New Product Development And Commercialization Essay For Mud & Musk.

Your task as consultants is to provide recommendations for new product development and its commercialisation for Mud & Musk. In particular, you are required:

1. To perform a competitor analysis
2. To analyse new product development opportunities in the USA/Asia Pacific market using the competitor analysis insights and crowdsourcing ideas
3. To suggest an overall product and new product development strategy to compete effectively (please keep in mind that for differentiation, you need to make use of competitor analysis insights)
4. To develop recommendations for product innovation diffusion

Your analysis and recommendations at all stages need to be realistic and needs to take into the account organisational capabilities of the client. Be critical - if you feel that not all ideas will work, there is no point to paint a favourable picture for the industry partner.

All reports must follow a set format, which is shown below. Students are free to use other relevant sources and other chapters of the textbook provided they are relevant and all external sources have been acknowledged via in-text citations.

Table of content

Does not count toward the word limit

Please use an automatic function in MS Word to produce the table of content.

Does not count toward the word limit

This is a brief section that briefly summarizes what you have done and what your recommendations are.

Section A: Competitor analysis

Competitor analysis needs to be performed by identifying:

• Secondary Competition1: These companies may offer a high- or low-end version of the client’s product or sell something similar to a completely different audience (target segment).
• Tertiary Competition1: This category includes businesses that are tangentially related to the client’s business, and becomes handy when the client may look to expand its product range. These could be related products and services that are trending up, as well as businesses that may be beneficial to partner with in the future. For instance, if one sells jewellery, a tertiary competitor may sell gems and stones.
• Competitors’ product range, overall positioning/differentiation, branding strategies, and pricing

You may use competitors’ website or any other information you find to perform competitor analysis. It is imperative that you familiarise yourselves with the client’s website (https://www.mudandmusk.com/) to understand Mud & Musk’s product range to perform a competitor analysis.

Section A: Competitor Analysis

Mud and Musk is a DIY skincare brand that stands for natural skincare and ‘a commitment to support environmentally friendly and sustainable practices; Mud and Musk believes that skin care should be ‘accessible, affordable and ethical’; its target segment includes females aged 18-35. Mud and Musk’s primary competitors include skincare brands that target the same audience or may offer similar products; we believe that Lush and The Body Shop are two major competitors that offer very similar products, target similar demographic and psychographic groups and carry similar brand positions within USA and the Asia Pacific region.

Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics (Lush) prides itself in curating and selling vegetarian, all-natural, handmade, environmentally friendly, and cruelty-free cosmetics and skincare https://au.lush.com/tag/our-story. Its ‘all-natural’ and socially responsible brand positioning aligns itself quite closely with that of Mud and Musk and states their target market as women ages 20-35 who desire eco-friendly products

https://newmediadl.cas.msu.edu/homework/1670/140648; this is almost identical to that of Mud and Musk. Unlike Mud and Musk, they are not limited to one product type and offer a variety of skincare and cosmetic goods ranging between body soaps, skincare, essential oils, hair care, beauty products and deodorant https://www.scribd.com/document/356571105/lush. They currently do not sell any DIY products; however, offer such products in the future if their major competitors succeed in doing so. Their price range is relatively similar to that of Mud and Musk, most products range from $5.50 to $65.50 AUD; this is relatively inexpensive in comparison to other major competitors on the market. Lush’s average basket size (ABS) is $33.26 with 2.8 units averaged per basket (see figure 1) https://infoscout.co/retailer/lush; average basket size refers to the number of products sold in a single transaction and the total price of products in a single transaction, it can also be calculated as Total units sold ÷ number of invoices, this means that on average customers purchase around 2.8 items for $33.26 https://bindopos.com/blog/6-retail-metrics-to-track-monitor-for-your-store/.

