Fordham University

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fresh Farm Beauty  
Business Plan  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Prepared by:  

Fan Yang

Judith Saraguro  

Min Yin

Puneet Gangrade  

Yi Tang

 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Executive Summary …………………………………………………..………………Page 3

2. Mission Statement…………………………………………………..…………………Page 5

3. Macro Environmental Analysis …………………………………………………..……Page 6

4. Competition Analysis …………………………………………………………………Page 10

4.1. Market Structure ………………………………………………………………….Page 10

4.2. Marketing Activity ……………………………………………………………….Page 11

4.3. Direct and Indirect Competition…………………………………………………..Page 12

5. Marketing Objective …………………………………………………………………..Page 15

6. Target Market …………………………………………………………………………Page 15

6.1. Financial ………………………………………………………………………….Page 15

6.2. Non-financial……………………………………………………………………...Page 15

7. Positioning …………………………………………………………………………….Page 17

8. Marketing Mix ………………………………………………………………………..Page 18

8.1. Product …………………………………………………………………………....Page 18

8.2. Price…………………………………………………………………….…………Page 19

8.3. Place………………………………………………………………………………Page 20

8.4. Promotion ………………………………………………………………………...Page 20

9. References……………………………………………………………………………...Page 22

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 Executive Summary  

Fresh Farm Beauty was founded in 2007 and is a growing maker of farm-fresh goat milk soaps

and lotions. Our principal office is located in Rosamond, California.  

Fresh Farm Beauty makes handcrafted, synthetic-free goat milk soaps and lotions.    

The company produces the following products:  

A. Goat milk lotion- Vanilla Goat Milk Lotion, Lavender Goat Milk Lotion, Classic

Caprine Goat Milk Soap and Double Mint Goat milk Soap

B. Essential Oil Scented Soaps- Autumn Lodge Goat Milk Soap, Citrus Goat milk

Soap and Ginger Tea Goat Milk Soap

C. Unscented Goat Milk Soaps- Classic Caprine Goat Milk Soap and Old Fashion

Unscented Lye Soap.

Presently, all our lotions and soaps are in the introductory stage. It competes primarily based on

price and ingredients. Our future plans include building our public image by 60% and increasing

our profit margin by 20% in the next 2 to 3 years.  

Our company is in the natural skin care beauty market. The total market size was approximately

$115 billion, and is expected to grow by 12% by 2016 (Anon., 2016). We currently hold 5% of

this market and believe we can capture 15% of it by 2017. Our customer demographics are

women who live healthy lifestyles, who have a strong connection with the environment and

concerned with sustainability.  

We compete directly with Lush and Boring Goats and alternatives to our product include oat

milk, nut milk, and coconut milk. Our products are superior because of our benefits that

contribute to healthy, glowing skin. Fresh Farm Beauty has a competitive advantage because of

our ingredients and our price. We anticipate new companies to enter this market. Currently, our

Fresh  Farm  Beauty  3  

company sells our products on our website and is working to have physical retail stores

throughout California within the next year.  

The greatest risks associated with our business today are changes in customer habits, technology

and new regulations. We feel we can overcome these risks by adapting to the changes and

controlling our target market. Our biggest opportunities include the change in women’s status,

the diversity of skin care products and changes in lifestyle. Overall, we are one of the few

businesses who offer customers 100% natural handmade goat milk soaps and lotions.  

We are seeking 1 million dollars, which will enable us to build our brand image and our overall

company. The funds will go directly towards hiring a marketing agency, hiring an accounting

company, opening up retail stores throughout California, hiring a celebrity sponsor, buying a

warehouse and buying more supplies.  

 
Fresh  Farm  Beauty  4  
  
 

~Mission Statement~  

To create a better way of making soaps and lotions while making every woman feel beautiful and

healthy.  

~Vision~  

Better skin. Better Life. Better Ingredients  

~Values~  

Dependable, Honest, Community, Fresh, Natural, Local  

 
 
Fresh  Farm  Beauty  5  
  

Macro Environment Analysis  

Demographic and Social Factors  

In the last decade, the constant change in demographics and social factors in the United States

has greatly impacted our company. These factors include ethnical diversity, population life span,

and women social status.  

Racial and Ethnical Diversity:  

Americans are more racially and ethnically diverse. In the past 50 years, over 59 million people

have migrated to the United States. The change over the past decades has pushed businesses to

diversify their range of products in order to cater to a more diverse demographic (D’vera Cohn

and Andrea Caumont., 2016).  

