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Declare your beauty
MARKETING RESEARCH PROJECT REPORT
PRESENTED TO: Ms. Mahjabeen Rafay
PRESENTED BY AZEEM BARI
FARAZ FAISAL WALEED BIN TARIQ
FIZA IMRAN SANA TARIQ FATIMA GUL
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Declare your beauty
CONTENTS
STRATEGIC PLANNING OF LUX.....................................................................................................................................7
MARKETING STARTEGY AND MARKETING MIX OF LUX............................................................................10
MARKETING STRATEGY..................................................................................................................................10
MARKET SEGMENTATION...............................................................................................................................10
MARKET TARGETING.......................................................................................................................................11
POSITIONING......................................................................................................................................................11
THE MARKETING MIX..........................................................................................................................................11
PRODUCT.............................................................................................................................................................11
PRICE....................................................................................................................................................................12
PLACE...................................................................................................................................................................12
PROMOTION........................................................................................................................................................12
MANAGING THE MARKETING EFFORT.......................................................................................................................13
MARKETING ANALYSIS.......................................................................................................................................13
SWOT Analysis.......................................................................................................................................................13
SWOT ANAYLSIS OF LUX UNILEVER PAKISTAN...........................................................................................13
Strengths................................................................................................................................................................13
Opportunities.........................................................................................................................................................14
Threats...................................................................................................................................................................14
MARKETING PLANNING......................................................................................................................................15
Current Situation....................................................................................................................................................15
Objectives and Vision................................................................................................................................................16
Marketing strategy.....................................................................................................................................................16
Action Programs....................................................................................................................................................16
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Declare your beautyMarketing Controls................................................................................................................................................16
MEASURING AND MANAGING RETURNS ON MARKETING INVESTMENTS.................................................................17
UNILEVER’S MICRO-ENVIRONMENT................................................................................................................18
THE COMPANY...................................................................................................................................................18
Marketing Intermediaries.......................................................................................................................................19
Advantages of Retail Cross-Docking.................................................................................................................19
Disadvantages of Cross-Docking.......................................................................................................................19
COMPETITORS....................................................................................................................................................20
Internal Competitors..........................................................................................................................................20
External Competitors.........................................................................................................................................21
PUBLICS...............................................................................................................................................................21
CUSTOMERS.......................................................................................................................................................22
MARKETING RESEARCH..............................................................................................................................................22
Issue.......................................................................................................................................................................22
Analyzing and using Marketing Information..............................................................................................................25
Consumer view on LUX (both imported and local).................................................................................................25
Unbiased consumers..............................................................................................................................................26
LUX CRM (Customer relationship Management)...................................................................................................27
LUX: MODEL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR....................................................................................................................28
Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior............................................................................................................31
Cultural factors......................................................................................................................................................31
Culture:..............................................................................................................................................................31
Subculture:.........................................................................................................................................................31
Social class:........................................................................................................................................................31
Social factors..........................................................................................................................................................32
Groups and social networks:..............................................................................................................................32
Online social Networks:.....................................................................................................................................32
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Declare your beautyFamily:................................................................................................................................................................32
Roles and status:................................................................................................................................................32
Personal factors:....................................................................................................................................................33
Age and life cycle:..............................................................................................................................................33
Economic Situation:...........................................................................................................................................33
Lifestyle:.............................................................................................................................................................33
Psychological factors:.............................................................................................................................................33
Motivation:........................................................................................................................................................33
Perception:.........................................................................................................................................................34
Learning:............................................................................................................................................................34
Belief and attitudes:...........................................................................................................................................34
Buying behavior:........................................................................................................................................................34
Need recognition:..................................................................................................................................................34
Information search:................................................................................................................................................34
Alternative evaluation:...........................................................................................................................................34
Purchase decision:.................................................................................................................................................35
Postpurchase behavior:.........................................................................................................................................35
Consumers buying behavior for lux (why people buy lux):........................................................................................35
Advertisements......................................................................................................................................................35
Affordability...........................................................................................................................................................36
Variety....................................................................................................................................................................36
The buying behavior of consumer for a new brand of lux..........................................................................................37
Stages in adoption process....................................................................................................................................37
Awareness:.........................................................................................................................................................37
Interest:.............................................................................................................................................................37
Evaluation:.........................................................................................................................................................37
Trail:...................................................................................................................................................................37
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Declare your beautyAdoption:...........................................................................................................................................................37
Business Buyer Behavior............................................................................................................................................37
Environmental Factors...........................................................................................................................................39
Organizational Factors...........................................................................................................................................39
Individual Factors...................................................................................................................................................39
Problem Recognition:.........................................................................................................................................39
General Need Description:.................................................................................................................................40
Product Specification:........................................................................................................................................40
Market segmentation of Lux......................................................................................................................................41
Geographic segmentation......................................................................................................................................41
Demographic segmentation...................................................................................................................................42
Psychographic........................................................................................................................................................42
Behavioral..............................................................................................................................................................42
Market segmentation of lux.......................................................................................................................................43
Selecting target market segments..........................................................................................................................43
Differentiating and positioning..............................................................................................................................44
Competitive advantages............................................................................................................................................44
Product or Service......................................................................................................................................................45
Imported LUX has vaster product line; they provide loads of variants...............................................................47
Brand positioning of LUX in Pakistan.........................................................................................................................48
New Product Development / Product Life Cycle........................................................................................................48
Internal and External Idea Sources........................................................................................................................50
PRICING UNDERSTANDING & CAPTURING CUSTOMER VALUE..................................................................................52
PRICE......................................................................................................................................................................52
Factors setting the Price.....................................................................................................................................53
ISSUSE....................................................................................................................................................................54
Pricing strategies........................................................................................................................................................55
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Declare your beautyMarket Skimming...................................................................................................................................................55
Market Penetration Pricing....................................................................................................................................55
Product Mix Pricing Strategies...................................................................................................................................55
Pricing of Lux..........................................................................................................................................................55
Price Changes.........................................................................................................................................................56
Marketing Channels (Place).......................................................................................................................................56
Communicating Customer Value: Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy..................................................59
Impact of promotional mix on sales.......................................................................................................................61
LUX Pakistan is effectively developing market communication.........................................................................61
Chapter 15: Advertising and Public Relations............................................................................................................61
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Declare your beauty
STRATEGIC PLANNING OF LUX
Strategic planning is concerned about the overall direction of business. It is concerned with
marketing of course. The objective of strategic planning is to set the direction of a business and
create its shape so that the product and the services it provides meets the overall objectives of the
business or company. Strategic planning is very important in business because it identifies the
sources of the competitive advantage, it measure the resources needed to invest in and build the
company and business, it sets the objectives of business and in the end it evaluate the
performance and results. Companies usually developed long term plans to observe the
company’s current business and how to keep them going but in contrast strategic plan involves
adapting the firm to take advantage of opportunities in its constantly changing environment.
Strategic planning includes the following steps:
First step of strategic planning is establishing mission statement. It defines the fundamental
purpose of an organization. It is used to set out the picture of an organization in future. It
provides details of what is done, why it is done & for what purpose it is done. Lux brand has also
established its mission statement as it is one of the leading brand in the world. Lux mission
statement is “Beauty begins with Lux” and Lux is following its mission statement very well. Lux
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Declare your beautyis setting its goals and objectives on its mission statement and is launching its new variety of
products in the market.
LUX is the highest selling beauty soap in Pakistan. Though LUX is the highest selling beauty
soap in Pakistan, it does not go for traditional mass marketing. Moreover beauty soap, LUX does
not even segment and divide its market according to gender. Every person with normal or oily
skin can use this soap. Unilever Pakistan Ltd. segments and divides their market according to
geographical areas. The population of the country segmented into three parts which are urban,
sub urban and rural area consumers.
The company further differentiate the geographical segments according to Socio Economic
Cluster (SEC) i.e. education and Income. Lux mission is to keep its products prices in range of
maximum people. LUX is not a highly expensive but an affordable product. That is why the
company targets urban and sub urban upper middle and middle class people who are the second
highest population of the country. Their target category is divided in to three segments A, B and
C. Sec A is “Higher upper level”, sec B is “ Upper Middle level income and sec C is “Middle
level income” because these three segments are assumed to be financially well off & they can
afford to buy lux as well. Its objective is to develop new and unique products of beauty and care.
In 1985 there were only soaps in only 5 colors but now Lux has launched its shower gel
moisturizing bars, liquid soaps. Now lux is sold in 100 different countries and sales achieved 1.0
billion euros alone. Lux main goal & objective is their supply chain and distribution. Lux makes
sure that products are accessible and are being supplied in market, no matter where consumers
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Urban Richz
Urban and Sub Urban Middle Class
Rural Poor
Declare your beautyare in Pakistan. In this task Unilever helps them & make sure that these products are distributed
to the consumers at correct time, with right cost and in accurate & proper quantities. The mission
of Unilever Supply Chain is: provision of their products in low cost and price. They ensure the
efficient provision of their products in market for this they develops simple and effective
network of supply so that they can achieve high level of service & their main focus are retailers
because retailers transfers & provide products to the consumers or in other words they are not
wholesalers. Unilever adopt two channels & ways for the supply of their products that are
conventional & vertical. In conventional marketing producers, retailers & wholesalers are
independent and they are seeking to maximize their own profits because each business is
separated, whereas in vertical marketing they join wholesalers & retailers to supply products to
the consumers. They work jointly & are not having independent business.
The lux brand used different sale promotion to increase their sales. They are offering 22-carot
gold coins on 100 gms and 150 gms of packets of Lux. They are also offering different types of
promotions like Consumer promotion by distributions of samples of new variants, coupons, free
trials and demonstration at shopping malls, markets and point of purchase. Trade promotion
Discounts and lucrative offers to the retailers via price offs advertising and display allowances
and free merchandises. Business and sales force promotion conducting trade shows and
conventions contests for sales representatives and speciality advertising.
Lux business portfolio involves launching of new products with normal prices in market.
FIRST LUX WAS PRODUCING ONLY SOAPS BUT NOW they are introducing new
several products under the Lux brand at different price points. Their new entries are not only
confined to a bar of soap. They are relooking at the brand architecture by launching Lux
International Body Wash and more variants to Lux may follow. These new entries are
establishing to increase their profits and their sales as well.
The marketing strategy that LUX Soap uses is no different than 90% of the large corporations
out there, Brand It and Slam It. They spend more time to come up with a catchy tag line, pretty
& attractive packaging and high priced celebrity endorsements and then spend millions of dollars
getting the brand out there on radio, TV, store ads etc. They spend a lot of money in publicizing
their products. Expensive commercials & ads are made for publicizing their brand & products as
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Declare your beautywell. Famous celebrities of Bollywood, Lollywood and Hollywood are working in commercials
of Lux to create a positive image in minds of consumer and to make their brand famous and
unique among other brands. The secret of Lux longevity has been its consistent evolution i.e.
attractive changes in their products whether it is the soap color, packaging or new variants, the
brand is focusing to keep its youthful image and to make it attention seeking among audience.
For this purpose they are Extending the soap cake to a range of shower gels, liquid soaps and
moisturizing bars &this extension & revolution has helped the brand keep consumers excited and
the competition at bay. The best thing about Lux is its commercials. Casting famous models and
actors in their commercials is one of the best strategies of lux. The message in their commercials
are If it’s good enough for a film star, then it’s good for you too to Play with beauty— and they
are conveying this message over the years.
MARKETING STARTEGY AND MARKETING MIX OF LUX
MARKETING STRATEGY
LUX creates customer value and achieve profitable customer relationships by spending millions
of dollars on the promotion, there is no second thought on the fact that lux has reached its
maturity stage on the product life cycle. Therefore UNILEVER has no problems in the mass
promoting of the product.
Lux has no different or unique marketing strategy, which means that they use very catchy tag
lines, high priced celebrity endorsements, beautiful packaging and as mentioned before they
spend millions on getting there product on radio, TV, stores etc.
