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University of New York in Prague School of Business

Bachelor of Business Administration Program

FINAL PROJECT Marketing strategy for skincare company in Czech Republic

Author: Ekaterina Vaganova

Mentor: Neal, Harold

Abstract / Executive Summary The skincare products are getting more and more of a beauty market share. The trend of neutral and healthy skin is spreading trough different markets, including the Czech Republic. Nowadays, skincare became a necessity and a constant need for women. Most of the skincare users can’t imagine their life without it. So, as a business student, I saw significant interest in analyzing the Czech republic skincare market and understanding how the new skincare brand could step in the market more effectively. For the effective entrance of the market, a skincare company would need a marketing strategy. This paper is aimed to be a full marketing strategy for any skincare brand or just a business person who wishes to create a skincare brand in the Czech Republic. Keywords: branding, positioning, segmentation, advertising, market research, market needs, market trends, new product, marketing strategy, , skincare.

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Table of contents 1. Introduction ...... 4

2. Research Methodology ...... 5

3. Czech Republic economic factors ...... 6

4. Beauty Industry Analysis ...... 7

4.1 Cosmetics industry ...... 7

4.2 Global trends in skincare ...... 9

4.3 Czech skincare trends ...... 10

5. Porter’s Five Force Analysis ...... 11

6. Competitor analysis ...... 13

7.Segmentation ...... 16

7.1 Geographic ...... 16

7.2 Demographic ...... 17

7.3 Psychographic ...... 20

7.4 Behaviouristic ...... 23

8. Marketing Strategy ...... 26

8.1 Positioning approach ...... 26

8.2 Branding Strategy ...... 27

8.3 Pricing Strategies ...... 29

8.4 Communication Strategies ...... 29

8.4.1 Advertising ...... 30

8.4.2 Sales promotion ...... 31

8.4.3 Personal selling ...... 31

8.4.4 Public relations ...... 32

8.4.5 Direct marketing ...... 33

8.9 Evaluation ...... 34

Conclusion ...... 36

References ...... 37 2

APPENDIX 1 ...... 39

APPENDIX 2 ...... 41

APPENDIX 3 ...... 44

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1. Introduction Skincare remains popular type goods among people all over the world, leader of the industry in comparison with other types of the industry of beauty. Nowadays, skincare is becoming one of the necessities for the consumers, and skincare products are bought as everyday goods. Before analyzing the skincare market, we need to define what is skincare. Skincare – cosmetics good which consists of different groups of products: Skincare, Facial , Body care and Sun protection (Loreal Annual Report 2019,2019) Czech Republic, like any developed country, has a lot of potential in developing a new brand of cosmetics. Czech Republic itself has a great environment for starting a business with an excellent perspective to develop it for the whole of Europe in the future. Czech republic has a stable political and economic environment and an educated workforce.(Czechinvest,2019) Like every market, the Czech Republic has its own features, which will influence the marketing strategy. Right now, the consumers have not a wide variety of brands, compared to the USA or German market. Therefore, the cosmetics market of Czech Republic needs careful analysis for drawing up a sustainable marketing strategy. The goal of this research -analysis of the market environment for a potential skincare cosmetic company in Czech Republic and creating a marketing strategy. Objectives of the research include considering the following aspects: 1) Analyze the Czech Republic’s macroeconomic factors 2) Understand global and local skincare trends 3) Revile the characteristics of the target audience 4) Analyze the existing competitors 5) Create a Marketing strategy for the skincare in Czech Republic

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2. Research Methodology

For the purpose of this thesis, I have chosen to use a combination of two research tools- surveys and personal interview.

Surveys

Surveys were chosen as a research tool because they are a quick and effective method to collect information from multiple participants. There were two surveys distributed.

The Survey №1(Brand preferences) was distributed through Facebook and was done through the google forms. The survey consisted of 7 skincare and beauty industry related questions, these questions can be found in the Appendix 1. On the survey №1, there were 100 participants. These participants were women 16-50 years old with interest in cosmetics. The Survey №1 was aimed for understanding the patterns between participants in their attitudes to different cosmetics brands

The survey №2(Segmentation) was also distributed through Facebook and done through the google forms. The survey consisted of 12 skincare and beauty industry related questions, these questions can be found in the Appendix 2. There were 130 participants. These participants were women 16-50 years old with interest in cosmetics. Survey №2 was aimed for understanding participants’ factors: demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioristic patterns. So then to create a segmentation analysis.

Interview

Interview was chosen as another research tool because it gives us qualitative information about the cosmetics topic. I interviewed the brand manager of the “” Veronika Přibylová. Dermacol is one of the oldest brands in the cosmetics industry; that is why I chose to interview its brand manager. The aim of the interview was an understanding of the recent trends in the beauty market and reviling the most effective communication tools in the Czech Republic. The questions from the interview are presented in Appendix 3. The interview was held online via Zoom.

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3. Czech Republic economic factors Before coming into a new market with a strategy, we need to understand the market as a whole and the country’s economy. The Czech Republic is a developed European country with high-income economy. The population of the country is 10.69 million (on 31 Dec.2019). The majority of the country's inhabitants (95%) are Czechs by nationality, while about 5% are foreigners ( Ukraine, Slovakia, Vietnam, Russia and etc.) The primary industries in Czech Republic are mechanical engineering, cast iron, and steel production, metalworking, chemical products, electronics, transport equipment, textiles, glass, beer, porcelain, ceramics, and medicines. The main agricultural products are sugar beets, potatoes, wheat and hops. The most significant industry in the Czech republic is automotive (more than 9% of GDP) As we see on the figure 1 the main economic factors are showing the positive results. This way the GDP is steadily growing at least by 2% each year. The Household expenditures were also growing at least by 1,8% yearly from 2014 and gross disposable income was steadily rising trough years . Also, from 2015 unemployment rate was falling an and in 2019 reached 2%.(Czech Statistics Office,2020)

Figure 1.Main Macroeconomics Indicators (Czech Statistics Office,2020) Overall, Czech economy shows good numbers in economy and is a good market to step in. Of course, because of the economic situation of 2020 the economy of Czech republic in 2020-2021 is expected to be in the recovery stage. However, the historical numbers show us 6

that the macro economic factors back in crises of 2008 and 2014 had recovered successfully and fast. Therefore, the investment in Czech market does not lose the perspective even in the crisis times.

4. Beauty Industry Analysis 4.1 Cosmetics industry Overall, the cosmetics industry has shown a great numbers of growth, yearly. In 2019, the market gained +5%, and the sales were approx. two hundred twenty billion euros across the globe. As Figure 3 shows, most of the cosmetics are focused in the Asian sector (41%) and only 6% in Eastern Europe, which allows coming into the market. L’Oréal’s annual report states that the demand for beauty products has a vast potential to grow since the market produces many kinds of products, which suit particular needs and inquires of the different target

audiences.

