We are going to
answer in this part who are the customers of The Kooples and Benetton. What are
their key purchase drivers? what do they want to appear as?
The Kooples customers:
The Kooples is a French brand created
by the sons of the fashion designers of Comptoir des Cotonniers. The Kooples
has really well interpreted the success of its mentor and reused it to create a
new brand at the top of the fashion. When the Comptoir des Cotonniers has
created clothes collections that mothers and daughters could lend to each
other, The Kooples has concentrated on that couples who can exchange their
wardrobes. Indeed, in a world in which the barriers between the two sexes are
disappearing, The Kooples has created blazers for woman or cardigans for men.
The brand is strongly linked to the British rock culture and to the renewal of
the vintage.
The
Kooples targets the urban youth with top of the fashion clothes with a top of
the range positioning. The 25 to 35 are its core targets but the brand touché
also people from 15 years old! Actually, since its launch in 2008, The Kooples
has become the new phenomenon of the fashion in France. As its clothes, the
targets of the brand are asexual. The gay community, for example, that is known
to be healthy and interested in fashion, has become one of the main targets of
The Kooples.
The
major characteristic of The Kooples purchasers is their deep interest in
fashion. This vintage and rock British style is new and makes that the
customers are leaders. As we have said before, the customers are between 15 and
35 years old, healthy and self-confident.
Benetton customers :
The
brand Benetton has a very large target. As their brand image, this target is a
little ubiquitous and not precisely determinable. Indeed, we can associate
their brand to the want of “shocking” people and an idea of engagement. But
Benetton has failed to really implant its idea of its image in people’s mind.
The brand has often been the target of a lot of criticisms for too ubiquitous
adverts and for making money on sensitive subjects. But Benetton has always
showed the same image and attracted the same type of customers. For instance,
the motto has never changed, and the “United Colors of Benetton” still stands
for the equality of races and the diversity of colours they sell.
Therefore
we can state, firstly, that the Benetton consumers are not restricted by their
age. Actually, they sell clothes for man, woman and kids. Their purchase is an
act to show their difference and an adherence to the values of Benetton. For
example, when we think about Benetton we think “colours” as they sell a lot of
their clothes in many different colours. So, we can state that the people who
wear Benetton want to shock or to show that they can wear colours, flashy colours
or unusual colours. Moreover, Benetton clothes are not that expensive for a
fashion brand, at the level of Zara for example. Therefore, Benetton represents
a kind of classic fashion but with a strong personality respecting the
competitors.
We
can conclude that the typical Benetton customer is someone between 15 and 45
years old, who wants to wear fashion clothes but with a touch of impertinence,
ubiquity and provocation. It also implies self-confidence from the customer who
knows the scandals that has known the brand and assumes them.
Comparison:
When the Benetton customers are more
classic followers who just search a kind of originality and impertinence in
their style, The Kooples is a top of the fashion brand, dedicated to leaders
and to customers who want to appear as fashion people.
