Introduction
Thomas Sabo is one of the top leaders in jewelry business. The enterprise prides itself at having employees numbering into well over 800. The jewelry business has been constantly receiving adequate attention from its founder; Thomas Sabo. By strategically obtaining services of Kalbi Susanne, an impact was quickly created in the market. Through diversification into several major lines, this company has become a lifestyle for all genders men and women alike. With the sterling silver offering accessories that make trends in modern fashion appear classic and the Charm Club, makes. Thomas Sabo also carries a lot of pride on its first line of products i.e. watches.
In Dubai, despite a downturn in economy, Valentine’s Day is known to be marked with high-quality jewelry mostly from Thomas Sabo. This is from its affordability qualities. In particular, the “Rebel at Heart”: a new piece that is especially sold in Dubai has become the most sought after piece in Dubai. The fact that the company has been opening branches especially stand alone ones is a clear indication that the company revenues are coming in just fine. Further diversification of product lines for example Ice Babe and others, and specifically not forgetting the bridal pieces ensures wider markets.
Currently, this brand, Thomas Sabo is among the 3 most interested by travel retailers. Its products can be found worldwide in stores especially in up markets. By specializing in selling the brand name than just the product, this company has grown bigger with a good increase in revenues. This is a good growth despite the fact that Thomas Sabo himself does not like the media a lot. According to Valls, the company is going to exponentially grow in all its markets in the five continents that it currently enjoys its presence. In fact, the only blander that can be said to be occurring other than Mr. Sabo’s dislike of the media is the strategy by the company to only target 35 – 55 women in their sales. But this is still not that of a big disadvantage as still 18 year olds can be seen shopping for almost the same products as 70 year olds. However all said and done, the company by 2006 had not developed any plans of developing collections for men despite the fact that it had already established itself as a force to reckon with (Sabo, 2006). This could be easily taken to mean that the company is slow in entering into new markets and in creating new customer bases.
Extension and Revitalization Strategies
It is no secret that this brand does not enjoy popularity among all the women. It is also a fact that the brand is just beginning to be appreciated by men around the globe (Thompson, 2010). With daily increase in competition and other factors like the need for more income to support Thomas Sabo’s ever growing business, new customers are more than ever required.
Acquisition of a New Customer Base through Rock Music
Since time in memorial, the passion area of music has been used by top leading brands for marketing (Kaker, 2010). This has been even critical when it came to appealing to audiences who fell in the youth bracket. The music manifestation of influence on the identity of a person is more clearly seen when it comes to changes in fashion and its interdependence. It is no wonder that musicians have for the past years been involved in launching their own lines of fashions. This coupled with the fact that various fashion designers become immensely associated with scenes from a specific music, proves that music can indeed propel fashion into new markets and customer bases. It is a wildly know phenomena that music is increasingly encouraging men and definitely women to increasingly express themselves. These expressed personalities are portrayed through the purchase of jewelry accessories. Since Thomas Sabo himself is fun of rock music, rock music can be employed very well in the further advancement of sale in its line of products.
King of Leon
One of the rock bands that can be used for this marketing strategy is the King of Leon. This band is famously known as a family band due to the fact that it consists of brothers and cousins. Initial success of this band was in 2008 with 9 of its hits featuring in the top 40 of the singles. Their latest album has recorded massive selling of up to and over 49, 000 in downloads. It is has been the number one album in many countries such as Scotland, Switzerland, Ireland, Australia, Canada, Germany, Belgium, and of course the United Kingdom. With this massive following it is un-imaginable how much sale boost would be attributed to it if Thomas Sabo were to incorporate them into their marketing structures.
The music by this band can be used to grace fashion shows for the Thomas Sabo products and make the music lovers associate the rock music with the Thomas Jewelry collections. This would boost sales especially in teenagers around the globe who are known to be die hard rock lovers. This would lead to opening up of new customer base in both men and women who are below the age of 35 that were not initially targeted for sale of its products.
Thomas Sabo is still currently under massive expansion plans. If this band was to grace an opening for one of the stores, it would certainly attract massive following irrespective of the location of the store. Thomas Sabo could as well open up a number of shops in a town or country then later on invite this band for a concert. During the concert, they could display their famous and most sought after pieces to the massive public following
Although this move would expose the Thomas Sabo brand to new customers, it could also be a waste of resources as the advertisement would be to the general public irrespective of whether they are potential customers or not (Silver, 2009). One would argue that profit is not gained but earned but the fact remains that the earning of the profit can be made even less expressive through proper advertisement methods that would target only potential customers. This should not however be mistaken for inappropriate use of the famous marketing principle of giving before one tries to get: before getting from a customer, they need to be given a reason so that they could give to you.
