•      Table of Contents:

• Introduction: 3
• 1.0 Key market location and identification of main customers: 3
• 2.0 Type of pricing strategy required to be adopted: 4
• 3.0 Promotional techniques to be recommended: 5
• 4.0 Impact of various elements of the marketing environment on plan: 6
• Conclusion: 8
• References: 9
• The marketing technique is really crucial for the cosmetics companies. It helps to identify the key markets and the key customers. In this regard, the major focus would be put on Con-merchants. The consumer insight regarding the anti-aging substance is really crucial for the performance of Con-merchants. In this assignment, the major emphasis will be provided on the particular pricing strategy which can be adopted best for this cosmetics company. In addition, the assignment will also highlight on the promotional techniques. In this regard, it will also identify the key competitors of this company. For assessing the proper customer satisfaction it is also required to understand the competitors for this product. It is strategically important for this company to identify the potential market for the successful business operations.
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•      Introduction:

•      1.0 Key market location and identification of main customers:

As the Con-merchants sell anti ageing colognes, the key market would be the women segment of age group between 26-45 years. It is a proven fact that the anti ageing cream market is growing at the rate of 8.5% (www.transparencymarketresearch.com, 2016). Pudaruth et al. (2015) also identified that the global anti ageing market is going to be worth USD 191.7 billion by the end of the year 2019. The market size of the anti wrinkle product is growing rapidly not only the women segment, but also in the men’s segments as well. Across the Asia-Pacific region, India, China, South Korea, Japan, the demand for anti ageing cream is attracting maximum interest for age reversing processes such as plastic surgery or cosmetic surgery.  On the other hand, it has been identified that due to the global warming, teenagers also experiencing the tanning issue and pigmentation (Kang and Ahn, 2010).  As a result, a greater tendency of purchasing anti ageing products among the teenagers is also increasing. Thus, Con-merchants are producing soft anti ageing products to target the teenagers and the anti ageing colognes target men and women of age group between 26-45 years.
Another valuable fact is that the purchase behaviour of  middle age group customers have increased due to the greater earnings ratio. Thus, the women and men’s segment in the 26-45 age groups, drastically shifting towards the professional products. This is to improve the skin condition is a faster way and to get younger looks than the actual scenario. Thus, the scope of targeting teenage customers can be a greater opportunity for the Con-merchants. As the teenagers and students face monetary issues, the tendency to purchase a mediocre and economic range skin care products is increasing significantly. Hence, the women segment, men’s group and the teenagers could be identified as the major customers of the present product offered by the Con-merchants.

•      2.0 Type of pricing strategy required to be adopted:

• For luxury products like cosmetics, the price is a crucial issue. Depending on the strength of innovation, the pricing strategy is required to be directed towards the execution capabilities to reduce the cost. Pricing is highly important to achieve the success by finding the appropriate price point so that the sales and profits can be maximised. In this regard, the premium pricing strategy sets the price higher than the competitors. According to Arping and Lóránth (2006), the premium pricing strategy creates the vital impact on the effectiveness of the marketing strategy of the company. For the companies which are trying to launch any new product in the market, the premium pricing is the most effective strategy for launching in the new market. On the other hand, Brown (2013) mentioned that penetration pricing strategy has been designed for capturing market share to enter into the market through low price. The low pricing relative to the competitors attracts the huge buyers for this anti-aging substance for Con-merchants. The penetration pricing might initially create a loss for the company. However, there is the chance of creating the awareness through word-of-mouth. On the other hand, Con-merchants can opt for the low-cost approach for its marketing. In addition, the business which has the immense competitive advantage can easily enter into the new market through the price skimming strategy. However, Jaakkola (2007) argued that it has been designed to achieve maximum revenue advantage over the competitors. Moreover the psychological pricing is also crucial for the marketers to establish the product range in the market.
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    3.0 Promotional techniques to be recommended:

