Cath Kidston Marketing Strategy for the U.S Hispanic Market - Essay Example

? Cath Kidston – Marketing Strategy for the U.S Hispanic Market This strategy report focuseson the U.S Hispanic market which is growing at a fast pace. Marketing strategy of launching Cath Kidston in the market of U.S Hispanic will be chalked out by researching the attitude, behavior of the consumers, their preferences and possible brand positioning option which could be applied to create a space for Cath Kidston in the market. The strategy will further explain how the media and promotional strategies will be chosen accordingly to advertise the brand. Besides this, research methods which would be adopted to gauge the effectiveness of the marketing strategy would also be discussed. Secondly implementation plan will be devised which will include how each and every step of the marketing plan would be executed. Along with that, the strategy’s effectiveness will be discussed by giving rational for choosing the media for promotions, target audience and the profile of the target customers. Alongside this, Cath Kidston’s competitors and their respective positions in the market are illustrated. Table of Contents 1.Cath Kidston and Business Environment in the U.S Hispanic Market 4 2.Marketing Objectives 5 3.Target segment and its justification 6 4.Identification of Media Resources and Strategies 7 5.Positioning and Message Strategy 9 6.Test of Message and Media Approach 11 7.Guidelines for Implementation 12 8.Suggestions for elevation of effectiveness 13 9.Works Cited 14 Cath Kidston – Marketing Strategy for the U.S Hispanic Market 1. Cath Kidston and Business Environment in the U.S Hispanic Market As Kidston, (1999) narrates in her book: “Vintage style: Creating a complete look for your home” Cath Kidston is named after its founder Catherine Isabel Audrey Kidston. The brand came into being in the year 1993 in the UK with a small shop in London. The store carried vintage style wallpapers, fabrics such as table clothes, quilts etc, junk furniture which was painted brightly. The feel of the products sold by the store carried a classic British feel because of which, the store soon became a success (Kidston, 1999). The brand grew into a ?75 million entity over two decades. Te brand of Cath Kidston has a wide assortment of products which belong to different categories but all the items which are used in home furnishing, homeware, and fashion accessories. Cath Kidston is distinctively known for its subtle floral designs. The brand has presence in about six countries physically and has online presence in the market of the United States (Kidston, 1999; CathKidston.com, 2012). Cath Kidston plans to mark its presence physically in the United States especially in the market of U.S Hispanics. The market environment of Cath Kidston is highly competitive as there are many competing brands which impose a threat to Cath Kidston. Each brand is distinctively positioned in the market, carrying its own unique brand image and competitive advantage. Major competitors are Bath and Body works, The Body Shop and other fashion brands in different categories which give Cath Kidston indirect and direct competition. The Hispanic market tend to be highly brand loyal and are more receptive to Cath Kidston’s brand image of being in the up market as Valle, (2005) mentions in his book: “Hispanic marketing & public relations: Understanding and targeting America's largest minority” (Kidston, 1999; Valle, 2005). Cath Kidston does not have exclusive presence in the market of Unites States which is already cluttered with established brands therefore it will have to position itself very accurately in accordance with the market’s specifications (CathKidston.com, 2012). 2. Marketing Objectives Cath Kidston will need a clear vision and a line of process which it will follow while developing this strategy. The marketing objectives will clarify a path which Cath Kidston will have to follow in order to successfully market the brand in the Hispanic market of United States. These objectives will explain what basic and primary goals Cath Kidston will need to meet, what it plans to achieve from its promotional activities, how the brand will gauge the success of its advertisement, what strategy of market entry would be adopted and how the distribution, pricing and product strategy will be gauged as Belch et al, (2001) indicates in his book: “Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications perspective”. To enter, grow and sustain its position in the market, Cath Kidston will devise a set of objectives which will compliment the brand’s long-term strategy. Cath Kidston will establish a certain share of voice of its advertisement in the market. The main objective would be to increase the brand awareness by 30% in the first three months of Cath Kidston’s launch. Secondly, Cath Kidston’s objective would be to achieve a market share of 10% which will then be pushed up to 40% in the coming year. Apart from that, Cath Kidston would set a target to open 30 stores in each State of the United State which has a population of Hispanics. Secondly, Cath Kidston’s concurrent objective would be to establish the brand’s perception of being a complete solution to every household need of a housewife (Belch et al, 2001). Setting these objectives will give a path to Cath Kidston and as these objectives would be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-specific, it would be easier to gauge the performance of Cath Kidston as a brand and as a business (Belch et al, 2001). 