Brand identity of Clarins

Hi everyone,

The very last exam was over yesterday and i cant wait to go home next week, yay! Now it’s time to think of what gifts i should buy for my lovely husband and my little boy, ahh so many ideas in my mind now that i cannot think which is the best gift idea, it could be that i am so excited over the trip back to Ireland next week 🙂

Many of you will wonder what topic i will write about in this post as the opening isnt related  to the title 🙂 well i myself dont really know what to write lately but about my study, somehow WordPress seems to be a very good notebook to keep notes from lessons, so you never lose them, and also they can be shared to others interested in certain topics. So today’s post will be all about branding, specifically it is about the core of brand association, which is brand identity and the company case is Clarins, a well-known French cosmetics organisation. I actually completed this note for one of assignments in the “brand building” course, and i want to share it to public as someone else may find my note helpful 🙂

BRAND IDENTITY OF CLARINS

Finding an ideal beauty product brand for oneself is a very time-consuming process which requires loads of efforts in searching the brand, trying its products on, then collecting advices and personal opinions from those who have been using the products, etc. I used to be in that process but at the end I’ve fallen in love with Clarins_ a French luxury Cosmetics Company, which manufactures high-class skincare, makeup and fragrances products, and it is the No.1 premium skin care brand in Europe.

From my own point of view, Clarins reveals itself in the mind of its female customers with the following statements:

• State-of-the-art skin care solutions
• Luxurious beauty product range with typical French cosmetics’ style (i.e. unique rosy scents, sophisticated colours and designs)
• Reasonable price range (≥€30 up to roughly €500) compared to other premium beauty brands such as Dior, Channel, Lancôme, etc.

1  CLARINS AS A PRODUCT

Clarins is well-known as a French Cosmetics Group specialising high-class beauty products ranging from skincare to fragrances. Women from 20 up to 70 years of age use Clarins products to:

{  Improve and enhance their skin conditions

{  Look sexier, more confident and sophisticated with French beauty style.

{  Save time preparing themselves for work or other occasions (as the products are easy to apply and last for all day long)

Clarins’ products are characterised with being self-confident, sophisticated, urban looking and “scientifically” beautiful (i.e. the products are developed by the professional R&D team working in Clarins Laboratories which have been awarded high-level accreditations that go beyond the required regulatory standards and commitment to consumer safety)

2 CLARINS AS AN ORGANISATION

Clarins is a French Cosmetic Group which is:

{  Scientifically oriented, aiming to offer female customers top-qualified beauty solutions.

{  Internationally recognised and it operates all over 52 nations worldwide.

{  Environmentally friendly (i.e. reduced greenhouse gas emissions in the laboratory, say NO to testing products on animals).

{  The No.1 luxurious skin care brand in Europe starting from 1990.

3 CLARINS AS A PERSON

Clarins beauty products range can be symbolised as a woman who is:

{  In her early 30s.

{  Married with children

{  Urban citizen, very confident and successful in her career and marriage life.

{  Sexy and elegant

{  Independent, out-going, dynamic and love socialising.

4    CLARINS AS A SYMBOL

Clarins’ logo is simple but very eye-catching with pretty dark red coloured capital letters stating “CLARINS” and a smaller sized letters stating “Paris” which is where the company was first launch its first beauty store in 1954. This logo is standardised all over Clarins stores worldwide.

In my opinion, the red colour of Clarins logo does not only make the brand stand-out among other brands, it also represents the colour of roses which are associated with beautiful and sophisticated women in particular. From that message, I think the company aims to transform every single woman in this world with the beauty concept of French Cosmetics Industry.

Click here for printable version.

Hope you guys will find my post useful somehow 🙂

Lemmikinkatu 1A 3A
Varkaus, Finland

Value proposition Canvas applied on Mango clothing

Hi everyone,

Such a busy week i’ve gone through, and i still have to finish up the term assignment at Friday night!!! but the good thing is i’ve just booked the flight back to Ireland in Xmas on 14/12, im so excited to think about it, only a month and a half left for me to go home and spend time my my little boy ❤

But before i can enjoy my 1 month off from school in Xmas, still i have loads of school stuff needed to be fulfilled. As i said, i’m working on the term assignment about brand building, and below is some notes about value proposition canvas which i use to identify the value proposition of Mango, the Spanish fashion clothing brand, and it’s the case company i chose for my assignment. I hope this piece of information may come handy for someone as a reference. Enjoy 🙂

Value proposition canvas allows the company to have insights into its brand and product’s value proposition for each customer segment. In this section, MANGO will be used as a case company to illustrate how to apply value proposition canvas in practice. Steps to set up the canvas are marked as numbers from (1) to (6) and will be explained in details as below:

(1)     Customer jobs:
MANGO’s target customers try to get the following jobs done:

• Functional jobs: to solve the basic needs which are clothing, keeping warmth in the winter, etc.
• Social jobs: to own urban looks, cool, fashion-conscious, and gain higher social status in the public eyes.
• Emotional jobs: To feel comfortable, safe and to be proud that purchasing MANGO product is a wise investment on clothing.

Some MANGO’s customers can be act in other role other than just an ordinary buyer, for instance, they could be a fashion blogger whose jobs are to update latest fashion trends, predict incoming trends, write about fashion related articles, etc. In this case, the job that a fashion blogger want to get it done with MANGO clothing products is to inspire her to come up with new cool fashion ideas, as well as allow her to dress herself according to the on-trend fashion as part of her actual job.

