Strategic Brand Management - Pumpkin Patch

22. marts 2013

Strategic Brand Management - Pumpkin Patch To brand or not to brand 22-03-2013 Unitec Institute of Technology Thomas Wibe Tougaard # 1418017

Strategic Brand Management - Pumpkin Patch

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Table of contents Executive summary............................................................................................................................................ 2

Intro ................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Target segments ................................................................................................................................................ 4

Branding – what to do and dangers to avoid .................................................................................................... 6

Overconsumption ...................................................................................................................................... 8

Strategy – how to manage the brand effectively ............................................................................................ 10

Step 1: What is Pumpkin Patch? .............................................................................................................. 10

Step 2: Brand meaning – what do we deliver? ........................................................................................ 11

Step 3: Brand Response – What and how does the customers think and feel about Pumpkin Patch? .. 12

Step 4: Brand Resonance – How intense a relationship does the customers want to have with Pumpkin

Patch ........................................................................................................................................................ 12

References: ...................................................................................................................................................... 14

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Executive summary A negative attitude towards multinational corporations and the way that some of them are marketing

“shitty” products in order to make profits by convincing people to buy stuff, which they really don’t need

and thus contributing to the global problem of overconsumption. Larger part of multinational food and

beverage producing firms are also creating health risks and physiological instabilities. Hence brands are not

always considered as good as in the old sixties, when people saw advertising as an information service,

which showed/enriched them with the new and smartest stuff that would help them improve their life

quality. Today the public has become used to marketing and more people are able to see through

companies and into the real intentions behind their advertisements. Hence it has become more difficult

and complex to manipulate the consumers’ minds.

You can argue that there are getting aware of a threat and thus putting their “defence barriers” up. Today

costumers are making more complex and thought through critical thinking - at least to a higher degree than

before. Thereby the public are generally getting better to choose which products they need, want but don’t

need and finally just don’t need at all. This is the main reason for new approaches such as branding and PR

becoming more effective methods, than regular advertising, to increase demand for a company’s products

and services. Branding and PR are more trustworthy methods to use, when companies wants to maintain

good relationship with their customers.

However just because branding is better than advertising, sticking to pure branding doesn’t solve the

problem. Big brands are still susceptible to “haters” and this assignment will cover some dangers that

threaten Pumpkin Patch. Some practical suggestions for how to reduce these threats and even turn some

of them into advantages is included in the assignment.

The market for children’s clothing is growing steadily on a global scale, which is good for Pumpkin Patch.

They will need to keep the position in their “home markets”, as well as finding ways to penetrate new

markets effectively.

Pumpkin Patch’s customers are mainly self-conscious mothers with middle to high income.

Pumpkin Patch need to link positive feelings and memories to their brand. The fact that their production is

set up in China may raise ethical concerns about how the employees at their factories are treated and paid.

Where they get their products from and how they get rid of waste may be a secondary issue.

Several CSR initiatives may be good ways to create stronger emotions linked to Pumpkin Patch’s brand,

thereby furthermore differentiating them from their competitors. Pumpkin Patch will better their

reputation by implementing CSR initiatives however they cannot maintain and grow their business without

being completely invulnerable to criticism regarding overconsumption.

Few solutions to decrease the contribution to overconsumption can enhance their CSR strategy and

differentiation possibilities as well as giving them a pretty good shield to protect them against most of the

critics.

Key to their success is a stylish webpage with good overview. Integration of all initiatives into the webpage

design is of top priority.

Last but not least, Kellers brand equity model is used to give present a framework with some clear advice

on how to gain and maintain loyal customers.

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Intro First of all I will argue why a strong brand is not only necessary, but simply essential for a company like

Pumpkin Patch’s competitiveness, hence also growth and profit abilities. Then I will highlight the issues and

high risk threats linked with branding Pumpkin Patch and also ideas/viewpoints applicable to assist

managerial decisions, by arguing for how to strategically maintain and grow Pumpkin Patch’s brand value

while directing them around these lethal threats and grey areas that exist.