Figure 2. Growth of the worldwide cosmetics market over 10 years and by geographic zone.((Loreal Annual Report 2019 ,2019) Figure 3. Breakdown of the About 40% of all cosmetics are skincare products. The market by geographic growth of this segmenting 2019 is estimated by +8% compared to zone.(Loreal Annual Report the global cosmetics market. L’Oréal, in its annual report, actively 2019 ,2019) promoting the skincare section as its gaining more popularity in the world. Additionally, Statista (2019) states that “Revenue in the Beauty & market amounts to US$1,206m in 2020. The market is expected to grow annually by 1.3%”

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Figure 4. Breakdown of the Figure 5. Breakdown of the market by geographic zone.(L’Oréal Annual Report 2019 ,2019) market by geographic zone.(L’Oréal Annual As the figure 6 illustrates the leader in the growth of Report 2019 ,2019) skincare segment is Asian and North American brands. Commonly, Asian brands have always been leaders in skincare product, especially in anti-aging and whitening features section. The Eastern European market shows only 4% of growth in skincare market On the figure 7 we can see the main beuty products producers and their part of the global market :  Loreal ( over 36 brands ; 31,8% of the market )  Unilever (over 60 brands ; 22,4% of the market)  Estee Lauder (over 18 brands ; 14,2% of the market)  Procter and Gamble (over 15 brands ; 13,2% of the market)  (over 35 brands ; 9,7% of the market) Figure 6. Breakdown of the  Coty (over 75 brands ; 9,1% of the market) skincare market by geographic zone.(L’Oréal Annual Report 2019 ,2019)

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Figure 7. Main worldwide players in sales. .(L’Oréal Annual Report 2019 ,2019) Overall, the global cosmetics market shows excellent efficiency throughout the year. The numbers of the market growth are positive even in the hard times as the 2014 year, which shows a great perspective in investing in this market. The global market, unfortunately, is highly competitive and produces new brands and new products very often. However, the small brand sometimes can benefit in competing with the big cooperations with easier connections with the customers and faster reactions to the trends.

4.2 Global trends in skincare The skincare sector is becoming a more significant threat to all other beauty industries; this way, back in 2018 decorative make-up industry was prospering and the make-up artistry was very popular. Since then, the trends shifted to more natural-based looks, and now customers value the healthiness of the skin. Melanie Bender, the Clique’s cosmetics brand general manager (2019), says, “Whereas make-up is temporary and feels like something you put on for others, skincare is an investment in yourself and an intimate ritual,” (Schiffer, J. ,2019) The latest trends in the cosmetics market worldwide are in the increase in the usage of natural products and the decrease in harmful chemicals. Consumers are increasingly seeking to find the best price-quality ratio of products that are natural and healthy for the skin. The numbers of global skincare sales are growing, especially after Asian skincare came into the market, and now the big cosmetic companies are also investigating a skincare industry. (Chu, K., 2015) “Natural skincare” trend was confirmed by the brand manager of Dermacol Veronika Přibylová , Dermacol-Czech cosmetics company, which is one of the oldest make-up producers in the world, operating since 1966. (Dermacol, 2020) According to a personal interview, the trend is in the using as many natural sources as possible .The brands are trying to invest in the natural or BIO ingredients, or at least to state on the packaging that 90% of the product is natural or Vegan. Actually, Vegan is also a big part of today’s trend. Which is an interesting marketing factor. In fact, Vegan is more marketing than a useful aspect of skincare. Even before 9

the trend came in, Dermacol already produced a lot of Vegan products, but they did not communicate it. However, now Dermacol is changing that and putting a Vegan sign on the packaging ( Veronika Přibylová, personal communication, April 3, 2020). These global trends are spreading out all over the different markets and the Czech republic is not an exception. 4.3 Czech skincare trends Overall, Czech Republic tends to follow the global trends in the skincare. However, through the research there were found the specific trends, which appear between Czech consumers. Demand in skincare is high in Czech Republic, all consumers use at least one skincare product every day and some of them used even more than seven skincare items. This information proved by my survey №1 (appendix 1) where all of the women stated that they usually use at least 1 item of skincare product daily. All the participants (100% of women) use at least one skincare product daily. As we see in Figure 8, the majority of the woman (63%) “Cannot live” without a face cream. Others chose the as a necessity for every day. Oils are must-have everyday products for 11% of the participants. Besides, 8% are using micellar water/flavored water spray every day.

Without which skincare product you can't get by?

8%

11%

19% 63%

Face cream Cleanser Oil Micelar water

Figure 8. Without which skincare product you can't get by?

After all, nowadays consumers are introduced to many global brands and their products. However, some products are popular with Czech customers and others are not. To build the marketing strategy we need to understand what is popular within the Czech consumers. According to Nosková, A., redactor of the magazine Zeny.cz (2019) and survey №2 (Appendix 2) we can highlight several trends:  Oil-based products 10

 The composition containing different vitamins  Facial masks as everyday routine  Serums  Step by step bundles/matching products  Electronic devices to enhance the effect of the product  Environmental friendly packaging  Social media presence Based on these trends, we can clearly see the importance of the BIO/natural cosmetics, throughout my research, the importance of the components in the product was highly highlighted. Also, there is a good trend in making a routine for the customer by combining products into the step-by-step line. This move can be useful to develop customer’s skincare habits as well as to make the customers simply buy more items. Also, we can focus on creating a customer experience of self-care through electronic devices. This way, some of the participants of survey №2 stated they love the electronic skincare device “Foreo” for everyday use. Another popular trend is environmentally friendly movement when packaging becomes recycling and the corporate ethics of the company become more environmentally aware. Besides, by the results of the survey #2 , the popularity of facial mask are increasing for everyday use, which can be a great upselling product for the future or by itself for the company. The other trend from the survey#2 was serums. Many participants stated that serum was one of their favorite products. Lastly, in our technology-driven times, the social media presence is considered a must. Social media drives more sales and brand recognition. As well as it is a great tool to communicate with the customers. Also, the social media presence and its content can make customers experience more exciting and “sharable”. On the whole, following these trends is not essential, but based on their popularity linking company’s product to them would be a great move towards the market trends and profitability. However, it still needs to be discussed by the company, as the trends are not always the crucial factor when creating a brand. Before entering the market, company should look on the broader picture, not only on market trends, but on the market as a whole. To understand what drives it and what forces are the strongest.

5. Porter’s Five Force Analysis In order to analyse the market fully and create a long-term sustainable strategy we need to look into Porter 5 Forces: Supply power, Buyer Power, Threat of New Entrants, Competitive rivalry, Threat of Substitutes. By analysing these five forces, we can gain the complete picture

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of what influence the profitability in the industry. (Harvard Business Review, M. E. Porter, W.C. Kim, R. A. Mauborgne, 2011) Czech Republic is attractive for cosmetics companies as its market consumption is steadily growing and there is always room for new and better cosmetics brand there. The overall picture of Porter 5 forces we can see on the Figure 9.

