ANGELES, CHEN, CHOI, MANLULO, TAN

GROUP NAME: DIVERSITY

MKT 101 B
Ms. Pindy Mendiola

BRAND: Caronia
I.

Marketing Background
In 2011, the international nail care and nail polish industry experienced an increase in

sales until the next two years and recently just slowed down. Nail polish can be considered as
a class indicator in which the purchase of these products show how much you are willing to
spend for beauty purposes whether it may be a bottle of cheap nail polish or trip to the salon
or spa for a manicure.1 The size of the market of the nail industry has been growing. As for
the past years it has been believed that women, in general, are the usual consumers of these
goods and services but because of recent hypes in pop culture, some men are also getting into
the nail polish hype. There has been this phenomenon called the Nail Polish Effect2 in
which nail polish sales have been incredibly fast in growth. More and more of the consumers
of nail polish have learned to do their own nails rather than spend on salons.3 The nail
industry is constantly growing as more and more brands enter the market and competition
pushes these brands to make more varieties that can topple the competition.4
Going locally, behind the lines of Caronia, the company has a sound structure when it comes
to financial, accounting, and operations. This is the reason why the brand has lived on since
its humble beginnings back in the 60s. Although their research and development departments
sometimes clash with their financial department due to the large cost of experimenting on the
brand, the company is able to slowly come up with new products at least once every 2-3
years. Another conflict it has is between its advertising and financial departments. For the
1 Groden, Claire. "Nail Polish Sales Slow After Years of Growth | TIME.com." TIME. July 23, 2013.
Accessed December 14, 2014. http://style.time.com/2013/07/26/nail-polish-sales-slow-after-years-ofgrowth/.
2 Some sort of a replacement of the Lipstick Effect.
3 Walker, Rob. "GCI Magazine." State of the Industry. June 1, 2012. Accessed December 14, 2014.
http://www.gcimagazine.com/marketstrends/regions/world/156321685.html.
4 Pastor, Pam. "Nail Polish Is the New Lipstick." Inquirer. April 27, 2012. Accessed December 14,
2014. http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/45243/nail-polish-is-the-new-lipstick.

same reason as with the research and development department, the cost of advertising their
product is large and very risky. The financial department has no way of ensuring that the
advertisements the advertising department produces will be able to generate enough
awareness for their brand. This explains the decline of advertising Caronia experiences over
the years. They used to invest so much in getting their brand heard, but now that they are one
of the more popular brands, they focus more on keeping the product quality stable rather than
getting more people to buy their product simply because of the fact that they have established
their presence in the market.5
There are a number of marketing intermediaries to help promote and share their nail
products. There are various resellers and physical distribution firms who carries different
brands of nail care, some of them baring familiar names such as SM, Robinsons, etc. These
resellers and physical distribution firms are what get the brands name recognized in the
public, once they are being sold.
The customer market that the nail care industry works with is that of the Consumer
Market. Their brand has since always prioritized the interest of their customers. Since its
birth, Caronia made it a point to become a common house hold brand in order to satisfy their
target market.
On a macro environmental level, nail care products face problems when it comes to
the economic environment. The Philippines economy is one of the biggest challenges that
the company could face because it affects the purchasing power of the people they target. As
of now, their current target is the Class C, both upper and lower, Milennials. This is closely
related to the Political Environment, in charge of the tax regulations of the businesses in the
Philippines.6
For the Natural Environment, the concern is the various places it can harvest its
resources for their products and the effects of its production of products. Hand in hand with
the technological environment, the production is improved by the evolving technology that
the 21st century has to offer.
5 Taken from the website: http://www.caronia.com.ph
6 Wallop, Harry. "Gen Z, Gen Y, Baby Boomers a Guide to the Generations." The Telegraph. July
31, 2014. Accessed December 15, 2014. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/11002767/Gen-ZGen-Y-baby-boomers-a-guide-to-the-generations.html

Caronias key success factors are present through its resilience against the competition
it has. They are able to put minimal attention to its competitors while focusing on itself and
still be able to stand above the rest. Its establishment in the market is also another key factor
mainly because this is what helps people remember the name of the brand. The more it is
recognized by the majority of the populace, the more people want or are comfortable buying
their product.7
I.

