Calvin Klein in the UK Womens fragrances market Essay

Calvin Klein in the UK Womens fragrances market - Essay Example Calvin Klein is a quite visible brand in the UK women’s fragrances market. Though the market niche Calvin Klein works in is quite competitive, the company manages to remain successful and profitable. The reasons of such success may lie behind successful branding and marketing strategies of Calvin Klein. However, that might not be the case. So, in order to determine what role branding plays in Calvin Klein’s achieving success the given paper will analyze the major principles of branding applying them to Calvin Klein. The UK market of women’s fragrances, as well the influence of own brands on Calvin Klein will be analyzed for this purpose too.A brand is what can make a business more successful. The major goal of branding is to deliver the essence of a business to customers, to make them associate something with the product that stands behind the brand. In addition, effective branding creates increased product awareness, so that potential buyers of a product know ex actly what the benefits of the product are. Such brand attributes as a logo or a slogan, among others, gets associated with the product itself. Similarly, a branding strategy may involve people’s associating certain emotions, thoughts, states, images or experiences with the brand and the product. The goals of branding include delivering the message about the product, as well as values that stand behind it, to the customers, building consumer loyalty toward the product, motivating potential consumers for buying the product, highlighting the advantages of the product, and even creating an emotional connection between people and the product. That is exactly what’s taking place in the UK market of women’s fragrances. Since it is a rather competitive market, the importance of branding cannot be underestimated. The competition is fierce, so companies must be doing their best for maintaining their visibility and success in the market. The average annual growth rate of the UK women’s fragrances market was 5% in 2007, and 62% of the market are occupied by five large companies, according to UK Market Intelligence Report (2007). So, though Calvin Klein is known worldwide, the competition in the UK is great. Women’s fragrances of such famous brands as Christian Dior, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Emporio Armani, Chanel, and Tommy Hilfiger are being sold along with Calvin Klein perfumes. Furthermore, in addition to competing with globally known labels, Calvin Klein has to compete with own label brands. European Cosmetic Markets (2005) reports that, though famous brands are preferred by UK women and make 92% of the proposition, the share of private label perfumes is growing. In 2005, for instance, it made 8% and experienced a 8.2% growth. Though in many markets own brands are represented by cheap alternatives to well established brands, the situation in the women’s fragrance market of the UK is different. According to UK Market Intelligence Report (2007), niche luxury brands that bring clients value, individuality, and a feeling of rarity and authenticity, such as Calvin Klein, are more popular among buyers and are one of the market drivers. Therefore, own labels that compete with such brands are, these days, not simply cheap analogs, but, on the contrary, similarly positioned and well advertised labels. As such, own labels of the women’s fragrance market are nearly as strong as globally known brands. Furthermore, in addition to creating competition, own brands are a threat to Calvin Klein. As Tutor2u.net reports, sales of own brands are continuously growing in the UK. This may lead to supermarket’s giving preference to their own brands, thus reducing the number of other brands on their shelves. Though it is rather difficult for own labels to compete in the market of luxurious fragrance due to a high number of established labels, own brands might still be a problem for Calvin Klein. Amplifying, according to Kotler et al. (2009) is one of the strategies Calvin Klein uses for marketing its