Product marketing report help online on: Marketing activities of Vaseline 

1. 1.      Executive Summary:

The main purpose of this report is to develop a successful and systematic approach to implement, monitor and evaluate marketing activities for a skin care product ‘Vaseline’. Moreover, internal external functions, processes and procedures have been described to support those marketing activities. Furthermore, to manage consistency of the entire report, it has been continued in several parts. Firstly, the details have been provided for the individuals and departments involved in the marketing activities. Their role in planning those activities will be taken into consideration for the discussion. Then the report highlights the identification of resources needed to work upon those planned activities. The report describes the processes and procedures in-depth, which are required for monitoring the marketing activities for Vaseline. Additionally, the report moves forward to measure all the element of mix for the planned activities and to what extent they are valid and reliable. Methodologies and techniques for measuring performance and progress of Vaseline have also been illustrated. Besides, actual measures to be taken to conduct the brand (Vaseline) performance are also a part of this report. Insights of determining environmental scanning measures and processes have been proposed in order to assess the changing environment. This section of report will explain how the monitoring processes and procedures can be used for improving and developing the marketing activities for the skin care brand ‘Vaseline’.

1. 2.      Introduction:

Before identifying individuals and department involved in marketing activities for a particular brand, it is essential to articulate that which industry and brand has been chosen for the discussion. Here, in-depth discussion will be going forward for the implementation and evaluation of marketing planned activities for skin care industry’s particular brand “Vaseline” in Australia. At first, it is required to give a brief introduction to skin care industry, so that an idea can be gripped about its involving department and all the marketing related activities. Major changes to the trend in cosmetics and skin care industry throughout the past few decades can be witnessed. It is also termed as a multi-billion dollar industry. Skin care industry brings forward the products in market keeping their customers’ needs and safety into consideration.

For this much research and marketing activities are being poured into certain sections of the skin care industry. Moreover, research is conducted by skin care industries to know the market size of their particular brand and what are the major brands are also available in the market. All skin care industries pose more focus on packaging, labeling of the product as those products are used at sensitive areas of body. Besides, to understand and identify all processes and tools required to promote and develop marketing of particular brand ‘Vaseline’, it is also necessary to know the background of this product.

Vaseline is also termed as ‘Petroleum jelly’. Robert Chesebrough patented it in 1865 and then it was launched as Vaseline petroleum jelly in 1870. In 1987, Univer acquired Chesebrough-pond’s successfully and it was internationally known as Vaseline. After its launch in the market, it went on increasing and maintaining its value among the customers and in the market and became a personal care brand of Unilever (Unilever, 2012).

Furthermore, this descriptive report will focus on the marketing activities related planning, processes, procedures, measurement, evaluation and development of skin care product Vaseline.

Commencing from identifying the individuals and department involved in marketing activities for Vaseline, report will go on discussing other factors involved.

1. 3.      Identify the individuals and departments involved in implementation of marketing activities:

Nowadays, the world is become hotter day by day due to the greenhouse effect. The difference in temperature can also be observed by people. This climate change entails everyone to find the best skin care product. In this context, Vaseline could have the great chance to attract more customers because of its established trust in the market, but to promote it in more efficient way; it needs implementation of marketing activities related to brand promotion and development. To implement the plans, there should be a proper and well defined list of those marketing activities to be done for brand promotion. There are numerous marketing activities emerge to promote this particular brand. Some principle areas of Vaseline marketing plan and activities are as following;

• Online marketing and direct marketing
• Event- press conference
• Public relation: Press release
• Advertising (Print ad in newspapers and magazines and Electronic ad in broadcast media and Hoardings)
• Consumer promotion
• Trade promotion
• Research & Development

 For this, company’s people will be responsible to implement those plans and activities. As far as Vaseline in considered, it is a personal care brand of Unilever. Therefore it would not be wrong to say that the department involved in its marketing activities would be of Unilever company’s people/stakeholders. An organizational structure can be presented and understood to identify the individuals and departments involved in the implementation of marketing activities.

