MARKETING ESSENTIALS IN BUSINESS

MARKETING ESSENTIALS
 
 
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Introduction
Lush Ltd. is a British cosmetic retail company, which has its headquarters in Poole, UK. Mark Constantine, Trichologist, and his wife Constantine established Lush Cosmetics in 1995. Lush manufactures and markets masks, scrubs, moisturizers, lotions, shower gels, shampoos, soaps, creams, and other beauty products. The company operates over 950 stores across 50 countries globally, mostly in the UK, US, Australia, Germany, and Canada (Home | Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics, 2021). The company’s success can be attributed to using the marketing mix elements to attain business objectives and goals. The company achieves its business objectives and goals through the effective implementation of the marketing mix. This report will compare how organizations apply the marketing mix to the marketing planning process to attain the business objectives. The marketing mix of Lush and Glossier Ltd. is compared side by side. The second part of the report will involve developing and evaluating a basic marketing plan for Lush Cosmetics.
Part A
Comparing Ways in Which Organisations Use Elements of The Marketing Mix (7Ps) To Achieve Overall Business Objectives
The 7Ps are the “product, place, price, promotion, people, physical evidence and process” (Jain, 2013, pp.  25). The mentioned factors are assessed or appraised in how Lush, and Avon Products Company apply them in their marketing processes. Avon Products Co. is a direct sales company in the household, beauty, and personal care products. The company is headquartered in London and is a major competitor of Lush ltd (Palade, 2011, pp. 233).
Product
Lush’s customers define the company in three simple words, verdant, green, and fresh. Lush has established itself as a healthcare brand that produces various body products using only vegetarian or vegan sources. Lush’s products are 100% vegan and have fruits and vegetables as the primary constituents like grapefruit juice, vanilla beans, avocado butter, rosemary oil, papaya, and coconut (Aronczyk, 2016, pp. 4). Lush products have been proven to be authentic, use natural ingredients, and are not tested on animals. Lush has a diversified product portfolio of fresh, unique products.
On the other hand, Avon is among the top companies globally in terms of beauty products, and it markets a complex and varied range of products for both women and men under the brand name Avon (Palade, 2011, pp. 236).     
Price                                                                                                                                                  
Lush has been recognized for its handcrafted cosmetics and has presented itself as a natural brand that markets fresh products with no preservatives. Lush focuses on women as its target market, those who tend to have a natural vegan lifestyle. Lush has carefully strived to have its packaging expense at the lowest to reduce its cost. The company goes as far as taking back the used tubs of its sold products for recycling to cut costs. Every company spends much on packaging, and by keeping it at a minimum, Lush has been able to price its products reasonably and affordably (Home | Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics, 2021). All of the company’s products are natural and handmade and hence are a bit costly. However, the company has implemented a premium pricing strategy for its products.    
Avon Products Co. has presented itself as a high-quality product that customers can easily access. The company targets housewives who are regular cosmetic buyers and are comfortable purchasing in their own space from their homes. Avon employs different pricing strategies for different markets. For instance, in Romania, where it manufactures and markets its products, it has adopted medium pricing. In some cases, it uses premium pricing based on the product category. Avon uses competitive pricing in India due to competition (Hanesova, 2009, pp. 12). The company believes larger volume sales result in higher revenue; therefore, it has kept prices affordable to capture a large market.        
Place
Lush is an international brand with its product presence in over fifty nations through a projected eight hundred outlets globally. The company’s journey began from Poole in England, where it is headquartered, and expanded its presence to several places around the globe. The company’s manufacturing facilities are spread across the UK, Canada, and Germany. Lush’s products are produced by hand and not through mass factory productions to ensure freshness (Ramli, 2017, pp. 202). Lush has partnered with various firms to market its products internationally, and its products can also be obtained through retail outlets and online platforms. The company’s official website is a primary outlet that handles promotional and sales activities.
Avon is an international business headquartered in London. The company has its product presence in about 100 nations, and Brazil is its largest market. Avon introduced its products into China in 1990 through Beauty Boutiques and direct sales in 2006. Avon employs the direct-sales policy to distribute its products all over. The company also uses third-party suppliers. Salespersons sell the products door-to-door (Walletzký, 2014, pp. 3858). Avon also uses e-commerce websites for marketing its recruited products and has recently launched a mobile application.
People
People involve any contact the company’s staff may have with the customers ranging from the CEO to the janitor and everyone in between (Brassington & Pettitt, 2007, pp. 18). The staff wears a simple uniform that is also branded and complements the brand’s unique products. The staff is also friendly and chatty to the customers, and most importantly, they are knowledgeable on Lush’s products.
(Lush employees at work)
Avon has trained the people who work under its marketing team in persuasive techniques and be respectful to the customers and their preferences. Avon has a customer service department, and the personnel is trained. The people working at retail outlets are also trained to assist customers on-site. Lastly, the company has people working alongside the suppliers to obtain the raw material. This team has a significant role in ensuring the quality of end products is maintained and improved where necessary (Simkin & Dibb, 2013).   
Promotion
Lush is a famous organic brand that has implemented various marketing strategies to promote its products in the marketplace. The company is recognized for its exceptional products, and to uphold this quality, Lush takes care to ensure that its products are marked with a unique trademark. As part of its marketing strategy, the company gives out a free face mask for every five used pots it takes back. The company has a very stern policy of not procuring any ingredient from firms that believe in animal testing. Lush tests its products on human volunteers before releasing them to the market. The company believes in content marketing, and through its corporate website, it offers product info, stories, and videos to stay in touch with its customers. Lush works towards reducing its environmental footprint by using minimum packaging and also recycling them.
