Target Market Strategy

“A target market consists of a set of buyers who share common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve.”(Armstrong and Kolter. Introduction to Marketing.10^th Edition. Printing page 186). To build a successful target marketing strategy it involves “dividing a market into smaller segments of buyers with distinct needs or characteristics, this is market segmentation. Market targeting consists of evaluating each market segment’s attractiveness and selecting one or more segments to enter” (Armstrong and Kolter. Introduction to Marketing. Printed page 175).

Market segmentation includes geographic, demographic, age and life-cycle, gender, and income segmentations. Geographically our company will market to all regions of the United States and Canada. Since our products are now sold internationally, we will market in those international areas also.   For the Gender and demographical segmentations we will market to men ages 20 to 55, in the mid to upper income brackets. Our products tend to be on the higher end of the scale, that is why we will market to men of that income bracket. Most of the men we will target to market to will be of the Baby Boomer, Generation X, and Millennial generations.

Clinique’s target market strategy for this product is basically geared towards all men with any type of skin care problems. The only factor we may use for a bearing on our target marketing group is the income levels. They have to be able to afford to buy our products. Other than that we are using an undifferentiated marketing strategy. “This is where a firm decides to ignore market segment differences and goes after the whole market with one offer.”(Armstrong and Kolter. Introduction to Marketing. 10^th Edition. Printed page 187). Clinique wants to concentrate and focus its marketing strategy on the common needs of all male consumers rather than on what is different.  We aim to please all the men in the world and help them with their skin care needs.

Situation or SWOT Analysis

“Marketing analysis provides information and evaluations needed for all the other marketing activities.”(Armstrong and Kolter, Introduction to Marketing. 10^th Edition, Printed page 56) The marketer should conduct a SWOT analysis to do this. “A SWOT analysis is an overall evaluation of the company’s strengths (S) weaknesses (W) opportunities (O) and threats (T).”(Armstrong and Kolter page 55).

Clinique was founded by the Estee Lauder Companies in 1968. It was the first dermatologist created, prestige cosmetic brand.(http://www.clinique.com/cms/customer_service/employment.tmpl). We have continued to produce quality products for over 43 years. (http://www.clinique.com/cms/customer_service/employment.tmpl) After performing a complete SWOT analysis for the Clinique company, we can figure out an overall way to attain our strategic objectives.

“Strengths include internal capabilities, resources, positive situational factors that may help the company to serve its customer.” (Armstrong and Kolter, Introduction to Marketing. 10^th Edition, Printed page 55). Clinique’s strengths are that this company has been around many years and continues to grow and evolve with the times. We constantly provide and produce the highest quality and most effective products for every skin type. “All our products are meticulously tested and carefully formulated with the latest science.” (http://www.clinique.com/cms/customer_service/employment.tmpl) “All our products are allergy tested and 100% fragrance free.” (http://www.clinique.com/cms/customer_service/employment.tmpl)

“Weaknesses include internal limitations and negative situational factors that may interfere with the company’s performance.”(Armstrong and Kolter, Introduction to Marketing. 10^th Edition. Printed page 55).  A few weaknesses we have is that today there are so many facial products on the market to choose from, some cheaper and some more expensive.  Our name is well known but we still have to fight to be recognized. Many of our competitor run so many specials that we almost have to do the same to survive. We do not want to cheapen our brand, so this makes for a difficult situation.

“Opportunities are favorable factors or trends in the external environment that the company may be able to exploit to its advantage.”(Armstrong and Kolter, Introduction to Marketing. 10^th Edition. Printed page 55). Clinique has taken the opportunity to jump into the social networking frenzy. We have a facebook page that people can join or you can follow us on twitter. We do sell all our products online through our website in the US and now also internationally. We feel this will give us the opportunity to expand our company even farther.

“Threats are unfavorable external factors or trends that may present challenges to performance.”(Armstrong and Kolter, Introduction to Marketing. 10^th Edition. Printed page 55). One of our main threats is that our biggest competitors always run specials like: gift with purchase.  In certain department stores where our products are sold we are almost forced to do something similar. We do not want to cheapen our brand but need to stay one step ahead of the competition.

Objectives

“The broad mission leads to a hierarchy of objectives, including business objectives and marketing objectives.”(Armstrong and Kolter, Marketing An Introduction to Education, 10th Edition, printed page 43)                                                                                                

Clinique’s main goals and business objectives for their products are:

·         To build a profitable customer relationship by developing, selling, and marketing quality facial cleansers and lotions to today’s men.

·         We will develop the men’s line of facial products to capture the essence of the manly man.

·         Our products will not only improve upon the healthy glow of their skin but make it softer to the touch.

·         We will invest in extensive research and design programs to make sure our products are always new and one step above our competition.

·         We will make sure to keep our products simple and easy, so that all men will want to use our products daily.

·         We will continue to create innovative and quality products today and tomorrow.

·         We will not use animals in the research of any of our products.

Clinique’s marketing objectives are:

·         To attract the male population to our products and keep them coming back.

·         One way we will do this is to include a helpful quick and easy guide on how to use our facial products each day. This will explain how to get and maintain healthy touchable skin by way of our great products. Another way is to go to our website and check out our how to videos ( http://www.clinique.com/cms/expert_tips_trends/how_to/video_mens.tmpl).

·         “Profits can be improved by increasing sales or reducing costs,” (Armstrong and Kolter, Marketing An Introduction to Education, 10th Edition, printable page 43). One way we will accomplish this is to draw men in by our masculine packaging. We will make our packaging low cost but appealing to men. It will be done in such a way that men everywhere will feel comfortable buying our products. It will have a manly appearance and manly scent.

