Marketing Portfolio Assignment Sample

Introduction - Marketing Portfolio

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AS marketing considers a tool which accelerate the potential of a particular product. The most important work for an organization is how to make their product to be sold to target customer, here marketing came into the existence as these is the most effective ways to place the product into the market in such a way so that it will attain the advantage over its rivals. For the present study the organization chosen is Unilever because it has a huge product line and it caters in may different products so it will make sense to understand the marketing in action of Unilever. The product taken is lynx which is one of the star product for Unilever organization. The strategic marketing in action provides Unilever's manager strategic understanding about marketing and responsibilities to win over the market.(Unilever, 2017)

Market research and plan

The lynx deodorant product launched after a rigorous market research. It mainly caters to male grooming market. At the beginning the formation of lynx is completed in the form of merger of line extension and the target audience was male. The main objective of Unilever behind the lynx is that they want to emulate the world with a better fragrance to keep the brand competitive and different and to attract the target customer. The variants of the lynx are prepared by leading fragrance houses for Unilever that can be seen in the product as well. Since the time it was launched in the UK in 1985 the lynx brand value is gone from strength to strength. The first brand strategy use in named as 'The lynx effect' with the aim of re-structure the target market market for it. The product development work on Lynx take pace in the year 2002 as per the development strategy for lynx the management think that before introducing a new variants they need to start with the name then there is requirement to build concept around that following by creating a brand icon then the establish the communication strategy around that.(Lago & Gómez-Moreno, 2015)

Lynx come up creative strategy for marketing their product, since all the rival brand was talking about the seduction and all lynx made their point in very creative and motivating way. Lynx know that execution process need to be different so it force them to made a conventional publicity approach. The product such as lynx are widely use the seduction factor for marketing their products but lynx add something motivating in it which works as value addition in the marketing process. For the advertising purpose lynx use various channel such as TV commercials, billboards, print ads and so on. Other that the advertising lynx use various sales promotion tools also such as discount on the product and provide offer like 20% extra and so on.(Bedford, 2015)

Competition

Market for body soap and shampoo and similar product is indulge in fierce competition as all the player who are performing in these market are giant and well established organizations. The list of the competitors is very huge for Dove body soap which is one of the leading product for Unilever. The competitors list is very vast for the Dove as there are many other leading companies product also caters to the similar market such as old spice, softsoap, Nivia, Ivory, dial, Pears and so on. In the case of dove some unbranded shampoo and conditioners from another countries creating a huge problem as they are cheaper in price compare to dove. During past few years Olay is considered as the biggest competitor for dove. Because of the nature of fierce competition dove market share fluctuates a lot, so the significant impact of the competition make dove to strengthen their marketing and advertising activities. As the main competing brand is Olay soap bar because the price of the soaps is all similar and also the same demand can be performed by Olay. As per according to the brand competition Nivia is the biggest competitor as it also offering the same product line such as shampoo, conditioners, cleansing bar, shower cream and so on.(Burkitt & Zealley, 2007)

For come over from this crucial competition Dove also making many efforts for increasing the availability of their product into the market in order to attaining these they are enhancing their communication with the retail stores. As per the competition purpose Dove also increase the budget of their advertising and they are not experimenting with altering and changing the brand perception but they are looking for the various ways to enforce the original appeal of the product. For the purpose of accelerating the penetration Dove is educating their customer which helps them, to differentiate and recognize fragrances and helps them to make a prudent choice.(Greene & Herzberg, 2010)

PESTL affect on the market

TRESemme is the hair care brand which is offering salon quality products for women and men. The product such as TRESemme which caters to hair care segment before launching and at the introduction level they need to be extra careful with the lot of factors. PESTL analysis for the hair care segment will establish a prudent understanding that what need to be done when there is a time to launch a new product. As TRESemme is a salon based service for man and women and they are offering a service or product for hair styling which can be use at home.

Political, the political and legal environment is very strict for personal care products segment in terms of presentation of their advertisement and promotion activities. The regulatory and legal framework always create a conflict situation for the those personal care product who had controversial advertisement or using offensive promotional techniques for attracting the market.

Economical, environment can be encourage the positive or negative situation for a newly launched product. As poor economy enhance the chances of unemployment which can be leads to emerging the adverse effect for the new product as it will directly affect the rate of the consumption of the product.

Social, consider as a factor which have the maximum affect on the Hair and care product. Social elements is very important to look upon before launching a new product because of the change in the lifestyle of the people and increasing personal disposable income society started focusing on more hygienic and reputable products. If organization will keenly observe the social environment before launching than chances of success of the products increases automatically.

Technological, technological factor did not plays a very important role specifically on launching a new product which caters to Hair and care segment. As the research and development costs are very high which provide an easy entry for the new product in the personal care market. The technology in personal care market taken place at the time when advertisement and promotion activities came into the consideration.

Legal, legal environment affects a personal care product segment a lot as there are various cases encountered in the past where companies are calling by the court. Before launching a new product it is necessary to scan the entire regulatory framework in order to eliminate the situation which creates conflicts.(Krieger and et.al, 2012)

SWOT analysis

The SWOT analysis technique prefer by any organization in order to figure out the potentiality of their product in the particular segment. SWOT analysis for the Ponds will create a prudent understanding about the potential of the brand.

