Part A – Description of Organization
The name “Max Factor” has become
synonymous with beauty and fashion to millions of women around the world, and
since its official founding on January 2, 1909, it has developed countless
makeup innovations. Now being a division of Procter & Gamble, today, Max Factor
is unmistakably associated with the most beautiful women in the world (“History
of Max Factor”, 2006).
The Max Factor & Co. was founded by
Max Factor, Sr. He began as a makeup man for the Royal Ballet in Czarist Russia,
and moved back to America in 1904, to start his own perfumery, makeup, and hair
goods business. In America, he did not only sold his own work, but also served
as a distributor for manufacturers of famous brands of stick greasepaint and
other theatrical items. In 1914, he perfected the first makeup created for
motion picture use thinner greasepaint in cream form, so with this major
achievement, Max Factor became the authority in makeup (“History of Max Factor”,
2006).
The company’s leadership in
educating women to the subtleties of fashion makeup is legendary, for nowadays,
the average woman would not appear in public or even in her own home without it
(“History of Max Factor”, 2006). This just means that the company has
established its influence and reputation, being their savior concerning beauty
and glamour. Today, it produces a variety of products, from lipsticks, face
make-ups, eye, and nail products, which alongside other popular brands, sets the
trend in international beauty and fashion.
Part B – Evaluation of Current Strategy
It has been reported that marketing
communication consists of the messages and the related media to communicate to
the market, such as using strategies related to advertising, branding, direct
marketing, graphic design, marketing, packaging, promotion, publicity, public
relations, sales, sales promotion, and online marketing (“Marketing
Communications”, 2006). Marketing communication has a very important role in the
success of a specific product and the company in the market. With the use of
effective means of communication, such as those mentioned above, a company can
successfully introduce a product to their target market.
Similarly, the Max Factor & Co. is
also developing and improving their marketing communications strategies to
effectively establish their new products in the market. One effective way for
accomplishing this, is through commercials or advertisements. Its success not
only relies on the fact that the brand name is already famous all around the
world, but the fact that many famous celebrities use the product. In addition,
the company also uses quotations or slogans to add to the brand of the product,
and be remembered easily by the public.
With the case of Max Factor’s SK-II
product, the company introduced their new SKII de-wrinkle cream with the help of
Carina Lau, a Hong Kong film star. The product promised the public that it
reduces one’s wrinkles by 47 percent and make one 12 years younger if used for
28 successive days. But unfortunately, this goal was not achieved, as a Chinese
woman, named Lu Ping, filed a lawsuit against Procter & Gamble China. Lu Ping
used the SKII de-wrinkle cream for 840 Yuan or US2 for improving her skin,
but instead, the cream made her skin itch and ache. With this, Lu demanded a
refund for the price of the product, and an additional of 1,000-Yuan
compensation for mental stress and undisclosed amount for medical treatment. Due
to this, the product was kept for further content investigation (“P&G Accused of
Fraud in Ad”, 2005).
According to the findings, SKII
products contain excessive amounts of chromium and neodymium, the two metals
essential for the making of cosmetics. In excessive amounts, chromium could
cause skin disease, such as allergic dermatitis and eczema, which is very hard
to cure. Neodymium on the other hand, can cause irritation of the eyes and the
mucosa, and if inhaled, it can damage the lungs and the liver (“US Consumers
Products Giant P&G Company’s A Matter of Confidence”, 2006).
With this controversy, the Chinese
government investigates how these products were contaminated during its
production in Japan, for the presence of the two metals in cosmetic products is
prohibited in China. Due to this incident, public anger has become a public
relations headache for Procter & Gamble, underlining the challenges foreign
firms face as they contend with increasingly discriminating consumers (“US
Consumers Products Giant P&G Company’s A Matter of Confidence”, 2006). Four of
13 major department stores in Beijing and some shops in Hong Kong removed SKII
skincare products after the detection of banned heavy metals in the nine
Japanese beauty products, and even found that other several famous products
contain higher levels of chromium, namely Clinique, Estee Lauder, Christian
Dior, Max Factor, Lancome, and Shiseido (“US Consumers Products Giant P&G
Company’s A Matter of Confidence”, 2006).
