| Summary: | Bacheloroppgave i Internasjonal Markedsføring fra Pace University i USA, 2015 This bachelor thesis is written in collaboration with our client company Fjällräven. Fjällräven is an outdoor clothing and equipment company from Sweden, with subsidiaries in the U.S. Asia and Europe. Fjällräven was founded by Åke Nordin in the small town of Örnsköldsvik in Northern Sweden in 1960. The name Fjällräven actually means Arctic Fox in Swedish, honoring the small and highly adaptable predator that lives in the Swedish mountains under the harshest conditions. From the small town of Örnsköldsvik, Fjällräven has now expanded to every corner in the world. The fundamental ideas remain the same; provide functional, durable, and timeless equipment to make the outdoors more enjoyable for all. However, Fjällräven has seen a trend in the U.S. that the customers that are buying their products seems to view them as fashion items instead of outdoor equipment. That is not a problem per se, but fashion comes and goes while active outdoor people always need equipment to go hiking. For Fjällräven to establish themselves permanently in the U.S. market, they need to target the active outdoor people and convince them to buy their products. Given this situation, the task that Fjällräven has given us for this thesis was to make a communication plan to attract the active outdoor people. With this assignment came a request of using as little money as possible to make our recommendations. We identified five major challenges in solving the assignment. These five challenges will be the foundation for our analysis and our recommendations. 1. Increase brand awareness among the target market: How can Fjällräven attract the active outdoor enthusiasts and make them the biggest market instead of the “fashionistas”? 2. Determine if Fjällräven meets the needs of U.S. outdoor enthusiasts: What are the differences, if any, between U.S. and European consumers? Should Fjällräven be positioned differently for the U.S. market? 3. Identify and target the outdoor enthusiasts within Fjällräven’s budget: Fjällräven wanted us to spend as little money as possible on marketing. What are the least expensive communication channels that can effectively reach our target market? 4. Sell products through the right channels: Fjällräven has wholly-owned stores in the U.S. but it could be more appropriate to sell through retailers or online. Should Fjällräven sell through retailers or focus more on the online shopping? 5. Keep the fashion customers yet keep Fjällräven’s positioning as a provider of high quality products for outdoor enthusiasts: Currently, what is the impact of the Fjällräven fashionista segment on U.S. outdoor enthusiasts? We conducted nine in depth qualitative interviews with hiking enthusiast in the New York area. We also conducted a mini focus group with four people from Utah, USA. After this we interpreted our findings and conducted an online survey with 108 respondents from all over the U.S. We analyzed the internal, external and competitive environment. After our research and analysis we came up with recommendations including a communication plan which addresses each of these five challenges for Fjällräven in the U.S. Our recommendations will not only raise brand awareness but they are also a cheaper alternative to reaching the target market. These approaches involve different marketing stunts, social media contests, in-store product demonstrations, product ambassadors and reps, and different PR strategies. We have also recommended a change in the distribution strategy for Fjällräven in the U.S. that includes moving over to more retailers than one-brand-stores. Other recommendations are also described in the thesis. We were asked by Fjällräven to develop cost efficient marketing solutions and with total costs of $122,000 our recommendations have an estimated ROI of 1065%.
|
|---|