TURIBA UNIVERSITY

SHIVENDRA
MASTERS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
(UMA2)

Strategy for Digital Marketing for Star Cosmetics in India.

Pre-Master Thesis
MASTERS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Author: Shivendra
Advisor:

Riga, 2020
Latvia

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dean of Faculty of Business

Administration, Turiba University: Rosita Zvirgzdiņa and Zane Driņķe for the continuous
support of my MBA studies and as well as for trusting me and making me a lecturer, as well
as for her patience, motivation, and immense knowledge. Her guidance helped me in all the
time during my course. I could not have imagined having a better support and guidance for
my MBA practice.

Besides everything I would also like to Thank Rosita Zvirgzdiņa for guiding me with my
Thesis which is a very crucial part of my Master’s program.

Date:
Place: Riga

Abstract

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Currently, the digital economy contributes decisively to an increase in competitiveness,
especially as a digital transformation involves migrating to new technological models where
digital marketing is a key part of growth and user loyalty strategies. Internet and Digital
Marketing have become important factors in campaigns, which attract and retain Internet users.
This study aims to identify the main ways in which users can be gained and retained by using
Digital Marketing. The Delphi method with in-depth interviews was the methodology used in
this study. The results of the research show the most important actions for achieving user
recruitment and loyalty with Digital
Marketing from the opinions of consulted experts. The limitations of this study are those related
to the number of experts included in the study, and the number of research papers consulted in
the literature review. The literature review and the results of this research are used to propose
new solid research with a consolidated critical methodology. This research deals with a new
approach that will optimize web technologies for the evolution of user trends, and therefore, will
be of academic and professional use for marketing managers and web solution developers. The
conclusions of the investigation show the key factors, discarding others that do not a
ect the optimization of conversions in B2C businesses such as the duration of the session and the
rebound percentage. Likewise, the results of the research identify the specific actions that must
be carried out to attract and retain users in B2C companies that use the Digital Marketing
ecosystem on the Internet. The requirements for companies that wish to implement a model to
optimize conversions using the current digital economy are also shown.

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 List of Figures

Figure 1.1 Dynamics of Social in the Social Network Spheres……………………10

Figure R.1 Conceptual Framework of Social Media Strategy ………………….…43

List of Tables

Table 2.1 Common Dimensions of Wellness……………………………………29

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 Table of Contents
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………6
1. THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF DIGITAL MARKETING IN BRAND IMAGE
PERCEPTION…………10
1.1 Digital Marketing for Creating a Brand
Image…………………………………………………………10
1.2 Digital Marketing Tools &
Techniques…………………………………………………………………….14
1.3 The Role of Social Media
Networks…………………………………………………………………………21
2. ANALYSIS OF THE INDIAN SPA
INDUSTRY………………………………………………………………………23
2.1 India’s Spa and Wellness
Industry……………………………………………………………………………
23
2.2 Historical View of Indian Spa
Sector…………………………………………………………………………24
2.3 Opportunities for
India…………………………………………………………………………………
………….26
2.4 The Multidimensionality of Wellness and
Satisfaction………………………………………………28
3. CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING OF MOKSHA
SPA………………………………………………………….31
3.1 Glance at Moksha Spa and Ayurveda………………………………………..
………………………………31
3.2 Ayurveda as a Therapy and It's
Principles………………………………………………………………….32
3.3 Different Aspects of
Ayurveda……………………………………………………………………………
…….33
3.4 Health and Disease from the eye of
Ayurveda………………………………………………………….35
4. DEVEOPING A DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY FOR MOKSHA SPA AND
AYURVEDA……….37
4.1 Digital and Social Media
Marketing………………………………………………………..
………………..37
Conclusions……………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………41
Recommendations………………………………………………………………………
…………………………..…….43
List of References………………………………………………………………….

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 INTRODUCTION
As people are generally currently experiencing a daily data overflow, we are also witnessing a
social media revolution. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, text messaging, wikis, all engage a
lot of users. Many of the companies involved in these businesses are only a few years old, yet by
now have market capitalizations in billions. Adaptation has been extremely quick. Twitter was
launched in 2006, had almost no users until 2009, but has since then seen a steady rise in its user
base to 500 million users, of which over half are considered active, Facebook was expected to hit
one billion monthly users in September 2012 and LinkedIn an IPO in January 2012 and has about
250 million users today. (Breur 2011, 99). From a business viewpoint, the growth mentioned
above offers remarkable prospects to reach potential customers, as the platform of social
networks provides fruitful ground for viral marketing. When users who have no outward interest
suddenly praises a product or service, this provides an enormous potential to boost sales. On the
other hand, a hate-campaign can demolish a business very quickly. Based on this setting creating
a digital marketing communication plan, based heavily on social media, creates an interesting
challenge.
Understanding the connected world and how the digital revolution is changing the way we work
has been one of the great changes during the past decade, as it can be applied in a lot of fields of
businesses, thus providing people with extensive career & business options in the future.
Utilizing this up to date knowledge for a relevant real life B2C. Digital Marketing
Communications plan is in my view the best possible real life application of the knowledge of the
subject.
The service collects and pushes data from different social media services. All activities of
existing social media services can be harvested and also pushed back if the according API allows
it. It's essentially the idea to use social media data in many ways throughout the ecosystem for
information visualization, content creation and avatar progression. Since users do a lot of
different things on many different networks, this system creates a fun and easy way to
consolidate this data to bring added value to the end user by creating more transparency to social
activities and connect them also with a geo-location and gamification aspect The project from the
company-side has been prepared and built on the technical aspects by the founders during the
past two years, and could be ready for a partial launch within the next few months, if needed,
therefore making the creation of a business framework the highest priority. Especially creating a
viable marketing plan with a view from outside the technical excellence will be essential,
therefore hopefully making the need for any expertise highly relevant and useful. Regarding key
concepts for a digital media marketing plan, especially the social media communication aspects,
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creates a bit of an issue, as the concept and application of it is such a recent development, that
there is surprisingly little relevant literature on the subject. The foci in building this Marketing
Communications Plan in strongly based on the following general principles on the “New” Rules
of Marketing and PR that were quite recently introduced by David Meerman Scott: (Scott 2011,
23)
 Marketing is more than just advertising.
 PR is for more than just a mainstream media audience.
 You are what you publish.
 People want authenticity, not spin.
 People want participation, not propaganda.
 Instead of causing one-way interruption, marketing is about delivering content at just the
precise moment your audience needs it.
 Marketers must shift their thinking from mainstream marketing to the masses to a strategy of
reaching vast numbers of underserved audiences via the web.
 PR is not about your boss seeing your company on TV. It's about your buyers seeing your
company on the web.
 Marketing is not about your agency winning awards. It's about your organization winning
business.
 The Internet has made public relations public again, after years of almost exclusive focus on
media.
 Companies must drive people into the purchasing process with great online content.
 Blogs, online video, e-books, news releases, and other forms of online content let organizations
communicate directly with buyers in a form they appreciate.
 Social networks allow people all over the world to share content and connect with the people
and companies they do business with.
 On the web, the lines between marketing and PR have blurred.
Aim of the Paper: To Create a New Digital Campaign for Star Cosmetics in Germany

Theme of the Paper: Create a New Digital Marketing Campaign for Star Cosmetics in Germany

Research Question: What is the best Digital marketing campaign for a new target market?
Tasks:
Theoretical Analysis of Digital Marketing
Industry Analysis
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Company Analysis
Create a New Digital Marketing Campaign for Star Cosmetics

Research Approach: According to Bryman & Bell (2011), research approach is a significant
method for approaching a specific research problem. The research approach relates to inductive,
deductive, qualitative and quantitative methods Bryman & Bell (2011).

