Brand Evaluation Essay: AXE Deodorant Product Audit Report.

Individual Assignment: Select a product from the Health and Beauty (Shampoo, Skincare, Deodorant, Hair care, OTC medications, etc.) section of your supermarket. This product audit will form the base of your Brand Evaluation Audit Report (refer to Assessment 3).

Your audit report is to detail the following aspects:  The 4 Ps: Product, Place, Price, Promotion (40%)  o Customer Profile (10%)  o Competition (20%)  o Market performance: (30%)   Supermarket channel   H&B Sector trends and performance

Overview of the Product Audit

4P’S related with AXE DEODRANT

Product

The Product is one of the main factors of marketing mix. The customer purchases the products and services according to their own needs and requirement. In AXE DEO’S there is range of products. The AXE provides a huge range of fragrances in its deodorants.  There are many fragrances which are offered by the company like some of the variants are voodoo, twist, phoenix, click and also dark dimension. There are different variants of Axe deodorants are tested and it do not have any side on the skin, it can also be considered as skin friendly products which provide good fragrance that is for long time. Now latest design is introduced which is good than the previous design. The company offers product in the Bottle which looks attractive and it can be easily twisted from the top (Srinivasan & Lu, 2014).

Also the packaging of the product is unique and there is no secondary packaging which is used for the AXE deodorants. The packaging of the product influences the customers and it has been seen that they can pay more for the convenient packaging. The company packaged the product in such a manner that they can be easily recognized by the customers. Due to this the company also enhanced the entire demand of the products in the market and attracted customers towards the products (Rothaermel, 2015). 

Price

The price of the all the variants which are offered by the company is same. There is no difference in the price of the products which are sold in the market. The difference in the product is related with the fragrances and flavors. The company offers the bottle of 150 ML in AUD 4(Verma, 2014). The main focus of the company at the time of doing the pricing is to consider middle and higher income groups so that it can be simple for the buyers to purchase the products which are offered by the company in the market. It is important to consider these strategies so that it can be simple to market the products in the competitive market (Parmar, 2014).

Place

To enhance the market share the company focuses on placing the products on the global platform.  It has been seen that product of the company is available on the global platform like in Australia, New Zealand and France. Axe has the main motive to focus on location and distribution channel so that growth can be attained in the market.

The 4 Ps: Product, Place, Price, Promotion

In many states the company offers the products in the supermarket and hypermarket and also has only the large market share. The products of the company are also simply available on the outlet which attracts the large customer base. The distribution channel of the company is in malls which helps the company to supply its products on the global platform (Doz, 2017).

Promotion

Promotion is also considered as one the aspect that helps to promote the products and services in the market.  In marketing mix it is considered as an essential factor that helps to communicate with the customers. To communicate with the customers the main emphasis of the company is to spend heavy amount on advertisements and also on the promotional activities. The company emphasizes on advertising concept. There are many advertisements which are designed by the company so that customers can be attracted towards the product (Hirschman, 2016). 

For example : To promote the flavor of the dark temptation the company showed the advertisement in which the boy uses the Deo and is passing through the roadside and  by smelling the fragrance all the girls get attracted by the chocolate flavor. This concept is innovative and attracted the attention of the customers. So, this is one of the best strategy company adopted so that products can promoted among the customers or teenagers can be attracted easily.

The concept of sales promotion is also considered which helps to enhance the sale of AXE DEODRANT in the market.  In this to enhance the sale the company focused on reducing the entire price so that more customers can be attracted towards the products. The company also focused on promoting the products through online gaming (Murphy & Murphy, 2018).

Customer Profile

The main focus of the company is to target the teenagers so that it can be simple to enhance the entire demand. It has been seen that by considering the DEO product the company targeted the teenagers by giving the advertisement named as “Chocolaty Boy”. This advertisement is designed to attract the customers towards the products. The Company also considered the affective strategy in which the products are advertises on emotional and physiological basis. The main motive of the company is to enhance the feeling of the customers and then get knowledge about the product and then at last to purchase the product. Also in the supermarkets the products are displayed in a proper manner that that attracts the attention of the customers towards the products.

