Strategic Marketing Management

Introduction

Strategic management means continuous process of designing, organising as well as monitoring and controlling that are necessary for businesses in order to accomplish their organisational objectives appropriately (Chernev, 2018). Within the present market dynamic changes are rapidly occur within the business environment so that company need to plan some appropriate strategies in order to perpetually access their success as well as performance.

This type of management includes the formulation and execution of initiatives that are formed by the top level management after analysing the internal and external environmental aspects in which a company regulates their functions. This will help in providing clear direction to the businesses which involves objectives, strategies, resources, budget etc. that are essential for taking competitive edge within the emerging or dynamic market situations  and deal with challenges effectively. In this report NIVEA is chosen which is a German personal care brand which mainly specialise in body care that is owned by Hamburg based firm Beiersdorf Global AG. NIVEA was established in 1882 by the founder Paul Carl Beiersdorf  which was sold to Oscar Troplowitz in 1890.

The company deals in mainly skin and body care products like shaving cream, facial cleanser, tanning oils as well as toners. In this, the role of strategic marketing, marketing process and link between marketing strategies and corporate strategy are discussed. For strategic marketing planning use PESTLE and Porter's five force model are studied with the STP framework and determine growth opportunities by using Ansoff matrix. Also, plan some strategic options by using BCG matrix and formulate objectives accordingly. Lastly, conduct SWOT analysis for analysing internal and external aspects of company and analyse emerging marketing themes for local, national and global context and appropriately response on these themes with the proper recommendations. Order assignment help from our experts! 

Background of the company

Nivea is one of the most largest personal body-care brand of German that is established in 28 March 1882, and founded by Paul Carl Beiersdorf.  But it was sold in 1890 to Oscar Troplowitz and in 1930,  Beiersdorf added different products like tanning oils, shampoos, facial cleanser and shaving creams. In 1980, after the second world war “NIVEA” as a brand expanded its business across all over the world.

For more than 100 years Nivea provides extensive skin care products to the customers and has worked in 173 countries with around 50 products. Nivea works with 1,290 scientist that is more dedicated and provides the product and services with continuous improvement and find all the breakthroughs to generate most effective skin care products. Reliability and quality is the core values of Nivea and with that always maintains the sustainability in the business. Nivea has $13.3M annual revenue and there competitors are American International Industries, Johnson and Johnson and The art of shaving.

Explain the role of strategic marketing, the marketing process and evaluate how marketing strategies can be linked to corporate strategy of an organisation.

Marketing is a process through which Nivea create the values and image of the product and services that is offered by the company to the customers. It is a phenomenon that helps the company to communicate with the customers and collect their review and feedback and then implies the change within the business to enhance the profit (Dombrowski, 2018). Marketing is a art and science that is used by the companies to satisfy the need and demand of customers. Strategic marketing is the process by which company performs the right task at right time and at right place by using appropriate strategies like promotions. It manages the overall portfolio of the company to achieve the target, goals and competitive edge of the company. Strategic marketing plays an important role in Nivea for men that is as defined below as:

• Helps in evaluating the current environment: Strategic marketing helps the Nivea by to know about the current position and performance of the business in the global market. It is important for the company to know about how much people get aware about the products and how much there services liked by the peoples. It provides the data that helps the company to made the strategies for future growth and development.
• Helps in establishing clear marketing objectives: Strategic marketing of Nivea provides the overall strength and opportunities of the business and with that it helps to achieve the objectives of the company. With that Nivea knows about the current market position and there market acceptance and it assist to make clear marketing goals that company achieve within a certain time-period (Schiavone, 2019).
• Streamlines product development: It is a process through which company maintains the quality of product and services that is offered by them. That development has been done by the company to increase the sales and profit. Thus Nivea always develop there products as per the requirement of the market and then induce the advancement in there products.

Marketing strategies fulfils the goals, mission, vision of an organisation by using some marketing tools and techniques. The marketing mix of Nivea for men is as follows as:

• Product: It refers to the products that is offered by the company to there customers. For that Nivea comes with the product of men and named as Nivea for men (Duan, 2020).
• Price: It is the cost of the product that is offered by the company for that Nivea uses two type of strategies for pricing that is as defined below as:

Psychological Strategy of pricing: It is a strategy through which company decides the price as per the perception of customer. Nivea keeps the price of the product at moderate level that is suitable for all as per the psychology of customers.

