Advanced Marketing Management

Brand portfolio of Woodland :

The brand Woodland is owned by Aero Group, the Flagship Company

which began its

operations in 1960s and now has an asset base of over US$100 Million.
Woodland was

started in Quebec, Canada for making winter boots and entered India in 1
992. Woodland

was one of the brands that we launched in India from the vast portfolio of
Aero Group.

When we entered India, the footwear market was largely unorganised. Wo

odland created a

new category of specialised outdoor adventure sports shoes. Our product

positioning was

different and we were known as a rugged, outdoor leather shoe brand, the
kind usually

preferred by adventurists. The youth took a fancy to our shoes. That was i
n the beginning

and we gradually developed a product line especially for India.

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We have always been an outdoor brand and very much in tune with nature
. Whatever we

do, it will never be against the environment but rather in consonance with
it. Its this

connect that has been the soul of the brand. We not only build this associa
tion through our

promotions, but also through our processes and practices. Woodland plans
to leverage this

association more strongly to further strengthen the brand by changing ove

r its entire range

of shoes and apparel to quality ecofriendly products made with materia

ls and chemicals

that dont harm the nature; by making the manufacturing process less har
mful to the

environment; and by communicating and promoting the brand on the sam

e lines. The intent

is to make ecofriendliness its brand recall. Woodland has always been an

outdoor and

adventure brand with close association with nature and environment.

As part of our growth graph, we currently have 300+ company owned excl
usive Woodland

stores across various cities in India and are growing at the rate of 25 to 30
%. The brand also

has a presence in more than 3000 plus multibrand outlets in a number of

countries.

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Woodland Length :

The Number Of Products In The Product Line Is Called Brand

Length.

Shoes (10)

Sandal (5)

Belt (4)

Bag (6)

Cap (1)

Jacket (7)

Gloves (2)

Wallet (4)

Apparels (8)

Trekking poles (2)

TOTAL Length of Woodland is,

10 + 5 + 4 + 6 + 1 + 7 + 2 + 4 + 3 + 2

= 44 Products.

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Woodland width :

width is the number of product lines in the product mix.

Shoes

Sandal

Belt

Bag

Cap

Jacket

Gloves

Wallet

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Apparels

Trekking poles

Total width of Woodland is 10.

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Woodland Depth :

The different varieties of product in the product line is called Brand

Depth.

shirts
A p p a re ls
t-shirts

trousers

Denim
trousers
jackets

Pullovars

fleece

Track suits

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Brand Positioning:

Brand positioning consists of three basic elements they are Market

Analysis, Target Market &Brand elements now these elements can be better
understood through a flow chart:

1). Market Analysis:

A survey was conducted to find out the demand & supply analysis, production
analysis & marketshare captured by woodland shoes:

The survey was conducted in a woodland outlets,

small retailers, big bazaar mall,students, and relatives & amongst
peer group
To conduct a survey two questionnaires prepared by group one for
retailers & one for customers
The retailers questions are based on availability,
durability, production, demand, supply,profits margin &their suggestions
regarding product

2). Target Market:

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1. Market segment : It focuses on upmarket segment

2. Age : Products available for every age group but mainly focusing
on teen agers and youngsters(20-35yrs), recently for infants
3. Gender : Products available for both male and female
4. Exclusiveness :

Mainly focusing urban areas

Gives an feeling of royalty

Minimum cost ranging between 1000-2000 Rs

5). Having single geographic orientation for future prospective

Brand Element Of Woodland :

1) Brand Name : Woodland
2) Logo :
Brand element in case of woodland is its logo which has changed from time to time:

1994

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2
002

2009

The picture of dense tree with the name of woodland, this logo
has positioned itself as the brand image in the mind-set of the
consumers. Logo itself describes the

meaning and objective of the company as well as product i.e.

toughness. Woodland literally means, Land which is covered with
trees and shrubs and which gives an immense sense that they
are especially made for the peoples like Safari, adventurer, for
trekking. And second brand element is its tag line Shoes for the true
adventurer. So along with its logo and tag line, brand has position edit
self as follows

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3) URL : http://www.woodland.com./

4) Slogan : Explore More

Current brand positioning:

A). Current market positioning of woodland is as rugged high quality premium casual
shoes, canbe called as SUV of Indian shoes.
B). Current brand positioning is Woodland has created a niche for itself for
casual and stylish shoes catering to the segment which is style conscious
at affordable prices. Though data for quantitative comparison was not

Woodland Marketing Programe :

Five years ago, Woodland, the maker of outdoor shoes and apparel, with a
flourishing business in the country's metros, decided to test waters in Tier
2 and Tier 3 cities.

