MODULE: Brand Management and Marketing Communication

ASSIGNMENT: REPORT + PRESENTATION

Using a product / company of your choice, elaborate on the concept of Branding and how
through use of the brand strategy the product/company has been able to demarcate itself
from the competitors.

PRESENTED BY

ARMEL JANICE

BEEJADHUR ARCHANA

KANHYE DOLLY

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 B
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THE ULTIMATE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

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Contents
Introduction of our project ..................................................................................................................... 4
History ..................................................................................................................................................... 4
Facilities provided at Bagatelle ........................................................................................................... 5
Bagatelle and the shopping mall culture ............................................................................................ 6
What is a brand? ..................................................................................................................................... 7
Some key aspects in branding............................................................................................................. 8
Importance of a brand ........................................................................................................................ 8
Bagatelle as a brand ............................................................................................................................ 9
Strength of a brand ................................................................................................................................. 9
What is the strength of Bagatelle? ................................................................................................... 10
Characteristics of a brand ..................................................................................................................... 10
What makes Bagatelle? .................................................................................................................... 10
Positioning brands against competitors ............................................................................................... 11
Competitors to Bagatelle .................................................................................................................. 11
Importance of achieving Brand presence ............................................................................................. 12
What has Bagatelle achieved? .......................................................................................................... 12
Customer brand expectation and experiences ..................................................................................... 13
The Bagatelle experience .................................................................................................................. 13
Finally what makes the brand image? .................................................................................................. 13
SWOT of Bagatelle ................................................................................................................................ 13
How is Bagatelles reputation? ............................................................................................................. 15
Usefulness of brand mental maps ........................................................................................................ 18
Mental map of Bagatelle................................................................................................................... 18
Proposed event details and motivators ................................................................................................ 19
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 20
Reading list .................................................................................................................................... 20
Webpages ..................................................................................................................................... 21
Figure 1 Map of Bagatelle Mall ............................................................................................................... 7
Figure 2 An initiative to promote contribution of people's opinion to improve experiences at Bagatelle
.............................................................................................................................................................. 12
Figure 3 results of age or respondents interviewed ............................................................................... 16
Figure 4 Result of frequency of visits ................................................................................................... 16
Figure 5 Results of purposes of visits at Bagatelle ............................................................................... 17
Figure 6 Results of perceived positive aspects of Bagatelle ................................................................. 17
Figure 7 mental map showing how customers describe Bagatelle........................................................ 18
Figure 8 mental map compiling previous descriptions into experiences .............................................. 18

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Introduction of our project
Branding is a key to the success of an organisation or product. With respect to the above title,
we have decided to focus on Bagatelle Mall of Mauritius. The purpose of this study is to
elaborate on the concept of branding in the context of a real organisation or an existing brand.
Bagatelle has been selected because it is a novel experience to Mauritians who have now
already adopted its shopping culture. This paper will also be an attempt to show how
Bagatelle has been able to demarcate itself vis--vis its competitors.

History

Bagatelle Mall of Mauritius has been founded in 2011 by the company ENL property, in
collaboration with a south-African organization, Atterbury. It is on the 29th of September
2011 that Bagatelle decided to open its doors to the Mauritian public, after nine month of
construction.

Now, it is the leading shopping and retail destination in Mauritius. Its dominant presence and
comprehensive retail and leisure options attract diverse shoppers from all over the island.
Bagatelle Mall of Mauritius merges the worlds most desirable brands, shopping
convenience, entertainment, and everyday leisure, all in a majestic setting.

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The Mall is located in the area of Bagatelle, close to the capital, Port Louis. The Mall is
clearly visible next to the M1 highway, with easy and convenient access directly from the
highway.

Bagatelle Mall of Mauritius hosts the widest selection of speciality stores in Mauritius there
are 150 shops thus offering the most comprehensive and compelling lifestyle shopping
experience on the island.

Airport Transfer Mauritius

In addition to its popularity with the islands vibrant and discerning shoppers, Bagatelle Mall
of Mauritius has evolved into a must-visit tourist destination. It offers international visitors
spectacular architecture, spacious walkways, and an unparalleled array of local and
international retail brands.