• Executive director: Paul Polman, Chief Executive Officer, was appointed an Executive Director to the Boards of Unilever PLC and Unilever NV in October 2008, the first time an external candidate was chosen for the role. Next, Jean-Marc Huët joined Unilever in February 2010 as Chief Financial Officer.
• Non-executive directors: Michael Treschow – Chairman Unilever N.V. and PLC, Michael has had a distinguished career with a range of multinational companies in both Executive and Non-Executive roles. He has been awarded prestigious honors by Sweden, Spain and France in recognition of his contribution to trade relations.
• Chief financial officer: Jean-Marc Huet – was appointed as CFO of Unilever in 2010 and was also member of the Unilever Leadership Executive.
• Unilever Leadership Executive (ULE): Douglas Anderson Baillie – Chief HR Officer, Professor Geneviève Berger – Chief Research & Development Officer and Kevin Havelock – President, Refreshment.
• Chief Marketing and communication officer: Keith Weed appointed in 2010.
• Senior corporate officers: Tonia Lovell – Chief Legal Officer & Group Secretary, and Akhter Mateen – Chief Auditor and Charles Nichols – Group Controller (Unilever, 2012).

All of these individuals are involved in implementing these plans for development of Vaseline marketing and the departments involved are given below:

• Marketing and Communication department
• Finance and cost controlling department
• Research & Development centers
• Product innovation department
• Operation department
• Advertising, Sales & Promotion department

All mentioned departments are associated with the marketing activities of skin care product Vaseline. Moreover, research & development and product innovation department always try to innovate and develop a new line of product by gaining the expert knowledge of customer’s needs.  They are the performer of a company to organize SWOT analysis to know the overall requirements and expectations from the market. Their main motive is to provide best quality product and to seek more about the features to be added further. Marketing and communication department is completely involved in identifying the best communication tools and techniques to implement all the marketing plans. Then its advertising, sales and promotion department’s responsibility to utilize those tools to market the product in market effectively. Finance department works along with the operation department to get the minimum cost strategic marketing plans before implementation. For more description a portfolio of Unilever has been constructed and shaded the light upon to get an abstract on how their management works towards the implementation of marketing activities.

Portfolio of Unilever

(Source: EURO MPM, 2008)

Furthermore, if planning is done for something, it requires someone to operate all those activities practically. In this context, need to identify resources arise for those planned marketing activities related to Vaseline. Next content of this report relates to the required resources for implementation and monitoring of planned activities.

4. Identify resources needed for planned activities:

For each action against planned activities, it is required to identify and define the resources precisely all along a number of parameters including the amount and when they are required. So going in-depth description to identify those resources, “Time” comes first in view as a key resource required for planned marketing activities. It can include some simple questions such

• What time is available with the team for implementing and monitoring those activities and achieving overall objectives?
•  The compatibility of time can also be put out for a question,
• Will this time be used up within the common operational hours?

Manpower is also required resource to bring out the marketing plans into actions. Manpower can be arranged and called from within and outside the organization in case of additional requirement. In this context, number of people required for implementation of the planned activities, when and where will they be needed? It is also an essential part to identify the skills, qualities and knowledge those people have to carry out the actions required for planned marketing activities. Manpower resources are also provided the briefing and training which they can require to be able to perform their responsibilities. After finding out the right manpower resource, organization will have the requirement of money in order to get the work done according to the planned activities. It includes identifying the sources of money, that where will it come from, in what form it will be required and how much will it be required? Few more following questions can be raised to analyze the money resource for those activities:

• Will it be available at the time of requirement?
• At which area, it will be required most?
• Does it require to be paid back, and when?
• Have the outlays of all added resources been integrated?

Afterwards, there is need to identify other resources such material and information. Materials can fall into number of groupings which incorporates consumables, raw materials and tools for both temporary and permanent use. It is also considered that the material which has to be used for Vaseline should be of best quality. Specifications will be made by the procurement department to verify the required material and other equipments. In sum, information is also a vital resource which needs to be identified for implementation of planned activities. In this framework, it is ensured that relevant and specific information is made available to the operation department regardless of availability of information within the organization or it is bought from outside. The information is also verified by the concern department in terms of its validity or source of availability. When all these resources are identified by the management, planned activities are implemented and brought into action. Then it entails to check the processes and procedures to monitor the planned marketing activities. Next section of this report will highlight the processes required to examine the activities after their implementation. 