3. Target segment and its justification Valle, (2005) explains the preferences of Hispanic women which was studied and decided that the selected target segment would be women from the upper class. He claims that Hispanic women tend to be more family and home oriented as compared to the Western women. They tend to spend more time with their families and put them in preference before their careers. Their general attitude towards brands is very positive as studies show that once Hispanic women find a brand which fits their needs, they become loyal to it. Hispanic women are cultural, better in touch with their tradition as opposed to other women. Therefore in order to target the Hispanic women, who would be most likely buy products for their homes as compared to the women in the rest of the United States, Cath Kisdton must select the Hispanic women who are predominantly housewives, belong to the age-group 25-45 years. The segment mentioned above has been selected because the Hispanic women from this age group comprise of the majority of women in the Hispanic community of the United States. Secondly, the age group of 25 – 45 years is most likely to be housewives and hence, the core target market of Cath Kidston (Valle, 2005). Besides this, small minorities of the Hispanic women are more career-oriented and prefer their career over household matters. As Cath Kidston’s product line focuses mainly on household items, those women would be excluded from the target segment. Secondly, Cath Kiddston is known for its traditional vintage designs in all of its product range and Hispanic women are known to be well in touch with their culture and tradition. Moreover, they respect the culture and traditions therefore, Cath Kidston being known for its vintage designs and style incorporated in the product line, would be accepted by them. Therefore, the Hispanic women are selected as Cath Kidston’s primary target segment because they comprise of a huge population in the United States and fit into Cath Kidston’s customer profile of household driven, cultural and traditional and brand loyal consumers (Valle, 2005; CathKidston.com, 2012). 4. Identification of Media Resources and Strategies Research by Valle, (2005), shows that Hispanic women spend the highest of their leisure time on television as compared to the rest of the women in United States. Being home-driven and mostly housewives, television is an important vehicle of media for them and thus, advertising on the electronic media, especially on Spanish channels would fetch good returns for Cath Kidston as more returns could be generated. Advertising on high rated programmes of channels which are most watched by women and Hispanic women to be specific would ensure good brand awareness for Cath Kidston. The selection of which TV channels to advertise on can be made by contacting a media research agency which can easily provide a list of TV channels with the closest if not homogenous target market with Cath Kidston. Launching Cath Kidston in a market which is already stagnant would require creative execution of the ideas of promotion in order to stand out from the clutter which would be supported by heavy advertising. As Hispanic women spend most of their time watching television, most budget of Cath Kidston will have to be allocated towards advertisement no electronic media. Running Television commercials, sponsoring tailored shows, creating news in the media with CSR activities, media red carpet at store launches would be the basic fundamentals which need to be followed religiously by Cath Kidston in order to mark its presence in a stagnant market. This would enable the brand to penetrate in the market with more force with its own unique positioning statement. Besides the electronic media, print advertisement will have to be done in those magazines, publications and newspapers which are most accessed and read by the Hispanic women. Research says that Hispanic women prefer reading magazines during their leisure time and especially when they are waiting. Giving them exposure to the ad when they are most receptive to it would create a better impact than advertising in every possible media which is accessed by them regardless of other factors such as the media’s circulation in the Social Economic Class and so forth (Tellis, 2004). Besides the print media, out-of-home advertisement can be another tool of promotion however, not as effective as advertising on electronic and print media would be. This is because Hispanic women tend to stay at home and enjoy the time with their families and do not prefer going out as much as women of the rest of the United States do. The best places to use out-of-home advertising would be in-store and department stores where Cath Kidston would be located (Tellis, 2004). Young, (2010) explains the power of the Social Media in his publication and states that the Social Media is on its way to becoming the most important tool of advertising. The up market of Cath Kidston would most access the