Marketing Essentials

Introduction

Marketing strategy is the long term process, where the organisations are looking forward to gain high competitive advantage and market share in near future by sustainable business growth (Datta, Ailawadi and Van Heerde, 2017). The marketing strategic planning provides an opportunity to the corporate firms to design the product line and develop effective tactics to promote the brand in the market and improve brand visibility so that it can attract the audiences in the market and strengthens their customer’s base for sustaining in the business (Ismail et al., 2018). The study aims to analysing the marketing elements of the organisation Lush Cosmetic where the marketing strategy of the company will be evaluated. After analysing the marketing strategies of the firm, the study provides a scope to develop effective marketing goals and objectives for the company Lush Cosmetic as well as develop an effective marketing mix strategic planning for successful establishment of the company in the market.

Organisational background

Lush Cosmetic is the retail chain in the UK which serves quality handmade products in the UK fashion market. The company mainly provides the quality skin care products to the customers across the UK. In 2018, the company had more than 5000 staff, which is efficient to serve the customers with the best quality organic products.

The company provides the skin and hair care beauty products including creams, moisturiser, shower gels, shampoos, soaps, lotions, scrubs, face and hair masks and other cosmetics for face, skin, body and hair by using the vegetarian or the vegan recipes. The major ingredients that are utilised to produce quality organic products are such as alovera, butter, rosemary oil, tea tree oil, vanilla beans, grapefruit juice, coconut, papaya etc (Lush, 2019).

Marketing tactics of the organisations

The organisation Lush Cosmetic focuses on the development of the effective marketing strategic planning so that it is possible for the firm to sustain in the market and attract the audiences in the fashion retail market across the UK. In this regard, the organisation focuses on managing the quality of the products, which is effective marketing element to run their business operational activities efficiently. Product is one of the effective marketing element through which the organisation can establish the brand in the market and strengthen their customer’s base by retaining long term customers through delivering quality products and efficient services to the customers in the market (David, M.E., David, F.R. and David, F.R., 2017). In this context, the organisation focuses on producing organic products where 100% of the products are vegetarian and 85% products are vegan. The major ingredients of the organisational products are such as alovera, butter, rosemary oil, tea tree oil, vanilla beans, grapefruit juice, coconut, papaya etc. which are useful to develop and product organic products for the benefits of the customers. In the recent era of globalisation, the customers are concerned about the organic products. Moreover, there is high pollution where the customers prefer fresh and healthy products that are useful for the nourishment of the skin and hair. The products of the company Lush Cosmetic re effective as these are made of organic vegetables and fruits which in turn helps the customers to improve trust and loyalty and improve their beauty naturally. In the recent trend in the fashion world, most of the customers prefer herbal and natural products so that they can improve glow and nourishing treatment on the basis of the organic ingredients. Hereby, the company Lush Cosmetic is effective to maintain their product line and provide quality products including shampoos, conditioner, body shower gel, moisturising cream, lotions, serum, face and hair masks and other beauty products which are effective to maximise the satisfaction level of the customers.

On the other hand, the company as focuses on managing the people at the organisation, and people management is another element of marketing. Through people management in the organisations, it is possible to run the organisational operational activities efficiently, where the employees are one of the major stakeholders of the business to perform better and improve the organisational performance proficiently (Sadeghpour et al., 2017). The employee’s management is the tactic of Lush Cosmetic, where the company focuses on managing the employees efficiently. Giving them proper freedom to work and encouraging heir creativity are the strategic planning for handling the workforce and producing quality products for the benefits of the customers. In addition to this, the organisation Lush Cosmetic also aims at social campaigning for the benefits of the employees which is “for the safety of our staff”, where the organisations concentrates in safety and security of the staff members in the workplace, so that the employees can work, safely and contribute positively with their full capability for producing the quality skin and hair care products for satisfying the customers in long run. Hereby, both the tactics of the firm are effective to strengthen their position as well as utilising two elements of the marketing strategic planning which are product and people. In addition to this, the company also develop the website, where the customers can review the available products of the organisation, pricing, ingredients used for the products and the benefits of the products, which are also effective for the company Lush Cosmetic to attract the audiences and influence the customers for making effective purchase decision for the quality and organic products of the brand. Hereby, the company Lush Cosmetic utilises the three elements of the marketing tactics which are product, people and promotion for the sustainable development of the organisation in the market and serving the customers with the quality organic products.

New marketing goals and objectives of Lush Cosmetics

The marketing goal of the organisation will be to maximise the organisational market share and gain high competitive advantage over other competitive firms operating in the UK fashion retail sector,.

