Boots

Securing Marketing Leadership in Hair Care Sales

BOOTS

Marketing Leadership

ABOUT

Best-known and respected retail name in UK

Provide health and beauty products and advice

Employ around 75,000 people and operated in 130 countries

DAVE ROBINSON

Director of Personalisation at BOOTS.

De ve lop cus tomer- l ed market ing p lans through d ig i ta l and persona l i sed communications.

Evo lve the Par tnersh ip Marketing proposit ion at Boots UK.

The Company

Born of John Boot in 1815 who was an agriculture labour

Hoped to provide comfort to the needy as well as a reasonable living for his family

Jesse,his son took control in 1877 established a private company ‘Boot and Company Limited’

Asked customers to pay cash rather than offering them credit

Company’s Early Logo (1883)

First store outside Nottingham in Sheffield.

Fully self-contained to control not only prices but also quality.

‘Largest, Best and Cheapest’ by 1913,

Modern Era

Aimed at the teenage market

Introduced new services like Boots Opticians in 1987

Other services like dentistry, chiropody, and ‘Internet Services’ introduced in 1999

Competitors

Swiss drug company Hoffman-La Roche developed Pantene

P&G acquired it in 1985, the product was reformulated as the Pantene Pro-V

Held a 8.4 per cent share of market in 2001

Lineup included shampoos, conditioners and styling products

Alberto-Culver’s acquired Sally Beauty in 1969

Over 2,000 store locations today

Abandoned their 60s commercials with 30s ones

Offer shampoos, conditioners and styling agents

Began in 1907 by French Chemist Eugene Schueller

Exporting its products since 1912

Today the group is present worldwide through its subsidiaries and agents

Communications is the key in the company’s history

5 % cent share of the U.K. hair care market in 2001

Other Retailers

Marketing Strategy

Endorsements

Build a new market by using celebrity endorsements

No celebrity-endorsed products were available in retail store

The relationship with Boots was lucrative for the hairdressers

Develop Professional Hair Care Brands

Consumers

2 Beliefs

Changing brands produced better results

Trends in buying behaviour led to changing preferences

Customer Offerings

Buy two hair-care items at regular price and receive one free

Free item would be the one that was the least expensive

Estimated that sales would increase to 300% of pre- promotion sales

Customers were given a product sample along with a regular purchase

170 % increase expected in sales

More conservative approach to promoting the brands. All customers would be able to redeem the coupon.

50 % sales increase was expected

Boots’ aim was to secure market leadership in the United Kingdom in the hair-care segment.

The celebrity hair-care brands were an important component of their strategy.

Competitors could not easily compete because Boots had contracts with some of the prestigious salon brands in U.K.

Disclaimer

Harvard Business case: BOOTS: HAIR-CARE SALES PROMOTION

www.wikipedia.com/boots