Target Market and Brand Strategy of Johnson and Johnson - Essay Example

? An analysis of Johnson’s Baby brand Institute “An analysis of the Johnson’s Baby Brand” Introduction: Health care products are a growing sector of the economy, as consumers look towards both medicinal and consumer products in order to improved their lives and gain higher comfort. Some of the broad categories in consumer products are the dental, oral, skin, and baby care and today’s consumer has thousands of choices in form of brands and product lines which cater to their individual needs. For over 100 years, Johnson and Johnson has been one of the most trusted names in the health care category. As the pioneers who “bridged the gap between the initial R&D and the market-ready innovation by defining a baby-care niche” (Blatchford, 2010), Johnson & Johnson successfully used the branding strategy to turn the undifferentiated product ‘Mineral Oil’ ( used primarily for health and medical uses) into one of their most successful consumer products. The Johnson’s Baby product range was later extended to include more related products like the ‘No more tears shampoo’. The brand has become well-known for its comfort, care and safety message which has been communicated very effectively through the above-the-line advertising and their signature pink packaging. The marketing strategies of the Brand have been so successful because of the effective use of basic principles of marketing especially with regards to identifying the target market and developing suitable communications. Target Market  The target market can be formally defined as "A set of buyers sharing common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve" (Kotler et al, 2010). Defining the target market is the foundation step towards developing the value in a product or service, that will be communicated according to the consumers needs. The development of distribution, advertising, and production plans all depend on the target market as selected by an organization. The scope and selection of market targeting can depend on a variety of factors including the recourses of the company, the nature of the product, the industry trends and market situation. Depending on these factors, companies may go with the following target marketing: Undifferentiated: offering an identical product to the masses with common needs. The communication and value proposition offered is same for all segments. Differentiated: targeting several segments and offering them varied value propositions for a given product, in accordance with their specific needs Niche: Focusing on just one segment, provides them with specialized products with unique value proposition. (Kotler et al, 2010). An organization with a highly innovative product may want to go with niche marketing as they can concentrate their resources on developing a highly involved market for their product. This strategy may also be preferred for companies that are starting out small and do not have the financial and human resources required for a larger marketing plan targeting several different groups of consumers. Organizations have to be clear about their own strengths (and weaknesses), their long and short term goals and the external environment before deciding to utilize a particular targeting strategy. Consumer insight research is an important component of this process, as it highlights what exactly are the consumer needs and their perceived reception to any new product and Johnson & Johnson. The market segments to be selected for targeting purposes are divided into groups with similar demographic and psychographic traits. The marketers group the consumers through evaluation of questions such as; will they feel the need for a certain product? If so what value will the ascribe to it? Can they afford it? Are they doers or achievers? Is brand status important to them? How important is family to them? And so on and so forth. Questions such as these are designed to provide consumer insight and feelings, which can help a company to design and communicate better solutions for them. Johnson’s Baby health care products were designed keeping in mind the needs of small children and the concerns that parents had for them. The initial market target was young mothers with babies who wanted to provide the best care to their children and Johnson’s products would help them do so. The marketers at Johnson’s describe how they went through motherhood and pregnancy books to gain an understanding of the challenges a mother goes through and her feelings and perceptions for the child. The advertisement of the products used images of children and mother-baby bonds to show that Johnson was the right product for them. However, in recent years this niche marketing strategy has been replaced with a new differentiated marketing strategy as the organization was facing restrictions in expanding their market. Taking the basic idea that a product which is safe and gentle enough even for babies can be beneficial for other consumer groups as well (Blatchford, 2010). A new target market has now been defined for the oils, shampoos and other products in the range. The first step towards this perception shift has been done through adverts that include mothers as a target market, showing mother and baby using the Johnson products to get same quality of hair and skin. (Franco-diyco, 2010) A long term Segmentation strategy has also been defined that targets four new demographic platforms: adult women, teenage girls, adult men, and women 50+. The same attribute (baby gentleness) will be used but it will be leveraged differently to each target group (Fitzgerald,2010) Branding  In practical terms, a brand is any sign, term, slogan etc which differentiates a product of one company from another. But in