Assignment 1

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Brand Project: Marketing 
strategy proposal for 
Anawhel, former Il était un Fil 
 
Luxury brands and Customer’s experience, 
KEDGE Business School, 
Professor Noel ALBERT 
Felipe Rodrigues 
Afera Abu 
LI Bowen 
SHI Yu 
SHI Yu 
 
 
 
 
S U M M A R Y 
C U R R E N T S T R A T E G Y A N A L Y S I S 
1. Introduction and history 
2. Mission and Objectives 
3. Marketing Strategy 
a. Target customers 
b. Awareness 
c. Unique Advantages 
d. Communication with Clients 
e. Production and distribution 
f. Pricing 
4. Brand Equity 
5. Strengths and Weaknesses 
6. Industry Analysis 
 
Current Strategy Analysis 
IL ETAIT UN FIL is a leather goods luxury brand born in 
the south of France in 2014, which has travel as the main 
topics. The company offers handbag and accessory collections 
made as craftsmanship in an atelier in Marseille. The company 
intends to provide a perfect balance between style, 
functionality, and practicality to everyday life smart partners 
that combine technology with beautiful leather crafted in the 
colorful shades of Provence. The raw materials, leathers, are 
carefully chosen in France and Italy, and the handbags 
collections are the mirror of French “savoir-faire” 
IL ETAIT UN FIL translates into English to something 
close to ‘Once Upon A Thread, which expresses its designer’s 
philosophy: that life is a journey meant to be lived fully, 
composed of traveling, diversity and rich experiences. 
The founder, Naouel BEKKAIE, holds a world journey 
into the fashion world, she is well known for her authenticity 
and passion for fashion and design. There is an absolute 
intensity in her way of speaking that reveals her as an artist 
who is ambitious wise and very committed to her values. 
Before opening the company, she first had a successful 
10-year career working for premier brands. Naouel felt 
something pulling her away from her hometown of Marseille, 
and toward Asia where she discovered a new passion for 
modern technologies. Back in France, she decided to launch a 
new generation leather goods brand, mixing French savoir-faire 
and technology. She was supported by talented French artisans 
to create high-quality collections. With its founder’s shared 
love for traveling, encountering new cultures and meeting new 
people. IL ETAIT UN FIL hopes to be a path for women to world 
peace and unity as it broadens their horizons and bringing them 
closer. 
 
1. Introduction and history 
“Stylish, Positive and 
Practical” 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The company aims to offer the best quality materials and 
designs that can be found, the designer is always seeking for 
something new and following the tendencies. Quality is the primary 
concern of the company, that is why its desire to expand its business 
first in France, where it is easier to manage due to geographic 
circumstances. However, the company is also open to international 
expansion if it is convenient. This expansion also includes new 
products beyond bags and accessories as shoes and sandals, which will 
be launched in this summer with two lines. 
Furthermore, the products are sold in multi-brand stores, 
department stores, and in its website, the aims are to expand the 
company, by entering big stores and in other online retail sites. Only 
when the company is famous enough, the founder will open its 
exclusive store, but now it is not the moment to this. Moreover, the 
company desire to improve the awareness of the brand by celebrity 
endorsement and beautiful photography, it has not already done yet 
due to some financial difficulties. 
Finally, the primary goal of the owner and president is to 
enhance brand equity company to sell it in the future when it reach 
the peak of value. 
 
2. Mission and Objectives 
 
“A perfect balance 
between style, 
functionality and 
practicality to a travel 
and dynamic routine.” 
 
