Cacharel
...u Lou. The brand Cacharel is not a real brand, in my opinion. It is rather just a name of a producer. Does L’Oreal’s brand inflict on Cacharel? We don’t think so!! I agree. They are kept so separate. However, we should probably think, when providing solutions, would it a good idea to eliminate Cacharel as obsolete name and launch a new perfume selection for L’Oreal? L’Oreal is a strong brand and “masstige” is suitable term to describe their present products as well. I think Anais Anais and Lou Lou would suit there…and new perfumes could be then launched as a part of L’Oreal family, kind of an up-grade to their family, which could then support other product-lines as well. Brand image Is the brand communicated correctly to the costumers? At the beginning yes, because they were rebellions, they did something which no one else did, the team was young and creative. They communicated by media, which no one did at this time. Then they failed to communicate correctly, because they didn’t remain in movement with the changing time. Are they a luxury brand or mass-production brand? More like masstige. Has the poor marketing strategy affected the consumers view of cacharel? Definitely, but now is time to change the marketing strategy. we don’t have the results of a customer research, so everything we can do to assess customers views is more or less subjective guessing and making assumptions. Perceived as an old product, but not as a classic (which would certainly have a place also in the future) So, what should we do? If we think it’s a product for elderly, could it better to let it die with its customers? One problem with the communication was that there was a period of time when they didn’t communicate enough (cut backs in media spending). As a brand image is something that is created in the minds of a customer and aiming to the top of the mind, the brand owners should take care of that they stay at the minds of a customer. Although the customers form the images, brand owners must have some kind of a control over the creation process, actually they should be in the lead. The perfume is used basing on many motives, but the most important motive is that of a self-realization through enhancing user’s social status and personality. When analyzing the winners of the period concerned here (see Exhibit 3), we can see that their brand mostly are conceived as enhancing the seduction power, femininity and social status. Anais anais is low on seduction and enhancing more “natural self” (lou lou is not in the chart). Enhancing natural self is totally OK, if that is what our customers want, but if they want to enhance something else, what do we have to provide? The brand’s image should be enhancing more the customer’s image of herself as such she wants to become not as she now is. The image should be kind of future-oriented in the minds of a customer like: “using this perfume makes me look like a woman in an ad.” The question is: what do our customers want to become. They should not ask that from the customer, cause customers don’t necessarily know (if they knew, they also have a solution already!), they should figure it out themselves and then sell this totally new image to the customers. The early success of Anais Anais based exactly on that: they provided an idea of a “new woman”, even though the customers didn’t actually say that is what they need. They created a dream, or image, of a rebellious, courageous young woman, and provided a way to become one. They simply created a new market. Could they do it again? Certainly. They just have to create a new, desirable image of a woman using a perfume, different from the others and definitely desirable in the customers’ point of view. With the same product? At the beginning sounds crazy. They should probably let Anais Anais live the life of its own and not try to rejuvenate it. On the other hand, why not? We should now think, how the target group (young woman) is similar to the one in 1978. Have the world really changed so much? Difficult questions… Young people have been perceived as rebellious throughout the history. What today is new, is that also older people are trying to keep young; they keep themselves fit, dress up like 20-years younger (change partners like once they were young and dating)… In my opinion there could even be a trend that claims that harder times are coming to the brands that are perceived as classics. I’m 34 and I know so many women in their 40’s and the most of them say that the absolutely only occasion they would wear Chanel 5 is when they are going to opera with their mother! Marketing They know the target group, but don’t know how to target them The question that comes up is if the target group of young innocent women exists anymore. This leads to the question if nowadays young women can identify with the concept of innocence, softness, tenderness,…? Do they want to be seen as real women with seductive power or rather not? In our opinion (out of the text) the management cannot target their target group because they know nothing about it! The management of Cacharel doesn’t know who their buyers are, why they buy their product and what the potential customers want. Another big problem is, that they suddenly made a big change in their way of communication: first of all they communicated with Anaïs Anaïs innocence and later on with Eden sex and seduction, it was a forbidden fragrance and in the advertisement they showed a naked woman. Which is the complete opposite of what they did with the successful communication Anaïs Anaïs. This was a big break in the way of communication and therefore most properly their costumers didn’t know what Cacharel stands for. That was their understanding of going with the time but this was definitely the wrong way. In our opinion they should have been faithful to the old target group and just do small adaptations in their spots to be with the time. What market segment should they target? – luxury or casual solutions What price segment should they target? – luxury or casual solutions Change distributions channels? They followed the same distribution strategy with all three products without any adaptations. With Loulou and Eden they wanted to attract a totally different target group but they didn’t adapt the distribution channels. Change promotion / advertising strategy Anaïs Anaïs most of all was so successful because of the distinctive advertising. Cacharel was one of the first companies to use television to launch a perfume brand. The Ads of Sarah Moon, focused on the interior world of women’s feelings and was regarded as particularly strong and innovative by the industry. It was also Sarah Moon’s ad, which made Loulou successful – she won with the Loulou ad the Lion d´Or in Cannes. When Eden was launched in 1994 there was one big difference – Sarah Moon had ended her pioneering involvement with Cacharel. The commercials then reflected a heavier hand at work. Rather focusing on a young woman and her feelings, it featured a couple, moodily involved in a mating ritual in the Garden of Eden. Consumers vanished! Do they know their customers? No! Fragrance The umbrella strategy worked for Lou lou but it didn’t work for Eden because at the time Lou lou was launched, Anais Anais was a very succesful product so the customers knew the brand and they knew that Anais Anais was a good product and they related lou lou with it. The fragances became more and more agresive, at the beginning anais anais came with a tender, warm and sensual fragance, then lou lou had a sexy fragance and eden a erotic one. Eden was too far away from the original idea, a woman can be sexy or sensual, but can not be erotic with out being sexy or sensual first. Old product Times change They have not adapted to the changing environment Once Cacharel got their winning trio from L’Oreal they started out by making / building the brand of Cacharel from the beginning, they had no expectations and pressure. They were young, seeking success, fashion minded. But with the success the trio settled in and became satisfied with the result they have achieved. The result from their first common effort was the Anais Anais launched in 1978. It was the first modern perfume, with a eye-catching design, modern but yet classic, maintaining a desired quality of mystery. However over the period from -78 up -94 the company enjoyed great success but with the changing environment and the introduction of CK1, cacharel began their decline in sales. Desperate measures to stem sales through the introduction of EDEN and taking a different promotional route proved inadequate. Cacharel had lost its edge. In -97 Katsachnias was made General Director and with his entrance a new era in cacharels history was due. The original trio left and a new hungry trio took over. No constant stream of new ideas and creativity, people became secure Little information is given in the case of recruiting new members to the team of cacharel, but it seems that the trio and then especially Sarah Moon’s creative way of exposing Anais Anais lay the way for a growing confidence in the members of cacharel. Maybe this success strained the creative inflow. There was simply no more room for great minds in the management of Cacharel. They have ...