Social Media therefore marking the brand’s presence in the Social Media would make wonders when word-of-mouth advertising would come into play. The Social Media has the power to engage people in the brand as there is a personal feel to it. Besides this, the Social Media is a two-way mode of advertising communication and the consumers are most likely to left more affected and impacted as compared to the traditional electronic and print advertising. Cath Kidston will develop a Facebook page, Twitter account and a tailored interactive website which would engage the customers. As Cath Kidston already has presence in the United States in the form of an e-commerce business, it would be easier to create awareness of its presence in the United States as the brand awareness would already be there (Young, 2010). Therefore all the modes of media that are mentioned above must be used in their most effective manner which is also explained above in order to engage, intrigue, create a perception of the brand and attract the customer towards the brand of Cath Kidston. The tool of electronic media would be used to give hype of physical presence of Cath Kidston in the markets of United States and create further brand awareness. Print media would be used for the same purpose of delivering the message and educating the consumers about Cath Kidston’s presence and the Social Media would be used to create the word-of-mouth advertising by engaging the customers and giving them the message in a more personalized manner (Tellis, 2004). 5. Positioning and Message Strategy The target market of Hispanic women from the age group of 25-45 years and home-oriented housewives has been defined. In order to position the brand in the clutter, Kim et al, 2005) explain in their book: “Blue ocean strategy: how to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant” that possible position according to the blue ocean strategy must be observed closely. Cath Kidston is a brand which has a product range of many different categories. Its competitors predominantly are in a limited number of categories as compared to Cath Kidston. It is Cath Kidston’s diverse and comprehensive product range which is its strength of its positioning. In order to accurately and effectively position Cath Kidston in the market, the brand must establish a clear Point of Parity, Point of Differentiation, Unique Selling Point and (Kim et al, 2005). The Point of Parity for Cath Kidston would be that it is a brand which deals in household products, predominantly in every possible category which might arise except electronics, wood, fittings and furniture. This Point of Parity would bring the brand at par in the consideration set of the consumers in the target market (Kim et al, 2005; Kidston, 1999). Secondly, the Point of Difference, which would set apart the brand of Cath Kidston in the minds of the consumers, will have to be set to gain preference in the consideration set of the target consumers by a strong message which would register the brand image in the minds of the consumer. This can also be termed as the Unique Selling Point. Cath Kidston’s unique selling point would be that it is one single brand which attempts to provide all the household needs of the housewives and that too in an elegant and unique manner. With a wide assortment of products which would be available at Cath Kidston, the brand will be on its way to become one single answer to the housewives need of products in the kitchen, bathroom, living room, for the children and the restroom (Kim et al, 2005; Kidston, 1999). The message will have to be impactful enough to register the brand’s value and its Unique Selling Preposition in the minds of the consumers. It would carry the idea of getting everything which a Hispanic housewife would need for her home (with exceptions of products in those categories which Cath Kidston does not deal in). As far as the visual executions are concerned, the ads would initially present the idea of convenience instead of advertising the wide product range which would only add to the clutter of advertising in the market. Spanish adaptations of these advertisements would create a better connection with the audiences. This would register the brand in the minds of the consumers and intrigue them to visit the store which will eventually result into revenue. Secondly, the brand would be positioned in the up market of American Hispanics which, as the research says, are a growing population both in terms of numbers and in terms of economies. Hispanics are reported to hold better jobs than the rest of the races in the United States. This may be owing to the fact that the Hispanics place more attention and value to attaining education than the rest of the races residing in the U.S. Therefore, the message would be complimented by fairly high priced articles which will also entice the brand conscious American Hispanics along with the imagery which will be executed via creative ideas and ad copies, presenting the core message of Cath Kidston (Kim et al, 2005; Valle, 2005; Kim et al, 2005). 