Belle Couleur Case Study

Belle Couleur

Belle Couleur, GarnierÐŽ¦s line of permanent hair colorants, has been in the market for over two decades and is currently the market leader in France. The Belle Couleur line carries twenty two shades of hair color consisting mostly of natural and dark shades. The product is positioned as reliably providing natural colors and is advertised as ÐŽ§natural colors, covers all grayЎЁ.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

The biggest strength for Belle Couleur lies in one of its marketing mixes, price. Belle Couleur will be the only mid-priced product in the Dutch hair colorant market and will compete with the upper and lower priced brands. Moreover the price sensitive Dutch women are value shoppers and thus this aspect of the product will appeal to them. The market research indicated that the buying intentions of the women increased after the price was revealed in the test-use. The pricing of the product coupled with the price sensitive nature of the Dutch women will be the leading strength for Belle Couleur.

Belle CouleurÐŽ¦s recognition of the constraints of the distribution channel and ability to respond to it would be another major strength. The main constraint in the distribution system would be the limited retail shelf space available to the numerous competing brands. The recent increased preference of retailers as the main choice of distribution for the several competing hair colorant brands has resulted in limited shelf space. So in order to accommodate the limited shelf space, Belle Couleur will introduce only fifteen shades of hair color in the Netherlands as opposed to twenty in France.

Weaknesses:

The most significant weakness for Belle Couleur would be the undifferentiated product that will be introduced to the Dutch market. Although the number of shades of hair color will be reduced to accommodate the limited retail shelf space, the colors offered will not be reformulated to cater to Dutch preferences. The colors available to the Dutch market will be those that have been specifically formulated for the French market. The problem lies in the differences in color preferences of the Dutch and French women. While the French prefer darker and conservative colors, the Dutch preferences lie at the opposite end of the color spectrum, preferring lighter shades. The market research indicated that buying intentions of the Dutch women decreased after the test-use because the color ÐŽ§didnÐŽ¦t cover grayЎЁ or ÐŽ§was too darkЎЁ. Moreover, competing local and international brands in the hair colorant market formulate their products to Dutch market preferences. Thus, given Belle CouleurÐŽ¦s undifferentiated product and the existence of differentiated products of competing brands, it would not be wise to introduce a line of hair colorants that do not appeal to the target market.

Belle Couleur, a new and unfamiliar brand, will also incur extremely high marketing and advertising expenses if it launches its product in the Dutch market. In general, any efforts of market introduction of a new brand, creation of brand recognition and eventually establishing brand preferences are costly. But Belle Couleur will take a heavier hit firstly because advertising costs have increased by 60% for all brands in the hair colorant market in the recent years. This increase was triggered by the increasing share of the smaller brands like Guhl and Andrelon and the decreasing share of the leaders like Recital (LÐŽ¦Oreal). Over the past few years, Guhl had changed its distribution strategy and started selling in drugstore chains. Sales through drugstores increased from less than 1% in 1987 to 12% in 1990. Guhl had also become very aggressive in its marketing through large independent drugstores and shares increased from 16% to 24% in the same period. Thus aggressive advertising by all brands in the hair colorant market to either maintain or expand market share has resulted in an increase in the costs. Secondly, Belle Couleur will not receive any financial support from LÐŽ¦Oreal France. The parent company does not provide financial assistance to its international subsidiaries especially in any new product line introductions. Thus the high marketing/advertising costs coupled with limited financial assistance will be a big set back for Belle Couleur.

Opportunities:

The biggest opportunity for Belle Couleur lies in its positioning. Positioning of a brand or a product can be one of the competitive advantages a company has over its competitors. Although the four major hair colorant brands account for 80% of the sales of permanent hair colorants, none of them have clearly stated the product attributes or functional benefits that customers receive from using their products. Basically they do not have an obvious advertising positioning statement. The significance of attribute/benefit positioning lies in the fact that it often provides the customers a reason/justification to buy and thus resounds with customers. Belle Couleur will be positioned as reliably providing natural colors and advertised as ÐŽ§covering gray with natural colorsЎЁ. This unique positioning will provide the targeted customers over the ages of 35 with a reason/justification to buy and prefer the currently unfamiliar