Saturday, December 7, 2013

It is not the end, it is just the beginning..

Our group would like to thank all of you for reading our brand audit blog. We have tried to show you the beautiful world of jewelry with its elegance and craftsmanship in detail. 

You can like such brands as Bvlgari or Chopard or not, but you cannot be indifferent...





And always remember: Diamonds are a girl's best friend!

                                                                                                                                    AB, MK, TP, KV, SG



Thursday, November 14, 2013

Keller's Brand Equity Model - Bvlgari & Chopard



Our team conducted a primary research by publishing a questionnaire on Facebook and interviewing people face-to-face in order to provide valuable information about Chopard and Bulgari's brand awareness. Also we did a secondary research by visiting the companies' websites, Facebook pages, and YouTube ads in order to have a better understanding of brands' equity value.

When we analyzed the each brand identity, more specific their category identification and the needs they satisfy we notice that Bulgari and Chopard are both perceived exclusive brands, luxury jewelers, providing high end accessories. Bulgari is associated with Italy, beauty, chic and colors. Chopard is classic and watches.
They both satisfy the consumers need for prestige, hedonic and materialistic values.

Analyzing the information we have for each brands performance we can see that Bulgari is high quality, and guaranty reliability and durability. It has a creative, colorful and chic styles and designs. Also the products are market as luxury, therefore the prices are accordingly. The interaction with consumers is very efficient. Chopard on the other hand is perceived as offering high quality, designs including gem stones, classic, fancy style. The brands are perceived as an expensive and luxury one, therefore they are in the high price segment.

The imaginary part of model, we will notice that Bulgari's user profiles are women from 30s, but the core market segment being women in the 40s-60s age groups, with high incomes and successful careers.
They buy their jewelries in boutiques (flagship stores) for special occasions and events. Bulgari, if it was a person, would have been described as unique, elegant, refined, joyful Italian person.
Chopard's consumers are women form their 20s; however the core target market is women in their 40s-60s age groups, with a high income and successful careers. They buy their jewelries in boutiques (flagship stores) for special events and occasions. If Chopard would have been a person, it would have been described as a reliable, desirable and charming Swiss person. 

The consumers’ response to the brands is based on judgment and feelings. Bulgari is perceived by consumers as a luxury, creative and high quality jeweler. They feel desire, trust and security. Chopard on the other hand is perceived as luxury and offering high quality, but is less known than other jewelry brands. People feel secured, trustful and warm.


When we think about the relationships brands have, we will notice that both brands are using successful communication strategies, through presentation of collections, sponsorships, exhibitions, advertisings, digital marketing strategies (applications, official websites, social media and virtual events) and high quality service. The relationship are based also on the delivery of unique collections that satisfy the consumer needs, the exceptional and exclusive design of shops and the appealing atmosphere inside of them. The brands communities are found on social media, at the special events like presentations, exhibitions and private parties. 




AB, MK, TP, KV, SG


Wednesday, November 13, 2013

What makes them so special?

Why people would buy Bvlgari? Or why they think that Chopard is better?

What makes these brands, that operate in the same industry, different?

POD's is the right answer. Let's check what is it and how it works.
Points of difference are "attributes or benefits consumers strongly associate with a brand, positively evaluate and believe they could not find to the same extent with a competing brand i.e. points where you are claiming superiority or exclusiveness over other products in the category". [1]



What are the POD's of Bvlgari:
  1. Authentic and exclusive Italian design (even its name and logo are written in in the classical Latin alphabet)
  2. "The very Bvlgari color" as  Mathew Willianson said (designer who created a bag collection for Bvlgari): Bvlgari is known for its unmistakable sense of colors and their recognisable usage. 
  3. Original form of its jewelery: such as B.zero1 by ANISH KAPOOR and serpentine necklaces and bracelets.



Chopard
differentiate itself in another way:
  1. Creative approach to its jewelry design (high end jewelry in form of teddy bear)
  2. Family spirit: Chopard has remained a fully independent family firm to this day.

