Every company face challenges, LUSH is not an exception, Lush is increasingly facing extensive competition in the market along with more preferences for organic cosmetics. In the Case Study 4.1, You get me: Personality and self-concept in consumer behavior- The case of Lush we will discuss on how Lush has managed to successfully used some core ethics and personal values as a strategic weapon to market to new customers and enforce a brand image not only based on beauty but also on ideals to differentiate itself from other brands, in which, purchases made from LUSH will positively benefit the environment and the people in it.
Lush is known for their handmade cosmetic products, a wide range of things from bar soap to dry shampoo to facial wash. Lush remained as popular today because of their way of communication. Lush has grown since 1995 but the founders ensure it will always maintain the same personal, small business feel with an emphasis on listening to and really understanding customer.
In this saturated and competitive market, differentiation should not be only based on the products that are being offered and the marketing communication that are being done, it should also be focused on how well are companies able to communicate with specific segments on more personal level like how LUSH did it by differentiating themselves from the other companies through its value and stance on social issue such as gay marriage, human rights and animal protection
This report will illustrates on how LUSH has been doing strong and efficient communication with its brand philosophy such as joining or launching campaign against ethical issues or subjects showcasing their strong policies of ethical values to raise awareness towards certain issues that are related to the world.
Moreover, it will provide recommendations in which how LUSH could have create greater awareness and open up new market segments towards its campaigns and stance in order to inspire more people about LUSH and its brand.
Introduction
In this highly competitive cosmetic industry, every company tries to be different from one another, one particular company that has outshine the rest is LUSH, with having 600 stores in over 43 countries, their success can be mainly attributed to their unique brand image which it has benefitted their increasing dominance in the beauty industry.
There are many factors that made LUSH unique as a cosmetic company, one of it is by using only organic materials to produce their products without using any preservatives which they deem as harmful to the human body, and none of those materials are ever tested on animals showing one of their several strong beliefs against animal testing. LUSH produces all their products by hand without the help of large-scale machines to humanize their brand and making sure their products are fresh and made with passion invoking interaction between them and the customers.
LUSH is one of the very few cosmetic company that can declare that their products are all organic, this creates a very big opportunity for them to start the value of "going green" for the environment and also "saving the earth" beliefs, which LUSH has used it to launch themselves into looking good in the public eye arousing positive feelings into their brand, it is a very good strategic move when done correctly. We will examine how LUSH employs this strategic move and use it to its fullest.
Findings for the report comes from inferring from the case study itself and several other journals and articles from the internet, these information are primarily secondary data which has better help us to understand how LUSH has carved a market for itself.
We will analyze LUSH briefly first, then discuss about the several strategies it had used in its marketing campaign and how have they utilize them to its fullest followed by some recommendations on how to further enhance their growth and market share in this very competitive environment.
Analysis
Lush success and their approach towards marketing.
We believe in happy people making happy soap, putting our faces on our products and making our mums proud, We believe in long candlelit baths, sharing showers, massage, filling the world with perfume in the right to make mistakes, lose everything and start again, We believe our products are good value, that we should make profit and that the customer is always right.
LUSH came up with the above quotes in relation to their brand to exhibit themselves as being interesting and fun putting a personality into their product. They want to be seen as having accountability and trustworthiness in their products in the society. The brand comes across as honest, pleasant and interesting to the consumers. Nonetheless, over the years, Lush have been coming up with new and different ideas to match consumers need, wants and demands.
To successfully differentiate themselves with other cosmetic brands was not tough on them. This is because the success of LUSH came from it being reputed as a company whom does not do animal testing which by itself was a ethical issue and has raised concerns over the world. By publicly campaigning itself against animal testing, it attracted like-minded people or inner directed consumers and surely, interest were pouring over LUSH and its beliefs. People believed that by supporting LUSH, they are directly supporting the campaign and also their moral values which forms a connection between them.