International, national, and local visitors can expect the highest level of service at the
Bagatelle Mall of Mauritius.

Facilities provided at Bagatelle

Also, the mall has several unique facilities like:

the new Waste Recycle Point, which is in association with Dont Waste, Mission
Verte, and the MEF CSR Fund, members of the public are able to recycle at Bagatelle,

there is an information Desk

Disabled Assistance where wheelchair facilities are available for physically

handicapped people.

Parent and child facilities: with special toilet facilities especially designed to
accommodate parents and their children. These are ideal for fathers and daughters, or mothers
and sons needing to use toilet facilities. There are also baby-changing facilities.

Security is also one of the major things, as Bagatelle strives to offer the optimal
shopping experience; it employed a leading security company to ensure the safety of the
Mall.

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 With more than 2,224 parking bays, with easy access to all entrances, the mall has one
of the largest parking; 7 parking bays for people with special needs, 16 designated taxi
parking bays, and 16 designated motorcycle parking bays.

ATMs: ATMs are conveniently located throughout Bagatelle Mall of Mauritius.

At the heart of Bagatelle Voila Bagatelle; the first hotel in Mauritius to offer
customers no fixed check in and check out. The hotel has been oriented to ensure client
comfort, and building efficiency, based on a full climate model of Bagatelle (sunshine, rain
and wind).

Heating facilities for winter .

Bagatelle and the shopping mall culture

Once upon a time shopping was about town centres and market places with crammed parking
spaces. Shopping couldnt be spontaneous as it required careful planning on behalf of the
customer simply because the customer had to travel to several places to compare choices
before making a decision. It was also because all the products on the shopping list of the
customer were not necessarily found in the same location. Thus, it was a play of time.

Following the rise in the standard of living in Mauritius, Mauritians were looking forward to
avoid numerous repetitive trips downtown to individual shops where parking was becoming
difficult. Atterbury Architecture designed a building to solve these problems. Although Les
Halles at Phoenix tried to be the first indoor shopping complex, but failed as it had many
unplanned disadvantages. Bagatelle became the first successful indoor shopping Mall of
Mauritius.

The uniqueness of the structure of Bagatelle Mall of Mauritius is an advantage to both the
shoppers and the tenants. Bagatelle structure has been designed in such a way that it has
shops throughout the whole walking alley. It has placed important supermarkets Intermart
and Monoprix which are competing stores at each end of the mall so that it would attract
more people. This is a key difference from other shopping environments because in this case,
as people went back and forth between the two supermarkets, it would generate more
pedestrian traffic to the smaller shops on the way in between.

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Figure 1 Map of Bagatelle Mall

The concept of Bagatelle is a Mall which has shops enclosed, ample of parking space, climate
control and numerous shops. The idea of Bagatelle Mall of Mauritius was a brilliant idea
because other competing shopping environments were basically shops that were facing
parking lots and there was not enough of interaction between and among the people. This
kind of shopping environment no longer promotes a good shopping experience. It was a
traditional form of shopping and the shopping culture needed to have a new dimension.

The Atterbury Architecture designed Bagatelle Mall in such a way that all the shops faced
inside. It was planned this way so as to also have control over the interior aesthetics of the
pedestrian way and maintain a very modern and up to date atmosphere. This structure obliged
people to quit car window shopping and have more interaction in a pedestrian environment. It
should be noted that many of the experiences which are now familiar about Bagatelle Mall
such as interior sitting areas, large corridors, air conditioning, large choices in the food court
are now taken for granted because people consider these a must in any shopping
environment.

What is a brand?
A brand is a product, service, or concept that is publicly distinguished from other products,
services, or concepts so that it can be easily communicated and usually marketed.

According to David A Aaker (1991)

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"A brand is a distinguishing name and/or symbol (such as logo, trademark, or package
design) intended to identify the goods or services of either one seller or a group of sellers,
and to differentiate those goods or services from those of competitors. A brand thus signals to
the customer the source of the product, and protects both the customer and the producer from
competitors who would attempt to provide products that appear to be identical."
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A brand name is the name of the distinctive product, service, or concept. Brands are often
expressed in the form of logos, graphic representations of the brand. Hence, is the identity of
a product or service. Its the name, the logo, the design, or a combination of those that people
use to identify, and differentiate, what theyre about to buy. A good brand should deliver a
clear message, provide credibility, connect with customers emotionally, motivate the buyer,
and create user loyalty.

