Marketing Plan for Body Scrub - Term Paper Example

Portfolio Project - Marketing Plan Body scrub, marketing sensitive skin for moisture issues In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for . January, 2009 University of .. Abstract Planning forms an integral part of management. A Marketing plan is a way of achieving something within the available resources and time limits. Such a plan basically involves, setting objectives and selecting strategies accordingly. This project is an effort to market Body Scrub, a skin care product, generally used by women, but can be used by the male counterparts as well. The intense amount of competition in the retail sector coupled with a host of companies reaching out the fashion and beauty sector makes it quite a task to prepare an effective marketing plan. A marketing plan is prepared for assisting the business in integrating the total marketing efforts. The planning process begins with an attempt by the company to size up its present market situation and the factors responsible for it. Such a plan ensures a systematic approach to developing products and services to meet and satisfy the consumer's needs. Providing strategic option is a key role for the marketing plan. A fast life, with lots of fast food, little time for self care, sometimes results in adverse impacts on the health and body of the individual. This calls for the quick fix solutions. Therefore, while preparing the marketing plan, we need to keep in mind that it must be suitable enough for the individual with very little spare time and who happens to be always on the move. Body of the Marketing Plan Name of the Product: Body Scrubber (Brand-Dove) Market Segment: The female skin conscious member of the society (age group 18-40 in particular) Analysis of External Market: Role of the external market is of prime importance in devising a marketing plan. Such an analysis in the marketing plan helps in explaining in detail the external challenges and opportunities a business may face in the coming year/s. Such an analysis will help in identifying the competitive strength of Dove while taking cues from competitors' strengths. To analyze the market in a better way PESTLE analysis can also be carried out. PESTLE stands for political, economical, socio-cultural, technological, legal and ecological factors. Customer Analysis: With growing consciousness amongst the young one's about their being presentable while attending the board meeting, wedding ceremonies, parties with friends, family functions, or even going to college or marketplace. The female member requires a reliable solution to handle the moisture related issues. If we take a cursory look at the market, it is found that there are a variety of solutions on offer, both branded as well as unbranded. For a body scrubber the basic things which need to be emphasized are; Reliability, No harm to the skin. The personal care division of Unilever focuses on four main market areas namely, skin cleansing, daily hair care, deodorants and mass-market skincare. Though the market does have its share of loyal customers, but in view of the growing number of competitors and alternatives it is very difficult to retain or divert the loyalty of a block of customers. Their consumption pattern will be affected depending upon the suggestions from their friends and relatives. In addition the effectiveness of the product being on offer will also prove to be crucial. Regular presence in the media in the form of marketing campaigns will certainly provide a further flip to marketing efforts. Marketing communication and promotional strategies are very important in gaining the loyalty of this segment. A progressive organization is supposed to have a strategy for quality which is based on customer perceptions of quality. Competitor Analysis: Some of the well known competitors include Avon Products, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, L'Oreal S.A., Procter & Gamble Company, The Beiersdorf AG, Henkel KGaA, McBride plc (Datamonitor, 2008). Besides forming a separate market for itself, the scrub also forms part of the facial and skin care market as well. The facial care market as such consists of the total revenues generated through the sale of anti-agers, night creams, creams and gels, toner, face mask and other (including other moisturizers, cleansing wipes, exfoliating scrubs, pore strips and fade cream). The facial care market in US, example, was able to generate revenues worth $4.7 billion in the 2008 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.5% for the period spanning 2004-2008 (Datamonitor, 2008a). Marketing Information: Taking inputs from the market is very crucial to the success of the marketing plan. Accordingly, the product placement is done in the market for appropriate segments. Product: The product is a skin care product known as body scrubber. In order to have soft and smooth skin, particularly during summer times, when more of our skin is exposed to sun burns, we need something to shed this dead skin off. Therefore, to have a healthy and smooth skin, one must slough the undesired skin off. Body scrubber proves quite handy for such a situation. Place: Skin care product actually impacts the segment within the age groups of 15-50 in general. But this is a vast span with diverse requirements. Therefore we could narrow it down to the age group of 18-40. This group also contains the student community and the neo office goers, who often find it convenient to look good with glowing skin. Therefore for the purpose of this marketing plan, we can focus on these two basic segments. Promotion: The four Ps of marketing have, over time, discovered some more companions in making a balanced marketing mix. It now comprises of Product, Promotion, Price, Place, Physical evidence, Process and People. Over time, it has been established that the promotion aspect has become quite crucial, particularly to attract the youth segment, who find it hip and trendy to be