Project Proposal Assignment: Brand Development Of Kathmandu Appeals

Question

Task:
This is your first project as a brand strategist for a medium size Sydney based marketing firm. Your boss has presented you a brief below, which you have been asked to write a project proposal assignment. Your mission is to win this project.

Brief: Kathmandu Apparels
Kathmandu is an iconic New Zealand travel and adventure brand with multiple retail chains around Australia, NZ and distributions in the UK. In Australia and NZ, Kathmandu has outnumbered competitors having stores across major shopping centres and suburban areas. In late August 2019, the company has entered the US market. In 2020, COVID-19 has presented challenges and opportunities within the retail sector. Some of the challenges include drop in sales due to restrictions in the number of customers in the stores and store closures in some cities. On the other hand, the rise of transaction facilities (e.g Afterpay) supported the boom in online sales.

Given the current economic climate in the USA and the infancy of Kathmandu as a brand in the US market, you have been appointed to identify ONE core branding problem. Based on this problem, provide a roadmap to that will lead brand growth.

Answer

1. Introduction
Branding is known as a marketing practice which helps the company to create a name, design and symbol for the products and services. Branding is quite important because it creates a memorable impression on the customers and allows them to know what needs to be expected from the company (Brown, 2016). Through this process, the companies can distinguish themselves from their competitors. It is a true representation of the company. However, there are many areas which need to be developed like reputation, logo, customer service and promotional merchandise.

In this report, the company given in the case study is Kathmandu Appeals of New Zealand. The company has expanded its operations in the United States. However, the economic climate of the country is not good. Hence, one of the core problems of branding will be identified and some strategies will be provided to the company for solving the issue.

2. Overview of the company
Kathmandu Apparels is an iconic travel and adventure brand of New Zealand. They are having multiple retail chains in NZ and Australia. They are having distributions in the UK too. The company has outnumbered the competitors in Australia and NZ (Kathmandu.co.nz, 2020). Kathmandu is having stores in major shopping centres and suburban areas. According to company sustainability is quite important for them. Kathmandu had entered the market of the United States in August 2019.

4. Core Branding Problem
One of the core branding problems which is faced by Kathmandu Apparels is a lack of brand awareness in the United States. According to Jin & Cedrola, (2017), brand awareness is the key step in new product promotion. It includes the qualities of the product and helps in distinguishing from the competitors. However, in the United States, people are inclined towards their local brands. There are limited people who have the idea about Kathmandu Apparels and their online sales options. The success of the business is dependent on brand awareness. It will be quite difficult for the company to survive if there are no such proper sales of their products and services.

The better understanding of the core problem of branding can be done by the theory of Brand Identity Prism. One of the major contributors to the role of storytelling in branding is through the prism. There are six vital characteristics of the brand identity and through the prism, their interaction is understood. The company can succeed if they manage to harmonize the characteristics of building a strong identity of the brand. The first characteristic is physique which is there with Kathmandu Apparels. The customers can perceive the logo, colour palette and overall presentation (Benmiled-Cherif, 2016). The next one is the personality which explains the tone of communication.

Figure 1: Brand Identity Prism
(Source: Benmiled-Cherif, 2016)

The fourth one is the relationship between the brand and consumers. It is known as engagement which is quite less for the company in the United States. After this, there is a reflection which describes whom the company wants as customers. The company is not having specifics of their ideal customers in the US. It is because of the situation of a pandemic. The last point of the prism is self-image.

5. Strategies for solving the branding problem
Strategy 1: Targeting the right set of audience
According to Gong et al., (2020), there needs to be sustainable brand awareness among the customers. It will be essential for the company to engage with the audience through various types of content. It will be necessary for Kathmandu Apparels to know the preferences of the audience. They should look for people who like travel and adventure so that they can sell their products like clothing, footwear, bag packs, travel items and active sports items. The content for engaging the customers' needs to be performing well.

The audience can be targeted by Kathmandu Apparels through the application of Keller’s Brand Equity Model.

Figure 2: Keller’s Brand Equity Model
(Source: Vasileva & Vasileva, 2017)

The brand equity pyramid of Keller explains how to build brand equity by knowing the customers and implementing the strategies (Vasileva & Vasileva, 2017). In level 1 which is the brand identity, it will be essential for Kathmandu Apparels to tell people about the products and the brand. This is important because people are unaware of the brand. Level 2 is known as the brand meaning. This includes the performance of the brand and the imagery. The company should follow targeted marketing. Level 3 is the brand response which means that the customer starts building certain expectations and it will be necessary for the company to match the expectations. It will be important for the company to keep a balance between the judgement and feelings for the purpose of brand equity. Level 4 is the brand resonance which means to build a strong relationship. It includes engagement, behaviour, attitude, value and connection. It is not easy to build a brand. However, it will be necessary for Kathmandu Apparels to work towards a common goal.

Strategy 2: Advertisements and Social Media Promotions
There are many companies which are making use of social media as a tool for the promotion of their products and services (Tritama & Tarigan, 2016). In this way, the customers become aware of the brand. Hence, it will be crucial for Kathmandu Apparels to make immense use of social media for promotion of their products and services in the United States. It will be necessary for the company to post on daily basis on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. For this, the company can make use of Google Keyword Tool which will generate a list of suggested keywords on the basis of user’s searchings. The company can come up with some online events at the time of COVID-19 so that entertainment and brand awareness can be done together. The company should also do paid social media advertisements.

