Problem 1: The brand might fall short of claims due to no standardization and result in failure

Though EveryGlad intends and aims to provide the all-natural, organic and ethically manufactured body care products to their customers, but after all, they are new to this business. Such products are usually not manufactured by big conglomerates, not because they don’t have resources, but because such products are complex to produce, it is very difficult to sustain their shelf life and the raw material sourcing is very uncertain as it is mainly based on natural and climatic conditions. Furthermore, if they even succeed in proving their claim and attracting the customer base, which will purchase their products , it will be another challenge for them to sustain the quality. The manufacturers, who are working with natural and organic ingredients find it very difficult to maintain quality , tastes, fragrances and colour etc.

Solution: They should create sustainable and reliable backward supply chain of suppliers, who can help them in continuous and standardized supply of ingredients, which can help them in producing products which ensure customer satisfactions, recurring sales and expanding customer base.

Problem 2: The company cannot support fast growth and invite competition

Sometime companies underestimate the potential of their products and hence do not prepare for any sort of hyper growth in demand and customer base. If after launch this becomes the scenario for EverGlad Body Care, they might not be able to coup up with it because large volume production requires more capital, bigger plants, faster and larger supply chain and better demand planning. If EverGlad fails to meet the exponential growth of demand, they might invite in the competition, most probably those firms which are already in this business with much more resources and flexibility of capacity and market reach. For instance, if a brand like Body Shop sense the success of EverGlad and also sense their failure to meet customer demand, they might jump in with better promotional and distribution strategy to cater unfulfilled demand in the market, may be at cheaper price or with better quality.

Solution: They should plan an outsourcing strategy, where they can outsource production to companies with similar manufacturing philosophy , at least until they enhance their own manufacturing capabilities. This will also be advantageous for them because if the sales are just a trend or a fad, they might save on their manufacturing setup in case of future decline in sales. Moreover they can divert their resources towards better integrated communication and more promising product development.

Market Segmentation

EveryGlad believes in ethical business practices and it goes without saying that their target market will be those who somehow believes in their philosophy. They should segment market based on psychographic (attitude and personality that looks for ethical values) and further based on demographics (gender based). Given the increasing awareness of ethical and organic products, these segments will be sustainable, any product with same philosophy and segment makes it measurable, and because more and more customers are now ethically this segment will be definitely responsive. Since EveryGlad intends to practice price skimming initially, therefore they need customers, who are willing to pay higher price for ethically manufactured products. These customers include those who have caring attitude towards environment, against animal testing and prefer less synthetic ingredients. Furthermore, like every other personal care brand they need to create different product lines based on gender. The promotion strategy will be same from attitude and personality perspective , however they will need an entirely different strategy to promote between genders (Armstrong et al., 2014).

Morgan’s value segments

EverGlad Bodycare is proximate to the Socially Aware Mindset. Customers with this type of mindset are known to be community minded, instead of being idiosyncratic (Morgan, 2019). This segment is in constant search of new information and hence for new products. They believe in innovation, but since they are community minded, they tend to care for community while choosing products which are new or innovative. They make decisions based on detailed information and therefore such customers realize how one product is better than the others for them and for their community. For instance, they will look for detailed information about EverGlad Bodycare, their method of sourcing, the quality of their ingredients, the ethics of their practices and attitude towards community and environment, and only then they will opt for the product. Furthermore, these customers are strong brand evangelist and have propensity to convince others towards their beliefs and opinions (Morgan, 2019).

Targeting strategy

Concentrated targeting would best suit EverGlad marketing objective, because they currently intend to sell in their home state, which means their customer base will be small and as mentioned earlier they intend to meet the needs of narrowly defined segment (Marketing-Insider, 2015). Concentrated targeting will allow them for flank manoeuvre strategy, where they can compete larger firms based on their weaknesses of not providing ethical and purely organic personal care products. Furthermore it will allow them to create strong positioning for their product to a smaller customer base which can later help them to tap geographically larger customer base. Since, the products will be priced higher initially the other targeting strategies will also be a mismatch from the pricing perspective as well. Moreover, they have no prior product or marketing experience it is also therefore highly advised to cater the niche and gradually expand the horizon, both geographically and otherwise.

Perceptual map

Customers have diverse brand orientations, therefore brands create their perception to position their products to customers (Solomon et al., 2017). EverGlad clearly intends to put on a brand which is high priced, mainly because of natural and organic ingredients and not shelfing their products after cruel animal testing. Overall organic products are perceived to be slightly higher in price than their inorganic counterparts. However it is not necessary that all inorganic products are cheaper in price. For instance, Clarins did their brand positioning in a way where it is considered to be medium-high end despite of being inorganic, while Dove, which belongs to Unilever, is inorganic and considered to be cheaper in price than its competitors.

Competitive Advantage

EverGlad Bodycare should establish the niche competitive advantage. The organization is new with no prior experience, therefore they should work upon unique features and product line, which should set them apart and superior to their proximate competitors. Since EverGlad intends to cater the market within their state and they also intend to initially keep their prices high, this is the only competitive advantage which suits their objective and resources. They can cater the needs of greener customers, who are looking for quality organic body care products. Furthermore, when the organization is new, they are in the phase of developing and modifying their product range and product line, and this can be best met when the interaction is frequent and intimate with customers (Lumenlearning.com, 2016). This can be easily achieved under niche competitive advantage where source of competitive advantage can be created through superior products, customer centric product modifications and greater customer support.

References

Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S. and Kotler, P., 2014. Principles of marketing. Pearson Australia.

Lumenlearning.com. (2016). Targeting Strategies and the Marketing Mix | Principles of Marketing [Deprecated]. [online] Available at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/marketing-spring2016/chapter/reading-targeting-and-the-marketing-mix/.

Marketing-Insider. (2015). Market Targeting – Targeting Market Segments effectively. [online] Available at: https://marketing-insider.eu/marketing-explained/part-i-defining-marketing-and-the-marketing-process/market-targeting/.

Morgan, R. (2019). Values Segments. [online] Roy Morgan. Available at: http://www.roymorgan.com/products/values-segments.

Solomon, M.R., White, K., Dahl, D.W., Zaichkowsky, J.L. and Polegato, R., 2017. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being. Boston, MA: Pearson.