Herrco Cosmetics: Social Media Marketing Plan and Analysis Report

This report presents a comprehensive social media marketing plan for Herrco Cosmetics, a UK-based SME specializing in organic skincare and cosmetics. The plan, designed for a 4-month period, begins with an executive summary and a thorough marketing audit, analyzing the internal and external environments. A SWOT analysis identifies the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, followed by SMART objectives outlining specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound goals for business and marketing. The report details market segmentation and targeting strategies, focusing on the ideal customer profile for the firm's products. It then explores social media zones and vehicles, including community/relationships, publishing, entertainment, and commerce, to effectively communicate the company's commitment to organic practices and sustainability. The plan also includes an experience strategy centered around the "Natural Beauty" campaign, with an activation plan detailing specific actions, timelines, and a management and measurement framework. The report concludes with a budget and control measures to ensure the plan's successful implementation and provides a list of references.

ENTREPRENEURIAL
MARKETING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
MARKETING AUDIT....................................................................................................................3
Internal Environment..................................................................................................................3
External Environment.................................................................................................................4
SWOT Analysis..........................................................................................................................4
SMART OBJECTIVES...................................................................................................................6
Business Objectives....................................................................................................................6
Marketing Objectives..................................................................................................................6
TARGET AUDIENCE....................................................................................................................6
Market Segmentation..................................................................................................................6
Market Targeting.........................................................................................................................7
SOCIAL MEDIA ZONES AND VEHICLES.................................................................................7
Community/Relationships...........................................................................................................7
Publishing....................................................................................................................................7
Entertainment..............................................................................................................................7
Commerce...................................................................................................................................8
EXPERIENCE STRATEGY...........................................................................................................8
ACTIVATION PLAN.....................................................................................................................9
What will be done.......................................................................................................................9
When it will be done...................................................................................................................9
Timescale....................................................................................................................................9
MANAGEMENT AND MEASUREMENT....................................................................................9
Budget.........................................................................................................................................9
Control.......................................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneurial Marketing refers to a process of capturing various facets and aspects of
marketing in a way which effectively helps in exploitation of various opportunities present in the
market (Nijssen, 2017). The following assignment is based on Herrco Cosmetics, which is one of
the most prominent SMEs of the country located in Halesworth, UK. It covers the organisation's
social media marketing plan for the span of 4 months which includes marketing audit, SMART
objectives, market segmentation and social media zones and strategies.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Herrco Cosmetics specialises in manufacturing and distribution of cosmetics and skincare
products in the country as well as internationally. The firm is subjected to a wide recognition
recently due to effective formulation of various aromatherapy, body, bath and skincare products.
In addition to this, the firm is indulged into providing effective innovative solution to its clients.
The firm maintains the sustainability of its products by usage of Palm Oil, which is one
of the main component in the firm's 90% of the products. However, to prevent the environmental
harm for this oil's production, the firm is paying extra premium for green palm sustainability. To
stay ahead on its organic agenda, the company is adopting various methods of recycling of its
cardboard and waste products. Herrco Cosmetics, in order to convey its business practices, is
willing to develop social media marketing plan for a span of 4 months.
MARKETING AUDIT
Internal Environment
Herrco Cosmetics is a family owned business which was founded in 1988 by Nigel
Herrmann. For more than two decades, the company has established itself as a crucial company
within the UK market. The firm is currently taken over by Derek Herrmann, son of Nigel
Herrmann, who operates as Technical Sales Director within the firm. The firm has a team of
skilled technical staff such as various chemists and R&D employees. The organisation has
experienced growth in its production rate within the last 5-7 years from half a million units to
eight million. To keep up with the consistency, the company is investing its resources in various
plants and machinery for organic production of its skincare and cosmetic goods.. The biggest
agenda of the firm is to enhance its production in an organic and natural way which is

