5. Analysis
5.1 Brand Analysis – The Irma Brand in Denmark
5.1.8 Conclusion on Irma’s Brand Identity
The stores are an essential part of the Irma brand, as in store customers are in direct physical contact with the brand in an environment essential under Irma’s control.
While the product assortment is undeniably a unique dimension of Irma’s brand identity and a strong differentiator in the market, the variation in the quality of store environments is extremely high. This implies that customers get very divergent experiences in store depending on the store visited, giving rise to a very substantial risk for brand confusion and/or dilution. Despite this store misalignment, the importance of the stores and the product assortment as a physical part of the brand identity cannot be underlined enough as these are the major physical elements of individual customer experiences. As discussed above, Irma’s premium private label products play a strong role in further reinforcing and communicating the brand identity.
While Irma has begun to focus more heavy online, the weekly advertisements have not yet been abandoned. Consequently, they continuously function as a communication vehicle in the retailer‐customer relationships. Along with the advertisements, Irma also leverages the brand into the customers’ minds by utilizing Krydderiet to create positive customer associations about the retailer’s products and the brand in general.
5.1.8.2 Personality
On basis of the association test we found that Irma has been quite good at creating a uniform brand personality in the customers’ minds. At least among customers the common denominator in characterizing the essence of Irma was superior quality. This implies that the retailer has been successful in using the personality of the brand to project the foundational values of the entire chain, and consequently the personality, which comes to life through customer associations, has played and will continue to play a vital role in supporting and promoting Irma’s brand identity.
5.1.8.3 Culture
Irma’s idiosyncratic culture is a strong and unifying element of the organization. The open communication; strong bond of solidarity, trust and understanding; strong and visible leadership; employee empowerment; and rejection of bureaucracy are the key characteristics of the culture and are firmly believed to directly impact firm performance. While the organizational culture primarily has meaning internally, it is implicitly communicated externally to the customer via satisfied and empowered employees. Josefsen’s very idiosyncratic management style clearly heavily influences the culture, which is without doubt both a decisive factor in the retailer’s identity and a differentiator in relation to potential competitors. We firmly believe that without Irma’s unique and distinctive culture, the brand would simply not be the same.
5.1.8.4 Relationship
The power of a brand lies in the consumer’s mind, which means that the brand is only as strong as the consumer’s brand associations. Thereby the brand‐customer relationship is highly dependent on customers’ perceptions of the brand, and Irma’s ability to make use of marketing tools to affect these perceptions in attempting to build and strengthen customer relationships, for instance by introducing loyalty programs. Hence, Irma must ensure unique customer‐brand experiences as, based on the firm’s market positioning, these are the basis for long‐term customer loyalty. The brand‐customer relationship is thus a decisive part of Irma’s brand identity as it is, in particular, the foundation for creating customer loyalty based on the satisfaction of customer needs. Creating brand loyalty is one of the main objectives for the retailer regardless of the geographical location of the retail chain given the direct link to firm performance. In essence, loyal customers are satisfied customers and this ensures their repeated patronage of the stores. Therefore it is of primary importance that Irma builds strong relationships with customers in the new market.
5.1.8.5 Reflection
When grocery shopping, customers reflect on the products and brands that they purchase and often these reflections are associated with reducing risks. Therefore it is pivotal that Irma’s customers acknowledge that the low levels of social, time, performance, psychological risks outweigh the relatively high financial risks. In addition the Irma brand becomes a vehicle for customers to reflect their identity and to communicate it to their surroundings and all‐important peer group. In this particular regard, clearly Irma is well positioned in the Danish market for those who can afford such image promotion.
5.1.8.6 Self‐image
Anchored in an understanding of customers’ values, the retailer’s brand offer actually meets and satisfies customers’ needs and wants. The offering attributes of freshness and superior quality, ecology, differentiated product assortment, and environmentally friendly products are the attributes that lead to the desirable customer consequences of healthy eating habits and participation in broader social trends, which ultimately lead to increased happiness and self‐esteem. Such harmony between external brand‐
identity and internal customer self‐image is, of course, of great value to the brand, as it implies that customers feel good about themselves when grocery shopping at Irma.
Hence, establishing such synergy with customer self‐image is an essential part of Irma’s brand identity and should be considered a cornerstone of the brand no matter in which nation or region of the world it is being promoted.