MARKET SEGMENTATION
LUX’s market segmentation is based on the geographic locations which are urban, sub-urban and
rural area. On the other hand these segments are divided into SEC (socio Economic Cluster) i.e.
education and income. SEC divides the population into five sectors starting from A to E, A refers
to the highly educated and high income holders and E refers to the lowest income holders and is
least qualified.
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Declare your beauty
MARKET TARGETING
Unilever conducted a research that revealed that urban population are likely to buy expensive
and imported products, and on the other hand in rural areas they buy cheap products without
evaluating its quality but urban and sub urban areas the middle class people tend to buy
affordable and quality products. LUX now tries to target that market because it is the second
largest chunk of the population. Lux is not that expensive because it targets the middle and upper
middle class. According to SEC LUX targets A B and C because they assumed to be well-off
financially and can afford buying LUX.
POSITIONING
Unilever has obtained a very good position in the minds of the buyers, this image has been
passed on to its products through amazing price, quality and attributes, actually offering the
product in a way different way than the competitors do. LUX has 43% of the market share in the
beauty soap industry and in the beauty soap industry all products are of the same price so the
company can’t afford to lower the price furthermore but it is in great position in the minds of its
consumers because of its packaging, fragrances and product design. In comparison with its
competitors lux provides the best quality.
THE MARKETING MIX
PRODUCT
LUX is offered in six flavors which are LUX Energizing, LUX golden glow, LUX nature pure,
LUX orchid touch, LUX almond delight and LUX aqua sparkle, and in three different size 40gm,
80gm and 120gm.
LUX comes in three different types LUX the beauty soap, LUX the liquid soap and LUX shower
gel. The formula is provided by the R&D department in foreign countries. Its raw material is
imported which include sodium soap, glycerol and different extracts according to the flavors.
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Declare your beauty
PRICE
LUX provides with the best pricing with the quality it provides, and the major reason behind it is
that there are many competitors in the market and a slight change in the price comes up with a
huge risk of creating a price war among the rivals which would result to low profits or the
consumer shift towards other products. It is almost equal to its competitor.
PLACE
Unilever ltd has a huge distribution channel almost all around the globe. In Pakistan its sales are
more than 10 million pieces a year. The main factory or warehouse is in Karachi. The company
itself doesn’t have any transport system so it hires different distributers to provide retailers with
its products.
It is sold in almost all cities in Pakistan, but it differs according to the nature of the shop it’s on
e.g. there are supermarkets then there are kiryana stores and then there is khokas. The lux is sold
on three of these but the hand soap and shower gel are only sold at supermarkets because the
type of consumer which comes at these stores.
PROMOTION
LUX is known for its promotional activities. It spends 25% of sales revenue on the promotion. It
endorses its products form the biggest stars of that particular country. For example in India lux is
endorsed by Katrina Kaif and in Pakistan Reema, Meera and Amna Haq. The seriousness they
pay on the promotion can be judged by this amazing figure that lux endorses with 400 stunning
women in the world.
Although promotion in Pakistan is difficult because to show international models you have to
deal with private channels, and this is because on PTV or other government owned channels you
can only show local models. So there ads in which Katrina or other beautiful women on which
spend millions cannot be showed on the national television of Pakistan.
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MANAGING THE MARKETING EFFORT
Unilever needs no introduction. It is one of the biggest multinational consumer products
manufacturing organization which is currently working all around the globe. Unilever Pakistan is
the Pakistan chapter of Unilever, where the company holds 60.75% share whereas the
Government of Peoples Republic of Pakistan holds 39.25% share. LUX is the most famous
product of unilever, and its ruling Pakistan by occupying approximately 50% of total market
share among few major soap producers. Other competing brands like Tibet, Capri and Pears have
started to have a strong consumer base, but LUX.’s product features distribution and promotional
activities have created high brand loyalty for which it is still the market leader.
MARKETING ANALYSIS
SWOT ANALYSIS
A tool that identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization,
specifically, SWOT is a basic, straightforward model that assesses what an organization can and
cannot do as well as its potential opportunities and threats. The method of SWOT analysis is to
take the information from an environmental analysis and separate it into internal (strengths and
weaknesses) and external issues (opportunities and threats). Once this is completed, SWOT
analysis determines what may assist the firm in accomplishing its objectives, and what obstacles
must be overcome or minimized to achieve desired results.
(http://www.investopedia.com, 2011)
SWOT ANAYLSIS OF LUX UNILEVER PAKISTAN
STRENGTHS
Unilever is a big multinational company.
Sound and experienced management
Excellent marketing department assisted by a highly regarded marketing research unit.
R&D and financial support from parent company i.e. lever brothers.
Management of product is familiar with the psychographics and demographic of the consumers.
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Declare your beauty Strong brand image and brand awareness of “LUX”.
Market leader as it has a 43% share.
Large sales force.
Strong and healthy relationships with distributors and retailers.
Strong Market Research
Many variants (Aqua Sparkle, Crystal Shine, peach & Cream etc.)
Positioning focuses on the attractive beauty segment
Dynamically continuous innovation of the product and developing new variants (Magical Beauty Purple)
Innovative promotions (Sonay k sikay--gold coins in Lux bars’)
Unique advantage of having access to resources and assets from unilever Pakistan limited
Weakness
Lux is mainly positioned as beauty soap targeted towards women, hence it lacks unisex appeal
Some variants like the sunscreen was a flop
Low market share in N.W.F.P.
Loss of market share to some of its own products as Rexona.
OPPORTUNITIES
High rate of population growth.
Rising literacy
Market opportunity for “LUX” to penetrate in the new segments and market by the style and beauty
consciousness of the people mainly due to Pakistani media.
Soap industry is growing rapidly in Pakistan
More promotions like price-offs and samples
Line extension – probably with more variants catering to the beauty segment like natural, herbal soap etc.
Liquid body wash is currently in the growth stage – Lux should come out with more variants in this
segment
Level of servicing is high during sales promotion schemes
THREATS
Possible increase of market share of Capri and Rexona.
Rising inflation, which reduces personal disposable income of consumers?
Profit margin is exposed to rupee devaluation.
High internal competition – Pears also catering the beauty segment
Dove, a major threat from unilever
Excessive dependence on beauty segment makes Lux vulnerable to changing customer tastes
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MARKETING PLANNING
Unilever Pakistan is providing LUX at a price which is affordable to almost everyone. Beauty
soap is an uprising phenomenon in Pakistan due to beauty consciousness development in both,
males and females in Pakistan’s population. As a multinational company Unilever Pakistan with
heavy promotional activities, has been able to penetrate the market.
With six different fragrances, three different sizes, international standard and high quality design,
as a product, LUX has been highly successful over the years. Its distribution process is highly
efficient. Its promotional activities, like the beauty contest has been a milestone in attracting a
huge number of customers. Overall with its marketing activities LUX has been a successful
brand. The only place where rival companies are progressing is in giving customers redemption
offers. Research revealed that Pakistani customers are highly attracted to this sort of offers.
These offers are not sustainable.
CURRENT SITUATION
LUX is not a highly expensive but an affordable product. That is why the company targets urban
and sub urban upper middle and middle class people who are the second highest population of
segment of the country. Moreover Unilever Pakistan Ltd obtained a good position in the buyers’
mind through better product attributes, price and quality, offering the product in a different way
than the competitors do. The company offers improved quality of products in the industry at an
affordable price with high branding, which ultimately helps to position the product in the buyers’
mind as the best quality beauty soap. Unilever Pakistan Ltd is operating in the industry with its
world famous brand LUX. Out of these giant companies Unilever Pakistan Ltd is the market
leader with a share of around 43%.The other competitors are very competitive among themselves
but they cannot put an intense competition with Unilever Pakistan Ltd, as they have market share
much less than Unilever Pakistan Ltd. Currently LUX’s distribution process is highly efficient
and its availability helps attracting a huge number of customers. Overall with its marketing
activities LUX has been a successful brand.
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OBJECTIVES AND VISION
“Increasing inflation continued smuggling of tea; poor security conditions and power outages
pose significant challenges to the business. Bigger innovations, improved execution and a high
performance culture give us the confidence that we are capable of continuing to deliver
exceptional value to consumers, customers and shareholders.” (www.Unliver.pk)
MARKETING STRATEGY
Key points of lux’s marketing strategy are Effective segmentation, perfect positioning, variety
and diversification in product, Promotional strategies and schemes, public relations, capturing
customer loyalty, pricing and placing strategies:
ACTION PROGRAMS
It’s certain annual promotional campaigns like LUX Superstar and LUX Annual Style Awards
has made the product a part of the glamour world. Since the 1930s, over 400 of the world’s most
stunning and sensuous women have been proudly associated with Lux advertisements. They
keep prices are almost equal to its competitor. Company carries out research on competitors’
price and brand loyalty when it feels extreme necessity of changing price
MARKETING CONTROLS
LUX recorded double digit growth largely led by volume. The brand gained market share based
on an improved product and a more effective campaign. (Unilever Pakistan annual report 2010)
Home and personal care segment of unilever Pakistan grew by 23% as a result of enhanced
consumer and customer value. Surf continues to consolidate its position as a market leader. Lux,
Rin, Fair & Lovely and Ponds delivered robust volume growth backed by strong advertising
campaigns. (Unilever financial report march 31st, 2011). Lux process modification – project
SWING (Soap with Inclusion of Glycerin), simplifying soap manufacturing process resulting in
energy saving and reduction of waste and water consumption.
(Unilever Pakistan annual report 2010)
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MEASURING AND MANAGING RETURNS ON MARKETING INVESTMENTS
Return on marketing investment (ROMI) is the contribution attributable to marketing (net of
marketing spending), divided by the marketing “invested” or risked. Marketing is, and always
will be, a creative endeavor. But it can also be a highly rigorous discipline. In case of LUX, that
is a brand of Unilever Pakistan, is investing millions of rupees inside Pakistan to promote and
sell their brand to the minds of people. They have chosen top actresses and models for their
brand endorsements that is a game of money in which they have invested with no bounds. Other
than this, LUX is the only brand that plays globally its advertisements along the locally made
one. LUX has to invest in private channel medium to show their every type of advertisements
whereas they have to invest separately on the government owned channels to play their local
advertisements.
Recently LUX has started promoting its other products in same line also, the liquid soap and the
shower gels. It is very clear that if LUX is investing heavily in their marketing and promotion to
compete and stay up to a level, they are getting the returns in same pattern. LUX has achieved a
status in every market that it’s the soap only; other soaps are not worth it. Investing in a global
style has impacted the sales of LUX beauty soaps. This scenario is only with beauty soaps; LUX
is promoting its brand name and beauty soaps heavily but recently they have started investing
towards their other products, campaigns are running heavily at all available channels where
product can be promoted.
LUX has invested with an objective to promise their customers, that LUX will never be less than
their expectations; it will provide them the best. LUX maintains a relation with their customer by
taking care of their skins, attract its customer by branding the points of sale like all targeted
stores and selling points, by introducing new colors and fragrances, by sponsoring a mega event,
LUX has invested a lot but maintained its position in the minds of all women in Pakistan. In
covering the customer life time equity and value provision, Unilever takes responsibility as a
whole, every product of Unilever provides its customer to interact with them through their
“Raabta” service, they provide them the best customer service and even advisory sessions. So we
can say that LUX is investing a lot and gaining a lot too.
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UNILEVER’S MICRO-ENVIRONMENT
THE COMPANY
Unilever is one of the largest manufacturers of a wide variety of consumer products and
operating around the globe. In Pakistan it is operating in a number of brands like food brands,
home care brands and personal care brands. Lux is one of their most famous brands in personal
care products. It is the mantra of Lux to deliver status inspired beauty products, whose delivery
will be made accessible to everyone, so they could indulge everyone’s senses to make their skin
and hair look and feel more appealing and gorgeous and also inspire you to feel the pleasure of
expressing the beauty. The need that unilever felt was that we all have desire to get pampered, to
look and feel great and to enjoy the moment of feeling something that is possible. Lux was
launched in Pakistan in 1954, got the image of a soap that is for stars. The main target of LUX
was females of Pakistan, so a perception was positioned to its customers that if they use LUX
they’ll become glamorous.
