The Marketing Mix

Rhiannon Fleming

Foundations of Marketing Assessment

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What is the Marketing Mix?

"A company needs to consider the Marketing Mix in order to meet their consumers' needs effectively" - BBC Bitesize, Business Studies.

The Marketing Mix is the most tactical part of marketing, which includes various different factors usually referred to as "P's". Generally, the Marketing Mix consists of the 4 P's:

• Product: The goods and/or services that an organisation offers
• Price: How much customers pay
• Place: Where the product/service is made available for customers
• Promotion: The way customers are informed about the product

However, the Marketing Mix can be further expanded by adding features such as People, Physical Evidence and Process. Ultimately making the Marketing Mix a concept of 7 P's.

• People: The people who deliver the product or service
• Physical Evidence: How an organisation product/service is perceived
• Process: How the service is delivered.

For every business establishment, the 7 P's are integrated and can be broken down to be looked at thoroughly. Throughout this blog, I will look at numerous Cosmetic Companies and evaluate how they use each stage of the Marketing Mix, highlighting how they do it and how successful it is for them.

Product

MAC Cosmetics is one of the leading cosmetics companies in market place, becoming more and more popular each day. MAC has a very broad Product Portfolio, offering numerous different products in an aim to reach out to differing market segments. Offering products from over 128 different lipstick shades alone, to foundation, nail polish, eye shadow.. even to their own wipes!

At the beginning, when MAC was founded in 1984, it aimed their products at professional makeup artists. This is why their products are highly priced, due to being better quality than other competitors. According to the MAC website, they chose to be different from other makeup brands by establishing themselves as  "the ultimate colour authority". This all started when they introduced their first, very bold and different at the time, Matte Red Lipstick - this created the ambition to steer in the other direction of other makeup brands, as they were all generally skincare companies.

As MAC brand themselves and their products as bold, adventurous and "outrageous", it has created a certain stigma and expectancy in the makeup world.

From the above photo we can clearly see that MAC aim for boldness, and this has created some major controversy. As they create a lot of "out there" shades and colours of makeup - people are concerned that it is pressuring girls, especially younger females, to be the same. This can ultimately mean that MAC are catering their products to a specific syndicate.

However, majority of people (whatever age) can find something when walking in to a MAC store, this is because not only do they offer makeup but they also provide a service - you can now book in and get your makeup done professionally for a special occasion, or just for the fun of it.

When in comparison to other makeup companies like "Benefit Cosmetics", their products are more suited to all females, however, they tend to target a younger audience. This could be for many different reasons however, one of which being, they inherit a lot more natural products and shades.

As you can see from the above campaign by Benefit Cosmetics, they aim for a more subtle and simplistic look when in comparison to MAC.

Also, when comparing the two companies products, packaging is a factor which should be considered. Both MAC Cosmetics and Benefit Cosmetics offer high end, high quality products but when comparing the two types of packaging, they are totally different. MAC's packaging of their products are all very subtle, dark and plain - this gives a more contemporary vibe.

Here we can see the dark, plain packaging of MAC products are in great contrast to the bold and exciting colours in them.

This type of packaging is favoured a lot in the makeup industry and attracts a more older and mature crowd of people. This is because the packaging enhances the daring colours, promotes a classier look and emphasises the unique quality of the products.

Now we can see the bright, exciting and exclusive packaging that Benefit has to offer - inheriting statement colours and shapes.

Their packaging engages a much younger generation, by giving a more feminine, aesthetically pleasing look. For many parents, Benefit Cosmetics would be reached for and sought after for their child before MAC, this is because to many - the bolder packaging of their product accentuates how subtle and natural the actual product is.

Price

According to The Marketing Mix website (accessed 2016), Price is considered the most important factor, this is because it is what produces turnover and allows organisations to make their profit. It is also a very important factor for many customers, especially in the beauty industry. It is considered that companies that charge a higher price for their products, offer better quality and more recognisable things. However, for a lot of makeup lovers, this could be a problem - this is because leading high end brands such as MAC, Urban Decay, Estee Lauder, and so on, are favoured in the world of beauty but charge a lot more than high street makeup, so ultimately urge older people and influence people of a higher class to buy, due to having more disposable income.

For example, lipsticks from MAC are charged, starting from £16, however a lipstick from one of the most popular high street brand "Maybelline", lipsticks start from  around £7. The prices from high street brands such as Maybelline, Rimmel and L'Oreal are more suited for the younger generation as the prices cater a lot of school, college/university and part time workers. The dramatic price difference in these cosmetic companies can be seen when looking at MAC's official site, and when looking at High Street stores such as Boots.

