Hanna Anderson is a children's clothing brand known for its high-quality, sustainably sourced apparel and Scandinavian designs. It targets customers interested in these qualities. The document proposes marketing strategies to increase brand awareness and loyalty among this target market, such as sponsoring Scandinavian cultural events and a "Bring Your Hanna" campaign highlighting the brand's durability. Membership cards and database marketing are also suggested to strengthen customer relationships.

1. 1
Strategic Marketing Plan for Hanna Anderson
Alex Liu
July 28, 2016
I. Description of Organizational Context
Hanna Anderson, a colorful line of children’s clothing, was founded in Portland, Oregon by
Tom Denhart and his wife, a Swedish immigrant, in 1983. The company is named after Gun
Denhart's grandmother and operates retail stores throughout United States. The company was
sold by the owner in 2001. Hanna Anderson has been well known for its high-end, fashion
driven children’s apparel and its position in environmental consciousness. It’s also known for
charitable giving and employee satisfaction. The brand also offers a limited collection of
women’s and men’s clothing, Children’s goods, bedding and toys. Each Hanna Anderson outlet
has one store manager and one assistant manager, who takes charge of 3-5 sales
representatives.
The target market of Hanna Anderson are primarily customers who favor high-quality,
durable apparel made of the best natural fabrics, specifically customers with environmental
concerns. Also, the brand’s Swedish-style design runs through its product lines and is appealing
to American customers, especially ones with Scandinavian heritage. The Children’s apparel
industry consists of name brands for children’s apparel and babies and kids’ apparel sections at
department stores like Macy’s and discount retailers such as Target and Walmart. Hanna
Anderson’s distinctive Scandinavian designs and eco-friendly fabrics have become the brand’s
competitive advantage that enables it to outperform its competitors in the industry.
Additionally, Hanna Anderson is the leader in the children’s apparel industry by sourcing from
sustainable materials. 60% of its products are made from high-quality organic cotton. The
company runs retail stores in over 25 states in the U.S and is growing rapidly.
Besides Hanna Anderson outlets, the products are also sold at Nordstrom, on its official
website and Amazon.com and Zulily.com. The brand has been collaborated with well-known
cartoon companies like Disney and Peanuts on creating new product lines.
II. External Environment – Market Attractiveness
The suppliers of Hanna Anderson are mostly organic cotton farms and apparel
manufacturers, transportation companies located in developing countries, such as Peru, China,
India and etc. The products are transported by ship to the United States and distributed to

2. 2
consumers through retailer stores and the internet. The product design and material sourcing
stages create the most value-add for the final consumers because these stages are the sources of
the brand’s sustained competitive advantage. Hanna Anderson’s value chain follows the
Resource Based View in that the firm focuses its most valuable resources on building its
sustained competitive advantages; for example, the firm utilizes its Swedish heritage to create
the distinctive design and colorful prints for children’s apparel and uses high-quality organic
cotton for the fabrics of its clothing. The company’s value chain follows the same pattern as its
competitors because they all outsource materials and complete manufacturing processes in
developing countries.
Hanna Anderson is at Maturity stage of its product cycle since its competitive advantages are
well-established among its target customers through its complete product lines. Barriers of
entry/exit are not significant factors of competition in the industry because threat of new
entrants is relatively low, which is a favorable force, according to Porter’s Five Forces
Framework. At present, the market of Children’s apparel in Portland is very stable, with a few
leading brands and several generic brands. There shouldn’t be any new entrants in this industry
within the next 5-10 years. The power of Hanna’s suppliers are relatively low because they have
to comply with the company’s OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 Certification, which means the
products are tested down to the very last strand of thread for over 100 harmful substances,
using strict European certification standards.1
Threat of substitute products for Hanna Anderson is high. Because its price is generally 40-
60% higher than its competing brands, and the products are only available at Hanna Anderson
outlets and upscale department stores, customers can simply choose to buy more generic
brands for their own convenience and budget. The bargaining power of buyers is high because
at least half of them are price sensitive but the brand’s loyal customers are not. The creative,
colorful Swedish design and top quality are the underlying drivers of profitability of the firm in
the industry. As mentioned earlier, Hanna Anderson has chosen to stick with its limited product
varieties and distribution channels as well as modest sales and discounts it offers. This unique
marketing position strategy enables the firm to distinguish itself as an elite, valuable brand.
1 https://www.hannaandersson.com/aboutHanna.aspx