Customer Profile

Competition

The level of competition is high in the market as it has been seen that there are many competitors who are selling similar products in the market. It has been seen that the competitors of the company are Body shop, Nivea, Hugo Boss, old spice and Dove. In the deodorants segment, the competitors are Set wet, Zatak and Fuel deodorants. The level of competition is high in the market as there are products of the competitors which are sold at the time price. So, the company considered pricing strategy in which the products or the Deodorants are offered at low price in the market. By considering this strategy it helped the company to attain the competitive advantage in the high level of competition prevailing in the market. The beat the high level of competition in the market the company considered proper distribution strategy in which the products are distributed through retailers, wholesalers and by supermarkets.

Market performance

The market performance of the AXE product in the market is on good stage. The product has attained the growth in the market. It has been seen that company is one of the largest company on the global platform. The Market performance of the company has been enhanced just because of the strategies like low price strategy considered by the company. This strategy has an important role in enhancing the market share of the company. It has been seen that due to this strategy the company attained the large share market share and also grabbed the attention of the customers (Hill, Jones & Schilling, 2014). 

Supermarket channel

It can be examined that Axe products are also marketed through supermarket channel and this it has been seen that customers can easily purchase their products and services by visiting at supermarket. The supermarkets in which the AXE products are sold or the major intermediaries are Safeway, Win Dixie and Wal Mart. It has been seen that with the help of these supermarkets the company has maintained its performance in the market and also growth has been attained in the international as well as on domestic platform (Verma, 2014).

Health and beauty sector trend and performance

It has been investigated that in the present era, the people are more attracted towards health and beauty products. People now days are purchasing products from supermarkets as well as from the retail outlets. So, Axe is one of the famous product attained growth in the high level of the market.  The trend related to health and beauty sector is enhancing and it has also given positive impact on the entire working pattern of the company. It has been examined that the performance of the company like AXE has maintained goodwill in the market. So, this sector is famous in the present scenario so it is important to focus on this sector so that it can be simple to attain the large market share (Sharma, 2016).

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be concluded that company attained the large market share by selling AXE deodorant on the global platform. The product has given growth and helped the company to attain the competitive advantage prevailing in the market. Also the company adopted the best strategies like reduction in the product cost and also effective promotion method. So, it can be stated that the product has attained the large market share in the competitive market.

In this report the discussion will be made on the Health and care product (DEODRANT AXE). This is one of the famous products in the market. In the first phase of the report, the focus is given on the 4P’s related to the product which is AXE deodorant and in the next phase factors like customer profile, competition and market performance will be discussed. Also, the brief explanation will be made on the supermarket channel as it can help to grow in the competitive market.

References:

Doz, Y. L. (2017). Strategic management in multinational companies. In International Business (pp. 229-248). Routledge.

Hill, C. W., Jones, G. R., & Schilling, M. A. (2014). Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.

Hirschman, E. C. (2016). Branding masculinity: tracing the cultural foundations of brand meaning. Routledge.

Murphy, P. E., & Murphy, C. E. (2018). Sustainable Living: Unilever. In Progressive Business Models (pp. 263-286). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Parmar, S. M. (2014). A study of brand loyalty for cosmetic products among youth. International Journal for Research in Management and Pharmacy, 3(6), 9-21.

Rothaermel, F. T. (2015). Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education.

Sharma, P. (2016). Vini Cosmetics: the blue ocean strategy to unlock new markets and boost profits. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 20(5-6), 360-368.

Srinivasan, S., & Lu, W. F. (2014). Development of a supporting tool for sustainable fmcg packaging designs. Procedia CIRP, 15(6), 395-400.

Verma,G. (2014). From sensational to functional - the shift in the deodorant industry. Retrieved from: https://www.exchange4media.com/marketing-news/from-sensational-to-functional--the-shift-in-the-deodorant-industry-55848.html