The cult UK fashion brand Superdry is a great, marketing success story with a clear cut strategy and winning marketing mix. Established in 2003, the company has created quality products with brand association centred around American Retro, combined with distinctive, random Japanese text. Part of Superdry's success has been attributed to celebrity endorsement, in particular David Beckham, which has further helped establish brand equity. Importantly, the company says that it doesn’t pay celebrities to endorse its clothes.
When the brains behind the brand, Julian Dunkerton and James Holder, set up the brand seven years ago, they would have first determined the brand’s positioning. It's likely that this would have been followed by identifying the target market of teenagers and twentysomethings, fashionable clothing as the frame of reference, and distinctive styling and quality as points of difference. They would have then worked on the brand design from translating the positioning through to creating an actual product – important steps such as coming up with the Superdry brand name and characteristic colours and styling would have normally been made at this stage. Finally, they would have developed the brand’s meaning and the critical brand associations outlined above which enable the brand to stand out from competitors such as Abercrombie & Fitch and charge premium pricing.
I don’t actually know whether Julian and James adopted such a methodical approach to creating such a powerful brand, but they’ve clearly done something right with phenomenal sales growth and a recent, successful flotation. With the arrival of former Vodafone marketing guru Peter Bamford as non-executive chairman, their marketing capability and global ambitions will no doubt go from strength to strength. Walking down the high street, I'm constantly amazed to see how many people are wearing Superdry t-shirts. The brand is incredibly popular at the moment; however, all good, aspirational brands need to be carefully managed with the marketing mix constantly fine-tuned.
