Marketing Plan: Sustainable Product for ItGirl Lipsticks - BUS123

This marketing plan focuses on launching a sustainable lipstick product, ItGirl, emphasizing its replaceable nature to reduce plastic waste and offer cost savings. The plan begins with an executive summary, followed by an analysis of the current market situation, highlighting the environmental, economic, and socio-cultural factors favoring the product. It sets SMART objectives to increase profit, customer base, and reduce plastic waste. The target market is defined demographically, psychographically, behaviorally, and geographically, focusing on women aged 20-30 in Australia. Marketing strategies encompass positioning, product development (core, generic, expected, augmented, and potential levels), pricing (status-quo oriented), placement (intensive distribution), and promotion. The marketing implementation section outlines the practical steps, including people, process, and physical evidence. A detailed budget is provided, along with an evaluation and control plan to measure the plan's effectiveness and make necessary adjustments. The plan aims to achieve a net profit of $27,000 and includes references to relevant sources.

MARKETING PLAN FOR SUSTAINABLE OFFERING

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The present report aims on the marketing plan for a sustainable product. It states the
different essentials required for advertising any business and its products. The below essay is
based on the creation of lipstick creams only so that the plastic waste along with the money can
be reduced. The concept in itself is helpful in gaining competitive advantage. For this business
plan, marketing implementation plan and budget will be done. Also, the effectiveness of the
stated plan will be evaluated and controlled. The aim of the present marketing plan is to gain the
net profit of $27000.

CONTENTS
CURRENT SITUATION................................................................................................................1
OBJECTIVES..................................................................................................................................1
TARGET MARKET........................................................................................................................2
MARKETING STRATEGIES........................................................................................................3
Positioning...................................................................................................................................3
Product.........................................................................................................................................4
Price.............................................................................................................................................4
Placement.....................................................................................................................................5
Promotion....................................................................................................................................6
MARKETING IMPLEMENTATION.............................................................................................6
BUDGET.........................................................................................................................................7
EVALUATION AND CONTROL..................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

CURRENT SITUATION
In order to initiate any business in this contemporary world, it has become crucial to pay
major attention on the sustainable development. The idea of manufacturing replaceable lipsticks
is thus supports the environment friendly business (Sloberg and Nilsson, 2019). This
manufacturing will reduce the plastic waste to a greater level. In context with the external
environmental factors too, the present idea is very feasible. The environmental analysis for this
business idea is as follows:
 Political: There are various newly imposed laws to save the environment. Thus, the idea
of developing eco-friendly lipsticks goes well with the regulations.
 Economical: The thought of making replaceable lipstick supports the economics of
general public. It helps them wasting less in one-time use sticks.
 Socio-cultural: This factor is also very crucial in affecting the overall marketing process.
It should be however noted that the social and cultural factors of the nation are in support
of using less-chemical made products.
 Technological: The present concept is very new to the market and hence, it will help the
organisation in marketing their best.
 Ecological: The concept of developing sustainable products which does not harm the
environment highly supports the marketing of the present product.
 Legal: First, it supports the rules and regulations framed by the government to save the
environment (Baker, 2014).
The current market trend being the conscious of chemical free products suits very well with
the present day demands of the customers. ItGirl produces eco-friendly and recyclable lipsticks
which will draw the attention of a lot of people. The customer base for this product will be
targeted based on their age group. The manufacturing of the sustainable and replaceable lipstick
also relies on the fact that it costs people so much to buy a complete new set of lipstick every
time. Product of ItGirl thus highly suits both the demands of the customers that are the
production of sustainable and price efficient lipsticks.