Inductive and Deductive Approach: Inductive approach finds its application in the qualitative
research, where researchers start with their observations and the theories and proposed in the end
of the research method based on what observations they made (Bryman and Bell, 2011). In
inductive research does not include theories and hypothesis in the beginning of the research, and
the researcher can be willing to change or move the direction of the study after the research
process has begun (Bryman and Bell, 2011).
Deductive approach represents the connection between the theory and research (Creswell, 2003).
When the deductive research is applied, the hypothesis enables to improve based on the already
existing theory and then the research strategy starts designing in order to test the hypothesis. The
deductive approach is mostly used in quantitative researches to verify previous studies and based
on their hypothesis to confirm or reject the existing theory (Creswell, 2003).

Quantitative research: Quantitative research is a systematic empirical investigation with a main

focus on statistical or mathematical techniques. The main concept of quantitative research is to
develop models, theories or hypotheses (Bryman and Bell, 2011). Moreover, quantitative data
can be any data which is in a numerical form including percentages or statistics. Simultaneously,
quantitative research is highly structured which make the investigator enable to examine the
precise concepts and issues that are covered in the paper (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2009).
There are other main factors which dominate in the quantitative research such as generalization,
testing theories or bringing hard and reliable data (Creswell, 2003).

Qualitative research: Qualitative research is an exploratory research where researchers use words
in the presentations of analyzing reasons, opinions and motivations (Bryman and Bell, 2011).
Qualitative research goes deeper into the problem and it helps to improve ideas or hypotheses
(Bryman and Bell, 2011). If the quantitative research is highly structured, qualitative is
completely unstructured research. There are other differences which occur between both
strategies (Creswell, 2003). For example, as it is mentioned above, while quantitative research
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focus on generalization, testing theories or bringing hard and reliable data, qualitative focus on
contextual understanding and bring rich and deep data (Creswell, 2003).

Objective and Purpose of the Research Thesis: The key subject of the proposed thesis is Social
Media Marketing. The primary target of this paper is to offer knowledge into the utilization of
web as an advertising device by a little measured association and apply it to a specific market.
The issue will be considered from the perspective of an Indian organization Stars Cosmetic
endeavoring to win clients in Germany. Correspondingly, the motivation behind this examination
paper is thought of an organized online life showcasing plan and to give proposals for the
subjected organization on the most proficient method to effectively utilize web-based social
networking and contact the German group of spectators.
As revealed by Stelzner (2015, 34), roughly 87% - 94% of businesses are keen on discovering
which web-based social networking and advertising apparatuses are the best and how to conceive
client commitment and allegiance. Considering the accompanying issues, the creator has
expressed the fundamental research question:
In what manner can the subjected organization Stars Connect improve its Social Media
Marketing procedure so as to pull in patrons in Germany? Notwithstanding that, the creator
assembled a few sub-inquiries so as to respond to the exploration question:
1. What is Internet based Marketing?
2. How to create a fruitful Marketing campaign on Social Media?
3. Social Media: A Strategy for Germany?

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 1. THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF DIGITAL MARKETING
1.1 Inbound Marketing Methodology
The theoretical framework for this digital marketing plan is largely based on the theory of
Inbound Marketing (Halligan, B Shah, D. 2010). Inbound Marketing is a marketing theory based
on the concept of attracting potential customers to the company by publishing interesting and
relevant content to strategically selected channels. The theory was established as a contrary view
to traditional, outbound marketing methods such as telemarketing, TV advertising, e-mail blasts
and other forms of mass marketing. The theory relies heavily on content marketing principles to
deliver value to potential customers in order to gain and retain their interest.

Figure: Inbound Marketing Methodology (HubSpot 2015)

The continuously increasing effect of inbound marketing is largely due to a shift in the modern
business environment and changes in consumer behavior. Advances in technology have changed
the way people live their lives and therefore also consumers’ relationship to brands and their
buying behavior has changed. For example TiVo, Netflix and other services have largely
replaced the need for traditional TV, meaning that TV advertising is losing its audience. In the
modern world people are also busier and more distracted than ever before, which means that they
are not likely to pay attention to advertising that is not interesting or relevant to them. (Halligan,
B. Shah, D. 2010,10-15.). According to Halligan and Shah (2010), the first step in developing a
successful inbound marketing strategy is to create a community or “hub” of interesting content
and interaction. The platform for this hub can be a website or webstore, and the content is
typically in the form of blog posts and articles. The hub extends to the company’s other digital
marketing channels such as social media sites. The point of all of this is for the company to be
easily found on the web, to attract the right people, to get people to return to the site and to
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initiate interaction with potential customers. The people who have been attracted to the company
site by content are valuable leads, who are more likely to be converted into customers (compared
to leads generated by mass marketing). This process refers to the attract phase of figure.
The second phase of the Inbound Marketing Methodology is conversion. Conversion happens
when visitors further engage with the business. Converting can be done for example by
encouraging visitors to subscribe to a newsletter, fill out a form or add your site to an RSS reader.
The idea here is to provide several different channels and methods for customers to engage. Not
everyone is ready to immediately make a purchase, because people may be at different stages of
the sales cycle. (Halligan, B & Shah, D. 2010, 20-22.).
Converted visitors are people who are somehow engaged with the company, they could for
example be subscribed to a newsletter or blog or they may follow one or more of the company’s
social media channels. It is important to keep converted visitors engaged, so that when the time
comes for them to make a purchase decision, it is as easy as possible for them (close phase in
figure). As in the previous stages, content is also used here to retain the interest of these potential
customers or leads. If these leads do not convert into customers, chances are that the generated
content has attracted the wrong kind of traffic, and the content needs to be more targeted.
(Halligan, B. & Shah, D. 2010, 20-22.). Once a lead has been converted into a customer, it is
time to focus on keeping them engaged with the community. Happy customers will return and
even actively promote the product within their network, generating more buzz and traffic to the
site. (Halligan, B & Shah, D. 2010, 20-24.).
The Inbound Marketing Methodology requires the company to transform their marketing efforts
and adapt to the modern environment. This may require resources, but the end result is that the
company will have a flow of good quality leads, more customers and better customer retention.
Inbound Marketing minimizes the need for outdated and ineffective sales efforts by focusing on
strategic content marketing. Chapter covers content marketing theory and best practices.
(Halligan, B & Shah, D. 2010, 15-25.).
Content Marketing: Content marketing is a strategy used to attract people to a company’s digital
channels such as a website or social media profile. This is done by creating and publishing
interesting and relevant content to targeted audiences. Content can be published for example in
the form of blog posts, social media posts, web articles and videos. The purpose of content
marketing is to engage people with your brand and ultimately to generate sales. (Lieb,R. 2012, 2-
4.). The popularity and success of content marketing is based on the fact that it is more effective
and less costly compared to traditional marketing. According to Demand Metric (2016). Content