Strategy 3: Remarketing of campaigns
The method of the remarketing campaign is like for example a person visits the website of Kathmandu Apparels and then after browsing leaves the site. After this, they immediately start seeing all the advertisements for the items they browsed on the website earlier. This is known as remarketing. The company should try to implement this strategy for improving its business in the United States. The remarketing campaigns send the impression of the brand to be huge (Wang et al., 2016). This shows that the company will be capable of producing ads all over the internet.

6. Implementation of strategies
Brand growth for any company is possible when the strategies are implemented properly. The task of implementation is quite crucial for companies like Kathmandu Apparels. The three main strategies for the company has been provided above. Hence, it will be important for the company to follow the implementation strategy. This will be consisting of the budget, resources, planning, person-in-charge and time required. They should not apply the methods which have been used in New Zealand and Australia.

7. Justification for the success or failure of strategies
In the United States, the company did not get the time and advantage of applying some strategies. It was also because of the COVID-19 situation. According to the current economic situation of the US and the trends, people prefer buying the products online. Firstly the company should try to get hold of the target audience. This will be quite crucial for the sales and brand image of the company.

Advertisement and social media promotions strategy will be important because almost everyone in today's world is using social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Hence, the daily video, images and online events will be attracting the customers. Further, the likes, shares and comments on the posts will be helpful for the company to evaluate their success on social media. The content needs to be engaging so that the likes and comments can increase. These days the trends of giveaways are increasing and hence, it will be pulling more crowd for the company. This will help the audience to know about the online shopping of the products from the company’ website. All these efforts will bring in success for Kathmandu Apparels.

Lastly, the third strategy for the company will be a remarketing campaign. Implementation of this has been provided above. This strategy is quite an easy one, however, a good amount of investment is needed. Generally, the chances for the success of this strategy is quite strong. However, there will be sometimes when the strategy might be a failure. Through remarketing campaign the impulse buyers will be attracted. The success of this strategy can be evaluated through the sales and profits of the company.

8. Roadmap for brand growth
The growth of the brand is possible when there is an increase in the sales and profits of the company for its products and services globally (Lawes, 2020). Although it will be difficult for Kathmandu Apparels to operate in the new market of the US. However, with the above strategies and implementation, it will be possible. Given below is a roadmap of the strategies which will be used by the company in the new market for solving the issue of brand awareness.

Figure 4: Roadmap for Brand Growth
(Source: Self-Developed)

The three main points of the roadmap are strategies selection, implementation of strategies and finally the evaluation of the success. All these are crucial for the company because they will be having a lot of competitors in the retail market of the United States. Kathmandu Apparels will have to understand the views of the customers and their needs in the US. It is because all countries are having different requirements.

9. Conclusion
It can be concluded that brand development is quite essential for companies when they opt for global expansion. It is because, through a strong brand image, more customers can be gained. This report was on Kathmandu Apparels who has expanded their operations in the United States. The core problem faced by the company was lack of awareness of the brand among the customers. Hence three strategies were provided to the company so that the problem can be managed. Further implementation of the strategies was discussed along with their success or failure measurement. A roadmap for the brand growth of Kathmandu Apparels was also explained with the diagram.

Reference List
Benmiled-Cherif, H. (2016). Brand identity and virtual brand community for the success of co-creation. Journal for International Business and Entrepreneurship Development, 9(2), 222-236. [Retrieved from: https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/JIBED.2016.077727]

Brown, S. (2016). Brands and branding. Sage. [Retrieved from: https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=2YOzDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=branding+&ots=dTRwEJmSeH&sig= DKi_lJDABqiC9z394oNWDX7rb2E]

Businessinsider.in. (2020). Economic condition of the US. Retrieved from: https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/the-us-economy-has-a-good-chance-to-see-more-stimulus-before-the-presidential-election-a-fund-manager-says/articleshow/78382286.cms

Deloitte.com. (2020). Economic forecast of the US. Retrieved from: https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/economy/us-economic-forecast/united-states-outlook-analysis.html

Gong, X., Wang, C., Yan, Y., Liu, M., & Ali, R. (2020). What Drives Sustainable Brand Awareness: Exploring the Cognitive Symmetry between Brand Strategy and Consumer Brand Knowledge. Symmetry, 12(2), 198. [Retrieved from: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/12/2/198]

Jin, B., & Cedrola, E. (2017). Brands as Core Assets: Trends and challenges of branding in fashion business. In Fashion Branding and Communication (pp. 1-39). Palgrave Pivot, New York. [Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/978-1-137-52343-3_1]

Kathmandu.co.nz. (2020). About the company. Retrieved from: https://www.kathmandu.co.nz/

Lawes, R. (2020). Using Semiotics in Marketing: How to Achieve Consumer Insight for Brand Growth and Profits. Kogan Page Publishers. [Retrieved from: https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=QmDSDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=brand+growth&ots=P2ZfG7YNLH&sig=Hz1jUt-Blp6RP_R8KrXmD2Uw7lk]

Tritama, H. B., & Tarigan, R. E. (2016). The effect of social media to the brand awareness of a product of a company. CommIT (Communication and Information Technology) Journal, 10(1), 9-14. [Retrieved from: https://journal.binus.ac.id/index.php/commit/article/view/1667]

Vasileva, I. V., & Vasileva, T. N. (2017). KELLER''S BRAND EQUITY MODEL. Modern Science, (6-1), 93-98. [Retrieved from: https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=29659200]

Wang, Y., Hsiao, S. H., Yang, Z., & Hajli, N. (2016). The impact of sellers' social influence on the co-creation of innovation with customers and brand awareness in online communities. Industrial Marketing Management, 54, 56-70. [Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001985011530016X]