OBJECTIVES
In order to check effectiveness of any marketing plan, it is first essential to set the
appropriate goals so that the work can be carried in the right direction. Also, the objectives are
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required to be SMART i.e. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and time bound
(Hollensen, 2010). For the present business idea, the SMART objectives are as follows:
Specific
1. To increase the net profit of ItGirl lipsticks by 10% till next year.
2. To increase number of customers by 30% in 1 year.
3. To reduce the plastic waste by 5% in 1 year.
Measurable
1. To implement best marketing techniques in practice.
2. To increase the number of dealers by 15% in one year.
3. To increase the number of people in social awareness programmes.
Attainable
1. To create an effective sales team in the company.
2. To prepare different technique of social media marketing of the product.
3. To prepare a good team of CSR to render appropriate training.
Relevant
1. To make more and more people aware of the product by social media platform.
2. To prepare report of genuine bulk buyers of the product.
3. To develop a chart for different training programmes.
Time-bound
1. To increase the sales percentage by 15% till next two years.
2. To achieve one million followers on social media platform in next 3 years.
3. To increase the number of CSR activities by 10 in one year.
TARGET MARKET
It is highly essential to select the target for the business marketing. It ensures that the business is
going in the right direction or not. It also helps in breaking down the large market into the
smaller segments so that the operations can be carried out smoothly. There exist four major
characteristics of a target market (Haider et. al., 2019. There are demographic, psychographic,
behavioural and geographic. For the present product of ItGirl that is sustainable lipsticks, the
audience based on different general characteristics are as follows:
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1. Demographic: For the present product selling, the audience based on the age and gender
will be chosen. Females with age group ranging between 20 to 30 years will be selected.
As this group is the biggest user of the selected product.
2. Psychographic: In order to target customers because of their lifestyle, ItGirl needs to pay
attention on the females who always keeps themselves up to date with the recent trends
present in the marketplace.
3. Behavioural: As the product is non premium but belongs to a non-premium category, the
entity should render their attention to those who cannot afford buying lipsticks more
frequently. As the product is replaceable so the customer range should also be like such
who is not interested in paying much.
4. Geographic: For now, the ItGirl should focus on the targeting of customers from
Australia only. With the time and experience, international expansion can be done.
In addition to this, the entity can select the present users of the competitive businesses.
With the help of the competitive advantage of sustainable and replaceable products, the
entity can attract a good clientele. Since the product is eco-friendly too that is it does not
contain any harmful chemical which can affect the people and environment henceforth it
is highly recommended to the customers to choose it over other brands.
MARKETING STRATEGIES
For the present organisation ItGirl, the biggest advantage that it can use while marketing
their products is its concept. The idea of developing replaceable lipsticks which are sustainable
too is unique hence; the firm should make good use of it in the promotion.
Positioning
The concept behind the present project will help in getting the position in the market. There are
many programmes launched by other cosmetic companies to save nature by developing eco-
friendly products. However, the factor that sets the current concept apart from them is that it
aims on saving money of people along with reducing the plastic in form of lipstick bodies with
every single purchase. Two major segments that will be attracted by this includes people who
wishes to use eco-friendly products that reduces the plastic waste and those who wants to save
money.
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Product
The present product belongs to the lifestyle category. It is not the basic requirement but
however crucial as per the recent trends. There are further five product levels which are core
benefit, generic, expected, augmented and potential product. Core benefit is the fundamental
need of the product. In present case, it is the requirement to match the present lifestyle. The
generic product involves only those characteristics which are necessary. The intention behind
applying is getting coloured lips which can be done by non-premium lipsticks too (Perreault,
2018). Expected products are those which buyers normally expect or agree to purchase. For this,
the lipsticks are required to be not harmful on their body. Augmented products involve the
additional features that serve it different from other competitors. The lipsticks by the ItGirl are
sustainable and replaceable. With regards to the potentiality, the organisation will keep
developing and modifying the products by considering the different perception of people. It
further goes in the industrial type product with the unique selling proposition of its replaceable
lipstick concept. Other than this, the organisation should also pay attention on the smart a deco-
friendly packaging of the products. Also, the plastics used in the packaging produces carbon
footprint hence, they should be omitted.
