Report: Sustainable Marketing Practices of Aveda Cosmetics Company

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This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Aveda's sustainable marketing practices within the cosmetics industry. It begins with an introduction to sustainable marketing and the company's background, emphasizing its commitment to environmental responsibility. The report examines the conditioning factors driving Aveda's sustainable approach, focusing on Triple Bottom Line (TBL) issues (social, environmental, and financial) and how they influence the company's operations. It identifies the challenges Aveda faces in sourcing natural ingredients, maintaining supplier and community relations, and navigating its relationship with Estée Lauder. The report assesses the impact of these issues on Aveda's product lifecycle and how the company addresses consumer expectations. It then explores the reflection of these issues within the broader cosmetics sector, including the mainstreaming challenge and consumer perceptions of sustainability. The report concludes by evaluating the viability of strategies and tactics for sustainable marketing management, analyzing Aveda's marketing strategies, and assessing its approach to TBL issues and business challenges, ultimately determining whether Aveda is attempting to mainstream sustainable cosmetics and its potential for success.
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Sustainable Marketing
Industry: Cosmetics
Comapany: Aveda
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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
About the company.................................................................................................................................3
An examination of the conditioning factors leading to the need for sustainable marketing practice in
Aveda...........................................................................................................................................................4
The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) issues.........................................................................................................4
Challenges faced by Aveda from the demands of the sustainability agenda...............................................5
Linking the TBL issues to specific business challenges.............................................................................5
Effect of the issues on the Aveda’s practice............................................................................................6
Reflection of the issues within the context of cosmetics sector and the mainstreaming challenge........6
Determining whether the challenge has been met by the sector or not and the perception of
consumer regarding the sustainability issues within this sector.............................................................7
Is the mainstreaming of sustainability a viable option at the moment?..................................................8
Critical analysis of the viability of strategies and tactics for the implementation of sustainable marketing
management...............................................................................................................................................9
Determining the marketing strategy and tactics of Aveda based on the evidence you have gathered on
them........................................................................................................................................................9
Evaluating what Aveda does to deal with TBL issues / business challenges............................................9
Deciding how well Aveda addresses its challenges..................................................................................9
Is Aveda trying to make sustainable cosmetic more mainstream? How? Why not?.............................10
Should Aveda be trying to expand its appeal and mainstream its products and business philosophy? 10
Can Aveda still be successful and not mainstream its offer?.................................................................10
What are other similar businesses doing? How could Aveda learn from the best practice of others?..11
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................11
References.................................................................................................................................................12
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Introduction
The concept of sustainable marketing is related to the commitment of the companies that they
will avoid depleting and degrading the environment, and their marketing practices will not
generate wastes, reduce the consumption of energy and the demand of the consumers will not
exert unnecessary pressure on the environment (Emery, 2012). Sustainable marketing not only
helps the companies in building good relations with the customers, but they also help in
protecting the environment. Thus, the practices of the companies are regarded to be transparent
and ethical. The purpose of this assignment is to evaluate the sustainable marketing practices of
the company Aveda. There are many challenges that the companies have to face in this kind of
marketing activity, so the assignment will determine those challenges faced by Aveda and
analyze the viability of strategies and tactics for the implementation of sustainable marketing
management in Aveda.
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About the company
Aveda Corporation was founded by Horst Rechelbacher. The headquarters of the company is in
Minneapolis suburb of Blaine, Minnesota (Milliman, 2013). The company is in the business of
manufacturing the body and skin care products like the cosmetics, perfumes, hair colors, etc. Its
products are natural and organic, and the company has a great focus on the concept of
sustainability.
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An examination of the conditioning factors leading to the need for
sustainable marketing practice in Aveda
Sustainability is an integral part of the way in which Aveda does business. The company planned
to innovate its products and meet the demands of its customers in a sustainable way. The
company found the journey of sustainability as an exciting journey and they felt that the
enhanced performance of the company can be delivered only by adopting this path of sustainable
marketing (USA, 2016). The company wanted to make ethics as the core of its business practices,
and hence it planned to go for the sustainable marketing practice in Aveda (Sahota, 2014).
The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) issues
These issues also developed the need for sustainable marketing in Aveda. The TBL is a
framework of accounting that incorporates the dimensions of performance for a company that is:
social, environmental and financial or in other words, the 3Ps: people, planet and profits
(Nikolaou, 2013).
The company Aveda wanted to maintain good and mutually beneficial relations with its
customers, community, and the employees. The company Aveda wanted its profile to be
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positive in the eyes of the social world, and it wanted to have continuous support of its
customers and community (Willard, 2012). Hence, for the social sustainability is one of
the factors due to which Aveda started its sustainable marketing practice.