Unilever is a global company; the chapter operating in Pakistan is allowed fully to develop the
strategies according to the regional requirements. All departments collaborate to introduce their
marketing strategies like the task of R&D is to provide the latest research by conducting surveys
and different researches to get the feedback and find latest attractions that people are demanding
to get. It’s the operation of R&D to acquire the knowledge about the needs of females, in
summers their skin get oily and is more open to dust and sunlight, so R&D would research that
what could females that can confirm them that their skin would become oil and dust free after
using one of the LUX and its will reduce the reaction of sunlight on their skin, to choose the
colors of the physical LUX that would go in their customers hands. Then marketing department
take its tasks as the promotion and placement of the product whereas the supply chain
management department takes the responsibility of the suppliers and the availability of the LUX.
Both these departments are controlled by the Brand management department in which a trade
controls manager who checks the availability of the LUX and also the quantity to each point of
sale.
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MARKETING INTERMEDIARIES
A large number of units are involved in the processing of LUX products, from its packaging to
the final buy through the customer. Unilever has many units and departments that are
collaborated with each other to help them in promoting, selling and even distributing its
products. Unilever possesses very efficient system of distribution that never leads to the shortage
of any product. It is the in house responsibility given to the brand department to regulate the
quantity of the LUX products to every outlet. The distribution of LUX is done by dividing the
distribution of Pakistan in three channels, Central zone, South and North channels. Unilever
designed a centralized Intensive distribution system. In this type of distribution, LUX is supplied
to those resellers where majority would stock the products of LUX along the convenience
products, like those who are leader in the market. In this type of distribution, LUX is made
visible at perfect spots but the differentiation among the competitor products is on the basis of
price. Another strategy used by Unilever in delivering the product to the market and dealing with
logistics is Cross Docking. In this strategy, logistics of unloading materials from an incoming
semi-trailer truck or railroad car and loading these materials directly into outbound trucks,
trailers, or rail cars, with little or no storage in between. This may be done to change type of
conveyance, to sort material intended for different destinations, or to combine material from
different origins into transport vehicles (or containers) with the same, or similar destination.
There are some benefits and some disadvantages of using such logistic system:
ADVANTAGES OF RETAIL CROSS-DOCKING
Streamlines the supply chain from point of origin to point of sale
Reduces handling costs, operating costs, and the storage of inventory
Products get to the distributor and consequently to the customer faster
Reduces, or eliminates warehousing costs
May increase available retail sales space.
DISADVANTAGES OF CROSS-DOCKING
Potential partners don't have necessary storage-capacities
An adequate transport fleet to operate Cross-Docking
Need of adequate IT-System
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Declare your beautyAll these strategies are required by Unilever as they had to prove their corporate commitment to
promote the distribution and supplying process improvement globally. Originally in Pakistan
there are 2 warehouses of Unilever, more than 4500 distributors are working with Unilever to
supply LUX in selected areas and whole sellers. According to a recent survey, LUX is covering
only 65% of its consumers. LUX brand of Unilever is involved in three channels of distribution:
CNC (Cash and Carry) Distributors;
IMT (International Modern Trade like Makro and Metro);
LMT (Local Modern Trade) the general trade at shops.
Trade control manager assigns the distribution department to send SKUs of LUX directly to the
distributors, also assigns the sales department to make sales contracts with different parties
existing in market and supply LUX by advising distribution I Rahim Yar Khan Factory, which is
the main depot and sales plans are also sent here, where as all major cities like Faisalabad,
Lahore, Multan, Karachi, D I khan and even Wazirabad have their own depots where the product
is supplied from central depot of Rahim Yar khan.
COMPETITORS
LUX is a brand of Unilever, so it has two types of competitors;
Internal Competitors
External Competitors
INTERNAL COMPETITORS
Lux is manufactured by a company that has a wide variety of products in same line of beauty
soaps. Currently Unilever is producing three other beauty soaps that are in competition with
LUX. These soaps are Dove, Rexona and Lifebuoy. Lux has to maintain its pricing strategy to
compete with these brands. Lifebuoy and Rexona are the major competitors in case of pricing as
Lifebuoy is even cheaper than LUX and is of nearest in quality to LUX, so LUX has to apply a
very sensitive strategy in which it could be sold more as compared to internal competitors.
Whereas in case of quality LUX has to face a serious competition with Dove products as they are
providing a better quality and has maintained a better prestige in market, so LUX has increased
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Declare your beautythe prices on such a stake that it could beat Lifebuoy and Rexona but could not take up to as
Dove has, so people mostly from all classes prefer LUX due to its quality in satisfactory price.
LUX has also similar products in different categories like liquid soap and shower gels. Similarly
the liquid soap has only one competitor internally, Lifebuoy that is a cheaper brand in liquid
soaps also and is leading the market as compared to LUX due to its price and refilling options
available. Shower gel of LUX has no internal competitor.
EXTERNAL COMPETITORS
Beside the internal competitors, LUX has to maintain competition with external competitors. A
large number of beauty soaps exist in markets that give true competition to LUX like Tibet,
Camay, Hoor and Palmolive. LUX has to look after its pricing strategies, but still LUX is still
leading the market due its attractive packaging, as other soaps are using simple color schemes or
not so much attractive as LUX is doing, LUX has become a brand that is advised by worlds most
beautiful women but not any other competitor brand is able to come up to this level. As
discussed above, LUX has also similar products in different categories, and is facing a bad
competition externally in case of liquid soaps and shower gels. LUX liquid soap is in
competition with many other brands like Fa, Palmolive, Dettol, Breeze, Pears, etc. These all
brands are giving tough competition and LUX is not able to compete with them, well due to less
publicity of its items. Similarly in case of shower gels its facing dense competition in the market
as other international brands are competing it in same price such as Fa, Palmolive, Neutrogena,
body shop gel, etc. LUX is also not able to compete in this category due to less promotion and
pricing strategy applied on them.
PUBLICS
Unilever has all seven types of publics but the visible ones are only Government, Media, Citizen-
action and General Publics. We are aware of the issues that are faced by LUX by the platform of
government in case of advertisements, as LUX is unable to play its all international
advertisements on national television and all channels that are on air from its domain due to
certain implications applied by PEMRA. In the promotion of brands like LUX, media publics
play an important role. LUX is known by women, not by its use but by the models that come and
show LUX as their own soap. In media publics; all channels that are on air, social media like
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Declare your beautyFacebook & Twitter, newspapers, magazines, etc. play the most important role in promoting and
creating a perception in the minds of people. LUX utilizes this strategy globally in a same pattern
to promote its brand to target audience. It is also created a grand perception on the mind of
socially stable people by sponsoring a mega event of showbiz by the name of LUX Style Award
Show. Sponsoring this event has made LUX successful in achieving its image that it’s the brand
that is used by models and actresses, looking this when cheaper price is available, maximum
females would try this product due to its promotion and image.
CUSTOMERS
LUX targets a variety of audience, with its attractive promotions and advertisements. Basically,
LUX is a brand of women, targeting the women who have desire to look beautiful, want to look
like the models who have been promoting LUX as their personal brand. LUX has been
successful to target and capture the market of customers of every type. This is only in the case of
beauty soap, whether it’s imported one or the locally manufactured one, but in the case of Liquid
soap and shower gel, it’s not successful fully. Lux is unable to capture the market that utilizes
shower gels, as there are so much products varying in prices and leading in Brands, which is an
issue for LUX Unilever.
MARKETING RESEARCH
Marketing research is the systematic design, collection, analysis and reporting, marketing research starts with the first step of Defining the problem which is the most important stage:
We will be conducting the marketing research of Lux starting with the first stage of defining the problem Two Lux soaps, located on one shelf of retail outlet, one imported and other is local, isn’t it deviating the customer?
ISSUE
The problem is the difference between quality of local and imported one, which can
unconditionally create customers deviation. Discussing the design of Lux, packaging, price and
quality are main differentiating factors. Lux bar soap is similar to Ivory in its pure white color,
lux has a clunky square shape, it is dense plus brittle just like Ivory and its smell is also like
Ivory. These all things are same for both local and international Lux. This can’t be changed as
Lux has to maintain these things under some regulations that are maintained and supervised by
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Declare your beautythe global Unilever chapter. Moving towards the quality, there’s a huge difference between the
qualities, as Pakistan chapter of Unilever is producing Lux in its own way to maintain its cost up
to a certain level so it can target a large number of consumers, whereas imported Lux is mostly
an import from China or Dubai.
These countries like China, Dubai, India, etc. have their own chapters of Unilever and their
manufacturing recipes and their manufacturing companies are also different, that maintains its
shapes but differs on everything which always creates deviation for the customer of Lux
Pakistan. The main issue is that quality is different in sense that Lux manufactured by India,
Dubai and China is of good quality whereas the one that is locally produced is of low quality. A
customer that desires to buy Lux, who is attracted by its endorsement and advertisement, now
coming to purchase, customer is deflected to buy which one, if the customer is not aware of the
quality and is first time user of Lux, then he would be buying on the basis of on the spot
attraction, like packaging and price. Whereas if the customer is existing user, then he would
definitely buy imported one due to good and better quality. Even then it is not sure that he would
buy imported Lux or not, as on the basis of price and packaging, the imported Lux would have
its own competitors.
Lux is bringing glamour into the world. Lux is provoking consumer by the senses sight,
smell and touch like never before but on the other hand if there will be such a difference in the
quality then people will switch to imported lux no one will ask for the local lux .international
lux has so many types people don’t even know about those types like:
Lux Beauty Soap brand new Packing/style, new Size variants White glamour, Velvet Touch.
CLV LUX fragrance soap, having high foam and awesome smell. Its basic feature is of cleansing
plus whitening. Lux whitening soap is available in different colors like pink, yellow, and green
and purple.
All these soaps are not manufactured in Pakistan they are imported from other countries but
not in a huge quantity. If all these types are manufactured her with an affordable price and in a
good quality then customers will get the same quality soap from their very own country plus
there will be no need of importing these soaps. LUX and its various products are manufactured
in 71 different locations with more than 2000 suppliers. The key markets of lux are in Pakistan,
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Declare your beautyBrazil, USA, China, Bangladesh and South Africa, and are a market leader in India (for soap
bars), Brazil, Saudi Arabia (for soap bars), Bangladesh and Thailand. Pakistan is the key market
of lux soap but still the soaps manufactured in Indian, Saudi, and Brazil is better than local soap
most of the lux soap is imported from India.
Though Unilever checks out the product quality in all the countries it is produced in. Lux
products are gentle and these products are non-irritating for normal skin. Unilever Corporation
conducts all the product safety regulations in each country where Lux soaps are sold. According
to Unilever Corporation, they apply high standards checked before bringing a product to market.
Unilever also has a Safety and Environmental Assurance Center that ensures safety of the
environment, people and production. Lux soap is formulated for use with children under the age
of 3, the elderly and other vulnerable members of the population. Of Corse there is a price
difference in all the lux like the local lux is selling in cheaper price as compared with the
imported lux. Lux soap is an affordable bar soap, when first introduced in the United States in
early 190,s, it had an affordable option to expensive French Milled soaps. Lux is also sold in
China at an affordable price for consumers not only in china and United States lux all around the
world has a nice affordable price so the pricing factor of lux is stable, but the quality difference
should be eliminated so there should be minimum customer’s deviation. Observational research
can really help in overcoming the defined problem. Maximum people want the quality of lux to
be improved
LUX is the name of beauty and it is the enigma of a woman. Since its launch in Pakistan in
1954, it is known as the 'soap of the stars' capturing the imagination of the target audience with
the allure of Pakistan's leading glamorous ladies. It’s all about the brand lux is offering or
introducing new products and expanding its soap range day by day but talking about Pakistan the
quality isn’t that good as compared to the imported lux (lux produced internationally).if Unilever
keeps check at the quality of the local lux and compares the ingredients and other things used in
the production of local lux with international standard then this problem can easily be sorted
In the marketing research stage after defining the problem ,conducting research on that we
have other two stages which is implementing the plan the plan to sort out the problem to
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Declare your beautyminimize the deviation of consumer.so in this stage the plan should brought in to serious action
now the researchers must also process and analyze the collected data to isolate important
information and findings the solution to this problem is mentioned above then finally marketing
research deals with its last stage/step which is of interpreting and reporting the findings now this
research should draw some conclusions and report them conclusion. So solving the above
mentioned problem all depends on the Unilever corporate who can keep a check on the quality
and the research department the quality of lux in ever country should match with each other their
shouldn’t be any difference only in this the deviation can be minimized.
ANALYZING AND USING MARKETING INFORMATION
CONSUMER VIEW ON LUX (BOTH IMPORTED AND LOCAL)
Q: WHAT IF ONLY LOCAL LUX IS THERE IN MARKET? HOW CONSUMER CHOOSES BETWEEN OTHER IMPORTED SOAPS AND LOCAL LUX?
LUX has created its brand image and no matter what most of the consumer uses LUX as their
daily skin care soap. According to retailers 60% of customers tend to buy local LUX as
compared with other imported soaps. 45% of consumer says that “they choose imported LUX
over other imported soaps.” Based on the above analyzed information from retailers, we can
assume that local Lux sales are been competed by its imported image at a good scale and even
then Unilever is unaware of the issue.
GENERAL MINDSET OF CONSUMER: IMPORTED LUX IS BETTER THAN THE LOCAL ONE, MYTH OF LOCAL LUX (NO QUALITY AND POOR RESULTS)
Consumer often thinks that local product lacks quality and effectiveness. As far as LUX is
concerned 75% customer thinks that local LUX is not as effective as the imported ones, but sales
are only effective of local Lux due to its price factor. In Pakistan there is always a cheap way of
producing goods and consumer even suspects a multination company like Unilever for using
wrong ways of producing soap.
Another fact, which creates deviation for a customer of local Lux, is their biasness towards
Pakistan actresses and model. A class of Pakistan will never go for a soap which is endorsed by
Meera; however they still prefer LUX on other soaps. Therefore customers go for imported
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Declare your beautyLUX. 90% of customer thinks that imported LUX will give better results because more
technology is used in imported LUX as compared to local ones. They also think that imported
LUX is expensive so it will be better than the local LUX.
Media is one of the biggest and most effective ways of creating brand imaging and LUX is
using this tool for many years for creating its brand image and marketing position. This
marketing promotion tool has gained lots of benefits and loyal customer to LUX. However
Pakistani people tend to watch Indian and foreign channels these days and they get attracted to
imported LUX advertised on those channels. . So when these customers go to buy LUX they
switch to imported LUX because of their advertisement. Pakistani customers are overwhelmed
by using a soap having Ashwariya Rai and Katrina Kaif picture on its pack.
UNBIASED CONSUMERS
PREFER LUX ONLY; DON’T LOOK OVER WHETHER LUX IS IMPORTED OR LOCAL ONE
Only 20% customers prefer LUX on other soaps because they trust Unilever and have a mind
that both LUX whatever local or imported have same qualities and same LUX. . Just packaging
and variants are different. More than 35% of customers do not check the manufacturer of LUX
they just buy LUX for its brand imaging and promising results. LUX is an international brand
and it cannot provide poor quality in local.
However Unilever Pakistan can make more profit in these economic crises if they start to
promote local LUX more and ensure its quality as compared to imported LUX. There are no
efforts of convincing customers to buy local LUX by retailers and Unilever itself. Unilever
should remove the doubts of its customers they have for local LUX. . In this way the will get
more results. On the other hand Pakistani models and actresses should be hired for international
branding
LOSS OF UNILEVER: IMPORTED LUX WORKING AGAINST THE LOCAL ONE
According to the views of several retailers, in Pakistan Lux that I manufactured locally owns the
50% of market whereas the imported one owns an equal share in market. In Punjab zone there
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Declare your beautyare proper channels of distribution of imported Lux products that are supplied to retail outlets
and are sold more than Local ones. In short the imported image of Lux is taking over its local
one very easily.
LUX CRM (CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT)
How Unilever marketing strategies are based on consumer insights and information:
One of the biggest strategies Unilever uses is to hire actors and actress for LUX because market
research showed that people had some sort of attraction for goods advertised by the stars. It’s
some sort of visual mapping and product positioning strategy when makes consumer to use LUX
more than other soaps and increase its market share.
“The brand has always hired celebrities when they have reached a certain height rather than
using them at the start of their careers. This avoids the issue of celebrities overshadowing the
brand,” says Angelo Dias, national creative director.
In Pakistan LUX has showed Babra Sharif, Reema Khan, Iraj Batool, Iman Ali, Meera, and
Vaneeza Ahmed & Amina Haq as role models in LUX. Now they have Reema Khan, Meera,
Humaima Malik and Mahira Khan in their new advertisement. Due to these strategies LUX
got approximately 43% of total market share among few major soap producers.
Moreover, Unilever gets to know that almost everyone uses internet and Facebook these days so
they use Facebook as their promotional scheme. They get this insight from the customer that
advertisement is not working on then because watching TV has become less than ever. Being
smart Unilever not only uses Facebook for promotional scheme but also to gain consumer
insight. It’s an innovative project of Unilever that uses social networking and the users’ data for
getting engaged with customers, to get their insights as well. This new project will broaden
Unilever’s understanding of its consumers when it comes to LUX and It will enables them to do
more instead of using same old promotional schemes.
Whatever consumer wants is provided by Unilever LUX, consumer seeks high quality and
it’s provided by LUX. Variety is needed by customers and Unilever provides lots of variants in
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Declare your beautyLUX soaps (Sparkle, Crystal Shine, peach & Cream etc.). It’s a customer want to get more in
same product line so that is why Unilever introduced LUX body wash and hand wash.
LUX: MODEL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIORConsumer behavior tells us when, where & why consumer buys & do not buys the products.
Consumer behavior tells us the buying decision process of both individual & in groups. This
term tells us the buying behavior process from the first step that why an individual purchases this
product to the final step of experiencing the final purchase product. Buying behavior of buyers
depends on the nature of the buyer, on the product and on the buying situation. The consumer
behavior model is known as black box. Because we do not what is in mind of human beings &
what runs in the minds of consumers & buyers .Therefore it is named as “black box”. And
therefore a marketer spends lot of time & money to find out what consumers tick.
Product, price, place & promotion are the most important 4Ps of marketing stimuli. Lux is
the most famous brand for beauty soaps and almost everyone is aware of this brand in Pakistan.
LUX is the highest selling beauty soap in Pakistan. Though LUX is the highest selling beauty
soap in Pakistan, it does not go for traditional mass marketing, moreover as a beauty soap LUX
does not even segment and divide its market according to gender. Every person with normal or
oily skin can use this soap. But the problem in lux brand is that lux is displaying two types of
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Marketing stimuli
Product
Price
Place
Promotion
Declare your beautysoaps i.e. local & imported. Means lux is creating differentiation in its own products. The level
of lux products are not the same. There is also a difference of price between local and imported
lux due to difference in their qualities and consumer pays different prices for lux soaps,
according to their preferences. The difference in their prices is due to the quality of products that
are used in the production of local & imported lux. Place involves the easy availability of its
products to its consumers. It involves convenience. Lux products are easily available in markets
whether they are local or imported. In fact local soaps are more easily available even in local and
small shops & markets. Promotion factor involves communication. Lux is promoting its product
through media, internet, billboards, and commercials, adds etc. They give more importance &
spend more money on the promotion of their imported products & soaps.
The other environmental factors in consumer model are cultural economic, technological &
social factors. A cultural factor involves awareness of marketer from society. Every organization
should launch their products according to the taste & choices of the people living in that
particular area. Even commercials & ads should be made according to taste & culture of that
particular society. If the organization fails in doing so then it can face a heavy loss. Social factor
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Environmental factors
Cultural
Social
Economic
Technological
Declare your beautyinvolves social class & personal life style. Lux should launch its one quality soap rather than
launching local & imported soaps. This creates confusion among the consumers that which soap
is better for their skin & which is not good for their skin. They should launch the same quality
soaps with same price; this will not only increase their sales but also remove confusion from the
minds of consumers that which one is better for their skin. Economic factor is the most important
factor of any organization. The difference in the prices of the local & imported soap results in
difference in prices. Due to more prices of imported lux many people will switch to local
lux .Who can afford imported lux they will also switch to local lux to save their money. This will
affect the economy of lux. Technology involves usage of special techniques in order to work
their organization in a better way. Lux has adopted many strategies to make their brand one of
the best brands of soaps. It’s the brand or organization duty to attract the buyers and persuade
them to purchase their products .The brand should use different techniques for this purpose &
developed different marketing strategies.
The marketing strategy of Lux brand is no different than 90% of the large corporations out
there, Brand It and Slam It. They spend more time to come up with a pretty & attractive
packaging and high priced celebrity commercials and then they spend millions of dollars for
publicizing their brands products on TV, newspapers, radio, billboards etc. Lux brand is
spending large amount of money for their expensive commercials & ads. Famous celebrities of
Bollywood, Lollywood and Hollywood are working in commercials of Lux to create a positive
image in minds of consumer and to make their brand famous and unique among other brands.
But they are promoting their expensive & imported products due to which their local products
are getting ignored. Local soaps of lux are lux is usually placed on the hidden shelves & most of
the people are not aware of lux local products. There is a need to publicize their local products as
well for their promotion in public.
If the marketer wants to understand how the stimuli are changed in to responses inside the
consumers black box it depends on two parts which are firstly the buyer characteristics how the
consumer perceives & reacts to the stimuli. Secondly the buyer decision process itself affects the
buyer’s behavior.
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Declare your beautyWhereas the secret of Lux endurance is its consistent & continuous evolution i.e. attractive
changes in their products whether it is the soap color, packaging or new variants, the brand is
focusing to keep its youthful image and to make it attention seeking among audience. For this
purpose they are Extending the soap cake to a range of shower gels, liquid soaps and
moisturizing bars &this extension & revolution has helped the brand keep consumers excited and
the competition at bay. The best thing about Lux is its commercials. Casting famous models and
actors in their commercials is one of the best strategies of lux. The message in their commercials
are If it’s good enough for a film star, then it’s good for you too to Play with beauty and they are
conveying this message over the years.
CHARACTERISTICS AFFECTING CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
CULTURAL FACTORS
Cultural factors that influence or affect the consumer behavior are:
CULTURE: Refers to the set of basic values, perceptions, wants and behaviors learned by a member of society from family and other important institutions. In case of beauty soaps, the Pakistani culture doesn’t support the scenario because of poverty, people have less concerned about health and beauty, but lux targets the higher and middle class which is quite conscious about their beauty. There are two types of lux available in the market one is local and the other is imported, there is price and quality difference which targets the both the upper and middle class. The culture of Pakistan in the upper and middle class is very influenced by these types of beauty products.
SUBCULTURE:
A group of people with shared value systems based on common life experiences and situations. It includes nationalities, religions, racial groups and geographic regions, although lux doesn’t segment or target consumers by their subculture neither lux’s demand gets affected by these factors.
SOCIAL CLASS:
Group of permanent and ordered divisions in a society whose members share similar values, interests, and behavior. It is not determined by only a single factor such as Income group, it includes occupation, and education. High and medium income groups are targeted, in the
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Declare your beautyoccupations it doesn’t specify or target any but people on high posts are included and at last but not the least people with education buy these beauty products, or lux targets them buy persuasive and informational advertising.
