Marketing For Business Organisation To Formulate A Profitable Relationship - Case Study

Characteristics of new target segment

Discuss about the case study of Marketing for Business Organisation to Formulate a Profitable Relationship.

Marketing is the concept that helps the business organisation to formulate a profitable relationship with the target customers (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012). It is a proven fact that the successful companies in the international market are firmly focused and heavily committed to the marketing approach. The purpose of the research is to launch a new range of products from the selected company, named M&P Beauty Care. The Malaysia-based company, M&P Beauty Care has a passion for understanding and satisfying the requirements of the customers in a well-defined target market. The firm motivates the employee, customers and the business partners for building a long-lasting relationship with the customers. According to the opinion of Chaplin (2014), the firm has an optimum market significance of creating value towards the client segment. Based on the success of its products in the export market, the company has also embarked on the product development process and the manufacturing services for both in the local and international market. M&P Beauty Care is a beauty product company with a mission to provide quality and value-added services to the product categories of foodstuff, toiletries and personal care product, etc. Now the firm is going to expand its market growth by launching another more product range in the product category of personal care. 

The Acne Blemish Solution is the new range of products that the company is going to launch in the local market. The product is a cream-based solution that would help the teenage segment to get relief from the tremendous acne problem. As per the statement of the beauty expert of the enterprise, the Acne Blemish Solution is a water based benzoyl peroxide treatment that would help to mild the problems of acne. In the opinion of Campo (2010), it is a unique formula that absorbs excess oil secretion from the deep pores of the skin along with that; it helps to kill the bacteria and remove other infections from the skin. The key feature of the cream is, it does not make the skin excessively dry. The target market of the product is the teenage (13- 19 years) girl and the boy of Malaysia who has the severe problem of acne due to the hormonal change in a particular age. The study is going to highlight the product specifications, characteristics of the target group of customer and a justified recommendation to improve the market position of M&P Beauty Care.

Marketing Recommendations

Considering the opinion of Hubinger (2010), the beauty industry can always influence the women in the society. The teenage girls are the group who got inspired easily with the various product range offered by the different companies. The teenage girls are always being prompted about the definition of beauty.  It has been speculated that the both the teen segment are affected by the problem of acne on the skin due to the reason of the hormonal change in the teenage. The age transitional phase has a full effect of acne, spots and bad skin on the major group of girls and boys (Barng, 2014). Therefore, there is a high requirement of the acne solution products for this group of people. As per the report of the beauty industry, the most of the teenage girls are continuously changing the product options by watching advertisements in the T.V., roadside banner and the other social sites. Supporting this Oladi and Gilbert (2012) added that suggestion from friends and the relatives could also change the buying nature of the teens. The psychological perception of the teenage group reflects that the teen girls are emotional buyers by nature. The girls have easily changed the perception by getting influence from the product’s advertisements. The emotional and utility aspects of the cosmetic products  like acne solution have a significant impact on the customer’s satisfaction. But Barng (2014) stated that the emotional components have a greater effect on the teen segment.

On the other hand, the culture of Malaysian people indicates that the people are more logical buyers while purchasing any types of goods (Baes, 2011). It has been speculated that the degree of satisfaction is the foremost concern while buying products from the market. In the case of the beauty products,  the sensation of well-being to reduce the acne problems is the primary factor that impacts on the teenage girls and boys.  The societal value of the Malaysian people indicates that the men’s segment are not conscious of the skin related issues and the other beauty therapy. The men’s section of the Malaysian people is logical by nature and could not attain any influential behaviour while purchasing products.  As per the opinion of Tajuddin et al. (2014), the people are the businessman by nature, but have less focus on the beauty industry. But in the case of teenage boys, it has been identified that the boys group is more conscious about the beauty treatments as the boys are also the sufferer of the severe acne issues. Hence, it could be inferred that the  Acne Blemish Solution launched by the M&P Beauty Care would be highly appreciable towards the teenagers group of Malaysia.

Furthermore, the opinion of the teenagers about the acne products seems very inadequate as the teen girls and boys do not have any product knowledge. Thus, the gap in product knowledge could be a harmful act for the products offered by M&P Beauty Care. According to the opinion of Campo (2010), the gap in product knowledge is the reason that made the frequent change in buying nature of the teenage. Hence, the teenager could not experience the product recall option. Therefore, the company, M&P Beauty Care would be in the danger, if the firm does not increase the repeat buying nature of the target customers. Product knowledge is also essential; that would help the girls boys to identify the specific treatment cream for reducing the pimples and acne problems. In the addition, the availability of the products in the premium places could enhance the trust factor of the target customer group. In this present context, Hubinger (2010) added that the availability in the premium areas could help to increase the brand value of the products. It is also helpful for the customers to believe that the product has superior quality and would satisfy the needs.   

