Uncovered
Figure 1: COS. 2020.
Uncovered
Figure 2: COS. 2020.
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Contents
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Introduction Fashion Marketing COS as a Brand Product Place Price Promotion Sustainability/CSR Reccomendations References
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COS Uncovered
Introduction Defining Fashion Marketing : “Marketing is engaging customers and managing profitable customer relationships” (Kotler P, Armstrong G, 2017, p.28). Fashion marketing concerns the understanding of the consumers’ behaviours. Marketers form carefully constructed marketing strategies considering the four elements of the ‘Marketing Mix’ to effectively convey the brand image. Market segmentation is important because it allows a brand to personalise their strategies for different groups within their core target market, therefore meaning marketing strategies are more effective. With 2020 introducing more hurdles for fashion brands than ever before thanks to COVID-19, changes are required in fashion marketing strategies to maintain momentum and adapt to the ever-changing market.
The following magazine comprises research and analysis of the luxurious ‘high-street’ fashion brand COS. Founded by the H&M group in 2007, the brand has a focus on longevity, high quality and sustainably sourced materials. (H&M group, 2019). In this magazine, there are suggestions of appropriate marketing strategy recommendations regarding the marketing mix and sustainability that will benefit the company’s growth.
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Figure 3: COS. 2020.
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COS as a Brand COS opened its first store in London in 2007 and its online market in 2011 (H&M Group, 2020). They have been extremely successful - between 2009 and 2014 “COS grew from 1% to 3% of H&Ms total revenue” (Kent, 2020). Their target market is the environmentally conscious, middle-aged woman, which is demonstrated through the smart-casual style, high quality tailoring and sustainable focus of the brand. The sub-target market could be defined as those seeking a modern, unisex style. The fashion market is split into five market levels: haute couture, high-end fashion, middle market, mass market and value market (Posner, 2011). COS falls into the ‘middle market’ subsection because although they use ecofriendly and superior materials they come at a relatively affordable price tag. BELOW is a positioning map illustrating COS’ position with other middle market brands. As demonstrated, COS sits at a higher price point, with higher quality garments. From this, it can also be deduced that ‘Whistles’ is a main competitor due to the similar positioning.
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Product COS has a strategic marketing approach to product as its minimalistic and timeless style allows customers to instantly recognise products, differentiating COS from competitors. COS has a wide product portfolio which is categorised into three product lines based on consumer characteristics, age and gender. This allows COS to satisfy multiple market demands which in turn attracts a broad range of customers and reduces the company’s dependence on a few market segments.
Furthermore, COS satisfies the intangible desires of customers through the augmented product in the total product concept such as COS offers a monthly instalment payment plan. This makes the experience more convenient, increasing the consumer’s perceived value leading to customer loyalty (COS, 2020a).
COS’s product portfolio has large width such as in the women’s dresses category they have 10 different styles of dresses allowing COS to satisfy the variety of needs their specified target market has, meaning consumers are less likely move to competitors. Figure 4: A screenshot of COS dress options. However, COS only offers width in core sizes, meaning they could explore extending their target market. COS’s product portfolio also has depth as 74 dresses come in more than 2 colours. This allows COS to maximise profits of a popular shape and allows COS’s products to meet the tangible needs of consumers.
Figure 5: A dress from the COS range. 2020.
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Figure 6: COS Zurich store. 2020.
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Place COS is an omnichannel business with their main marketing channels being their 294 brick and mortar stores and 32 online markets which are integrated due to click and collect services, increasing convenience for the customer. They follow a selective distribution strategy with their 24 UK stores all in major cities, and normally situated with the designer stores, effectively conveying the luxury vibe of the brand. The stores often occupy beautiful buildings with the original features restored, exemplifying the brand’s sustainability efforts and appealing to the ethical consumer. The image shows the Zurich store which is a former bank vault. The NYC store shows their success at creating a “modern, welcome space” (COS, 2020b).
Figure 7: COS NYC store. 2020.
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Price The brand follows a premium pricing strategy, with their higher prices reflecting the quality and longevity of their products. The 10% student discount offers an incentive for a new target market for the brand. The price architecture for tops sold by COS has an entry price of £17 for basic, t-shirt styles, progressing to exit prices of £250. The majority of styles are around £30-50, and the products over £100 are predominantly those made from cashmere and leather (COS, 2020c). This gives the consumer a great variety of choice, with hundreds of tops on offer, meaning they are more likely to make a purchase. However the higher prices, specifically for the products made from recycled materials, could push the non-ethically concerned consumer to shop at competitors with lower prices.