The elements of marketing
communication are present in this incident, and in fact, the company has been
successful in introducing the SKII products in the market. The company has been
successful in their advertisement, for aside from endorsing the product with the
support of Carina Lau, the public became interested in using the product to
remove their wrinkles in a short span of time. Aside from effective advertising,
the company also is successful in building a brand image for the product, for
the SKII products are under the bigger brand name, Max Factor, which is also
under a big company. The packaging of the product is also important, and is
obviously very effective, for many women were able to purchase it. Generally,
the elements in marketing communications were used effectively. However, the
incident was just an effect of the key communications issues encountered by the
company.
The first issue to be encountered is
the promotional elements of marketing communication, which includes the
disciplines of advertising, sales promotion, marketing public relations, and
personal selling, direct marketing, sponsorship, and Internet communications
(“Journal of Marketing Communications”, 2006). As mentioned earlier, this issue
determines the success of the product in the market, for this position the
company’s products and services, and the channels for delivering those messages,
including print media, interactive media, and public relations. It is therefore
important for the company’s brand identity, or the sum total of the consumer’s
experience and perception of a company and its offerings (“Marketing
Communications Research Guide”, 2006).
Another issue encountered is the
promotional management in terms of strategy development, implementation and
evaluation (“Journal of Marketing Communications”, 2006). This issue becomes a
problem for the company must make sure that their project will be implemented
properly and efficiently in the market. In the case of SKII, the implementation,
evaluation and strategy development was successful. The problem only came with
the discovery of the excessive metal contents in the cosmetics, which affected
the skin of many women in China.
Another issue is the behavioral
foundations of marketing communications and promotion management including
semiotics, consumer behavior, attitudes and persuasion, source and message
factors, diffusion of innovation, and adoption (“Journal of Marketing
Communications”, 2006). This issue is important to evaluate, for the success of
establishment of the product in the market depends on the demand of its
consumers. With the SKII incident, the demand for the product is good, so it was
easily established in the market. However, its downfall was brought about by its
failure to meet the standards of its consumers, and even degraded them. The last
issue is the effects of changing environmental circumstance on marketing
communications and promotional strategy, such as budget allocation, messages,
and media vehicles adopted (“Journal of Marketing Communications”, 2006). It is
also useful to evaluate this issue, to properly allocate resources and
efficiently fund the project, for effective implementation.
Part C – Proposed Marketing Communications
Strategy
Marketing communications objectives
include advertising, direct marketing and public relations. Given the incident
concerning the Max Factor SKII issue, it would be best to make marketing
communications plan on how to continue with the promotion of the product. Due to
the incident, the sales of the SKII products decreased and the brand itself
became infamous for containing its prohibited contents.
Because of the incident, many
would not opt to purchase the SKII brand, due to its contents, so it is better
to introduce new products under the same brand. With the production of new
goods, the consumers will become interested in the brand again. The only point
to remember is to make sure that the different marketing communications
objectives will be properly and effectively used.
Advertising
Advertising includes the use of the
different communications media, such as billboards, printed flyers, radio,
television, magazines, newspapers, posters, and the Internet. Using these forms
of media is effective for many individuals are exposed to them, and are able to
gather or obtain information from them. Most of the time, citizens are exposed
to these forms of media, which greatly influences their decisions, such as in
creating brand loyalty. In addition, the forms or types of media are responsible
for producing the brand image of a specific product. With an effective brand
image, many consumers are encouraged to continually purchase and support that
product. In relation to the products of Max Factor and Procter & Gamble, their
products are continually being supported and purchased, for many consumers
believe that their products offer a high quality and an affordable price. This
is because, nowadays, consumers have developed the trait of being able to demand
from their producers and the desire to obtain the value of their money.
