brand awareness and strengthening brand associations. However, to become successful it is required that there is a perceived fit between the parent brand and the extension. Therefore, the extension should express the desired brand image and the right attributes which in this case builds on ECCO’s superior quality, Scandinavian design, innovativeness, comfort and unique focus on the well-being of the body. Such attributes would also be in inconsistency with the requirement to a high-end product and the desires of the Chinese consumers.
To reach the young consumers who have just, or who are about to enter the Chinese white-collar workforce ECCO has to be perceived as an upper premium brand as the Chinese are status seekers.
Moreover, ECCO will have to juvenile their brand image to attract the younger generations who does not see ECCO as appealing as it is too mature and conservative. Hence, ECCO’s new clothing line should be young and vivid using colours to stand out and comprise a more casual look.
However, the extension should be introduced without scaring off ECCO’s existing consumer group which could be done by introducing the category extension as a sub-brand and by only targeting the older part of the young consumers. Using a sub-brand will also allow further extensions to target other segments.
However, before making decisions about whether to engage in a brand extension targeting a new segment ECCO has to establish the basis for their decision making. ECCO should make both qualitative and quantitative analysis to assess some of the same things that we have been trying to assess such as brand equity and the attractiveness of the clothing market for ECCO. In order to reposition itself ECCO has to measure its current position and where it is heading at and if this is in concordance with the company’s future goals. Continuously, it is evident for ECCO to invest in exhaustive marketing research prior to deciding upon whether to make the brand extension and to choose the right clothing line for the brand. Measurements also have to be made after the sub-brand introduction in order to track the success of the extension. The extension should be introduced along with the initiated repositioning strategy. Evaluations of both the brand extension and the repositioning strategy should be made constantly as they are vital for managing the future investments and the growth of the ECCO brand and ECCO’s brand equity.
To become a true upper premium brand ECCO needs to make a new branding strategy. This branding strategy should outline their new core values which ECCO should redefine. Our suggestion is that ECCO reposition itself with the use of the new and more consistent positioning strategy supported by the category extension. To be perceived as a true upper premium brand
117
ECCO could look to what the well know luxury brands are doing to create a luxurious image.
Hence ECCO has to upscale everything from their distribution and service, to price and products etc.
All in all ECCO has to seem more luxurious in all its communication with the consumers. This means giving the customers a luxurious and exclusive experience from before, during and after the ECCO purchase. More easily put, it should be an experience to buy an ECCO item, just as it should be an experience for the customer to wear it.
Moreover, ECCO should make use of sponsorships, celebrity endorsements, fashion shows and fashion magazines in order to create a constant buzz around their brand. Thus, creating interest in the ECCO brand as well as permitting ECCO to create a stronger bond to its current and new customers. By doing this ECCO will make the Chinese consumers realize that ECCO is a strong premium brand and the indispensable brand equity will be created.
To get the attention of the younger consumer groups ECCO has to revitalize their brands to become more youthful, the extension and a reconsideration of ECCO’s marketing and branding effort could help in this quest. A tool to reach the young consumers for ECCO could be to focus more on their online opportunities which would also be an inexpensive way for ECCO to increase their brand awareness. Here ECCO could use blogging, online fashion forums, Twitter, YouTube, etc., to get in contact with the younger generations, though in more discrete ways, not to lose their premium image, hence all messages sent should have an luxurious appeal to it.
118
Bibliography
Books
Andersen, Ib, 3.ed (2005), Den skinbarlige virkelighed: om vidensproduktion inden for samfundsvidenskaberne , Samfundslitteratur, København.
Bohdanowicz, Janet and Liz Clamp (1994), Fashion Marketing, Routledge, London
Chadha, Radha and Paul Husband (2006), The cult of the luxury brand: inside Asia's love affair with luxury, Nicholas Brealey International, LondonBoston.
Danzinger, Pamela N. (2005), Let them eat cake – marketing luxury to the masses as well as the classes, Dearborn Trade Publishing.
Doctoroff, Tom (2005), Billions: Selling to the New Chinese Consumer, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Drake, Mary Frances, Janice Harrison Spoone, and Herbert Greenwald (1992), Retail fashion promotion and advertising, Macmillan, New York.
Farndon, John (2008), China rises: How China's astonishing growth will change the world, Virgin, London.
Gelder, Sicco Van (2003), Global brand strategy: unlocking brand potential across countries, cultures and markets, Sterling, VA: Kogan Page, London.
