What Is Russell Athletic?
Kateryna Poberezhna
Oda Auckland
Managing Brands Over Time
Revitalizing Brands: Russell Athletic Case
Introduction
Russell Athletic is an American athletics brand, it is the main brand of eponymous American company and its manufacturer and marketer Russell Brands, LLC.. Founded in 1902, the company produces uniforms for a wide range of sports, such as American football, basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball. With over a hundred years of experience since its founding it supplied jersey uniforms and apparel for many professional sports teams of the major leagues in the United States of America in the past, Russell today has its focus on Universities, i.e. varsity and minor leagues. [1]
Revitalizing the brand
After having looked on the company’s website and other information sources, we couldn't find any major issues concerning the brand failure. …show more content…
Although, from the marketers’ perspective, we would be eager to invest in revitalization primarily in Europe to achieve higher revenues.
Taking to consideration the six rules for brand revitalization (Light & Kiddon, 2009), we have come up with the following ideas for the tactics:
1. Refocus the organization
According to the motto, “Russell Athletic offers an assortment of high performance athletic wear for Men, Women and Youth. No matter the event or temperature, Russell Athletic has your fitness apparel needs covered.” [2]
The original sources of brand equity
Brand equity is the commercial value that derives from consumer perception of the brand name of a particular product or service, rather than from the product or service itself. Brand equity describes the value of having a well-known brand name, based on the idea that the owner of a well-known brand name can generate more money from products with that brand name than from products with a less well known name, as consumers believe that a product with a well-known name is better than products with less well-known names.
Sources of brand equity There are two techniques of Capturing mindset:
• Quantitative Technique
• Qualitative Technique
Qualitative Technique.
1. Free Association
2. Projective Techniques
3. Brand Personality and Values
4. Experiential Methods Quantitative Technique.
1. Awareness
2. Recognition
3. Recall
4. Image
I our research, we’ve used the Quantitative Research Techniques.
Although qualitative measures are useful to identify and characterize the range of possible associations to a brand, a more quantitative portrait of the brand often is also desirable to permit more confident and defensible strategic and tactical recommendations.
Whereas qualitative research typically elicits some type of verbal responses from consumers, quantitative research typically employs various types of scale questions so that numerical representations and summaries can be made. Quantitative measures are often the primary ingredient in tracking studies that monitor brand knowledge structures of consumers over time. 1. Awareness
Brand awareness is related to the strength of the Russell Athletic brand in memory, as reflected by consumers' ability to identify various brand elements (i.e., the brand name - Russell Athletic, logo – the blue “R” with the name under it, symbol – the emblazoned "R", character - modern-day classics for everyday athletes, and slogan - No matter the event or temperature, Russell Athletic has your fitness apparel needs covered.) under different conditions. 2.
Recognition
In the abstract, recognition processes require that consumers be able to discriminate a stimulus - a word, object, image, etc. - as something they have previously seen. Brand recognition relates to consumers' ability to identify our brand under a variety of circumstances and can involve identification of any of the brand elements. Teams and players everywhere loved the comfortable new fabric of Russell Athletic, and that's how the first sweatshirt was born. 3. Recall
Brand recall relates to consumers' ability to identify the brand under a variety of circumstances. With brand recall, consumers must retrieve the actual brand element from memory when given some related probe or cue. Thus, our brand is recalled whilst someone speaks about the sweatshirt that continues to be an iconic garment worn all over the world. 4. Image
One vitally important aspect of the brand is its image, as reflected by the associations that consumers hold toward the brand. Brand associations come in many different forms and can be classified along many different dimensions.
• Points-of-parity
- Sportswear for male and female athletes
- Athletic team apparel
• Points-of difference
- Combining the old with the new to create modern-day classics
- “Raised On The Tracks And Fields Of America
- Casual look and durable construction
- Collegiate life and teamwork
The organization is brought together around common goals - produce a range of sportswear for male and female athletes, professional and amateur teams, combining the old with the new to create modern-day classics for everyday athletes. Russell Athletic's collegiate lifestyle heritage lives on to this day, while the sweatshirt continues to be an iconic garment worn all over the world.
2. Restore brand relevance
The company needs to understand the market and define the brand promise – we believe that in reality, you have to deliver first, and that becomes the promise. A good idea would be to say: “No other brand will make you feel so …” and then answer the following questions:
• What does our brand promise to make our customers feel every time they choose you? – Comfort, confidence and endurance.
• Why would they expect that from you? – We have more than 100 years experience in producing sports goods.
