L'Oreal's Marketing Essay: Situational, Competitor, Industry Analysis, SWOT, And Marketing Strategy.

Relating to an organisation of your choice; you are to develop the organisations marketing objectives. This will be evidenced through the submission of a detailed document that:

Develops the marketing objectives for your organisation including:

.Identifying strategic direction

.Undertaking strategic analysis reviewing the current marketing performance

.Scope your marketing opportunities and formulate short and long term marketing objectives o Developing a marketing risk management strategy

Your assessor will be looking to ensure you:

.Confirm the organisation's mission, vision, purpose and values

.Analyses the organisations strategic documents to identify directions and targets

.Complete a situational analysis that identifies factors that would impact on the direction and performance of the business

.Identify the legal and ethical requirements for your business

.Document and confirm the strategic direction in detail — and identify its impact on marketing activities

Reviewing your market performance will require you to evaluate the effectiveness of previous marketing and positioning strategies; perform a SWOT analysis on the current business; evaluate previous marketing undertaken by the business for profitability; and evaluate your marketing performance against previous objectives to identify critical success factors and areas for improvement

Introduction of Loreal - Marketing Objectives

Loreal is the one of the best leaders in the world dealing in all beauty products. The Loreal is presently working in 130 countries. This company was established in 1909 by the Eugene Schueller and its mission is to provide the best innovation in the cosmetics for men and women. Now this company is the number one group of cosmetics in the world.

The main goals and objectives of this marketing plan for the Loreal shampoo are: -

• To gain the best position in the cosmetic industry in providing the range of shampoos and thereby increase the market share.
• To achieve the position in the market as a successful quality provider of a variety of shampoos and satisfying the consumer needs for their different hair problems.

The marketing of the shampoo of Loreal extremely expensive and requires a lot of regulatory observance. The analysis of market is very important to know the current situation of the markets and some of the improvements in the cosmetic industry. The research work, pricing strategies are some of the factors that need to consider while promoting the brand in the market.

 The analysis of the current situation of the market helps to understand the level of the competition and who are the major players in the market with respect to the market of the Loreal shampoo. There are a huge number of companies that introduces the new shampoo for the different customers. Talking about the situation with respect to shampoo, then the different types of customers are like shampoo for dry hair, dandruff, hair fall and oily scalp etc. all these types of customers are targeted by the many companies.

The competitors in the market present currently against Loreal are Matrix, Sunslik, Dove, Johnson and Johnson, Garnier and many more. The development of the market is the strategy to find the new buyers for the Loreal Shampoo and accessories and the motive to establish the market is the expansion of the untapped markets. There is possibility that the group of buyers already tapped by the competitors or may not be.  So, it is recommended that the amount to be used while positioning the products or services should be within budget and should not exceed the amount invested overall (Nguyen, 2015). With the invention of a new development strategy related to a place that is targeted at a place where more profits can be earned with less losses and by doing this one can avoid wasting money, time, and other business resources. 

In the cosmetic Industry, the tastes and preferences of people are changing with the change in time and culture. It is important to observe the culture of all the people before targeting the product. The target customer and need to analyze before launching products in the cosmetic industries. The Socio-cultural issues include the scrutiny of social environment and include factors such as demographics, cultural trends, analysis of population, etc. For the people, what matters to them most is not the product, but the brand value of the product (Landgraf, 2013). Loreal has the advantage that it has its brand image already in other products of cosmetics.

Situational Analysis

The competitors are like a threat for the company to launch a new product in the market and there are top most brands that deals with t Shampoo and other cosmetic products and these brands are shown below: -

• Garnier
• Dove
• Matrix
• Avon
• Johnson & Johnson

In this cosmetic industry, there are a large number of competitors and Rivalry among competitors is intense. As compared to these competitors, the product we are offering is not that much expensive and it can be at an affordable price (Czepiel & Kerin, 2012). Talking about the more competitors and industries are Avon Products, Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive Co, Unilever Group, Johnson and Johnson and many more. However, the Procter and Gamble in 2011 holds the market position with market share of 11.5%, Loreal holds 9.8% and Unilever with 7.8% in 2011. 