Marketing by Diversification
This type of diversification could be launched not necessarily to gain profits, but as a marketing strategy which will in the long run lead into growth of new customer base, profits and expansion of the enterprise. This involves productions of minor essential items that are mostly used by people for example money clippers, pens, wallets, belts, leather jackets, tie clipper and many more. It could also involve full diversification into a new line of products not initially produced by the enterprise.
Money Clippers
This could be one of the best items to produce as a marketing strategy. Ideally since the money clipper is mostly used to carry credit cards and money in a classic manner, the people using these clippers would tend to associate their classy nature with the company producing them. In the long run, they would like to know about more products that are produced by this classy company and end up buying their jewelry. It is even of greater advantage that the money clipper is made from silver which is the base raw product of Thomas Sabo. Sales of these new products will definitely be increased from their previous customer base. This is from the fact that statistically, people would tend to buy different lines of products from the same brand if they do exist.
Pens and Leather Jackets
Thought not so connected functionally, these two products could highly promote the presence of Thomas Sabo as a brand among people. Just form the notion of having a stylish and custom designed pen to a stylish jacket that bears the Thomas Sabo’s signature could lead to creation of new consumers for their line of products. The enterprise could even initially carry out a promotion and give out free but classic pens to people who attend the promotion and most probably, the same people will end up using those pens in their offices, banking halls, meetings and all manner of places. Since they are using the pens, they are in a way advertising to the public that yes, products form Thomas Sabo are as classy as this pen. When it comes to jackets, the company could as well fully diversify into jacket production as one of its other lines of trade.
The Incredible Sabo Brand
The headquarters of this company is located at Bavaria Germany. The company has tremendously stood out due to its wonderful silver jewelry design and quality. The company has had a reputation of creating various collections with new classy ideas being implemented seasonally. An excellent example is that new ideas are placed coming every spring and autumn and thus keeping at par with the international world of fashion. This enables the customers to be forever ensured of a varied wide category of choices to make. These varied designs are also known to be hand polished in their last step of designing thus giving them the comfortable filling. As per Thomas Sabo’s Director of Marketing, only one word can describe this enterprise: Sportive elegance. This is encompassed with attractive self-service and further designing that is customer oriented to their wants.
Whether it is the use of rock bands or varied specialization in the production of its products, it is no secret that this company has already attracted massive customer base. However with more argue to grow more customers would have to be acquired through the strategies employed in marketing. Ideally, targeted marketing through production of other products like belts or jackets seems more promising.
The fact that the brand Thomas Sabo is synonymous with gifts that are perfect custom made and personalized should drive the marketing strategy in that same notion (Global Press, 2010). To get new markets while still maintaining the company pride of being customized to a near or to a personal level, marketing using various other products should be adopted. These products like belts or money clippers would still be unique and personalized and yet add more choices to customers who would like to buy more than just jewelry from this one shop.
Just like jewelry ornament, the same strategy being employed to provide facilities for development of custom collections would be applied. Products like jackets could be custom made by customers by creating designs of their own. This would enable creation of memorable events not just through the jewelry but also through the other products.
Conclusion
For future viability and continuance, the superb company policies, productions of other products should be adopted by Thomas Sabo. Logically with hit songs, there will come a time when they will no longer be considered hits in town. This would tend to impact negatively on the product being sold as they would now be associated with the old times. Since music is generally enjoyed by a particular group of persons in terms of age, the exclusive use of rock music as a strategy might cause the older generations to shun away from their products. This becomes even more serious if rock music were to be used for strategically positioning of the company’s products in cultures that do not appreciate rock music
Therefore it is with clear reasons that the company should strategically use such products as belts, money clips and others to strengthen itself. This would form an entry into long term diversification and it would give the customers more choices when they do come for Sabo’s products.
References
Global Press. (2010). Thomas Sabo Collection Sterling Silver Jewelry Perfect Gift to Celebrate Valentine Day. China Yiwu: Zhejiang China
Kaker, K. (2010). Thomas Sabo is a Professional Jewellery Manufacturer and a wholesaler. Web.
Sabo, T. (2006). Thomas Sabo meteor dazzles as sales go into orbit. Web.
Silver, N. (2009). Hot Picks in Silver Jewelry for Youth. Web.
Thompson, D. K. (2010). Thomas Sabo – History. Web.