Situational Analysis Of Neutrogena Skincare Company In Australian Market

Current Market Analysis of Neutrogena in the Australian Market

The situational analysis of Australian skincare companies will help the firm to underrated its current market. The situational analysis is one of the major and vital part of marketing which makes any company to perceive the present market along with the analysis of existing competitors. The following section of the report presents the detail situational analysis of Neutrogena in the Australian market.

The current market analysis of the company is based on the existing market share and current skincare trends within Australian context. Among all the skincare products in the Australia market, Neutrogena has strong brand loyalty within the customers. The company has established strong public image with the providence of highest quality of products to the customers. The company holds a great percentage of market share after Nivea in Australian market (McDonald and Wilson 2016). However, according to the different products of skincare, the market shares of the company in the Australia market varies.

The market of any products is based on the consumers of the company. Similarly, the market of Neutrogena is based on the consumers of young age. It is found that the younger people, especially the women creates grounds for Neutrogena. However, the number of men consumers are increasing. It is found that the men of Australia are leaning towards usage of skincare (NPD Group 2015). On the other hand, consumers are recently tending to use the organic products for the skincare, which seems to be a challenge to the company for holding the consumers (Philpott 2017).

Considering the fact of competitor analysis of the company, there are number of competitors of Neutrogena in Australia. The competitor analysis of the company presents the position of the company in the market of Australia in terms of gaining competitive advantages from the same. It is found from the market research that the company Nivea is the major and primary competitors of the company. Neiva dominates the skincare industry in Australia. Another major competitors of the company are L’Oreal, Olay, Dove and others (Braun and Latham 2014). The company in Australia is belonging to the strong and intense competitive market within which it is difficult to target the men customers (Elsner 2012). On the other hand, it must be mentioned that the present tendency of the consumers is referred to the accusation of the organic and natural products. There are many companies in the international as well as in the Australian market which are fulfilling the demands and needs of the consumers with the providence of the natural skincare products. Furthermore, there are limited verities of products that are offered by the company to the consumers, whereas other competitor companies are providing the consumers with diverse options of products to choose from. Therefore, the competitor analysis makes it clear that the firm has intense competitive market in Australia which can be a threat to the sustainability of the firm in near future.

Competitor Analysis of Neutrogena in the Australian Market

The SWOT analysis being an important marketing tool will help the company to understand and evaluate the internal strengths and weakness for approaching he external opportunities and threats.

Strengths	Weakness
· Stronger dealer community · Strong free cash flow · Good capital return · High level of customer satisfaction	· Poor challenge management · Less innovation · Limited range of products · Inorganic products
Opportunities	Threats
· Innovation · Introduction to organic products · Increasing product range · Introduction of men’s skincare products	· Strong and intense competition · Increasing trends · Continuous changing in consumer behaviors · New organic brand entry in market

According to the above table of SWOT analysis there are equal amount of opportunities and threats for the chosen company. The internal strengths of the company are the indication of the resources and capabilities of the company for grabbing the opportunities in the Australian market. Stronger dealer community is referred to the strong relationship between the distributor and the company which further leads to the strong and free cash flow out of the products. On the other hand, the company has received relatively successful capital return out of their business which is an indication of the profitability of Neutrogena. The strengths present some market opportunities which are innovation, introduction to organic products, increasing product range, introduction of men’s skincare products which will further ensure the sustainability of the firm in the Australian market.

The existing internal weaknesses of the company is the indication towards the threats to the sustainability and profitability of the firm in the chosen context. The above table presents the weakness of the firm which indicates the poor management of risks and challenges, less innovation, limited range of products and inorganic products of Neutrogena which is leading the organization to face some threats in Australian market. The Australian market is already intensely competitive and the present trends of organic products are producing threats to the company such as strong competition, increasing organic products trends, and entry of new brands holding organic products and the continuous and rapid change in consumer behaviors.

The target market for Neutrogena’s rapid wrinkle repair is the male customers in Australia having the age group between 35 to 45 years. This market is being targeted due to the reason that, according to various media reports being published in the recent times, it is being stated that the growth of the consumption of cosmetics among the male population is showing positive trend. According to the report of (Roy Morgan 2017), in March, 2016, 3.7 million Australian men have purchased the skincare products. Thus, there are huge market opportunities 0for Neutrogena in targeting the male customers.

From the above figure, it is being seen that, the age group between 35 to 49 is not the highest revenue generating segment, but it is one of the most potential segment. Moreover, targeting the age group between the 35 to 45 years will also automatically attract the other age groups also. Targeting the male customers will also have favorable impact on the business opportunities for Neutrogena due to the fact that, the women segment is already being saturated with the presence of various brands.

SWOT Analysis of Neutrogena Skincare Company

Decision stage	Outcome	Communication medium
Arousal of need	Communicating the value creation to the customers. Creation of the brand value in the market (Brunello 2013).	Television commercials, social media marketing, distribution of samples and sponsoring of events.
Evaluation of the alternatives	Communicating the features of the product to the customers. Make them aware about the competencies of the product compared to the competitors. Communicating the point of difference to the customers.	Television commercials, social media marketing and free sampling. Promotional activities in public places.
Purchase decision	Enhancing the brand value and market presence of the product. Made available the products in as retail stores and online stores in the target market.	Retail marketing, using of danglers in the retail stores, television commercials and free sampling.
Usage	Retaining the existing customer base along with generating positive word of mouth. Increasing the rate of brand loyalty and satisfaction of the customers (Erdogmus and Cicek 2012). Enhancing the brand recalling of the existing customers.	Television commercials, print media, online marketing and sponsoring of events.