Unlike most natural skincare brands, Lush differentiates itself from most of the industry’s players by appealing to more artsy, creative, young and environmentally conscious psychographic groups; this is reflected in the design of their products and their eco-friendly packaging as well as the aesthetic layout of their brick and mortar stores. Their products are typically bright and bold colours like hot pink, sky blue, neon green and so forth, they also regularly include sparkles, glitter, and gold in their products (see figure 2). In addition to the fun aesthetic appearance of their products, they also assign their products cute and endearing names for their customers to remember them by for example “Cheer Up Buttercup” https://au.lush.com/products/cheer-buttercup and “The World’s Smallest Disco” https://au.lush.com/products/christmas/worlds-smallest-disco. Lush claims itself to be environmentally aware all the way down to its packaging. 35% of their products are sold naked with no packaging at all, while certain goods that definitively require packaging are said to be ‘100% post-consumer plastic’ which care recycled through their recycling program https://www.lushusa.com/story?cid=article_10-things-lush-packaging. As seen in figures 3 and 4 Lush’s packaging also reflects the brand’s values and beliefs; their labels explain different ways their customers can recycle and reuse the packaging and thereby increase environmental awareness.

Lush

 Certain obstacles Lush may face include a lack of overall brand recognition as certain potential customers may not have a good understanding of what Lush has to offer and what the brand stands for in general. Their products being 100% vegetarian and natural may lead to shorter shelf lives and may not be practical to those who cannot afford to continuously buy fresh products. Although they have expressed their desire to grow, Lush does not have any male product lines and do not actively target males as potential consumers, this is an area of potential profit that has not yet been seized by Lush, figure 5 shows that although Lush products are not directly targeted at males, a large portion of their purchases are by their customers. https://newmediadl.cas.msu.edu/homework/1670/140648.

Overall Lush is a brand that is well-liked by its customers and differentiates itself in the skincare market by not only offering 100% vegetarian, handmade products that are environmentally friendly but also appeals to several specific and niche psychographic groups that see the value in artistic and aesthetic appeal. Lush users see the brand differential that the company provides and therefore see value in not only their products but also what the brand stands for at large. Lush is a primary competitor of Mud and Musk, it may prove useful for Mud and Musk to learn from Lush’s brand strategy.

The Body Shop is a cosmetic and skincare company owned by the L’Oréal group with over 2,500 stores in more than 60 countries https://moodmedia.com.au/industry/the-body-shop/. They offer nature-inspired and cruelty-free products which are comparable to those of Mud and Musk as well as Lush, however are priced higher. Although they offer similar products to Mud and Musk, which include but are not limited to skincare, perfume, body wash, haircare and makeup, The Body Shop claims to target beauty and health conscious women of middle to upper economic classes and are usual habitants of cosmopolitan regions; https://www.scribd.com/doc/53470609/Media-Plan-The-Body-Shop. Like Lush, The Body Shop currently does not offer any products that are of DIY nature; however, have a very wide range of products to satisfy the needs of their larger consumer segment which includes both men and women ages 20 to 55. As Body Shop products range from $20 to over $100, they are perceived as a higher end and more esteemed brand. Their average basket size is $54.11 with an average of 3.9 items per basket https://snapshot.numerator.com/retailer/the_body_shop.

The Body Shop

The Body Shop is perceived as one of the earliest pioneers of modern corporate social responsibility; it has exceptional brand value and maintains a transparent and fair-trade supplier network. Its brand value stems from its supply chain transparency and heavy engagement in philanthropic work for human rights, animal rights, fair trade, clean energy and environmental protection (to name a few) https://www.thebodyshop.com/en-au/about-us/our-heritage. In 2002, The Body Shop collaborated with GreenPeace International to encourage and promote renewable energy through several global campaigns https://www.thebodyshop.com/en-au/about-us/our-heritage#story-9408396788796. The company has also started their own charities, namely the World Land Trust which raises funds to protect tropical forests and other biodiverse habitats that depend on earth’s ecosystem https://www.thebodyshop.com/en-au/love-your-body-club/charities. The Body Shop maintains a very transparent supply chain system; it is actively involved ethical trading and address ethical trading issues by releasing and regularly updating their Supplier Handbook online for public view https://suppliers.thebodyshop.com/aboutus/cft/SitePages/Home.aspx/. The handbook includes the codes of conduct The Body Shop follows as well as their maintenance and check-up policies; they want their customers to know where their ingredients are sourced from and the conditions their suppliers work under (see figure 6).