SOCIAL FACTORS
Social factors that influence consumer behavior includes:
GROUPS AND SOCIAL NETWORKS:
Groups are people who interact to accomplish individuals or mutual goals whereas the social class represents the divisions in a society whose members share similar values, interests, and behaviors. These also include reference groups, people are often are influenced by reference group to which they do not belong. For example a young cricket player hopes to become Wasim Akram someday, or refer to him. In lux’s case they advertise on television showing international actresses because its beauty soap and women refer to those actresses.
ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS:
Online social networks include blogs, social networking Web sites, or even virtual worlds, where people socialize or exchange information and opinions. Lux has no individual website but UNILEVER has created a page for it on their official website, there are pages made on all social websites such as Facebook, twitter, MySpace, and tweeter. They promote their product by advertising it and publishing promotional campaigns.
FAMILY:
Family members can strongly influence buyer behavior. In Pakistan the most important factor that affects the buying behavior, this is because Pakistani people are very family oriented. They respect their family values and are eager to follow them. Mostly the ladies do the shopping for the household and they have strong of her elders on what to buy and what not to. Lux targets females and the scenario they create of a fine beauty soap targets all ages.
ROLES AND STATUS:
People choose products which are appropriate to their roles and status. Lux targets the upper and middle class, it isn’t a status symbol though but through massive advertising they do create a wow in the minds of consumers. In Pakistan there are 2 types of lux available local and imported. It can be said that the imported lux is a status symbol because of its price compared to the local lux and other beauty soaps.
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Declare your beauty
PERSONAL FACTORS:
A buyers decision also are influenced by personal characteristics such as the buyer’s age and life cycle stage, occupation, economic situation, lifestyle, and personality and self-concept.
AGE AND LIFE CYCLE:
Age and cycle refers to the segment of life the consumer is in. As we know lux is beauty soap, females from all age segments will use lux. As they get conscious about their beauty lux starts targeting them by bombing them with advertising.
ECONOMIC SITUATION:
The financial situation of the consumer also affects the buying behavior. Lux targets upper and middle class so people from these two sectors buy lux. People with bad economic or financial situation wouldn’t buy a lux because it would be very expensive as its price is above Rs. 60 per piece.
LIFESTYLE:
A person’s pattern of living as expressed in his activities, interests, and opinions. Lifestyle also has a very important impact on the buying behavior because if the person hasn’t got the lifestyle, for example if the consumer isn’t conscious about his beauty and doesn’t have any interest of his or her beauty, he or she wouldn’t be attracted to the product and that is lux also uses informational advertising to inform them about the fact the it is necessary to take care of your skin.
PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS:
The buying behavior is further affected by psychological factors such as motivation, perception, learning, and beliefs and attitudes.
MOTIVATION:
A need that sufficiently enforcing, to direct the person, to seek satisfaction of the need. Lux motivates its consumer’s buy marketing and advertising on almost all mediums possible. It creates a sense in the mind of the consumer that it’s a need instead of want.
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Declare your beauty
PERCEPTION:
The processes by which people select, organize, and interpret information to a form a meaningful picture of the word.
LEARNING:
The changes in an individual’s behavior arising from experience of Lux. If lux was bought by a consumer once for the first time and he or she got satisfied and is not regretting the decision that would create a mindset of lux in his mind.
BELIEF AND ATTITUDES:
Belief is the descriptive thought that a person holds about something, attitude is the person’s favorable or unfavorable evaluations.
BUYING BEHAVIOR:
The buying behavior process start with the first step of need recognition people recognize what they actually want this may include a persons need, want, necessity we will talking about the buying behavior of lux(why people buy lux when do they feel that they need a soap and not just any soap they go for lux.
NEED RECOGNITION:
In the very first step consumer recognizes a problem in our case the consumer recognizes that they need a soap to wash their face, hands, or they need soap for bath.so in the very first stage problem is recognized.
INFORMATION SEARCH:
Moving on to the next step which is of information search.in this step the consumer will store His/her need in the mind and will try to collect information related to that particular need being rational consumer will try to know more and more about the need in our case the consumer will pay attention more towards soaps they will watch more and more soaps ads, they will ask people about the good soaps so in this case they will gather more and information about the soaps.
ALTERNATIVE EVALUATION:
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Declare your beautyIn this step they look for alternatives. Consumer will narrow their soap need to minimum good brands like: LUX, safeguard, dove, lifebuoy etc. and then they will select the best out of it the one they are attracted towards the most.
PURCHASE DECISION:
Finally after gathering the information the consumer know what he will be going for after
gathering the information the consumer will get to know that lux is the leading soap brand with
an affordable price and good results etc. the consumer will finally purchase lux.
POSTPURCHASE BEHAVIOR:
In this step the consumer decides whether they are satisfied with the lux soap bar will they stick
to lux for further use.so post-purchase is based on satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
CONSUMERS BUYING BEHAVIOR FOR LUX (WHY PEOPLE BUY LUX):
Here we will see that why consumer will chose lux over its competitors? What unique features
lux is offering? Why ladies are attracted towards lux? All these questions will be answered
As we know that consumer is the king of all business activities. So it’s very important for a
marketer to know how the consumer perceives different things and how the consumer behaves
accordingly. Lux has targeted the right people in right way they have captured what’s in the
minds of their target audience their brand image is created with a simple line “beauty begins
with lux”. Ladies believe that their first step towards beautiful skin is lux .lux will make them
beautiful. This was the first step towards success by lux ladies stared to believe in this statement
and lux became one of the best beauty soaps of Pakistan not only in Pakistan but all around the
world.
ADVERTISEMENTS
The choice of celebrities to fulfill the goals and to increase the profits plus to create a brand
image is common practice now a day. There are many reasons for extensive use of celebrities.
The very first reason is that celebs have their high profile; celebrities can also help in
advertisements stand out from the surrounding clutter, they can create or change the brand image
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Declare your beautyin a positive way plus celebrities can also generate extensive public relation leverage for brands.
So lux realized that they need to hire famous celebrities, to change or to make a brand new image
of lux. They showed Mahira khan, Eman Ali, Reema Khan, Meera, Katrina Kaif, Ashwariya Roy
as their face of the brand all these ladies where telling ordinary women that lux is the thing that
will “bring out the star in you”. They started to believe in this simple but extremely clicking
and strong statement and things got even better for lux people buy lux because they believe in
promoting their products they make such attractive ads using dark beautiful colors just to seek
the attention of people.
AFFORDABILITY
Lux soap is one of the most affordable beauty soap bar it’s not just affordable its good so the
requirement of a consumer who are looking for a nice mild beauty soap for their sensitive skin
with nice fragrance and colors and at an affordable price is fulfilled. Lux bar soap is inexpensive
as compared to the soaps that are good in quality and can be purchased in departmental stores or
from big beauty companies. Lux soap believes in offering people "chance to pamper them for
an affordable price, “so ordinary people buy lux because of its affordability.
VARIETY
Lux is famous for its so many different flavors consumers obviously want variety in their daily
soaps they want to have different types of flavors with different action like for cleansing,
whitening ,soft youthful skin, glowing skin etc. and lux is focusing on all these things plus many
other things they are trying to bring in different varieties in their beauty soaps because they want
the consumer to stick towards their brand/soap they don’t want to lose them at any cost so they
are trying to make more and good beauty soap.
Lux is the global brand started by unilever lux achieved a position in the market now lux is
market leader in countries like brazil, India, Thailand, south Africa lux achieved a unique image
in the market.as we know that lux is not a new brand now a days so many new brands of soaps
are coming in who are actually trying to compete with lux but lux has its own place people buy
lux for their quality affordability variety etc.
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THE BUYING BEHAVIOR OF CONSUMER FOR A NEW BRAND OF LUX
How will people react towards the new product of lux as lux itself is an old product old brand so
people are obviously familiar the brand image of lux is so nice so people will definitely try out
the new product of lux?
STAGES IN ADOPTION PROCESS
AWARENESS: The consumer will become aware of the new product of lux but will lack in the
information of the new product of lux
INTEREST: The consumer will seek information about the new product of lux he will show
interest in that because the consumer is already familiar with this brand and is hoping that this
time they will rock again.
EVALUATION: The consumer will find that out whether using the new product of lux make
sense yes or no. The consumer will find out this thing through ads or from others etc.
TRAIL: Consumer will then try out the new product of lux basically consumer will test the new
product of lux
ADOPTION: After trying the new product finally the consumer decides to make regular use of
the new product of lux.
BUSINESS BUYER BEHAVIOR
Lux is one of the largest brands in Pakistan considering the category of beauty soaps. Lux
has gained a big market share domestically as well as in other 100s of countries around the
globe. Lux is manufactured in 5 different types including
Purple lotus and cream
Aqua sparkle
Nature pure
Peach and cream
Strawberry and cream
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Declare your beautyTalking about the buyers of the lux that is business to business purchases; when a retailer orders
the products to the supplying agent of the company, he keeps certain things in his mind. Things
like market conditions, market demands, price of the product etc. Lux is being produced all over
the world and due to this when a retailer or a buyer is given a choice to order products; he goes
for the imported brand. The reason for the imported brand is that buyers they feel satisfied with
the quality of the product.
The major two types of the buying situations are straight rebuys and modified rebuys. The
purchasers of the soap Lux make both types of the buying.
Straight rebuys is when the buyers, they reorder the products without any modifications.
Considering the small retail store holders in some small area, they buy the locally manufactured
product and they reorder them without any modifications. The area and the standard of living of
the people of that area impact it. If he purchases an imported one then it might stay laying on the
shelf because of the high price compared to the locally manufactured one.
Modified rebuys is when buyers want to modify the product specification, its price, terms or
suppliers. Big retailers and the wholesalers, they make modified rebuys. They take the
discounted rates from the company as a result of buying in bulk; they even go for various other
types in the same product. Imported and domestically manufactured, both are accompanied by
them.
Business Buying Process involves decision making and with 5 major roles.
1. Users: These people are those who use the product at the end of the day. Now these
people provide the retailers or the wholesalers about what they need. For instance, a
retailer carries out a small research or asks his customers about what they need. One may
say he needs Lux purple lotus and the other may say he needs aqua sparkle. So at the end
when buyer makes decision about what to buy, he keeps those things in minds.
2. Influencers: Influencers of Lux are the people working in the different departments of
the company. They often propose deals with modified specifications and also focus on
the alternatives of the brand in the market.
3. Buyers: The buyers of the brand Lux are the local retail stores of the big wholesale
stores.
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Declare your beauty4. Deciders: The buyers have the power to make selections and approve the final suppliers
of the product; they would prefer to work with.
5. Gatekeepers: Usually the agents/suppliers of the brand Lux; they do not show or leak the
information to salespersons or anyone. The accounts are only checked by the owner of
the stores.
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
According to agents of the company, they bulk raw material in bulk in order to ensure the
adequate supply. The demand for beauty soaps are increasing day by day. Lux is a female beauty
soap brand; the primary demand for the Lux is high as compared to the rest of the competitors.
The company focuses on the new technological trends in order to make sure to produce the
product with the greatest quality and at the cheapest cost.
ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS
The main objective of the brand lux is to provide its customers confidence. Confidence in the
sense if they use the beauty soap Lux; their skin would become better and their skin would glow.
This is the policy Lux has been keeping since past twenty years.
INDIVIDUAL FACTORS
The prices of the brand have been kept low in order to make sure everyone can afford it. The age
of the people buying the beauty soap lux varies between 16 and 40.
PROBLEM RECOGNITION:
The major problem that is being faced by the buyers of the lux is the imported and locally
produced product. If on the same shelf the locally produced Lux is placed and with it, the
imported Lux is placed. The preference of the customers goes to the imported one because of the
factor that it has a psychological effect. Buyers think of the imported good as a far better quality
product.
