Question 1: Arabic Perfume Unique Selling Propositions and Position Strategy in the Global Market
Pursuit defines unique selling propositions as an act that sets a business to stand out uniquely because of what it produces in the market. In most cases, companies make mistakes of wanting to be known for everything as soon as they enter the market. One of the Arabic Perfume propositions is that their fragrance produces are descent and anchored in the local’s culture, and traditions and consumers use it a lot, and the businesses have a tradition of gifting the fragrance. For this reason, a Middle Eastern customer can buy several units of same scent perfumes (Elizabeth Arden Inc. 26).
At the same time, they have had a strong push of sales through media and beauty advisors which their competitors did not have. Usually, organizations want to be known that they produce the best quality products and charge the lowest prices compared to their competitors (Breuer and Christopher 14). However, these propositions do not hold in the current market segments because the modern consumer has become more demanding and discerning in that a high quality needs justification with the quality of the product with added benefits. Fragrance still holds the lion's share of 19% of total sales in the Middle East and other parts of the world including Africa. The primary market target being the Middle Eastern consumers, the international fragrances still continue to invest and introduce more scents such as the oud-based creations in varying success levels. It is not enough to launch an oud- smelling fragrance because the consumer can quickly know whether the perfume contains the right ingredients for them to continue to buy from the same supplier. Buyers are big consumers and experts of fragrances due to their continued use. By comparing between the local Arabic Perfumes with Western Perfumes, the Western perfumes have a small market share compared to local Arabic Perfumes (Breuer and Christopher 20).
According to Matherly, Anup, and Claire, more consumers are moving towards products for sculpting and flawless complexion, particularly for eyes which forms one of the highly consumed products for veiled women (5). Typically, consumers want to buy products that are more natural and darker. This means that a business needs to engage itself in more than one brand in the market such that it can be innovative and active in communication in responding to the market requirements (Elizabeth Arden Inc. 24). With this view, Arabic Perfume fragrances need to focus and roll out unnecessary boutiques such that they can offer room for a variety of products and enhance their professional positioning as well as be targeting the growing numbers of artists in the Middle East.
Question 2: Arabic Perfume Brand Image in the Global Fragrance Market
The Arabic Perfume needs to grow Skincare brand in the global fragrance market. As noted from the case study, skincare brands are still challenging and need promotion in the world market especially in the Middle East. As the case indicates, Skincare sales stand at very low, which is a challenging category because there is still lagging behind of educational levels of the mature markets in the Middle East, and, these commodities are traditionally not available or not part of the Middle Eastern beauty routine. However, the United Arab Emirates is one of the markets where skincare brands are doing well which can be attributed to a large number of tourists particularly from Russia and Asia, as well as the huge expatriate population. Notably, there is also a real market in Kuwait for skincare products, and this is a market opportunity that the fragrance organizations can sell and develop skincare brands.
As much as consumers in the Middle East have high spending power, their reflex to buy skincare products is negligible because they are not educated about skincare products. With their super buying power to buy anti-aging creams, they will still buy their removers from supermarkets. It then implies that for consumers to start buying skincare products, they should be motivated and brands have to become innovative (Elizabeth Arden Inc. 25). As noted from Chalhoub Group.com, since 2014, Clarins had started to install bars on their Sephora doors, and this aims at giving advice to targeted consumers and giving them take home samples with no purchase obligations.
At the same time, the fragrance companies can create educational conferences in hotels and women’s club where they can advise the ladies about the skin care brand without training costs involved. By promoting and developing this brand, and that the region is a promising market, they can take advantage of the market niche available (Pursuit 21).
Question 3: Fragrance Company positioning as World’s Local Fragrances and Benefits
Initially operating only in Saudi Arabia, the international fragrance company positioned itself just like the other competitors by launching their new outlet in the UK as its first flagship in 2000 and another one in Paris in 2004. With more than 400 original fragrances, the international fragrance company had to launch a strategy of developing new markets and grand branches within the major cities in the Middle Eastern region. For instance, the first largest branch was opened in Saudi Arabia in 2012 such that it can strategize itself according to the regulations that had been established. Expansion and opening up of new branches by the company in the international markets is a way of risk diversification, which signifies that failure of the local market can be compensated by fair performance from the rest of the branches with stable earnings.