• Yet why is that extraordinary? - Russell Athletic's collegiate lifestyle heritage lives on to this day, while the sweatshirt continues to be an iconic garment worn all over the world.
3. Reinvent the brand experience
On this stage, we want to deliver the brand promise through product and marketing innovations:
• Expanding Brand Awareness - university students as firm’s ambassadors
• Improving Brand Image – as the best players at university level in the US are often also well known among people, the brand image is expected to get improved
- identifying the target market
a) retaining existing customers - university students, form different countries, as firm’s ambassadors – presence in the minds of the current customers
b) attracting new customers (new segments) - professional and amateur teams all over Europe – higher revenues and broader expansion
• Considering Extensions – possibility to create an apparel for elderly athletes
• Adjusting Brand Elements – recreating the design of the logo and symbol to make it look more modern at the same time sticking to the “R”.
4. Reinforce a Results Culture
To reinforce a results culture we will create a timeline with specific goals and when we want to reach them, short term and long term. This will include sales numbers after promotional material have been distributed, clicks on the website and “likes,” “followers” and views on social media. The timeline will determine which marketing efforts was the most successful and ensured the most revenue.
5. Rebuild Brand Trust
To rebuild the Russell Athletic brand trust only a social media campaign will be launched, and no advertisement. The campaign will feature the brand ambassadors as they prepare for their various matches, games and their everyday life through YouTube videos. This will build trust among consumers because the ambassadors are regular people, with a great knowledge of what defines great sportswear. The ambassadors will be featured on the brands social media accounts on a regular basis, and also share branded content on their personal accounts. All posts will be marked with a branded hashtag. This will help the content become a topic of conversation throughout social media.
With this strategy Russell Athletic will build an emotional connection with consumers, because the target market can relate to and identify with the ambassadors.
6. Realize Global Alignment
To realize global alignment we will focus on sports as the universal activity that is. Through our campaign we will show consumers that sports connects people from all over the world. The ambassadors will be a great part of this stage, as well as the previous one, since they are from different countries. We will throughout the campaign have one message, but the content will be somewhat different for each region in consideration to team sports.
Sources
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Athletic_(brand)#cite_note-1
• http://shop.russellathletic.com
• http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2015/02/how-brands-can-make-a-great-brand-promise.html#.VudPZIdZFUS
• http://www.josbd.com/brand_equity.html
• https://aytm.com/blog/research-junction/brand-elements/
Oda Auckland
Managing Brands Over Time
Revitalizing Brands: Russell Athletic Case
Introduction
Russell Athletic is an American athletics brand, it is the main brand of eponymous American company and its manufacturer and marketer Russell Brands, LLC.. Founded in 1902, the company produces uniforms for a wide range of sports, such as American football, basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball. With over a hundred years of experience since its founding it supplied jersey uniforms and apparel for many professional sports teams of the major leagues in the United States of America in the past, Russell today has its focus on Universities, i.e. varsity and minor leagues. [1]
Revitalizing the brand
After having looked on the company’s website and other information sources, we couldn't find any major issues concerning the brand failure. …show more content…
Although, from the marketers’ perspective, we would be eager to invest in revitalization primarily in Europe to achieve higher revenues.
Taking to consideration the six rules for brand revitalization (Light & Kiddon, 2009), we have come up with the following ideas for the tactics:
1. Refocus the organization
According to the motto, “Russell Athletic offers an assortment of high performance athletic wear for Men, Women and Youth. No matter the event or temperature, Russell Athletic has your fitness apparel needs covered.” [2]
The original sources of brand equity
Brand equity is the commercial value that derives from consumer perception of the brand name of a particular product or service, rather than from the product or service itself. Brand equity describes the value of having a well-known brand name, based on the idea that the owner of a well-known brand name can generate more money from products with that brand name than from products with a less well known name, as consumers believe that a product with a well-known name is better than products with less well-known names.
Sources of brand equity There are two techniques of Capturing mindset:
• Quantitative Technique
• Qualitative Technique
Qualitative Technique.
1. Free Association
2. Projective Techniques
3. Brand Personality and Values
4. Experiential Methods Quantitative Technique.
1. Awareness
2. Recognition
3. Recall
4. Image
I our research, we’ve used the Quantitative Research Techniques.
Although qualitative measures are useful to identify and characterize the range of possible associations to a brand, a more quantitative portrait of the brand often is also desirable to permit more confident and defensible strategic and tactical recommendations.