In the old days western parents would put clothes on their children, which they have sewn themselves or

inherited from aunts, cousins, brothers, fathers, mothers etc. and in the 1980-2000s going to retail shops

looking for good bargains. Today it’s a mix of retail shops and internet shops. It doesn’t take a whole report

to figure out where the main sales are going to occur in the future. I suggest that with the advantages we

have in technology, production and culture blending, over 80% of the children clothing purchases will be

made from a broadband, 3G, 4G and possibly also a 5G connection in 2020. However this is just my

personal suggestion without scientific journals to back it up – let’s wait and see.

Back to scientific talk we can see that in spite of a financial crisis to erode the private consumers’ wallets in

USA, the sales of childrens’ clothes in million dollars where ever increasing – year by year.

(United States Product & Retail Report Series. 2012).

Moreover still measured by sales in million $ the trend of increasing market size is consistent all over the

world (Worldwide Women’s & Children’s Clothing Wholesale Industry Report. 2013).

Hence we can conclude that there’s room for expansion and Pumpkin Patch has a golden opportunity to

build up a big organization with significant cash flows and economies of scale. They will need a strong

brand to do this and they will need to control it well to avoid possible dangers that are threatening the

good reputation and associations that consumers have linked to the brand.

With globalization and spread of the internet people are becoming more aware of the problems related to

capitalism and overconsumption, thus a well-developed brand strategy is necessary to avoid any harmful

PR in the future (Naomi Klein, 2012).

Branding and PR goes hand in hand and those two are absolutely critical factors in order to maintain or

increase current demand levels, while maintaining or even increasing price levels. Loyal customers are

needed and Keller’s Brand Equity model is used as a conclusion in the end of this assignment to assist

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managers in methods for how Pumpkin Patch can climb all the branding steps in Keller’s brand equity

pyramid and create intense and long lasting relationships with their customers.

Without branding Pumpkin patch will lose their livelihood. How is it possible to get customers into in to a

webpage without strategically controlling its brand? Or at least advertising for its products. People

wouldn’t know anything about the shop and thus not buy their products (Michael & Schrage, 2000).

Since the global demand for children’s clothes is growing, Pumpkin Patch has a unique opportunity to grow

their business into an even bigger MNE, thereby increasing the company’s value. To do that they will need

to manifest a brand that can compete with global competitors.

Target segments Pumpkinpatch’s products are not priced in the absolute luxury segment, but they’re still in the relative high

end of the scale for children’s clothes, when pricing a fleece hoodie for 1 year olds at 39.99NZ$.

(http://www.pumpkinpatch.co.nz/flatshot/W3TG20005/col/TANGERINE/listing/194005/categorypath/girl/l

ittle-girl/autumn-categories/sweats/).

Profit margins in the clothing industry are high and the fact that pumpkin patch has removed their

downstream middle dealers by sending products directly to the consumers via internet transactions and

postal services, instead of having a global distribution to local and private owned distribution

clusters/networks and there through to retailer shops, which together normally are good for keeping

around 70-80% of the final selling price of the product (textile industry).

However these retailers and distributors will also be left with the unsold products. So they take a big part of

the profit but they also put on risk/costs linked to unsold products. Pumpkin Patch (and other textile

companies) has a huge cost driver in terms of unsold products, and Pumpkin Patch will have to deal with

those problems only themselves. Therefore powerful brands with a good differential factor makes it easier

for Pumpkin Patch to sell out their products by marketing campaigns, lowered prices and/or not least

maintain high popularity within outlet stores. These might help them get all the batches processed without

any losses or collections left behind. Hence I would argue that money put into the brand will through the

differential effect significantly reduce the marketing effort needed to reduce one of Pumpkin Patches

biggest cost drivers.

A market consists of people who can afford and are in reach of a given product/service. In order to detect

possible threats to Pumpkin Patch I will subjectively elaborate on two possible target segments and their

behavior, because they may contain big shares of loyal customers and total sale.