Aveda wanted to gain the benefit of reduced costs for its products. So, instead of using
low-quality raw materials for the manufacturing and creating a potential threat to the
company, it focussed on using the resources in a thoughtful way and not wasting them
(Nikolaou, 2013). It protected itself from the hazardous substances and also reduced the
emissions from its factories. Thus, the focus on reduced cost was another factor that made
the company adopt a sustainable marketing practice and achieved environmental
sustainability along with the reduction in its own costs.
The goal of every company is to earn profits and become economically sustainable. So,
this was the last factor that influenced the company to go for sustainable marketing
practice. With this, the company improved the efficiency of its business, improved
productivity and earned more profits (Savitz, 2012).
Challenges faced by Aveda from the demands of the sustainability
agenda
Linking the TBL issues to specific business challenges
The company Aveda sources natural ingredients because it has focused on the
environment (as per the TBL issues discussed above). The world has finite resources, and
the strategy of this company revolves around these resources only. So, the first challenge
is the limited resources available and the difficulty in sourcing them.
Another challenge is to maintain good relations with the suppliers and the community
because of the company networks with almost 8000 salons and spas in the world (Nagy,
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2015) and therefore it has to supply its products to many countries. When the company
faces shortage of the products, then its relations with the countries are at stake as it has to
choose that to which buyer it will supply its limited stock.
When Estée Lauder company bought Aveda, it decided not to share the Aveda's laser
focus on plant-based sourcing (Pine, 2014). So, the company faced a challenge to operate
on the sustainable path as it had to navigate its need for a steady supply of natural
ingredients (Nagy, 2015).
Effect of the issues on the Aveda’s practice
The issues have affected the entire life cycle of the products of Aveda. The company
continuously tries to find such technology that creates a sustainable design for the
products and the sustainable manufacturing of the ingredients of the cosmetics.
Aveda has secured for itself a certification that recognizes its products to be good for the
environment and for the customers (Pine, 2014). This practice has made the company
move ahead of just the ‘eco-efficient’ practices.
The issues have also made the company meet all the expectations of the consumers in the
market as they have got a genuine product that has solved many of their beauty and skin
related problems.
Reflection of the issues within the context of cosmetics sector and the
mainstreaming challenge
The cosmetics sector is one of the most looked upon sector by the consumers. It is seen as a
solution to their day-to-day problems like the skin problems, beauty issues, hair problems, etc.
This sector should aim to solve the challenges that the consumers face with their beauty on a
daily basis like the falling hair, rough skin, dark skin tone, etc. Therefore, this sector should not
focus on just earning profits, but it should focus on the customer service. Thus, the TBL issues
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play an important role in the cosmetics sector. The main reflection of these issues in a context of
the cosmetics sector happens in the manufacturing and the sourcing of the raw materials. The
cosmetic sector is expected to use all the natural ingredients in the production of its products.
So, it is expected from the companies in this industry that they do it in a sustainable way because
the sourcing of the raw materials has direct impact on nature and the environment. The
companies are expected to take care of the environment as well. The social issues are also
reflected within the context of cosmetics sector because the companies have to maintain good
relations with its customers to understand their needs in a proper manner, understand their
problems and accordingly producing the products that are able to solve their specific problems.
The mainstreaming challenge is to engage all the people associated with the company in the
sustainable marketing practices and protecting the environment (Martins, 2014). This is because,
in some instances, the companies produce the sustainable products, but the consumers don’t buy
it. The suppliers may not be willing to search for the natural ingredients, and they may supply a
false or non-natural products, etc. So, it is very difficult to motivate all the people to get engaged
in the practices of sustainable marketing.
Determining whether the challenge has been met by the sector or not and the
perception of consumer regarding the sustainability issues within this sector
The challenges that have been mentioned above have been met by the sector to some extent. The
sector faces difficulty in sourcing the products, but it tries hard to do that and remain intact with
its policy of using only the natural ingredients in the cosmetic. It faces difficult in maintaining
good relations with the buyers in other countries because sometimes, the limited stock fails to
fulfill demands of people across the world. But, the company try to balance this.
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The consumers have a wide variety of cosmetics to choose from. But, the consumers are well-
aware these days, and before using any cosmetic, they check the company and the ingredients of
the product. So, the perception of the consumer regarding the sustainability issues within this
sector is positive. They have a preference for the products of the company that is involved in
sustainability and use the TBL framework for the development of its products (Spa, 2016). The
company Aveda also has a wide customer base, and it supplies its products to almost 8000 salons
and spas. This shows that people have a preference for the products that are developed
sustainably and they perceive these products to be good.
Is the mainstreaming of sustainability a viable option at the moment?