Bundle strategy pricing: It is a strategy in which company sales the product in the form of bundle as attach various product in one. Nivea also uses this strategy with that attract the large number of customer towards the services of the company.

• Place: It includes the area, regions that is used by the company to sold there product.  Nivea uses the digital platform as it has the worldwide fame thus through this company increases the customers base.
• Promotion: It is a form that is used by the company to promote there services. Nivea uses social-media to promote there product and services on larger scale.

Strategic marketing has the process that is followed by Nivea that is as explained below as:

Identify the goals, mission, vision, objectives of the company

Mission of the company defines what company wants to achieve after after a particular period of time and with that company made some strategies to achieve their mission (Foucault, 2019). Vision of Nivea provides the viewpoint to the company to gain the competitive advantage by supplying the best product and services to the customers. Objectives defines the values that company remains in there product and with that maintains the growth and development.

Review the position of company

After analysing the mission, vision and objectives of the company next is to review about the position of the company in the market. For that Nivea also performs pestle analysis and porter's five forces to know about the current position of the company and with that induce the change to measured the growth in future. Need Assignment Samples?Talk to our Experts!

Formulate the strategy for marketing

After understanding the mission and position and with that marketing manager also analyse the perception of customer towards the company. For that manager performs the marketing mix and evaluate the product, place, price, promotion. In that Nivea analyse the market that will be targeted by the company to measures the profit.

Execute and implement the strategy

This is a stage in which formulated strategies of marketing manager is applied in the market with that company measures the growth and more development (French, 2019).

Evaluate and modify the strategy

It is the last stage in which the results are obtained of marketing strategies that is applied by the marketing manager and after that changes is introduce in the strategies as per the requirement of the business.

Marketing strategies are the strategies that is formed by the company to enhance the sale and profit of the company. Whereas, corporate strategy are the strategies that is develops to achieve the objective and goal of individual department and defines what works company must performs to achieve the growth (Haski-Leventhal, 2018). There are different level of strategy that is as defined below as:

Marketing strategies develops the different strategy that attracts the customers towards the services of the company whereas, corporate strategy induces the long term achievement of business and helps the Nivea to attains its goals and objectives. Corporates strategy guides the marketing department about the portfolio of Nivea and provides the direction that is used by marketing department to made the strategies to attract the large customer base. Whereas, marketing strategies informs the corporate about the market competition and also helps to segments the market that provides higher sales.

Discuss and assess the value of two models that contributes to strategic marketing planning.

Porter's five forces model: It is a model that defines the market competition and that helps the company to make some strategies through which they can enhance their productivity (Hunt, 2018). The porter's five forces model for Nivea for men is as explained below as:

Threat of substitutes: There are different companies that produce same product thus it is a biggest threat of the company as if customers get same product with less cost  that they can easily switch to that. For that Nivea differentiate there products and ensures that quality will be maintained and with that company doesn't switch to other substitutes. And better understand the need of the customers and then implement the change.

Threat of new entrants: To maintains the fairness in the beauty product is very much difficult and  Nivea also operates with the same business. And to gain the believe of customer is also very much difficult and that make a quite bigger challenge for the new entrants. For that Nivea focus on the develop and innovate the product as per the requirement of the customers. For that they have the specialised team of scientist that perform all the analysis on the product and after that they launch the product in the market and gain the competitive advantages (Ivens, 2018).

Bargaining power of buyers: There are a lot of other company that produce the product and services thus customers has the benefits as they choose any product as per there requirement and availability. For that Nivea focuses on innovation and development and with that improves the quality of the product that enhances the attraction of the customers and with continuous improvement company enhance there large customer base.

Bargaining power of suppliers: As Nivea for men is a skin care product and there are lot of suppliers in the market thus bargaining power of suppliers is weak. With that every company has different product and there is nothing match in any of  the product. Thus there is no other substitute that makes the bargaining power a weak force. For that Nivea purchase the raw material to the suppliers at lower cost and makes the profit (Kotabe, 2020). With that Nivea maintain the supply chain management and supply the product to every stores.

Rivalry among existing competitors: Nivea has a lot of rivals but they deals with the competitors who works on the larger scale. For that Nivea always growing more and more as the time passes and with that always maintain the quality and implements the continuous change that attracts the customers.