Porter 5 forces. Czech skincare market Competitive rivalry 10 8 6 4 Supply power Threat of Substitutes 2 0

Threat of New Buyer power Entrants

Figure 9.Porter 5 Forces of Czech skincare market. Competitive rivalry within the skincare market is high. The number of competitors is huge. The biggest rivalry comes from the large international companies, with multiple brands under one roof. Apart from international rivals, there are a couple of big Czech based brands. However, the demand in skincare is high and constant and is always a place for new players. Buyer Power is low. As the trends are coming from international brands and media, customers tend to choose the product according to overall popularity and they have no power to influence suppliers except by joining mainstreams. Supplier Power is low as well. Good suppliers are numerous within the Czech Republic, Europe and whole world as a whole. Every company can choose the manufacturer who will fit the company and its product requirements. The threat of Substitutes is high on the international market and average on Czech market. The international cosmetics market is overloaded with the products and if the Czech customer orders on big international online cosmetics platforms, there are many substitutes. However, locally on the Czech market one is not so many brands, which would fully substitute each other The threat of New Entrants is medium. Even though the supply power is low and the Czech market was showing a high rise over the last years, the thread of New Entrants is medium. Commonly the cosmetics business requires a significant capital investment. Besides, any

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cosmetics by the law need certificating and cover the list of legislation. The European parliament legislates everything from manufacturing to labeling. Which can be useful, the brand wants to grow within Europe, but of course, the legislations are high expenses activity. As addition to government legislations, companies are also getting a separate certification from the big privet laboratories. Which, on the one hand, gives a brand a better look within the competitors and in the customers’ eyes, but on the other hand, it can be costly. This way, we can see that there is an opportunity of entering the Czech Republic’s market since it is still not overloaded with competitors, although international brands are strong competitors the local are not. Meaning competition is the local market is not yet high..There are numerous suppliers, and customer’s power is not strong. However, before entering the business investor needs to make sure that he/she has capital for handling the entry costs for the cosmetics market as its highly legislated by the Czech Republic government and European Union.

6. Competitor analysis As it was stated, the Czech market is yet not filled with big numbers of local cosmetic, however there is a huge part of market that belongs to the international brands .So, to understand the competition we need to look through the main players on the market and how well they perform, based on customers preference. This way we can divide competitors on 2 groups: international and local.

Main international competitors Main local competitors  Loreal (, , Kiehl’s and  Manifaktura others)  Havlíkova přírodní apotéka  Balea/ Alverde (DM retailer)  Saloos  Este Lauder(,Glam glow,La Mer)  Ryor   Purity Vision  Bioderma  Dermacol 

To figure out, which brand has the most of the market power, about 100 Czech woman with interest in cosmetics were asked to choose which brand they like in the Survey №1 (appendix 1) . In fact, the distribution between beloved brands is wide. As the figure 10 shows the most loved brand is L’Oréal (about 16% participants chose it as the most favorite brand).The other most beloved brands are DM brands (“Balea” and “Alverde”; 10% have chosen it ), Yves Rocher (

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9%), Bioderma/Manifaktura/Este lauder brands ( all 8%) and 6% chose Dermacol. About 14% of respondents chose the “other” section.

Which brand is your favorite? Bioderma Ryor 14 8 4 Este Lauder “Balea”/“Alverde” (dm) 5 8 Saloos 3 Yves Rocher

6 10 Nivea Loreal

8 4 Havlíkova přírodní apotéka Dermacol 9 The Ordinary 16 5 Manufaktura Other

Figure 10.Favorite brands In reality, we see, that the beloved brands always differ from the actual ones that customer uses. Figure 11 shows that even though only 14% women chose L’Oréal as their favorite brand, about 30% of them are actually use products of L’Oréal the most often. That can be explained by the big variety of brands in L’Oréal (36 brands in different segmentation). The second most used product is DM brands “Balea” or “Alverde “ (9% of all participants). About 8% of women most often use Nivea in their skincare routine. Then there are 6% of people who are using Yves Roche and 5% who are sticking to “The ordinary”. The section other (32%) contains different brands that were called by participants. Most of them are small indie brands that are either sold in (the international distributor of the cosmetics) or online. Which means that these customers gave their preference to small brands with excellent products and a unique brand story. The same we can see in Figure 11 , 14% chose “the other” section and listed their not widely popular brand of skincare. That shows the perspective in developing a small cosmetics brand, which will still be competitive to the big international brands on the market. The consumer always wants to try something new and discover a brand that suits his needs.

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Which brand do you use the most?

2 5 5 The Ordinary Loreal

Nivea 30 32 “Balea” or “Alverde” (dm)

Yves Rocher

Havlíkova přírodní apotéka

Other 3 8 6 9 All above

Bioderma

Figure 11.Most used brands.

To understand which brands Czech consumers prefer local or international, the participants of the survey were asked to choose from which brand they prefer to buy. The majority of the participants (74%) did not have any preference in where the brands come from. However, about 18% stated that would give preference to a Czech brand. Moreover, 7% would give their preference to the foreign brand. This information could mean that by creating a Czech based brand, the company will definitely have some support from the Czech consumer. ”Made in Czech Republic” could be a great selling and marketing point as well.

Which brand do you prefer to buy?

7 1 Doesn’t matter

18 Czech brand

Foregn brand

Other 74

Figure 11.Most used brands.

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Overall, most of the market belongs to international companies: L’Oréal, Balea/ Alverde (DM retailer),Yves Rocher. However, the survey had shown that there is a place for small brands too. Many of participants chose “the other” section. This information shows that customers are quitting mass-market and moving closer to smaller brands. As well, we see that some the Czech brands are popular and well known, but when it comes to actual usage of a product Czech customer buys the international brands’ product. This could be connected to the availability of the products in retail stores and differences in sales strategies between the Czech and international brands. After all, consumers of the Czech Republic is not yet spoiled with a wide variety of skincare brands. The “other section” in the result clearly shows that customers are interested in trying new small brands in the perspective of sticking with them. So, the new brand that wants step in the market has a great perspective is succeeding, but only if the company will determine the right segmentation and marketing strategy.

7.Segmentation Usually the companies want to target as many people as possible. However, some customers differ from another. The broad choice of targeting can lead to losing customers and adverting budget. In order to sell to the right customers the best option for the company is to create a segmentation of customers. Segmentation is a dividing customer by several factors. It is used to fully understand the people the company selling to. Segmentation analysis is a crucial step in defining what customer desires and likes. Company needs to draw the portrait of the customer and for that it should collect the information about several factors: geographic, demographic, psychographic, behavioristic. (Pride, Ferrell, Lukas, Schembri, & Niininen, 2015) 7.1 Geographic The geography of the people who answered the survey has a wide distribution. The biggest response (13,8%) was from the woman from Moravskoslezský region( main city Ostrava).The second biggest group (12,3%) was from Ústecký Region (main city Ústí nad Labem) .Then there were 2 arias with the same amount of participants(10,8%) from Prague and Jihomoravský region (main city Brno). As it was mentioned the distribution is wide , meaning that when focusing on the Czech market , producer needs to take into account not only the capital, where the most population is , but the smaller towns and regions too.

