Chanel Brand Book

A Brand Analysis

CHANEL

First published in 2009 by Christina Kinnear.

Text, book design and layout copyright 2009 Christina Kinnear.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing of the Publisher.

The right of Christina Kinnear to be identified as the Author of the text of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN: 1 57446 846 2

During my time in Köln I attended a Brand Talking seminar. During this seminar we were split into groups and each given a brand to investigate. My group consisted of Karsten Schmidt, a student from kisd, Enric Martinez Martin, an exchange student from Spain and Martina Seefeld an exchange student from Brazil and our brand was Chanel. Each week our class would discuss various topics associated with branding and then in between we would apply our learnings to our own brand and create presentations for the rest of the class of our findings. We worked through a lot of aspects and by the end I felt we had a well rounded brand analysis of Chanel.

A Word To The Wise

"Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only; fashion is something in the air. It's the wind that blows in the new fashion; you feel it coming, you smell it...in the sky, in the street; fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening." Coco Chanel

Initial Findings

Firstly our group was asked to generate our own thoughts on Chanel without doing any research. Our initial thoughts were that Chanel appears to be two brands: one is a classy and luxurious brand provoked by seductive adverts and haute-couture fashion shows while the other is a cheap and trashy brand provoked through fake replicas and mass markets accessories. Through these two brands we feel two markets are created: the classy brand has an aura of being expensive and Parisian and attracts wealthy women aged 30-50 who will often trust Chanel and are therefore loyal customers. However, the trashy brand attracts mass market customers who buy mainly to show others they are buying Chanel and therefore wear it in a very flashy way.

We also felt that Chanel creates clothes which seem to be wearable fashion compared to the over extreme catwalk styles of some designers. With regards to the market place we feel Chanel is at a status with the 'high brands' in all the sectors it appears in. With regards to market competitors we felt that these brands have such a high status that they probably don't compete but have areas in which they are the experts. In order to display our thoughts to the class we created a SWOT analysis.

S - strengths

W - weaknesses

O - opportunities

T - threats

wide range of collections

good marketing company

unique packaging

classy, elegant, luxurious connotations

infamous name creates brand confidence

survived throughout the decades

high quality production.

can be a bit 'flashy' at times

lots of fake replicas

can be seen as an older brand

too expensive, too posh connotations

younger version

babies and children's version

prescription glasses sector

credit crunch

price is only for the Chanel name

Brand Architecture

One of our topics was brand architecture and we discussed various brands and discovered who they were owned by and how many sub-brands existed. When looking into Chanel we discovered that it is a single brand with no other sub-brands and therefore is an extremely unique brand. We decided to map out Chanels' brand architecture through the different products and markets it appears in.

Fishing KitSport

Snowboard

Skiis

Bike

Tennis Racket

Purses / DiariesAccessoriesWatches

I PhoneApplicationChanel

Podcast

Bags

Eye wear

SunglassesOptical

LeatherShoes

Timeless

GlovesScarves HatsUmbrella Belts

J12 Line

Fashion Watches

1932

Fine JewelleryFashion Jewelery

GoldSilverPlatinum

DiamondGemstonesJewellery

Fragrance 15 Different Perfumes

For Men Also

CosmeticsBody Lotion

Body Powder

Bath And Shower Gel

Gift Sets

Make-Up Master Classes

Eyes, Lips, Nails

Skin CareFacial Cream

Anti-Age

ArtMobile Art Space By Zaha Hadid

Remixed Chanel Bags By Contemporary ArtistFashion

Karl LagerfeldPhotographer

1910

Haute CouturePrét-A-Porter

Gabrielle Bonheur 'Coco' Chanel

Position in the Market

Looking into the market place and working out where different brands lie we applied this knowledge to our own brand Chanel. We discovered that despite our initial thoughts that Chanel would lie within the high end of the market place, thus making it a luxury brand, Chanel actually occupies a larger market and makes most of its' money within the mass market.

In this section of the market Chanel sells products like perfume and make-up as an affordable but seemingly luxury mass market product. Therefore the mass market buy these products and by doing so buy into the idea of Chanel - the `chanel tat does exist in the high end market place selling a variety of products.

Low Price

perfumes,make-up

haute couture

bags, clothes, jewellery

i phone application,web profiles

key rings,fashion jewellery

High Quantity

Low Quantity

Low Price High Price

Different Types of Brands

We discovered that there are many different types of brands out there and defining what categories a brand fits into can be tricky. Therefore we investigated each type of brand to gain a better idea of what each were and therefore we found it easier to identify which categories our brand chanel fitted into.

Brand Types

CompaniesInstitutionAssociationOrganizationSocial Group

Product EventServiceRetailMedium

PersonalityPlace

OriginLandmark

Brand ArchitectureMonolithic

EndorsedBrandedFlexible

FreeCombined

Brand Class

LuxuryPremium

MassE-Brand

Sub BrandPrivate Label

DiscountIrregular

Brand Categories

MetaIntangible

Intentional

Brand Conclusion

For me, Chanel is an exceptional brand which spans a wide range or products and a variety of markets yet still manages to keep an air of luxury. I feel purchasing a Chanel product can be summed up in a quote by Grant McCracken:

"the motivation for the exceptional purchase is usually anticipatory. It arrives as a 'front runner'. The good is purchased in anticipation of the eventual purchase of a much larger package of goods, attitudes and circumstances of which it is a piece. These purchases are long contemplated and looked forward to. Usually they include 'high involvement' goods such as a car, a watch, an article of clothing, a perfume, a special foodstuff. Individuals buy them in order to take possession of a small concrete part of the style of life to which they aspire." Grant McCracken, Culture and Consumption, Indiana University Press, USA, 1990

Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank Professor Paolo Tumminelli who taught the Brand Talking seminar from which the content for this book was created. I would also like to thank my fellow Chanel group members: Enric Martinez Martin, Martina Seefeld and Karsten Schmidt.