Competitive Analysis
Amidst all the other brands both high-end, like O.P.I and Orly, and those more

considered as for the masses, such as The Face Shop and Etude House, Caronia holds fast to
its proud heritage and position in the market as a homegrown quality nail polish brand.
Through this we see Caronia positioning itself as a brand that is friendly, reliable, and
accessible and maybe even a Filipino household classic. Through its promotions and event
tie-ups, like with Ballet Philippines for example, it would suggest the brands desire to be
perceived as one that represents the diverse interests and by extension the individuality and
identity of its customers through the use of their products.
Caronia has a number of competitors present in the market. Some of the competing
brands include other familiar names such as Bobbie, OMG Nail Polish, O.P.I, Etude House,
The Face Shop, Orly, Careline, Caress, My Posh, and etc. Caronia is one of the top sharers in
the Philippine Nail Polish Market, searing the market dominance of Caronia re-brands such
as Bobbie, Careline, and Caress. Other brands such as Mwah!, Wish, and My Posh, share a
considerably less portion of the market compared to Caronia, Careline, Bobbie, and Caress
Caronia offers a wide variety of nail polish targeted to the targeted to the broad class
C. They offer two types of nail polish, namely: Regular, which comes in 26 colors, and
Frosted, which comes in 49 colors.8 Based on data regarding consumer preferences gathered
by the survey, emphasis will be given to products preferred by the market. This preference
can be measured by product attributes such as price, scent, quality (longevity), and color.
Caronia products price ranges at around 30-50 PHP which is very affordable for its target
7 "Caronia Art Of Dance Nail Polish Collection Review." The Beauty Junkee. May 5, 2014. Accessed
December 14, 2014. http://thebeautyjunkee.blogspot.com/2014/05/caronia-art-of-dance-nailpolish.html.
8 Taken from the website: http://www.caronia.com.ph

market of the broad C class, D class, and E class. Their products are strategically placed in
accessible locations such as supermarket, department, retail outlets, and drugstores such as
Mercury Drug and Watson's. As of the moment, Caronia utilizes its website
(http://www.caronia.com.ph) and its Facebook page (Caronia Philippines) for its promotions.
Some strategies used by the companies incorporates small giveaways for its consumers
through its Facebook page. Currently, Caronia is in a partnership with Ballet Philippines.
Caronias competitors in the local market analyzed by the group are Orly, The Face Shop,
O.P.I., The Face Shop, Etude House, OMG Nail Polish, and Bobbie. These brands are
evaluated based on the 4 Ps of Marketing.9
A. Orly:10
Orly provides various types of nail color, pedicure, and hand cream, but they
started out with and specialize in nail-related products. Orly offers various
collections, such as Sparkle, Smoky, Baked, Galaxy FX, Secret Society, Pretty in
Pink, Mash-Up and many more. Their nail polish products are divided into 3
types, namely Creme, Shimmer, and Glitter. They also offer French manicure,
which the founder of Orly: Jeff Pink invented, nail treatments, and various types
of Smart Gel, and nutrient-providing manicures as well. Orly's unique Smart Gel
and superb-quality nail color products stand out amongst its competitors in the
international market, including the Philippines. Many customers are highly
satisfied with the company's high quality nail polish and say that Orly offers one
of the best nail polish products in available in the Philippines.
Orly's products are relatively expensive compared to those of its competitors.
Its nail color and gel products' price ranges from 350 - 550 PHP11 per bottle,
depending on where the item is bought. The company targets, mainly,
socioeconomic class A and B, who are not necessarily price-sensitive, which