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Figure 12.Place of living.

7.2 Demographic As the primary users of cosmetics in the Czech Republic are women, the participants of the survey were women 16-60 years old. The most responsive to the cosmetic topic were girls 16-18 years old (53,1% of participants). The other 2 big groups were 19-21 years old (20,8%) and 22-25 years old ladies (13,7%). The smallest responses were from the groups of age 31 and higher. These numbers are understandable since the cosmetic topic drives interest more from the younger woman. For that, we can think about the ways to fulfill the needs of the group of women 16-30 years old—especially the groups of girls of 16-18 years old, who were the most responsive. For example, for the young girls, the most relevant section of skincare can be the anti- acne or light creams for young skin, as well as creative facemasks, which are more for fun time-spend, than an effect. However, it is still by the decision of the company on which groups to focus, since every company has its own capability within the products..

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Figure 13.Age

Regarding the family status, the majority of respondents showed that either the woman is in the relationship ( “ve vztahu”) or single (“svobodna”).Only 2 respondents marked themselves as married (“zenata”). This shows that our target audience is not family oriented. Regarding the information about there were 53,8% of single woman , we can focus on the filling their need in staying attractive and confident. Which can mean the special advertising and messages that the company can send to the woman.

Figure 14.Family status

About 88% of the participants have a status of a student. Other majority is employed (32%).However the student status does not show the low spending on the skincare, which will be shown more on the Figure 17.

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Are you employed? 4 2

32

4 88 I am a student I am a working student Yes No Self-employed

On the Figure 16 we can see the monthly spending on the skincare. As we see the majority spends about 300-500 Kč per month(33,8%),other majority spends 100-300 Kč per month (22,3%).Other participants (15,4%) are spending 500-800 Kč per month.Also, as we see that there are participants (about 6%) who spend more than 1500 Kč per month on skincare

.

Figure 16.Monthly spending on skincare

Based on these numbers, we can see that overall, at least half of women are spending between 300 -1200 Kč.Also,Students, which are not usually high in expenditure, showed big potential. Data shows that the majority of students spend 300-500 Kč (28 people), however, the 9 people answered that they are spending on average 500-800 Kč on skincare per month and both 2 groups ( 1st – 800-1200 Kč per month and 2nd 1200-1500 Kč per month ) had 7

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students. These numbers say to us that those female students are willing to pay the high price for the skincare product. The even better picture comes with the employed people, the most of people (7 people from 32) still chose the 300-500 Kč option, however, the other numbers have increased. About 6 people who have a job are spending 1200-1500 Kč per month on skincare. Overall, as we see from Figure 18 , we see that at least half of employed people are spending between 500- 1500 Kč per month on skincare. This could mean to a cosmetics producer that the price for the segment can differ, it all depends on the demographics(target audience) that the company is going to choose. This way, we see that the skincare for the students can be in the price range of 300-500 Kč. On the other side skincare for an employed woman can vary from 500 to 1500 Kč.

How much do the students spend in How much do the employed people the month on skincare? 2 spend in the month on skincare? 7 100-300 kč 17 100-300 kč 1 1 7 300-500 kč 3 4 300-500 kč 500-800 kč 500-800 kč 6 7 800-1200 kč 800-1200 kč 9 1200-1500 kč 1200-1500 kč 1500-2000 kč 4 6 1500-2000 kč 2000-3000 kč 28 3000 -5000 kč

Figure 17.Monthly spending on skincare Figure 18.Monthly spending on skincare

between students between employed

7.3 Psychographic To understand the wants of our customer, we need to understand likes and dislikes. This way 130 women were asked how do they actually spend their free time. Figure 19 is showing the results. Most of the women spend their time on Social media,97 women have chosen Instagram and 75 Facebook. Another popular activity is YouTube (86 respondents). The most popular offline activity is spending time with the family (88 respondents), cooking(73 respondents), doing sports(73 respondents) and reading books(69 respondents). This graph shows us that most of the participants use Instagram, Facebook and YouTube frequently. That is why running advertising on these platforms can be useful, especially on

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Instagram. About 56 respondents stated that they watch TV, which could also be a great promotional channel. As well, we see a great interest in sports activities, which could mean investing in communication strategies, which are related to sport or fitness.

How do you spend your free time? 91 100 86 88 90 75 80 69 73 73 70 56 60 50 40 28 27 30 20 10 0

Figure 19.How participants spent their free time. Figure 20 shows another information; here women were asked to tell about their favorite hobby. Sometimes people do not have time for their hobbies, but they seek expressing it in other things. About 30 women wrote that their favorite hobby is makeup. Other majority wrote sports-related hobby (25 respondents). About 32 respondents had “other” hobbies, which were different and included horse riding, folklore, traveling, self-development, photography and others. Also, there were 13 people who’s hobby was related to music. Another common hobbies were :drawing(8 respondents), books(9 respondents), dancing(6 respondents) and cooking(7 respondents). This graph shows that 23% of participants count make up as their hobby. Women who are interested in makeup are commonly interested in overall beauty sector, which includes skincare. Meaning that skincare topic as it is could be very entertaining for these women. The content that Skincare Company presents can be makeup and overall beauty industry related. Plus, again, we see the sports interest, which again can affect the content and PR activity. As for other common hobbies, we can again think about the content for the consumers related to their hobbies and eventually reach more people.

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Favorite hobby?

35 32 30 30 25 25

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15 13 9 10 8 7 6 5

0 Sport Make Up Cooking Music Drawing Books Dancing Other

Figure 20.Hobbies of the participants As the Figure 19 shows 86 respondent chose YouTube as one of the ways of spending free time and 91 chose Instagram. This could mean that they follow particular beauty influencers, since at least 23% has a make up hobby. So, the participant was asked to choose their favorite beauty blogger. The most popular answer was “I don’t have any” , 40% of people don’t follow the influencers or don’t take interest in their blogs. The 2 most popular choice (both are 16,2 % ) were “Petra Lovely hair” (253K subscribers on YouTube) and “Get the Louk” (416K subscribers on Youtube). Other popular choices were MOMA (about 7%) ,which has 601K subscribers on Instagram and Lucie Wink (3% ), which has 11,6K subscribers on Instagram. This information could help the company in PR activities and advertising. Although the choice is still determined by target audience of company , those graph shows that at least a half of participated Czech woman are actually interested in beauty influencers which means that companies can cooperate with them.