The above figure is showing the trend of growth for different marketing mediums. Accordingly, the communication strategy for Neutrogena is being determined. According to the above figure, internet is showing the most increase in the trend of growth. The market share of television is the highest but the growth rate is slow. Thus, Neutrogena will involve the use of television commercials in order to reach out to more number of customers (Kuuru and Tuominen 2016). Moreover, involvement of the social media will also help them to attract the younger generation along with determining the change in the market requirement.

The more extensive and effective will be the social media marketing, the more will be the communication and networking between the organization and the customers (De Vries, Gensler and Leeflang 2012). It will in turn help in enhancing the brand recall and the value among the target market. Cricket and tennis are the two most popular sports events in Australia and thus it will be an effective idea to promote the television commercials during the sports events. Moreover, free samples will also be distributed to aware the customers about the product. This will enable them to have the real life experience about the product.

The product will be positioned as the mass market and affordable products in the market. This will help them in targeting the large sections of the target market. However, the product will be positioned as non-natural product (Hassan and Craft 2012). This is due to maintain the low production cost of the product. The positioning will be done according to the campaign objective of them. The tag line of this campaign is “everyone should look after their skin”. Thus, according to the tagline, everyone denotes the mass market, which is being targeted.

Medium	Desired outcome	Effectiveness	Examples
Thematic television commercials	It will run for 15 seconds in sports and news channels. This is due to the reason that, sports and new channels are having the most penetration among the male population. It will help to create overnight awareness and recall for the customers.	Effectiveness will be high due to the repeated displays of the commercials. HIGH	The television commercial done by Cadbury with popular jingles helped them to enhance the brand recall of the customers.
Event sponsoring	It will be done only in the popular sporting and other events. Though it will involve good cost for the organization, but it will help to cover huge market at a time. It will help to enhance the brand value and positioning of the product. Will get endorsed by the celebrities prove added advantages.	Effectiveness will be medium due to the reason that, there are various negative impacts such as scandal and corruption being involved (Messner and Reinhard 2012). Moreover, entire target market cannot be covered. MEDIUM	Emirates are being famous for their sponsorship in the cricketing events. They are being related with the cricket tournaments.
Social media marketing	Social media marketing will help to target the potential customers effectively along with determining the change in the market. Moreover, due to the fact that, social media is two ways communication medium, it will promote generation of the feedback from the customers.	Effectiveness will be high due to the huge market penetration of the social media and cost effectiveness. HIGH	Nivea is introducing their new products with the help of the feedback being generated from the social media.

Activity	Thematic television commercials	Event sponsoring	Social media marketing
Duration
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Conclusion:

Therefore, it can be concluded from the above report that Neutrogena must consider and emphasize on the men usage of skincare in terms of sustaining in the Australian skincare market. From the situational and SWOT analysis presented in the report, the target market of the company is determined. The further discussion on the marketing plan stresses on various media as major marketing tools. According to the report based on the market trends and communication strategies, the effectiveness of marketing lies on the successful implementation of the media campaign.  The report therefore presents the recent communication mediums in regard to the effectiveness of same for effective campaign activities, which further emphasizes on the social media and digital advertising media. In the concluding part, the report also marks some communication strategies and brand positioning strategies along with the timeline of activities in terms of making the marketing campaign easy for the target market.

Reference:

Braun, M.R. and Latham, S.F., 2014. Mastering Strategy: Workshops for Business Success. ABC-CLIO.

Brunello, A., 2013. The relationship between integrated marketing communication and brand equity. International Journal of Communication Research, 3(1), p.9.

De Vries, L., Gensler, S. and Leeflang, P.S., 2012. Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: An investigation of the effects of social media marketing. Journal of interactive marketing, 26(2), pp.83-91.

Digitalstrategyconsulting.com. (2017). Advertising share by medium: Worldwide – Digital Intelligence daily digital marketing research. [online] Available at: https://www.digitalstrategyconsulting.com/intelligence/2009/07/advertising_share_by_medium_wo.php [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].

Elsner, P., 2012. Overview and trends in male grooming. British Journal of Dermatology, 166(s1), pp.2-5.

Erdo?mu?, ?.E. and Cicek, M., 2012. The impact of social media marketing on brand loyalty. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 58, pp.1353-1360.

Hassan, S.S. and Craft, S., 2012. Examining world market segmentation and brand positioning strategies. Journal of Consumer marketing, 29(5), pp.344-356.

Kuuru, T.K. and Tuominen, P., 2016. Creating a conceptual framework for corporate brand positioning. In Business Challenges in the Changing Economic Landscape-Vol. 2 (pp. 177-195). Springer, Cham.

McDonald, M. and Wilson, H., 2016. Marketing Plans: How to prepare them, how to profit from them. John Wiley & Sons.

Messner, M. and Reinhard, M.A., 2012. Effects of strategic exiting from sponsorship after negative event publicity. Psychology & Marketing, 29(4), pp.240-256.

NPD Group, 2015. Instructing Men on Facial Skincare Benefits Presents Opportunity for Beauty Industry. [online] NPD Group. Available at: https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/press-releases/2015/instructing-men-on-facial-skincare-benefits-presents-opportunity-for-beauty-industry/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].

Philpott, L., 2017. OTC: Skincare: It’s time to shine. AJP: The Australian Journal of Pharmacy, 98(1162), p.50.

Roy Morgan. (2017). Aussie men facing up to skincare. [online] Available at: https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/6891-aussie-men-facing-up-to-skincare-201607130912 [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].