Guo, Rongxing 2.ed (2007), How the Chinese economy works, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Hair, Joseph. F, Robert P. Bush, David J. Ortinau, 2.ed. (2003), Marketing research, McGraw-Hill Irwin, Boston
Hair, Joseph. F, Robert P. Bush, David J. Ortinau, 4.ed. (2009), Marketing research, McGraw-Hill Irwin, Boston
119
Kapferer, Jean-Noël (2000), Reinventing the brand: Can top brands survive the new market realities?, Kogan Page, London.
Kapferer, Jean-Noel and Vincent Bastien (2009), The Luxury Strategy, Kogan Page Limited, London
Keller, Kevin Lane (2008) 3. ed., Strategic brand management: Building, measuring, and managing brand equity, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Lu, Pierre Xiao (2008), Elite China: luxury consumer behavior in China, Chichester, John Wiley, Singapore.
Okonkwo, Uche (2007), Luxury fashion branding: Trends, tactics, techniques, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Pole, Christopher and Richard Lampard (2002), Practical Social Investigation – Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Social Research, Pearson Education Limited, Edinburgh
Pyndt, Jacob and Torben Pedersen (2006), Managing global off shoring strategies: A case approach, Copenhagen Business School Press, Frederiksberg.
Schütte, Hellmut ; Ciarlante, Deanna (1998), Consumer behaviour in Asia, Basingstoke, Macmillan Press.
Sigurdson, Jon (2005), Technological Superpower China, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, Cheltenham.
Tony Hines and Margaret Bruce, 2006, fashion marketing, Chapter 3, Challenges of fashion buying and merchandising, Margaret Bruce and Daly, L., Elsevier Ltd.
Tungate, Mark (2005), Fashion Brands: Branding Style from Armani to Zara, Kogan Page Ltd, London.
120
Yu, LiAnne, Cynthia Chan, and Christopher Ireland (2007), China's New Culture of Cool:
Understanding the world's fastest-growing market, New Riders, Berkeley.
Academic journals
Barnes, Liz and Gaynor Lea-Greenwood, Fast fashioning the supply chain: shaping the research agenda, :Journal of Fashion Marketing & Management; 2006, 10 (3), p259-271, 13p
DelVecchio, Devon and Daniel C. Smith, March, 2005 Brand-extension price premiums: The effects of perceived fit and extension product category risk, Journal Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 33(2). 184-196
Dongjin Li, Ying Jiang, Shenghui An, Zhe Shen an. d Wenji Jin 2009. The influence of money attitudes on young Chinese consumers' compulsive buying, in Young consumers. Insights and Ideas for Responsible Marketers 2009, 10 (2): 98-109.
Reddy, Mergen, Nic Terblanche b, Leyland Pitt, and Michael Parent, How far can luxury brands travel? Avoiding the pitfalls of luxury brand extension. Business Horizons (2009) 52, 187—197.
Riley, Francesca Dall’Olmo, Lomax, Wendy, and Blunden, Angela. January 2004. Dove vs. Dior:
Extending the Brand Extension Decision-Making Process from Mass to Luxury. Australian Marketing Journal 12 (3):40-55.
Rooney, Jennifer, Advertising Age, LACOSTE, 00018899, 5/1/2006, 77, (18)
Sandhya 2009, A guide to protect your Intellectual Property Rights, June 15 2001, retrieved from www.businessgyan. Com/content/view/693/427
Völckner, Franziska and Henrik Sattler. Drivers of Brand Extension Success. Journal of Marketing Vol. 70 (April 2006), 18–34
121
Articles
Dumont, Jean-Michel, Finding new ways to address the luxury consumer in China, Asia’s Media
& Marketing Newspaper, May 5, 2006, p.1.
24timer: ”Dansk Design vinder frem i Kina” af Lars Lindevall, 20. november 2007, p.1.
Luxury brands in China, case study
Finding new ways to address the luxury consumer, p.16, Dumont, Jean-Michel- article in Asia’s Media & Marketing Newspaper, 5/5-2006
Reports and cases
Icfai Business School, Sushma 2008, Luxury Brands in China. Case study, reference no. 308-145-1.