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Figure 21.Favorite beauty blogger

7.4 Behaviouristic The participants were asked to choose the place where they buy the skincare. The majority of women chose DM as №1 place for buying skincare (99 respondents).The second- highest number of purchases are in online shops (78 respondents).”Teta” as a DM's biggest competitor was also a popular choice. Rossman, which falls in the same category with “dm” and “teta” was chosen by 43 respondents. A huge international retailer “Sephora” was chosen by 49 people. “Douglas” (the international cosmetics retailer) had 34 respondents and Yves Rocher had 29 respondents. Based on this information, the most popular retailers are DM, Teta , Sephora and Rossman. So if the company wants to work with the retail, these are the most visited places for buying skincare. On the other hand, many of the respondents chose online shops, which means

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that brands could create their own online store or collaborate with the online retailers .

Where do you buy skincare products? 120 99 100 78 80 64 60 49 43 34 40 29 17 21 20 7 7 3 0

Figure 22.places of skincare purchases

Skincare appears to be a regular purchase between women. Out of 130 women, 60% buy skincare products at least once in a month. About 26, 9% of participants buy skincare products 2-3 times in a month. The other 10% of the participants make a skincare purchase 3- 5 times a month, and about 3% buy it more than 5 times. Figure 23 shows that on average, every month woman buys at least 1 item from skincare. This is not surprising, giving into account that the skincare product does not have a long usage since every women use different products on a regular basis (facial cream, hand cream, cleanser, micellar water, masks, serums, and others) .

Figure 23.places of skincare purchases When the participants were asked to choose the most important factors in choosing skincare product, 66 women chose the ingredients of the product. Another major factor was

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the price( 52 choices). About 37 participants value a brand when choosing the skincare and 30 women stated that they use advice from a friend. About 19 people chose”the wish to try something new,” and 12 people said that vegan ingredients would be an essential factor for them. On the whole, Czech consumers seek the best price/quality product. Although the brand and “bio/vegan” factors are also playing a role in the choice. Based on answers of survey, the effective way of building a product will be making sure that it is made of quality ingredients and promoting it. In addition, the company needs to build a trustworthy brand name, so it would become recognisable for a customer’s eye. Finely, the realises of new products should be frequent, to fill customer’s need in trying new things.

What factor affects you,when buying skincare products? 70 66 60 52 50 37 40 30 30 19 20 12 10 4 1 3 0

Figure 24.Important factors, which influence the purchase Overall, there were specific patterns between the participants. Firstly, the main interest of skincare comes from women 16-25 years old. This means that this group can be more responsive to new realizes. The price ranges that were the most popular was 300-500 Kč in one month for the students and 500-1500Kč for employed. Which could means that 1 brand can create 2 lines of cosmetics: for students in the particular price range and focused on their needs and for employed people who can afford a different price range product. The main patterns in spending free time of the participants were: Social media, TV, YouTube, sport, and family- time, which shows the places where skincare brand can interact with potential customers. The main hobbies were: makeup and sport. These hobbies can be used as a common communication ground between brands and consumers.. About 4 factors were highlighted as a main ones when

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it comes to the purchase: ingredients, price, brand and advice from a friend. A lot of interest was shown to the Vegan/Bio factors of the cosmetics. Based on this segmentation analysis, the skincare company can choose the right target audience, which will fit their activity. So, afterward the skincare business can build the marketing strategy based on a chosen group of consumers.

8. Marketing Strategy After analysing overall market and choosing the target audience which company will focus on. Next step would be setting up a marketing strategy. Marketing strategy consists of different stages: positioning, branding, communicational strategy and evaluation. 8.1 Positioning approach Firstly,to develop the marketing strategy we need to understand how a company will position itself in the marketplace. Positioning is one of the most important steps for any company, it determines the place of the new brand in the market and future path for the marketing activities. “Superior brand positioning is desirable to the consumer, deliverable by the brand, and differentiated from competition.” (K.L.Keller, n.d, as cited in Wheeler, 2017, p. 148) They key idea is so the company could understand their strengths and weaknesses of the organization and needs of their consumers. So, they could outshine the competitors.Beating the cosmetics market competition in Czech Republic requires a complex and sophisticated approach. First of all, with the skincare products company needs to focus on the several steps when creating the positioning strategy: 1. Determine competitive frames of reference. Which means to look into positioning of the competitors and see their strength and weakness. Furthermore the company needs to look into not only on the successful companies , but on unsuccessful ones too. The main idea is to understand why some positioning works on the market and other do not. The good example could be to look into the positioning in different brands of the L’Oréal Company and understand why which brands are popular on the market and which are not , to analyze afterwards how positioning determines that . 2. Develop unique brand points-of-difference This step is described as “attributes or benefits which consumers strongly associate with a brand, positively evaluate, and believe they could not find to the same extent with a 26

competitive brand” (Wheeler, 2017, p. 148) The cosmetics company needs to evaluate the product and think of the best and unique benefits that it brings to consumer life. The attributes of the products can be physical (ingredients, packaging) or mental (emotions) or a mix of it, it doesn’t matter as long as the company stand out between the other companies. 3. Establish shared brand points-of-parity After determining the brand points-of-difference, we need to determine the factors which are the must for entering the market and sharable by any competitor. As we determined nowadays the natural ingredients that are dominating the market. Therefore, to stay competitive, the brand absolutely needs to offer at least some sort of natural product. Only after fulfilling the brand points-of-parity, the company can step further, and based on the “must trends” on market, think of how to make the product unique. 4. Create a “brand mantra” In order to be a memorable brand, the company needs to come up with the short, simple so called “brand mantra”. Usually it is 3-5 word phrases, which describe the key points of the business and values of the company. This brand mantra is created to spread the word and stay in the heads of the consumers. The good example of the cosmetics “brand mantra” are phrases of the Dermacol: “Make-Up Hollywood”, “Strict Quality Demands”,” Active Substances”. (Dermacol, 2020) These short phrases tell about the brand a lot and put a “nice picture” of a brand to a customer head right away. (Wheeler, 2017, p. 148) Overall, to start building marketing strategy company can’t escape positioning. After completing all 4 steps of positioning we can proceed to the next phase – branding strategy. 8.2 Branding Strategy Branding is more complicated than just a logo, website, or name. Brands are identities which customer perceive himself/herself. Product without a brand is not able to give the customer the emotional benefit, as well as without the brand product is mute and unmemorable. So, in order to succeed in the business and have popularity with the customers, all companies should create a branding strategy. Branding strategy is another crucial factor in marketing strategy. It allocates the company on the market, creates a story behind the products, and shows the benefits for the consumers. In order to create this strategy, we need to analyze 3 factors:  Targeting  Values  Proposition Targeting is choosing the audience to which you will be communicating your brand story. 27

