Fred Perry Brand Story (Part 4) ------ The Art of Integration 

When it comes to marketing and branding, I remember there are two basic book: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion written by Robert B. Cialdini, and Strategic Brand Management written by Kevin Lane Keller. The essential strategy of marketing and branding, in my opinion, is to exercise influence. However, there are a little difference between them. Marketing is more inclined to employ influence to persuade people to make purchasing decisions. Branding more tends to apply influence to attract people’s attention and create attachment relationship. To a certain extent, I believe branding is a bit more charming than marketing thanks to its personality traits just like a human. Therefore, you build a brand just like you create a character. There are a variety of touch points and weapons such as visual shock, stories, history, culture, flashpoints, that kind of things. All of them have strong influence and magical power that could make a deep impression on audience.

As we all know, brand equity is one kind of intangible assets that is an important financial contributor. So, brand managers have to pay attention to all kinds of details. For example, different styles of fonts have ability to deliver distinctive messages and express different meaning. Meanwhile, a broad and holistic thinking is also required when making decisions.

It is obvious that it is extremely tough for brands to compete against their rivals in the crowded marketplace only by means of one kind of branding approach. Although there are a variety of branding model including cultural branding, emotional branding, community branding, content branding, etc., it is not easy for brands to combine more than one branding approach. However, Fred Perry, in my opinion, is a strong role model of successfully integrating these branding approach and has achieved a better performance in the competitive context. It has taken advantage of traditional branding approaches including sponsorship and celebrity endorsement. The key success factor is that Fred Perry has applied cultural branding to successfully keep its position in the market from generation to generation. It has continued to maintain its relevance with contemporary subculture to deliver its essential heart and soul of brand. It uses the power of music and build partnerships with talent musicians to build emotional connection between its brand and consumers. The most important thing is that Fred Perry has carried out various kinds of branding activities with non-commercial feeling.

  

Team 4: Florine Bonduelle, Shensheng Dai, Arthur Jourdan, Erin Palmeter, Joséphine Peyre