USP and ESP

USP – Unique Selling Point

„Definition: The factor or consideration presented by a seller as the reason that one product or service is different from and better than that of the competition“

http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/term/82480.html

Before establishing your brand it is very vital to find factors that make your brand stand out from its competitors.

Why would you be successful?

Why would consumers buy your brand?

What makes you different and better?

Will you fulfill a certain need?

These are a few questions that every brand should be focusing on.

The brand extension combines influences from street-wear as well as fashion magazines. It is a twist between the high-end fashion world with a cool edge. The brand creates something completely new and special. The great thing about the brand is that everyone can feel related to it. Women who like to wear expensive clothes might like to combine it with one of the sporty pieces and women who rather go for sporty clothes might find a sweat dress for their outfit.

ESP - Engaging Selling Point

The ESP engages the consumers and its emotions. The brand extension will engage its customers through the Do-It-Yourself option. Every customer has the option to change their clothes and to personalise it. The brand will also engage celebrities and thus awake the emotions of our customers. As celebrities are a role model for a lot of women, they will get influenced by seeing them wearing the brand´s outfits.

My consumers will associate the brand with convenience and comfort, sports and health, fashion weeks and magazines, trends and celebrities. 

Positioning The Brand

To position my brand, I need to figure out three main factors.

·      Point of difference

·      Attraction

·      Distinction

The “point of difference” is the factor that includes the “attraction” and “distinction” part by positioning the brand. Translated, it means how am I going to attract my consumers and stand out from my competitors. What exactly makes my brand unique and special? As my brand is a brand extension of a well-known UK high-street company, it will already attract the main customers of Topshop. By positioning a brand I need to go through a few questions to make sure to really figure out how to position my new brand.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-determine-your-businesss-market-position.html

Who, what, where and why am I targeting?

·      Who? = The brand will attract a wide range of consumers. It will focus on consumer in the age of 18-40. This brand will attract students as well as professionals. Consumers who count themselves as fashionable but also women who are not keen in fashion and trends.

·      What? = The brand offers clothing for a wide range of customers. Women will be able to look stylish but without having the choice of either wearing a complete classy and elegant look or just go for the sporty version as the brand offers both styles to combine. It will also be possible to use the Do-It-Yourself section and customise their desired items. Women don´t have to search around shops to find cool combinations as they will have the trend already in one shop.

·      Where? = Topshop is one of the biggest UK high-street retailers and therefore the brand extension will be offered in the begging only in the UK. It will start by selling the new extensions in flagship stores.

·      Why? There is definitely a market gap in the fashion industry when it comes to stylish, trendy and fashionable clothing in a comfortable perspective. Most women feel they need to wear high-heels or tight clothes to be fashionable or look feminine. This brand will prove the opposite.

It is also important to go through the 4 P´s while positioning a new brand.

http://www.imrcorp.com/services/branding-and-positioning/brand-positioning/

Position: Topshop has already nine brands and every single one is positioned in a different way and different space. Topshop Unique and Topshop Boutique are the more exclusive brands in the shop and have a complete different interior design compared to the other brands. Topshop Unique was the first UK high-street brand to have a fashion show during the London Fashion Week. My brand will have the same high status to be compared with Fashion Weeks and speciality. As „Unique“ and „Boutique“ are higher-priced and do stand out from the rest of the Topshop-brands, my brand extension will be positioned right next to those two to get the same higher concept and status.

Price: The brand will be comprised of good materials with good quality. As it should relate to fashionistas, celebrities, magazine, blogs and fashion weeks, the price will be higher then the rest of Topshop brands. As it is still a high street brand, the price should be still affordable. It will be inbetween the price ranges of the regular Topshop clothings and the Topshop Unique + Boutique clothings.

Place: The brand extension will take place in the flagship-stores all around the UK. In the beginning it is important to see how the consumers will react on the new brand extension and see how big the demand it.

Promotion:  As my brand is going to be a brand extension, the promotion will be firstly made by TOPSHOP itself. Traditonal- but also non-traditional marketing will be used and also the involvement of celebrities.

