This presentation was made during my internship under Prof. Sameer Mathur at Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow. It is based on review of case study presented by IVEY School of Business concerning the hair-care sales promotion. *Some of the materials may involve copyright issues.

3. >> Best known and respected
retail names in United Kingdom.
>> Provides health and beauty
products.
>> Operates in around 130 countries with a
total of 75,000 employees.

5. Plan sales promotion strategy for a
line of professional hair care
products at Boots.
To drive sales volume and trade-up consumers
from lower brand values, while retaining or
building brand equity.

7. Challenge is to
choose one of
the
promotional
alternatives-

11. What to choose ?

12. 3 for 2
GWP
50p Coupon

14. •Started in 1849 by John Boot as the
‘The British and American Botanic
Establishment.’
•Started to provide physical comfort
to the needy
•Developed into a private company
‘Boot and Company Limited’
•The company began to expand with
more stores.
•The marketing strategy involved
around being – ‘Largest, Best and
Cheapest.’

15. The company launched its first logo in late
1883.It was focused that customers should
to pay cash as prices were cut a large extent
in product range.
Later in 1960’s mostly after the war
regeneration the company adopted a
new black and white logo.

16. In post war regeneration and
development, the company included a
new power house, printing works and a
new pharmaceutical building.
The company has expanded its major
sector in pharmacy and owned global
differentiated brands in
medication market.

17. Boots continued to
develop product range.
About 17 cosmetics were
launched to target the
teenage market.

18. The international expansion operations were performed, which exported
healthcare products to more than 130 countries.

20. •The consumer market comprised of brands such
as Pantene Pro-v , Head & shoulders, Alberto V5
and Elvive.
•These national brands were widely available in
supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury and
Morrison's.
•The sales of the brands were directly
proportional to the amount of advertising
expenditure.

21. •About 60 major brands of hair care products were
available in the U.K. market.
•None of the brand had more than a nine percent market
share.
•The overall market was expected to grow by between
one to three percent per year.
•Severe competition proved how volume grew more
quickly In market than value.

22. • Boots desired to build a new market by using
celebrity endorsements to create awareness and
create an emotional attachment between consumers
and the brand.
• No celebrity-endorsed products were available in
retail stores. Boots began to cultivate relationships,
beginning 1996, with well-established hairdressers in
the United Kingdom.

23. • Boots developed a critical mass of professional hair-care
brands.
• Hairdressers got access to a large percentage of U.K.
consumers through Boots’ 1,300 stores.
• Boots worked with the celebrities to design formulations
that were functionally better than existing brands. Under
the agreement, Boots manufactured the products and paid
a per-unit licensing fee for use of the celebrity’s
brand name.

24. In the more than five years since the first celebrity
brand was introduced, Boots felt that it had not
been able to sufficiently link its name with these
products and hence missed on maximizing
profitability.

26. One of the most
influential and
creative hairdressers.
His name is synonymous
with style, innovation
and success.

27. Entrepreneurial in spirit, global in impact, John
Frieda’s team of celebrity stylists (the “House of
Experts”) fuels the company’s new product initiatives
with the inside track on hot, new celebrity hair trends.

28. A popular
hairstylist to
the stars from
the film,
television,
fashion, and
music
industries.

29. One of the most esteemed and influential names in British
hairdressing. His company’s philosophy is simple — creating
sexy, contemporary catwalk looks within its salons alongside
a salon performance range of hair-care products to recreate
catwalk glamour at home.

31. The showman of all
hairdressers.
Has pioneering techniques
and cuts.
Styles include- The Wedge,
The Chop, and The Scrunch.

32. -Known worldwide for
hair style and hair care.

33. Brand Introduced Distribution Specifies
( No. of salons
in U.K. )
Market
Awareness
Charles Worthington 1996 Only Boots 5 Medium
John Frieda 1996 Widely
Available
3 Strong
Nicky Clarke 1998 Widely
Available
2 Medium
Umberto Gianni 1999 Widely
Available
8 Low
Toni & Guy Jan 2001 Only Boots 250 Strong
Trevor Sorbie Sept 2001 Only Boots 2 Medium
Lee Stafford Sept 2001 Only Boots 3 Low

36. * All products are normally available in 250 ml sizes. Their smaller Take-Away versions are normally 75 ml.
** All prices are in British pounds and per 100 ml unless otherwise stated. These prices are only applicable at Boots stores. Within a product category the prices vary
because of their formulations

38. >> Holds a 8.4% market share in hair-
care market. And products include
Pantene, Head & Shoulders.