Avon believes in aggressive marketing and advertisement and has strived to create positive brand awareness. Advertisement is done mainly through catalogs and brochures that can be downloaded from its website. The company also promotes its products on social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. The company has established The Avon Foundation, which provides scholarships to the company reps and their families. Also, the company participated in a Breast Cancer awareness initiative in 2002, where it attached a pink ribbon to every catalog. Avon then donated the money it raised through this campaign for the purchase of medical equipment.
Physical Evidence
Physical presence or evidence includes what the company does to ensure that the customers recognize its presence. Lush achieves this through various strategies. For instance, the company keeps its stores clean and tidy. Also, the company uses a distinct scent across all its stores globally. The stores are also painted and presented in a very recognisable way. The employees wear uniforms and observe a dress code that complements the brand’s unique products. Most importantly, Lush’s vehicles are well branded, and one cannot miss spotting them anywhere.
Avon sells its products in a distinctive colour packaging that can easily be identified on retail shelves. The company also has an online corporate website that is easy to use and allows to view the company’s products in high-quality photos shot from various angles.
Process
Lush always emphasises good internal and external processes. Since the company targets mostly women who tend to a natural vegan lifestyle, it provides products and services that cater to this group. Lush also values its customers and maintains the “customer is always right” policy across its stores. The company educates its customers on recycling and environmental awareness. Most importantly, the company values customer opinion and thus maintains a good customer feedback system.
Avon has processes in place to ensure that products are always available at retail outlets globally. The company also runs an online delivery process, where customers can place their orders, and the products get delivered to them. Most importantly, Avon is actively involved in searching for new or potential markets.
Part 2
Developing and Evaluating a Basic Marketing Plan for Lush Cosmetics
Marketing Plan
Essentially, a marketing plan is a marketing strategy designed to be implemented to achieve a set of goals. Lush’s marketing plan aims to achieve market dominance and create a dominant force in the beauty and cosmetic industry. A marketing plan’s significance makes it essential for any business organization to have an effective marketing plan. An effective marketing plan has several importances that can benefit the business, improving its performance and revenue turnout. An operative marketing plan markets the organization, help it achieve its goals, increases its customer base, and maximizes profit (Westwood, 2013, pp. 88). The values below define the necessities of Lush’s marketing plan.
Linking Marketing Objectives and Strategies with the Marketing Plan
The organization’s marketing objectives and marketing strategies are all interconnected and interrelated with the marketing plan. The marketing plan of Lush Cosmetics depends on how the company visualizes and realizes its marketing objectives. Lush’s marketing strategies are essential to realizing the marketing objectives by implementing an operative marketing plan. This plan is critical since it will be the determining factor as to whether Lush is going to achieve its objectives or not.    
Sales Analysis
Lush’s sales analysis is essential for developing the marketing plan since the supply chain must be effectively and efficiently managed. The sales volume versus how much the company generates is analysed (Wood, 2016, pp. 224). This analysis shows the present market demand for Lush’s products and helps set goals for driving sales.
Cost-Profitability Analysis
Here, the cost-profitability analysis provides an indication of the production cost and profit obtained from this production. This analysis is essential to determine Lush’s marketing process.      
Structuring and Developing the Marketing Plan (STP)
STP (segmentation, targeting, and positioning) is essential to structure a basic marketing plan. Lush’s marketing plan is created through STP as detailed below:
Market Segmentation
The first step is to segment the market and select the target market to target those specific customers. Segmentation can be done demographically, psychologically, or geographically (Wood, 2016, pp. 224). Most cultures emphasize consumer behaviour; therefore, while segmenting the Lush product’s market, these factors were considered.
Market Targeting
Following successful market segmentation, a specific target market has to be selected. Lush will then focus its marketing activities on the target customers of the selected. According to Stevens et al. (2013), different products attract different customers; therefore, the targeted market is different for each product. Most of the cosmetic products marketed by Lush target middle-aged, middle-class and affluent women. Therefore, when choosing target market Lush, the consumers were targeted accordingly to increase the customer base. Lush should better focus on these target customers to expand its customer base and increase sales.
Market Positioning
Market positioning was necessary to establish and develop an effective market plan for Lush Cosmetics. Market positioning involves the implementation or adoption of the marketing plan. Here, the product is placed into the market, and the target customers are engaged to connect with the product. Engagement activities include promoting the product in the market, which is a major part of market positioning (Stevens et al., 2013, pp. 28). Other activities include customer engagement and customer relationship management. Effective market positioning is critical for Lush Cosmetics because it determines the efficiency of the developed marketing plan.
Goals and Objectives Setting
It is important to set the marketing plan’s goals and objectives since these are what will define the plan. For Lush, the goals are clear. First, Lush needs to create a market dominance and then create a force to maintain dominance.
Situational Analysis
Regarding the marketing plan, situational analysis denotes the assessment of the plan in various situations. This assessment entails external analysis, internal analysis, SWOT analysis, and so forth (Wood, 2016, pp. 224). It is important to analyse the created marketing plan since it is vital for Lush to assess the plan’s effectiveness and efficiency. The lush marketing plan is effective since it will focus the company’s promotional activities on the medium to high-income women and the family segment.
 
