Aesop Marketing Environment and Strategy (Essay Sample)

Aesop marketing environment and strategy
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4th February 2015
Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc410809627 \h 3Marketing Background PAGEREF _Toc410809628 \h 3Main products PAGEREF _Toc410809629 \h 4Marketing strategies PAGEREF _Toc410809630 \h 5Pricing PAGEREF _Toc410809631 \h 5Promotion PAGEREF _Toc410809632 \h 5Distribution PAGEREF _Toc410809633 \h 6Marketing mix PAGEREF _Toc410809634 \h 7Product PAGEREF _Toc410809635 \h 7Place PAGEREF _Toc410809636 \h 8Price PAGEREF _Toc410809637 \h 8Promotion PAGEREF _Toc410809638 \h 9Recommendation PAGEREF _Toc410809639 \h 10Appendix PAGEREF _Toc410809640 \h 12SWOT analysis PAGEREF _Toc410809641 \h 12Positioning PAGEREF _Toc410809642 \h 13References PAGEREF _Toc410809643 \h 14
Introduction
Aesop is a skin care company that deals with a range of beauty products. It is based in Melbourne, Australia with a global presence. It was started in 1987 by Dennis Paphitis. It has concentrated on skin and hair care producing a very wide range of products for the same. The company has gone global selling its products in many countries of the world. Aesop has its stores in United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It has had great Managers who have driven the company to a distinctive success. Products from Aesop have been branded unique with formulation that made them part of people’s lifestyle. This is because their products come as part of a package of healthy living hence drawing a large market (Jacob, 2013).
Marketing Background
Aesop takes a very unique strategy of marketing. According to Crisell (2013) it has a Cult following for their unique marketing style. During an interview with Santos, she revealed that the company shuns using widely adopted strategies in marketing. While other companies’ strategies emphasize on the anti-aging and natural ingredients of their products, Aesop draws far from such marketing strategies. The company focuses on fitting into a different kind of market that embraces science. According to Crisell (2013) Aesop has been unique in the way it approaches the market, they have avoided use of celebrity endorsement or even common advertisements. In their distinct advertising style they have employed the use of healthy living and promotion through the particular products they offer. Hence drawing attention by the small and very important aspects of cosmetics that many other companies have not taken note off.
The company has also been keen on sustainability of the environment and resources. They park their products in glass bottles. These according to Aesop manager is a strategy to ensure that they don’t exhaust the environment using leaflets for instructions. The instructions to be printed on the wall can otherwise be printed and mounted on the bottles (Padoa, 2011).
Main products
Aesop is focused on unique products that are built on a heavy research on the health contribution to people. The company changes the lifestyle of people through being part of their lifestyle like encouraging exercise, balanced diet and drinking water. Among the great and latest products of Aesop include Protective Body lotion SPF50. This lotion helps to protect the skin against harmful sun rays. It is designed to be water resistant and smooth for most skins (Beach, 2015).
A second very innovative product of Aesop is the Marraketh Intense. This is a body lotion that is equipped with traditional dishes’ aroma. It is meant for both men and women. Many products of Aesop are designed for please and purpose. It can be considered as a marketing strategy embedded in their production style which does not only focus on style but also on the purpose their products are provided. The production of traditional and evocative aroma like of the Marraketh intense does not only focus on the pleasure but also focus on the significance of the oils used to make a lotion. Some of the oils used to produce Aesop oils include Blue Chamomile. This oil is good for its skin soothing, balancing and anti-oxidant properties. Oil called clove bud is also used; it is good due to its refreshing and anti –oxidant properties. Finally, there is Sandalwood oil which is stringent and purifying (Aesop, 2015).
The company has distributors around the world in form of their stores. They are executively designed and have a variety of services. Their store style and staff attract many customers to their products. They also provide what customers are looking for in skin care oils. For instance, they have avoided using words like natural on the packages of oil. They have instead insisted on heath and chemical ingredients. Hence in this manner attract customers who appreciate the use of science to come up with skin care products. They also attract customers who are more interested in healthy lifestyle (Aesop, 2015).
Marketing strategies
Pricing
Aesop applies a very uncompetitive pricing strategy. In its own style of production and promotion it will, not be very advisable for the company to be competitive. Among the many pricing strategies that have been adopted by several other skin care companies, include the common competitive strategy. In this strategy some skin care companies engage in price wars. This strategy could work negatively for Aesop. It has adopted a cost oriented pricing style. This is a very straight forward pricing strategy in which costs are intelligently determined by products and evaluation of the market. Aesop prices do not fluctuate in a wide margin since in the style of production they do not face a very tough competition (Kuehlwein, 2012).
The company has also been careful not to value its items too highly as customers might consider this overrating. Aesop has also been very careful on pricing strategies that vary with place. This simply implies that pricing is sensitive to place and must vary accordingly. Aesop has also been careful on their pricing in regard to discount and offers.
Promotion
Aesop Company has been very strategic on their promotional strategy. The company stands out on this due to their unique promotional strategy that attracts customers. The company does not very much focus on advertising and using celebrities for new launches. The company unlike most skin care companies avoids using commonly selling terms like ‘natural.’ Their unique marketing strategy concentrate on designing their stores different from others. Hence, they attract a difference and announce a very distinct style of reaching out to their customers (Wells, 2012).
They also have a unique packaging style. They use glass bottles and squeezable beige tubes that are identical for almost all their products. They have also adopted distinct writing on their bottles. You will expect words like ‘organic’ and ‘natural’ on many skin care bottles. Many will talk highly of moisturizing and bettering of a skin. But the main difference between normal skin care oil products and Aesop is conspicuous. Aesop do not use heavy campaigns, new product launches, internet adverts etc. They have only concentrated on giving personalized feeling through their stores.
Aesop has been widely known to apply science and quality of their products. They have lotions that have great smell that have been botanically extracted. They also have designed their stores uniquely enough to send messages across the market. They have invested in training their staff to know how to handle and advice their customers. Aesop has been very healthy and attractive to consumers who have found it real in presenting facts about skin care. The fact that they encourage healthy lifestyle in order to achieve great skin defines their commitment and truthfulness of their marketing strategy. These are the factors that have made Aesop to develop greatly and have a cult following even if they don’t frequently appear on ads and internet (Perman, 2011).
Distribution
Aesop has opened several stores across the world. They use their own stores to sell their products. They have designed and arranged their distribution and delivery ways in a manner that advertises them. They have stores in most parts of the world to help in distributing their products. Aesop stores have been uniquely designed with educated, trained and experienced attendants who serve in these shops to give a very good customers experience.
Apart from their great delivery and positioning of stores, in consistence with the strategy of uniqueness they have been designed to be conspicuous and with an executive arrangement. They smell great and the company invests a lot of money in capacity building of their employees at the end stores. Hence the distribution technique has attracted a lot of customers looking for a distinct shopping experience (Walk, 2015).
Marketing mix
Product
The products of Aesop give an exclusive experience to its customers. It first created a market unique for itself. It used alternative advertising styles and ways of designing products to ensure that they acquired very unique customers. Among the many differences in their products include prioritizing use of science to manufacture their products against emphasizing on nature. They have embraced the use of science to come up with great products (Australian Packaging Covenant, 2014).
Aesop also has a very wide range of products with different kinds of tastes and uses. However, their most unique product that is designed to smell like traditional cuisine set the direction of Aesop more clearly. They have been coming up with new products consistently but have equally warned that they are not using new products launch as a way to win new customers but rather when they do so are actually launching a completely new product. They have diversified in the kinds of products they give which have included h...