The Body Shop’s brand value and differential is very obviously their extensive philanthropic work and brand ethos (which they heavily boast, as seen in figure 7). The brand exudes an ethical appeal to its customers and shapes the brand’s value on its charitable cause to the earth and its people at large which deems The Body Shop an extremely socially responsible company and looked highly upon by its customers.

Despite its highly esteemed brand value and positioning, The Body Shop is not perceived as a ‘trendy brand’ and is often the retail of choice for gifts and low-value items. The Body Shop relies too heavily on its history and heritage and often does not keep up with new skincare or cosmetic trends popular amongst young and middle-aged women like contour sticks and palettes or highlighters. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-38905530. The Body Shop severely underperforms in terms of keeping up with popular trends or trying to start trends themselves, they have maintained almost the completely same set of products and product lines since the turn of the century. It would prove useful for Mud and Musk to learn from The Body Shop’s brand differentiation and how it gained its brand value, particularly in terms of supply chain transparency and ethical appeal to its customers and potential customers.

Mud and Musk’s secondary competition are companies that offer a higher or lower end version of their product or sell something similar to a completely different target segment. We have chosen two companies that are higher end versions of Mud and Musk.

Jurlique is an Australian natural skincare brand found by two experts in biochemistry and botany https://www.jurlique.com/about-us/. Like Mud and Musk, Jurlique offers goods of similar nature to markets with similar psychographics; both brands offer skincare products that claim to be natural and environmentally aware from natural ingredients to women that care for not only their skin but also for the environment. Jurlique, however, positions itself to be a prestigious and organic high end skincare brand and thereby targets a higher socio-economic group than the aforementioned competitors; Jurlique claims to target females aged 24 to 45 with higher disposable incomes and who are health conscious and environmentally aware .https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/intellect/csfb/2011/00000002/f0020001/art00004. The brand targets core green consumers but has recently made extensive efforts at broadening its consumer base by repositioning itself as making ‘the most expensive products as natural as possible’ https://hbr.org/product/jurlique-globalizing-beauty-from-nature-and-science/314087-PDF-ENG. Jurlique does not currently offer any DIY skin care goods and is unlikely to sell or develop such products in the future as it does not align with the prestige of the brand’s image and reputation. Statistics for Jurlique’s average basket size and item per transaction has not been published by the brand or any other web based market research group; however, as a high end company their products are much higher than Mud and Musk’s other competitors, with their products ranging from $30 to over $200 depending on the product type and what it claims to do.

What originally was categorised as a niche natural skincare range has become adored and praised by women all over the world. The unique value proposition that Jurlique offers is not only are its creators Dr Jurgen and Ulrike Klein, biochemists whose expertise stem from herbalism, aromatherapy and nutrition science (https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2011/dec/05/brief-history-of-jurlique), but that Jurlique owns its own biodynamic farms in South Australia whereby they follow strict organic and biodynamic farming principles free from synthetic chemicals, pesticides, herbicides or insecticides; they claim to preserve the perfection of nature by handpicking and sorting crops without the use of machines. Once the herbs and botanicals are handpicked out they undergo a three-stage Bio-intrinsic process which ensures no plant material is wasted and are transformed to form a highly potent skincare extract (https://www.jurlique.com/about-us/). The aforementioned points are also what gives Jurlique a price premium in comparison to its competitors; it offers the purest of ingredients which undergo a strenuous and natural process in which none of their competitors are able to offer to the marketplace. They have a comparative advantage in terms of their ingredients and scientific processes; customers are likely to see the value in their products and the benefits the products deliver and accept the price premiums that they charge.

Despite its excellence in scientific manufacturing and Biodynamic processes, Jurlique has quite low brand awareness outside of Australia and outside of certain niche groups is not entirely considered as a top skincare option in the evoked sets of consumers (https://hbr.org/product/jurlique-globalizing-beauty-from-nature-and-science/314087-PDF-ENG). It has also been a rather lacklustre player in terms of digital marketing strategies in mobile environments. Jurlique has little to almost no digital marketing or advertising which essential in today’s competitive environment (https://www.fastcompany.com/3029395/how-the-most-successful-brands-dominate-instagram-and-you-can-too).