With the proper use of advertising,
the target market of the company can easily be reached, for most consumers are
exposed to the different forms of media mentioned earlier. The company,
temporarily, can produce and advertise clothing or shoes and bags. Similar with
other companies, like Sara Lee and Avon, SKII can also produce their own line of
clothing, just to be sure of avoiding the same incident. Through effective
advertising, the public can realize the intentions of the SKII brand to be
accepted again and serve the consumers. This plan can be done in one year, given
enough budget and resources. These resources include the design for the
garments, shoes and bags, the materials to be used, and other aspects in sales.
Direct Marketing
It has been reported that direct
marketing is a discipline within marketing that involves the planned recording,
analysis, and tracking of individual customers’ responses and transactions for
the purpose of developing and prolonging mutually profitable customer
relationships (“Direct Marketing”, 2006). Being direct, a company can use direct
mails or emails to inform their consumers regarding their new product or
service. If the SKII brand will pursue on promoting their own line of clothing,
shoes and bags, the brand can directly sell their products in several ways:
SKII can snail
mail or email consumers to introduce their new products. In this way, many
consumers will be informed regarding their intention of promoting a new
product line.
The company can
produce brochures, which shows their product line and provide with themselves
mall stalls or kiosk, where the consumers can individually interact with the
agents from SKII. In this way, the consumers can see the new products of SKII
from the brochures, and order right away from the agents. This strategy will
enable SKII to determine the individual wants of their customers, thus,
building a personal relationship.
In addition, SKII
can do door-to-door endorsements in different neighborhoods. Similar to the
second strategy, the SKII agents can build a personal relationship with their
consumers. This strategy is just the reverse of the second strategy, for here,
the agents are the ones going to the house of the consumers.
Public Relations
Public relations is the art and
science of managing communications between an organization and its key publics
to build, manage and sustain an accurate image (“Public Relations”, 2006). With
public relations, SKII can relate to the public in large numbers. In this way,
the dissipation of information is easier, for the agents from SKII can inform
the public simultaneously. Several ways can also be used in making public
relations effective:
The company can
conduct press conferences to introduce first the new product to the media. In
this way, the media will be enlightened regarding the product, and help expose
them to the public. Exposure to the public is through newspaper and magazine
write-ups, commercials and advertising, printed ads and posters, television
and radio advertising, and Internet advertising.
With the support
of the Max Factor Company, SKII can organize forums or talks, where the new
product line will be introduced to the public. In this way, the audiences or
the consumers can directly obtain the information from the company, and can
even interact with them through open forums or question-and-answer portions.
Another way is to
introduce to the public the new product by creating Internet chat rooms, where
the agents can chat with the consumers in the chat room and entertain their
questions or queries regarding the new product line. In this way, the
consumers, who have no time to travel and go to the forums or talks, can be
entertained by the agents online. This is a great way to use the world wide
web and a fast and efficient strategy to reach many citizens simultaneously.
References:
Internet. (2006). Bowman Library. Retrieved
November 3, 2006, from http://www.menlo.edu/library/reference/marcom.html.
Internet. (2006). BTM Beijing. Retrieved
November 3, 2006, from http://www.btmbeijing.com/contents/en/business/2006-10/specialreport/skii.
Internet. (2005). China Daily. Retrieved
November 3, 2006, from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/11/content_432925.htm.
Internet. (2005). China.org. Retrieved November
3, 2006, from http://www1.china.org.cn/english/China/123032.htm.
Internet. (2006). Procter & Gamble. Retrieved
November 3, 2006, from http://www.pg.com/company/who_we_are/max_factor_history.jhtml;jsessionid=KULVP4ZBLZIU1QFIAJ4S0JGAVABHOLKM.
Internet. (2006). Taylor & Francis Group.
Retrieved November 3, 2006, from http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/13527266.asp.
Internet. (2006). Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia.
Retrieved November 3, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_communications.
Internet. (2006). Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia.
Retrieved November 3, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_mail.
Internet. (2006). Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia.
Retrieved November 3, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relations.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment