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Introduction
Grin Natural is a company whose headquarters are in New Zealand that deals with natural toothpaste and oral care essentials. Since 2013 when there was a surge of natural foods and the use of organic products in the country, Grin Natural began to search for natural ingredients from their products. The company began in 2015 after 18 months of conducting research, testing, and refining ingredients mix with an aim to make a different product from the rest in the market without added sugar, preservative, artificial colors and flavors, fragrances, and sodium lauryl sulfate (Grin Natural, 2022). According to Rajavi et al. (2019), a company’s marketing mix strategies focuses on its products, promotion, price, and place as the critical elements in marketing its goods and services and how they significantly interact with each other. Thus this report discusses the product, pricing, and distribution strategies that Grin natural applies, an ethical area where it could receive criticism, recommendations to improve current strategies, and a report summary.
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Discussion
Marketing Mix Strategies
- Product strategies
As highlighted by Donndelinger and Ferguson (2020), product strategies enable a company to concentrate its efforts and resources on its products and product lines that show the highest growth potential, revenue, and market share. Grin natural uses product differentiation to make unique and difficult products to duplicate. For example, its toothpastes have no added chemicals, and the new type they made from natural ingredients focused on treating people’s teeth and making them into something better. The company also uses comparative product strategies by placing its next to other brands in retail stores. Grin Natural (2022) outlined that Grin Natural products are stocked in over 600 retail stores and nationwide dental clinics in New Zealand. Segmentation strategies also work for the company where it focuses on different audiences with different needs but using the same product. Designing, labeling, flavoring, and packing toothpaste and toothbrushes with distinguished characteristics for children and adults help target these audiences differently. The company makes quality products 100% natural with scientists’ approval on the process of mixing ingredients and possible side effects hence eliminating any compromise on quality (Grin Natural, 2022). Grin Natural can be considered a manufacturer’s brand since it uses its name as the maker to label and market its products.
- Pricing strategies
Pricing strategies are the methods used to determine the best prices for a company’s products or services that would enable it to maximize profits while considering its customers and current market demand (Išoraitė, 2016). A competitive pricing strategy is most applicable for Grin natural products considering it also uses a comparative product strategy where products are stocked in retail shops alongside other brands. This means it’s pricing tends to match that of competitors, either slightly above or lower. Grin Natural Products (2022) outlined that Grin natural’s highest focus is not on profits but on making it as much as about what they were leaving out and what they were putting in. Grin Natural also uses a premium pricing strategy in determining how high the prices of their products will be above those of competitors stocked in retail stores to reflect the perceived value of the 100% natural products. Thus the company applies competitive and premium pricing to ensure that it can be matched with that of competitors but also reflect its quality by raising its process a bit higher. It also makes packs with several products in them with subsidized prices to support its targeting and positioning strategies.
- Distribution strategies
Distribution strategies entail the methods that manufacturers choose to disperse their products to the market so as to reach the end-user. As highlighted by Išoraitė (2016), customers want products they will make minimum efforts to order and access, quality products balanced with pricing, timely, undamaged goods with consistent delivery. To ensure these customer needs are met, Grin Natural uses intensive distribution where it avails its products in as many retail outlets as possible throughout New Zealand. As highlighted by Grin Natural (2022), Grin Natural products are available in over 600 retail outlets in New Zealand as well as in dental clinics across the country. This means that customers will be making minimal efforts to access their products since they can purchase them with other products. The products are also rightly positioned by considering dental clinics where teeth treatment is the focus, and therefore customers could consider the products. Thus the company uses retail outlets as agents to disperse its products to the end-users covering as much of the market as it can. This shows that Grin natural uses indirect distribution to reach the end-user without the intermediaries taking title of their products.
- Ethical considerations
Product differentiation is one area that is usually criticized, considering Grin Natural makes 100% natural products, including toothbrushes made from wood. Its products added sugar, preservative, artificial colors and flavors, fragrance, and sodium lauryl sulfate, making people raise concerns about how it could affect the teeth of the customers with consistent use. Oral products from Grin Natural receive criticism from dentists saying that the fluoride-free toothpaste would cause tooth decay in customers (Broughton, 2018). The focus was to make products that are totally different from the rest by using natural active ingredients such as Manuka Oil, Propolis, and Organic Sea Salt. The company should consider providing details to speculations that are likely to be brought up by public health advocates. The proportionality framework would help the company clarify any issues and concerns from the customers and public health advocates (Stangl, 2022). The framework would guide the company in revealing its intention by making a totally different product, the method used to make the outcomes, and all facts of the product outcomes. This would reveal possible side effects rather than leaving it for speculation.
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Conclusion
This report has revealed the marketing mix strategies that Grin Natural uses in marketing its products, ethical considerations that could create criticisms and recommendations that could assist in making improvements. Grin uses product strategies like product differentiation, comparative, and segmentation strategies to target various customers and position itself rightly in the market. Pricing strategies include competitive and premium pricing, where Grin tries to match with competitor prices in retail stores while at the same time using premium pricing to set prices a little higher to reflect the value of quality. Distribution is done through retail stores using intensive distribution by availing products to as many retail outlets as possible. Making products that are completely different from other products existing in the market in the same product line has raised ethical issues accusing the company that fluoride-free toothpaste would cause epidemic tooth decay. Ethical considerations like publishing research used to test ingredients mix and possible side effects, availing process details publicly, and addressing possible speculations through the use of a proportionality framework would assist the company address any issues. Recommendations have also been outlined to reveal areas of improvement in the company strategies for better performance and customer satisfaction.
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Recommendations
Grin Natural could make information on the processes of arriving at the outcomes of their products publicly available. The role each ingredient plays in ensuring teeth health could also be revealed to reduce questions that arise from customers’ curiosity. Research supporting the processes of making their products could also be published on sites that customers can access to increase customers’ confidence when buying their products.
Natural products have worked well for Grin Natural over the years, giving it a positive brand reputation. Grin Natural could use such an opportunity to diversify its products to incorporate natural beauty products considering there has been a surge in the use of natural products across markets in New Zealand. This would help the company expand its market and meet more customer needs, which would increase customer satisfaction. It will also increase customer trust and confidence in their products if the company is able to produce more than one product line.
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References
Broughton, C. (2018). Toothpaste company leaves bad taste in Massey University’s mouth. Stuff. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/108956241/toothpaste-company-leaves-bad-taste-in-massey-universitys-mouth.
Donndelinger, J. A., & Ferguson, S. M. (2020). Design for the marketing mix: The past, present, and future of market-driven engineering design. Journal of Mechanical Design, 142(6).
Grin Natural Products. (2022). About Grin Natural Products | Grin Natural. https://www.grinnatural.co.nz/pages/about-grin?
Grin Natural Products. (2022). Natural Oral Health Care – Oral Care Products | Grin Natural. https://www.grinnatural.co.nz/
Išoraitė, M. (2016). Marketing mix theoretical aspects. International Journal of Research-Granthaalayah, 4(6), 25-37.
Rajavi, K., Kushwaha, T., & Steenkamp, J. B. E. (2019). In brands we trust? A multicategory, multicountry investigation of sensitivity of consumers’ trust in brands to marketing-mix activities. Journal of Consumer Research, 46(4), 651-670.
Stangly, (2022). Notes.
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