Tre Semme III Positioning Strategy

Tre Semme III

Positioning Strategy

Positioning -- Current

The current positioning strategy is exemplified by the motto "professional performance at an affordable price." This defines the company's offering along two critical product attribute dimensions of performance and price. This positioning is occupied by a number of products in this category. Consumers value both of these qualities in hair care products. Much of the target market consists of teenagers and young women, who are often price-sensitive by the nature of their relatively low income levels. However, few consumers would readily accept the lowest-end beauty products because of the perception that such products would be ineffective at enhancing beauty. Thus, the natural positioning for hair care products is to offer some sort of quality, and for this particular target market to offer the lower price as a product virtue as well.

A perceptual map can be used to put the positioning of Tresemme into perspective with its peers (Riley, 2012). In this instance, the price data that we have gathered about competing products will be compared with Amazon customer review scores to derive a perceptual map. The perceptual map of the dry shampoo industry is as follows. Tresemme's positioning with consumers is poor, with a low price but low quality, and indeed worse quality than the cheaper Suave product.

Positioning -- Recommended

Where Tresemme can find a valuable position is by moving vertically, improving quality while maintaining a low price. With a quality score of 3.5 or 4, Tresemme would be much more competitive. The company will need to make some changes to the actual product to achieve this, but the marketing team can help to promote this new positioning. In terms of summing up the slogan, the "affordable" component will be maintained. The "professional" component is wishy-washy anyway, since even the cheaper hair salon is a professional business. "Professional" should be changed in the product's positioning to a term that speaks more directly to attributes. Some brainstorming can be done here, but attributes such as "stylish," "unique," "salon quality" and others could be tested. "Salon quality" is not a far-reaching repositioning, but "unique" might capture the edginess expected of the target market while maintaining mainstream appeal.

3.6 Strategy Pyramid

The strategy pyramid outlines the recommendations for the Tresemme Fresh Start dry shampoo brand. The first thing that needs to change is the product itself. Consumers do not like this product, and it scores lower than any competing product on Amazon. While it comes at a bargain price, it scores lower than products with lower prices. Thus, product quality needs to improve in order to improve market share. Consumers simply do not want beauty products that do not enhance beauty are not likely to win fans. The brand image needs to be improved in order to match the improvements in the product. The tag line needs to be updated to something that speaks more directly to the needs of consumers, such as "unique," which speaks to the need for self-expression in one's look, a common desirable attribute in our target demographic. In addition, the Fresh Start name should be scrapped so that legacy reviews online are not attributed to the new and improved product.

There are no changes needed in the pricing of the product. Tresemme already prices at the lower end, so there is little room to win customers by cutting the price further. If the product improvements significantly increase the variable cost of the product, then perhaps those increase should be built into the price, but the price positioning for Tresemme is going to be significantly lower than the narrow band occupied by Psssst!, Batiste and Got2b.

Advertising is going to be key, since the product is going to receive a relaunch. Awareness of the new and improved product is important to its success. The advertising budget should therefore be increased temporarily for the relaunch to improve exposure of Tresemme dry shampoo. The company should also focus on the new attribute "unique" and the fact that the product has been reformulated. Initially, market share gains are going to come from existing dry shampoo buyers, many of whom might have already tried and rejected Tresemme. We need to win them back and get other dry shampoo buyers to try the product, so focusing on the new attributes and the reformulation in an aggressive relaunch is going to be critical.

A strong sales promotion strategy should complement the advertising strategy. In particular, product placement in stores is important. For the relaunch, we should set specific objectives for placement that we can communicate to our wholesale and retail partners. With respect to these channels, we believe that we can increase our market share while maintaining the current channels. Channel strategy is tied to the Tresemme brand overall, so it is not easy to make significant changes to the channels for a single product. With an objective of increasing market share, more channels are better than fewer, so maintaining the current channels while examining the potential of potential new channels (such as online) can also be done in order to facilitate the growth strategy in the long run.

Strategy Pyramid Diagram

Improve brand image

Improve product quality

No change necessary

Focus on "unique"

Aggressive relaunch

Offer dealer incentives for shelf placement

Leverage same channels

4.1 Product Marketing

Product -- Current

TreSemme's Fresh Start dry shampoo competes against several other dry shampoo companies, as noted in the section where we discussed competition. Tresemme has three variants for its dry shampoo. In addition to the flagship dry shampoo there is a waterless foam shampoo and dry shampoo for color-treated hair. As noted in the competitor analysis, Suave also has three variants but they are different from those of Tresemme. L'Oreal has only one dry shampoo; as does Got2b. Pssssst! has two varieties. Batiste, which specializes in dry shampoo, has at least six variants in its range. The perceptual map and competitor analysis outlined the product quality dynamics of the industry. Tresemme has the lowest customer rating and most low ratings address product quality specifically. The product performs worse than any competitor. Even Suave, which comes in at a lower price, has better quality. The current product quality of Tresemme is not congruent with growing market share, no matter what the price, and needs to be improved.

Product -- Recommended

The Tresemme dry shampoo product needs to be improved. The line itself is not necessarily the problem -- the issue is that consumers find our product to perform poorly. This discourages repeat buying, and large amounts of negative reviews online discourage people from trying Tresemme. To solve this problem, the marketing department will need to work with the product team to develop a better product. The most important attribute is that the product has to work -- it has to clean hair. The evidence online says that it does not.

Packaging-Current

Each company offers its own packaging -- there is no standardized form for the industry. As a result, the consumer has a difficult time determining the price per ounce. There is significant variation among competitors for the price per ounce. Most competitors only use a single container size. It is not known what factors have driven these different container sizes. With respect to container design, the competitors can be broken down roughly into two categories -- traditional designs and youth. The traditional designs make use of simpler design and layout, and they feature earthier colors. Products with "youth" packaging -- an example would be Got2b -- have brighter, more garish colors and designs that could be described more frenetic (or cluttered, depending on your point-of-view). While more eye-catching, "youth" designs specifically appeal to teenagers while traditional packaging designs connote maturity. It should also be noted that packaging design is usually in line with the overall brand design. For Tresemme, for example, the color scheme and general layout of the package is consistent with other Tresemme products and is not specific to the dry shampoo product.

Packaging -- Recommended

Given that the pricing need not change, the package size does not need to change either. The layout and color tone are dictated by the overall branding of Tresemme so are going to be difficult to change. Two aspects of the packaging can change, however. The first is the shape of the package, which should be changed to convey to the consumers that this is a different product from Fresh Start. The second is that the package should have a different name (not Fresh Start) and should impress upon the consumer that it is a new product. The new selling proposition "unique" should also be incorporated into the text of the packaging.