The Sorbet Group has enjoyed much success in the South African beauty business. This has been brought about by effective human resource practices coupled with excellent customer relations. Given the kind of expansion that the group is undergoing especially in franchising, there are questions about whether the company will maintain the same level of customer service and brand awareness.
What is Sorbet’s brand positioning? How would you describe the brand’s personality? How does Sorbet communicate its positioning and personality?
Brand positioning is an essential element for the success of any given business. It refers to the specific aspects that make consumers subscribe to a particular brand, as opposed to the subscription to other brands in the market. Brand positioning has the end goal of ensuring that all activities carried out within the brand lead to a common purpose of fostering a healthy relationship between the brand and the customers .
Sorbet has achieved high levels of success in brand positioning. This is because the positioning has made the group distinctive of the competitors while making the products very attractive to the niche market. As pointed out in the case, Sorbet group has established itself as an uptown beauty salon that offers exemplary services when it comes to skin treatment, nail work and the sale of beauty products. The niche occupied by Sorbet is viewed to be composed of young and middle-aged women, who prefer to shop in exclusive malls and who drive posh cars. The groups positioning can also be seen through the company’s insistence on offering the best customer service through well-trained employees. The overall result of this kind of brand positioning has been consumer loyalty which is in line with the company’s focus on loyalty as opposed to customer satisfaction.
Sorbet’s brand personality can be viewed from two perspectives:
Competence
Through its operations, the Sorbet brand has proven its expertise through various avenues. First, it has shown itself to be very reliable when it comes to the provision of quality service to the customers via the well-trained staff . The management has also proven to process sharp business acumen, and all this has contributed to the success the brand has enjoyed.
Convenience and sophistication
As a brand, Sorbet is very convenient to its target consumers. Given that its customers frequent exclusive shopping malls and supermarkets, the company has established its salons around these establishments. Through the well-trained staff, the brand has been able to offer convenient and high-quality service to its customers .
There are a variety of ways through which the Sorbet brand communicates its personality:
Through its bright colors and the ambiance created in the salons, the brand communicates its personality of being sophisticated and competent.
Its sophistication is also communicated through the retail of high-end beauty products that their niche market likes.
The customer loyalty program is a show of the level of competence of the brand towards customer retention and satisfaction.
What role do employees play in building Sorbet’s brand equity?
The success of any business requires cooperation and support of the human resource. The employees are the interface upon which a brand meets the consumers. It can be argued that in the service industry, the perception that consumers have about the staff translates to the perception held about the brand . The implication here is that employees need to subscribe entirely to the brand equity. Brand equity is defined from the consumer’s perspective. It refers to the aspects that inform a consumer to choose a particular brand on the market, or have some form of preference to a certain brand .
Sorbet Group employees have contributed to the creation of brand equity. One such contribution is the quality of service provided. The citizens, through their regular training, have highly developed skills, which translate to the right outcomes for their consumers. Through this, brand quality, which is a major contributor to the formation of brand equity, is realized . The employees at Sorbet have a system whereby they customize the treatment of each customer. The implication here is that the clients have healthy brand awareness on Sorbet. The healthy brand awareness is another important that has contributed to the building of the brand equity. The quality treatment and the kind of attention customers get from Sorbet salons have also fostered brand loyalty. Consumers keep coming back due to these incentives, and all this contributes to the building of the brand equity.
In addition to investing in human resources, what else has Fuhr done to enable the organization to deliver on its brand promise and to retain and grow Sorbet’s customer base?
An important aspect of brand management is getting a clear understanding of the expectations that the clients have for a given brand. The mention of a brand elicits some form or response from consumers. This is where the aspect of brand promises arises. A successful brand is one which meets the expectations that customers harbor about the said brand. Delivering on these expectations amounts to the realization of the brand promise . In Sorbet’s case, the investment in efficient management of human resource has been the major way through which the company has been able to deliver on its brand promise. There are, however, two other aspects in this regard.
First is the aspect of Sorbet being a high-end salon, where high-end customers come to receive spectacular treatment. The company has delivered in this respect by first having salon locations in high-end zones or around high-end establishments. The association with producers of high-end beauty products such as Dermalogica is another way through which the customers’ expectations to receive exclusive and posh treatment has been realized.
The second way through which Fuhr has enabled the company to deliver on the brand promise is minimizing the negative experiences of customers . Sorbet has established itself as having the potential to deliver effectively and efficiently its services. When customers have complaints, the management has devised ways through which these concerns are swiftly dealt with. Through the win-back philosophy, the company views the complaints as an opportunity for the company to learn how to treat the customers better. This system has reduced the inconveniences that the clients have, meaning that the promise of spectacular service is delivered.
What does Fuhr need to take into account as he seeks to extend the sorbet brand into new product categories targeted at female consumers?
Brand extension is an important concept when it comes to the growth and expansion of a company. It is through the brand extension that a company is able to introduce new products or services in addition to the ones that define the parent brand . The first important aspect that Fuhr needs to realize is the fact that brand extension to feature new beauty products for women has the potential to influence the brand positively. This is through the diversification of the brand’s portfolio that lowers risk in sales while offering a platform through which the brand’s appeal and acceptance are measured. On the same breath, however, he needs to realize that brand extension provides some risks . The new products may be of low quality, which in turn damages the image of the products within the parent brand. Besides, there is the risk of the new products being within a highly competitive market, leading to bad performance that overall reflects negatively on the overall brand.
With the increased competition in the beauty industry, it appears to be necessary for Fuhr to engage in brand extension. Given the concerns raised above, however, it is important for him to be prudent in the introduction of new products. First, he needs to conduct extensive research on the new products and especially the attitudes of consumers towards the products. Also, the thinking being the introduction of the new products needs to be right. The brand extension should be put in place with long-term productivity in mind. This will help deal with the potential bottlenecks in brand extensions. Also, Fuhr needs to put in place strategies that create customer awareness for the new products. A common mistake companies make during brand extension is assuming that the new products will ride on the fame of the parent brand . This proves to be untrue, sometimes leading to failure of the new products.
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