Brand Marketing Audit - Marc Jacobs.

BRAND MARKETING AUDIT. Leah McEwan.

c o n t e n t s

Executive Summary ... 3 Brand Heritage ... 4 Brand Equity ... 8-9 Marketing Mix ... 11-14 Consumer Segmentation ... 15-16 Competitors ... 19-20 Micro and Macro-economic Factors ... 21 SWOT Analysis ... 22 Visual Identity ... 23-25 Recommendations ... 26 Bibliography ... 27 Image References ... 28

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. This brand marketing report explores the Marc Jacobs brand, analysing the brand’s identity and equity, alongside looking at how Marc Jacobs behaves and operates as a business and how they advertise and target towards their consumers and segmentations. The report will also look at the micro and macro-economic factors through the PESTEL framework to explore how external and internal features can affect the brand as a whole, as well as offering recommendations as to what the Marc Jacobs brand can change or improve in order to further increase their revenue and gain a wider group of consumers.

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BRAND HERITAGE. “who is marc jacobs?”

Labelled as the “world’s most influential designer” (Fashion.telegraph.co.uk, 2011), Marc Jacobs became the youngest designer to win the CFDA Perris Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent in 1987 after launching his namesake brand the previous year and showcasing his first collection under the eponymous label. Marc Jacobs’ career really arose once beginning to study BFA Fashion Design at Parsons School of Design in New York, where he designed and sold his first line of hand-knit sweaters. After his studies in 1992, Jacobs was given the title of vice president and head designer of womenswear at Perry Ellis, yet despite this, he was subsequently dismissed in 1993 “after Jacobs sent out a “grunge” collection for the label that critics loved but the company hated” (Biography. com, 2017). Jacob’s aim with this collection was to stray away from the clean-cut image of the Perry Ellis label and so sent out “unorthodox combintions— such as flowered, girlish dresses paired with combat boots—to achieve a dishevelled and individualistic look.”

(Nolen, n.d.) Just a year later in 1993, Jacobs Duffy Designs Inc.

created their own licensing and design company ‘Marc Jacobs International Company, L.P’ which therefore relaunched the Marc Jacobs brand and then a year later they released and debuted a menswear line. Four years after that, in 1997 and Jacob’s opened his first boutique on New York’s Mercer Street located in Soho. As well as this, Marc Jacobs signed on as creative director for the luxury brand Louis Vuitton and strengthened their reputation by designing the company’s first line of ready-to-wear clothing and expanded their line of accessories. Up until 2001, the Marc Jacobs brand only had it’s one clothing line, however in this year, the brand extended and formed the ‘Marc by Marc Jacobs’ line which supplied sportswear and “was created to offer a much more affordable alternative to the original collection.” (Shoemetro.com, n.d.) Marc Jacobs extended his band by introducing its first watch collection in collaboration with Fossil in 2005 and just two years later in 2007, the brand further expanded their product categories by launching a children’s line: Little Marc Jacobs, their first eyewear collection courtesy of Marc by Marc Jacobs and finally their first fragrance: Daisy.

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naĂŻvely abstract, redrawn and exaggerated.

S P R I N G 2018.

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innovation is an evolutionary process. it’s not necessary to be radical all the time.

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BRAND equity.

BRAND LOYALTY:

Brand equity looks at “assets and liabilities linked to a brand” (Aaker, 1991) which are connected to the name and symbols associated with the company and will therefore help to provide value towards it’s consumers.

Within the fashion industry especially, the general public are more likely to buy garments and accessories from familiar brands as this provides comfort for them in knowing that the brand - due to its reputability - will not fail them and the products they purchase will usually be of a good quality and may be better than a brand that is new and unheard of on the market. As a way of maintaining their brand loyalty, the Marc Jacobs brand make sure to target their products towards their specific segmentations by successfully pricing their merchandise at a lower price in comparison to their competitors, whilst also providing superior quality. “Thus, brand loyalty provides an important basis of equity.” (Aaker, 1991) As a way to reward brand loyalty, Marc Jacobs ran a campaign on the social media platform Twitter. For the release of the Daisy fragrance in 2014, the brand offered consumers free samples of the new product in exchange for a tweet including the hashtag ‘#MJDaisyChain’, allowing the brand to target towards a wider consumer market. By being an inclusive brand, Marc Jacobs is making people more attracted towards their brand as they offered a luxury products to non-loyal and habitual buyers (Aaker, 1991) as well as their already committed buyers; this may lead more people to ultimately purchase their merchandise. This “shows a cutting-edge understanding of the importance of social media in their audiences life” (Vale, 2014) and also acts as free promotion for the brand. A survey I conducted also further suggests Marc Jacobs has brand loyalty as from the 83 people that answered, 87.95% were either vaguely or very familiar with the Marc Jacobs brand.