Some key aspects in branding

Brand Promise -A brand is commonly defined as a promise to consumers.

Brand perceptions - Brands are created by companies but built by consumers. Perception of
the brand in the mind of the customers is very important to ensure survival of the brand.

Brand expectations - Based on a brand promise, consumers develop expectations for that
brand.

Importance of a brand
A brand, when well formulated is considered the strength of the organisation. (Bhattacharya,
2003)

1. Branding provides a competitive advantage.

When the resources are used correctly the organizations brand mirrors their strategic plan,
and helps promote strategic areas and initiatives that will move the organization forward.

2. Brands provide a stable asset

Brands are the most sustainable asset of any organization, and when aligned with the overall
strategy of the organization they can function as the central organizing principle for the
organizations decision making.

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David A Aaker, (1991) Managing Brand Equity, The Free Press, New York

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 3. Brands provide economic value

The value of organizations is divided into two areas: intangible and tangible assetsbrands
being intangible assets. The value of most businesses comes from intangible assets ( brands
being the most prominent of these assets).

4. Brands set expectations

At the heart of branding is the promise that is made by the organization to the audience. The
brand promise tells the audiences who the organisation is, what it believes in, and what
unique value it provides. The ability to fulfil the promises at every stage of the relationship is
the defining factor for most organizations success or failure. When promises are broken the
reputation of the organization is called into question, and the brand suffers. When brand
promises are kept, audiences respond with loyalty and affection (Ambler, 1998).

Bagatelle as a brand
Since we live in a brand saturated world, it is very important that Bagatelle stands out.
Bagatelle brand represents the gut feeling of our customers about us. Study shows that
brands are meant to be used as a mental shorthand. Brands are created and meant to
summarise attitudes about everything people, places, products, services or experiences.
Bagatelle is such a brand that summarises all the things that come to the mind of the
customers when they think of shopping. When developing the Bagatelle brand, a lot of
emphasis has been laid on the fact that people should be able to relate to it like they would to
other people. They should be able to make mental notes about how they feel, what they like,
what they expect from Bagatlle . Therefore, Bagatelle brand is not only about our name, logo
or products, services or advertising, sales promotions or new retail outlets. It is all these put
together to form a unique experience.

Strength of a brand
Studies show that brand strength is shown in brand meaning. The strength of a brand lies in
what it does to positively affect its image and impact on its reputation. Since brands are the
intangible assets of the organisation, they must not be neglected as being the strength. Often
if organisations focus only on their tangible assets, they will fail to keep up to their brand

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standards. It should be noted that the stronger the brand the longer it will last on the market
because it will have loyal customers.

However it should be noted that there are four essential steps in maintaining a brand strong
brand strategy.

An organisation must firstly identify goals which it wants is brand to address.

Secondly it must map the existing brand culture. Thus it must know what are the
existing values and perception of its brand.
Thirdly it must analyse the environment to better strategize against competitors.
And lastly it must Design the strategy which best fits its context only then can it
successfully make a strong brand.

What is the strength of Bagatelle?

The strength of Bagatelle brand is built by what they do not only by what they say as
compared to other shopping centre promises. Bagatelle is the first and best brand for
shopping in the mind of very customers. Studies have showed that customers are always
looking for brands that they can identify with. They stick to brands that share their beliefs and
aspirations. Bagatelle has a unique infrastructure which has been providing a unique
shopping experience since the past 5 years.

Characteristics of a brand
Organisations must create brands that consumers and existing customers want. It is also
essential for the brand to stand for something, whether a company is adopting a value, quality
or service in the marketplace (Rao, 1997) . Brands must also be managed closely throughout
their product life cycles. It is important for brands to have the following characteristics:
Tangibility, Awareness, Consistency and Loyalty. All these put together define the
personality of the brand because it is meant to reflect the values of the organisation.

What makes Bagatelle?