9 Data from these brands are collected from the products website and social media sites as well as
various interviews of consumers and store checks of different outlets where they sell these products.
10 Taken from Orlys website: http://www.orlybeauty.com/
11

allows it to concentrate on developing its quality in order to provide its customers

with high-end products.
Orly products are available in Marionnaud, First Aid Greenbelt, PCX (Ermita,
Rockwell, ATC), Watsons (Greenbelt 5, Ayala Cebu), Beauty by SM (Makati,
Megamall), Landmark-Trinoma, Caswell-Massey, Jesi Mendez (New World,
Ermita, Park Square I, Tutuban), Chocolate (Trinoma), Nail Tropics (Serendra,
Eastwood). It is also available on online market such as Lazada. Many of the nail
care salons also use Orly in order to satisfy its customers who expect a service that
is worth the pricy payment.
As of now, Orly has established a very positive reputation amongst the target
market and solid market share as well. It advertises and promotes its products
passively through its Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook page, and
occasionally physical advertisements in several malls or billboards since its
patrons are loyal to the company. It also advertises its products in women's
magazines occasionally.
B. The Face Shop:
The Face Shop offers all-around body care products such as body wash, scrub,
facial wash, soap, toner, lotion, nail polish, and many more. It is an international
brand based on Korea which recently has penetrated into the Philippine market.
The quality of its nail polish products are above average but inferior compared to
high-end products like Orly. Since it is a company that specializes and
concentrates on all-around body care, it offers a variety of products according to
each nail type, which is a unique feature that attracts customers. It also offers wide
variety of colors and collections such as Lovely Me:ex Oh My Neon Nails, Face It
Colored Paper Nails, Face It Planet Art Nails, Trendy Nails, and many more.
The nail polish products of The Face Shop is often, or always on sale. Through
this, it is able to offer the general colors at very cheap price, as low as 50 PHP per
bottle. The usual price ranges from 50 - 200 PHP per bottle. Based on its price
range, The Face Shop targets, mainly, B and C socioeconomic class.
The Face Shop has its branches in Alabang Town Center, Ayala Center Cebu,
Eastwood, Festival Supermall, Fort Bonifacio Global City, Glorietta, Robinsons

Place Manila, Rockwell, Robinsons Galleria, Shangri-La Plaza, SM Cebu, SM

Taytay, SM Sucat, SM Southmall, SM Fairview, SM Megamall, SM The Block
Level 2, SM Bacolod, SM Pampanga, SM Mall of Asia, Shoppersville Arcade,
The Podium, Trinoma
The Face Shop rarely advertises its products on magazines or billboards.
Instead, it displays banners and posters in malls near its shop, which catches the
eyes of the by-passers. Following the trend, it promotes the brand by hiring
several well-known Korean celebrities as models since Korean wave is hitting the
Philippines.
C. O.P.I12
O.P.I is a company that only concentrates on nail polish products. It offers
various colors such as classics, soft shades, and brights, and many collections such
as Gwen Stefani Holiday, Nordic, Brazil, Peanuts, Ford Mustang, Coca-Cola, and
many more. As of now, the official website of the company offers 283 different
shades of colors. According to a customer survey, the products of O.P.I. are very
high-end like those of Orly. Both Orly and O.P.I differentiate their products from
other competitors through investing in development of products that do not stain
the nails even if the nail coloring stays on for a long time and ones that do not chip
easily after drying up.
Other opinions were that O.P.I products have bigger brush compared to other
brands', which makes it easier to apply the nail color, they do not dry up in bottle
easily after opening the products, and O.P.I offers a very wide variety of choices
in color.
The products of O.P.I are very high-end, thus, they are quite pricy. The price
ranges from 300 - 700 PHP per bottle, which is definitely more expensive than
most of its competitors. Based on the price range of O.P.I nail polish products, the
firm caters mainly socioeconomic class A and B.
O.P.I products are available in Rustan's Department Stores.