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BRAND AWARENESS. For the Marc Jacobs brand, it is crucial that in order to gain, and ultimately maintain brand awareness, they need to obtain their brand identity and relate it to a certain product class so that consumers will become familiar with the company just by hearing their name, and will automatically connect product recognition. The 2014 Daisy fragrance campaign was the “first beauty-industry pop-up shop that only accepted social posts as currency” (Ohr, 2016) aimed to raise awareness for the Marc Jacobs brand and to display appreciation towards their core consumers and potential new ones during New York Fashion Week. The campaigned seemed to be a huge success for the brand in providing brand awareness due to the 10,000 visitors that the Tweet Shop brought and its positive exposure from top-tier media publications, such as: Vogue, Elle and TIME Magazine.

PERCEIVED QUALITY. In order for a consumer to have a positive “judgment about a products overall excellence or superiority” (Zeithaml, 1988), the Marc Jacobs brand must deliver high quality to its consumers whom ultimately define the quality of the products.

Within the survey I conducted to collate market research on Marc Jacobs, quality was the highest and most important factor to consumers when purchasing from a luxury brand, with 89.16% of people who answered favouring this choice. To deliver and improve their perceived quality, Marc Jacobs should aim to target adverts or advertising campaigns towards previous consumers by explicitly mentioning the quality of their products in the adverts which will influence their quality perceptions.

Although the brand is usually associated with having high perceived quality, sportswear brand Adidas sued Marc Jacobs in 2015 over using their striped trademark and argued that Marc Jacobs is being disloyal towards their consumers and are not offering a high level of perceived quality. A spokesperson from Adidas stated that “This is particularly damaging with respect to those people who perceive a defect or lack of quality in Marc Jacobs’s products.”

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MARKETING MIX The Marc Jacobs brand offers a variety of extension lines including beauty, fragrance, children’s-wear and accessories. From looking at the results of my survey, I found that the brand’s hero, and most popular product was their bags. For these hero products, their initial pricing is a skimming strategy due to initially charging a high price in order to target towards their consumer segments, but then lowering the cost of the products by offering a sale price.

This discounted price of the bag allows for the more-price sensitive consumer market to be targeted towards. This strategy works as a success for Marc Jacobs as the “excitement of the products new capabilities and perhaps the pleasures of the social attention of being one of the first to own a new product tend to lead to them to accept high prices.” (Schindler, 2012)

The company ‘Marc Jacobs’ is a leading and well-established name within the fashion industry, having a wide presence internationally and also has a wide clothing and accessory range.

The products offered by the brand lie in the premium fashion segment due to their luxury range which provides high quality, style and value towards their consumers. They create this value by focusing particularly on creating innovate trends amongst their consumers and market their products towards elite class women and men and professionals living in urban areas such as New York.

PRICE

PRODUCT Marc Jacobs’ products can be bought online from the Marc Jacobs website; however, consumers may prefer the product to be sold in-stores so that they are able to get a feel for the product before a large amount on the luxury item.

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Marc Jacobs uses traditional media as a forefront of their promotion (such as TV and magazine advertisements as well as the use of billboards) as when opened in 1986, these were the only platforms available in order to reach their specific target segments due to the lack of newly digital media and are still successful methods for the company today. However, in today’s digital, media filled world, brands and businesses need to intriguing and direct in order to gain attention of customers. Marc Jacobs does this by using an abstract fashion portrait (usually shot by Juergen Teller) on his magazine advertisements and keeps the same style in terms of layout of the advert (placement of logo and the seasonal collection).