Il était un fil bag 
“When my company 
reach the value peak, I 
will sell it.” 
By Naouel BEKKAIE 
Marketing strategy is a variety of techniques that allow an 
organization to direct its resources towards the best opportunities 
regarding increasing sales and achieving sustainable advantage over 
the competition. A company’s marketing strategy consists of long-
term activities that contribute towards developing strong brand 
awareness. (Steven P. Schnaars, 1997). In this proposal, we focus only 
in the main components necessary to understand the current strategy 
of the company. 
a. Target customers 
The purpose of IL ETAIT UN FIL is to bring handbag and 
accessory collections with a perfect balance between style, 
functionality and practicality to a travel and dynamic routine. 
Naouel BEKKAIE, the brand founder, through her journey into 
the fashion world, identified a desire for smart, beautiful, stylish and 
small bags. Those collections are made for everyday life smart 
partners who are a combination of technology in beautiful leather 
crafted and colorful shades of Provence. The brand intends to reach 
customers who have a passion for traveling, encountering new 
cultures and meeting new people and have a dynamic lifestyle, it 
means, they are always on moving. 
In other words, the Brand intends to reach consumers who are 
3. Marketing Strategy 
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Il était un fil 
 
 
 
 
 
In other words, the Brand intends to reach 
consumers who are travelers and has a “nomad 
life”, people who believe that the life is a journey 
and need to be lived fully of traveling, diversity and 
rich experiences, carrying on a smart and soft bag. 
b. Awareness 
The goal of any business is to gain more trust 
with current clients and achieve better brand 
awareness among the target audience. IL ETAIT UN 
FIL uses basically, digital marketing to enhance its 
brand awareness. Instagram is the principal tool 
used by the company where they show the product 
and its positioning; there are many pictures of 
travel, and soft daily life, it also indicates beauty 
and elegance. The company also use celebrity 
endorsement to extent the awareness. 
IL ETAIT UN FIL has a website where 
consumers can buy products (Only in the French 
version), there is a description of the product, the 
history of the company, including its principal 
features. 
Furthermore, the company has a French 
name which is something poetical, but it is hard to 
remember and pronounce by American or Japanese 
customers. The most successful brand name 
followed a human, for example, Christian Dior, 
Chanel and Marc Jacob. Thus, even though the 
name has a special meaning for French customers, 
it is not adequate for internationalization purposes, 
and it makes more difficult to enhance the 
awareness of the brand. 
Finally, the company has some financial 
problems which resulted in little investments in 
Brand awareness, more celebrity endorsers are 
necessary, and they also need to invest in other 
types of media, those problem result in little 
consistency in marketing initiatives. 
b. Uniqueness 
The company tries to add more value than 
its competition through its unique concept which 
combines beauty and functionality; the brand hopes 
to differentiate itself from the competitors. Its 
unique advantages focus on five main aspects: 
production, raw material, diversified design, 
technology, and originality. 
Production, the bags are marked for be 
craftsmanship in Provence, which associates the 
reliability and intangible values associated to this 
region, such as high quality, very stylish and well 
made, sharped in beautiful and “happy” colors. 
The raw materials, primarily leathers, are 
carefully chosen in France and Italy, two places 
that are famous for having high quality and 
sophisticated materials.IL ETAIT UN FIL is very 
concerned about quality; the bags are entirely 
handcrafted to produce sleek cuts, paying 
attention to details and accuracy of finishing. The 
brand intends to show that the products are very 
specials and carefully created. 
The design of the bag follows the current 
tendencies and offers a variety of models and 
colors. The bags, pouches, and wickers come in a 
wide range of sizes, styles, and colors, from pure 
black and metallic shades to bright yellow 
Red, white and blue. The colorful is to 
express happiness according to the founder. This 
variety of colors are offered to make sure that 
customers will find something that appeals to 
their unique sense of style. 
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Il était un fil 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Technology is also essential for IL ETAIT UN 
FIL, it offers a small and smart bag, which is easy 
to carry on and brings a little technological 
surprise, a power bank for cell phones. This little 
surprise is one of the concept of the brand, it brings 
safety for consumers that now can keep connected 
even though they are always on moving. They need 
cell phones to take pictures, to search for places to 
go and many essentials activities. Thus, we all 
know, cell phones are almost a vital part of the 
travelers’ life they also feel disappointed and even 
desperate when their cell phone battery get off, 
the company see this problem and offer an 
efficient solution to this problem. 
Finally, its originality is remarkable. Made 
on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea at the heart 
of Provence, IL ETAIT UN FIL the atelier is 
enjoying a privileged environment to create bold 
and energetic collections. Its savoir-faire appears 
as a legacy after many years spent near talented 
creators, artisans, and recognized by French 
Fashion Houses. Respect for tradition, generosity, 
and integrity are the central values of the 
company. 
d. Communication with Clients 
IL ETAIT UN FIL communication looks to 
promoting its brand identity, which includes logos, 
typography, colors, packaging, and messaging. The 
principal feelings provoked by the company are 
happiness, comfort, and safety. It intends to be 
assessed as beauty, comfortable, practical, and 
functional products. When consumers see the 
product, they should feel happiness due to the 
beautiful and colorful design of the bags. 
However, the company is not 
communicating those feeling consistently; the 
messages are not enough integrated into enhancing 
its communication goals. It participated in some 
fashion week, but few ones without consistency, 
which makes challenging to reaffirm the awareness 
of the company. 
Finally, there is no marketing 
communication strategy; the design is not 
remarkable which makes difficult to identify the 
brand. The logo represents thunder, giving an 
image of a perfect combination of functionalism 
and utility, but it is not easy identified in the bags. 
The communication efforts are not well connected 
and do not show a complete and progressive story; 
each post on Instagram is independent of the 
others, and there is no clear storytelling. 
 