3. 3
III. Organizational Orientation—Mission Statement
Hanna Anderson’s mission is stated as “We love giving kids quality, because it matters. Our
super softness, comfy seams, and long lasting durability–all the ways that Hanna keeps kids
carefree also helps them to grow.” “Quality” is the core value of the brand and is one of the
primary market attractiveness that drives new customers and keeps the loyal ones staying. All
Hanna products wash beautifully and their colors never run. Its quality even outperforms other
high-end brands of children apparel such as Baby Gap. All Hanna Anderson products are
proudly made of high-quality materials, and over 60% of its clothing is made of super soft
organic cotton. It’s obvious that the company fulfills its mission statement successfully as its
outlets have expanded to over 25 states in the country since 1983 and new stores are opened
every year.
I would rate the company 7 out of 10 regarding to its strategic orientation. Hanna Anderson
is market-driven because the brand is well-built to suit the demands of a high-end niche
market. It survives by its distinctiveness on the market. Simply put, its product designs and
quality are the attributes that its competitors find difficult to offer to customers. Baby Gap,
Hanna Anderson’s closest competitor, retains lower level of innovation partly because it uses
American-inspired design styles and its sole focus is on clothing compared to Hanna Anderson’s
greater varieties in product lines. As the income level of Hanna Anderson’s target customers is
relatively high, they are looking for fashion-forward children’s apparel made of premium-
quality fabrics sourced sustainably.
IV. Marketing Resources and Capabilities
Hanna Anderson’s key resources are its product collections, stores’ upscale locations,
committed employees and customers; other intangible key resources include the brand’s
reputation in business communities as well as its Swedish cultural background. Besides, the
strong team of product designers is definitely a valuable intangible resource of the firm. Its
organizational capabilities lie in the high-quality, state-of-the-art products and services it
delivers to the customers and high-level employee engagement within the organization.
Moreover, the firm demonstrates its responsiveness in detecting customers’ needs of choosing
natural, sustainable products as it is one of the few brands use “sustainable fabrics” in
Children’s apparel market.
The brand’s competitive advantages include its Scandinavian-style design, bright, colorful

4. 4
prints and durable product quality. The authentic Scandinavian experience that the brand
delivers to the customers can be found, for example, in the interior design of the outlets. The
great combination of premium quality and elite, artistic design of Hanna Anderson products are
rare commodities in the market. Clearly, the company’s competitors choose different bases for
their competitive advantages in order to meet the specific needs of various groups of customers.
For instance, discount retailers like Target and Walmart win an edge by offering low prices and
convenience to their target customers. For these groups of customers, product quality or design
is not a priority.
According to Yankelovich and Meer, the purchasing behaviors of the firm’s target customers
are characterized as shallow decisions, because clothing is a considered a necessity that
everyone needs. Thus, once the functional benefits of the products are fulfilled, the main
concern that consumers have in mind is whether to switch to different brands. One of the
business’s concerns is how to select the right target for their marketing campaign. 2 As Hanna
Anderson is not targeting mainstream shoppers for children’s clothing, marketing through the
mass media is not an appropriate strategy for the firm, because this may only increase sales
revenues but not the profitability.3 We will return to this later in the Marketing Strategy Section.
Since the company charges premium prices for higher quality of its products, it segmentation
strategy needs to find out the degree of customers’ willingness to pay for the premium price and
their brand loyalty.
As mentioned earlier, the firm demonstrates its strengths by offering premium quality
children’s apparel with appealing designs made of sustainable materials. Its strengths remain
fairly stable since the company’s founding. Its opportunities could be expanding overseas, and
the first step to take is expanding to Canada and Western Europe, followed by Japan and other
parts of Asia such as Singapore and Hong Kong.
Moreover, issuing membership cards to the company’s loyal customers and keeping track of
important client-related data in the database can help the firm manage its brand-consumer
relationship. Additionally, seeking brand diversification and broader sources of marketing
would also be great opportunities for Hanna Anderson. Since the firm’s weaknesses primarily
lie in its high price and inconvenient distribution channels, Hanna Anderson can minimize its
price gap between its competing brands by figuring out how much of a premium price it should
charge to maintain its premium quality in the industry. The brand can broaden its distribution
2 Rediscovering Market Segmentation, by Daniel Yankelovich and David Meer, Harvard Business Review, 2006
3 Niraj Dawar, “What are brands good for”, MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol 46, No.1, Fall 2004,

