&nby Jewelry – Case Study1
The biggest competitor for the Azza Fahmy Jewelry is the smaller jewelry retailers. These smaller jewelry retailers have been increasing in the recent times. They are characterized by being young and innovative with a high desire to try and establish them in this market. The small scale jewelry is highly divided and in the present time depends highly on the most affordable raw materials like silver and semi-precious stones. The competition that these small scale retailers offer to Azza Fahmy is indirect and lethal considering that they rely mostly on innovative elements and high application of upcoming marketing media for instance the social networks.
In order for Azza Fahmy to beat this growing competition from the growing small scale retailers it has to undertake several things. The first thing it has to do is to limit looses. The company ought to focus on the areas that it is experiencing high losses that may be cut down on. This however does not include advertising, as it is useful in growing of the jewelry business.
The other thing that Azza has to consider is to get creative in what it does. A number of retailers in the jewelry industry use the same marketing techniques so as to get clients. It is quite important that the company gets creative and apply unconventional market techniques so as to contrast the business from the competition. A unique marketing promotion technique gets to clients and leads to more sales. Focus should similarly be placed on unused markets that the small scale retailers have overlooked.
Consequently and quite significant, the Azza Fahmy should develop a unique client service which will outdo the competition. Any purchases made ought to be memorable and worth coming back to as well spreading to other people. The customers are the central point in a business and ought to feel comfortable and needed.
The most vital undertakings to be applied by Azza Fahmy Jewelry so as to meet a successful repositioning were done in its effort to expand and grow in varied ways.
Azza Fahmy reorganized its structuring procedure in the last period so as to reposition its brand so as acquire a better expansion mechanism. The founder of the company is keen on bringing out Azza Fahmy as the leading Egyptian brand both locally and internationally as opposed to being just a designer. The company has hence changed itself from small scale center with few handymen to a great organization that undertakes every task with increased departments for instance marketing, human resource management and quality control. The business was transformed into a family business by adding the two daughters to the control of the business.
As an integral part to the changes being made in the company, the company focused on the marketing and distribution which was in an effort to make it a global luxury brand. The products were constantly placed in the industry’s leading exhibition and trade shows. There has been varied press release locally and internationally. The company has ventured into product placement in its market strategies. In regard to distribution modes, the Azza Fahmy jewelry is sold specifically to the higher scale places, high class malls and leading global retailers. The company has 11 boutiques in Egypt 12 centers in Jordan, locations in UAE, Qatar, UK and Italy.
Azza Fahmy began going global by distributing its products in 2002. 40% of the sales made have resulted to international visits to Egypt. The aim is to grow globally to acquire global sales of 70%. The jewelry is sold in several parts of the world: Jordan, Dubai, Bahrain, Qatar, Lebanon and UK. The company has reached to Harvey and Nichols in Dubai and Kabiri in UK. It has similarly been involved in fashion world in Britain among other shows.
Emphasizing symbolic value
For the company to be able to be established as a global luxury brand it has to undertake varied steps. It has to insist on symbolic value, the most significant aspect about the jewelry luxury brand is that it has the ability to bring about and communicate symbolic value to clients. The brand has two values: functional and symbolic value. The symbolic value comes from the social stance of the brand which is the range to which it is perceived as being an elite product aspired by the clients. This form of symbolic value shows the range to which it is accepted and applied by the clients. The techniques that are applied ought to be keenly created so as to bring out the symbolic value to the clients.
Positioning based on high levels of differentiation
The brand ought to be placed on a point that differentiates it. While Azza Fahmy looks to grow and expand it has to apply a differentiation technique, all of the luxury brand must have this. Luxury brands ought to aggressively differentiate the brand experience. As opposed to mainstream brands, the luxury brand is attributed by a high form of loyalty by the clients, vital aspects that show their identity and rigid relation to central connection in the market for luxury products. These aspects require that the position and form of differentiation of the luxury brand be strong, distinct and keen on the symbolic aspect given to clients.
Creating perceptions of exclusivity
The luxury brand ought to similarly show an aspect of exclusivity to their clients. This aspect is created by bringing about an unattainable price, limiting geographical availability, hindering possession or reducing the supply. This brings about an aspect of demand in the client as well bringing about a sense of unique status to the leaders of the luxury brand.
