Brand Repositioning: A Case Study of Fleur de Santé, Exercises of Marketing

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Department of Business administration Bachelor thesis

March 2004

Brand

-Repositioning a brand -

Guide Writer

Gösta Wijk Anja H. Björkdahl

Summary

Title: Brand – how to reposition a brand

Key words: brand, re-positioning, Fleur de Santé, brand identity, brand image

Writer: Anja H. Björkdahl

Guide: Gösta Wijk

Level: Bachelor thesis, Business administration

Purpose: The purpose with this thesis is to analyze and study brand identity

repositioning and I will use company Fleur de Santé as an actual example. The objective is to spot if repositioning of brand identity is possible, which ways are to take and what has to be done and changed when going through repositioning process?

Method: This work is a qualitative study of repositioning a brand identity of

Fleur de Santé that will more over also illustrate some generalities about repositioning, brand image and brand identity. Theories about brands and repositioning are used to analyze the empirical part of this thesis. Empirical part consist mostly of primary data that I have acquired trough interviews but also some secondary data that I have got from Fleur de Santé.

Result: I believe that vision, image and identity, brand and positioning are all

parts of repositioning process. When repositioning, company has to decide if it is going to compete with same attributes as before or if company is entering totally new competitive domain with new dimensions. Fleur de Santé has changed its identity and chose which parts of it to point out; history, brand and natural ingredients in order of creating new picture in customers minds. Their identity is thought trough carefully but not all parts of positioning are fulfilled as I recommend in my RESTART repositioning process.

• 1. INTRODUCTION
• 1.1 Background
• 1.2 Problem
• 1.3 Purpose
• 1.4 Delimitation
• 1.5 Explanation of terminology
• 1.6 Target group
• 1.7 Disposition of the paper
• 2. METHOD
• 2.1 Choice of qualitative method
• 2.2 Approach
  • 2.3.1 My approach
  • 2.3.2 Critics about approaches
• 2.3 Choice of Theory
• 2.4 Choice of subject and company
• 2.5 Ways to collect information
  • 2.6.1 Primary data
    • 2.6.1.1 Interviews
  • 2.6.2 Secondary data
• 2.6 Criticism of method
• 3. THEORY
• 3.1 Building company’s vision
  • 3.1.1 Vision
  • 3.1.2 Mission statement
  • 3.1.3 Goals
  • 3.1.4 Communicating the strategic vision
• 3.2 Image and identity
  • 3.2.1 Personality
  • 3.2.2 Image
  • 3.2.3 Identity
• 3.3 Communication
• 3.4 Brand
  • 3.4.1 History of brand
  • 3.4.2 Definition
  • 3.4.3 Which roles does brand have?
• 3.5 Positioning
  • 3.5.1 Definition
  • 3.5.2 What positioning is about
  • 3.5.3 Knowing your position
  • 3.5.4 Parts of a brand position?
  • 3.5.5 Positioning strategies
• 3.6 Repositioning
  • 3.6.1 How to reposition and why?
• 3.7 Theoretical reference frame
• 4. FLEUR DE SANTÉ
• 4.1 History
• 4.2 Organization now and then
• 4.3 Production and sales
• 4.4 Marketing
• 4.5 Fleur de Santé’s repositioning process
• 4.6 How does the process continue
• 5. ANALYSIS
• 5.1 Vision
• 5.2 Image and Identity
  • 5.2.1 Image
  • 5.2.2 Identity
• 5.3 Brand
• 5.4 Positioning
• 5.5 Repositioning
• 6. CONCLUSION
• BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Introduction

In this chapter I will represent the background of this thesis as well as I will characterize the problem and the purpose. Further on delimitation and terminology will be explained and finally I will describe the target group of the thesis and give an outline of the disposition.

