Karen Millen - The Fashion brand Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Karen Millen - The Fashion brand - Essay Example The essay "The Fashion brand" concerns the fashion brand. The company has stores in United Kingdom and other countries. Karen Millen was founded in the year 1981 through the partnership between Kevin Stanford and Karen Millen. The brand continued to expand through acquisitions and partnerships. The company trades from 46 concessions and 84 standalone stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company has spread to 23 countries and has 16 international stores and 57 franchise stores. The company majors in clothing accessories, shoes and clothing. Karen Millen has encountered stiff competition from major rivals like Reiss and French Connection. The French Connection has developed a strong brand identity through heavy embellished eveningwear and dresses. The target market includes young professional women aged 25-35. French Connection has been increasing the product range to include stylish outwears, shoes and dresses. The company has proved to be a major competitor for the Karen Mil ler brand. Both companies seem to have the same target market, necessitating Karen Miller to have differentiated products. French connection offers competitive products, coupled with intensive advertising and promotion campaigns. The brand has turned to internet marketing as it widens its scope of influence in the fashion market. However, the company needs to carve a niche in the stiff fashion market. Reiss is a fashion brand in the United Kingdom owned by its founder, David Reiss. The brand produces feminine clothing. The company has a strong reputation and was declared fashion retailer of the Year in 2003. Reiss competes from the same target market with French Connection and Karen Miller. A strong reputation is its principle asset. Reiss targets young professional men and women. The brand is offering competitive prices and an effective brand equity program. Brand equity can be developed by building, borrowing or buying it. Buying or borrowing brand equity for Karen miller can be d one successfully through acquisitions. Rebranding is one of the ways of reforming brand equity. In business, rebranding entails creating a new name, symbol and design for an established brand. The aim is to develop a differentiated product in the stakeholders mind frame. Rebranding assists in identifying the product or the company from competitors. According to research, rebranding is changing the name of the company, positioning and targeting. This is meant to attract new meanings to the corporate brand and to inform the stakeholders concerning these meanings (Grose 45). In fashion and clothing industry in the United Kingdom, the rebranding can lead to increased revenues. Rebranding the Karen Miller fashion brand entails the use of integrated marketing communications campaigns to communicate the image and the values of the new brand to all the stakeholders. Rebranding is connected to changing slogans, logos, names or a combination of them. Karen Millen fashion brand is using rebran d to appeal to wider market share and increase the sales revenues. The concept of revolutionary and evolutionary rebranding has been incorporated in the strategic rebranding plan of Karen Millen. Evolutionary branding is the concept of minor developments in brand positioning. These include logo change and slogan. Revolutionary rebranding causes major overhauls and identifiable changes which are essentially meant to redefine Karen Millen brand. Through rebranding,