(2)     Pains:
After identify what specific tasks that the target customers want to get done, this section will list negative emotions, undesired costs and situations, risks that the customers could experience before, during or after getting their jobs done.

The following lists are common negative experiences that MANGO’s target customers may have:

• High costs for high quality clothes with cool designs.
• Feel time-wasting and insecure when shopping online for clothes.
• Clothes with affordable prices can go out-of-fashion in a short time and can’t allow them to express themselves in public (e.g. social status, fashionable, urban looking, etc.)

(3)     Gains:
This part describes the benefits that the target customers expect, desire or would be surprised by. In the case of MANGO, these gains would be:

• Better chance to access high quality and on-trend fashion clothes with reasonable prices.
• Able to shop for clothes online without any hassle or insecurity
• Able to be informed amazing deals at special occasions throughout the year.
• Looking cool and confident with clothes they are wearing.
• Hassle-free when it comes to refund or exchange policies.

(4)     Products/Services offered by the company:
MANGO offers high quality and well-designed clothes at reasonable prices for young and urban women all over the world. “Amazing fashion. Amazing prices” is what the company aims to emphasise in the mind of its target customers.

(5)     Pain relievers:
This part will describe how MANGO products eliminate the customer pains.

Customer pains	Pains relievers
High costs for high quality clothes with cool designs.	MANGO offers good quality clothes in accordance with the latest fashion trends and at affordable prices.
Time-wasting and insecure when shopping online for clothes	At MANGO’s online store, clothes and accessories are all visualised which allows the visitors to have a closer look at a certain piece of clothes they want to purchase. The payment methods at MANGO online stores also appeal to be trusted with the Norton’s online trading fraud protection.
Clothes with affordable prices can go out-of-fashion in a short time and can’t let them to express themselves in public (e.g. social status, fashionable, urban looking, etc.)	MANGO clothes are made in the way that they allow users to free up their creativity, which means the users can easily mix up the clothes to create another new and fresher looks for themselves at any time.

(6)     Gain creators:

MANGO is able to help customers create their gains by the following incentives:

Customers’ expected gains	Gain creators
Better chance to access high quality and on-trend fashion clothes with reasonable prices.	MANGO currently has a total of 2,415 stores in 107 countries worldwide and plans to carry on store expansion in cities of the stature of Tokyo, Beijing, Erlangen or Verona.
Able to shop for clothes online without any hassle or insecurity	Shopping at MANGO’s online store cannot be handy anymore thanks to the visualised site features applied to every single piece of clothes and accessories, which save the browsing time for the visitors. The he payment methods at MANGO online stores can be absolutely trusted with the Norton’s online trading fraud protection and discrete private information.
Able to be informed with amazing deals at special occasions throughout the year.	Every month, registered customers at MANGO’s online stores can receive emails about sales alerts, or any amazing deals at MANGO stores. So as long as they check emails regularly. They won’t miss any good deals from MANGO.
Looking cool and confident with clothes they are wearing.	MANGO’s designs are associated with latest fashion trends inspired from famous fashion guru and designers. Also MANGO clothes are carefully tailored according standard female sizes which can be worn by women whether they are Asians or European nationalities.
Hassle-free when it comes to refund or exchange policies.	MANGO allows customers up to 30 days to exchange unwanted clothes since purchase, and 14 days for refunds. The process is time-saving which normally takes 2-3 business to solve the issues.

Applying the perceptual mapping concept into brand positioning

Good day, mate!

I was working on the term assignment of the course called “brand building” when i came across with this term. I haven’t really heard  about perceptual mapping that much before so i decided to do a bit research on it, and here it is 🙂 I hope the post will come handful for someone studying similar course like i am at the moment. Enjoy!

According to Hausman Marketing Research, companies apply the perceptual mapping method to help them understand what consumers think about their brands and other competitors’ brands, showing a business its position relative to the competition. In addition to identifying potential new products, the information revealed from perceptual mapping can help a business build an effective competitive strategy, communication strategy and brand strategy.

Typically, a simple perceptual map is a two-dimensional graph with a vertical axis and a horizontal axis. Each axis has a pair of opposite attributes at each end of the axis. Below is an example of perceptual mapping for auto industry:

A brand position is the set of perceptions, impressions, ideas and feelings that consumers have for the product in comparison to competing products. In planning their brand positioning, marketers often prepare perceptual maps in order to show consumer perceptions of their brand versus competitor’s brands based on attributes that appear to be significant to the consumers, whether functional or symbolic, when it comes to purchasing decision.

A perceptual mapping graph is beneficial to:

• Assess strengths and weaknesses relative to competing brands along certain criteria important to the customers.
• Identify the competitive advantages for the brand as it shows differentiation among products in the customer’s mind.
• Point out market opportunities. Empty spaces near an ideal point (meaning an attractive market segment) on the perceptual map represent potential market opportunities.
• Show how ideal points shift as markets mature, and therefore a brand might shift its positioning in order to retain or gain a competitive advantage (relating to the product’s life cycle)

In order to make a perceptual map most useful, each axis needs to measure attributes that consumers actually use in making a purchasing decision. Typically, the way businesses find out how current and potential customers view their products/brands and competitors’ product/brands is to survey the customers. To obtain the essential useful information from consumers, researchers need to be able to clearly present the attributes so that consumers are rating the intended attributes and not something else.

Click here for more information about how to interpret a perceptual mapping.

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