5. 5
channels by licensing more retailers and agents, in addition to online sales.
The firm is currently facing threats from competition from lower-end markets, new
entrants and online retailers of its competing brands.
V. Marketing Objective
Since Hanna Anderson’s products are designed to meet the specific demands of the high-end
niche market, the objective of its strategic plan should focus on building awareness among
target consumers to increase loyalty.
VI. Definition of Strategic Market Planning Process
The firm’s strategic direction should be to focus on brand diversification. As “providing kids
ways to have fun” and “Letting kids be kids” are the core values of Hanna Anderson, the firm
can seek more varieties of ways to let kids have fun and be themselves. For example, the brand
can consider operating beyond the field of apparel and expanding into areas such as
Scandinavian handcraft stores, movies and games, or even theme parks. It may even follow
Disney’s path, whose businesses range from stationary to hospitality industry.
As environmental issues have become increasingly global concerns, Hanna Anderson should
persist in its environmental vision and remain its leading position in sustainable children’s
apparel market. In the future, more and more customers would be aware of the organic fabrics
of their clothing and its impact on our environment and communities, it’s a market trend that
people would gradually switch to brands that source sustainably. However, as competitors will
all switch to sustainable business models in the future, how to maintain its marketing mix of
product design, quality and customer service would be an important issue to the firm’s
managers.
VII. Appropriate Marketing Strategies
The firm can build blue ocean strategies by expanding into markets where untapped by its
competitors. Opening up a Scandinavian handcraft stores or exploring the games and movie
segments can be the brand’s future focus. Additionally, the firm can market its brand via ways
that haven’t been used by its competitors; for instance, sponsoring Children’s classic plays
during festivals, such as The Nutcracker during Christmas season, since the play is popular
among young parents and kids. In the Portland area specifically, some appropriate advertising

6. 6
channels for the firm would be Portland Children’s Art Studio, kids’ galleries and the Youth
Program at the Oregon College of Art and Craft. Innovations in marketing strategies would help
the firm enhance its brand image so as to attract new customers.
Hanna Anderson should open more outlets in geographical regions with large numbers of
Americans with Scandinavian heritage. Hanna Anderson outlets currently cover states with the
highest-density Scandinavian American populations like Minnesota, Michigan, Washington,
California and etc. However, the firm can seek potential business opportunities in upscale
Scandinavian communities and high-end shopping malls in these states through more intensive
marketing and new store openings. For instance, an ideal location would be The Sweden Town
located in Chicago, Illinois (see the images below), where a good number of Swedish shops not
only have Swedish food and products, but also have rich varieties of products from all over
Scandinavia. Tourists and customers will get immersed in Scandinavian culture and experience
its unique history and background. This would help the firm attract public attentions, bring in
new customers, and develop an emotional bond with its loyal customers.

7. 7
VIII. Tactics-- Marketing Mix Elements
One important aspect of the brand assets of Hanna Anderson is its Scandinavian cultural