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marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and yet it generates about three times more
leads. Even though content marketing is gaining popularity, it is seen as a relatively new
marketing strategy. Demand Metric (2016) states that 78% of CMO’s believe that custom content
is the future of marketing. A successful content marketing strategy starts with setting clear goals.
Goals should be very specific and they are commonly stated as a percentage improvement, sales
figure or click-through rate. Goals should also be well reasoned, because it is important to
recognize exactly how meeting the goals will benefit the company. (Patel, N. & Aragon, K.
2016.). During the content marketing planning phase it is essential to determine how the content
marketing plan can be integrated into the company’s overall digital marketing plan. To be more
specific, this means that content distribution channels should be chosen to best suit the content
marketing objectives and the nature of the content should be planned so that it reflects the brand
identity. (Patel, N. & Aragon, K. 2016.).
It is helpful do conduct a competitor analysis when planning a content marketing strategy. This
helps to gain insight about what kind of form content can be in, how often content is published,
how well the content expresses the company’s core message and what kind of content is popular
or especially successful. An analysis helps to generate ideas and to find out your company’s
differentiating factor. The goal is not to start generating the same kind of content as competitors,
but to find out what you can do differently that will set your content apart from the competition.
(Patel, N. & Aragon, K. 2016.)
Creating content for a large audience may seem like a good way to gain recognition, but for
marketing purposes a targeted audience leads to significantly better results. Therefore before
creating content, it is essential to select a narrow audience and find topics that will be interesting
to them. The group can be your ideal customer, which you have chosen for overall marketing
purposes, or a more specific subgroup within your ideal customer group. The target group should
be as small as possible but big enough to have potential to meet the content marketing objectives.
(Patel, N. & Aragon, K. 2016.).
Both HubSpot (2015) and Lieb suggest using personas to determine a target audience. Personas
are specific descriptions of an ideal customer, which are based on research. The purpose of
personas is to help the company create targeted content that appeals to specific people. The form
of content should be chosen according to the company’s resources and marketing strengths as
well as the preferences of the target group. For example videos are a great way to appeal to
younger audiences, whereas magazine or newspaper articles are more likely to reach older

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audiences. Most types of content can also be shared through multiple channels such as social
media, e-mail and website. (Patel, N. & Aragon, K.2016.).
1.2 Blog, SEM and SEO
According to Wainwright (2013), business blogging is a marketing tactic which can be used to
gain online visibility. Blogging is a way to share content, influence customers and drive traffic to
your website. There are several reasons why blogging is a beneficial marketing method.
Including blog posts on a website helps that website get found more easily on search engines,
generating more traffic to the site. More information about search engine optimization can be
found in chapter. Additionally blog posts can be shared through multiple social media channels,
which helps the brand keep up a social media presence and also drives traffic to the website.
Depending on the type of content in the blog, blog posts can also help convert visitors to leads
and customers, as shown in figure (Wainwright, C. 2015.).

Figure 2. Content in the Inbound Marketing Methodology. (Hubspot 2015)

Wainwright (2015) also points out that blogging can help a brand establish authority in their
field. Blog posts often answer common questions and act as an online source of information. By
looking to your blog for answers, consumers are automatically guided into the sales cycle.
Quality blog content also helps retain existing customers, because they keep coming back to your
blog or business for answers to upcoming problems. Rowett (2014) points out that the
storytelling aspect makes blogging an optimal channel for tourism marketing. It is common for
people to study blogs and other content prior to booking trips online. Blogs offer an outlet for
communicating pictures, tips and details about travel destinations, therefore blog content can
influence people’s decisions regarding their travel plans.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Search engine marketing or SEM is a paid form of digital
marketing which allows you to promote your company’s web content on a search engine
(Rouhiainen 2015). In this thesis I will focus only on SEM on Google AdWords, because at the

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moment Google is the most popular search engine in the world, and therefore has the most
potential for digital marketing purposes. (Search Engine Watch 2016.).
Google AdWords works by increasing the visibility of your web content on the result list when
someone searches using certain keywords. You are charged money for each customer who enters
your site through that link. The price of each click is determined by the competitiveness of the
keywords you have used. The more searches there are using a certain keyword the more
expensive those keywords will be to advertise with. (Rouhiainen 2015.). Using Google AdWords
has many significant benefits. It allows you to reach people at the precise moment they are
searching for something you offer. Attracting customers with commercial intent naturally
increases the ROI (return on investment) of marketing. AdWords also allows you to have control
of your budget, you can decide beforehand how much you are willing to spend on each
campaign. Measurability is also an important feature of AdWords, you are provided with detailed
reports of how many people have visited your site through the campaigns, and with additional
tracking tools you can also see how much actual sales has been generated. (Google 2016.).
One of the most valuable benefits of AdWords is that it lets you target a very specific target
group with your ads. You can choose the target group for your ads according to the keywords
they are using, their demographics and their geographic location. This means that the leads you
are generating through advertising match your ideal customer profile, making them very valuable
to your business. (Google 2016.).
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Search engine optimization or SEO refers to the process of
generating organic traffic to a website through search engines. While SEM is a form of paid
advertising, SEO is optimization which results specifically in increased organic traffic and does
not involve paid advertising. (Rouhiainen 2015.).
Basic Principles of SEO: The purpose of SEO is to help your website get found easily through
search engines such as Google. There are certain features which can help your website rank
higher on Google searches and gain more traffic to them. Therefore, well executed SEO results in
increased traffic on the website and possibly also increased sales. (Rouhiainen 2015.). Search
engines use an algorithm to determine how the search results are showed. SEO needs to be in line
with this algorithm in order to fulfill its purpose of generating traffic. Since Google regularly
makes changes to their search engine algorithm, the effects of SEO change also from time to
time. This means that the principles of SEO need to be updated often in order to remain relevant.
(Rouhiainen 2015.)

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SEO Ranking Factors: One of the most significant SEO ranking factors is the use of relevant
terms and keywords. Keywords included in the domain, page titles and page content have a great
influence on a website’s SEO. Keywords should be related to the topic of the website or product
and they should have relatively high search volumes. It helps if keywords have commercial intent
and if they are long tail keywords. This means that it is beneficial to use specific keywords or
phrases that someone would use when they are looking for something online. (Rouhiainen
2015.). Another important ranking factor is user experience. The user experience score is
influenced by the time people spend on the site and scrolling behavior. The more time people
spend on the site the better, and if people generally scroll down to the bottom of the site, this will
have a positive impact on SEO. A high bounce rate, meaning that people who enter the site click
away after a very short period of time, is viewed as a negative SEO ranking factor. (Rouhiainen
2015.). Other SEO ranking factors that should be taken into consideration are quality content and
inbound links. If there is a flow of fresh content to the site, this has a positive impact on SEO.
Content can also be used to express relevant keywords and it can be shared on social media
channels. Shares, mentions and links on social media are beginning to have a significant impact
in terms of SEO. Links to your site from other websites also improve SEO, however these links
have to be of good quality and they should be connected to the same topic as your website.
(Rouhiainen 2015.).

Figure: Inbound Marketing Model and Channels (HubSpot 2015)

Site speed is also currently an important SEO factor. Websites that open quickly are ranked
higher that websites that open slowly. This has to do with overall user experience, because
expectations regarding site speed are continuously increasing, and website visitors often leave the
page if it does not load fast enough. (Rouhiainen 2015.).
One quite recent ranking factor is the mobile optimization websites (Rouhiainen 2015). It is
important that the website functions flawlessly on mobile devices, because overall mobile traffic
has surpassed desktop traffic and mobile device traffic is still increasing (Bosomworth 2015).

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As mentioned previously, SEO ranking factors are very vulnerable to changes in search engines’
algorithms. This is why successful SEO requires continuous learning and updating. SEO is a
great way to increase website traffic, but a company’s digital marketing success should not rely
solely on SEO efforts. (Rouhiainen 2015.).
SEO Future Trends: According to Fishkin (2015), there are some important future trends to
consider when planning and executing SEO. First of all, there will be an increase of dark traffic
to websites. This means traffic that seems to be direct traffic, when in fact it comes from sources
such as Facebook and other applications. This affects all analysis of website traffic, because it
makes it seem as if there has been a significant shift in the sources of traffic when there has not.
Fishkin (2015) also points out that even though some other ranking factors such as user
experience are increasing in importance, the importance of inbound links is likely to remain at
the current level. SEO ranking factors don’t cancel each other out, instead they build up to create
a sum of factors. According to Fishkin (2015) the ranking factor of quality content is likely to
increase and change. Due to the overflow of content on the internet, content needs to be of
significant quality in order to have SEO benefits. It is likely that in the near future, visuals will
become increasingly important. Quality visual content can be in the form of photos, videos and
info graphics. This is likely due to the fact that people perceive visuals as more trustworthy
sources of information than text. On the other hand DeMers (2015) states that social content will
play a larger role in SEO. This means that content from social media can begin to act more like
other web content in SEO terms, changing the definition of quality content altogether. Both
Fishkin (2015) and DeMers (2015) point out that mobile optimization is likely to become more
important than desktop optimization. This is naturally due to the already rapid increase in mobile
usage. DeMers (2015) also makes an interesting statement regarding video content. He estimates
that already in 2016, video content will become more significant than written content in terms of
ROI for B-to-C marketing. Video will not only be an important aspect of social media marketing,
but also Google is experimenting with the concept of video ads.