Then in part 7 Segmentation, there were described different patterns of users of skincare in the Czech Republic. After looking through the patterns and segments of the consumers, company needs to determine the audience on which it focuses on. What part of the customers would they primarily target? Youth? Adults? That all will depend on the products and the positioning of a company. Value is the benefit for the customer in the product and benefits that company overall brings in the world. Firstly, the brand needs to represent all features and benefits that re in the products. Also, the company will need to present the “Value” to increase brand awareness, meaning building the picture for the customer of how to comprehend the company trough different communication. This includes making the corporative values. The value needs to be in every part of the company, creating one system, which will represent the brand and show the customer the benefit of choosing the company. This way, the excellent example of the value is determined in “Havlíkova přírodní apotéka”. The brand is presenting itself with the primary value - nature. Their brand values are learning, respecting nature and take inspiration from it. This value is determined by the magnificent eco- friendly components. Finely, the value of the eco company who cares ,supports the environment and respects the nature. All this creates a brand picture and emotions for the consumer. When the customer understands the brand story and likes it, he wants to identify with it himself/herself. This is what “Value” brings to the company – customers. The proposition is what kind of communication tools have the brand chosen to tell about itself. The proposition includes more than advertising, it also includes the customer service and pricing policy. It’s essential to determine which tools the company can use to communicate with the customer since the loyalty usually comes because of great communication between the brand and consumer. The proposition is connected to the “Value” , after determining the value the company then choose how it’s going to be communicated in the world. Of the brand. However, unlike “value” , which should remain constant, the proposition can change through the years. The communication tools for a cosmetics company are marketing channels ( TV,Media,PR and etc), the customer service in online shops, customers service in offline shops, special pricing policies of the brand. (The Charted Institute of Marketing 2003, p.11.) Another critical factor of the Branding strategy is the packaging of the product. As there is a trend in the BIO products, the packaging must show the naturality of the ingredients. Nevertheless, there is a massive amount of “natural”, “green-colored” packaging on the shelves. Meaning that before creating the official packaging brand needs to investigate the 28

competitors’ packaging a make something different from it. Another point for investing in the packaging design is that as we saw from survey №2, most of the women spend their time on Instagram. Therefore, the women need a beautifully designed packaging so they could share the picture of the products in their social media, increasing brand awareness. After all, the company needs to create a brand identity that includes: logo, fonts, color scheme. So, this brand identity would act as a memorable factor for the customer and fulfill the branding strategy

8.3 Pricing Strategies The goal of the pricing strategy is assuring high incomes for the cosmetics brand. Overall skincare market ranges from low to very high priced goods.Usually the best international skincare brands have a high price and very high quality. However, in Czech republic people a not willing to pay the luxurious price for the skincare. As we saw in the Segmentation part the majority spend around 300-500 Kč in a month for the skincare. So , to determine the best strategy in pricing we need to think of the best approach. Value based pricing approach is the key to success as consumers’ values is what Czech people are looking for. This approach is strongly focused on the customer side. Some of the strength of this approach are :” understanding the sources of value for customers; designing products, services, and solutions that meet customers’ needs; setting prices as a function of value; and implementing consistent pricing policies.” Meaning that the price of the cosmetics product must depend on several factors:  Willingness to pay  Building a more qualities product  Knowing your customers When the price is determined by actual value that the brand puts into product , the communication between the customer and the brand becomes more loyal.The more clearly consumers values of cosmetics are expressed to the target audience by the means of pricing strategy, branding, advert messages, the more demanded the cosmetics becomes.(Hinterhuber, A. ,2008)

8.4 Communication Strategies The goal of the communication strategy is attracting the attention of the consumers to the brand. In order to deliver the market message to them it is necessary to place it somewhere. This is where the communication tools comes in. According to Fill and Jamieson (2014) There

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are five principal marketing communications tools: advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing and personal selling.(p.35) 8.4.1 Advertising Advertising is non-personal communication tool. Its massage is communicated through different marketing channels. According to Veronika Přibylová (personal interview, 2020) the list of effective channels for the Czech market are TV, media influencers, social media , magazines, events and e-mail marketing, The most effective from them, and at the same time the most expensive is TV advertising. According to TV is still covers the most of the people. To introduce itself on the market, company needs to try to create campaigns in all of channels. TV According to Veronika Přibylová (personal interview) the message on the TV needs to be carefully though trough .The goal could be increasing the brands awareness or introducing new product.TV ad should be dynamic and memorable. Influencers It depends on the audience which influencers are now the most popular. As it was stated in the most popular beauty influencer between the participants were “Get the look” and “Petra Lovelyhair” Although, the most popular influencers cover bigger audience , it’s been a trend to focus on smaller influencers since their audience is more loyal. However, the choice of the influencer is still only up to the target audience. Social Media Social Media digital presence is an absolute must nowadays. As we saw on the Figure 19 the most used channels here is Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. The choice of the platform is determined by the goal of the advertising and form of it (video/image). Magazines According to Veronika Přibylová (personal interview,2020) magazines are still widely used and successfully cover the places ,where the social media platforms are yet not popular.The most popular woman magazines are : Blesk pro ženy, Chvilka pro tebe, Překvapení, Žena a život, Svět

ženy, Marianne .( Unievydavatelu.cz.,n.d.) E-mail After collecting e-mails , company needs to update their audience with marketing new offers and news . For the beauty industry it’s the best to send the newsletter about new products, special offers and promo codes, as well as tips and tricks with the skincare , so it can be useful for the customer

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Events Events is a special place to present yourself as a brand. The consumers love to try and see your products. The example of one of the biggest cosmetics event is “Cosmoprof”, where the biggest trends of the beauty world are discussed( personal interview)

8.4.2 Sales promotion Sales promotion is another non-personal communication tool. Overall it could be described as “call to action” message or so called offer. Usually offer is limited in time and connected to some special benefit that customer will get. The best examples of the sales promotion can be : lowering the prices, bundling ,discount cards, free trial or free product, coupons. The good examples of sales promotion for the skincare products are:  Samples in retailers and magazines.  Special price or membership card price  Bundling a step-by-step line of products  Coupons for purchases online/offline  “Buy 2 get 3” approach Sales promotion makes buyer to try more products, eventually, which leads to purchase. The sales offers need to be a constant activity in the company. Customer always seeks to pay less and get more and through the sales promotion we provide it to the consumers.(Blattberg, Robert & Briesch, Richard.,2012) 8.4.3 Personal selling Personal selling communication is a face-to-face activity .This communication tool is usually used within the offline/online shop or by having independent people who act like sales representors. However, for the skincare brands personal selling are rather offline or online store activity. If the company is planning to make a sales more effective for web-site or for a sales people in offline stores, the company needs to create a process which will to follow all 7 steps of sales process :

1. Prospecting and qualifying: On this stage company needs to identify the customers who are interested to buy the skincare products and then qualify what are the customer’s needs and how much he/ she is willing to pay for the products. 2. Approach. Gathering information about the customer and choosing the best way to approach to him/her. 31