By using Porter's five force model Nivea analyse the different factors and then made the strategies that enhance the productivity of the company.

PESTLE analysis: It is an analysis that shows the macro-environment factor that affects the growth of the Nivea for men that is as explained below as:

Discuss STP Options and explain how they can be linked to the proposed marketing tactics.

STP stands for segmentation, targeting and positioning of product i.e. Nivea for Men that is as explained below as:

Segmentation: It is a process through which company identify the need and demand of the market and with that company divides the customers and then choose the one area through which they gain the best competitive advantages. There are different type of segmentation that is demographic, geographic, psychological and behavioural. But Nivea for men chooses demographic segmentation as it includes the division on the basis of age, gender, income etc. Whereas, company chooses segmentation on the basis of gender and chooses male gender and develop the product for them (Saura, 2019).

Targeting: It is a process through which company targets the particular group and then perform all the function for that  targeted market. For that Nivea for men targets the age group of 18-32. As people of these age group are more conscious about there skin care and they always found the products that suits to there skin tone.

Positioning: It is a factor that shows the position of the company in the market as per the consumption of customers. For that Nivea promotes there product to enhance the awareness in the market through advertisement and providing discount to the customers.

Marketing tactics is used by marketing manager to know about different norms that is used by the company to target the particular age, gender, group etc. For that company performs the STP model through which Nivea for men divides the market and chooses male and further targets the age group of 18-32. They spread the awareness in the market by promoting there product and services that is done to attract the large amount of customers (O'Toole, 2018). That enhance the overall sale of the company and also increase the productivity of the product and services of the company.

For the proposed strategic marketing strategy, analyse the benefits of relationship marketing.

Relationship marketing is a process through which company builds the strong relations with there customers by increasing the interaction for longer period of time. That also builds the loyalty of the customers towards the product and services of Nivea for men that enhance the large customer base and company gains the profit. There are two major roles of relationship marketing that is as explained below as:

Customers retention: It is an ability of the company  to retain there customers for a longer period of time. It shows the loyalty of the customers towards the product and services that is offered by the company. The higher the retention of customer the higher the sales and growth company could attains and shows the growth and development of the business (Pearlson, 2019).

Customer satisfaction: It shows the satisfaction level of the customer after using the product and services of the company. The higher the customer get satisfied with the product and services of company that much they retain with the company and usage the company's product for a longer time. Nivea uses several platforms to get to know about the satisfactory level of customers like by collecting the feedback and reviews from social-media websites.

Internal market: It includes the relationship between the employees and customers of the company. Relationship marketing builds the strong believe and faith of customers to the employees of the company. With that Nivea resolves the issues and problems of customers and that enhance the productivity of the business.

Referral market: It is a strategy of marketing by which company builds the relationship with the customers with the helps of referrals. Whereas, referrals are those who performs the mouth-to-mouth publicity of the product and services of company these may be the friends and family (Pröllochs, 2020). As referral market performs all the marketing strategies that is followed by the company.

Influence market: It is a process of relationship marketing in which third party influenced their friends, family and relatives to purchase the product and services of some particular company. With that Nivea launch the product that is beneficial for all the skin tones of men and they produce all the different products for the age group of 18-32. 

Recruitment market: It is type of relationship marketing in which company appoints the skilled, experienced and knowledgable candidates that further develops the best marketing strategy to promote the product and services of Nivea.

Supplier market: It is a  in which strong relationship is builds with the suppliers that provides raw materials, equipments that provides the smooth flow of inventory within the business. Nivea always builds the strong and effective relations with the suppliers that provides the competitive advantage to the company (Sahaf, 2019).

Customer market: It is a market that builds the relationship with the customers with that retain the customers for the larger period of time. This market shows the attraction of the customers with that company made relations with them by providing best services and for that company also provides discount to the permanent customers. Nivea always has a full focus in the requirement of the customers and provides the best services to the customer with reliable cost.

Critically analyse and ascertain growth opportunities for businesses in a specific market by using Ansoff matrix.

