In a previous post I spoke about the importance of product innovation in the United Kingdom, following the opportunity that ACCIÓ has given us to participate in the Strategic Training Week for the clusters of the Catalonia Clusters program.

In this second post I would like to share some learnings about branding and product positioning, based on a conversation and a retail tour with Marc Guitard.

In Europe we can identify several types of market, with consumer behaviors differentiated by region: the Mediterranean market, the Anglo-Saxon, the Central European and the Scandinavian. In the case of the Anglo-Saxon market, there are three key ideas that seem particularly relevant to me.

The first is that brand culture is placed above the product. In the Mediterranean, on the other hand, the product is often the protagonist: the fuet, the nougat, the sparkling wine... In this sense, the visit to Harrods was very interesting, where Moët & Chandon does not have its space in the wine area, but in the Beauty area. The brand wants to be associated with the values ​​of beauty, personal care and lifestyle. It is a very clear example that, in this market, the product category does not matter as much as the brand and the values ​​it transmits.

This example connects directly with the second idea: the “how”, that is, the emotions and values, take precedence over the “what”. A particularly illustrative case is that of Prada, a renowned fashion brand that has a café-bar in one of the most exclusive areas of London. You cannot buy any of its usual products there. What it sells is time, experience and glamour.

The third idea is that the British market lives immersed in the culture of communication, rather than in that of information. Each person receives thousands of brand impacts per day, which forces companies to build very clear messages, capable of generating emotion and surprising. In this context, the “facing” of the products must be attractive and must capture attention almost immediately. Once the customer's interest has been aroused, there will be time to give them all the information they want.

This logic is also seen in the role of salespeople in some department stores. They are no longer just people to ask for information, but, through their clothing, gestures and actions, they become actors who communicate the values ​​of the product or store they represent.

It is important to remember that London functions as a true social laboratory for the market. In many ways, it is a few years ahead of the rest of the world and, therefore, it is worth taking note of this, whether we want to sell in that market or if we want to anticipate trends that may arrive here in the coming years.

I also find it interesting to make a point about alcohol and its consumption in Great Britain. Traditionally, it has not had the same socializing role that it has in our country. It is still common to see more excessive consumption and less linked to gastronomic or relational culture. In this sense, Estrella Damm is trying to enter the Anglo-Saxon market by transmitting another way of understanding beer: not only as a drink, but as an element associated with Mediterranean culture, socialization and sharing.

Another concept that I was not familiar with until now is that of “curation”, understood as the ability of an establishment to select, care for and guarantee the quality of what it sells. Often, people go to a store not only for the product, but because they trust the criteria of the person who has selected it. Harrods is an example of this in the hyperluxury segment, but this logic also exists at other levels, such as in the case of Natoora, which applies this curation to the fruits and vegetables it sells.

To end the day, we went to dinner at a mid-range restaurant in Oxford. If we had made bets on which would be the most expensive sparkling wine on the menu, we would probably have lost. For around 100 euros you could buy a bottle of British sparkling, over 95 euros for a Champagne reference. A fact that says a lot about how the perception of British sparkling wine is also evolving.

And, to finish, one last point that made me think. Marc told us that Catalonia, as a brand, generates a lot of confusion when it comes to communicating internationally: Lleida, Costa Brava, Pyrenees... many brands for a relatively small country. While he was saying that, I couldn't help but think about a very close sector...

Perhaps here too we have a pending reflection on how we explain ourselves to the world.