Effectiveness Of The Clarins Integrated Marketing Communications Marketing Essay

Since the Clarins group built in 1954 by Jacques Courtin-Clarins. The brand soon became a skin leader in France in 1980 and then Europe in 1990. They are also diversification their product through launching the Clarins make-up line then lauch of a men’s range and the customizable skin care line.  In 2008, the Group entered the world of organic cosmetics with the brand KIBIO. Clarins is a major player in the Beauty sector. Today the Group enjoys an international presence in all segments of the cosmetics market – Skin Care, Make-Up and Fragrance.  The group has four brands, Clarins, Thierry Mugler, Azzaro and Stella Cadente.With its network of 20 subsidiaries, over 140 local agents and a total of over 6,000 staff worldwide, the Clarins Group continues to explore new horizons by widening its product offer and carrying out external growth operations. 

1.2: Clarins company vision and mission (48words)

Clarins brand for the love of beauty. Clarins group developed unique institute and body treatment methods and crated luxury products made exclusively from plant extracts to give both women and men the best Nature has to offer. Their mission to invent products for every beauty need and desire.

1.3: Background of Cosmetic industry (302words)

Nowadays, many people eager to have good complexion about them it is not only concern for women but also for men. Compared with old times ago, people live in today they are willing to consume for many of the skin-care products and cosmetics. Some of them are for fun or make good image for themselves as good image is one of the strong weapons to appeal them to others. Also, followed by fashion trends women are needed to spend lots of their money in buying cosmetic products to pursuing these trends. Therefore, every country has cosmetic industry and the market volume is rapidly growing every year. The make-up market consists of eye make-up, face make-up, lip make-up and nail make-up. However, there is new movement towards cosmetic industry by major market players since they started to diversification their product ranges to match with various customer needs by different segment ranges. It is including skin-care, body-care, and hair-care and even men’s cosmetic product range. Cosmetic industry is one of the significant industry areas for every nation as it is able to generate its profits to their nation’s revenue. For example, one of the Asia-Pacific make-up markets that Singapore is accounts for 1.6% for its market value. The face make-up product sales generated 34.4% of the Singaporean make-up market’s revenue which is important to Singapore’s overall cosmetic market value in 2008. Furthermore, in 2013, the Singaporean make-up market is forecast to have a value of $154.9 million, an increase of 43.4% since 2008. Advertising method is commonly used to build strong brand loyalty since it is crucial factors to success in this industry. Thus, IMC approach has significant impact on their business related with their sales. So, it is important to carefully consider proper IMC programs before they want to implement it to market.

Chapter2: Literature Review (2000 words)

2.1: Background and definition of IMC and its usefulness (345words)

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is now most commonly used in the most of today’s companies to attempt to coordinate their various internal and external dialogues through various communication tools to appeal their audiences. It is because of today’s market becomes more fragmented through over the few years therefore mass marketing is decreasing its effectiveness and the target marketing is needed to be in consideration. Thus, IMC is needed to organizations to become efficient. Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is one of the marketing concepts which are recognized as the added value through various communication tools to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communication impact (Cathey and Schumann, 1996). Duncan and Everett’s (1993) definition IMC as, “the strategic coordination of all messages and media used by an organization to influence its perceived brand value,” To avoid information overload and misunderstanding, an organization’s external communications need to be consistent and coordinated to enhance trust and commitment from their customers. Overall, IMC include the integration and coordination of message and media, managing customer relationships, and inducing the customer’s behavioral responses.

Marketing communication tools includes general advertising, sales promotion, public relations, sponsorship, direct marketing, personal selling and exhibitions. Each promotional tool has different impact on buyers. Therefore, it is significant consideration to marketers to select right tools of the promotional mix since each promotional tool able to achieve impacts or effects on particular audiences to deliver particular messages (Fill, 2009). Thus, today the organizations trying to reach and deliver their communication messages effectively to various customer groups through various communication tools consistent with their objectives and strategies. Integrated marketing communications becomes increasingly attractive as its synergistic advantages through its communications. Furthermore, through integrated marketing communications (IMC), organizations could attain competitive advantages over the competitors by differentiating their marketing communications since today’s products and services are similar to each other based on the technology advances. Moreover, IMC enables driving down the cost to improve organization’s profits and levels of productivity. As a result, many of the organizations welcome to IMC approaches to build a clear positioning in the market for its advantages.

2.2: Communication theory

In the past, an organization often has chosen one way communications with their audiences through mass media. However, now one way communications could not effective as it did in the last time. It is because just deliver messages or information to audiences is not enough except their involving in the communications. Therefore, an organization seeking for the two way communications with their audiences through various media tools to reaching them. Failed communication could be occurs when the receiver could not receives the message that actually sender intended to send. It is based on the message rejection, misinterpretation and misunderstanding and as a results an organization’s communications efforts will be inefficient and ineffective as they are wasting their time, efforts and costs. On the other hand, Smith and Taylor (2009) noted that a good marketing communications help an organization to thrive by getting their messages across in a focused and cost-effective way. Marketing communications tools should able to address human’s five basic senses simultaneously as receiving these the five senses of hearing, sight, touch, taste and smell to receiving messages or information and marketing communications.

It is important to understanding of the target receiver or audience as it could helps to identify what is important to the audience and how symbols, signs and language are interpreted to avoiding failed communications.

A single-step communications model

Mass communications

Two-step communications model

Multi-step communications model

Web communications model

Word of mouth

2.3: Response of Hierarchy Models

2.4: Consumer buying decision behavior (490words) +motivation factors

Regardless the type of the business, it is vital to organization to select their target consumer groups and segments a specific market and identify their customer groups’ buying behavior when they attempt to penetrate to the market and plan for their marketing communications plan. It is because if they know and understand that how their customer buying behavior patterns are work, it would make easier to them to communicate to with their customers as they are able to involve in customer’s buying decision process to induce purchase and repurchase behavior. To be communicated with their customers at the right time and in the right or appropriate manner with correct type of information is needed to have knowledge of a buyer’s decision making processes (Fill 2009). In fact, it is difficult to identify each individual customer’s preferences towards several products or services and also hard to explain exactly what is the reason to leading their repeat purchasing. However, groups of customers could be predictable than individuals and there is a general buying decision-making process which is consists with a five stages that buyers pass through when they are make purchase decisions and implement them in any purchase. Therefore, marketers should pay attention to these whole five general stages to impact on buyer’s buying decision making process based on the varying levels of their potential effectiveness.

Figure1.1: Five general stages of a buyer’s purchase decision process.

Need recognition and problem awareness happen when buyer’s has conflicts between the ideal state and reality state Fill, 2009). Exposure to advertising is often arousing buyer’s need recognition. For example, using a beautiful model is widely used in the cosmetic industry to induce their profitable sales level as if buyers saw the advertising they might eager to purchase the same cosmetic products which the model is advertising to be beautiful same as the model. After buyers identified a problem then they will search for information in order to resolve the problems. It is includes internal search which is based on their knowledge and previous experiences and external search come from family members, friends, website and commercial guides or advertising. For example, today’s cosmetic industry, the web blog review has powerful effects on the buyer’s gathering information for certain brand products or services as it has more credible than other resources. Buyers might go through alternative evaluation stages after gathering information. They might have the preference set and evaluate these alternatives to each other. Eventually, purchase decision is made as they evaluate the preference set and take a real action to purchase the products or services. Lastly, post-purchase evaluation is conducting whether in the future they will repurchase these products or services based on the previous experience on the products or services. It is important to meet their expectation level with the products or services actual performances to gain satisfaction. Thus, this model is a useful guideline to examine whether the organizations marketing communications efforts able to fill in the communication gaps in the buying process.

Impulse purchase is occur to skip go through buying decision processes. Low-involvement is more likely to happens impulse purchase which is require less product knowledge due to the frequent purchase such as daily consumer products. However, the high-involvement also could happen impulse purchase due to the some motivation factors such as the store atmosphere, product display, product novelty, and attraction and the price promotion. Motivation refers to the process that leads people to behave as they do. A need becomes a motive when it is aroused to a sufficient intensity, so a motive is a need that is sufficiently pressing to drive the person to act (Kotler, 1997). Hanna and Wozniak (2001) classified motives as either rational or emotional. Rational motives are aroused through appeals to rationality, logic and stress-planned, objective-oriented, utilitarian goals, such as economy, durability, quality and dependability. Emotional motives are those that drive a purchase decision based on subjective criteria. Such motivations are linked to an individual’s social and aesthetic requirements, such as social status, beauty and pleasure.

2.5: Various tools of IMC (51words)

There are various marketing communication tools which are usually used to mix together by marketers to attain significant synergy impact on their IMC programs. In this project literature review, I only mention and reviewing the several tools which I think most important to conducting IMC programs especially for the cosmetic industry.

Advertising (174 words)

Advertising is one of the marketing communications mix and one of the four broad areas of marketing communications identified in IMC mix model. Advertising’s primary function is building brand awareness, brand credibility (Tom, 2002). ‘Advertising can reach huge audiences with simple messages that present opportunities to allow receivers to understand what a product is, what its primary function is and how it relates to all the other similar products’ (Fill, 2009). Advertising has a direct and positive impact on sales. Moreover, it helps to informing customers about new brand for brand features and benefits, persuading customers to encourage advertising products, and reminding company’s brand fresh in their consumers’ memory by exposure and also able to adding value to their offering to customers.

