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Brand Audit--The uprising sustainable brand--2nd Street

  • kingolice
  • Jan 26, 2022
  • 14 min read

Updated: Jan 27, 2022


Lesson 3: Brand and Research

Topic 3: Brand Audit


Student: Wong Chi Fai (Marcus)




What is 2nd Street? :



Introduction:

Let 's see a short video first, this will help to understand the brand more easily.


*Source: Advertisement from 2nd Street (Sekandosutoritokoshiki, 2021)


"Buy everything new isn't better than buy at 2nd Street？"　L

"Becasue boring person like you may be a matter" L

"Buy new things only made me feel pressures and get bored, maybe" M

"You seems pity to say that” L

”No” M

"Hey" (Laugh) L

"I feel more easy to try at 2nd Street" M

"Got it" L

"I am able to buy it all confidently even though you are next to me" M

"Oh! Come on" L

"I brought it!" M

2nd Street ( one more time to make you aware the brand name )

"I brought it too! L


L: The lady, M: The man


So we can see some messages of 2nd Street is telling through the video advertisement.


  1. They are selling second hand products .( Products )

  2. You can buy a lots of things here so there is no need to buy new things and even more valuable than new one. (Belief/Commitment)

  3. The price is affordable so the person who pay don't feel stressed and the products are interesting. (Value to customers)

  4. You can enjoy shopping/trying in the shops. Feel Good. (Promise)

  5. No matter men or women, you can buy lots of things there. (Target)

This is a quick and simple way to know what is 2nd Street. It shows the feeling customers' expect when they interact with the brand. And this video made by 2nd Street is telling the story to their customers.



Brand Story:



2nd Street is originated in Japan from a reused store called "FOR YOU" which was started its business in 1996. In 2008, the brand name of 2nd Street is officially established and become a consolidated subsidiary of GEO CORPORATION(GEO). After that, it was totally taken over by GEO.

(Eien no yume ni mukatte, 2018)


Recently, as response to the demands, its business is expanding more and more quickly on providing products of daily necessities and interests like home electricity, sports good, music instruments and brand products, all of the products they sold are second hand and sell for reuse.



*Source: (Eien no yume ni mukatte, 2018) (Fashionsnap.com, 2018)


*Source: (2ndStreet.jp, s.d.)

For the direction of branding, 2nd Street is not mainly focus on create competitive advantages with product performance but through non-product-relates means. They do branding by understanding consumer's motivations and desires.


However, the products they are selling are still in good condition with up to date function(i.e a newly released mobile phone used for 1 month). So actually the products and the service are equally important in this brand. Therefore, I try to divide it into two parts to show their products and services in different categories.




Brand Inventory:


Brand inventory is used to provide a current profile of how the products and services are operated by the company are marketed and branded. In other words, it is an evaluation from inside. (Citeman, 2007)



The Commitment


"More Valuable than new"


This is the commitment from 2nd Street's official website. And this is also supported by the video advertisement above. Although they are selling second hand products, but they are giving messages that these products are as good as new one. They don't said they are new things but instead they are providing something more valuable / better than new. (2ndstreetusa.com, s.d.)



The Brand Essence






What are the core messages that they want to send through the operation of 2nd Street?


“It’s still usable, and too good to waste.” (Reason to buy/sell)

“It would be so much better, if somebody could use it instead of me.” (Reason to sell)

Here are the official messages provided from GEO(the mother company of 2nd Street).(Geonet.co.jp, s.d.) Recently, sustainability became a new global/fashion trend especially since the outbreak of Covid 19.

And now, with the increasing sales and the trend of sustainability, 2nd Street is expanding more faster than before. With over 700 stores in Japan and have around 20 stores located in the USA, Taiwan and Malaysia.




*Source: (Geonet.co.jp., s.d.)



The Brand Pyramid



Here is the illustration of 2nd Street's Brand Pyramid.

Brand Pyramid is a framework that shows the fundamental elements of the brand which is important to set the strategic foundation. (Bhasin, 2019)




The Brand Exploratory


Brand exploratory is used to understand what customers think and feel about the brand in order to identify sources of brand equity. (Citeman, 2007)


  • The Value of 2nd Street from the view of customers

With the expansion of sustainable design, the reuse market is certainly being pushing up. 2nd Street is not just only focusing on pre-owned clothing and lifestyle items. With this as a base, they are now developing wide range of products like electronics, furniture, outdoor products, etc. All of these are enhancing the value of “Reuse” and make better life for customers, The customers will notice how the products and service are more valuable than new.

  • Customer knowledge

2nd Street becomes a leader of reuse business, even though CtoC (Customer to Customer) ‘s business is also an upcoming trend in Japan like Mercari ( something like Carousell in HK). It is still thought to be a new innovation in the market of reuse. (Horie, 2019)


Here I sources some of the knowledge that customer can get from 2nd Street.

