Pandora: High-Quality Jewellery at Affordable Prices - Essay Sample

Introduction

Pandora is a jewellery firm that designs, produces, and sells hand-finished and modern jewelleries manufactured from high-quality raw materials at cost-effective prices. The company has outlets in more than a hundred states via close to 7,800 points of sale, with more than 2,400 stores. The company was established in 1982 and its headquarters are in Copenhagen, Denmark. The company employs close to 27,300 people around the world, from which 13,200 are located in Thailand where the firm produces its jewellery. In Denmark's Nasdaq Copenhagen stock exchange, the company is publicly listed. During 2017, the firm’s total revenue was DKK 22.8 billion, which is close to EUR 3.1 billion (Verdon, 2019). Pandora has a unique story, which is about a firm with a typical brand and characteristic products that have made exceptional history in just a few years. The company has grown from a local Danish jewellery store to a universal company in more than 70 countries (Chen et al., 2016). Pandora was started by a Danish goldsmith Per Enevoldsen and his spouse Winnie as a jewellery shop. From the time it was started, the two sojourned to Thailand to look for jewellery to import. An increase in demand for their products compelled them to slowly shift their focus towards providing them at wholesale to their Danish clients.

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Following several successful years as wholesalers, in 1987 the retail services were halted and the firm relocated to a larger premise. At the same time, the first in-house designer joined the company and it began focusing on manufacturing its own typical jewellery (Chen et al., 2016). By 1989, the firm started manufacturing its jewellery in Thailand. During the year 2000, the firm launched its charm bracelet concept in the Danish market. Many customers embraced the concept, which drove and encouraged the company to expand globally, joining novel bazaars like the US in 2003 as well as Australia and Germany in 2004 (Kottasova, 2018). Over the subsequent years, the firm fastly expanded its presence from a Scandinavian market to an international one. The sales platform was chiefly driven by third party suppliers and powerful production capacities in Thailand.

To raise Pandora's production capacity, the firm opened a large scale manufacturing facility in Thailand in 2005, that forms an integral part of the firm’s production and underbuilding to date. A second manufacturing facility was opened in the same place in 2008, which in 2010 was coupled with the opening of the firm's third and fourth facilities in the same locality thus strengthening the unique production setup further (Kinasih, 2017). Today, the firm manages and operates perpendicularly integrated business model from internal designing and production to universal marketing as well as direct distribution in the markets. The company aims at providing females across the globe with contemporary, high quality, and authentic jewelries cost-effectively, thus beghasting females to manifest their individuality (Anca and Cristina-Maria, n.d). Every woman has an explicit story to say, an individual collection of experiences that make her who she is. Which is why Pandora acknowledges these moments and celebrates them.

Pandora has a rich marketing strategy that helps propel its success. To spread its efforts, the company uses both traditional media that includes print, online, and broadcast as well as social media. The brand encourages its consumers to share individual stories and unforgettable experiences that make their lives unique (Almirao, 2015). The firm's jewellery is designed to incite the sharing of such narratives with others, and social media forms the best organic platform. The message that the company implies to communicate helps in deciding the communication channel. Traditional media is used to push chief messages across since reach and oftenness are vital. Nonetheless, social media provides a platform for direct customer engagement, which is impossible with broadcast and print media (Bitti, 2014). The target market for the company is females aged between 25 to 49. Recently, the company has expanded its demographic to involve a young audience.

Applying a design thinking process could help Pandora restore its market share since it involves conducting market research and customer insights. The design thinking process helps avoid wasting resources on a product that does not backlash in the long run (Liedtka, 2014). It is an important process since it enables the producers, in this case, Pandora, to empathize with its customers and easily understand their needs. Additionally, the process enables different ideas to be shared to get the different views people have on how products can be improved. The process then enables the product to be experimented and prototypes created to test the product's customer experience. Marketers should adopt the design thinking process since the customer needs to keep changing over time, and they desire more control, interaction, and openness from the marque. In response, the producers need to respond faster and in a much interactive manner than previous approaches (Thoring and Muller, 2011). Improvements need to be made by Pandora since the charms are never luring more customers. Their consumers are preferring simple and fewer charms. The consumers are tired of the products, and only change and betterment can retain them.

