Promotion campaign for the Spring Collection 2012 of Swarovski - Assignment Example

?Marketing Management Table of Contents 0 Introduction 3 2.0Stakeholders Analysis 4 2 Analysis 4 2.2 Competitor Analysis 5 2.3Company Analysis 7 2.4Community 8 3.0Branding and Positioning 9 4.0Marketing Mix 11 4.1Product 11 4.2Price 12 4.3Place 12 4.4Promotion 13 4.53B’s Framework 14 5.0Marketing Budget and Implementation 16 6.0Conclusion 17 References 18 Bibliography 20 1.0 Introduction To generate awareness within potential customers and population in general, regarding the products and/or services rendered and regarding its brand name, each and every company needs to promote its brand or products and/or services through various promotional tools and techniques. This in turn plays a vital role in assisting the organisation to attain larger market share. The product promotion is also known as the form of the marketing communication engaging the producers and the ultimate customers (Ehmke & et. al., 2010; Koekemoer & Bird, 2004). This report will focus on developing a sustainable promotion campaign for the Spring Collection 2012 of Swarovski which would let the targeted customers identify certain facts about the products and persuade them towards their ultimate purchases. With due consideration to these facts, the major objective of this report is to plan the product promotion using various promotional tools and techniques, such as the Marketing Mix and the 3Bs Framework, for the Spring Collection 2012 of Swarovski in a sustainable manner. The plan will focus on implementing shareholders and stakeholders analysis to justify the strategic actions beneficial for the promotion of Swarovski. The report would involve several criteria to select promotional tools, and goal setting programmes performing the role of a sustainable marketing plan. The prime intention of conducting this report will emphasise on increasing the annual turnover of the company’s crystal business which recently was recorded to surpass its EUR 2 billion benchmark in the year 2010. In the year 2011, the company was recorded to earn revenue of EUR 2.22 billion from this particular business segment attaining around 10% growth (Brand Swarovski, 2012). Notably, this segment can be regarded as the most competent one with further growth prospects which is aimed to attain a growth rate of 15% in the fiscal year of 2012. Hence, this particular objective can be attained with due significance to effective and aggressive promotions of Swarovski’s seasonal collections which is quite famous worldwide and tends to attract the fashion lovers from the elite groups all around the world. 2.0 Stakeholders Analysis 2.1. Customer Analysis Swarovski’s target customers, specifically for the campaign regarding their Spring Collection, are observed to be the young people of the society and the niche sector. It is due to the fact that most of the products under the latest collection are designed in a manner which is more attractive to the young generation and tends to satisfy their desires regarding fashionable accessories to a large extent. Moreover, the price and the features of the products are mostly preferred by the niche fashion lover people of the society who can be stated as the secondary targeted customer group for the Spring Collection 2012 of Swarovski. Furthermore, Swarovski also targets the teenage group as its target customer group offering a versatile blend of designs and colours in the crystal products (Swarovski, 2012). It is in this regards, that the promotional campaign will be planned taking into concern the preferences of the young generation as the majority proportion of the targeted customers of Swarovski tend to belong from this market segment. The campaign will thus fundamentally focus on the young customers of the urban areas between the age-group of 15 years (i.e. the teenage group) to the age group of 27 (i.e. the young generation). Moreover, as the product range tends to focus on the female section of the targeted population to a large extent, the promotional campaign will also be developed taking this certain fact into significant consideration. It is in this context that the targeted customers within the age group of 15 to 27 years of the higher income group have been observed majorly to prefer reading about promotional offerings in the internet and other electronic media. Other than the electronic media, the young generation customers targeted by this promotional campaign are identified to prefer advertising regarding such luxurious items even in cinemas, shopping malls, and social clubs among others (StrategicPuls Group, 2008). 2.2 Competitor Analysis In relation to stakeholders’ impact over the promotional campaign of Swarovski’s Spring Collection 2012, competitors must also be considered as a significant factor. The indirect competitors of Swarovski can be identified as the company which intend to offer products in the similar category, i.e. the fashionable accessories to the similar customer group or may be any other customer group. These products, furthermore, can be offered at a similar price range which can have a substantial impact over the sustainability of the promotion campaign and the company on the whole. For instance, Preciosa can be regarded as one of the toughest competitors of Swarovski which tends to offer products in the similar range targeting the similar group of customers, i.e. the teenage and young generation, even though, at a higher price range (Preciosa, 2012). However, the company does not focus on serving its customer with seasonal collections as in the case of Swarovski. Hereby, the planned campaign will tend to analyse and consider the promotional campaigns implemented by the indirect competitors of Swarovski in order to develop a highly persuasive and stronger impression on its targeted customers. In other words, to maintain its sustainability in the market, Swarovski will tend to implement a competitive and aggressive promotional campaign to a certain extent. In this regards, one of the major competitive strengths possessed by the brand is its capability to offer high quality products to customers at a cheaper rate than most of its competitors. For instance, Swarovski is identified to market its products at a cheaper