Once the attention of the target consumer is gained, Marc Jacobs must engage their interest and keep targeting towards their needs, which they are successful at due to only releasing advertising campaigns when there is a new seasonal collection, or the release of a new fragrance. It is important that the brand is not advertising too often as “wrong signals will be emitted if a product is not available in the shops after extensive TV advertising” (Wright, 2000) and the product will not appear as exclusive as the brand would like. The desire section of the AIDA model goes hand-in-hand with the interest section and as Marc Jacobs are gaining the interest of potential consumers, they also need to assure said consumers that what they are being sold will be beneficial to them

in a real way and in the ‘Daisy’ fragrance adverts, the perfume is always shown being worn and used by a real person.

Manipulation tactics are not necessarily used by the Marc Jacobs brand, and celebrity endorsements are instead favoured as the main tactic to advertised, e.g Kaia Gerber is currently the model for the Daisy fragrance campaigns and celebrities such as Helena Bonham-Carter, Winona Ryder and Victoria Beckham have all starred on campaign advertisements for Marc Jacobs. This technique often makes products seem more reputable and works in the brand’s favour as a way of being inclusive to a wider target market.

aida model

A popular product category by Marc Jacobs is their accessories line, and most especially watches. In 2017, Marc Jacobs unveiled their very own smartwatch ‘Riley Hybrid Smartwatch’ which was different from other competitor products on the product, i.e., Apple and Samsung as it’s USP was that it was one of the first haute-tech products on the market that cleverly linked fashion and technology in a different way to products already available on the market. For the actual product, the consumers are not only receiving the smartwatch, but also its functionality and packaging. The augmented product of the smartwatch would be the complete solution to your connectivity problems as defined by the core customer value and include things such as instructions on how to use the watch alongside after purchase warranty.

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STARS.

HIGH MARKET GROWTH.

m a t r i x

DOGS.

CASH COWS.

LOW

b c g

QUESTION MARKS.

HIGH

MARKET SHARE.

LOW

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CONSUMER SEG The target consumers for the Marc Jacobs brand are urban professionals, elite men and women and innovative trendsetters. Those who purchase apparel and accessories from Marc Jacobs must have a high disposable income and are usually living within large cities, such as London and New York where flagship stores are located, or have the money to travel to these cities. The motivations for purchases by consumers today is to be on trend but to also receive good quality items that will last them a lifetime. Marc Jacobs fits the needs of these consumers by releasing new, exciting and unique collections each season so that they are keeping up with the ever-changing trends. Compared to its competitors, Marc Jacobs offers a lower price than many other high-end luxury brands and offers high, discounted sale prices on their website for many of their products unlike some brands who will not offer any reductions on products. With us now being in a digital era, Marc Jacobs has had to adapt to the social changes within society and has begun focussing more on selling more of their products online as opposed to in stores.

VISUAL CONSUMER PROFILE FOR MARC JACOBS:

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GMENTATION. VISUAL CONSUMER PROFILE FOR MARC JACOBS:

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COMPETITORS With regards to bags and purses, the main competitors – from a consumer perspective - for Marc Jacobs are Calvin Klein, Chloe, Prada, Proenza Schouler, Miu Miu, Saint Laurent Paris, Balenciaga, Nina Ricci and Gucci. Each of these brands offer similar products with regards to style; however, the price points set by each brand vary depending on their target consumer. For example, the target consumers of Gucci are much different to those of Calvin Klein, resulting in lower price points set by Calvin Klein.

For Marc Jacobs, their USP is that each year, they come out with vivid, unexpected fashion trends, e.g, the Spring 2018 collection which showcased neon colours and a more avant-garde style of both clothing and bags/accessories. For higher priced competitors, such as Gucci, their USP is that they are leaders on the market for selling innovative, luxury goods.

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Micro and macro - e c o n o m i c fa c t o r s

Politics plays a vital role in way that businesses strategically run.