12 Taken from O.P.Is website: http://pro.opi.com/

O.P.I mainly advertises its products through magazines. It also has Facebook
page, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube channel, Pinterest, Google+, and Tumblr
following the online SNS promotion trend. It has unique feature on its official
website where a virtual simulator allows customers to see what each color of nail
polish product looks like in different length of nail and different color tones.
D. Etude House13
Etude House is an international body care product firm that is based on Korea.
It offers a variety of colors and collections of nail polish products, such as Dear
My Party Nails, Look At My Nails, Juicycocktail Graduation Nails, Dear My
Deep Color Nails, and many more. It also offers many other varieties of products,
such as facial wash, make up, facial masks and packs, perfume, and more. It is
very competitive in its nail polish market, especially among its major target
market: teens. The distinctive generally teen-friendly colored nail polish products
capture the attention of many customers. Etude House also offers innovative nail
products such as nail stickers, stamps, and dotters, which is perfect for unique
taste of fashion-loving teens.
The price of Etude House nail polish products ranges from 78 - 198 PHP.
Given its competitors in the local market, Etude House's pricing strategies allows
its consumers to spend more for the physical good, and receive more in terms of
quality, creativity and durability of the product. The company mainly targets
socioeconomic class B and C.
Etude House has its own storefront with its stores located in many SM Malls
all around the nation, Robinsons, Landmark, Greenbelt 4, Glorietta 3, and many
more.
Etude House promotes its products mainly on online advertisements and
magazines. They often hire Korean celebrity endorsers in order to follow the trend
of Korean wave in the Philippines. Their stores are also catchy to the eyes of the
potential customers. Their stores located in various malls are white and pink,
which stands out among other stores. The company also has Facebook page,
13 Taken from Etude Houses website: http://www.etudehouse.ph/

Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube channel in order to promote its products and new
releases online.
E. OMG Nail Polish:14
OMG Nail Polish is a local company which offers 118-wide variety of colors.
OMG's nail polish products primarily focus on unique, trendsetting colors in the
nail polish industry. With its products, the company aims to provide women with
quality products for an inexpensive price. OMG's quirky, striking colors and
competitive price especially catches the attention of individualistic women with
quirky tastes in fashion.
The price of OMG nail polish products are 20 - 35 PHP per bottle, depending
on the size of the bottle, which allows the company to cater socioeconomic class
D and E. This inexpensive price also allows them to cater people who want to buy
uniquely colored nail polish that they are going to use very occasionally.
OMG products are mostly available in department stores and budget stores all
around the nation, which is very easily accessible.
OMG Nail Polish promotes its products through its Facbook page, Instagram,
and Twitter. Their main promotion is their distribution in various stores. The
physical shelf placement of products in stores allows potential customers to access
the products.
F. Bobbie:15
Bobbie Nail Polish offers a wide variety of colors as well, but not as many as
its competitors, such as OMG Nail Polish or Caronia. Although, the company
offers unique color selections such as Rain Metallica, Mwah!, and Rain.
The price of a usual Bobbie nail polish product ranges at around 20 - 50 PHP.
This inexpensive price range allows the company to cater socioeconomic class D
and E. This inexpensive price also allows them to cater people who want to buy
uniquely colored nail polish that they are going to use very occasionally.
14 Taken from OMG Nail Polishs website: http://omgnailpolish.com/
15 Taken from Bobbies website: http://www.bobbienailcare.com/

Bobbie products are mostly available in department stores and budget stores
all around the nation, which is very easily accessible.
Shelf placement in actual physical stores is Bobbie's major advertisement
technique. Not a lot of information on products is available online. Very few
physical print advertisements are distributed with not-so-popular magazines as
well.
II.

Company Background
A. Company Profile
Caronia is a local nail polish brand that was founded by Don Vicente Ang and his wife

