Targen Market of Listerine Mouthwash - Case Study Example

Running head: Listerine Mouthwash (Varieties) 1 Litre Name Course name Professors’ name Date Introduction Woolworths Holding Limited is one of the largest supermarkets in Australia and is owned by Woolworths limited. The company sells goods and services which include electronics, clothing, food and banking services such as loans and visa card. Woolworths has invested in a program whereby Improvements on existing products are continuously being made to ensure that customers' needs are satisfied while the store remain competitive. In its foodstuff program for instance, Woolworths has improved the existing food and developed new ones. In addition to this, Woolworths offers education to consumers on the type of food that they eat. Consumers are enlightened on the health benefits as well as dangers of taking particular foods. Woolworth's strategy of providing the customer with a variety of goods and additional services has paid off through increased sales. The customer gets all needs in one roof and this has saved both time and money on the part of customer. Furthermore, the practice of locating stores at fuelling points has been a popular one with customers who are for instance able to fuel their cars as well as buy food. This has brought convenience and has improved market operations. Listerine ZERO Clean Mint Mouthwash is the focus for this research paper. Listerine is a consumer product available in all major stores of Woolworths in Sydney. The product has varieties that have been availed in Woolworth retail store. The striking factor about Listerine is that it has zero percent of alcohol when compared to other brands of mouthwash. This has endeared it to many recovering alcoholics who no longer want any alcohol intake into their bodies. Furthermore, the fact that Listerine ZERO Clean Mint Mouthwash is neatly packaged appears to be a factor that most consumers consider as they buy the product. Target market that the product is designed to attract The product, Listerine ZERO Clean Mint Mouthwash is designed for use by various groups of people who want to enhance freshness of their breath. In designing the product, Woolworths combined various strategies so that the product appeals to a wide segment of the population. The first step in selecting a target market is to identify individual buyers or groups of buyers (Adcock, 2001). This is also referred to as segmentation, a practice whereby a marketer subdivides consumers into different cohorts based on their attributes so as to design a suitable program to respond to them. The marketer should finally select a group of buyers who are able and willing to buy the product. According to the consumer theory, sellers must understand what buyers need before making any market entry decision (Kotler, 2009). It is therefore necessary that a research on the Listerine is carried out and then findings are carefully analysed before new product is released to the market. Consequently, research by Woolworths found that consumers sometimes shun a mouthwash because of its alcoholic content. This group of consumers therefore desired a common want and Woolworths responded by introducing the new mouthwash, Listerine ZERO Clean Mint Mouthwash. The first target group were those who hated smell or even taste of alcohol. This customer segment captured consumers who are recovering alcoholics. This is because a person who has decided to stop ingestion of alcohol will be uncomfortable using a mouthwash that has some percentage of alcohol. Listerine, which has zero percentage of alcohol content, was therefore introduced to the market with this view in mind. The mouthwash also targets the youth. Efforts to attract the youth into buying this product are seen in the way the product has been packaged attractively. This adds a sense of touch and modernity to the product hence making a person to buy it based on the appeal generated by the packaging. The price of a 33.8 ounce of container which is approximately $5.79 makes it affordable to average income earner. Most youth are therefore capable purchasing the product without causing much strain on their spending. The mouthwash comes in various sizes but the standard size is of one litre and contains enough mouthwash to be used for a variety of purposes. This new product therefore has a wide target market. It targets people with different characteristics. The needs differ with categories of people and this fact has been considered with the introduction of a single product in the market. Since Listerine targets large markets, quantity produced is vast enough to cover the demand. The strategy has earned substantial returns due to economies of scale. Once introduced into the market, individualised marketing of the new product is done to capture the target market segment of recovering alcoholics. This generates a systematic enlightening of the product market. The approach was therefore a differentiated strategy since the target market of recovering alcoholics was approached using a different strategy from the other target clients (Guiltinan, 1996). Although the differentiated strategy is a costly way of approaching the markets, Woolworths adapted this approach by pumping in a sizable amount into the task of educating this target market about the benefits of using an alcohol free mouthwash. High costs of marketing were aimed at building consumer loyalty to the new alcohol free mouthwash that was on offer. The recovering alcoholics were informed of the new product and its benefits of being alcohol free were emphasized. The market was also segmented demographically in terms of age. The youth were the other target market envisaged by the market strategists to have a great need for a product that is appealing, well packaged and affordable. This is shown by the design and price of the mouthwash. Other considerations made in this aspect were to provide a large quantity of mouthwash per unit cost as compared to other varieties available in the market. The differentiated market was informed by the fact that other competitors offered competitive product. Subsequent introduction of a new type of mouthwash therefore carved out a niche of consumers and targeted it specifically by designing an alcohol free mouthwash. A common marketing strategy here is to present a product that shines among competitors. Being a well established company in Australia with a stable financial base, Woolworths had enough resources to cover the market in distributing enough products. It could not be constrained by lack of capacity to supply the markets with new products. In general, the company sales potential for Listerine was high due to the availability of demand in the market. Woolworths is also an established name in Australia and this was an additional fact put into account by consumers before deciding to purchase the new mouthwash that was on offer. Loyal consumers of other products sold by Woolworths could have been