It opened a store each in the retail high streets of Jaipur and Udaipur, both
well-known, well-to-do cities. Woodland had much expectation.

But the stores flopped - there just weren't enough buyers - and had to
shut. Woodland then decided to stay away from smaller cities for a couple
of years. No more experiments, no more testing waters was the message
from the head office in Delhi.

A year-and-a-half ago, amidst the buzz about the potential of Tier 2 and
Tier 3 cities, Woodland decided to venture into these cities once again.
This time it tweaked its strategy a bit.

Instead of opening the regular 300 square feet stores, it decided to go full
throttle taking up entire buildings or up to 30-40 per cent of all the space
in a mall, and converting them into spacious, almost large-format stores.

"We decided to make the Woodland store a landmark in such cities.

Nothing works like word of mouth in small cities and towns. If people see a

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big store which stands out, it becomes a talking point and they make sure
they visit it," says Woodland Managing Director Harkirat Singh.

For the time being, the strategy seems to be working. The response from
such stores has been encouraging. But Singh admits what's also working
in his favour is a sea change in the retail landscape and consumer attitude
in the past two or three years. Smaller cities are buzzing with retail
activity.

Branded stores are coming up left, right and centre, and the consumer is
no longer shy of opening his wallet. "The consumer in these cities is now
ready. The youth is becoming brand conscious, and we see them much
more open to spending," says Singh.

No doubt, Woodland has been on an expansion spree in Tier 2 and Tier 3

cities. While currently 60 per cent of its 300-plus stores are located in
metros and 40 per cent in smaller cities, Woodland wants this to change
to 50-50 in the next one or two years, and then gradually to 40 per cent in
metros and 60 per cent in smaller cities.

"In the past two or three months alone we've opened stores in Varanasi,
Allahabad, Vapi, Sangli, Thrissur and so on. Unlike five years ago, many of
these stores have been doing well from day one. Our plans for the next
two to three years will be concentrated on Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities," says
Singh.

"Certainly there is a big difference in real estate costs when it comes to

Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities versus the metros. But what companies like
Woodland will have to be careful about is that not every such city is going
to work. Not every location drives enough demand for such products for
the business to sustain. Yes, latent demand is there in many cities and
locations, but Woodland will have to carefully evaluate the sites before
selecting them,"says Devangshu Dutta, chief executive, Third Eyesight, a
retail consulting firm which has been tracking the sector in Tier 2 and Tier
3 cities.

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But that's a significant shift for a brand which has primarily been catering
to the urban middle class in big cities for almost two decades. Woodland is
a sub-brand of Aero Group which started as a winter boot manufacturer in
Quebec, Canada in the 1950s. Called Aero America then, it manufactured
outdoor winter boots for Canada, Russia and Europe.

The company entered the Indian market with Woodland in 1992. With a
factory in Sonepat, it catered primarily to Delhi and some other large
cities in North India.

Multinational shoe giants weren't in that time and the only competition
came from the likes of Bata.

Woodland differentiated itself early on being a rugged, outdoor leather

shoe brand, the kind usually preferred by adventurists. Being a new
category, it picked up as a fashion trend among the youth. Woodland
grew; it also entered the apparel category; and in the next couple of years
it became a well-known brand, first in North India and then across the
country.

Today, with over 300 company-owned stores, it has a retail space of

around 600,000 square feet. Its shoes and apparel are also retailed
through about 3,000 distributors across the country. The company says it
has revenue per square feet of Rs 5,000 and has been growing
consistently at 20 to 25 per cent over the last few years.

Nature driven

What drives the brand? Singh says Woodland has always been an outdoor
and adventure brand with close association with nature and environment.
"It's this connect that has been the soul of the brand. We not only build
this association through our promotions, but also through our processes
and practices."

Woodland plans to leverage this association more strongly to further

strengthen the brand. How? By changing over its entire range of shoes
and apparel to quality eco-friendly products - made with materials and

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chemicals that don't harm the nature; by making the manufacturing

process less harmful to the environment; and by communicating and
promoting the brand on the same lines.