rate than ARC International which is regarded to be one of the indirect competitors of the brand in its international market. Another competitive strength of Swarovski crystal business over ARC International and similar other brands is its separate and widely differentiated market segments. Where, ARC International majorly targets the corporate and households with its exclusive range of luxurious decorative prices, Swarovski tends to attract the fashion conscious customer groups with its fashion accessories as well as decorative crystal prices (Swarovski, 2012; ARC International, n.d.). However, in comparison to ARC International, Preciosa can be identified as one of Swarovski’s nearest competitors. A major weakness in terms of competition that Swarovski has to face due to Preciosa is their almost similar product range and target customer market. The promotional offerings of Preciosa are also identified to be similar to that of Swarovski by a certain extent. Although the brand (i.e. Swarovski) has a similar product range and also deals with almost similar customer group target to that of Preciosa, one of the major competencies of the brand is its perceived value by the customers from both elite group of fashion minded people and higher income group customers (Preciosa, 2012; Swarovski, 2012). 2.3 Company Analysis Swarovski, as an international company, involves various luxury crystal products, which are made to be catered to the niche sector of the society in various countries. Products offered by Swarovski through its Spring Collection 2012 are generally produced to serve the young people and the style or fashion lovers. Notably, the company launches seasonal collections of fashionable products which especially include crystal jewellery items and accessories. The main targeted audiences of this spring collection are considered to be the teenage and the young females. Swarovski focuses on the customer’s choice and capabilities with the intention to attain sustainable customer loyalty and value. Spring Collection 2012 was launched by Swarovski as a differentiation strategy with the aim to attain customer satisfaction and brand awareness (Swarovski, 2012). One of the significant strengths possessed by Swarovski is that it offers unique blend of traditional and modern designs in its products to the targeted customers. In the similar context, the company also provides due consideration to the aspect of customer service and thus, can be regarded as quite competitive in obtaining sustainable customer satisfaction. However, the company provides relatively more consideration towards internet promotion rather than any other promotional media in order to facilitate online marketing. It is in this regards that the company must emphasise on promoting its products through other media as well so as to attract more and more customers from the targeted market. It is in this context that employees and strategic decision makers can play a vital role in assisting the company to define the efficiency of this sustainable promotion plan. 2.4 Community Government, society and similar other socio-economic elements can be defined as the community members of Swarovski. These factors tend to influence the promotional campaign of the organisation in terms that government can raise legal barriers and also influence the political environment of the targeted market which in turn is likely to make it quite challenging for the organisation to create a substantial impact over its targeted customers. In the similar context, the society is also quite likely to influence the sustainability of the organisation by influencing the cultural prospects of the organisation to a large extent. However, in comparison to the influence caused by the government, it can be mentioned that social factors such as society in relation to its practiced culture shall have a more intense influence over the promotional campaign of Swarovski. In this regards, the promotional campaign will emphasise on analysing the cultural prospects persisting within the targeted market in order to develop a planning which will be more coherent with the unique social preferences and choices. 3.0 Branding and Positioning The brand, Swarovski is a world renowned fashionable accessory producer and marketer. The products offered by the company are primarily concentrated on crystals and are designed to attract mostly the teenage and young generation female customers. In this regards, the future brand can emphasise not only on the young and teenage group of female customers, but also take into concern the customer segment of fashion concerned male customers in the same age-group. Furthermore, along with crystal products, the company can also emphasise on offering fashionable accessories manufactured with other raw materials such as precious stones and glasses as well so as to attract customers from a wide range of income groups. Notably, where the products manufactured by using precious stones can attract highly income group customers, the products manufactured through glasses and other similar materials can assist the organisation to serve the customers from the lower level income group. It was mentioned in the above discussion that the prime aim of this promotional campaign is to generate awareness and attract the potential customers, i.e. the young generation female customers. Attracting the targeted audiences including the shareholders has also been considered as a major objective of this campaign. In this context, the brands’ future position in the marketplace will be to capture a large market share focusing on a more diversified and fragmented customer segmentation. This in turn would not only enhance the market reputation of the brand by taking it closer to the desires and preferences of the customers, but shall also reward it with greater sustainability and competencies. In addition, this future planning can also be helpful for the brand, as it shall assist in differentiating the brand identity perceived by Swarovski from its major competitors. Based on these aspects, the positioning map for the brand has been developed below with due consideration to the future prospects of the company. The above represented positioning map also denotes the customer groups to which the