products and services by consumer needs such age, income, behaviours.

Split the consumers into small subgroups based on similar needs and characteristics (Posner, 2017).

Positioning a brand in the market by the way the consumers can perceive her. using the image, packaging, retail, advertisement, social media, to appeal directly the target market (Posner, 2017).

SEGMENTATION Market Level: High end accessible market Products: Clothing, sportswear, shoes, bags and accessories Socio-cultural: Subculture rock, boho and vintage Focus on authenticity and androgynous

CONSUMER TARGETING HEIDIs (Highly Educated Independent Individuals) Young and mature professionals people with high income Generation Z and Millennial fashion aware Female and male age: 18 - 35 Attitude: Unique, Rock lovers, open.minded, retro

POSITIONING A chic and trendy modern brand that wants to have a premium positioning.

High quality with more affordable price.

Related with music and subcultures.

Reach parisian classic chic style and british vintage attitude. figure 8, 9, 10

Core Target Customer "People of different cultures handle money differently. When you see how the super rich live in Asia, it’s on a scale that’s almost beyond anything."

Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan According to Kwan's personal experiences as he presented in his book/movie Americans tend to value personal wealth by being more discreet, in the other hand, Asian high society collective fashion sense arises from the effort among wealthy people to show off what they have instead of quietly enjoying it (Daswani, 2018).

The Kooples want to reach a premium positioning in the Asian market targeting young fashion aware that will be persuaded by the cool chic Paris core style of the brand.

Open-minded young independent professionals who can identify themselves with the brand core values, who understands the relationship with the music, the vintage mindset, and who manage to wear the effortless sofisticated edgy style (TheKooples, 2018) (Zhang, 2018).

According to Natasha Kraal, editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar Malaysia “the defining demographics in Malaysia have evolved, the nouveau riche are today’s Gen Zs in terms of fresh income and appetite for luxury.” and for these "luxury consumers" the rules of engagement have been changed. Generation Z and Millennials from middle high and upper classes demands personalisation and recognition, focuses less in showing of, and owning a product. They are more conscious about the history, the values, the connections, ethics experiences of the brand (Tan, 2018).

In the South China Morning Post report about Malaysian luxury lovers Kraal also notes that the buying habits of “dedicated followers of fashion”, sustained by wealth and consumption, have not altered in any significant way. So, apart from the political class and crazy rich, the brand-new emergent middle income market is splashing out on the good life in New Malaysia as well (Tan, 2018).

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Market segmentation The founders of the brand are present from concept to distribuition since 2008 when the brand was launched. In 2013 the brand profited already more than 140 million euros with more than 650 employees only in in France.

Now, according to their website, they have about 400 stores around the world, in more than 30 different countries, 4 are in the Pacific Asia.

the number of stores around the world

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the number of stores in Pacific Asia

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Competitors Marc Hare's positioning map identifies the position of our brand in the market relatively to other brands which we can called by competitors (Posner, 2017).

The competitors I've found are brands with physical stores in Kuala Lumpur that sell similar products than mine with similar range of price. This brands are: Whistles, Hugo boss, Burberry, Reiss, DKNY, Topshop between others.

+ quality (price) Hugo Boss

Burberry

Whistles The Kooples Reiss DKNY

luxury

high street

Topshop

Positioning Map

- quality (price) I'm going to do the brands competitive analysis with the direct competitors meaning the brands which style and target are similar with The Kooples as we can see in the figure 14 below.

The Kooples audience

differentiation

edgy androgynous

original classic

299 - 1295 light short leather jacket

Reiss original classic

Whistles busy dinamic

design value

innovative quality

195 - 650

135 - 1199

quilted leather jacket

leather buble skin jacket

SWOT - The Kooples The swot analysis isgoing to help to determine the strategie and position in the market. It will analyse the business, the competitors and the external environment (Grose, 2016)

Strenghts Weaknesses brand reputation loyal customer base in others countries awareness of details new designs with no reputation in the family business new market dealing with consumer inconstancy lack of recent online brand information

Threats

idiom difficulties trade barriers government regulations culture differences

Opportunities

emerging wealthy market new technologies conscious international celebrities collaboration youth willing to try new things

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MARKETING COMMUNICATION online communications

offline communications

Upload one Instagram video by week about the new product , the leather jacket, to remind the product lauch and appeal the consumer target to the new store

Invite the current Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry, Darell Leiking or his deputy to the new store opening to create good relationship

Interact with consumer through Instagram by creating a hashtag #rockyournewstyle #yourKLstyle (your Kuala Lumpur style)

Invite New York-based Malaysian designer Jonathan Liang and more celebrities, and high Malaysian personalities to the open store day

Use the website to do a survey after the purchase, in that way we'll going to know more about the consumer needs and characteristics

Invite Malaysian Instagram star Chryseis Tan to be the face of the brand

If the consumer apply for the newsletter, he'll have 10% off in the next purchase.