The intent is to make eco-friendliness its brand recall. "While it's good to
see brands taking a higher stand and making eco-friendliness their brand
philosophy, such a positioning is still

not a sales driver in India as much as it may be in the US and UK. It may
have a significant advantage in the long term, but currently I don't see it
making much of an impact," says Dutta of Third Eyesight.

Singh says: "The focus really hasn't been on growing the number of
stores. We could easily have opened many more outlets than we have in
the past one year. The focus is on quality and making products that are
true to the brand's values. If the quality is high and stands by the brand
promise, growth will come on its own."

Early this year, Woodland invested close Rs 30 crore (Rs 300 million) in an
initiative called Pro-Planet to position itself as an environment-friendly
brand and communicate the message across to its target group - the
youth.

The initiative involves high level of interaction with consumers using social
media (Facebook and Twitter), raising awareness on environmental issues
and sustainability, and communicating what Woodland's doing to make its
products and processes green.

"Social media is a big focus area right now. While it helps us communicate
our brand values, more important is the feedback we get from our
customer. They tell us what more can we do, where are we lacking, and
what they expect from the brand, and that's really important for us," says
Singh. In the next two months, Woodland would be rolling out an "E-store"
to sell products online both within the country and internationally.

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Brand portfolio of Uber :

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Launched in 2009 (originally named UberCab). Uber is a ride hail

application that connects drivers with riders but since there is a chance
you are reading this while riding in an Uber car, you probably dont need
me to tell you much about Uber. Created by Travis Kalanick and Garrett
Camp and headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Uber is now available in
400 cities across 65 countries where it has disrupted for better and
worse the incumbent taxi system. Originally, a semi-affordable luxury
that focused on big black cars, Uber now comes in every flavor with even
the least fanciest cars as part of the unattached fleet and has even
expanded into services like Uber Rush, a messenger service in Manhattan.
Whether loved or hated, Uber is here to stay and, to cement its position,
the company introduced yesterday a new logo and identity designed in-
house (more on this at the end of the post). Uber Technologies Inc. is an
American multinational online transportation network company
headquartered in. It develops, markets and operates the Uber mobile
which allows consumers with to submit a trip request, which the software
program then automatically sends to the Uber driver nearest to the
consumer, alerting the driver to the location of the customer. Uber drivers
use their own personal cars. As of August 2016, the service was available
in over 66 countries and 507 cities worldwide. The Uber app automatically
calculates the fare and transfers the payment to the driver. Since Uber's
launch, several other companies have replicated its business model, a
trend that has come to be referred to as "Uberification"

The legality of Uber has been challenged by governments and taxi

companies, who allege that its use of drivers who are not licensed to drive
taxicabs is unsafe and illegal .some taxi driver unions have called Uber
drivers "pirate taxis".

Early history

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Travis Kalanick, co-founder and CEO of Uber, in 2013

Uber was founded as Uberaba by Garrett Camp, the founder of Stumble

Upon, and Travis Kalanick in 2009 The company received $200,000 in
seed funding that same year. In 2010, Uber raised $1.25 million in
additional funding.

Following a beta launch in the summer of 2010, Uber's services and

mobile app officially launched in San Francisco in 2011 Initially, Ryan
Graves was appointed as CEO, however, Kalanick replaced him in the role
later that year. Graves stepped down to become the company's COO.

By the end of 2011, Uber had raised $44.5 million in funding. That year,
the company changed its name from UberCab to Uber. The name "Uber" is
a reference to the common (and somewhat slangy) word "uber", meaning
"super", and having its origins in the German word ber.

Brand Positioning:

Brand positioning consists of three basic elements they are Market

Analysis, Target Market &Brand elements now these elements can be better
understood through a flow chart:.

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Evolving the way the world moves; Making cities more accessible; Bringing
people and their cities closer One of the most underutilised outcomes of a
business developing a brand strategy and a clear brand positioning is the
effect it can have on organisational culture. Most of the big brands get
this, but SMEs need more education in my experience. Those that do get
it can create a real competitive advantage by using their brand strategy
to drive culture development. Creating a great culture not only benefits
employees who become more engaged in their work, it creates a better
brand experience for your customers. Its a win-win.

Perhaps one of the reasons not every business gets it is because of a

common misconception. They believe branding is just function of the
marketing department. This is a quite limiting definition of branding,
which is simply not true. While marketing is often the most visible
expression of a brand, it is but one of many hundreds of touch points
where a brand is created.

