Strategic Brand Management and Planning

This assignment delves into the crucial aspects of strategic brand management and planning. It highlights the role of brand planning in establishing a strong market image and ensuring high product quality. The importance of budgetary constraints within the planning process is emphasized to achieve successful results. References from books, journals, and online sources are provided to support the discussion.

MARKETING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
Brand Audit....................................................................................................................................3
Brand planning...............................................................................................................................5
Brand implementation....................................................................................................................6
BRAND CONTROL .....................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES ...........................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
ASOS is an online fashion and beauty store in United Kingdom which is well known for
their fashion and beauty store. They deal in more than 850 other brands and also includes their
own clothing for men and women. (About Us, 2016). They are growing in a sustainable manner
by keeping two aspects in their mind such as environment and people. due to carbon emission,
waste and other environmental impacts company but ASOS focuses on using sustainable
packaging of their products that reduces the wastes on by sustainable uses of packaging and
efficiently using of vehicles and operational work so that it omit less gases. With respect to
'people' element within the sustainable development ASOS creates a good and healthy working
environment for employees and colleagues so that talented people can get attracted towards the
organization.
The report generally focuses on developing the brand plan for ASOS fashion that
includes planning of activities such as acquisition or extension of business are incorporated with
proper auditing, planning, implementation and control.
BRAND AUDIT
The purpose of ASOS brand auditing is to find out the future growth of the business, how
to face challenges and opportunities that are existing within their way so that they can capture
them to be succeed in the market. . Brand auditing is termed as activity that focuses on
examining the current position of brand in the market among their competitors. Furthermore, it
also result in measuring or reviewing their effectiveness (Lehmann and Keller, 2006). In internal
analysis, investigation includes brand positioning, financially position of business, strategies
adopted, and marketing mix and in the external environment it includes pestle and SWOT
analysis of ASOS online business.
Internal auditing
It includes different factors that affects the business planning, these are:
 Brand value of ASOS is that they provide large number of fashion products with number
of choices at reasonable prices so that they can find quality product of their choice in the
proper manner. They offer best shopping experiences to the consumer with good
fashionable products (Kapferer, 2008).

 ASOS is well known for its products and services as they focuses on providing same
products as they display on their online websites (Narasimhan, 2005). They are different
from other online fashion stores as they have their own packaging, range of products
etc. Their brand competitor in the market are H&M, Zara, and Top-shop. They target
only to a particular section of the society i.e., Individual with the age group of twenty as
they often uses the internet sites for purchasing the fashionable clothes and products. ASOS strategy is to grow without any acquisition or merging up with any other the other
brand. However, ASOS expand its business activities by investing in financial service
sector. opting in the financial services sector, etc.
External analysis
In this analysis of brand auditing it include the following:
 Political analysis include taxes rates that mainly impact the trading of ASOS in the
different countries as with the higher tax rates company would need to rise the prices of
their clothing products that directly impact the purchasing power of the customers.
Custom duties on parcel can affect the pricing of their products. Government of different
countires have resticted the e-commerce or online website for using the social media sites
that have impact ASOS in promoting their products in the other countries. T
 Under economic factor the income and consumption level of consumer affects the
organization because the needs of varied individuals are different. Change in the pricing
of the raw material and inflation in the market influences the pricing strategy.Through
considering social factor, ASOS gets affected with the changing taste and preferences of
the consumer. as ASOS deals in the fashion clothing because of culture differences of the
people.
 As fashion industries always want innovation whether it is in terms of production,
clothing, and technologies. New technologies in the market will help the business to grow
as well as help them in doing work faster.
 The environmental analysis are related to corporate social responsibilities, keeping the
society free from harmful gases , go green, and use Eco friendly material.
 Organization must focus on frameworks of government such as internet secrecy, child
labor act, employment policies etc. s

SWOT analysis
Strength
 provide 24hours services
 large number of marketing channels
Weakness
 Low advertisement campaign as
compare to Zara and H&M.
 Some people hesitate to buy online
products due to intangibility
Opportunities
 ASOS must focus on new modes of
payment that is cash on delivery option.
 Expand their services into different
segment
Threat
 Change in the rate of raw material and
labor wages
 Due to its free return policy it has to
bear a lot of expenditure
BRAND PLANNING
ASOS is expanding it's business by including new segment for children. Categories of
children are segmented on the basis of age. As, it generally focuses on providing comfortable
and designer clothes to the children to whom they are targeting. (Malefyt, 2009). This segment
will be advertised in public through many sources such as social sites, direct mailing, newspaper,
television, campaign, etc.. They can also use celebrity to promote the kids section. For
promoting the kids wear ASOS has hired new management team that support in reviewing the
quality of clothing and accessories that they are serving to the customers. However, the team will
also determine the needs and wants of the customers and produce clothing items for age group
kids.
The aim of ASOS is to create awareness of all the segment in the market so as become a
leading fashion online retailer store. Through promotional activities and creating a good brand
image and provide good messages in the market (Lehmann and Keller, 2006). It may also draw
attention of the consumer resolving their queries and problem related with the clothing products.
As kids section is a new segment for ASOS for promoting the clothing they must focus on
different schemes that at as publicity for their kids section products in the marketplace so that
large number of audience can get attracted towards it. While promoting and marketing their
clothing items they just focus on the good points of the product and can include fun element in
clothing so that children crave to buy them.