Baxter, J. (2004) Clothing Retailing KeyNote Marketing Report, Hampton, UK ECCO’s Annual Report 2008
ECCO’s Annual Report 2007
The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2009: China country report 2009,
China Internet Network Information Center: Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China (July 2007),
Access Asia Limit: Women in China 2008: Women Consumers & Lifestyle Trends, December 2007 Datamonitor; Global Apparel, Accessories & Luxury Goods - Industry Profile, April 2008
Euromonitor International: Country Sector Briefing, Clothing – China, October 2007 Euromonitor International, Consumer Lifestyles – China, November 2008
Web articles
China Daily, Yiang Jing Jing, Luxury taking charge, 03-06-2006, retrieved May 19 from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-03/06/content_526889.htm
China - the unknown market, TextilWirtschaft, nr 27, 01.07.2004, Frankfurt retrieved May 19 from http://www.iwto.org/newsletter/Server%20Docs/July2004/China_report_NL5.pdf
122
Bjerrum, Vibeke Daell, May 26 2009, Danske detail indtager kina, retrieved June 27 from www.business.dk/article/20090526/detail/90926018/-
(China daily), Jiang Wei Lacoste to develop China into its largest market, 2004-09-20
Retrieved June 21 from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-09/20/content_375911.htm Zhou Tao, 2008-4-29, if you’ve got it, flaunt it, have a fling with a bling, retrieved July 3 from http://www.shanghaidaily.com/gallery/photo.asp?id=19376
Hunt, Susie, March 2008, Issue 492, Building a healthy brand in China, retrieved April 13 from
http://www.warc.com.esc-web.lib.cbs.dk/ArticleCenter/Default.asp?CType=A&AID=WORDSEARCH87913&Tab=A
BIGresearch’s Q1 China Survey: Consumer Confidence of Young Chinese Soars as U.S. Consumer Confidence Continues to Sink, no date, retrieved August 8 from
http://www.bigresearch.com/news/big032608.htm
Møbjerg and Hansen”Dansk design hitter i Kina”, July 11 2008, retrieved May 25 from Penge www.dr.dk
John Toon, Georgia Tech, January 24, 2008, Study Shows China as World Technology Leader, retrieved March 22 from http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?id=1682
Pearl Research, Young Chinese consumers wield $135 billion in spending power, says Pearl Research, October 9, 2007 retrieved June 2 from http://ce.tekrati.com/research/9469/
Admap Magazine, March 2008, Issue 492, Susie Hunt, Building a healthy brand in China, retrieved April 16, from
www.warc.com.esc-web.lib.cbs.dk/ArticleCenter/Default.asp?CType=A&AID=WORDSEARCH87913&Tab=A
University of Delaware, 2009, Yinan Chen, Around the world: China – young Chinese costumers, retrieved March 29 from http://www.udel.edu/fiber/issue3/world/
123
Jens Chr. Hansen, 32-årig får ansvaret for Eccos satsning i Asien, Torsdag den 20. oktober 2005, retrieved March 2 from http://www.business.dk/article/20051020/nyhedsoversigt/110200924/
Okonkwo, Uche, Redefining the Luxury Concept, retrieved April 25 from http://www.brandchannel.com/papers_review.asp?sp_id=485
Frede Madsen, Ecco træder tydeligere ind på kinesisk marked, Tirsdag den 31. maj 2005, retrieved April 13 from http://www.erhvervsbladet.dk/virksomheder/ecco-traeder-tydeligere-ind-paa-kinesisk-marked-kina
Benjamin Li , “Weber Shandwick takes Ecco in China” 24-Apr-09, retrieved June 1 from http://www.brandrepublic.asia/Media/Greater-Chinaarticle/2009_04/Weber-Shandwick-takes-Ecco-in-China/35337
Christina Boutrup, Ecco satser stort på Kina med PR-offensiv, Lørdag den 18. juni 2005, retrieved July 16 from http://www.business.dk/article/20050618/nyhedsoversigt/106180036/
Vibeke Daell Bjerrum, Dansk detail indtager Kina, Tirsdag den 26. maj 2009, retrieved June 19 from
http://www.business.dk/article/20090526/detail/90526018/- Berlingske Business artikel
Shanghai Daily, Famous brands win local lawsuit, April 25, 2008 retrieved April 22 from www.chinaipr.gov.cn/cases/others/237950.shtml
