Brand analysis of Jo Malone Essay

1. Background Jo Malone is an international brand which was established in United Kingdom by Jo Malone in 1994, then it was acquired by Està ©e Lauder in 1999(Jo Malone 2014). This brand has a series of products, such as scents, body care products and home supplies (ibid). Its products are extracted from natural materials with pure flavor; so it is always pursued by many stars and upper class (Jo Malone 2013). Jo Malone allows consumers to tailor their own scent by combining different fragrances and to personalize their home by using home candles, elegant diffusers and room sprays (ibid). Therefore, the feature of Jo Malone is natural, high-quality and distinctive. As regards the market environment, there is a bright market prospect for Jo Malone, because the overall economic and fragrance market developed very well in UK (Monaghan & Kafkaesque, 2014). In addition, the culture force cannot be ignored, because the understated style of British can be reflected  well from the brand spirit—charming but personalized (Jo Malone 2013). 2. SWOT Anaylsis 2.1 Strength According to the background of Jo Malone, the strengths of this brand are relatively obvious. First of all, its brand position is precise which is high-end and distinctive. This can be reflected in its brand image. Its stores and packages are both well-designed to express the characteristics. Second, its products are personalized and high quality. All ingredients of the products are extracted from natural materials. Furthermore, an outstanding feature of Jo Malone, fragrance combination as mentioned before, makes this brand differ from other brands (Unger 1974). Final, this brand belongs to Estee Lauder, which can provide solid support for Jo Malone in many aspects. 2.2 Weakness There are three points in total. First, the brand recognition is low, especially compared with other fragrance brands, such as Chanel, Givenchy and Dior. Nevertheless, this situation may due to the short history of this young brand. Second, the promotion of this brand is ineffective. Spokesperson and advertising on mass media are absent. According to the Beauty Digital IQ Score (2013), the brand ranking of Jo Malone is 31, which means the influence of this brand is not sufficient. Third, the distribution channel is limited. Instead of selling products mixed with other brands in fragrance stores or online, Jo Malone sells its products in its own stores and website only, this may lead to limited coverage of market. Nonetheless, this can be its strength because it might be their special brand strategy that is aimed to highlight unique brand position (Brownlie et al 1999). 2.3 Opportunities Nowadays, people presume fashion products made by natural ingredients, which are healthy to human. Besides, customization has become popular in this market. As a result, Jo Malone corresponds with these current trends. Next, men perfume is a high potential and less competitive market. Owing to be important in the social interaction between humans, male consumers care more about their personal image than before (Lindqvist 2012) However, Jo Malone  does not have a series of products for men, which can also regarded as a weakness of this brand. Finally, global branding has become a trend and an important market strategy. (Tybout and Calkins, 2005, cited in Wong) With its unique style, Jo Malone extends its overseas market, especially in Asia recently. It is believe that there will be a wider chance for Jo Malone in the future. 2.4 Threats Due to low brand recognition and competitive pressure in this market, Jo Malone occupies low market share even though perfume is its major product. More and more luxury brands have launched perfume, such as Chanel and Dior. According to Rachel Felder (2014), those luxury brands attract consumers by their fame. Consumers, who cannot afford a Chanel bag, can purchase Chanel perfume to satisfy their vanity. Moreover, Jo Malone is a brand with particular features, in other words, there might be some copy-cats appear to confuse consumers and damage Jo Malone’s brand image. 3. Recommendations Based on the SWOT analysis above, there are three recommendations could be proposed. Firstly, recommending Jo Malone to promote itself in the public media. Due to Jo Malone’s low brand recognition and ineffective promotion strategy, it is necessary for Jo Malone to increase investment of promotion, to advertise itself on TV and premium beauty magazines, and to invite a few stars who are well known and have similar characteristics with Jo Malone to be spokespersons. Moreover, allowing perfume stores and online stores to sell Jo Malone products is also an option to enhance brand recognition and expend distribution channels. Second recommendation is to collaborate with other brands. In order to increase sales and expand not only premium market, but also mass market without undermining brand value, there are two options to target different consumers. One is to collaborate with Superdry, which is a young and fashionable brand with great reputation. Consumers are able to smell the partner perfume in Superdry’s shop and make purchase if they are interested in. Another is to collaborate with five-star hotels. There are many kinds of bath products of Jo Malone, and these products are priced very high due to  nature and health materials. However, five-star hotels are for customers who pursue the quality of life, besides, the daily bath products consumption of hotels is huge. Therefore, providing the bath products to these hotels is able to increase the sales effectively. Finally, male customers are hardly to find a specific product for themselves due to Jo Malone products are classified by ingredients and smells only. According to the SWOT analysis of men’s market, launching a specialized series of product for men is a feasible recommendation. 4. Conclusion In conclusion, this report analyzed the market environment of Jo Malone, and three recommendations were proposed for this brand based on the SWOT analysis. There is a great potential market for Jo Malone to expand. Furthermore, utilizing effective marketing strategies would help to promote the brand better, occupy more market share and strengthen its brand recognition. 5. References Brownlie, D., Saren, M., Wensley, R and Whittington, R. (1999) Rethinking Marketing: Towards Critical Marketing Accountings. 2nd ed. London: SAGE Publications. Capozzi, C. (2014) Perfume Market Analysis. [online].eHow. 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(2012) Preference and Gender Associations of Perfumes Applied on Human Skin. Journal of Sensory Studies, 27(6), 490–497. L2 ThinkTank (2013) Beauty Digital IQ Score [Online] Available from: http://www.rankingthebrands.com/The-Brand-Rankings.aspx?rankingID=181&year=715 [Accessed 8 October 2014] Monaghan, A. (2014) UK economy grew 1.9% in 2013 – the fastest growth since 2007. [online]. The Guardian. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/28/uk-economy-2013-fastest-growth-fourth-quarter-gdp [Accessed 9 October 2014] Unger, L. (1974) Market Segmentation: A useful tool in the marketing of fragrance (perfume) compounds. Industries Marketing Management, 3(3) 267-273.