Bubble Battles: A Strategic Overview of Marketing Mix Choices by Fairy and Ecover in the Detergent Market

Executive summary

In the recent era of globalisation, the firms focus on marketing mix strategic planning to develop proper product planning, setting effective price, and strengthening distribution network and ensuring promotional activities to establish the brand successfully in the market. The aim of the study is to analyse the marketing mix strategic planning of both the firs Fairy and Ecover washing liquids and evaluate their strategic choice in establishing the brands in the detergent market. As per the study is also effective to compare and contrast the marketing mix strategic planning of both the firms which are efficient to produce quality washing liquid and attract the audiences successfully in long run. As per the findings, the company Fairy is efficient to develop proper distribution network through Tesco and promote their products efficiently in the market and the company is also successful to gain high market share through product promotion, delivering high quality products an efficient services to the customers as well as the price of the products is also affordable by the middle and economic class. On the other hand, the company Ecover focus on developing ecologically sound cleaning detergent and liquids to raise concern about environmental sustainability and aim to target the customers, who prefer to utilise sustainable products. Both the firms are efficient to promote the products and target the audiences so that it would be possible to strengthen their customer’s base and maximise their profitability successfully.

Introduction

The marketing mix strategic planning is the process of managing the strategies to promote the organisations in the market, where the strategies of products and services, promotional activities, developing proper planning to place the products and setting appropriate price are the major tactics to establish the firm in the market (Kaiser, 2018). The study aims at comparing and contrasting the marketing mix strategic planning of the two firms, which are Fairy and Ecover washing up liquid, which are effective products in the market. Both the brands are efficient to promote their brand sin the market with quality detergents and services that satisfy the customers in the market across the UK. The study is effective to identify the detergents market across the UK and other international countries, where both the brands are operating successfully. The detergent market across the globe is growing rapidly, where the market demand and customers preferences towards the liquid up washing are also increasing at an increasing rate. In this regard, the in 2018, it was 109.6 USD billion, where the detergent companies are making profits efficiently. The trend of the market in preferring the washing up liquid is also increasing over the years from 2015, as per the figure below, it has also been seen that, there is growth in the near future also where the customer’s preferences for the washing liquids ins growing at a rapid rate (Juwita, Arifin and Dewi, 2018).

The study is effective, where it is possible to evaluate the marketing mix strategic planning and the components of 4P marketing mix including the product, price, place and promotion, which are effective strategies of the companies to promote the organisational product and services (Juwita, Arifin and Dewi, 2018).

Organisational background

Fairy is the brand of washing up liquids, where the company is efficient to satisfy the customers in the market by delivering quality liquid washes. On the other hand, Ecover is the Belgian company which focuses on developing ecologically sound cleaning products in the market so that it can target the healthy customer across the globe. The company is efficient for producing the cleansing agents, domestic detergents and personal care products. It focuses on Techno green products to raise concern about green environmental footprint (Day et al., 2017).

In the recent year, the total value in the detergent market is increasing over the period of time and it has been seen as per the above figure that Fairy is able to hold 9.4% market and on the other hand Ecover holds 1% of market share in the UK market. There are other competitive companies in the detergent market which are also playing crucial role such as Surf, Ariel, Persil, Dettol, Vanish, Daz and Bold (Kaiser, 2018).

Target market of the companies

In order to target the market, both the companies try to develop proper customer segmentation, so that they can develop further marketing mix strategic planning efficiently for targeting the right customers across the international borders. The companies try to target the consumer market by gender, age and the economic status as well as personal choices and preferences. In this regard, both the customers prefer to target the female members in the family where the demand of the female members for the washing liquids is higher as compared to the male members. Additionally, the companies, Fairy and Ecover also target the age group of 18 years to 54 years where the target audiences have high demand or the washing liquids (Syarief and Wibowo, 2017). On the other hand, the companies focus on the customer’s personal behaviour and try to acknowledge the preferences and personal choices of the customers in the market and in this regard, the company Fairy target the middle and low economic class, but Ecover focuses on targeting the high and middle economic class, due to high price of their products and services.