1.1.1 People
The person working in an organisation plays a major role in increasing its sales. The present
concept is entirely based on the marketing so the organisation should train its staff in promotion
of their products.
1.1.2 Process
In order to practice the business operations in an effective manner, it is suggested to conduct
timely market research so that the needs, demands and feedback of people can be noted.
1.1.3 Physical Evidence
The people of the organisation should be provided with best facilities so that they can be self-
motivated hence, increasing the productivity of the business.
Price
Pricing refers to the approach of a business to set the purchase price of goods and service
products. There are three major goals based on which the pricing is done, they are profit-
oriented, sales oriented and status-quo oriented. The products of ItGirl will aim on the customers
who are already users of the existing lipstick brands and thus the pricing goal will be status-quo
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oriented. There are some areas which are required to be think upon before commencing the price
setting decision (Blakeman, 2018). Firstly, cost of the total preparation will be forecasted
including all the parameters that will be required from manufacturing to marketing. After this,
the profit percentage will be added and the product will be launched in the market. Also, demand
based pricing is very helpful which involves the perception of the customers as the central
element. For increasing the number of customers, it is highly crucial to set the prices
appropriately.
There exist different pricing strategies for a business such as market penetration,
economy pricing, premium pricing, skimming, value, geographical, promotional, captive, etc. In
market penetrations, prices are set low to attract buyers. In premium pricing, the price of product
is set high because of the unique concept or brand that no one can compete. Price skimming is
used when businesses aims to set price high during the initial phase of a product. Later, with time
prices of product is lowered as competitors launch their products in the market. Status quo
pricing is the one in which the price is set after considering the prices of other rivals in the sector
(Fifield, 2012). Every element of the above-mentioned terms is needed to look closely and
implement well to achieve the fine tuning of the base price. In present situation the cost price of
per lipstick is set to be $10 and it has been decided that per year total number of units produced
will be 9450.
That is the total cost of production will be $94500 for one year. Selling price of the product will
be $28.50.
Placement
After selection of product and its pricing it is highly essential to place the offering to the
final customers effectively. It can be completed via different channels that are direct and indirect.
In direct, the customers are targeted directly whereas in undirected a layer of intermediations are
there. The selected organisation can involve different dealers, social media platforms, online
shopping portals, different retailing stores, etc. There are further three level of distribution
intensity, which are intensive, selective and exclusive. In case of intensive distribution, mass
marketing of product is carried. In this a large area will be covered. In selective one, there will
only be limited outlets. This generally happens with a strong brand image of the brand. In case of
exclusive, there will be very little number of outlets even at the national level, for example:
Lamborghini (Ataman, Van Heerde and Mela, 2010). In case of our product, the most
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appropriate one is the intensive promotion to reach a wide range of customers. For this type of
distribution to take place, it is also necessary for the ItGirl to maintain the logistic in a good
manner. Efficient team of supply chain will be designated to maximize the service after
considering the minimum cost factor (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). In context to the
distribution of lipsticks by ItGirl, it has been assumed that $5625 per month will be the cost of
placement. That is for a year, the total cost of distribution will be $67500.
Promotion
In order to increase sales of any product, it is beneficial to proceed with the integrated
marketing communication technique. This allows experiencing different things such as
advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, interactive marketing, direct marketing, etc. the
target audience for the product will be females belonging from 20 to 30 years age group. Also,
they should already be user of the competitive firms. The advertisement should clearly notify the
customers that the lipstick is replaceable and is eco-friendly too. It will help in attracting a large
customer base. For the entity, it is beneficial to communicate effectively so that they can
transmit their message to them. In context with the promotional mix, the most suitable tactic is
the digital marketing. This allows an organisation to cover a wide range of people within a
limited time period (Gould and Svensson, 2018). Also, it targets customers in bulk. The age
group which is also targeted audience is found to be highly active on social media platforms too.
