Principles and Practices of Marketing Report: Hugo Boss Case Study

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Hugo Boss's marketing principles and practices. It begins with an introduction to marketing and the company's background, followed by an examination of Hugo Boss's brand positioning strategies, including pricing, product features, quality, application, and competition-based approaches. The report then delves into the four Ps of the marketing mix – product, price, place, and promotion – detailing Hugo Boss's approach to each element. The product section covers the various lines and brands offered, while the price section discusses the company's premium pricing strategy. The place and distribution strategy highlights the company's presence in key locations and online platforms, and the promotion section explores the company's advertising, sponsorships, and digital marketing efforts. Finally, the report evaluates the effectiveness of Hugo Boss's marketing efforts, providing insights into how the company measures its success.

Principles and
Practices of
Marketing- PPM

Contents
1. Introduction...................................................................................................................................3
2. Positioning of the company.......................................................................................................3
3. Four Ps of marketing mix...........................................................................................................5
4. Evaluating the effectiveness of company’s marketing efforts..........................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................10
References.......................................................................................................................................11

1. Introduction
Marketing is a process which is used for the companies to identify that where
a demand is existing for particular products or services and then finding the
appropriate solution to fulfil the needs of the customer as well as promoting the
products or services. The principles of marketing directly related to the consumer
and it follows a logical sequence of marketing (Ndofirepi, Farinloye and Mogaji,
2020). Marketing mix is fundamental principle of the marketing. In context to chosen
company as Hugo Boss, it deals in the clothing, footwear, accessories and
fragrances. It was founded by Hugo Boss in the year of 1924 as general purpose
clothing company. The headquarters of the company is in Metzingen, Germany
(Mitterfellner, 2019). This report will examine about the principles and practices of
marketing (PPM) and the positioning of the company. It will further explain about the
four Ps of marketing mix along with evaluation of effectiveness of marketing efforts of
the company.
2. Positioning of the company
Positioning in the marketing refers to that where the products or services of
the company stands in the marketplace. The aim of market positioning is to create
the brand image or brand value and product in the mind of customer. The company
positioning basically defined as the capability to influence the customer perception
towards the company’s products or services. The process in the positioning indicates
to differentiate the products or services from the available products or services in the
marketplace(Kostelijk, and Alsem, 2020). A successful positioning strategy of the
company depends on the better understanding of the market in which company
wants to introduce its products or services. It analyses that how company’s products
or services unique from the other competitors available in the market. Positioning
strategy is a unified effort among the marketing and business strategy of the
company. It also involves the communication strategy. Consumer recognises the
positioning strategy clearly by analysing the products or services price and quality.
This helps the company to deliver the products or services as per the consumer
expectation and demand as well. In context to the Hugo Boss, the company follows
several strategies as foundation of the positioning as:

 Based on pricing of the products or services: The positioning based on
pricing of the products or services is associated with competitive pricing.
Generally, positioning strategy helps the company to define their pricing
model as one of cheapest in the marketplace. For example, Supermarkets
usually have home brands products with low cost in the products categories. It
is due to its less logistics and distribution cost that allows company to reduce
the price of products or services (Makkonen, Saarikorpi, and Rajala, 2019).
Therefore, buyers purchase such products without analysing the price as that
they already it is the cheapest price. The Hugo Boss also position based on
the pricing by identifying the gap in the market at a certain price range. The
company introduces products according to price gap which makes it the only
option in certain price range in the market position. The Hugo Boss also
extends its product line in order to fill the certain gap in market.
 Based on the products features: This positioning strategy defines that
associating the products or services with unique features and characteristics.
This strategy often considered as the product differentiation strategy in which
certain products or services poses unique features and beneficial value as
compared to the available competition in the market. It comprises the value
and feature based positioning. It is often used when competition is intense
and there are similar products available in the market. Hence, company
generally position its products or services by more focusing on features such
as durability, easy to use and service availability. This type of position strategy
of the company is known as USP as Unique Selling Point strategy. The Hugo
Boss consistently provides the unique characteristics or advantages of the
products with the customers (Terech, 2018).
 Bases on quality of the products: Generally, the price and quality of the
product align together in the mind of customer in which high price usually
associated with high quality and vice versa. However, positioning a product as
based on its quality is somehow different from positioning based on pricing. In
this company usually focus on high quality products instead of cost of it. The
company is gaining the competitive advantage by offering high quality
products to the customers. Mostly such positioning brands do not
communicate its pricing whereas high quality is the way of communication for
these brands.