5. Processes and procedures to monitor the planned activities:

Once the resources are identified to actively participate in the implementation of planned activities and all the marketing activities are set out for the action to be taken, processes and procedures are defined by the management to supervise the action. Basically, Unilever look for the best project management techniques to evaluate and examine the marketing activities. But it finds GANTT, PERT, CPM and Quality management technique and procedures to examine and scrutinize the planned activities. Giving the abstract, Gantt chart is used to represent the graphical data of the task done in days, weeks or months. Management of Vaseline considers this to be the best of all techniques to monitor those marketing activities. It presents the actual data (Performed) against the standard data and further helps in targeting possible timeline slippage or failure points in implementation of activities (BioEdge Consulting LLC, 2011). Gantt chart also provides the budgeting device and can present the money allocated versus money spent. It can be exemplified by the chart presented below:

A Gantt chart representing each step in the acquisition and implementation of the equipment is a helpful attachment for a marketing plan.

(Source: Helsper 2012)

This chart represents each step in the acquisition and implementation of a marketing plan. It helps best in monitoring all the planned activities in a precise and effective way.

Next tool/procedure, is followed by them is PERT that is Program evaluation and review technique. This particular tool is used for defining, monitoring and controlling the tasks necessary to accomplish the project related to marketing activities. This chart portrays the graphical representation of interrelationships of the elements of marketing activities planned for brand (Vaseline) development. It also signifies the order in which all those activities have to be performed. PERT chart evaluates the entire activities and try to identify the specific activities and high points. Moreover, it determines the proper sequence of activities to be performed step by step to achieve the high level of brand performance. This procedure also estimates the time required for each activity in terms of optimistic, most likely and pessimistic time. It is best defined by Unilever to use it for monitoring all the marketing activities for Vaseline, because this technique has the ability to deal with the ambiguity  in activity achievement times. For this, expected time for each activity can be calculated by PERT derived following weighted average formula (Bob Hugg, 2005):

Expected Time/Duration = (Optimistic time + 4 x Most Likely time + Pessimistic time) / 6

Furthermore, critical or best possible path is determined by using CPM procedure to implement and monitor the activities effectively. Gradually, PERT and CPM are used identically but the only difference is the method of computation of tasks time. Moreover critical path     is determined by adding the times for each sequential activity and by estimating the longest path. Furthermore, the qualitative procedure is applied by the management to monitor the activities and to measure the quality aspect of brand in the market. That is quality management technique which is referred to total quality management (TQM). The main aim to adopt this process for monitoring marketing activities is:

• constant process development
• Focus on customer
• fault and imperfection prevention in order to save the money
• collective accountability

All these techniques and tools are taken for use by the management to assure that each activity is being implemented order wise and gets completed on a particular time. The key concept behind using these procedures is that every member involved in the implementation and monitoring of activities would be concerned with looking for ways to develop the quality process.

Next question arises that what can be the methods and procedures to measure the each element of mix. This discussion will be carried in forthcoming paragraph of the report.

6. How each element of the mix is to be measured?

Firstly, to measure each element of the mix for the brand, a general idea is required to have about the key elements of mix. For Vaseline key elements of mix found out are as following:

• Product: Vaseline helps to protect the skin damage and keeps skin smooth. It is a quick absorbing and light lotion which provides immediate moisture plus sun protection to the skin. To measure this mix, a survey can be done to know the degree of product’s utility and customer’s loyalty towards the product or brand.
• Price: According to market research, there are two sizes available for customers to choose; 200ml and 375ml. The price for 200ml bottle is $5.99 and for 375ml, it is $10.99. It is essential to measure the price of a particular product, for which the customer is willing to pay. For this a competitive analysis with other brands should be done to assess the appropriate price. In this context, importance to the computation, consequence of break-even analysis and customer’s price sensitivity is taken into consideration.
• Place: Unilever company sends this particular product ‘Vaseline’ to both the big markets such as Woolworths, Coles and small market such as chemist & pharmacies. Moreover, Vaseline can be easily available in any shopping centre around. The measurement of place can be carried out by having the data of market size and distribution strategy. As the customers are moving to online vendors, so the measurement will also include identifying the good and trusted online shopping sites.
• Promotion: Vaseline has the promotional strategy in order to increase its market value. It becomes important to measure the promotional activities for assessing its development. Primarily, budget is considered in the process of measurement because the scale of promotion totally depends upon the budget of a company. Promotional efforts are observed to assess the activities which could include contests, draws and discounts.