Question 4: International Fragrance Company and the Middle East Market
According to Matherly, Anup, and Claire (9), the Middle East is one of the promising markets for the beauty industry because of the region’s impressive growth rates, high levels of disposable income, and growing youthful population rates. As noted from the 2013-204, the sales rate for beauty products increased by double- digit rates all through the Middle East region except the United Arab Emirates (Elizabeth Arden Inc. 29). Furthermore, the technical information shows that the prestige beauty sales grew by nine percent throughout the “Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC)” and was mainly spearheaded by make-up at +11.9% (Elizabeth Arden Inc. 17). Again, from Chalhoub Group’s white paper information about income distribution and consumption behaviors, on average, high-income earners spend almost seven hundred dollars every month on oriental fragrances.
Also, these high-income earners pay approximately five hundred dollars on skincare, make- up and Western Fragrances. Because of a high level of income distribution has been cited to be the key driver for purchasing beauty products in the Middle East region, according to Tamara, Make Up for Ever managing director, changing consumer tastes have also contributed to the increased beauty sales in the area over the past few years. Consumers are becoming more sophisticated in what they want, the type of fragrance they want and the kind of ingredients. Besides, the social media has been a great game- changer in the region, specifically in traditional markets such as Saudi Arabia. This is because consumers are now more exposed to the Western culture and have learned and adopted beauty approaches (Elizabeth Arden Inc. 43). Owing to these reasons, the International Fragrance Company can choose the Middle East market such that it can reap from the available market niche.
Question 5: Target growing market segments for fragrance industry
The fragrance industry’ growing market segment are tourists and travelers. Owing to the growth of tourism and religious tourism in particular which has been promoted by the government in the Arab Emirates, it is expected that fragrance industry is likely to benefit as a gifting fragrance majorly during the religious festivals of Haji whereby the Muslim believers assemble in Saudi Arabia every year. From the case study, it is noted that out of the one billion travelers, approximately 30-40% percent of the travelers browsed through the shops whereby almost fifteen per cent of visitors makes their purchase in the malls.
Another important reason why the fragrance industry target tourists and travelers are that in this 21st century, airports have turned out to be the stealth shopping malls coupled the rapid expansion of airlines in the GCC. Because of the reduction of bureaucratic procedures of flight and growth of in-flight and duty-free sales, there has been an intensified competition from international players including Giorgio Arman in the UAE have shown the need for luxury goods in the Middle Eastern regions. At the same time, the United Arab Emirates hosts MEE from both international and regional representatives in the travel sector. The MEE typically acts as a platform to showcase to the global world the international products to the world’s buyers and distributors from hotels, seaports, duty-free operations, and airlines among others. Finally, fragrances realized that expansion of tourism and travel sector in the United Arab Emirates was an important factor to boost both economic growth and stimulate long-term consumer confidence (Elizabeth Arden Inc. 26).
Question 6: Role of marketing communication strategies in the Case
As established from this case study, marketing communication operates within the marketing model. First, it has been used to create awareness among the consumers. Despite that the Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia have relatively remained traditional regarding beauty tastes, such as preference to whiten their skin and to choose foundation of lighter shades, social media such as Facebook has significantly contributed in changing the young generation’s mentality about the conservative policies. According to Matherly, Anup, and Claire (4), 46 percent of the younger populations between 25-34 years are changing their attitude from the traditional view to embrace new brands, and concepts similar to those from the Western culture, especially when it comes to make-ups. The same time, it has assisted in changing consumer tastes especially in Saudi Arabia; initially, there were no cinemas, but social media has made it public issues about fashion and celebrities’ make-ups from the US and Europe.
Further, marketing communication has assisted in educating the consumers about beauty products. In a region with less educated women with only six percent of working posts, it is quite challenging to teach them about make-ups and their application on the body. However, through the bars, posters, open airport exhibitions, and the social media, the consumers through the social media have been enlightened.
Lastly, the marketing communication has assisted in persuading consumers to purchase the products presented to them. For instance, through exhibitions and demonstrations by using Western female celebrities in advertisements is one way to satisfy the customers especially those aged between 25-35 years old using Facebook are convinced to buy beauty products.
Works Cited
"Elizabeth Arden IncInc. - Annual/10k Report - June 30, 2011." Report. (2011). Print.
Breuer, Christoph, and Christopher Rumpf. "Assessing Consumer Reactions with Neuroscientific Measurements." (2017). Print.
Matherly, Laura L, Anup Nandialath, and Claire Richards. “Arabic Perfumes and the Global Fragrance Market." (n.d.): n. pag. Print.
Pursuit, Jeanne M. Social Media, and Integrated Marketing Communication: A Rhetorical Approach, 2013. Print.