39. •Product range consists of shampoos,
conditioners and styling products.
•It holds a 5% share of the UK hair-
care market.
•Typically a French origin company.
•Owns over 2000 products in all
sectors of beauty business.

40. •Offers a variety of hair-care, skin-care and home-
care products.
•Owns upto 6-7% of market share.
•It has about 2000 stores located worldwide.

42. Most major retailers carried a variety of professional and mass
market hair-care brands. The major competitors in the
supermarket segment were Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrison's.
TESCO
SAINSBURY’S
MORRISON’S
• Largest supermarket
chain in U.K.
• 1.800 stores and 45K
employees.
• Second largest in U.K.
• About 700 stores
• Provides high quality +
low prices
• Owns around 400 stores.

44. •Reasons as to why customers are not brand loyal !
•Why no brand has more than 9% market share ?

45. There is a general
belief among
consumers that
changing
shampoo brands
provide better
results than using
a single brand.

47. Trends in buying behavior led to
changing preferences-
•70’s market wanted gentle
shampoos
•80’s saw a emphasis on detangling
•90’s market had value for shiny
hair-care products.

49. 1. No variation in product-sizes
because of the added cost
and complexity involved.
2. No media advertising budget
was allocated for this
promotion.
3. There would only be signage
within the store to promote
the offer.

51. • Average bottle size (shampoo/conditioner) was 250
millilitres (ml) — with an average pre-promotional
price of £3.99. Industry average retail margins on
premium brands averaged 40 %.
• Mass-market brands had an average retail price of
£2, with retailer margins of approximately 25 %.
• The manufacturer’s typical margin was between
eight per cent to 12 per cent on their cost for both
types of products.

52. Which is the
BEST
alternative ?

54. This offer would enable consumers to buy two hair-care
items at regular price and receive one free. Customers could
combine any three items they liked (e.g., shampoo,
conditioner, and styling gel, etc.), but the three items had to
be the same brand. The free item would be the one that
was the least expensive of the three items selected by the
shopper.

55. Sales per day would increase to
300 per cent of pre promotion
sales during the deal period with
this offer. And approximately 60
per cent of these sales would be to
customers who would not
otherwise have purchased a hair-
care product from Boots during the
promotional period.

57. A GWP was an offer in which customers were given a
product sample along with a regular purchase. For
example, a sample size of conditioner would be
packaged with a regular bottle of shampoo. An
existing sample product would be used to
avoid the need to design and produce additional
packaging.

58. • Adding the sample
would cost 90p per unit
for the product plus 3p per
unit to secure the sample
to the featured product.
• Robinson expected that sales during
the promotional period would be 170
per cent of sales .
• It is estimated that 40 per cent of sales would be to
Boots shoppers that would not have otherwise
purchased a hair-care product from Boots during the
promotional period.

60. The 50p off option was a more conservative
approach to promoting the brands. All
customers would be able to redeem the
coupon during their current store visit. Also,
most competitors tended to use price discounts
or GWP’s as their promotional method.

61. • Robinson estimated that sales
would increase to 150 % of non-
promotion sales because
December would be a heavy
promotional period for mass
market brands.
• 50 % of sales would come
from Boots customers who
would not have otherwise
purchased a hair-care product
within the promotional period.

62. 0
50
100
150
200
250
300
3 for 2 GWP On pack
Coupon
Market Analysis % Sales Increase
% Increase in consumers (who
prefer other brands usually)

64. • Boots is U.K. based company.
• To promote the sales Dave has to consider a promotional alternative.
• The competition in hair-care is severe and many big brands
fight for the battle.
• Most of the hair-care brands are associated with professional hair- stylers
and celebrities.
• Research shows that consumers are not vey brand loyal.
• Current boots consumers and existing purchases were the
primary target of promotion.
• ‘3 for 2’ seems more profitable as it not only lead to
300% increment in promotion sales but attracts
60% customers who would not have otherwise purchased.

65. •The business case was downloaded from the Harvard site www.hbs.org
•The Richard Ivey School of Business website
•Boots website www.boots-uk.in
•Various images in the background were downloaded from
www.google.com/images
•Charles Worthington home-page http://www.cwlondon.com
•John Frieda home-page http://www.johnfrieda.com
•Umberto Giannini home-page http://www.umbertogiannini.com/
•Toni & Guy home-page http://www.toniandguy.co.uk/start.html
•Trevor Sortie home-page http://www.trevorsorbie.com/index.htm
•Lee Stafford home-page http://www.leestafford.com/

66. Marketing Professor 2013-Present
Marketing Professor 2009-2013
Ph.D. and M.S. (Marketing) 2003 - 2009
Undergraduate student at IIT Bombay
Summer Intern under Prof. Sameer Mathur