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GENERAL NEED DESCRIPTION:
The Lux marketing agents supply the sufficient information of the needs/demands of the market and the buyers to the marketing department of the company which forwards the information to the rest of the departments.
PRODUCT SPECIFICATION:
Unilever has been focusing and diverting its attention towards the new methods of production which can reduce costs. For the product Lux, imported new technological machines are used to keep the production efficient and at cheaper cost.
SUPPLIER SEARCH:
The buyers that involves local retailers and the wholesalers; they look for the best agent with whom they can develop a strong and a comfortable relation about the supply. Lux has its own marketing department with marketing agents and also several other companies has been given contracts for the supply of the product, Lux.
SUPPLIER SELECTION:
The agents of the lux who propose good deals to the buyers are accompanied. For the wholesalers like Metro, they look for those agents who propose deals with good discounts and a bulk of supply on time whereas on the other hands, the local retailers; they do the same but the quantity they purchase is not that bulk which refrains them from good discounts.
ORDER – ROUTINE SPECIFICATION:
This is the time when the buyers finally decide to order. They write a final order with the supplier they prefer to work with, listing all the technical specifications, the quantity of the product they need, the return policy and the delivery times.
PERFORMANCE OVERVIEW:
A buyer of the product Lux working with a supplier of the company looks at the performance of the supplier and if he finds no trouble, no problems, he decides to continue with the same supplier otherwise he decides to drop the arrangement and start with the other supplier.
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E-PROCUREMENT:
The brand Lux is not purchased online. No one prefers to get their credit or debit cards charged over the internet just to buy beauty soap; instead people prefer to buy it from the retail stores of the wholesale chains like Metro, Makro or Hyper star etc.
MARKET SEGMENTATION OF LUX
Market segmentation is dividing huge complex markets into smaller segments that can be
reached more efficiently the reason behind dividing the market into small segments is that buyers
differ in their wants, resources, location, buying attitudes, and buying practices.
As we know that lux is a global brand. Lux is satisfying the needs of people all around the world
lux is not only targeting one or two countries its targeting people all around the globe so reaching
each and every market efficiently is not that easy so lux has also divided the market in small
segments (selecting the segment or segments to enter).the market is divided geographically,
demographically, psychographic, and behavioral variables.
GEOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION
Lux is geographically expanding its self-day by day lux being a brand of unilever is targeting
India, Thailand south Africa, Pakistan, china, brazil, Canada, north America, western Europe,
Srilanka, Bangladesh, the middle east. Lux has successfully targeted or expanded geographically
in almost every country lux was started many years ago and up till now lux is just expanding in a
positive way more than 50 years have passed but still the work of lux is not finished yet lux is
making its mark day by day. Lux wants to satisfy its consumer everywhere they want their
product to be in every departmental store of every country in almost all the cities of that country.
Lux is the market leader of India, Thai land, Brazil, South Africa. Geographic segmentation
for any brand is quite important because without expanding geographically the brand will never
be able to satisfy the needs of people fully so dividing the marketing into small segments area
wise, country, region etc. is compulsory or else the brand won’t be that famous or people will not
be awarded of that particular brand. Lux has intelligently expanded all around the world.
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DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION
Demographic segmentation is dividing the market according to age, gender, occupation,
education, religion, income etc. basically demographic segmentation is the next level.
Demographic factors are the most popular bases for segmenting customers groups.
Demographically lux has targeted people all around the world of almost all ages because lux has
a vast range of beauty soaps, age miracle, whitening soaps, cleansing, and many more so lux is
targeting everyone. People of almost all ages plus lux is so affordable so women of any
occupation (income) can easily buy lux. So over all lux is for everyone for every women who
believes in the statement “beauty beings with lux”
PSYCHOGRAPHIC
Psychographic segmentation is dividing the market according to social class, life style and
personality.
Lux as mentioned above has targeted almost all the classes because of its affordable price
BEHAVIORAL
Market segmentation is done according to the occasions, benefits, user status, loyalty status and
attitude towards product. Lux is not related with any special occasion or event. Lux is a famous
product known to many people and lux is providing benefits to its target market.
Lux focused on its geographic segmentation lux is for everyone so lux has not divided its market
into so many segments like lux soap is for oily, normal every skin type lux is for every class lux
is not for any certain occasion. Lux basically focus on inter-market segmentation (forming
segments of consumers who have similar needs and buying behavior even though they are
located in different countries) as the definition says its self and mentioned above lux mostly
focus on the geographic segmentation. Lux is trying to satisfy the needs of buyers who have
similar needs this market segmentation is also known as cross market segmentation.
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MARKET SEGMENTATION OF LUX
Two lux soaps, located on one shelf of retail outlet, one imported and other is local, isn’t it
deviating the customer?
Lux has segmented in most of the countries of the world here we will talk about Pakistan the lux
which is produced in Pakistan is different from the lux which is produced in other countries so
lux should keep its quality same for every country plus there is a huge difference in the packing
to and price to so because the packing, price and quality are main differentiating factors. The
thing is if geographically lux is segmenting in different countries then lux should keep price,
packing and quality the same because as mentioned above these are the deviating factors of the
consumer.
SELECTING TARGET MARKET SEGMENTS
After segmentation the next step is that the company decides how many segments it will target.
Now what a target market is a target market is the set of buyers who shares similar needs/wants
or characteristics. Company targets the market in four ways:
Mass marketing
Differentiated market
Concentrated market
Micro marketing
Lux is using undifferentiated marketing which is also known as mass marketing. In this firm
decides to ignore market segment differences and target the whole market with one offer. This
mass marketing strategy focuses on what is common in the needs of consumers rather than on
what is different. Lux is bringing glamour into the world as lux is targeting all people all around
the world as mentioned above. Mass marketing is not that easy as compared with differentiated
segments, or niche marketing etc. because the margin of profits is low as compare with other
segmented markets.
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Declare your beautyLux became the first mass market toilet soap in the world in 1924. In 2005, Lux revenue was at
1.0 billion euros, lux had the market share spread out to more than 100 countries across the
globe.
Difficulties may arise during this type of market segmentation like a product/brand that will
satisfy all consumers. But along with the difficulties lux has the advantage of increasing the costs
of doing business, as lux is using mass marketing so for lux it is quite important to keep the same
quality, price packing’s unilever should take certain steps of improving this whole issue a look
because the your product quality should be the same for any country like in Pakistan when
people see two lux with different packing they will be attracted more towards the imported
international product the reason behind this is;
a) According to them there is no match in the quality of imported lux with local;
b) They fine the packing of international lux more attractive.
DIFFERENTIATING AND POSITIONING
The way a product is defined in the minds of consumers as compared the other competing brands
for any brand it is quite important to have a unique (positive) image the minds of the
consumer.as they say products are created in the factories but brands are created in the
minds. Marketers believe in this statement.
Lux is positioned as a nice beauty soap having a vast variety .lux has successfully positioned
itself in the minds of consumers. Lux promotes all the products in a very nice and descent
manner when people see those advertisements then they are more attracted towards the brand and
the image of lux brand in their minds is improved.
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
Competitive advantage is the advantage over the competitors gained by offering greater customer
value, through low price or by providing more benefits lux is providing low prices. Lux believes
in providing more for less which is the wining value proposition many companies go for this
strategy for maintaining a position in the market company should make its own marketing
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Declare your beautystrategy because if they will not do so their competitors will knock them out lux has made its
own strategy that is why lux is still in the market lux is an old brand but still in the market not
just in the market lux is competing well with new plus old brands of soaps.
PRODUCT OR SERVICE
LUX, a soap for everyone who wants to feel beautiful, it’s a product by unilever Pakistan limited
and it is offered in market as daily consumption soap which can change your bathing into a
experience of beauty and Luxury. Everyone needs a soap that is just not a random soap. That’s
exactly what unilever is doing they are providing a special soap for every citizen of Pakistan.
People who use LUX as their daily soap feel experience nice fragrance and quality bathing
experience.
On the other hand, when it comes for imported LUX, same product and same experience is being
provided, however its target market is international countries. Unilever, currently working in all
big countries of world is providing LUX for same reason and almost working under same motto:
“LUX provides prestige-inspired beauty products made accessible to all which indulge the senses
to make your skin and hair smell, look and feel more alluring and attractive, and inspire you to
revel in the pleasure of expressing your beauty.”
Differences are very minor between imported LUX and local one but unilever Pakistan needs to
make LUX of Pakistan by creating more customer value not only for Pakistan citizen but for
other people around its world. . If LUX of other countries is interfering our LUX economy then
LUX of Pakistan should do same to them. Large amount of profit can be generated if sales of
Pakistan LUX increases on international basis.
The main thing that has to be noticed is that what is the difference between levels of product and
services of local LUX and imported one, as far as augmented aspects of local LUX and imported
one are concerned, they are almost same, which mainly includes after sale service, warranty and
product support. In actual product circle brand name is same, LUX is LUX no matter what.
Features are almost same though variety is more in imported LUX products .design , of LUX is
same all over the world but local LUX comes into 3 different sizes but imported comes only in
one standard size in Pakistan. Packaging is not that different, LUX uses quality and colorful
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Declare your beautypackaging for its product whether local or imported. Quality of imported one is bit improved
because of use of heavy technology of developed countries but that doesn’t mean local LUX is of
low quality. It is one of the best quality soap among all other Pakistani local soaps. However
retailers don’t agree to consumer. They said that “both LUX soaps have same quality “All of this
analysis leads us to customer value. Users of LUX are 100% satisfied for what they have
provided by unilever and there is no complaining or bad word of mouth for local LUX and
imported LUX.
LUX, both local and imported is complete consumer products. They both come under category
of Convenience products i.e. A consumer good and/or service (such as soap, candy bar, and shoe
shine) that are bought frequently, often on impulse, with little time effort spent on the buying
process... Organization marketing, that unilever is doing for LUX is almost same every country. .
in Pakistan lox is carry out promotional activities , campaigns , customer value services and
sponsoring different programs to maintain its brand name means they mostly use social
marketing for To nurture performing arts in Pakistan, LUX has started a LSA scholarship
program providing free education to a chosen few who show immense potential.. Product line of
local LUX is soaps, range of body and hand washes.
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Aqua Sparkle Crystal Shine Nature Pure Peach & Cream
Strawberry & Cream
Peach and Cream
Strawberry and Cream Magical
Beauty(Purple)
Strawberry and Cream hand wash
Peach and Cream hand
wash
Local Product Line
IMPORTED LUX HAS VASTER PRODUCT LINE; THEY PROVIDE LOADS OF VARIANTS
LUX shower gel
LUX bar soap
LUX hand lotion
LUX shampoo
LUX conditioner
LUX post wash
Imported Product Line Of LUX!!
BRAND POSITIONING OF LUX IN PAKISTAN
According to unilever Pakistan “We all want to be pampered, to look and feel great, to enjoy that
moment when anything seems possible. And that's just what LUX offers you on a daily basis at a
price you can afford...” That’s on what unilever is positioning its brand , “ LUX bring the star in
you” Imported LUX brand is positioned in the basis of “Feminine, decadent, but always
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Declare your beautyaccessible, LUX provides women with a collection of sophisticated skin and hair care products
developed to meet their needs and delight their senses.”
So to some extent brand positioning of LUX is same all around the globe. Brand name “LUX” is
LUX is derived from Latin, meaning "light" and it’s a short form of English word Luxury and
name shows how the products work. It symbolizes Luxury, relaxation and comfort. This name
LUX is one of the main reason of the popularity of this some. LUX is the name that goes out
with its products, which describes products as light and gentle, luxurious experience, light as
silk. It’s a unique name which is easy to pronounce and remember.