In the McKinsey & Co.’s “State of Fashion 2017” report, it stated that for that year “Geopolitical instability, terrorism, Brexit, and stalled trade deals will all increase a pervasive sense of uncertainty in the global economy” Although political factors can sometimes bring people together as a protest against a higher force, the impact is usually negative upon the fashion industry. As well as high-end, luxury brands, high-street fast fashion is also largely impacted by politics due to “the Middle Eastern countries where political instability and terrorism continue to pose a threat to business.” (Suttle, n.d.) and this is ultimately the “biggest source of uncertainty for the fashion industry.” (Pratap, 2 0 1 7 )

The fashion industry and brands such as Marc Jacobs are affected by the economic fluctuations worldwide as the “economic volatility can affect sales and profits.” (Pratap, 2017) As some of the manufacture of Marc

Jacobs’ clothing line occurs within China, I researched into the predictions for the Chinese economy in 2018 and how this may affect the fashion industry and found that “consumers have become more conservative spenders as a result of a slowing economy and feelings of increased financial pressures.” (The Chinese Consumer 2017, 2017) and so may be less willing to make large investment purchases from luxury brands.

Many socio-cultural changes have occurred within the last decade which have affected the demand for fashion products. Although the millennial generation are the main target consumers for fashion marketers, its preferences are much different from the previous generations. The millennial generation want low prices with great quality alongside convenience – Marc Jacobs does this with providing lower prices than their competitors.

In the 21st century, shopping online is hugely popular, especially with millennials as they prefer a personalised experience with regards to shopping and customer service, however despite this many consumers also prefer to do their research and shop around, comparing prices and value

for money online before deciding to make a large, investment purchase on a luxury item and perhaps opt for an in-store experience.

As a society, we are now becoming more ecologically aware and so many consumers now seek to purchase goods from more sustainable brands and has become an important factor when deciding who to buy from. “In the emerging markets, more than 65% of the consumers are seeking sustainable fashion actively. In the mature markets this figure is 32% or less.” (Pratap, 2017) According to (Rankabrand.org, 2017), Marc Jacobs achieved the ‘E-label’ which is their lowest sustainability has earned it through the lack of communication regarding the policies for our environment, carbon emissions or labour conditions in low-wages countries. Despite this, LVMH did implement several measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as the implementation of energy efficiency measures.

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S W O T A N A LY S I S .

STRENGTHS: I conducted a SWOT analysis on the Marc Jacobs brand and found that the brand’s strengths are what make the brand so successful. With 32 years of experience in the fashion industry, Marc Jacobs has made a name for himself and his brand as being reputable. Jacobs gained image during his time as creative direction for Louis Vuitton Following his departure from the LVMH in 2013, Jacobs focused on his own namesake brand by “overseeing successful fragrance, cosmetics, books and stationery launches” (The Business of Fashion, 2018) During this career as a fashion designer, Marc Jacobs has won six Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) awards which is one of the highest honours in the fashion industry.

WEAKNESSES: Although, Marc Jacobs has had vast success around the world, there are only few global brick and mortar stores which is not a successful strategy according to the Action stage of the AIDA model as this stage aims to persuade the consumers to partake in an action, for example “to visit the shop or to buy the product and to keep buying the product.” (Wright, 2000) This may be seen as a disadvantage for the brand as consumers usually prefer to have an in-store retail experience as opposed to shopping online as they can feel and try on products before choosing whether or not to make an expensive purchase on a luxury item.

OPPORTUNITIES: In order for Marc Jacobs to increase their revenue, the brand should take advantage of opportunities such as global expansion which would help to make the brand grow. “The main sources of growth are emerging-market countries across regions such as Asia-Pacific and Latin America, which are forecast to grow at rates ranging between 5 percent and 7.5%.”

(Friedman, 2017) There is also room for the brand to create more marketing campaigns in order to increase the awareness of new products. This may be done by varying and expanding their methods of promotion, for example: more TV and magazine advertisements and billboards in urban areas such as New York and London where a large population are professionals and fit within the company’s target market.

THREATS: Like all companies, Marc Jacobs has threats from competition within the fashion industry. Other competitor brands such as Proenza Schouler and Tory Burch offer similar styles and cuts of garments for different prices. The fashion industry and brands such as Marc Jacobs are affected by the economic fluctuations worldwide and the company’s revenue solely relies on the market conditions as “economic volatility can affect sales and profits.” (Pratap, 2017)

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VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL

IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY.

VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL VISUAL

IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY. IDENTITY.

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R In order to increase revenue and widen their consumer market, the Marc Jacobs brand should aim to reposition itself within the Chinese market.

The Chinese economy is the second largest in the world and the demand for luxury goods within the country is high after economic uncertainty and a terror-related deterioration of sales within European countries.