As a brand, Bagatelle has been given the right personality. It is made up of the right mixture
of characteristics that appeal to their target audience. This mixture of characteristics
represents Bagatelles values, services, ideas and personality. Bagatelle Mall has proved to
generate loyalty from its clients and has made its employees proud to be associated to this
brand. The objective behind the creation of the Bagatelle was to make a brand that speaks to

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the customers. Bagatelle brand has developed some particular characteristics which go as
follows:

SOPHISTICATION

LUXURY

MEANINGFULNESS

SINCERITY

EXCITEMENT

NO SECOND BEST

Bagatelle has ensured that it has built a bond with its customers by capitalising on its
presence, relevance, performance and advantage. This has played a great role to position
itself to challenge competing shopping environments.

Positioning brands against competitors

Positioning is about how an organisation prepares its brand and positions it on the market. It
is about how the organisation differentiates the brand and creates long term value. It should
be noted that a major factor to successfully achieve in competition is to how to position a
brand against its competitors.

Research about consumer preferences reveal that 80% of the potential customers prefer new
experiences rather than repeat the same old experiences. It was important to optimise on the
brand of Bagatelle because the objective was to make the brand stronger with time.

Competitors to Bagatelle
We have identified some of our key competitors. Earlier on, shopping was synonymous to
specific locations. Depending on items which were needed by the individuals, they would
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shop from one region to another to meet their needs. Those specific locations were Jumbo
Commercial Centre, Richeterre mall, Les Alleys DHelvettia, Trianon Shopping Park, La
Croisette, Town centres such as Orchard, Quatre Bornes Market, Mahebourg market,
Portlouis centre and market, Curepipe commercial centres. The commercial centres each
have different structures and facilities. However, they lack a sense of warmth of welcome
which is found at Bagatelle. On the other hand Town centre shops are attractive but not
enough to pull customers because it has a major issue of lack of parking facilities and goods
and services offered are saturated. Since our five years of existence, we have witnessed that
these competitors are constantly taking steps to upgrade and meet the standards of Bagatelle.
However, Bagatelle Mall is the number 1 shopping destination in the minds of shoppers.

Importance of achieving Brand presence

Brand presence is the extent to which a brand is recognised by its customers. For Bagatelle,
the very sight of the word and logo already inspire and recall about the nature of the brand.
Thanks to the social media climate, Bagatelle is able to retain the attention of its shoppers
throughout the different networks.

What has Bagatelle achieved?

Bagatelle brand has captivated the market by being the number One shopping destination
because of how our customers recognise us, react to us and associate us to particular
experiences. Bagatelle has achieved this not only through its own effort to keep its brand
presence in the market but also by the help of its regular loyal visitors who promote its
reputation. The recent launch of SPEAK UP has been an initiative to allow customers to give
their opinion about how to improve on Bagatelle and its experiences. Again these are ways to
ensure that the brand presence is not disappearing.

Figure 2 An initiative to promote contribution of people's opinion to improve

experiences at Bagatelle

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Customer brand expectation and experiences
Customer brand expectation is about what the customer expects with the brand. Their
expectation of the brand depends on what the brand has communicated to them. Ideally the
brand acts as a profile of the organisations products and services (Graeff, 1997). When the
customer is exposed to the brand he/she goes through the experiences to better live the
promise or be disappointed by it.

The Bagatelle experience

Bagatelle experience can be expressed in the following words which relate to what the
customers look for :

The ultimate shopping experience

Best facilities
Memorable time
A brand to be proud of
A reason to come back

Finally what makes the brand image?

The brand image is the current view of customers about a brand. It is often defined as a
unique set of associations in the minds of customers. It wraps up a set of beliefs about the
brand (Janiszewski,2001) . The stronger the brand image in the mind of the customer, the
harder is it for the competitor to strategize.

SWOT of Bagatelle
The SWOT model is helpful to analyse the factors which affect Bagatelle as a brand. They
give an indication on what are the elements that need to be considered as an opportunity and
which are those that must be considered as threats. The following chart summarises them:

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Since the focus of this paper is about Bagatelle demarcates itself from its competitors, the
above listed strengths and opportunities give a better idea of this differentiation. Although
Bagatelle has a unique structure, the threats to its business remain the other shopping
environments because they are constantly organising events of some sort so as to attract
customers to them. There are a few groups of people who still prefer to shop in the traditional
fashion. Therefore for them, shopping in town centres or market place is the ultimate
shopping experience. During these periods the headcount of clients visiting Bagatelle goes
lower.