The brand will market a young but also mature target group. People who are keen on fashion but also those who are not. It will be easy to shop because the style is very simple but yet unique. The customer profile and behaviour of the target market will definitely be young fashion interested women. The trend came up from women who attented fashion weeks all around the world. These women are either fashion students, fashion bloggers or otherwise engaged in that industry. Young girls who are interested in fashion but also those who don’t really focus to much on current trends, see the pictures of the fashionistas in magazines and try to imitate the outfits.

The main competitors are all high-street brands who focus on fast fashion and definitely vintage stores and sports-stores which sale sporty clothing such as sneakers, hats and baseball-jackets.

The needs that this brand extension fulfills are that women who are interested in this trend, will find it easy to get the combination of the “Sporty meets Elegant”-Look but also those who just like to dress feminine with an edgy touch will find what they need. Also the Do-It-Yourself section will serve many consumers needs as the average of consumers like to change and customise their clothing in order to look different.

Consumers will see the use of this brand even in a long term view as it doesn´t capture any certain trend that might get boring in the next seasons as "elegant" and "sporty" will always exist. The elegant and sporty look will always be in fashion and therefore an aspect to believe that the new extension will succeed. Women will always feel the need of either dressing sporty or elegant. This look can be combined in both ways.

The key/unique benefit that differentiates my brand from its competitors is definitely the D-I-Y section. Offering customers in the stores and online the chance to order their customised clothing 365 days a year, will make it more remarkable than other high-street retailers.

The benefit of the brand is that women will be dressed in a stylish way, for affordable prices but still feel special as the price is higher then regular high-street prices. They will feel special and different as they are able to customise their clothing or even surprise someone with a customised piece as a gift.

Consideration of logos, packaging and brand names

Finding the right name for the brand, thinking about the logo and packaging is probably one of the most difficult parts while establishing your brand. As my brand is the extension of the high-street retailer Topshop, it needs to be related to it but also have its own character so people will catch it as something new. Topshop has already nine brands in its house and two of them, “Boutique and Unique” are the higher-seen brands as they offer more expensive materials, better quality and higher prices. Unique is also the first high-street brand to have its own show during the LFW. In case to relate my new brand to those two Topshop brands, as I want Topshop Technique to be seen as a higher standard of high-street, it needs to have the same syllable like the other two brands. I focused on the ending “IQUE”.

The second reason why the decision led to the name “Technique” was that by combining two different styles in one and also offering the D-I-Y section which is seen as a way of creativity, art and ideas to customise clothes individually. 

The logo and packaging itself shouldn´t distinguish to much from the rest of the brands. I keep the colours simple in black and white like the usual Topshop logo, just to keep its originality. We need to use Topshops strength and power in this industry and consumers should still relate Technique as a Topshop brand. The font is a clever solution of using both font types from Topshop “Unique” and “Boutique” and the packaging will be the usual Topshop black and white paper bags with the “T” symbol on it.

Logo:

TECHNIQUE

Logo on packaging:

TOPSHOPT

Example of the Topshop brand logos:

 

Press Release

Topshop Technique conquers the fashion world

Being one of the most successful and biggest players in the high-street, its success history talks for itself. Topshop now, extends its fashion rubric and wants to introduce you to a new Topshop brand. 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

please welcome TOPSHOP TECHNIQUE.

Topshop Technique will be the new high-street brand to combine the street-style fashion trends in one place. Elegant pieces mixed with leisure and casual items will be the main concept of it. As Topshop already made it to the catwalk during the London Fashion Weeks with its Topshop brand "Unique", “Topshop Technique” will now focus also more on the trends during Fashion Week from all around the world. Being able to target all different types of consumers from even different age groups will make “Topshop Technique”  the new trend in the high-street scene. This brand is influenced by all the fashionistas´ during the fashion weeks that came up with the trend of the last two seasons, and still wearing it! Seeing women combining their elegant and feminine outfit with sporty details in the last two seasons, created Topshop Technique. Women like to dress feminine and chic but also want to have a certain edge and look unique with their outfits. Combining your Skirt with a Baseball-Jacket, turning your oversized shirt into a dress or just simply styling up your suit with a beanie or baseball-hat, made this trend so popular that even in this season people are wearing it. Rihanna, Rita Ora and many other celebrities are already wearing this style and in love with Topshop Technique.

