MG412 Principles of Marketing: Deodorant Brands Marketing Mix Analysis

This report presents a comparative analysis of the marketing mix strategies employed by Dove and Sure deodorant brands. The analysis encompasses a detailed examination of their respective target markets, including demographic and psychographic profiles. It further explores the product strategies, focusing on core benefits, expected features, augmented aspects, and brand values as defined by Levitt's model and Aaker's brand personality framework. The pricing strategies of both brands are evaluated, highlighting their approaches to market positioning and competitive advantage. The report also investigates the distribution channels utilized by each brand, assessing their accessibility and reach. Finally, it examines the promotional activities, including advertising campaigns, digital marketing, and the use of endorsements to reach the target audience and build brand awareness. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and implications for effective marketing in the deodorant industry.

MG412 PRINCIPLES OF
MARKETING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Target Market...............................................................................................................................1
Product/ Brand.............................................................................................................................1
Price.............................................................................................................................................2
Place (Distribution)......................................................................................................................3
Promotion.....................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Marketing mix can be defined as the set of tools that the company has been applying in
order to achieve the goals and objectives of the business. The project shall be highlighting the
comparative analysis of the two deodorant brands on the basis of target market, product, price,
place and promotion.
MAIN BODY
Target Market
Target market for any brand is the potential customer groups to which the company is
aiming to sell its products and services. It involves the particulars related to the age, gender,
income class, lifestyle and specific preferences which the product of the company shall offer and
fulfil the needs and expectations (Goenadhi and Rahadi, 2020).
Dove (Deodorant for women)
The target market for the dove deodorant is the beauty and skincare as well as good odour
conscious women of the society belonging to the age group of above 18 years and below 50
years. It focuses to sell its product to the young, beautiful and independent ladies who are highly
attracted to the smelling good products which have less chemical and are more organic in nature
(Dove Marketing Strategy: How Dove Became The Voice of Women, 2021). The lifestyle of these
customers is extra-vagrant and fashionable because they take extra care of their body to look
beautiful.
The education level is high as based on that their social preferences in the society as they
want to be confident and move out to explore the world (Tosun, 2017). The targeted market
involves the individuals belonging to high income society or the upper middle class who can
afford to spend more for their skin care and beauty. Also, the chemicals are less in the products
so for the customized organic products the company charges higher prices from it customers.
Sure (Deodorant for women)
The target market to publicize the Sure deodorant for women is the teenagers who are
belonging to the age group of 13 years to 19 years who are highly fascinated to smell good. The
major population are the ones from the young age group who are odour conscious and feel
confident when they smell good.
They are focussing on the deodorant brand as it is the latest marketing trend these days,
so that higher share of the market can be capitalized (Darmawan, 2020). They are focussing on
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the middle income group of society by charging moderate prices on the products that are offered
to the customer.
Product/ Brand
Dove (Deodorant for women)
As per the Levitt's model the dove deodorant for the women has the core benefit of
removing the bad body odour and attracting people based on the pleasant smell of the product.
This is the basic product requirement that needs to be satisfied. Further the expected
characteristics by the customer includes that it should cause reduced sweat and skin acidity
which needs to be catered by the manufacturer (Woods, 2017). The augmented nature of the
product is that the deodorant is long-lasting. Finally, the potential product states that it should be
chemical free and organic in nature.
The brand values that are attached with the products offered by Dove are that it is
associated with beauty, confidence and believe that each individual must carry while they are
going out and exposed to the world. This further helps the women positively establish better
relations and stay empowered in the society.
As per the Aaker’s brand personality framework the dove deodorant can be classified as
the sophistication brand personality. This brand personality is for the upper class society and can
be classified as luxurious and stylish in nature.
Sure (Deodorant for women)
The Levitt's model shows that the basic features and the core benefit that is provided by
Sure deodorant is that it makes the women feel fresh and energetic all day long. The expected
product as per its target market is that it should provide clinical benefits and must have no side
effects on the skin (Unilever set to unveil Sure deodorants for teenagers, 2021). Further the
augmented product above the expectations of the customer offers different variants and flavours
in the deodorant, among which the choice can be made based on the customer taste and
preferences. Lastly the potential product shows that it can be conveniently carried at all places.
Brand values are working with integrity and positive attitude which enriches the
personality of teenagers.
As per the Aaker’s brand personality framework the Sure deodorant that is offered to the
customers show that the brand belongs to the excitement personality as it is made for the
teenagers, and so they should remains joyous and excited (Kakitek, 2018).
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Price
The pricing strategy that is followed by both the brands are:-
Brand A (Dove Deodorant for women) Brand B (Sure (Deodorant for women)
The Dove deodorants are offered to the
sophisticated, high income class of the society
who are highly conscious about their beauty
and skin care. They use the premium pricing
strategy in the market where the products are
highly expensive and durable (Roma,
Panniello and Nigro, 2019). Since the products
are also chemical free, so they are highly
priced and can be affordable for the women
who are independent and live an extra-vagrant
lifestyle. The premium pricing strategy is used
by the brands who offer distinguished products
to its customers and are high quality oriented.
They are like the status symbol for the rich
class in the community. They are targeting the
niche market and are only bothered about the
tastes and preferences of those consumers who
prefer quality over the price and are ready to
pay the extra penny to take extra care of their
skin.
The Sure deodorant brand has priced its
products at moderate level and are available for
the medium and middle income class of the
society (Kung and Zhong, 2017). The pricing
strategy they follow is the market penetration
where the seller establishes low prices for its
product in order to capture the market share
and expand its profitability. Since it is
established to assume the benefit of the recent
trend related to deodorants it is charging
medium prices from its customers. Also,
another major reason is that the target market
of this brand are the teenagers and young
population who are dependent on the family
for income, so they shall be able to afford
lower priced products only. In this pricing
strategy the company tries to generate
competitive advantage through capturing the
market share of the company.