Strengths of Ponds

• Very strong player in skin-care
• Focused target market
• Strong product line
• Very well backed by Unilever
• Good distribution
• Marketing over the years

Weaknesses of Ponds

• Incremental increase in the cost of the product
• Fierce competition leads to discount and margins
• Unreal commitment

Opportunities for Ponds

• Increased in penetration level
• Market and expansion potential
• Men's skin care is a good opportunity
• Cold cream segment have lots of potentiality
• Enhanced the target customer
• Ponds age miracle is competitive enough for Olay's products

Threats for Ponds

• Risk from the competitors
• Limited price market
• Undermining the aspiration of customers

The above stated points are the brief for Ponds which is depicting the SWOT analysis for the company. An effective marketing plan can be prepared after the evaluation of the strength, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. SWOT analysis considers as a tool which audits and evaluate the entire organization and the environment associated with it. It is the first stage of marketing planning which helps them to focus on various key issues which the get to know after the analysis and then react accordingly.(Peck, & Hall, 2013)

Marketing mix consist those factor which an marketing plan must adhere to such as product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence. All the marketing mix factors effectively guide by the SWOT analysis as it will provide the information that where more focus is required and from where company will achieve success. 

Segmentation, targeting and positioning in the marketing for Vaseline

Segmentation

Geographic

• The geographic are for the Vaseline is urban, suburban, exurban and rural

Demographic

• Age- 16 to 50
• Gender- Male and Female both
• Income- Low, middle and high income
• Family life cycle- Single, married and divorced

Psychographic

• As per the lifestyle of the people for particular product
• Personality of the customer

Behavioural

• On what occasion customer use the product
• Benefits which customer will get out of the product
• What is the user status as they ex-user, potential user, non user or first time user
• What is the level of the loyalty of the customer towards the product

Targeting

Vaseline started with the focus only on the female customers and but now because of the fierce competition they start targeting on man as well with the product launch of Vaseline men's cream. Recently after the feeling the need for the change Vaseline decided to go local for the promotional strategy. The targeting for Vaseline is very vast as the product which they are offering use by every age group of the people.

Positioning

Positioning in the mind of the customer is really very important for the marketing purposes even it is the only objective of marketing. For the sake of positioning Vaseline use TV ads and organize campaigns. The marketing strategy which they have adopt is totally intended to promote Vaseline new product line of Highly therapeutic body lotions and Vaseline intensive rescue for making the different position into the market. (Bedford, 2015)

Success and failure of new product launches

Unilever launches various products in their business where they face both the situation success and failure. The product by Unilever which are successful enough and attract a great amount of customers are Dove, Ponds, Axe/Lynx, Breyers and many more. At the other side Unilever also come up with various products which are utter failure for the company, Unilever try to enhance their star product Ponds to beauty care to Toothpaste category but the extension of Ponds toothpaste failed very badly. It was not accepted by the customer as their views about the Ponds is already set for the beauty care segment. Previously ponds is successfully extended their brands to soaps and shampoo but the features which required in toothpaste case were missing. The success story of Unilever can be determined by looking at their recent launched which is Unilever sustainable living plan. (Burkitt & Zealley, 2007)

The initiative in the ice-cream segment by Unilever is also turns out as the successful strategies, the ice-cream brand magnum by Unilever is almost achieved the hike in the sales to more than 1 billion pounds which is an unbelievable success for Unilever.

Conclusion

From the study it can be concluded that the overall marketing planning and portfolio of marketing is effective enough for the Unilever's products. The competition from the rivals is one of the biggest problem face by the Unilever. Unilever is effectively attracting the target customers through advertisement, promotion, campaigns, public relation and interactive marketing. Through the study we can figure out that the Unilever is effectively use the marketing mix for the positioning of the various products which they have under their umbrella.

Reference

• Unilever, 2017. Available through: https://www.unilever.com/brands/. [Accessed on 5th May 2017].
• Lago, Á. F., & Gómez-Moreno, P. U. (2015). INTRODUCTION TO DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: THE AREA OF ENGLISH FOR COMMERCE (IMPORT-EXPORT) AND MARKETING–5 creds. MA PROGRAMME IN ENGLISH LITERATURE AND LINGUISTICS www. maenglishugr. Com, 19.
• Bedford, L. (2015). Worcester Business School: Advertisement Portfolio.Month.
• Greene, J. A., & Herzberg, D. (2010). Hidden in plain sight marketing prescription drugs to consumers in the twentieth century. American journal of public health, 100(5), 793-803.
• Burkitt, H., & Zealley, J. (2007). Marketing Excellence: Winning companies reveal the secrets of their success. John Wiley & Sons.
• Krieger and et.al (2012). U.S. Patent Application No. 13/352,547.
• Peck, M., & Hall, A. (2013). Effective use of Press Releases in the Marketing of Academic Journals. Editors' Bulletin, 9(3), 60-66.
• Bedford, L. (2015). Worcester Business School: Advertisement Portfolio.Month.
• Shell, G. R. (1999). Bargaining for advantage. Viking, New York, NY.