ASSIGNMENT 2: MY MARKETING PLAN- PART B 1

Assignment 2:
My Marketing Plan- Part B

Danielle N. Crowell

Strayer University
MKT 500: Dr. Dotty Heady

May 10, 2017

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The idea and purpose of Melanique is to encourage inclusion in the beauty industry so it

is very important that we brand ourselves correctly and efficiently. According to

MarketingMO.com (2016), a brand strategy defines what you stand for, a promise you make, and

the personality you convey. Our goal for our brand is to relate to each and every one of our

customers. We want to make them feel understood and accommodated with the products that we

sell as well as the customer service that we provide. It is important to create a welcoming

environment to help our customer feel at home. I am very big on vibes and first impressions, and

I don’t mind spending my money with companies that make me feel like family. We must convey

this message in our branding strategy.

Our brand name is the first thing our customer will learn about us. The name describes us

perfectly. Melanique plays on the words melanin and unique. Every person’s features are unique

and we get that. Melanin is a natural pigment in skin, hair and eyes and it determines the color of

those body features. Our brand logo will be the word Melanique with an ombre of natural skin

colors. It will range from a creamy off-white to a deep brown shade. The colors in our logo will

also speak to the type of company we are. We must also reinforce our purpose in our slogan. The

slogan will be “for every shade of you”, which sends the message that we accommodate all

shades of people.

Along with our private collection of makeup products, we also want to extend our brand

to offer skin care products as well. We want to offer skincare products for people with different

types of skin which include oily skin, dry skin, combination skin and skin conditions such as

psoriasis, eczema, and acne. These will be natural products that include different natural

ingredients that could be beneficial to all people. This will help emphasize the quality of

Melanique’s products and will help us to become a reputable company. Holistic skin care
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regimens are becoming very popular and we want to provide them on a large scale. People are

becoming more conscience of what they put on and in their body and we want to be a trusted

brand that provides healthy products for our customers.

The next step in branding Melanique is to develop a marketing strategy. Because our

target market is African Americans and other people of color (POC), our plan is to market to

these groups of people first. Social media will play a huge part in this marketing strategy. The

beauty industry has taken the internet by storm and it is imperative that we take advantage of the

opportunities that social media has to offer. Websites like YouTube and Instagram are very

popular sites and help promote all kinds of beauty products. In June 2016, beauty-related content

generated more than 5 billion views per month on YouTube alone (Gordon, 2017). Beauty

blogging is very popular and is usually where people go to learn about new makeup skills and

products on the market. Beauty bloggers are often paid or given new products to test out for their

YouTube channel. This is a form of promotion for the product to help introduce it. We want to

offer samples of our products to bloggers and beauty experts to help market our products. In

specific, we would like to first offer the products for sample bloggers who have an ethnic fan

base. This will help us to receive feedback from potential consumers who we would want to

purchase our products.

We will also promote heavily via our Instagram account. Since our home base will be in

Atlanta, GA, we will advertise locally via print ads, television ads, and at local events. Atlanta is

famous for hosting many beauty events such as the Bonner Brothers International Beauty Show,

the Professional Makeup Artist Convention (PMAC) and others. These events attract many

beauty consumers and professionals in the beauty industry. This could be a great starting point
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for Melanique. A lot of these events are held in the summer and fall seasons and this would be a

great time for Melanique to begin to implement our marketing strategy.

With every great business, there is a positioning statement that explains the company’s

purpose and goals. A brand positioning statement explains what your brand does, who you target,

and the benefits of your brand, in a short, concise statement (Smith, 2016). Melanique’s

positioning statement is “Melanique provides all women of color with a wider array of beauty

products than any other beauty retailer. We do so by diversifying the range of products for all

skin tones and making different brands of products more accessible”. I have included a

perceptual map to illustrate Melanique’s position in the retail beauty business. We measured our

position by accessibility and diversity of products. As you can see, Melanique locations will be

more accessible than our competitors and we will offer a more diverse range of products in our

stores.

Melanique's Perceptual Map

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The beauty industry is a very popular and profitable industry. The U.S. is the most

valuable beauty and personal care market in the world. In 2015, the American beauty and

personal care market was valued at 80 billion U.S. dollars (Bender, 2016). African American

women spend about $7.5 billion on beauty products annually (Hope, 2016). With all of the video

tutorials and social media advertisement, Melanique is in a great position for major growth. POC

want to see more companies cater to their wants and needs and that is exactly what Melanique

aims to do.

I believe the brand name, logo, and positioning statement communicates the purpose of

Melanique and will attract our target market in addition to many others. When you make your

purpose clear and easy to understand, customers will immediately gravitate towards what you

have to offer. Our logo sparks curiosity and that can sometimes be all you need to get someone in

the door. We bring fresh ideas to the beauty industry and hope to help foster the ideas of our

consumers. We are the one stop shop for the beauty lover in everyone and plan to express that in

all ways that we advertise. We also want to communicate that in our mission statement.

Melanique’s mission statement is:

“Here at Melanique, we strive to provide excellent customer service and an improved

way to purchase all of your beauty needs. We recognize and understand the stress and

frustration of having to settle for products that may not always fit your unique features

and we aim to eliminate that frustration by providing our valued customers with every

product you may want, all right under one roof.”

With this marketing plan, I am very confident that we will convey our purpose to consumers and

set ourselves apart from the rest.

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References

Brand Strategy. (2016, October 22). Retrieved May 13, 2017, from
http://www.marketingmo.com/strategic-planning/brand-strategy/

Gordon, K. (2017). Topic: Beauty Brands on Social Media. Retrieved May 13, 2017, from
https://www.statista.com/topics/2381/beauty-brands-on-social-media/

Smith, K. (2016, September 29). How to Write a Brand Positioning Statement. Retrieved May 14,
2017, from https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/write-brand-positioning-statement/

Bender, J. (2016). Topic: Cosmetics Consumer Behavior in the U.S. Retrieved May 14, 2017, from
https://www.statista.com/topics/3138/cosmetics-consumer-behavior-in-the-us/

Hope, C. (2016, August 23). The Makeup Industry's Frustrating Cycle of Struggle and Progress for
Women of Color. Retrieved April 29, 2017, from http://jezebel.com/the-makeup-industrys-
frustrating-cycle-of-struggle-and-1782880385