Consumer Oriented Promotions of Artisti Collection

Introduction

Artisti Collection is one of the leading and fastest growing ready-made clothing brands in Bangladesh. The word "Artisti" is of Italian origin, which means "Shilpi" in Bengali. The tagline of the brand is “Painting Lifestyle”, through which they are implying that they add colors to the lives of their consumers. It was established in the year 1996.The quality of Artisti's clothing is of international stards and is comparable to other Bangladeshi reputed clothing brands, like Monsoon Rain and Cat's Eye. Some examples of Artisti's products are given below.

Analysis

Most recently, Artisti has used Premiums strategy, as they offered a gift voucher worth BDT 1422 for every consumer who purchased products worth at least BDT 5995, on the occasion of Poheka Boishakh, and valid till 14th April. This promotional offer is shown below. While it was a good strategy, the consumers needed to spend a considerable amount of money to avail the offer. Thus, only people with higher income could have availed this offer, not the consumers with moderate levels of income.

Prior to the above offer, they used the Coupons strategy, which was quite a bit complicated for the consumers to understand. It was launched on the occasion of Valentine's Day. On every purchase of products worth BDT 995, consumers were given a scratch card, which they needed to show when they make the purchase. However, if a consumer got more than one scratch card, he or she can avail the offer according to his/her choice, and those additional cards needed to be redeemed on the next purchase, which had to take place before 14th February. The maximum discount one could have availed was 20%. Also, a consumer could redeem only one scratch card (if he/she had multiple) per purchase. As stated earlier, this was a very complicated strategy, which was confusing for most users. The promotional offer is shown below.

The third most recent strategy used by Artisti was launched during the end of previous year. It was a Price-off strategy, and was quite straightforward. Consumers were given the chance to enjoy discounts of up to 60% on the purchases they made. This was their best and most straightforward consumer oriented promotional strategy in recent times. The promotional offer is shown below.

Recommendation

Artisti usually implements very few promotional strategies to boost sales, which are coupons, price-offs, and so on. There are more than a few promotional strategies to increase temporary sales. They can use contests, loyalty programs, and rebates to further increase their sales. As the social networking platform is becoming the most effective way to promote a brand, Artisti can do so by announcing contests through their Facebook page. This will help position the brand even further in the minds of the participating consumers. Also, they can offer gift vouchers to consumers, but in much simpler methods than they did during Valentine's Day. Also, they can create loyalty among frequent consumers by providing them with a membership card to enjoy certain discounts and privileges.

References

Artisti. (n.d.). Artisti Collection- Timeline | Facebook. Retrieved from Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/ARTISTI-COLLECTION/45324601258?sk=timeline&ref=page_internal

Keller, K. L. (2013). Strategic Brand Management. New York: Pearson Education Limited. 

Brand Positioning of Sony Mobile Communications

History

Sony Mobile Communications Inc. is a multinational mobile phone manufacturing company jointly headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, and Lund, Sweden, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation. It was founded on October 1, 2001 as a joint venture between Sony and the Swedish telecommunications equipment company Ericsson, under the name Sony Ericsson. Sony acquired Ericsson's share in the venture on February 16, 2012, and renamed it Sony. 

It has research and development facilities in Tokyo, Japan; Chennai, India; Lund, Sweden; Beijing, China, and Silicon Valley, United States. In the year 2014, Sony sold around 40.0 million units of its smartphones, with a market share of 3.9%

Previously, Sony used the tagline "Make. Believe", but recently it was changed to "Be Moved". 

The current flagship device of Sony is the Sony Xperia Z3, a smartphone that is water and dust proof with an IP rating of 68, a Quad core 2.5 GHz Krait Processor, Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 Chipset, Android 4.4.4 OS, and a 20.7-megapixel, G Lens, Exmor RS, and BIONZ image processor powered, with 4K video recording capabilities.

Analysis

As already known, positioning of a brand is of utmost importance for the growth and success of the brand in question, as well as influencing the perception of the market towards the brand.

Sony's most recent strategy is using the tagline "Be Moved", whereas earlier it was "Make. Believe". Thus, it is attempting to connect emotionally with the customers. As Sony Corporation (as a whole) has already been operating successfully since mid 1950s and introducing path-breaking innovations like the Walkman, Compact Discs, and PlayStation, it used this slogan to attract all the loyal customers it has garnered over the years. Also, it provided software and hardware capabilities of its other products into the smartphones themselves, like the Walkman music player, PlayStation Certification, EXMOR R Sensor camera, etc. to attract its existing customers who use its other products. Thus, Sony is positioning itself by creating values and beliefs.

Another strategy Sony is implementing is that it has changed its flagship upgrade cycle to twice a year. This means that it will release two flagship smartphones every year, each six months after the previous one. This is a bold and new move by Sony, because the industry standard is to release one flagship smartphone each year. However, according to Sony Mobile's Creative Director, Director of Product Planning and UX General Manager, Yoshiro Kurozumi, "in order to maintain the flagship status of the product, you must upgrade it faster to keep it competitive." 

Recommendations

As Sony already is a well established brand, the decision to position itself by creating values and beliefs is a sound one.

However, the strategy to release two flagships per year is a bad decision. This is because if they choose to keep on releasing two flagships per year, then the smartphones will be incremental updates, rather than major updates over the previous models. Thus, most customers will hesitate to buy the newer smartphones due to the insignificant updates. Also, most people choose to buy one phone per year, as flagships cost a significant amount. This will cause Sony to lose customers, both due to the incremental updated phones and as well as confusion due to the number of choices of phones by them. If Sony wants to improve its stance, it should follow the industry standard, that is, to release one flagship smartphone each year. If it does so, then the phones will be significantly updated compared to the previous flagship, and consumers will have a better and only choice offered to them.

References

1. Sony Corporation. (n.d.). Corporate Info- History. Retrieved from SONY: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/

2. Sony Xperia Z2 will only be the flagship for six months more. (2014, February 27). Retrieved from GSMarena.com: http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_z2_will_be_flagship_for_half_the_year-news-7942.php

3. Wu, A., & Chen, A. (2015, January 20). Global Smartphone Shipments in 2014 Totaled 1.167B with Samsung and Apple as First and Second, TrendForce Reports. Retrieved from TrendForce: http://press.trendforce.com/node/view/1806.html