1.3 Project Management Methods for Digital Marketing Campaign

Target of Research: The main purpose of the research for this project is to provide a basis for the
framework and suggested actions within the digital marketing plan. To make this project relevant
and useful, the digital marketing plan is conducted based on extensive and thorough research in
the field of digital marketing. In addition to serving as a basis for the project, research also gives

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direction to certain components of the marketing plan. For example research helps determine the
chosen digital marketing channels included in the digital marketing plan.
Digital Marketing Plan Development Process: This chapter describes the digital marketing
planning process and the theory framework used to develop the plan. Although this digital
marketing plan focuses on digital marketing channels and concepts, it follows some of the same
guidelines as traditional marketing plans. There are numerous theories regarding the steps and
contents of the marketing planning process. Analysis has shown that even though the theories do
not fully agree, some consistencies can be found. For example Kotler et al. (2009) and Malcolm
McDonald (2008) share a similar view on marketing planning activities and the contents of a
marketing plan.
This digital marketing plan uses Malcolm McDonald’s (2008) theory on marketing planning as a
basis, but in addition it combines several digital marketing planning theories to supplement and
support the scope and nature of the project. Due to the nature of the project, not all planning
activities have been included in this project. Figure shows the marketing planning process as it
has been modified for this digital marketing plan.

Figure: Digital Marketing Plan Development Process. (Järvelin 2016)

Digital Marketing Planning Steps: The objective of this project is to develop a digital marketing
plan for the first steps of a start-up company. The full process for fulfilling this objective is
pictured in figure. The project consists of five project tasks, which form the final project
outcome: a digital marketing plan.

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 Figure: Research Methods. (Järvelin 2016)
The first task in developing the marketing plan is conducting a company interview to establish an
understanding of the company’s current situation and goals for the future. The most important
aspect of this task is to determine the company’s overall and digital marketing objectives. The
objectives serve as a guide to determine the right digital marketing strategy.
Task two is researching current and effective digital marketing trends and strategies. At this
stage, brief research is also conducted on digital marketing planning. The purpose of this is to
find out what information is necessary to know about the company when starting the project. The
researched theory as a whole provides a basis and helps to determine the scope of the project.
Task three involves narrowing down which digital marketing models and strategies will be
chosen for this digital marketing plan. The purpose of this task is to determine how the theory
will be implemented to develop the final project.
During task four the marketing plan is developed and conducted using the information gathered
during the previous tasks. Additional marketing plan models and theories are used to put together
and finalize the project.
The fifth task is the evaluation of the project. The project is evaluated in terms of validity,
reliability and scope.

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 2. ANALYSIS OF INDIAN COSMETICS INDUSTRY

Today’s society is a modern society in which beauty is not only meant for women. The abundant
studies of this era shows the shifting sex role, the various marketing stimuli and media influence,
metrosexuality as a global trend all these have stimulated men to adjust themselves to new
lifestyle and attitudes. It is an unquestionable fact that men increased demands for superior living
standard, healthiness and wellbeing. However the physical attractiveness necessary to everyone
as it plays an important role in enhancing the self confidence level and successfully tracking
carriers. Today more of men are becoming aware about their looks and willing to improve their
ideal appearance. So as to enhance and maintain their desirable looks, men tend to be no longer
hesitating to opt and utilize cosmetics. This increase awareness is the keystone of the worldwide
exceptional boom of men’s grooming market. When we compare the Indian male cosmetic
market with the women’s cosmetic market we observe that the Indian male cosmetic market is a
specialized niche market and it is into its growing stage, still the contest among different brands
is intense due to the market’s diversity and growing prospective. A considerable number of
popular brands have productively built their image based on their own differential advantages.
Indian men are apparently too modest to spend money in grooming products in contrast with
consumers in European countries. However limited research has been done in the area of Indian
men’s attitudes towards grooming products and consumption behaviors. Because of the less
research in the area of male buying behaviour, some cosmetic companies failed to achieve the
target in the male cosmetic market. Men living in Delhi are supposed to be active, keen on
fashion, and passionate about how to efficiently manage their self-images. The involvement of
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International firms is increasing in India that indicates the growth potential of this Indian male
cosmetic market. RNOS said that Indians are more beauty conscious and their newfound
awareness of cosmetic products is driving growth.
According to RNOS, within the cosmetic market the skin care and the color cosmetic segment is
the fastest growing segment. These segments are expected to grow with an annual growth rate of
13 percent to 20 percent by 2012. This market is blooming and seems to be everlastingly up to
the years. As said by the beauty experts that this new market is not just a fashion or a trend but it
are a strong attractive market that has high potential to grow up and develop (Euromonitor,
2007). Within a short span of time beauty care experts assume that men’s beauty care market will
reach 15% of that of women’s market (Courtin, 2003). The demand for men beauty care product
may be due to new generation’s behaviour that have more feminine characteristic. Due to the
demand from the market for men beauty care product companies have launched new product line
to reach to customer’s expectation. Men customers would have more various alternatives to
choose.
2.1 Scholar’s View on Indian Cosmetics Industry
Global Scenario of Cosmetics Market: Cosmetic industry is not limited to only women. The time
is changing and so the thoughts. The male consumers are becoming more conscious towards their
looks and hence give rise to a new industry which is the male grooming industry. As males were
becoming more conscious about their looks and image in the past few years that leads to increase
in sales of male grooming products by 18 percent globally between 2006 and 2011 (Mermelstein
& Felding, 2007). This change is becoming a new trend and the male grooming industry is
expected to blossom since consumers are increasingly adapting to western styles. The gap has
shorten now a days between men and beauty care products, their demand for skin care products
are revealed to fulfil their pleasure and wellness start from, cream their skin, feed the skin
nutrition, anti-aging treatment, body and hair cares, spa centres or even beauty institutions (Cole,
2008). Male customers have to look for the products in particular place such as perfumery,
cosmetic counter and drug store (Lamb, 2008). According to Chunhapak (2008) people with
different income have different selection of products. Moreover people with high income group
are ready to buy expensive products. According to Blanchin (2007) the relation between men and
beauty care can be seen as simple relation to his appearance. Men want to feel good so as to
reach mental and physical equilibrium and thus seek to improve their self-image through skin
care products and hence adapt themselves to the different roles in their lives (Aaker, 1999). Sirgy

