Table of Contents

Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... 1

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 2

Analysis ...................................................................................................................................... 3

Recommendations ...................................................................................................................... 6

Conclusions ................................................................................................................................ 7

References .................................................................................................................................. 8


Executive Summary

Every company face challenges, LUSH is not an exception, Lush is increasingly
facing extensive competition in the market along with more preferences for organic
cosmetics. In the Case Study 4.1, You get me: Personality and self-concept in
consumer behavior- The case of Lush we will discuss on how Lush has managed to
successfully used some core ethics and personal values as a strategic weapon to
market to new customers and enforce a brand image not only based on beauty but
also on ideals to differentiate itself from other brands, in which, purchases made from
LUSH will positively benefit the environment and the people in it.

Lush is known for their handmade cosmetic products, a wide range of things from bar
soap to dry shampoo to facial wash. Lush remained as popular today because of
their way of communication. Lush has grown since 1995 but the founders ensure it
will always maintain the same personal, small business feel with an emphasis on
listening to and really understanding customer.

In this saturated and competitive market, differentiation should not be only based on
the products that are being offered and the marketing communication that are being
done, it should also be focused on how well are companies able to communicate with
specific segments on more personal level like how LUSH did it by differentiating
themselves from the other companies through its value and stance on social issue
such as gay marriage, human rights and animal protection

This report will illustrates on how LUSH has been doing strong and efficient
communication with its brand philosophy such as joining or launching campaign
against ethical issues or subjects showcasing their strong policies of ethical values to
raise awareness towards certain issues that are related to the world.

Moreover, it will provide recommendations in which how LUSH could have create
greater awareness and open up new market segments towards its campaigns and
stance in order to inspire more people about LUSH and its brand.





Introduction

In this highly competitive cosmetic industry, every company tries to be different from
one another, one particular company that has outshine the rest is LUSH, with having
600 stores in over 43 countries, their success can be mainly attributed to their unique
brand image which it has benefitted their increasing dominance in the beauty
industry.

There are many factors that made LUSH unique as a cosmetic company, one of it is
by using only organic materials to produce their products without using any
preservatives which they deem as harmful to the human body, and none of those
materials are ever tested on animals showing one of their several strong beliefs
against animal testing. LUSH produces all their products by hand without the help of
large-scale machines to humanize their brand and making sure their products are
fresh and made with passion invoking interaction between them and the customers.

LUSH is one of the very few cosmetic company that can declare that their products
are all organic, this creates a very big opportunity for them to start the value of "going
green" for the environment and also "saving the earth" beliefs, which LUSH has used
it to launch themselves into looking good in the public eye arousing positive feelings
into their brand, it is a very good strategic move when done correctly. We will
examine how LUSH employs this strategic move and use it to its fullest.

Findings for the report comes from inferring from the case study itself and several
other journals and articles from the internet, these information are primarily
secondary data which has better help us to understand how LUSH has carved a
market for itself.

We will analyze LUSH briefly first, then discuss about the several strategies it had
used in its marketing campaign and how have they utilize them to its fullest followed
by some recommendations on how to further enhance their growth and market share
in this very competitive environment.



















Analysis

Lush success and their approach towards marketing.

We believe in happy people making happy soap, putting our faces on our products
and making our mums proud, We believe in long candlelit baths, sharing showers,
massage, filling the world with perfume in the right to make mistakes, lose everything
and start again, We believe our products are good value, that we should make profit
and that the customer is always right.

LUSH came up with the above quotes in relation to their brand to exhibit
themselves as being interesting and fun putting a personality into their product. They
want to be seen as having accountability and trustworthiness in their products in the
society. The brand comes across as honest, pleasant and interesting to the
consumers. Nonetheless, over the years, Lush have been coming up with new and
different ideas to match consumers need, wants and demands.

To successfully differentiate themselves with other cosmetic brands was not tough on
them. This is because the success of LUSH came from it being reputed as a
company whom does not do animal testing which by itself was a ethical issue and
has raised concerns over the world. By publicly campaigning itself against animal
testing, it attracted like-minded people or inner directed consumers and surely,
interest were pouring over LUSH and its beliefs. People believed that by supporting
LUSH, they are directly supporting the campaign and also their moral values which
forms a connection between them.

