Marketing Management -- Subscription Box (STP) PDF

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GreenLife Subscription Box

Programme of Study: BSc Marketing Module: Marketing Management Date: 24th February 2020 Word Count: 1,222

Subscription Box Idea (Task 1): In recent years, the relevance of subscription boxes in the market have been steadily increasing. Approximately a decade ago, the subscription box business model was starting to gain traction in the market. People were noticing how successful and profitable they could be. I will be creating a subscription box called GreenLife. The GreenLife subscription box falls into a lifestyle and health category. This is because its goal is to motivate people to live “greener” lives. GreenLife is a subscription box service that’s goal is to inspire and motivate everyday people to be more conscious about how their individual product choices can be ecofriendlier and how to live a greener life. The types of things that will be included will be products like Bees Wraps™ (a natural alternative to plastic wrap), cruelty free makeup and skincare, non-harmful cleaning. products, bamboo toothbrushes, seeds to grow your own produce, etc. A questionnaire will be administered at the beginning of the process in order to fully understand what the consumer hopes to get out of the subscription box. Therefore, we can tailor the boxes to consumers’ preferences and needs. Customers have the option to order a 12-month subscription or just buy one box at a time.

Target Market (Task 2): Targeting refers to the process in which a firm evaluates market segments and chooses which of those segments of customers to serve (Gbadamosi, Bathgate and Nwankwo, 2013). Companies targets segments of consumers because it would be too expensive and time consuming to accommodate so many people’s needs. Segmentation refers to a marketing strategy that is used by many companies in order to create “significant customer groups in markets they wish to serve” (Gbadamosi, Bathgate and Nwankwo, 2013). There are four criteria in which customers can be segmented into;

geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioural. Geographic segmentation has to do with countries, neighbourhoods, and regions. Demographic has to do with age income and gender. Psychographic has to do with the personality of the person their values and their lifestyle. Behavioural has to do with brand choices, the media they consume, and price sensitivity. The combination of segmentation criteria I will use is geographic, demographic, and psychographic. Geographic e.g. countries, cities, etc. e.g.

gender,

age,

education, income etc.

United Kingdom Demographic Male and Female 25-35 years old Undergraduate degree

e.g. social class, lifestyle, personality, interests, etc.

£50,000/year salary Psychographic Middle class Active/healthy lifestyle (e.g. hiking on the weekends Kind-hearted, thoughtful people

I chose to target this age group with a middle-class salary because they have enough disposable income to purchase my subscription box. Many in this age group will be out of schooling and have careers, therefore, they have the disposable income Furthermore, these psychographic factors such as their personality, would be interested in green life because they are kind hearted, thoughtful, and live active healthy lifestyles therefore they would be interested in a subscription box that would provide them with eco-friendly alternatives to the products they already buy. Using a concentrated marketing strategy, such as this, my subscription box will be able to attract a strong customer base, because I am not targeting a big group of people. Furthermore, this target market is extremely profitable. This is due to the fact that in recent years, the

“popularity” of being an individual who cares about the environment has drastically increased. It has become trendy and appealing to care about the environment, which is great. This also opens up a profitable market segment that businesses can target.

Competition (Task 3): My two most important competitors would be Lush Cosmetics and Holland and Barrett. Lush Cosmetics is an all-natural, fresh, handmade skin care and beauty store. They believe that “adding chemicals is harmful for the body and for the environment” (Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics UK, 2020). On the other hand, Holland and Barrett's is a health food store that offers vitamins, supplements, natural beauty, food, and natural skin care. Holland and Barrett are one of my biggest competitors because they offer similar items in-store. The company also trains their staff effectively, so that they can correctly advice customers in-store about the products they carry (Rigby, 2018). Face to face interactions often make the customer feel cared for and important. Furthermore, it is an established and respected brand. Therefore, it would be difficult to compete with them. Lush Cosmetics has implemented a terrific recycling program in which they offer customers a free product or a discount in exchange for recyclable goods (Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics UK, 2020). This service would be highly attractive to my target market segment. Brand positioning has to do with creating and maintaining value in the minds of the customers you are targeting (Gbadamosi, Bathgate and Nwankwo, 2013). There are 3 factors in which successful positioning is crucial (Drummond and Ensor, 2001). These three factors are competitiveness, credibility, and clarity. Competitiveness has to do with the product offering better benefits to your target market than your rivals. Credibility means at the target audience needs to believe that the attributes that are used to position the product are credible. Clarity is concerned with the positioning statement of the organisation, the positioning

statement needs to create distinct impression in the minds of the target market segments of the product, in this case a subscription box.

Brand Positioning (Task 4): Positioning, according to Lancaster et al. (2002), is defined as “the act of designing a company’s product and marketing mix to fit a given place in the mind of the consumer.” Positioning is not about the product, but about an individual consumers’ perception of said product in their minds, this can differ wildly from consumer to consumer. GreenLife will be positioning itself as a subscription box intended for middle class millennials. It offers products tailored to each individual, made possible by a questionnaire administered at the beginning of the registration process, among all eco-friendly. All packaging used will be made from recycled goods. Moreover, customers have the option to re-answer the questionnaire at any time if their preferences change; this specific factor will allow us to compete with Holland & Barrett because it shows the customer that we care and we want them to have as little cognitive dissonance as possible with regards to their recent purchases. Lush Cosmetics is solely a skin care and cosmetic brand, whereas my subscription box will offer a wide range of products (e.g. cleaning products, cosmetics, seeds for your garden, plants, alternatives to plastic, etc.), which will all be sourced from ethical brands. I expect my target market to believe that GreenLife is a subscription box worth their money by offering free boxes to “influencers” so that they will review them. Furthermore, some influencers (only those in my target market) will be sponsored by this company, so they can advertise to their fanbase, who are most likely in the same target market. Finally, my subscription box will have an advantage over both of my top two competitors, Lush Cosmetics and Holland & Barret, because more and more people are ordering their products online than ever. The high street is dying; Britain’s high streets have lost more than

2,400 shops per year in recent years (Diebelius, 2019). This means that more and more people are going to be looking online for things they could have gotten on the high street. Therefore, my subscription box can compete with established stores, such as Lush Cosmetics and Holland & Barrett.

Bibliography

Diebelius, G. (2019). Britain's dying high streets lost more than 2,400 shops in a year | Metro News. [online] Metro.co.uk. Available at: https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/10/britainsdying-high-streets-lost-2400-shops-year-9143098/ [Accessed 22 Feb. 2020]. Drummond, G. and Ensor, J. (2001). Strategic marketing. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Gbadamosi, A., Bathgate, I. and Nwankwo, S. (2013). Principles of Marketing. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, p.141-164. Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Harris, L. and He, H. (2019). Principles of Marketing. 7th ed. Harlow, United Kingdom: Pearson Education Limited, pp.621-631. Lancaster, G., Massingham, L. and Ashford, R. (2002) Essentials of Marketing. Berkshire: McGraw-Hill Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics UK. (2020). More than marketing. [online] Available at: https://uk.lush.com/article/more-marketing [Accessed 21 Feb. 2020]. Palmatier, R. and Crecelius, A. (2019). The “first principles” of marketing strategy. AMS Review,

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