Brand relevance : a case study of Estée Lauder’s black middle-class female consumers at Westgate Shopping centre

M.A. (Strategic Communication)Abstract: A new consumer has emerged, who is highly informed and constantly demanding. Successful brands depend on unprecedented levels of consumer intelligence in order to remain relevant to this new emerged consumer. Brand relevance has become particularly important in the cosmetics industry. This is due to the digital interactive technologies that have provided consumers with myriad brand choices. In this regard, the young Black middle-class female consumer is viewed as a new consumer who is aspirational and diverse, who requires brand owners to understand her thoroughly in order to effectively anticipate and cater to her specific needs. Such consumers gravitate towards brands that are relevant, that are perceived to have positive brand reputation and have brand associations aligned to what they have ascribed to. Given the issue of a new emerged consumer in the fast changing market environment this study focuses on the notion of brand relevance in relation to Black middle-class females in South Africa. The purpose of this study was to investigate brand relevance of Estée Lauder’s skin-care range for a select group market of Black middle-class females between the ages of 26 - 40 years. The aim was to establish how Black middle-class female consumers at Westgate Shopping centre perceive the brand relevance of Estée Lauder. The research methodology for this study adopted a qualitative approach and it was exploratory in nature. Accordingly, to gather data, focus groups and projective techniques were used on a purposive sample of 24 participants drawn from the target population. Data in this study was analysed through thematic analysis. Confirmability in this study was achieved through conducting a pilot study. This study confirmed three findings: firstly, that there was a possible Estée Lauder brand relevance gap as perceived by the Black middle-class female consumers at Westgate Shopping centre; secondly, there was a misalignment of Estée Lauder’s brand reputation from the perspective of Black middle-class female consumers at Westgate Shopping centre; thirdly the brand associations were also misaligned with perceptions of these Black middle-class consumers. Further the study revealed that through the application of the core principles of strategic communication, brand relevance could be achieved, and brand reputation as well as brand association could also be aligned with the perceptions of the Black middle-class female consumers at Westgate Shopping centre consumer. It was also recommended that future research should specifically explore what other strategic communication concepts that can be utilised to obtain brand relevance