influenced to make a choice based on the fact that they are already using a product by the same company Access to the product was enhanced by making it available in all leading pharmacies and supermarkets in Australia. This enhanced the brand visibility and within a very short period of time, most consumers had known about its entry into the market and started to purchase it. Also, the fact that many varieties of Listerine mouthwash can be accessed from American stores has increased visibility of this brand. The 4 Ps Analysis-Products, Place, Price and Promotion Product The product that was offered to the market by Woolworths is a mouthwash by the name of Listerine ZERO Clean Mint Mouthwash. The necessity for Listerine emanates from the need for an attractive mouth freshener. Consequently Woolworths supplied in its stores the alcohol free mouthwash to serve this need by a section of the market dissatisfied with currently available products. The new product was especially necessary to the youth, those with bad breath and the once recovering from alcohol. There was a demand for the mouthwash since the existing products did not meet the expectations of some customers in being alcohol free. Most products in the market had not taken into consideration the fact that some consumers are not attracted to the smell of alcohol. Labelling of the product as Listerine ZERO both in the front and rear labels served to capture the eyes of consumers and therefore entice them into purchasing it. This is especially important to consumers with negative feelings to alcohol. Upon the initial introduction of the Listerine mouthwash, sales level was very minimal and the profits were negative. This was due to ongoing creation of market awareness. The mouthwash therefore started slowly before revenue, in terms of profits, started to trickle in. It is also during this stage that weaknesses about the product were identified. Once these weaknesses about Listerine mouthwash were recognized, efforts to rectify them were made. The branding done on the new product was unique. The shape of mouthwash enabled buyers to specifically identify it among many other brands. Customers therefore chose the mouthwash because it stood out from the rest. Additional services in form of instruction manual fulfil an aspect of customer focused strategy (Chekitan, 2005). Additionally, the writing of “Listerine ZERO” also added to its recognition. Woolworths unique branding of Listerine mouthwash served to create a loyal consumer base who would buy the specific product each and every time that they needed it. The consumer loyalty to the product was important because it would enable the company to set and maintain stable prices for the product without having to lower prices each time in a bid to increase the customer base. Consumer loyalty also served to protect existing customers against actions that might be taken by the competitors in attempts to woo them into using other products with similar satisfactory ability (Guiltinan, 1996). Price The amount of money charged for the product is relatively low and this has made it affordable to a wide spectrum of consumers. At approximately $5.79 for a 33.8 ounce of a container it is cheap and is a good value for money to customers. The product also has both quantity and quality in the sense that there is a lot of mouthwash packaged and can be used for other purposes. Customers are prepared to pay the amount to get the product. In comparison with the prices of other products in the market, ZERO Clean Mint Mouthwash is the preferred choice because of its price and value for money (Dennis, 2000). The retail store has been able to lower their prices while at the same time maintaining their profit levels. Among the players who contributed to the success of Listerine included advertisers emphasizing on low prices and positive features of the product. Woolworth retail store have been able to avail the mouthwash in different capacity and volumes. The distribution of Listerine product was relatively easy because Woolworths has stores and retail outlets throughout Australia. Promotion As a new product in the market, Listerine required aggressive marketing to make consumers aware about it. Since the product was new, it needed a sustained strategy of informing the target markets about its existence. This was done through educational campaigns about the benefits of using an alcohol free product. Listerine was presented to consumers as a product that is harmless to ones health. Special events were also organized by the company. This generated goodwill and demonstrated that the company played good corporate social responsibility. With advent of information communication technology, e –marketing has become a way of life. Numerous businesses try to reach sizeable proportion of customers by advertising their product in the internet (Kotler, 2009). This is the case with Listerine. Customers can now order the product from Woolworth store via internet and pay for it with a credit card. Place This component of the marketing mix focuses on the decisions made in order to make a product available to consumers at places where they want them (Dennis, 2000). Efforts to avail Listerine mouthwash to consumers were made by making it available in major pharmacies and supermarkets throughout the country. Availability of the product was therefore extensive in distribution stores and other retail outlets including Cole. Woolworths has stores in most parts of the country and this assisted in the distribution of Listerine mouthwash. This enhanced the product accessibility to the consumer as well as reducing and easing logistical costs of supplying since it could be supplied at the same time with other products without the company incurring additional transport costs. Utility was created in the mouthwash by refining it to suit individual customers. The individual customers suited in this case were the recovering alcoholics and others who valued fresh breath. Conclusion There are difficulties that accompanies introduction of new product in the market. Listerine ZERO mouthwash followed a nearly similar terrain though difficulties encountered were however minimal because products by the Woolworths company are well known by consumers. The mouthwash was quickly adapted by consumers and it consequently attracted large size of the target market within a short period of its introduction. This actualized due to methodical process of educating consumers and through careful identification of the target market. The mouthwash was carefully designed to suit the needs of identified target market. Marketers wishing to introduce new products into the market should do a careful study about the existing market trends and product substitutes. This market study is necessary so as to avoid losses which may result when a product introduced fail to make profit. It must be born in the minds of marketers that any marketing strategy deployed must result in expanded sales. Read More