Marketing Strategy Assessment: Ariel Detergent Brand Analysis Report

This report presents a comprehensive marketing strategy assessment of the Ariel detergent brand. It begins with an executive summary and an introduction to the brand, followed by a detailed marketing audit, including SWOT and PESTLE analyses. The report evaluates the current marketing strategies, examines the STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) strategy, and analyzes the brand's SMART objectives. Furthermore, it explores the competitive landscape, providing a competitive analysis of Ariel and Surf Excel. The report concludes with recommendations for marketing strategies based on the application of the marketing mix. The analysis covers the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of the brand, along with an examination of political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental (PESTLE) factors influencing its performance. The report aims to provide a thorough understanding of Ariel's market position and strategic recommendations for future growth.

Marketing Strategy
Assessment

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Report has been highlighted the marketing audit of the Ariel Detergent Brand. It also has
been evaluated the present marketing strategies adopted by company’s brand. It has been
demonstrated the STP strategy for the brand. It has been analysed the smart objectives of the
brand. It has been recommended about the marketing strategies which are based upon the
marketing mix of the brand.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Overview of Chosen Brand.........................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
Marketing Audit...........................................................................................................................1
Marketing Audit of Ariel Company............................................................................................1
PART 2............................................................................................................................................8
Segmentation, targeting and Positioning.....................................................................................8
SMART Objectives.....................................................................................................................9
Recommend marketing strategies, based on the application of the marketing mix to your
chosen brand................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to the activities which is carry out by the company for the purpose of
selling and promoting their products and services to the customers. Marketing audit is an
important concept of marketing which is essential for the company to improve their marketing
plan and strategy (What Is Marketing ?, 2019).
Present report will highlight the marketing audit of the Ariel Detergent Brand. It will also
evaluate the present marketing strategies adopted by company’s brand. It will demonstrate the
STP strategy for the brand. It will do analysis the smart objectives of the brand. It will
recommend about the marketing strategies which is based upon the marketing mix of the brand.
Overview of Chosen Brand
Ariel brand is a laundry detergent product which was introduced by Procter & Gamble
(P&G) Company in year 1967. It was introduced in United Kingdom for the first time. After that,
detergents under this brand are sold by company to Europe, Latin America, East, Southeast and
South Asia, South Africa, Maghreb, North Africa, Pakistan and the Middle East market.
PART 1
Marketing Audit
Marketing audit refers to the inspection of the marketing plan, objectives, strategies and
activities conducted by marketing department of the company in order to look upon the
effectiveness of the marketing and identify the areas which required to be improved. It is a kind
of mirror for the organization which helps them to know about the strengths and weaknesses of
their activities and its impact on the firm. It is very important for the business to become
successful for the long time as it helps in analysis of various external, internal and competitive
factors which may impact the profitability of the organization (Baker and Saren, 2016).
Marketing Audit of Ariel Company
Marketing Audit of Ariel Company are as follows -
SWOT ANALYSIS OF ARIEL BRAND -
Swot analysis of the Ariel Washing powder Company are as follows -
Strengths Weaknesses
Strong Brand Name
Price Quantity and Variety
Substitute Products
Limited Market
Opportunities Threats
Expansion of Business Tough Competition
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Technology development & innovation Increase in production and labour cost
Strengths of the Ariel Brand are as follows -
Strong Brand Name
Ariel is popular for the remove of the toughest stains from the clothes. This lead
customers to use this brand product. It helps organization to gain brand image for the Ariel. Also,
once customers use this product, they won't change their brand preference which enhance their
customers base as well as brand image. These all indicate that company has strong brand name
such as Ariel.
Price Quantity and Variety
Ariel washing powder product are available in different quantity which lead to price to be
different. Also, it has varieties in the market. Customers have various choice regarding products,
quantity and prices. This make customers most comfortable with the brand.
Weaknesses of the Ariel Brand are as follows -
Substitute Products
There are various substitute washing powder products available in the markets. These
products are available at low price with good quality. This lead customers to shift their brand
preferences from Ariel to another brand which is not good for the company and it impacts the
brand image of the Ariel Product (Cacciolatti and Lee, 2016).