Customers can sell items to them with higher price because they have campaign period from time to time and most of the items are able to be reused.



*Source: (VS MEDIA Taiwan, 2020)


Overseas customers visited Japan also like to share their experience of buying. Most of them(including me) found that their products are very good value for money.



*Source: (LA HAWAII LIFE / Satomilk, 2021)


Here is a customer journey(recorded from a video of youtube) from a customer 's experience (USA).This helps us to know that how 2nd Street use the shop to send the value to customers. And, how the customers got the messages so that they will recall and recognize the brand through pre/post experience.

Here I also illustrated the brand awareness of 2nd Street.


Brand awareness is the degree to which consumers precisely associate the brand with the specific product/ service. It includes brand recall and brand recognition.

For brand recall, it is about how the consumers recall the brand when they are in need for something. Brand recognition can refer to the ability of consumer to recognize prior knowledge of brand (for example , they can recognize the logo and know the brand's products or name or its business) when they are asked questions about that brand.

(MSG, s.d.)




  • Sources of Brand Equity

Functional benefits of 2nd Street is that it provides two solutions to the market which is a pain point in nowadays market.

Here I take fashion as the example because 2nd Street ‘s main selling products are still clothing.


1. It offers a huge selection of clothing from casual to formal wear, from designer brands to mass fashion brands or even premium brands like LV (Louis Vuitton), DIOR, etc. Although the products are not new, but they are unique because almost of them are not newly produced so you may not find the same styles on the street. And the problem of fashion for now is too much same style items can be seen on the street and you are hard to identify what brands they are dressing and distinguish them


2. The second pain point in the fashion industry is the environment problem. Every year we thrown away tons of clothing.

“The current fashion system uses high volumes of non-renewable resources, including petroleum, extracted to produce clothes that are often used only for a short period of time, after which the materials are largely lost to landfill or incineration” says Chetna Prajapati, who studies ways of making sustainable textiles at Loughborough University in the UK. (Beall, 2020)

Therefore, not only clothing is too much, it is also hard to recycle like paper. 2nd Street is able to continuously drive the safe of gently-used clothing and reduce waste around the world. As a result, customer’s emotion is also link to sustainability when they noticed the exist of 2nd Street even though some of the consumers may not like to dress second hand clothing. More important to say, customers can earn money when they sell products to 2nd Street, this can help the company to make the customers more loyal to the brand because they can be benefited even haven't bought anything.


An additional source of equity for 2nd Street is its products are being well selected and this help to promote their commitment as "more valuable than new". The products itself are still in good condition but with more reasonable price.



Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE)


Customer-Based Brand Equity Model developed by Kevin Lane Keller, is used to shape how customers think and feel about the brand's products. It can help us to understand if there have any problems within the brand's structure and useful for determine further actions.

(The Mind Tools Content Team, s.d.)




Resonance:

Customers are highly engaging in the second hand and reuse business.


In the business model of 2nd Street. Customers are not only shopping, they can also sell their products to the shop and earn money. Therefore, a two-way communication through trade is formed. This help to ensure the loyalty and repeat rate of customer.


Judgements:

Second hand products are in good condition with high quality and feel safe to buy.


2nd Street have specialists and established rules to ensure the collected items are valuable to sold and for the customers they can feel more safe to buy. For example, they cooperate with community called The Association Against Counterfeit Product Distribution(ACCA) to ensure most of the products are genuine. (OSARU,2021)


Feelings:

Unique, self-rewarding and environmental friendly

All of products are unique because you may not buy it easily at other places.

As the products are reusable, customers may also feel that they are also helping the environment when shopping. They are not creating new wastes.

It is also self rewarding because you can sell a lot of clothing to them rather than sell the clothing piece by piece through other channels.


Performance

Valuable second hand products with well collecting service for customers.

Most of the products, clothing, electronics, mobile phones, furnitures, sports goods are kept in good condition, and they have ranking for customers to know the condition of the products. Some of them are even new second hand products which means the products are haven’t been used. But, you can get them at a much lower price than new products.


The service they provided to customers are found useful for most of the customers because what they can get from it is real money even they didn't buy anything.


Imagery

Sustainable, good for life and young

2nd Street created an image of environmental friendly and at the same time good for daily life. Even the products are not new, the image they promote just like a brand new products with wide range of items. Giving a young image from the shop and this can also been found with its advertisement. They don't look old.


Salience

An easily accessible platform of buying and selling of second hand goods

There are a lot of second hand stores and competitors like Mercari (C2C brand) in Japan. But 2nd Street have both Online and Offline channels to support the business which is more convenient. As some people would find that it is inconvenient to sell 2nd hand products through online C2C platform( because you need to sell it by yourself and you cannot make sure other customers would buy your second hand products), 2nd Street market gives them an opportunities to sell them at once and most of the products are found reusable and well received. Besides, they have lots of stores and online store to sell or buy the items.This contributed to their high awareness in Japan.