3. Presentation. When the needs are defined, than we can show off the product and tell about it’s features.( example for skincare :hydrating, natural, full of vitamins , antiaging effect, spf protection).For the web-site it can be a notification about best- seller and it’s features. 4. Demonstration. If the sale is going within the store, demonstration means giving the customer the opportunity to feel and smell the product. Maybe offering a small free sample. For the web-site page we can show the video how to use it and the result of the product (pictures before after) 5. Handling the buyer concerns. Here the company needs to answer all the questions and understand customer concerns (price, product, time, need) and solve them. 6. Closing. Here sales proses is focused in addressing all concerns of the customer, offering different product if the concerns are connected to it or offering a deal ( discount, free product or special offer). For the web-site, since it’s online usually company can track the customer and retarget the product through advertising or other online activity. And again offer the discount. 7. Folow up.It’s important to stay in touch with customer after the purchase. As a follow up , skincare shop can offer a free samples with the each purchase and offer the discount card to track the customer e-mail. The e-mail that the company gathered is a great follow up channel to connect with the customer. By e-mail company can track the feedback from the customers and offer other products and services. These 7 steps are crucial to sales of the company and can be applied both on online store and offline one. Furthermore, it’s important to track how customer reacts on each stage to evaluate and improve the sales proses.( Nelson Education ,2013) 8.4.4 Public relations Public relations is a communication tool that maintains the brand image. Usually, PR deals with spreading the news about the company. Besides, PR is a connection not only to the customers but to the stakeholders of the business (different suppliers and other influencers of the industry). The public relations goal is to make the brand more trustworthy.(Vrontis, Demetris.,2014) The beauty industry as any needs publicity. There are several ways how to get through PR activities. Brand representative. By choosing the brand representative, the company gets “the face” of the brand. This media person can continuously promote the products and brand in his everyday life. Customers tend to believe actual people more than plain advertising, this way the brand 32

representative acts like an “alive advertisement». For the skincare industry, a brand represented can share the experience of using the products and show to customer different aspects of the company, which leads to more brand trustworthiness Connection to the beauty influencers. Keeping good relationships with the beauty influencers is beneficial for creating a “good picture of the brand” and future collaborations. When influencers are happy with the brand, they will pay more attention to it and promote the company even without the collaborations. Another aspect when it comes to beauty influencers is “PR boxes». Usually, it is a special box which the newest collection. By sending it, brans are hoping to get a review from the influencer, which will be public and drive an interest between the customers. According to for getting people interested, sometimes it is enough for influencer slightly mention something. Even if the public person showed it in the wrong way, the consumer would still be interested. Connection to the professionals. For the skincare company can be beneficial not only focus on staying in the right relationship with the influencers but the other important to an industry people too. This means that for the skincare industry, it will be beneficial to stay connected to cosmetologists, beauty magazine editors, beauty stylists. All of them influence the skincare industry. The media announcements. The more creatively the news will be presented to the audience, the better response the company will get. Nowadays, the brand tries to create a “buzz” around themselves, to stay fashionable and “trendy”. PR needs to focus on sharing attractive, provoking media announcements. So, then this news can be shared and the company can get more publicity.

8.4.5 Direct marketing Direct marketing is a communication tool where the message is sent straight to the customers. Usually, it is a personalized message and the examples of direct marketing are catalogs, brochures, mail, and e-mail. By sending a personalized letter or a catalog, the company gets better and closer relationships with the customer. Although this method is not modern, with the right targeting, it can be useful. For the skincare company, great examples of direct marketing are the newsletters and personal birthday letters. This way, if the company sends the birthday card to a customer with “best wishes” and a coupon or discount code, it not only reminds about itself but also invites a person to purchase a new product. The same goes to the catalogs, which are usually full of new offers and exclusive coupons. The online way of direct marketing is e-mail.By sending e-mails 33

newsletters and offers, we company is also inviting a customer to the store once again. If we target the right consumers, the results of such marketing activity can be very successful, although direct marketing works the best with other marketing activities. It’s complimentary for advertising, PR and sales activities. (Fill C.,Jamieson B.,2014)

8.9 Evaluation Finely, after determining the marketing strategy activities, company will need to track their effectiveness and costs. Evaluation is aimed at improving the strategy and has to be a monthly, quarterly, yearly activity.

Before putting the marketing strategy activities in the world m the company needs to set the KPIs (key performance indicators).KPIs are special indicators or goals which company sets before achieving them. KPI can indicate quality of services , costs, customer satisfaction, community engagement, growth and many other factors. According to Intrafocus (2014) there are several steps in creating a KPIs:

Steps Examples

Create objectives 1. Improve the website traffic 2. Increase sales figure

Describe results 1. More orders through web-site, better user experience; 2. More revenue for improving in the sales process.

Identify Measures 1. 300 orders through web-site, user session more than 5 min;

2. 500 units of products sold

Define “Thresholds” 1. Minimum 250 orders through online 2. Minimum 400 units of products sold

Upload Structure/Data into Store the KPI is one system, so the employees can see the a System KPIs and for later tracking the results.

Interpret Results- reports Analysing the data and creating reports

Take action Reviewing the successful KPIs and unsuccessful and taking action in creating new ones and fixing the unreached KPIs .

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Besides KPIs , for evaluation the cost of the marketing there is an ROI approach(Return On Investment).This approach aims on understanding how well the company spends money on different activities ( in our case on marketing ) and what return these marketing activities get to the company. ROI usually used in analysing the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. This approach is presented by a formula:

ROI= (Incremental financial value generated by marketing − Cost of marketing)/ Cost of marketing

Lastly, another way to evaluate company’s activity and to stay customer friendly company needs to collect the reviews from the customers. It could be online e-mail review or offline questionnaires. The skincare company constantly needs to analyse the reviews for its products and service for better understanding of customer’s needs, likes and dislikes.

Evaluation of the marketing strategy, has to be a monthly, quarterly, yearly activity

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Conclusion

The above investigation reveals the marketing strategy for a new skincare brand in the Czech Republic. As we saw, the Czech Republic is a country with a developed economy, where new business can grow and develop itself. The cosmetics business can be very interesting choice for the development. The numbers showed that overall cosmetics market is growing yearly, especially the skincare industry, which is showing a good growth over the last years. On the whole, the skincare industry nowadays is following the natural ingredients trend. The companies worldwide are trying to create as most natural based products as possible. Czech skincare market is mostly following the global trend, giving preference to products, which are BIO, Natural or Vegan. If the new skincare line company focuses on the latest trends, the company will definitely gain popularity from the Czech customers. Even though on the global skincare market the competition is very high, on the Czech market it is average, since there are not many Czech based cosmetics brands. Another good point of cosmetics inducts is that there are a lot of suppliers local and international. However, still the entrance for the cosmetics market is high in investment and regulated by government standards. All supports the idea that the new skincare brand will come into Czech skincare market with average tension, but it does not mean that there is no place for another players. Through the surveys which were held for this thesis , it was discovered that Czech consumer value the price/quality factor the most and are willing to pay for it. Another point was that although most of the skincare market still belongs to big cosmetics corporations, there is an opportunity for a small brand to become beloved. As it was mentioned, the trend of quitting the global cooperation to smaller brands was noticed. Czech consumers search for the brand, which will be representing their values, the most. Therefore, as long as the brand will determine the right marketing strategy which suites the skincare industry in the Czech Republic, it has all the potential to be successful. With the right positioning, branding, pricing, communication and evaluation strategies the new skincare company can quickly gain popularity within the Czech Republic and eventually move even to other parts of European Union.

