Boots Marketing Strategy & Marketing Mix (4Ps)
Marketing Strategy of Boots analyzes the brand with the marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). These business strategies, based on Boots marketing mix, help the brand succeed in the market. Let us start the Boots Marketing Strategy & Mix to understand its product, pricing, advertising & distribution strategies:
Quick Glance:
Boots Product Strategy:
The product strategy and mix in Boots marketing strategy can be explained as follows:
Boots is a leading multi-brand retail chain based out of UK. Boots stores sell various health, beauty products as a part of its marketing mix product strategy. The company has their own food and drink range called Lunchtime deals. They also provide specialized services like optician care and hearing care in their stores and in standalone establishments. There are around 2500 stores spread across several locations. The types of stores are:
Local Pharmacy
These are health-focused community health care shops.
These shops are smalls and placed conveniently in localities with a big population. This lets the company tap the closely-knit community population who do not always have access to big shopping stores.
Flagship Stores
These are the company's flagship offering. They have a wide variety of healthcare and beauty products along with optical and hearing specialty services all under the same roof. The stores also have premium beauty products and exclusive products.
Boots exports healthcare and beauty products to more than 100 countries all around the world.
Image: geograph
Boots Price/Pricing Strategy:
Below is the pricing strategy in Boots marketing strategy:
Boots has various products in its offerings and hence has a diverse price range. The market for pharma, beauty and healthcare products is filled with similar companies providing similar values.
The products were reasonably priced to make them competitive. Boots also made its products exclusive and charged premium prices for its selective range of products. This was done by tying up with hair stylists and launching products under their brand names. These products were formulated in collaboration with stylist brands and made better, before launching them in the market. Some of these brands were Tony & Guy, Trevor Sorbie, etc. The average price of a bottle of shampoo is around £4. The Walgreens Boots Alliance has an annual revenue of more than $130 billion,
Read more about Boots
Boots Place & Distribution Strategy:
Following is the distribution strategy in the Boots marketing mix:
The company’s pharmacy chains are spread across United Kingdom, Thailand, Ireland, Norway etc. There are more than 2000 stores and health & beauty shops spread across these regions. Boots also have a retail website for customers to shop online and get products delivered to the doorstep. The ecommerce portal has almost all products available for online shopping.
Over 90% of the UK population lives at a 10 minutes distance from a Boots store.
Boots Promotion & Advertising Strategy:
The promotional and advertising strategy in the Boots marketing strategy is as follows:
To retain customers and attracts new one's Boots has a loyalty card program called the Boots advantage card. To rise above the competition, Boots responded with simple and innovative advertisement campaigns, celebrity endorsements and hairdresser partnerships. Boots aimed to create an emotional connection between the consumers and the brand. Boots has roped in eminent stylists like John Freida, Charles Worthington, Trevor Sorbie, Nicky Clarke and Lee Stafford. Strategic partnerships were created with these famous hair stylists to promote Boots as an up-to-date, stylish brand in the eyes of the consumers. Boots manufactured these products and sold them under the names of celebrity hairstylists. Boots in return paid a small licensing fee to the stylists. This helped the company in attracting a new and young crowd. It also helped the hair stylists because products with their names on them were showcased in 2500 showrooms all across the UK. To increase its revenue, the company also provided offers like buy 3 at the price of 2, provide gifts with purchase of products from Boots store, and give 50% off coupons. The 3 for the price of 2 was the most used promotion as it led to 300% rise in sales, adding new customers to the basket and increasing profits by 0.3 GBP per bottle. The company has a blue-white logo which as Boots written in cursive on a blue circular background. The brand has also provided sponsorship to several international sports events like the Women's World Cup, Euro Cup etc.
Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to make it the 7Ps marketing mix of Boots.
People:
Boots works with around 20,000 healthcare providers out of which 6000 are pharmacists. They employ more than 50,000 people and have stores and have their products sold in more than 100 countries. The focus of the company is to have well trained employees and serves its customers.
Process:
Boots is a retailer of mass beauty and healthcare products. These products are directly procured from respective manufacturers and stored in warehouses. With arising needs, they are transported to showrooms from where they are sold to the customers. Boots also have R&D departments where they formulate new products in collaboration with big beauty brands. This created a huge mass market for premium beauty products.
Physical Evidence:
Boots has over 2500 stores in UK and Norway. The stores are usually present in crowded high streets with high footfall and in well-known shopping centers. The setup of its pharmacy chains is small to large healthcare shops and beauty stores. This completes the marketing mix of Boots.
About Boots:
Boots is a pharmacy chain based in the UK. It was established as a herbal medicine shop by John Boot in the year 1849. It was initially named the British and American botanic establishment. In 1883, his son turned it into a private company and named it Boot and company limited. Boots started its research and development department post world war. Its first factory started operations in Nottingham. It also launched a new cosmetic factory in Airdrie, Scotland. Its parent company merged with Alliance Unichem and formed Alliance Boots in 2006. In the year 2012, Walgreens bought 45% of the company.
By the year 2014, Walgreens bought the rest of the company. Boots then became the subsidiary of the company Walgreens Boots Alliance.
This article has been researched & authored by the Content & Research Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.
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