The North Face Brand Analysis Report

Introduction

The selected brand for analysis is The North Face, an American Company that deals with outdoor products including footwear, coats, fleece, outerwear, and shirts (Richardson 2018, p.1). It also manufactures outdoor equipment such as sleeping bags, tents and backpacks (Bloomberg 2018, p.1). The report aims to provide a critique of the brand elements and describe the brand resonance model. In that case, the report summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of the brand's current brand element strategy based on the six criteria. It also gives a summary of the brand's strength and weaknesses against each building block of the model.

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A Critique of the Brand Elements

The six brand elements useful in building brand equity including memorable, meaningful, pleasant/likable, flexible/adaptable, and transferable as well as protected (Keller 2013, p.114).

Memorable

A memorable brand is one that is easily recognized and recalled (Mcfarlane 2013, p.8). The North Face brand is memorable, and a well knows brand in the outdoor community. It resonates with the company culture whose commitment sustainability and environment (The North Face 2018, p.1). Customer frequently recalls The North Face brand during their outdoor gear shopping for its quality, style, versatility and durable outdoor gears.

Meaningful

The North Face brand fits well within the meaningfulness of its products to the targeted market. The meaningfulness of a product is demonstrated by the description and ability to persuade consumers (Keller 2013, p.115). In that case, the North Face products convey general information regarding the function of the items. Customers are aware of the brand, its products and understand well why they should buy the outdoor gears from North Face.

Likability

A likable product is one that consumers find its imagery to be fun, exciting and interesting (Mcfarlane 2013, p.8). The North Face brand is partially aesthetically pleasing to many customers. Visually, the products are appealing to consumers for high quality, comfort, durability and serving customer needs. However, the price is not worth it as many find the outdoor gears rather unstylish and expensive. It shows that The North Face Brand meets all the dimensions of brand personality including sincerity, sophistication, ruggedness, competence and excitement (Aaker 1997, p.347). However, these brand attributes are not reflected in the customer responses because the products are expensive.

Transferability

The North Face brand has a product line that can be extended by developing new and existing products (Cheung 2011, p.52). The creation of new products from the current line reassures the brand of customer trust and significant position in the market. Exploration of more product dimensions is a primary focus of The North Face with the brand elements easily accessible to many cross geographical boundaries in malls, outdoor retailers and second-hand shops (Richardson 2018, p.1). However, it becomes a challenge when opening wholesale shops as the company is highly discriminative when choosing wholesale distribution locations across geographical boundaries.

Adaptability

The North Face brand is adaptable over time. The company's history shows that the brand has been changing with the new needs of customers each period they arise (Richardson 2018, p.1). Through research and development, the company considers changes in consumer opinions and integrates consumer research during the development of their products (Cheung 2011, p.8). The athletes are used in testing new products and improving the product quality. In ensuring adaptability, the North Face Company considers comfort, quality, product technology, products ability to withstand different weather conditions and durability as critical attributes for updating brand elements as required by clients.

Protectability

The North Face brand elements can be legally protected everywhere the brand is marketed. The company has rules of entering a country and starting a branch whenever it is marketed. All the wholesale and retail shops selling The North Face products can only sell on behalf of the company. It is only the approved partners that can take part in manufacturing The North Face products (Cheung 2011, p.21). All these aspects provide legal protectability everywhere the brand is marketed. The company's' trademark protects all the brand elements from being reproduced in any country that North Face operates. This gives the brand competitive protectability and competitors cannot easily copy the North Face logos, symbols and brand names.

Brand Resonance Model

The brand resonance model is useful in understanding how a brand creates a loyal relationship with customers (Keller 2013, p.30). A summary of the brand equity and customer's psychological connection with the brand explains The North Face brand resonance model.

Summary of the Brand Equity Strategy against the Four Building Blocks of Resonance Model

According to Keller (2001, p.5), customers notice a strong brand with its identity, meaning, response and relationships. The North Face has strong brand equity that accounts for the various customer responses made from the brand name. In this case, The North Face is a brand with the ability to keep and attract customers.

Regarding customer's psychological connection with the brand, four factors explain brand resonance including customer judgments, feelings, brand performance and imagery (Keller 2001, p.13). These affective factors are useful in building customer-based brand equity (Duman, Ozbal, and Duerod 2018, p.359). Based on customer responses, it is true that The North Face is a strong brand with high customer loyalty to its products. Customer's preference for branded outdoor gear shows their love for The North Face products that are well differentiated in the market. It gives the clients what the company consistently upholds for a successful brand performance including quality, comfort and durability among others.

Consumers have a warm, fun and excitement feeling when they visit The North Face retail stores. The retail environment gives consumers all possibilities of an adventure with exciting imagery. The entrance has water cascades, and a curved way through the merchandise with rocks laid next to it all to the tents presenting a feeling at home experience. The videos at the interactive kiosks with athletes during their outdoor sports give customers a great experience at the retail stores (Cheung 2011, p.31).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the report entails a critique of the brand elements of The North Face and a description of the brand resonance model. The brand elements support the successful performance of The North Face brand in the market. In that case, the company's culture is portrayed in how customers perceive the outdoor gears manufactured and sold by The North Face. The brand resonance model supports the brand equity in explaining the factors of building a successful brand. In this case, differentiation, knowledge, esteem and relevance of The North Face brand explains its customer judgments, feelings, brand performance and imagery.

References

Aaker, J. 1997. Dimensions of brand personality. Journal of Marketing Research 34, pp.347-57.

Bloomberg. 2018. Company overview of the North Face, Inc. Leisure Products. Available at: < https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=35431>

Cheung, G. 2011. Brand Analysis: The North Face. Slide Share. Available at: < https://www.slideshare.net/gracecheung/brand-analysis-the-north-face?from_action=save> [Accessed Sep. 4, 2018]

Duman, T., Ozbal, O., and Duerod, M. 2018. The role of affective factors on brand resonance: Measuring customerbased brand equity for the Sarajevo brand. Journal of Destination Marketing and Management, 8, pp.359-372.

Keller, K. 2001. Building customer-based brand equity: a blueprint for creating strong brands. Working Paper Series.

Mcfarlane, D. 2013. Strategic considerations in brand analysis using the Gain brand as an example. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing & Management Review, 2 (8), pp.1-14.

Richardson, M. 2018. The many faces of The North Face. Grailed Inc., Available at: < https://www.grailed.com/drycleanonly/the-north-face-brand-family > [Accessed Sep. 4, 2018]

The North Face. 2018. Strategy and innovation. Innovation Driven by Insight. Available at: < https://www.vfc.com/brands/outdoor/the-north-face#strategy-innovation> [Accessed Sep. 4, 2018]