This brand will be able for our customers to wear for every season as we simply combine the trend mixed with elegant & sporty clothes, to make every women feel comfortable but still feminine, sexy, stylish and trendy. The concept is simple and attracts all range of customers as it combines many styles in one. The important factor about this trend is that it makes women feel comfortable, by wearing a dress that is not as tight as usual, or by wearing Sneakers-Wedges, which are still seen as high-heels, but way more comfortable to walk in. This trend is not only the perfect trend for certain occasions but also during the day of a busy students or professionals life. Theme of it will simply be the Casual, Sporty and Chic looks combined all together. On top of this, Topshop Technique will approach their customers by offering Do-It-Yourself customised clothing. The DIY-Methods have been always very popular and people feel the need to get something unique. DIY was never offered in the shop of a company before. Giving our customers the opportunity to customise and order their own garment in the colours or with the special details they want, will make this brand extension even more popular. We will offer our garments in different colours, or offer certain clothes or Accessories like hats, etc. with studs and spikes. They will be able to order their leather or jeans-jacket with their name on it or even styled up with some funky chains. 


TWEET:

Topshop is launching its 10th brand extension and wants to welcome you on the 01 March to exclusively see the new brand named "Topshop Technique" in the flagship-stores. The secret behind the „Technique“ story is that we will bring you the hottest trends straight away from the Fashion Weeks to one store. We will offer the hot mix between elegant and cool looks. You want to have the look of your favourite celebrity, want to styled like your favourite fashion blogger or just simply like to mix up a few styles together? Then you are the perfect person for our brand. We will also give you an insight into our Do-It-Yourself option.

Tell your friends and make sure to tell them to tell also their friends. Great music, sweets and fashion at its best are meeting all in one place. We also invited famous fashion bloggers Sandra from 5inch and up and also Susie from Style Bubble. They will give you some expert tips and explain what they personally think about this new trend.

FEMININE ELEGANCE MEETS CASUAL!

Marketing Communications Mix

There are five marketing communications to put into the mix: Advertising, Sales Promotion, Public Relations, Personal Selling, and Direct Marketing. This basically all boils down to a mix of promotional efforts to bring in sales and increase brand equity.

To bring your brand effectively to your consumers, it needs to get advertised so your potential customers get aware of it. There are two different ways of advertising. The traditional and non-traditional way. I would prefer to choose both methods.

Advertising traditional: Ads, tv ads, radio, trade shows, magazine ads, magazine adsm mailing list

Non-traditional: claims more creativity and often involves utilizing an unusual or uncommon advertising space or method.

Although the Internet is largely mainstream, its use and some advertising methods online are still considered non-traditional advertising. Google ads, for example, or banner ads, help businesses reach potential buyers that they may have otherwise missed without a non-traditional web presence.

As Topshop already worked with famous celebrities like Kate Moss, Topshop Technique will also use this way of strategy. Topshop has a huge name in the fashion industry and the Topshop Show during the London Fashion Week is highly visited by famous people every year. This will help the brand extension to grow and get out in public through strong and popular voices. The brand extension will also be added and advertised on the Topshop web page www.topshop.com. Topshop Technique will also use social media as a platform to spread the new extension of the company. Using twitter, instagram, the web page, facebook and blogs will help to inform and reach the new consumers.

Celebrity Endorsement

High-Street brands started many years ago to corporate with famous people such as Designers, Models or Celebrities. This is an effective way of advertising the brand as celebrities are seen as role models and icons. Women compare themselves often with them and like to have their lifestyle and fashion style. Celebrities have a huge influence on women and a strong puplic voice. Celebrities from all around the world are coming already wearing Topshop clothes. The Topshop Unique Fashion Show is also always one of the shows that is highly visited by celebrities and famous fashion bloggers. As all these people do already love Topshop and its clothing, it won´t be too difficult to convince them with the new brand. We will start by sending Topshop Technique clothes to famous fashion bloggers. They will blog about the outfits and inspire the consumers with it. Fashion Magazines will see the blog posts on their blogs and will also write about it. We will also send the clothes to celebrities such as singers like Rihanna and Rita Ora as they are currently the top in the music business. Both of them are very into fashion and are seen as fashion icons. They do wear a lot of clothing from all kind of brands and as both are really open when it comes to clothing, they would be perfect for it. As my friends work in the fashion industries, I would basically use my personal contacts but also the in-houe PR of Topshop to get the celebrity contacts.