1.1 Background

Already in the Bible the word brand has been used and branding has since then expanded in many different directions. English word brand is originally coming from old Nordic word “brandr” and mean in translation “to brand” or “to mark”. The first actual signs of branding started with cattle, earthen vessels and Egyptian buildings but the opening time branding was done with purpose to recognize the maker was during years of Jesus birth. The commerce between countries around Mediterranean took place and producers and buyers could not keep contact as easily. To be able to know where and from whom the goods were coming from producers started to mark their merchandise.^1 Then in the late 19th century industrial revolution took place in USA and consumers were on daily basis offered increasing supply of commodities and as a result the era of mass production, mass distribution and mass communication started. Local shopkeepers were replaced by bigger shops and producers usually branded their merchandises with their own name as for example Mr. Lipton and Mr. Gillette. Many brand names were also invented and some of them still exist today like Coca-Cola. 2 Although brand successively got larger and more important part in the whole picture of the company it was first during 1990´s that its big break through came. The expressions like brand equity and brand management started to play huge role in the companies. 3 Strong brand adds value to the company and is today, in the time when consumer can choose between dozen of products of the same type and quality, used as a competitive force. Firms are sold for a four to five times higher price than their booked value and this higher price is justified by high and strong brand equity. Though brands also have a high value for a business because they are functioning as an entry barrier for other companies in the same market as well as they are used to create customer loyalty.^4

(^1) Melin, Frans Om konsten att utveckla starka varumärken (1999) (^2) Ibid. (^3) Ibid. (^4) Ibid.

This paper will therefore primarily focus on company’s perspective concerning repositioning of a brand identity. My decision is based on the fact that I find internal side most interesting and fascinating.

1.5 Explanation of terminology

In this paper I will use term brand identity but I will by that mean both brand identity and corporate identity. Reason for this is that Fleur de Santé does not have different brands for different products that it wish do reposition but only brand identity of the company.

1.6 Target group

Target group of this paper are primarily business students on university level and company managers and leaders inclusive management board of Fleur de Santé.

1.7 Disposition of the paper

Chapter 1 – Introduction

Here background is presented and I have also defined the problem and purpose with this thesis. Further on I have explained delimitations that are done in the paper as well as I have explained terminology. In the last part I have described the target group of this paper and the disposition.

Chapter 2 – Method

In this chapter I have explained how this study is done. Qualitative and quantitative methods are explained as well as the approach. Further on choice of theory, subject and company are explained and also the ways to collect the information.

Chapter 3 – Theory

This chapter consists of different theories about vision, image and identity and communication advertising. Further on it continues with definition and different roles of a brand and thereby follows an explanation of positioning. Finally chapter finishes with definition of repositioning.

Chapter 4 - Fleur de Santé

This chapter starts by introduction of the investigating company and its structure over the time. Further on I explain the production and sales and marketing organization and finally I describe repositioning process of Fleur de Santé.

Chapter 5 – Analysis

Here an analysis of Fleur de Santé’s repositioning process is done using theories from chapter 3.

Chapter 6 – Conclusion

In this chapter I give a brief outline of those conclusions that I have drawn and I also discuss the contribution of this thesis.

Case studies and personal interviews are the most common kind of qualitative methods 10 and they are regularly used when studying long term projects, processes and changes.^11

Since I wish to understand the situation of one single company and considering the issue I would like to explore qualitative method appeared as a natural choice. I find it appropriate to base my investigations on personal interviews with someone from the company who is engaged with the issue. Further on I believe that quantitative investigation would in my case not give profound understanding to those questions I would like to answer. My aim is not to achieve numerous information but to get deeper knowledge within this phenomenon. Further on, in order to find answer to my questions I was in need of detailed information about the subject and not only yes and no answers.

2.2 Approach

There are three different approaches we can follow when writing a thesis: inductive, deductive or abductive.

The inductive approach, also called “the explorative way” can be explained as a method where starting point are empirical examples from real life which are compared with different theories, methods and conceptions. Often when using this approach many theories are put together and then these theories are used as a base to develop hypotheses. These hypotheses are afterwards being analyzed using previous empirical discoveries as starting point.^12

Applying deductive approach means in contrast that the foundation is theories, which are to be put side by side with empirical experiences. Like this we start from general theories accordingly to get to something more detailed and unique.^13

The third method, abductive, is the one that is probably used most when it comes to case studies This method can be explained as a mixture of inductive and deductive approach. The similarity with inductivity is that basis for the research are empirical facts, but as with deductive approach, theories are very important. During the process theories are used as an inspiration to find new patterns and models behind empirical studies and not as a forced starting point. 14

(^10) Ibid. (^11) Patel, Runa & Davidsson, Bo, Forskningsmetodikens grunder: att planera, genomföra och

rapportera en undersökning (1994) (^12) Holme (1997) (^13) Ibid. (^14) Alvesson, Mats & Sköldberg, Kaj Tolkning och reflektion - Vetenskapsfilosofi och kvalitativ

metod (1994)

2.2.1 My approach

I used many different theories that I put together and developed my own frames and “models” that are later on tested in the empirical study using repositioning process as a source. I used inductive approach since I had intention to test what I found in the case of Fleur de Santé with theories and models throughout the work.

