Brand Analysis Essay: Camper

Brand Analysis Essay: Camper Overview

Camper brand was founded in 1975, and it is a footwear brand from the Island of Mallorca, Spain. Also, the origins of the company roots back in 1877 when the grandfather of Lorenzo, Antonio Fluxa, a skilled cobbler, traveled from Mallorca to England and returned with the first sewing machines on the Island and a newfound spirit of innovation (“Camper Store,” 2019). Therefore, Lorenzo Fluxa created Camper to respond to the demand for a new and fresh style of footwear in 1975. Moreover, Camper focuses on continuing the family business with a rich shoemaking heritage that they use to create unique designs for their target audience ("Camper Store," 2019). Therefore, Camper's core value is representing their shoemaking heritage and designing unique shoes for both men and women.

Also, Camper’s success can be measured by looking at their stores from all around the world, and the brand has become a global trend over the years. Camper brand is featured with its stores because they believe each store should have its characteristic that infuses its core brand identity with new perspectives. Camper Together stores encourage inventive approaches to retail design, which is created by the world's leading architects and industrial designers. Working with renowned creative leaders allows them to create memorable retail experiences ("Camper Store," 2019). In this sense, all of their stores are unique. Besides, Camper highly values about protecting nature. Therefore, they are producing recycled shoes and bags. For example, their Curb sneaker features uppers, laces, and linings made of %100 recycled nylon and PET, and their other shoes are being made from recycled materials.

Camper’s target audience is everyone across the globe. However, our experiential marketing idea's target audience is more specific than everyone. That is, our experimental brand idea' target audience is young adults aged between 22-28 who likes fashion and nature-friendly and high-quality shoes. Therefore, the brand's position in the target consumer's mind is “Camper style comfortable and high-quality walking shoes," and the brand embraces innovative designs for the footwear concepts that blur the boundaries between sporty and smart. Also, Camper is already organizing events to connect with their target audience, but experiential marketing ideas can bring the brand more outcomes. More specifically, they are not just focusing on producing shoes; they are also trying to connect with their target audience with these organizations. Also, Camper is focusing on doing things that can help both its target audience and nature. Moreover, their company is sensitive to nature and thoughtful about pleasing their target audience in order to keep them connected with the newest collections of Camper.

In-depth Interview Insights

In-depth interviews are important for gaining insights because when interviews are performed with a single person, participants feel more comfortable answering the questions rather than being interviewed with a group. According to the brand report, our experimental brand idea has been shaped, but the insights that came from interviews gave us a chance to examine our idea about the Camper. We have interviewed ten individuals, and seven of these individuals were already Camper's target audience. Therefore, our in-depth interview questions focused on gaining insights from Camper's target audiences, and for the other three participants, our in-depth questions were different because their consumer insights were focusing on how brand awareness can be created for those participants.

Moreover, insights that we have learned from Camper's target audience are that young adults like to wear unique and high-quality shoes, but for some of them, comfort is more important than design. Also, most of the participants said that they do not like to wear neon shoes unless they match with their dresses. More specifically, since neon shoes are part of the newest Camper collection, these consumer insights can help to determine marketing strategies to make those individuals think they should buy the neon shoes, and they should try to match it with several dresses. Furthermore, the answers from the male participants have clearly shown that they do not like to wear neon shoes, and those male participants enounce that they are also valuing their professional lives, and neon shoes are not suitable for their professional life.

The other consumer insights that we have gained from in-depth interviews are that both women and men highly value wearing casual but unique shoes in their professional lives, and these individuals consider themselves more sophisticated when they wore casual but unique shoes in their professional lives. Therefore, they tend to choose a brand that has created a cool brand image. Also, participants said that they are comfortable with wearing recycled shoes, and according to results, brands that protect nature are more valuable than other brands.

Focus Group Insights

According to the nature of the focus group, before starting the focus group discussion, we have determined our goal about the results from the focus group discussion. These goals were Camper's target audience will feel connected to the newest collection, and why are some of the target audience shops from the competitor brands such as Nine West. More specifically, we would like to learn whether Camper's brand awareness reached its target audience. According to the focus group discussion results, we have found that some of the Camper's target audience found Camper's shoes expensive, but most of the participants liked the Camper collection.

Also, there were two participants in our focus group who did not know Camper, and these participants enounce that they have found Camper shoes expensive, and casual. Also, some of the participants revealed that they are not comfortable with wearing recycled shoes. Moreover, most of the participants said that they liked the Camper collection, and they would consider buying some of the shoes that they have liked from the collection. In this sense, the majority of the focus group enounced that they have known Camper for years, and most of the participants said that they have bought from Camper's former collections several times. In conclusion, the results have shown that Camper’s brand image unites with their target audience, and they feel connected to the Camper collection.

