Marketing Strategy and SWOT analysis of Innisfree

The natural cosmetics industry has lived drastic growth in the last decades. Customers started pivoting towards more natural and chemical-free cosmetics and prioritizing ingredients over other criteria. This trend introduced the necessary conditions for brands like Innisfree to experience a significant increase in popularity. The South Korean cosmetics brand has conquered Asian and North American markets with its unique product offerings. A product line that uses natural ingredients is surely not enough to earn the love of customers. Consequently, a customer-oriented marketing strategy needs to come to reinforcement. Let’s take on a journey of analyzing Innisfree from head to toe.

Innisfree walks with trends, and looks to the future…

Mission statement.

Innisfree has a mission of creating natural skin-care products by preserving the environment around their production. The company uses natural ingredients and shows gratitude towards nature for providing natural goods. They make sure that their business activity does not interfere with the beauty and tranquility of the environment.

Besides their eco-friendly business model, they concentrate on producing harmless beauty products. The natural origin of their products carries almost no risk of damaging the customer’s skin or health. The company tries to maintain the title of a socially responsible company. Consequently, they enjoy a reputation as an eco-friendly company with clear positioning.

Vision statement.

Innisfree strives for “smart consumption” by providing high-quality products at reasonable prices. The ingredients used are reliable in improving the skin and preserving its healthiness. Their green-oriented policy ensures that they approach every operation with concern and responsibility towards nature. Innisfree wants to achieve trust in customers as a trustworthy brand for skincare.

Finally, their green positioning has its applications in every move they make. Examples of this are tree-planting campaigns in Asia and events of cleaning nature from waste. The company wants to manifest their eco-friendly attitude not only as a business but also as a societal entity. To contribute to society, Innisfree returns 1% of its revenue to the community.

Positioning strategy reveals Innisfree’s “character”…

The strategies of brands reflect the values that the companies try to stay loyal to. Like customers, brands as well have unique characteristics, which help in shaping their operation in the market. For uncovering the character of Innisfree, this Instagram post will serve us well.

The post features their Hydrating Serum product. It shows their previous and current packaging, which has lived some changes to match the company’s profile better. From the looks of products, the virtual followers can already notice the changes in packaging.

These alterations are not merely for improving the looks of the product. Products on Innisfree must match their image as a company. From the post’s description, we can see that the product experienced major changes in packaging.

The product has less fragrance, and the packaging now includes less plastic and reusable pump and bottle. This proves once more that Innisfree seeks to maintain and promote its green behavior in product offerings.

This Instagram post is just about every point that we have discussed so far about Innisfree. They position the brand as eco-friendly and socially responsible, and they make sure to maintain these qualities. Every move that diverges from this path can potentially harm the company’s reputation.

With this post, the company also contributes to their strong virtual presence. Moreover, they emphasize that the voices of their loyal customers have reached them. This is quite important when dealing with customer feedback. Customers feel a different level of satisfaction and trust towards a brand that considers their feedback. In return, Innisfree enjoys the trust and loyalty of the customer.

By analyzing the following posts, we already form some imagination of what the brand stands for. The analysis shows that the brand belongs to the Caregiver archetype.

Which qualities characterize a typical Caregiver brand?

Core desire: Protecting others from harm and helping them be in safety.

Strategy: Do things for others and serving people in their unique way.

Gift: Compassion for others and generosity towards helping people around them.

Values: Caring about others, gaining their trust, preaching altruism and reaching stability.

Listed below are the messaging levels of the Caregiver archetype:

Level 1: Noticing someone in need of help

Level 2: Taking care of someone and their close dependents

Level 3: Balancing the care for others with self-care

Level 4: Concerned for the outside world and developed altruism

The Caregiver archetype might be a suitable brand if the brand:

• Provides support to families and or associates with nurturance
• Operates in a caregiving industry, such as education and healthcare
• Helps people stay connected and take care of each other
• Does charitable activities and donates to causes that improve the world around them
• Helps people take care of themselves

Brand Archetypes. Why do we need them in practice?

Our communication plan may use a variety of messaging techniques. However, there is a logical framework that connects all of these, and it is known as communication based on archetypal branding. A company may have a variety of messages, but none of them are related. For instance, “Do everything with ease,” “Go ahead and be strong,” or “Dig deeper and be knowledgeable.”

These three quotations serve different purposes and have various underlying meanings. One focuses on becoming a hero, while the other is about gaining experience. The brand archetypes’ logic adds more originality and clarity to these two distinct messaging trajectories. You can learn more about communicating using archetypes by reading the book “8 steps to a complete archetypal branding.”

SWOT analysis will provide us with a top-to-bottom view of Innisfree…

Strengths

Low and middle price – Innisfree products are in the low to moderate price range. This range includes a wider range of customers. Thus, they attract a wider segment by pursuing such a pricing strategy. Surely, their pricing strategy has some drawbacks, but it corresponds to their product offering.