SWOT analysis stands for the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the Loreal products before making a marketing plan for the shampoo of the Loreal

• Strengths: The strength of the Loreal product is its high quality product and its brand image in front of the people. Another, strength of Loreal is that it has the capability of introducing the innovative shampoos and other beauty products.  Loreal Group of industry always think out of the box and come up with new ideas.  Instead of this, Loreal also has the well segmented portfolio across the different pricing tiers.
• Weaknesses: The weakness of the Loreal is that it has been less dynamic in terms of the shampoo division and because of this market share in the year of 2011 is affected.  To add more, Loreal shampoo also less dynamic in the field of natural and organic sections.
• Opportunities: Talking about the opportunities available for the Loreal products are like to tap the natural/organic market section to gain maximum market share. As the company is offering a variety of products in terms of cosmetic helps to attain the potential to gain the market share (Wang, 2011).
• Threats: As far as the threats for the Loreal products are concerned, then the major threat is the economic diversity and because of this the company is affected by the Eurozone debt crisis. Furthermore, the higher level of the competition and changing demands of the consumers are the major threats to the performance of the company.

There are many strategies adopted by the companies to attain the best position in the market.  There are basically 4P’s that need be taken into consideration while making any marketing plan. The marketing plan of Loreal shampoo revolves around these 4 P’s as these are the important factors.

Product- As we know, Loreal group is offering huge varieties of products like Shampoos, beauty creams, conditioners, beauty products and all these products are the top products of the Loreal. Loreal started selling its products in the year of 1909 and this company start with the sale of beauty make up products, etc. The strategy of Loreal in terms of promoting its Shampoo should focus on the needs of the stakeholders of the organization. These shampoos should focus on the different type of hair problems of the consumers also. These products include the shampoo for hair fall protection, damage repair, dandruff problems, and hair color protection (Ashraf, et al., 2015).

Price- The pricing strategy involves higher prices for high quality products. Thus, it should offer high prices because Loreal is already best known for its quality work. The price of the Loreal Shampoo should be set higher to attain the same position in the market and to gain the maximum market share. Loreal as a brand should offer a high price for the product and this pricing is based on the target customers. The target customers of Loreal should be those who are financially sound and capable to pay more prices for the quality of product. Loreal is so famous and popular brand of cosmetics items that people ready to pay more dollars because of the quality of products. The pricing strategies adopted by the Loreal should be Value based pricing as compared to the other cosmetic retailers who offer low price products (Mai & Sirikhoon, 2008). It will help to understand that for the customers of Loreal what matters to them most is the quality of the products not the prices of the products. The prices charged by Loreal should base on the services it offers to their customers and also the reasonable prices of the competitors whose quality of products is matchable to their own products like the prices of Garnier, Marix, Procter & Gamble etc.

Industry Analysis

Place- The next part of the plan is to distribute the product in the markets by using market penetration through strong and robust marketing campaigns and other distribution strategies. For example, the company should spread the information about the shampoo in a market with an aggressive ad campaign consisting of television, direct mailing ads, radios and other promotional tools. This can also be possible by the way, to penetrate the market by saturating product in the market. As per the analysis of L’Oreal shampoos that shows that the company has its great reputation in the world and this strategy helps to penetrate the shampoos into major parts of the world and gain higher market share (David & David, 2014).

Promotion- It is to be noted that managing the promotional techniques is not an easy job and the factors attributable to the management of promotional techniques are determination of the structure of the market in which the firm positions itself, determination of ability of the firm as to how it mitigates the effect of exchange rate changes by adjusting its product mix, market and sourcing, as per study, the overall competitive position of the firm is a crucial aspect in managing the operating exposure. The promotional strategy of the company should involve the advertising and promotions against the target audience and that advertising can be done through print media in the form of newspaper, magazines, etc. Moreover, Digital advertisement such as the use of TV advertisements etc. can also be used to promote the Shampoo of the Loreal (Bhasin, 2016).