Renovate the brand website and share outfit style of the consumers in there, so they can be inspired by the different ways of wearing the clothes in Kuala Lumpur streets.

Free shipping for Malaysia country shop online in the first 2 months after the store open

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Take the model Irina Shayk, the face of the advertisement campaign to the new store open party the first 10 people who buy the jacket in the store will receive an invitation to the after party store launch

References Bedford, S. (2018). A Guide to Malaysia's States and Regions. [online] Culture Trip.

Available at: https://theculturetrip.com/asia/malaysia/articles/a-guide-to-malaysias-statesand-regions/ [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018].

Daswani, K. (2018). The woman who dressed the Crazy Rich Asians and how she did it. [online] South China Morning Post. Available at: https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashionbeauty/article/2149549/dressing-crazy-rich-asians-how-costume-designer-mary-vogt [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018]. digiSchool commerce. (2018). The Kooples : Etudes, Analyses Marketing et Communication de The Kooples. [online] Available at: https://www.marketingetudiant.fr/marques/the-kooples-marketing.html [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018].

Grose, V. (2012). Concept to customer. Lausanne, Switzerland: AVA Academia.

Hameide, K. (2011). Fashion Branding Unraveled. USA: Fairchild Books.

Lea-Greenwood, G. (2013). Fashion marketing communications. Chichester: Wiley.

Low, L. (2018). Male designer of women’s fashion on why women dress women best. [online] South China Morning Post. Available at: https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashionbeauty/article/2172725/women-best-dressing-women-says-man-designing-them-newyork [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018].

Marketresearch.com. (2018). Apparel Retail in Malaysia. [online] Available at: https://www.marketresearch.com/MarketLine-v3883/Apparel-Retail-Malaysia-12074809/ [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018].

Nicoll, R. (2018). Why the Kooples are every couple's best friend. [online] the Guardian.

Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2014/apr/13/perfect-kooples-fashionbrothers-paris [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018].

Santi, A., Bearne, S. and Brown, H. (2018). The Kooples. [online] Drapers. Available at: https://www.drapersonline.com/retail/independents/the-kooples/5029574.article [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018].

Tan, J. (2018). The Malaysians hiding their Hermes and the ones flashing the cash. [online] South China Morning Post. Available at: https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashionbeauty/article/2163303/malaysia-luxury-lovers-divided-some-hide-their-hermes [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018].

Tee, K. (2018). Malaysian tycoon’s daughter says she’s no crazy rich Asian. [online] South China Morning Post. Available at: https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashionbeauty/article/2172974/instagram-star-and-daughter-vincent-tan-talks-about-work [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018].

Thekooples.com. (2018). The Kooples France - Site Officiel - Vêtements Femme & Vêtements Homme. [online] Available at: https://www.thekooples.com/fr/ [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018].

Posner, H. (2017). Marketing fashion. London: Laurence King Publishing.

Wong, P. (2018). 10 Best Shopping in KLCC - Best Places to Shop in KLCC. [online] kualalumpur.ws. Available at: http://www.kuala-lumpur.ws/kl-top10s/10-shoppingklcc.htm%20shopping%20mall%20n1 [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018].

Zhang, J. (2018). Style Check: Maje captures Asia's diversity by going to extremes. [online] South China Morning Post. Available at: https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashionwatches/article/1379841/style-check-maje-captures-asias-diversity-going-extremes [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018].

Table of illustration figure 1: Anon, (2018). [image] Available at: https://www.thekooples.com/fr/ [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018]. figure 2: Anon, (2018). [image] Available at: http://www.kuala-lumpur.ws/klshopping/suriamall-klcc.htm [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018]. figure 3: Anon, (2018). [image] Available at: https://www.lenouveleconomiste.fr/thekooples-14878/ [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018]. figure 4, 5, 6, 7: Anon, (2018). [image] Available at: https://www.thekooples.com/fr/ [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018]. figure 8, 9, 10: Anon, (2018). [image] Available at: https://www.thekooples.com/fr/ [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018]. figure 11: Anon, (2019). [image] Available at: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/08/crazy-rich-asians-casts-portfolio [Accessed 2 Jan. 2019]. figure 12: Anon, (2019). [image] Available at: https://www.majormag.in/stella-maxwell-andirina-shayk-for-madame-figaro-paris/ [Accessed 3 Jan. 2019]. figure 13, 14: Anon, (2018). [image] Available at: https://www.thekooples.com/fr/ [Accessed 28 Dec. 2018]. figure 15: brand competitive analysis board figure 16: Anon, (2019). [image] Available at: https://homeiswhereyourbagis.com/en/15things-you-should-experience-in-kuala-lumpur/ [Accessed 28 Dec. 2019].