LUSH stands out even more as it has different kind of campaigns like supporting human rights, stop animal cruelty and other social issues to arouse people who are open minded and are responsive to new beliefs and information. Most importantly, LUSHs personality and beliefs are something that customers can relate to as a form of differentiation from other companies and also giving themselves a sense of identity in accordance to the values they support in the society with LUSH.
A company that is highly image-focused shows how it has been able to target its consumer by using personality traits and moral values to give itself a positive image, by targeting specific consumer personality traits and values. Lush ensured that there is a clear distinction between their products and their competitors and influenced their consumers by brand personality which people wants to be associated with and acknowledged for.
LUSH have been doing very well in their marketing strategy of targeting consumers with a great sense of social and environmental issues. LUSH focuses on customer satisfaction and relationship marketing which has helped to create persuasive communications that has helped to create faithful customers and turn the heads of potential customers.
LUSH's fundamentals of marketing
LUSH has based their marketing strategies on the premises of intuitiveness, which means they try to market their product to the unconscious needs or drives or even personality factors of the consumers. LUSH emphasizes on the pleasure principle in their product, the sheer pleasure it can bring for one when they purchases LUSH's products, consumers who are motivated by the mere thought of pleasure are easily influenced by the concept as it drives them, hence, they will almost purchase the product to fulfill the immediate need or desire of that particular satisfaction.
In this aspect, it can argued that LUSH has consistently enforce the idea of their products being very satisfying by reaching out to the unconscious need of pleasure of the consumers even without them being aware of it. It can be attributed to their clever mix of colors and description of products which leads to making the product very desirable, very often, LUSH also names their product in such particular fashion according to personality traits that they hope that it could almost create an instant connection between the consumers and them. LUSH is trying to drive the impulsive natured consumers into buying their products and to be pleasured by it. This concept has proved to be very successful as people are easily tempted either by the colors or the fanciful description of the product and how it could represent them.
Other than reaching out to the unconscious need of the consumer, LUSH understands that there is another group of conscious consumers who thinks and considers before making purchases, hence, they also make use of strategies to reach out to this group of consumers. Generally, this group of consumers are able to understand and withstand temptations that are set on them, they are usually guided by some values and morals in their belief. Hence, reaching out to this group of people requires more than just colors and descriptions, understanding this was essential as now LUSH knows in order to capture this crowd, their brand had to mean something and to symbolize a certain standing to them.
Creating a meaning to their brand and their products was another way to reflect and extend the consumer's image especially when the brand expresses itself the same way as how the consumer would expresses themselves, in LUSH's case, it is the expression of moral and ethical issues. Forming such an connection is vital and critical as when the brand supports their ideology, they will almost instantly support the brand and any of their products, becoming faithful and loyal customers which is beneficial for the company in the long run.
Personality research and self-images
LUSH has made use of some interesting personality research in attracting their customers, on a market, it is separated into two group of people, one which is the verbalisers and the other which is the visualisers. LUSH has cleverly incorporated strategies and marketing ideas that was able to attract these two very different group of people.
In attracting the verbalisers, LUSH's extensive information write-up on their social campaigns and their products has helped in arousing consumers who enjoys thinking, constantly, engaging them and letting them to respond to LUSH's activities, this has led to consumers to want to understand LUSH more and support LUSH in their social campaigns if they deem them as rightful, LUSH has cleverly invoked the thinking consumers and causing them to believe they can control certain outcomes or activities by their own effort. Consumers will now see LUSH as not being just a cosmetics brand, but rather, a brand that represents certain moral values that the society needs, consumers will be influenced and adjust their behavior accordingly.
Not forgetting the visualizers, particularly, in this segment, LUSH has done extremely well in making its products very colorful yet at the same time interactive. LUSH's products are bright in colors and they look great on the shelves, it almost prompt consumers who are visually aroused to immediately purchase its products simply because they are too fanciful. LUSH also makes sure that their products have a great smell to them, ensuring people feel pleasured just to the smell of the products without using it. Not forgetting the need for creativity and innovation, LUSH encourages consumers to innovate and create their own color and shape as they want, it evokes a certain desire to immediately own these products as it appeals to them as their own product with the colors they desire.