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Il était un fil 
 
 
 
 
 
 
e. Production and distribution 
The company is quite new, it has only six collections, but it is 
growing fast, it can produce 1500 products and makes 120.000 euros in 
revenue an ear. Even though it is a significant level of production, the 
company keeps making its products as craftsmanship to show a special care 
for them, in this market handcraft means luxury. Two staffs are producing 
the bags all the time and one who works on weekends and nights. All 
production happens in an atelier located in the city center of Marseille in 
Provence, that atelier does not sell products daily, it only opens for some 
events or special circumstances, and they are working at full capacity. 
The bags are sold 95% in France through multi-brand stores (about 
40 retailers) and online only on its website. The company focuses on the 
French market, since that it is easy to manage and control the quality due 
to geographic and cultural factors. 
However, IL ETAIT UN FIL has some problem such little self-space 
in the stores due to the low recognition of the brand. Also, the English 
version of its website does not work well; consumers cannot buy online on 
this version. 
“Il était un fil was 
launched in 2014, and it 
has already been able 
to produce 1500 
products and generate 
120.000 euros a year 
with 4 workers” 
 
e. Pricing 
Pricing strategy is to offer an accessible luxury product, but the pricing is not analytically calculated; it is 
based on a comparison with the competitors’ price (mainly Everpurse from America and Mighty Purse from 
Australia) and production costs. Nevertheless, the company intends to keep an image of a luxury brand and, at 
the same time, maintain the product accessible by setting the price not so high; it generates an inevitable 
confusion in the positioning of the brand. 
The price range is from 150 to 500 euros for bags and accessories have a rice concentration of 145 to 200 
euros. 
 
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Building a strong brand is the aim of almost all organizations. 
A valuable brand with relevant equity provides a base for many 
possible benefits to companies. Those benefits include greater 
customer loyalty, more favorable customer response to price 
fluctuations hence more significant margins. It also brings less 
vulnerability to competitive marketing actions and marketing crises, 
resulting in a higher trade or intermediary cooperation and support. 
Moreover, a strong brand leads to an increase in marketing 
communication effectiveness, and licensing and brand-extension 
opportunities (Keller, 2001). Due to all those reasons, and the aim of 
the owner, sell the brand, we decided to analyze the Brand Equity to 
identify points of improvements to the second part of this proposal. 
Customer-Based Brand Equity: CBBE MODEL 
Consumer-Brand Resonance. IL ETAIT UN FIL has moderate-
high brand loyalty; there is still a long way to create a lasting and 
unalterable emotional relationship towards the brand that expresses 
a psychological closeness with it. The newly established brand has a 
little stimulus to generate a passion and a “Brand love,” not only the 
handbag is not an FMCG (less need for repurchase), but it also has no 
a universal recognition within the brand identity has yet to be 
fortified. There is no significant sense of community through social 
networks such as YouTube and Facebook; the engagement is not 
active enough to contribute considerably to the Brand Equity of the 
company. 
4. Brand Equity 
“Love is like the wind, 
we never know where it 
will come from” 
 