Where Lush and The Body Shop focus on the ethos and ethical appeal of their customer bases environmental awareness and care for the earth’s wellbeing, Jurlique appeals more to the customer’s environmental awareness in terms of the product and what goes into the product itself (rather than how the product affects the environment); that is to say Jurlique accentuates the importance of how the environment affects what goes into the product rather than how the product and its manufacturing process affects the environment.

Our identified tertiary competition include competitors that we believe are tangentially related to Mud and Musk but may come in handy when Mud and Musk attempts to expand its product catalog and may prove beneficial to analyse in relation to what current products are trending in addition to providing insight to successful strategies.

Frank Body is an Australian online natural and cruelty free skincare and cosmetics company. It started in 2013 when three friends, one of which owned several coffee shops, realised that female customers of said coffee shops were asking for leftover coffee grounds to use as a body exfoliator (https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/beauty/face-body/how-two-women-turned-a-5000-coffee-scrub-startup-into-a-20-million-beauty-brand/news-story/4c883c122eb172a66132ae3fe4351ac3). Frank Body remains exclusively an online brand that also sells its products through intermediaries throughout Australia, USA and the UK. Frank Body and Mud and Musk have many distinct characteristics that overlap. Both are online brands that offer natural and cruelty free products that are targeted for women; neither brand has established brick and mortar stores; both brands are positioned to offer affordable products in the marketplace. Frank Body does not currently offer any DIY products.

Tertiary Competition: Mud & Musk faces tough competition from many different organizations which are able to provide the similar types of products to the consumers. The primary competitor organizations of Mud & Musk mainly include, Lush and The Body Shop. These two organizations are thereby able to compete with Mud & Musk with the help of the products and services. The secondary competitor organizations of Mud & Musk also provide fierce competition with respect to share in the market and revenue levels as well. The major secondary competitor of Mud & Musk in this case is Jurlique (Mudandmusk.com 2018). The organization provides major levels of competition to Mud & Musk. Mud & Musk further faces competition from the other companies in the industry which are based on the products which are offered to the consumers. The Australian industry of natural skincare based products consists of many different organizations which operate in the country and are able to provide similar types of products. The organizations are thereby able to fulfil the different needs of consumers based on natural skincare products which are required by them (Mudandmusk.com 2018).

A major tertiary competition based organization is Akin. Akin is an organization that has its operations in Australia and offers natural skincare based products to the consumers. The ingredients which are used for the manufacture of these products are natural which are able to work according to the skin types of different consumers in the country. The products are thereby able to work in synergy with the skin of consumers and further the levels of goodness effectively. The production based process of the company is also environment-friendly in nature (Akin.com.au 2018).

Another major tertiary competitor of Mud & Musk in the country is The Jojoba Company. This organization is able to develop effective products with the help of the Jojoba fruit. The major tagline of the organization which formulates the natural products is “Good for you, good for the earth”. The products which are thereby offered to the consumers are based on the different natural ingredients (Thejojobacompany.com.au 2018).

Mud & Musk is also provided competition by the organization named Sukin which has been founded by Alison Goodger and Simon O’Connor. The company has been able to develop its position as the natural skin care based brands with the help of low prices of the products. The products that are developed by the company are based on natural and vegan ingredients and the formulas are also cruelty free in nature. The major ingredients which are used by the organization thereby include, kale, rosehip oil, argan oil, spirulina, goji berry and acai (Sukinnaturals.com 2018).

Kora Organics is also an organization which operates in the beauty based industry of Australia. The organization had been established by the Australian supermodel named Miranda Kerr after she had struggled to search for effective skin care products that are organic in nature. The brand is thereby able to provide 20 organic body and face products which are certified. The products of the organization are developed with the help of a fruit named noni which is a fruit. The fruit based products are thereby able to help in revitalizing the skin (Koraorganics.com 2018).

Gala Skin and Body products is also an Australian skin care based brands. The products are thereby developed with the help of different natural oils and organic oils. The company is able to solve the different skin based concerns which include, fine lines, texture, skin tone and fine lines. The fragrances which are formed by the company are developed with the help of different essential oils (Galasskincare.com 2018).

