Marketing plan objectives for differentiation and positioning

Marketing Plan Objectives:

Helen of Troy has just completed the acquisition of the PERT Plus and Sure product lines to add to its already successful Vidal Sassoon product line. Also, the company can not afford to neglect its already existing products such as the Infusium 23 product line. These types of new products present a template for marketing. The marketing plan objectives in this paper are driven by product lines such as this. Essentially, the Helen of Troy strategy is based upon dynamic acquisition and continuing development of existing product lines based upon data from the Marketing Information System (MIS). The MIS is an organized method of gathering continually analyzing and accessing information that the marketing managers need to make their decisions, including information gathered by dedicated data mining. By sorting and computerizing the information, Helen of Troy's marketing department can pull information and process it into specialized reports to assist in marketing decisions.

In this paper, Infusium 23 (a leave-in hair conditioner) and the Helen of Troy's continuing development of its Oxo line of kitchen house wares will provide examples of products that were acquired and redeveloped based upon new information from the MIS. These types of products will be featured in both the marketing objectives and in the differentiating and positioning portions of this paper provide a templates to model the marketing of other product lines on. Establishing competitive prices for all of the Helen of Troy products is among the company's most important marketing objective, especially during the continuing recession. Helen of Troy's positioning and differentiation and marketing objectives for the present fiscal year will have many things in common with recent years. The profits that the company has made have been dependent upon an exacting analysis of the MIS information and the company has suffered when this analysis is insufficient. In addition, more reliance upon data mining will be crucial. At present, the company's growth is good, but if the recession keeps on at its present intensity, it will have to look at increasing its market share for its existing product lines to maintain and increase profitability.

This plan was revealed at Helen of Troy Fourth Quarter Conference Call and Year End Conference Call for 2009. At that time it was announced that Infusium 23 was acquired from Proctor and Gamble for $60 million dollars out of hand ("Helen of troy," 2009, 6). As predicted by Gerry Rubin, the CEO of Helen of Troy predicted the product has been one of the major drivers of company productivity during the 2010 fiscal year (ibid, 14). Oxo brands also reflected continued strength, hence the reason for the emphasis upon Infusium 23 and Oxo products as templates for marketing, especially in the realm of co-branding and linking in terms of competitive pricing (ibid, 3).

While the MIS information is very important, we have to also realize that in this age of high-tech that we do not lose sight of what made Helen of Troy a success initially, that is gut instinct. This is what made the company what it is. Helen of Troy's was transformed from a struggling string of wig shops into an industry leader in the field of beauty and hair products. This can be traced ultimately to shrewd and timely licensing, including the purchase of limited rights to the Vidal Sassoon name in 1980 as well as the acquisition of rights to use the Dazey, Carel, and Dr. Scholl's brands. Line extensions and development as well as geographic diversification helped Helen of Troy enjoy a growth rate of 15% from 1986 to 1996. This was in spite of its concentration in what is generally considered a low-growth industry. Its distribution arms now reach from the United States to Europe, South America, Australia, South Africa and Asia ("Helen of troy,"). In this high-tech age, even we at the consultant team can not throw out the human factor and have to emphasize the basics of what has made Helen of Troy great.

Differentiating and Positioning:

Market positioning has been aided by agreements to utilize the great marketing and sales resources of Amazon.com. Infusium 23 is no exception and this strategy also includes more traditional Helen of Troy product lines such as curling irons and hair clippers. Product differentiation includes such aspects as an attractive sale price point of $7.99, an attractive new scent, redesigned bottles and better hair results (Gold, 2010). Price is a very important factor, as this consultant found out in a Google search on September 6, 2010. The second most popular search on the Google pull-down menu was for Infusium 23 coupons, even given the competitive price of the product currently. A great example of this can be found offered by Walgreens on not just Infusium 23, but related Helen of Troy products. The coupons bring the price down to a super low of $4.99 per bottle. Obviously, price is as important as brand loyalty. In addition, the coupons are mixed with other Helen of Troy products such as those in the Oxo kitchen product line (Mercedes, 2010).

The consultant team's intriguing observation is that given the success of outlets such as Amazon, there is now less brand loyalty amongst consumers. The co-branding and mixing of products is now an accepted practice, as long as the items have some logical, functional link. An example is that a consumer would go straight from the bathroom to the kitchen in the morning. Infusium 23 hair conditioner and Oxo kitchen products therefore have a logical link in the typical consumer's mind. We can continue linking coupon offers in this way to take full advantage of the current trends in co-branding and marketing. This goes along very well with the company's history of developing product lines by product develop which inevitably requires price modification to position the products and differentiate them from their competition.