environmental friendly and attracts major customers globally (Herrco Cosmetics HERRCO TO
WELCOME NEW FACTORY INTO THE FAMILY, 2019).
The vision of Herrco Cosmetics is to service customers all around the world with their
organic skincare products and effective service quality. The mission of the company is to
manufacture and distribute skin-friendly and medically advanced products covering all the
skincare markets such as skincare, body, bath, etc.
Having being led by family members, culture of the company promotes supportive
management and providing effective environment to the members to ensure maximum input
from the employees and utmost competence.
The organisational structure of Herrco Cosmetics consists of various departments such
as production, manufacturing, R&D, sales, etc. that allow the company to gather information
about the immediate needs of its customers to that it could satisfy their demands in a better
manner.
External Environment
The current external market situation of the company is quite favourable in various
aspects which could contribute in the company's long-term success. Politically, the firm is
getting support from governments to enhance its business operations and produce better products
for future prospects. As per various sources, the firm is under contract with the US governments
to develop almost 100 organic merchandises, which would be its biggest range till date.
Economically, despite events like Brexit, Herrco Cosmetics is planning to enhance its production
capacity by at least 400% for which the company is willing to invest almost £600,000 for further
future projects (Herrco Cosmetics HERRCO TO WELCOME NEW FACTORY INTO THE
FAMILY, 2019). Socially too, the firm would attract a lot of customers who keep themselves
away from artificial products with added chemicals that could damage their skin or cause serious
infections. Where as Technological aspects are concerned, the investment of the firm for its new
production vessels would allow it to employ efficient technology to enhance the process of
production. Where is Legal and Environmental facets of the environment are concerned, the
company would be complying with laws such as Environmental Protection Act and would also
be complying with various environmental standards set for cosmetics company.

SWOT Analysis
Before developing and implementing the social media marketing plan, it is imperative
that the firm undergoes a detailed SWOT analysis to identify factors which could contribute to
its growth and those areas which needs the firm's attention (Miles and et. al., 2015).
STRENGTHS
 The firm is situated almost 100 miles from Heathrow Airport, London, and about 40
miles from Felixstow Docks which contributes to an easy export of products to its global
customers
 Herrco Cosmetics focuses on an organic and healthy way of producing skincare products
which even have support of governments.
WEAKNESSES
 As per various statistics, the organisation has witnessed a decline in both its revenue as
well as its employees in last one year which could hinder the support the firm needs to
expand its operations.
Illustration 1: Revenue and Employment History of Herrco Cosmetics Ltd. 2018-19
(Source: Herrco Cosmetics Ltd. Company Profile, 2019)
 The firm has a weaker social media presence which fails the company to reach customers
outside its target markets.
OPPORTUNITIES

 The biggest opportunity of the company is the inclination of the customers towards
environment-friendly and healthy skincare products which the firm specialises in. This
would help the organisation seize future opportunities for growth.
 The government support the firm is being given could shape its future operations in a
legal and competent manner.
THREATS
 Herrco Cosmetics' biggest threat is the existing competition in the market with the
companies like The Body Shop. Lush, etc. which have a huge market share in the UK.
 Another threat for the firm would be the dynamic nature of cosmetics industry around the
world. With such aggressive changes in customer preference overtime could reduce the
consistency of the company to produce effective products that match the demand of the
marketplace.
SMART OBJECTIVES
These objectives are those which are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic as well
as Time-Based (Lodish and et. al., 2015). These goals help a company to develop strategies to
achieve specific targets set by the organisations in an appropriate and systematic way. For
Herrco Cosmetics, the SMART objectives are listed below:
Business Objectives
 To enhance the overall sales by 6% by the end of first quarter of 2019.
 To expand overall customer base by 12% by the end of April 2019.
 To increase the turnover by 10% by the end of April 2019.
Marketing Objectives
 To increase the website traffic by 40% the end of April 2019.
 To increase the number of followers of Facebook by 20% by the end of first quarter of
2019.
 To increase YouTube followers by 16% by the end of April 2019.
TARGET AUDIENCE
It is quite imperative for the firm to effectively identify its target customers to channelise
its strategies on a specific group of buyers which would enhance the odds of maximising the