Unilever is a manufacture‘s brand and its shares its profit with government though it is a semi
private company that creates brands all over world such as LUX
Although LUX has the same charm everywhere unilever Pakistan has to take some brand
strategies in order to create high value for local LUX over imported one. It should create a line
extension, i.e. introduce more variants in existing LUX products. Moreover unilever Pakistan can
have a brand extension strategy, it can introduced complete brand new products under the name
of LUX. For example LUX faces wash, face scrub and face creams etc. so that local products of
LUX have more charm and customer attention then the local one. Efficiently done brand
marketing strategies can make a tremendous change in the sales and value of local LUX
products. Unilever Pakistan has to compete with international standards of unilever for getting
more from the local LUX.
NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT / PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE
Lux is the global brand which is developed by unilever. It’s the world bestselling soap bar. It
first launched its soaps in different colors & flavours, but due to its popularity it widen its range
of products & now there are shower gels, bath additives, hair shampoos & conditioners of Lux.
All these products are easily available in the market. Lux soaps are good & best for all type of
skins from normal to oily hair The secret of Lux longevity is its consistent & continuous
evolution i.e. attractive changes in their products whether it is the soap color, packaging or new
variants, the brand is focusing to keep its youthful image and to made it attention seeking among
audience. For this purpose they are Extending the soap cake to a range of shower gels, liquid
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Declare your beautysoaps and moisturizing bars &this extension & revolution has helped the brand keep consumers
excited and the competition at bay. The best thing about Lux is its commercials. Casting famous
models and actors in their commercials is one of the best strategies of lux. The message in their
commercials are If it’s good enough for a film star, then it’s good for you too to Play with
beauty— and they are conveying this message over the years.
Interview was also conducted to know more about the Lux brand: Retailer said that imported lux
is found only in two main markets of Lahore which are “Shah-Alam market” & “Akbari Mandi”.
Whereas big stores like metro, macro, hyper star deal with products that have genuine license so
that they sale local lux only (under the rule of unilever Pakistan). He said general grocery stores
do have both Lux soaps (imported and local). Lux has adopted many new product development
strategies and launched its wide range products to increase its popularity in the market among
other brands. First a question arises what is “New product development strategy”? It’s the
strategy to establish or launch its new products or to improve the quality of already existing
products & launch them again with their new appearance in the market. Launching of new
products is the firm’s own product development efforts. New products are important for both
customers & marketers who serve them. These new products play very important roles in the
lives of consumers & add new colors to their lives. Launching of new products is very important
for the survival of brand. But Launching new products or improving the quality of already
existing products is very risky for any company or brand & sometimes this strategy also fails
because of many reasons like launching of new product at wrong time, with high price, it may be
poorly designed or poorly advertised among the public.
Lux segmented its soaps in to two categories “Local & Imported”. The reason was to increase
the number of consumers & its sales as well. There is great difference in the quality of local &
imported soap. Due to difference in the quality of products creates confusion among the
consumers that which soap is better for their skin & which is not good for their skin. They should
launch the same quality soaps with same price; this will not only increase their sales but also
remove confusion from the minds of consumers that which one is better for their skin. Lux
should improve the quality of ingredients that are used for their local products. Due to quality
difference Local products are completely getting ignored and are becoming the cause of loss for
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Declare your beautytheir brand. To increase the popularity of local lux in the market, Lux should adopt the factors of
new product development strategy.
To avoid these failures lux should follow the new product development process. Its first step is
“Idea generation “Ideas generation is the systematic search of new product ideas & generating
methods for them There are two sources of ideas that every brand including Lux follows.
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL IDEA SOURCES
Internal source involves getting ideas from surveys through internet research or from intelligent
persons of the organization. Whereas external source involves getting ideas from suppliers or
distributors because they both knows about consumer choices and their problems. Lux should
follow both resources & should find through their researches that which soap is the requirement
of the consumers whether local or imported. Next step is “Idea screening”. Brands have not only
one idea; there is large number of ideas .It’s the organization responsibility to drop the poor
ideas. Now Lux should choose whether the launch of one type of product is good or to increase
the quality of local soaps to increase their sales like imported products. Third step is “Concept
development & testing”. It includes to develop product image, to find out whether this product
will be benefit for the consumer or not, how the consumer will perceive that product. To test
their concepts whether their ideas are good or not, whether their products are good or not. Lux
should adopt this strategy & find out which product will increase their sales & which products
will be appreciated by the public. Local soaps in front of imported soaps will never be preferred
because of the difference in quality, so Lux should improve the quality of its local soaps & use
high quality ingredients for their production.
Next step is “Marketing strategy development”. This process includes the three steps. First is
recognizing target market. Lux should consider its target market & should specify that its
products will attract which consumers. Lux target consumers are mostly females, because they
launch skin beauty products which are for females. The second part includes products price &
marketing budget for the first year. Lux should keep the same prices of its soap so that it results
in increase of sales & lux should develop their annual or even long term budget. Third step is
defining goals & profits. Next step in the process is “Business analysis”. It’s the step in which
company over views the situation of their new product. They find out whether the launch of new
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Declare your beautyproduct is fulfilling their profits & whether its benefit to their organization or not. Lux will
continue producing their local products along with imported products if local product will
increase their profits & their sales. Next step is “Product development”. The process of changing
the concept in to reality just like Lux has change its concept in to reality by launching their
products in market & identifying their market strategy. Next is “Test Marketing”. This includes
placing the product in the market of particular areas just like lux has first placed its local
products in Asian countries to find whether their local will get success or not. Last step is
“commercialization”. To introduce the product finally in the market with the help of
commercials, ads, billboards, internet, media etc. Lux is doing best & expensive
commercialization of its imported products. Lux is hiring one of the top stars of the world in
their commercials & ads.
Next is managing New-Product development. It’s the process to solve the customer values
&more customer satisfying experiences. First lux launched only soaps but for consumer
convenience & consumer satisfaction it launched shower gels, shampoos, hair conditioners etc.
only to satisfy consumer needs & demands.
Team based new product development process is used to get their new products to market more
quickly & efficiently. Under this approach all the company departments work under one roof &
together. Like Lux hired some people like designers, marketers etc. to help them in launching
their products more efficiently & quickly in market. It’s not an individual effort it’s a team effort.
Next is “Product life cycle strategies”. First step is product development. This is the phase when
sales are zero because the product is in stage of development & profits are non-existence because
the product has not yet launched in the market so how the company can earn the profit. Next is
“Introduction stage”, the stage in which the product is recently launched by the organization & is
in process of introduction.
Next is “Growth stage”. The stage in which the product is receiving praises from the market & is
accepted highly by the market like lux local soaps are start getting accepted by the market in
consumers & it results in increase in sales & increase in profits as well. Next stage is “Maturity”.
It’s the period of slowdown in sales because it has achieved acceptance by most potential
buyers.” Decline” stage is the last one in which sales & profits decreases due to decline in the
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Declare your beautysales of products like sales of local lux soap will decline because of good quality imported lux.
Sales also decline because of good competitors’ products.
Next is Product decision & service responsibility. It’s the company or brand responsibility to
launch those products which are not harmful for people. Harmful products should be banned in
the country. Like lux brand will be banned if it will launch the soaps which carries harmful
materials for the skin. It’s our social responsibility as well as it’s the government responsibility
to stop the launch of illegal & harmful products in the company. International product or service
marketing is a very difficult step. To launch your product internationally is a big success for any
brand but it’s not easy. First you have to decide which products should be launch in which
countries. Quality of product also differs from place to place. Packaging also differs from place
to place. In selection of colors you should be careful .Colors should be selected according to the
choice of people of that area. Products should be launched carefully according to the choice &
characteristics of that particular country or area. Preferences should be given importance. Lux
should launch their products in those areas where people are beauty conscious and they care
about themselves. If preferences are not kept in mind then it will result in failure of product in
that particular area & will result in loss for the company.
PRICING UNDERSTANDING & CAPTURING CUSTOMER VALUE
PRICE
The amount of money charged for the product or service is known as the price of that particular
product.as price is a policy so price majorly effects a consumers buying mist of the consumers
buys any product if the price of the product is suitable for them or if the price is not suitable the
consumer will leave that product and will switch to any other competitor who are providing that
product in a lower price. However, price still remains one of the most important elements
determining a firm’s market share and profitability.
FACTORS SETTING THE PRICE
The firm set the price in such a way that above that price level they will lose their consumers and
below that price well they will lose profits so selecting the perfect price of the product that will
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Declare your beautyattract the customer and will again company some profits to is a hard job because at the end of
the day it’s all about earning profits.
Lux is a smart brand and it knows how to set the price that will gain them profits plus that will
attract the consumers too. The price of lux is extremely affordable because lux is not targeting
the upper class only lux is for everyone the ones who really wants a nice bar soap for their skin
lux due to its affordability the reason why lux has gained so my consumers is that the price level
of lux is affordable. If a firm is making a product that is satisfying the needs and wants of the
consumer but the price is so high then they will leave the product and switch to another product
that is satisfying the needs and wants but in a low price.
The company first all assesses customers’ needs/wants after making all the strategies all the
plans they set the price of that product there are basically four stages which a firm go through the
following:
Design a good product
Determine product costs
Set prices based on cost
Convince buyers of product’s value
Lux adopted the same strategy they designed the product their soap for the consumers then they
determined the product cost and then they set the price level finally they set such a price of their
soap that attracts maximum customers towards their soap.
Lux because of its prices share 43% of market share prices are closely related with the market
share lux is the product which is providing quality plus nice price. Lux know this thing very well
that if they will increase the price of their bar soap then people will switch to other beauty soaps
competing with lux but at a low price level. Lux provides the best pricing with the quality.
Lux has adopted a good-value pricing strategies lux offers the right combination of quality, at a
fair price. Lux is earning so much profit because they have selected the right way of setting
price. Dove is the competitor of lux but most of the people in Pakistan don’t use dove or they
prefer using lux over dove the main reason behind this is that lux is a bar soap having a price of
more than rupees 50 which is not affordable for most of the people so that is why people use lux
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Declare your beautysoap. Lux very well know this thing that middle class people will not pay a lot for just a beauty
or bath soap so they have set a low price.
External factors also affect the pricing of the product like the economic conditions have a strong
impact on the pricing so while setting a price company analyzes the external environment too.
ISSUSE
Now the issue to be discussed here is that there is huge price difference between the international
and local lux. People think that as imported lux is expensive so that will give them better results
as compared with a local lux which lack in quality so the price difference created a deviation for
customer if the price and quality of local lux is set here in Pakistan to then this deviation can be
removed easily the thing is that lux is a mass product(using mass marketing) so it’s for
everyone.an uneducated person for whom the quality and price difference between local and
imported lux does makes a difference will definitely go for cheaper lux but the educated people
who wants to have best result when they will see such a price difference they will leave the local
lux and will buy the imported lux because if the price of lux is so cheap then people will think
that they might have used cheap 3rd class ingredients in their product because their cost of
production was low that’s why the price of local lux is so cheap. People don’t really think that
the products which are local are that good thou lux is the brand of unilever but still this thing is
true there is a huge difference between local and international lux.so this issues should be
resolved unilever is a very old name as unilever is making lux in almost every country so it is
quite important for it to keep the quality constant and set a nice price that should attract all the
consumers and they should such a price that answers all the questions of the consumers, because
there are only a few unbiased people who don’t look over whether lux is imported or local. But
most of the people buy the lux of Hindustan unilever as compared with local because they think
that the price of Indian lux is more than local so it will be more effective then local lux.
PRICING STRATEGIES
MARKET SKIMMING
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Declare your beautyMany companies adopt the market skimming pricing in this they initially keep the level of prices quite high market skimming can be useful in only two ways
Product’s quality and image must support the high price and enough buyers and it should attract most of the buyers to buy that in the first price.
The costs of producing a smaller volume won’t be that high. Competitors should not be able to enter the market that easy.
MARKET PENETRATION PRICING
Some firms don’t believe in setting the price level high at initial stage they just keep the price low at first stage so that they can attract maximum customers.
