Brand Management Assignment: Identification of Branding Issue of Kathmandu Apparels

Question

Task:
Kathmandu Apparels:
Kathmandu is an iconic New Zealand travel and adventure brand with multiple retail chains around Australia, NZ and distributions in the UK. In Australia and NZ, Kathmandu has outnumbered competitors having stores across major shopping centers and suburban areas. In late August 2019, the company has entered the US market. In 2020, COVID-19 has presented challenges and opportunities wothin the retail sector. Some of the challenges include drop in sales due to restrictions in the number of customers in the stores and store closures in some cities. On the other hand, the rise of transaction facilities (e.gAfterpay) supported the boom in online sales.

Given the current economic climate in the USA and the infancy of Kathmandu as a brand in the US market, you have been appointed to identify ONE core branding problem and build a detailed report on brand management assignment. Based on this problem, provide a roadmap to that will lead brand growth.

Answer

Introduction
Kathmandu Apparels is a travel and adventure brand in NewZealand that has several retail chains throughout NZ and Australia and also maintains distributions in the UK. The company has outnumbered several competitors in the home country by opening stores in several new locations and suburban areas. The company also recently entered the US market. However, before spreading its wings and being known to the consumers, the company suffered a pitfall. The current pandemic provided challenges to the retail shop as there is a major drop in the sales as there are social distancing measures that have limited the number of customers and also have led to the closing of many stores. However less physical presence and restrictions have provided opportunities as there are an increase in transaction facilities and a rise in online sales of the company. However, as the company is fresh in the US the branding problem that Kathmandu apparels are facing is little awareness of the brand as it is new to the geographic location of the US. The project describes this branding problem faced by the company and also states the reasons for the issue. The project also recommends strategies using which the company can resolve the problem.

Core Branding Problem
Kathmandu Apparels is having a branding problem of little awareness. The brand awareness of the retail company is not where it is supposed to be. Little or zero brand awareness can stagnant the business. If people are not aware of the existence of the brand there will be fewer customers and thus no sale. The SEO of the website of the company is not adequate that does not provide it with search results. As the company does not come up in search results, it has less awareness among the customers. This is partly because it had recently expanded in the US with no time to improve the SEO. The company also has low awareness as the customers are not interested in buying from a brand that has higher prices and also new in the market. A problem that the company faces is targeting the wrong audience. The company needs to check the audience that it is targeting and reconsider the marketing and branding strategy (Adegbuyiet al. 2015).

There are also very little people aware of the brand currently as there are limited marketing efforts in the current pandemic situation. It also becomes difficult to position the brand if the company does not know whatthe brand stands for. When there is improper internal focus on strengthening and recognizing the brand it can become diluted. Low brand awareness can cause issues for the brand. The company also has awareness issues as it is not able to generate the rightcontent forthe audience. As the companyrecently expanded in the US, it is not completelyaware of the contentthat engages andattracts the audiences. This pushes back the company from being innovative and take measures toinclude new infographics (Çizmeci and Ercan, 2015). As the business model of the company has shifted in a new geographic location it is essential to shift the communication, which when not done creates awareness problems.

Reason of the Problem
The company had recently opened in the US had a setback due to the spread of COVID19. The people are not aware of the brand and this combined with the current economic status of the US adds to the branding issue. The apparel company sells clothing and other retail goods. As the customers of this industry are mainly female it poses a problem. The economic status of the US provides income inequality, and therefore women earn less than men. Thus they have to spend less on luxury items. However, as the brand is new its prices are comparatively higher than the competitors and thus there are fewer customers. The issue is also persistent as the SEO of the company is not appropriate and it provides fewer searchresults (Gunawardane, 2015). The site is not SEO friendly as there are fewer keywords, image texts and Meta descriptions.

Thereforecustomers in the new region are not aware of the existence of the brand. There arelimited advertisements and no social media presence. The company does not utilize the social mediacontentwisely and does not update or maintain communication with their customers; therefore the brand gets no awareness. Consistently posting on the social media platform likeInstagram, or Facebook can gain brand awareness, which is not performed by the company. The company also does not invest in any target ads or use any social mediainfluencers for marketing the products or services. This reduces the success rate and makes the brand invisible. Brand awareness is an essential part of making a business successful. If people are unaware of the existence or have an understanding of the products that it offers, the marketing efforts will not convert into sales. The company cannot survive without sales (Maria et al. 2019). As it is now in the US, the company is not completely aware of the preferences of the people and does not keep a complete engagement with the new population. Therefore it acts as a reason for low brand awareness.