2.2.2 Critic about approaches

It is very important to be aware of the fact that none of these approaches is ideal and that beside numerous advantages there are some disadvantages. These weak points are of importance since they have some impact on validity and significance of the result. Difficulty with inductive approach is that theory is based on similarity between couple of single objects and the same similarity is then stated to be general. This might not be true and give the right picture of what is generally given that foundation is based on very few objects.^15 Since deductive approach is working on the opposite manner, starting point is a general theory which is to explain one single case, risk of complexity is lesser. Although applying this approach can turn essay into text where writer is trying to emphasize an already existing theory. Therefore relevance of the paper may be questioned. 16 Abductive approach may pose some complications because it is not clarified what is writers start point, inductive or deductive approach. 17

2.3 Choice of References

The largest part of books and articles that I have concentrated on are from the area of marketing, image making and brand management. The quantity of literature where brand is mentioned is huge. In more or less each book we can find some parts where importance of this subject is brought up but I discovered that very few books are actually talking about how to reposition a brand. Similarly I found that there is not one big name, or better said “guru” who is writing about this theme, as Kotler is about marketing for example. This reality made my job harder and more complicated for the reason that I had to adapt to different kind of thinking and to various theories. To be able to continue my work I have based this essay on a couple of books and writers that I considered were most appropriate.

2.4 Choice of subject and company

The choice of writing a thesis about repositioning of a brand is based on my interest for brands and the process of repositioning.

(^15) Ibid. (^16) Ibid. (^17) Ibid.

2.5.1.1 Interviews

For the purpose of understanding the repositioning process at Fleur de Santé I had to interview someone from the company that was in the process from the beginning and that also had major impact on the development of this same process. According to this there were two persons at the company that could actually help me, the CEO, Martin Tönneson and the production development director, Ingrid Schellin. Because of huge time pressure at the company I only interviewed the CEO of Fleur de Santé. I consider that this was satisfying for the purpose of this thesis specially since this is a very small company and only two persons from the company led the process of repositioning. Interviews were personal with some complementation that was done via telephone and e-mail.

I have done two interviews with Martin Tönneson. Both took place at Fleur de Santé’s office in Malmo and lasted for about an hour. I wanted to do a qualitative interview so I did not use the questions I prepared before the interview in specific order but they would only help me lead the interview in right direction. The interviews were very relaxed and it was done as a normal conversation where I explained to Martin Tönneson what information I was interested in and I needed in order to understand the company’s process of repositioning. The technique I was using during the interviews was thus open questions where the respondent was given opportunity to motivate and explain how he was thinking and where he was not led by my questions but moreover he could him self discuss those parts he considered were important. During the interview I wrote down key words on a sheet of paper and directly after the interviews were finished I sat down and put together the results in an interview report. Using these reports as a ground I continued to work with the interviews and I made the text even more consistent. Afterward I used this material as a basis for my empirical part in this thesis.

Further on I have interviewed Roland Sjölund at Oriflame, Fleur de Santé’s biggest competitor. This interview was done in the same way as with Martin Tönneson but the data from this interview was used in order to get a larger overview of this branch and repositioning process in this kind of company.

2.5.2 Secondary data

“Secondary data are facts and figures already available ‘of the shelf’, having been collected for another purpose or another organization. The researcher is a secondary user of already existing data, so the research technique is known as desk research .”^22 Secondary data is used to clarify the problem that we would like to explore and even answer our questions, to build up a background and provide us information upon which we can make comparisons. As with primary data there are different types of secondary data: internal and external. Internal data is the one that already exist within the company and has been gathered previously for some other purposes. External data is information put together by someone else for another or same reason. Examples of internal data are: customer database, written

