The assignments mainly consists of the following parts:
Firstly, an analysis of Ecover 's current position in the market. Secondly, how Ecover is changing its competitive strategy.
Thirdly, consumer behaviour towards detergent.
Finally, an outline for new marketing strategy for Ecover to enter the supermarket.
2. Background
Ecover was founded in 1979 by Frans Bogaerts.It was a modest little detergent company in Malle in northern Belgium. Pierres Magnin a successful Swiss businessman dealing with pharmacies and health food stores, suggested Bogaerts to develop an eco-friendly detergent free of harmful chemicals (which was to be banned by the Swiss government as a part the proposed environmental regulations). Thus they entered the detergent market in Swiss and other key markets. Environmental disasters have made more and more people aware of the urgent need to protect the natural environment.
3 Marketing Audit
Marketing audit give a picture of where the company is, how did it get there and where is it heading. It goes through the through the strength, weakness, opportunities and threat of the company. This analysis is called the SWOT analysis. It is divided into two major parts:
External Factors and Internal Factors
Strength and weakness are concerned with the internal factors and opportunity and threat are concerned with the external factors.
3.1 External Factors
Here only opportunities and threats are analysed as these are supposed to be listed as anticipated events or trends outside the business that have implications for performance. These factors are not controllable by the company.
Some of the factors discussed here are:
1. Macro environment
2. The Market
3. Competition
3.1.1Macro Environment
Macro Environment consists of Political (P), Economical (E), Social (S) and Technological (T) factors that affect the Company. Continuous monitoring of these variables is an important marketing function. As
Bibliography: 1. David Jobber, 1998, Principles and practice of Marketing, Second edition. 2.Subash.C.Jain, 1997, Marketing Planning & Strategy, Fifth Edition. 3.Wayne D.Hoyer, Deborah J.Maclinns, 1997, Consumer Behaviour.