 Based on products application & use: This positioning strategy associated
with the specific use of the products. It specifies that associating the products
with a certain application or benefits is the effective way to position the brand
in the marketplace. It is also considered as problem and solution based
positioning in which company focuses on positioning its products as a solution
to the available problem in the market. The Hugo Boss is analysing that what
kind of problem is facing by the customer in the field of clothing, accessories
and footwear, and then provides appropriate solution to them by positioning
the products (Mehraj and Qureshi, 2022).
 Based on the competition: It is one of the crucial company’s positioning
strategies in which it allows company to aware the customer that its products
are better than the other similar product available in the market. It is basically
making customers think about company’s offerings rather than another
competitor. The competition based positioning strategy majorly focuses on
product differentiation with reference to competition. The company is
highlighting key points in its products to stand out in the market. The Hugo
Boss defines attractive positioning strategy to cover the large market share to
convert customer with similar product offering.
3. Four Ps of marketing mix
Marketing mix is a tool used by the companies in order to promote their
products or services in the market. It helps companies to promote their brand as
well. Customer centric marketing mix used to focus to consumer buying behaviour
for the particular products or services(Purohit, Paul and Mishra, 2021). Marketing
mix is also used for companies to accomplish the marketing objectives in the
particular market segment. There are mainly four Ps of marketing mix such as
Product, Price, Place and Promotion. These are considered as the marketing mix
elements. These elements of marketing mix play essential role in order to reach out
to prospects or potential customer which is useful to drive sales. In reference to the
given company as Hugo Boss, the company is a global brand of fashion. it is
following marketing mix elements in order to position its products in the marketplace
to remain the global brand. Here are four Ps of marketing mix used to define the
positioning strategy of Hugo Boss as follows:

 Product of the Hugo Boss: The company is dealing in development and
marketing of fashion products for Women, Men and Children. The company
also has licensing with other companies for manufacturing the products under
Hugo Boss brand name. The company deals in luxury and high class apparel.
The company has large product line for clothing for both men and women
which is divided into two subsidiaries as Hugo and Boss. Furthermore, it is
categorised into four brands such as Boss Orange, Boss Green, Boss Black
and Boss Selection to target the specific audience in the market. Boss is the
core brand that includes classic and trendy clothing for both men and women.
Boss green also referred as Boss Sport in which men’s wear was available
since 2003 and women’s wear was available since 2010. Boss Green is an
active clothing in golf style. Boss Orange is a kind of Bohemian style clothing
which was available for men since the year of 2005 and its women section
was available from the year of 2010. It provides casual clothing for both men
and women as well. The company also offers wide range of premium and
luxury perfumes along with the company also caters premium segment of
customers by providing them customized accessories such as watches,
shoes, caps and wallets as well (Stead and Hastings, 2018).
 Price: It is one of the mainly considered elements of marketing mix by the
customer. The product of Huge Boss brand generally targets the upper
middleclass market. The pricing strategy of the company is generally to cater
the premium customers. Therefore, it serves only a niche market segment.
The company understood that its brand value is high and it offers highly rated
products in the market for which customer is willing to buy the products. The
Hugo considers desirability of its brand image on utmost priority. The pricing
of Hugo Boss products is different with the location the company serves. It
helps the brand to target the particular market segment at the right time. The
company never compromise on its pricing due to that it never offers huge
discounts for the customers. The company identifies that it is offering extra
and premium products to its customers. Hence, the company followed the
premium pricing strategy to target high class and rich people. Therefore, the
annual revenue generated by the company is around $3 billion globally.
 Place and distribution strategy: The company first started it operations from
the Metzingen which is a small town located in Germany. By the time

company has expanded its operations in major cities of many countries. As
Hugo Boss brand caters to premium and high end customers. So that, the
company usually makes its presence at premium locations globally. It sells the
products in more than hundred countries globally. The company’s target
location is Europe and fashionable forward location across the globe. Hugo
Boss brand products generally available at malls and high class boutiques.
The company also provides online shopping experience to its customers
through attractive website. The products of the Hugo Boss is also present at
the various Ecommerce sites (Jermsittiparsert, 2019). The company has a
strong supply chain that provides services to products of the company. The
company operates through 122 outlets and 388 stores estimated. Hugo Boss
is developing various sub brands which are easily available in the
departmental stores. The company is succeeded by positioning the products
at various prime locations to gain the attention of more upper class people. It
is directly affected the company’s overall turnover and profitability.
 Promotion: Hugo Boss has adopted aggressive marketing strategy in order
to create the high brand awareness and brand value. Hugo Boss has been
promoting the brand by advertising and sponsoring the various sports events
as well as fashion events around the world. As the company’s mainly
customers are from high end class so that the company is placing
advertisements in premium magazines in order to gain the attention of target
audience. The company is following testimonial marketing strategy in which
high class individual are interviewed regarding to promote the company’s
offerings. In order to maintain promotion, the company provides sponsorship
to highly rated events such as Formula one race and Golf championship.
Apart from top class events the company involved in social causes so that it
partnered with NGOs, UNICEF, cancer foundation and various other
charitable organisations. The company ensured to create innovative contents
which is best appropriate for the advertising. Huge Boss promote its products
with the help of print media such as posters, templates and catalogues. It is
widely promoted the products with the help of digital media marketing to
specifically target the audience by analysing the customers background, their
financial status and interests. It is most effective way of promoting the
products in which advertisement is placed at right place and right time. The