Limited Markets
Company has very limited market regarding this brand. This brand is mainly present in
these markets such as Europe, Latin America, East Asia, South-east Asia, South Asia, South
Africa, North Africa, Maghreb, Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore and Middle East.
Opportunities of the Ariel Brand are as follows -
Expansion of Business
Company can expand its business in another countries where its business is not running
and rural market by selling the washing powder under the name of Ariel Brand which is
worldwide recognizable. This will help organization to gain competitive advantages over its
competitors' brands.
Technology development and Innovation
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Company's IT department can introduce new technology to the production department for
the purpose of increasing the quality of the product and decrease the costs of the production. It
will help organization to gain profits for the particular brand of the company.
Threats of the Ariel Brand are as follows -
Tough Competition
There are various washing powder brands and companies who by entering into Biological
washing powder industry and create tough competition for the Ariel brand. They are good in
quality and available at low price as compared to the pricing of Ariel brand. Their competitors
are such as Surf Excel, Nirma Ltd and Henkel etc. (D’Souza, C., and et.al., 2019).
Increase in production and labour cost
Due to complex procedure of production of these products, production costs are
increasing which lead to increase in labour cost. These two costs are rapidly increasing in
massive way all over the world which lead to increase in the price of the washing powder of
Ariel which will become a cause for decreasing in the demand of the washing powder.
PESTLE ANALYSIS OF ARIEL BRAND -
PESTLE analysis of the Ariel Washing powder Company is as follows -
Factors Impact
P – Political Factor Taxation Policy
Intellectual Property
E – Economic Factor High Demand
Economic Crisis
S – Socio-culture Factor Education level
Change in customers perceptions
T – Technological Factor Change in Production method
L – Legal Factor Change in IP law
Change in business legislations
E – Environmental Factor Environmental friendly product
Political Factors
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Political factors are those factors that arise due to government authorities and their
interference. Examples of Political factors are as follows – monetary policy, tax policy, foreign
exchange policy, political structure & stability and views of political parties towards business
and industries etc.
Change in tax policy impact the industry which in turn impacts the business and its
brands. As P&G Company is a multinational company which has to pay a lot of taxes according
to the local, regional and global tax policy which impacts the profitability of company. Also,
UK’s intellectual property is strong due to government awareness about it which lead company’s
intellectual property about Ariel is secure.
Economic Factors
Economic factors are those factors that arise due to economic conditions and aspects of
the country. Example of economic factors are such as economic stability, economic cycle of the
country, inflation rate, interest rate, employment conditions, demand and supply pattern, foreign
exchange rate and pricing structure in the industry etc. (Fahy and Jobber, 2015).
Due to high quality and reasonable pricing of Ariel products of P&G Company, its
demands are high in UK which lead company to earn profitability. There was 2007-08 economic
crisis happened at the global level which impacted the industry negatively which in turn reduce
the demands and profitability of the company regarding this particular Ariel brand.
Socio-Cultural Factors
Socio-cultural factors are those factors that arise due to social and cultural aspects of the
population of the country. These factors are as follows – culture value, religion, customs,
demographic structure of the country and its related components such as age, family structure,
income distribution and education level and customers behaviours etc.
Due to increase in education level of the population, they are becoming conscious
regarding products’ quality and price. Changing in customers’ perceptions towards products
affect the trends of industry which lead company to change in their products and add varieties in
them. This aids company to maintain their customers for long time for their products.
Technological Factors
Technological factors are those factors that arise due to change in technology or
innovation. These factors are change in production system, innovation in production process and
invention of new washing powder products etc. (Hult and Ketchen, 2017).
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Change in production method due to technological innovation will affect the industry
which lead company also have to change their production of Arial washing powder. It can impact
the company in positive and negative both ways. It will boost the quality of the products and at
the same time, it can complex for the production department of the company to handle such
complex production system which can increase the production costs.