Yes, the mainstreaming of sustainability a viable option at the moment because the growth in the
world is happening at a very fast pace and in comparison to the growth, the resources in the
world are limited. Also, the wastages and under or over utilisation of the resources is leading to
losses to the environment. This is likely to affect the future generations in the coming years. So,
sustainability should be mainstreamed by all the companies and the cosmetic sector too. This
will help in the reducing of the costs related to energy consumption (Martins, 2014). The
companies will adjust their consumption of energy as per the level of production, and hence the
costs will get saved. Then customers also favor the products that are produced naturally and are
eco-friendly. So, the sales of the companies are likely to increase. Finally, the greatest viability
in mainstreaming the sustainability lies in the positive impact that it will have on the society.
Thus, at present, the companies must make sustainability the core of its business.
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Critical analysis of the viability of strategies and tactics for the
implementation of sustainable marketing management
Determining the marketing strategy and tactics of Aveda based on the
evidence you have gathered on them
The marketing strategy of Aveda involved use of social media widgets, AdWords campaign and
the cross-media competition for promoting the products (Chan, 2014). For implementing the
sustainable marketing management, the company opened affordable salons at various places so
that the costs are saved, and it enrolled students from various schools like the beauty school,
modern beauty school, etc. Instead of wasting resources like paper and printing brochures, it
used the social media platform to interact with its audience (von Meyer-Höfer, 2014).
Evaluating what Aveda does to deal with TBL issues / business challenges
Aveda involves genuine suppliers with its business who can supply only the natural
ingredients to it. If the company feels that any supplier is not able to source the natural
ingredients or it is trying to get the ingredients by damaging the environments, then it
breaks its partnership with that supplier (Aveda patents colour-depositing shampoo, 2003).
The company uses sustainable practices of manufacturing the product like it avoids
wastage create superior aesthetics etc.
The company has installed eco-friendly technology for production. This makes the
production happen at low cost, in an efficient manner, wastes produced are less and
acceptance by the consumers is more.
Deciding how well Aveda addresses its challenges
According to the above analysis, Aveda addresses its challenges in a very well manner except for
the challenge of navigating its need for a steady supply of natural ingredients. The company has
been able to deploy strategies for overcoming all the challenges in the path of suitability and till
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date the company is moving on the path of sustainable manufacturing and sustainable marketing.
It has been using the green tools that produce the exceptional green products (von Meyer-Höfer,
2014) and solves the problems of its customers.
Is Aveda trying to make sustainable cosmetic more mainstream? How? Why
not?
Yes, Aveda is trying to make sustainable cosmetic more mainstream because the company
Aveda is maintaining good and mutually beneficial relations with its customers, community, and
the employees. Aveda wanted to gain the benefit of reduced costs for its products. So, instead of
using low-quality raw materials for the manufacturing and creating a potential threat to the
company, it focussed on using the resources in a thoughtful way and not wasting them. It
protected itself from the hazardous substances and also reduced the emissions from its factories
(Aveda patents colour-depositing shampoo, 2003). The company also improved the efficiency of
its business, improved productivity and earned more profits.
Should Aveda be trying to expand its appeal and mainstream its products and
business philosophy?
Yes, Aveda should do that because sustainable products are needed in today's world, and they are
preferred products too. If the products and the philosophy of the company are beneficial to the
people, customer, and the environment in any way, ten its must be spread and mainstreamed.
Can Aveda still be successful and not mainstream its offer?
This may not happen because the company has already positioned itself as a sustainable
company in the market and if it does not mainstream this then the customers may lose confidence
in the products of the company, and it may no longer remain so popular and competitive in the
market.
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What are other similar businesses doing? How could Aveda learn from the
best practice of others?
L’Oreal is another brand of cosmetics which is following the path of sustainability. It is very
much committed to the society and community. It creates the products that are most useful to the
consumers and meet their real social needs (Campion, 2013).
Aveda can learn from its business practices as L’Oreal has announced a commitment to
sustainability for 2020 and it is making the move to achieve that, thus the confidence of the
consumers in the company has grown. This is the best practice because it has attracted the
attention of the consumers and they prefer the products of the company. The campaign has
shown that how much the company is dedicated towards the sustainability and thus, the company
has concern for the environment. By committing to similar ambitions, the company Aveda can
also attract the consumers and make further moves towards achieving the sustainability.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the sustainable marketing practices of the company Aveda are very
efficient except for few like the control on the suppliers and engagement of all people in
sustainability. There are many challenges that the company has to face in this kind of marketing
activity like the sourcing of ingredients, maintaining good relations, etc. But, the strategies and
tactics for the implementation of sustainable marketing management in Aveda are viable, and the
company has been successful to a great extent in adopting and practicing the sustainable
marketing concepts.
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