·         “Sales can be increased by improving the company’s shares of domestic and international markets.”(Armstrong and Kolter, Marketing An Introduction to Education, 10th Edition, printed page 43). We will expand our products to reach international markets. This will increase productivity and revenue.

·         Our final objective is to market to men by using their sex appeal to the opposite sex. We want our products to make a man not only feel confident in our products but to feel sexy and confident in himself.

EOC: week 10: What Channels are you going to do to get your product noticed?

Few companies sold their products directly to the consumer in the past but now with the use of the internet many companies do use this method, but there are still many companies who still use intermediaries to bring their product to the marketplace. “Marketing channels or distribution channels are a set of independent organizations that help make a product or service available for use or consumption by the consumer or business user.”(Armstrong and Kolter. Introduction to Marketing. 10^th Edition. Printed page 311). There are many different channel levels. “A layer of intermediaries that performs some work in bringing the product and its ownership closer to the final buyer is a channel level.”(Armstrong and Kolter. Introduction to Marketing.10^th Edition printed page 313).

You have direct marketing channels and indirect marketing channels. “Direct marketing channels have no intermediary levels and indirect marketing channels contain one or more intermediary levels.”(Armstrong and Kolter. Introduction to Marketing.10^th Edition. Printed page 314). Basically, this means you bring your product directly to the consumer or you use other people to go through to get your product to the consumer. To get my product noticed I will use direct and indirect marketing channels. We will use direct channels of marketing through our website. People can go there, browse through our products, pick what they want, buy it and we will send it to them directly. I think this channel will be very effective in marketing our facial products to the male population because they like things simple and easy. Then we will use indirect marketing channels by using major department stores. We will sell our products to them and they will sell our products to their customers for us. Both ways will be very effective and helpful to expand our productivity and profit levels.

EOC Week 9: Three great mission statements

After reading all my classmates mission statements the three that I liked the most were Mike Kononchik’s, Tharindu Wijesekara’s, and Raymond Otero’s. They all did well including the specifics of their company. “A mission statement should be meaningful and specific, yet motivating. They should emphasize the company’s strengths in the market place.”(Armstrong and Kotler, Marketing: An Introduction. 10^th Edition, Printed page 37).

Mike writes that the mission for his product is to sell and market to a specific age group of men. His company wants men to feel comfortable buying his product for themselves and not need women to do this for them. They want to eliminate the embarrassment factor that a man may have buying a facial wash product. His company wants to connect their product and brand with men in the best way they can. “A brand, product or service is more than just a physical thing. Humans that connect with the brand add meaning and value to it,” (Armstrong and Kotler, Marketing: An Introduction. 10^th Edition, Printed page 210). His mission statement was very specific and motivating.

Tharindu’s mission statement states that his company is the ultimate source of taste, health, and strength. He says what his company sells is healthy and it gives you strength. His goal is to make good tasting products that are healthy. He explains in his mission statement that his company stands behind all their products, not just one specific one. He did a great job of explaining what a mission statement is and incorporating it into his own statement.

Raymond’s product was the Febreeze sport scent. His company’s mission is not only to make things smell better, but to change the way men are depicted by the opposite sex. He states and explains how his company is environmentally conscious and strives to maintain that. They are working hard to make things smell good and be safe when doing it. He did a great job listing the strengths of his company in the market place by explaining their environmental efforts, and he listed the specifics of his product. The statement he put in there saying, “Clean smelling air and clear air to breathe is our mission,” sums it up very well. Great job.

Week 8: EOC Disasterous New Products

For class this week we have to come up with 3 new products and explain why they wouldn’t work. “Product development is a strategy for company growth by offering modified or new products to current market segments”(Armstrong and Kolter, Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10^th Edition).

One product I came up with to develop would be a dog brush/ vacuum. You would brush out your dog when it is shedding and it would vacuum up the hair as you brushed it out. You would have no mess of dog hair to clean up when you were done. This product most likely would not work because the dog would be afraid of the vacuum sounds. Most people buy products like this because they make things easier and more convenient. This product would probably take two people to use, one to hold the dog and the other to use the vacuum brush. Making it not easy and convenient at all.

The second product I came up with is a bra with a clap on, clap off closure. This would be amazing and helpful for someone with arthritis and had a hard time with tiny clasps. This most likely would not go over very well because what if you were out in public and someone started clapping by you, your bra would come open. Not a good idea after all.

The third product I came up with is a toothbrush that has a little alarm within it that would go off when it was time to replace your toothbrush. You are only suppose to use your toothbrush for about 3 months, then throw it away and get a new one( http://www.ehow.com/facts_5001793_how-often-should-replace-toothbrush.html ). I see people buying this one time and one time only. The first time this alarm went off and they did not have another one to replace it with. They would throw it away and never buy another one because it was so annoying.

Business Mission Statement

A mission statement is defined as “a statement of the organizations purpose—what it wants to accomplish in the larger environment” “A mission statement should be market oriented and defined in terms of satisfying customer needs.” (Armstrong  and Kolter, Marketing: An Introduction for Education Management Corporation, 10^th Edition printed page 39).

Our company’s mission statement:  Our business is to sell and market facial cleanser and lotions to the men of today’s society.  We will concentrate on the group of men between the ages of 20-55. Men of this age group tend to be more concerned with having healthy skin and are willing to do a few quick easy steps to take care of it. We will give him the quality products to do this with. Our company will concentrate on making the perfect products for the men of today.  We will market and package our new 3-step system,which contains a cleanser, exfoliate, and moisturizer, in such a way that men will feel manly purchasing it. We will do everything within our power to make men everywhere feel comfortable purchasing our facial products. Our goal is to make the men of today feel sexy and adored by the opposite sex. We will make the everyday man realize that by having fresh clean skin, he will feel happier and more confident