The company is selling premium price fashion clothes for children and pregnant mothers.

Main segment: Women in the age of 25-35 - young enough to use internet for purchasing and old enough

to have middle to high income. They are in the search for self-esteem and respect from others. High income

mothers are likely to work more and or be more efficient (that’s why they get paid more). This group will in

order to save time and money, simply be more willing and or able to “automate” their daily duties and

hence shop online.

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Secondary segment: Low to middle income mothers in same age groups, which are also looking for self-

esteem, confidence, attention and respect by others. Only difference is the income levels. They will

because of lower work levels have more time to go shopping in cities or outlets looking for good bargains.

This is also an experience for them. Hence they will tend to shop less online.

Neglecting the size of both segments the first (high income) group will be the main target segment, because

I believe they will be keener on buying Pumpkin Patches products. However the second group should still

be kept in mind.

I would argue that members of the secondary segment have satisfied their physiological and safety needs

before they go shop online at Pumpkin Patch and pay premium prices for child clothing (only few and really

bad mothers would prioritize their babies’ fashion clothing before their babies’ safety, food and love).

Furthermore the love/belonging needs should also be pretty satisfied – they must have a guy in their life

(where else would the baby come from?) and not least a new little loved one. Now they also want some

respect from their families, mother groups etc. so some fancy clothing to their little gold lumps from

Pumpkin Patch will be just what they need to climb the next step and get acceptance, confidence and

attention from their circles of friends/contacts (“Maslow’s hierarchy of needs”, 2013).

Members of the main segment are through their efficiency, job, high income and life status already are

fulfilling the achievement criteria in self-esteem. They have a little bit more room in their economy, thus

fashion clothing is not bankruptcy-risk consumption for them and of course they want their little ones to

look good and be adored. Hence Pumpkin Patch is assisting them in maintaining their confidence and the

respect they already have from others. I would argue that this segment already are fulfilling most of the

esteem needs, hence they are on the tip of self-actualization which means that, in small doses, they are

starting to be aware of and want to change the facts (Child labor in China, pollution, skew distribution and

nonsense usage of resources and not least disadvantages of the problems that are caused by big brands

who trick people of lower knowledge into overconsumption of unnecessary products). They aren’t seeing

the full picture, but are beginning to develop critical thinking and look not only at the tip of the iceberg

anymore, but starting to look further beneath what is normal and soon inadequate knowledge in the main

public (Naomi Klein, 2012).

Essential is that a big part of the members in the main segment are on the edge of self-esteem and self-

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actualization. Hence morality isn’t a top priority however it’s evolving to be the next step to overcome in

their need hierarchy and is thus it’s starting to grow/move into their awareness and values (Tuzzolino,

Frank Armandi, Barry R. 1981).

Branding – what to do and dangers to avoid It takes time to build up a brand but only seconds to destroy. Brands and their values are created in the

companies by marketing strategists and their ideas. However the values of brands are stored in the

consumers’ minds by the links/references, feelings and emotions, in which they connect/anchor to the

specific brand. Hence an existing brand generate value, aggregated awareness, differential effect and in the

end cash flow to the company at a current point in time. However if a company’s consumer groups’ values

and beliefs are changing (going from self-esteem fulfillment to self-actualization) then the consumers’

connections and feelings towards life (including brands) are also changing (Tuzzolino, Frank Armandi, Barry

R. 1981). Thus a proactive strategy is needed not only to maintain brand value but also to direct Pumpkin

Patch around the threats, which their largest consumer group’s focus on morality and sustainability are

creating.