(^22) Hill & O´Sullivan (1999)

information from company in form of commercial and sales force reports. Examples of external data are: books, statistics from different organizations, science articles, information from universities (essays, investigations, comparisons), Webb pages, knowledge and facts from various associations, magazines, journals and newspapers etc.^23 The main goal with secondary data that I have obtained for this work is to develop a base upon which I will be able to make comparison with empirical studies and situation at Fleur de Santé. Search of secondary material for this composition is done via several channels. First I used database of economic library at Lund University as well I made use of database of University library where I searched for previous thesis about similar subjects. Unfortunately there weren’t almost any thesis, that could help me in my work, that treated this particular topic. Further on, through these data bases, I found books and literature that are exploring the area under discussion. I have likewise studied literature that my guiding professor recommended and some facts I have searched for via internet. Beyond this I got several pieces of secondary information about Fleur de Santé partly via their Webb page and partly trough commercial outlets and letters that were given to me at the points of our meetings.

2.6 Criticism of method

It is very important that the data used in the thesis is both credible and valid since this is affecting researcher’s reliability and validity. The results that are presented must be true for readers and others who are connected with the research.^24

Before the interviews were done I did not send out any questions to the respondents. Therefore I am aware of that maybe this had bring some negative consequences in way that the persons being interviewed were not as prepared as they could have been. During the interviews I noticed that there were some details that respondents could not remember which they possibly could if I have send out some questions before the time for the interview. The reason why I did not do this is that I did not want respondents to prepare answers on the questions and in that way give me very structured and focused information. There was a risk that persons being interviewed would forget or avoid to bring up alternative questions and aspects that I did not mention. Interviews would then in certain way be led and would not be qualitative. A positive side of having an open interview without standardized questions is to create an open and comfortable atmosphere where the respondent is given opportunity to openly discuss the subject.^25 I am as well aware of that the respondent could chose to only call attention to some positive parts of the story while neglecting some negative ones.

Further on critics may be turned to the fact that I only choose to look at one company as a reality example but my purpose with this paper was not to make a quantitative study where I will compare different companies but to make a

(^23) Ibid. (^24) Merriam, Sharan B. Fallstudien som forskningsmetod (1994) (^25) Holme (1997)

3 Theory

_In this chapter I will bring out some general information about vision, brand, identity, positioning etc and also show how these are connected in process of creating a strong brand. I will as well bring out different theories concerning creation of a strong brand With help of different books I will start by clearing up what vision is, what it consist of and what function it makes within a company. I believe this will help in better understanding further theoretical discussion in this paper.

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3.1 Building Company’s vision

Whether a company is success or failure, well going or faced with problems it is very important to have cleared out and to be aware of the fact that strategic planning is a crucial matter. No matter which decision is to be taken within and about company clear vision and applicable strategy is of great help in order of easier understanding where to start and where the future is.^26 “Formal planning can yield many benefits for all types of companies, large and small, new and mature. It encourages management to think ahead systematically. It forces the company to sharpen its objectives and policies, leads to better coordination of company efforts, and provides clearer performance standards for control.”^27

3.1.1 Vision

Having explicit vision and strategy is one way of making the base of a company and clarifications like these usually make it easier to find the way which will lead to new targets and challenges. 28 As Kotter say it: “ A successful change need a successful vision!”^29

Vision is for the most created by management and is reflecting how management is imagining the company’s future development. But all parties in a company: employees, management as well as the owners has their own ideas about a vision. Usually these ideas are differing from each other and to combine them into one vision is one of the greatest challenges.^30

(^26) Armstrong, Gary and Kotler, Philip Marketing: An introduction (1999) (^27) Ibid. (^28) Ibid. (^29) Kotter, John P. “Leading change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail” (1995) Harvard Business

Review, mars-april. (^30) Armstrong & Kotler (1999)

Among others, vision has three different functions: legitimating, ambition and focus and identification and motivation. Legitimating function: Vision will explain company’s role in society and how it will collaborate with other actors in its environment. Ambition and focus: Vision is in one way setting frames for company’s further work and is showing company’s wide-ranging goals that are further on detailed by mission, goals and strategies. Identification and motivation: Good vision should in a comprehensive way express where company’s should be in the future. In that way it will get internal support and will be stimulating, motivating and create engagement in the organization. 31

According to Roos, von Krogh and Roos (1998) development of a clear vision starts by evaluating company’s current position. Process like this starts by asking the question: “What kind of business are we doing today?” and to be able to answer this question the management has to evaluate company’s present size, spreadness, different activity areas, products and markets. This kind of analysis gives a picture of company’s intensity and character but it also makes it possible for management to see if there is difference between where company is today and where it would like to be. These differences will later play great role for company when choosing the way and develop. Some of the most important relations in this process are shown in figure 1.