The objectives of the company in achieving the above mentioned are such as

To enhance the product line of the organisation

To strengthen their customers base

To maximise organisational profitability

To enhance the sales volume of the firm

To develop proper promotional activities

To strengthen their supply chain

To manage environmental footprint

Marketing strategic planning development

The marketing strategic planning is appropriate for the organisations to restructure the organisational tactics to grab the future market and strengthen their customer’s base for running the organisational operational activities sustainably in future. the 7P marketing mix strategic planning are effective for the organisations to develop proper planning by considering the 7 elements of marketing, which are product, price, place, promotion, people, physical evidence and process (Perkins et al., 2017). The marketing planning for the organisation Lush Cosmetic will be developed further.

7P marketing mix strategic planning

Product:

Product is one of the effective elements of the organisation to develop effective marketing mix planning, where the factors such as quality of the products, variety of the products, packaging, availability and warranties, branding and customer’s service are necessary to attract the audiences in the market (Smith, 2017). In this regard, the company Lush Cosmetic already focuses on managing the quality products by utilising the organic vegetables and fresh fruits, however, the company needs to improve the product line for targeting a huge variety of customers with different needs ad preferences. In this regard, the company must focus on product diversification which is one of the effective tactics to retain the customers with a he variety of products. Apart from the skin and hair care products, the company needs to introduce different cosmetics and beauty products as the customers are attracted to different make up items in the recent years. In addition to this, the company also needs to utilise paper packaging system and mitigate plastic packaging for providing positive environmental footprint.

Price:

Price is another marketing element, where the company can promo eth products with proper price that evaluated the products quality and quantity and in this regard, the factors such as credit, free value added, positioning, and payment method as well as discount and offers are important to attract the audiences (Oliveira, 2015). In this regard, the company Lush Cosmetic needs to use premium pricing technique, through which it is possible to set affordable price for the quality products. This is effective for the organisation to retain the customers for long run. Additionally, the firm also needs to provide discounts and offers as seasonal offers such as Christmas or others which is also effective for attracting the customers and strengthening their customers for the quality products of the organisation.

Place:

Placing of the firm is necessary under which the sales support channels ad supply chain is important. In this regard, for successful placement of the company, it is necessary to strengthen their supply chain and improve product availability s that the customers can get the quality products at right time.

Promotion:

For successful promotion, the company needs to focus on introducing mobile application which is easy to handle for the customers and the easy content further influence the customers to review the products and place their orders as per their needs and preferences (Andaleeb and Hasan, 2016). Additionally, developing effective posts in FaceBook and creating small video about the product review and prices for the YouTube would be effective for the company to promote the products efficiently. Additionally, social campaigning is another effective tactics that will provide a scope to Lush Cosmetic to promote the products and distribute free samples to attract the audiences in the market.

Process:

Research and development, IT support and customer focused are important under process innovation, where the company needs to handle the website more efficiently by implementing Information and Communication Technology for enhancing internal and external communication so that the staff can deliver efficient service to all the customers.

Physical evidence:

Under physical evidence, the online experience and staff contact experience must be enhanced through which the organisational can create positive brand image (McDONALD, 2016). In order to strengthen the physical evidence of the company, Lush Cosmetic needs to provide 24*7 supports through website of the company and handling the customer’s portal so that the customers can get proper solutions.

People:

The company Lush Cosmetic is efficient to manage the people through safety measures and freedom and encouraging their creativity. In addition to this, the company also needs to manage the people by restructuring their salary and introduce the performance related pay and incentives over their performance. This strategic planning is effective to manage the employees and lead them towards achieving the future success.

Justifying the recommended marketing planning

The product diversification strategy is justified for the company to fulfil the customer’s demand in the market and attract the audiences with a huge variety of products and services. Additionally, the premium pricing strategy is effective where the customer can afford the products and the organisation can fulfil the objectives of maximising sales volume and strengthening their customer’s base. The process innovation and strengthening the physical evidence through maximising online experience are also justified strategic recommendations for Lush Cosmetic for maximising the above mentioned strategic marketing gaol, where the company would be able to satisfy the customers by providing efficient services and quality products in long run. In addition to this, the people management through incentives and performance related pay are also effective to lead the people towards performing better and achieving future success and this further encourage them for innovation to serve the customers in a better way. Additionally, the promotional activities through social campaigning, increasing FaceBook posts and YouTube videos and introducing the mobile application of the brand would be appropriate to attract the audiences and maximise the organisational aim of gaining high market share in the UK fashion retail industry.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that, the company Lush Cosmetic has the capability of investing more on the marketing department where the marketing manager can develop appropriate marketing mix strategic planning by considering the marketing elements such as product, pricing, placing and people management, enhancing physical evidence and prices innovation and successful promotional tactics.

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Reference list

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