Researching and looking into competitors that Fortitude would be positioned against in the market is key for this brand development.
As aforementioned, Fortitude desires to be a high-end, luxury womenswear brand sold in third party retailers such as Selfridges. Fortitude stands a strong place in the market being highly sustainable as well as stylish and desirable. To solidify my understanding and acknowledgment of Fortitude’s market positioning, I have looked at and researched into a multitude of brands to be considered as Fortitude’s competitors.
In the first meeting with my designer, Evie provided me with two designer brands that she would consider her competitors. These included Charlotte Knowles and Molly Goddard. After gaining a deeper understanding of Evie’s designs and the brand that I will create for her, I began to think of other existing brands that would also be of Fortitude’s competition, including international, renowned brands as well as slightly smaller, less established brands. These brands include:
Adidas
Stella McCartney
Chromat
Alexander McQueen
Pangaia
For the presentation we were required to visually show our understanding of the market positioning for our brand, and a wise and suggested way of doing this was through a perceptual map (see below). I enjoyed creating this perceptual map, using interesting and relevant axis labels that have allowed me to truly understand the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor to identify gaps in the market.
As evident in the perceptual map, Stella McCartney is probably considered as one of Fortitude’s biggest competitors. Stella McCartney is renowned for responsible fashion. As a brand it explores modern femininity, but at its core is sustainability and creating “beautiful, desirable products with the least impact on our environment” (Stella McCartney, 2021). Charlotte Knowles is also a very key Fortitude competitor, especially according to the designer. However, it can be noted that Charlotte Knowles still has work to do regarding sustainability and ethics to be put on par with similar brands who are more environmentally conscious. Charlotte Knowles as a brand is inspired by the sexual expression of a woman. It is heavily influenced by lingerie and aims to reinvent revealing dressing for a modern woman.
As a new brand in a highly, increasingly competitive market, Fortitude needs to be confident in trying to do things better than their competitors. Being compared with Stella McCartney, Fortitude must aspire to make the brand highly distinguishable from its mission to values. More and more brands are claiming sustainability because they know it is what consumers want (reference to my ‘Kill Them With Kindness’ trend), but it’s about proving that and making it obvious and prominent in the brand’s operations. Being compared with Charlotte Knowles, Fortitude can be confident in exploring the notion of the strengths (and potential weaknesses) of femininity in a more emotional and thought evoking way, as well as exploring another just as significant social issue that needs seriously acknowledging and awareness raising about it; plastic ocean.
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