Allocation of Resources
Resources should be allocated to implement the plan since there are various activities involved that require finances. This allocation should be carried out in line with planning. Like other aspects of business operations, marketing is cost-related; thus, a budget should be established to meet the marketing activities. The cost arises from traveling, advertising, printing brochures, meetings with clients, and so on (Wood, 2016, pp. 224). When budgeting, care should be taken to ensure that it is feasible and within the means of Lush Cosmetics. After resource allocation, the marketing team can now step out and carry out the actual marketing, guided by the outlined plan.
Monitoring and Observation    
Observing and monitoring results is the last step of the marketing plan. The marketing team should monitor the progress from the beginning and rectify where necessary as early as possible. Early monitoring allows for adjusting the marketing plan when the need arises (Wood, 2016, pp. 224). Lush’s marketing team should ensure they have reliable monitoring systems and tools ready sooner as the marketing plan is rolled out.
Conclusion
This assignment clearly showed the role of marketing as a business function and its relationships with other business functions. Different organizations use the marketing mix 7Ps differently to achieve business objectives. In this assignment, a comparison was made on how Lush Cosmetics and Avon Products Co. use marketing mix 7Ps to achieve their business objectives. In the second part of the assignment, a basic marketing plan for Lush Cosmetics was developed and evaluated.
 
 
 
Bibliography
Aronczyk, M., 2016. Market (ing) activism: Lush cosmetics, ethical oil, and the self-mediation of protest. JOMEC Journal, (4).
Brassington, F. and Pettitt, S., 2007. Essentials of marketing. Pearson education.
Hanesova, L., 2009. Marketing mix and consumer behaviour in Avon in the Slovakian market (Doctoral dissertation, Dublin Business School).
Jain, M.K., 2013. An analysis of marketing mix: 7Ps or more. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 1(4), pp.23-28.
Lushusa.com. 2021. Home | Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics. [online] Available at: [Accessed 24 March 2021].
Palade, A., 2011. Analysis of marketing mix on cosmetics products case study: Avon Company. Annals of the University of Petroşani. Economics, 11, pp.233-244.
Ramli, NS, 2017. Green marketing: a new prospect in the cosmetics industry. In Sustainable entrepreneurship and investments in the green economy (pp. 200-230). IGI Global.
Stevens, R.E., Loudon, D.L. and Nykiel, R.A., 2013. Marketing your business: a guide to developing a strategic marketing plan. Routledge.
Simkin, L. and Dibb, S., 2013. Marketing essentials. Cengage Learning EMEA.
Walletzký, L., 2014, November. Service oriented marketing mix and its usage. In ICERI2014: 7th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (pp. 3855-3864).
Westwood, J., 2013. How to write a marketing plan. Kogan Page Publishers.
Wood, MB, 2016. The marketing plan handbook (p. 224). Pearson.
 

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