Marketing Campaign: Lush Cosmetics

QUESTION

Write a popular press article for a magazine that walks an entrepreneur through each step required to develop a viral marketing campaign for one specific product/service. In other words, from your perspective, present specific advice, principles, key points, elements, objectives, etc., as to how an entrepreneur can create a viral campaign for a specific product or service. The specific type of viral marketing campaign is up to you.

You are strongly encouraged to use a descriptive storytelling style to write your article and explain the details of how you would make create a campaign. To the extent possible, you can use your own business product/service as an example when discussing viral marketing campaigns.

Format: Choose a publication and follow the writer’s/author’s guidelines for style, format, length, etc. and send the guidelines to the professor along with your article. E-zines do not count as a target publication for this assignment! It must be a genuine publication, but it can be an industry publication. The method you use for references/citations is up to you. Be sure to adhere to the publication’s writer’s guidelines if you intend to get your article published.

ANSWER

Marketing Campaign: An Example of Lush Cosmetics

Introduction

As it is known today, Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics was founded in 1995 in Poole, England. Lush Cosmetics was founded by Helen Ambrosen, Rowens Bird, Mo Constantine, Mark Constantine, and Liz Weir. Each of these individuals brought the company a different set of incredible and unique talents (LUSH 2018). For over two decades, Lush has created fresh handmade Cosmetics for its customers globally. The company has its branches spread in over 50 countries globally, especially in Canada, Germany, Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom (LUSH 2018). Overall, it has more than 850 stores globally. However, most of this company’s success can be attributed to its adopted and developed marketing strategy (LUSH 2018). Its marketing mix, in particular, has enabled it to achieve its goals and objectives over the years. This report will critically analyze its marketing mix with one of its most significant competitors, AVON Products Limited. Further, it will compare how both organizations apply the marketing mix to their marketing planning to maintain their market hold. On the other hand, the second part of this report will evaluate and develop a marketing plan for Lush Cosmetics based on the first part’s discussion results.

Part One

Comparing How the Two Organizations Apply The 7Ps of Marketing Mix

Generally, the marketing mix is an acronym that involves the 7Ps. They include product, place, price, promotion, physical evidence, people, and processes (Ravangard et al. 2020, p. 3). These factors will be analyzed against Lush Cosmetic and AVON Products Limited to understand how both companies utilize them in marketing. Like Lush Cosmetics, AVON Products is also located in the United Kingdom and manufactures and markets beauty-related products (Avon n.d.) This company also focuses on the direct sales of personal care and household products and is a significant competitor of Lush Cosmetics in London.

Product

Three main words customers use to describe Lush Cosmetics are fresh, green, and verdant. The company has established itself as a healthcare brand that utilizes vegan and vegetarian sources to produce various beauty products (Lavric 2019). Its products are 100% natural and contain ingredients such as coconut, papaya, rosemary oil, avocado butter, vanilla beans, and grapefruit juice (Lavric 2019). Apart from that, Lush Cosmetics products have been identified and recognized as natural and authentic. Furthermore, the company does not test its products on animals. Over the years, it has diversified its products to include a wide range of fresh and healthy beauty products.

social networks to instigate interactive communication and event communication actions.

Part Two

Marketing Plan for Lush Cosmetics

Marketing Plan

Essentially, it is an operational document that outlines advertising strategies that an organization could adopt to reach its target market and generate more leads. It acts as a road map to track, execute, and organize its marketing strategy (Opresnik 2018, p. 337). Lush Cosmetics aims to dominate the beauty and cosmetic industry. Therefore, its marketing plan should be geared towards achieving this goal and objective. An effective marketing plan will help the brand improve its revenue turnout and performance, thus impacting the business positively (Opresnik 2018, p. 337). Further, it will help the company market itself, maximize profits, increase customer base, and achieve more goals. Based on the company analysis, in task one and part one above, below are essentials needed in the brand’s marketing plan.

Linking Marketing Strategies and Objectives with the Market Plan

Lush’s marketing strategies and objectives are interrelated and interconnected with the marketing plan. Therefore, the latter will depend on how the brand realizes its marketing objectives (Olson et al. 2018, p. 68). The marketing plan is crucial for the business as it’s the main determinant of whether it actualizes its goals and objectives.

Analysis of Sales

When developing a market plan, Lush Cosmetics efficiently and effectively evaluates and manages its supply chain. This analysis involves putting up the company’s sales volume against how much has been generated (McColl et al. 2021, p. 20). Further, this analysis enables the company to set goals to drive its sales and understand its products’ current market demand.

Analysis of Cost Profitability

This analysis provides evidence of the profit made from sales in relation to the production costs. It is an essential element in determining the brand’s marketing process.

Developing and Structuring the Marketing Plan

Segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP) are also critical to the organization’s marketing plan. The STP is used to create the brand’s marketing plan, as evidenced below:

Segmentation of the market

The STP framework’s first step is to segment the market to choose specific customers and the target market. Generally, segmentation can be done geographically, psychologically, or demographically depending on the company’s data (Varadarajan 2010, p. 122). In the creation of the company’s market plan, segmenting of the brand’s market was done. Segmentation, as emphasized in most cultures, is often based on consumer buying power and behaviour.