Additionally, it has been suggested by Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick (2012) that the marketers of M&P Beauty Care would need to keep a focus on the psychological emotions of the customers while advertising beauty products to achieve a sustainable marketplace. The impact of the proper advertisements could help to attain the positive feelings of confidence and pleasure towards the value of the products, Acne Blemish Solution. Moreover, M&P Beauty Care would need to adopt a set of convincing strategies to draw the attention of the teenagers in the Malaysian market.

Strategic recommendation

Product dissemination policy

As per the opinion of Fluhr and Lademann (2008), the teenagers are highly freckled with the personal care products and easily get convinced with the marketing concept and the message conveyed through the products. Since, the brand would be the teenage segments of Malaysian market; therefore, making a successful penetration would be an intricate work. However, retaining the similar position in the market with the specific demographic segment would be a challenging action (Hayes, 2008). Thus, after making a successful penetration by targeting the teenage segment,  M&P Beauty Care needs to diversify the range of acne products into the other demographics to avoid the product stagnancy.

E-commerce visibility

Peters et al. (2009) acknowledge that the customers are getting highly influenced by the e-commerce activities. In the initial stage, the customers require having the product knowledge. Therefore, the placement of the product in the organised retail shop would be necessitated, where the fashion assistant takes the responsibility of informing the customers regarding the product. Once, the product reaches a stage of stability, M&P Beauty Care needs to make a tie-up with the e-commerce brands where the products can be displayed in the intermediary portals. This would help the brand to increase its visibility and mitigating the future requirements of the customers.

Product

Since, the target segments of the Acne Blemish Solution the Malaysian teenage segment. Therefore, the product includes the ingredients like benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid. According to Maio and Haddock (2009), the both the male and female between the age group of 13-19 year experience the acne issues due to the hormonal changes. Therefore, the inclusion of the benzoyl peroxide increases the immunity function of the skin, kills the bacteria, removes excess oil and exfoliates the dead cells. Similarly, Galitsky (2006) denoted that the salicylic acid is a beta-hydroxide acid, which reduces the swollen of the pores. In the majority of the cases, the teenagers suffer the acne issue due to its oily skins and the lack of skin exfoliation. Therefore, the presence of salicylic acid would help an individual reduce the acne pain and the swollen effects. Thus, the combination of both the formulas in the product would be an effective initiative to reduce the blemish issues amongst the target segments.

Price

The organisations that are already present in the Malaysian market in the personal care segment had failed to convince the teenage segment with the product lines and its price range. Zhang (2013) determined that the price ranges of the acne products of the existing organisations are relatively higher than its quality standards. The statistics reflect that the average price the brand kept for its acne product is RM 10. Therefore, M&P Beauty Care had placed the price of Acne Blemish Solution to RM 14. In the similar context, Pitta (2010) stated that in the case of personal care products the customers have the tendency of selecting the products with higher price margin. Therefore, keeping the price at a higher range would be a smart strategic initiative to increase its accessibility.

Place

Considering the current scenario, the teenagers visit the modern trade stores to purchase the personal care products. Therefore, other than placing the products in the e-commerce portals,  M&P Beauty Care would place the Acne Blemish Solution in the organised retail stores. In the opinion of Maio and Haddock (2009), the teenagers look for an instructor that can provide sufficient guidance regarding the suitability of the products as per the skin requirement. Understanding the particular mentality of the customers, Acne Blemish Solution would be placed in the organised retail stores, where the fashion assistance would enable to identify the right set of audience and sell the product.

Promotion

The promotion of Acne Blemish Solution would be done through the ATL activities. Both the online and the offline mediums would be considered to reach the teenagers. The customers prefer to visit the dermatologist for the acne treatment. Galitsky (2006) stated that the teenagers are profoundly influenced by the online sites. Thus, the marketing team of the brand would make a tie-up with the popular dermatologist that already have website access. Hence, the strategy can be undertaken where a hyperlink can be created between the primary sites of the dermatologist and the websites of M&P Beauty Care. The particular approach would facilitate the enterprise to increase the visibility of its acne products before the right set of audience (Maio and Haddock, 2009). The moment the audience would access to the website of the dermatologist, a pop-up message would also display, from where the visitors can easily visit the page of M&P Beauty Care. Furthermore, the product would also be promoted on the commercial channels.

