Septwolves brand management case analysis

Brand management is an important part of marketing management. I have compiled a case analysis of Septwolves brand management for you below. I hope it will be helpful to you.

Fujian Septwolves Group Company was founded on June 18, 1990. After 10 years of development, the company first voluntarily gave up other markets and specialized in the production of men's clothing, and then gradually broke into the leather goods industry, cigarettes, wine, tea and other fields, successfully extending the Septwolves brand to other industries, thereby establishing "unified brand diversification" business” strategy. This phenomenon of integrating all the main characteristics of the brand into the various industries involved in the enterprise is very rare among industrial enterprises in my country. As the brand management consultant of the Septwolves Group, Fujian Xiamen Concept Zone Xinge Brand Consulting Co., Ltd. has served as the management consultant for the unified brand image integration of the Septwolves Group since 1997. It has grown and prospered with the Septwolves Group; interactive work has finally created the And cultivated the Septwolves brand personality of "advocating a new culture for men's ethnic groups", making the Septwolves Group Company unique in the complicated male consumer products, and improving the brand equity. This article aims to shed light on how companies can create unique brand personalities, and how their brand operations can serve as a reference for the brand building of Chinese private companies.

1. Ten years of forging - Septwolves, a success story

Septwolves was originally a regional clothing brand in Fujian. From the Septwolves men's jacket in 1990 to today's well-known Septwolves men's brand system - clothing, cigarettes, beer industry, leather goods, tea, liquor, Septwolves Group Company has gone through a ten-year journey. In the course of ten years of development, Septwolves Group has taken clothing as its leader and continuously explored a diversified, collectivized and modern enterprise development path. The Septwolves trademark was officially registered and has been registered in multiple industries and dozens of countries and regions. In 1993, the group fully introduced CIS and successfully operated it. By 1996, the intangible assets of the Septwolves brand had been assessed at 244.9 million yuan. At the same time, the Septwolves high-end cigarettes jointly launched with Jinjiang Tobacco Monopoly Bureau and Longyan Cigarette Factory also achieved great success. In 1997, Septwolves Liquor Co., Ltd. was established, realizing the second major change in cross-industry operations. In 1999, "Seven Wolves" was rated as one of the top ten men's clothing brands influencing the Chinese clothing market, and the franchise model was successfully operated. In 2000, Septwolves Development Co., Ltd. was established, marking the advancement of Septwolves as a modern enterprise with standardized operations. At the same time, it entered the liquor market and planned to launch Septwolves liquor, which was successfully launched.

2. 720° Brand Management System - Xinge’s perspective and tools

Since 1997, Xinge and Concept Zone have been interacting with the Seven Wolves. It is the application of the 720° brand management system that continuously provides innovative wisdom for the operation of the Septwolves brand. Grasp the essence of the brand, grasp the brand personality, and successfully operate the brand assets of Septwolves.

Xinge believes that the core of brand equity is the relationship between products and consumers. It determines the brand's influence in the future market and comes from the integration and interaction of brand customer value and corporate value. Therefore,

1. Consumers, the company itself and the work unit are the three major organizational elements of brand management: brand management effectiveness requires effective organization and management, internal and external interaction, and the brand work team continues to provide Innovative wisdom, in-depth analysis and grasp of the connotation circle and extension circle of the brand, the value of the enterprise and the value of the customer.

2. Brand management work runs through every aspect of brand building, brand maintenance, brand development and extension, and brand reconstruction.

3. In brand building, brand communication is the core task of brand management. "Marketing is communication." Only by creating the most differentiated, active and radical part of the brand image can we touch the core areas of the brand and create loyalty and admiration for the brand - this is brand personality.

4. Brand personality creation, like embryo transplantation, is a highly sophisticated creative communication process. It is necessary to fully grasp and carefully apply the various factors that drive brand personality and use good brand management methods. In the operation of Septwolves, Xinge adheres to two basic experiences: differentiation creates value, and brand extension planning and management space.

3. Internal and external interaction, understanding brand identity

Brand equity is the aggregation of customer value and consumer value. It is the long-term continuous dialogue between enterprises and consumers in their relationship, so that The process of integrating brand information and customer experience into one. That is to say, the brand obtains its own status, autonomy and identity through communication, which exists in the public's understanding and memory. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously conduct detailed investigations on all aspects of the brand's special essence-brand identity. It is the basis for forming brand privileges and thus brand building. To this end, Xinge conducted a detailed 720 brand health checkup on the Septwolves brand, starting from the 360 ??brand connotation circle and the 360 ??brand extension circle.