Legal Factors
Legal factors are those factors that arise due to laws, rules, regulations, policies,
guidelines and legislations that impose on the country's industry. Example of these factors are
employment law, commercial law, business law, customers related law, company law and
environmental law etc. which is related to the business and industry.
Change in intellectual property law will affect the industry which will in turn affect the
business activities. For example – the amount for the security of the logo of the Arial products,
company now have to pay more fees under the IP law will affect the company’s profitability as
well as brand image. Change in these legislations helps company to work in the legal framework
which is good for the brand image of the Ariel products and their usage.
Environmental Factors
Environmental factors are those factors that arise due to change in environment and its
related aspects. Examples of these factors are as follows – change in weather, pollution level,
wastage of natural resources and customer relationship management etc.
Due to good quality and environmentally friendly product, Ariel is considered to be best
brand of P&G Company as well as of washing powder industry. This lead company to earn
profitability under the name of Ariel brand name (Lamb and Crompton, 2017).
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COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE (COMPETITOR ANALYSIS) OF ARIEL BRAND -
Competitive Analysis of Ariel Brand & Surf Excel Brand
Ariel Brand Surf Excel
Direct Competitors
Company
Profile
Company
Highlights
Introduced in 1967 by
P&G.
Introduced in 1996 by
Unilever.
Key
Competitive
Advantage
It Helps in remove the
toughest stains from
clothes which make it
one of the best brands in
the industry.
It has a lot of product line
extension which make it
competitors for another
companies’ brands.
Target Market
Market
Information
Upper and rich class of
the society
Middle and upper class of
the society
Marketing
Strategy
For Price – Premium
pricing strategy
For Promotion –
Traditional methods of
promotion
For Place – Storage
house channel with tier 2
and tier 3 cities division
For Price – Product-
bundling price
strategy
For Promotion – 360`
degree promotion
For Place – Traditional
distribution channel
Products &
Services
Product
Information
Laundry Detergent Laundry Detergent
Strengths
SWOTT
Information
Strong customer base Environment Friendly by
low water consumption
Weaknesses Various substitutes
available in the market
Limited market for
products
Opportunities Expand the business into
rural market
Expand the business into
developed market
Threats Pricing Strategy adopts
by P&G
A lot of legal issues face
by Unilever
(McDONALD, 2016)
EVALUATION OF CURRENT MARKETING STRATEGY OF ARIEL BRAND - 350
For the Ariel Brand, Company are using various marketing strategies which are as
follows –
Product Strategy
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For the better sales and achievement of the organizational goal, P&G Company has
launched Ariel washing powder which is now one of the best brands in the world. For the
purpose of increasing their customers, Ariel detergent comes up with powder, liquid and bars
which indicate that company has adopted Product line extension strategy. This strategy has truly
helped company to gain customers and made their customer base strong. Also company has
adopted differentiate products strategy in order to targets all the customers with different groups
of people which is beneficial for the company’s brand “Ariel”.
Pricing Strategy
Company with Ariel brand wants to target upper middle and rich class group of society
which lead company to keep their pricing high as compared to their competitors according to the
premium pricing strategy. This strategy helped company to gain loyal customers due to its high
quality product. But due to new entrance in the industry, many another companies are providing
their products at low price which lead company to follow mid pricing strategy. This strategy
helps company to gain its revenue by increasing the sale volume (Morgan and et.al., 2019).
Place or Distribution Strategy
For the distribution of the products under Ariel Brand, Company uses traditional
distribution channel. In this distribution channel, company hires various intermediaries in order
to access the products to the end users. They also develop a system which is known as Storage
house system. In this system, they distribute their products in bundle amounts to storage house
established in every country, where P&G existed. From that storage house, various
intermediaries distribute products to the end users. This helps company to reach at large
audience.
Promotional Strategy
Company, for the Arial brand’s promotion, uses traditional promotional strategies such as
advertising strategy, campaign strategy and discounting strategies. These all above strategies
help company to reach out huge customers. In advertising strategies, company use TV, Radio,
Newspaper and holdings. In campaign strategies, company use taglines and sponsorships with
big personalities and in discounting strategies, Company use discounts, offers and coupons etc.
these all strategies help company to attract their customers and gain competitive advantages over
its competitors (Wensley, 2016).