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(1982) argue that consumers will be motivated by positively valued products that promote a
positive self-image.
Although this market is expected to show potential growth, but still male personal care is a niche
market and in comparison with women’s beauty industry it is far smaller sector around the world.
Mintel Group stated in 2006 that “Men’s toiletries have failed to achieve the explosive growth
anticipated since the late 1980s.” (Mintel, 2006) Many studies concluded that male consumers
are increasing and have changed their attitudes to pay more attention towards their physical. In
addition, advanced products innovation, more effective promoting manners, and new product
launches have contributed to a continuing growing of global male cosmetics market. The male
grooming industry reached to a value of $21.7 billion, to a total of 8% of the global cosmetics
and toiletries market in 2006. The global male grooming industry in 2008 was valued at $26
billion that accounts about 8% of the en-tire global cosmetics and toiletries market. U.S. was the
largest single market for male cosmetics that has a sale of $4.7 billion in 2008. Moreover the
Western European market for men’s care grow remarkably and valued at $8.5 billion, accounting
for 31% of the total market in which Unilever Group , Procter & Gamble Company, and
Energizer are the players.
Global men’s toiletries market, in 2009 was valued approximately $18.1 million with a growth
rate of 3.9%. (Datamonitor, 2010) According to Datamonitor, in years 2004-2009 the global
men’s toiletries market grew at a compound annual growth rate of 4.2%. (Datamonitor, 2010) In
2010, for sales of men’s grooming products not all regions saw a marked increase as foretold.
According to Euromonitor, it is forecasted that global sales of men’s grooming will raise upto
$3.5 billion by 2011. (Davies, 2007) Moreover Datamonitor Group forecasts that by 2014, the
male toiletries market will reach a value of $22.1 million at global level, leading to a rise of 22%
since 2009. (Datamonitor, 2010) the overall trend is that the global male cosmetics market is
continuously growing and developing. It is important for marketers to search for men’s needs and
behaviors for personal care products in order to grab potential opportunities in the market and to
have an upper hand in this competitive business.
The Indian Scenario of Cosmetic Market: In the last couple of decades the Indian cosmetics
industry has seen a rapid growth. The cosmetic and beauty products range has widen
tremendously in the Indian market since last couple of years. The manufacturers of the beauty
care products in India has also faced a great demand of cosmetic products that falls under low or
middle priced beauty care products since the demand in India is always for economically priced
products. Currently cosmetics business market analysis predict that many international

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companies are now outsourcing cosmetics to India and hence the cosmetics market in India is
growing at 15-20% annually which is twice as fast as that of the U. S. and European markets.
The cosmetics market growth rate reflects increase in demand for beauty care products in India
(Alexander, 2010). The modern, urban Indian women are increasingly becoming more conscious
about their looks and life style, with great stress on lightening of skin. The skin care cosmetic
products have shown a solid growth in the last few years, in which more than half the market is
comprising skin lightening creams.
According to the latest Euromonitor report on the Indian cosmetics and toiletries market, the
color cosmetics market stands at $113.4 million and skin care at $346.9 million (Emerging
Markets: A New Spin, 2007). The Japanese are the Largest Asian buyers of cosmetics products,
but the growth rate is reaching to a stable level. China, accounts for the second largest country in
Asia Pacific that is witnessing an increased demand because of improving lifestyles and increase
disposable income of the population. The South Korean cosmetic market is growing at a faster
rate. The younger populace is looking for general skin care and hair care products while the older
generation has more specific needs for their cosmetics products according to Lovejeet Alexander.
Antoinette (2004) and L’Oreal report (2010) said that younger generation tend to open to skin
care products more than older generation. Brand is the word which is considered to be the most
important element in this competitive market and it differentiate the company from other reputed
companies brand (Clifton, 2004). Amanda (2004) revealed that men between age group from 18
to 24 were driving appeal spending and are spending more and more on appearance products.
Briney (2004) describes an interesting trend among Indian cosmetic consumers, while other
global countries are taking to the traditional Indian herbal and ayuuvedic applications for beauty
solutions. Indian consumers are more and more looking to international brands of cosmetic
products as lifestyle improving products, in the belief that using international make them feel
much better and make them feel to be a part of upper class group.
The Indian Male Cosmetics Market: Indian market had few dedicated products to offer men.
Soon after Khan’s commercial, Emami Group entered the men’s fairness cream market. Market
talk was that a noticeable proportion of sales of Fair & Lovely, a women’s cream, were from
men. Emami decided to push the opportunity. In 2005, Emami created history by launching Fair
and Handsome, a fairness cream for men, which still dominates the space with close to 70%
market share. The company calls this brand the world’s No. 1 fairness cream. The company
achieved sales of $13 million in 2008-09. In 2007, Hindustan Unilever launched Fair & Lovely
Menz Active but it could not gather much share. Over the past year, multinationals such as

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Beiersdorf (Nivea for Men) and L’Oréal (Garnier PowerLight) launched a series of products for
men’s skin care. The market was soon offering male fairness creams, hair care products beyond
dyes, scrubs and face washes. Today, the male grooming segment in personal care is ready for its
next round of product expansions and additions. Now, as the segment evolves, there is a queue of
Bollywood actors including Shahid Kapoor and John Abraham who are endorsing male
grooming products. The men’s personal care segment is estimated at over $200 million, with
Gillette having the largest market share. In the personal care category, skin care products are the
most popular, offering significant room for growth. In India, fairness creams dominate the space
with more than a 45% share, followed by moisturizers at 22%. Now, the market seems to be
looking beyond fairness creams. Emami is poised to expand its Fair and Handsome brand to
include products such as shaving cream and foam. In five years, Fair and Handsome has become
a Rs.100 crore brand, growing at 45% per annum and contributing 15% to Emami’s revenues.
“The trend is shifting toward the mainstream and there are other brands entering the segment
with extensive product launches in the fairness category, along with a number of product
extensions,” says Harsh Vardhan Agarwal, director, Emami. Hindustan Unilever is currently
advertising Fair & Lovely MAX Fairness for Men. It has also extended its Vaseline brand to the
men’s grooming segment with the introduction of the Vaseline for Men skin care range,
including fairness creams, face wash, body lotions and body washes.
The popularity of fairness products saw Garnier launch its men’s grooming range, PowerLight, in
May 2009. According to a recent study by Hindustan Unilever, men in India’s southern states are
most enthusiastic users of skin whitening creams and consume the most of the fairness products,
although the love for fair skin is spread evenly all across the country. “Inspired by the changing
grooming behavior of Indian men, in May 2009 we entered the men’s grooming market with
Garnier Men. Within three months, Garnier Men became the number two player in the men’s
skin care market, which is currently less than five percent of the total skin care market but
growing fast. Within that, fairness comprises 85 percent, cleansing 10 percent, and body, sun
care and hydration 1 percent each. The potential lies in converting male users of women’s skin
care products to products developed specifically for them,” says Dinesh Dayal, chief operating
officer, L’Oréal India. The Indian cosmetics market, which was traditionally a stronghold of a
few major players like Lakme and Pond’s, has seen a lot of foreign entrants to the market within
the last two decades.
The Self Concept: According to Purkey (1988) self-concept can be defined as “the totality of a
complex, organized, and dynamic system of learned beliefs, attitudes and opinions that each per-

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son holds to be true about his or her personal existence.” (Purkey, 1988) The self-concept
summarizes the beliefs a person holds about his own attributes and how he evaluates the self on
these qualities. (Solomon, 2009) It is a multi-dimensional conception with regard to a person’s
perception of “self” related to numerous traits including academics (and non-academics), gender
roles and sexuality, racial identity, and many others. (Burns, 1979) Thereby in daily life
consumers‟ attitudes towards themselves are reflected by their self-concepts. Kolter presented
that the basic self-concept premise refers to a person’s possessions contribute to and reflect his
identities. Hence in order to understand consumer behavior, marketers are supposed to firstly
understand the relationship between consumer self-concept and possessions. Many purchasing
decisions will be influenced by those attitudes. (Kolter, et al., 2005) Numerous psychologists and
sociologists have made essential contributions to the research of self-concept theory. Vigneron
and Johnson (1999) report that people’s need for appearance and materialism was increasing and
hence human being wanted to satisfy the need to look and feel good. This created a boom in the
cosmetic industry across the world. Customer behaviour is an ongoing process when individual
or group select, purchase, use or dispose of products, services, idea and experiences to satisfy
needs and desire (Askegaard, 1999). Askegaard (1999) noted that people do not buy the products
to play in our lives go well beyond the task it performs. Men purchase the ideas and images that
are associated with the products, to produce a desired identity and self-image (Fiona & Elke,
1998). Kellner (1992) proposes that the various meaning associated with the products are used to
mitate the “fragmented self-image of individuals who want to display and experience situational
images felt to be appropriate at a particular time”.
The Concept of Self-Esteem: The original definition of self-esteem has been given by James and
he initially pointed the way with a formula to ex-plain the principle of self-esteem “as a ratio
found by dividing one’s successes in areas of life of importance to a given individual by the
failures in them or ones „success/pretensions.‟ (James, 1890, quoted in Burns, 1979). It is
determined by the ratio of our actualities to our supposed potentialities; a fraction of which our
pretensions are the denominator and the numerator our success.” (James, 1890, p. 64, quoted in
Burns, 1979) According to James it is argued that self-esteem will be determined by the position
people holds in the world contingent on his success or failure. (Burns, 1979) Coopersmith (1967)
also described self-esteem as “the evaluation that the individual makes and customarily maintains
with regard to himself,” and in a nutshell it refers to “a personal judgment of worthiness that is
expressed in the attitudes the individual holds.” (Coorpersmith, 1967) According to Burns, Self-
esteem is the making of conscious appraisal refers to the essential of oneself or of aspects of