Through the investigation of the development process and interactive communication with dealers and consumers, we can see:

1. Septwolves has a wide range of products, but most of them are sold in the market at mid-range prices. superior**.

2. Septwolves is a Chinese local brand with high recognition.

3. The popularity of Septwolves started from clothing and was promoted in the cigarette market, forming a unique brand culture.

In short, after ten years of brand operation, we have obtained a purely male brand with high brand awareness and more brand recognition. This is the foundation of Septwolves’ unique brand culture and personality.

However, Xinge also discovered that: just like many private enterprises, although Septwolves has a strong awareness of brand operation and has laid a solid foundation for the brand’s trademark value preservation, standardized operation, and multi-cultural promotion of brand management, it has The professional level in specific operations is still low, there is a lack of complete and systematic integrated planning and standardized actions, and there are certain biases and misunderstandings in awareness. As a result, there are considerable barriers to communication between brands and consumers. The brand personality is not strong and the brand cohesion is insufficient. As a result, the survey found that most consumers' perception of the "Septwolves" brand image is still based on the natural association brought by its brand name, and only stays at the "name memory" stage. Although people will know it is Septwolves as soon as they see the logo of Septwolves, or the red logo on cigarettes or other products. Nonetheless, it is at best a worthless trademark and symbol for identification. And in the brand impression perception test, Xinge discovered a very interesting phenomenon: most consumers' associations with the "Septwolves" brand are still focused on "wolves", carnivorous wild animals that live in groups, but they have no idea about "wolf nature". However, the same characteristics appear in the descriptions, but completely opposite descriptions: one believes that it has cunning, insidious, and ferocious animal characteristics; the other believes that it has challenging characteristics of freedom, bravery, and wisdom. The root cause is the problem of "impression". The name "wolf nature" is the most undesirable characteristic of animals in Han nationality culture. In fact, this is a complete misunderstanding. It comes from a major flaw in the Han nationality's farming culture, which lacks A profound understanding of the wolf's philosophy of intelligent movement; it is also a direct reflection of the dual nature of the Jinjiang people, the place of origin of the Seven Wolves, who impressed the Chinese people in the early stages of development. Fortunately, after more effective communication and dissemination, consumers (especially target consumer groups) have a deeper acceptance of the male brand culture advocated by Septwolves, and can even embrace a more distinctive brand personality. Therefore, the top priority of Septwolves brand management is to improve the original marketing acumen, enhance the brand personality of Septwolves, make the brand highlight a certain form of people, and make the brand and customers loyal to each other.

IV. Cultural connotation highlights brand personality

The communication between the brand and consumers is a continuous deepening process from logo, image to personality, which is the key to "personalized" communication. At the highest level, it creates the characteristics of the brand and creates worship, which is the destination of brand management. Therefore, for the brand management of Septwolves, Xinge’s solution is to comprehensively enhance the personality of Septwolves. The essence of brand personality is the humanity of the brand. Therefore, the way to personalize the Seven Wolves can only use "wolf" as the main body of the brand image and personify the brand.

The specific idea is to regard the "Seven Wolves" as a person, a group of people or a subject, and what characteristics should this group of people have? Xinge believes that creativity is by no means groundless, and the details of any lifestyle may become the basis for communication. A personalized brand image also represents a specific lifestyle, value orientation and consumption concept, aiming to establish an emotional communication and connection with consumers. The design of lifestyle and the promotion of consumption concepts must be consistent with product features and the subconscious mind of target consumers. Only when the level of integration is achieved can consumers’ desires and associations be stimulated through products. Through research, it is found that in the competitive environment of modern society, the world of men is a world of "wolves fighting". Men face tremendous social pressure, including family responsibilities, social relationships, career success and other factors. Survival itself means Shen Yong's alertness and unremitting struggle. The tribe of men who pursue unremitting struggle is the mainstream group of men today. Men, on the other hand, have the character of a wolf in both appearance and potential: loneliness, victory and defeat, courage, perseverance, and sincere unity. These are the spiritual journeys that Chinese men who pursue success must go through. Most of the time, the successful and successful "men's tribe" are only superficially brilliant. They relentlessly pursue personal achievement and status. They are a spiritual complex that pays equal attention to personal heroism and traditional collectivism. This group of people reflects a kind of heroism in the whirlpool of life, bravely advancing in the rapids, perseverance, and actively challenging life, a kind of thinking in calmness, focusing in the burden, fully demonstrated in heroism, confidence, generosity and even uninhibited rebellion. own ideal personality. Obviously, the era of modern men's flamboyant personality has passed, and more restrained spiritual connotation and group cooperation have become new pursuits. These should be the connotation of Septwolves' brand personality, and should also become the connotation of corporate culture, and form the extension direction of brand personality. Therefore, the improvement of Septwolves' personality must follow: (1) Use "Wolf" as the main body of the brand image and the expression language of its personality; (2) Deepen the image recognition, enhance the male world culture of "Wolf", and communicate the brand personality.