6. Test of Message and Media Approach As explained in the Media Strategy section, Cath Kidston would predominantly select the electronic media to create mass awareness in the market, predominantly targeting the Hispanic women who are reported to be well off than other races in the United States. As far as the electronic media is concerned, the rating points of those timeslots in which Cath Kidston would place its advertisement can be found and this can be used to estimate the reach of the advertisement in all the Hispanic households. Secondly, the brand would also tailor-design a show which will be run in all the channels, (especially the Spanish ones) which have access to the Hispanic markets. The rating points of the programme run on different TV channels will also be studied to gauge the impact of Cath Kidston’s promotions (Tellis, 2004). Print media can be gauged by the number of circulations and estimate number of readings which again, will be provided by media research industries which undertake focus groups, interviews and online surveys. In addition to this, the Social Media will also be monitored and judged from the number of likes on Facebook and from the following on Twitter. Besides this, the number of clicks which the website would receive can be checked along with the number of orders on Cath Kidston’s e-commerce website in the United States can be seen to observe what impact whether positive or negative, the ongoing promotions have any impact on the business (Young, 2005). As soon as the marketing campaign will be rolled out in the market, Cath Kidston must conduct a market research in order to gauge whether the brand is being perceived as targeted or not. This will require focus groups and interviews to be done either by Cath Kidston’s employees at the store or by expert research companies. It would be advisable to opt for the employees who will get the questionnaires filled out by the customers present in the store. This way, Cath Kidston can save thousands of dollars in cost and moreover, the focus groups would be more accurate as they would be the actual customers who would be coming to the store. This would give Cath Kidston an accurate picture of the kind of customers which the brand is getting i.e., their age, profile, household income level and actual image of the brand (Tellis, 2004). This way, the effect of Cath Kidston’s marketing efforts on the brand’s image can be monitored and it can be scrutinized whether the brand is attracting he right target market to the stores or not. More so, if the actual brand image is noticed to be deviating from the targeted one, appropriate measures may be taken in terms of the promotions and brand communication to suit the actual target market (Tellis, 2004). 7. Guidelines for Implementation At the time of the launching, the brand would only be promoted on the social media about 15 to 20 days prior to the launch in order to build up the presence of the brand in the U.S Hispanic market. This would be followed by the launch of Cath Kidston which would be done by unveiling a flagship store in California which has the most population of Hispanics. Shortly before the launch, Television Commercials will need to be run along with other marketing promotions explained above. After the launch, tailored programmes will be run on the television which will further appeal the viewers to pay the store a visit. The launching of the store will have to be done with a substantial support from the PR agencies which will ensure timely presence of the right media at the launching ceremony. About a month’s time after the campaign launch, market research will be carried out in order to judge the performance of the marketing campaign in terms of Return-on-investment, brand awareness and brand image (Belch et al, 2001; Tellis, 2004). 8. Suggestions for elevation of effectiveness To make the campaign more effective, competitors’ reactions to the store launch will need to be closely followed to refute any retaliation coming from the latter in terms of counter advertising. Secondly, in order to make the marketing and branding strategy more effective, Cath Kidston must not provide any sales promotion offer to the consumers as it will attract people from the lower segments. Not only this, the brand image of an up-market amenity would be damaged with any kind of sales promotional or discount schemes. The store might go into sale from time-to-time as competition is likely to get intense seasonal wise (Tellis, 2004; Young, 2010). 9. Works Cited Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. (2001). Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications perspective. Boston, Mass: Irwin/McGraw-Hill. Kidston, C. (1999). Vintage style: Creating a complete look for your home. Boston: Bulfinch Press/Little, Brown and Company. CathKidston.com. (2012). About us. Web. 2012. Available at: < http://www.cathkidston.co.uk/> Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. (2005). Blue ocean strategy: how to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. Boston, Mass, Harvard Business School Press Tellis, G. J. (2004). Effective advertising: understanding when, how, and why advertising works. Thousand Oaks, Calif, Sage Publications Young, A. (2010). Brand media strategy: integrated communications planning in the digital era. New York, Palgrave Macmillan. Valle, E. (2005). Hispanic marketing & public relations: Understanding and targeting America's largest minority. Boca Raton: Poyeen Pub Read More