Brand Insights & Sweet Spot

According to the brand report, Camper focuses on keeping the family heritage that they have carried ever since. Also, their core values are essential insights for the brand, such as protecting nature, and they believe that their stores have their characteristic, and they are creating unique designs for both men and women. Another insight about Camper is that they are creating unique campaigns for their products on social media channels, and these campaigns create a difference with their competitors. Also, Camper is the first shoe brand that is creating mismatch shoes for their customer. Camper is working with respectful artists in creating their designs; for example, they are working with twins. More specifically, Camper's collaborations with artists create a unique feature for their shoes.

There are a lot of good points about Camper, and all of these qualities can be a sweet spot. Moreover, for discovering the sweet spot of Camper, we needed to examine the qualities that they have embraced, and Camper is successful at representing their core values, unique features, and their brand image. Also, when we examined the positioning statement of Camper, it gave us the sweet spot. More specifically, the sweet spot of Camper is that Camper embraces innovative designs for the footwear concepts that blur the boundaries between sporty and smart (“Camper Store,” 2019). Furthermore, there can be more than one sweet spot for each product or each campaign, but Camper is focused on reflecting one sweet spot for its shoes, and this sweet spot reflects the Camper shoe personality so that their target audience knows Camper shoes are the best in both angles because Camper shoes are both good for their foot and their souls.

Also, Camper's long years of experience in the market place allows them to build a trust-based relationship with their target audience in the long-term. More specifically, Camper's long years of experience in the market place allow them to show their expertise in the field of shoemaking, and their recent campaigns have shown that they are qualified for using trends in order to reflect their unique and innovative designs to their target audience. Also, one can infer that Camper is a successful brand which fulfills their customers’ expectations and desires when they bought a shoe from Camper stores. Therefore, the sweet spot's importance is relevant to consumer desires and expectations.

Experimental Marketing Idea

“Experiential marketing is a marketing technique that creates experiences between brands and consumers” (“What is Experiental,” 2020, para. 3), and “experiential campaigns use an activation (for example, product sampling, immersive experiences, stunts, events, etc.) to bring brands to life and interact directly with the target audience” (“What is Experiential,” 2020, para. 4). In other words, experiential marketing ideas are more effective than traditional marketing, and experiential marketing ideas can benefit the brand. Also, experiential marketing has become a necessity in the 21st century because it gives the target audience a chance to connect with the brand. More specifically, it gives the advantage of experiencing the products; thus, experiential marketing ideas become memorable and unforgettable for the target audience. Moreover, brands that want to make a difference for their target audience usually use experiential marketing ideas for their brands, and those brands, most of the time, raise their sales after the experiential marketing because target audience learns the benefits of the products by literally experiencing it.

Furthermore, brands use data to make use of an experiential marketing idea; in this case, for Camper's experiential marketing idea, we have evaluated the insights that come from the brand, in-depth interviews, and focus groups. Therefore, Camper shoes have specific qualities such as wind-proof or waterproof and breathable, and besides these qualities, Camper's unique feature is shaped with innovative designs such as the recycling process. Camper's experiential marketing idea focuses on showing the shoe qualities and showing the benefits of the designs. More specifically, according to the insights we have gained from the in-depth interviews, and focus group discussion, some of the target audience does not feel comfortable wearing recycled products, and some of the target audience does not want to wear neon colors. Therefore, Camper's experiential marketing idea unites pieces of information around the qualities of the products.

That is, Camper's experiential marketing idea includes a portable platform with three sections, and these sections separate from each other with a white plastic door. In the first door, the target audience experiences high-temperature heat, and this section is for reflecting breathable shoe quality. The second section includes low-water that target audience can walk through it without getting their foot wet. Also, in the low-water section, there are objects which are recycled into shoes, and this section aims to prove both the quality and importance of recycled products to deal with the pollution in nature. The third section is dark, and the target audience can only see the neon parts of their shoes, and when they walk, there are written mottos on the floor about neon beauty. More specifically, the target audience can throw neon lights to the walls, and the floors before exiting the platform. For the importance of experiential marketing idea, Camper already organizes events in their stores with the collaboration of artists, but after all, the portable platform can reach more individuals around the target cities.

References

Camper Shoe Store. (2019). Retrieved May 19, 2020, from https://camper.com/en_US/

What is Experiential Marketing? (2020). Retrieved June 19, 2020, from https://sensemktg.com/experiential-marketing/#:~:text=Experiential marketing, is marketing, directly with the target audience.