It is said by many beauty guru's that the quality of many high street makeup brands is catching up with the higher end products, the only difference is the price. This then is leading to a more popular demand for high street makeup, with more "duplicates" of certain products being made and sold at high street prices. There are many YouTubers, Bloggers and other makeup enthusiasts promoting this, urging more people to buy the cheaper products as it has become aware that the need to spend more is not needed to get what you want. As we can see, from the above photo, the makeup done on the right is created with high street products only (including brands such as L'Oreal, Rimmel, Soap & Glory, Kiko and many more), totaling at £144.45. This in comparison to the left hand side, when products like MAC, Bobbi Brown, NARS, Anastasia Beverly Hills and more were used - the total price came in at a whopping price of £342.48! This means that a total of £198.03 was saved, to create the exact same look.

Place

The Economic Times website explains the definition of Place within the Marketing Mix well, stating that it "refers to the channel, or the route, through which goods move from the source to the final user. Place could be the intermediaries, distributors, wholesalers and retailers.".

For all makeup brands, in store and online are options for purchasing. High end makeup brands such as MAC have numerous stores located worldwide, MAC particularly have a large number of stores in the UK alone.  However, for majority of high end makeup brands in the United Kingdom, online is the best way to purchase products - this is because makeup brands such as Urban Decay, Too Faced, Estee Lauder, Chanel and so on, are only sold in big department stores such as The House of Fraser, Debenhams, John Lewis  and Selfridges, rather than having a store themselves. This means the variety of products are limited, with only a selected amount on sale.

However, Digital Marketing (known as e-marketing) is progressing rapidly for all high end makeup brands. This is because they allow customers to purchase products on different sites as well as their own, despite having very well developed online stores. This gives customers the option to purchase from sites such as John Lewis or The House of Fraser rather than the actual "Too Faced" website for example. This is preferred for a number of people as they are able to purchase from a well known site that they may use regularly for a number of different things, also allowing them

to do it at the comfort of their own home - any time, any place. For people living the United Kingdom, getting our hands on popular makeup brands can be tricky, so recently with the development of a site called "BeatyBay", the buying of American makeup has become easier. This site offers all makeup brands which aren't available to buy in UK stores, this recent development has exploded and has worked well in the promotion and selling of certain brands like Anastasia Beverly Hills, Too Faced, Morphe and many more.

In regards to makeup brands such as Maybelline, Rimmel and so on, the name developed for these brands are known as "High Street" this is because you would typically buy these products in our local "drugstore". However, both in store and online purchasing is available, but these brands have never had their own stores and products are sold in shops known as Boots and Superdrug (these two being the leading "drugstores" in the UK).

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Promotion

According to the Cleverism Website (2016), "promotion includes all activities that involve communicating with the customer about the product and its benefits and features". This means that promotion is the way an organisation will inform customers about their products, what they will do to attract customers to buy their product and other ways the products can be recognisable to us.


In the makeup industry there are numerous different ways that organisations will promote their products - one of the most popular ways is through celebrity endorsement. Celebrity endorsement as a whole is a form of advertising where a well known celebrity uses their fame to promote the product. This is a very tactical technique, as customers will want to associate with the brands as a favoured person is recognisable to the brand name. Many makeup companies use celebrity endorsement whether it be in television ads, at launch events or even just promoting on social media. However, most of all, makeup brands use celebrity endorsement in their makeup campaigns, posters and collaborations.

For example, Rimmel London, one of the leading high street brands, has a very popular collaboration with Kate Moss. Kate Moss is one of the most popular UK models, with thousands of fans (over 217K followers on Twitter alone). By doing a collaboration with Rimmel London, they created the iconic Kate Moss lipsticks, which are favoured by many. Kate Moss is now known a "the faced of Rimmel" for over 10 years now, and since then this has resulted in a peak of sales and customers who are wanting to buy products. This is because Kate Moss is a very recognisable and beautiful woman that many woman aspire to be like - by Kate Moss wearing Rimmel London products, it gives customers a sense of similarity with the super model.

Many High End makeup brands favour celebrity endorsement as a form of promotion as well, this could be supported by Estee Lauder, who has made Kendall Jenner the face of their brand. Kendall Jenner is one of the most famous and well known super models of our time and this is extremely favored by many people. In June 2015, when Kendall Jenner done her first Estee Lauder Ad, she posted it on her Instagram and received over 1,200,000 likes alone - the female model is very popular on social media with 68.9 million followers on Instagram and 20.3M followers on Twitter. Both of these social media platforms are where Kendall Jenner usually promotes her work and collaborations with her companies, especially Estee Lauder. Despite Estee Lauder targeting their products to the older generation before, and people of higher class, due to charging a lot of money for their products, ranging from around £25 - £70, since the launch of Kendall Jenners products and promotions - the younger generation has latched on to the hype. This could be because the large number of younger people becoming aware of what Kendall Jenner is doing, ultimately leading them to want to be the same.