Marc Jacobs should consider opening a flagship store within the capital city of Beijing, as this will drive local sales as well as boosting sales from tourists.

ECOMMENDATIONS.

As a way to target towards a new market segment, Marc Jacobs should be become more pro-active with their advertising on social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat as during September 2017 Instagram had 800 million monthly active users.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY. Aaker. A, D. (1991). Managing Brand Equity. Simon & Schuster, p.15-40.

Biography.com. (2017). Marc Jacobs. [online] Available at: https://www.biography.com/people/marc-jacobs-594096 [Accessed 26 Jan. 2018].

Bu, L., Durand-Servoingt, B., Kim, A. and Yamakawa, N. (2017). Chinese luxury consumers: More global, more demanding, still spending. [online] McKinsey & Company. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/chinese-luxury-consumers-more-global-more-demanding-still-spending [Accessed 12 Feb. 2018].

Fashion.telegraph.co.uk. (2011). Why Marc Jacobs is the world’s most influential designer - Telegraph. [online] Available at: http://fashion.telegraph. co.uk/news-features/TMG8731032/Why-Marc-Jacobs-is-the-worlds-most-influential-designer.html [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].

Friedman, A. (2017). State of Fashion 2018: McKinsey Says Emerging Markets Key. [online] Sourcing Journal. Available at: https://sourcingjournalonline.com/state-fashion-2018-emerging-markets-key-growth-digital-transformation-picks-speed/ [Accessed 12 Jan. 2018].

Nolen, J. (n.d.). Marc Jacobs | American fashion designer. [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/MarcJacobs [Accessed 28 Jan. 2018].

Ohr, M. (2016). Daisy Marc Jacobs | The Lionesque Group: Pop-Up Retail Architects™. [online] The Lionesque Group: Pop-Up Retail Architects™. Available at: http://lionesquegroup.com/portfolio/daisy-marc-jacobs/ [Accessed 10 Feb. 2018].

Shoemetro.com. (n.d.). The History of Marc Jacobs | ShoeMetro. [online] Available at: https://www.shoemetro.com/t-history-of-marc-jacobs. aspx [Accessed 28 Jan. 2018].

Suttle, R. (n.d.). PESTEL/PESTLE Analysis of the Fashion retail industry. [online] cheshnotes. Available at: https://www.cheshnotes. com/2017/09/pestelpestle-analysis-of-the-fashion-retail-industry/ [Accessed 11 Feb. 2018].

The Business of Fashion. (2018). Marc Jacobs is One of the 500 People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry in 2017. [online] Available at: https://www.businessoffashion.com/community/people/marc-jacobs [Accessed 8 Feb. 2018].

The Chinese Consumer 2017. (2017). Mintel, p.2.

Vale, A. (2014). Fashionably Social or Socially Fashionable: Why Marc Jacobs Is Both! | Audiense. [online] Audiense. Available at: https:// audiense.com/fashionably-social-or-socially-fashionable-why-marc-jacobsis-both/ [Accessed 10 Feb. 2018].

Wright, R. (2000). Advertising. Harlow: Pearson, p.52-62 Zeithaml, V. (1988). Consumer Perceptions of Price, Quality and Value: A Means-End Model and Synthesis of Evidence. [ebook] American Marketing Association, p.3. Available at: https://hec.unil.ch/docs/ files/123/997/zeithaml88-1.pdf [Accessed 10 Feb. 2018].

Pratap, A. (2017). PESTEL/PESTLE Analysis of the Fashion retail industry. [online] cheshnotes. Available at: https://www.cheshnotes.com/2017/09/pestelpestle-analysis-of-the-fashion-retail-industry/ [Accessed 14 Jan. 2018].

Rankabrand.org. (2017). Marc Jacobs and sustainability: E-label | Buy sustainable brands. [online] Available at: https://rankabrand.org/sustainable-luxury-brands/Marc+Jacobs [Accessed 14 Jan. 2018].

Schindler, R. (2012). Pricing strategies: A marketing approach. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, Inc, p.77.

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IMAGE REFERENCES.

https://i1.adis.ws/i/Marc_Jacobs/RE18_LOOK_13_V2

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“LET’S DO WHAT WE LOVE AND A LOT OF IT.”

m a r c ja c o bs