Future environment

Values Publics Perceptions, princips

Figure 1. Creation of a vision^32

(^31) Roos, Göran & Von Krogh, Georg & Roos Johan Strategi, (1998) (^32) Ibid.

Vision What we can or want to be Engagement in theoretical goals

Present situation True evaluation of where company is today

There is further on difference between open goals that are usually long term and closed goals that are usually short term. Example of open goal is “maximize market share” while example of closed goal is “ achieve market share of 31%”. Further on there is also a difference between short- and long-term goals where short-term goals are usually one year and should be achieved within that period but of course, what is short and long time is different from company to company and from branch to branch.^37

3.1.4 Communicating the strategic vision

Thompson and Strickland (2001) mean that the new vision is supposed to engage employees at all levels within a company. It should be written in a language that is enthusiastic and that engages people. It should be vivid and exciting, it should wake up peoples emotions and motivate. Further on, Thompson and Strickland believe that language used when formulating strategic vision is very important. For example “laying stones” is much less engaging, motivating and inspiring then “building a cathedral”. Further on, they believe that big, difficult and featureless words as well as clichés can be a turn-off more then a turn-on. It is according to Thompson and Strickland (2001) also important for executives to make employees understand and accept this new vision. If not, this can bring problems as employees will be resistant to change which will make it harder to move company towards new vision and goals. When putting the vision statement in writing it is best to keep it simple and clear, not using more words then necessary. “A crisp, clear, often-repeated, inspiring strategic vision has the power to turn heads in the intended direction and create a unified organizational march.”^38

3.2 Image and identity

When talking about a company’s internal and external representation many different expressions are used. Brand, personality, image and identity are those requisites that are used mainly but most of the time these words are not used in correct way. For that reason and to be able to understand further discussion of this thesis I will in this chapter explain the meaning of each one of these terms. This chapter is very much based on theories written by David Bernstein.

3.2.1 Personality

According to Fill (2002) corporate personality can be defined as assembled company specific characteristics from which the profile is generated.^39 Personality is a part of company and so when customer is buying a product he is also “buying” whole company including personality. 40

(^37) Ibid. (^38) Thompson and Strickland, Crafting and executing strategy (2001) (^39) Fill, Chris Marketing Communications: contexts, strategies and applications, (2002) (^40) Bernstein, David, Company image and reality (1984)

Fill (2002) is further on broadening this explanation by clarifying that corporate personality is explaining what company really is. According to Encyclopedia Britannica personality is: “ The sum of the characteristics of the individual.”.

Company can always determine what personality should be and which elements should make part of it and further on, if successful, company can even create this personality. When company already has a personality it can change it. When changing personality company first has to be clear about what its current personality is. In order to achieve this, questions about how company is considered, what it is like and what it does should be posed to its audience, management and staff. In case of disclosure company has to decide weather to continue with discovered personality or make certain adjustments. But it should not count on being able to completely change personality without starting from the beginning. Solutions and adjustments to the problem depends of course on what kind of problem there is, image-, identity- or personality problem.^41

Personality is also very important when it comes to company identity. The fact is that company has to have clear picture of its personality in order to communicate right company identity.^42 Company will choose the identity that will in best way express its personality.^43

“Personality made manifest by identity is perceived as image. And it dwells where imagination dwells. It is appropriate that imagination should be called in to diagnose personality. It could help avoid a subsequent mismatch of personality and image.”^44

Here follows a simple enlightenment of which are the basic meanings of corporate personality, corporate identity and corporate image:

Corporate personality – what company really is.

Corporate identity (profile) – what signals company want to send to the public outside of the company.

Corporate image – how the company is excepted by the consumers and other publics outside the company.

(^41) Bernstein (1984) (^42) Fill, Chris (2002) (^43) Bernstein (1984) (^44) Ibid.

Corporate personality Corporate identity Corporate image