The product itself, the target spectators, price of the product and marketing budget will help determining the best promotional mix.

After defining the measurement of each element of mix, it is obvious to monitor the performance and its progress to check how is it going well in the market.

7. Identify the techniques to measure the performance and progress:

To identify the best techniques to assess the performance and progress of brand activities, it is better to include both internal and external measurements and processes.

For this, market sales of the brand, market share, customer satisfaction, impact & comprehension of advertising and promotion, growth rate, assessment of distribution and impact of price change can be considered as the best possible techniques for the measurement.

In 2009, Unilever’s personal care brands gave $13,846 million turnover and 7.3% underlying sales growth in the contribution to the overall organization (Unilever Annual report and accounts, 2010).

Value, over the past 5 years (2006-2010) Vaseline has grown by about 93.5%. The hugely growth rate occurred between years 2009 to 2010, where the market of this personal care’s brand increased by about 73%. It has also been observed and examined that Vaseline offers the intensive rescue among all the skin care products (High Beam Business, 2007).

Volume of skin care industry, over the past 5 years has grown by about 105%. Also, in year 2009 to 2010 it had shown 100% increment. Since 2009, the brand ‘Vaseline’ started showing increment because the green house effect have made the world hotter and people are aware of the temperature change, so in this case they will find the product that can help keeping their skin safe.

It can be clearly pointed out that, Vaseline has 29% share in overall brand share of body lotions. This figure reveals the brand performance and progress of Vaseline in the market.

It is also a part to examine the customer satisfaction in terms of their utility of this particular brand, for this a brand snapshot can be represented to get a high-level summary of customer’s perception and involvement with the Vaseline brand in their online conversation.

Brand Snapshot

(Source: J.D power and associates)

The customer’s reply was as following:

“Vaseline is a good product which helps in everything. It is a moisturizer, Chap Stick, eye cream and make up remover all in one. It shows the customer reliability for Vaseline.

J.D power web intelligence presented the top mentioned uses for Vaseline and its product line in its report in 2010, which clearly discussed the percentage of total usage of Vaseline product line.

Top mentioned uses for Vaseline

(Source: J, D Power Web Intelligence, 2010)

Furthermore, the performance and progress can be rated by their idea of promoting and advertising the brand and its related products in the market. It mainly targeted and focused the ladies, who are insecure and worried about their dry and dead skin. For this, Vaseline producing agency conducted the interviews and collected information related to the basic skin problems customers are dealing with. It suggests the best alternatives and approached to the company to meet the exact demand of customers (Vega, 2010). Moreover, distribution of Vaseline can be found out through grocery, drug and mass merchandise stores. Its current distribution penetration is 92% and 96% for grocery stores and drug stores respectively. Therefore, Vaseline is said to be the industry leader with 90% market share and with 97% strong brand recognition.

In addition, it can be made a note that if the brand progress is identified by getting the overall market size & value, growth rate, customer satisfaction and impact of pricing, then it is also necessary to note that what all the actual measures have been taken in performance evaluation. Next portion of report will highlight all key measures to be taken for that

 8.  Identify actual measures to conduct brand performance evaluation:

Before any major or specific brand management decisions are taken, the brand should be evaluated against a set of actual measures to get a refresh idea about its present perception in costumer’s minds. Marketing performance evaluation plays a crucial role in effective communication of the value of the product and its marketing. In the framework of performance evaluation, there are some actual measures that need to be taken into consideration such as timing of the evaluation, responsibilities and acceptable variances from the target levels. Talking about the timing, it is an integral part of any evaluation process. It is set and planned before starting the performance evaluation process. It is also need to check that the whole process is accomplished within the set time period.