First of all Pumpkin Patch is selling children’s clothes and the first thought that comes into my mind is what

PR effect that child labor in China is putting on to a company, which sells children clothes to mothers that

are starting to develop a higher level of morality and ethics. I need only one word to describe this –

contradicting, and it creates a huge threat to Pumpkin Patch’s brand. The brand stands and exists on the

basis of aggregate feelings which the customers have anchored to Pumpkin Patch’s brand. The value of

Pumpkin Patches brand among other things, lies in the happy moments, when parents see their children in

the smart new clothes and realize how beautiful their kids are and connecting this moment to Pumpkin

Patches brand and products. There’s also made a connection when other people see their babies/children

in cute/fancy clothing and give their positive attention the child. This attention will partly be directed to the

parents, who thereby are getting respect/attention from family, friends etc.

The feelings and connections which are being connected to Pumpkin Patch, when parents realize how

beautiful children they have created and the attention they’re getting from these situations are incredibly

strong and will thus be of great value to Pumpkin Patch, if these can be connected to their brand.

That being said, it’s important to be really clear about who Pumpkin Patch is and send an image of their

identity in a clear, simple and most important consistent way. Hence they need to be awake and notice

which factors that might influence/disturb the image they want to project. They need to be in control of

their costumers’ opinions of Pumpkin Patch and the brand.

As described before - Think about the positive relationship all the beautiful experiences a mother can relate

to Pumpkin Patch’s brand when they see their children in new fancy clothes at home or to family parties.

And consider the opportunities for maintaining and increasing brand value through it.

Then imagine a concurrent connection to Pumpkin Patch’s brand where children in China are being forced

to work long hours in half sleazy and unsafe work environments far away from their families and loved

ones. Can you put yourself into that child’s position and imagine how you would feel if it were you? Exactly

those feeling are what parents will have to suppress in order to have the same feeling about Pumpkin Patch

as before – that would require some energy.

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In other words, I believe that Pumpkin Patch’s brand will suffer. Not only from the people who wants to

care, because as analyzed before, I would argue that a big part of Pumpkin Patch’s main target segment

would, if not already, be caring about such issues and if not, then move into doing so in the near future.

To further support the argument. People who are situated higher up in Maslow’s need hierarchy (thus with

higher focus on morality), has a higher tendency to be frontiers and may thus be likely to include some

horizontal opinion leaders, which at least will create some negative word of mouth affecting Pumpkin

Patch’s brand.

Management should consider ways to eliminate the threats it’s causing to Pumpkin Patch’s brand.

A suggestion to the problem is to make sure that production occurs under orderly/good conditions or at

least not by children.

Textile production is extremely cost efficient in China, because of 3 factors: Knowledge of and experience in

textile production, access to low cost suppliers and work environment standards (or lack of same). If

needed, I’m sure that a little “grease”/”guanxi” will be sufficient to keep most of the government officials in

China silent and thus not enforcing the few law requirements that they actually do have regarding work

environment.

So because we know that extremely low cost production is possible, we also know that significantly higher

costs will be incurred if a good work environment with focus on safety, morale, pauses, salary, working

hours, procedures etc. were to be set up.

Implementation of social responsible manufacturing would be noticeably more expensive however the

profit margins are there to make it possible. The possible connections related to child labor that consumers

might anchor to Pumpkin Patch, can hurt the brand. Especially since they are providing fashion clothing for

children and imaginations of children being exploited is the LAST thing Pumpkin Patch needs to be

associated with their brand. And they might be having customers, which are connecting experiences and

links between the two.

The whole wonder/fantasy picture that can be linked to Pumpkin Patch’s brand would suffer and shrink if

their brand gets compared with exploitation of children. The image that this is creating in the mother’s

mind must be avoided.

The largest parts of Pumpkin Patch’s customers are situated between the self-esteem and self-actualization

locations in Maslow’s need hierarchy. Therefore the whole foundation of their brand structure, customers’

mental connections to Pumpkin Patch and the value of their brand would be distorted in a bad way.

Now that the threats/disadvantages of production in China are analyzed, let’s look at some ways to avoid

and or decrease these.

One solution to take the disadvantages and turn them into opportunities/advantages, which I believe

management should consider, is to implement safe and living worthy work environments as part of a new

CSR strategy.