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Il était un fil 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Consumer-Brand Resonance 
IL ETAIT UN FIL has moderate-high brand 
loyalty; there is still a long way to go to create a 
lasting and unalterable emotional relationship 
towards the brand that expresses a psychological 
closeness with it. The newly established brand has 
a little stimulus to generate a passion and a “Brand 
love,” not only the handbag is not an FMCG (less 
need for repurchase), but it also has a universal 
recognition within the brand identity has yet to be 
fortified. There is no significant sense of community 
through social networks such as Youtube and 
Facebook; the engagement is not active enough to 
contribute considerably to the Brand Equity of the 
company. 
Consumer Judgements 
The brand is judged as an entirely 
handcrafted brand with excellent materials. It is 
also practical and functional, equipped with the 
portable power bank. However, consumers not onlyknow little about the quality of the power bank, but 
they also know little about the quality of the bags, 
because it is a new brand which has invested little 
in communication up to now. 
Consumer Feelings 
IL ETAIT UN FIL communicates lifestyle with 
a feeling of comforts, freedom, and style, with the 
bag, consumers are not only ready and comfort to 
travel, but they also have social approval for wear 
a modern, unique, unconventional and fashion bag, 
for an affordable price. 
Brand Performance 
The primary characteristics are leather 
goods, design sense of seashore: embrace 
craftsmanship, bold and energetic collections; 
diversity colorful shades of Provence. Its 
secondary features are practical utility; there is a 
power bank for cellphones inside the handbags, 
which friendly to the travelers and commuters. 
Brand Imagery 
The primary target of IL ETAIT UN FIL is a 
woman with innovative consuming habits, loyalty 
and transformation cost: moderate difficulty. The 
products are mostly purchased for self-use. They 
are distributed mainly in Western Europe: France, 
Corse, Monaco, Spain, Ile de la reunion, Swiss and 
minor focused on the marine countries such as 
Asia and the Caribbean Sea: Japan and Barbade. 
The most significant concentration is in France, 
17 sell points. 
The branding personality is based on 
French culture and in a solid production. Entirely 
handcrafted in its atelier and bold with energetic 
collections, the handbag collections remain true 
to bringing exceptional materials from France and 
Italy. Sleek cuts, attention to detail, hand sewing 
and accuracy of finishing are our daily basis of 
work. It is marked by the style savoir-faire, which 
appears as a legacy after many years spent near 
talented creators, artisans, and recognized by 
French Fashion Houses. Respect for tradition, 
generosity, and integrity are our central values. 
IL ETAIT UN FIL experienced some little 
advertising channels beyond its Instagram, but 
mainly focusing on the fashion magazines. 
 