Women’s Social Status:  

In today’s society, a women’s role in the labor force has grown dramatically since 1960. A recent

study showed that women (mainly mothers) are the primary providers of their households. This

means that women do most of the purchasing for their households, and because many women

care about their skin and they use their income to purchase skin care products.  

Aging World With Long-life Span Population:  

The percentage of people over 65 grew from 9.1% in 1960 to 13.1% in 2010, and is projected to

be 21.4% in 2050. The lifespan of Americans grew from 73 years in 1960 to 78.8 years in 2012.

(Joe Pinsker., 2013) Longer lifespan and aging trend raise people’s health conscious. People

would like to purchase more items with nature ingredients even with a higher price.  

Millennial:  

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Millennial are the largest and the most educated generation to date in U.S. This group are

educated to be more social responsible and have more up to date knowledge that can support

them to live a healthy life.  

Share of Middle Class Households:  

The share of Americans who live in middle class households is shrinking. And the financial gaps

between middle- and upper-income Americans have widened, with upper-income households

holding 49% of U.S. aggregate household income (up from 29% in 1970) and seven times as

much wealth as middle-income households (up from three times as much in 1983). Comparing

with many upscale handmade or organic cosmetics, Mariah Country Soaps has more space in

developing growing low-end market (D’vera Cohn and Andrea Caumont., 2016).  

Legal/ Political Factors  

1. FDA has strict regulations for labeling. Companies should make labels for products carefully.

Cosmetic products labeled with organic claims must comply with both USDA regulations for the

organic claim and FDA regulations for labeling and safety requirements for cosmetics. The

regulations include a definition of “organic” and provide certification that ingredients have been

produced under conditions that would meet the definition. They also include labeling standards

based on the percentage of organic ingredients in a product. Companies that want to use

“organic” labeling for their products have to meet all detailed requirements to avoid getting in

trouble with government agencies (FDA., 2010). Fresh Farm Beauty aims to classify itself as

organic.  

2. The Personal Care Products Safety Act.  

The major purpose of this bill is amending the existing Federal Food, Drug, beauty and cosmetic

Act, which requires beauty companies to register their facilities with the FDA and submit all of

Fresh  Farm  Beauty  7  

their products ingredients to the FDA. This bill authorizes the FDA to significantly control more

of the beauty industry by increasing and enforcing manufacturing standards and inspecting safety

records of beauty companies. With these new regulations and standards, the FDA will be able to

recall products that are likely to cause health risks and encourage minimizing the use of animals

during the safety testing. In addition, the FDA will also review at least five ingredients every

year and evaluate their safety level, and any product that has any unsafe ingredients will require

limitations of use, or need warning labels on products (Madison Reed., 2016). This will benefit

customers and ensure that beauty products existing in the market are safe enough. However, all

these new regulations will increase extra production costs for small manufacturers like Fresh

Farm beauty.  

Economic Factors  

1. Employment  

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the beauty industry, 5.7% unemployment

rates in September 2014 were lower than 7% unemployment rate in September 2013. There are

strong growth expectations in this industry, especially in skin care section. 55,000 skincare

specialists worked in the U.S. beauty industry in 2014 with a 12% expected growth by 2024

(Matt Sena., 2016).  

2. As the economy is recovering from the recession the beauty industry has been and still is

successful. The overall economic growth may slow as the recovery reaches a plateau, but beauty

and personal care are expected to continue growing steadily. In 2015, the beauty industry

generated $56.2 billion in the United States. As seen in the chart below, skin care is the second

most growing beauty industry segment in the U.S and it is expected to generate about $11 billion

Fresh  Farm  Beauty  8  

in revenue by 2018. This is because there is a high awareness of skincare, and skincare routines

are being started earlier in life rather than later in life.  

Technological Factors  

The technology and materials needed for the production can impact the smooth running of the

business and must be considered.(E. Jungermann.,1973) Water-based soaps on mainstream

supermarket shelves use harsh chemical acids to break down dead skin cells. The lasting effect of

chemical acids on the skin is more similar to a chemical ‘burn’. Special acids found in goat's

milk, work with skin instead of breaking it down and aging it further.  

We utilize the understanding of fatty acids and their effect on our skin. With this knowledge, it

blends oils in specific combinations to make a soap that will be nourishing to the skin.

