CALVIN KLEIN
Contents Brand History Timeline Brand Positioning 4P Strategy SWOT Brand Identity Brand Image
Brand Association Brand Awareness Customer Perception Brand Loyalty Issue Attitude
Brand History Calvin Klein is one of the top most American Fashion house which was established in 1968 by the designer Calvin Klein himself in the partnership of his friend Barry K. Schwartz. Although it was started as an independent company, in 2002, it was taken over by PhilipsVan Heusen Corporation (PVH), and American clothing company. It majorly deals in Fashion apparels, Perfumes and accessories. Its products usually appeal to the youth and they constitute major proportion of their consumers. They target their products to the middle to high income groups. It focuses on comfort in their apparels. Their customers include the youth, fashion conscious and brand conscious people who are inclined towards rich and quality products .
1968
1979
The Calvin Klein brand is launched
Calvin Klein controls one-fifth of the designer jeans market
1982
1985
A new perfume called Klein enters the Obsession is launched underwear business with a $17 million advertising campaign.
Timeline
1994
2003
the company's underwear business is licensed to Warnaco Group Inc
Calvin Klein is acquired by Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation.
2013
2020
Warnaco Group was acquired by PVH which united Calvin Klein formal, underwear, jeans and sportswear line
the company does not use exotic skins and would be banning their use in Calvin Klein collections
Brand Positioning Premium; high quality and expensive
Calvin Klein Underwear positioned themselves as a global lifestyle brand that exemplifies bold, progressive ideals and a seductive, and often minimal, aesthetic. They aim to give their customers the sense of exclusivity and high quality, and cares about their products quality and designs, they make sure that customers can buy clean aesthetic and innovative designs every season.
4P place Having both at physical stores and also has a vast presence online worldwide in order to gain more profits as possible.
TV advertisements direct marketing social media marketing promotional offers
promotion
product Calvin Klein Underwear collection, includes Bra top and underwear for both women and men.
The price will be a bit higher than the normal market, in order to attract upper middle class and higher class. price
Strength Design | Calvin Klein is famous for its simple logo design, and many people like how simple the design but at the same time is still look elegant. Popularity | Many famous celebrities wears Calvin Klein in their social media posts, which increases the willingness for customers to buy Calvin Klein underwear since it’s more popular.
Weakness Controversial Ad | Since Calvin Klein is known for their proactive advertising, some customers believe it’s too sexy for normal advertisements, which induces their brand reputation.
Opportunity E-commerce | As the advanced of technology, most people stay at home and buy products online. Calvin Klein underwear provide various ways to purchase their products, you could buy from their official website or you could buy from website such as urban outfitters or ASOS. Social Media | In nowadays, people spend lots of time on social media, Calvin Klein has accounts on different media, which highly increases their opportunities on interacting with their customers and promoting their brand to more consumers.
Threats Repeated design | Their signature “one style” look which could give a threat of going out of fashion. Since there are a lot of competitors in underwear industry, remains the same designs may decrease the customers’ interests on Calvin Klein.
Brand Identity Sexy & Minimalist Calvin Klein : "I will continue to focus on aesthetics -tend to emphasize a pure, simple, relaxed and elegant spirit. I always try to be pure, sexy and elegant".
Calvin Klein take a minimalist and seductive approach to fashion. The brand would like consumers to identify CK as modern, classic, minimalist, and sexy. This is demonstrated through the simple logo and the brand's labels on the products. The logo consists of "CALVIN KLEIN" in a regular black font on a white background. They put their logo on the underwear collections. Therefore, when customers view these it clearly emphasizes the simple nature of the brand with the minimalist color.
Physique
Men's & Women's Underwear/ Minimalist design
Personality
Sexy/ Confident/ Energetic/ Youthful/ Stylish/ Thrill-seekers
Culture
Modern style/ American/ Freedom
I am : sexy/ attractive/ powerful/ an empowered individual
Self-image
Risk-takers/ Modern/ Sexy and attractive
Reflection
Social/ Connection between fans and idols, men and women
Relationship
Brand image Brand Image is how customers think of a brand. It can be defined as the perception of the brand in the minds of the customers. Customers form an image based on their interactions and experience with the brand, or reading news and reviews. Through CK underwear's advertisements, idols' photos, campaign, most customers will think of sexiness, the confident of body shape, and the energy of young generation. The logo design also builds up the image into customers' mind unconsciously.
Customers usually associate Calvin Klein Underwear with sexy, confident, bold, their audience wear them not only for the comfort, but also as a way to express their sexiness.
Brand Awareness Since Calvin Klein has a strong international presence, and adopt a smart strategy on promoting their products, customers can easily recognize their brand and purchase products worldwide. Calvin Klein Underwear has successfully built up their brand by rooting the concept into customer's mind unconsciously.
Target Audience Gender Age
Male/Female
Generation Y&Z
Status Middle to high income groups
Their customers include the youth, fashion conscious and brand conscious people who are inclined towards rich and quality products .The customers prefer casual style and love to show themselves .Their education level might be high and the life quality is well.
Brand Loyalty
CK's underwear customer have really high brand loyalty. The biggest reason why customer keep buying CK's underwear is that the price and quality is proportional, not only because of the brand reputation.
Issue Calvin Klein always adopts big-scale and sexual innuendo advertisements. They uses "Sex Sells" as marketing strategy. For example, using minor model to shoot sensational ads, or directly shooting naked photos. This brought a very bad sense of view. Lots of people oppose this kind of advertisements, consider that these advertisements will bring negative influence on children.
Attitude Even though advertisements related to Calvin Klein has been accused of sexual innuendo for a long time, CK had never replied their attitude on this issue. In our aspect, we believe Calvin Klein considered this media traffic as another way of marketing strategy, because the voice brought from the advertisement is tremendous, which made CK willing to take the risks.