Nick Debnam & George Svinos, KPMG, Luxury Brands in China: Part IV- The challenges ahead, March 19th, 2008 by China Business, retrieved 22 August from http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/2008/03/19/chinese-challenges-luxury-goods-retail
Laura Fitch, By design: Luxury brands in China, 18-May-2009. Retrieved July 26 from http://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?pf_id=478
Maltby Emiy, Vietnam? India? The search for the new China, August 14, 2008 retrieved August 29 from http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/13/smallbusiness/the_new_china.fsb/index.htm
124
(China Daily)By Jiang Wei, Lacoste to develop China into its largest market, Updated: 2004-09-20 retrieved May 8 from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-09/20/content_375911.htm http://www.most.gov.cn/eng/cooperation/index.htm
Himfr Paul, Hurry up! China Fashion Industry Is Waiting for You! 2008, retrieved June 2, from
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Hurry+up!+China+Fashion+Industry+Is+Waiting+for+You!-a01073898090
KPMG report 2006, Managing luxury brand growth, retrieved from http://www.kpmg.com.cn/en/virtual_library/Consumer_markets/ManagingLuxuryBrand.pdf
Will Lewis, In China high quality goods, not luxury goods, Thursday, May 22, 2008 retrieved June 2 from
http://www.experiencenotlogic.com/2008/05/in-china-high-quality-goods-not-luxury.html
China May Lower Tariffs On Imported Luxury Goods, August 11, 2009, retrieved August 29 from http://chinaluxculturebiz.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/china-may-lower-tariffs-on-imported-luxury-goods/
COUNTERFEITING AND CHINA’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, June 8, 2006, Written Testimony of Professor Daniel C.K. Chow The Ohio State University College retrieved August 6 from
http://www.uscc.gov/hearings/2006hearings/written_testimonies/06_06_08wrts/06_06_7_8_chow_
daniel.pdf)
Skotøjsæske med displayfunktion, 20/9-2003 Retrieved June 2 from http://www.scapackaging.dk/Default.asp?ID=595&ArticleID=508
Cocoran, Ian, Luxury Brands Snub the Net, 30-Apr-2001 retrieved July 28 fromhttp://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?pf_id=33
Claus Clausen, Dansk design vinder frem i Kina, 26-03-2008 Eksportfokus nr. 1 – 2008, retrieved March 3 from http://www.netpublikationer.dk/UM/8751/html/chapter03.htm (Eksportfokus UM).
125
Press Releases Walk In Style 2009, ECCO launches Premium Collection, retrieved August 13 from http://www.ecco.com/dk/da/specialer/walkinstyle_press.jsp
Press Releases Walk In Style 2009, ECCO launches Premium Collection, retrieved August 13 from http://www.ecco.com/dk/da/specialer/walkinstyle_press.jsp
Press Releases Walk In Style 2009, ECCO Opens Copenhagen Fashion Week on 3 February 2009, retrieved August 13 from http://www.ecco.com/dk/da/specialer/walkinstyle_press.jsp
Webpages
http://www.netpublikationer.dk/UM/8751/html/chapter03.htm (Eksportfokus UM).
www.ecco.com
http://www.ellechina.com/fashion/news/ecco2
http://www.wto.org/english/theWTO_e/countries_e/china_e.htm http://www.ifpri.org/divs/fcnd/dp/papers/fcnbr196.pdf
http://www.um.dk/da/menu/Udenrigspolitik/Landefakta/LandefaktaAsien/Kina.htm
http://www.dtcchina.um.dk/en/menu/InfoAboutChina/Marketopportunities/MarketOverview/
www.oecd.com
http://www.wanmo.com/ourAdvertisers_en.html www.Lacoste.com
www.haier.com www.ecco.com
http://www.eccogolf.com/
www.pressroom.ups.com/chinasurvey.
www.sap.com
www.chinainternetwatch.com
http://www.adnative.net/fileadmin/uploads/switzerland/Files/Home/Asian_Men%E2%80%99s_Ma gazines_Network_06-2009.pdf
http://www.kvindeguiden.dk/default.asp?thdid=21476&bid=15799 http://www.ecco.com/dk/da/specialer/walkinstyle_press.jsp
http://www.businessteacher.org.uk/free-marketing-essays/porters-five-forces-essay/
http://www.fashionproducts.com/fashion-apparel-overview.html
http://www.businessteacher.org.uk/free-marketing-essays/porters-five-forces-essay/
126
http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/46233.html
http://www.portal.euromonitor.com.esc-web.lib.cbs.dk/passport/DocumentView.aspx
127