The emerging project of the Government about Smart Cities is a threat to the popularity of
Bagatelle Mall because it is still unknown what kind of shopping experience will be
promoted within the new business environment. Besides, Bagatelle is in the catchment area
of people working at Port-Louis and Ebene, hence the peak times daily are at lunch and after
work. With the emergence of possible shopping centres in the Smart Cities, the peak time
activities will be impacted upon.

Furthermore, events such as PORWLI BY LIGHT create buzz to pull clients from all over the
country. If other town centres decide to launch such events on a regular basis, this will have

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impact on the visits at Bagatelle Mall as people would get used to the new all night shopping
because this would be a new experience.

However, Bagatelle is constantly keeping its promise of innovation. Although the threats may
be present, this shopping Mall has already gained a reputation. Bagatelle has already created
an emotion connection and a bond with its clientel and such kind of bond makes a brand last
forever in the minds of the customers. Bagatelle can work on to eliminate the weaknesses
pointed out above but it will still remain the favourite shopping experience for shoppers.

How is Bagatelles reputation?

However knowing about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats is not sufficient
to enough to know where does the opinion of the customers fit in and how does it impact on
the overall reputation. In order to find more about the reputation of Bagatelle in the minds of
customers, a small scale survey was carried out. The respondents were selected at random
during random periods of the day so as to make a fair sample. They were also of different
ages and interviewed at different locations. The questions asked are briefly mentioned below:

1. What is your age?

2. How often to you go to bagatelle?

3. What do you often do when you come to bagatelle? (please circle your
answer/answers)

4. According to you, what are the most positive aspects of bagatelle?

5. Do you think that Bagatelle must improve something? If yes suggest. If no, why?

6. Except from bagatelle, do you, from time to time, visit another mall?
a) If yes please note down which ones. If no, why?

b) If yes, over 10, how many times do you visit Bagatelle and how many times do you
visit the other malls you noted down?

The results of the survey were as follows:

Question 1

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 16 - 24
25 - 34
35 - 44
45 - 54
55 - over

Figure 3 results of age or respondents interviewed

This chart contains important info about the age group of the respondents. It explains who are
those who are following the new trend of this shopping culture and their responses are very
valuable so as to understand factors attracting them to Bagatelle. This info will help to
develop strategies to retain them and focus on other niche target audiences also.

Question 2

Daily
weekly
Monthly
Rarely

Figure 4 Result of frequency of visits

This chart reveals that a mass of customers visit Bagatelle on a weekly basis. It is interesting
to note that about about 20% of the people interviewed visit Bagatelle on a daily basis. This is
shows that Bagatelle has some additional facilities which make it a must to come.

Question 3

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 Food-Court

Shopping

Supermarkets

Figure 5 Results of purposes of visits at Bagatelle

Here, visits to the foodcourt, shopping and entertainment form the major reasons why a
majority of the respondents visit Bagatelle on a regular basis. It is interesting to note that
although Bagatelle does not cater for weekly or daily events such as karaoke during the days
or evenings, its atmosphere is what attracts people to the Mall.

Question 4&5

Figure 6 Results of perceived positive aspects of Bagatelle

Here, results show that most of the people like Bagatelle in the way it is. However, they
suggestion is about the Wifi spots something which Trianon shopping village has. Bagatelle
could consider implementing this in the future.

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Results for question 6 about the visits of the customers to other shopping environments
narrowed down to the commercial centres such as Jumbo, Super U, Winners, La Croisette
and Cascavelle. It was based on their catchment area. Furthermore, the frequency of their
visit in comparison to the visits to the other competing shopping environments showed that it
is fluid and there are reasons for going to both places for shopping of necessary items.

Usefulness of brand mental maps

Perceptions of customers can be summarised through mental maps. It is a way to compile all
the ideas that customers fell or experience about a brand. It helps to analyse how people see
or perceive things and how some may have different opinion about the same matter.

