Celine Brand Positioning Research

Celine positions itself as a high end expensive luxury brand, creating a luxury sportswear look within its clothes. It has traditional, elegant, sophisticated international values with it's ready to wear garments. 

Its competitors include other luxury brands such as Bottega Venetta, Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton, Mark Jacobs and Chloe. One of its main competitors is Zara with how it can create more affordable clothes with an almost identical look.

Celine has also come under scrutiny though through how it supposedly copied a Geoffrey Beene coat photographed in 2004, shown below. Karl Lagerfeld stated that after seeing both images of the new collection coat and that of Beene that he was "shocked". 

John Lewis Christmas Advert 2013

We are all very familiar with the concept of the department store Christmas advert marking the start to the holidays. At the forefront of this is John Lewis pulling out all the stops each year to attempt to become the most memorable of all (we all remember the tear jerking Snowman of last year!) This year shows the unlikely friendship of 'The Bear and The Hare' in yet another tear jerking adventure pulling on the heart strings of both children and adults alike.

The advert itself was made in August in a studio in south London, each character is made up of hundreds of 2d pieces cut and moved slowly until movement is created and each background is handmade and around 3ft tall at its highest. The doll like world that created the animated film lengthed 90 seconds and had a budget of £7 million. Overall it has been seen by most of the nation and has been created to mimic that of an old age children's tale. It is deliberately designed to remind you of classics such as Narnia, Watership Down and The Wind in the Willows this way it becomes somewhat familiar to all ages bringing in nostalgia and emotion.

The story of the advert tells of a Bear who has missed Christmas every year due to his habit of hibernating, so the hare gives him an alarm clock timed for the 25th December. For the first time the bear wakes up on Christmas morning, sees the tree and cues the tears whilst the punchline appears 'give someone a Christmas they'll never forget'. 

The advert itself bagged £4.2 million of the budget on airtime alone across all channels. The £7 million budget is reasonably low compared to what John Lewis will usually spend on the run up to Christmas. Last year its budget was on level with Aldi (£6.5 million) and dwarfed by Asda (£11.2 million). The difference is that John Lewis doesn't sell food, it sells a notion of how Christmas should be, this is what makes it at the top of it's game. 

John Lewis at Christmas

John Lewis always pulls out all the stops at Christmas especially in reference to its renowned Christmas adverts. This years 'The Bear and The Hare' is no exception, arguable its most popular advert yet. The John Lewis flagship store in London mirrors the successful advert within it's window display, depicting various animals from the advert created out of ordinary household objects which can be purchased at John Lewis itself. I find this a clever imaginative idea to push the boundaries of advertising not only its products but its new 'mascots' of Christmas. 

Byron Burger London

Byron Burger London is situated in South Kensignton and offers a vast range of fresh beef burgers made from the finest meat sourced from Scotland. The meat was cooked medium rare, pink juicy and succulent, the bread was soft and the drink was sharp and refreshing teamed with friendly staff this place is a definite win from me.  

medium rare cheese burger

freshly made lemonade

chocolate milkshake

Selfridges Window Display

Featuring giant pots of Play Doh, Charlotte Olympia Shoes and an assortment of other oversized Christmas presents, the Christmas window display at London's Selfridges is an artistic masterpiece pleasing to the eye. "An extraordinary celebration of all things gifting and giving this festive season" ELLE UK. 

Celine Selfridges

The main purpose for my trip to London was to conduct market and retail research on my groups chosen brand 'Celine', pre arrival in the city we discussed where we could find concessions of the brand as the flagship store was closed down by Phoebe Philo in 2004. Me and my partner Sam looked around Celine Selfridges. The Celine concession was located on the 2nd floor in the women's wear designer gallery situated near other well known high end luxury brands such as Alexander Mc Queen, Balenciaga and Dries Von Noten. 

Whilst looking around the concession we took notes of positioning and also conducted 2 separate questionnaires in order to learn more about the brand from different people, its workers and its consumers. 

Staff Questionnaire

What do you think the brand stands for?

. We know the brand has made it from how its been copied by other brands such as the Zara Studio collection

3 words you associate with Celine

. organic, pure, high quality

What does the brand promise it's consumers?

. luxury and quality

What type of person do you think it targets? Age range?

. business not afraid of wearing a mens cut

Is there a specific colour palette? 

. black, beige, grey, changes with seasons

Consumer Questionnaire

How does Celine appeal to you?

. cut of the clothes, the silhouette, the clean beautiful fabric

Where would you wear Celine?

. All the time, classic

Target age range?

. 40+

3 words you associate with Celine? 

. classic, cool, grown up

What do you think the brand stands for?

. elegant grown up, well cut, edgy