Products and Branding. Free Essay

The market today for cosmetic products is crowded, and companies have to find better and innovative ways of creating and sustaining their competitive advantage. This will help them manage the commercial key better, which is a success factor in the market. The companies should continuously look for up to date means to exploit the brand's capital and manage it with the current tools and strategies. Benoit, 2019, 40, explains that branding increases the value to the products, and it differentiates between one product from the other and has a functional benefit to the customers. Branding is effective means that a product can stand out as a matter of differentiating and identifying the products in the industry or the market.

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A brand is the name, sign, or combination that identifies the goods and services of the seller as well as a group of sellers that will differentiate them from the rest of the products. When creating a product, there are some key things one should keep in mind (Gupta et al., 2017). The main four things a company needs to emphasize are product mix breadth, product line depth, product item design, and product item lifecycle. These are the fundamental formulas and initiatives a company must surpass to meet the expectations of the segments they are willing to target.

In the beauty industry, one product is never enough for a company to claim their spot as the number one cosmetics brand. "Greater benefit, however, is usually derived from developing a new product that connects in some way with the company's existing products" (Benoit, 2019). While developing a foundation to correct pigmentation and scarring for a person's skin, a company must also correlate and create products that enhance that product. As we know, MAC is known for the fashion industry; its goal is to be able to market to regular consumers (Gupta et al., 2017). As an example, MAC cosmetics created skin foundations that were relevant to the fashion industry and could be used on customers worldwide ((Gupta et al., 2017)). By doing this, they were able to create a product mix, fast forward to today where the brand has primers, concealers, highlighters, and other products that emphasize the use of their main product, the skin foundation. For a new brand to sell its product, the company needs to understand what the demand of the consumer is today. As the world faces a real issue today, the Covid-19 pandemic, many companies are still able to create income. L'Oreal, another well know cosmetic brand stated that their sales increased during this pandemic because consumers were able to choose from their essential products such as mascaras to more elite products such as their skincare products (Benoit, 2019). This shows that because the company was not dependent on one product sale, they were able to create income and target consumers.

The next thing a brand should always decide is the product line depth. Once you can determine which products will be created to enhance your main product and brand, the decision of detail and product quality becomes your next issue to tackle. "Product line depth decisions must be carefully analyzed, and planned-and should be guided by a vision for what the product line is to become over time" (Berger et al., 2019). With that being said, for a cosmetics brand, the major decisions would be to create two different types of each product. Once the brand successfully sells high-end products, what they can always do is create a line that everyone can afford. The lower price point will target consumers who are unable to purchase the high-end products, yet can receive similar results. By doing this, the brand can keep its costs down and target various consumers.

By understanding that, before jumping into cosmetic branding, some key aspects are to be considered so as the brand stands out. It is essential to understand the company brand first. Some cosmetics are feminine and bright, and some are innovative and edge while others are natural, environmentally friendly, and subtle. Whatever the cosmetic brand, it is vital to lay down some few adjectives that will simplify the process streamlining the branding and guide the branding decisions. Furthermore, the company should understand the competition to make the brand stand out (Gupta et al., 2017). Understanding what the competitors are doing in the industry will help to know what they are going to do differently. This is what will make the brand stand unique and be different from the already existing brands.

The customers need a product that they can stand behind. Therefore the companies should do more than just making amazing lipsticks and super pigmented shadows if they want to connect to the customers. They have to build a strong corporate mission and values. Therefore the brand of cosmetic products should be one that speaks to the ideal customers since you cannot market that what you don’t know customers need (Gupta et al., 2017). Understanding the customer helps make the right decision in branding and will help build the brand, which connects them with the ideal customers.

After identification of the brand clearly, the company gets in the process of building a brand identity. The organization will have to define the designing of the building blocks. The management should focus on the following critical elements in determining the drive in the branding process. First are the topography and understanding that the fonts used in the brand element send a powerful message on the brand to the audiences (Berger et al., 2019). For example, having an ugly graphic on the packaging may send a different message than the use of a more feminine script font that is used. The color palette is also a powerful branding tool as ladies have a strong association with color (Gupta et al., 2017). Understanding the associations makes the company to strategically choose a color that inspires some specific thoughts, reactions, and emotions among the audience.

In conclusion, for them to be competitive, there is a need to carefully brand and market the products to give the companies an edge over the competition. To succeed in the beauty brand, there is a need to brand companies on social media. Visual platforms such as Instagram and YouTube are critical as there is a bulk of beauty content and channels for cosmetic brands. The company can also find beauty influencers that have a high engaging audience. These will help to endorse the brand and get them into the hands of the ideal customers (Berger et al., 2019). This should also be combined with a brand style guide that will have all the critical information on the brand.

Reference list

Benoit, A., 2019. Viva MAC: AIDS, Fashion, and the Philanthropic Practices of MAC Cosmetics. University of Toronto Press.

Berger, P.D., Chheda, B.K., and Minocha, D., 2019. Packaging–A critical marketing tool for brands. GPH-International Journal of Applied Management Science→, 2(04), pp.01-18.

Gupta, S., Reddy, S.K., and Lane, D., 2017. Marketing Transformation at Mastercard.