Market targeting

After segmentation, the next step is selecting a specific target market. When creating the marketing plan, Lush Cosmetics will have to choose a specific target market, in this case, women with purchasing power and need for its natural vegan products. However, different products attract various customers (Varadarajan 2010, p. 123). Therefore, the company will need to identify specific customers for each of its products. From the analysis conducted in part one of this report, it is evident that the company targets affluent, middle class, and middle-aged women. Still, the brand should improve its skills in targeting customers to increase sales and expand its customer base.

Positioning of the market

The third step in the STP framework is market positioning. This step will enable the organization to adopt an effective marketing plan based on the previous analysis (Varadarajan 2010, p. 122). In this step, the brand places its product into the market, and the target customers connect with the product. Customers can get engaged with Lush’s products through promotions, which characterize a significant part of market positioning. To improve customer engagement, the company can also find ways to manage and improve customer relationships (Varadarajan 2010, p. 127). Effective marketing positioning will enable Lush Cosmetics to create an efficient marketing plan.

Setting Goals and Objectives

Similarly, it is critical to determine and set the brands, goals, and objectives before drafting a marketing plan. Company goals and objectives are what directs its marketing plan (Chernev 2020, p. 52). Lush Cosmetics needs first to dominate the market to enable it to maintain a dominant force against its competitors.

Situational Analysis

It refers to the assessment of the company’s plan in different situations. Often, situational analysis entails SWOT analysis, internal analysis, and an organization’s external analysis (Heath 2018, p. 4). Assessing the market plan through the various situation will allow the brand to evaluate its efficiency and effectiveness. Currently, its marketing plan is effective as it enables the brand to focus its promotional efforts on the family segment and high-income earning women.

Resource Allocation

Actualizing a market plan requires financial and human resources. Therefore, Lush Cosmetics should allocate the necessary resources and finances to actualize its marketing plan (LUSH 2018). The cost involved in actualizing a market plan arises from client meetings, printing brochures, advertising, traveling, and paying workers (Harris et al. 2017, p. 6). However, care should be taken when budgeting to ensure that the budget is within the brand’s means. After resource allocation, the company can then move forward with implementing the market plan.

Observation and Monitoring

Like any other planning process, the last step involves monitoring and observing the plan’s results. The company’s marketing team should monitor the plan’s implementation from the beginning to allow it to offset any problems that may be faced. Apart from that, it will be able to adjust the plan where and when necessary (LUSH 2021). Therefore, Lush Cosmetics should ensure that it has a reliable monitoring system before the implementation phase begins.

Conclusion

Overall, the above report demonstrates the relationship between marketing and other business functions. It also elucidates its role as a business function. As evidenced by Lush and Avon Limited, different organizations implement the 7Ps of marketing mix differently. On the other hand, an understanding of the first’ business model allowed for creating a basic marketing plan for the brand in the second part.

References

Avon., n.d. Home. AVON. https://www.reps-r-us.co.uk/avons-history/.

Chernev, A., 2020. The marketing plan handbook. Cerebellum Press.

Heath, R.L., 2018. Issues management. The International Encyclopedia of Strategic Communication, pp.1-15. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119010722.iesc0095

Lavric, D., 2019, August 11. LUSH COSMETICS. dasalavric.com. https://dasalavric.com/2019/08/11/lush-cosmetics/.

LUSH., 2018, May 24. Our Story. Lush Cosmetics Australia. https://au.lush.com/article/our-story#:~:text=LUSH%20Fresh%20Handmade%20Cosmetics%2C%20as,Rowena%20Bird%20and%20Helen%20Ambrosen.

LUSH., 2021. Home | Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics. [online] Available at:
<https://www.lushusa.com/>

McColl, J., Ritch, E.L. and Hamilton, J., 2021. Brand Purpose and ‘Woke’Branding Campaigns. In New Perspectives on Critical Marketing and Consumer Society. Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83909-554-220211012

Olson, E.M., Slater, S.F., Hult, G.T.M. and Olson, K.M., 2018. The application of human resource management policies within the marketing organization: The impact on business and marketing strategy implementation. Industrial Marketing Management, 69, pp.62-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2018.01.029

Opresnik, M.O., 2018, July. Effective Social Media Marketing Planning–How to Develop a Digital Marketing Plan. In International Conference on Social Computing and Social Media (pp. 333-341). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91521-0_24

Ramli, N.S., 2017. Green marketing: a new prospect in the cosmetics industry. In Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Investments in the Green Economy (pp. 200-230). IGI Global. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-2075-7.ch007

Ravangard, R., Khodadad, A. and Bastani, P., 2020. How marketing mix (7Ps) affect the patients’ selection of a hospital: Experience of a low-income country. Journal of the Egyptian Public Health Association, 95(1), pp.1-8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42506-020-00052-z

Varadarajan, R., 2010. Strategic marketing and marketing strategy: domain, definition, fundamental issues and foundational premises. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 38(2), pp.119-140. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-009-0176-7

To get your original copy of this completed paper, please Order Now

Related Questions