profits. Herrco Cosmetics must identify these customers by market segmentation (Whalen and
Akaka, 2016). This along with the targeting process of the company is mentioned below:
Market Segmentation Geographical: This factor divides the customers on the basis of their geographical
location. For the firm, the most suitable locations for implementation of its marketing
plan would be the urban parts of United Kingdom. Demographics: This aspect divides consumers on the basis of age, gender, income and
marital status. For Herrco, these customers would be females of the country, aged
between 18 to 60, with income more than £10,000 of any marital status.
 Psychographics: This divides the consumers on the basis of their personality and
lifestyle. The customers for the firm would be those who use beauty products regularly
and incline towards use of natural products as well as users of social media platforms.
Market Targeting
Out of all the segments, it is imperative that the company targets the customer groups
most likely to contribute to the success of the social media marketing plan (Kilenthong, P.,
Hultman and Hills, 2016). Herrco Cosmetics would target customers of the urban areas of UK
having income more than £10,000, who prefer using natural products and active on social media.
SOCIAL MEDIA ZONES AND VEHICLES
For effectively developing social media marketing plan, it is important that the company
to determine various social media zones and vehicles to reach customers in order to convey its
strategy and business practices (Ahmadi and O'Cass, 2016). Herrco Cosmetics, in order to
communicate its strategy of product recycling and extra premium for Green Palm Sustainability,
the social media zones and vehicles to communicate the customers about the same are as
follows:
Community/Relationships
The Community refers to the relationship of Herrco Cosmetics with the people of that
area in which it operates. It will make strong the relationship between people and company
increasing their engagements on: Facebook: In making people aware about the eco friendly ways of working, showing
Herrco's way of working to others.

 YouTube: Getting reviews on recycling process used, telling others to use the same way
to increase contribution towards environment protection.
Publishing
It refers to distribution of content to audience. It will be accomplished through: Blogs: used for publishing any improvement in technology which concerns with waste
management and saves environment for creating transparency.
 YouTube: perfect for getting customer supports, for giving any new products
advertisement.
Entertainment
The entertainment can be done through social media in following ways: Facebook: use of Facebook in entertainment can be done by providing fun quiz on the
Facebook page.
 Videos: use of videos can be done by creating a short film on some products and its
manufacturing process.
Commerce
The sites used for selling products in UK and abroad. Ebay: used to sell the cosmetic products, healthcare products.
 Amazon: can also be used to sell the products and as an e commerce partner for Herrco
Cosmetics.
EXPERIENCE STRATEGY
As per the discussion of various zones, Herrco Cosmetics would use all the zones and
vehicles to spread the message about the organic inclination and environmental friendly practices
of the firm. These zones would help the company launch a strong and effective social media
campaign that could reach millions of customers worldwide and could spread the message of
such nature-friendly processes adopted by the company (Chaston, 2015). To enhance its
effectiveness, the firm would launch a marketing campaign by the name of “Natural Beauty”
which would clearly deliver the messages to the customers of the company about the processes
adopted by the firm..
All the content and videos related to the process of production of cosmetic products will
be effectively posted under this campaign using various social media zones like Facebook,

YouTube and Twitter. For this purpose, the campaign would be positioned as #NaturalBeauty
that would attract a lot of customers within limited time.
To develop the emotional attachment with customers, the company will create
compelling videos about the nature and why organic offerings by the organisation would
enhance the beauty of women. Moreover, the fun quizzes about nature and various celebrities
associated with the firm would help the firm connect with customers.
The strategy would also undertake various feedbacks acquired by the customers which
would help the firm in adopting strategies and methods that could increase and satisfy more
customer demands. Effectiveness in commerce would allow the firm to expand its customer base
beyond the UK.
ACTIVATION PLAN
This stage would require the firm to actually implement the set strategy and develop a
plan which would involve the activities and the estimated timescale for its completion. Since the
plan is of 4 months, Herrco Cosmetics would develop its plan to effectively satisfy its agenda
within the given period.
What will be done
To effectively launch and monitor the campaign, the company, in the span of 4 months
would use social media portals like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Amazon to communicate to
customers about its processes and to trade its products in the market.
When it will be done
To spread the campaign, the company would first set out the resources to be used in the
pre-planning phase. This would include the human resources, as well as software and advertising
methods which would allow the firm to effectively implement the plan and monitor it. The
timeline for the same would be 25-30 days. The firm would then launch the campaign
#NaturalBeauty on these social media platforms. This would require Herrco Cosmetics at least a
month to create videos, images, animation and everything necessary for the same. The final step
would be the monitoring of this campaign by benchmarking and KPI tools. For the next two
months, the firm would just interact with the audience through social media and monitor
effectiveness of its campaign by continue to effectively manage its posts, public profile and
media interaction.

