Case Study: La Martina – “Pasíon Argentina” After years of growth, the Argentinian premium polo equipment provider La Martina faces a difficult corporate corporate identity problem. The company is traditionally a producer of innovative, technologically advanced products that cater to the needs of polo players around the world. However, the company has recently noticed the popularity of the brand growing with non-polo players as well, which would present them with the opportunity to expand the brand into the fashion industry. This opportunity also comes with many risks, which makes the question that CEO Mr. Simonetti has to answer even more difficult. Should La Martina seize the opportunity to expand the brand into the fashion industry, or continue to focus on the traditional goals of the company that have enabled the brand to emerge as the iconic brand of polo? The original goal of La Martina was to be the iconic premium brand for innovative and high quality polo equipment. La Martina wanted to be for Polo, what Wilson is for Tennis: As stated in the text La Martina “It is not about polo – it
is
polo”. In order to achieve this goal its focus
has been on the narrow niche market of approximately 7000 - 8000 professional polo players around the globe, who traditionally belong to the wealthy, noble high society. It follows a low profile strategy, delivering a lifestyle closely linked to the sport and its adherents, which is at once simple, original, traditional, sophisticated, comfortable, genuine, authentic, individual and cosmopolitan. Its value proposition is in line with the market structure, as well as the needs of the target customers: Those being serious and passionate polo players as well as polo fans, both typically representing the affluent elite of society. Competition amongst other Polo equipment producers has changed dramatically throughout the years. In the beginning the competition was small, with the only competitors being small local artisans producing polo equipment wherever the game was played. However, after the success of La Martina other competitors started to emerge such as La Dolina and Etiqueta Negra who also 1 Group 10: Marita Dautel – Dautel – Yiwen Luo – Luo – Prajakta Sawant – Sawant – Nils A. Luepkes
Case Study: La Martina – “Pasíon Argentina” provided fashionable polo products and accessories and were promoted by famous Polo Players. These upcoming brands pose quite a big threat to the company however; La Martina has a big advantage in its position in the market, and its relationship with other companies interested in promoting the sport of Polo. In order to gain recognition in the Polo world, La Martina collaborated with Alfa Romeo and Mastercard, to provide sponsorship for the first fully-sponsored professional polo team, and also reaped the benefits of its not-for-profit sister company Polo Management Group (PMG) that promoted the sport of polo around the world. Which in turn lead to growth in demand for polo products. As can be seen by the marketing mix (Exhibit 1) of the appendix, La Martina has defined its Products, Promotion and its Price inline with its goal to cater to the high society. The only area in
which La Martina hasn’t been consistent with its image has been in the area of placement. Traditionally, the company has used Flagship stores with an upper class atmosphere to distribute its products to the customers. However, with its entry into Europe La Martina has used an international chain of retail stores as well as a franchise system to sell its products. This has led the control of distribution being lost and subsequently the products being sold along side less
prestigious fashion brands such as Ralph Lauren and Lacoste, which isn’t inline with the premium image that the company had made for itself. As can be seen from the information provided in the SWOT analysis (Exhibit 2), La Martina is a very successful brand with many options as to how to proceed. The brand could become a fashion brand, go back to its roots, or become a diversified brand and try to reap the benefits of both strategies.
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Case Study: La Martina – “Pasíon Argentina” La Martina could accept its new role of being a fashion brand and capitalize on the benefits of going further into this industry: High growth rates, relatively high margins, a globally recognized brand name and a whiff of luxury. This move would require a more market oriented business model, especially in terms of the financing policy, continuous designer support and a consistent change of the product and price range. Competition would be fierce, and a certain level of exclusiveness would be lost. Alternatively, La Martina could go back to its roots try to do everything necessary to prevent its becoming a global fashion brand. This could be accomplished by strictly enforcing its original marketing mix and regaining absolute control over its business and the distribution of its products. This means limited returns, since polo is a niche market, and slow, if any growth. It would most likely guarantee a faithful fan base with high buying power and, in combination with PMG, an almost monopoly like position in the global world of polo. La Martina could also try to diversity the brand by following two different strategies at the same time. This strategy would serve both the high society polo players on the one hand and fashion savvy consumers on the other. A serious restructuring would be necessary to visibly cut the
company’s operations into two parts to remain its credibility among each target group. The management of the business – or the new businesses – would have to be adjusted to this and turned into a modern global hybrid sporting fashion special purpose company.