company used this to gain the attention of large customer base around the
world.
4. Evaluating the effectiveness of company’s marketing efforts
The main reason behind the success of the Huge Boss is well coordinated
integration among the division of the company. The company has global sales
network, reliable buying structure, product expertise, automatic logistic process and
intensive market knowledge (Petre, 2018). The company has involved in intensive
marketing strategies such as sponsoring the cultural and sports events, increasing
global recognition and designing uniform for own stores as well. The company
positioned its image as trendsetter and succeeded in generating maximum publicity
for both the brands such as Hugo and Boss. Evaluating the effectiveness of
marketing efforts helps to find out that what strategy works or what requires
improvement. To stay ahead in the competitive market, the company introduces
various evaluation tools in order to analyse and to take decisions for digital and
traditional marketing strategies. There are several techniques used by the Hugo
Boss in order to evaluate the marketing efforts as following:
Surveying
It is one of best evaluation tool used to analyse the marketing efforts. In this
company asks the customers about the marketing efforts with the help of questions.
This surveying is done by the company is both online and offline. The Hugo Boss
sends emails with Google forms in which survey questions are asked. Survey
provides the useful information that what customers and potential buyers think of
advertising and promotional campaigns. The company is using survey to identify the
buying behaviour of the customers which is helpful to make marketing strategies
accordingly. Surveying further helps to determine the marketing campaign efforts
and to know about the position of the company in the market.
Key performance indicator (KPI)
The key performance indicator in marketing is used to measure the effectiveness of
the marketing and sales efforts. It basically helping the company to analyse that
which marketing strategy is working and which marketing strategy needs to be

replaced or improved (Harvey and Sotardi, 2018). It includes different types of
indicators to evaluate the marketing efforts such as cost per lead, marketing qualified
lead, cost per customer acquisition, customer retention rate, sales qualified leads,
sales revenue and opportunity to win ratio etc.
 Cost per lead (CPL): The company is using cost per lead indicator to
evaluate the cost effectiveness of the marketing campaign to generate sales
leads. It specifies some amount to generate each lead through marketing
campaign.
 Marketing qualified leads (MQL): The marketing qualified lead defined as
the potential lead that is ready to go for sales conversion. These leads are
generally potential buyers who has shown high interest in the company’s
offering.
 Sales qualified leads (SQL): The sales qualified leads provides that number
of potential customers who are ready to buy the products offered by the
company. By analysing the number of leads converting to sales opportunities
helps to determine the strong and weak point of sales lead generation
process.
 Cost per customer acquisition: Cost of customer acquisition refers to the
cost of each and every step involved in convincing a potential customer to buy
the product. It is helping the company to determine the appropriate routes and
budget for the business.
 Sales revenue: Sales revenue indicator tool allows to evaluate the progress
of company’s business in order to generate sales revenue. It is helping the
company to enhance the growth and to develop the personalised targets for
the team members.
Social media analytics
Social media marketing is one of the most efficient tools used for promoting
the products as well as brands. The Hugo Boss company is placing advertisements
on various social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram
and YouTube etc. The ad placed on this various social media platform is in the form
of audio, video, text and images (Lee, 2018). To track the such ads the social media
analytics is used. Social media analytics is helping company to analyse the customer

behaviour on the ads or post. It analyses how many people went through the ad,
how many people has shown interest in the offering and how many people clicked on
the ad. It further analyses the customers retention rate in which how many
customers are repeatable and how much time spent by the prospects on the
company’s ad. Social media analytics is helping the company to analyse the
effectiveness of the marketing efforts. This analytical tool uses social media
optimization referred as SMO to enhance the customer retention rate and to increase
the visibility of the advertisements post on social media platforms. Social media
optimization is a technique used to enhance the ranking of the social media post. It is
helping company to gain the attention of large customer base which is directly
related to sales growth.
Use of latest technology
It is widely using now days in which use of sensor system to track the
customer activity in the store. The company is using sensor on the entrance and exit
door of the store to count how many customers visited the store. The company is
also using various sales monitoring tools to analyse the purchase of customer
automatically and a customer database is created automatically with the help of such
tools. These database of customer includes name, address and contact number of
the customer. It is helping company to identify its existing customer to provide them
specific discounts. It is further helping the Hugo Boss to automatically send the
messages of available discounts in the store to the customers. The latest technology
is helping the company to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing efforts of the
company.
Conclusion
From the above mentioned analysis, it is concluded that how marketing mix is
useful for the company to increase the profitability and about the principles and
practices of marketing. It explained the positioning of the company with the help of
various positioning strategies based upon product quality, features, uses and
competition. It further analysed the elements of marketing mix with the help of four
Ps such as product, price, place and promotion. It also explained the evaluation of
company’s marketing efforts using surveying, social media analytical tools, latest
technology and key performance indicators.

References
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