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References 1. About Dermacol (2020). Dermacol. Retrieved from https://www.dermacol.cz/o-nas/ 2. About us (2020). Havlikova Apoteka. Retrieved from https://havlikovaapoteka.cz/cs/ 3. Beauty & Personal Care - Czechia: Statista Market Forecast (2020). Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/outlook/70000000/132/beauty-personal-care/czechia 4. Blattberg, Robert & Briesch, Richard. (2012). Sales Promotions. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256241591_Sales_Promotions 5. Chapter 15.Personal selling and sales promotion. (2013).Nelson Education. Retrieved from: https://www.cengage.com/resource_uploads/downloads/0176503935_339967.pdf 6. Chu, K. (2015, May 5). Cosmetics Industry Applies Asian Trends to West.The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/cosmetics-industry-applies- asian-trends-to-west-1430838068 7. Czech Statistics Office. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.czso.cz/csu/czso/home 8. Fill C.,Jamieson B.(2014 ) Marketing Communications. Retrieved from https://docplayer.net/5764771-Marketing-communications.html 9. Hinterhuber, A. (2008) Customer value‐based pricing strategies: why companies resist, Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 41-50. https://doi.org/10.1108/02756660810887079 10. Investment Climate. (2019, November) Czechinvest .Retrieved from https://www.czechinvest.org/getattachment/Grunde-zu-investieren/Stable-political-and- economic-environment/FS-01-Investment-Climate.pdf 11. Key performance indicators. Developing Meaningful KPIs. (2014,September) Intrafocus. Retrieved from: https://www.intrafocus.com/wp- content/uploads/2014/09/Developing-Meaningful-Key-Performance-Indicators-V7.pdf 12. L’Oréal Annual Report 2019. (2019). L’Oréal .Retrieved from https://www.loreal- finance.com/system/files/2020-03/LOREAL_2019_Annual_Report_3.pdf 13. M. E. Porter, W.C. Kim, R. A. Mauborgne. (2011,Februrary) HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy. Harward Business Review 14. Nosková, A. (2019,April 22). Trends in cosmetics, which make skincare easier! Zeny.cz. Retrieved from https://www.zeny.cz/krasa-a-moda/moda/trendy-v-kosmetice-ktere- delaji-peci-o-plet-vlasy-i-telo-ucinnejsi-a-snazsi-5505.html?kapitola=related 15. Press reader research - media project. (n.d.). Unievydavatelu.cz. Retrieved from http://www.unievydavatelu.cz/cs/unie_vydavatelu/medialni_data/vyzkum_ctenosti 37

16. Přibylová V. (2020, March 3) Personal interview 17. Pride, W. M., Ferrell, O. C., Lukas, B. A., Schembri, S., & Niininen, O. (2015). Marketing principles. South Melbourne, Vic.: Cengage Learning. 18. Schiffer, J. (2019, August 16). The US cosmetics boom is over. Vogue Business. Retrieved from https://www.voguebusiness.com/beauty/is-us-beauty-boom-over-estee- lauder-loreal 19. The Charted institute of Marketing (2003) Brand Strategy [PDF file]. Retrieved from http://www.hajarian.com/esterategic/tarjomeh/87/brand%20strategy.pdf 20. Vrontis, Demetris. (2014). Marketing Public Relations: A Consumer-focused Strategic Perspective. Journal of Customer Behaviour. 13. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263107792_Marketing_Public_Relations_A_Consu mer-focused_Strategic_Perspective 21. Wheeler, A. (2017). Designing brand identity: an essential guide for the entire branding team. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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APPENDIX 1 Survey №1:Brand preferences 1.What is your gender? Male Female 2.How old are you? 16-18 19-21 22-25 25-30 31-35 36-40 41-50 51-60 60 and more 3. Without what skincare product you cannt get by? What do you use every day? (for example, , some oils, hand creams, etc.) 4.What brand do you love? Manufaktura Ryor Botanicus Dermacol Havlíkova přírodní apotéka “Balea”/“Alverde” (dm) Loreal (Lancôme, Biotherm, Garnier, Vichy) Yves Rocher Other 5.What brand do you use most often? Loreal (Lancôme, Biotherm, Garnier, Vichy) “Balea”/“Alverde” (dm) Dermacol Botanicus RYOR Manufaktura 39

Nivea Yves Rocher The Ordinary Kiehls Havlíkova přírodní apotéka Other.... 6.What factor impacts on your purchase of the skincare? Ingredients Price Brand Wish to try something new Advice from a friend Bio/Vegan cosmetics Other… 7.Which brand would you prefer? Foreign Czech Doesn’t matter Other…

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APPENDIX 2 Survey №2: Segmentation 1.What is your gender? Male Female 2.How old are you? 16-18 19-21 22-25 25-30 31-35 36-40 41-50 51-60 60 and more 3.Where do you live? Hlavní město Praha(Prague) Středočeský region Jihočeský region Vysočina region Plzeňský region Karlovarský region Ústecký region Liberecký region Královéhradecký region Pardubický region Olomoucký region Moravskoslezský region Jihomoravský region Zlínský region 4.Meritage status Married In relationship Free 41

5 Do you work? Yes No Student Working student 6. How do you spend your free time? Instagram Facebook Youtube TV Books Sport(fitness/jogging) Yoga/Meditace Cooking Family Other… 7.Where do you buy skincare? DM Teta Sephora Online Douglas Kiehls Manifaktura Rossman Yves rocher Other… 8. How many times do you buy skincare in 1-2 months? 1-2 times 2-3 times 3-5 times 5 times and more 9. How much do you spend on skincare in a month? 100-300 kč 42

300-500 kč 500-800 kč 800-1200 kč 1200-1500 kč 1500-2000 kč 2000-3000 kč 3000 -5000 kč 5000 kč a vice 10.What is your favorite hobby? 11.At this moment what is your favorite skincare product? 12.What is your favorite beauty blogger? I don’t have any Lucie Wink Get The Louk Sister Hoods Czech Honey Petra LovelyHair Beauty Gabu MOMA Nikola Mills Kate Cosmetics

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APPENDIX 3 Interview questions 1. What are the latest trends on the cosmetics market? Worldwide? In Czech Republic? 2. What are the most effective channels within the Czech Republic? Foe example for a new skincare line? 3. Can you characterize your brand? What personality Dermacol has?

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