In the development process of the Septwolves brand, we have discovered that the brand identity of Septwolves has always been desolate, the image of a lonely, aloof man who constantly challenges himself in the vastness. Based on this reality, through the accurate creation of the main consumer group and the accurate grasp of the male spirit, Xinge's plan for the brand image of the Seven Wolves is: "The wisdom of the wolf - the endless philosophy of life", which represents team challenges, individuality, Perseverance, patience, fashion, maturity, friends, loyalty. These seven wolves hold up the spiritual banner of the men's community, and inspire successful and successful men to embrace glory, complete themselves, achieve themselves, and show themselves with the men's spirit of bravery, tenacity, and smiling at the vicissitudes of life.

5. Positioning planning and communication of brand assets

At this point, the Septwolves have found a real life way to create image differences - creating the brand's character rather than characteristics; and then the Septwolves' The logo, image, and personality premise form a unified whole. The seven wolves with special cultural character and spiritual temperament provide it with a powerful tool to develop brand identity and brand communication, and become a complete marketing plan.

1. Describe the brand personality and plan the brand status

The improvement of brand personality is that Septwolves can comprehensively sort out and integrate the brand and put forward the concept of "JUST FOR MAN". The company It provides the most affectionate and cool men's products, and the company's brand is a pure men's brand. It incorporates the clothing, cigarettes, alcohol and other industries involved in Septwolves into "men's culture" to re-create "men's" with distinctive personality. "Spiritual" brand has finally achieved the status of spokesperson for the fashionable consumption life of Chinese men.

2. Explore market segments and create brand opportunities

Based on the 80/20 rule and the relationship that Septwolves has forged with consumers in the mid-to-high-end market for ten years, Septwolves decided to The brand operation and market operation must maintain the brand's mid-to-high-end image. This is the market niche point of Septwolves, so Septwolves has firmly targeted its target consumers at mainstream consumer groups in society between the ages of 20 and 50, such as private business owners, government officials, and company employees. What they buy is: maturity, enthusiasm, personality, taste, and masculinity; at the same time, they are also a loyal and stable brand consumer group.

3. Re-elaborate the brand name and logo.

Because of its character (personality), the Septwolves brand logo not only helps to identify the brand, but also can set off accurate market positioning and profound brand culture.

The Seven Wolves logo is a wolf running forward. It is streamlined as a whole, full of dynamics and impact, giving people a feeling of forging ahead, symbolizing the enterprise's enterprising spirit of continuous development. This golden yellow running wolf design has become the spokesperson of the seven wolves.

The "seven" in SEPTWOLES is an auspicious number, which not only represents a team born of struggle, but also contains the good wishes of entrepreneurs: "SEPTWOLES" is the combination of "seven" and "wolf" in English, which means A united whole.

6. TONE design, planning brand space

Communication must not only follow the cultural concept and personality traits of the brand, but also take into account the personality of the products in the brand. Brand personality has many characteristics, and each product has "inherent drama". Since Septwolves covers a wide range of products, it has many different types of products. In order to achieve better and more sophisticated communication effects, it is necessary to develop and position various products, and plan the attributes and characteristics of different products to distinguish them from each other. , and are unified with each other, fully integrated into the brand personality of Septwolves, so that the tone (TONE) of each product matches the personality of the brand and ultimately enriches the brand personality of Septwolves. Xinge still makes a fuss about consumers. Specific execution route: clothing - confident, dignified; cigarettes - heavy, thoughtful; beer - chic, bold; tea - quiet, compatible; liquor - mellow, cool, etc., to refine the main personality characteristics of men. Come out, constantly improve the "Septwolves" male brand personality and culture, and inject a new pop culture of authenticity, purity, simplicity and simplicity into the brand personality, integrating the self-confidence and bold personality of Chinese men in the 21st century, A comprehensive interpretation of the profound and broad humanistic spirit has integrated the Septwolves brand concept into the international fashion trend, allowing more consumers to sublimate their own character charm and meaning of life in the process of understanding the Septwolves male ethnic culture.

This infinite extension and detailed planning of Septwolves’ brand personality and culture is the key to the success of its brand extension (which is an intermittent extension). Under the Septwolves’ brand system, every product and service launched, continuously making full use of brand resources, and helping to develop and enrich the brand meaning. Both main products and extended products benefit from the connectivity. It strengthens the brand's overall product strength and provides target consumers with more complete choices. In this way, the Septwolves brand is established from multiple angles. Each product has its own unique brand proposition, but they all obey the big concept of "masculinity", and the different personalities convey a unified message to consumers: "Dance with wolves and create heroes" advocated by Septwolves. True Colors", "Challenge life and never look back."