Henceforth, digital marketing will be selected for the promotion of ItGirl lipsticks. For all these
activities, a sum of amount will be required. It has been assumed that for the promotion of the
product per month $6750 will be spent. Accordingly, $81000 of sum will be allotted as
marketing cost.
MARKETING IMPLEMENTATION
The major aim of any business is to increase the net profit by increasing the sales,
promotion, etc. with the help of effective strategies and unique selling positioning. In current
case, it is aimed to increase the sales of product by 10%. For this, strong teams for different
functions will be designated first to achieve the objective. Further, effective tactics to achieve the
goal will be prepared and the implementation in the business system will take place (Slater, Hult
and Olson, 2010). The overall operation is essential to be accomplished under the stipulated time
frame. For the current business marketing plan, it has been decided that a one-year time period
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will be given to accomplish the goal of increasing the sales by 10%. Different teams for sales,
marketing, manufacturing, digital marketing, research, etc. will be prepared. They will work
accordingly in their respective division considering a strong level of interaction between each
department to ensure productive results.
BUDGET
Particulars Ref. 1st Year 3rd Year 5th Year Total $
No. of Units
Produced
A 9450
units
11434
units
13835 units 34719 units
Selling Price B $28.50 $28.50 $28.50 $28.50
Revenue from
lipsticks
C=A X B $270000 $326700 $395307 $992007
Less: Cost Of
Production
D $94500 $114345 $138357.45 $347202.45
Less: Cost of
distribution
E $67500 $81675 $98826.75 $248001.75
Less: Marketing
costs
F $81000 $98010 $118592.1 $297602.1
Projected Profit G= C-
(D+E+F)
$27000 $32670 $39530 $99200.7
EVALUATION AND CONTROL
In order to achieve any objective, it is recommended to watch and control each activity
carefully. For the present situation, different teams can be prepared to look after the different
departments. For instance, there should be finance team, a market research and development
team, sales and marketing division, CSR team, etc. The finance team will monitor and control
the overall sales, profitability, and return on investment, etc. (Seweryn and Bujak, 2018). This
will assist in evaluating the net profit and other accountancy terms. The marketing will ensure
the increment in the sales with the help of discussed strategies. In addition to this, research and
development team also plays a major part in the success of a business. They ensure the
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development of product in the right direction. The CSR team will pay attention to the
sustainability projects to meet the demands of present day environment laws and regulations.
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REFERENCES
Ataman, M.B., Van Heerde, H.J. and Mela, C.F., (2010). The long-term effect of marketing
strategy on brand sales. Journal of Marketing Research, 47(5), pp.866-882.
Baker, M.J., (2014). Marketing strategy and management. Macmillan International Higher
Education.
Blakeman, R., (2018). Integrated marketing communication: creative strategy from idea to
implementation. Rowman & Littlefield.
Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., (2019). Digital marketing. Pearson UK.
Fifield, P., (2012). Marketing strategy. Routledge.
Gould, R. and Svensson, M., (2018). Sustainable product development and tricks on the mind:
Formulating conceptual models of cognitive illusions and mitigating actions.
Haider, A. A., Zafar, A., Khalid, A., Majid, A., Abdullah, M.A. and Sarwar, M.B. (2019).
Marketing Management. Term Project.
Hollensen, S., (2010). Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education.
Perreault, W.D., (2018). Essentials of marketing. New York: Mc Graw Hill.
Seweryn, A. and Bujak, T., (2018). Application of anionic phosphorus derivatives of alkyl
polyglucosides to produce sustainable and mild body wash cosmetics. ACS Sustainable
Chemistry & Engineering, 6(12), pp.17294-17301.
Slater, S.F., Hult, G.T.M. and Olson, E.M., (2010). Factors influencing the relative importance of
marketing strategy creativity and marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. Industrial
Marketing Management, 39(4), pp.551-559.
Sloberg, H. and Nilsson, S., (2019). Internal Marketing Communication: Alpha, a Machinery
Business.
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