Positioning

Positioning is the planned placement of a company or brand in a desired position relative to its competitors. Positioning implies decisions taken by the brand, shaping where and how it competes on its market. Moreover, it deals with products, service and pricing decisions as well as design and new products³⁸⁷.

Brand positioning occurs at two levels:

10.7.1 The broad level of positioning:

All luxury and premium brands evidently seek to position themselves as high-end brands with exclusive products. This broad sector positioning is quite straightforwardly and successfully reached by the majority of the high-end brands as they all share the luxury and prestige characteristics.

10.7.2 The narrow level of positioning:

Narrow level positioning covers the exact brand positioning that characterises each brand. Though high-end brands share the same overall positioning, each brand should have its own specific positioning supported by its identity. It is at this level that the battle for the consumers’ minds begins and where it gets hard. If consumers have a clear understanding and perception about a brand, they are more likely to make the brand an element in their selection process. Here, the costumer based brand equity is central, as only brands with strong equity has a truly strong relationship with the costumer.

10.7.3 ECCO’s current and future positioning:

When watching figure seven below it becomes clear that ECCO is placed further towards the left than luxury brands such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton, premium brands as Lacoste and Ralph Lauren and sport brands such as Adidas and Nike. Though ECCO has in fact got a very good quality and is aiming at business men and women this is not reflected in how the young consumers perceive the ECCO brand. The low brand awareness characterising the ECCO brand makes it impossible for the young Chinese to flaunt it, which is why it is not bought for conspicuous reasons.

Figure 7: Perceptual mapping Clothing before ECCO’s repositioning

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387Okonkwo 2007, p. 167

- As perceived by the young consumers

Figure 8: position in relation to price and quality

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As figure 8 above shows ECCO is currently situated in the lower end of the premium clothing market, what we suggest is that ECCO repositions itself to become a part of the upper premium market characterised by among others higher prices and a better quality. With ECCO’s new

Economy

Mass Market

B A

Luxury

B

Quality _Luxury

A

Price

branding campaign and brand awareness enforcement combined with the brand extension it will shift ECCO upwards to the right, by increasing quality (though this does not have to be much since ECCO has already got high quality) and price, which should obviously be balanced well. With the right branding and marketing effort ECCO will also be able to position itself as a provider of status, hence attracting the conspicuous consumers. By doing this ECCO could position itself in line with Lacoste and Ralph Lauren who are currently leading the casual fashion arena in the top premium market. To position itself as an upper premium brand ECCO has to be persistent in everything it does. All the messages sent by ECCO should reflect this positioning. This leads us to our final suggestions of a clear brand positioning strategy based on our research and our recommendations on the branding mix and how to use the brand extension.

If ECCO really wants to become top of the premium category ECCO will have to be more consistent. ECCO will not be able to succeed in such a quest if they are not a 100% committed to the project. It is for example not possible to be a top premium brand without the right kind of distribution. Hence, ECCO has to be stricter about their distribution and ECCO’s stores should look more luxurious and seek to stand out in a specific ECCO way. The service should also be in top, and ECCO should think about which kind of products offered in their stores. As it is today ECCO has a wide portfolio of shoes, catering different price segments. However, to be perceived as a high premium brand, ECCO should raise its price point. But such a thing must be done with manner. A good way to do this could be by introducing new and better products with special designs or innovative aspects and outface the old and cheaper products.

ECCO also needs to support the extension and their overall brand with effective advertising. For once, ECCO should invest in a large and long lasting marketing campaign where local celebrities are wearing the clothing, bags and shoes. In this way the Chinese can see that they can fit the clothes, this way ECCO can avoid being trapped in a perception that their “European” clothes does not suit Asian people. An idea could be to advertise with the products being made especially for Chinese or Asian people, thereby fitting the Asian body. In this way the extension will also have a good fit with ECCOs core product that focuses a lot on the shape, feeling and being good for the feet. Moreover, ECCOs clothing line should also be worn by others than the super slim models, as a model looking good in ECCO clothes is not the same as “normal” people looking good when wearing the ECCO clothes - that is to say normal, but classy and good looking people that are successful, which should of course be reflected in ECCO’s advertising. In addition to the overall marketing campaign, ECCO should continue to make events and to use sponsorships and celebrity

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endorsements to get attention. However, it is vital that ECCO finds some celebrities that mirror what ECCO stands for and how ECCO wants to be perceived. Moreover, it should be someone who is interesting and captures a broad part of the population inclusive the 25-35 years old which ECCO is targeting with the brand extension. ECCO should also seek to get a good relationships with the fashion magazines since there will be a growth in the sales of these and since these are determining what is in and out in fashion. Moreover, ECCO should make their own magalogues so that their customers can see how to match ECCO’s different products such as shoes, belts, bags and clothing.

In this way ECCO will become a true fashion brand and not only a shoe brand.

Finally, when introducing a new product ECCO should make it a cult event. They should make a fuss out of the launch inviting VIPs, celebrities and ECCO’s star ambassadors while making it difficult to enter this event. If the event creates positive experiences it might be seen as “ku” (cool), fostering word-of-mouth and making ECCO a discussion topic among friends and on various blog-sites, you tube, etc. thereby creating buzz around the ECCO brand. Evidently, it will be expensive to make cult events like these which are why ECCO can probably only make a limited number within a fixed marketing budget. However, in the world of fashion “less is more” and it is better to make less, but hyped events than more but less exclusive events. Hence, ECCO should choose to do everything with style.

On the narrow level of positioning ECCO’s problem is that the young consumers do not have a clear understanding and clear perceptions about the brand and partly therefore ECCO was not a brand that figured in their selection process. The other aspect was that ECCO did not appeal to this young segment as it was seen as being conservative and a bit dull, however, ECCO may be perceived differently when they get older though it would crave the described repositioning of ECCO and broader brand awareness. Only a few of the young consumers were able to link the right kind of brand associations to ECCO – that is to say the ones that ECCO would prefer. This is a shame as ECCO has a lot to offer, but has to be better to show this to the consumers in their branding and marketing efforts. ECCO’s products and brand have many aspects that, if handled properly, would be appealing to the Chinese. For once ECCO should be able to use their fine leather quality to boost status. That ECCO sells leather to many top luxury brands should make ECCO appear as a producer of the superior quality placing ECCO in a very prestigious position. If ECCO can tell this story convincingly there would be no doubt that ECCO is a true upper premium brand.

Moreover, ECCO should to a greater extent point out that its products are healthy for the body, as the products are all designed on the basis of the human anatomy. There is currently a health wave in China, hence, having an image emphasising health and making apparel that is healthy to wear should be a big plus. Moreover, in the shoe business ECCO has proven to be innovative with

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special production methods that are hard to imitate, however many consumers are not aware of this.

This should be made clearer and it should also characterise ECCO’s clothing lines to enforce this brand association. Though ECCO should make some adjustments to their design which should become younger and more appealing to the various age groups, ECCO should maintain their rooting in the Scandinavian design tradition as country of origin can work as a way to differentiate ones brand.

By using the branding mix and the brand extension ECCO could get a clearer and more powerful positioning fostering a greater interest in ECCO and stronger relationships with its current a new consumers.

However, new challenges may arrive along ECCO’s repositioning. For example the competitors’

possible reactions to the repositioning and the new product line should be carefully revised, as ECCO if the branding strategy is successful will take market shares from their competitors. Strong brands such as Lacoste and Ralph Lauren will probably not react to ECCO’s campaign at first as ECCO is currently not seen as a potential threat. However, things may change as ECCO gets closer to their repositioning goal and as ECCO’s brand equity increases.

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