In cosmetic industry, media advertising has significant impact in their IMC programs as it helps to deliver their target audience about their product benefits by showing the product features and allow to customers to feeling about the product like they are really able to touch the product quality through their television advertising.

Sales promotions (129 words)

‘Sales promotion offers buyers additional value, as an inducement to generate an immediate sale’ (Fill, 2009). It could be price deals, coupons, member premiums, and distributing samples. By adding extra value to basic products, sales promotion could induce their target customers to take an action sooner than later. For example, the Clarins cosmetic company provides any free samples for their skin-care products to purpose of stimulate product trial and as a way of the sales promotion they are giving different free gift sets which is include small product samples with cosmetic pouch with above Singapore $150 dollars purchasers in Singapore shop to induce higher sales level. Mac cosmetic company is also doing well for sales promotions to launching frequent special limited edition product ranges in different period of time.

Packaging (150words)

A packaging has three basic functions to protect or contain, offer convenience and communicate with customers. ‘Today packaging often has to act as a silent salesperson, helping customers by brining a particular brand to their attention, highlighting USPs(unique selling propositions), giving friendly tips on usage and ultimately, helping them to break through the misery of choice created by the increasingly vast range of seemingly similar brands’ (Smith & Taylor, 2009). It is needed to cosmetic industry to make special packaging design for their cosmetic products based on their product ranges such as able to appeal cute, pretty, elegant, and sexy styles to attract their target customer groups. For example, since 2005 Harajuku lovers fragrances launched by the singer Gwan Stefani, it is popular to teenage girls and early 20th age women due to succeed packaging appeal with various types of lovely miniature doll on the top of their perfume bottle.

Sponsorship (254words)

Chris Fill (2009), defined sponsor ship as ‘a commercial activity whereby one party permits another an opportunity to exploit an association with a target audience in return for funds, services or resources’. Today sponsorship is one of the most significant marketing communication tools to generate awareness, brand associations. There are many forms ways of doing sponsorship. For example, programme sponsorship is the visibility that each sponsor allowed strictly controlled to certain times, and before, during the break and after each programme with the credits (Fill, 2009). However, today there are emerging many different types of sponsorship followed by trends. For instance, as the organization sponsor certain programmes or movies and sponsored programmes purposely showed their actor or actress using sponsor products while they are playing or acting in the programmes or movies. By exposing their product in the programmes or movies, they are able to build brand awareness and target customer’s attentions. Moreover, some of the cosmetic companies sponsor several actor and actress or singers so that able to ask them to act as an extra brand model to enjoy word-of-mouth effects. It is because for sure to their fans are willing to buy the brand products which their idols are using it. Other instance, the Benefit cosmetic company is enjoying this words-of-mouth effect by sponsoring their cosmetic products to the famous Korean singer Lee Hyo Ri to exposure to their fans. So that many of her fans are start to buy the Benefit cosmetic products to wants to be another Lee Hyo Ri.

Direct marketing (236words)

‘Direct marketing is a method of marketing based on individual customer records held on a database and these records are the basis for marketing analysis, planning, implementation of programmes, and control of all this activity’ (Alan, 2005). Direct marketing is focus on two objectives: acquiring new customers and retention existing customers. Direct marketing is easy to control and have great accountability as the direct marketing activity is easy to measure by direct response (Smith & Taylor, 2009). Moreover, as the direct marketing is conducting based on the customer database, it provides good opportunity to organization to developing long-term relationships with their customers. Hence, in the direct marketing loyalty programs are often used to build long-term relationships with their customers. Cosmetic industry is widely used the loyalty programs to build long term relationships with their customers for their long-run business. For example, Christian Dior cosmetic company send update news or promotions to their loyal customers through direct mail to remind them and as a loyalty member privileges even send new product samples with the mail. Direct marketing is also flexible as they are allows to tailored marketing communications messages to their target customers depends on their needs. Direct marketing could perform through direct mail, telemarketing and door-to-door and nowadays added by direct SMS (short message services). Direct marketing is quite important method to cosmetic industry to reach their target customer groups to lead direct response with them.