Multicolored, marbleized soaps have become important in the marketplace and new consistent
Fresh  Farm  Beauty  9  
designs have been developed for their manufacture. Also, the sought-after fragrances are

developed in its process.  

“Opportunities and Threats” Summary:  

Competition Analysis  

Fresh Farm Beauty aims to enter the beauty industry, which is a multi-billion dollar industry and

monopolistic industry. The marketing factors and industry factors of the beauty industry are

price, distribution, and selling, advertising, promotion, social, demographic, technological, and

environmental.  

With respect to pricing, many beauty products are priced from $7 dollars to $30 dollars. High-

end beauty brands are easily priced at $75+ dollars. When products are priced high companies

highlight the product's ingredients, features and usually celebrities endorse the products. When

beauty products are priced low businesses highlight on their low price.  
Fresh  Farm  Beauty  10  
As for advertising and promotions, beauty companies give out free samples, offer free shipping

on purchases over XYZ amount, give out membership cards, email coupons, mail brochures, use

online ads, buy air time (commercial time), rent billboards and pay bloggers to write about their

products.  

When it comes to distribution, beauty companies use three types of distribution channels, which

are direct channels, indirect channels and hybrid. Some beauty companies start out using direct

channels then change and begin using indirect channels and others, such as Lush, stick to one

channel. It only sells its products at its own stores and on its website. You will never find a Lush

product in Sephora or Macys. For the most part in order to expand, beauty companies sell their

beauty products on different websites (e.g., Amazon, eBay and Etsy) various department stores

(e.g., Bloomingdales, Saks, Lord and Taylor, Marshall's, Bed Bath and Beyond, Face Values,

Target) and well-known grocery stores (e.g., ShopRite, Stop & Shop). A prime example of this is

Burt’s Bee. It can be purchased at any grocery store or any department store.  

The industry factors that influence our planning are social, demographic, technological and

environmental. As to social and environmental factors, it’s apparent that today’s consumers are

changing and improving their lifestyle for the better. This is due to media outlets, fads and peer

pressure they are exposed to. The more exposed they are on being healthy and being

environmentally friendly the more likely they will be to buy products that are natural, free from

harsh chemicals and cruelty-free (products that are not tested on animals). With respect to

technological factors, we are able to gain better data of our customers and our competitors and

reach our consumers faster. For example, we can offer live support to our online customers and

use Facebook and Snapchat to post updates.  

Fresh  Farm  Beauty  11  

Direct and Indirect Competition  

Our direct competitions are LUSH and Boring Goat Milk Soap. This is because they also have

100% natural ingredients. Our indirect competitor is The Body Shop because it contains both

chemical and natural ingredients.  

LUSH:  

LUSH products are 100% vegetarian, and often contain fruits and vegetables, lanolin, milk, eggs,
honey, and beeswax. LUSH uses anti- animal testing to differentiate it. Besides, it uses minimal
or no packaging policy to reduce environmental waste. The products are wrapped in greaseproof
recyclable papers. The price is $1.3-$4/oz. The prices of soaps differ greatly due to different
functions.  
 
Boring Goat Milk Soap:  
Boring Goat Milk Soap uses 100% Fresh Farm goat milk and a big portion of their formula
contains goat milk. It also recycles as much of our manufacturing waste as possible, reusing,
recycling or re-purposing over 98% of what would typically go to landfills. The price is $1.1-
$1.2/oz.  
 
The Body Shop  
The Body Shop products contain both chemical and natural ingredients. The Body Shop and
Cruelty-Free International announced they had gathered one million signatures from their
customers for a global pledge for a ban on animal testing of cosmetics. The Body Shop uses
recyclable packaging to reduce air pollution. The price is $1.5-$2/oz.  
 

Fresh  Farm  Beauty  12  

 Overview of Competition Analysis  

Direct Competitors   Indirect competitors   Our product  

LUSH   Boring Goat Milk The Body Shop   Fresh Farm Beauty  
Soap  

Customer 1. Remade orders   1. Website FAQs   1. Website FAQs   1. Website FAQs  

Service   2.Website FAQs   2.By phone or 2. By phone or 2. By phone or email  
3. By phone or email   email    
email    
 

Pricing   $1.3-$4/oz   $1.1-$1.2/oz   $1.5-$2/oz   $1.5/oz  

     

Distribution   Official website Official website Official website Official website online and
online and physical online and physical online and physical physical store  
store   store   store  

Advertising 1.Advertising on 1.Advertising on 1.Advertising on 1. Spokesman  

and Promotion   social media   social media   social media   2. Advertising on social
2. In-store samples   2. In-store samples   2. In-store samples   media  
3.Membership card   3.Membership card   3.Membership card   3.In-store samples  
4.Special discounts   4.Special discounts   4.Special discounts   4. Membership card  
    5. Special discounts  
 

Ingredients   100% natural 100% natural goat Contain both natural 100% natural goat milk and
vegetarian milk   and chemical vegetarian oils  
ingredients   ingredients.  
 