Figure 8: A series of Women’s tops sold by COS across all price ranges. 2020.
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Promotion COS utilises content marketing through their Instagram which has 2.2 million followers. They have launched a podcast called ‘COS catch-up’ where they interview celebrities such as Mahalia, which helps expand their target market by using influencers with a following to attract more consumers to the brand. They have also created a series of Instagram filters to raise awareness about sustainability, which expands their online reach while expressing their core values (COS, 2020d). One of the key digital promotional activities used by COS is Direct Marketing, where they use the customer’s information to send them various offers. This is effective as it enhances the consumers’ experience by suggesting targeted products within the product line, making the consumer more likely to purchase and re-engages consumers with the brand (COS, 2020e).
Figure 9: A screenshot from a COS instagram post. 2020.
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Sustainability & CSR Modern day consumers are becoming increasingly concerned with the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of consumption, and companies are under pressure to adapt and perform sustainably to survive in the changing market. This requires businesses to be transparent about their supply chains, which COS does very well. COS’ parent group H&M received the highest score (73%) out of the 250 biggest global fashion brands on Fashion Revolution’s Fashion Transparency Index (2020).
COS also exhibits CSR through their Resale platform, COS Resell, which aims to introduce a circular structure to the business by encouraging consumers to sell their clothes to other COS lovers through their site, with the company taking a 10% fee (Cernansky, 2020). This extends the use phase of a garment, therefore reducing the environmental associated with production and disposal. Also, it appeals to the ethical consumer and is a clever marketing strategy.
Though their transparency is exemplary, sustainability ranking website Good on You (2020) rated COS a 3/5 on all factors (People, Planet and Animals), stating that the brand “creates short-lived, fast fashion products”. Despite this, they dedicate a section of their website to sustainability, which demonstrates the efforts they are making to be sustainable and their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), an example being 100% cotton used by the brand is now “organic, recycled or sourced through the Better Cotton Initiative.” (COS, 2020f).
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Figure 10: COS’ Sustainability pledges as of 2020.
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Reccomendations Overall, COS’s marketing approach to product has been successful due to their iconic style and large choice for their specific target market. However, they do not fulfil the needs of plus size and petite women. If they were to extend their target market using the same brand aesthetics they could fulfil a gap in the current market. This in turn would increase COS’s sales revenue and market share. COS could also promote these size ranges by collaborating with influencers such Lauren-Nicole who promotes body positivity on all her social media. This would increase COS’ reach as Lauren-Nicole’s 45.6k followers (Lauren-Nicole, 2020) would be introduced to the brand. Also as body positivity has been a large discussion point in 2020 COS embracing the movement would place it in a positive light in the media which again increases customers. Although, COS is successful at expressing its luxury brand aesthetic with an emphasis on quality within its stores due to the beautiful buildings and visual merchandising this is not obviously translated in the website. COS website emphasizes more on the minimalist style of the brand and as COVID-19 has changed the way we shop due to store closures, a brand must be able to express their values effectively online. So it could be suggested that COS adds more imagery from campaign photoshoots for each product alongside the stark e-commerce images to convey the texture and warmth that is felt in store. Which in turn would draw consumers in and differentiate the website from competitors in the market. With regards to sustainability, it could be suggested that they move towards a slower fashion cycle to appeal to the contemporary ethical consumer since Good on You (2020) significantly lowered COS’ rating due to their business being fast fashion. However there is already evidence that COS is doing this, for example in 2008 they released “Soma, a seasonless capsule menswear collection” (H&M group, 2020), through which they are helping extend the life of garments. To conclude, COS’ current marketing strategies are effective but to adapt to the modern, sustainable and ever-changing market there are certain improvements that could be made.