broad terms a brand can be more eloquently defined as a ‘set of promises made by a company to its consumers’. By branding its products with a visible name and setting a brand identity for it in the market means that the organization is guaranteeing some kind value for its consumers in the purchase of that product. That value could be associated with price (premium or bargain), quality, timeliness, variety or any other factor which will lead the targeted consumer to select that brand over others. Branding becomes more important with the rise of consumerism and demand of the consumers. With so many products in the market offering similar attributes, a established brand name is often the determiner of the eventual purchase. It also provides certain leverage for organizations as they can capitalize on the brand equity to launch new products or line extensions. For Johnson’s Baby the market competition is getting tougher as more product lines enter into this category and their brand equity is still one of the major factors in consumer preference. When thinking of Johnson’s Baby, the signature Pink and yellow colors of the brand immediately spring into the mind of the consumers. These colors were selected to reflect comfort, warmth and safety for the user, and their slogans such as ‘No Tears’ is also something that most consumers can recall easily. It suggests that the brand really is looking out for the best for the babies and this communication really appeals to the parents. Now the brand is building on the theme of natural closeness between mother and child, suggesting that a mother would also want to use the same products as her child which is already a superior product in its attributes. Brand manager Derek Sotto revealed that in the recent communications airing for their brand, the cast involved are actually real moms and daughters. (Franco-diyco, 2010). The brand is clearly trying to relate to their consumers on a more personal level and it is helping to create strong perceptions. If brands are promises, Johnson’s main promise was that of safety of their products. Showing the strength of their branding strategy, J&J had to face severe backlash when it was revealed that some ingredients in their products could have harmful effects on users. An impending boycott of their products forced them to take immediate action; since 2010, representatives state that J&J has reduced the number of products containing chemicals that release formaldehyde by 33 percent (CBS News Staff, 2012). This quick reaction prevented the brand from facing severe consequences of this revelation and once again established Johnson’s as a brand which is dedicated to keeping its promise of safety and high quality. Their brand strategy has been highly successful. Johnson’s Baby Milk Lotion is the market leader in the category, as reflected in a recent Nielsen survey (Franco-diyco, 2010) and is one of the dominating names in the whole category. After the change in their target marketing, their Shampoo replaced P&G’s Head & Shoulders as the #1 brand in the total shampoo category (Fitzgerals, 2010). Even in the developing markets Johnson’s have high brand awareness and perceived quality; specially for product extensions which within the same brand category such as baby care (Ahmad et al, 2011). The development of the brand equity and prudent marketing strategies finally shows results in the financial margins. In 2009, Consumer sales accounted for $15.8 billion revenue for Johnson’s , with a 2 percent operational growth despite a soft economy. Within the consumer sales, BABY CARE category amounted to $2.1billion globally (4.5%) (Johnson & Johnson, 2010). The management reveals that this was a decline from past year sales due to the restriction of the niche market. However, since 2009 significant brand repositioning has taken place, and the positive trends in the market show consumer acceptability of the new propositions. It is expected that the brand will be back on growth streak soon. Johnson’s & Johnson’s were innovators, who brought a new product category in the market and successfully marketed it to the consumers with great returns. They understood the basic consumer needs and adapted their strategies when the time was right for a change and they have maintained their brand equity throughout, The Johnson’s Baby brand is a textbook example of how to develop a brand effectively and efficiently and it could not have been done any differently to gain better results. References Ahmad, M.S., Ehtesham, E.U and Rajput, A. (2011). Does brand extension impact parent brand: a Case of Johnson, UK. Revista Management and Marketing, Vol. IX, nr.1/2011, 53-68. Blachford, J. (2010). Johnson and Johnson – Brand Repositioning. Manifested Marketing - Marketing Blog. Retrieved from: http://manifestedmarketing.com/2010/08/04/johnson-and-johnson-brand-repositioning/ CBS News Staff, (2012). Johnson & Johnson to phase out potentially harmful chemicals by 2015. CBS NEWS/ August 15, Retrieved from: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57493890-10391704/johnson-johnson-to-phase-out-potentially-harmful-chemicals-by-2015/ Fitzgerald, B. (2010). Johnson’s Baby shampoo (case histories). Bench strength Team. Retrieved from: http://benchstrengthteam.com/case_histories.html Franco-Diyco, N. (2010). Johnson’s baby line expands usage. Business World, Weekender. Retrieved from: http://www.bworldonline.com/weekender/content.php?id=11290 Johnson& Johnson, 2010. Annual Report 2009, Analysis of Sales by Business Segments. Retrieved from: http://www.investor.jnj.com/2009annualreport/pdf/2009-annual-report.pdf Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Agnihotri, P and Haque, E. (2010) Principles of Marketing: A south Asian Perspective. Pearson Education, 13th Ed. Read More