From the survey, respondents are to rank the following 7 qualities with SK-II - sophisticated; elegant; mature; affluent; feminine; vibrant and good-looking. These qualities are derived from the current brand proposition with SK-II and also from our focus group participants’ responses.
BRAND IMAGERY
ANALYSIS
Hypothesis 2: We hypothesize that among all the current brand propositions of SK-II, femininity is not the most salient for both users and non-users.
Table 4: Ranking of various associations of users and non-users
USER IMAGERY
As seen in Table 4, femininity is ranked as the 5th out of the 7 associations. Further analysis shows that the general imagery of SK-II ties in deeply with their users as seen from our research. Their targeted segment, including the current users, is mostly made up of affluent and sophisticated women.
This proves our hypothesis 2 that femininity is not the top-of-the-mind association with SK-II.
BRAND IMAGERY
We allocated a weightage to our ranking system (with 7-points to those ranked 1st, and 1-point to those ranked 7th) and calculated the average. The results are seen in Table 4.
RESONANCE
FEELINGS
IMAGERY
SALIENCE
PERFORMANCE
JUDGMENTS
SK-II’s tradition and heritage are also well known amongst their users and many of the users from our user diaries and focus groups are able to link SK-II to the traditional Japanese rice washing in heritage settings. They perceived SK-II to be a brand rich with history due to their emphasis on their heritage and the discovery of Pitera.
Many respondents from our qualitative research are able to recall the brand ambassadors, who are also the different faces of the brand.
ANALYSIS
IMPLICATIONS FOR SK-II:
Given that we have successfully proven our Hypothesis 2, it is advantageous for SK-II that femininity is not overtly associated with the brand since they are expanding their market. SK -II has traditionally targeted women but they are slowly moving away from that strong image and opened up the market for the male audiences by having a new product line exclusively for them. SK-II should develop marketing campaigns to reach out to men and expand into the new market of premium skincare.