New ideas brought in through the ideation process might suggest the addition of new products other than the ones provided, which may increase production. Moreover, solutions suggested could include the use of more technology to improve customer experience in the e-commerce platform. Other suggestions may still incite the use of other materials in production to enhance the number of options available. The improvement of e-commerce, the addition of more products, and improvement in technology might lower the cost of production and increase profits for the firm. While transitioning to adopt the design thinking process, the company may be forced to review its workforce composition to be more diverse. The team tasked for this work should include IT experts, marketers, PR experts, and other relevant professionals. This may require that the company uses more finance in procuring labor as well as technological infrastructure, but for a company like Pandora which is third place in the jewellerybusiness, I do not see any constraint.

In the design thinking process, the experts first of all need to define the problem. Where did the company go wrong to incur losses or lose its customer base? This information now helps to forge forward by suggesting solutions to the problems at hand. This information can be acquired by looking at the market trends, conducting in-depth interviews, and searching in databases. Pandora has experienced a serious problem which should be identified since it resulted in their sales declining abruptly. The decline in sales may be attributed to global geopolitics and economic doubt, but there is yet another thing. The jewellery brand, together with other brands have failed to identify the shift in their consumers' behavior. Earlier on females mainly received jewellery as gifts from their boyfriends or husband. It is time that the jewelers realized that nowadays women purchase their own jewellery. According to a survey that was conducted by Jewellery Consumer Opinion Council, it was revealed that women, as jewellery customers, had been underexploited and misheeded by the jewellery industry.

The millennials and Gen Z are unlike the past generations since they do not see the charm brands as attractive. They are not fascinated by brand names and seek much value for their cash (Olla, 2015). The brand names are not observed as much negative, but somehow ancient and tired hence for the aged or for a different period. Moreover, Gen Z and millennials have many options and are highly exposed to upcoming brands via online shopping platforms. Pandora's shares are slowly reducing, while they have only one fruitful product. The company needs to adapt to the situation in the market to survive. The firm's sales crashed by 28% in 2017 after it cut its sales predictions in 2018 (Olla, 2015). In 2018 again, the firm announced that charm sales decreased by 7% during the first quarter. The decline is due to the customers' preference for a simple appearance with minimal charms according to Colding Friis. Bracelets contribute to around 20% of Pandora's sales, whereas other jewellery including rings, earrings, pendants, and necklaces barely contribute to a quarter (Dauriz et al., 2014). Another problem with the company is some of its market messages which sometimes spur controversy with consumers. For instance, a recent campaign by the firm in Italy backfired on it since its message was judged as advancing sexism and the firm was compelled to apologize and pull down the campaign ads (Nigam, 2019). Further, Pandora keeps itself away from the picture of ancient jewellery brands with wealthier heritage as observed by the absence of narrative or celebrity endorsement to command a broader audience. These are some of the problems the marketing team can acquire when researched

Following the problem definition, the team should empathize with the customers. Assuming a people-centered approach in design needs having a clear comprehension of who the customers are and their actual needs (Shapira et al., 2017). This information cannot be ignored and there is a need to look for face-to-face customer insights. Market research conducted a few months earlier may unsurprisingly be outdated in this case. A mass survey cannot be used to develop precise, significant buyer personas here. Surveys can only catch broader strokes since they take time to execute and process. Getting the correct information means sitting down and conversing with persons. This helps clear the ambiguities relayed during surveys and get a clear image of the pressing customer wants. It is also important to recognize the value of interacting with extreme customers. These are people who might be using Pandora's products in an unplanned or unforeseen manner. Such fringes would make Pandora discover novel opportunities, new bazaars, as well as fresh methods of relating and communication. This people-centered approach would work both internally and externally in the firm.

In the ideation process of design thinking, the marketing team needs to suggest solutions to the identified problems. From the broad consumer insights, the team should look for creative and objective ideations (Stempfle, 2002). The floor should not have limits so that as many solutions as possible are put forth. A serene environment should be created where people are comfortable airing their views. Again, the contributors should be assured that their suggestions are key in implementing the new strategy being proposed. The marketing team should also reach out to other people for opinions and feedback (Du et al. 2012). The team should also seek advice from experts and get artistic individuals to weigh in on the strategy. It is important that the team acknowledges the different ways people may prefer to give out their views. There are those that may cooperate well in a group of people, others on a one-on-one basis while others may prefer written communication. Again, whereas some people are free with the revelation of their identity, others like remaining anonymous.

After getting suggestions, the team needs to experiment with the strategy that has been settled on. The greatest barrier to change in many companies is the perceived desire to perfect something prior to releasing it (Brown, 201...