Belle Couleur Case Analysis

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Belle Couleur Case Analysis

Belle Couleur, Garnier's line of permanent hair colorants, has been in the market for over two decades and is currently the market leader in France. The Belle Couleur line carries twenty two shades of hair color consisting mostly of natural and dark shades. The product is positioned as reliably providing natural colors and is advertised as ¡§natural colors, covers all gray¡¨.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

The biggest strength for Belle Couleur lies in one of its marketing mixes, price. Belle Couleur will be the only mid-priced product in the Dutch hair colorant market and will compete with the upper and lower priced brands. Moreover the price sensitive Dutch women are value shoppers and thus this aspect of the product will appeal to them. The market research indicated that the buying intentions of the women increased after the price was revealed in the test-use. The pricing of the product coupled with the price sensitive nature of the Dutch women will be the leading strength for Belle Couleur.

Belle Couleur¡¦s recognition of the constraints of the distribution channel and ability to respond to it would be another major strength. The main constraint in the distribution system would be the limited retail shelf space available to the numerous competing brands. The recent increased preference of retailers as the main choice of distribution for the several competing hair colorant brands has resulted in limited shelf space. So in order to accommodate the limited shelf space, Belle Couleur will introduce only fifteen shades of hair color in the Netherlands as opposed to twenty in France.

Weaknesses:

The most significant weakness for Belle Couleur would be the undifferentiated product that will be introduced to the Dutch market. Although the number of shades of hair color will be reduced to accommodate the limited retail shelf space, the colors offered will not be reformulated to cater to Dutch preferences. The colors available to the Dutch market will be those that have been specifically formulated for the French market. The problem lies in the differences in color preferences of the Dutch and French women. While the French prefer darker and conservative colors, the Dutch preferences lie at the opposite end of the color spectrum, preferring lighter shades. The market research indicated that buying intentions of the Dutch women decreased after the test-use because the color ¡§didn¡¦t cover gray¡¨ or ¡§was too dark¡¨. Moreover, competing local and international brands in the hair colorant market formulate their products to Dutch market preferences.

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