While introducing the new products lux follow its own very strategies after making a a new product they decide whether they will keep the price level high at first or low initially. Most of the times they keep the price of the new product low/affordable so that everyone can buy that product get used to it and then buy the same product. For lux this strategy really works because of their attractive and affordable prices they attract many customers towards their product and the consumer thinks that I should try this product on.
PRODUCT MIX PRICING STRATEGIES
Setting price is not easy a firm before assigning a particular price to their product has to check so many things there are different lines of pricing.
Product line pricing. Optional-product pricing. Captive –product pricing. By-product pricing. Product bundle pricing.
PRICING OF LUX
Lux follow different strategies of pricing and attracting its customers lux reduce its price and write the new price instead of old price they often sell their products with others just to attract the customer the often introduce such offers like buy two lux get one free or buy three bundle of lux at a reduced price. Brands try to play with the minds of customers and they set the price in this way.
Lux follows different strategy of pricing like:
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Declare your beauty Geographic pricing
They set prices for customers located in different parts of the world
Like the price of lux soap in Pakistan is different from India and other countries etc.
Dynamic pricing
Adjusting price continually to satisfy customers and lux follows the same thing the keep on changing the price when required.
PRICE CHANGES
In some cases, the company may find it desirable to initiate either a price cut or price increase.in both cases. Lux soap doesn’t changes the price accordingly; Lux set their prices in such a way that the consumers respond to that price in a very positive way, Lux also set the price according to the competitor’s. They want to differentiate their price as compared with the competitor’s because they want their consumers to stick to them only.
MARKETING CHANNELS (PLACE)
Producing a product & make it available to buyers requires building relationship not only with
customers but also with sellers & suppliers in the company’s supply chain. The supply chain
consists of two partners upstream & downstream. Upstream provides information, supplies, raw
materials, components and parts for the development of a product or service .Whereas
downstream pattern concentrates on connection between the firm & customer. On line
purchasing is also getting common. Because of new technologies & internet companies are
developing complex relationship with firms. Whereas supply chain has two views Supply chain
“make and sell” view includes the firm’s raw materials, productive inputs, and factory capacity.
Like Lux needed to inquire which materials are required for the production of their products,
what is their capacity & what is their range of producing products.
Demand chain “sense and respond” view suggests that planning starts with the needs of the
target customer, and the firm responds to these needs by organizing a chain of resources and
activities with the goal of creating customer value. Lux first target their customers then launch
their products & find out which products are the needs of the consumers. Unnecessary products
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Declare your beautyshould not be launched in the market. Value delivery network is the firm’s suppliers, distributors,
and ultimately customers who partner with each other to improve the performance of the entire
system. Lux will combine with the suppliers, retailers & people who are involved in the
production of Lux products. When products get ready they are handed over to sellers to add
value in them .For this purpose producers uses intermediaries. Intermediaries offer producers
greater efficiency in making goods available to target markets. Through their contacts,
experience, specialization, and scale of operations, intermediaries usually offer the firm more
than it can achieve on its own. Lux contact larger & high level sellers to introduce their products
in market, for example unilever limited makes millions of bars of lux soap each day, but you
want to buy only a few bars at a time. So big retailers such as Big Bazaar buy Lux by the
truckload and stock it on their stores shelves. In-turn you can buy a single bar of lux along with a
shopping cart full of small quantities of shampoos & other related products. Thus intermediaries
play an important role in matching supply & demand. Marketing channel consists of firms that
have partnered for their common good with each member playing a specialized role.
Channel conflict refers to disagreement over goals, roles, and rewards by channel members
• Horizontal conflict
• Vertical conflict
Vertical conflict: channel will perform better if it includes a firm, agency, mechanism or
providing leadership or has power to assign roles and manage conflict. Conventional distribution
systems consist of one or more independent producers, wholesalers, and retailers. Each seeks to
maximize its own profits, and there is little control over the other members and no formal means
for assigning roles and resolving conflict. Whereas VMS consists of producers, wholesalers and
retailers acting as a unified system. Another channel development is horizontal, in which two or
more companies at one level join together to follow a new marketing opportunity. By joining
another company or by joining competitors can attract the consumers and will increase the sales
of their products. Like if lux will combine its competitor like dove or some else it will result in
increase in sales or if the Lux does contract with hi-fi stores that these particular stores must sell
their products will increase their sales.
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Declare your beautyMultichannel Distribution systems (Hybrid marketing channels) are when a single firm sets up
two or more marketing channels to reach one or more customer segments.
Disintermediation occurs when product or service producers cut out intermediaries and go
directly to final buyers, or when radically new types of channel intermediaries displace
traditional ones. It is the process of introducing products direct to customers without the help of
intermediaries. Like lux will direct place its products in the market without publicizing their
products with help of commercial, ads etc.
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Declare your beauty
Integrated logistic s management emphasizes on teamwork both inside the company & among
the entire marketing channel to maximize the performance of entire distribution system. Lux will
coordinate with all individuals whom are doing better for the organization & their brand whether
they are working inside the organization or outside the organization.
Interview was also conducted to know more about the Lux brand: Retailer said that imported lux
is found only in two main markets of Lahore which are Shah-Alam market & Akbari market.
Whereas big stores like metro, macro, hyper star deal with products that have genuine license so
that they sale local lux only (under the rule of unilever Pakistan). He said general grocery stores
do have both lux soaps (imported and local).
COMMUNICATING CUSTOMER VALUE: INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY
Like all other brands, LUX has the most effective promotion mix that is one of the major causes
of its success. LUX carefully blends promotional tools in order to get its customer value and
loyalty. Many beauty soaps came out in market to compete with LUX but fail to do so because of
the unique promotional mix of unilever LUX. Local LUX would have not achieved that if its
promotional mix is not balanced. One cannot get into maturity level of market. Carefully blended
promotional tools helps to give a crystal clear brand message to people out there.
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Analyzing consumer
needs
Setting channel
objectives
Identifying major
channel alternatives
Evaluation
Declare your beautyAdvertising is one of the best tools both local and imported LUX is using for their brand imaging
and broadcasting ads on TV is there main focus. Since the 1930s, over 400 of the world’s most
stunning and sensuous women have been proudly associated with LUX advertisements. LUX
makes its adds with the motto of “LUX brings the star in you” they use top actresses like Reema,
Meera, Babra Sharif, Iraj Batool, Vaneeza Ahmed And Iman Ali are the beauties of Pakistan
assisted with LUX. More over now males stars of Pakistan like Shaan and Ali Zafar are working
in LUX ads and promotional videos and songs. Humaima Malik and Mahira Khan are new face
of LUX. Internationally many old famous stars of Hollywood advertised for LUX, Wallace
Beery Leela Chitnis, Madhubala, Nargis, Meena Kumari, and Loretta Young, etc. In print media
LUX gives advertised in newspapers, magazines and all over internet. Moreover LUX spends
large amount of money on bill boards all over Pakistan. The question is whether all this
advertisement making consumer to buy local LUX only? Answer is that yes, it’s working to
some extent.
Sales promotion is the short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product or
service. LUX is playing this game very smartly. Gold coin offer of LUX is one of the best sales
promotions. Discount on family pack is another discount offer that worked quite well. Unilever
organizes a Mela on super stores like hyper star and metro where LUX is offered at low price (4
packs in RS/120 instead of RS/ 160).
The company goes for sponsoring events in order to heighten the company and brand image.
Mostly the company goes for financing such kind of events in which its product has got some
room to build likeness. The company also goes for sponsoring fashion shows in different cities.
Several small level promotional campaigns at different schools, colleges, universities and
recreational parks take place. These promotional activities of LUX are very successful which has
made it a household common name and. Moreover sponsoring different shows like LUX
Superstar and LUX style Awards has made the product a part of the glamour world. LUX is
sponsoring movies like love may gum and other events like LUX Carnival de Couture.
For healthy public relations, the company has established a consumer department to manage the
complaints of the end-users there is another department which works for media war and legal
issues. If anything goes wrong with LUX brand image. They immediately take actions. Personal
selling and direct marketing is also done in major stores of Pakistan like hyper star and metro.
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Declare your beautyAll these advertisement is by unilever Pakistan. There is no sign of imported LUX
encouragement in advertisements. Though is there is always a question that why sales of
imported LUX is greater than local one.
IMPACT OF PROMOTIONAL MIX ON SALES
It spends almost 20% to 25% of its Net Proceeds from Sales (NPC) of LUX for promotional
activities for LUX. Unilever believes that advertisement have a strong impact on sales. For this
the ads are shown on television.
LUX PAKISTAN IS EFFECTIVELY DEVELOPING MARKET COMMUNICATION
People are aware of this brand call LUX; they have knowledge about it through media and word
of mouth. Customer like it and prefer it on other soaps and stuff. They are convincing that LUX
has no substitute and then they finally buy LUX.
Unilever Pakistan designed a message for their product “LUX brings the star in you “which
follows the AIDA Model. It gets attention of common people and hold interest because everyone
needs glamour in them. It arouses interest so much that people are convinced to buy it. Because
everyone wants to feel good and special on daily basis .so all in all LUX is using a rational
appeal for it.
CHAPTER 15: ADVERTISING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
LUX always keeps in mind its advertising objectives. They inform about their products tells how
special there product is and how well they relate to common people life. And remind the
consumer that LUX has all what they want in a bathing/ soap and they are proving much more
than that.
LUX mostly uses Reminder advertising i.e. LUX being a product in mature stage of product life
cycle needs maintain customer relationships and keep customers thinking it. This helps LUX to
maintain customer relationship and there brand image. It also helps to remind customer where
and when to find LUX. Ads of LUX also remind customer that they are not using and outdated
product.
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Declare your beautyLUX spend a lot on its promotional ads however maturity staged products don’t need a heavy
budget for promotion. Market share of LUX is higher than its competitors so it should spend a lot
on its promotion in order to keep it constantly high. Unilever Pakistan should spend some more
in all this order to wipe out imported LUX from the mind of all consumer. Advertising Strategy
that is mostly used for LUX is giving its message “LUX brings the star in you clearly” and the
medium they have used till now is broadcasting its advertisement on local channels and through
billboards. Ads of LUX are clear, concise and effective; they get consumer attention and
communicate well with its targeted market. The main message “LUX brings the star in you”
identifies consumer benefit that is that an ordinary person can feel like a star just by using soap.
LUX really means this message because they actually copy stars as their role model who do ads
for LUX. Its believable message because LUX makes a customer feel really special by using
terms like “KHAAS AAP K LIYE”. Creative team of LUX always find the best approach, style,
tone, words, and format for executing the message of their ads. Reach is a measure of the
percentage of people in the target market who are exposed to the ad campaign during a given
period of time. And LUX reach is very high almost everyone watches LUX ads in almost every
local channel and billboards all around Pakistan. LUX ads are blend of life style, musical and
personality symbol. Impact of LUX ads is quite high and customer actually falls for the message
they are trying to give.
Public relations involves building good relations with the company’s various publics by
obtaining favorable publicity, building up a good corporate image, and handling or heading off
unfavorable rumors, stories, and events and they are far more effective then advertisement they
are less expensive as compared with advertisement. Major public relation sources used by LUX
are news, Events, programs and movies sponsored by LUX are part of entertainment news of
Pakistani news channels. Speeches by directors of unilever are also a nice way for making good
public relations.
Special events like fashion shows, beauty context and awards are also a good way to enhance
your public relation. Mouth of word is playing a great deal in their favor of LUX. Apart from
that social networking and internet, is being used by LUX as a cheap way of making good public
relations.
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Declare your beautyUnilever Pakistan Is doing a great effort in making LUX one of the best soap that ever came
however customer are not cooperating with them by trusting them with their product of same
value , quality and experience. Pakistan citizen should buy local LUX so that one day it might
get the position of best soap all over the globe.
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