Additionally, responsibility arises in terms of what benchmarks to be set, how to set and define them. The company can go for both quantitative and qualitative criteria for inclusive evaluation of performance. In these criteria, determination of net profit, ROI, cost of production, skills and competencies, suppleness and risk taking potent ability are evaluated. Variance analysis is also an actual measure to be taken to compare the actual performance with standard performance set by the company. It is effective analysis because it reveals the degree of tolerance limits between which the variance may be accepted. Then, once the positive and negative deviations are identified by the variance analysis, corrective actions can be taken to achieve desired performance.

It further enables to determine the environmental scanning measures to assess the changing environment for the product and its categories defined.

9. Environmental Scanning:

The global environment analysis becomes an essential part of the whole process of performance evaluation to analyze the current position of brand. Many factors can be considered for environmental scanning and key internal and external micro & macro factors can be identified.

• Culture and demographic

Most of Australians go to the beach to stay under sun to get a skin tan what they like most to have. But if in this case they don’t use any skin care, it will make them get skin cancer. According to Health Promotion Journal of Australia (2009) states, “Australia has the highest numbers of skin cancer in the world. Annual health system costs attributable to skin cancer in Australia have been estimated at around $300 million, the highest amount of expenditure for any cancer. Geographical closeness to the equator, a primarily fair-skinned Caucasian population and outdoor lifestyle are the primary underlying factors.

• Natural

In year 2010, there was a virus named Swine Flu. It had killed many people in every country and there was not any medicine available which could kill it. So, doctors prescribed that people needs to protect Swine flu by themselves by washing their hand and body properly. So it has many product categories of body wash that can protect people from Swine flu such as Dettol or etc.

• Technology

In past few decades, the human body got old along to their age but now the technology of skin care is getting higher, so that people can use the skin care products such as lotions to slowdown their change and to renew their dead skin to become smooth, younger and soft. Some products also protect from the UV light, and help to protect from the skin cancer.

• Financial Environment

The beauty product industry in Australia is still booming while the world is facing global financial crisis, that means Australians still buy the beauty products regardless of  the global good or bad financial condition. Thus the beauty product industry in Australia will not get affected from this problem/issue.

Then, the need arises to know the organizational fit and the processes for assessing the performance against objectives.

 10. Organizational Fit:

Unilever Company is looking for new markets to find a new group of customers. Unilever goes for wide range of advertising and promotional strategies to attract new customers and to achieve its objectives. Moreover, in summer season in Australia, temperature can go up to 45 degree. So, it mainly focuses on sunscreen category of Vaseline product that is very important to safe customer skin.

Afterwards, changes and improvement can be made to develop the marketing plan and activities in effective manner. Next part of report will highlight some changes required in this context.

1. 11.  Process to change and improvement of marketing plan:

If a new plan and marketing activities are brought forward to meet the needs of customers, it also requires some changes to develop those plans. Organizational changes can be made in terms of improving the level of staff involved and resource of capital also can be changed. If the company wants to launch a new product & its categories and also plan to implement new marketing activities, it needs to find out the creative and innovative staff to join the marketer group to help in creating new product. As Unilever is well known and trusted company in the world, it is having good capital. But in case of implementing new marketing plans and activities, it can adjust for various capital resources to make it more effective. Finally, Vaseline Company can make a change in pricing strategy and can offer the customers in keeping their loyalty towards Vaseline.

1. 12.  Conclusion:

It can be concluded on the basis of overall study and research that Vaseline has gained a big market share and size among all the skin care products available in Australia. It defined the best possible techniques, processes and measurements to implement and evaluate the planned marketing activities. The overall study dictates the people and department involved in the implementation and evaluation of activities to promote the brand effectively. The basic idea of using PERT, GANTT and CPM techniques for monitoring the activities make it clearer to assess the activities. Environmental scanning process in Australia helped in identifying some critical issues related to skin problems which can be noticed out by the company. This report also highlighted the performance evaluation processes and techniques.

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