The strongest brands are built in the minds of customers through people
to people interaction and customer experiences, as much as they are
through marketing efforts. A good brand strategy will provide direction for

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decision making across the entire business, from marketing right through
to customer service and culture development programs.

1). Market Analysis:

Taxi drivers feel threatened by Uber. I havent seen much hard data about
how much market shares Uber has taken from taxis yet. Yet, if you read
the media it surely feels like Uber is taking market share from taxis like
Amazon is taking market share from bookstores. Uber is able to offer
transportation for as little as almost half the price of a taxi on certain
routes. At the same time, Uber drivers are said to earn up to three times
as much as a cab driver.

Legislators of various cities and countries are putting bans on Uber in

order to protect taxi drivers. And to protect customers; as the claim. Most
recently, a German court ruled, that Ubers low cost UberPop service could
no longer take on passengers due to a lack of public permission.

Now why do regulators step in, and why are taxis not as competitive as
Uber? It is often cited in the media, that Uber is disruptive, but why
exactly is the company able to disrupt the taxi market?

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The superficial answer is that taxis are regulated. Yet, that doesnt explain
the full picture. Whats the sense of the regulation of taxis if makes them
vulnerable to more efficient competitors? Imagine you have to explain to
your frustrated cab driver why Uber is able to offer lower fees to
customers while paying higher salaries to drivers. More important, he
might be puzzled why a company that doesnt own a car is valued at up to
18bn.

2). Target Market:

1) Market segment : It focuses on consumers.
2). Age : services are available for every age group
3). Gender : servicess available for both male and female
4). Exclusiveness :
High Quality Service
Fair Pricing System
Easy to Use and Understand

Brand Element Of Uber :

1) Brand Name : Uber
2) Logo :
Brand element in case of Uber is its logo which has changed from time to time:

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(OLD)

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(NEW)

3) URL : https://m.uber.com/

4) Slogan : Evolving the way the world moves.

Current brand positioning:

Good news this week for the worlds taxi drivers. Suddenly after months of
aggressive market expansion Uber looks vulnerable and all of it is self-
inflicted.

At the start of February, Uber launched a new corporate identity along

with a nonsensical video to explain the move.

The response has been uniformly negative with most critics rejecting the
logo for the usual reasons. Its too abstract. It looks too much like the
Death Star. It looks mysteriously similar to Circle CIs logo a company

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that shares an office with Uber. These, and many more criticisms quickly
appeared.

As a man with no training whatsoever in corporate identity or graphic

design, I cannot comment. To me the difference between Ubers new logo
and the one it replaced, and indeed the one that preceded that, all appear
pretty arbitrary. More interesting is the manner in which the logo was
developed and what that tells you about Uber. It tells me that, despite the
$40 billion valuation, Uber are potentially about to screw up. Badly.

For starters, there is the simple fact that the logo appears to have
involved significant amounts of Travis Kalanicks time. According to Wired
magazine, Ubers CEO has spent the last three years working alongside
Ubers design director Shalin Amin and a dozen or so others, hammering
out ideas from a stuffy space they call the War Room. As part of that
process Kalanick studied design concepts like color palettes and font
kerning. I didnt know any of this stuff, Kalanick tells Wired.

Kalanick has bigger fish to fry than corporate design. Id argue even five
minutes of his time spent on font spacing is a crime when he is faced with
bigger issues like, oh I dont know, the fact that his company is losing $1
billion a year in China or banned from operating in Spain and South Korea.

The way Amin saw it, Ubers branding problems were manifold. For one,
the company had two logos one with a U inside a box on the Android
app, and one with a U and no box on the Apple app. The letters in the
UBER wordmark were too widely spaced, and the U had an unsightly twist
on its left prong. Whats more, the lettermark the stylized, upper-case
U looked awkward beside the wordmark. It read U-UBER, says Amin,
like Oooober.

This kind of myopic, design driven minutiae drives me insane. Its not that
fonts and pantones dont matter, its just that they rarely matter enough
to ever necessitate organizational effort. And when they start to represent

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the main branding problem for a company these minor design issues
obscure more important branding issues.

What is Ubers brand position? What are the brand perceptions among its
target segments? Does the perception match the position? Do negative
brand associations correlate to reduced Uber usage? What is its net
promoter score across key segments? Is brand equity sufficient to justify
existing price premiums and surge pricing? How strong is Ubers employer
brand across countries? Id rate each of these questions as being at least
50000% more important than how far from the U we place the B in our
name or the color of the squiggly thing that no-one can actually see when
its a 2mm wide iPhone icon.

