Our group assessed the brand’s meaning by administering a free association task to 40 consumers in the target segment. We identified differences in brand meaning and how they can explain variance in brand attitude and purchase frequency.
The Challenge
Our primary research revealed that Patagonia’s desire to be associated with the “environment” and “sustainability” are not translated well to the end customer. Patagonia has strong associations with the “outdoors”, and “mountains”, but is also considered “expensive”; wherein its perceived quality does not justify a price premium. So what does this really mean? Let's dive deeper.
Free Association Analysis
Expensive
35% of respondents associated Patagonia with "Expensive" and commented that they don’t purchase from Patagonia because of the price. We wanted to understand why the price is hindering consumers from putting Patagonia in their consideration sets for outdoor wear. This is compared in the Y&R matrix below. Our research findings showed that the majority of respondents had little to no share of pocket and there’s a high percentage of people associating it to “expensive” rather than to “sustainable”.
Environmental
15% of respondents associated environmental with Patagonia, and 4/6 of these associations came from respondents who were surveyed outside a Patagonia store. We can hypothesize then that “environmental” as an association is getting across to Patagonia shoppers, whereas it is not as strong with non-Patagonia shoppers.
Augmented Utility
Out of all the associations, only positive ones were associations such as “environmental”, “sustainable”, “cool” and “friendly”, which are included in the augmented utility of the Utility Fulfillment Circle. This means the core utility of Patagonia’s products is much more representative for consumers than its augmented utility. Therefore, consumers are purchasing at Patagonia because of the unique outdoor products they offer rather than the augmented utility they can possess.
Solution
Patagonia’s CSR focus is a key point of differentiation, yet is not highly perceived by consumers. The company should focus on communicating: Environmental, Sustainable, Fair trade practices.
Patagonia Day
To involve and educate consumers on a larger scale, Patagonia will donate 25 cents to an environmental cause for every social media hashtag or photo posted relating to the Patagonia Day project. This would not only broaden Patagonia’s reach, but also expose consumers to Patagonia’s “Patagonia Works” projects and distinguish the brand as highly socially responsible.
Environmentally-focused Hang Tags
To address justifying the price premium and value, Patagonia could revise their in-store product displays and product tags to have a short blurb about where their clothing comes from and how the way it is made can positively benefit the environment. For example, Patagonia’s “Recycled Down” line is unique in that their puffer jackets are all filled with recycled materials, and so effectively communicating this initiative would improve Patagonia’s environmental associations and reason its price premium.
Snapshots of the Survey Results