Whereas qualitative research typically elicits some type of verbal responses from consumers, quantitative research typically employs various types of scale questions so that numerical representations and summaries can be made. Quantitative measures are often the primary ingredient in tracking studies that monitor brand knowledge structures of consumers over time. 1. Awareness
Brand awareness is related to the strength of the Russell Athletic brand in memory, as reflected by consumers' ability to identify various brand elements (i.e., the brand name - Russell Athletic, logo – the blue “R” with the name under it, symbol – the emblazoned "R", character - modern-day classics for everyday athletes, and slogan - No matter the event or temperature, Russell Athletic has your fitness apparel needs covered.) under different conditions. 2.
Recognition
In the abstract, recognition processes require that consumers be able to discriminate a stimulus - a word, object, image, etc. - as something they have previously seen. Brand recognition relates to consumers' ability to identify our brand under a variety of circumstances and can involve identification of any of the brand elements. Teams and players everywhere loved the comfortable new fabric of Russell Athletic, and that's how the first sweatshirt was born. 3. Recall
Brand recall relates to consumers' ability to identify the brand under a variety of circumstances. With brand recall, consumers must retrieve the actual brand element from memory when given some related probe or cue. Thus, our brand is recalled whilst someone speaks about the sweatshirt that continues to be an iconic garment worn all over the world. 4. Image
One vitally important aspect of the brand is its image, as reflected by the associations that consumers hold toward the brand. Brand associations come in many different forms and can be classified along many different dimensions.
• Points-of-parity
- Sportswear for male and female athletes
- Athletic team apparel
• Points-of difference
- Combining the old with the new to create modern-day classics
- “Raised On The Tracks And Fields Of America
- Casual look and durable construction
- Collegiate life and teamwork
The organization is brought together around common goals - produce a range of sportswear for male and female athletes, professional and amateur teams, combining the old with the new to create modern-day classics for everyday athletes. Russell Athletic's collegiate lifestyle heritage lives on to this day, while the sweatshirt continues to be an iconic garment worn all over the world.
2. Restore brand relevance
The company needs to understand the market and define the brand promise – we believe that in reality, you have to deliver first, and that becomes the promise. A good idea would be to say: “No other brand will make you feel so …” and then answer the following questions:
• What does our brand promise to make our customers feel every time they choose you? – Comfort, confidence and endurance.
• Why would they expect that from you? – We have more than 100 years experience in producing sports goods.
• Yet why is that extraordinary? - Russell Athletic's collegiate lifestyle heritage lives on to this day, while the sweatshirt continues to be an iconic garment worn all over the world.
3. Reinvent the brand experience
On this stage, we want to deliver the brand promise through product and marketing innovations:
• Expanding Brand Awareness - university students as firm’s ambassadors
• Improving Brand Image – as the best players at university level in the US are often also well known among people, the brand image is expected to get improved
- identifying the target market
a) retaining existing customers - university students, form different countries, as firm’s ambassadors – presence in the minds of the current customers
b) attracting new customers (new segments) - professional and amateur teams all over Europe – higher revenues and broader expansion
• Considering Extensions – possibility to create an apparel for elderly athletes
• Adjusting Brand Elements – recreating the design of the logo and symbol to make it look more modern at the same time sticking to the “R”.
4. Reinforce a Results Culture
To reinforce a results culture we will create a timeline with specific goals and when we want to reach them, short term and long term. This will include sales numbers after promotional material have been distributed, clicks on the website and “likes,” “followers” and views on social media. The timeline will determine which marketing efforts was the most successful and ensured the most revenue.
5. Rebuild Brand Trust
To rebuild the Russell Athletic brand trust only a social media campaign will be launched, and no advertisement. The campaign will feature the brand ambassadors as they prepare for their various matches, games and their everyday life through YouTube videos. This will build trust among consumers because the ambassadors are regular people, with a great knowledge of what defines great sportswear. The ambassadors will be featured on the brands social media accounts on a regular basis, and also share branded content on their personal accounts. All posts will be marked with a branded hashtag. This will help the content become a topic of conversation throughout social media.
With this strategy Russell Athletic will build an emotional connection with consumers, because the target market can relate to and identify with the ambassadors.
6. Realize Global Alignment
To realize global alignment we will focus on sports as the universal activity that is. Through our campaign we will show consumers that sports connects people from all over the world. The ambassadors will be a great part of this stage, as well as the previous one, since they are from different countries. We will throughout the campaign have one message, but the content will be somewhat different for each region in consideration to team sports.
Sources
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Athletic_(brand)#cite_note-1
• http://shop.russellathletic.com
• http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2015/02/how-brands-can-make-a-great-brand-promise.html#.VudPZIdZFUS
• http://www.josbd.com/brand_equity.html
• https://aytm.com/blog/research-junction/brand-elements/