Chapter3: Research Methodology (1500words)

3.1: Research objectives

-To identify the Clarins brand overall awareness and brand positioning from various customer groups based on its previous and current IMC efforts

3.2: Deductive approach: Secondary research

-Through Articles from journals, magazines and blogs

3.3: Deductive approach: Primary research

3.4: Quantitative research

-Survey of the cosmetic department store staffs

3.5: Qualitative research

-Survey of the cosmetic and skin-care product consumers

3.6: Survey method

-Sampling frame: Cosmetic and skin-care product consumers

-Sampling method: Questionnaire

-Sampling size: 100

3.7: Survey method

-Sampling frame: Clarins and other cosmetic brand Department store staffs

-Sampling method: Interviewing and Observations

-Sampling size: 100

3.8: Survey Analysis through Microsoft Excel program

Chapter4: Findings and analysis (2000 words)

4.1: External Analysis

Competitor Analysis

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

4.2: Internal Analysis

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Weaknesses

-Strong brand recognition

-Diversified product offerings

-Global distribution networks

-Product innovation

-Lack of scale

-Declining revenue

-Low inventory turnover

Opportunities

Threats

-Growing Men’s cosmetic markets

-Cosmetics market in emerging nations

-Singapore Great Sales

-Economic based on the Travelers

-Intense competition

-Counterfeit goods

-Growing popularity of cosmetic surgery

Strengths

Strong brand recognition

Clarins has strong brands including Clarins, Thierry Mugler, Azzaro and Stella Cadente which are based on the origin of the France. For the Clarins brands, the gaining of their strong brand recognition from the customers could be one of their strengths. It is because strong brands able to build the long-term relationships and loyalty with their customers which could resulting for the repeat purchase and also enable to an organization to enjoy for the premiums for their products based on the loyal customers and supporters. Since the Clarins group built in 1954 by Jacques Courtin-Clarins, the Clarins brand became one of the cosmetic market leaders in France and also in Europe for their premium skin care products with a market share of 16.2%. It ranks among the top three premium skin care brands in the UK, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Netherlands and Austria. Moreover, in the 1990s the Clarins group expanded their market into perfume lines with their first launching of Angel by Thierry Mugler which is now among Europe’s top ten selling fragrances with their perfume lines Azzaro which was buy-out in 1995. In addition, the group leverages its brand strength to easily expand into new lines. Furthermore, in 2008 the Clarins group also entered the world of organic cosmetic with the brand KIBIO.

Diversified product offerings

Clarins brand initially offering skincare products. However, today their diversified product offering is provides various product choices to their customers. For example, since 1991 the Clarins group began its diversification strategy launching their first Clarins make-up line and continuously launch of a Clarins Men’s skin-care lines such as moisturizer, face scrub and shampoo in 2002 and also the My Blend brand by Doctor Olivier Courtin in 2007 which is the first customizable skin care line. In addition, the group also produces perfumes under the Clarins, Thierry Mugler, Azzaro and Stella Cadente brands and they are also offers aromatherapy products. Therefore, now Clarins customers are able to enjoy their various product choices and offerings for the skin care, make-up, fragrance and men’s ranges. Hence, the Clarins groups are able to be a major player in the beauty sector with their strong market power based on the ability to satisfy different segment groups by take an advantage to able to transfer their existing expertise, skills, knowledge and resources to expanded into new product lines. As a result these diverse product portfolio creates cross-selling opportunities which in turn boosts revenues and they are gained better risk control since they are no longer rely on the single market and today the Clarins group enjoys an international presence in all segments of the cosmetics market.

Global distribution networks

The group has an established international distribution network of 20 distribution subsidiaries in 150 countries across Europe and Asia which comprising perfumeries, department stores, upscale pharmacies, beauty institutes and exclusive Clarins boutiques. Moreover, in France the Clarins products are available in perfumery chains such as Sephora, Marionnaud, Douglas, and Nocibe and also independent franchisee chains such as Passion Beaute and Beauty Success and also department stores such as Galeries Lafayette and Printemps and traditional independent perfume stores. In addition across the Europe the Clarins brands are easy to find almost every department store as well as in perfumery chains and also other traditional perfumeries. Furthermore, In Asia, Clarins products are sold in department stores including Isetan (Japan, Singapore), Sogo (Hong Kong), Lotte (South-Korea), Mitsukoshi, Takashimaya (Singapore) and Seibu. The group also distributes its products in the travel, retail and duty free segment through Clarins beauty institutes and boutiques. Likewise, Clarins leverages its global distribution networks to helps to build close relationships and tight control over their customers by providing convenience to them and exposure their products as much as possible in different types of retailer shops to reach a greater number of customers and launch new collections.

Product Innovation (Natural ingredients)

Weaknesses

Lack of Scale

Declining revenue

Low inventory turnover

–

Opportunities

Expansion in Asia

Cosmetics market in emerging nations

Growing in Men’s toiletries and fragrances market

Threats

Growing popularity of cosmetic surgery

Intense competition

Counterfeit goods

4.3: Current marketing plan (Campaign)

4.4: Survey Findings

Chapter5: Assumptions

Chapter6: Recommendation

6.1: Strategy

6.2: Tactics

6.3: Action

6.4: Control

Chapter7: Conclusion