Based on La Martina’s core brand and its values (Exhibit 3), its history, as well as the GSTIC and the SWOT analysis of the company, its customers and its business environment, we recommend La Martina to go back to the roots and do everything necessary to remain an exclusive premium brand for the global polo elite. Any dilution of the brand would destroy its
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Case Study: La Martina – “Pasíon Argentina” exclusiveness and most likely result in losing the trust and support of its high society clientele. With the support of PMG, La Martina holds a key strategic position in this particular segment – it would be very frivolous to give up this advantage to compete as one of the many luxury brands in the fashion industry. To increase profits, a stronger emphasis should be put on extending the product range for polo players, hosting more polo events in fresh regions, and customization of products for players with specific needs. Any soft diversification shall be planned carefully and a brand cannibalization should be avoided at any cost. To further increase the brand awareness of La Martina among its upper-class consumers, strengthen the stylish & high-quality polo brand image, and differentiate with other popular fashion brands such as “Ralph Lauren” (which only use polo as a “Hype” to make its regular casual clothes look more premium). We suggest launching a one-year marketing campaign for La Martina, which can be seen in the road map (Exhibit 4). Instead of turning La Martina into a fashion brand, this campaign would aim to help the public con jure up images of “upper class”, “high-fashion” and the sport “POLO”, so as to enhance the brand association. Therefore, the theme for the campaign would be “La Martina, live like a Polo-er”.
In conclusion, we believe that if La Martina were to take our recommendation and stay consistent with the traditional values and goals of the company, they would make best use of their resources and would not cannibalize any of the upper market brand image that they have worked so hard to achieve.
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Case Study: La Martina – “Pasíon Argentina” Appendix
Exhibit 1: Marketing Mix PRODUCT
PRICE
Quality Polo apparel
Luxury segment
Functional Polo equipment
No price discrimination
Clothing, watches and perfumes
Passion and emotion
Enthusiasm for Polo
Prestigious feeling of exclusiveness PROMOTION
PLACEMENT
Active promotion of Polo
International chain of retail stores
Hosting events via PMG
Franchise system
Sponsorship of elite universities’
Concept flagship stores
professional Polo teams
Support of famous Polo players and celebrities, royals PROCESSES
PEOPLE
High degree of vertical integration
Devoted employees
Self-financing
Young, fresh and impressionable
Close relationships to suppliers
High performers
Use of PMG as a door opener
Close relationship to management
Licensing only to Polo savvy countries
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Case Study: La Martina – “Pasíon Argentina” Exhibit 2: SWOT Analysis STRENGHTS
WEAKNESSES
Strong brand
Very narrow niche market
Wealthy and renowned customers
Very traditional business approach
Strong esprit de corps
Dependent on popularity of Polo
Strong Relationships to suppliers Devoted employees High level of control over operations Own Polo event company (PMG)
Noble brand ambassadors
OPPORTUNITIES
THREATS
Booming high-end fashion market
Niche competition
Polo becomes more popular
Counterfeit products
Enter new markets related to horse riding
Shift to “common” fashion product
Exhibit 3: Brand positioning
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Case Study: La Martina – “Pasíon Argentina” Brand domain:
Niche market of approximately 7000 - 800 0 professional polo player 200000 casual players potential polo player and fans Brand heritage:
Premium and leading brand image among polo player Loyalty upper-class consumers Brand value:
High performance polo outfit designed for serious player, not for the catwalk need
Brand Assets:
WOM(word of mouth) communication on its professional product design Closely associated the brand with polo game Brand Personality:
Professional , High-quality, Premium
Brand Reflection:
Professional polo player Upper –class lifestyle
Exhibit 4: Road Map
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Case Study: La Martina – “Pasíon Argentina” Notes to Exhibit 3:
Co-brand and Collaboration: La Martina can work with a series of premium brands, to fully create an over-all lifestyle impression of polo player. For instance, La Martina could co-brand with other companies producing goods for the Polo market like it has done in the past eg with the goggle producer from Germany or watch companies that produce watches suitable to be used on the Polo pitch. Also, La Martina can cooperate with famous brands of cigar, wine and caviar to sponsor the polo game and the after party. Media Selection: Polo media: can full display the product line of La Martina among the polo fans and players, and enhance the leading position of La Martina in this field. Business media: (such as Forbes and Fortune, whose TA is business elite and the high income bracket.) The readers of those magazines pursue high-quality living standard can also be the TA or potential TA of La Martina. Making full-page ads & advertorial article, and conducting interview with CEO of La Martina to promote the brand concept, will be well received. Lifestyle media: Since La Martina will cooperation with other premium brand to create an overall lifestyle imagine of polo player, using the leverage of this type of media can generate bigger influence. High-fashion magazine: Rational utilize the “passionately adoration” from fashion magazine. Using attractive polo players (instead of supper models), to display the combination of “stylish” and “beauty” of La Martina, and the appealing story of polo.
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