By providing first of all safe and second of all better work life environments for their workers as the main

activity, they would be able to differentiate themselves from other textile manufactures/wholesalers by

taking part in contributing to a better world, by building up an USP around their life improving production

facilities that should only include +18 employees and thereby giving the Pumpkin Patch brand another POD

to differentiate them from regular child textile producers.

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Further CSR initiatives could be implemented to support the initiative.

An example would be to find 5 different children charity causes and then at the point of purchase, let each

customer voluntarily chose one of the 5 causes, which then automatically will be donated 5% of the total

transaction that any given customer carries out on Pumpkin Patch’s website.

This will have three positive effects:

1) Pumpkin Patch will gain new tools for their marketing program and people will link Pumpkin Patch with

social responsibility, thus valuing them as a company acting morally correct. This will be affecting their

brand positively and “saving” them from the brand haters – or at least improving the relationship.

2) A good opportunity for increased PR.

3) When you let people choose to donate money between 5 different charity causes, without any extra

charge and of their own choice, they’ll feel that they actively are helping to a better world.

4) Pumpkin Patch already took the choice for them, hence they don’t have to think about if they should

give away their own money to charity, because it’s included in the cost anyway.

If Pumpkin Patch just were to make a yearly donation to an already chosen organization, then customers

would neither get the same awareness of nor involvement in the goodwill donations.

It’s good to create and enhance the feelings and emotions, that might help costumers remember Pumpkin

Patch more and in a better way.

The greater involvement and commitment/connection to the donation, will create happiness, proudness

and a more intense feeling of participation in the charity causes, because one of the 5 causes is chosen

uniquely by the customer themselves, hence they will feel that they actively took responsibility for good

things to happen. (Goldstein, Martin & Cialdini, 2008).

In a purchase situation, this will cause activity in three key areas of the brain, namely:

1) The area activated for creating a customer’s feelings when buying new fancy clothes for their loved ones.

2) The area activated when making the (partly free) donations to children’s charity causes of own choice.

3) The area where Pumpkin Patch’s brand is placed.

Hence associations are created and thus links will be connecting the three feelings activated in the brain to

Pumpkin Patch’s brand.

Descriptive citation from inspirational article: “With repetition, connections are made and 'set' in the mind -

in short neurons that fire together wire together. So if the associative network of Sainsburys fires at the

same time as the associative network that is Jamie Oliver for a number of times - the two networks start to

join up. Thus when you think of Sainsburys it is likely to have unconscious associations of Jamie. These

connections are constantly changing with time and different stimuli. The representation of a brand at a

neuronal level is called a brand engram.” (“Thinkbox: TV and the Brain,” 2013).

I believe this is a better way of implementing donations than just letting the company donate a certain

amount of money to charity. Furthermore it will solve many of the upcoming problems that might affect

Pumpkin Patch’s brand negatively.

Overconsumption

Pumpkin Patch have a big brand and they want to go global, so no matter how many positive associations

they are able anchor into Pumpkin Patch’s brand and no matter how much of their profits that will be

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donated to charity, these initiatives will nonetheless increase the demand for Pumpkin Patch’s products

and thus in no way solve, but merely contribute to the issue of overconsumption. I think that everybody

who’re actually considering to buy Pumpkin Patch’s products will have lots of other and more

environmentally friendly ways of obtaining clothes for their children. This critic may seem fairly skeptic and

harsh to most people, however that’s the arguments that they might be facing and it is a fact, that

overconsumption is one of the factors which in the long term can be undermining conditions necessary for

the sustainability of human life (Saint Kitts & Nevis Country Review. 2012). Hence critics of mechanisms

such as brands and MNE’s will always have motivations for a skeptic view on overconsumption - with pretty

legitimate reasons.