Kosmea is an Australian organization that was established in the year 1993 which has been able to gain international levels of success with the help of its iconic product named Certified Organic Rosehip Oil. The brand is able to offer the products which have different healing based properties with the help of different natural ingredients like, green tea based extracts, pea, lilly pilly, carrot seed oil and aloe vera (Kosmea.com.au 2018). 

Another major organization which is thereby able to develop quite high levels of competition in the Australian skincare industry is the Natural Instinct. This organization is known for offering different natural haircare and skincare based products to the Australian consumers. The organization has also developed different standards based on Natural Ingredients so it is able to maintain the usage of different raw materials. The different organizations which have been discussed earlier are thereby able to develop a tough competitive environment in the operations of Mud and Musk. The organization thereby needs to operate with the competitors in a collaborative manner so that it is able to expand its operations in an effective manner (Naturalinstinct.com.au 2018).

The major competitors of the company which have been analysed in the report earlier provide different products that can fulfil the needs and demands of the consumers. The products which are offered by Akin mainly include, The Organic Rosehip Oil, Natural Deodorant, Akin Dry Shampoo, Akin Rosemary Shampoo, Akin Jojoba Shampoo, Akin Colour Protection Shampoo and Akin Fragrance Free Shampoo. The organization has developed a major position in the skincare industry with the help of its products. The pricing based activity of the company is based on the ways by which it is able to target the different levels of consumers (Wu and Olk 2014).

The Jojoba Company on the other hand offers products which include, natural cleansing based products, toning and exfoliating based products, moisturisers, oils and serums, lip care and eye care products, body and hand based products. Sukin Naturals offers products which are also developed with the help of natural ingredients. The products which are developed by the company include, Foaming Facial Cleanser, Detoxifying Facial Scrubs. The pricing strategy of the company is based on the ways by which it is able to fulfil the demands of different consumers who belong to different levels of the society (Thejojobacompany.com.au 2018).

Kora Organics also offers different natural products which are based on various types of ingredients. The products that are offered to the consumers mainly include, the Noni Glow Face Oil, the Noni Radiant Eye Oil. These products which are offered by the company are priced in a premium manner and offered to consumers who care about the quality of products much more than the prices (Koraorganics.com 2018).

The Gala Skin Care company provides different skincare based products which include, Age management based products, multi action based cleansing balm, Micellar skin based tonic, Skin refining enzyme peel, Perfect lift cream, Rich recovery cream, rejuvenating mask, age perfecting serum, night recovery serum, tri-care cream, Isoflavonia relief, instant lift serum, skin contour cream (Galasskincare.com 2018).

The different products which are offered by the organization named Kosmea are designed based on needs of the consumers. The products which are thereby offered by the company are able to fulfil the different levels of requirements of the consumers. The Rosehip Oil is a major product which is developed and offered by Kosmea to the customers. The ingredients which are thereby used for the manufacture of the products (Kosmea.com.au 2018).

Natural Instinct also offers different natural products based in order to fulfil needs of different consumers. The different products which are developed by the company thereby include, hair based products, face related products and body products as well. The pricing based strategies which have been implemented by Natural Instinct is known as the premium pricing which is related to the consumers who are highly concerned about the quality. The analysis of the competition is thereby based on the websites of different organizations which provide effective details related to the products (Naturalinstinct.com.au 2018).

Section B: New product based opportunities

The products which are offered by Mud & Musk are based on the different needs of consumers in the Australian natural skincare based industry. The organization faces effective levels of competition from different companies which operate in the industry. The competitors are thereby able to offer products which are able to fulfil specific needs of the consumers. The organization however needs to increase the product line of the company in order to tackle the competition based level in the industry (Barczak, Lassk and Mulki 2015). The new product based ideas are thereby based on the ways by which the organization is able to meet various needs of the consumers. The process of crowdsourcing of different ideas based on new products will play a major role in the effective operations of Mud & Musk. The current levels of competition which are faced by the company can be faced with the help of proper crowdsourcing of ideas (Chen et al. 2015).

