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Running head: MARKET RESEARCH OF RALPH LAUREN
MARKET RESEARCH OF RALPH LAUREN
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Name of the university
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1MARKET RESEARCH OF RALPH LAUREN
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Gucci marketing strategies..............................................................................................................3
Target market of Gucci................................................................................................................3
Market positioning.......................................................................................................................3
Branding strategy.........................................................................................................................4
Pricing strategy and pricing levels...............................................................................................4
Promotional mix..........................................................................................................................4
Prada marketing strategy.................................................................................................................4
Target market...............................................................................................................................4
Branding strategy.........................................................................................................................5
Market positioning.......................................................................................................................5
Pricing and promotional strategies..............................................................................................5
Distribution channel.....................................................................................................................6
Louis Vuitton marketing strategy....................................................................................................6
Target market...............................................................................................................................6
Market positioning.......................................................................................................................6
Distribution channel.....................................................................................................................6
Pricing strategy............................................................................................................................7
Promotional strategy....................................................................................................................7

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Competitiveness between them.......................................................................................................7
Theory and its application...............................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Reference.........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The aim of the report is to present an analysis of the external environment of the chosen
company, Ralph Lauren. The chosen segment of analysis for the brand is clothing. Ralph
Lauren, established on 1967 launched their business with the men’s ties (Ralph Lauren, 2019). It
is an American company primarily dealing with the luxury clothing (Ralph Lauren, 2019).
However the company enjoys a worldwide reach due to the marketing and distribution. It also
has categories of products like apparel, accessories and fragrances. Since it is one of the major
clothing brands of the world, there are number of competitors like Gucci, Prada and Louis
Vuitton. The next part of the analysis is focused on the individual analysis of the company in
terms of their marketing strategies.
Gucci marketing strategies
Target market of Gucci
This Italian company uses the psychographic and demographic segmentation strategy for
targeting the customers (Bellin et al., 2016). It’s targeting is extremely limited in number sonce
it is a luxuxy clothing brand (Gucci.com, 2019). Hence women from the higher income group
and have an aspiration for the luxury items. Most of the products are targeted towards the
female customers between the age of 25-40 and the lifestyle is higher than the average.
Market positioning
Gucci has successfully positioned itself in the market as a symbol of quality and trust. It I
known to be promoting the value of quality items and trendy and fashionable touch. It has

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focused itself as a luxury brand for the customers who have taste for the branded quality products
(Gucci.com, 2019).
Branding strategy
Branding is one of the primary issues of the company which makes it successful in the
market. In case of Gucci, they have successful placed their products in the market in terms of
expansion of their franchise stores (Gucci.com, 2019). It also has promoted their products
through the online platform and offline promotion at the store. It is this branding strategy through
the different mediums that tend to attract the customers.
Pricing strategy and pricing levels
Pricing is one of the crucial factors of successful business endeavor. It is to be noted that
Gucci has chosen the premium policy for the high quality product is sells (Morgan et al., 2019).
It is also to be that Gucci does not compromise with the premium quality of clothing hence some
produces are costly keeping in mind the high quality of the product.
Promotional mix
For acquiring larger market share, Gucci has invested higher amount in advertising and
promotions through the online internet platforms. It has even adopted some of the experimental
method for catering to the needs of the young customers (Gucci.com, 2019).
Prada marketing strategy
Target market
Prada was originally founded by Mario Prada in 1913 in Italy, which has a specialization
in things like fashion apparel, accessories, perfumes, shoes and many their items (Prada.com,

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2019). It has able to gain a worldwide presence and reach due to the acceptance of people to the
high quality products. The target market for Prada is set to be the women above the age of 20 and
with a higher standard of living. This is also important to note that the company has diversified
product ranging from show to bags for different age groups and colour choice. Hence it could be
argued that the target market has been critically analyzed by looking into the demographic and
psychographic variation of the total population.
Branding strategy
Prada is known to be one of the finest brands in luxury items which not only target
women, instead it has equally large segment market share for all sorts of products even for men.
It is specialized in high quality ready to wear clothes and accessories for both men and women of
all age groups. It has a global reach in terms of the quality and trend together (Prada.com, 2019).
Market positioning
Prada has one of the best brands positing in the market since it has four smaller
enterprises under it, Miumiu, Church’s and Car Shoe (Prada.com, 2019). This has positioned
itself in the market by upholding the values and statement like stylish and contemporary. It has
further provided itself a competitive edge in the market by making it a brand of “self-expression”
(Prada.com, 2019)
Pricing and promotional strategies
In case of pricing, it is to be noted Prada is a high value brand and it has also adopted a
premium policy structure. The client list for the products of the brand is mostly the royals, actors,
famous personalities and models. In case of the promotional strategy, it has been observed that
the company as used its brand image through the famous personalities and the celebrities which