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oneself. A person’s attitudes towards self-esteem originated from being keeping with specified
criterions, reward for meeting his own and others desires for him. (Burns, 1979) Persons with
high self-esteem accept themselves generally whereas those with low self-esteem have little
acceptance of themselves, and they tend to per-form imperfectly or attempt to avoid failure,
embarrassment, or rejection. (Solomon, 2009) Consumer’s self-esteem could be affected by
marketing communications.
The Concept of Consumer Behavior: Consumer behavior is defined as “the study of the processes
involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas,
or experiences to satisfy needs and desires.” (Solomon, 2009) All exchanging issues could affect
the consumer before, during, and after a purchase. A consumer refers to “a person who identifies
a need or desire, makes a purchase, and then disposes of the product during the three
consumption process.” (Solomon, 2009) Good business requires marketers to understand the role
of consumption activities in the daily lives of consumers. (Arnould. et al., 2004)
Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior: Purchasing behavior is the result of the complex
interaction of all the cultural, social, personal and psychological characteristics. These
characteristics are essential for marketers to identify interested purchasers and to satisfy their
needs better. In this context, to develop marketing strategies, marketers are supposed to
understand many of those factors to understand consumers with unique cultural backgrounds, and
needs of consumers in various markets. (Kolter. et al., 2005).
Understanding The Buyer Decision Process: Most buyers pass through a series of stages to reach
a purchasing decision. According to Kolter, typically five steps are involved in consumption
decision process: need recognition, information search, and evaluation of alternatives, purchase
decision and post purchase behavior. This model implies that marketers should pay attention to
the whole purchasing process rather than just purchase decision. Moreover as some purchase
decisions are less significant, some of these steps might be skipped by a consumer. Information
search is seen as the most significant part of the high-involvement decision-making process.
Thurs marketers are suggested to utilize a great deal of media sources and various
communicating manners to serve potential consumers. (Fill, 2002).
Male consumer behavior: In a common sense, gender plays an essential role in the study of
consumer behavior. Gender identity is always linked to those differences in psychological
characteristics, norms, attitudes, and behaviors. (Arnould, et al., 2004) In western societies,
people stereotypically linked such sex-typed characteristics as aggressive, tough, muscular,
dominating, instrumental, (Burns, 1979) independent, assertive, and competitive with males.

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(Arnould, et al., 2004) Further, traditionally it was strongly believed that men and women think
and behave in quite different ways. For instance it seems that physical attractiveness plays a
significant role in creating a happier and better-adjusted man via the obtainment of many positive
feedbacks and acceptance of others. (Burns, 1979).
Nonetheless in women’s eyes, appearance is not regarded as the most essential attribute applied
in judging whether a man is attractive or not. Their ideal men are supposed to possess financial
stability, emotional strength, loyalty, security, and a good sense of humor. (Tungate, 2008).
Sex role is in terms of a person’s conceptualization of his own degree of masculinity or
femininity. (Burns, 1979) Many studies found that men tend to achieve agentic goals while
women are more likely to pursue communal goals. (Solomon, 2009) That is why male’s
purchasing is strongly driven by functionality and performance of products. (Tungate, 2008) In
addition patterns of responses to market stimuli may be shaped by differences in sex-role
orientation. (Solomon, 2009) As time goes on, evolution of sex roles occurs with continuous
change of societies. In the past, people regarded males and females as producing and consuming
ones respectively. Within a family, women were traditionally playing the main purchasing roles
while men were expected to work hard, create values, and achieve goals. (Tungate, 2008) With
the rise of feminism, women gradually obtained more opportunities to work outside. Obviously
nowadays they are turning more independent due to their growing economic power.
Consequently men are more involved in housework and family’s purchasing. Not surprisingly as
many studies proved that man also shows more feminine-associated interests in shopping and
looking good. It implies that a trend towards behavior around the world might be caused by shifts
in sex roles. Additionally Solomon argued that western’s cultural definition of masculinity is
“evolving as men try to redefine sex roles while they stay in a `safe zone` of acceptable behaviors
bounded by danger zones of sloppiness at one extreme and effeminate behavior at the other.”
(Solomon, 2009) Further, the sex role association is diminishing for many traditional male or
female-oriented products. (Schiffman, et al., 2010). In recent years, the word metrosexual, which
refers to a straight and urban guy who is keen on fashion, home-design, gourmet cooking, and
personal concerned products, is mostly in use of defining new types of males. (Solomon, 2008)
The term was original coined by a British gay writer named Mark Simpson in 1994. (Tungate,
2008) Media and advertisements then were broadly employed by marketers in portraying an ideal
metrosexual model. As a result this type of non-traditional male has at a time been the main
objective for marketers to target.

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In the real world today, as Enter Genevieve Flaven stated “men have entered a great period of
exploration.” (Tungate, 2008) Many studies proved that males want to maintain their traditional
manliness, but they also attempt to adapt themselves to new lifestyles and attitudes. Moreover
according to Mintel “Today’smen are far more likely to adopt a regular grooming routine
consisting of shave, shower, deodorize, hair styling and fragrance than ever before.” (Tungate,
2008) It is convinced that men are more concerned about their appearances. However there are
still some problems marketer’s needs to consider when they create marketing strategies. First,
men are found to be loyal to products and they feel averse to try new brands. So familiarity is a
crucial driver when it comes to male cosmetics purchasing. (Tungate, 2008) Second, men prefer
straightly doing the buying job rather than browsing in shopping malls. Besides, men prefer
simply pack-aged products to complexly packaged ones. Last but not least, women’s suggestions
are still significant for men to select and purchase personal care products.
2.2 Indian Beauty and Personal Care Market Analysis
The Indian Beauty and Personal Care (BPC) market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9%, from
~USD 14-15 billion in 2017 to ~USD 22-23 billion in 2022. The growth has been aided by rising
disposable income which has grown over 35-45% from 2012-2017. With the rising disposable
income, demand for enhanced products and increasing desire to look good of the Indian
consumer, presents a golden opportunity for the beauty and personal care market to grow
exponentially in India.
The industry is further categorized into seven major categories – cosmetics, fragrance, men’s
grooming, skin care, bath & shower, hair care and oral care. Specialized categories like
cosmetics, fragrance, men’s grooming and skin care are set to outpace the growth of generic
categories and will hold ~40-45% of the overall market by 2022. Generic categories like bath &
shower, hair care and oral care already enjoy a higher penetration and are mature categories
because of which they will witness slow growth. These categories are dominated by multi-
national giants like Hindustan Unilever, Proctor & Gamble etc. which have brands that offer
functional benefits and value for money products.