Belen in 1968. The brand offered locally produced nail polish that would be available in a
wide variety of colors. It easily became popular as it offered quality nail polish and provided
the female market "an alternative to limitedly available imported nail care brands."
When it first started, it easily gained market dominance with the help of a successful
marketing campaign. Throughout the years, they utilized marketing strategies such as TV and
radio commercials, jingles, and celebrity endorsers to better capture its market.16 In addition,
they also opened a wider line of nail care products in order to better provide accessible and
affordable nail care to its market. In 2005, they repositioned their products to "a younger,
more dynamic female market." In response to changes in fashion and lifestyle trends over the
years, they continuously updated their product line taking into account the existing market
needs and wants of the time.17
Caronia currently remains proud of being the locally most trusted brand of nail polish.
With 75 colors, Caronia still continues to try to expand it range of colors to suit the different
needs of its market. The brand also offers different nail care products as well as set colors for
different manicure demands.
Caronia also partners with events such a Ballet Philippines and other functions to
promote their brand and maintain visibility.
16 Valenzuela, Ana. "THROWBACK THURSDAY | Can We Ever Get the Old Caronia Song out of
Our Heads?" Lifestyle InterAksyoncom. Accessed December 15, 2014.
http://www.interaksyon.com/lifestyle/throwback-thursday-can-we-ever-get-the-old-caronia-song-outof-our-heads.
17 Taken from the website: http://www.caronia.com.ph/

Over the years of its operation, Caronia has become a common household brand. Caronia's
strength in its customer lies in the fact that it had market dominance way back when it started,
aside from the fact that their nail polish was at par with imported brands during the time.
Using this to their advantage, Caronia was able to effectively market their product over the
years according to how its target buyers saw fit.
In terms of product variety, Caronia started out with its main products of nail polish.
With a running life spanning from the 1960's to present, the company has evolved from a
brand with humble beginnings offering nail polish that was comparable to leading U.S.
brands' product line, but over the years, they were able to offer new products like French
manicure products, nail care products, and hand/foot care products.
Caronia's relatively narrow; or rather specialized product variety allows them to focus
on specific area of human health care: nails, feet, and hands, which allow them to invest more
on each product line in terms of research, advertisement, and others.
With its constant research and development, Caronia was able to introduce a variety
of new collections and colors of nail polish: its mail product line, over the years of its
operation.
Although, Caronia still lacks the exposure they need in order to diversify their market.
Recently, Caronia saw the need to branch out to today's social media sites. Aside from their
already existing website, Caronia has links to Facebook, various blogger sites, and different
photography sites, such as Instagram in order to gain the presence in media.
In terms of physical advertisements, one of Caronia's strengths is their constant push
to expose their products. By becoming visible to the public, in particular, their target market,
they are able to effectively disseminate the news about their products, either new or old.
As for Caronia's weakness in its advertisements, the company's advertisement for
each product line is too broad or too general. If each of their product line had a specific ad
that targeted a distinct group of people, they are better off, considering the fact that they are
one of the leading local brands in the nail polish industry here in the Philippines. For the
company to jump out of the general target market (The Philippine broad C class), it would
mean having to target more specific people within their already targeted market.

Also, to achieve exposure to the target market, Caronia has recently partnered up with
Ballet Philippines, during the dance company's 45th concert, in launching its new collection:
The Art of Dance, Caronia's first Toulene and Formaldehyde free (TFF) collections. Through
this project, the company was successful in advertising its new collection and the company
itself to its target market.
As a local brand, Caronia has established a solid market share in the Philippine
market. Its reasonable price quality attracts a lot of customers, but its competitors, such as
Orly and The Face Shop, have established a big market share as well.
Orly is an international brand that offers superb quality which attracts customers
despite its high price; while Caronia offers relatively lower-quality nail polish products with
much lower price. As a result, many nail care shops with relatively high price use Orly's
products in order to maximize the value that the customers are paying for. The Face Shop, on
the other hand, is a Korean brand which offers a wide variety of all-around body care
products offer nail polish at relatively higher price that of compared to Caronia, but lower
than that of Orly. The company was able to succeed in marketing its products through taking
advantage of the K-POP wave that had swept the country. This shows that Caronia still lacks
quality in its products compared to many of its competitors.
B. Brand Consumer Profile
Caronia is a brand that targets the broad female mass of the class C. On a survey
conducted by the group on a sample of 58 respondents, 72% of them are familiar with the
brand and 47% of them have used or are using the brand. These respondents age ranged from
16 years up to 23 years. Most respondents find the purchase or usage of the product to be
based on personal grooming, self-expression, and fashion purposes thus the usage of the nail
products would be occasionally rather than on a more often note of a weekly basis.18
C. Present Marketing Strategy
Based on Advertisement and Promotion, Caronia promotes and advertises its products
mainly on the internet through its Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook page. Based on this,
Caronia is targeting the youth, such as teens and people in their early 20's who access the
internet and social networking sites almost daily. The company is also launching several
18 Survey live general results and analytics: https://erika14.typeform.com/report/dnaKsa/LElr