So with the conclusion that Pumpkin Patch is contributing to overconsumption and their goals are to go

global, increasing market shares and raising profits (surprise), we can figure out that these two and inverse

relationships will always be contradicting and thus we will not be able to eliminate criticisms of the brand

entirely. Pumpkin Patch will as every other firm still continue their hunt for profits, and their employees the

hunt for keeping their jobs and for some also raising their salaries. Finding a way to combine consumption

decrease and profit hunts is a tough nut to crack, so taking the goal and wishes of Pumpkin Patch and their

employees into consideration, the second best thing to eliminating criticism must be to decrease the

chances for and magnitudes of it. Thus also contributing to the marketing tools attributable to Pumpkin

Patch’s marketing managers and brand strategists.

I’ve come up with 4 possible implementations that are targeted towards the possible critics and the threats

they pose to Pumpkin Patch’s brand.

Suggestion 1

Clothes can be made of cradle to cradle materials that wouldn’t hurt the environment when abolished

(International Journal of Technology Management. 2012).

I don’t believe that cradle to cradle is the solution for clothes, because a big part of the natural resource

consumption occurs in production, design and distribution of the clothes – not decomposing. Thus

abolished clothes will just require new clothes to replace the former and now decomposed clothing. This

could give an extra edge to Pumpkin Patch’s CSR programme – however in terms of helping the problem of

overconsumption it would be useless.

Suggestion 2

Clothes could be made more durable to cope with more wear and tear as well as maintaining original colors

and fittings after years of use and washing.

More durable clothing can possibly extend the lifetime span of Pumpkin Patch’s products and thus reduce

the need and hence also demand for new clothing. Good initiative to give Pumpkin Patch an edge in the

clothing industry by helping reduce overconsumption. Eventually it could be combined with one or both of

the following two donation programmes.

Suggestion 3

Clothes collecting and donation mechanisms to forward a bigger amount of used clothes to 3rd world

countries in order to increase utility of the already produced products. This could also give an extra edge to

Pumpkin Patch’s donation programme.

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Suggestion 4

Clothes collecting and donation mechanisms to forward a bigger amount of used clothes to local parents,

which doesn’t have the financial margin to provide quality clothes for their children. This will also minimize

the transportation need, because they don’t need to ship the clothes to 3rd world countries.

Strategy – how to manage the brand effectively Now we’ve discussed some issues about Pumpkin Patch, their brand, pitfalls applicable to it, main

consumers, the growing markets and come to the conclusion that a strong brand is not only necessary but

in fact essential for Pumpkin Patch to reach their goals. A CBBE model is presented to give managers a clear

guideline for how to manage Pumpkin Patch’s brand successfully into the future (Mindtools: Kellers Brand

Equity Model, n.d.).

Step 1: What is Pumpkin Patch?

Pumpkin Patch is an online store, which are designing marketing and selling clothes for babies, children and

their mothers.

Awareness/salience - How to create it in the right way. Giving customers the right associations, when first

introduced to the brand.

First of all, the entire web webpage is fantastic. The design is super organized and has a stylish outlay that

maintains a good overview of the many products and functions on the page. I have nothing but credits to it.

The stylish appeal gives customers a good feel when on the page and small citations from designers

together with pictures of children in normal life situations ignites good feelings that makes the customers

want to buy their products. Even though I don’t have children it’s a small experience to move around in the

fashion-blog-like space they’ve created – I can almost imagine my friends’ children looking stylish and

happy in the small dresses.

Above from the styling, the organizing of it is really good. It is super simple and that’s why it’s easy for

customers to get a quick overview of practically most of the products and information on the page.

There’s nothing more irritating than having IT problems or being stuck at a webpage. Such a problem would

decrease not only sales but also consumer experience radically. I will argue that an easy way of interacting

would have the proportionate opposite and positive implication.

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The simplistic features only becomes more important to Pumpkin Patch, since their target groups are

mothers, and mothers aren’t usually known to be natural talents in technology handling nor car driving

(just kidding). Hence it is essential to keep up the good IT work behind the already fantastic and fashion-

blog-like webpage.