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 Figure: Growth of Indian Cosmetics Market
Herbal cosmetics products are driving growth due to increasing adoption, and the segment alone
is expected to grow at 15-20%, as people become more aware of the possible perils in
consistently using chemical formulations switch to ‘safer’ herbal and Ayurvedic products like
Himalaya, Biotique, Dabur, Lotus, Patanjali, etc. Many Indian & international brands have been
trying to seize the established player position in this segment by launching multiple products
across categories. With rising demand, super premium and luxury brands such as Shahnaz
Hussain, Forest Essentials and Kama Ayurveda have also launched products in this space.
Evolving consumerism has played a significant role in shaping this market. Buying patterns and
frequencies help identify consumers as loyalists or experimental. Consumer preference indicates
that daily care products are purchased online predominantly due to product standardization,
offers and discounts on various portals whereas mid-premium and premium+ products are
purchased in the offline retail stores since the consumer mindset still believes in the ‘touch &
feel’ of the product.
Fuelling this trend further is the investment of brands in training professionals who offer proper
guidance and have knowledge of multiple products which enhances the consumer experience
greatly.
Market Segmentation: Market segmentation is done on the basis of category of cosmetics,
channels of distribution, gender basis and on the basis of geography. Global market segmentation
of cosmetic sector can be seen as below:

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 Figure: Global cosmetic Market Segment
Indian Market Size: The Indian cosmetics and beauty products segment has been witnessing
steady growth of late. It is primarily categorized into five major categories - body care, face care,
hair care, hand care and color cosmetics. Indian beauty and personal care (BPC) industry is
estimated to be worth USD 8 billion. India’s per capita spend on beauty and personal care is it is
growing in line with India’s GDP growth.

Figure: Indian Spent Per Capita for Beauty Industry

Market Dominators: Many international brands like Revlon (the first international cosmetics
brand to enter India in the midnineties), Avon, Burberrys, Calvin Klein, Christian Dior, Estee

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Lauder, L’Oreal, Max factor, Max Mara, Body Shop, Maybelline New York, MAC, Bobbi
Brown and many more have been present in India for an extensive period of time.

Figure: Dominating Companies in the Indian Beauty and Care Products Industry
The top three players in the Indian market are international players, namely Hindustan Unilever,
Colgate-Palmolive India and L'Oréal India. The other prominent international players with a
strong presence in the Indian market include Gillette India, Johnson & Johnson (India), Reckitt
Benckiser (India) and Procter & Gamble Home Products. Domestic players were catching up
over the review period with the emergence of the trends towards natural, herbal and Ayurvedic
products. Prominent domestic players include Godrej Consumer Products, Dabur India, Marico,
Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting, Emami and Patanjali Ayurved. The size of personal care
market in India is estimated to be around Rs.141 billion in the year 2006-2007, recording a
growth rate of 10 percent. The size of the cosmetic market is Rs.64 billion in 2006-2007. The
major segments by sales value are skin care and shampoos. The major segments can be seen from
the following table

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Figure: Personal Care Products in Market in India (Source: Market Survey of India’s Cosmetic &
Personal Care Sector, “Ace Global Private Limited.”,2008).
It can be seen from the above table that the size of cosmetic market is 141.4 billion in the
different categories in terms of percentage share is shown by the pie diagram. It can be seen that
personal wash accounts for 39 percent, followed by skin care (15 percent) shampoos (12
percent), oral care (16 percent), hair & dyes colors (5 percent), Men’s grooming (9 percent) and
so, on. Thus, the main product categories are personal wash, skin care and shampoos.
Overall the market is moving towards premiumization, with premium segment growing at 6.3%,
as compared to 1.1% for mass market. Indian brands (both regional and national) have a sizeable
presence in the mass category, while premium markets are largely dominated by the international
brands.
• Indian brands (both regional and national) have a sizeable presence in mass category
• Prestige markets are largely dominated by international brands.
Imported cosmetics have had a major impact on the Indian market. Indian consumers tend to look
towards international brands as lifestyle enhancement products. Factors Expected to Drive the
Rural Market
• Trend of growing consciousness about grooming, with 50% of rural population aged
below 25 years.
• With increased awareness, the rural lifestyle and habits have started mirroring urban
aspirations and lifestyle.
• This has brought about a shift from homemade solutions to branded products.

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 Figure: Market Segment Landscape (A.T Kearney)
Distribution Channels and Marketing: India has seen tremendous growth of modern organized
retail channels like department stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, specialty store chains, and
shopping malls along with direct sales and a highly competitive ecommerce market for cosmetic
brands. Amongst the multiple sales channels, grocery retailers continue to lead the pack.
However, share of specialist channels such as chemists, beauty stores and modern trade is
expected to grow in the next few years, with chemists and pharmacies expected to gain
significant traction.
Factors Driving Chemist Channel Growth
• Offers uncluttered product spread
• Offers neat and clean environment
• Premiumization
• Reliable expert advice by pharmacies
Trends that are shaping the Indian Beauty and Personal Care Market
• Shift towards mental and physical well-being through use of natural, organic, anti-fatigue,
antipollution, anti-ageing products.
• Increased adoption of men’s grooming products.
• Higher spending on holistic bridal solutions such as year-long skin care regimes.
• Increasing use of beauty devices and technology infused products and services.
• Consumers opting for at-home services, online buying.
• Heightened sense of individualism in purchase and choice among Millennial’s.
• Interest and willingness to trade-up, increased use, bigger repertoire of products.
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 • Growing importance of peer feedback and product reviews in purchase decisions.

Figure: Distribution Channel (A.T Kearney)

The swift growth of the beauty business has not only impacted Indian firms to encourage
competition in the space, but has also lured numerous international brands to the country. To give
an instance, today, India has very few professional make-up lines that can cater to the wide range
of salons and professional make-up artists across the country. This gives an opportunity to
international professional make-up lines to penetrate into the market. Similarly, the skincare
segment in the Indian market is flooded with natural ingredients based products at present.
Demands are high for products that are formulated using key ingredients like seaweed extracts
and sea salts and other mineral-rich elements. Since these ingredients being exotic are found
majorly in premium skincare segment, international players can seek to occupy a large share of
the total space in the premium mass segment in the future.
The key factors to successfully enter the beauty and cosmetics market in India include careful
understanding and adaptation of Indian skin types and tones and customize products accordingly.
During the initial years of entering the market, the volumes of sales are likely to be low while the
cost of operations is observed to be high. Gradually the scenario will change as sales are
expected to increase.

3. Star Cosmetics – Subject Company of the Study and Research

3.1 Overview of Star Cosmetics

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Stars Cosmetics is an Indian expert and professional brand which was founded by Dr. Vishesh G
Nayak and Mrs Rupashree Nayak. Stars Cosmetics was established over 50 years back in
Mumbai India and is a family-claimed business offering different expert & professional beauty
and make-up items to the whole film, fashion and theatre industry. These days the organization
offers its expert professional products to the beauty salons and the general population and wishes
to go universal and has picked Germany as their destination in Europe. The principle result of
Stars Cosmetics is a professional, high and good quality product for the face eyes and lips.
Additionally, that, the brand is attempting to launch into after-treatment care products, for
example, body creams, body scours etc. The main after make-up care product they wish to launch
is known for its anti-microbial and healing properties which makes it an ideal element for make-
up and make-up removal process.
Their make-up products accomplish increasingly comfortable and more skin friendly output after
the make-up has been applied. The subjected organization as of now is a developing ubiquity in
Indian brand which produces remarkable beauty products. Today Stars Cosmetics is advancing
its products by attending exhibitions, make-up academy, exhibiting through videos and tutorial
videos. The firm participates in enormous exhibitions committed to professional beauty skincare
and treatments, for example, Bangalore Fashion Week, Biofach India, Professional Beauty India,
Health and Personal Care Ingredients HPCI India presentation, Cosmo Tech Expo and different
other Cosmetic Trade shows in India, where it promotes its products and enables the visitors to
try the make-up at the venue itself. Right now, one of the most important issues for Star
Cosmetics is expanding the awareness among new clients and customers. The organization is
focusing on a few new markets and one of them is Germany. The fact of the matter is to utilize
Social Media to draw in the German clients and raise the awareness, and brand recognition in the
target market. The creator will mull over those issues and address them in this proposition. Star's
Cosmetics, an organization in the business of beauty is existing for more than 5 decades. The
company started as a specialized manufacturer of professional make-up products & material for
theatre, film, television and salon / parlor industry.
The Star's team is dedicated to those having specific needs for professional make-up and make-
overs in the theatre, film, and television and parlor industry. The company headquarters at the
commercial capital of India, Mumbai, and has set of colorists and scientists continuously
working on the developments aspects of the products since last 5 decades. The intention being to
use newer raw materials with special skin caring properties and enhance product attributes. Star's
gets its inspiration from the practicing professionals.

