Brand Audit-ASOS
ASOS
Brand Story
On 3 June 2000, 4 British men Nick Robertson, Andrew Regan, Quentin Griffiths and Deborah Thorpe.established a fashion brand called ASOS which is an acronym of ‘ As Seen On Screen’.It’s from the inspiration of popular celebrities’ fashion styles on the screen that company provide celebrities alike, elegant and stylish fashion items but make them affordable and easy to purchase.The company owns over 80,000 branded and own-brand products so far.
In 2001,The company was officially admitted to the Alternative Investment Market on the London Stock Exchange.
In 2003, the name ‘As Seen On Screen’ was changed to ASOS which is more easily recognised by the customers and finished the process on the legal documents.
By 2013, ASOS has successfully launched online shops in France,Germany, the US, Australia, Spain, China and Russia, become a popular well-known icon in adult fashion market with over 4000 employees and now has been ranked as the largest independent fashion and beauty online retailer in the UK.
The Brand Pyramid
Brand Idea
ASOS offers a huge range of fashion brands in the biggest variety, amazing exclusives and cool collaborations at an affordable price.
Brand/Product Persona
ASOS has a characteristic of trendy, fresh but practical fast fashion in relevant certain quality, like a young independent, free-spirited, stylish and elegant woman’s personality.
Emotional Benefit
Feelings of well self expressed and free spirits in good taste which varies them from the general young adults.
Functional Benefits
ASOS almost occupied all kinds of fashion styles for different segments of the young adults in distinctive need for their own style. Products can be varied from the simple basic wears to premium exclusive designer brands，high cost performance ratio.
Features & Attributes
ASOS have maintained the fast refreshing designs in the modern trend, stable quality, broad range of options.
Brand Inventory
About the brand-ASOS has a belief in a world where you have total freedom to be you, without judgement. To experiment. To express yourself. To be brave and grab life as the extraordinary adventure it is. So we make sure everyone has an equal chance to discover all the amazing things they’re capable of — no matter who they are, where they’re from or what looks they like to boss. We exist to give you the confidence to be whoever you want to be.
The Statement-ASOS values creativity, positivity, democracy, and people first.That we make clothing for all, we respect all kinds of people and make sure to fit everyone in and main to offer body positivity from our creative designs and good quality at an affordable price.
Product-Related Attributes — ASOS has enormous fashion and accessory brands designed for different varieties of body shapes and needs as listed below
1,Curves
2,Plus Size
3,Tall
4,Petite
5,Pregnancy
6,Unisex
7,Wide-fit
8,Standard
Brand Equity
Source of brand equity- Equity is contributed by the fast productive and trendy seasonal designs and frequent promotions they associate with the customers, after they launched the free return policy, user-experience was dramatically enhanced along with the customers’ loyalty.
ASOS builds a status symbol of democracy and respect to every single individuals open-mindedly and positively, that they succeed in emotionally bonding with their target audiences.
Brand Equity Pyramid
Resonance
Slightly loyal consumers, internationally high purchase rate, good reputation.
Judgments
Good cost performance ratio, broad range of designs to fit everyone.
Feelings
Fashionable and self expressed, feeling of capability to afford any trendy celebrity alike items.
Performance
Good value for the cost, Popular in creative community, the weak customer services, but the free return policy improved the consumers’ experience in post service.
Imagery
Trendy, young, energetic and elegant image, they hire models in numerous distinctive backgrounds and shapes to represent the free spirit image.
Salience
The UK’s most successful independent online and fashion beauty retailer.
Brand Exploratory
As a fast fashion brand, ASOS was doubted in their production impacts in ethics, environment, human rights, animal rights and controversial technologies in the early days.It received Ethical Consumers’ worst rating in 2011, after some improvement, ASOS got moved up to the best rating, However, ASOS’s approach to the environment didn’t meet their promise, they failed to present a toxics policy on the chemical reduction in the textile production(Ethical Consumer.n.d.), although they have been working on a planet friendly system and build an ASOS foundation the boost their branding.
In April 2020, ASOS was accused by the workers that the company failed to offer appropriate preventative measures and remain safe social distance while operating that they felt like putting their life in risk to produce clothing(Butler,S.2020), this incident significantly made a bad impact in their core value.
Suggestions For Improvement
1,ASOS may consider including more varieties of sub-line deluxe brands to meet certain segmentations of their target audiences’ needs, the price of the sub-line products is still affordable for middle class of people but too few options on the website.
2, Enhance the understanding of the mature 30s’ needs and attitude in order to offer relevant service and product to build a stronger bonding with this segmentation.
3,Launch a ‘premium quality’ series to meet the needs of the slightly more mature segmentation of the consumers who potentially cares about the quality more than just the trendy designs, which can help to strengthen the loyalty and commitment with the secondary segmentation as well.
4, Optimise the customer services, There is no service hotline or online operator to get instant contact with.I would suggest to add a local hotline in every country they launched in and provide quicker and more efficient contact to the consumers.
5, Simplify the process of email correspondence, while there is problem or a question to inquire, the only way is to fill a form on the website then wait for someone’s approach in the email, during the email correspondence, every reply is assigned to a new operator that the consumer needs to repeat the whole problem again.I suggest to make it 1 to 1 service, moreover ,create different emails for different inquiry and list them all on one contact page that the consumer doesn’t need to spend extra time in answering multiple questions and enhance the consumers’ positive experience.
6, According to Independent News, ASOS profits soar 250% during the Covid lockdowns as the consumers' shopping preference and behaviour changed(Forrest,A.2021).ASOS can consider donating a certain percentage of every item the consumer buys to the public healthcare, thus, it can help people, strengthen the their core value of people, reduce the negative impact from the negative news, moreover, the consumer can see the percentage of money whilst placing an order, feel pleased and proud to contribute something meaningful, which may benefit the brand equity as well.
References
Ethical Consumer, n.d.,ASOS plc
https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/company-profile/asos-plc
(accessed 19/07/2021)
Butler,S, 2020,Cradle of disease’: ASOS warehouse staff reveal coronavirus fears,The Guardian,30 Mar
(accessed 19/07/2021)
Brophy A,2018,ASOS — Marketing Week Masters ‘Brand of the Year’,Yougov,10 Oct
Forrest,A,2021, ASOS profits soar 250% during Covid lockdowns as sales hit £2bn ,08 April,Independent
(accessed 19/07/2021)