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References Cernasnsky, R. 2020. Why H&M is jumping on resale at COS. [Online]. [Accessed 5 December 2020]. Available from: https:// www.voguebusiness.com/ COS. 2020a. Dresses - COS. [Online]. [Accessed 5 December 2020]. Available from: https://www.cosstores.com COS. 2020b. PLACES: COS buildings From Zürich to NYC. [Online]. [Accessed 5 December 2020]. Available from: https:// www.cosstores.com/en_gbp/magazine COS. 2020c. Women’s Tops - COS. [Online]. [Accessed 13 December 2020]. Available from: https://www.cosstores.com/ en_gbp/women/tops.html COS. 2020d. COS’s profile. [Instagram]. [Accessed 9 December 2020]. Available from: https://www.instagram.com/cosstores/ COS. 2020e. Direct Marketing - COS. [Online]. [Accessed 7 December 2020]. Available from: https://www.cosstores.com/ COS. 2020f. Sustainability. [Online]. [Accessed 5 December 2020]. Available from: https://www.cosstores.com/ Fashion Revolution. 2020. Fashion Transparency Index. [Online]. [Accessed 5 December 2020]. Available from: https://issuu. com/fashionrevolution/ Good on you. 2020. COS – Sustainability Rating. [Online]. [Accessed 5 December 2020]. Available from: https://directory. goodonyou.eco/ H&M Group. 2019. Annual report 2019. [Online]. [Accessed 9 December 2020]. Available from: https://hmgroup.com/ H&M Group, 2020. H&M Group: COS. [Online]. [Accessed 7 December 2020]. Available at: https://hmgroup.com/ Kent, S. 2020. Business of Fashion: Cos Undergoes Executive Shake-Up. [Online]. [Accessed 6 December 2020]. Available at: https://www.businessoffashion.com/ Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. 2017. Principles of Marketing. 17th ed. London: Pearson Education Lauren-Nicole. 2020. Lauren-Nicole’s Profile. [Instagram]. [Accessed 13 December 2020]. Available from: https://www.instagram.com/laurennicolefk/?hl=en Posner, H. 2011. Marketing Fashion. London: Laurence King Publishing
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Figures Figure 1: COS. 2020. Women’s Clothing. [Online]. [Accessed 8 December 2020]. Available from: https://www.cosstores.com/en_gbp/women.html Figure 2: COS. 2020. Women’s Clothing. [Online]. [Accessed 8 December 2020]. Available from: https://www.cosstores.com/en_gbp/women.html Figure 3: COS. 2020. Women’s Clothing. [Online]. [Accessed 8 December 2020]. Available from: https://www.cosstores.com/en_gbp/women.html Figure 4: COS. 2020. Women’s Dresses. [Online]. [Accessed 8 December 2020]. Available from: https://www.cosstores.com/en_gbp/women/dresses.html Figure 5: COS. 2020. Women’s Dresses. [Online]. [Accessed 8 December 2020]. Available from: https://www.cosstores.com/en_gbp/women/dresses.html Figure 6: COS. 2020. Preserving the building’s 1920s exterior; COS Bahnhofstrasse, Zürich. [Online]. [Accessed 13 December 2020]. Available from: https://www.cosstores.com/en_gbp/magazine/places/cos-buildings-zurich-suwonnew-york-city-aw20.html Figure 7: COS. 2020. The architecture-inspired Kids installation; COS Fifth Avenue, NYC. [Online]. [Accessed 13 December 2020]. Available from: https://www.cosstores.com/en_gbp/magazine/places/cos-buildings-zurich-suwonnew-york-city-aw20.html Figure 8: COS. 2020. Women’s Tops - COS. [Online]. [Accessed 13 December 2020]. Available from: https://www. cosstores.com/en_gbp/women/tops.html Figure 9: COS. 2020. The COS Catch Up - EP 3. [Instagram]. [Accessed 13 December 2020]. Available from: https:// www.instagram.com/p/CGXm-NZpab0/ Figure 10: COS. 2020. Our Ambitions: What we’re working towards right now. [Online]. [Accessed 13 December 2020]. Available from: https://www.cosstores.com/en_gbp/sustainability.html
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Student’s Milla Keith
SELF-ASSESSMENT SHEET – GROUP PROJECT 20% Name
Assessment Objectives
The aim of this assignment is to demonstrate your own learning from this module in relation to the learning outcomes and the skills that you have developed
Final Mark
%
This is how I think the work that we have produced for assignment relates to the marking criteria. Marking criteria Coverage of relevant context 10% Depth of Reflection 10% Comprehensive and well documented summary 10% Originality & Creative input 10% Presentation of visual layout and structure 10% Style of written expression & Referencing system 10% Group work- Group presentation: Fashion marketing strategy analysis 20% Professional practice 20% Final Mark
0-39 Fail
40-49 Pass
60-69 Very Good
50-59 Good
80+ 70-79 Outstanding Excellent
60 70 70
65 80
85
65
85 73%
On Reflection This is how I feel about the presentation and the marketing materials (essay) we produced, and this is what we could have done better as a group to improve our work: -
Splitting up the tasks made it difficult to make the essay flow and meant for a lot of editing at the end, I feel it would have been better if we had collaborated on each section but this was very difficult with COVID and different time zones. Used more academic sources rather than websites