Marketing Strategy for Hair Extensions and Beauty Products - Research Paper Example

Psychological segmentation involves using the lifestyles of customers, the types of benefits sought by customers, and customers’ attitudes and perceptions.
We shall use all different attributes from each of the three segmentation bases to help us identify possible target markets. Our approach for doing this will be the breakdown approach which considers the market as consisting of customers that are essentially the same, thus our job would be to identify groups sharing particular differences. Our core products are hair extensions and beauty products. The hair extension products shall be targeted at women whereas the beauty products shall have products targeting both men and women. Targeting both men and women in our beauty products will enable us to use the complementarity of our products between the sexes to create a market positioning.
The economic environment for our targeted customers, in North America and Europe, is still in recovery mode, thus many consumers have low discretionary income. The level of discretionary income affects our products because they do not fall under the essential products category. For this reason, we shall target midlife independents (35–54-year-olds who are not married and do not live with relations) and unconstrained couples (35–54-year-olds who are married but do not live with a son/daughter). These two life-stage groups are likely to have a job (in the current low jobs market) and have higher discretionary income because of fewer life obligations such as not living with relatives, living single or married with two sources of income.
Lastly, we cannot ignore the importance of geographic variables on our products. People in different continents tend to have different skincare concerns based on their skin pigmentation and climatic conditions. For example, women leaving in coastal regions will need skincare products with lower moisture content in comparison to their counterparts living in dry, inland areas.
Two of the direct competitors are NIVEA by Beiersdorf AG for beauty products and SHE by SO.CAP for hair extensions. NIVEA has a broad and deep product range for both men's and women's beauty products. It is also a strong and global brand. NIVEA’s product positioning strategy is a mix of both functional and expressive positioning. In its functional positioning strategy, NIVEA focuses on use, for example, its sun care range highlights different products that match different needs such as sensitive skin or after the sun. In its expressive positioning strategy, NIVEA speaks of its heritage as a symbol of knowledge and experience e.g. on its UK website it says “NIVEA: 100 years feeling closer”(NIVEA, 2012). NIVEA’s current positioning is delivering a heritage in beauty products in an extensive range of products.
SHE by SO.CAP USA, on the other hand, is a subsidiary of the 40-year-old Italian Company, SO.CAP. s.r.l (SO.CAP, 2012). SHE is a functionally positioned brand that focuses on the features. For example, it emphasizes the fact that their hair extensions are hand-selected and 100% European-type human hair that is pre-bonded with 100% Keratin (SO.CAP, 2012). However, it is not a globally recognized brand as NIVEA. It promises to deliver to the customer the largest selection of hair types and hair colors.