Improving the Online Brand Positioning of House of Fraser in the Digital Age

This report aims to improve the brand positioning of House of Fraser Company on the online platform. It presents a detailed analysis of the company's present market position in the United Kingdom and identifies the challenges it is facing. The company is failing to establish its online presence in the market. To overcome this challenge, the report presents brand positioning and brand communication objectives for House of Fraser for the next 12 months. It also presents a digital campaign for the company, including channels, platforms, target audience, and advertisement message to increase online presence and brand awareness among customers in the UK market.

Running head: MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE
Marketing in Digital age March 19
2019

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 1
Executive Summary
The report is aimed at improving the brand positioning of House of Fraser
Company on the online platform, therefore it is comprised of detailed
brand positioning and communication objective of the company. The
paper has highlighted in detail the present market position of House of
Fraser in the United Kingdom market by identifying different challenges it
is dealing with. The company is failing in establishing its online presence
in the market, therefore, in order to overcome this challenge paper has
presented the brand positioning and brand communication objectives for
House of Fraser for the coming next 12 months. Besides this, the paper
has presented the digital campaign for the company which is comprised of
different channels, platforms, target audience, and advertisement
message that will be used to increase online presence and brand
awareness among customers in the UK market.

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 2
Table of Contents
Executive Summary....................................................................................1
Introduction.................................................................................................3
Overview of House of Fraser....................................................................3
SWOT Analysis.........................................................................................3
The strength of House of Fraser............................................................3
Weaknesses of House of Fraser............................................................3
Opportunities for House of Fraser.........................................................4
Threats..................................................................................................4
Segmentation Strategy............................................................................4
Targeting..................................................................................................5
Consumer Persona................................................................................5
Brand Positioning.....................................................................................6
Challenges for House of Fraser.............................................................7
Brand Positioning Objective.....................................................................7
Brand Communication Objective..............................................................9
Smart Communication Objective........................................................10
Digital Campaign....................................................................................10
Channels.............................................................................................11
Platform..............................................................................................12
Message..............................................................................................12
Audiences...........................................................................................12
Potential Impact on Brand Position........................................................13
Alignment of Digital Campaign with Integrated Marketing
Communication......................................................................................13
Conclusion.................................................................................................14
Reference..................................................................................................15

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 3
Introduction
The report is aimed towards identifying the current challenges House of
Fraser is dealing with in the United Kingdom and the way it can overcome
these challenges. The report will define the brand positioning and digital
marketing campaign that could lead to successfully connecting with the
target segment in the United Kingdom market.
Overview of House of Fraser
House of Fraser is a group of departmental stores with around 55 stores
all over Ireland and the UK. The group was introduced in the market in
1849 as Arthur and Fraser. The business developed progressively during
the 20th century (Retail Week, 2019). But, after the phase of the Second
World War, the company got involved in numerous numbers of
acquisitions which supported it in transforming into a national chain. From
1936, the business is expanding its operations with the support of
different acquisitions such as Scottish Drapery Corporation in the year
1952, and Barkers of Kensington in 1957. It was registered in the Stock
Exchange of London in the year 1948 (House of Fraser, 2019).
SWOT Analysis
The strength of House of Fraser
The strong brand image of House of Fraser in the UK market allows it to
cover the maximum of the clothing market share and attain a competitive
advantage by offering trendy products in comparison to competitors
(Robles, 2019).

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 4
Weaknesses of House of Fraser
One of the weaknesses is that in the United Kingdom's store it places its
shoes and bags on a different floor which directly affects its productivity.
Besides this, it has low online presence in the United Kingdom market.
Opportunities for House of Fraser
 The United Kingdom market is offering huge competition to House of
Fraser, in order to deal with this, the company can move towards
more digital platform by adopting M-Commerce.
 House of Fraser can also expand operations through lower cost
stores
Threats
 Threats for House of Fraser from counterfeit products being sold
through sites like eBay
 Increasing rivalry from low-cost competitors (Rigby, 2014)
Segmentation Strategy
Segmentation is the practice adopted by the business to divide the
market into different parts that could be defined, accessed, and have
growth potential (Wedel and Kamakura, 2012). Strategies adopted by
House of Fraser to segment its market are:
Demographic Segmentation – It is one of the simplest forms of
segmentation generally used by most of the businesses. House of Fraser
has adopted this segmentation strategy based on variables – age, income,
and gender.