The technological assistance is required to add on the section for kids in the existing
online retail page so that it will be convenient for the buyer to view the clothing products and and
easily select the required products. With the technological assistance they can easily select the
item and purchase the product as per their needs.
The clothing material that they are supplying through their online websites will focus on
quality fabrics as children skin are soft and they require soft fabric material that suits their skin. .
The age of the children ranges from 2 to 12years. ASOS provide wide range of color options for
children apparels that attract most of children customers. The design will be kept sleek and
classy (Orsato, 2006).
Financial Budget
Particulars
1) Advertisement Expenses
2) Production cost
3) Website cost
4) Miscellaneous cost
Amount (in pounds)
96000
890000
7750
6250
Total 1000000
To finance this sector the help of financial institution is taken for production and other activities.
Financial help is taken from the Bank to overcome the financial barrier in processing the
activities.
BRAND IMPLEMENTATION
The brand implementation means representation of product in tangible terms of brand
image whether in audible manner or in visual form. The ASOS is an existing brand which is now
planning to add new segment in its online fashion retailing. After all the analysis of internal and
external and planning of the product the execution of the product comes into existence. The
management will discuss regarding the availability of resources and critical issues that are faced
by the organization. (Sirgy and Lee, 2008). This is a continuous process in which controlling of
the brand image is required without affecting the changes in the market and organization
structure. The core problems faced by the organization due to inappropriate planning ensure lack
of healthy and effective communication, not well defined process, and bad management of the
strategies. Planning plays a crucial role because the efforts should be given equal concentration
so that it can be analysis what time to invest , how much efforts are required for that task can be

analyzed so that the work can be done in an effectively manner (Narasimhan, 2005). The
information must be gather in the effective manner so that every aspect of marketing is covered
for executing an effective implementation plan. The information can be gathered from internet,
people, within the organization, from previous assignments, case studies of other companies.
ASOS enforcement of activities can be done by proper manner that is designed in the
planning process that helps them in successful implementation of the business activities. Firstly,
it concentrate on the production process in which different age groups and gender section are
categorized on this basis team categorization is done. Team will be divided into two parts one is
cutting team and one is designing team. . Secondly, its focuses on the advertising of the product
by bringing the brand ideal for the people so that consumer can get attracted more by these stunts
and also defines the quality of the products that they are serving through their online portal
(Malefyt, 2009). Thirdly, implementation of work with full effectiveness, so that revenue can be
generated from the extended segment.
For executing any production activity in the organization, three “M” plays a significant
role in processing the activities of organization these are money, man and machine. Each “M”
has its own important in the firm as without these one plan can not be executed . The different
departments require varied manpower to implement the plan such as designing team, technical
stuff, marketing team, production team, management team, supervisor, etc. As these are the one
who decides the future existence of the firm (Orsato, 2006). If the plan and market environment
is studied well by them, then the company will grow for longer year and can remain
competitive in the market place. . These people's brain are behind the earning of the profit in the
organization. Their implementation and full proof plan decides the earning of the business.
Money is another essential ingredient to execute the plan, without this no organization
can operate its business (Sutherland, 2000). As manufacturing requires huge amount of capital
for which the company borrows the amount from the financial institution to run a business in a
smooth manner. Money helps in buying raw material, pay to labor, electricity bill, miscellaneous
expenses, and registration fees are paid from these amount. Lack of money can stop the
production process due to which all the production gets delayed. Lastly, machines are the ones
which are brought from money and run by man power to produce the fashion material and
accessories required to run the business. Without machines the production becomes impossible

as well becomes time consuming (Palazzo and Basu, 2007). This factor becomes
disadvantageous for the company because taste and preferences of consumer change
frequently ,as time changes.
The critical issues can faced by ASOS while implementing the plan such as inflation
rates because the changes in this rate can affect the price of the product. Furthermore, the
changes in labor rates can also influence the pricing and lack of money can delay the production
activity. (Schultz and Hatch, 2003).
BRAND CONTROL
Brand control is an important step of marketing under which different techniques are
used by management to ensure consistent quality of products are maintained to sustain the brand
image. It helps in estimating the prospective cost of brand planning and implementation. It
further helps in assuring the cost does not exceed the expected profit that ASOS is likely to earn
from its implementation (Lamb, Hair and MacDaniel, 2008). Therefore, it can be stated that
brand controlling helps in comparing the real performance of companies with standard one.
Thereafter, organization can identify various loopholes in its planning process by exercising
proper control. Hence, corrective actions can be taken at an appropriate time to prevent further
downfall (Nicholas and et. al. 2003). The brand control involves various steps that helps in
developing an affectionate link between products, organization and its customers. With this
aspect, company can maintain its strong brand image in market and can retain its customers.
Further, effective control over marketing of brand is to be taken into considratiin so as prevent
any kind of negative actions. For instance, use of obscene language in marketing can lead to
serious destruction of brand image rather than brand building. Thereafter, brand control assures
that brand planning and implementation process is within the framed budget. Therefore,
organization can reduce the possibilities of increasingoperational cost that will further have
direct impact on the profitability of ASOS (Keller and et. al., 2011). Since, it has been identified
that budget of the company is £1000000 therefore, brand control will help in checking that brand
planning and implementation process does not exceed the defined budget. Therefore, success of
brand planning can be ensured if the process is within the provided monetary framework.
Furthermore, the success of planning can be ensured with proper consideration of
financial and non-financial aspects. In this respect, success of organization in respect with brand