• As the Con-merchant is trying acquire the teenager-beauty-care segment, social media marketing can be more effective to generate greater product awareness. As cited by Meyer and Thu Tran (2006), teenagers are mostly engaged in the social media sites and share views regarding the product feature, advantages, disadvantages, etc. Thus, marketing via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. could generate multiple likes among the viewers and more teenagers will be attracted towards the products offered by Con-merchants. On the other hand, Kang and Ahn (2010) mentioned that before promoting a product to the target market, employing sound PR communication could be effective for the marketers. The engagement of the local customers in the PR activity could help Con-merchants analysing the market response of varied target customers and the product alterations can also be done as per the gathered feedback of teenagers and the adult customer groups.
• On the other hand, Clow and Baack (2012) mentioned that since the beauty care segment is experiencing faster growth, the market competition is also increasing equally. Thus, adequate promotion will be needed to attract large pool of customers in the targeted zone. Similarly, a canter van promotion can be conducted across the global regions so that the product features can be mentioned and the on road promotion can generate higher brand awareness. The random announcements and brand featuring can enable Con-merchants achieving greater customer engagement towards the brand and the product can attain higher competitiveness as well. Additionally, considering the different geographic locations and the consumer purchase behaviour, Con-merchants could employ radio and television advertisement to attract older age group customers as well. Anti ageing solution can also be manufactured for the older age groups as well. Chu et al. (2013) identified that almost 75% of the older age group prefer to view television advertisement or radio promotions to know the product feature and the usability along with the pricing. These people use skin care products in order to look better and switch from one brand to another frequently. The moderate pricing with the optimum product feature can be marketed via different promotional campaigns to attract a large pool of varied customers. Thus, Con-merchants can have the chance of attracting a certain group of old customers by promoting the product offerings over radio and television media.
•  4.0 Impact of various elements of the marketing environment on plan:
• The marketing environment of any company is required to be taken into consideration during developing and presenting the new market. Considering the opinion of Langviniene and Guobyte (2014), the elements of the marketing environment is consisted with the changing preferences of the customers, the market competition, political, regulatory and the legal environment. In this regard, the Porter’s five force tool helps to understand the power of the current marketing plan (Liozu and Hinterhuber, 2012). This element is also crucial for understanding the competitive position in marketing of Con-merchants. This element of the marketing environment is used to recognise whether the anti ageing product of this company would be at all profitable or not. The tastes and trends of the customers are highly required to focus as per the present market trends. On the other hand, Utaka (2014) argued that the budget has also the role in marketing the decisions. The budget and the economy are the crucial elements which has the massive influence on the current marketing plan for Con-merchants. The consumers are not interested to pay the premium price for the product. In this regard, the advertising of the anti-aging substance would create a huge impact on the marketing plan. The advertising is required to focus on the point that the customers could be benefitted through using such product and could also save the money. On the other hand, the prudent marketing decisions also highly get influenced by the competitors (Arping and Lóránth, 2006). The quality of the product is the major element during designing the marketing plan. The cultural and social factors are also related to the elements of the marketing environment as these are associated with the customers’ preferences. Hence, the consideration of such cultural group is required to be reflected in the packaging of the products also in terms of marketing strategy. As the external element of the marketing environment, the legal and political environment could also restrict the effectiveness of any marketing plan. In this regard, the PESTLE analysis (political, economical, social, technological, legal and environmental) is really crucial for Co-merchants to identify the business opportunity in the cosmetics industry.
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  Conclusion:

• The present study indicates that skin care product can be marketed for varied age groups including the teenagers also. Even, it has been addressed that teenager segment could generate higher revenue for the brand Con-merchants by promoting the features via social media sites. On the other hand, Con-merchants have been addressed to conduct a premium pricing strategy to attract varied consumer groups towards the brand. Promotional techniques such as social media advertisement, PR campaigns, and canter van promotion have been suggested so that the brand can attain optimum market response within the short time span. Finally, the elements such as budget, economy and customers’ preference have been identified so that the marketing plan can be altered as per the need of the customers. Thus, higher brand sustainability can be experienced.
•       References:
• Arping, S., and Lóránth, G. (2006). ‘Corporate leverage and product differentiation Strategy’, The Journal of Business, 79(6), pp.3175–3206.
• Brown, S. (2013). ‘I’m buying, jack! Fooling around an ambiguous brand’, Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 13(2), pp.108–121.
• Chu, S., Kamal, S. and Kim, Y. (2013). ‘Understanding consumers’ responses toward social media advertising and purchase intention toward luxury products,’ Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 4(3), pp.158-174.
• Clow, K. and Baack, D. (2012). Cases in marketing management. Los Angeles, Calif.: Sage.
• Jaakkola, E. (2007). ‘Purchase decision-making within professional consumer services: Organizational or consumer buying behaviour?’. Marketing Theory, 7(1), pp.93–108.
• Kang, K. and Ahn, B. (2010). ‘China’s Penetration of the Korean Market: Stylized Facts and Welfare Effect’, China & World Economy, 18(5), pp.54-71.
• Langviniene, N. and Guobyte, V. (2014). ‘Online group buying factors – conceptual model for understanding consumer value’, Social Sciences, 84(2), pp.121-145.
• Liozu, S.M. and Hinterhuber, A. (2012) ‘Industrial product pricing: A value‐based approach’, Journal of Business Strategy, 33(4), pp. 28–39.
• Meyer, K. and Thu Tran, Y. (2006). ‘Market Penetration and Acquisition Strategies for Emerging Economies,’ Long Range Planning, 39(2), pp.177-197.
• Pudaruth, S., Juwaheer, T. and Seewoo, Y. (2015). ‘Gender-based differences in understanding the purchasing patterns of eco-friendly cosmetics and beauty care products in Mauritius: a study of female customers,’ Social Responsibility Journal, 11(1), pp.179-198.
• TransparencyMarketResearch, h. (2016). Market Research Reports, Industry Research Firm, Consulting Services. [online] Transparencymarketresearch.com. Available at: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ [Accessed 15 Mar. 2016].
• Utaka, A. (2014). ‘High price strategy and quality signalling’,  Japanese Economic Review, 66(3), pp.408–420.