Week 4 EOC: Discussion Questions

1.              Explain the social element of luxury brands, and explore how this concept relates to some of the challenges facing luxury brands, such as counterfeiting and parallel markets

Luxury brands are meant to be for people who want to feel satisfied, or someone that feels established so that they can feel important or good about themselves. That’s why most people who can’t afford the luxury brands grab brands from different vendors in order to look like they bought it from the store, or maybe they get some sort of knockoff.

2.              What is the meaning of a lifestyle brand? Why are most luxury brands described as such?

Lifestyle brands are brands that fit your lifestyle. It’s basically a definition all on it own. An example of this would be, if you go out nightly and spend money like crazy on food, clothes, and other materialistic things, and then of course you would choose a brand that would fit that specific type of lifestyle. Luxury brands are describes as such because it only caters to a specific market or specific people who shop for luxury.

3.              Explain how luxury brands seem to defy traditional marketing principles

Luxury brands mostly sell themselves, in terms of people who actually shop at those brands. It only caters to a specific niche market. When a luxury brand becomes exposed to that certain consumer, it tends to spread the word around, therefore setting the basis for a luxury brand.

                           

Week 3 EOC: Apple Juice Scandal

“Beech-Nut Nutrition Corporation paid US$2.2 million, then the largest fine issued, for violating the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by selling artificially flavored sugar water as apple juice. John F. Lavery, the company's vice president for operations was convicted in criminal court and sentenced to a year and a day in jail; Niels L. Hoyvald, the president of the company, also convicted, served six months of community service. Each of them also paid a $100,000 fine.”

“They were accused of not selling the quality apple juice that they promised. In 1982 the company was investigated and it was found that they were not even using apples at all! No apples in their apple juice!! Mostly sugar and flavor.

Beech Nut instead of discarding it’s last shipment and omitting this product decided to make some last minute money off of it by marketing it aggressively. Eventually when investigators were close on their heels again they shipped it all to be sold in the Caribbean.”

      Beechnut who started as The Imperial Packing Company in 1891 whose reputation was tarnished for selling phony apple juice. Labeling sugar water with flavoring as apple juice sounds like a complete fraud. If they were going to do that, they should at least be truthful and come out with it instead of lying to the public about the scheme. Now the person in charge of it is held accountable and the company had a bad reputation, they may have paid there dues, but what about today? Should we still trust after an incident that happened 10-13 years ago? Well, it’s all up to the mother, and the people who knows about the brand and who have tried it. 

Week 3 BOC: Mid-Term

“Kryolan has been a partner on I AM She, Miss Universe India pageant since its inception in 2010. It has an amazing range of products to suit every skin type across countries, and their commitment to quality is what makes them an outstanding brand!”

“During all these years in the body painting industry Kryolan Professional Make-up has always been an integral part of our make-up bags. “

“Being part of the Kryolan International Make-up Team to create make-up looks for the new corporate design of Kryolan Professional Make-up was such an honor.”

“What makes me love Kryolan Professional Make-up is the quality of their products. Their make-up makes my skin look healthy and beautiful on the outside.”

“I have been using Kryolan products as an invaluable part of my kit for over 30 years in the field of make-up and hair for movies, TV and theatre.”

      I chose Kryolan Professional as the brand; as for the product, I chose the T.V. Paint Stick Professional make-up foundation. Kryolan started in 1945 as a theatrical make-up company in Berlin, Germany. The company slowly moved into the U.S. and made specific contacts in 1976. The Kryolan type of consumer is a makeup professional who works in pageants, T.V., commercials, and advertisements. Kryolan doesn’t have a specific competitor, but their closest competitor would be make-up forever and they do more stage and high-end makeup. As of right now Kryolan still specializes in theatrical make-up, drag performers, and the miss universe competitions. This make-up brand has now become a lifestyle, and therefore people choose that type of lifestyle. I personally use Kryolan for drag performing.

The product that I chose was the T.V. Paint Stick Foundation. What the foundation does is gives you a full coverage of your face leaving any skin showing painted. It comes in 250 different shades and great on all skin types. It withstands HD lighting and filming conditions, but still stays true to its color. It is really an amazing product to use, when exposed to those types of conditions. For a closing statement the website also has a message from the their clinical credentials which state “We’ve always made our products to the state-of-the-art. In fact, the raw materials we use are of highest purity exceeding the requirements and expectations for cosmetics.
To meet outstanding quality standards is our goal. That is why we cooperate with leading dermatologists and accomplish ongoing clinical tests to ensure excellent skin compatibility.”

     Kryolan professional makeup has dominated a specific range of consumers here in the U.S. for 38 years and still continues to produce and market to the masses. Even though the brand is made theatrically, you can still use the makeup for everyday use, if you want your makeup to last longer. Overall, Kryolan professional makeup can either be used in the day or in the evening. Either it’s for an event or maybe you just want to look good.
 

Week 2 EOC: Discussion Questions

1.     Describe the relationship between branding and marketing.

Branding is to give a product its identity where marketing helps the product reaches its end user or consumer through various marketing techniques likes promotion, advertising, types of graphics and other things. Branding is about giving a product a name so that other consumers will feel like they carry that name, and feel a sense of belonging. Marketing is pushing the product out, and making sure the consumer likes the product. So they have to conduct surveys and do all sorts of things that will get consumer information to make the product better.

2.     How does the decision-making process differ between that of luxury brands and mass-market brands?

Decision-making is the process and the relationship between top management and the creative department that separates them into different categories. The difference between luxury brands and mass-markets brands is the power and role the designer has. For luxury brands, brand managers don’t exist for they carry and make a name for themselves. A couple of these luxury brands are Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Balenciaga, Tom Ford, etc. With mass-market brands on the other don’t have total control for they do have brand managers. Basically they fall under the category of trend followers, and not so much as trend leaders or innovators.

3.     Explain the meaning of “brand identity” and highlight its role in the positioning strategy.

The idea of brand identity is somewhat human. Here is a quote from the book that says so. “If I ask you to identify someone, the first thing that comes to mind would be that person's name. A name makes it easier to identify “John” within a crowd of people”. If you ask me that sound about right, we brand ourselves like we brand product. Brand identity is a good thing, but it can also be bad. Here is another quote from the book that talks about brands being concrete and very stagnant. “Consumers often define brand identity in terms of very concrete, palpable, and tangible attributes.” It does make sense as to why people perceive this way, but branding plays a big part in the world.