The lack of strategic focus that this design saga reveals is also troubling.
The new logo is partly a response to the fact that Uber is no longer a taxi
service its now a transportation network that delivers food and
packages, as well as people. Uber isnt a premium service either
anymore. Thanks to a burgeoning phalanx of sub-brands the company
believes it has gone from a luxury to an affordable luxury to everyday
transportation option for millions of people. Those millions of people
inhabit 68 countries and Uber is also about to launch a distinctive look and
feel in each one of these locations too.

In summary Uber targets millions of people, all over the world, offering to
transport anything anywhere at every possible price point in a variety of
colors. Sound like a plan?

Playing around with logos isnt brand management, its brand

mismanagement. Ubers new logo has distracted its CEO, generated a
mountain of negative PR and highlighted the companys apparent lack of
strategic focus. The cost of a new logo needs to be calculated in more
than just agency fees.

Uber Marketing strategy:

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1. Early Adopter Advocacy: Word of mouth marketing has been

essential for Uber. The way the company initially fostered it was by
seeking out Silicon Valley movers and shakers and getting them to
advocate for the brand. While many techies are constantly looking for new
products and services that transform their ways of life, Uber also took aim
at them by sponsoring events, giving first-time riders a free trial, and
adopting a hyper-local strategy that changes shape with each new city the
company enters.

2. Referrals: Early adopters have since been able to take advantage of

Ubers referral program to give friends free rides, while earning credits
themselves. This give money-get money program gave first-timers a more
concrete reason to try the service. Its been massively successful both for
Uber and for certain super-fans, one of whom earned over $50,000 in
referral credits. Drivers also get referral incentives, thereby making
acquisition on both the customer and contractor sides faster and easier.

3. Reviews: One massive differentiator between Uber and traditional

taxis is that the transportation disruptor has rating systems for both
drivers and passengers. Drivers are probably more motivated by their
ratings, since passengers cant easily find out where they stand. Either
way, the system promotes trust in Uber and better behavior on the parts
of both driver and passenger. A certain amount of uncertainty (or dread)
about how chatty or inebriated ones travel buddy will be is thereby
eliminated, making everything a little smoother for everyone.

4. Stunts: Every time Uber launches a new special offer, groups of

millennials around the world cheer. Sometimes the service delivers kittens
to offices and other times it lets passengers ride with famous musicians
like Diplo or Matt & Kim. These exciting surprise and delight tactics work
to please loyal customers, generate positive buzz, and give Uber a more
fun and friendly image, which is something it often lacks in comparison to
its competitor Lyft.

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5. Partnerships: Uber has implemented a number of partnerships to

entice both first-time and loyal customers to take a ride. Certain Capital
One credit card holders can get discounted rides, Starwood Hotels
Preferred Guest members can earn hotel points for every Uber trip they
take, and Spotify users can link their profile to their Uber account to play
their music while they ride. While the Capital One and Starwood Hotels
partnerships give those customers a financial incentive to ride, the Spotify
alliance is just a fun add-on for users coming home from the bars. All of
these partnerships, though, give more legitimacy to the gargantuan
startup.

6. A Loyalty Program: Not many consumers know it, but Uber has had a
loyalty program for at least about two years now. Uber VIP is exclusive
to those who are actually loyal customers whove taken over 100 Uber
rides. It seems like the main tangible benefit of the program is that VIPs
have special access to the highest-rated drivers. However, the program
also signifies a commitment to and a gratitude for these returning
customers, who surely feel slightly proud of the fact that theyre very
important.

7. An Omni-Channel Approach: The most crucial aspect of Ubers

marketing strategy and its product itself is its seamless, multi-channel
nature. In an excellent Growth Hackers post, Sean Ellis, Everette Taylor,
and Dylan la Com note that Uber set out to reimagine the entire [taxi]
experience to make it seamless and enjoyable across the board. They
didnt fix one aspect of the system (e.g. mobile payments for the existing
taxi infrastructure), they tackled the whole experience from mobile
hailing, seamless payments, better cars, to no tips and driver ratings.
The product is tapped into customers lives in a wholly revolutionary way
compared to the old method of hailing or dialing a cab.

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