Strategies to Market CleanSoaps Against Procter & Gamble

Marketing Strategies for CleanSoaps

The bigger and stronger the competition is, the better an entrepreneur’s marketing strategy needs to be. That being the case, Sharon John and Jill Scott may need your help with a marketing strategy. Sharon and Jill have started a business which breaks into the $150 million laundry detergent market, competing directly with the likes of Procter & Gamble, P&G, an American multinational consumer goods company headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, United Stated formed in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It is a Global manufacturing,
distribution and marketing company focusing on providing branded products with superior quality and value. They started their business by making and selling only soaps & candles but then the company provided over 300 brands reaching consumers in about 140 countries. Since 2000 their sales had grown more than 40% & profit had more than doubled. They have acquired many products brands & companies in order to expand their business and maintain their quality like Iams, Clairol, Wella & recently Gillette. In 2005 it became first and largest pushing Unilever to second position by dominating in many categories and increasing their sales. In the laundry detergent department their products include Bounce, Tide, Ariel and Dreft to mention a few.

 

CleanSoaps started operations in the 2000s. CleanSoaps began as a partnership and is now transitioning to a Limited Liability Company (LLC) in order to be a global player in the future. Whilst there are major competitors in this market such as P&G, the niche of the detergent market that CleanSoaps is filling is hypoallergenic cleaning products. The idea of the hypoallergenic cleaning products originated because Sharon’s infant son had health problems aggravated by chemicals in the standard brands. She started her company, called CleanSoaps, after conducting market research, primarily from other mothers of infants such as Jill, and finding that many other families faced similar problems. CleanSoaps has only been able to reach consumers in 10 countries. In terms of the Company’s structure & control system, CleanSoaps has a very good reputation of operating with integrity in all countries both internally and externally whilst delivering valued products. The partners are very much active. Their internal environment is also well controlled. They are also careful about the selection of employees and distribution of duties.
Their manufacturing process uses the best technology and layout as care must be taken to ensure the product meets the expectations. CleanSoaps annual advertising budget is limited to $20,000 (about what their huge competitors spend on one 30-second prime-time network TV ad), so the company had to find different ways to let people know what CleanSoaps would do for them. By 2010, there were 2,500 possible stores where CleanSoaps products could be sold in over 70 countries, however the company was only in 500 stores and the company had revenues of $1 million barely impacting the market.

Questions
1. If you were in Sharon John’s and Jill Scott’s position at Clean Soaps, what marketing strategies would you use to compete with Procter & Gamble as an entrepreneur? State and discuss, minimum three (3) marketing strategies as discussed in the course.

2. A. How would you identify the target markets?

B. How would you segment the market? State and discuss minimum two (2) ways you would segment the market as an entrepreneur as discussed in the course.

 

3. A. We talk about the power of word of mouth among our customers—how do you use it to your advantage as a small entrepreneurial marketer? State and discuss two (2) ways in which you would use word of mouth as an advertising tool.

 B. What other forms of advertising would be useful for this type of business, based on the challenges being faced? State and discuss minimum three (3) other forms of advertising that would be useful. Recall, money is limited.

 

4. One of the biggest challenges CleanSoaps faced was getting its products on the shelves of grocery stores as an entrepreneur. What would be your competitive advantage? State and discuss minimum two (2) ways they can define a competitive advantage as entrepreneurs.