three competitors are majorly focused on. The classification of the customer groups has been considered on the basis of income or spending behaviours as well as their consumption power. As can be observed from the positioning map, the two major competitors of Swarovski, Preciosa and ARC International, attempt to target the market segment comprising of elite group of customers with high income and higher customer power. These customer groups are also identified to be quality seekers. However, in comparison to these two brands, Swarovski attempts to market its products to the quality seekers, not only in the elite class of customers including celebrities, but also in the higher income group economic sector with lower consumption power to that of these elite customers. Therefore, it can be stated that the customer base of Swarovski is apparently larger than that of the other indirect and direct competitors in the international market which consists of both elite and higher income group who are quality seekers to a certain extent. This certain virtue is also quite likely to reward the brand with better competitiveness in the international market with a more sustainable growth in terms of branding encouraging the value perceived by the customers towards this brand. 4.0 Marketing Mix 4.1 Product The product offered by Swarovski through the planned promotional campaign mainly comprises with variety of crystal jewelleries and fashionable accessories. The theme of the Spring Collection 2012, as considered by the brand, tends to offer the targeted customers with a unique blend of traditional designs of jewelleries and modern style. Notably, the company is offering with a wide range of crustal products including necklaces, charms, sunglasses, home decorating accessories and others to its targeted customers. The company provides due consideration to the uniqueness of designs and qualities of the offered products (Swarovski, 2012). Therefore, the vital aspects to be considered in the planned promotional campaign can be regarded as the quality and the versatility in the product range offered by the brand which can certainly have a strong impact over the perception of the customers. 4.2 Price In relation to price, Swarovski has been targeting the niche market and majority of the young and teenage population from the higher income level of the economy to a large extent. Therefore, the price of the offered products shall create a significant impact over the customers, especially the price seeking customer group. However, customers in the luxurious product market often tend to believe that high price indicates high quality which in turn acts as a persuasive factor for the brand. Hence, this certain attribute shall also be promoted in the campaign, however, not in a large extent as it also may create a negative impact over the targeted teenage and young customers. 4.3 Place With due consideration to the fact that Swarovski is targeting youth and the niche sector of the society, the planned promotional campaign would be covering the places such as restaurants, colleges, schools, social networking sites, and the clubs among others, which would help Swarovski to involve all their target customers all together. It is basically due to the reason that majority of the young and teenage group of customers tend to make use of these places as their gathering hubs. Therefore, these places can be considered as highly beneficial for Swarovski’s promotional campaign as it may assist the organisation in creating awareness and attracting as well as persuading a mass of targeted customers engaging less investment required as well as in a time efficient manner. 4.4 Promotion To promote the Spring Collection of Swarovski, the media would be chosen based on the need and the frequency of choice of the customers such as the internet and the television media as well as the printed media in terms of fashion magazines. In other words, as the target customers are predominantly the youth section and niche segment of the society, the promotional media could be chosen as television, social networking, outdoor creative advertising, viral marketing and various fashion events and shows among others. Furthermore, in the case of Swarovski, the message in a promotional campaign involves the specialty, the quality, the distinguishing nature of their products comparing to other similar kind of product ranges. These messages tend to attract the targeted young customers towards the promoted products and towards the brand as well along with the services provided by the company. These promotional messages would be illustrated through words, logos, pictures, posters, and slogans among others. Swarovski would also determine the time period of the product promotion, and specific dates to conduct certain events and shows to reach the customers and the targeted young people. In case of internet marketing, the company has planned to choose a particular time to promote or to advertise their products to reach a larger population increasing its prospects to attain sustainable profit margin. 4.5 3B’s Framework Another frame work to set goal is 3B’s which includes brand, buzz and behaviour. While planning a promotional campaign for its products, Swarovski will focus on the affects or the influences of the campaign on its brand value, to evaluate the awareness as well as the demand amid its customers. Brand is widely regarded as the “name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors” (Matzick & et. al., 2008: 1). Therefore, with enhanced brand recognition in the targeted market segment comprising of young generation customers of higher income group, Swarovski will not only be able to gain competitive advantages, but shall also be able to attain long-term customer loyalty for generating a sustainable growth rate in terms of its sales. This will again be quite beneficial to augment its market share and thus attain its objective to increase its annual turnover growth rate to 15% in the current fiscal year, i.e. 2012. It is in this context that Awareness regarding the brand or the products would attract more customers increasing the knowledge perceived towards the brand and its existence (Lamb & et. al., 2011). Hence, the aspects of awareness or attention would be