The technique applied by Azza Fahmy Jewelry in acquiring the attractive Arab Gulf state segment was to direct the market to the western haute couture brands which are keen on products from the Middle East. This was vital in boosting its desire back in the East. The strategy of the company is keen in creating an international market which competes with Cartier and Bulgari. Through the creation of rigid brand name and client center as a luxury brand in Europe as well as UK it is similarly bound to attract the Arab clients. I would personally go for this strategy as it has been the norm of most luxury products; people do not lay their trust to locally produced products. This tends to leave the foreign-based products to thrive while the local products tend to suffer for being believed to be inferior to the internally based ones. In the event that a product has acquired international recognition it hence acquires local recognition.
The other way that the company may attract this market segment is by customizing the market mix. The market mix is composed of: price, product, place and promotion. Each of this aspect can be changed so as to establish the needs of the intended market. The company ought to communicate the importance of the value of the product is to the client. This calls into being promotion, the client has to know the product for them to purchase it. Communication hence should take place through advertising it in the media and social networking sites. The messages should be customized so that the desires of the clients are met and pass information of the attributes most attractive to the customers.
The Azza Fahmy biggest challenge in moving forward lies in the company’s lack of ability to secure enough finance. The Jewelry companies strategies to reach international levels by expanding and growth by marketing its products requires that the finances should be available readily. Considering that the finances needed are quite massive let alone them being expensive creates a great challenge to Azza Fahmy Jewelry. The being a business which is owned by the family has the tag to it that its efforts to acquiring financial safety would be quite hard. The problem is still a concern for the company which it finds it hard to resolve.
For the company to be able to acquire a stable financial state it has to acquire a strong advertising mechanism which would be able to reach a large number of customers in a cost effective way. The technique has to be able excite the present clients and would highly influence the prospective customers without the possibility of applying a lot of finances. It ought to improve the image of Azza Fahmy acquire respect and trust from the client base and which will consequently lead to profitability for the business. The other method that the company would apply to resolve its financial crisis would be to bring about innovations in its products. A large number of companies have been able to carry themselves out of such financial cases through innovation strategies. Though it may not completely resolve it, would go a long way to challenging it. A good way that the Azza Fahmy would be able to bring about innovation would be to applying technology in its application. Though it may be expensive, it would be able save a lot in the coming times through saving on staff and some operations.
The Azza Fahmy is faced by the challenge of brand and image management by the fact that it is a Middle Eastern company. The company’s participation in the recent world events has made a number of the western nations to become cautious of the Arabia and Islamic location, making them to be less accepting to allow the regions cultural acclamation. The Azza Fahmy has therefore to looks for way that it would deal with this issue and create desire of its products to the western countries. For the company to deal with this challenge would be to move away from designs that bring about the Arab sense in its products. This would mean the company transforms its operations from being Islamic in sense and create feeling that would be global in its features and the message it portends.
The other challenge for the company is its lack of ability to enter into the U.S market where it is considered to have acquired a huge market; the U.S market and more so the New York Fashion Week in 2010 as well as the Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center has been a great market for the Azza Fahmy Jewelry, though the company has not utilized this opportunity. This could be attributed to be Arab and Islamic orientation that has made the company join into a cultural event that they do not correlate to. So as to do away with this challenge, the company ought to do away with the perception that such cultural events are not meant for Arab countries. This make the company loses on vital markets. The company similarly ought to diversify its products so as to give them a global picture. This would result to a thriving market base as well as its utilization.
Considering that the Azza Fahmy is undergoing change, it is expected that the employees would not go down well with this. This may be attributed the staff being unaware of the intended steps, the staff not being able to understand how the transformation will impact them, the staff not being able to know how the intended change will impact them and the fear that they will not be in a position to acquire what the intended change will require of them. The application of a proven transformation will limit the staff resistance to it, as well as reducing the dips in the staff attribution.
For the Azza Fahmy Company to ensure that the staff is able to get the correct message, the company ought to involve the staff in its implementation process through a set of steps which aims at engaging them. The staff ought to get involve in the prior steps before the change so that they are ready. It is hence vital that the Azza Fahmy articulates benefits and transformations that are needed by the whole company. The company should then set the direction of the employee through application of procedures that would make it possible to understand more precisely the manner through which the change will occur as well as how they are bound to acquire the advantage from it. Thirdly, the company has to develop the skills of the staff through the use of activities that would send skills needed to apply the desired procedure and supporting the changes needed. Lastly, the company ought to make it its trend to apply measures that would maintain and improve the knowledge in its staff for proper cohesion. These steps are bound to get the staff involved in the changes being made accept it.
Reference
Amin A., M. and Mehrez D. (2010). Azza Fahmy Jewelry: First Egyptian Global Jewelry Brand. Retrieved from http://www.azzafahmy.com