Place (Distribution)
Dove (Deodorant for women)
In order to make its brand accessible, Dove has a widespread distribution channels that is
uniformly distributed across 80 potential countries where it conducts the business operations and
maximizes its profitability (Grewal and et.al., 2018). The major motive is that the products must
be distributed in a way such that it is conveniently available to the target market that is catered
by its offerings and can maximize the level of customer satisfaction. The brand has its presence
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in both offline and online channels. It is available at the various supermarkets, whole-sellers,
general stores and the chemist shops in the market. Also, the deodorants can be accessed through
the online channels like Amazon and other e-commerce sites. The products from the factory are
sent to the warehouses. Post that the agents sells these goods to the stockists, and they are further
supplied to the retail markets from where they are available to the customers (Cai and Chen,
2017).
Sure (Deodorant for women)
The Sure deodorant has been successfully managing the channels through its products are
being sold to the customers. The major focus is upon the teenager population which can be
attracted by the easy accessibility of the company's product on offline as well as online channels
of distribution. The brand has created its own optimized website where all the products are
available for the online supply through making the digitalized payments (Anderson and et.al.,
2020). Also, they provide an option of customization over their website based on the customers
tastes and preferences. Apart from this its products are available at the offline channels like the
retail stores.
Promotion
Dove (Deodorant for women)
Dove has been aggressively marketing the products to reach the mass through a large
campaign run by the company (Del Castillo and et.al., 2020). It has been targeting the potential
lot of customers by a “Campaign for the real beauty” related to the aspirational women and also
focussing on the idea of self-esteem of the women. The major differentiation in its style of
marketing is that it criticizes and abolishes the beauty related discrimination and voices an idea
that women belonging to all age groups, colour, sizes etc. are beautiful. Also, the major
distinction from the competitors is that it includes the common women rather than models in its
advertisements and promotional activities which helps to directly connect with the audience and
positively publicize its brand in the minds of people. It uses both digitalized channels like social
media marketing, internet ads, optimized website and the offline means like newspapers, TV ads,
magazines etc.
Sure (Deodorant for women)
The Sure deodorant has also engaged in the extensive marketing of its products with the
aim of capturing the target market. It uses both the traditional and unconventional sources in its
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marketing campaign. It majorly uses the celebrities, models, sports personalities and athletes for
endorsing its products such that the brand image of the company can be discovered. Apart from
this the main theme of ads is self-confidence in the individual (Ben Said, Bragazzi and
Pyatigorskaya, 2019). Also, the ads designed have the funny quotient which is different from that
of the competitors and which is successful in attracting the customers.
CONCLUSION
It can be summarized from the above project that marketing mix of any company must be
efficiently designed such that the brand awareness can be generated and the market share can be
successfully capitalized. An attractive marketing strategy shall help is assuming the competitive
advantage in the industry.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Goenadhi, F. and Rahadi, D. R. (2020). Who Is The Target Market Of Digital Tourism
4.0?. FIRM Journal of Management Studies. 5(1). pp.50-61.
Tosun, N. (2017). Target Market Selection in Fresh Fruit-Vegetable Sector Using Fuzzy VIKOR
Method. Journal of Management Marketing and Logistics. 4(4). pp.465-471.
Darmawan, R. (2020). Designing a Video as a Tool to Promote Zoom Hotel Jemursari Surabaya
to its Target Market. Kata Kita. 8(3). pp.232-243.
Woods, R. (2017). Exploring how the social model of disability can be re-invigorated for autism:
in response to Jonathan Levitt. Disability & Society. 32(7). pp.1090-1095.
Kakitek, A. (2018). Application of Aaker’s brand personality scale on human brands in surf
sports. Journal of Management and Business Administration. Central Europe. 26(4).
pp.11-31.
Kung, L. C. and Zhong, G. Y. (2017). The optimal pricing strategy for two-sided platform
delivery in the sharing economy. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and
Transportation Review. 101. pp.1-12.
Roma, P., Panniello, U. and Nigro, G. L. (2019). Sharing economy and incumbents' pricing
strategy: The impact of Airbnb on the hospitality industry. International Journal of
Production Economics. 214. pp.17-29.
Grewal, R. and et.al., 2018. Marketing channel management by multinational corporations in
foreign markets. Journal of Marketing. 82(4). pp.49-69.
Cai, W. and Chen, Y. J. (2017). Channel management and product design with consumers’
probabilistic choices. International Journal of Production Research. 55(3). pp.904-923.
Anderson, R. E. et.al., (2020). Provenance, evolution, and transition of personal selling and sales
management to strategic marketing channel management. Journal of Marketing
Channels. 26(1). pp.28-42.
Del Castillo, J. A. G. et.al., (2020). Social networks as tools for the prevention and promotion of
health among youth. Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica. 33(1). pp.1-9.
Ben Said, Y., Bragazzi, N. L. and Pyatigorskaya, N. V. (2019). Influence of Sales Promotion
Techniques on Consumers’ Purchasing Decisions at Community
Pharmacies. Pharmacy. 7(4). p.150.
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Online
Dove Marketing Strategy: How Dove Became The Voice of Women. 2021. [Online] Available
through: <https://avada.io/resources/dove-marketing-strategy.html>
Unilever set to unveil Sure deodorants for teenagers. 2021. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.marketingweek.com/unilever-set-to-unveil-sure-deodorants-for-
teenagers/>
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