Private Brand by Target "Threshold"

In these days, it is often seen that the retailer develop its private brand products with a high quality, low price. Usually, those private brands are not identical with its main brand. For example, Wal-Mart develops its private brands such as Dr. Thunder and Sam’s Choice. Target is also expands its private brands, but those private products with “Target” logo was not seen at the store. This might be to avoid appealing negative images to the customers.

The case of “Threshold” indicates the general ideas of what private brand is.

 

Customer Insight

People know, and Target knows, that most of the people who comes to Target tend to be lower to middle income.
Target is one of the largest retailer in the United States, and that provides multiple of products with a relatively low price.

It is easy to develop cheap quality products with a low price, and also it is easy to do with a high quality products with a high price.

People coming to Target basically expect the lower price, however, it would be better to provide high quality products with low price.

In order to do this, Target explores its private brands, and one of them is "Threshold."


Brand Promise

What this brand tells the customer is that people can enjoy trendy looking products with a relatively low price. It will increase the one's satisfactions or hapinesses of his daily life.


Brand Personality

As it is indicated above, Threshold is the private brand that for trendy lives with a lower price.
Also, most of the people do not know that the Threshold is private brand of Target, so that the ones do not have to care about make thier lives look cheap.


Target Segment

The targeted segment market would be the ones who want to enjoy or improve their quality of lives without costing large investment. Especially Threshold is appealing its decent designs. Therefore, the target would be house keepers, i.e., wife.

Brand Strategy

Private brand strategy is really popular for the retailers in these days. In Japan, this strategy is also taken among many retailers.
One of the common strategy is that those retailers tend to have enough market.
No one sees the private brand under a certain kind of small retailer.
Becasue they have enough funds and market, they can develop the private brands.

Also, Target can maintain the customer's relations by this trendy products.
"Threshold" should not be the initial motivations for the customers to come to Target, but customers can enjoy their shopping at Target with those well-designed products.

Critique

One of the possible curitique is that Target cannot re-sell this product to other retailers.
If that would be the national brand, Target is able to re-sell it to other retailers in many ways.
Therefore, Target has to develop its product lots as much as accurate numbers.

Brand Communication: Contradictions Among Brand Lines

If the branding would have aspect of one of the communication tools, it is really important for companies to tell their values to customers. As the case of Dove and Axe by Unilever, we can see that there are miscommunications between not only each product but also between brands and customers.

This time, because I am taking social scientific approach to the business world, I would like to analyze this case by referring to one of the social scientific theory by Gregory Bateson: Double Bind Theory.

Double Bind Theory

I understand business education here in the United States is focusing more on practical or experiential method, so that this post might be boring for you. However, when I heard of the case last week, I strongly realized the importance of those social scientific approaches.

For most of you who have never heard of this theory, please take a look at the 2^nd definition on this website. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/double-bind.html

I am going to interpret this in a simple way.

Double Bind consists of three stages.

1)      The one get message A

2)      Simultaneously, the one get message opposite to A
3)      The one cannot flee from this situation

For instance, if you told by Professor McAlhany to submit the assignment, and you do it.

However, what do you thing if she scold and punch your face?
You must be confused. Those are situations of 1 and 2.
Now, you cannot flee from this situation because you do not want to drop this class in order to graduate Elon University.
This is 3^rd situation.

Finally, you would lose trust to her, or the worst case of Double Bind, you would be psychological illness, which is called “schizophrenia.”

How to relate the case of Unilever?

So, those are “non-exciting” things above…
BUT, now we can adjust to the case of Unilever.

1)      Customers get Dove’s message

2)      Customers also get Axe’s message
3)      Can they flee from this situation? Definitely!! That means they flee from Unilever, i.e., loss of brand loyalty to Unilever.

Double Bind theory is often applied to many situations in the business world.

I really would like you to keep in mind this theory.

*another example…

1) you are working at office, and you are told to report everything to your boss.
2) so that you report everything, but the boss scold you not to report everything
3) you cannot flee from this situation, because you and your boss are in the barrier as form of organizational company.

Most of miscommunications are begun with this type of condition in these days.

Brand Diversification & Brand Consistency

The case of Unilever, Dove V.S. Axe

Unilever is one of the global cosmetic product manufactures in this society.

Everyone can see its brands easily in the daily lives.

Dove and Axe, as parts of brand by Unilever, are also popular in the world.

However, those brands have contradicted message in one another.

 

Dove

Dove defines its value as a woman’s natural beauty with the statement of “to celebrate the diverse, the healthy, the real, and the truly beautiful.” 

 

 

 

Axe

Axe delivers its value for men to sexually attract “idealized” women.

 

 

 

 

Contradiction between Dove and Axe: Brand Diversification & Brand Consistency

As it is obvious above, Dove and Axe somewhat contradict each other. Axe allows guys to appeal “beautiful” or “sexy” women while Dove claims pursuing the women’s natural beauty.

This situation seems to be one of the negative aspects of Brand Diversification.

As the Marketer suggests in its website, Brand Diversification is often beneficial in terms of 1). Experiment marketing or 2). Creating Synergy.

However, Brand Diversification also has negative aspects, and one of them is similar to the case of Dove and Axe: Contradiction.

The direct quotation of “brands can expand to fit almost any range of goods and services, without losing their essential identity and values” indicates the importance of “identical messages among the brand”

http://www.themarketer.co.uk/trends/all-tips-articles/brand-diversification-dos-and-dontsbrand-diversification-dos-and-donts/

 

Inc., one of the media for small business of entrepreneurs, suggests the concept of “Brand Consistency.”

http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/11/how-to-maintain-brand-consistency-across-product-lines.html

Let’s focus on the paragraph of “Maintaining Brand Consistency Across Product Lines: Have the Right Message”

“If you keep changing that message, the message itself never has time to really take hold in the mind”

 

Companies would lose their trust by not being consistent of them. Companies would also lose the brand loyalty by their customers.

Unilever actually faced this significant strategic marketing issue by its sub-brands of Dove and Axe.

  

Solutionè what should Unilever do?

Honestly, the first thing I thought was

“Oh my god, Unilever did the critical miss-operation for brand strategy, even though I would notice such a contradiction.”

However, now I believe that actually Dove and Axe do not contradict each other.

I, and other classmates, and even the professor firstly did not have doubt in mind that the Unilever is contradicting among its sub-brands.

This is the BIGGEST QUESTION for me.

I have just realized that this assumption itself may wrong.

Unilever

“We help people feel good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others” http://www.unilever.com/

By this statement, I think both of Dove and Axe are fine.

Dove pursues the women’s beauty within. =>for women's daily good lives

Axe allows the men’s sexual attractiveness.=>for men's daily good lives

 

That is it!

Even Axe takes the ideal model of girls in its CM, it is the fact that most of the men’s interests are those types of women.

If Axe says that the women should be like those girls, it should have been the contradiction against what Dove says.

But, Axe does not say anything about women.

Therefore, I finally get to the idea that the first question itself was wrong, and Unilever is operating well.

 

Well…I really want to argue with someone who is still think those of two are contradicting.

Every single activity I have disadvantages is…English…

 

I hope you could get what I am saying in this post, and then cast me the couterargument.