Social media has helped the Makeup industry massively: one very popular and favoured new ways is through YouTube. On YouTube there are many new Beauty and Makeup lovers, posting and recommending certain products and brands to their subscribers. One of the most famous YouTubers just now is "Zoella", with over 10 million subscribers, she posts videos such as "Hauls" (where she informs her audience on products she has recently bought, enlightening her fans on new and exciting brands). She also is very popular for her makeup tutorials, this is where she will post a video or demonstration of how she applies her makeup - when doing this, companies pay Zoella for recommending or even just mentioning their name! These videos promote many different makeup brands differing from high end to high street, allowing people to have the option to buy expensive or inexpensive products. The videos have millions of views each time, encouraging the young and the old in Zoella's fan base to buy the same products as her.

In stores, mainly high street brands like Maybelline, promotions are usually in place. One of the most popular promotional offers for these types of makeup brands are buy 3 for the price of 2, this is referred to as promotional pricing. Boots, is the UK's leading drugstore offering masses amount of different makeup brands and products. Boots and the makeup brand Maybelline favour the promotional pricing a lot, enticing customers to buy more than what they actually planned on.

People

Within the Marketing Mix, "People" regards to the people that are employed to determine the quality or service that an organisations customer will receive. According to CIM, "Happy, skilled and motivated staff make happy customers". For big makeup brands, this is key.

MAC Cosmetics, in 1984, were the first ever Makeup company to invest the money into the training and education of their staff, this meaning that all staff in and around the sales floor are fully trained makeup artists. This allows customers to gain full accuracy in the information and help they need - enhancing their experience in store and customer satisfaction. All staff use MAC products, and their makeup is always that little bit extra and bold, this not only motivates employees to enjoy going and preparing for work - it opens customers eyes to the amazing makeup looks that can be created, also allowing them to see what the products look like out of the bottle.

The training and experience of staff in the stores benefits all, including the staff themselves, store managers and customers. Knowing that they are fully trained at what they are doing, staff are able to gain motivation and the strive to do what they love! For store managers, as their staff are fully trained and equipped to do the job well - productivity will increase meaning store goals and aims will be met. Customers will benefit from  the staff skills as well, not only will they get accurate and knowledgeable answers on the brands products, they will benefit from gaining clear examples on how to do their makeup, for example the customers can get their makeup done by the professionals themselves. Customers also benefit extremely with MAC's friendly and enthusiastic employees as when looking for certain product shades, and so on, the skilled employee will be able to sit the customer down and match their skin tone exactly.

Physical Evidence

Physical Evidence is one of the final three factors added on to the extended Marketing Mix - according to Oxford College of Marketing (website accessed in 2016, published 2013), Physical Evidence can be described as followed - ‘The environment in which the service is delivered and where the firm and customer interact, and any tangible components that facilitate performance or communication of the service’. 

For many makeup brands, the physical evidence in and around stores are similar. Whether it be high end brands having their own stores or in bug department stores, or high street makeup getting sold in the drugstore - the layout is much the same. For high end brands such as Benefit Cosmetics, the layout and design of their products in store is a lot more extravagant - meaning, the displays and layout of the products are more extreme. This could be because the higher end brands obtain more profit on their products meaning more can be spent on things to improve their physical evidence. As we can see from the below photograph, Benefit Cosmetics have a very eye catching way of displaying and selling their products.  From the above photo, we can see that the store layout of the brands products as if it were a females bedroom - with dressing tables, drawers and cabinets - all displaying the differing products.

However, in comparison to the high street brands like Maybelline - the displays aren't as appealing. This could be because the stores that sell these makeup brands have a large amount of other brands to promote and sell also - for example when walking in to a Superdrug store, you are bombarded with the various different brands of makeup to your left and your right, with each store offering over 50 different brands of makeup at a time.

Here we can see the inside of a Superdrug store and how all products are laid out for customers to see. From the photograph we can see that there are numerous different makeup brands and products, meaning high street brands aren't given the chance to "show off" or sell their products in the same way.

For Higher End makeup brands, physical evidence is a factor of The Extended Marketing Mix that can be taken advantage of - this is because they are able to attract customers in eye catching ways. If a customer were to walk in to a store and see a Maybelline display compared to a Benefit Cosmetics display - the one that would gain more attention would be Benefit. Ultimately, this will be very beneficial for makeup brands such as Benefit as it will entice and draw people over to the eye catching, bold and flattering displays - meaning more sales, resulting in more money being obtained.

For all makeup brands, every employee has their makeup done perfectly. This not only promotes the brands products, but it encourages customers to buy the brands products from the beautiful women on hand to help. This draws customers to them, aspiring to look like them which means buying the products. All products are laid out the same way, with a tester made available and easy to see.