The relationship between men is the stage of your life. Remember this brand in order to forget its existence in the future.

7. Difference management creates brand value

Difference creates value, and difference creates the "first position" of the brand. The key to brand personality communication is to create admiration and loyalty. It must comprehensively grasp and actively drive powerful factors to form differentiated advantages and allow consumers to occupy a unique position in their minds. This differentiated innovative wisdom is reflected in the specific execution of product marketing communication and roadmap, striving to perfectly combine the enterprise's value chain and the enterprise's business model, so that the enterprise can carefully select customer groups and provide them with unique and irreplaceable products. products and services. This uniqueness is reflected in:

1. Reshape the value chain. It is a company's commitment to customers and is reflected in the pricing, quality, selectivity, convenience and aesthetics of products and services. For example, for liquor, Septwolves solemnly promises: The high degree of satisfaction of consumers and franchised promoters will enable employees to realize their self-worth, achieve innovation and leadership in the liquor industry, and promote the balanced development of the Septwolves brand business. Therefore, Septwolves is committed to the Chinese market. To develop unprecedented liquor franchise distribution business. Therefore, Septwolves liquor product design requires uniqueness, excellent and pure quality, unique taste and unique personality. "Just for man", the most mellow and cool men's boutique. Full of personality and tension is the profound brand culture of "Septwolves", which provides dealers with comprehensive and effective brand support.

In the series of packaging design and advertising design of Qi Baijiu, the original brand culture of "Seven Wolves" was fully implemented, and appropriate improvements were made in the cultural connotation, changing the current confusing but similar-style liquor brand packaging in the Chinese liquor market. . The series of packaging design and advertising design of Septwolves Baijiu strive to be concise, concise, high-end and refined, and focus on highlighting the brand image and brand connotation: three round holes are hollowed out on both sides of the packaging box, so that consumers can see through the wine from the outer packaging. The bottle and wine liquid are clear; the wine bottle adopts straight-line design, roasting process, and high-grade anti-counterfeiting bottle cap, and the overall design is simple, elegant, and crystal clear; the reinforced design of the packaging also uses special sponge for the first time... The series of packaging of Septwolves Liquor have obtained national packaging design patent protection.

2. Organize an enterprise operating model based on the value chain. It determines whether a business can deliver on the promises made. To this end, Xinge worked with Septwolves to re-align and improve the Septwolves Group's business process, management system, customer service, organizational structure, management team composition, etc. In the case of Septwolves, this was achieved through the establishment and implementation of a "brand manager system" (provided by Xinge). From development and research, production, packaging design, market research, business development, advertising production, promotion support and other operational work, the brand manager and Xinge have proposed detailed implementation details one by one. Because Xinge believes that creativity is not only the discovery of an "amazing" idea, but also reflected in the originality of details. For example, for the unique packaging of liquor, from the bottle body, bottle cap, roasted flower, outer molding, inner pad, and sponge, Xinge's main creative staff visited Chengdu, Chongqing, Shenzhen and other places across the country and worked with manufacturers to discuss problem correction processes.

3. Choose unique value marketing rules to highlight the brand image.

Our marketing principles: unique market segmentation and positioning + successful brand extension → create a loyal and stable brand consumer group, so we must be consumer-centric in everything, direct, simple and in place. Based on our brand management and marketing concepts, we firmly believe that the franchise model will be the most powerful model for our low-cost expansion and rapid brand extension.

In order to carry out brand marketing more effectively, the company focuses on the systematic operation of marketing strategies. Marketing work is mainly based on strategic planning and planning, and pays attention to the organic cooperation between strategies. Marketing decisions are based on research, and effective marketing strategies are formulated through accurate product positioning and target markets. Taking liquor as an example, Xinge creatively proposed that Septwolves must be committed to developing the liquor franchise business in the Chinese market, provide excellent liquor brands and personalized experiences for the Chinese market, and use the first batch of direct sales and regional franchise systems in sales strategies. The retail network cooperates with each other and coordinates the distribution method. In order to ensure the success of the business, the company has established seven franchise systems within the company (including brand operation, marketing management, business training, support, supervision, VIS and integrated promotion system). In terms of promotion strategy, we do not rely solely on advertising or other promotional methods, but use a combination of personal selling, advertising, sales promotion and public relations strategies, and brand culture extension. Strengthening the overall promotional synergy provides a broad space for development for the smooth extension and rapid development of the Septwolves brand. At present, after a year of planning and market preparation, the products of Septwolves Liquor have been successfully launched in Hebei, Shandong, Hunan, Jiangsu... and other places. The market response has been good, and more dealers from provinces, cities and regions have joined. ;