planning can be measured in terms of increased profit of ASOS. Further, the management of the
company can compare the past sales with its present one to determine the changes in the gross
sales. Therefore, significant increase in sales after brand planning and implementation can be
regarded as success of brand planning (Malefyt, 2009). Since, it has been identified that
company is using online medium for attracting its customers therefore, increase in number of
pages visit can also be taken into consideration. The more, pageed visit by customers clearly
states that company is getting recognized in market leading to brand building. Therefore, its
states that number of individuals interested in ASOS products and services are increasing while
resulting into more prospective customers. Likewise, rise in online purchases done by customers
will also indicate success of planning. For instance, after implementation of brand planning there
is an increase in online purchase with 10% in 2 months (Lamb, Hair and MacDaniel, 2008).
Therefore, it reveals that preference for the ASOS products is increasing, gradually. It has been
identified that organization is using social media as a tool for increasing awareness of its
products. Therefore, management can keep a track of all the followers on its brand page. For
instance, number of fans on Facebook increased by 15% from last 3 months which states brand
planning is getting viable success in market (Social media impact on brand, 2010). In this
respect, ASOS can take help of search engine optimization which is an effective tool that easily
reveals the strikingness of company’s web page in a search engine. Therefore, frequency in
which site appears in hunt outcomes list, means that page is likely to get more number of
visitors. It further results in increase of brand awareness among the customers. Further,
customers, these days provide ratings to organization which can be reviewed by the management
to determine the success of its planning. In addition to these aspects, company can measure
success of brand planning by taking feedbacks from the buyers. The more number of positive
feedback will indicate that brand is performing well in the market (Lehmann and Keller, 2006).
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that the success of a company in long run
depends upon its marketing process to a great extent. The brand audit helps in determining the
future success of ASOS. It further helps in ascertaining how brand is performing in various
market places. Thereafter, brand planning helps company in setting benchmark in terms of its

market image and product quality. However, the planning process must be carried out within the
allocated budget to avail fruitful outcomes.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Keller, L. K., and et.al., 2011. Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and
Managing Brand Equity. 3rd ed. Pearson Education India.
Lamb, C. W., Hair, J. F. and MacDaniel, C. D., 2008. Marketing. Cengage Learning.
Kapferer. N. J., 2008. The new strategic brand management: creating and sustaining brand
equity long term. 4th ed. Kogan Page Publishers.
Lehmann, R. D., and Keller, L. K., 2006. Brand and Branding: Research Findings and Future
Priorities. Marketing Science, 25(6), pp.740-759.
Malefyt, W. D. T., 2009. Understanding the Rise of Consumer Ethnography: Branding Techno
methodologies in the New Economy. American Anthropologist. 111(2). pp.201-210.
Narasimhan, K., 2005. Principles of Services Marketing, 4th ed. Managing Service Quality. 15
(3). pp.323 – 324.
Nicholas and et. al. 2003. Strategic marketing planning: A grounded investigation. European
Journal of Marketing. 37(3/4). pp.430.
Orsato, J. R., 2006. Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to be Green?
Social Responsibility. 48(2). pp.127-143.
Palazzo, G., and Basu, K., 2007. The Ethical Backlash of Corporate Branding. Journal of
Business Ethics. 73(4). pp.333-346.
Schultz, M., and hatch, J. M., 2003. The Cycles of Corporate Branding: The Case of the LEGO
Company. Califormia Management Review. 46(1). pp.6-26.
Kotler, P., and Pfoertsch, W., 2006. B2B brand management. Springer.
Sirgy, M. and Lee, D., 2008. Well-being: An Ethical Business Philisophy for Consumer Goods
and Firms. 77(4). pp.377-403.
Sutherland, M., 2000. Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer: What Works, what Doesn't and
why. Kogan Page.
Online
About Us. 2016. [Online]. Available through: <http://www.asos.com/>. [Accessed on 9th
February, 2016].
Social media impact on brand. 2010. Available
through:<http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/4-ways-measure-social-media-and-
its-impact-on-your-brand/>. [Accessed on 9th February, 2016].