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PART 2
Segmentation, targeting and Positioning
Segmentation refers to dividing market into different segments that will help in satisfying
the needs and wants of consumer. In this, market is differentiated based on geographic,
demographic and physiographic segments that will help in cater all needs and demands of the
customer. This will help in gaining competitive advantage for them to achieve success in the
future. There are different features on that segmentation is based such as measurability,
accessibility, sustainability and actionability. As Ariel brand is segmenting market according the
measurability such as by seeing purchasing power and their needs that will cater to buy a
particular product or services (Camilleri, 2018). Accessibility include communication between
different segment that is made for fulfilling needs. In sustainability it check the sustainability of
the brand in the market by checking profit and maintaining business value that will help in
growth for future. Lastly, competitive advantage is creating by offering discount to the customer
for remaining loyal customer.
Targeting is the process that target a particular group from the segmented market and sell
their product and services to that group. As Ariel brand is selling washing powder so it will
target the women group that will need for washing clothes. By providing benefit and features of
the product it will attract this group by showing advertisement on television or through different
media sources that will help in increasing its sales in the future. In targeting there are different
segments that include differentiated, undifferentiated and niche marketing. Ariel is directly hit
the women 's mind that this is the best brand as compared to other competitors in the market. In
present, customer are the king of the market so it is necessary to fulfil their needs and wants. As
women's also believe through word of mouth so that will also help Ariel to increase its sales in
the future.
Positioning is the last step in which customer is seeing the position of the product and
services in the market. In this they are comparing the product from other competitors that are
available in the market which are offering best product to them. In this Ariel is focusing on
building its brand name by satisfying group of women (Schlegelmilch, 2016). Characteristics of
the product is to be serve in the market so that they are get attracted towards it. For gaining
competitive advantage Ariel use three aspects such as functional, symbolic and experiential
positioning. In functional positioning it is focused on the customer needs and wants. Symbolic is
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related to the features that the company is providing to its customer. Experiential positioning
helps in attracting customers through emotional connection with customers.
SMART Objectives
These objectives will help in achieving goal of the company as specific objective will
help in determining the clear understanding of Ariel that what is to be achieved should be clear.
In measurable, objectives are measured so that an appropriate result can be achieved. In this
objectives can be achieved so that it will help in earning more profit (Pyo, 2015). In Realistic,
sources will be collected will be helpful for the Ariel company so that it will achieve its SMART
objective. Lastly, proper timing is to be set so that it will be achieved in proper time period.
Recommend marketing strategies, based on the application of the marketing mix to your chosen
brand
Marketing Mix of Ariel will help in recommending various marketing strategies for Ariel.
Marketing mix of Ariel will be explained by 4 P's:
Product: Ariel is one of the most popular product and detergent brand of P&G brand. It is one of
the most preferred product that is mostly preferred by customers for washing. It is also used with
bleaching power for cleaning cloths without damaging the clothes. It has various sub products
that are used as per the customer's convenience. Ariel can expand their product portfolio and can
launch a detergent product for low income people other than their premium products which will
help them to expand their customer base as well.
Price: Ariel mostly follows premium pricing strategy i.e. their price is much higher then their
competitors products price. Even with the high price customers mostly choose this product then
substitute product. But due to its premium pricing strategy they fail to target low income segment
people. So they can launch a product with low price without compromising with its quality but is
in budget of lower income people. This will help them to target larger segment of people.
Place: Ariel owns one of the most strongest distribution chain of P&G which is sold globally but
mostly in countries like India, UK, Japan, Russia, France and many more. They have one of the
strongest distribution channel through which they can easily distribute their products in all the
parts of the country (Choi and Kim, 2015). But they do not sell their products in underdeveloped
countries like Afghanistan. So they can expand their distribution chain and can target customers
of underdeveloped countries which will eventually help them to expand their business.
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