According to Chuang, Morgan and Robson (2015), the innovation based levels of the industry are thereby related to the development of products which can fulfil the needs of consumers. The levels of capabilities of the organization is also able to play a major role in the development of effective products. The analysis of the primary, secondary and tertiary competition of the organization has been able to depict that the products of Mud & Musk are not able to provide fulfil the specific needs of consumers based on different factors. The organization offers the products based on some specific categories which are related to only a specific group of consumers. The product development based opportunities that are thereby evaluated by the company are based on the competition in the market. The organization can thereby be recommended to develop products which are based on the premium segment of the market (Croom, Svetina and Betts 2017).

As discussed by Du Plessis (2016), the products which will be offered under this category are able to fulfil the needs of consumers who belong to the group which is concerned about the quality of products. This will play a major role in the ways by which the company will be able to capture the customer base of the organization named Lush and the Body Shop. The company will be able to increase the levels of profitability with the help of effective products which are capable of fulfilling the needs and demands of different types of consumers. The organization will thereby be able to increase its customer base with the help of different types of products and services which are offered to them. Mud & Musk thereby needs to explore the opportunities which are offered by the Australian beauty based market sector. The company will be able to develop its position in the industry with the help of proper increase of its revenues and levels of profitability as well (Du Preez and Bendixen 2015).

The major competitor of Mud & Musk, Lush is known in the Australian market for offering different types of services and products. The company thereby needs to increase its product line and cater to the needs and demands of different types of consumers. Mud & Musk only offers products which are based on the different types of sustainable processes of manufacture (Du, Yalcinkaya and Bstieler 2016). The company offers products which belong to the face mask based category. On the other hand, the major competitors of the company including, Lush and The Body Shop offers products which are based on fulfilling different needs of different types of the consumers. The different types of products which are thereby offered under this category mainly include, the soaps, cosmetics, different types of body products and many more (Frambach, Fiss and Ingenbleek 2016).

According to Grant (2016), the Body Shop also offers the products which are based on make-up related requirements of the consumers in the Australian skincare product market. Mud & Musk can increase the number of products which are offered to the consumers by developing different types of organic soaps, hair care based products can also be developed by the company in order to increase the product portfolio. The packaging style which is used by Mud & Musk can also be changed so that the company is able to create an appeal to a different part of the society. The change in packaging style will be helpful for the company so that it is able to attract the younger group of consumers towards the products. The Body Shop on the other hand has also been able to create its own position in the industry. The organization is known in the industry for providing skincare based products which are also based on the sustainable production based process (Lane and Andersen 2015).

The target consumer of the organization is however a bit different from the other two organizations which have been discussed earlier. The Body Shop is able to target the consumers who belong to a premium group. The consumers who are thereby targeted by the company are mainly those who are concerned about the quality of the products rather than the prices. The high priced products which are thereby offered by Body Shop can be captured by Mud & Musk if the company is able to develop a premium customer base with the help of higher quality and high priced products (Luzzini et al. 2015). The economic classes of women who are thereby targeted by the Body Shop mainly range from the middle to upper levels. Mud & Musk can target this customer group with the proper increase in the products which the company aims at offering to them. The product range needs to developed in such a manner which can be differentiated in such a manner so that the different consumer groups can be satisfied easily (Rosenbaum-Elliott, Percy and Pervan 2015).

The branding based strategy which can be implemented by the company is thereby related to the ways by which the organization is able to increase awareness among the consumers. The strategy which can thereby be implemented by Mud and Musk in order to operate in the market in a profitable manner is termed as the brand extension based strategy. The organization in this case will plan to increase the different products that are thereby offered under the brand (Schemmann et al. 2016). The extension of product line is based on the ways by which the organization is able to attract different types of consumers towards the products which are offered to them. The development of a premium group of consumers is thereby considered to be an important part of the brand building and development based strategy which is implemented by the different organizations (Solomon et al. 2014). On the other hand, the company is able to manage the levels of competition which are offered by the different organizations which are already operating in the natural skincare products based market of Australia. The Australian skincare based market can thereby be tapped in an effective manner by the organization with the help of proper extension of the product line (Tassabehji and Isherwood 2014).

