How Aveeno Choose Segments and Perform Positioning

...

The promotion of its products has been deployed by sales promotion, advertising and public relations. By the observation of Aveeno products, the promotional activities tend to take place at the special time throughout the year such as Christmas and the end of summer with almost 30% saving. In addition, there are also considerable discounts on total prices if customers choose to buy three pieces which costs the expenditure of two pieces available in several retailers occasionally. Optimization of promotion enable Aveeno not only to secure a market share but to maintain the long-term relationship with retailers in the saturated market. It should be recognized that in order to utilize the resources integration of parent company (i.e. Johnson & Johnson) which supports customers to obtain the promotional coupons via visiting the website helps to recruit new customers on the group level. The exploitation of parent company support may enhance the competitiveness of Aveeno by comparing with other competitors. Another distinctive element of promotion is to give access to E-commerce. From the website of Aveeno, customers can easily have access to Amazon which is one of the most influential E-commerce channels within the UK. There are also a number of substantial discounts prepared on the website of Amazon Aveeno shop. It is possible that Aveeno tries to seek an effective channel to promote its products as well as occupy the target market. Meanwhile, advertising campaign plays a key role in promotional activities. It has been deployed by media placement and website design. Aveeno introduced its first celebrity spokesperson: Jennifer Aniston, to stimulate the demand for their products by instilling an idea that healthy skin mostly begins with oats into audience’s mind. This commercial does not aim to promote the special pricing but also tries to engage more audience by developing the demand among the customers and creating the vision that Aveeno can meet the demand. Furthermore, the website design can be seen as a highlighted advert including the warm, natural colours, as well as the different shades of greenery in the background and clear blue sky, in turn having soothing effect on the customers in accordance with the packaging design style. Another distinctive promotional action is offering freebies online in the premise of following the Facebook of Aveeno so as to appeal to new customers.

The creation of the opportunity to customers with respect to the information and interaction with dermatologists via website enable them to educate their customers and consequently create the ability of them to share knowledge with existing and potentially new customers. Moreover, Aveeno has endeavoured to build up the relationships with the public via social media such as Facebook and Twitter which has given the brand a chance to promote their products directly and efficiently and interact with their clients on a more personal level. As well, this may allow them to gain new customers by word of mouth. By clearly targeting market based on demographic and psychological segmentation, Aveeno tends to target a group of mature females implies these females may take care of their family members including children. Taking consumer behavioural dimension into account and recognizing children as the influencer can impact their mothers’ decision, Aveeno has design a series of attractive electronic books for free download on the website for the sake of introducing the children skin care information which is not provided by any other competitors. Additionally, Aveeno has launched the Aveeno Sustainability Guide Widget which aims to educate consumers to understand the influence of their daily activities on the environment eventually help them to learn how to reduce carbon footprint on earth (Skillman, 2010). Therefore, the customers can benefit from the free use of the widget which can be considered as the proof of consultation provision of service beyond product itself in contrast to other brands. It has presented an opportunity for Aveeno because it could potentially increase its brand equity by having a ‘natural’ brand and therefore allowing customers to build trust with them. Another campaign for its customers was to encourage them to return the empty containers of Aveeno products and Aveeno will donate a tiny amount of money to the charities for each container they collected (Nichol, 2009). Hence, this reinforces Aveeno’s dedication to the environment, community and natural ingredients it uses in the products since Aveeno has targeted a group of consumers who concern about eco-development, ethical and sustainable development issues and healthy lifestyle. By doing so, Aveeno has gained more engagement at a more psychological and behavioural level than other competitors.

Although the products aim to treat irritated and dry skin which was shared by other brands as a category points-of parity (POPs), it is different from the competitors by its natural ingredients and efforts to protect the environment which can be proved to be points of difference (PODs) through the website. The website claims also can be considered as the physical evidence of marketing mix. From Aveeno website, it is evident that they have given the commitment on participation in dermatological and pharmaceutical research and achievements as well as protecting the earth. By using their website, in this manner Aveeno succeeded in engaging with its targeting market at a much more psychographic level than other competitors.

The consumer behavioural consideration of Aveeno is illustrated by its understanding on the importance of recruiting new and potential customers since there might be a risk that the consumers who buy the products with the purpose of solving dry and irritated skin problem may reduce or stop purchasing the products once their needs have been satisfied. In order to recruit new and potential customers, a range of marketing campaigns such as celebrity endorsement and television advertisements have been implemented to build the brand awareness and facilitate the repurchase behaviour. New customers are possibly interested in the products by the word-of mouth of their family members or friends who may be the loyal customers to Aveeno can play an influencer role during the purchase process. Then, they can obtain the free samples by following the social media which helps consumers to try and accept the products by its high quality. Thus, how to convert one-time customers to frequently purchasing customers is an essential issue to Aveeno.

There are a plenty of competitors Aveeno has to compete with in the UK market, such as E45 mentioned previously, Gamier, Dove, Sanex, Neutragena, Nivea, etc. Appendix 1 displays a perceptual map of body lotion market plotted on axes of price and level of natural ingredients. This map identifies