provided with utmost priority in Swarovski’s promotional campaign, including advertising by the endorsement of famous celebrities, and creative hoardings as well as outdoor promotion to attract more people towards the brand and the latest Spring Collection. Buzz is the process which involves word-of-mouth, publicity, and the awareness regarding the brand among people. Swarovski would also significantly focus on the buzz for promoting its products by creating awareness among the targeted customers and audiences of the promotional campaign. The major goal of the Swarovski’s promotional campaign for the Spring Collection is to promote their collection to the young people to make them aware of their new products and to cater the niche sector of the society. It would definitely increase the awareness regarding the company among youth and it would increase the brand name as well. Swarovski’s spring collection mainly involves products to attract young generation of the society which in turn depicts that the prime aim of this promotional campaign will be to generate awareness and attract the potential customers of the products presented through the seasonal collection. In this regards, analysing and persuading customers’ behaviour also plays a vital role in developing any promotional campaign as a successful one. With due consideration to this fact, three vital elements of consumer behaviour can be identified as their perceived desires, interests and actions regarding the offered product range. It is in this context that interest must be generated amid the targeted customer population so as to persuade them for the ultimate purchase (Winer, 2007). With this concern, Swarovski would target the young generation and the niche sector of the society creating interests amid its targeted customer group of young generation by differentiating its products in terms of designs, price and quality. Swarovski would also promote their products in certain events to increase the customer’s interests. In the similar context, desire is the factor which describes the need and the taste of the customers which should also be considered as a vital influencing factor in relation to promotional campaigns (Winer, 2007). In this regards, Swarovski would focus on its customers’ choices and tastes in terms of fashion to promote the specific products, which is most likely to further assist the company to create a long-lasting impression on its customers. The promotional campaign will also take into consideration the action likely to be executed by the consumers as a reaction to the promotional campaign. In this case, action refers to the process where a company makes a customer active towards the products offered by satisfying the customers’ interests (Winer, 2007). Swarovski would also influence people to come across the website and the advertisements in the social networking site with certain punch lines and interesting features by identifying the customers’ desires and requirements. 5.0 Marketing Budget and Implementation The marketing budget for the promotional campaign for Swarovski would involve certain expenses such as the expenses for the advertisements, expenses for the location plan, expenses for the campaign design and the expenses to design the creative posters or banners among others. Various marketing and promotional media will be taken into concern in order to promote the Spring Collection 2012 of Swarovski as an initiative of aggressive campaigning against its toughest competitors such as Preciosa and ARC International. Therefore, it becomes highly significant to have a proper allocation of resources which would yield highest possible return on the promotional investments of the organisation. With this concern, the brand shall invest around EUR $ 200,000 with the purpose of promoting its product range offered through the Spring Collection 2012. As was mentioned above, the major promotional media to be considered in this promotional campaign will include television advertisements, internet advertisements in the social sites, nationwide daily newspapers and magazine advertisements, creative posters and banners on the busiest street locations as well as in the cinemas, social clubs and shopping malls, along with fashion-event sponsorships. Hence, the allocated budget investment would be divided in the following manner. 6.0 Conclusion Swarovski, a renowned brand has spread almost all over in the world serving with a huge range of collections and variety of styles for its consumers in the market segment of crystal made luxury fashionable accessories. However, the company intends to serve all the sectors of the society with its products and new ranges of prices. In this promotional campaign, Swarovski has aimed to promote its products to a large mass of targeted audiences. In order to attain more customers, Swarovski has to consider lower down the price range targeting not only the niche market segment but also to the middle income group of fashion lovers. The company would also create awareness regarding fashion and style among people, which would automatically create interest towards the products of the company. The company would also introduce certain schemes or gift vouchers to attract more customers. Swarovski would be selecting a proper venue and promotional media to conduct the promotional campaign, which would give a good return on the investment influencing the targeted audiences. References ARC International, No Date. The Group. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.brand.swarovski.com/Content.Node/home.en.html#/en/aboutus/factsfigures [Accessed May 21, 2012]. Brand Swarovski, 2012. Facts and Figures. Swarovski Group and Crystal Business. [Online] Available at: http://www.brand.swarovski.com/Content.Node/home.en.html#/en/aboutus/factsfigures [Accessed May 21, 2012]. Ehmke, C. & et. al., 2010. Marketing’s Four P’s: First Steps for New Entrepreneurs. Extmedia. [Online] Available at: http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/ec/ec-730.pdf [Accessed March 11, 2012]. Koekemoer, L. & Bird, S., 2004. Marketing Communications. Juta and Company Ltd. Lamb, C. W. & et. al., 2011. Essentials of Marketing. Cengage Learning. Matzick, L. & et. al., 2008. 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