After the analysis has been made on the product idea and premium target market which Mud and Musk aims to use, it is important that in order to achieve this success, it is able to come up with a diffusion innovative strategy which will then go a long way in ensuring that the products being designed new by Musk and Mud are adopted by their designated target market and the firm is able to find overall success in the long run (Sandoval-Almazán and Valle-Cruz 2016). Hence, in the given section certain recommendations will made with the help of which Musk and Mud will be able to ensure long term success and see to it that the different products of this new premium line are able to perform well.

The diffusion of innovation can be rightfully described as a procedure with the help of which new products can be rightfully developed and thereby be accepted by the intended target market (Dodgson 2018). The diffusion of innovation strategy goes a long way in seeing to it that the products are successful and that the others are not. The concept of diffusion was prepared in the year 1920s to 1930s and thereby used successfully

Figure 1: The five stages in the decision making process

(Source: Interaction-design.org. 2018)

It is recommended to Musk and Mud that it follows the five stages of decision innovation process in order to ensure that they are successfully able to ensure success with their new premium line in the market.

Knowledge

The first step which needs to be adopted by Musk and Mud is the knowledge step whereby the idea or the adopter is exposed to the innovation. Businesses often do not have adequate information to make a considerable decision whether to purchase on the product or may have not been inspired to find more (Hervas-Oliver, Sempere-Ripoll and Boronat-Moll 2014). It is at this stage whereby Musk and Mud is required to look out to increase the awareness of the product and provide adequate information to the potential target group.

Persuasion

The next step is persuasion. In this step, the prospective adopter genuinely becomes open to the idea of making the purchase and this is where they are interested and want to seek information from the marketers before taking any considerable decision (Goffin and Mitchell 2016). In this case, when the target market actually becomes interested in the product then Musk and Mud needs to convey the benefits of the different product in detail. In this step, the firm needs to make conscious efforts to the customers.

Decision

The third step is the decision phase where the different customers actually take the designated decision at large. They then tend to weight the pros as well as the cons of the product and their personal adoption (Yi, Berry and Chen 2018). As this is the most unclear part of the entire procedure, it might be difficult for Musk and Mud to take adequate decisions but they must try to get an insight into their process of thinking.

Implementation stage

The fourth stage is the implementation stage whereby the decision from the side of the customer has already been made and the company needs to consider the ownership process in detail so that they are successfully able to acquire successful post sale data.

The last stage is the conformation stage whereby the performance and the other qualities of the product determine the future use or the abandonment of the product (Wu and Chiu, 2015). In this stage musk and mud needs to involve in a personal examination of the product by engaging in a social one such as collection of information from peers and other related friends.

 Hence, after the analysis of the various steps which can be adopted by Musk and Mud at large the following recommendations can be made:

• Musk and Mud will be required to engage in a good communications strategy. Using a good social media as well as related communications strategy, the firm will be required to ensure that it is successful in creating adequate awareness about the product so that the different customers can easily get their doubts cleared and see to it that the customers are able to generate an interest in the product.
• Musk and Mud also needs to engage in a good promotional strategy. Although the audience is aware of its product line, they are not quite aware of its premium line and hence, if they set up kiosks and see to it that free samples in this regard are distributed to the consumers, they can then engage in activities which will ensure that their interest is retained.
• The third recommendation based on diffusion innovation is that the firm needs to step up its customer service dimension (Aziz and Ismail 2016). When the customer awareness increases, they are often faced by various doubts, which need to be cleared adequately by the target audience. Once, Musk and Mud is able to do this, then it will be able to ensure that they are able to make the customers accept the particular product at large.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the given analysis on the case of Musk and Mud and their plan to introduce a new premium products natural beauty line into the market, it can be stated that the given strategy and product innovation is a thoughtful one. There are various competitors of the brand in the market and with respect to this the firm can successfully ensure that in order to differentiate their product from its competitors the firm comes out with an expensive premium line but decides to ensure that the luxurious and upper middle class are targeted. The given report threw light on the analysis of the market and decision making. The first section of the report was based on Competitor Analysis whereby the different competitors like Lush, Body Shop, Jurlique and frank Body were examined. Moreover, in the second part of the report, the new product idea which was a luxurious and premium line were discussed and followed by a set of recommendations based on the five stages of diffusion innovation which every product goes through. Recommendations like addition of a good promotion and communication strategy have also been provided.

References

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