In order to analyse as well as determine the growth opportunities within the competitive marketplace company can use Ansoff Matrix which is also known as product/market expansion grid. Within the context of NIVEA especially their specific product which is NIVEA for men the marketing manager applied this matrix as an appropriate tool and analyse marketing strategies for effective growth of business. This includes mainly four strategies that assists to grow and identify risk associated with all strategies. This framework was created by the mathematician and business manager H. Igor Ansoff that helped marketing manager of companies as a strategic planning tool in order to understand the risks of growing their operations (Steiss, 2019). These strategies are considered as follows:

Market penetration: In this type of strategy companies tries to grow in the existing market with the existing offerings with the motive of increasing market shares. NIVEA for men will be adopt market penetration strategy in order to grow into competitive market in which emphasise on the elements of marketing mix that will be implemented to penetrate present market. There are several ways that can be used by the marketing manager of NIVEA for men by focusing on more promotional and distributional efforts, reducing prices for their products for attracting new customers as well as acquire competitors. It is the less riskiest among all strategy.

Product development: This type of strategy will be used by the companies in order to increase sales of their new offerings within the existing market place by brining development in their product range. It is termed as a risky strategy as compared to market penetration. NIVEA for Men will be brings some modification in their marketing mix that can be used effective promotions and product strategy that helps in gaining high attention of existing as well as new customers. For this the marketing manager of company requires strong understanding about the current market conditions as well as able to facilitate innovative solutions so that they can easily meet the needs of present market. The marketing manager of this product or brand can be adopt different ways for developing product development strategy which includes the huge investment in research & development, strategic partnership with other companies in order to get access to all partners brand value and strategies (Chaffey, 2019).

Market development: In this strategy the existing range of products and services are introduced within the new market. It is considered as a risky but less riskiest from diversification which is also difficult to understand the market. As NIVEA for Men will be using market development strategy in order to brings such changes in mix strategies mainly in place or distribution strategy. The marketing manager of NIVEA for men products can be used market development strategy in various ways such as supplying different range of customer, expands internationally or regionally etc.

Diversification: In this kind of strategy a company enters into a new market along with the  new offerings of their goods and services. It is termed as the most riskiest strategy among all because in their market development as well as product development is needed. NIVEA for men will be focusing on this strategy while they innovates in their products and willing to diversify themselves in a well known market place. It can be done by the manager by different methods such as related diversification and unrelated diversification.

From the above discussion it can be analysed that the market penetration strategy is most suited to the NIVEA for men products as marketing manager analyse that there is the opportunity for company to target large number of customers as male are also concerned towards their skincare so the demand of male skincare products can be generated in future as well (Caliskan, 2019). So company needs to focus on their existing offerings within the present markets by using several attractive promotional as well as distributional channels.

Plan how to use marketing strategy options for particular market by using BCG matrix.

BCG matrix if defined as a strategic management tool which was developed by Boston Consulting Group that helps in determining the strategic business unit positions and potentiality that has to offer. This matrix consists of the 4 classifications which are mainly based on two dimensions. These dimensions are market growth and market share of particular business units. The BCG matrix for NIVEA for Men will assist marketing manager to decide appropriate strategies which needed to be implemented on specific business unit (Brozovic, 2018). NIVEA operates in mainly four reportable business segments such as Sun care, Body care, face cleansing and nourishing business unit and men product. These classifications are considered as follows:

Star: These are the condition where high growth and high market share and termed as a profit potentials. In this strategy, companies need to have huge funds for investment in order to grow and succeed. The face cleansing and nourishing products and body care of NIVEA is categorised at stars within BCG matrix and these are bread & butter since their inception. Also, the financial services are star in the BCG matrix that shows more potentiality in the future as well. As NIVEA earns significant income from their strategic business units.

Question mark: It is defined as a high growth rate but relative low market shares which can be converted into stars or need some cash to hold huge market shares. Sun care and men products of NIVEA are still struggling for the market shares so it is termed as question mark on their market. For this, the recommended strategy for NIVEA is to use market penetration where they pushes to make their men products present on more outlets. This will help in increasing sales of their products and convert question mark in cash cows business units (Armstrong, 2018).

Cash cows: It is termed as a high market share but low growth rate of products and services so that companies should require to produce cash. The supplier management services of strategic business unit is termed as a cash cow in the BCG matrix of NIVEA as company has been operating for over the decades and earn significant amount of revenue. The market shares of company is high  but the entire market is goes declining as they need to manage their suppliers themselves instead of outsourcing them.