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According to Kapferer (1996), there are six essential elements 
considered as efficient tools for building brand identity. Those elements 
involve customers’ experience with the brand and its history that 
determine the way your customers’ think about the brand. Moreover, 
customers will attentively look for some clues about what the brand is 
mostly known. However, those features would only come into effect when 
a brand communicates with consumers. Additionally, a brand will be 
considered reliable if it can incorporate all elements into an effective 
effort to avail a concise, transparent and appealing brand identity. 
We decided thus, use this model because it covey all essential 
aspects that need to be analyzed to understand the current situation of 
the company in terms of marketing strategy and mix de marketing, it made 
the analysis more structured, focused and organized. 
Brand Salience or brand identity 
Self-image 
Self-image stands for a mirror held by the targeted group itself. It is about how do consumers perceive 
themselves when engaging with our brand. Then, from the perspective of consumer, there are some key words 
to describe the common characters of them such as, stylish, experienced, live a positive life, proposing happiness 
and so on. 
Culture 
The culture of the brand establishes link between brand organizations. That identifies what are the values 
or guiding principles the brand has. IL ETAIT UN FIL has respect of tradition, generosity and integrity as its core 
values. 
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Personality 
Personality stands for the character of the brand. A young woman, 
fashionable and free who life is a journey meant to be lived fully, 
composed of traveling, diversity and rich experiences. 
Relationship 
Signifies the relationship between the customers’ and the brand. The 
brand accompanies its customers in everyday life with a combination 
of technology and beautiful and fashioned leather and colors. The 
products bring happiness to travel and daily journey via a wide variety 
of styles and colors. 
Reflection 
This aspect signifies the reference direct to the stereotypical 
consumer of the brand. IL ETAIT UN FIL customers are young ladies 
who traveling or spend vacation outdoors, people with their own 
unique sense of style. 
Physique 
The basic of the brand’s identity is its Physique. The physical 
characteristics and the primary objective of the product or service 
create some specific images, ideas and emotions among the 
consumers. IL ETAIT UN FIL provoke feelings such as happiness, 
comfort, and safety, which is a result of the brand assessed as beauty, 
comfortable, practical, and functional. The colorful design of the bags 
also plays a role in make customers happy. 
Strengths and Weaknesses 
Strengths and weaknesses analyses are usually make by using a 
SWOT analysis. However, it is not the focus to identify opportunities 
and threats. Also, the strengths and weaknesses were identified in the 
previous section, we do not need to go deeper. Therefore, this section 
summarizes the main strengths and weaknesses of IL ETAIT UN FIL. 
Strengths 
Geographical position and cultural association favorable. The 
region of Provence, in France, are well known for their qualities, 
design, and style around the world, there is an intrinsic reliably 
reputation for products made in this region. Then, the fact that the 
company is localized in Provence bring some positive associations and 
improve the reliability of the product, bringing some positive renown. 
High-quality product. IL ETAIT UN FIL is very concerned about 
quality, and since its foundation, it has been offering high-quality 
product consistently. Its raw materials are well selected and come 
from a region famous for providing luxury materials. Moreover, the 
company has a rigorous production control to ensure the quality. 
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Weaknesses 
Financial Situation unfavorable. The company 
has no external investors and it is limited to its 
funds and the owner funds, which makes hard to 
invest in communication or expand the production. 
Little bargain power against suppliers. IL 
ETAIT UN FIL is still a small company, which means 
that it has little bargain power to buy raw materials 
and hence it will always pay more to get those 
materials. 
Many competitors with similar prices and 
more awareness in the market. There are a 
considerable number of competitors that have more 
money to invest and offer substitute products 
with similar prices. Also, the company is new on 
the market and little known by the customers. 
Absence of marketing communication 
strategy. IL ETAIT UN FIL has no marketing 
communication strategy, its communication is not 
well-integrated and it has no clear storytelling in 
its messages. 
Name difficult to remember in 
International markets. Even though IL ETAIT 
UN FIL is a French poetical name, it is a name 
difficult to pronounce and to remember for the 
foreign market, making the increase of awareness 
more difficult. 
Create by Porter (1979), Porter's Five Forces is a 
simple but powerful tool for understanding the 
competitiveness of the business environment, and for 
identifying the strategy's potential profitability. 
Competitive Rivalry. Even though there is no 
direct competition for IL ETAIT UN FIL products in France 
(95% of its sales), the nature of this industry is very 
competitive, companies need to innovate and bring 
something new all the time to face with their competition. 
Supplier Power. The raw materials needed for 
the company are produced mainlyin large scale for huge 
producers, which will give them, more bargain power and 
some materials are unique and difficult to find substitutes. 
Buyer Power. IL ETAIT UN FIL sells its product for 
retailers, according to the owner, most of them are huge 
and buy in massive quantities, it allows them to bargain 
for slower prices. 
Threat of Substitution. Even though luxury bag 
and accessories can be easily substitutes, the company 
strategy consist in differentiation, which gives them a 
certain bargain power for the company, since that its 
products are unique with high-quality, and the brand 
equity brings some positive benefits. 
Industry Analysis 
5 Porter’s Forces 
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Threat of New Entry. Luxury bags industry are 
based on differentiation, which means that a 
new entry need to have specific knowledge 
about design and raw materials, which are not 
easy and cheap to get. There are also, huge 
economies of scale and brand equity 
differentiation play a vital role in this industry, 
all those factors favor large and old companies.