Questionnaire for Bath and Shower Products of Body Shop for devising marketing strategy
Competitive landscape - How to write Questionnaire for Bath and Shower Products of Body Shop for Devising Marketing Strategy.
Outperforming the market through
successful new product launches
·
Contributing nearly 30% of the
company’s total cosmetics and toiletries sales in 2005, bath and shower
products is The Body Shop’s second largest sector. It is also the company’s
most successful one, recording 10% growth in 2005 compared to 6% for the market.
New products such as the Cranberry, the Vanilla Spice and the Golden Apple
ranges, covering a number of different bath and shower products, helped to
strengthen the company’s 13th position in the global marketplace, which is its
highest ranking in cosmetics and toiletries.
·
Much of this success originated
in Asia-Pacific, where The Body Shop recorded a CAGR of 17% compared to 5% for
the regional market over the 2001-2005 period. Bath additives was a
particularly strong category, with the company’s new spa ranges attracting
strong consumer interest, especially in the Philippines and Taiwan. The company
also outperformed the Singapore market with its body wash/shower products,
taking advantage of poor performances from major companies such as Johnson &
Johnson, Kao and Henkel. While still a small player in Asia-Pacific, the
company increased its share by 0.1 percentage points in 2005, reaching a review
period high of 1.1%, which enabled it to reinforce its 18th position.
·
After a few slow years, the
company managed to intensify product development and marketing activities in
Western Europe, its largest market. With a CAGR of 12% over the 2003-2005
period compared to 6% for the regional market, the company outperformed all its
competitors in the top 10 ranking and improved its own position from 10th to
eighth place in the process. It was mainly the company’s bath additives
products which drove sales, successfully meeting a growing need for relaxation
and luxury amongst an increasingly stressed population.
Slow sales in the mature markets affect
sector performance
·
In the more dynamic body
wash/shower gel category, where leading brands such as Dove, Palmolive and
Nivea compete with constant innovations, The Body Shop was unable to keep pace
with the overall market, under-performing by six percentage points compared to
the global market in 2005. This was mainly due to a significant
under-performance in The Body Shop’s largest market the US (58% of total body
wash/shower gel sales), where it recorded a growth rate of 2% in 2005 compared
to 9% for the regional market. This weak performance was mainly due to
exceptional growth among leading brands such as Unilever’s Dove and Suave (44%
and 27% respectively, 2005) and Procter & Gamble’s Olay (28%, 2005) as
these successfully pushed growth through value-added product developments
including skin care benefits, natural ingredients and firming properties. The
Body Shop also is at a disadvantage in body wash/shower gel because the
products are so everyday that they tend to be bought in supermarkets and mass
retailers as part of the general shopping list, rather than be viewed as a
special purchase warranting a trip to a different shop, or ordering through
direct sales or the Internet.
·
The Body Shop’s interests in
bar soap also suffered as consumer increasingly turned to more hygienic formats
like liquid soap that combine convenience to added benefits including
antibacterial or moisturising properties. This affected the whole Western
European bar soap market, the only region in which The Body Shop’s is present
in this product, which recorded negative growth of 1% in 2005. As the market
contracted, the competitive pressure increased as companies actively tried to
steal market share from each other, a development that primarily benefited
larger companies like Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive. With comparatively
limited resources, The Body Shop ended up on the losing side, recording
negative growth in bar soap of 2% in 2005.
Prospects
·
Bath and shower products as a
whole is not a particularly attractive sector in terms of future growth, with a
predicted CAGR of only 2% over the 2005-2010 period. However, it remains a
major sector in terms of size, and with nearly 30% of its total cosmetic and
toiletries sales stemming from bath and shower products, The Body Shop will
need to sustain a high level of focus and investment, both in terms of new
product development and marketing, in order to sustain value growth. With new
backing from L’Oréal, the company should be in a much stronger position to
exploit the opportunities in this sector, both in terms of new products
innovations and new market entries.
Underdeveloped markets provide potential
in Asia-Pacific
·
Despite a relatively low growth
forecast, Asia-Pacific (CAGR 2%, 2005-2010) is expected to be the most valuable
region for bath and shower products (US$740 million) over the 2005-2010 period,
making it a lucrative avenue for The Body Shop to further explore. The sector
is still relatively underdeveloped in many of its current key markets such as
Hong Kong, Thailand and Taiwan. The fact that The Body Shop is already
established in these markets opens interesting opportunities for the company.
With the right level of support, both for bath additives and body wash/shower
gel, the company should be able to enjoy ongoing growth in this region.
Opportunities through geographical
expansion in Western Europe
·
Although sales of body
wash/shower gel in Western Europe are predicted to be the slowest growing of
any region over the forecast period owing to the increasing maturity of the
market, there are still opportunities to explore. With body wash/shower gel
expected to grow at a CAGR of 2%, another US$0.4 billion will be added to the
market by offering increased convenience and value-added skin care properties
including anti-ageing, firming and antibacterial formulas. However, to fully
explore these opportunities The Body Shop needs to decrease its dependency on
the slow-growing UK (CAGR 1%, 2005-2010) market which in 2005 represented 93%
of the company’s body wash/shower gel sales in the region. Instead, The Body
Shop should promote its body wash/shower gel ranges through its popular stores
in Spain (CAGR 5%, 2005-2010) and the Netherlands (CAGR 4%, 2005-2010), which
are both seeing a consumer trend towards more natural products and are expected
to add the most value to the regional market over the forecast period.
Further prospects in bath additives
·
Looking at The Body Shop’s past
performance, bath additives should also offer further potential for the
company, particularly in its developing markets of Asia-Pacific and Africa and
the Middle East, both forecast to see CAGRs of 2% over the 2005-2010 period.
However, the big opportunities in bath additives are found in Eastern Europe
and Latin America, with each forecast a CAGR of 7% over the 2005-2010 period.
While The Body Shop currently has no presence in these regions, its increased
focus on the former, with new stores being opened in Russia, will bring the
company into this region, where natural products are gaining in popularity.
·
Future opportunities in bar
soap will be limited as it continues to reach maturity. This is particularly
evident in Western Europe which, with a forecast negative CAGR of 4% over the
2005-2010 period, will be a very difficult market in which to achieve
profitable growth. As only a small part of the company’s bath and shower
product interests stems from this category, it is likely that further
development of bar soap will be limited, in order to invest resources into more
lucrative areas such as body wash/shower gel.
Also read Questionnaire on Sun Care Products of Body Shop. Read Marketing Dissertations on Body Shop, than contact Expert Writers in Mumbai at Mahasagar Publications.