Their customers are seeking adorable fashion clothes. Hence a feeling of being stylish (like the webpage

illustrates perfectly) supports their definition of who Pumpkin Patch are and what they deliver – namely

stylish fashion clothes. Hence they are consistent in the identification of themselves in the message they

send to their customers.

The feeling created is somewhat like when you’re in a fashion store on Queens Street and they play hip

modern music to make you feel cool and wanting to pay more for their products in order to achieve the

coolness image that you would like to create about yourself.

If application of the proposed CSR strategy would become a reality, then it is absolutely necessary to have

integration of it into the webpage design at absolute top priority. Not only to define themselves but also to

send a consistent and clear message to the customers about what Pumpkin Patch is, what they stand for,

what they deliver and how they do it. A simple USP (aligned to customer wants) should be defined and then

communicated clear and concise.

Step 2: Brand meaning – what do we deliver?

Performance: Product is pretty simple, first of all cute and stylish children clothing, it should be made of

comfy and non-allergic materials that the babies will love. Price is secondary – customers are willing to pay

a premium for this service/product and furthermore the brand creates a differential effect, which should be

taken advantage of.

One step beside will be costly (catastrophic) thus consistent quality delivered will be more important than

singular stand out products. POP - They need to deliver at least the same quality as close competitors.

- The clothing is stylish, the webpage is stylish and the brand is also stylish.

- Product design and service are both in top.

- Price is high and it also should be.

Improvements:

- CSR: Put the extra feature on their products which states that their products are ethically correct

manufactured.

- Incorporate this well in the webpage and send a clear message to consumers about the value in

their new POD.

Imagery: A mother and her relationship to children stirs some of the strongest emotions that we humans

are able to create, thus Pumpkin Patch has many opportunities in their branding to play with.

- The fancy clothes cause mothers and their friends to adore their babies’ new cute and fancy look in

Pumpkin Patch’s products (good for branding).

- The stylish homepage gives consumers a posh feeling when shopping (increased amount of

purchases).

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- When they have seen the attention that children gets in new cute and fancy clothing, the

imagination of how adored their own children will be in this new clothing exists in their mind while

they are looking around/shopping at the homepage – that’s why it’s so important (Increased

shopping caused by branding).

Improvements:

- Customers choose one of 5 children’s charity causes and thereby take an active part in goodwill.

- A new software program or mobile application, where you can upload a picture of your baby and

dress it up with new collections from Pumpkin Patch is an excellent feature to get the consumers’

imaginations spinning. Imagine the fun you could have by taking a real picture with your phone and

afterwards dressing your little baby up on the computer/phone.

- It would be ideal for word of mouth if customers were playing with and talking about this funny

app. Moreover a feature for sharing these creations on Facebook & Twitter will cause some great

and authentic attention in the social media space.

Step 3: Brand Response – What and how does the customers think and feel about Pumpkin

Patch?

Quality: Superior, stylish. Perceived quality can be managed by branding and pricing.

Credibility:

Credibility: Competitions can be made in in collaboration with cereal producers, toys and or other ways

that will connect to children and their parents.

Global market is in growth and Pumpkin Patch wants to penetrate new markets. They can develop

partnership with various kid television shows in order to establish quick awareness and not least stir some

good emotions that will be linked to Pumpkin Patch’s brand.

Consideration: Marketing communication and branding. This is where things get important. Pumpkin Patch

needs to establish the mothers’ relation to their brand – she is the one making the purchases.

They need to get established a connection in the mothers’ heads between the feelings of self-esteem,

attention and respect from others that Pumpkin Patch’s products and services can provide for them.

Superiority: Pumpkin Patch is stylish, the webpage is fast and easy to use and the implementation of a CSR

strategy will give them a trustworthy POD.

Step 4: Brand Resonance – How intense a relationship does the customers want to have with

Pumpkin Patch

May sound too simple but most important is to have good products. The clothing they sell need to deliver

in design and quality to create the loving feeling in the mothers’ perceptions and associate these to

Pumpkin Patch – it’s essential!