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has made it one of the famous companies of the world in case of the luxury products (Prada.com,
2019).
Distribution channel
Prada has been able to establish a strong distribution channel in the global market due to
the association of Miuccua Prada; it has also developed small workshops to become one of the
top brands of the world. They have distribution in major cities of the world, for example Hong
Kong with a large number of flagship stores at small cities (Atwal et al., 2017).
Louis Vuitton marketing strategy
Target market
The target market for Louis Vuitton is based on the demographic analysis of the
population (Vuitton, 2019). It has set the target customers by dividing it into two categories, one
between the women population of 22-65 years of men and women and the second category is
made to cater to the interest of accessories and other products.
Market positioning
It has been able to position itself in the market by attracting themselves through their
value based approach. It has used the image of superiority and quality products for building
reputation in the market (Godey et al., 2016).
Distribution channel
Louis Vuitton has global presence in terms of their major products and accessories since
they have established numbers of outlets on major cities; it has also global presence of clothes
and accessories through the supermarket chains (Vuitton, 2019).

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Pricing strategy
It has an enhanced attention to the quality and design in the market which is the reason
for having higher pricing for the products in the market (Morgan et al., 2019). Hence the cost
price of some of the items goes very high. It has largely been made keeping in mind the lifestyle
and standard of living of people; hence pricing strategy has been high since it started.
Promotional strategy
The company has used the brand image in the global m to market to make better
emotional connection to the people. It also has used the print and the online media to reach to the
people (Vuitton, 2019). Even in cosmopolitan cities, it has used the magazine and the billboards
to create larger customer base.
Competitiveness between them
It is significant to note that among the four competitors of Ralph Lauren, Gucci has one
of the weak strategies for expansion and promotion. While Lious Vuitton and Prada have been
able to create a global market for themselves, Gucci is no available in many of the manor cities
of the world. Moreover in case of pricing strategy, Gucci lags behind the other competitors in
make.
Theory and its application
One of the theories that could be applied to this context is the “Diffusion of Innovations
theory” which discusses about the level of acceptance of the customers in case of a new idea in
the market (Armstrong et al., 2015). If Gucci is chosen to be one of the weakest competitors in
the market, it is important to consider that their pricing in comparison to their quality and style is

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not equal with the other competitors in the market (Arrigo, 2018). Hence it is to be argued that
the diffusion of the innovation theory will be useful for implementing the new trends into the
market.
Conclusion
It is important to consider the fact that the Ralph Lauren is one of the most prestigious
brands of the e world which is having global reach due to the quality products with a moderate
pricing. Hence it is to be argued from the comparative analysis that the company faces multiple
challenges in the market in case of their products, pricing and branding strategy. It is important
for the company to adapt to new changes to raise their productivity and sustainability in the
market.

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Reference
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Buchwitz, L. A., Trifts, V., & Gaudet, D. (2015). Marketing: an
introduction.
Arrigo, E. (2018). Social media marketing in luxury brands: A systematic literature review and
implications for management research. Management Research Review, 41(6), 657-679.
Atwal, G., & Williams, A. (2017). Luxury brand marketing–the experience is everything!.
In Advances in luxury brand management (pp. 43-57). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Bellin, H. (2016). Branding and marketing channel strategies: Some effects on channel
partners. Journal of Marketing Channels, 23(4), 255-257.
Godey, B., Manthiou, A., Pederzoli, D., Rokka, J., Aiello, G., Donvito, R., & Singh, R. (2016).
Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and consumer
behavior. Journal of business research, 69(12), 5833-5841
Gucci.com. (2019). Gucci Official Site – Redefining modern luxury fashion.. [online] Available
at: https://www.gucci.com/int/en/ [Accessed 13 Mar. 2019].
Menon, A., Bharadwaj, S. G., Adidam, P. T., & Edison, S. W. (2015). Effective Marketing
Strategy-Making: Antecedents and Consequences. In Proceedings of the 1997 Academy of
Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 224-224). Springer, Cham.
Morgan, N. A., Whitler, K. A., Feng, H., & Chari, S. (2019). Research in marketing
strategy. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 1-26..

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Prada.com. (2019). PRADA - OFFICIAL WEBSITE. [online] Available at:
https://www.prada.com/en.html?cc=AP [Accessed 13 Mar. 2019].
Vuitton, L. (2019). LOUIS VUITTON - Official International Website. [online]
Eu.louisvuitton.com. Available at: https://eu.louisvuitton.com/eng-e1/homepage?
campaign=sem_GG-IN-ENG-SH-BRAN-OTHE [Accessed 13 Mar. 2019].
Ralph Lauren. (2019). Ralph Lauren UK | Luxury Clothing and Home Collection. [online]
Available at: https://www.ralphlauren.com/brands [Accessed 13 Mar. 2019].