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 3.2 Social Media Activities of Stars Cosmetics
As referenced previously, Stars Cosmetics is a youthful expert beauty brand established in
Mumbai India. The principle product of the organization is cosmetics items. Due the way that the
result of the subjected organization permits less unsafe, progressively lovely and moderate make
up removal procedure with dependable outcomes it previously picked up fame in India.

Figure: Snapshot of their Star Cosmetics Website (starsindia.net, 2020)

The key showcasing channel of Stars Cosmetics is exhibitions, fashion shows, word of mouth by
make-up artists. Presently the subjected cosmetics company is effectively utilizing social media
platforms, like, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube so as to stay in contact with its clients. As
mentioned previously, Stars Cosmetics is famous in the films, theatre and fashion industries. The
brand picked up fame in India, where it turned out to be notable by Indian celebrities’ people
because of its less harmful characteristics. Regardless of the way that Stars Cosmetics is
available on a few web platforms, it is for the most part dynamic on Instagram. At present the
brand has 3830 Instagram supporters and offers pictures routinely. To the extent the content is
concerned, Stars Cosmetics is for the most part distributing the photos of its products,
photographs from events and the cosmetics items. In addition, the organization is sharing pictures
from various beauty events where it partakes and shows its items. (Stars Cosmetics Instagram
pictures, 2019).
Stars Cosmetics is distributing video content by means of the Star's Cosmetics Youtube
channel. The organization posts videos about doing the makeup as well as videos of how any
how any actors and actresses they have done makeup for and for how many films they have done
so. Be that as it may, the brand Stars Cosmetics quit posting content three years prior on
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YouTube channel. In addition, Stars Cosmetics speaks with its clients through Facebook. The
Facebook records followers of the brand page has roughly 1 million followers and distributes
content like the one of its Instagram account.

Figure: Snapshot of their Instagram and Facebook page

As of now the organization is aiming to win German customers, which is the reason it is wanted
to make a Facebook and Instagram accounts in German language. The pertinence of the issue
will be tried by the aftereffects of the online survey. So as to make sense of, regardless of
whether the objective clients are keen on case brands items it is important to lead the exploration
first. (Schaffer (2013, 59) claims that Social Media Marketing is a huge and successful
component of a overall marketing procedure, however just in the event that it is utilized sanely
and effectively. Stars Cosmetics is a generally new brand available and it just begins getting well
known on informal communication destinations. By the by, the results of the brand have a
triumphant possibility of having new fans in Germany, which is the reason it is pivotal to remain
associated with the clients, so as to give them all the essential data, answer the inquiries and
respond to their input. The present objective of the brand is to achieve the German buyers by
methods for utilizing the web portals. The further research will focus on this theme and will help
the subjected organization in accomplishment of its targets.
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4. EVALUATE STRATEGY FOR DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS FOR
STAR COSMETIC

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Research methodology According to Denzin and Lincoln (2005) a research methodology or
strategy is determined by the nature of the research question and the subject being investigated.
As a result the research format used in an investigation should be seen as a tool to answer the
research question. This thesis aimed at exploring and understanding the meanings constructed by
the participants. The study did not aim to provide the ultimate truth about the research topic but
rather to investigate a particular way of looking at and deriving meaning on the phenomenon
under investigation. A qualitative research approach was chosen as the methodology because this
approach reinforces an understanding and interpretation of meaning as well as intentions
underlying human interaction. Data was collected using in-depth interviews.
Qualitative Research: Denzin and Lincoln (2005) describe qualitative research as a multifaceted
research method involving an interpretative, naturalistic approach to subject matter. The
multifaceted nature of qualitative research enables researchers to develop a holistic picture of the
phenomenon in question. Denzin and Lincoln (2005) provide the following principles that
underlie qualitative research:
 Qualitative research is holistic; it looks at the larger picture and begins with a search for
understanding of the whole.
 Qualitative research looks at the relationships within a system.
 Qualitative research focus on understanding a given social setting, not necessarily on
making predictions about that setting.
 Qualitative research demands time consuming analysis; it requires ongoing analysis of the
data.
 Qualitative research design requires the researcher to become the research instrument. It
also incorporates room for description of the researcher's own biases and ideological
preferences.
 Qualitative research design incorporates informed consent decisions and is responsive to
ethical concerns.

In qualitative research the objective is exploratory and descriptive rather than explanatory
(Ferreirra, Mouton, Puth, Schurink & Schurink, 1998). The descriptive nature of qualitative
research allows the researcher to provide a description of the experiences of the participants,
which will either sustain or confront the theoretical assumptions on which the study is based
(Meyer, 2001). The descriptive nature of qualitative research enables readers to understand the
meaning attached to the experience, the distinct nature of the problem and the impact of the
problem (Meyer,
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2001).
Sampling: When conducting research many types of sampling are possible, although researchers
in qualitative research usually focus on relatively small samples (Lyell, 1998). Research
participants are generally selected because they are able to provide rich descriptions of their
experiences and are willing to articulate their experiences, thereby providing information that is
rich and which will be able to challenge and enrich the researchers understanding. Two non-
probability sampling approaches were used to select the participants for this study. The sampling
method was a combination of judgment and snowball techniques. The researcher specifically
selected participants who would be able to contribute to the research topic and who would be
willing to share their experiences in dual-career marriages (Crabtree & Miller, 1992).
Ethical Considerations: Given the importance of ethics in conducting research and the challenges
around conducting research, universities go to great lengths to protect the dignity and safety of
research participants (Silverman, 2009). The Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pretoria
has over the past few years introduced a Research Ethics Committee whose aim is to ensure that
ethical requirements are adhered to when research is conducted. However, at the time the current
research was initiated and registered the Faculty Ethics Committee was not in existence.
Therefore, this research was not approved by an ethics committee. However, the proposal for the
research was approved by committees in the Department of Psychology. Although following a
formal ethical procedure (e.g. gaining written consent from participants) was not required the
researcher ensured that research ethics were adhered to during the research process.
Data Collection Process: Qualitative research emphasizes the importance of context in analyzing
data (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). During the research process and especially during the data
collection phase, the participants were able to decide on the venue for their interviews. As a
result each participant was interviewed at a venue chosen by her and at the time that was
convenient to her. The participants were interviewed either at their homes or at their place of
work. Most of the participants indicated a preference for the interviews to take place at their
place of work. The interviews were conducted by the researcher and were all conducted in
English, although there were times when participants would use their home language, either
Hindi or other Indian Language, to express some idioms. Although the participants‟ home
language was not English their command of the language is good due to their education and
professional status. Conducting the interviews in English allowed the researcher to transcribe the
interviews as presented by the participants without translating the interviews. However, in

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instances where the participants expressed themselves in a language other than English this
information was translated during the transcription stage.

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