LUSH stands out even more as it has different kind of campaigns like supporting
human rights, stop animal cruelty and other social issues to arouse people who are
open minded and are responsive to new beliefs and information. Most importantly,
LUSHs personality and beliefs are something that customers can relate to as a form
of differentiation from other companies and also giving themselves a sense of identity
in accordance to the values they support in the society with LUSH.

A company that is highly image-focused shows how it has been able to target its
consumer by using personality traits and moral values to give itself a positive image,
by targeting specific consumer personality traits and values. Lush ensured that there
is a clear distinction between their products and their competitors and influenced their
consumers by brand personality which people wants to be associated with and
acknowledged for.

LUSH have been doing very well in their marketing strategy of targeting consumers
with a great sense of social and environmental issues. LUSH focuses on customer
satisfaction and relationship marketing which has helped to create persuasive
communications that has helped to create faithful customers and turn the heads of
potential customers.






LUSH's fundamentals of marketing

LUSH has based their marketing strategies on the premises of intuitiveness, which
means they try to market their product to the unconscious needs or drives or even
personality factors of the consumers. LUSH emphasizes on the pleasure principle in
their product, the sheer pleasure it can bring for one when they purchases LUSH's
products, consumers who are motivated by the mere thought of pleasure are easily
influenced by the concept as it drives them, hence, they will almost purchase the
product to fulfill the immediate need or desire of that particular satisfaction.

In this aspect, it can argued that LUSH has consistently enforce the idea of their
products being very satisfying by reaching out to the unconscious need of pleasure of
the consumers even without them being aware of it. It can be attributed to their clever
mix of colors and description of products which leads to making the product very
desirable, very often, LUSH also names their product in such particular fashion
according to personality traits that they hope that it could almost create an instant
connection between the consumers and them. LUSH is trying to drive the impulsive
natured consumers into buying their products and to be pleasured by it. This concept
has proved to be very successful as people are easily tempted either by the colors or
the fanciful description of the product and how it could represent them.

Other than reaching out to the unconscious need of the consumer, LUSH
understands that there is another group of conscious consumers who thinks and
considers before making purchases, hence, they also make use of strategies to
reach out to this group of consumers. Generally, this group of consumers are able to
understand and withstand temptations that are set on them, they are usually guided
by some values and morals in their belief. Hence, reaching out to this group of
people requires more than just colors and descriptions, understanding this was
essential as now LUSH knows in order to capture this crowd, their brand had to
mean something and to symbolize a certain standing to them.

Creating a meaning to their brand and their products was another way to reflect and
extend the consumer's image especially when the brand expresses itself the same
way as how the consumer would expresses themselves, in LUSH's case, it is the
expression of moral and ethical issues. Forming such an connection is vital and
critical as when the brand supports their ideology, they will almost instantly support
the brand and any of their products, becoming faithful and loyal customers which is
beneficial for the company in the long run.













Personality research and self-images

LUSH has made use of some interesting personality research in attracting their
customers, on a market, it is separated into two group of people, one which is the
verbalisers and the other which is the visualisers. LUSH has cleverly incorporated
strategies and marketing ideas that was able to attract these two very different group
of people.

In attracting the verbalisers, LUSH's extensive information write-up on their social
campaigns and their products has helped in arousing consumers who enjoys
thinking, constantly, engaging them and letting them to respond to LUSH's activities,
this has led to consumers to want to understand LUSH more and support LUSH in
their social campaigns if they deem them as rightful, LUSH has cleverly invoked the
thinking consumers and causing them to believe they can control certain outcomes or
activities by their own effort. Consumers will now see LUSH as not being just a
cosmetics brand, but rather, a brand that represents certain moral values that the
society needs, consumers will be influenced and adjust their behavior accordingly.

Not forgetting the visualizers, particularly, in this segment, LUSH has done extremely
well in making its products very colorful yet at the same time interactive. LUSH's
products are bright in colors and they look great on the shelves, it almost prompt
consumers who are visually aroused to immediately purchase its products simply
because they are too fanciful. LUSH also makes sure that their products have a great
smell to them, ensuring people feel pleasured just to the smell of the products without
using it. Not forgetting the need for creativity and innovation, LUSH encourages
consumers to innovate and create their own color and shape as they want, it evokes
a certain desire to immediately own these products as it appeals to them as their own
product with the colors they desire.

