Background
The Venus Dew brand line is the entry of long-established Jameson & Jameson (J & J) in the adult female moisturizing lotion market. J & J has been 140 years in existence, operates a total of 250 subsidiaries and affiliates in 57 countries, and employs just under 120,000 staff. Today, the company competes in the medical, health, and beauty categories with products for health care institutional use as well as consumer products that target all life stages from infancy to middle age.
Vision and Mission
The Venus Dew brand line is envisioned to be the spearhead of the J & J thrust into adult skincare with clearheaded emphasis on natural- and herbal-source products. This is consistent with J & J consumer products that leverage the company franchise on “pure, mild and gentle care” since natural-source is especially beneficial for sensitive, allergy-prone skin.
Table 1: A SWOT Summary for Venus Dew.
Brand Strengths
Venus Dew’s strengths rest on a solid base of the very strong J & J claim to skincare therapy. After all, J & J lays claim to, among others, being ’ third-largest in biologicals” and among the top six in pharmaceuticals in the world. Given the presence of company brands in the Consumer Health Care, Medical Devices & Diagnostics, and Pharmaceuticals verticals, it stands to reason that J & J has a dominant share of mind with both consumers and professional-medical audiences, including dermatologists, of course. The consumer business also has a huge merchandising (or share of shelf space) presence in supermarkets, having entries in skincare and baby care, hair care, topical dermatological, dental products, women’s health, over-the-counter medicines, and nutritional.
Given that J & J operates in consumer health care across many cultures, the puts primacy on ethical behavior. This is practiced in, among others, ceaseless R & D for ‘safer and more effective alternatives’ made as accessible as possible. Clearly, Venus Dew is part of a conglomerate that is to be trusted.
In the UK, the three Venus Dew product lines correspond to the benefits consumers want: cleansing (the “Venus Dew Cleansing Range”), moisturizing (“Venus Dew Moisturizing Range”), and therapeutic (‘Intensive Dry Skin Range’).
All three product types have a common formulation base, colloidal oatmeal, and are therefore uniformly positioned on “Naturally Active” essential ingredients. Another key ingredient is Shea Butter. Hence, Venus Dew® takes pride in advertising claims about “unlocking the true potential of nature’s skin-enhancing secrets.”
Brand Weaknesses
Objective analysis shows that Venus Dew is a parity brand. The product entry that is the subject of this strategic analysis and recommendation, “Skin Relief Moisturising Lotion with Shea Butter”, is offered in 200ml standing tubes, a sales-keeping unit (SKU) all too common in the health and beauty business. The beige color is consistent with a product formulated around natural oatmeal, oat oil, oat extract, and shea butter.
Shea butter has been popular with skin lotion adopters because it has significant moisturizing and emollient benefits. Venus Dew also reminds consumers that Shea tree nuts are rich in Vitamins A and E.
“Skin Relief” is fragrance-free and “dermatologist tested” though the latter is claimed by every manufacturer with an in-house dermatologist or two.
Opportunities in the Skin Care Category
The UK skincare market is sizeable but there is also enormous potential for growth. In 2003, British consumers spent an aggregate of £631m on some skincare brand or other. This was forecast to reach £731m by 2008. Hard data for the year ended March 27, 2005 (Rudd, 2005) affirmed a satisfying 9.3% year-on-year growth.
The applicable motivation is the age-old desire of adults to look good and feel good about their complexions despite the passage of time (Thomas, 2006).
References
- Rudd, V. (2005). The war on cellulite is heating up in Europe. Household & Personal Products Industry, 2005. EuroTrends, Web.
- Thomas, P. (2006) Nivea moisturising lotion: Are we being naive about Nivea? The Ecologist.