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 5
Behavioural Segmentation – Under behavioural segmentation market
is divided based on the usage, decision making, and behaviour (Blythe,
2013). House of Fraser offers high brand products to the customers,
therefore it targets customers those are brand conscious and are willing
to pay high prices.
Psychographic Segmentation – Psychographic segmentation is the
strategy adopted by the business to segment the market based on their
lifestyle, opinions, and interest. House of Fraser offers its products to the
upper-class segment. However, it also has lower class customers in its
customer base who purchase products from the stores.
Targeting
The target market is the customer group to which business desires to
vend its services and products. Target marketing is the strategy
comprised of breaking the complete market in diverse sections and
forming approaches of marketing according to the preferences of all the
sections to increase company’s market share (Morritt and Weinstein,
2012). The House of Fraser majorly targets the age group of 25-44, in
which it offers its products to all the three genders i.e. kids, women, and
men. HOF claims that its products are mostly offered to the upper-class
segment; though it can be observed that company range its prices on few
of its offerings which can occasionally be considered as lower quality for
high-class buyers.
Consumer Persona

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Consumer Persona
How Customer
Finds Us?
A friend
referred about
HOF
Visited the
website in the
What
Customer
wants to
know?
New Offers
Discounts
What he doesn't
want?
Defects or flaws in
the purchased
products
Why does he buy
from HOF?
Quality and
expertise
Who is He?
He is the CEO of a
Marketing company

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Brand Positioning
Positioning is the place acquired by a brand in the eyes of the consumers
and the way it is distinguished from the competitor’s products. To place
the brand, businesses focus on the distinguishing features of their
products or put efforts to make an appropriate image (Maiwald, 2013).
House of Fraser is positioning in the market as a high brand with high
prices, therefore customers who are less conscious about brand do not
like to prefer this store. Mostly these types of customers prefer to go for
low price supermarkets like Asda (Kupelian, 2018). HOF has very less
number of adult buyers which is one of the negative images of the brand
in the eyes of the customer because the company has twice a number of
stores in the United Kingdom in comparison to its competitor John Lewis.
The advertisement of the House of Fraser is mostly aimed towards an
upper-class segment of the market. Therefore, it is included in the
premium slots on the magazines and television. Even the advertisement
for the company is very elegant, sophisticated, and subtle.
Challenges for House of Fraser
New and advanced technology has had a disrupting effect on the High
Street, with digital vendors like Amazon offering a severe shock to the
out-dated bricks and mortar operators. But HOF was very slow in covering
the extent of development and change, failing in responding quickly on its

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 8
own internet offers (Plummer, 2018). The company has cancelled all the
online orders and refunded money to thousands of its consumers, due to a
dispute between the company and its warehouse operators who are
responsible for the deliveries. This decision was taken by the company
due to a number of complaints from the side of shoppers who did not get
the deliveries of their products (Butler, 2018). This reflects that the
company has a weaker online presence and ineffective process
management.
Brand Positioning Objective
Brand positioning is the reason behind why target customer purchases the
products or brand vended by the business and not by the competitor. The
positioning of the product confirms that the brand activity possesses a
common aim, and offer benefits to the customers (Grams, 2011). The
objective of the company is always to be in the eyes of the customer by
offering the best services in comparison to the rivals present in the
market.
The brand positioning objective of House of Fraser is to be positioned as a
leading departmental store brand in the United Kingdom by offering best
and quality services to customers through all the possible platforms like
stores, online, website, e-commerce, social media platforms, and other e-
commerce websites used for shopping. This positioning objective will
majorly focus on overcoming the challenge for HOF to be successfully
placed on the online platforms. The ways that will be followed by House of
Fraser to improve its online presence:

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Ways to Improve
Online Presence
Benefits Time Duration
Mobile Friendly
Website
Today, more web
searches are being
performed through
mobile devices in
comparison to a
desktop or laptop.
2 Months
Incorporating a Blog Content is considered
as a king, which in
today era is majorly
received through
blogging
2 Months
Search Engine
Optimization
SEO is an important
part of all the online
strategy of marketing.
The aim of SEO is to
increase the level of
traffic on the business
website that is majorly
attained by standing
higher on the online
search results (SEO for
Growth, 2019).
3 Months
Investing in the It helps in enhancing 4 Months

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campaigns of online
advertisement
the online business
presence by generating
leads and cost-
effective techniques to
increase traffic.
Becoming an active
user of social media
Social media can result
in a highly operative
technique to enhance
the visibility of the
business and target
new customers. The
advantages of social
networking only can be
attained by those
businesses who not
only interact with the
platform but also with
other participants like
followers
12 Months (Business
will actively get
involved on social
media)
Listing on key
directory sites
There are different
directories for definite
industries
1 Month

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Brand Communication Objective
Brand communication is one of the essential tools of brand management
through which the business enlighten, enrich, inform, teach, persuade,
and remind the stakeholder's knowledge regarding brand, values,
fundamentals, and benefits of the services and products (Jin and Cedrola,
2017).
The brand communication objective of House of Fraser in the next 12
months is to create awareness regarding its improving online presence,
projecting an image, stimulating the desire, impacting knowledge,
improving sales, and shaping the attitudes.
The brand communication objective is also to influence the company's
stakeholders. The stakeholders comprise investors, sponsors, customers,
and employees because they are linked with the brand at the highest
level and it is considered to be the major responsibility of the
management to have an interactive communication regularly regarding
what is happening in the business and significant issues.
Smart Communication Objective
Increasing Awareness
Increasing the awareness of the brand is not just the general objective of
brand communication but it is the very first activity for every business
(Moraes, 2019). The House of Fraser will first increase the awareness
regarding its comeback on the online platform. For this, the company will
make use of print advertisement and constant repetition of the brand

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 12
name, jingles, and slogans over different social media and online
platforms.
Changing Attitudes
Altering attitudes or brand perceptions is another brand communication
objective that will be adopted by the House of Fraser in order to remove
the misunderstandings that are developed in the market about company’s
presence as well as performance on the online platform. Advertising is
one of the effective ways that will be used in the coming 12 months to
directly address the products and objective of the company (Lowe, 2011).
HOF will invest in dollars on the advertisement in order to explain to
customers about its improved planning and offerings on the online
platform.
Digital Campaign
Digital Marketing is the technique adopted by the business to market their
services and products with the help of digital technologies, largely
internet, but also comprises display advertising, mobile phones, etc.
(Dodson, 2016). House of Fraser is planning to do a comeback on the
online and digital platform by overcoming all the challenges it has
experienced in the past like negative image of the business among
customers, incapability in delivering the online orders placed by
customers, etc. Some of the actions that will be adopted by the company
to establish a strong online presence in the United Kingdom market are:

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 13
Channels
Search Engine Optimization – Almost every person making use of the
internet is very familiar with the search engines in order to search for
anything. In fact, around 93% of online experiences are due to using a
search engine. Around 59% of people using search engine satisfy their
need with a local business (Kent, 2011). House of Fraser will work on
search engine optimization in order to increase brand awareness among
people. Some of the search engines that will be used by the company are
Bing, DuckDuck Go, Google, etc.
Display Advertisement – Today, people visit forums, blogs, and other
websites in order to gather interesting information. Digital marketer hired
by House of Fraser can reach to these consumers by designing interesting
advertisements. These sites comprise interactive ads, banners, overlays,
boxes, etc. that are a related website. Digital advertising will help HOF in
creating better brand awareness and increase traffic on the sites that can
be converted into leads.
Social Media Marketing – Social media is unquestionably the most
remarkable thing happened in the digital field that can be used by the
businesses to increase brand awareness of their services or products
(Evans, 2010). With the help of Social Media Marketing, HOF can reach to
a high number of potential consumers through person to person
engagement.