If they stop designing the cute clothing and thereby stop giving the consumers (children) the attention

which mothers must associate to Pumpkin Patch’s brand, then their main target group will satisfy their

need somewhere else next time.

Implementation of a holistic CSR strategy (including ethical correct production) will differentiate all the

products and thereby create new customer groups. Some parents will choose only to buy from this

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company from now on. However profitability will decrease and if they need to increase prices further, then

they will have to segment the market again and ask the following questions:

- How does their CSR strategy and new marketing mix change the types of consumer groups that

Pumpkin Patch will apply to?

- How keen will these new (and old) consumer groups be for this combination of products?

- How will competition change and will they be able to charge a sufficiently higher price in order to

maintain profit levels?

- Is the aggregated demand in the new segment(s) for ethically manufactured products higher or

lower than the current aggregated demand?

Implementation of a CSR strategy (excluding ethical correct production) will be an inexpensive however not

as authentic way to improve the brand reputation and value without having to raise prices significantly.

The money spent on it should more than come back by good brand associations, differentiation, increased

brand value, repeated purchases and differential effects.

It should create a relationship between the customer, goodwill, happy feelings and Pumpkin Patch.

The mobile app where you can take pictures of your baby and play with software programs that lets you

dress the baby up and down before making any purchase. It creates good feelings through funny moments

and these will of course be related to Pumpkin Patch. Word of mouth - imagine when mothers are talking

with friends, telling about the funny app, showing them the pictures or even better sharing them on

Facebook & Twitter.

Strategic Brand Management - Pumpkin Patch

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14

References: United States Product & Retail Report Series. (2012). Children’s & Infants’ Clothing Stores.

EBSCO: http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.unitec.ac.nz/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=d1ffaef8-97b4-

4da8-885d-b3e18a6a4217%40sessionmgr12&vid=2&hid=19

Barnes Reports. (2013). Worldwide Women’s & Children’s Clothing Wholesale Industry Report

EBSCO: http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.unitec.ac.nz/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=3e81d822-aa42-

4735-86a1-dc94664cb9eb%40sessionmgr10&vid=2&hid=19

Naomi Klein. (2012). No Logo

http://www.naomiklein.org/no-logo

Keller’s Brand Equity Model. Retrieved from

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/keller-brand-equity-model.htm

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. (2013).Retrieved from

http://www.americandebtproject.com/2013/01/is-a-character-flaw-permanent-can-people- change-or-

are-we-doomed-for-cycles-of-misery/maslows_hierarchy_of_needs/

Tuzzolino, Frank Armandi, Barry R. (1981). A Need-Hierarchy Framework for Assessing Corporate Social

Responsibility. doi: 10.5465/AMR.1981.4287982

Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, Dr. Robert Cialdini (2008) Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be

Persuasive.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-7096-7, ISBN-10: 1-4165-7096-9

Thinkbox: TV and the Brain. (2013).

http://www.thinkbox.tv/server/show/nav.1135

Saint Kitts & Nevis Country Review. (2012). Global Environment Snapshot

EBSCO: http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.unitec.ac.nz/ehost/detail?vid=6&sid=7db41279-03ef-45c8-

9b46-

9efc528b4873%40sessionmgr11&hid=19&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=bth&AN

=74183198

International Journal of Technology Management. (2012). Reverse logistics for waste reduction in cradle-to-

cradle-oriented firms.

ISSN: 02675730

EBSCO: http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.unitec.ac.nz/ehost/detail?sid=598f3ffd-9f25-40f6-a7ca-

d25fb94e52ac%40sessionmgr15&vid=1&hid=9&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=bt

h&AN=80134596

Mindtools: Kellers Brand Equity Model (n.d.) Retrieved from

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/keller-brand-equity-model.htm

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Michael & Schrage (2000). Is advertising passé?

ISSN: 08880840

EBSCO: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=5&sid=7b2f949a-aa1b-4d9c-a226-

d17b3003da1b%40sessionmgr11&hid=25&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=bth&A

N=3170759