PRODUCT IN RALPH LAUREN’S MARKETING MIX
Many can find the product development process of Ralph Lauren inspirational. It started by making rags into ties in 1967 (Fury, 2015). Soon after, Ralph Lauren expanded to a line of menswear, which he called 'Polo’. Then his product range evolved into several sub-brands under the umbrella name of the designer. Each of them responds to the needs of various market segments and targets different audiences. Currently, the product lines of Ralph Lauren cover apparel fashion such as men's wear, women's wear, children’s wear and sportswear. Benefiting from its well-established position in the fashion industry, Ralph Lauren incorporated into its offer watches and fine jewellery. By developing numerous product categories, the company could take advantage of its brand equity and build a strong presence in these lucrative sectors (Shafeet et al., 2020). Ralph Lauren shows us a story of accomplishment in classic brand management. By extending its product lines, the brand succeeded to appeal to a wide category of consumers. The main strength of the company is its holistic brand equity. It consists of numerous categories combined with a high-quality product experience and supported by a strong master brand. Relying on that, Ralph Lauren attracts customers who have an existing relationship or positive association with a parent brand to its sub-brands, which offer them different products (Lischer n.d.). However, despite having developed so many sub-brands, Ralph Lauren always had a long-term vision in creating its product portfolio. It has been important for the company to connect its different apparel and accessories lines under a cohesive identity (Nawrot, et al., 2019). Arguably, timeless elegance deeply rooted in Ralph Lauren’s DNA is the core of the success of its wide range of products. The company skillfully merges its classic designs into a new age identity. This wide variety of products facilitates Ralph Lauren’s increase in its market share and reaches people at every level.This strategy enables the company to maintain its appeal with a wide range of consumers. Maintaining this balance between the classics and the newest trends lies at the brand’s core (Deighton, 2019). For instance, in September 2017, Ralph Lauren announced that it would revive one of its most acclaimed collections from the 1990s. Likewise, the company does not hesitate to discontinue sub-brands that do not perform well. The brand architecture of Ralph Lauren is constantly optimized to maximise its brand equity. By continuous product lines optimisation, the company shapes its product-related strategy. Some products are justified to be removed from the brand’s portfolio while others need additional promotion or rebranding.
Leveraging its brand equity, the Ralph Lauren Corporation explored opportunities to broaden its product lines and extend into new markets. Some of the results of those endeavours are:
· Ralph Lauren Home: The home furnishing and accessories brand
· Ralph Lauren Pet: This brand offers pet collectables all with the signature embroidered Pony logo.
· Ralph Lauren Fragrance
Another essential component of Ralph Lauren's product strategy is its constant development and modernisation in line with the latest technologies. Ralph Lauren has in its offer the Ricky Bag. Inside the bag, there is an LED Light, which helps to locate personal items. A USB port in the bag can be used to charge mobile devices. This accessory represents Ralph Lauren’s product philosophy. Veering towards the classics, made of premium materials, the bag captures precisely what consumers desire from a luxury brand. However, its modern functions honour technological development and address the practical needs of its users. Leaning towards digitalisation, the brand launched the PoloTech shirt. This innovation is also directed to competitors. As for most of the consumers, authenticity is essential, through scanning the QR code attached to apparel, Ralph Lauren enables its customers to check if the product is genuine. Ralph Lauren guarantees its clients revisable authenticity of its products, something most of the competitors still don’t offer.
Summarising, the product strategy of the Ralph Lauren corporation relies on the strong iconic parent brand and its positive image. All sub-brands are inspired by the classic appeal of the parent one- as in the luxury fashion industry, high-quality design and its consequent appeal are the primary influences over consumers’ purchase decisions (Lee et al., 2020). Ralph Laurens is not afraid of optimising its brand and modernising its products. The challenge here is the need to stay close to its customers’ demands and ensure that its product lines address these needs. It also becomes more complex to maintain a consistent brand personality across all marketing and communication efforts, especially when the sub-brands and their products need to correspond with different consumer segments. However, the Ralph Lauren Corporation has been managing its extended product portfolio effectively as it stands out in the fashion industry for the last over 50 years.
PRODUCT
‘It all started with a tie’ (Ralph Lauren, n.d.). This graphics presents young Ralph Lauren with his first product launched in 1967 – a wide tie. We could also closely see an example of one of Ralph’s early ties, made out of rags.
2. PRICE
This is a screenshot from Ralph Lauren’s website, showing the collection of luxury watches at exorbitant prices (Ralph Lauren, n.d.). Since Ralph Lauren is a luxury brand, therefore its products are not considered affordable. ‘Ralph Lauren is an expensive brand because it exudes style and utilizes classic designs’ (Buttler, n.d.). Also, Ralph Lauren corporation uses top quality materials to make their products, which is also reflected by higher prices.
3. PROMOTION
This photograph features Robert Redford as ‘Great Gatsby’. In 1974 Ralph Lauren was asked to design the costumes for the Great Gatsby movie. As we can see here, the main character wears RL’s wide tie, which was not that popular back then. This is a perfect example of a indirect marketing, as, even though it was not intended, the movie contributed to the increase of the popularity the RL’s brand (Everett Collection, 1974).
4. PLACE
This picture presents Ralph Lauren in 1971 in his Bloomingdale store opened in 1971. That was the first-ever store dedicated to one designer, which shows how important it was for Ralph to have a place where the customers could exclusively concentrate on his products.(Conde Nast Archive/Corbis, 1971).
5. PEOPLE
This is the photograph of Ralph Lauren – fashion designer and the founder of the Ralph Lauren brand the corporation. He is also its Executive Chairman and CCO (Kambouris, n.d.). Ralph Lauren is famous for his controversial opinions on fashion. He expresses: ‘I am not a fashion person. I am anti-fashion. I am interested in longevity, timelessness, style.’ (Martinroll, 2018).
6. PROCESS
. The picture shows Team US for the Olympics in Tokyo 2021 in outfits designed by Ralph Lauren (Griffith, 2021). To create this collection, the RL company worked to incorporate more sustainable materials and eco-friendly manufacturing practices. (Karimzadeh, 2021). The brand is devoted to environmental consciousness and sustainability.
7. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
The image shows one of Ralph Lauren’s stores inside (Ralph Lauren, 2022). We can see that the merchandise is extremely well organized according to their type and colour. This displaying strategy cleverly incorporates the pieces of clothing into the interior design, resulting in an eye-catching, cohesive look for the entire space. It is an exceptionally aesthetic store with a vintage décor but a modern touch.
Comments