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 14
Online Public Relation – This supports in increasing traffic through the
network of online Public Relation Few of the channels are free whereas
some ask for joining fees.
Platform
Facebook to Instagram – House of Fraser will make use of Facebook
and Instagram as a digital platform, as it has very granulated targeting in
order to search an ideal target market.
LinkedIn – Linkedin for B2B advertisement can be used by the company
because it customizes the advertisement and makes it targeted to the
customer persona.
Psychographic Targeting – This type of platforms are used to promote
the services by using diverse targeting and audience opportunities
accessible through Facebook and YouTube (Gerber, 2016). This provides
an opportunity to capitalize on auto-play videos and increase audiences.
Message
“We need to stop intruding what customers are interested in and
becoming what customers are interested in”
Audiences
House of Fraser is dealing in different product lines such as bags,
accessories, clothes, etc. It motives behind incorporating different
products into one single roof is to increase the customer as well as market
share in comparison to its competitors like John Lewis and Debenhams. As
the company is planning to expand and improve its operations on a digital

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 15
platform, therefore it has planned its target audience who will be targeted
by the marketing efforts of the company. The key target market of the
company will be comprised of an adult, teenagers, kids, and old age
people, because today every generation is making use of the internet for
different purposes like reading, shopping, learning, entertainment, etc.
(BBC News, 2018). The internet endures being the dominating force
among all the mass media. It requires very low investment to operate a
business over the internet and run the business. According to the analysis,
in 2015, the United Kingdom possess 5th highest rate of internet
penetration. Just 7% of them were not having access to the internet
(Statista, 2016).
Potential Impact on Brand Position
Affordable method - The digital campaign will be a more reasonable
method for House of Fraser of reaching a broader audience. Online
advertisement is less expensive in comparison to print advertisement and
wider customer group can see it (Mayar and Ramsey, 2011). Digital
marketing will help the company in reducing its expenses in coming 12
months, which can be invested on different aspects of the business such
as research and development of new and trendy designs, hiring expert
designers, etc.
More variety can be accessible – Digital marketing offers a complete
world of opportunities for the business as well as customers (Flores,
2013). House of Fraser can easily display all its trends and designs over its
website then on its retail outlet.

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 16
Increasing customer base – Improving online presence allows a number
of customers to see the innovative advertisement of the company, which
will eventually provide increase customer base to HOF.
Alignment of Digital Campaign with Integrated Marketing
Communication
Integrated marketing communication is one of the simplest concepts, as it
ensures that every type of message and communication is prudently
linked together. At the basic level, IMC is the integration of all the tools of
promotional and can work together in harmony (Percy, 2014).
The Digital Campaign of House of Fraser is comprised of different aspects
that are required to make a successful online presence like digital
channel, platform, a catching messages that could be applied at all the
channels as well as platforms and products. Besides this, the online
advertisement will be very feasible for the company as it is one of the
most inexpensive forms of promotion. The advertisement message of
House of Fraser “We need to stop intruding what customers are interested
in and becoming what customers are interested in”, could be used by the
company for all its product range and at different business locations.
Conclusion
The paper has discussed in details about the present brand position of
House of Fraser in the United Kingdom market, which reflects that
company does not have an effective online presence in the target market
due to its incapability in managing the online platform. The brand

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 17
positioning objective of the company for the next 12 months is to be
established as one of the most attractive and successful brands over the
internet by using a digital campaign. The digital campaign of the company
is comprised of different channels (search engine optimization, social
media marketing, and display advertisement), platforms (Facebook,
Instagram, and LinkedIn). Besides this, the campaign will be executed by
using a catchy message i.e. “We need to stop intruding what customers
are interested in and becoming what customers are interested in” that will
be targeting all the customer groups who can convert into leads or sales
for the company. Furthermore, the digital campaign will have a positive
impact on the brand position as it is more affordable and more variety can
be accessed through online marketing.

MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 18
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MARKETING IN DIGITAL AGE 19
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