Mental map of Bagatelle

Figure 7 mental map 1 showing how customers describe Bagatelle

Figure 8 mental map compiling previous descriptions into experiences

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The mental maps represent a compilation of what the customers think of Bagatelle. It
englobes their feelings associated to them and summarises their experiences. It also
demonstrates their perception of the brand and this should enable the Bagatelle team to
maximise on it in order to retain them as customers by keeping the promise of the brand.

Proposed event details and motivators

As mentioned ealier on , Bagatelle Mall is celebrating its 5th Anniversary in September. For
this occasion a special list of attractions have been drafted so as to make this celebration a hit.
It has been surveyed that other shopping environments and commercial centres such as
Trianon , Jumbo and Ebene have marked their anniversaries by having Tyroliennes,
tradefairs, Carousels and Circus on their compounds so as to form an ambiance. Since
Bagatelle has a unique shopping experience it is believed that customers will expect a unique
celebration.

It is proposed to have it called the 5th Anniversary as a festival HI5 Anniversary. It takes the
form of a festival because it will have many small attractions on several spots inside the
corridors of the Mall and outside in the parking areas. These go as follows:

1. Hi5 competition in this game every person participating will be expected to say
Hi5 as many times as he can within a given 30seconds. The gift for this activity is
food vouchers offered by one of the restaurants in the foodcourt.
2. Costume competition Here shops will be invited to give a selection of items for
display and use as costumes. Themes will be proposed to participants and they will be
asked to change into garments fitting the theme by using the garments sponsored by
the shops. All this will be done within a given time frame. Winners get a voucher
from specific branded shops.
3. Cinema quiz The cinema will be invited to hold a quiz competition about movies,
cues, actors or material related to movies themselves. The winners will obtain cinema
tickets.
4. Food courts will have speciality menus only for this hi5 event.
5. Chasse au tresor an activity reserved for those who like adventure. Logos, symbols
and other cues will be used as hints for the search. This is a very lively activity and
the winners will obtain gift vouchers from the shop they found the answers.
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 6. Music concert it is proposed to have a music concert in the parking area so as to
start the ambiance there. The music will be contemporary.

Conclusion
With this paper we have examined Bagatelle as an important brand in the minds of Mauritian
shoppers. Shopping is an experience which Mauritians enjoy however we wanted to know
how does Bagatelle capitalise on it and propose values and experience which attract
customers to it. Examining Bagatelle Brand in the light of its competitors shed light on the
fact that this brand has the following strengths

Commitment
Clarity
Authenticity
Relevance
Understanding
Consistency
Presence
And most importantly Differentiation

All these put together make Bagatelle the Number 1 shopping Mall of the island. The
challenge behind this is to ensure that it keeps its promise and innovates constantly because
shopping malls must not remain stagnant.

Reading list
Ambler, T., and P. Barwise. 1998. The trouble with brand valuation. J. Brand Management , NY

Bhattacharya, C. B., S. Sen. 2003. Consumer-company identification: A framework for understanding

consumers' relationships with companies, Academic Press

Graeff, T. R. 1997. Consumption situations and the effects of brand image on consumers' brand
evaluations. NY

Hoeffler, S., K. L. Keller. 2003. The marketing advantages of strong brands, NY

Rao, A. R. 1997. Strategic brand alliances, Blackwell Pub

Schmitt, B. H. 1999. Experiential Marketing: How to Get Customers to Sense Feel, Think, Act and
Relate to Your Company and Brands. Free Press, New York

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Villas-Boas, J. M. 2004. Consumer learning, brand loyalty, and competition, Oxford Uni Press

Janiszewski, C., T. Meyvis. 2001. Effects of brand logo complexity, repetition, and spacing on
processing fluency and judgment, Blackwell Pub.

Zaltman, G. 2003. How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market. Harvard
Business School Press, Boston, MA

Steenkamp, J.-B., R. Batra, D. Alden. 2003. How perceived brand globalness creates brand value,
Blackwell Pub

Keller, K. L. 2003. Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity, 2d
ed. Prentice Hall

David A Aaker, (1991) Managing Brand Equity, The Free Press, New York

Webpages
www.mallofmauritius.mu

www.jumbo.mu

www.trianonshoppingpark.com

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