Ethical Value   1. Anti-animal 1.No anti-animal 1. Anti-animal 1. Anti-animal testing  

Fresh  Farm  Beauty  13  

 testing   testing   testing   2. Recyclable packaging  
2. Recyclable 2.Recyclable 2. Recyclable
packaging   packaging   packaging  

Appearance   A variety of One color and only A variety of shapes A variety of colors but only
interesting shapes has soaps in bar   and colors but not has soaps in bar  
and colors   that interesting  

The Comparison of Each Component  

  LUSH   Boring Goat The Body Shop   Fresh Farm Beauty Soap  

Milk Soap  

Service   strong   strong   strong   strong  

Pricing   weak   strong   strong   strong  

Distribution   strong   strong   strong   weak  

Advertising and strong   strong   strong   strong  

Promotion  

Ingredients   moderate   moderate   weak   strong  

Ethical Value   strong   strong   strong   strong  

Appearance   strong   weak   weak   weak  

Fresh  Farm  Beauty  14  

 Marketing Objective  

As part of our planning process, we have established financial and non-financial objectives for

the upcoming year and for the next two to three years. Our financial goals aid in achieving

acceptable profits and our non-financial goals aid in improving the overall state of our company.  

For our financial objective, we aim to increase our profit margins by 20% in the next two years.

This is because our competitors have high market share and to stay in control with our

competitors we feel that it would be healthy to improve our profit margins by 20%.  

As for our non-financial objective, we aim to build our public image by 60% in the next 3 years.

This is because we want to develop customer awareness and distinguish ourselves from our

competitors. Currently, we have a low market image but with the money we a seek and the

marketing strategies we are putting in place we will defiantly be able to meet this goal.  

Target Market  

Fresh Farm Beauty is designed for people of all demographic features, such as age, gender,

education and income. However, we cannot satisfy every customer. We are going to focus on a

specific group of potential customers that are most likely to buy our products and bring us a huge

profit. This group of customer is organized and specified according to a number of different

components. These components include demography, geography, psychology, and behavior. As

a 100% natural beauty brand, we combined the nature of our product and defined our target

market as: Women who live or want to live a natural lifestyle and seek benefits in health and

beauty; They are middle to upper class (income ranges from $42,000 to $125,000), aged from 18

to 45 with a degree of diploma, associate degree, bachelor degree, or higher; They live in

California, U.S. Detail features of each component are listed on the next page.  

Fresh  Farm  Beauty  15  

   Fresh  Farm  Beauty  16  
  

Positioning  

To identify the potential opportunities for growth, we created a competitive positioning

conceptual map to help us place ourselves. Based on our previous research, we selected different

ingredients and price to evaluate the position of our product and competitors. Ingredients include

herbs and goat milk/oils. Goat milk/oils is more advantageous in skin care than herbs because

moisture effect of fat is stronger than herbs. Moreover, Goat milk contains special mineral

selenium, which can help people prevent skin cancer. Compared with Boring Goat Milk Soap,

Fresh Farm Beauty is more diverse on the oils while Boring Goat Milk Soap use only goat milk.

The competitive positioning conceptual map is showed in the Figure 1.  

Compared with Lush and Boring Goat Milk Soap, Fresh Farm Beauty is in the place of high goat

milk/oils and middle level price.  

Fresh  Farm  Beauty  17  

  

Marketing Mix  

Product  

There’s nothing like knowing that your skin is silky smooth, radiant, and soft – and with the right

products you can have that feeling every single day, starting with your cleansing routine. The

handcrafted goat-milk Fresh Farm Beauty Soaps combine a gentle cleansing formula with our

signature essential oils, natural colorings, and mild cleansers to help your skin retain its natural

moisture rather than stripping it away. All our goat milk soaps are handcrafted in small batches,

using all natural ingredients which are sustainable and locally sourced whenever possible. We

use essential oils and natural colorings in our soaps - no perfumes or artificial dyes.  