Marketing mix strategic planning

The marketing mix strategic planning is important for the originations to develop effective tactics to promote the organisational products and services in the market and gain high competitive advantage by strengthening their customer’s base. In this regard, the major components of 4P marketing mix strategic planning are such as products, price, place and promotion, which will be evaluated further in terms of the organisational context (Syarief and Wibowo, 2017).

Product:

Product is the major component, where the companies try to design the products and manage the high quality standard so that it is possible for the organisations to deliver high quality pouts to the customers and satisfy them in long run. In this regard, both the companies Fairy and Ecover focus on developing quality washing liquids, which are appropriate for satisfying the customers. The companies also try to meet the expectation of the consumers across the international nations, in order to strengthen their customer’s base by providing quality washing liquids (Payne, Frow and Eggert, 2017). However, there is different in the product formulation of the companies, where Ecover mainly focuses on developing green products which are environmentally sustainable. There are no such chemicals in the product of Ecover where the company tries to attract the customers who try to satisfy healthy and use sustainable products. On the other hand, Fairy brand only focuses on the quality and the raw materials used in producing the liquids in the market. Hereby, the product strategy of the firms is different to each other, where Ecover mainly aims at\providing quality and sustainable green products, which are ecologically sound cleaning products (Syarief and Wibowo, 2017).

Price:

Price is another main component to target the customers and retain them for long run and in this regard pricing strategy is mandatory for the companies to establish the brand and attract the audiences across the international markets (Basile, Dominici and Tani, 2016). The pricing strategy is same for both the brands, Fairy and Ecover are effective. Both the companies try to focus on premium pricing strategy, where the brands try to set the minimum price for the quality products to attract the audiences in the market and gain competitive advantage. It is effective strategy for the companies to establish the brand and deliver high quality products to the customers at affordable price. The profit margin is lower in such strategy, where the profitability ratio for Fairy and Ecover is lower. However, the price is much higher in Ecover as compared to Fairy, for which Ecover mainly targets the high and middle economic class. The pre is higher for the products of Ecover than the products of fairy, as the products of Ecover is ecologically sustainable and the company mainly aims at developing green products for the benefits of the customers in long run (Lagat and Frankwick, 2017).

Place:

The companies try to manage the inventory and stock of the products and tie up with the retail super market chain such as Tesco for successful promotion of the brands in this regard, Fairy is successful to gain high markets share where the distribution network of Fairy is strong and here is proper cooperation and agreement with Tesco, which is a largest super market chain in the UK to maximise their sales volume. On the other hand, the company Ecover aims at partnership business, but weak distribution network and lack of planning strategy and poor investment further lower the market share for Ecover (Juwita, Arifin and Dewi, 2018).

Promotion:

Promotion is another essential component for successful establishment of the brand and in this regard sales promotion, direct marketing, advertises and public relation is the major strategic planning to promote the organisational products and services. In this regard, the company Fairy focuses on developing advertising the organisational products through the Tesco super market chain as well as creating social media advertising for brand promotion (Camilleri, 2018). The leader is efficient to invest capital in creating social media advertising which further helps the firm to gain high competitive advantage. On the other hand, Ecover focuses on improving public relations and influencing the purchase decision making behaviour o the customers by promoting the products through conveying the message of ecological cleaning products. Additionally, the company also focuses on sales promotional activities for promoting the brand in the market.

Conclusion

The marketing mix strategic planning is beneficial for both the firms, Fairy and Ecover, where both the company focus on product and pricing strategy to attract the audiences and strengthen their customer’s base. The advertisement strategy of Fairy is fruitful where the company is successful to gain high market share as compared to the market share of Ecover. On the other hand, Ecover focuses on producing ecologically sound cleaning washing liquids for the wellbeing of the individuals and it is also one of the effective product strategies to promote the brand in the market across the UK.

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Reference list

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