preview

Slanket

Decent Essays

WHAT ARE THE BRAND ASSOCIATIONS AND MARKET STRATEGIES FOR EACH PRODUCT. Slanket and Snuggie are brands of sleeved-blankets that enjoy fairly distinctive brand associations and market strategies. Slanket was the first brand entering the market, as an innovative product developed to be a confortable yet very practical object, making it possible for people to be warmed by a blanket and still be able to do things easily (changing TV channels, talking on the cell phone or texting, for instance). It was created by a family start-up with scarse funding, which meant that Gary Clegg, one of the founders, had to find creative and efficient ways to promote the product in a low cost fashion. The strategy of Slanket was to focus …show more content…

In exchange for the free promotion, Clegg brother accepted lower margins. QVC channel accounted for the largest proportion of unit sales, although the sales from Slanket’s own website earned a higher gross profit per unit ($38 per unit) and represented a major contributor to the company’s bottom line. Moreover, Gary Clegg also resorted to public relations in order to reach skeptic avoiders of advertising at a very cost-effective manner. Gary would go to the radio stations, telling the tailed version of Slanket’s story and offering giveaways to be used in contests. Gary was not only concerned about the quality of the product but was also about the quality of the service its company provided. Unlike Snuggie, Gary strongly refused to adopt infomercial selling. There were practices in the industry having to do with customer service and inflated shipping-and-handling charges that troubled him. Gary was so careful about managing the augmented product that, initially, until the sales volume became prohibitive, he would carefully send a handwritten note with every Slanket, thanking the costumer for the purchase. On the other hand, Snuggie invested heavily on advertising and promotion while cutting on Slanket’s price by offering a similar product for only $19,99, $16 less than Slanket retailed price, sold by QVC. Snuggie’s infomercial had a remarkable impact on customers’

Get Access