Management Case: “Keeping the Buzz at Burt’s and Bees” I. Background
Burt's Bees is an American personal care products company that describes itself as an "Earth friendly, Natural Personal Care Company" making products for personal care, health, beauty, and personal hygiene. As of 2007, they manufactured over 197 products for facial and body skin care, lip care, hair care, baby care, men's grooming, and outdoor remedies[1] distributed in nearly 30,000 retail outlets including grocery stores and drug store chains across different countries. The original vision of Burt’s Bees founder Roxanne Quimby was to ultimately reach “everyone, everywhere”. The opportunity to grow its brand in the mass market is a lucrative one for the company. However critics and some customers have commented that Burt’s Bees was becoming too commercial, losing the authentic elements that has led to its success. (Quimby)
Also in 2006 John Replogle became CEO of Burt’s Bees and he strongly believed that Burt’s Bees could bring natural personal care to the forefront of mainstream personal care. Under his leadership the product range would be changing rapidly, it would still stock the brands classics and many of these products would continue to carry the brands early symbol; Burt’s bearded face However new product lines were about to appear among them a complete line of hair care products. In 2011, Nick Vlahos, a 15-year veteran of The Clorox Company was named Vice President and General Manager of Burt's Bees. He continues Replogle’s belief to break into the mass market. (Debryun, 2011) II. Problem
How could Burt’s Bees maintain its brand identity in their new product line as they break into mass market? III. Assumptions of the Study
Burt and Bee’s Product life cycle stage
The product life cycle is one of the most familiar concepts in marketing. The PLC concept can be used to analyse a brand, a product form, or a product category. The PLC concept
Bibliography: Debryun, J. (2011, April 6). Clorox names new cep for buts bees. Retrieved October 22, 2012, from www.bizjournals.com: http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2011/04/06/clorox-names-new-ceo-for-burts-bees.html Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (1999). Principles of Marketing. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Quimby, R. (n.d.). Our Story. Retrieved October 22, 2012, from Burt 's Bees: http://global.burtsbees.com/c/about-us/our-history/burt-s-story.html Ranii, D. (2012, February 01). New Burts bees line targets younger women. Retrieved October 22, 2012, from Charlotteobserver.com: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/02/01/2974632/new-burts-bees-line-targets-younger.html