 Table of Contents (Not included in the word count)

 Brand Overview (avg. 250 words).

 Brand Issue (avg. 500 words)
 Strategic Brand Recommendations (avg. 1000 words)
 Brand Style Guide (avg. 1250 words)
 Marketing Communications Mock Up 3
 Reference List (in-text & reference list formatting should adhere to Westminster Harvard
style. Not included in the word count)
 Appendix (Not included in the word count)

Brand Overview

Fairphone is a social enterprise company which aims to develop smartphones that are designed and
produced with a lower environmental impact. The company is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands,
and was supported in its startup phase by the Waag Society, a foundation which aims to foster
experimentation with new technologies, art and culture.

Fairphone was founded with the aim to develop a mobile device that does not contain conflict
minerals (which in smartphones are typically gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten), has fair labour
conditions for the workforce along the supply chain producing it and help people to use their phone
longer.

The company two main products are the Fairphone 3 and Fairphone 3+. Furthermore, it sells
accessories such as cases, screen protectors, cables and spare parts for their phones as cameras,
batteries and other modules. The modularity is supposed to make the phone more easily repairable
and longer lasting.

The firm is a certified benefit corporation and it won numerous awards and certifications since they
started operating, such as the award for fastest-growing European tech startup at The Next Web
conference in April 2015, The Fairphone 2 was the first smartphone to be awarded with a 10/10
score at iFixit for repairability. Fairphone's founder and first CEO Bas van Abel was one of the three
winners of the German Environmental Award in 2016. The Fairphone 2 was the first mobile phone to
receive Blue Angel certification. In 2019, the company won the Partnership Of The Year prize at the
Responsible Business Awards.

Brand Issue

- Fairphone has a pricing issue. Badly positioned within the target market. Does not match the
needs of target market in relation to their price/value. REPOSITIONING
- There is a huge untapped market advantage within the B2B market, furthermore brand
extension could be optional to develop a product which covers a wider range of customers.
EXTENSION

Check Lecture 9:

-How to write brand overview?

-How to explain what is the brand issue and give evidence of it

-Repositioning and Extension: (Week 5 and 8)

-Brand Style Guide Week: ?

- 200 words for each

-Marketing Mock Up: possibly a picture about Fairphone ultra

Brand Issue

The main issue with Faiphone is pricing. The firm two products priced at £399 and £369. For similar
prices costumers can find a range of non as eco-friendly and fair-traded smartphones with better
performance, storage possibilities, cameras and rather premium looking designs. However, these
attributes proved to be the leading factors when consumers deciding to purchase new smartphones
(Appendix 1).

Sustainable solutions are emerging trend when consumers are looking for new products and
expected to have more focus in the future as we can experience more emerging issues with our
rapidly changing climate. A survey made by Grankvist (2019) reveals that: “In the Swedish and
Norwegian samples, participants were willing to pay, on average, 18% more for a mobile phone with
labels for environmental or social sustainability. In the German sample, the corresponding number
was 12%.”

On Appendix 1 can be seen that price is the most important factor that contribute to the decision of
buying a smartphone.

Fairphone offers the best solution for consumers who are looking for eco-friendly and ethical
smartphones, however this comes with great compromises which prevents many from buying the
product.

Even consumers are willing to pay an extra 10-20% on eco-friendly labelled smartphones, Fairphones
actual prices does not match the needs of consumers.

A survey taken by Fairphone reveals their user profile, it shows that their average customers is 37
years old with 70% to more likely to be male with 23% of bachelors and 44% masters degree. Their
main purchase motivation was `to support what Fairphone does’ with 57% and 20% found the idea
behind Fairphone is “cool”, furthermore 12% surveyed that they wanted to upgrade to a smarter
phone.

The smartphone market is extremely hard to compete in. The only way to stand out is either through
price differentiation or through investment in research and development. To attract not just eco and
ethic conscious costumers and to reach out for a wider range of customers, Fairphone needs to
balance out these compromises and create a brand image where their product value-price
relationship is fits well.

FP is the best eco-ethic friendly phone in the market. Best in sustanibilty and best in performance
amongst sust phones but permormance is not communicated however they should position
themselves as premium market leaders, that would ………..