Market Research for Beauty

The company I chose to work on is Procter & Gamble as they are a globally recognized brand with a multitude of product offerings.  Some of the products they offer are Luvs diapers, Tide laundry detergent, Always pads, and Olay so they are well diversified and most of these are brands that synonymous with value and quality.  So, by leveraging the brand and its presence any product I would put in market would be a bit more successful and have an immediate value to customers familiar with the other brands.   

Reviewing the brands and lines I think the one area that I feel the most value with is skin care and knowing how important it is to take care of my skin this is where I would focus.  Knowing that a lot of people have skin sensitivities I would offer a product line that is organic and sustainable.  More and more consumers are concerned about the environmental impact of how their goods are made and supporting local businesses and resources.  P&G also has a four-stage testing process and makes sure that all products fall within government regulations, again a great selling point.  

For market research, if I was working within P&G, I would do market studies and see if users for our existing brands would have an interest in the products.  Once I determine there is an interest or need, I would then see what is currently offered within the market and see who my competitive set is.  This would be applied and even basic research methods to collect this data.  I then also want to identify my key segment to market to and understand their “persona” which will help influence the brand voice and creative to gain interest and loyalty.  A key piece will be setting goals or KPI’s and using a tool to measure success such as google analytics or sales.  

Maintaining Customer Loyalty

One of the advantages of mobile phones is that you can target customers immediately and provide more relevant content, the downside is that mobile marketing isn’t as regulated say as email or print.  We just read about the case with AT&T and mobile cramming in a lawsuit from 2016, where about 88M was awarded to customers who were charged by third party vendors for services.  According to the FCC, mobile cramming is the modern version of what can best be described as a long-time scam where customers are charged for a service unaware.  T-Mobile was also hit with a lawsuit in 2014, and Jesta digital were also served lawsuits about mobile cramming on consumers devices.   When something like this happens, it undercuts consumer trusts with a brand as consumers expect that a company will do right by them and truly have their best interest first.  Cases like this make consumers wary about “the man” and large corporations as AT&T pockets roughly 35% of the mobile cramming charges from customers.  Once the trust is shaken it makes it hard to regain customer loyalty and one bad case can ruin a company, such as United, Uber, and Harvey Wienstein company.  Although these are not cases of mobile marketing issues these highlight where one bad incident (or many) can ruin a brand.  Many of these faced fines and retribution back to customers who were impacted that often in such large sums end up causing a company to buckle under the financial payouts.   

I think that the best way a company can ensure they maintain customer trust is to get a double opt in and explicitly tell a consumer what they can expect to hear about and how frequently.  That way if a consumer decides to complain later down the road a company can say well we said X upfront and the customer decided to stay opted in.  Companies also need to make sure to provide an easy way to unsubscribe from mobile messaging such as SMS, or push notifications to foster a sense of trust with consumers, so that they know they can leave at any time.    

References 

Garris, M., & Mishra, K. E. (2015). A beginners guide to mobile marketing. New York, NY: Business Expert Press. 

Mobile Cramming. (2017, September 26). Retrieved August 11, 2018, from https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/mobile-technology/mobile-cramming 

The 10 Biggest Business Scandals of 2017. (n.d.). Retrieved August 11, 2018, from http://fortune.com/2017/12/31/biggest-corporate-scandals-misconduct-2017-pr/