The current economic condition in the US also acts as a trigger in the low sales and no brand awareness of Kathmandu Apparels. The income levels of the Americans are low and therefore they do not have the luxury to spend in satisfying their high demands. They have no significant savings and are surviving paycheck to paycheck. This leaves them with no option to buy from a new brand that has high prices. This issue increases the problems of no awareness, as people do not buy from the company and also does not recommend it to others. People do not have stable jobs and have high expenses in all areas such as health care, market costs, and so on. Therefore they want to spend their expenses on markets and bards that are known to them and have lower and affordable price range (Saleemet al. 2015). The main reason that Kathmandu Apparels has little awareness is because the prices are comparatively higher than other competitors and that the company does not maintain proper communication with the target audience and has limited knowledge of the preference and demands of the target market in the US.

Fig 1: reason of low brand awareness
(Source: self-created)

Strategies to Solve the Problem
The strategies that can address the issue of low brand awareness are:

• The company requires making use of social media properly. It needs to set up accounts on several media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and so on and maintain communication with their customers. The company needs to post on these platforms regularly and make the customers aware of the products and services that it sells. For reaching the audience on accurate platforms, the company needs to comprehend their media habits (Shahid et al. 2017). Blog posts and video can be used for Facebook and Twitter as they tend to be quick and sharable.
• The companyneeds to improve the SEO of the website by using SEO tools. The first step is classifying which keywords are correct for the brand and practically possible. There are several tools that produce a list of keyword ideas based on what users are looking for.After having the target keywords identified, these can be seeded into the content. This can help in making the website of the company SEO friendly and understand the factors that areaffecting SEO searchresults (Sharifpouret al. 2016). During implementation, optimizing the website with technical SEO can improve in search engines access, interpretation and index the website without any troubles.
• The company also requires generatinginteractivecontent for the target audience. It is essential that in a newgeographic region toattractcustomers to gain awareness, thecompany hosts contests for the customers (Laiman, 2019). The website of the company can share the infographic, or post any survey or fun quiz. These events require participation and therefore can help in increasing the engagement.
• The issue of low awareness might be because it is targeting the wrong audience. This can be resolved by improving the marketing and branding strategy. The company requires rechecking the offerings and the wordings that are used on their social media platforms or their websites. The likes, preferences and dislikes of the target audience need to be checked to make sure that the marketing and branding are resonating with these factors (Suki and Sasmita, 2015).
• The company also needs to improve and enhance marketing efforts for reducing the problem of low brand awareness. It needs to be sure to post content on social media platforms with proper and engaging content. It also requires to invest in targeted ads and make sure that the advertisements are relevant and attention-grabbing for the targeted audience (Suki and Sasmita, 2015). The company can also connect with social media influencers for marketing the products of the brand. The influencers have large followings and are trustworthy and thus the customers can buy the products if the influencers are marketing those. Influencer campaigns can have a huge impact on the success rate of the company.
• The companyneeds to be clearwith the offerings so that it does not create any misconceptions the explanations of the products must be kept simple and to the point without any complexterms. The informationpresented to the audience needs to be clearwith the company. As the brand is new in the US, itneeds to market the products to the audience in such a way that theyhave never seen before (witaaet al. 2018). New strategies need to be invested in the marketing campaigns for getting the attention of the population and therefore increase the brandawareness.

Fig 2: strategies to solve low awareness
(Source: fabrikbrands.com, 2020)

Conclusion
Kathmandu apparels is a retail company that though has a widespread reach in its home country of Australia and NZ, faces problem in reaching out to the correct target audience and improving the brand awareness in the US. After it expanded in the US, the current pandemic stopped the company to reach out to the audience as there were several norms of social distancing, travel restrictions and so on. Therefore the shops were closed down and people were not aware of the existence of the brand. The economic condition of the US added to the bad conditions. As the income status of the people is low, there do not feel interested in spending in a company that has high prices and are new in the market. The low awareness in the branding is also because of several reasons, its poor content in the social media, inappropriate content for the target audience and low blog posts and interactions on social media. The company requires improving the marketing and branding strategies for removing the problem of low awareness.

Reference list
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