seen with a product most visible in the media. For promoting a concept like body scrubber, mailers coupled with attractive discounts might prove to be very attractive. But inviting the attention of a new customer requires lots of persuasion as there are a number of alternatives available in the market. Customer often wants a comparative analysis and other tangible benefits to switchover loyalties or to commit himself/ herself to the company's product. All this is not possible through TV or a radio commercial, neither the customer has sufficient time to go through lengthy newspaper supplements. Therefore the best way to invite the customer's attraction towards our Body scrubber is to get in touch with him personally through a well informed customer care executive with pleasing personality, who herself happens to be a moving statement for the product. The customer needs to be approached at her place of convenience. It is indeed very important to be seen regularly in the media, so that the awareness level remains high. Such fact also need to be highlighted which encourages new customers to go for the product. For example, it is said that 90 percent of the dust in our homes is dead skin cells1. That in fact sounds quite astonishing for an average home maker, but if true, it will certainly provide a reason even to a slightly higher age lady to go for the product. The direct effect of media campaigns may not be translated into windfall of customers, but it is very much required to reach the maximum audience in minimum possible time, and to establish the brand identity. The body scrub comes in different fragrances, therefore during the marketing efforts, when the marketing executive is to make a presentation; we need to explain the details of such varieties and highlight the one's most preferred by the prospective customers. During the promotional campaigns, some of the facts which need to be highlighted are; i. Chemical irritations too leave an adverse impact on sensitive skin, which often leads to reddening of the skin or rashes. This in turn gives way to dead skin. ii. One source of chemical irritation is the contamination of our surroundings and environmental degradation. This leads to allergies and subsequently to rashes etc. iii. Eco-friendliness of our product Price: Pricing has to be very competitive. In any case it should not be more than the prevalent market rate. The purpose of body scrubber marketing is to get a good average price more consistently. It needs to be emphasized here that more important in the initial stage is to win the confidence of the customers. Once the company is able to gain access to a wide segment winning over their confidence in product quality, then of course, depending upon the prevailing marketing situation a price hike can be thought of. But, it is also worth mentioning here that in these competitive times we need to leverage the economies of scale as well. Control and Evaluation: Stating the founding philosophy called the mission statement and company objectives provides the target/s to be achieved by the company and the marketing team. This forms the guiding principles while doing the business. This also provides a benchmark to the company to look at and the company can also go for improved version depending upon the customer preferences. Improvement is a never ending cyclic process. Product Quality requires to be continually improved to remain in the competition. The task of keeping a check on the progress of implementation and is to evaluation of the results on a periodic basis helps in controlling usage of resources and gathering the outputs. If required, corrective course of action can be initiated midway, before things go out of hand. To this end, the management of Dove can decide on having a routine meeting with team-leaders at least once every month, while the team-leaders can be entrusted with meetings of their team members at least once every-week. The monthly meetings must be used as a forum of encouraging good work done by some teams/team-members, spelling out their modus operandi, so that others can also learn something from their experiences. Forecasts and Estimates: Well, in these times of cut-throat competition and changing marketing dynamics on regular basis forecasting is the one of the riskiest things to do, yet some form of forecasting and budgeting and estimates helps the management to take stock of the progress being made by the company in its campaign thus far. Budget allocation forms an integral part of any marketing strategy. It involves estimating the needs, the costs involved, provisioning for shortfalls/ emergencies, and miscellaneous expenditures. It is worthwhile to note here that the budget involved in marketing budget, if entering a new market, for the first few years is a form of capital investment and expecting an ROI in the very first year itself will be nave thinking. But Dove has its presence in the global market for quite some time now, therefore it is a known brand. This might provide some breathing space to the marketing team and marketing communication team. Timing: While approaching the prospective customer we need to be double sure that the time and convenience must be well take care of. As we are planning to target the college going youth, so we need to make sure that the campaign doesn't starts off at around the time when the student community is busy, for example during the exam time. Similarly, while targeting someone who's just entered the job market, we need to see that the weekends and holiday period happens be the most suitable period to make an entry into their minds. References: 1. Adkins, Jade (2008). 'Why You Should Use a Body Scrub' Available online at http://skincare.about.com/od/bath/qt/whyexfoliate.htm (Jan 9, 2009) 2. 3. Datamonitor (2008). Unilever UK Home & Personal Care - Company Profile. Datamonitor USA. NY 4. Datamonitor (2008a). Facial Care in the United States - industry Profile. Datamonitor USA, NY Read More