Before implementing any strategy, it is important to conduct some research in order to ensure that the strategies that are going to applied are feasible or not. In addition to it, the objectives of implementing the strategy should be clear and the objectives should be as: -

• To Increase sales by 7% of the Loreal shampoos and its other products as the brand image of the Apple is very strong and it is not a difficult task to achieve because the reputation of the Loreal is very good in front of the people across the world.
• Increase the availability in foreign markets
• To attract and increase the customers by the continuous production of the high-end innovative and reliable products (Chailan, 2010).
• Establishment of the Loreal retail stores in foreign markets to help customers to check and experience the Loreal items.
• Introduce new other beauty products to become a leader in the cosmetic industry.

The sales of the company is automatically will affect or rise if we launch a Shampoo that meeting the customer’s demands and expectations. Client satisfaction is the most important factor to be considered in order to improve the sales. But the risk associated with it is that the tastes of customers are uncertain and if the customers are not satisfied, then it will have a direct negative impact on the sales. The promotion and advertisement of the marketing of the shampoo of the Loreal group also involve a huge amount of expenditure. Another risk associated with this is that the demand of the shampoo changed with the expectations and new entrants in the market is also a threat to the company (Britton, 2012). High prices of the shampoo are also a barrier in the sales of the shampoo. A poor feedback system is also a risk for the company. If better customer feedback system is not adopted, it would be difficult task for the company to know the customer queries and solve them taking care of the other aspects. The personnel should be very serious when it comes to solving issues of the buyers.

Conclusion

In the end, there should be some objectives that need to be kept in mind by the entrepreneur while developing the product strategy and launch in the market and these objectives should be as follows: -

• The objective to have the ability and efficiency to compete with the competitors and bear the risks.
• The objective to achieve the maximum profits in launching the shampoo in the cosmetic market as this industry is influenced by the demand of the buyers at the time of introducing a new product.

In the end, the objective is to meet the demand and expectations of the customers and to launch the product at the right time, at a right place, for the right person in right terms and conditions.

References

Ashraf, I., Ashraf, F. & Azhar, N., 2015. The Case Analysis of L’Oreal Corp. as Market Leader. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, August, 5(8), pp. 1-18.

Bhasin, H., 2016. Marketing mix of Loreal – Loreal marketing mix, Available at: https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-mix-loreal/

Britton, A., 2012. The Beauty Industry's Influence on Women in Society, Available at: https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1085&context=honors

Chailan, C., 2010. From an aggregate to a brand network: a study of the brand portfolio at L’Ore´al. Journal of Marketing Management, February, 26(1-2), p. 74–89.

Czepiel, J. & Kerin, R., 2012. Competitor Analysis, Available at: https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~jczepiel/Publications/CompetitorAnalysis.pdf

David, M. & David, F., 2014. Mission statement theory and practice: A content analysis and new direction, Available at: https://strategyclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/David-pdf-file.pdf

Landgraf, T., 2013. L’Oreal: Global Brand, Local Knowledge, Available at: https://www.atsprocurementgroup.com/resources/resourcedocs/casestudies/33.1.021%20LOreal%20Global%20Brand%20Local%20Knowledge%20Case%20Study.pdf

Mai, N. & Sirikhoon, S., 2008. Cosmetic Market in Vietnam: International Marketing, Available at: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:121438/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Nguyen, T., 2015. Strategic marketing proposal plan for a cosmetics company, Available at: https://publications.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/96433/Nguyen_Quynh.pdf?sequence=1

Wang, K., 2011. A process view of SWOT analysis, Available at: https://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings51st/article/viewFile/470/242