Brand management report

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Slide by Ali, Mert and Kajal

Ali: Reads slide.

Mustafa: Four problems have been identified to provide reasons as to why New Look are facing difficulties. These are poor positioning and targeting, lack of emotional connection, are providing no symbolic benefits and a lack of presence on social media.

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Slide by Kajal

Kajal: Reads slide.

Kajal: As a result of New Looks lack of unique selling point, they are not effectively positioned. New Look no longer offer functional benefits which is the benefit based on a products attribute that provides functional utility to the consumer, and therefore are not differentiated from their competitors. Resulting in a lack of attraction from consumers that could increase sales.

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Slide by Kajal

Kajal: Reads slide.

Kajal: New Look repositioned from targeting consumers in their 30s to young and edgy consumers, however their long manufacturing supply chain taking 3 months for clothing from China and Indonesia to reach UK stores contributed to their failure. New Look were regurgitating similar and basic styles, not meeting the trends in society, and were targeting the wrong market.

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Slide by Karishma

Karishma: Reads slide.

Karishma: People become emotionally connected to brands for these reasoning's, which is how an emotional connection is built, as a result leading to brand loyalty. As New Look do not interact with their consumers through forming emotional relationships, this has led to a decrease in their brand loyalty.

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Slide by Karishma

Karishma: Reads Slide.

Karishma: Holistic choice means that consumers are unable to separate individual functional attributes as to why they prefer this product over another. For example in New Look’s case, a customer would rather own a pair of jeans from Topshop rather than New Look but when asked why specifically, there are not specific attributes to answer as to why.

Karishma: New Look’s involvement in this model shows that their products do not have symbolic meanings to their consumers. When consumers shop there, it does not give a sense of holistic, self-focused emotional connection with the brand or the products.

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Slide by Karishma

Karishma: Reads Slide.

Karishma: Explaining on New Look’s link with social esteem, New Look neither have social integration nor social differentiation. As there is no brand loyalty, consumers switch easily from New Look and don’t attain new consumers leading to a lack of social integration. New Look does not have diversification in terms of social differentiation i.e. mainly women between 16 - 55 shop there which is their main audience.

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Slide by Kajal

Kajal: Reads Slide.

Kajal: The symbolic consumption of brands in the fashion industry can help to establish and communicate some of the fundamental cultural categories such as social status by the brand image and price linked to the piece of clothing, and gender by the styles and colours of clothing consumers choose. Brands are also validated through discursive elaboration in a social context whereby they are authenticated by the social group. For example, this may be done by a group of individuals discussing and arguing about that their clothing preferences and collections released by brands.

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Slide by Kajal

Kajal: Reads Slide.

Kajal: New Look are no longer keeping up with and are failing to offer the latest trends in fashion, and as a result are losing the interests and are not meeting the needs of their target market of young consumers who want to express their identity through trendy and fashionable clothes. New Look provide a lack of meaning and symbolic benefits through their advertising and clothing to consumers, who as a result don’t want to purchase and wear basic and outdated clothing for their self- identity, nor does it provide dividends such as social status and self-esteem as part of their group or social identity, both considered highly important for young consumers.

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Slide by Kajal and Karishma

Kajal: Reads Slide.

Kajal: In relation to New Look, successful engagement in brand communities and co- creation strengthens the relationship between consumers and the brand, which is usually beyond the value envisioned by the brand itself. This is crucial for attracting and retaining consumers and for increasing brand attachment and loyalty.

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Slide by Kajal and Karishma

Kajal: Reads slide. Explain the images.. (by looking at the following images New Look has far less followers than Primark which was founded in 1969 and Topshop which was founded in 1964. They were all founded near to each other, therefore New Look should have similar numbers however they do not due to their failures. ASOS, founded in 2000 and Boohoo founded in 2006 are online fashion retailers, are doing far better than New Look although they are not as established long term and don’t have any stores. They are direct in their target market, meeting their needs with trendy fast fashion and are affordable. They are both secure and have a dominant position in the market clearly identified by their strong brand communities).

Kajal: New Look repositioned and attempted to target young consumers, however their lack of an online presence and following indicates weak brand reputation and identity. In addition, this also shows that New Look have decreased brand attachment, awareness and don’t have strong brand communities who adore the brand and want to wear and share it with others.

PTO ->

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Kajal: When compared to competitors such as Primark, Topshop, ASOS and Boohoo their following on social media indicates that consumers want to have a relationship and interact with the brand on a daily basis to be aware of all their activities. This therefore represents strong brand communities which New Look lack, hence contributing to their failure.

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Slide by Kajal and Karishma

Karishma: Reads Slide.

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Karishma: This is now the end of our presentation, thank you all for listening and we are more than happy to take on any questions that you may have.

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