Pricing  

The goal of Fresh Farm Beauty Soaps is to create a new beauty care line for women. Fresh Farm

Beauty’s competitors already have established distinguished lines for women’s skin, hair, body,

bath, and fragrance. A challenge for Fresh Farm Beauty is to successfully create a natural

product line for women into an existing market of competitors. Initially Fresh Farm Beauty must

price its products by using penetration pricing, which is setting a low initial price of the women’s

products easing the emergence into a new consumer base. The prime focus is pricing the new
Fresh  Farm  Beauty  18  
Fresh Farm Beauty line in a manner where consumers will not be drawn to potential cheaper

substitutes or other pre-existing natural bar soaps.  

Competitors such as Lush and Boring Goat Milk Soap carry a multitude of natural women’s

products from bath, body, skin, fragrance, and hair. The Boring Goat Milk Soap is relatively

inexpensive for its natural products. The prices range is $1.1 - $1.2 per ounce. Lush is much

more expensive and exemplifies prestige pricing. Products for women start at $1.8 and peak at

$4.3 per ounce. Fresh Farm Beauty wants to ultimately create an expansive target market. The

target market is now primarily women ages 18-45. Fresh Farm Beauty must price its products at

a lower price than desired then engage in higher prices when a demand from women for the

products is needed. The prices will be as follows: Fresh Farm Beauty: $6.00/bar ($1.5 per

ounce)  

A new natural line for Fresh Farm Beauty is a genius idea and lower pricing will not be practiced

for a long amount of time. Fresh Farm Beauty will set a one year period in which it will practice

penetration pricing. Once a second consumer base is established Fresh Farm Beauty can

considerably raise the prices of its products to the scale price of competitive products. Per the

changes in the environmental variables, the Quantity Discount strategy will be implemented in

which the company will reduce prices to reward customer responses. For example, a pack of 3

bars will cost $16 instead of $18.  

Placing Strategy  

Offline:  

Fresh Farm Beauty will open physical stores in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San

Francisco in California. Because customers need to smell and touch our soup and test whether

the soup goes against their skin. The experience in the physical store will help us gain trust from

Fresh  Farm  Beauty  19  

existing and potential customers. Besides, we will retail our soap to the beauty salon in which the

women pay much attention to their skin. The beauty salons can have a cross selling of our soap.

What’s more, we will retail our soap in Sephora because it is the biggest cosmetic retail store in

America with a huge customer base. Entering Sephora can help us reach more customers and

raise our brand awareness. Customers will get more opportunities to try our product in Sephora.  

Online:  

Fresh Farm Beauty will sell products on its exclusive online store. Besides, the soaps will be sold

on the Sephora online store.  

Promotion  

Spokesperson - Gisele Bundchen  

Gisele Bundchen, is not only known for her looks but also known for her healthy  lifestyle and

positive attitude. She always shares her workout routine and organic diet to public.  

Her positive personal image completely overlaps with our brand value. Also, women age from  

18 to 45 all want to have a healthy lifestyle and a perfect body shape as Gisele has. She, as our  

spokesperson, will bring us more target customers who pursue a natural and healthy lifestyle.  

Additionally, her good reputation will help us build a high-end brand image.  

Fresh  Farm  Beauty  20  

 References  

1. Anon., 2016. Size of the global skin care market from 2012 to 2021

https://www.statista.com/statistics/254612/global-skin-care-market-size/  

2. D’vera Cohn and Andrea Caumont., 2016. 10 demographic trends that are shaping the

U.S. and the world http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/03/31/10-

demographic-trends-that-are-shaping-the-u-s-and-the-world/

3. Joe Pinsker., 2013. Why we live 40 years longer today than we did in 1880

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/die-another-day/309541/  

4. FDA., 2010. Labeling Claims: “Organic” Cosmetics  

http://www.fda.gov/Cosmetics/Labeling/Claims/ucm203078.htm  

5. Madison Reed., 2016. Personal Care Products Safety Act  

https://www.madison-reed.com/blog/what-the-personal-care-products-safety-act-

means-to-us  

6. Matt Sena., 2016. Beauty Industry Analysis 2016-Costs & Trends  

https://www.franchisehelp.com/industry-reports/beauty-industry-report/  

7. E. Jungermann.,1973. Advances in bar soap technology  

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02639858  

 
 

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