Timescale
To maximise the effectiveness and satisfy the agenda, the firm within 4 months would
use these social media portals to implement and monitor this campaign and attract majority of
customers towards its organic cosmetic products and processes.
MANAGEMENT AND MEASUREMENT
This aspect requires Herrco Cosmetics to manage its campaign and employ various
methods that would help in measuring and controlling the marketing plan (Yang and
Gabrielsson, 2017).
Budget
The most important aspect of the company is to determine the budget of the project. The
estimated budged for #Natural Beauty is mentioned below:
BUDGET CATEGORY AMOUNT
Writing 4500
Graphics 7000
Videos 9000
Social advertising
(Facebook, Twitter and Youtube)
11000
Contractor's cost for social engagement 7500
Analytics and Monitoring Software 13000
Discounts and Promotions 6500
Total 58500
Control
The firm would control the campaign by employing various KPI and Benchmarking
methods like shares on the post, profile visits, likes on the videos and the content, retweets,
people following companies profile on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube which would help the
company to ensure completion of its marketing objectives which were to increase website traffic
by 40% and enhancement in Facebook and YouTube followers by 20% and 16% respectively.
Lastly, the firm would also set the sales from Amazon as its KPI.

CONCLUSION
Thus, it is concluded that it is essential for a company to develop and implement a Social
Media marketing plan in order to effectively enhance the visibility of its processes to its
customers. The firm must audit its marketing scenario and must internally analyse to judge its
capacity. SMART objectives would allow the firm to set up strategies to attain its business and
marketing objectives. Social Media zones and vehicles would be effective for the company in
terms of reaching out to customers worldwide. Lastly, it is imperative for the firm to develop an
activation plan and manage and monitor the same to enhance the effectiveness of its Social
Media marketing plan.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahmadi, H. and O'Cass, A., 2016. The role of entrepreneurial marketing in new technology
ventures first product commercialisation. Journal of Strategic Marketing. 24(1). pp.47-
60.
Chaston, I., 2015. Entrepreneurial Marketing: Sustaining Growth in All Organisations.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
Kilenthong, P., Hultman, C.M. and Hills, G.E., 2016. Entrepreneurial marketing behaviours:
impact of firm age, firm size and firm’s founder. Journal of Research in Marketing and
Entrepreneurship. 18(1). pp.127-145.
Lodish, L.M., and et. al., 2015. Marketing that works: how entrepreneurial marketing can add
sustainable value to any sized company. Pearson Education.
Miles, M., and et. al., 2015. Exploring entrepreneurial marketing. Journal of Strategic
Marketing. 23(2). pp.94-111.
Nijssen, E.J., 2017. Entrepreneurial marketing: an effectual approach. Routledge.
Whalen, P.S. and Akaka, M.A., 2016. A dynamic market conceptualization for entrepreneurial
marketing: the co-creation of opportunities. Journal of Strategic Marketing. 24(1).
pp.61-75.
Yang, M. and Gabrielsson, P., 2017. Entrepreneurial marketing of international high-tech
business-to-business new ventures: A decision-making process perspective. Industrial
Marketing Management. 64. pp.147-160.
Online
Herrco Cosmetics HERRCO TO WELCOME NEW FACTORY INTO THE FAMILY. 2019.
[Online]. Available through <http://docplayer.net/34836671-Herrco-cosmetics-herrco-
to-welcome-new-factory-into-the-family.html/>
Herrco Cosmetics Ltd. Company Profile. 2019. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.zoominfo.com/c/herrco-cosmetics/31117299/>