LUSH supports the idea of human rights, gay marriages, environmental and animal
protection. Hence, they have picture their brand as a symbol of these unique traits
and values, as a result, consumers who already have these beliefs and perceptions
are likely to associate themselves with LUSH, because it closely correspond with
their ideals in life. When consumers purchases LUSH's products, it reflects their
personality to society of their beliefs and values in life. It creates a self-image for
them and to others. This could be said as a very valuable marketing, as now people
has taken a sense of identify with the brand, when they see the brand or purchase
the brand, they see themselves as part of it, forging a connection between both of
them to create a long lasting relationship for as long as their ideals remains the
same.

As consumers are generally defined by the products they used, hence, creating such
a connection is very important in retaining faithful customers as well as influencing
potential consumers. This creates a positive ideal social self image for the
consumers as they are now being associated to the beliefs of the company. As LUSH
is well known for its positive ideology, consumers would want their peers to see them
as a part of a positive social circle creating a sense of belonging in the social
environment.



Recommendations

From the case study, Lush is facing a few issues. Firstly, one of the factor that has
been oppressing LUSHs growth are minimal advertisements and narrow
demographic. They are unable to create greater awareness and potential market
outside their targeted segment. Hence, the recommendation will be creating a
marketing plan to expand the company's demographics and geographic locations to
enhance a more well known brand identify outside of its targeted segment.

Advertisements strengthens identity, by advertising campaigns instead of relying only
on mouth-to-mouth marketing, LUSH will be able to emphasize and amplify the
values and beliefs of LUSH to heighten consumers awareness. Judging how
successful LUSH has been without major advertising, one could not help to wonder
what kind of success it will be able to achieve with it.

The second issue that might have oppressed LUSH's growth is the small field of
demographic they have limited themselves to. Currently, LUSH targets consumes
who are young professional women whom ages around 20-35 years with a passion
for eco-friendly products and issues, LUSH has already understand this market well
enough to effectively communicate its point of difference and excellence to them.
Hence, the recommendation will be developing a new target market, in this case, a
creation of a men's line which will be both personal and unique. The purpose of
starting a new mens line is to expand the demographic and to attract in more diverse
consumers. The strategy is to communicate LUSHs existing values and beliefs to
this group of new market to educate them on social and environmental issues,
especially what they can do on their part in supporting the cause.

The third issue that oppressed LUSH's growth will be that prices could be perceived
as too expensive or out of reach for the lower income group. LUSH products are
often pricier than most cosmetic brands in order to maintain exclusiveness and a
luxury brand. Hence, the recommendation will be pricing LUSH to have a wide range
of prices that are able to meet all consumers budgets. This is to further expand the
demographic segmentation to increase more profits and to expand the consumer's
market.

With the recommendations, Lush will be able to attract existing customer to continue
purchasing their products and to stay loyal to their product, and to attract more
potential customer to purchase from them.












Conclusion

Despite being in a highly competitive industry, LUSH has shown us by having brand
personality, they are able to retain faithful customers and at the same time attract
new consumers by communicating and interacting with them in a manner that will
best touch them and have them responding back, in turn, creating a sense of identify
and image for their consumers has also helped to differentiate themselves with other
major brands.

Hence, LUSH has been successful in employing these strategies, however, with
intense competition, LUSH should always be exploring new alternatives and
boundaries to maintain their leading pace in this industry.






































References

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Gatestoneinstitute.org. "Lush Cosmetics: a Case Study in Hypocrisy :: Gatestone
Institute." 2014.
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Icmrindia.org. "Innovative Marketing Strategies of Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics |
Marketing Case Study|Case Studies." 2014.
3)
LUSH. "CASE STUDY - LUSH: Pure and simple.(Lush (Dorset, England))(Company
overview).
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Kate Dreyer. "Lush Cosmetics: Secret Neuro-Marketing Geniuses - Kate Dreyer."
2013.
5)
Marketing, Advertising, and Media News | Pitch Magazine India. "Creating a Lush
organic cosmetics market." 2012
6)
Lush. Untitled. 2014. http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/jomec/jomecjournal/4-
november2013/Aronczyk_Activism.pdf