promotion events on its Facebook events in order to catch the attention of the Facebook users,
and following the trend, uploading tweets asking people to tweet with hash tag (#Caronia) in
order to advertise its products through the followers and users of both products and Twitter.
This type of marketing is very low in cost, and has been proved to be effective in targeting
the young aged groups.
Caronia also released 'Match and Play', a game on the internet in order to attract
potential customers. The company uploads photos of top 20 scorers of the game every month
on its Twitter account.19 As a company that targets the teens through SNS, a company-related
games can be a good way to advertise its products and the brand itself.
The company also recently launched Caronia Jingle Contest in 2013 to advertise the
brand itself. Many companies in the Philippines have been using similar type of promotion
method. The contest was open for all amateur bands, and Caronia offered 70,000 PHP to
amatuer bands as a prize. This was to promote its products to a wider segment of market,
aside from its promotions via internet.
Caronia also has a booth in Cosmetologie Fair 2014, a cosmetic product fair held in
World Trade Center. This was to expose the products to new potential customers, and also
distributors of cosmetic-related products.20
On matters of price, Caronia products' price ranges around 30 50 PHP, which is very
inexpensive and affordable. Based on the pricing of the products, Caronia is targeting the
socioeconomic class D and E, who are very price-sensitive. The low pricing makes Caronia's
products affordable for the people who cannot spare a lot of money on beauty related
products due to insufficient income.
Low pricing also allows Caronia to target teens and women of in their early 20's. The
pricing makes it perfect for the customers to purchase Caronia's nail polish for very
occasional use. For example, if a teenaged girl wants a nail polish that matches the color of
her prom dress, but she does not want to buy expensive products since she is not going to use
it after her graduation prom, Caronia is a perfect choice for her.21

19 Taken from Caronias Facebook and Twitter accounts

20 Ibid

In terms of product placement, Caronia products are very accessible. They can be
purchased in many budget stores and convenient stores. This allows the company to target a
very wide market. In convenient stores, Caronia products are usually on display near the
counter, which makes it very visible for the customers of the convenient store, even the ones
who initially do not enter the store with intention of buying any nail polish products. In this
way, the company aims for its potential customers to impulse-buy the products.
Overall, Caronia mainly targets age groups of teens and early 20's, and socioeconomic
class D and E.
As can be observed, Caronia employs three common competitive strategies to achieve
competitive advantage in the market. These are cost leadership, differentiation, and focus
strategy.22
As a necessity for producing and selling inexpensive nail polish to the majority of the
industry market, they implement low cost leadership to be able to meet market demand and to
meet target sales. With cost leadership, they are able to mass produce their products at low
production costs. This strategy is crucial for them since they sell their products at low prices
and there is a large demand for those products.23
Apart from cost leadership, Caronia also implements a differentiation strategy. This
was successfully employed as they are widely known for being the first to locally produce
nail polish at the time when availability of nail care products was limited. What sets them
apart from their competitors is that their products are locally produced, have wide variety (in
colors), have comparable quality with US brands', and are still affordable.24
Lastly, it is evident that Caronia also employs focus strategy when they started
marketing their products to a younger market back in 2005. Over the years, they focused

21 Consumers opinion thread: http://www.femalenetwork.com/girltalk/index.php?topic=226214.20

22 "Competitive Strategies." Competitive Strategies. Accessed December 14, 2014.
http://toolkit.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au/part/3/12/60
23 Ibid
24 Ibid

more on the needs and wants of young women, so they launched more nail polish in colors
that are based on the lifestyle and fashion trends of young women.25

25 Ibid