Eco-friendly campaigns – The eco-friendly campaigns contribute to building an image of a green company. They use the goods of the environment and give back to the environment. They contribute to the community and try to make the environment better. Tree-planting campaigns and charity programs are living proof of that.

Organic ingredients – Using ingredients of organic origins adds to their reputation and the trust of customers. When the company uses natural ingredients, they earn the trust of customers as a brand with natural products.

Weaknesses

Low brand recognition – Despite their natural products and their unique origin, Innisfree does not enjoy the recognition they deserve. If we compare the brand with others, it is not well recognized. This is because they concentrate on specific markets.

Low diversification of markets – Innisfree is now present in Asian and North American markets. This fact limits their growth opportunities. Brand recognition also suffers because of its limited presence.

Opportunities

Territorial expansion – Aswe already mentioned, Asia and North America are the only markets in which Innisfree operates. If they expand to European markets, they will have more opportunities for scaling. Their pricing strategy will help them establish their place in new markets quickly.

Strengthening brand recognition – Innisfreecan improve its brand by investing more in marketing and advertising it as a global brand. Market expansion can help achieve this milestone.

Threats

Substitute products – Substitute products with similar functionality already exist in the market. With the emerging trend of using skincare products of natural origins, they have many competitors. More recognizable brands also use natural ingredients and capture potential markets of Innisfree.

Product development cycles – Innisfree uses unique natural ingredients in its production. This result in a longer product development cycle; longer compared to competitors. By the time, they are ready to introduce new products; strong competitors enter the market and capture them quicker.

Segmentation strategy of Innisfree

Before introducing products to the market, companies must know the customer who will take the product off the shelves. It is equally important to product development.

The lifestyles and preferences of customers shape their consumer behaviors, which play an important role in purchasing the product. This commercial will tell us more about the targeted segment of Innisfree.

The commercial shows an Asian girl who came to a beautiful mineral water source in the mountains. She has a small bottle she came with. The water in the mountain is crystal clear, and it is even visible how to reach in minerals it is.

Firstly, she touches the calm water with a finger, and small waves start going over the water. Everything in the commercial accents the clearness of the natural water.

The girl fills the bottle carefully by holding the water in her palms. After the bottle is full, we see the new product of Innisfree. The ingredients used in the product include clear water reach with minerals. This shows how Innisfree emphasizes the origins of their products.

The commercial aims to accent the natural origins of Innisfree products. Every small detail contributes to that statement. By analyzing the commercial, we can conclude that Innisfree targets the Nesters segment.

Who are the Nesters?

Lifestyle and Values:

The primary characteristic of Nesters is being family-oriented. Their personality revolves around their duty towards the family. Life, work and free time always refer to the family. Nesters spend most of their time with the family and value family activities a lot.

That is why family gatherings are a common way of spending time. The kitchen is their favorite place at home. They mostly prefer cooking food for their family members and at family gatherings.

Home is their favorite place. Firstly, it is because of their family and the time they can spend together. Secondly, it is their comfortable castle. They love taking care of the home and arranging it most comfortably.

Nesters might even do some gardening around the house to make it look better during family events. Due to their love for their house, they like hanging out with neighbors a lot. They like talking about news and having small events with them as well.

Attitude to shopping:

Their love of the home affects their shopping behaviors a lot. Nesters purchase many house accessories to make it look better and cozier. Those are typically plants, wooden accessories and useful appliances.

Nesters prefer durability and practicality to style and luxury. Consequently, they happen to purchase more affordable goods than luxury ones. They strictly plan and organize their shopping trips. Big supermarket trips often include the whole family. It is yet another chance to spend time together.

Nesters are not strong followers of trends. They prefer comfort to quality and often stick to domestic brands rather than foreign ones. It is because they trust domestic products more.

Other interesting facts about the Nesters:

• TVs are like a company for them when nobody is around. Even if they do not watch it, they keep it on to have the noise around the house.
• They prefer local channels to satellite channels, mostly because of the lack of language knowledge.
• Internet is far from their preferences. They mostly use the Internet at their workplace and low intensity.
• Nesters like gossiping, especially with neighbors. Their short trips to neighbor houses often include this attribute. The good thing is that they get local news mostly through that channel.
• Representatives of this segment prefer jobs for stability rather than financial benefits.
• They would rather buy an old but tested and trusted telephone, than a brand new untrusted model.

Innisfree has some core principles that they cherish in their marketing strategy. First, they try to maintain the reputation of a natural brand. Second, they demonstrate green eco-friendly behavior to make sure to contribute to the environment.

Finally, they have a strong positioning and clear understanding of their ideal buyer persona. The combination of all the above-mentioned forms the marketing strategy of the brand. Despite the relatively smaller worldwide recognition, Innisfree is loyal to its unique product proposition. As a result, they have brand-loyal customers and clear positioning in their minds. That is it for today, make sure to check out more posts like this on our main page.