Dogs: There is the low market share and low growth rate so it is also known as low profit potential also. Artificially flavoured and synthetic fibre products of SBU is a dog in BCG matrix so the market of these products has been reducing which results in facing a huge loss by company (Ansoff,  2018). NIVEA should be recommended that they divest these strategy and call back their product in order to  minimise future losses.

Create strategic marketing objectives.

NIVEA exploits the full screen takeover potential in order to create actual and right product showcase circumstances as well as encourage Facebook stores for their male target audience. In order to target male customers of 18 – 32 age group company needs to formed some strategic objectives that should be SMART as specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time frame. Such objectives are as follows:

• To raise the sales of NIVEA for men products by 15% within 6 months through the huge focus on promotional and distributional strategies.

• To increase the market shares by 25% in 3 months by focusing on conducting appropriate market research.

• To facilitate superior quality of products for the purpose of making their customers loyal irrespective of their brand (Tafesse, 2018).

For fulfilling the above objectives company needs to formulate their marketing mix strategy as well for promoting their men products in the market appropriately. The existing and proposed marketing mix of NIVEA for Men products are as follows:

Conduct internal analysis for identifying internal strength and weakness and external analysis for analysing opportunities and threats by using SWOT.

For the strategic planning and management companies used SWOT analysis in order to analyse internal and external aspects as internally they can analyse company's strengths and weaknesses and externally they can identify opportunities and threats (THIS, 2020). With respect of NIVEA'S men products, a marketing manager determine the internal and external situations of businesses that helps in getting to know about the competitive position and on the basis of this analysis formulate appropriate strategies as well. The SWOT analysis of NIVEA for men are considered as follows:

Analyse key local, national and global emerging marketing themes and propose marketing response for these themes.

There are several emerging market themes that are related to the local, national as well as global markets on which a marketing manager need to response for these emerging market conditions (Wu, 2018).

In a local market emerging theme, marketing new grounds are considered which are related to the societal and digital marketing as due to this kind of trends companies may suffer more because the satisfaction of customer is more important that is to be fulfilled by using appropriate mode or channels for marketing NIVEA'S products. Within the local market company adopts effective marketing practices in order to attract and satisfy local customers or target audience.

In national emerging market situations a marketing manager of NIVEA considers changing consumers means the demand of customers may vary from the different states as all have different culture and values along with their behaviour. So the manager of company need to do market analysis properly so that they can able to get huge satisfaction and market shares. This will help in analysing the market conditions that is essential for the businesses to know about their capabilities for gaining competitive advantages over their competitors (Alsem, 2019).

Within the global emerging markets multichannel purchasing effect company's sales because several channels are in used by the marketing manager in order to target and aware their customers about their offerings. So the manager should emphasise on using several channels in order to get better results and increase their products purchasing.

The marketing manager of NIVEA need to analyse appropriate emerging market themes in order to formulate appropriate strategies for the specific product of men that is required for the effective and strategic marketing management. Struggling with dissertation writing, don't worry get dissertation help from UK's leading assignment helpers.

Conclusions and Recommendations

It has been concluded from the above discussion that strategic marketing planning is essential for all businesses as it helps in formulating appropriate strategies for the long term growth and sustainability in the competitive marketplace. So a marketing manager is responsible for planning all the strategies and policies in an appropriate way that will lead the organisation success and profitability. As the marketing management plays an important role in the strategic planning that need to be considered along with the corporate strategies as well as need to know about the several models that helps in making effective plans such as Porters five force model, PESTLE analysis etc.

Also, discuss about the STP options with the tactics and analyse the relationship marketing along with their benefits which helps in targeting appropriate customers and makes strong relations with them. There is the requirement of analysing growth opportunities along with the strategic business units so that the marketing manager formulate strategies accordingly. Lastly, analyse the products or brands internal and external environment by using SWOT analysis that helps in better understanding about the strengths and weaknesses of company in order to exploit opportunities and face threats.

Some of the major recommendations are needed to know by marketing manager so that they can formulate appropriate strategies and plans and accomplish objectives effectively and efficiently. Some of the recommendations are as follows:

• The manager of company should emphasise on the promotional and distributional channels in order to promote their men offerings in the market and attract large number of customers.

• The company's manager need to facilitate attractive discounts and offers for increasing sales and profits.

• NIVEA needs to focus on analysing internal as well as external environment that will help in analysing the actual market conditions irrespective of their internal capabilities and resources.

Also Read- Contemporary Developments in Business and Management for Students

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