POD's are not only reason why we choose this or that brand. There are also POP's
Points-of-parity - "associations that are not necessarily unique to the brand but may be shared by other brands. While POPs may usually not be the reason to choose a brand, their absence can certainly be a reason to drop a brand".[1]


POP's are common for Chopard and Bvlgari:
  1. Quality: customers expect to get superior quality in exchange to the high price they pay.
  2. Store experience: individual and attentive approach to every client
  3. Exclusivity of every product (limited edition or special edition)
  4. High price as an indicator of luxury
  5. Stores are not accessible for ordinary people.


Kristina Voskivarova
Sources:

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Brand Awareness: Bulgari vs. Chopard

Our team has been conducted primary research by publishing a questionnaire on Facebook and interviewing people face-to-face in order to provide you more valuable information about Chopard’s and Bulgari’s brand awareness. With this survey we wanted to test if people see those brands as lovemarks, regular brands or just commodities.

Limitations of the survey were that due to the limited time, we could only ask a small number of people. In addition to that participants (70% women, 80% of them between 21 and 25) were not exactly in the age of the core target.

Keeping this in mind the following conclusions have been made out of the survey results:

Firstly we used the brand recall technique in order to find out how well the brand names are connected with their category. Therefore we asked consumers to write down the first five jewelry brands they think of.
The results were quite positive: Bulgari was mentioned in 67% of the cases and Chopard in 22%.

Secondly the recognition test was used for examining the memorability of the companies’ signature collections. Participants could choose several collections out of four options from four different companies.
In this case we found out that 22% had heard about Chopard’s happy diamonds collection and 19% had heard about Bulgari’s diva collection.
This is quite interesting as it indicates that people who mentioned Chopard in the first question recognize its signature collection whereas participants who recalled Bulgari don’t necessarily know the company’s signature collection.

Our third question was asked to find out the brand preference. We gave our partakers five brands from which they could chose one.

As we can see in the diagram, 11% would prefer Bulgari over the other four otions and no one would chose Chopard as their first choice. The “winner” in this category is Cartier with 62% followed by Tiffany with 23%.



Even though we know after this that our two brands might not be the first choice for most of the people when buying jewelry, we were curious to test if some people perceived them as lovemarks. Thus, we tested it based on Kevin Roberts questionnaire in his book “Lovemarks: the future beyond brands”.
Again the outcomes were interesting. Although no one preferred Chopard over the four other brands as a first choice, it was tested as being a lovemark for 8% of the interviewed people while Bulgari had this outcome only in 4% of the cases.
Anyway, this is a quite low result for both brands. Especially if we realize that both brands are even more perceived as a commodity than a brand according to this test.
In this case we have to be honest and come back to the fact that this test might not be 100% representative.

The final question within this survey was to relate Bulgari and Chopard with three words that come to participants’ minds.

The brand Bulgari is associated mainly with luxury, being expensive and colorful:


In the Chopard’s case most of the interviewed people don’t have any link to the brand. Others connect it with being expensive, luxury and watches (more than jewelry!):


To sum up this post, we can assume that Bulgari’s communication strategy works better to increase brand awareness. Hence, we want to give you an example of Bulgari’s current strategy: “Bulgari tries to rejuvenate consumer interest in its updated Omnia Crystalline fragrance through a dedicated microsite that hosts the advertising campaign and scent notes. This microsite focuses only on the latest of the Omnia fragrances, rather than the entire collection. By focusing on a specific product, consumers are able to have an in-depth experience with one facet of the collection rather than struggle to grasp information for multiple products.”[1]

We truly believe that this might increase the awareness and the relationship Bulgari has with its customers. To start with a microsite for the new scent is a good strategy as not everybody can afford Bulgari’s jewelry but perfume might be affordable for a number of consumers and could be an entry to Bulgari’s world.

In order for you to know about which perfume we are talking about we want to show you this concluding video:


AB, MK, TP, KV, SG