Market Segmentation of Skin Care Products
Market Segmentation of Skin Care Products
Introduction
The quest for beauty is an endless endeavour at all times. Despite the old saying cautioning us that beauty is only skin deep, billions of dollars is spent on skin care products every year for men and women, young and old alike. In this multi-million-dollar industry, every company tries hard to maximize their profit. One of the most common methods they apply is market segmentation.
As every customer has unique needs and expectations towards certain products, the ultimate goal of market segmentation is to organize customers into groups which allows targeting of customers with similar needs of and response to the products. The key is to minimize differentiation within each segment and maximize variation across segments. In this report, we are going to investigate the segmentation methods of skin care products, followed by a description of target segments and strategies used by three brands (Clean & Clear, Olay and SKII). Lastly, two-dimension perceptual maps would show the relative competitiveness of the three brands.
I. Ways of segmenting Skin Care Products
Generally, skin care products can be segmented based on four main categories: geographic, demographic, psychographic and behaviour.
To begin with, geographic is an important factor in separating the skin care markets. People in various countries and continents basically shape their difference in needs of skin care products. Women in different climatic conditions and with different skin colours will have completely different skin concerns. For example, women in inland area with a dry climate will demand skin care products with higher moisture content compared to those in the coastal regions. Asian women are more inclined to whitening function than black and white women. In contrast, white women are more likely to have brown spots than yellow and black women.
Demographic segmentation separates customers according to their ages, genders, income levels,
Introduction
The quest for beauty is an endless endeavour at all times. Despite the old saying cautioning us that beauty is only skin deep, billions of dollars is spent on skin care products every year for men and women, young and old alike. In this multi-million-dollar industry, every company tries hard to maximize their profit. One of the most common methods they apply is market segmentation.
As every customer has unique needs and expectations towards certain products, the ultimate goal of market segmentation is to organize customers into groups which allows targeting of customers with similar needs of and response to the products. The key is to minimize differentiation within each segment and maximize variation across segments. In this report, we are going to investigate the segmentation methods of skin care products, followed by a description of target segments and strategies used by three brands (Clean & Clear, Olay and SKII). Lastly, two-dimension perceptual maps would show the relative competitiveness of the three brands.
I. Ways of segmenting Skin Care Products
Generally, skin care products can be segmented based on four main categories: geographic, demographic, psychographic and behaviour.
To begin with, geographic is an important factor in separating the skin care markets. People in various countries and continents basically shape their difference in needs of skin care products. Women in different climatic conditions and with different skin colours will have completely different skin concerns. For example, women in inland area with a dry climate will demand skin care products with higher moisture content compared to those in the coastal regions. Asian women are more inclined to whitening function than black and white women. In contrast, white women are more likely to have brown spots than yellow and black women.
Demographic segmentation separates customers according to their ages, genders, income levels,