M&P Beauty Care would include both the traditional and the online communication strategy. Initially, the marketing team would make an external promotion of the product through the commercial advertisement and hoardings. Similarly, the internal communication strategy would be initiated through the e-commerce activities. M&P Beauty Care would pass on the ASTL activities to the PR experts to display the products by conveying the message with the choice of right key words. Kumar et al. (2012) asserted that the traditional marketing activity is not enough to make a product recall amongst the teenagers. Therefore, the brand has planned to create a blog and Facebook page to make a direct interaction with the target customers. A customer care executive would be placed in the portals for 24 hours to handle the queries of the customers that prefer to have a live chat.

According to Galitsky (2006), targeting exclusively on the modern trade to distribute the products would be a risky option. After secure time tenure, the customers get into a tendency of looking for a different choice. Thus, the chances of the experiencing customer turnover rate would be high. Therefore, the brand needs to make a tie-up with the acne treatment clinic, where the product can either be used by the professions for the treatment purpose or selling to the customers.

Conclusion

The current study evaluates on the marketing and the segmentation initiatives the FMCG brands undertake before launching the product. The present study emphasises on the marketing measures the M&P Beauty Care had followed for the launching its Acne Blemish Solution product. Evaluating the study, an inference can be drawn that the teenagers are highly freckled to the personal care products. Therefore, the brand needs to initiate a persistent product recall policy to maintain its sustenance with the target market. Moreover, the initial customer engagement strategy of the brand had been very efficient to make a successful launching of the particular product. Further, the traditional medium would be an active medium that widens up the visibility of the product amongst the target audience.

Reference:

Baes, J.U. (2011) ‘Malaysian composers, geopolitical spaces and cultural difference’, Perfect Beat, 12(1), pp. 123–124.

Barng, K. (2014) ‘The research compared the general high school and beauty specialized high school student’s interests of beauty and beauty products, and beauty behavior’, Fashion business, 18(4), pp. 153–167.

Campo, R. (2010) The best in beauty: An ultimate guide to makeup and Skincare techniques, tools, and products. United States: Atria Books.

Chaplin, S. (2014) ‘Treclin: Tretinoin/clindamycin combination for acne’, Prescriber, 25(21), pp. 23–24.

Fluhr, J. and Lademann, J. (2008) ‘Penetration properties and safety aspects of Topically applied products’, Skin Pharmacology and Physiology, 21(6), pp. 293–293.

Galitsky, B. (2006) ‘Reasoning about attitudes of complaining customers’, Knowledge-Based Systems, 19(7), pp. 592–615.

Hayes, B.E. (2008) Measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty: Survey design, use, and statistical analysis methods. 3rd edn. Milwaukee, WI: ASQ Quality Press.

Hubinger, J.C. (2010) ‘Determination of retinol, retinyl palmitate, and retinoic acid in consumer cosmetic products’, International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 32(3), pp. 236–236.

Jobber, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2012) Principles and practice of Marketin+. 7th edn. London: McGraw Hill Higher Education.

Kumar, V., Petersen, A.J. and Kumar, V. (2012) Statistical methods in customer relationship management. United States: Wiley, John & Sons.

Maio, G.R. and Haddock, G. (2009) The psychology of attitudes and attitude change. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.

Oladi, R. and Gilbert, J. (2012) ‘Buyer and seller concentration in global commodity markets’, Review of Development Economics, 16(2), pp. 359–367.

Peters, K., Albers, S., Asselmann, D. and Schäfers, B. (2009) ‘ECommerce revisited’, Marketing ZFP, 31(JRM 2), pp. 85–104.

Pitta, D.A. (2010) ‘Product strategy in harsh economic times: Subway’, Journal of Product & Brand Management, 19(2), pp. 131–134.

Tajuddin, R.M., Zainol, A.S. and Sahil, S.A.S. (2014) ‘An evaluation of Malaysian female consumers’ attitude scale towards buying fashion branded goods’, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 130(32), pp. 340–346.

Zhang, L. (2013) ‘Optimal dynamic pricing of perishable products considering quantity discount policy’, Journal of Information and Computational Science, 10(14), pp. 4495–4504.