Market identification and a clear understanding of the demographic vagaries of a specific market remains one of the most important aspects of producing products that are tailored to meet the need of a market (Armstrong & Kotler, 2011).
The target market for the Johnson and Johnson baby lotion will be based on a differentiated market and thus will target more on babies of five years and below. This is because the products from the company are designed to meet the needs of babies who are between this age bracket both male and female.
The company’s organizational buyers consist of wholesalers and retailers in the market. The wholesalers in the country import the finished products from Johnson’s baby in containers. These wholesalers specialize in one product and may even engage in advertising the products within the country of their operations. They have large warehouses to store the product before selling it.
The wholesalers sell to the retailers in smaller units. Some other retailers also act as wholesalers whereby several wholesalers come up together and purchase the Johnson baby lotion directly from the firm at a lower price and later subdivide the products among themselves.
The retailer breaks the Johnson baby lotion into single packets or bottles and sells them either to the small retailers in the market or to the final consumers of the product.
The factors influencing organization buying include economic conditions whereby the changes in the inflation rate and interest rates will affect the demand of Johnson products. An increase in the interest rate will lead to a reduction in the quantity demanded while a rise in inflation of importing country will also lead to reduced importation (McCarthy & Perreault, 1994).
Secondly, changes in politics affect the economy of the country leading to changes in the quantity of the Johnson baby lotion product demanded. Thirdly, changes in the social environment also will affect the demand of the product.
For example, if the society perceives that lotion is not good with young babies, this will automatically lead to a reduced demand for Johnson baby lotion. Fourth, is competition whereby if Johnson company competitors come up with a new product in the market, this will automatically alter the product’s demand.
The factors that influence consumers’ buying behavior include cultural factors such as if use of lotion is perceived negatively in a particular community, then the demand for Johnson baby lotion in that community will be low. Secondly, there are social cultural factors such as family, reference groups, roles and status groups in the society.
For example, if adult ladies prefer to use lotion rather than solid body oils, this will lead them to purchase Johnson baby lotion for their babies. Thirdly, demand is affected by personal factors such as age, occupation and lifestyle. For example, if where a person works most of the people prefer to buy Johnson’s baby products, a person may also be influenced to be buying the same products.
Like any other organization operating in a perfect market, Johnsons and Johnsons is faced with various factors of competition. The competitors of Johnson and Johnson baby lotion include the companies that produce baby lotions such as Aveeno, the Natural Baby, Fulton Street Market among others.
These are big companies that pose a threat in the market. For example, Aveeno and Natural Baby pose a big threat as they also produce the baby lotion herbal products which are currently said to be chemical free. If these factors are not perfectly considered, they may lose their market share due to the currently rising demand of herbal products in the world.
The strengths for Johnson & Johnson baby lotion over their competitors in the market include the strong brand image of Johnson & Johnson Company products where they are believed to be of high quality and effective in their use. This makes the company market share to even continue to increase as more people purchase the product.
The other strength is continued innovation and thus coming up with new and better baby products in the market such as the Johnson natural lotion, bedtime lotion, after bath lotion, cream among others. These developments will help the company to maintain or increase its market share as the new products are to the current needs of babies.
Besides the aforementioned strengths, Johnson & Johnson is buoyed by the fact that it is an international company. It has invested a lot in assets such that a new company that wants to get in must invest heavily on assets in order to compete with Johnson & Johnson.
Since Johnson & Johnson focuses only on one market its competitors are targeting several market segments, this may limit their development of new products in the baby segment that Johnson target. This gives Johnson & Johnson a competitive edge over its competitors.
References
Armstrong, G., & Kotler, P. (2011). Marketing: An introduction. (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
McCarthy, E., J. & Perreault, W., D., (1994). Basic marketing: Selected cases. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.