Suggestions for improvement

Although it seems they are operating quite well and the result is reflected to the boost of selling, there are still rooms for progress.


1.Expand to overseas market


2nd Street may consider to expand more stores in different countries.

For example, the a report from U.S. e-commerce platfrom ThredUp Inc., reported that it sees the segment of used clothing will reach twice the size of the fast fashion market by 2030. (Look & Dmitrieva, 2021)


Apart from used clothing, second hand cars, electronics are also in demand all over the world. A survey by eBay Inc. showed that almost three-quarters of respondents across the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany and France started selling pre-owned goods last year. This can be explained by the effect of Covid-19 because some of them lost income or jobs, but when this become a habit there will have more chance in the used market. (Look & Dmitrieva, 2021)

As more and more people are ready to join this business, we can predict the growth of used products is not only limited in Japan. 2nd Street already had around 20 stores overseas, that is still not enough if compare to the demands of the market. Therefore, how to enhance overseas development is the most important topic from now.


2. Establish a standard worldwide website


2nd Street may build a worldwide official website.

2nd Street Japan's official website can link to other countries' website but i found that the images and contents are not so consistent. For example, there is no online store in Malaysia. And the official website of 2nd Street japan only have Japanese version, if i were not familiar with Japanese, it will surely affect my buying experience. And other example is the commitment is shown in USA's website while JP's website are mainly introduce the concept of the shops to show the commitment or with the slogan of marketing.


A newly developed Taiwan website just have few products to buy. They can reference to Uniqlo (another popular Japanese brand) to establish world wide websites with united images and services. This can also help to develop overseas market through online stores even some places don’t have brick and mortal stores.

3.Give more knowledge of second hand products

2nd Street may include more official channel for teaching customers the value of second hand products and the related knowledge.

Because not all of us are familiar to second hand products. Learn how to judge the value of second hand products may arose customers’ interests in it. For example, some people may worry about the hygiene condition of second hand products. If 2nd Street can make statements that all the products are cleaned, more people would buy it especially in the era of Covid-19.

For long term development, if more people can appreciate the value of vintages or second hand products, it is also a good gesture to environment.


4.Open more communities for customers to share opinions


2nd Street already have websites, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter accounts. But this is not enough, if more official communities like forums are formed, people can ask for more suggestions and sharing.

Although some of the comments may be negative, it is still worth to do it.

The reasons are as following:

  • It can arose more people ‘s curious to know the market of reuse/second hand products.

  • As platform to know the exact feeling of the customers. ( e.g are the price setting reasonable? )

  • A trend may further be consolidated when there have more people to join even they may not buy the products before.

5.Collaborate with other brands to increase popularity

2nd Street had opened pop up store with Beams to make a new approach of 2nd hand business. (Kitakado, 2021) Beams, which is a famous Japanese fashion brand, cooperated with 2nd Street to sell the second hand products of themselves.


*Source: (Kitakado, 2021)


Seven collectors from Beams sold their selected second hand products to customers directly in the pop up stores. The interesting thing is, this is not contradicted to Beams’s business (they also want to produce something classic and durable) and because the collectors are the ambassadors of Beams, it actually helped the brand to know the need of customers through directly suggestions and advise. 2nd Street can use this to increase its brand image even though they are not the brand to produce new products. Therefore, it is good to do more collaboration with different brands.

They may use this as a strategy in new developing markets like Taiwan, because outside Japan, they may not so popular, But if they can cooperate with local brands to do some pop up events, it can help them to increase their brand awareness in new market.



Critical Reflection of Brand Audit



1. What?


Second hand clothing and vintage items are always attractive to me. The first thing is i really bored with the so called "new items". For example, i am working in fashion industry for around 5 years and what i can see is the trend become more and more similar, most of the products are similar with different labels only.


Yet, it is not a wrong thing to buy a "label", because this can show your social status. But the fact is if everyone produce similar things, why we need them so much?

Especially when we can buy the items with much more reasonable price because of fast fashion, who will keep it for long?


Therefore, i started to buy second hand clothing and even electronic products. Especially when i was studied in Japan, i like to go to the reuse shop like 2nd Street to buy clothing and look for something interesting. Zozoused which is a brand under Zozotown is also my favorite but it only has online store so it is not convenient and lack the place for you to enjoy shopping.


2. So What?


In Hong Kong, you can't find the reused shops like 2nd Street. You may say HK also have nice vintage shops. However, i found that most of them are really only selling the mood of "vintage". So whenever i want to buy, i would feel a little bit dirty and always same style items which i can buy online through overseas website.

