Brand Personality:
• Rolex triumphs as the “pinnacle of success”
• The communications strategy employed by Rolex is highly tribal targeting a narrow demographic.
• Rolex’s target market is stereotypically wealthy upper class individuals with high aspirations.
• Many possess a compelling need to demonstrate their status through products that have developed into idolised symbols of stature and class.
Brand Community:
• The brand community has developed because individuals who pride themselves on success are often eager to consume a product from a brand that will parallel their personal identity.
• Rolex’s successful identity within the market offers the brand its transformative power.
• People do not merit a Rolex watch simply for its practical use. Its embodied branded features act as a status symbol, a desirable object and one that communicates and unites an “elite group”.
Brand Strengths:
• Desirability• Product Quality• Branded features creates emotional branding• Myth Market- “If you merit a Rolex, you are therefore a
success”• Transformative power for its consumers to aspire to
other brand users/ social groups.• Good promotion at some excellent sporting show
pieces. • Pricing strategy retains elite consumers and therefore
doesn’t distort the brand’s well established identity.
Example of a recent Rolex Advertising Campaign:
The creative rationale behind the campaign: • The discourse is direct and punctual and it reads like a
checklist to see whether “you” as the consumer qualify to merit a Rolex.
• The text is used as a temptation tool to entice the consumer to purchase a Rolex; its effect similar to reverse-psychology.
• Greed and desire is the central ploy used by Rolex to suggest to the consumer that if you buy a Rolex you will belong to an exclusive, masculine community that are “a little more established”.
Psychology behind the campaign:• The advert plants self-doubt and uncertainty in the
consumer’s mind in regard to their status and personal identity.
• Many consumers will use products as a medium to communicate to their aspired social group.
• Just as brands create perceptual mapping in people’s minds, by bearing certain products individuals also create their own self-image that they wish to position in the minds of others.
Promotion:
How is the promotion effective?• Rolex associates itself with many major sporting
competitions.
• The competitions are for the elite sportsmen at the top of their game.
• Similarly, Rolex wish to be admired and idolized as a brand at the “top of their game” and therefore front events such as, Wimbledon, Monte-Carlo Masters and the Golf Masters.
• Rolex’s positioning in the sports industry is predominantly within the upper class gentry sports.
• Brand Community in mind.
• Success demonstrates self-fulfilment and physical prowess which are qualities that Rolex wish to synthesise within their products.
• The product placement in the James Bond film adds to the desirability of the brand. The watch is perceived as possessing sexual desirability.
• Effectively, the brand gains further publicity and it becomes recognisable amongst a wider audience.
Brand Weaknesses:
• The Circulation of fake Rolex’s could distort the brands exclusivity.
• Small product width bearing in mind its global recognition. One could argue that with a more diverse product mix it could be more successful.
Ideas for Brand Diversification/Expansion
Promotion/Sponsorship:• British Motor Show• Goodwood• Royal Ascot• London 2012 Equestrian
Diversification:• Expand product width- cufflinks, jewellery, stationery.
Brand Personality:
• Comical
• Likeable
• Recognisable
• Unconventional
•Young Target audience
•Active/ energetic feel
•Vibrant
Communications:Strengths:Digital:
• The website has a feedback section for its consumers which is a good way of understanding what the consumers want from a brand. After all, there should be a triadic relationship between consumers and the brand.
• Tango has a presence on
TV:
The adverts are humorous which gives the brand a likeable quality.
The humour correlates well with the brand’s comical culture.
Its marketing campaigns ensure the brand is talked about and its post-modern innovation has helped the repositioning of the brand since its first launch in the early 90’s.
Example Campaigns:
Creative Techniques used:
• The imagery is captivating.
• The text is bizarre which is used deliberately to confuse/intrigue the consumers in order to get them to think about the message/brand.
• More likely to retain attention if it is surprising.
• “Sod the panda” is edgy and conveys individuality which the brand wishes to incorporate as part of its “stand out” identity.
“You know when you’ve been Tango’d”
• The brand has a•To be able to use a brand name as a verb creates fantastic viral marketing and can generate brand users communications.
Examples of successful brands that employ this technique:
• Have you tried Googling it?
• Why don’t you YouTube it?
• Argos it
Communications:
Weaknesses:
Website:• Some of the communication on the homepage
is on the verge of tacky and naff, it appears that Tango are trying too hard to create a cool brand.
• It targets a narrow demographic of consumers within the market which makes it hard to compete with big rivals.
What Tango’s competitors are doing better:
1. Better designed websites.
2.Use sponsorship promotion effectively to target specific sub-cultures.
• E.g. Sprite Urban Games.
• Red Bull air racing.
3. Deeper product lines.
• E.g. Fanta Light, Diet Coke.
Ideas for Brand diversification/expansion
1. Product width- Ice lollies, sweets.
2. Consumer incentives- recycle10 tango cans and win a “You know when you’ve been Tango’d” t-shirt/mouse matt/poster.
3. Continue the unique can designs.
4. Promotion at creative/comical events bearing in mind target audience
e.g. Young stand up comedian awards.
5. Public Exposure:
• Host a Brand festival
• Organise a mass fruit fight (health and safety providing)
6. Generate a buzz:
Create a new Strap Line:
e.g. Tango. Feel the buzz.
Similar to:
7. Idents before “You’ve been framed!” or “Punkd””
Brand Personality
• Charitable Youth Organisation• Founded by the Prince of Wales 1976• Business Mentors • Promote youth enterprise• Optimistic• Inspirational• Innovative – encourages entrepreneurship• Community based
Brand Strengths
• Each year The Prince’s Trust supports disadvantaged young people to set up their own business.
• Public Exposure/awareness: • Starbucks announced five-year partnership with The
Prince’s Trust July 2009.• A unique book, which is sponsored by Starbucks, will be
launched and sold in Starbucks coffeehouses to raise funds for The Prince’s Trust.
• Palace to Palace is an annual sponsored cycle ride from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle, all in aid of The Prince's Trust.
Brand Weaknesses
• The Prince’s Trust needs to ensure that there is public awareness amongst the heart of the youth that it is trying to communicate with.
• If focuses a lot of its attention in Universities. However, most people at university will have greater access to finance to promote business than the 1 million + who are not in education, employment or training.
• It is predominantly these people who are the most disadvantaged and thus the most vulnerable to crime and therefore, they should be the Trust’s priority.