LUSH supports the idea of human rights, gay marriages, environmental and animal protection. Hence, they have picture their brand as a symbol of these unique traits and values, as a result, consumers who already have these beliefs and perceptions are likely to associate themselves with LUSH, because it closely correspond with their ideals in life. When consumers purchases LUSH's products, it reflects their personality to society of their beliefs and values in life. It creates a self-image for them and to others. This could be said as a very valuable marketing, as now people has taken a sense of identify with the brand, when they see the brand or purchase the brand, they see themselves as part of it, forging a connection between both of them to create a long lasting relationship for as long as their ideals remains the same.
As consumers are generally defined by the products they used, hence, creating such a connection is very important in retaining faithful customers as well as influencing potential consumers. This creates a positive ideal social self image for the consumers as they are now being associated to the beliefs of the company. As LUSH is well known for its positive ideology, consumers would want their peers to see them as a part of a positive social circle creating a sense of belonging in the social environment.
Recommendations
From the case study, Lush is facing a few issues. Firstly, one of the factor that has been oppressing LUSHs growth are minimal advertisements and narrow demographic. They are unable to create greater awareness and potential market outside their targeted segment. Hence, the recommendation will be creating a marketing plan to expand the company's demographics and geographic locations to enhance a more well known brand identify outside of its targeted segment.
Advertisements strengthens identity, by advertising campaigns instead of relying only on mouth-to-mouth marketing, LUSH will be able to emphasize and amplify the values and beliefs of LUSH to heighten consumers awareness. Judging how successful LUSH has been without major advertising, one could not help to wonder what kind of success it will be able to achieve with it.
The second issue that might have oppressed LUSH's growth is the small field of demographic they have limited themselves to. Currently, LUSH targets consumes who are young professional women whom ages around 20-35 years with a passion for eco-friendly products and issues, LUSH has already understand this market well enough to effectively communicate its point of difference and excellence to them. Hence, the recommendation will be developing a new target market, in this case, a creation of a men's line which will be both personal and unique. The purpose of starting a new mens line is to expand the demographic and to attract in more diverse consumers. The strategy is to communicate LUSHs existing values and beliefs to this group of new market to educate them on social and environmental issues, especially what they can do on their part in supporting the cause.
The third issue that oppressed LUSH's growth will be that prices could be perceived as too expensive or out of reach for the lower income group. LUSH products are often pricier than most cosmetic brands in order to maintain exclusiveness and a luxury brand. Hence, the recommendation will be pricing LUSH to have a wide range of prices that are able to meet all consumers budgets. This is to further expand the demographic segmentation to increase more profits and to expand the consumer's market.
With the recommendations, Lush will be able to attract existing customer to continue purchasing their products and to stay loyal to their product, and to attract more potential customer to purchase from them.
Conclusion
Despite being in a highly competitive industry, LUSH has shown us by having brand personality, they are able to retain faithful customers and at the same time attract new consumers by communicating and interacting with them in a manner that will best touch them and have them responding back, in turn, creating a sense of identify and image for their consumers has also helped to differentiate themselves with other major brands.
Hence, LUSH has been successful in employing these strategies, however, with intense competition, LUSH should always be exploring new alternatives and boundaries to maintain their leading pace in this industry.
References
1) Gatestoneinstitute.org. "Lush Cosmetics: a Case Study in Hypocrisy :: Gatestone Institute." 2014. 2) Icmrindia.org. "Innovative Marketing Strategies of Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics | Marketing Case Study|Case Studies." 2014. 3) LUSH. "CASE STUDY - LUSH: Pure and simple.(Lush (Dorset, England))(Company overview). 4) Kate Dreyer. "Lush Cosmetics: Secret Neuro-Marketing Geniuses - Kate Dreyer." 2013. 5) Marketing, Advertising, and Media News | Pitch Magazine India. "Creating a Lush organic cosmetics market." 2012 6) Lush. Untitled. 2014. http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/jomec/jomecjournal/4- november2013/Aronczyk_Activism.pdf
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