8. 8
background. The firm should delve into the key consumer sight of its target customers, which
means the firm needs to get into the consumers’ head to understand what drives their
purchasing behaviors. As the research finding shows that “today’s businesses must gather
consumer insights in order to strategize and implement effective consumer marketing
strategies. Consumer insights provide understanding that leads to marketing on a more direct
and personal level.”4Hanna Anderson’s brand association with the Scandinavian culture might
be a significant incentive to customers’ purchasing decisions. In other words, customers
interested in Scandinavian culture or with similar backgrounds are more likely to purchase
Hanna Anderson products. The firm can increase its brand awareness by sponsoring a variety of
Scandinavian festivals such as Midsommarfest in Illinois, at the Swedish American Museum in
the Andersonville neighborhood in Chicago; and Karl Oskar Day and NISSWA-STAMMAN
Folk Music Festival celebrated through June 9-10 annually in Minnesota (as shown below). A
great idea would be providing apparel for children who join the parade. Such marketing events
are effective invoking the cultural awareness and nostalgic emotions among the target
customers while reaching them in a personal manner. Therefore, the key brand benefits that
Hanna Anderson deliver to the customers, specifically, the cultural attachment to the brand,
will be elevated to a new dimension.
4 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jure-klepic/what-are-consumer-insight_b_5906624.html

9. 9
One disaggregate marketing tactic the firm could consider is called “Bring your Hanna”
campaign, which is designed to highlight the “supreme quality” that Hanna Anderson has been
offering since its founding in 1983. Generations of the brand’s loyal customers, including
today’s grandparents who shopped at the stores for their children in 1980s and the millennials
who used to wear Hanna Anderson in their childhood and are now buying the products for their
kids, are encouraged to participate. Customers are welcomed to bring their favorite Hanna
Anderson pieces and share their stories with the brand. As Hanna products are durable enough
to last more than one generation of use, they can be simply passed down to the younger kids in
the family or community.
An interesting case would be that, young parents bring the Hanna pieces they used to wear
two decades ago and are now owned by their children. Customers participated in the campaign
will have opportunities to win gift coupons and raffles. A selections of the participants’
collections including the earlier and current Hanna Anderson pieces, stories and photos
submitted by the customers, will be displayed at the stores. As Niraj Dawar stated in the “what
are brands good for?”, “disaggregate marketing allows companies to reinforce the key messages
by reaching consumers both after purchase and when they are most likely to be in the market to
purchase again; the brand and its positioning remain intact even as the competitive threat is
tackled.”5 I believe “Bring your Hanna” campaign would be effective in delivering the positive
brand images to consumers while tightening the emotional bond with its loyal customers so as
5 Niraj Dawar, “What are brands good for”, MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall 2004, Vol 46, No.1

10. 10
to increase the likelihood of repurchase.
Since Hanna Anderson currently does not offer many promotions throughout the year and
maintaining a premium price for the products is important to the brand, issuing membership
cards would be effective in managing its relationship with target consumers. Besides keeping
track of clients’ demographic information on the database, analyzing consumer behaviors,
shopping histories and patterns should be the key. Database management can help the firm
better predict the demands of the target market, forecast market trends and meet customers’
needs in a responsive manner. “A creative leap of the marketing action” would be, once a new
customer opens his membership account, mostly a parent or the direct relatives of a child, the
child’s birthday would be recorded in the database. After two years of active shopping history at
Hanna Anderson stores, coupons and two tickets to the largest local theme parks would be
mailed to the customers. The parents can take their kids to a free trip to the theme parks and
they are welcomed to bring their guests, which most likely would be some other kids. The kids
get to have fun on their birthdays and the parents would be likely to feel more committed to the
brand. The emotional connections between the brand and loyal customers get tightened;
moreover, the brand image of Hanna Anderson get spread and enhanced.
The brand value of Hanna Anderson is based on perceived quality, as even for potential
customers without any brand awareness of its products, the superior quality offered by the
brand can be perceived very clearly; for example, the bright, colorful prints that seem to last a
long time, super soft touch feeling of the fabrics, innovation designs, beautiful interior design
and personalized customer service at the stores. Customers are exposed to these upscale
experiences as soon as they walk in any Hanna Anderson store.
In conclusion, through a detailed analysis of Hanna Anderson’s resources and capabilities
using Porter’s Five Forces Theory, the paper addresses some key issues in marketing such as the
firm’s external environment, competitive advantages and product positioning. Moreover, the
marketing strategies and tactics formulated in this paper, upon implementation, should greatly
improve the brand awareness and brand loyalty among the target customers of Hanna
Anderson.