Even i had brought, the items to me is an old and vintage thing, i don't think i bought a new items.


However, 2nd Street promote to us is an image of "more valuable than new". The products are more valuable because they are unique and still function at the same time most of them are look as new products or at least has a variety of styles. Of course you can find something give you a mood of vintage but that 's not a limitation in 2nd Street.


Actually, HK is especially need to develop a business like 2nd Street. Because we are one of the place producing much waste on the earth. Even though some of us may leave HK in this few years, i think there is still a responsibility to do more for a better life and this is also a chance for business.



3.What now?


Sustainability is a hot topic in the world and it is a fashion trend as well. Even the fast fashion giants are doing this, like Zara, Uniqlo, etc. For the design part, some designers are trying to use the new sustainable raw materials and avoid using materials which may harm the development. This is a good way to explore the sustainable products.


For me, I am looking for start a business which can combine the sustainable elements like 2nd Street and it is interesting to design as a whole rather than just an item use sustainable materials.


Some reports also reported that HK people are more willing to buy second hand products and less people are regarding it as dirty useless items.


For the next step, I would like to try to do more research to see what kind of second hand products are in demand in HK and how to develop it with small amount of money which can test the response and know more for it.


Change as chance!





Reference:


2ndstreetusa.com.(s.d.) At: https://2ndstreetusa.com/ (Accessed 25/01/2022).

2ndStreet.jp. (s.d.)

‘Go riyo gaido ご利用ガイ’ At: https://www.2ndstreet.jp/guide/buy/shop

(Accessed 25/01/2022).

Beall, A. (2020) ‘Why clothes are so hard to recycle’ At:

Bhasin, H. (2019) ‘What is a Brand Pyramid? How to build a Brand Pyramid?’ At:

Citeman. (2007) ‘Brand Inventory and Brand Exploratory’ At:

(Accessed 25/01/2022).

Eien no yume ni mukatte 永遠の夢に向かって.(2018) ‘Sekando sutorit セカンドストリート’ [Blog] 14/08/2018 At: http://theclash1976.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-4590.html (Accessed 25/01/2022).

Fashionsnap.com.(2018) ‘Geo no riyusushoppu " sekando sutorito " ga kaigai shinshutsu , LA ni goten opun ゲオのリユースショップ「セカンドストリート」が海外進出’ 、LAに1号店オープン (2018) In: Fashionsnap.com. At: https://www.fashionsnap.com/article/2018-01-12/2nd-street-melrose/ (Accessed 25/01/2022).

Geonet.co.jp.(s.d.) ‘Reuse Business’ At: https://www.geonet.co.jp/english/business/reuse/

(Accessed 25/01/2022).

Horie,T 堀江貴文. (2019) ‘Rentaru DVD kara apareru e geo koromogae chu レンタルDVDからアパレルへ　ゲオ衣替え中’ [Online Forum] 11/11/2019 At:

https://newspicks.com/news/4371579/ (Accessed 25/01/2022).

Kitakado,H 北角 元. (2021) ‘2nd STREET x BEAMS POP UP STORE’ At:

LA HAWAII LIFE / Satomilk. (2021) ‘【 rosanzerusu seikatsu 】 risaikuru shoppu de utte ikura ni ？@2nd STREET USA / THRIFT WITH ME Los Angeles Vlog 【ロサンゼルス生活】リサイクルショップで売っていくらに？@2nd STREET USA / THRIFT WITH ME Los Angeles Vlog’ [Online Video] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNxUNNyvGXg (Accessed 25/01/2022).

Look, C. & Dmitrieva,K. (2021) ‘Second-Hand Economy Goes Mainstream as Shoppers Hit Supply Knots’ At: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-09/second-hand-economy-goes-mainstream-as-shoppers-hit-supply-knots (Accessed 25/01/2022).

MSG.(s.d.) ‘What is Brand Awareness?’ At:

OSARU. (2021) ‘Sekando sutorito de nisemono no shupurimu wa ureru？【 shoji sura kiken 】セカンドストリートで偽物のシュプリームは売れる？【所持すら危険】’

Sekando sutorito koshiki セカンドストリート公式. (2021) ‘Kitto bokura no mirai o kai ni ！30 byō －2nd STREET 「きっとボクらの未来を買いに！」30秒－2nd STREET’ [Advertisement] At:

The Mind Tools Content Team. (s.d.) ‘Keller's Brand Equity Model’

(Accessed 25/01/2022).

VS MEDIA Taiwan. (2020) ‘2nd street ri pai er shou fu shi ！ jia ge chao kua zhang zhi jie guang bao？《VS MEDIA》2nd street日牌二手服飾！價格超誇張直接逛爆？《VS MEDIA》’

[Online Video]






 
 
 

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